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[Page 118]
Britain at War with the Jews
In 1930 Britain introduced limitations on the number of Jews entering Palestine. From that time, one had to obtain a certificate of entrance granted on the basis of certain qualifications, notably financial or skills. The system was steadily tightened. However, with Hitler's access to power in Germany, the number of Jewish applicants increased each day. In 1936, 60,000 Jews reached the shores of Palestine. The Palestinian Arabs protested and the Arab revolt, which would last until 1939, began. Britain decided to further reduce the number of Jews entering Palestine and to militarily crush the Arab revolt. Both policies succeeded. The Arab revolt was slowly quashed and the number of Jews entering Palestine declined by the day, eventually almost coming to a halt with the passage of the “White Paper.” The gates of Palestine were closed to the thousands of Jews who would have found a safe haven from the death camps of Europe.
The Jewish Agency of Palestine went along with the British policies until it adopted the “White Paper”. This was the breaking point between Britain and Jewish Palestine. Already in 1934, the “Halutz” or Zionist pioneer organization in Poland had successfully sent 350 passengers illegally to Palestine on the ship “Vellos”.
The Jewish Agency opposed the move and saw to it that such operations were stopped. The “Vellos” passengers were helped by the “Haganah” or Palestinian Jewish underground as a one–time event. The Revisionist Zionist movement under the leadership of Ze'ev Jabotinsky did not abide by the British rules. It began to organize illegal ships that sailed to Palestine with Jewish passengers. These operations were small due to lack of funds. At first, small boats like “Af Al Pi” or “Dor” were used but with time, larger vessels like “Patria” with 850 passengers in 1939 were used[1]. With the publication of the “White Paper” the Jewish Agency created the office called “Mossad l'Aliyah Bet” to handle illegal immigration to Palestine[2]. Illegal ships began to reach Palestine with Jewish immigrants but the British Navy was there to greet them.
The British were well informed of the Jewish situation in Palestine and expected some reactions to their policy of preventing Jews from reaching the country. The Royal Navy was already partially mobilized due to the war–threatening situation in Europe. It received the order to patrol the Mediterranean Sea and intercept illegal ships with Jews. So did the Royal Air Force. Even the Foreign Office began to apply pressure on Romania to stop the flow of Jews to the Romanian ports where they embarked on boats heading to Palestine.[3] British agents in the Mediterranean ports were ordered to be on the look–out for ships leaving with Jews to Palestine. The British were very successful and stifled the illegal aliyah to Palestine. Some illegal ships still managed to leave Europe but had tragic consequences, notably the “Patria” and the “Struma”. The Patria was blown up by the Haganah on November 25, 1940 to stop it from taking illegal Jewish immigrants to the island of Mauritus. The explosion sunk the boat within minutes and resulted in the estimated death of 267 people[4]. The Struma left Romania on December 12, 1941 but barely reached Istanbul, Turkey. The vessel had engine problems. Turkey refused to keep the vessel for repairs, the British refused to grant the passengers certificates, so the Turks hauled the ship out of port where a Russian submarine torpedoed the ship. It is estimated that 781 Jews drowned. There was one survivor.[5]'The illegal aliyah stopped, since the organizers refused to take such mortal risks until the end of the war.
With the liberation of Italy from the Germans, the Mossad renewed the illegal shipping of Jewish Holocaust survivors to Palestine. The Royal Navy and Air Force began to chase illegal ships throughout the Mediterranean Sea. They seized most of the ships and sent the passengers to the detention camps on the island of Cyprus. The British armed forces waged a constant struggle with the illegal ships. The British foreign office applied pressure to all the countries notably Italy, France and Greece to stop illegal ships from leaving their ports[6].
With the end of the war, the Jewish Holocaust survivors refused to cooperate with Britain. The hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors and Jewish refugees who had fled the Nazi horrors and the anti–Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe were determined to open the gates to Palestine. Most of them had no place to go and only Jewish Palestine wanted them. Britain was determined to keep Palestine closed to Jews. The British armed forces were deployed to prevent Jews from reaching Palestine. Even after the horrible results of WWII became evident, Britain still stubbornly prevented the Jews from entering Palestine, devoting considerable military resources to stop illegal ships carrying Holocaust survivors from landing on the shores of Palestine. Britain already had approximately 50,000 soldiers in Palestine to control the situation and prevent illegal refugees from entering the country. Since 1945 Britain had lost 223 soldiers fighting the Jewish underground in Palestine with 478 wounded in action. These actions did in effect prevent the landing of illegal Jewish refugees on the shores of Palestine but the illegal ships kept coming. Most of them came from Italian ports. The British began to pressure the Italian government to close the borders and to patrol the shores of the Adriatic Sea. The Italian government was happy to see refugees leave the country and did not care to help the British solve their problem, and did not want to take drastic action against Jewish refugees fearing American public opinion. Britain also appealed to France and Greece to prevent illegal ships with Jewish refugees from leaving their ports. All these appeals proved fruitless since the governments of these countries had more pressing problems than chasing Jewish refugees in transit.
The British Foreign Office placed great pressure on European countries notably Poland and especially Czechoslovakia, to prevent Jews from leaving their countries. Britain imposed a blackout on Jewish news in Europe. Even British Jewish social services were prevented from assisting Jewish Holocaust survivors in the British zone of occupied Germany. Rabbi Herzog was not allowed to visit the British zone in Germany. The British foreign minister kept repeating that there is no Jewish problem in Europe therefore no need to discuss Palestine.
Bevin of course admitted that there were refugees in Europe but these were nationals of various European countries notably Poles. “But there were no Jewish refugees per se.” Bevin urged all refugees, (including the Jewish refugees), to return to their native countries. But England was no longer the Empire that it used to be. Arrayed against it were determined people who survived Hitler. The Holocaust survivors were determined to break the British blockade. They enlisted the help of American public opinion that supported a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This support demanded of President Truman to take action on behalf of the Holocaust refugees. The reasoning was clear; countries, including the USA, did want to admit large numbers of Jewish refugees. Palestine wanted them. Britain refused to budge. It assumed that the USA was just ‘publicizing' this policy for public consumption. The State Department and the Pentagon assured Britain that the USA would support Britain in the final analysis.' President Truman knew that he had to take a stand and he was in favor of Britain “slightly” opening the gates of Palestine. Immigration to Palestine was becoming an issue between England and the USA. Truman felt that he must give something to his Jewish constituents who were demanding action. The American Jewish soldiers and chaplains wrote home about the terrible conditions of the Jewish Holocaust survivors. These conditions, like keeping them behind wire fencing or German guards policing the camps, became the topic of conversation at Jewish community centers and temples. During the war, the Jewish organizations were promised that that the Jewish situation in Europe would be tended to after the war. They now demanded action. Truman had hoped that Britain would permit some Jews to reach Palestine and thus reduce the pressure, but Britain refused to budge on this issue. Truman then decided to investigate the situation of the refugee camps in the American occupation zones in Europe. He appointed Earl Harrison, Dean of the Pennsylvania University Law School and Former Commissioner of Immigration, to investigate the D.P. refugee situation in
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| Earl Harrison, Dean of the Pennsylvania University Law School |
the American zones. He also turned to Dr. Joseph Schwartz, Director of the Joint Distribution Committee in Europe to assist Harrison. In July of 1945, Harrison set out for Europe and submitted his first impressions at the end of July 1945. The final report was submitted on August 24 1945 to the president. The findings were pretty bad. Harrison accused the USA army of inhuman conduct towards Jewish D.P.s. They were still fenced in by barbed wire and guarded by soldiers. Many of them were still wearing the rags from the camps. The report also suggested that 100,000 Jewish D.P.s should be permitted to go to Palestine. Most of the Jewish D.P.s wanted to go to their own place like other nationals. The president read the report and ordered the military to take steps to implement the recommendations of the Harrison report. General Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, issued specific orders to the military establishment in the American zones to implement the recommendations, notably the establishment of Jewish D.P. camps, removal of barbed wires, soldiers, and the establishment of elective representation in the camps. Most military commanders implemented the recommendation. President Truman seriously considered the Harrison proposal to send some of the Jewish D.P.s to Palestine and to the USA. The British refused to listen and insisted on continuing their policy of no Jewish emigration to Palestine.
The American army implemented the Harrison recommendations in the refugee camps under their control but some officers resented the policy and General George Patton, Commander of the third American Army decided to take steps to stop the flow of Jewish refugees to his sector that extended into Czechoslovakia near Pilsen. The Karlov camp, an UNRRA refugee camp, was established in this zone. The “Brichah” began using Karlov as a staging point to smuggle Jewish refugees in transit in Czechoslovakia across this American enclave to the American zone in Germany.
In the spring of 1945, three transports totalling about 600 Jewish refugees arrived from Czechoslovakia and entered the Karlov camp. The refugees were accepted and registered by the camp officials. But Patton ordered his men to round up the 600 refugees, put them back on a train, and send them out of the American zone back into Czechoslovakia, (see New York Post Oct 2, 1945 and New York Post October 7, 1945). The screaming headlines of the New York Post told the story. The description of how Jewish Holocaust survivors were being dragged by American soldiers to the trucks was fully described. President Truman was furious. He had already signed the “Harrison Report” in 1945 that called for the decent treatment of Jewish survivors in the D.P. Camps in Germany and Austria.
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| New York Post front page dated October 2 1945 |
Truman and Eisenhower were deeply embarrassed by the American Army's actions.
Here is a typical report of the event:
“Patton Turned Back 600 Jews Fleeing Terror in Poland” by Pat Frank
Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, Oct. 2. At the order of Gen. Patton, 600 Polish Jews who hoped they had reached asylum in the U.S. zone from an anti–Semitic wave of terror sweeping their homeland, were forcibly returned to that country, this correspondent established today.
A Munich cable on Sept 21 reported that 650 Jews who had escaped from Poland had arrived via Prague at the Pilsen reception camp a month before. Interrogated by American officers, they sought to pass themselves off as German Jews desiring to return to Munich. Their faulty German, however, gave them away, after which “an American general,” the cable stated, ordered them all returned to Poland. The anti–Semitic terror in Poland was attested to by Jews who have escaped to the American zone.
Ike's Policy Ignored
At least 3,000 Polish Jews have reached the U.S. zone. What happened to the 600 who believed they had found refuge at Camp Karlov, the United Nations' displaced persons center here, is another story. The tale is nearly as shocking as what happened to them when they were returned from Nazi concentration camps to their homes in Poland. Gen. Patton's 22nd Corps, stationed in the U.S. zone in Czechoslovakia, violated the oft–repeated policy of Gen. Eisenhower – that refugees or persecuted peoples who do not desire to return to their homelands, or whose lives would be endangered in so doing, would not be returned by force. Furthermore, it is to be noted that Jews alone were singled out for forcible return. The Jews began crowding into Camp Karlov around the middle of August. Three trains, each carrying 175, arrived at the Pilsen railway station, temporary American zone in Czechoslovakia. Others, on foot, sought refuge here after trudging through the Russian zone in Czechoslovakia. The top authorities of the 22nd Corps requested permission to ship these Jews to Germany where special camps for Jews were being erected. But Gen. Patton's headquarters ordered them shipped back to Czechoslovakia. It is somewhat complicated to trace the exact responsibility for this order since the D.P. officers then in charge of Camp Karlov have been redeployed. However the officers now in charge say that Gen. Patton's 3rd Army headquarters ordered the Jews returned because “there wasn't room for any more Jews in Germany, where the camps are already overcrowded” and “the trains that brought those Jews entered our zone without proper authority.” To this correspondent, enlisted men at Camp Karlov described the pitiful scenes that ensued when the 600 Jews were loaded aboard trucks, on Aug. 24, and taken to the Pilsen railroad station. The women among them fought bitterly, screaming and kicking.
We Had To Use Force
The military detachment found itself unable to cope with the situation and asked for assistance. The 8th Armored Division sent troops with rifles, machine–guns and armored vehicles. Pvt. Edward Heilbrun, of Chicago, who is Jewish and who helped to load the hapless, protesting Jews aboard the trucks, told me: “My job was sickening. Men threw themselves on their knees in front of me, tore open their shirts, and screamed, ‘Kill me now!’ They would say, ‘You might just as well kill me now. I am dead anyway if I go back to Poland.’ “They kept jumping off the trucks. And we had to use force.” There was more trouble at the railroad station where the troops were forced to jam the 600 Jews aboard a train.”
Destination a Mystery
After the train started, the trouble continued, according to witnesses. Men threw themselves from the moving train. Troops fired in the air attempting to frighten them into remaining on the train. Where the train was routed, after leaving the American zone, is still a mystery. One woman who was scheduled to return to Poland did not have to go. Luba Zindel of Cracow, was having a baby at the hospital when the train departed. I talked to her at Camp Karlov. This is her story: With her husband and an earlier child, she had spent three years in the Nazi concentration camp at Lublin. After the Russians captured that city, the family was released. They returned to their home in Cracow on June 20 1945. On the first Saturday in August, while the family was attending services, the synagogue was attacked and stormed by uniformed AK troopers. “They were shouting, she told me that we had committed ritual murders. They began firing at us and beating us. My husband was sitting beside me. He fell down on his face, full of bullets.”
“The widow was among those selected by the Jewish Committee in Cracow to be given a chance to escape to Czechoslovakia. She arrived here aboard the first of three trains”.
The train with the Jewish refugees was forced to leave the American enclave and crossed the Czech border. The train was stopped and the passengers were removed by the Czech Brichah to temporary shelters where they were fed and rested. All the refugees would cross the border again but in smaller groups led by the Brichah. General Patton was of course dismissed from his post, and no further attempt would be made by the American army to stop Jewish refugees entering the American zones. Toman was very pleased with the results since he could continue to permit Jewish refugees to cross Czechoslovakia.
All these American activities surrounding Jewish refugees drove Britain mad. They looked for ways to reduce the preoccupation with the Jewish refugees. They wanted America to act like Britain, notably ignore the Jewish problem in Europe. Britain claimed that it did not check the religion of the refugees. Yes, there were refugees in the British zones of Germany and Austria but these were former nationals of European countries. “But we do not have Jewish refugees; we have Polish, Hungarian and Slovakian refugees. We deal with these refugees.” The British refused to acknowledge that some of the Poles and Hungarians were Jews. And, since they were not Jews, just Poles or Hungarians, there was no Jewish problem. On instruction from London, the British military authorities in their zones of occupation refused to recognize the elected representative of the Jewish D.P.s in the Bergen–Belsen camp, Josef Rosensaft. He was elected on April 17, 1945, two days after the camp was liberated.'Bergen–Belsen was the largest Jewish D.P. camp in the British zone in Germany. It contained about 10,346 Jewish refugees. The entire Jewish D.P. population in the British zone in Germany was 12,232 and this number hardly changed.'Even British Jewish social services were not permitted to enter D.P. camps in the British zones. The British government was determined to hide the Jewish problem in Europe by any and all means. But Jewish refugees kept entering Germany and Austria and then headed to the Mediterranean ports where they boarded illegal ships that set out for Palestine. The illegal fleet of the Brichah increased with the arrival of American ships and American crews notably the “Exodus” ship. These ships received wide coverage in the American press and created a climate of anti–British feeling. The British tried to stop the campaign by seizing the illegal ships on the high seas and sent the passengers to the Cyprus detention camps. More ships continued to arrive and ever more screaming pictures and headlines of British soldiers mishandling Jewish Holocaust survivors appeared in the press.
Britain was desperate and tried to combat this opinion. British officials everywhere were urged to present these Jewish refugees as wild terrorists. British officials of course followed British foreign policy directives and repeated the wild stories about the Soviet agents wearing Zionist clothing. The most publicized event was of course the press conference held by the UNRRA Director of European Operations, Lieutenant–General Sir Frederick Morgan, on January 3 1946 in Frankfurt, Germany. The general stated
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| Lieutenant–General Sir Frederick Morgan |
that “he was not impressed by all the talk about pogroms within Poland”. Furthermore he stated that “a Jewish secret force is organizing the exodus of Jews from Europe and added that Jews fleeing from Poland to Berlin were well–dressed, well–fed, rosy–cheeked and have plenty of money”. There were elements of truth in these words namely the Brichah operations of smuggling Jews out of Eastern Europe but the crude anti–Semitic presentations created a storm in the Jewish world, especially in the USA which was the main financial backer of the UNRRA. Of course, the general, who was ostensibly in charge of helping poor and destitute refugees, Jewish and non–Jewish, attempted to soften the impact of his crude statements by claiming he was misunderstood or misquoted or both. He was certainly understood as representing British foreign policy. But the American press was against Morgan and insisted on action. Fiorello La Guardia, head of UNRRA had no choice but to dismiss Morgan from his post. Morgan protested the dismissal. Bevin strongly backed Morgan. The USA did not want to create a greater gap than already existed between the two countries. La Guardia had to reinstate Morgan. Morgan continued to make embarrassing anti–Semitic statements to the detriment of UNRRA and himself.
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American Jewish organizations were furious with Morgan's anti–Semitic statements and demanded to dismiss him permanently from office. In London, British Jewry was also pressuring for his dismissal as well as an opening of access to the Jewish Holocaust survivors in the British zone of occupation. American pressure forced the British authorities to ease up on the strict policies that they enforced against the Jewish refugees.
The British government ultimately dismissed Morgan from his post after criticizing incompetence and corruption within UNRRA. The general claimed that UNRRA was diverting resources to Zionist causes.
President Truman decided to appoint Simon H. Rifkind, a US District Court Judge for the southern district of New York, as a civilian Special Advisor on Jewish Affairs in Europe. Judge Rifkind was sent to Europe in November 1945 to tour UNRRA facilities and prepare a report. Judge Rifkind was highly respected both by the army and the various charitable organizations.
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| Judge Simon Rifkind (on left) |
When he first arrived Rifkind served under Allied Commander for the European Theater General Dwight D.Eisenhower, but “Ike” left his post a month after Rifkind arrived. Rifkind then served Eisenhower's replacement, General Joseph T. McNarney. The judge stayed in Europe until March 1946.
Years later Judge Rifkind's son Robert said that the six months his father had spent in Europe had made him much more of a cynic, having witnessed first–hand the devilry that the Germans had committed, and the unjust discrimination these same Jews, who managed to survive, were still suffering. According to Robert Rifkind, his father said that almost all the Jewish refugees he encountered wanted to go to Palestine. Nowhere else.
Not long after Rifkind arrived in Europe, David Ben Gurion, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive arrived from Jerusalem to visit the “saved remnants” of the Jewish people. He was greeted with great enthusiasm.
Rabbi Samuel Abramovitz, then a young man recently released from the US Army, was volunteering with the JDC in a German D.P. camp. According to Abramovitz, who went on to a long distinguished career with the JDC, Ben Gurion was “greeted like a king.” Crowds turned out waving flags and cheering.
The British ambassador to Prague, Philip Nichols, demanded that Czechoslovakia close the borders the day following the Kielce pogrom in Poland. He even insisted that Jacobson be expelled from Czechoslovakia[7]. The American ambassador to Prague, Lawrence Steinhardt, consistently pressured Czechoslovakia to close the borders to Polish Jewish refugees. The Czechs replied that only refugees with legal papers were permitted to travel through Czechoslovakia. Still the ambassador protested; he was urged to complain in writing which he did. The letter was received by Masaryk. He leaked a copy of the letter to Toman. Toman invited Steinhardt to his office and told him: “I (Toman) am going to send the National Guard and they will take you out of the office, and like a sack of potatoes we shall throw you out.[8]” Toman was furious that Steinhardt, a Jew, fought so hard against his own people in trouble. Furthermore, Steinhardt supposedly suggested that Toman be removed from his office since he was Jewish. This incensed Toman. The contents of the protest letter were published in Paris and created a sensation that embarrassed
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| Lawrence Steinhardt, USA ambassador to Prague |
the president of the USA[9].Even the Russian ambassador to Prague, Valery Zorin, notified Gottwald that Czechoslovakia permitted too many Polish Jews to cross the country. Gottwald called on Toman and showed him the letter. Toman managed to get himself off the hook by stating that he was fighting the Anglo–American imperialistic plots aimed against the Communist world[10]. Still the trains with illegal Jews continued to roll.
Britain saw the widening rift between the USA and herself regarding Jewish immigration to Palestine. Bevin decided to heal the rift by proposing the
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| Ben Gurion (back row) beside Rabbi Herzog, at Commission meeting on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem |
creation of a combined committee to study the entire problem and make binding recommendations. Truman accepted the proposal. The governments of Britain and the United States formed the Anglo–American Commission for Palestine to devise a policy that could be recommended regarding the immigration of Jews to Palestine. Other committees also examined the situation in Palestine, but this was the only committee that also included the conditions of the Jews left in Europe as part of their considerations. The committee would consist of six Americans and six British members. The findings would be binding. Britain packed its delegation with supporters of British foreign policy and was certain that it would get some American votes in the committee; thus the British position would always be supported or at worst, there would be a tie within the committee. Not only did the committee visit the United States and London, Arab capitals and Palestine, but also D.P. camps in Europe. There they questioned Jewish Holocaust survivors. Most of the survivors said they wanted to move to Palestine. Professor Chaim Weitzman, head of the World Zionist Organization and David Ben Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency in Palestine addressed the commission. Rabbi Herzog testified before the commission on behalf of a Jewish state, claiming that the new Jewish entity could absorb all the Jewish survivors in Europe. He also testified to what he had personally witnessed in the Italian D.P. camps. Rabbi Herzog was well prepared and eloquently presented his case with biblical quotations and references to Jewish history, namely Jews pray three times a day to Zion.
The commission's final report, issued in October 1946, recommended Jewish immigration of 100,000 refugees to Palestine. Britain rejected the findings, in spite of its commitments to the contrary. Bevin shamelessly dropped the report that he himself proposed, in the waste basket. Truman was angry and felt a bit betrayed by his British ally. Britain continued to adhere to its policy as though nothing had happened. Britain continued to issue only 1,500 entry certificates a month until the number reached the original White Paper's 75,000, mostly those interred in the Cyprus refugee camps, built to house immigrants caught trying to illegally enter Palestine.'
The American ambassador to Prague was usually well disposed to Jews and their problems but the State Department's pressure was relentless.
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Palestinian emissary of the Brichah Bobo Landau, Czech border guard official, Joint Director in Prague Gaynor Jacobson, Inspector Dohacz and the commander of the border post. Jacobson checked the crossing facilities for Jewish refugees that kept coming to Czechoslovakia |
He protested time and again against the open door policy of the Czech government. The American ambassador consistently pressured Czechoslovakia to close the borders to Polish Jewish refugees.
The Czechs, or rather Toman ignored these protests by claiming ignorance of border crossings. The American and British ambassadors were desperate but could do little since the Czech officials kept the borders open. Even
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| 1946. Jewish refugees leaving Czechoslovakia |
Russia became perturbed by the mass exit of Jews and the Russian ambassador to Prague, Valery Zorin, wrote a letter to Gottwald demanding explanations. Gottwald called Toman and asked for explanations. Toman provided some answers, notably that the Anglo–American imperialists wanted the Czechs to be their policeman. Refugees cross the border legally in accordance with UNRRA agreements. Gottwald told Zorin what Toman said. Zorin was not terribly pleased with the answers but decided not to make an issue since he was busy planning to seize power in Czechoslovakia and wanted the Czech Communist party to be united and ready for action The Jewish refugee transports kept rolling and the D.P. camps were constantly expanding.
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