Zionist always had pushed for the creation of a new state for the Jewish People. After Hitlers final solution that lead to mass amounts of displaced Jewish persons it was time for nations around the world to ban together and find homes for the mass amounts of people. Solutions varied from keeping the Jews were they were currently living, to moving them into Palestine. The United States was the head nation to make the final and big “says” because they were the leading Allied Power. Organizations were founded to get Jews into a proper home and country. As you can see from the newspaper picture, the solution for the Jews happened to the creation of Israel.
The avocation for Jews to have their own state did not happen strictly after WW2, however because of the final solution the Jews received sympathy and compassion and finally part of Palestine was created to make Israel. In Tom Segev’s paper “The Street are Paved with Money” “Hitler Zionist” wanted to the movement of Jews from Europe primary German to Israel for economical reasons. Segev quoted Eichmann who summarized Folkes “Zionist leaders were pleased by the persecution of German Jewry since it would encourage immigration to Palestine.” Later in his paper he states “Zionism has always [advocated] the Jewish people independence in it’s homeland.” In Avinoam J Patt and Michael Berkowitz paper We are Here the UNRRA was the biggest group advocating, and providing aid to the Jewish DP’s. Cohen talks about other organizations advocating for Jewish people such as the American Jewish Conference, World Jewish Congress and the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
There were several ideas about where to place Jews after WWII. In Avinoam J Patt and Michael Berkowitz paper “We are Here” they quoted Hamson who stated in a summarized thought “after the war we should place the Jews into separate camps from the rest of the Europeans.” This idea only made sense after the war to reunite the Jewish nation in Europe so that they could find their families better. Cohen quotes Dana Diner “founding of the State of Israel had in the Southern Germany.” This clearly would not work because of Hitler’s final solution and the fear Jews would have to keep living in a country that just had killed off most of their family. Cohen mentions several nations that wanted their Jewish population to come back such as Poland. Segev quoted Sam Cohen stated the German Jews wanted to go to Palestine. They did not see a future for themselves in Europe anymore especially in Germany where they a political leader attempted and succeed in high numbers to wipe their entire race off the map. In Israel Muse the author quotes someone stating “To be part of the only Jewish State in the World.” Just as Europe was rebuilding during the war and building up nationalism Jews were doing the same thing with the movement to Israel. While some governments had ideas were place people others such as Cohen in chapter 6 stated “there is no place for Jews in central Europe.” It was not followed with where Jews should go but that statement was true. Jews did not want to stay. There were to many of them, in fact in the US ran Germany section the number of DP Jews were climbing into the low hundred thousands after the war because the people needed a place to go.
All in all no one could have come up with a better solution than placing the Jews in Israel where Palestine is because of it’s connections to the Jewish tradition, history, and religion. Zionist were the only true group fighting for all of time to better the Jewish people and giving them a a place to call home.
When reading this I find myself noticing the irony. The Holocaust was intended to remove Jews from the European population. Yet it was the Zionist who completed the task.
Christopher Jackson
I think the zionist movement was something that jewish displaced persons could identify with. Many of them lost their family and friends. Zionism created that since of belonging once more which is why so many displaced person were attracted to it.