As the Jewish population before, during, and after World War II is ranked high as a victim of the War, they did not relieve the reparations needed for consecutive relocations over the years. The rapidly growing antisemitism in Western Europe caused the heightening Zionist movement advocating and calling for the Jewish Nation to protect its identity in a new land. This Zionists movement resulted in mass relocations of Jewish populations, thus causing a stressor between those advocating for a new Jewish national identity and those wanting to retain their homes and continue their natural heritage.
The reconstruction of the Jewish nation versus that of the German nation in importance served as a catalyst for the Zionist movement in Europe. In their chapter Living in Landsburg, Dreaming of Degania Avinoam Patt describes the Jewish populations after World War II as they were “Liberated, but not free” (Patt, 103). This caused frustrations from the Jewish DPs across Europe. Although there were frustrations, the Jewish DPs “represented an enthusiastic Zionist position” (Patt, 100), the source of the enthusiasm serves to be controversial. The way scholars view this landmark of the past, they “threw this chain of historical inevitability into question” (Patt, 100) as new ideas emerged about the possible prevention of a Jewish state.
This differs from the idea aligned in Extraterritorial Jews written by Gerard Cohen which describes the national identity craved by the Jewish population and the idea that without the Holocaust there would not have been the creation of a Jewish statehood that there was. The difference of whether or not this was a political issue or not rang through the themes in these writings. Cohen describes the Yearning for Palestine as a basic human instinct (Cohen, 3) and emphasizes the importance of a Jewish Reconstruction over that of the Germans.
Jewish movement to Palestine
To emphasize the extent of these controversial topics of conversation for the post-war era, the image above shows the mass amount of people that were moved once again after the war and into a new land unfamiliar with their national identity. The authors above relate these messages of discomfort from Jewish populations to the growing need and enthusiasm of a continual Zionist effort across Europe as they share the experience of a desire for a definition of their existence in the Globalization of national identity after World War II.
I think you highlight a really important point with Patts writing, it defiantly seemed to cause tension and frustration with Jewish DPs but was masked with “enthusiasm” by the Zionist agency.
Hi Dani. Good job bringing the major points out of each source. I like how at the end you relate Zionism to “globalization of national identity after World War II.” This reminds me of the Displaced Persons crisis and how belonging to a nation was deemed a human right in the United Nations. It seems the major powers believed the best way to ensure Jewish people wouldn’t be persecuted again was for Jewish people to build their own dedicated nation.
I liked your image selection because regardless of the role of Jewish people in the construction of Israel they were still displaced persons in a new homeland. The image captures just how lost people felt coming to a land they were supposed to call home but was not that. I liked how you described the varying levels of agency that the historians bestowed on the Jewish population. I think that these levels are at the center of this weeks historiographical debate.