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245 Tuvia Friling 11 Organizing Jewish Resistance The Decision-Making and Executive Array in Yishuv Rescue Operations during the Holocaust The Negative Stereotype and Its Roots It took only until the early 1950s before the debate over what the Yishuv, and its leadership, did to rescue European Jews from the Holocaust overstepped the boundaries of a historical debate rooted in a certain context and circumstances ; with growing celerity, the debate became an instrument in the ideological struggle for the shaping of Israel’s image. Both the general public and scholars debated the extent of the “purity” of the Zionist revolution, how the revolution was consummated in practice, and the degree of Israel’s legitimacy.1 1. Works by people and activists at the time the events took place as they appear in the Department of Oral Documentation, the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute Archives (hereafter: ABG); Protocols of the Mapai Secretariat, Mapai Secretariat Labor Party Archives (hereafter: LPA); Protocols of the Secretariat of the Histadrut Action Committee, Israel Labor Movement Archives at the Lavon Institute (hereafter: ILMAL); and in the daily newspapers. The second source: newspapers, intellectuals, and research scholars. See Tom Segev, The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993); Shabtai Beit Zvi, Post-Ugandian Zionism in the Crucible of the Holocaust (Tel Aviv: Bronfman, 1977) (Hebrew); Yigal Elam, in an interview with Yona Hadari Ramage, “Another Cup of Water on the Burning Town,” Ha’aretz (daily newspaper), October 3, 1986; Yigal Elam, An Introduction to Zionist History (Jerusalem: Lewin-Epstein, 1972) (Hebrew); M. Vazelman, Sign of Cain: On the Zionist Movement and the Jewish Agency’s Omissions during the Holocaust, 1939–1945, ed. Menachem Gerlik (Tel Aviv, n.p., n.d) (Hebrew); Roman Frister, Without Compromise (Tel Aviv: Zmora Bitan, 1987) (Hebrew); Michael Dov Weissmandel, From the Boundary: Memories from 1942–1945 (Jerusalem : published by the author’s sons, 1960) (Hebrew); Avraham Fox, I Called and There Was No Answer: Weissmandel Cry during the Holocaust (Jerusalem: self-published, 1983) (Hebrew); Moshe Shonfeld, ed., Teheran Children Accuse: Facts and Documents (Beni-Brak: n.p., 1971) (Hebrew); Shalom Shalmon, The Crimes of Zionism during the Destruction of the Exile, (Jerusalem: self-published, 246 Tuvia Friling Intertwined in this debate are two elements of crucial importance: the status of the leaders whom the Yishuv tasked with the special challenge of rescuing European Jewry and the nature of the professional and executive echelon reserved for this cause. Both elements derive their centrality from various factors, one of which is that the conventional wisdom about them in the research and public discourses gave rise to a negative stereotype: the idea that the Yishuv was immersed in its own needs and interests, that is, settlement, defense, and the building of power. Since rescue was neither a necessity nor an important interest for the Yishuv, the argument goes, it became the bailiwick of second-rate leaders and junior executives, while those graced with audacity, seniority, and skills busied themselves with other causes and duties.2 Bundled with this allegation are judgments about the nature of those involved and the attribution of Palestinocentric considerations to the Yishuv and its leadership during the Holocaust. I will investigate those who made the main decisions about rescue during World War II, track the executive echelon that dealt with attempts to rescue Jews in Europe, and attempt to assess the quality and origin of the foregoing statements about the type of people whom the Yishuv assigned to rescue operations. The Yishuv and the “Rules of the Game” on the Eve of and during World War II The Yishuv—the organized Jewish community in pre-Israel Palestine—during World War II was small, highly heterogeneous in its sociopolitical profile and, from the moment the annihilation was officially reported, thrust into a state of great perplexity. From its standpoint and that of others, the internalization of what was happening in Europe, and the correct implications of those events, posed an unprecedented challenge. According to data and estimates 1990) (Hebrew). For other expressions in this spirit, see Shabtai Teveth, “The Black Hole,” Alpayim 10 (1994): 111–95 (Hebrew). More, in a similar vein: Jim Allen, Perdition: A Play in Two Acts (London: Ithaca Press, 1987); Binyamin Harshav (Harshovsky), in a poem published under his literary pseudonym , “Gabi Daniel”; Moshe Zimmermann, introduction to “Fifty Years Later: The Holocaust Influence on Cinema and Culture in Israel,” manuscript supplied by the author (Hebrew). The Scholars: Mordechai Friedman, The Public Political Response...

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