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173 Providing aid to the Jews of Europe and efforts to rescue them required complex monetary transfers. The Yishuv and the Zionist movement had to find ways to pool donated funds and transfer them into the occupied territories. Regular and uninterrupted money transfers were also essential for the smooth functioning of “interim funding,” the method that enabled the Yishuv to conduct operations beyond its financial capacity at any given time. The transfer of money is always a sensitive issue. Even during times of peace and internal security , large sums of money are moved by means of armed guards and armored vehicles, elaborate security systems, escape routes, and so forth. These precautions are even more in evidence during wartime. The side doing the money transfers can find itself accused of treason or other grave security violations. Jews or their representatives had to contend with accusations, from outside as well as inside the Jewish community, of a “double loyalty,” which was especially hard to bear in times of war. Couriers were the main means of transferring money to deployed areas and from there into the occupied regions. The Yishuv parachutists also carried cash, diamonds, and gold into enemy territory in order to fund their aid and rescue operations . Other methods consisted of bank transfers from Allied countries to banks in neutral countries, straw companies and personnel, and international organizations. On occasion the Yishuv emissaries in Istanbul also transferred cash, diamonds, or gold in the course of their travels. Reconstructing these methods is a complex endeavor. They were intricate and ultrasecret.1 Recently opened American and Yishuv archives make it possible to sketch a more reliable picture. Further research in this area will add another layer to the discussion of how the Yishuv went about funding the rescue of Europe’s Jews during this extremely trying period. Available documentation reveals the following : attempts were made to obtain a number of loans from Lloyds Bank;2 Kaplan tried to mobilize Jewish capital in Britain for what were described as investments but were, in fact, loans for interim funding;3 attempts were made to expand the operation of the Histadrut’s American investment company AMPAL;4 contacts were made with Poland’s government-in-exile regarding financial aid;5 Polish underground channels were used to transfer money and information to Poland; an attempt was made to transfer money from wealthy British Jews and banks to the accounts of Greek and Turkish shipowners or to British and American espionage services that assisted the Yishuv. Two Turkish Jews, Shimon (Simon) Brod and Goldberg, played an important part in the Yishuv-sponsored money transfer system, as did Istanbul branches of the Deutsches Bank and a Dutch bank in Istanbul, the Turkish Bank Anatalia, Swiss banks, a certain mysterious Arthur MacRogers, and even the Socialist International network of activists in Europe. Most of the methods used by the Yishuv to transfer money were common to the undercover world and had been used by Jews and their organizations since the early thirties, when there was a frequent need to rescue Jews and Jewish property from Europe. The Yishuv made use of them in arms purchases for the Haganah and in establishing the Yishuv’s Middle East intelligence network, as well as for illegal immigration operations .6 In time these methods would be adopted by the “Sonborn Institute” (established in the 14 Money Transfers United States in 1945, shortly after the Second World War, in order to centralize donations and conduct arms deals), the Mossad’s rescue operations , the “Communications Office” and the JDC on behalf of the Jews of Eastern Europe and the USSR.Underthecircumstances,notonlydollars, gold, and diamonds but also vodka, whiskey, cigarettes , nylon stockings, and jeans were used as payment. The main objective behind these transfers from country to country was to increase the amount of money for rescue and to establish a secret fund that could pool money from various sources. The fund afforded Kaplan financial flexibility and enabled him to operate the interim funding system.7 Kaplan was able to establish such a secret fund without encountering any significant opposition because the Yishuv was not noted for its administrative and financial orderliness . As Kaplan said, in the matter of rescue issues they would act “according to what we learn from life.” This modus operandi suited wartime conditions and the restrictive regulations that had to be circumvented. The flow of money into a secret fund also illustrated Ben-Gurion’s and Kaplan’s acknowledgment...

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