Jewish Brigade Group: WWII Yishuv Jews' Heroic Contributions - Research Paper

Introduction

The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, often known as the Jewish Brigade Group, or the Jewish Brigade was a military unit of the British Army during the Second World War. It was established in late 1944, under the commands of the Anglo-Jewish officers and recruited from the Yishuv Jews from Mandatory Palestine. The Jewish Brigade was also active during the Italian Campaign's later stages and was finally split in 1946. After the Second World War, some of the Brigade members helped the survivors of the Holocaust in emigrating to the Mandatory Palestine, which defined the restrictions of the British (Shenker 25). After the First World War, the French and British empires replaced the Ottoman Empire as the biggest powers of the Middle East. The change led to the closest objective of creating a Jewish state by the Zionist Movement. The 1917 Balfour Declaration showed that the British Government-backed up the idea of establishing a Jewish homeland, which was the first attempt towards supporting the claim. Besides, it resulted in the increased numbers of the Jewish emigration from 1918 to 1921, which was known as the Third Aliyah. In 1922, the British Mandate for Palestine was incorporated by the League of Nations. The immigration of the Jewish proceeded in the 1920s and 1930s, with the population of the Jewish increasing to over 400,000 before the start of the Second World War. However, in 1939, the British Government under Neville Chamberlain rejected the Balfour Declaration, forsaking the idea of creating the domination of the Jewish. After the United Kingdom declaring the Nazi German wars in 1939 December, David Ben-Gurion claimed that when there was no war, there was no White Paper.

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Jewish Brigade Origins

The President of the Zionist Organization called Chaim Weizmann gave the British government the Jewish community's full commitment in Mandatory Palestine. According to Weizmann, his idea was seeking and establishing identifiably Jewish fighting formation in the British army. The requests of Weizmann were utterly rejected. However, the British authorized Palestine volunteers' enlistment in the Pioneer Groups and the Royal Army Service Corps with the condition that equal numbers of Arabs and Jews were accepted (Penslar 10). The Jewish Agency quickly secured the officers of the local Labour Exchange in recruiting enough unemployed Arabs as volunteers. The Arabs served in the capacity of volunteers to match the volunteers of the Jews. Other people were also recruited from the lower social class of the Arab population, offering incentives for their enlistment in the service. The recruitment's quality was very low with high rates of the dissertation, especially among the Arabs. In the long-run, the Jewish soldiers formed most of the units. There were more formations of large numbers of Palestinian Jew/Arab mixed units. They still had the same ethnic make-up and the quality issues that were encountered in the Pioneers Companies.

In 1942 August, there was the formation of the Palestine Regiment that still encountered the same mixed issues with recruitment and the linked low-quality issues. Nonetheless, there was no designated all combat-worthy, all Jewish front. The Jewish groups called on the British government to establish this type of force. However, the British declined. During the time, the White Paper was already implemented, and it restricted the land purchases and immigration of the Jewish. Some of the British officials were against the establishment of a fighting force made up of mainly Jews, claiming that it could become the reason for the rebellion of the Jewish against the rule of the British (Shaw 25). In 1944 August, Winston Churchill accepted the creation of the "Jewish Brigade." Churchill was moved with the idea of the Hungarian Jewry, who was slaughtered, and he hoped he would win over the public opinion of the Americans.

The Roles of the Jewish Brigade During the Second World War

After the earlier reports about the atrocities of the Nazis during the holocaust, Winston Churchill sent a telegram to the president of the united states Franklin D. Roosevelt. Churchill suggested that the Jews of all races had the right to strike at the Germans as the body, which was legal and recognized. The President then replied, stating that he did not see any possible objection. After a lot of hesitation, on 3rd July 1944, the British Government agreed with the creation of the Jewish Brigade that handpicked the non-Jewish and senior Jewish officials. On 20th September 1944, there was an official communication from the War Office, announcing the creation of the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army (Abbasi 225). Another headquarter was formed in Egypt. In addition, there was the approval of the Zionist flag as the standard of the Jewish Brigade. The army was made up of more than five thousand volunteers from the Jewish community. Mandatory Palestine was organized into three key infantry battalions of the Palestine Regiment. In addition, it was made up of various supporting units, namely the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions. In October 1944, the brigade group moved into Italy to join the British Eighth Army. The brigade was part of the 1945 Spring Offensive, taking positions at the front line during the Alfonsine sector and was soon part of the fight. The brigade started two attacks in 1945. Later, the brigade moved into the Senio River sector, where it battled against the 4th Parachute Division of Germany.

On 9th April, the brigade made its way across the river and formed a bridgehead. In its fifty-four day operations in Italy, the Jewish Brigade suffered, with seventy wounded and thirty killed. The dead were laid to rest at the Piangipane cemetery. Additionally, they were part of the liberating Allied units. The Jewish Brigade was also stationed at Tarvision close to the border of Yugoslavia, Austria, and Italy. The Jewish Brigade was searching for the survivors of the Holocaust, assisting them, and helping them with their migrations to Palestine. They played key roles in the efforts of the Berihah in assisting the Jews escaping Europe for British Mandatory Palestine (Jacobson, and Moshe 56). The role was taken over by members of the brigade even after the movement was disbanded. Some of the projects of the Jewish Brigade was educating and caring for the Selvino Children. The Selvino children were around 810 Jewish children who were orphans because of the holocaust, recruited after the Second World War from the concentration camps and ghettos. The children were allowed to recover mentally, spiritually, and physically from their suffering while also being given general education that they lacked when they were in prison. The children were also educated about their heritage of Judaic and Judaism culture, preparing them for their relocation to Mandatory Palestine. The movement or relocation was part of the illegal immigration program called Bricha. In 1945 July, the Brigade relocated to the Netherlands and Belgium. In the Second World War, the casualties of the Jewish Brigade were 83 killed, while around 200 died in the war.

After the Second World War, there was the immediate formation of the Tilhas Tizig Gesheften (TTG) that replaced the Jewish Brigade. Under the military activity of the British, TTG was involved in assassinating the Nazis, facilitating illegal immigration of the survivors of the holocaust to Mandatory Palestine. The brigade was also involved in the smuggling of weapons to Haganah. Also, the Jewish brigade joined Holocaust survivor groups in creating assassination squads called the Nakam for tracking down and killing former Wehrmacht officials (Roth 3). The Holocaust was the genocide during the second world war of the European Jews. From 1941 to 1945, and across areas in Europe occupied by the Germans, Nazi Germany and the supporters killed six million Jews. This was around two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. The Jews' segregation in slums led to the extermination policy by the Nazis that were deliberated in the Wannsee Conference of 1942. There was the radicalization of all anti-Jewish measures as the German military forces conquered Eastern Europe territories.

The operation was part of the code name used when invading the Soviet Union that began on 22nd June 1941 in the Second World War. The operation was part of the implementation of the ideas of Nazi Germany of conquering the western Soviet Union for the repopulation with German citizens. Within two years after the invasion, the Soviet Union and Germany agreed economic and political pacts for strategic reasons. However, the German High Command started planning invasions in 1940. Hitler developed Operation Barbarossa during the 1920s (Russell 101). For Hitler, conquering European Russia that was central to his program was important for eliminating the Jews. In Hitler's view, they already dominated Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. Therefore, Russia was the way and place for radiation of worldwide risks, especially threatening to the Germans and Aryan race. Hitler believed that the revolution at Bolshevik would guarantee the rule over the Jews. Democracy already developed in Weimar Germany and Western Europe reflected the first or earlier stages of Bolshevism because the Jews were leading at the time. The targeted individuals were those who were involved in the crimes against the Jews in Europe. The information related to the whereabouts of the key figures was collected using torture of the imprisoned Nazis or through military connections.

The documentation of the military, British uniforms, vehicles, and equipment used by the veterans of the Jewish brigade heavily contributed to the successes of the Nokmim. The number of Nazis who succumbed to death is not known to date, but they exceeded 1,500. The extreme intentionalists believed that Adolf Hitler had plans in 1924 for the Holocaust. Hitler already decided on the Holocaust as early as 1919 (Russell 108). Dawidowicz supported her interpretation by pointing at various statements that were anti-Semitic issued by Hitler. The criticism has focused on the idea that these statements did not mean eliminating the whole Jewish population. The search for the causes of the Holocaust started after the end of the Second World War. During the Nuremberg War Crime Trials from 1945 to 1946, the prosecution presented the long-term plan for Nazi Leadership. Very few refer to the killing of the Jews entirely. Even before the Nazis ascended to power, the popular opinion in Germany already bought to the policy of exterminating the Jews. Germans enthusiastically welcomed the Jews' persecution by the Nazi Regime from 1933 to 1939. Some moderate intentionalists such as Richard Breitman argued that Hitler already decided on the Holocaust during the late 1930s. A lot of these actions are based on the 30th January 1939 speech by Hitler "Prophecy Speech." In this speech, Hitler stated that when the international Jewish financiers within and outside Europe succeeded in forcing nations in the world war, the outcome would be killing the Jewish race in the whole of Europe.

The Involvement of the Jewish Brigade in the Bricha

Most Jewish Brigade members helped and encouraged the Bricha's implementation. In the chaotic yet important months after the surrender of the Germans, most members of the Jewish brigade supplied the uniforms and documents of the British army. They also supplied documents to the Jewish civilians who facilitated illegal holocaust survivors'' immigration to Mandatory Palestine. Some of the notable examples were Yehuda Arazi with the code name "Alon" who was wanted for stealing rifles from the British police. Arazi and the partner Yitzhak in 1945 moved from Mandatory Palestine to Egypt using a train, dressing as sergeant...