Monday, September 15, 2014
The British Mandate prepares for war
September 1 marked the 75-year anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, the start of the Second World War and the beginning of the Holocaust. The anniversary of this momentous event offers an opportunity to explore the part British-mandated Palestine played in the war.
The Munich agreement (September 29-30, 1938) is regarded today as the apex of appeasement towards Nazi Germany. At the summit in Munich, Adolf Hitler, Italy's Benito Mussolini, Britain's Neville Chamberlain and France's Édouard Daladier decided to hand over the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Germany in order to prevent war in Europe. The Munich agreement went down in history as a symbol of cowardice and incompetence against cruel tyranny and of the peaceful delusions of the 30's.
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| The Munich summit, September 29th 1938 (Wikicommons/Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R69173) |
Nevertheless, it seems that the British government (or at least the government of Palestine) saw the Munich crisis as a wake-up call and a sign to prepare for the eventuality of war. Immediately after the Munich crisis, the Jerusalem district commissioner, Edward Keith-Roach, wrote to the Chief Secretary of the Palestine government (the head of the British administration in Palestine) and reported that he had conducted a survey in the stores of his district, and found that they were not adequate and ready for an eventuality of war, in terms of foodstuffs and other essential supplies.
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| Eduard Keith-Roach (Wikipedia) |
The Palestine government responded quickly. The High Commissioner, Harold MacMichael (March 1938 – August 1944) wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies regarding the limited stocks of wheat and maize under the supervision of the Palestine government. Due to Palestine's economic stagnation and estimates that a rise in taxes and tariffs would worsen the economic situation, MacMichael asked for financial help from Britain in order to prepare Palestine for an emergency situation. The reason for the declining economic situation was the Arab revolt of 1936-39, which damaged the economy of Palestine, one of the few regions in the world that was least hurt by the economic depression of the 30s.
 |
| (Harold MacMichael (Wikipedia |
The next stage was forming supervision on supplies in Palestine. John Shaw, senior assistant to the chief secretary (later he became chief secretary and was known for his involvement in the controversy concerning the warning given before the bombing of the King David hotel in July 1946. We wrote about it here) wrote to Jeffrey Walsh, the economic adviser to the Palestine government (later killed in the King David hotel bombing) and asked him to conduct a survey of the situation of the supply of essential foodstuffs. A committee was formed to control supplies to Palestine and the director of Medical Services, Colonel George Heron was appointed as the Controller of Supplies, Walsh was appointed as his deputy. Other members of the committee were Keith-Roach; Frank Mason – Deputy Director of department of Agriculture and Fish; Donald Finlayson – Deputy Director of department of Customs, Excise & Trade; Donald Gumbly - Director of Civil aviation; Michel Abcarius – Senior Assistant Treasurer, the Arab representative in the committee; Bernard Dov Joseph – Head of the Political department of the Jewish agency, was the Jewish representative in the committee and Arthur Rawdon Spinney – as the representative of the merchants and distributers. An army officer was appointed by the General officer commanding in Palestine to liaison with the army.
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| Geffrey Walsh (Zoltan Kluger/Israel State Archives) |
The committee researched the supply problems of different foodstuffs to Palestine and contacted different governments (such as Australia, Burma, Siam and other) in regard of supplying food and other essential supplies, studied the possibilities of supplying fuel of different types (following Joseph's warning to Walsh that supplying fuel must be of the highest priority – transportwise and regarding the operating of agricultural machinery), considered options of rationing of food and other supplies and started to form a special administration for the controlling the supplies. From the different reports it can be seen that the Palestine government was not the only British colonial government (although Palestine was not a colony but a League of Nations mandate) – the Ceylon (Sri Lanka today) and the Malaya (Malaysia and Singapore today) are also mentioned as beginning to store food in preparation for war.
 |
| The Middle East map during WWII (Wikipedia) |
The basic premises for the work of the committee are also interesting: the committee agreed that the Mediterranean Sea would be closed to shipping, and so would be the entrance to the Suez Canal from the north. The southern approaches to the Canal would be open as well as sea lanes to India, China and Australia. Overland highways and train lines to Syria, Iraq and Egypt would remain open and not hampered. These were very logical ideas – Italy was seen as a potential enemy (although it is strange that the ability of Italy to block the horn of Africa from her bases in Somalia and Ethiopia and Eritrea was not mentioned). Japan's entry to the war was not envisioned – but Japan itself did not plan to enter the war in 1939, and only her defeat in the Khalkhin Gol in August 1939 caused her to change its strategy and turn to south-east Asia and against the USA. The planners also could not envision the fall of France on June 1940 or the Iraqi revolt in May 1941.
In April 1939, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Malcolm MacDonald,explained in his letter to high commissioner MacMichael (regarding MacMichael's letter from October 1938) that he must expect problems of supply also in the Red sea (not only in the Mediterranean) – probably an indication that there was a threat that Italy would try to block the sea lanes in the horn of Africa. MacDonald also wrote that there was no guarantee that Britain would be able to assist the Palestine government financially and it would have to organize its own purchase of food; Colonial office would try to assist. While preparedness for war was regarded a theoretical but possible in October-November 1938, the annexation of Czechoslovakia (or what remained of it) in March 1939, made war look inevitable.
Another sign of the gathering storm was the forming of a new organization –Air Raid Precautions(ARP). The ARP started initiating preparedness for air raids – installing sirens, preparing bomb shelters and other measures. Here are orders for preparing the Haifa harbor against air raids – a possibility that became a reality a year later when the harbor was attacked by Italian, German and also Vichy-French bombers.
On September 1st 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland, the Posts and Telegraphs department in the Palestine government issued a series of instructions on exporting records, films and restrictions on sending and receiving telegrams and letters to and from places abroad. Although Britain declared war on September 3rd, these instructions were for war time in the knowledge that war had just broken out.
The supply committee later evolved into the War Supply Board. Its director was Sir Douglas Harris, a member of the Palestine government's executive council and a veteran and well respected colonial office officer. The board was responsible on a series of different control offices, responsible for Industry, Food, Medical supplies etc. The Citrus control board was formed to help market one of Palestine's most important exports – the citrus fruit, which was hurt from war. Another interesting office was the controller of Salvage – an office responsible for recycling and repairing broken or derelict equipment of different kind. The War supply board cooperated with similar groups in the British Empire – one in east Africa, India and the "Spears mission" a supply group attached to the Free French government in Syria and Lebanon after they were conquered form Vichy France in May 1941 (named after General Edward Spears, the British laision officer with the Free French government in Syria and Lebanon). The War supply Board also cooperated with Middle East Supply Center (MESC) – the main Allied supply center outside Europe, situated in Cairo.
The Israel State archives hold a large collection of documents concerning the War Supply Board and its different bodies in Record Group 18 – The Emergency Economic Control. RG 18 gives us a fascinating look inside the economic activity in British mandated Palestine and its neighboring countries during WWII.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Charles Tegart's Police Forts in Israel
Here is an article from the BBC about Sir Charles Tegart, the founder of the "Tegart forts" in Israel. The "Tegart forts" were built in British Mandate Palestine from 1936-39 (and some afterwards) as part of the war against Arab terror. The initiator of the project was Sir Charles Tegart, a former commissioner of the Indian Police. Tegart fought terror in Bengal in the 1920s and was invited by the Mandatory government to advise them about fighting Arab terror in Palestine. Tegart recommended building a series of police forts across the country, to serve as well-defended positions and bases for suppressing revolt, and to prevent the infiltration of armed Arab guerrillas from Syria and Lebanon. The forts were also to be used as government offices in areas that were regarded as unsafe.
Tegart strengthened the Criminal Investigation Department (about which see thispost), imported Doberman dogs for police work, and suggested forming horse-mounted police units, comprised of British and Arab policemen. Tegart also introduced interrogation methods he used in India, which included torture. (Here are links to the Tegart papers in St Antony's College, Oxford University and theBritish Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections.)
Some Tegart forts were the focus of intense fighting during the War of Independence. The most well-known of these were the battles for the fortress ofNabi Yosha (or the Koach Fort – named after the 28 IDF soldiers who died trying to conquer it; Koach is numerically 28 in Hebrew letters), the Latrun Fortress, and the Iraq–Suidaan fort (now the Yoav Fortress) a.k.a. "the Monster," which was occupied after 8 attempts.
Some of the fortresses today are memorials (Yoav Fortress - a memorial to the Givati infantry brigade; Latrun - Museum of Armor and the memorial site of the Armored Corps), prisons (Megiddo prison - where Adolf Eichmann was held) and various police precincts. Some of the forts were abandoned. One of the Tegart police forts which passed to the Palestinian Authority became the famous "Mukataa" in Ramallah. Other police buildings became major Palestinian government installations. During Operation Defensive Shield in May 2002, the Tegart fortress used by the Hebron police was destroyed by the IDF.
Another fact about Tegart, less known, is that he was the architect of the dormitory of the Jewish Institute for the Blind in Jerusalem. According to architectural historian David Kroyanker, the design was very conservative but crafted with a deep understanding of the needs of the blind. (It is not clear when Tegart planned the building, since it was built when Tegart was a member of the Secretary of State's Council in India. Maybe one of the readers of this blog can enlighten us on this subject.)
Tegart strengthened the Criminal Investigation Department (about which see thispost), imported Doberman dogs for police work, and suggested forming horse-mounted police units, comprised of British and Arab policemen. Tegart also introduced interrogation methods he used in India, which included torture. (Here are links to the Tegart papers in St Antony's College, Oxford University and theBritish Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections.)
Some Tegart forts were the focus of intense fighting during the War of Independence. The most well-known of these were the battles for the fortress ofNabi Yosha (or the Koach Fort – named after the 28 IDF soldiers who died trying to conquer it; Koach is numerically 28 in Hebrew letters), the Latrun Fortress, and the Iraq–Suidaan fort (now the Yoav Fortress) a.k.a. "the Monster," which was occupied after 8 attempts.
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| Nabi Yosha fort today (Wikicommons) |
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| Iraq-Suidaan fort after been taken by the IDF, November 1948 (Wikicommons) |
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| Tegart fort in Sasa (Wikicommon) |
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| Latrun fort and the Armor Museum and memorial for the fallen (Wikicommons) |
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| Yoav fortress (Wikicommons) |
Another fact about Tegart, less known, is that he was the architect of the dormitory of the Jewish Institute for the Blind in Jerusalem. According to architectural historian David Kroyanker, the design was very conservative but crafted with a deep understanding of the needs of the blind. (It is not clear when Tegart planned the building, since it was built when Tegart was a member of the Secretary of State's Council in India. Maybe one of the readers of this blog can enlighten us on this subject.)
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| Front of the Jewish Institute for the Blind in Jerusalem during visit of High Commissioner Wauchope in 1935 |
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Settlements at Pesach Chapter 1
On March 21, 1938, 75 years ago tomorrow, the kibbutz of Hanita was founded, as part of the "tower and stockade" program. In this program, more than 50 new settlements, most of them kibbutzim, were set up between 1936 and 1939, against the backdrop of the Arab uprising against the British Mandate. The idea was to broaden the areas settled by Jews, in the anticipation that someday the British or someone would introduce a viable partition plan, and its contours would reflect areas of settlement - as indeed happened in 1947. The moniker reflects an old Ottoman law which was still in force, forbidding the destruction of a roofed building. Settlers in the project would arrive on a plot of Jewish-owned land and hurriedly set up a tower, a roofed shack, and a wooden stockade to withstand any attack; they would also begin to plough a field, acquiring additional legal protection.
Hanita was not the first nor the last, but it remains one of the most famous. Situated on the rocky ridge between the western Galillee and southern Lebanon, it didn't seem likely to be able to support itself through agriculture; it was also remote from other Jewish settlements (well: remote is a relative term in this very extremely small land).
Ten of the settlers were killed in the first few day after the founding of the settlement in skirmishes with locals.
Here are some photos from our Zoltan Kluger collection, taken that day. Notice the diversity of people in them, from recognizable haluzim, to Rav Holzberg from distant Rosh Pina who came with a Torah scroll to bless the (secular) pioneers, to Moshe Shertok (later Sharet, Israel's second prime minster, third from the left in the last picture), and an assortment of beasts of burden including camels. No trucks, however, for them to haul the stuff up the mountain. The first picture features the tower, on its way up.
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Monday, September 15, 2014
The British Mandate prepares for war
September 1 marked the 75-year anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, the start of the Second World War and the beginning of the Holocaust. The anniversary of this momentous event offers an opportunity to explore the part British-mandated Palestine played in the war.
The Munich agreement (September 29-30, 1938) is regarded today as the apex of appeasement towards Nazi Germany. At the summit in Munich, Adolf Hitler, Italy's Benito Mussolini, Britain's Neville Chamberlain and France's Édouard Daladier decided to hand over the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Germany in order to prevent war in Europe. The Munich agreement went down in history as a symbol of cowardice and incompetence against cruel tyranny and of the peaceful delusions of the 30's.
|
| The Munich summit, September 29th 1938 (Wikicommons/Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R69173) |
Nevertheless, it seems that the British government (or at least the government of Palestine) saw the Munich crisis as a wake-up call and a sign to prepare for the eventuality of war. Immediately after the Munich crisis, the Jerusalem district commissioner, Edward Keith-Roach, wrote to the Chief Secretary of the Palestine government (the head of the British administration in Palestine) and reported that he had conducted a survey in the stores of his district, and found that they were not adequate and ready for an eventuality of war, in terms of foodstuffs and other essential supplies.
|
| Eduard Keith-Roach (Wikipedia) |
The Palestine government responded quickly. The High Commissioner, Harold MacMichael (March 1938 – August 1944) wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies regarding the limited stocks of wheat and maize under the supervision of the Palestine government. Due to Palestine's economic stagnation and estimates that a rise in taxes and tariffs would worsen the economic situation, MacMichael asked for financial help from Britain in order to prepare Palestine for an emergency situation. The reason for the declining economic situation was the Arab revolt of 1936-39, which damaged the economy of Palestine, one of the few regions in the world that was least hurt by the economic depression of the 30s.
|
| (Harold MacMichael (Wikipedia |
The next stage was forming supervision on supplies in Palestine. John Shaw, senior assistant to the chief secretary (later he became chief secretary and was known for his involvement in the controversy concerning the warning given before the bombing of the King David hotel in July 1946. We wrote about it here) wrote to Jeffrey Walsh, the economic adviser to the Palestine government (later killed in the King David hotel bombing) and asked him to conduct a survey of the situation of the supply of essential foodstuffs. A committee was formed to control supplies to Palestine and the director of Medical Services, Colonel George Heron was appointed as the Controller of Supplies, Walsh was appointed as his deputy. Other members of the committee were Keith-Roach; Frank Mason – Deputy Director of department of Agriculture and Fish; Donald Finlayson – Deputy Director of department of Customs, Excise & Trade; Donald Gumbly - Director of Civil aviation; Michel Abcarius – Senior Assistant Treasurer, the Arab representative in the committee; Bernard Dov Joseph – Head of the Political department of the Jewish agency, was the Jewish representative in the committee and Arthur Rawdon Spinney – as the representative of the merchants and distributers. An army officer was appointed by the General officer commanding in Palestine to liaison with the army.
|
| Geffrey Walsh (Zoltan Kluger/Israel State Archives) |
The committee researched the supply problems of different foodstuffs to Palestine and contacted different governments (such as Australia, Burma, Siam and other) in regard of supplying food and other essential supplies, studied the possibilities of supplying fuel of different types (following Joseph's warning to Walsh that supplying fuel must be of the highest priority – transportwise and regarding the operating of agricultural machinery), considered options of rationing of food and other supplies and started to form a special administration for the controlling the supplies. From the different reports it can be seen that the Palestine government was not the only British colonial government (although Palestine was not a colony but a League of Nations mandate) – the Ceylon (Sri Lanka today) and the Malaya (Malaysia and Singapore today) are also mentioned as beginning to store food in preparation for war.
|
| The Middle East map during WWII (Wikipedia) |
The basic premises for the work of the committee are also interesting: the committee agreed that the Mediterranean Sea would be closed to shipping, and so would be the entrance to the Suez Canal from the north. The southern approaches to the Canal would be open as well as sea lanes to India, China and Australia. Overland highways and train lines to Syria, Iraq and Egypt would remain open and not hampered. These were very logical ideas – Italy was seen as a potential enemy (although it is strange that the ability of Italy to block the horn of Africa from her bases in Somalia and Ethiopia and Eritrea was not mentioned). Japan's entry to the war was not envisioned – but Japan itself did not plan to enter the war in 1939, and only her defeat in the Khalkhin Gol in August 1939 caused her to change its strategy and turn to south-east Asia and against the USA. The planners also could not envision the fall of France on June 1940 or the Iraqi revolt in May 1941.
In April 1939, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Malcolm MacDonald,explained in his letter to high commissioner MacMichael (regarding MacMichael's letter from October 1938) that he must expect problems of supply also in the Red sea (not only in the Mediterranean) – probably an indication that there was a threat that Italy would try to block the sea lanes in the horn of Africa. MacDonald also wrote that there was no guarantee that Britain would be able to assist the Palestine government financially and it would have to organize its own purchase of food; Colonial office would try to assist. While preparedness for war was regarded a theoretical but possible in October-November 1938, the annexation of Czechoslovakia (or what remained of it) in March 1939, made war look inevitable.
Another sign of the gathering storm was the forming of a new organization –Air Raid Precautions(ARP). The ARP started initiating preparedness for air raids – installing sirens, preparing bomb shelters and other measures. Here are orders for preparing the Haifa harbor against air raids – a possibility that became a reality a year later when the harbor was attacked by Italian, German and also Vichy-French bombers.
On September 1st 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland, the Posts and Telegraphs department in the Palestine government issued a series of instructions on exporting records, films and restrictions on sending and receiving telegrams and letters to and from places abroad. Although Britain declared war on September 3rd, these instructions were for war time in the knowledge that war had just broken out.
The supply committee later evolved into the War Supply Board. Its director was Sir Douglas Harris, a member of the Palestine government's executive council and a veteran and well respected colonial office officer. The board was responsible on a series of different control offices, responsible for Industry, Food, Medical supplies etc. The Citrus control board was formed to help market one of Palestine's most important exports – the citrus fruit, which was hurt from war. Another interesting office was the controller of Salvage – an office responsible for recycling and repairing broken or derelict equipment of different kind. The War supply board cooperated with similar groups in the British Empire – one in east Africa, India and the "Spears mission" a supply group attached to the Free French government in Syria and Lebanon after they were conquered form Vichy France in May 1941 (named after General Edward Spears, the British laision officer with the Free French government in Syria and Lebanon). The War supply Board also cooperated with Middle East Supply Center (MESC) – the main Allied supply center outside Europe, situated in Cairo.
The Israel State archives hold a large collection of documents concerning the War Supply Board and its different bodies in Record Group 18 – The Emergency Economic Control. RG 18 gives us a fascinating look inside the economic activity in British mandated Palestine and its neighboring countries during WWII.
Monday, September 1, 2014
"The Jews Stand By Great Britain and Will Fight on the Side of the Democracies" : 75 Years Since the Outbreak of the Second World War, 1 September 1939
Over the last few months, archivists, historians and the media have been preoccupied with the 100th anniversary of the First World War. However, this week also marks the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, which had such devastating consequences for the Jewish people.
At the time the Zionist movement faced a major clash with the British government. In May 1939 Britain issued a White Paper severely restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine and Jews' right to buy land, as part of its efforts to end the Arab revolt and to win Arab support in the coming war with Germany. This decision condemned masses of Jews trapped in Europe, who might have found refuge in Palestine, to persecution and later to death. Nevertheless Chaim Weizmann, the president of the World Zionist Organization, realized that if Britain was going to fight Nazi Germany, the Jews could not stand aside. They would have to support it and even to join the British Army.
In August 1939 the Zionist Congress was held in Geneva. In his speech to the Congress Weizmann harshly criticized the British government for its betrayal of the Mandate and the Jewish people. On 22 August news arrived of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact between the USSR and Germany, making the invasion of Poland possible. The Congress was hastily wound up, and, as the borders closed, Weizmann and his family returned to London.
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| Slogan on a German troop train on its way to Poland "We're going to Poland to thrash the Jews" Photograph: Yad Vashem |
On 29th August he wrote to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to confirm previous declarations "that the Jews stand by Great Britain and will fight on the side of the democracies…The Jewish Agency has recently had differences in the political field with the Mandatory Power. We would like these differences to give way before the greater and more pressing necessities of the time." You can see this document in the ISA's commemorative volume (in Hebrew) on Chaim Weizmann,who became Israel's first president.
Weizmann and the heads of the Zionist movement saw recruitment to the Army as a duty, but also hoped to form a Jewish fighting force which would pay political dividends after the war. This hope was only partially realized. Nevertheless Palestine played an important role in the British war effort in the Middle East and the ISA holds many files of the Mandatory Government on wartime production, emergency organization and related subjects. We'll show you some of these another time.
Weizmann and his wife Vera paid a heavy price during the war, when they lost their son, Michael, a pilot in the Royal Air Force, who failed to return from an operational flight over the Bay of Biscay in February 1942. Weizmann's other son Benjamin served as an anti-aircraft gunner in England and suffered a breakdown from which he never fully recovered.
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| Michael Weizmann in RAF uniform Photograph: Yad Chaim Weizmann,Weizmann Archives, Rehovot, Israel |
Monday, September 1, 2014
"The Jews Stand By Great Britain and Will Fight on the Side of the Democracies" : 75 Years Since the Outbreak of the Second World War, 1 September 1939
Over the last few months, archivists, historians and the media have been preoccupied with the 100th anniversary of the First World War. However, this week also marks the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, which had such devastating consequences for the Jewish people.
At the time the Zionist movement faced a major clash with the British government. In May 1939 Britain issued a White Paper severely restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine and Jews' right to buy land, as part of its efforts to end the Arab revolt and to win Arab support in the coming war with Germany. This decision condemned masses of Jews trapped in Europe, who might have found refuge in Palestine, to persecution and later to death. Nevertheless Chaim Weizmann, the president of the World Zionist Organization, realized that if Britain was going to fight Nazi Germany, the Jews could not stand aside. They would have to support it and even to join the British Army.
In August 1939 the Zionist Congress was held in Geneva. In his speech to the Congress Weizmann harshly criticized the British government for its betrayal of the Mandate and the Jewish people. On 22 August news arrived of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact between the USSR and Germany, making the invasion of Poland possible. The Congress was hastily wound up, and, as the borders closed, Weizmann and his family returned to London.
|
| Slogan on a German troop train on its way to Poland "We're going to Poland to thrash the Jews" Photograph: Yad Vashem |
On 29th August he wrote to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to confirm previous declarations "that the Jews stand by Great Britain and will fight on the side of the democracies…The Jewish Agency has recently had differences in the political field with the Mandatory Power. We would like these differences to give way before the greater and more pressing necessities of the time." You can see this document in the ISA's commemorative volume (in Hebrew) on Chaim Weizmann,who became Israel's first president.
Weizmann and the heads of the Zionist movement saw recruitment to the Army as a duty, but also hoped to form a Jewish fighting force which would pay political dividends after the war. This hope was only partially realized. Nevertheless Palestine played an important role in the British war effort in the Middle East and the ISA holds many files of the Mandatory Government on wartime production, emergency organization and related subjects. We'll show you some of these another time.
Weizmann and his wife Vera paid a heavy price during the war, when they lost their son, Michael, a pilot in the Royal Air Force, who failed to return from an operational flight over the Bay of Biscay in February 1942. Weizmann's other son Benjamin served as an anti-aircraft gunner in England and suffered a breakdown from which he never fully recovered.
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| Michael Weizmann in RAF uniform Photograph: Yad Chaim Weizmann,Weizmann Archives, Rehovot, Israel |
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
The sinking of MV Struma - February 1942
On February 24, 1942, a ship was sunk in the Black Sea, just off the entrance to the Bosphorus straits. On the same day, nine other ships were sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, in what is known today as "the Battle of the Atlantic"--the German U-boatwar against shipping to and from Britain. Other ships were sunk in the Pacific Ocean--three days later came the dramatic battles of Java sea, Sunda Straits and the Second Java Sea (all Allied defeats). The ship sunk in the Black Sea, the MV Struma, wasn't carrying supplies or troops – it was carrying Jewish refugees, escaping the "Final solution," the extermination of the Jewish people in Europe. The sinking of the Struma is regarded as one of the greatest maritime disasters of World War II, and the largest one with only civilian casualties (the three other major disasters: the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the Goya and the Armenia, also carried military personnel).
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| A photo of a ship believed to be The Struma (Wikipedia) |
Struma was a river boat operating in the Danube River, and was built in 1867. It was converted to a livestock ferry sometime in the 20th century. It was a rickety ship in bad technical condition which became even worse after an unreliable engine was installed. The ship was purchased by the New (Revisionist) Zionist party in Rumania in the purpose of ferrying a group of immigrants (Olim) from Romania to British-mandated Palestine. A group of 300 Rumanian Jews registered for the trip, but the numbers swelled after the rise of the Anti-Jewish laws and persecutions in Romania and the filtering news of the killing of Jews in Poland and the Soviet Union. (Here's a report written to the Jerusalem District commissioner, probably by Moshe Sharett, the head of the Political department of the Jewish agency.)
The ship left Constanta port in Romania on December 11,1941, en route to Istanbul. It was assisted by a tug boat - a sign of its bad mechanical condition. Its engine broke down several times during the journey, and a trip that should have taken 14 hours took three days. The Turkish authorities refused to allow the ship's passengers to disembark, despite the worsening conditions on the ship. There was an acute shortage in food and drinking water, despite help provided by the Jewish community of Istanbul. The passengers suffered from cold, filth and hunger. All that time, a frantic negotiation took place between the Jewish Agency and the Joint Distribution Committee with the Turkish government and the British government (and the British Palestine government) trying to allow the passengers to land in Istanbul and reach Palestine. Both governments were resolved not to allow any of the Jews in the ship into Turkey or to Palestine. The British refused even to subtract the number of the Olim in the Struma from the overall number of Immigrants allowed under the limitations of the 1939 White Paper. At the same time, the British pressured the Turks to return the ship to Romania in order to block future immigration from the Balkans. Britain's High Commissioner in Palestine, Harold MacMichael, was especially adamant in his refusal to compromise on any offer of the Jewish Agency.
On February 23, 1942, after 10 weeks in Istanbul's harbor, the Turks had had enough. They forcibly towed the Struma outside of the harbor and into the Black Sea. Several hours later, in the early morning of February 24th, a Soviet submarine (later identified as the ShCh-213) launched a torpedo which blew the Struma out of the water. Her entire crew and all her passengers, save one, perished. The lone survivor, David Stoliar, was picked up by a Turkish fishing boat several hours later.
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A map of the Bosporus straits. The number 2 represents the spot where the Struma was sunk (Wikipedia)
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The sinking of the Struma caused a storm of protests and anger in the Jewish community in British mandated Palestine. In a letter to the chief secretary of the Palestine government, John Macpherson, Moshe Sharett blamed the British government for its discrimination against Jewish refugees while allowing the entrance of non-Jewish refugees without any limit, and demanded that Jewish refugees should be allowed to enter Palestine without limitation, since they were escaping persecution and murder. (The Israel State Archives used this letter in its publication Moshe Sharett – The Second Prime Minister, Selected Documents, 1894 – 1965.) The IZL – the National Military Organization (known as the "Irgun") underground published a "Wanted for Murder" poster with the picture of Macmichael on it (it tried to assassinate him in 1944) for his responsibility for the Struma disaster.
The Eichmann trial in 1961 revealed another side of the Struma disaster – the German side. In a letter to Eichmann's headquarters in Berlin, his representative in Romania, Richter, reported to him on his conversation with Mihai Antonescu, vice president and foreign minister of Romania, regarding the efforts of Jews to escape from Romania. Antonescu explained that he did not allow the Struma to leave Romania and her departure was approved by the head of the Siguranta, the Romanian secret police, who was sacked subsequently. The report notes that since the Turks were not willing to let the refugees enter Turkey, they would be sent back to Romania. (The letter shown here is a copy of the original letter in German. It's from the Israel's National Police Unit Bureau 06, which was responsible for preparing the police investigation, prior to the Eichmann trial in 1961.)
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