Ben-Gurion and the Holocaust

374 Pages·1996·7.213 MB·English

by  Shabtai Teveth

B -G
en uri on
H
and the olocaust
O T H E R B O O K S B Y S H A B T A I T E V E T H
Ben-Gurion: The Burning Ground (1886-1948)
Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs
Ben-Gurion's Spy
The Cursed Blessing
Moshe Dayan: A Biography
The Tanks of Tammuz
B -G
en urjon
H
and the olocaust
SHABTAI TEVETH
Harcourt Brace & Company
N E W Y O R K S A N D I E G O L O N D O N
Copyright © 1996 by Shabtai Teveth
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any
information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Requests for permission to make copies
of any part of the work should be mailed to:
Permissions Department, Harcourt Brace & Company,
6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Teveth, Shabtai, 19 25-
Ben-Gurion and the Holocaust/Shabtai Teveth.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-15-100237-1
1. Ben-Gurion, David, 1886-1973— Views on the Holocaust.
2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945). 3. World War, 1939-1945—Jews—
Rescue. 4. Zionism— Palestine— History. I. Title.
DS125.3.B37T46 1996
940.53T8— dc2o 96-5779
Designed by Trina Stahl
Printed in the United States of America
First edition
a b c D E
Glossary vii
Chronology xiii
Preface xix
Introduction xxxi
The Charge Sheet
i
The Atmosphere of the Academy 23
Ben-Gurion and Kot 35
Ben-Gurion vs. Ben-Gurion 47
Ben-Gurion’s “Friend” 57
Dangers of the Human Conscience
7 i
88
First News
What Happened to Rescue? 102
Weissmandel’s Cry from the Heart 112
“ Governments and Organizations” 13 1
“More Money, More Rescue” ? I52
The Brand Mission 168
The Bombing of Auschwitz 186
Who Was Who in Public Opinion 221
The Timid American 237
From Holocaust to Revival 253
Notes 261
Index 291

G
lossary
Ahdut HaAvodah: Hebrew for United Labor, a party founded by Ben-
Gurion and others in 1920, from which Mapai sprang in 1930. Re­
vived as opposition party to Ben-Gurion in 1944.
AJDC: American Joint Jewish Distribution Committee (known also as
the JDC and the Joint), founded in 1914 as the Joint Distribution
Committee of American Funds for the relief of Jewish war sufferers,
and developed into the largest nonpolitical international Jewish phil­
anthropic organization strictly operating within the framework of U.S.
laws.
Balfour Declaration: Statement by British foreign secretary Lord Bal­
four contained in a letter written and sent on Nov. 2, 1917, to Lord
Rothschild, president of the English Zionist Federation, which read:
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s
Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist
aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:
His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in
Palestine of a national home for the Jewish People, and will use their
best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being
clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the
civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,
or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
viii / GLOSSARY
British mandate in Palestine: In the wake of World War I, the League
of Nations designated Palestine to be administered under a mandate
that incorporated the Balfour Declaration. Pursuant to Article 22 of
its Covenant, the League, on July 24, 1922, conferred this mandate
on the British government. For twenty-six years (1922-48) Palestine
was governed by the British mandatory regime. The mandate expired
with the establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948, in line with UN
General Assembly Resolution 181 [II] of Nov. 29, 1947, which called
for the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.
Certificate: An official permit to enter Palestine issued by the manda­
tory government entitling a Jewish immigrant to claim Palestinian
citizenship.
HaShomer HaTzair (The Young Guardian): An important Marxist Zi­
onist kibbutz movement in strong opposition to Mapai.
High commissioner for Palestine: Article 1 of the mandate conferred
on the British government “ full powers of legislation and of admin­
istration” in Palestine. This charge was placed in the hands of the
Colonial Office in London, which appointed a British high commis­
sioner as nominal and executive head of the Palestine administration.
The high commissioner’s actions were governed by the orders-in-
council issued by the Privy Council in London.
Histadrut (HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim Halvrim BeEretz Is­
rael): Hebrew for General Federation of [Trade Unions and] Jewish
Labor in Palestine, an organization founded in December 1920 (after
1948 it became the General Federation of [Trade Unions and] Labor
in Israel). The main and the strongest political, social, and economic
entity in the Yishuv. Its daily organ, Davars was, for all practical pur­
poses, Mapai’s and the JAE’s official organ as well.
Illegal immigration: Jewish immigrants without proper certificates and
Jewish tourists who unlawfully stayed on in Palestine were termed
“ illegals.” If discovered, they were either deported or their number
was deducted from the official “ schedule.”
GLOSSARY / ix
Jewish Agency (JA): Articles IV and VI of the Palestine mandate called
on the world’s Jews to set up a Jewish Agency for Palestine that would
cooperate with the (British) mandatory government “ in the develop­
ment of the country . . . to facilitate Jewish immigration and encourage
close settlement by Jews on the land.” Up to 1929, the World Zionist
Organization and its Zionist Executive served in lieu of a Jewish
Agency and a Jewish Agency Executive respectively. In 1929 the Jew­
ish Agency and its governing body, the Jewish Agency Executive
(JAE), were formed as supreme representation in Palestine of the entire
Jewish people. The JAE was elected bianniially by the Jewish Agency
Council, which was composed of Zionists and non-Zionists. The Zi­
onist half of the Council and the JAE was invariably made up of mem­
bers of the Zionist Actions Committee and the Zionist Executive.
There not being a worldwide all-Jewish organization, the non-Zionist
half was composed of notables nominated and confirmed by the bi­
annual Jewish Agency Council.
Jewish Agency Executive (JAE): Originally it was divided between
Jerusalem—seat of its headquarters and administration, under the
chairmanship of David Ben-Gurion—and London, seat of the branch
under Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization.
In 1943 a smaller branch began operation in New York under Nahum
Goldmann.
Jewish immigration to mandatory Palestine: Initially the scope of Jew­
ish immigration to Palestine was governed solely by an economic
measure of “ absorptive capacity.” Based on its estimates of labor
shortages, the JAE would submit semiannual demands for new Jewish
hands—which would generally be met by the mandatory government’s
“ schedules,” i.e., semiannual quotas of certificates. Thus at the end of
1936 the Yishuv numbered 404,000 souls. To appease Arab opposi­
tion, manifested by the Arab Rebellion of 1936, the mandatory gov­
ernment introduced the “political” principle as the sole gauge for its
“ schedules,” sharply curtailing Jewish immigration. This policy was
exacerbated by the White Paper of May 1939, which restricted Jewish
immigration to a mere 75,000 in the five-year period ending in April
1944. In these years—the Holocaust years—the Yishuv grew from
X / GLOSSARY
474,600 at the end of 1939 to 565,500 at the end of 1944, a growth
of 90,900 including natural growth.
Mapai (Mifleget Poale Eretz Israel): Palestine Labor Party, founded in
1930 by the merger of Ahdut HaAvodah and HaPoel HaTzair (The
Young Worker). It was by far the Histadrut’s, as well as the Yishuv’s,
strongest party, known also as the ruling party.
Mossad LeAliya Bet: Hebrew for B [illegal] immigration, the JAE’s
undercover agency for promoting Jewish illegal immigration to man­
datory Palestine. It was the foundation for Israel’s Mossad.
National Assembly (Assefat HaNivharim): The mandate allowed the
religious communities in Palestine to look after their own religious and
cultural affairs. For these purposes the Yishuv elected every four years
a National Assembly as its house of representatives.
National Council (Vaad Leumi): The Yishuv’s ruling body, strictly in
matters religious and cultural, elected by the National Assembly every
four years.
Revisionist Party: Zionist rightist, anti-Histadrut party founded in
1925 by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and in radical opposition to “compromis­
ing” official Zionist policy, as embodied by Weizmann and Ben-
Gurion. In 1935 it seceded from the World Zionist Organization to
found its own New World Zionist Organization.
War of Independence: Israel’s term for the war in Palestine, first be­
tween Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs (December 1947-May
14, 1948), and then between Israel and five Arab states (May 15,
1948-juiy 1949).
War Refugee Board (WRB): Board consisting of the Secretary of State,
the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of War, set up on
January 22, 1944 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Or­
der to take action for the immediate rescue of “ as many as possible”
civilian victims of Nazi and enemy savagery.
White Paper of May 1939: A statement of the British government’s
policy in Palestine, published on May 17, 1939, as Command Paper