- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
Newly declassified Israeli files reveal pre-state Zionist militias contacted Nazi Germany officials for help in establishing a Jewish state in Palestine as World War II raged.
The declassified file includes material collected by the Haganah, and later by the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service) and the Israeli army, regarding the Stern Gang’s attempts to establish ties with the Axis powers, Italy and Germany.
Stern wanted help from Nazi Germany to expel the British and capture Palestine from its indigenous Muslim and Christian Palestinian inhabitants for the Jews.
His position differed from that of most of the Jewish community in Palestine, which had suspended its struggle against Britain to fight Germany in the broader European war.
“With the outbreak of World War II … there is no better time for a war of independence than during wartime. Britain’s forces are tied down … and it would be possible to overcome them,” Stern argued.
“The Jews are a party in the war and therefore cannot be neutral. Britain betrayed the Jewish people and will never allow the establishment of a Jewish state. On the other hand, Germany has no special interest in Palestine, and since the Nazis want to cleanse Europe of Jews, nothing is simpler than transferring them to their own state,” he added.
The document further states that Stern believed “it is possible to reach a practical agreement with the Germans … negotiations should be opened, and Jews of Europe should be recruited into a special army that would fight its way to Palestine and conquer it from the British. The Germans, he argued, would agree because it would rid them of the Jews while also removing the British from the Near East.”
According to Stern, some German officials supported strengthening Jewish settlement in Palestine by bringing Jews from Europe, believing they would be grateful and would later assist Germany.
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Stern was stupid. When Germany’s Afrika Korps was advancing into Egypt, Nazi death squads were preparing to exterminate the Jews in Palestine. However, the Germans were stopped in the Battle of El Alamein.
More on these whackjobs (via wikipedia):
In January 1941, Stern attempted to establish an agreement with the German Nazi authorities, offering to “actively take part in the war on Germany’s side” in return for German support for Jewish immigration to Palestine and establishing a Jewish state. Another attempt to contact the Germans was made in late 1941, but no German response has been found.
After the assassination, the new Israeli government declared Lehi a terrorist organization, arresting some 200 members and convicting some of the leaders.
Just before the first Israeli elections in January 1949, a general amnesty to Lehi members was granted by the government.
In 1980, Israel instituted a military decoration, an “award for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel”, the Lehi ribbon.
They reaaaaaally hated the brits (which is admittedly based) but had just the worst takes besides that. The allies with germany thing is possibly being overblown though - from everything I have read it was very much a known attempt to save the lives of the diaspora before the Final Solution was implemented. A bad and spectacularly racist way to approach it, but not one that’s completely without understandable motivations given what happened next.
They hated the brits for not being fascist enough. i.e. not sufficient support from them during the initial ethnic cleansing campaigns during the British mandate period and nakba.
