“How could we ever have believed that at the end of the war the surviving Jews would have no more worries, that everything would be fine! The world, we had thought, would welcome our few survivors with open arms! We, the first victims of the Nazis. They would love us! Quickly enough, we saw that the world had other things on its mind than Jewish suffering” (Patt,106). This quote illustrates the hardships faced by Jews once they left the Concentration Camps behind and reentered the world they were once a part of. Reintegration into German and European society was not as easy as European Jews dreamed it would be. Millions of lives were lost and people had to rebuild for their futures with no family, no money, and no home. Many saw light in the future through the establishment of a Jewish homeland. Though this would be a major feat young Jews clung to the idea and prepared themselves for the possibilities that this new homeland could provide.
Following liberation many young Jews did not know how to pick up the pieces of their former lives. Their families had been torn apart, often leaving them to face rebuilding on their own, and they faced bleak prospects in Europe. Many Jews turned to the Jewish community and Zionism, establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine, for help. Arthur Posnansky, Yechezkel Tydor, and Eliyahu Gruenbaum were three Concentration Camp survivors who took it upon themselves, during the last months of the war, to build a framework for life after rehabilitation (Patt,105). The three me were promoters of a post-war “kibbutz”, which “helped train youths for the pioneering lifestyle of Eretz Israel through shituf (sharing), socialization, and vocational training” (Patt, 106). Many of the young Jews enjoyed this agricultural work and living on the kibbutz was superior to living in the “squalor of the DP camp” (Patt106).Unlike DP Camps, which were often characterized as demoralizing and full of black market corruption, the kibbutz trained young Jews with skills they could use in the future.
Many young Jews living on the Kibbutz supported the idea of Zionism and without the support of these young men and women Zionism would not have been successful. For the young Jews, who were subjected to the horrors of the Holocaust, Zionism provided “a secure environment for vocational training, education, and rehabilitation and a surrogate family that could ultimately restore their belief in humanity” (Patt, 123). By claiming a homeland the Jewish population hoped to prevent future generations from the tragedy that they were experienced in Europe. Other Jews who supported Zionism because it “filled a symbolic need that had arisen for the Jewish people in the wake of tragedy even if not all would make the Zionist dream their personal reality” (Patt, 123). However, it may have been viewed Zionism was a way for the Jewish population to finally live in peace and no longer have to worry about discrimination and persecution. Was Zionism only successful because of the aftermath of the Holocaust and the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish populations of Europe?
Patt, Avinoam J. “Living in Landsberg, Dreaming of Deganiah”. (98-135).
I really like how you referenced the readings. You had plenty of quotes to guide your post along and really analyzed it well. I think that the Holocaust really helped the Zionism movement, which I talked about in my blog. Great post!
To comment on the question that you proposed, I think that the answer is yes. In my blog, I argued that the only reason the Zionist movement succeeded in creating the state of Israel was due to the uniting effect that the Holocaust and Second World War had on the surviving Jewish population. A majority of Jewish Holocaust survivors, feeling banished from their European homelands, united over the idea of Zionism and a united Jewish nationality, which ultimately culminated in the formation of Israel.
I like the opening quote you used to introduce the topic of your blog. This quote also stood out to me when I was doing this week’s readings. There is really no easy answer to the question. The problem of how to assimilate back into normal life extends beyond the Jewish population and can be broadened to the entire displaced population more generally. I think how to find ‘normalcy’ again is one of the largest overreaching themes of the postwar era. Every facet of life was affected by total war, and returning to prewar lives is often hard if not near impossible.
This was a very well crafted post! It is so unfortunate to think that post-Holocaust, the Jewish community was still in a state of confusion. You did a good job explaining that the growth of Zionism as well as the subtle revenge on Nazis was not the first goal of most Jewish people, just outcomes of their much larger goal: to find a home as well as a new family.