Nation-less Nationalism

Sunday May 16th, 1948. The Zionist newspaper proclaims the creation of the nation of Israel

In 1933 in what would be the future state of Israel, the Revisionist Jewish newspaper Hazit Haam, published an article on the rise of Hitler and the fate of the Jews in Germany, saying “The Jews of Germany are being persecuted now not despite their efforts to be part of their country but because of those efforts”. Both left wing and right wing newspapers saw that with the rise of Hitler, could also be the rise of the new Jewish state of Israel since the survivors of the Holocaust would need a new place to call home. Over the next two decades a call for Jewish immigration to Palestine was sent out, and with it the seeds of a Nationalism movement for a nation that did not yet exist.

From 1933 to 1945, the Nazi flag would fly in the heart Jerusalem, a constant reminder of the power of the Nazis. Fear that the Nazis would continue and intensify their persecution of Jews, an agreement in which Jews would transfer their wealth with them to Palestine was made. This Havvara System, as it was known, seemed beneficial to all parties because the Germans got rid of the Jews, Jews got to keep some of their property and emigrate to Israel, and Germany still got to trade with them, but not all agreed that it was a good idea. Many Jews and Zionists (those who actively sought the creation of a Jewish state), believed that the Nazis should not be dealt with at all, in any capacity, as Israliii historian Tom Segev explains in his article The Streets are Paved with Money ““pragmatic activism versus emotional populism; the need to preserve the national honor; Zionist interests in the Land of Israel versus worldwide Jewish Solidarity. Nothing provoked sharper divisions among Jews at the time than the haavara agreement…The debate was further inflamed by battles for prestige and ideological supremacy, intrigues  and accusations, threats, deception, obstruction, blackmail, extortion” (Segev, 22). Though there was dissension, many Jewish leaders saw the Havvara System as a chance to save both Jews and maybe some of their property, and cited necessity as more important than ‘national’ honor. More than this, some of the more extreme Zionists believed that it was better for German Jews to come to Palestine to help create Israel, even though some might die, than for those Jews to flee to another country, even if everyone of them remained safe. The reasoning behind this argument was that Jews had and would face persecution in what ever country they went to, and that the only way to stop the cycle was to create an independent state.

By the time World War II ended in 1945, the true goal of Hitler’s plan for the Jews was realized, and those who had escaped the extermination now sat idly in DP (Displaced Person) camps throughout Europe. The majority of the survivors of the Holocaust were under twenty five years old, they had gone through unimaginable experiences, and now lived in hasty constructed DP camps. The conditions of the DP camps were often little better than those of the concentration camps. Chaplain Abraham Klausner who inspected the camps, described the Jews as “Liberated but not free, that is the paradox of the Jew”. Living in deplorable conditions, the Jewish DPs had lost their parents and were forced to into adulthood at an early age, and had to recognize that there was often no job or place for them in the countries that they had grown up in.  In addition there were mental and emotional needs that needed to be met, as historian on Jewish history Avinoam J. Pratt explains in his book We Are Here  “Beyond the wish for food, clothing, shelter, and security, Jewish DPs expected some validation o f their survival, a sign that the outside world had not completely forsaken them. Expecting to be welcomed by the world with open arms, Jewish DPs found liberation to be a rude awakening, as they still struggled to obtain bearable living conditions and yearned for contact from the rest o f the Jewish world” (Pratt, 104). This was the scene set before the Zionists, and ironically, the Holocaust had actually helped their cause. Though the horror and reality of the Holocaust was not lost on the Zionists, the fact that there was now thousands of Jews with no home, no parents, and with  nothing to lose, reinforced their ideology that the Jews of Europe should come to Palestine and form Israel.

Without the Havvara System to muddle the cause, Zionists after the end of WWII were able to to appeal directly to the Jews of Europe. The Zionists called on a sense of nationalism intermingled with religiosity; they recognized that the Jews of Europe needed a place to call home, a purpose, and a chance to be be safe from persecution. To the Zionists, the idea of nationalist pride was what they had always been striving for, and the Holocaust had just proven the necessity of forming and defending a nation. The Zionists had created a spirit of long distance nationalism, nationalism without a nation, but nationalism that had long existed nevertheless, through a common belief and culture. It was with this sense of nationalism that many of the young Jews of Europe would migrate to Palestine, and form the nation that they had had pride in for so long.