Quoting Tom Segev’s The Seventh Million, page 18:
More than anything else, though, the rise of the [Third Reich] was seen as confirming the historical prognosis of Zionist ideology. Hapoel Hatsair described the [Fascist] persecution of the Jews as “punishment” for their having tried to integrate into German society instead of leaving for Palestine while it was still possible to do so. Now they would have to run in panic, “like mice in flight,” the paper said.11
The Revisionist paper Hazit Haam used even stronger language: “The Jews of Germany are being persecuted now not despite their efforts to be part of their country but because of those efforts.”12 The Holocaust would later be the primary argument for the establishment of the [so‐called] State of Israel and for its wars of survival.
The leaders of the yishuv—the [Zionist] community in Palestine—and the heads of the political parties followed the German crisis closely; they seemed to have grasped its meaning quite soon.
“Hitler’s anti‐Jewish plans form an organic part of his ideology and he is likely to try to carry them out,” Jabotinsky declared at the beginning of 1933, and two years later he wrote, “The Third Reich’s policy toward the Jews calls for a war of extermination. It is being conducted in a way that exceeds the bounds of humanity.”13 In 1934, David Ben‐Gurion stated after reading Hitler’s Mein Kampf, “Hitler’s policy puts the entire Jewish people in danger.”14
Everyone wondered how the persecution of the Jews in Germany would affect life in Palestine. The papers predicted “loss and ruin beyond repair” and described “the dance of death” that was going on in Berlin. Nonetheless, they expected that “the hour of trouble and anguish” would open unprecedented historical opportunities—specifically, increased immigration to Palestine.15 Ben‐Gurion hoped the [NSDAP’s] victory would become “a fertile force” for Zionism.16
Writer and Mapai activist Moshe Beilinson went to Germany and reported back to Berl Katznelson, editor of Davar and one of the leaders of Mapai, “The streets are paved with more money than we have ever dreamed of in the history of our Zionist enterprise. Here is an opportunity to build and flourish like none we have ever had or ever will have.”17
(Emphasis added.)
Click here for events that happened today (February 15).
1891: Georg von Bismarck, Axis commanding officer, existed.
1895: Wilhelm Burgdorf, Axis chief adjutant, came to be.
1906: Johannes Hähle, Axis photographist, was born.
1932: President Paul von Hindenburg announced his intention to run for another term in the upcoming election, and the Imperialists in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province aquired five river gunboats from the Chinese.
1934: Adolf Gallant—I mean Galland joined the Luftwaffe, and he would complete basic military training at Dresden.
1936: The Kriegsmarine laid down the keel of Horst Wessel by Blohm und Voss in Hamburg, and Tōkyō named Captain Kyuhachi Kudo as Tenryu’s commanding officer.
1937: Berlin commissioned fleet escort ship F7 into service.
1938: Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg sent a message to Franz von Papen noting his acceptance to Berlin’s demands given three days prior and probed the Reich for any intention of maintaining Austrian sovereignty.
1939: The Fascists laid down the keel of Luigi Torelli at the Odero Terni Orlando shipyard in La Spezia.
1940: Fascist submarines U‐50, U‐37, U‐26, and U‐48 all sank Allied ships as Major General Erwin Rommel took command of the 7th Panzer Division and Berlin made Hubert Lanz the Chief of Staff for XVIII Armeekorps.
1941: The Kingdom of Romania lost its diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom as Axis submarine U‐123 sank a British ship and Axis cruiser Admiral Hipper arrived at Brest, France.
1942: The Axis acquired Singapore as Imperial troops penetrated Indian 17th Infantry Division positions on the Bilin River north of Rangoon, Burma. Hans‐Joachim Marseille spotted enemy fighters taking off from a nearby airfield to challenge them while he was escorting Axis bombers over Gambut, Libya, and he would shoot down two P‐40 fighters.
1943: Berlin relieved Oberst Edgar Gläsche from his position as the commandant of the Oflag IV‐C prisoners of war camp at Colditz Castle (which coincidentally received another POW) as he transferred to Ukraine. Likewise, more than five hundred Axis troops entered the French treaty port of Kouang‐Tchéou‐Wan (Chinese: Guangzhouwan) in southern China. This territory was forcibly leased from Qing Dynasty China via the Sino‐French Treaty of 15 Nov 1899 and French Indochina administered it. Tōkyō kept the Vichy French governor in charge as a collaborator.
1944: One thousand five hundred prisoners arrived at Mauthausen, in Austria, from Auschwitz, but Berlin suffered its heaviest bombing to date, resulting in the industrial Siemensstadt area succumbing to substantial damage and the loss of twenty‐six Lancaster and seventeen Halifax bombers. Berlin not only authorized Model to withdraw to the Panther Line, but authorized a breakout from the Korsun pocket in Ukraine.
1945: The Axis’s 11.SS‐Armee launched Operation Sonnenwende in Pommern, Germany, although only III.SS‐Panzer Korps started the attack on time. Likewise, the 5,095‐ton Axis ship MRS.11, built in 1935 and owned by Norddeutscher‐Lloyd, struck a mine and sank off Swinemünde, Germany (now Swinoujscie, Poland).