The Dream of a State -- In Germany

By Steve Rodan

Modern Zionism began in Germany. In the late 19th Century, the Zionist movement was launched by Theodore Herzl as a vessel for a Jewish state. Unlike the Jewish dream of returning to the Land of Israel, the early Zionists were not choosy: Anywhere that could accept Jews would be acceptable. Uganda was first offered by the British and sparked a debate that nearly tore apart the Zionists.

But Uganda did not remain an option, much to the relief of the Zionist leadership. What they really wanted was a location filled with money, culture and for a while an atmosphere conducive to business.

The dream was Germany.

Zionist leaders saw Germany, not Israel, as the land of Jews. From the rise of Hitler through the Final Solution and after World War II, the top members of the Zionist movement preferred Germany as the most convenient location for power. They appealed to everybody from the fuhrer to the American occupiers after World War II to carve out an enclave in Germany that would fulfill the Zionist dream of money and power.

An opportunity

To many in the Zionist leadership, Hitler's persecution of the Jews marked an opportunity for power. From early 1933, Germany excluded Jews from public life, destroyed their businesses, killed and imprisoned thousands and threatened a war against the Jewish people.

That excited the leaders of the Zionist movement. They envisioned the separation of 600,000 Jews from the rest of Germany. Where would they go? Palestine under British rule might take some of them, but far from the majority of the community.

Months after the Nazi takeover, Kurt Blumenfeld came up with an answer. Blumenfeld, president of the Zionist Federation of Germany, had maintained a dialogue with leading Nazis even before the successful election of 1933. His message was that the Nazis would find the Zionists a partner in their policy toward the Jews. The Zionists did not see any Jewish future in Germany and would agree to emigration or other solutions.

Blumenfeld had another solution to that of emigrating to the Land of Israel. On June 29, 1933, he and his colleague, Robert Weltsch, sent a memorandum to Hitler that offered a Zionist partnership with the new Nazi regime. The two Zionist leaders proposed what they termed Jewish autonomy "from the Nazi standpoint." The Jews would be gathered in an enclave ruled by the Zionist movement. The Zionists would run the economy, with a currency of their own, as well as education, courts and other tools of power.

This was not the only such proposal sent to Berlin. Two other prominent Jews with close ties to the Zionist leadership -- Georg Landauer and Werner Senator -- proposed the same thing. The only difference is that they would run the show. [1]

Business and fraud

The Zionist plan was renewed in 1935. Hitler had introduced what was known as the Nuremberg Laws, which separated Jews as a pariah race. The proposal of creating an enclave was discussed in Zionist publications. [2]

Tens of thousands of German Jews bought their way into the British mandate of Palestine in 1934 and 1935. But a year later, the British drastically reduced immigration. The Zionist movement largely agreed with London's decision. Immigration to the Land of Israel had become big business and rife with fraud. Thousands of forged British entry certificates were being sold in Europe, particularly in Poland, which triggered a six-year investigation by the Jewish Agency. Senator, the German Jewish leader who shuttled between Jerusalem and Berlin, headed the probe. [3]

That left Germany as the most likely host of a Zionist entity. Despite Hitler, Germany still had the richest Jewish community in Europe, which until 1933 was the third largest contributor to the Zionist movement. As important, the Berlin regime was cooperating with the Zionists and ensured their privileged position in Germany. The Foreign Office and Economics Ministry were the strongest supporters of the Transfer Agreement, which bound the Nazis and Zionists from August 1933. The agreement was conceived before Hitler, in 1931, when Weimar, through the government of Chancellor Heinrich Bruning, blocked capital flight from Germany. Bruning also approved other measures deemed hostile to the Jewish community.

Hitler was persuaded to remove these restrictions in exchange for Zionist support. In June 1934, the SS urged the government and Nazi Party to encourage Zionist initiatives. Soon, the secret police granted preferential treatment to the Zionists, including allowing them to organize meetings, publish a newspaper and operate a financial institution. Other Jews groups were either banned or severely restricted. [4]

The Zionist proposal of a state in the Third Reich became part of Nazi propaganda during World War II. Nazi publications would write of the wonderful Jewish ghettos in Poland, which achieved autonomy and were even trading in their own currency. At the same time, the Zionist-administered ghettos were being decimated and the Jews sent to the death camps.

Post-war dream

But the Final Solution did not end the Zionist dream of Germany. Indeed, a defeated Germany was seen as the ideal spot for a Zionist region that would rule over hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors. As late as 1946, the Zionist leadership did not see the formation of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel as realistic. In October 1945, Jewish Agency chairman David Ben-Gurion was allowed by Britain to visit Germany. Ben-Gurion had slavishly obeyed Britain's White Paper, which blocked Jewish immigration to the Palestine mandate. After the war, London made it clear that despite numerous promises, the Jews would not be given sovereignty. That eventually would be granted to the Arab majority in Palestine.

Ben-Gurion, however, had an alternative. He addressed the Jews in the new displaced persons camps in the U.S. zone of Germany and was hailed as a savior. Within days, he submitted a memorandum to the U.S. military for a Zionist-controlled entity. Under the proposal, the Zionist movement would assume responsibility for the Jewish survivors. The U.S. military would carve out an enclave that would be free of Germans. The Zionists would teach the Jews agriculture and other vocations while providing physical training. This was not a flight of fancy. Germany was at the top of the Zionist agenda after the war. The Jewish Agency opened offices in Munich and Frankfurt to gain control over the Holocaust survivors and their assets. The agency also prepared for negotiations with the Germans over compensation.

Ben-Gurion discussed his memo with Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, who had negotiated the surrender of Germany in May 1945. Smith politely turned down Ben-Gurion. The general said the Jewish survivors needed a home and not another ghetto. He also warned that Germany would oppose such a plan. [5] In the end, many of the Jews went to their new home in what became the State of Israel. But Germany rewarded Ben-Gurion and his state with what eventually amounted to billions of dollars that renewed the friendship of that country with the Zionist movement. Notes 1. Before Catastrophe: The Distinctive Path of German Zionism. Hagit Lavsky. Pages 248-249. Wayne State University, 1999 2. ibid 3. Life and Works of Sammy Gronemann. Cesar Augusto Mechan Hamann. University College, London. Dissertation for PhD in Philosophy, 2002. ProQuest Dissertations (ucl.ac.uk) 4. Zionism in National Socialist Jewish Policy in Germany, 1933-39. Francis R. J. Nicosia. Journal of Modern History. Vol. 50, No. 4. December 1978. 5. Philip S. Bernstein: Adviser on Jewish Affairs, May 1946-August 1947. Haim Genizi. Annual 3 Chapter 6 (museumoftolerance.com)

Below: Kurt Blumenfeld [top left] attends a Zionist leadership session in the 1930s. Farther to the right are Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion.