Studies in the History of Zionism

The Yishuv and the British War Effort 1939-45:
Background

by Nili Kadary

Educational Aims

1. Enable students to grasp the background to Jewish volunteering for the British Army within the Yishuv.
2. Allow them to follow the development of the Yishuv's defense force as part of the war effort.
3. Convey the achievements and limitations of the scope of the Jewish service units in the British Army.
4. Introduce participants to the role of the Jewish Brigade.

Conceptualization

This unit will focus on the major features of cooperation between the Yishuv and the British during the Second World War.

In summer 1939, the Zionist movement and the Yishuv were at the peak of the struggle against the policy set out in the latest [MacDonald] White Paper* of May 1939. Mass demonstrations were held; illegal immigration [Ha'apala*] was stepped up; the Etzel [Irgun Tzva'i Le'umi] launched a series of sabotage activities on government property as well as counter-attacks on Arab targets. Relations between the Yishuv and the British Mandate government appeared to be at breaking point. Then, on September 1, 1939, World War II broke out and everything changed.

The Second World War placed the Zionist Movement in a very awkward dilemma:

While it was obvious that they had to support the British in the fight atainst the Nazi *tzorer*, the White Paper was nevertheless stumbling block, with its drastic decrees which Britain showed no signs of rescinding.

David Ben Gurion*, the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, later Israel's first Prime Minister, arrived at a highly fortuitous formulation of the appropriate policy under the circumstances:

"We must support the British in their war as if there were no "White Paper", and we must fight the White Paper policy as if there were no war."

He thus separated the issue of opposition to the White Paper policy from that of the Yishuv's role in the war effort against Nazi Germany. In actual fact, the line which rapidly emerged within the leadership of the Yishuv was that the British should receive support in spite of the White Paper and the inflexibility of the British position on illegal immigration. The leadership bassed its position on the contention that Hitler was the common enemy; they hoped that the Yishuv's support for the war effort would lead to a reversal of the White Paper policy, and that at the conclusion of the war there would be peace agreements which would bring about a change in the status of Zionism, much the same as had happened with the Balfour Declaration* at the close of the First World War.

1. Volunteering for the British Army

Two days after the German battalions crossed the Polish border, when Britain declared war on Germany, David Ben Gurion* - Chairman of the Jewish Agency - returned to Eretz Yisrael from the Zionist Congress which had been curtailed because of the war. He immediately untertook initial discussions in Jerusalem, where he moved his ideas on "mobilizing a Jewish army". He viewed participation in the war not solely as an end in itself, but as a political tool which, in due course, would reinforce the claim to create a Jewish state. The Jewish Agency demanded Jewish units from the inception of mobilization, with their own character, using the Hebrew language, as a basis for a future Hebrew army. The British, however, were persistently hostile to creating units which would grant any expression to the special political status of the Yishuv and to future policy demands. The decisive position was that expressed in the MacDonald White Paper*, namely:

to ensure the continued existence of an Arab majority in Eretz Yisrael.

This pro-Arab stance was reinforced on the 27th February 1940 when Britain promulgated the "land laws", under which Jews were only allowed to purchase land in 5% of the territory. The law was obviously designed to stifle Jewish settlement.

While the political and public struggle to establish independent Jewish units within the British army continued, soldiers from the Yishuv served in all its units and took an active part in the war effort. In the *kharafim* Corps, soldiers from Eretz Yisrael served in France, Libya and Greece, building fortifications and laying roads. In the Supply Corps, Jewish soldiers from the Yishuv served as drivers in the western desert and took part in the difficult combat at El Alamein, in Egypt, as well as others in Italy and Syria. Jewish soldiers served in the Engineers in Lebanon and the Sinai desert, in Tunis, Libya Iraq and Iran. In the Armaments Corps, they served in the western desert, the Cyprus and Italy. The Medical Corps took Jewish doctors to Habash; others served in Artillery, in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy. Women were mobilized into the [Palestine] Auxiliary Transport Service [ATS].

By 1942, numbers of Yishuv soldiers serving in British Army units all over the world reached 20,000. This reached a peak of 30,000 men and women from a population of half a million, significant when taking into account that there was no draft in the Yishuv [as opposed to compulsory mobilization in Britain], so that all these men and women were serving as volunteers.

The mobilization of these volunteers into the British Army was an important contribution on the part of the Yishuv to the war effort against Nazi Germany. In military terms, it was perhaps not a decisive factor in the defeat of the Nazis, but it was important in terms of morale and pride within the Yishuv during and after the war. Those who served in these units returned with a vast knowledge of warfare which they were able to apply to improving the Yishuv's defenses; the service also layed the basis for the structure of the Haganah High Command. Around 30% of the commanders in the IDF during the War of Independence came from the ranks of these demobbed soldiers.

2. Mobilization of Defense Forces from the Yishuv for the Common War Effort

A. Operational Cooperation

One important area of assistance in the war effort was the operational cooperation between the Yishuv's defense forces and the British Army.

Right at the outset of the war, subsequent to an agreement between the British and the Jewish Agency, it was decided that Jewish volunteers who were residents in Eretz Yisrael would be assigned to special espionage, communications and sabotage missions into enemy territory. These were to fall to members of the "Pelugot HaMachatz" or strike forces - Palmach* for short.

The Palmach was an elite force drafted from the Haganah*, founded in 1941 to prepare the Yishuv for a possible German invasion. Its predecessor was the "Pelugot Sadeh" or field forces, which had been dismantled in 1939 after the Arab rebellion died down. After the outbreak of the Second World War, the Haganah National Command resolved to set up purpose-built action forces of shock troops. They began with 6 units: the members followed regular training programs and were committed to report for any mission, wherever they might be needed.

One of the Palmach's first operations was a sea mission in 1941 by 23 young men to Lebanon to blow up the oil refineries in Tripoli. The group was lost at sea and no trace of them was ever recovered.

The first two Palmach battalions were mobilized to provide assistance to the British army on the eve of its invasion of Syria and Lebanon. Following Turkey's defeat in the First World War, Syria and Lebanon came under French mandate, similar to the British Mandate over Eretz Yisrael. With the fall of France to Germany in the Second World War [1940], the Governors of Syria and Lebanon retained loyalty to Vichy France, which was in collaboration with Nazi Germany. The Italians and the Germans began a build-up of military bases there, which constituted a threat to British power in the region. In June 1941, British and "Free French" forces invaded Syria and Lebanon with Palmach help. The Palmach forces had received brief training and were sent to sabotage the rear by blowing up strategic bridging points, cutting telephone lines and taking over key points. The Palmachniks penetrated into the heart of Syria itself and succeeded in planting bombs near the encampments and other locations. 40 young men acted as saboteurs and guides to the allied forces during the invasion of Syria.

In 1942-43, special "departments" of the Palmach, were formed, divided as follows: the "German" department; the "Balkan" department and the "Arab" department. The German department was created to fight the Nazis in the event of an invasion of Eretz Yisrael. The Balkan department aimed to operate within the Balkan countries and mobilize local youth movements to fight the Nazis. The Arab department's purpose was to supply intelligence to the Haganah and the British Army from Lebanon, Syria and the local Arab population.

B. The Paratroopers from Eretz Yisrael

A totally unique episode in the saga was the mission of Jewish paratroopers from Eretz Yisrael who were dropped behind enemy lines in the Balkans and Central Europe. In summer 1942, when the Yishuv leadership began to comprehend the scale of the annihilation of European Jewry, they approached the British with the idea of training male and female Jewish paratroopers in British army facilities to drop them behind enemy lines. Their purpose was to assist the Jewish underground in those countries, organize sabotage operations against the Nazis and transmit intelligence back to the Allies.

A group of volunteers, mainly from the ranks of the Palmach, were trained by the British and 32 of them were selected for the operation. Beginning in October 1943, the paratroopers were dropped into Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Slovakia and Italy. 12 were captured by the Nazis and their collaborators; 7 were executed, including two of the three women in the group. The rest returned home safely from their assignments.

The paratroopers were too few in number and came on the scene too late with insufficient means; nevertheless, their mission was extremely important and vastly significant, in that they provided encouragement to Jews - especially to those in youth movements - who awaited the emissaries from Eretz Yisrael with bated breath. The paratroopers remained in Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary long after battle died down, to organize Jewish life anew and prepare others for life in Eretz Yisrael. They offered a role model for courage and ethical behavior; they served as ideals to which to educate the upcoming generation of young people.

One especial example is Hannah Szenes*, whose story became a symbol of sacrifice and devotion to her people and her country. Born in 1912 in Budapest into an assimilationist family of the intelligentsia, Hannah became an enthusiastic Zionist in the prevailing antisemitic environment of Hungary. In September 1939, she came on aliya. From a young age, she had demonstrated literary talent, and she began writing poetry noted for its emotional style. At the end of 1942, anxious about the fate of European Jewry, she joined the paratroopers. In March 1944, she was dropped into Yugoslavia, where she spent a few weeks with Tito's partisans. On June 7, at the height of the transportation of Hungarian Jewry to the death camps, she crossed the border into Hungary and almost immediately fell into the hands of the Hungarian police. In spite of severe torture, she refused to reveal information; on November 7 1944, she was executed in the Budapest prison. Her remains were reinterred in Israel in 1950 on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem. Hannah Szenes is remembered as a remarkable figure of courage in Jewish and Israeli history of the twentieth century.

3. Service Assistance to the British Army

The Yishuv was interested in contributing to the British war effort against Nazi Germany in the area of services, too; on the British side, this was also in their interests. They transformed the country into a giant army base, which also gave a big push to industrializatin generally. The Yishuv leadership encouraged companies, factories and businesses to make their resources available to the British. The latter endeavored to place orders for materials within the country rather than import goods.

Jewish services built army camps, laid down new roads, constructed bridges and various other military facilities. The textile and food industries supplied uniforms and food for the military; factories turned out spare parts for cars; produced weapons, fire-fighting equipment, screws, locks, cranes, tank tracks and artillery. Vehicles and ship repairs were undertaken; thousands of anti-tank mines were produced, as were optical instruments, hospital and surgical supplies and equipment. The outcome was also of no small benefit to the Yishuv itself, following an all-time pre-war low: new workshops and industries opened up, employing thousands of workers. Jewish employees acquired professional skills in a wide variety of sectors in the steel, optical and textile industries. This was the beginning of an economic infrastructure for the state-in-the-making.

4. The Formation of the Jewish Brigade

• a. To Recap

  At the outset of the Second World War, thousands of Jewish volunteers joined the British Army, to serve in all its different sectors and on its many fronts. The request of these young people to serve in the framework of a "Jewish unit" was originally rejected by the British.

• b. Development
  • In autumn 1940, the British agreed to form two special combat battalions - the Jewish Battalion and the Arab Battalion.
  • Early in 1941, the British almost agreed to the formation of a Jewish Brigade within the British armed forces, but withdrew the idea subsequent to Arab pressure on the government. Government.
  • In summer 1942, the British War Secretary declared the formation of the Palestine Regiment, with Jewish and Arab battalions.
  • In summer 1944, the "Jewish Combat Brigade" was finally formed within the British Army, and came to be known as the "Jewish Brigade", headed by the Canadian, Brigadier Benjamin.
• c. In Action

  Two months before the end of the war, the Brigade entered combat in northern Italy against a sophisticated German force.

  This was the first time a Jewish soldiers in a Jewish unit, under a Jewish flag, fought the Nazis; thousands of Jews had fought them before, but under other insignia, other flags. Five years after the outbreak of the war, these soldiers wore the badge of their unit proudly, with its yellow Magen David [Shield or Star of David] set on a blue and white background; the badge also carried the unit's name in Hebrew, "Chativa Yehudit Lochemet".

  It came too late, it was too small, but the Jewish Brigade's impact should not be underestimated -
  on the Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael;
  on every Jewish soldier serving in Allied forces; and above all -
  on the survivors of the Shoah, the Holocaust, who viewed the soldiers from Eretz Yisrael, so proud to wear their badge with the Magen David on their shoulders, as a source of encouragement and hope in their wish to reach Eretz Yisrael at all costs.

  The soldiers of the Jewish Brigade were the only properly organized Jewish entity in the European arena at that terrible and momentous point in time. They created the organizational network to assist thousands of illegal immigrants to make their way to Israel. Brigade emissaries were scattered throughout Europe with the purpose of encouraging aliya efforts. [For more on illegal immigration, please see the next unit.]