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Journal of Interdisciplinary History 30.4 (2000) 735-736



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Book Review

From Catastrophe to Power:
Holocaust Survivors and the Emergence of Israel


From Catastrophe to Power: Holocaust Survivors and the Emergence of Israel. By Idith Zertal (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1998) 334 pp. $29.95.

In this powerful and meticulously researched study of the clandestine immigration of Holocaust survivors into Palestine between the end of World War II and the foundation of the state of Israel, Zertal challenges the Zionist rhetoric of rescue and redemption. Rather than a "narrative [End Page 735] of love and redemption," Zionist attitudes toward the survivors were those of distrust, fear, stigmatization, and a determination to alter the mentality of those who had lived in the diaspora. In her account, the concern of the Zionist leadership in Palestine was to build a Jewish state in Palestine, not to relieve the suffering of those who had experienced the death camps. The attempt, accompanied with much publicity, to bring Holocaust survivors on ships from Italy, France, and Rumania (some 70,000 were moved but only 2,500 actually landed in Palestine) was primarily intended to force the British government to lift its quotas on Jewish immigration. Finally, she concludes that Israel has yet to face up to the catastrophe of the Holocaust and to begin the work of mourning.

The book has three parts, utilizing somewhat different methodologies. The first part is a historical account of the immigration movement and the role of the Zionist organization, Mossad, in the attempt to bring Jews into Palestine between 1945 and 1948. It is based upon the extensive use of archives and, to a lesser extent, on personal interviews with some of the key personages.

Part Two examines Mossad, its structure, its decision-making process, its central personalities, and its relations with other Jewish organizations. Again, Zertal draws upon archives, but her approach is more sociological analysis than historical narrative. In the last section, in which she deals with "consciousness," her approach is largely ethical and political.

In the epilogue, Zertal uses Sigmund Freud's notion of the "uncanny" to interpret the Zionist responses to the survivors. She interprets two canonical Zionist texts (a short story and a poem) that depict bearers (Zionists) and burdens (survivors), showing that beneath a surface that suggests unconditional acceptance of the survivors lies a subtext of rejection. Yet, even if her reading of these texts is accepted, the question remains as to how representative they are--a problem that Zertal does not adequately address.

Roger W. Smith
College of William and Mary

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