The Miracle of Israel. 1945 - 1948

[Music] [Applause] [Music] throughout the world throngs of people hail the end of the war in europe it is five years and more since hitler marched into poland years full of suffering and death and sacrifice now the war against germany is won [Music] when the guns of world war ii fell silent [Music] the world of the 20th century faced stark new realities more people had died in this conflict than in any other war in mankind's history [Music] over 23 million soldiers were killed in combat nearly 40 million civilians perished and 11 million people including 6 million jews had been systematically murdered by the nazis and their collaborators [Music] the economies of europe were devastated of the infrastructure was destroyed [Music] orders had been redefined [Music] and democracy new nationalism communism and its conflict with capitalism were the forces of the emerging new world order [Music] and for the jews once again their faith had been tested their world shattered and their future uncertain destiny films presents faith and fate the story of the jewish people in the 20th century episode 6 the miracle of israel [Music] 1945-1948 [Music] in the aftermath of the holocaust the european heartland of ashkenazic jewry was now one vast jewish graveyard with six million jews dead and hundreds of thousands more left homeless stateless and traumatized by their awful experiences now the germans defeated the rest of the world was about to see for themselves what hitler's final solution really meant when we entered the camp it was like a nightmare the first sight was all the dead people blocking the camps entrance they were laying on their backs because they were shot with a 50 caliber machine gun and i saw the body i couldn't understand that this was alive just a couple of hours ago before the germans ran away i was stunned there was 10 to 15 000 dead when we came in walked further into the camp oh my gosh as if the dead were walking as if their bones were kept together by sinews of skin i was just completely torn that i said no one's going to believe what i see now and that's the truth no one did believe me [Music] i radioed back to my colonel and he said he's going to let general eisenhower hear about it and i'm sure he's going to be there he was astounded he couldn't believe what he saw i find it riveting to this day and to his credit that one of his first directives says i want now that reporters and cameramen come immediately to film what we see here one so the world should know and two these are the words pregnant with meaning because years later people will deny this ever happened [Music] the first thing that really began to shake people's consciousness were the movie reels that were shown in piccadilly square and times square and paris and then people couldn't deny it anymore across the earth the pictorial record which the world had seen of german death camps would not be readily forgotten either nazi officials like joseph kramer the beast of belsen have already paid with their lives for the crimes they committed against innocent men women and children [Music] people were dying regularly after the so-called liberation because for example the troops didn't have the proper food to sustain these people and gave them food that was far too rich the soviet red army was far better because they had much more of an understanding and therefore they provided the right foods immediately the allies immediately initiated military tribunals against those responsible for the war and the holocaust that all the defendants participated as organizers or accomplices in a common plan or conspiracy to commit crimes against peace war crimes and crimes against humanity this order dated 16th september at the main trial at nuremberg former center of the nazi party rallies 24 leading german nazis and six criminal organizations including the leadership of the nazi party the ss the gestapo and the high command of the german army were brought to justice for their war crimes against humanity however hitler and two of the main perpetrators gobbles and himmler committed suicide at the end of the war escaping trial and certain execution while bringing war criminals to justice was important for the survivors reconnecting to any remnant of family finding a home and rebuilding their shattered lives these were the immediate issues of the day when the camps were liberated the survivors literally walked through the open gates with only the clothes on their back and worse with little or no information of what had happened to their families their communities and their loved ones gradually slowly we realized we were what you might call free except what did freedom mean under those conditions there were no vehicles to take us away we we had no road maps we were left abandoned to go somewhere and everyone wanted to go back to their home base to see who else had survived what happened to my people without my my family my cousins my uncles their great uncles aunties there were absolutely nobody not a distant cousin absolutely nobody our families were killed our homes were no longer nobody had any family no place to go back to and i went back to our house and i found the floorboards ripped up and my mother had jewelry there and money in case we come back of course there was nothing there windows broken doors taken off there was nothing of home nothing left there were at all no psychologists nobody debrief us from the trauma of six years there were no support systems you know in any type of tragedy there's a support system nobody was in no country wanted us but worst of all there was no family waiting but it was not only the world of ashkenazi jewry that was destroyed by the nazis with the complicity of the balkan states italy and greece sephardic jewry did not escape the ravages of the holocaust when the war was over the sephardic jews of france were gone the svardic jews of holland were gone by gone i mean had been murdered the jews of sarajevo spartak jews of europe the greek diaspora of 500 years in the balkans was gone the sephardic jews of greece in one of the most total and rapid deportations within a four-month period were annihilated usually at the entry to auschwitz [Music] after world war ii about two-thirds of spartak jewry had been annihilated in europe but the entire civilization had been destroyed [Music] it is a horrible thing to live every day with the knowledge that you might not live to see another day i'm still haunted today there isn't a day or two days should go when a certain thought doesn't come to my mind from this the past anybody who was in a position like i was and if he tells you he's totally normal he's a liar understandably for many their suffering and the tragedy of the holocaust was a test of faith too hard to bear and their belief in god challenged to breaking point died with them or their loved ones in the flames of nazi destruction for many of the survivors the zionist dream of a jewish homeland was their anchor of hope for others it was their determination to rebuild their lives with material security and safety and yet for others the faith that has sustained them through their darkest days became the building block of recreating a torah life wherever they could for those of us living today especially in relative affluence and luxury it is virtually impossible to fully relate what happened to the jewish people during the holocaust in reality we are still in a traumatic state over it the only answers and sources of comfort that we do have is to look back into our history to what has happened to us before and to remind ourselves of god's promise of jewish survival and ultimate triumph for me especially from a jewish perspective there is no greater inspirational story in the 20th century than the story of faith after the holocaust to understand in some way how people could have had this faith despite everything it is the way to begin to understand the core strength of jewish survival throughout jewish history faith during the holocaust was so important so important because in the most difficult times you saw how everybody is killed in front of you you saw you did not have food it was so horrible the only thing actually that kept you going was your face many people lost it many and many of the secular people committed suicide by going to the virus i knew why i was in auschwitz i was a jew i knew how rabbi akiva died how the what the jews have undergone throughout the 2000 years that secular hungarian jew he didn't know why he was in auschwitz didn't make sense to him when we were lined up in auschwitz separating you know people who to the guest chamber and who to life my father was very worried about me he called my name twice chen de la schendeller continue to believe in hakadosh baruch who continue to believe in the torah continue to believe in order mitzvot and keep them and whatever happens take in faith the surim the tortures of hakadosh baruch and never turn away from him that gave me a lot of strength a lot of strength my father said we must have trust in god trust in shemesburg that meant to me that his face wasn't broken yet he knew where he was going he knew that he was going to be taken back to auschwitz which meant to be thrown into the gas chambers but he still said that we must have faith that's the last time i have seen my father god's spirit is in everybody the spirit goes back to the source god in his own way he took people's life every human being will have a reckoning they but a man who was around there who died there in a concentration camp reckoning is over and he's given the highest award of heaven because he died for the sake of god the way i think of faith is like an eggshell it's a fragile thing and it's you have to hold on to it i mean it can withstand a lot of pressure but then the slightest thing can can shatter it i had grave questions of the purpose of life this is what life has to offer what's the point and if there was a point i had to find it and make a decision it wasn't a decision up here it was a sole decision to attach myself to the rope of jewish history and jewish belief it was my act of rebellion against the forces of destruction it was my act of affirming that i am alive and that because i'm alive i had an obligation to make the rest of my life meaningful and purposeful and i had to give my children something more than a history of destruction and my sister said where was god how can that be and i am not going to do anything i think i'm not going to keep shabbos i'm not going to and i thought she is right and my brother says well can you imagine it was like hitting back at god god forbid such a thing but we felt so bitter and so terrible but we went normal you know we were very highly strong and peculiar and our peso came it was automatic we said what are we going to do about pesa and my sister said we're going to chuck out all the dishes we have all the saucepans we're going to buy new things and we'll have a proper peso and the smiles on my brothers and sisters face it was like a relief suddenly we're allowed to become normal you know and my father said you saw how your mother was killed two of your brothers you saw how the rabbi was buried alive and you saw everything my child you must remember and you must tell about it but my child you must choose life the hospitals i got myself books and taught myself partly english german mathematics and physics and it is my face that helped me along all those years that i started out from nothing and then i got my bachelors then my phd and i all my life i was a professor of physics my work is found in every science library of the world my face has been with me all along if it weren't for my face i couldn't have reached what i have reached when i look at my grandchildren when i look at my my children my sons who are full of torah and secular education and so on and so forth it's only my face that kept getting me along all those years every survivor's story of faith is a living testament of triumph over evil it is a far more powerful and positive message to tell over to our children how the jewish people have continued and survived and grown despite what has happened to us all these survivors these saved remnants they scattered like seeds in the wind like dandelion seeds being blown all over the place and like dandelion seeds they implanted themselves in towns in cities and countries all over the world and they began to be busy with building lives meanwhile amidst the confusion and chaos after the holocaust there were individuals and groups of survivors who concentrated their efforts not only on themselves but on finding and saving other jewish survivors throughout war-ravaged europe orphans children hidden with non-jews to save them from the nazis broken remnants of families individual by individual they began to rebuild lives and communities with limited means and hardly any institutional funding but fired by the belief that it could be done many of them succeeded beyond anyone's imagination today throughout the jewish world there are many vibrant jewish communities built from these shattered remnants for example here in israel there's the great sans community in natanya single-handedly rebuilt by the klausenburger rabbit rabbi yakutiel yehuda alberstam whose own wife and children perished in the holocaust the rabbi of poneviz yosef kahanamen built the great yeshiva and benebrach against the odds of it ever being successful and in the united states and israel and throughout the diaspora the great hasidic courts of bova versatner square etc and the lithuanian yeshivat to a great extent their success today is greater than what it was in europe before the war [Music] after the war the allies faced a major humanitarian crisis the economies and societies of war-torn europe were devastated millions of refugees had to be repatriated to their countries of origin for one million other refugees including the jewish survivors of the holocaust there was no home to go to [Music] some did try to go home but even after the terrible persecutions and events of world war ii anti-semitism continued to prevail in most parts of europe especially poland there were people in poland they were very anti-semitic against us very anti-semitic against us they really felt they want our land they want our buildings they want our money they want everything the poles attacked us 120 poles they were upset that we survived and that's why we were hiding upstairs but then they discovered our place and they opened the door and my mother stood up with the baby i was sitting behind her she knew them she said kill me first not my child they killed the baby first and my mother and she fell on top of me in one incident in the city of kielsa in south central poland 64 jews awaiting transfer to palestine were murdered in a pogrom it was a group of poles who made the program of the remaining jews in charles and they went out with access and they wanted to kill the people that that the program can still happen after the war is the end was a terrible shock for us this pogrom occurred slightly more than a year after the war had ended in europe how could this be after more than 3 million jews were systematically killed as polish citizens and millions of others coming from other countries were killed on polish soil how could a polish mob attack and kill jews in this way one of the consequences was that the several hundred thousand maybe three hundred thousand three hundred and fifty thousand jews who had come back and were living in poland decided at that point it was no longer a viable place for jews to live for a brief period after the war impoverished polish lithuanian and russian jews who had been exiled into central and asiatic russia during the war or allowed to leave the soviet union to cope with all the refugees displaced persons camps were set up by the western allies in order to accommodate stateless and homeless survivors dp camps were set up for displaced persons at that time we were known as the sherit haplaytav the saved remnant and it's actually a biblical it's a it's a prophetic statement and they used the jewish way of describing us which was the saved remnant because we were saved we were saved for what we didn't know yet by this time world jewry who could do little to help their brethren during the war began to coordinate their efforts and jewish organizations worldwide came to the aid of the stricken survivors the american joint distribution committee and its british counterpart the jewish relief committees set up food distribution centers medical facilities and schools it wasn't only organizations that came to their aid individuals from all over the world volunteered and went to the dp camps to assist their fellow jews under the prodding of people like rabbi alexander rosenberg and other rabbis who were attached to the united states army the american army printed ashas an entire set of the babylonian talmud so that jews would have a talmud to study was a remarkable thing that jews asked for it and it was even more remarkable that the american army saw fit to do it because you have to rebuild the people and you can't just rebuild them with chocolate buyers after we build their inside you have to rebuild their faith you have to rebuild their purpose in life without a talmud the jews found it very difficult to have such a purpose [Music] to help the survivors with their greatest need finding out who in their family was still alive and where they were jewish relief organizations together with the red cross began the long process of coordinating lists of jewish survivors and posting them in every camp they always used to put that fresh list every day the people who survived who came back and i all of a sudden i sit there my sister on that list my mother was running around from office to office she already they were postings people were producing lists of people they had encountered along the way people they had encountered in a camp somewhere people they actually saw die people wrote letters to so and so dp camps in germany we didn't know where when what and these were carried from place to place to look for relatives all over the world and my older sister got one of those letters and she came back to hungary my sister i made a cigarette she was crying and thinking she came home and she has nobody in the world and here all of a sudden she sees me coming just across the street and she started to scream and since then we were unseparated even after all they had suffered the survivors were now facing a stark new reality that of being rejected and unwanted there was a boy of 16 in bergen-belsen who said to us everybody has a home the americans have a home the french have a home the british have a home only we don't have a home we must go to palestine but for the desperate survivors returning to palestine was not possible the british who controlled the country remained adamant their official immigration policy as stated in their white paper of 1939 continue to severely restrict jewish immigration to palestine the british passed this white paper which put the end to the pledge of the balfour declaration of november 1917 where britain had pledged itself to facilitate as the language had at the establishment of a jewish national homeland in palestine how so by saying that within the next five years only 75 000 jews would be permitted to enter the holy land thereafter with arab consent everybody realized that no arab given a free choice would allow any jew to come into israel that's the white paper of 1939 which alas remained in force throughout the war one of the forgotten facts of the history of palestine is that the british white paper of 1939 went against the terms of the mandate given to great britain to rule the country the league of nations permanent mandates commission by a majority vote in may in june 39 said the white paper ran counter to the original british pledge of the baffle declaration and the mandate so in effect the british primarily doing thereafter what they wanted acted in an illegal fashion according to the league of nations history is full of broken promises in reality the british serving their own self-interests actually turned against the jews that they were meant to help in 1922 the british gave three quarters of palestine to the arabs which later became trans jordan and then jordan and ignored their league of nations obligation to create a homeland for the jews [Music] but throughout the second world war and right up to 1948 they forcibly restricted jewish refugees from entering their promised land it's unbelievable the british had the audacity to call the survivors illegal immigrants when in fact it was their actions that were totally illegal but who was there to police the british the league of nations itself was dissolved at the onset of world war ii and almighty britain was left free to do exactly what it wanted to in palestine the rest of the country will do as well in 1945 clement atlee became british prime minister his labor government sweeping away the wartime leadership of winston churchill the labor party had come in and in palestine there was such joy because the labor party for years had said we don't like what the british are doing there and we're going to change it and they let it be known they were going to continue making it a homeland for the jews but as soon as they came into power they changed and it became exactly the way it was under the tories the british were afraid as their secrets memoranda indicated we don't want to have a flood of jews coming to the holy land they feared it would jeopardize their relations with the muslim world jeopardize oil interests in iraq and elsewhere it's ironic that in our greatest hour of need the doors to the promised land promised also by the baffle declaration were barred shut the dominions of the british empire canada south africa new zealand and australia followed britain's lead restricting immigration of jews into their countries as did countries in most of the rest of the world in the united states the johnson act of 1924 which restricted immigration to america was still in effect after the war despite restrictions there were jewish refugees that managed to find their way to america and other countries [Music] the majority were not so fortunate for the desperate survivors still in the dp camps with the world turning its back on them there seemed to be no solution to their plight there were some good-natured liberals who said let the jews go back to their homes after the war and that will prove that we are setting up a good democratic world having defeated hitler and his minions go back to what homes on the blood-soaked soil of europe that was absurd in palestine david ben-gurion and the jewish agency saw the desperate situation of the refugees as a unique opportunity to bring pressure to bear on world opinion ben gurion came to the camps to bring the message of palestine and he thought that he is going to find broken people people without hope they were not zionists before the war their zionism was not ideological they had their own life experience and their life experience was that their neighbors did not want them and that european society did not care about their faith and they wanted to be among jews they understood they don't have another possibility another way of rehabilitating their own lives and the idea of the jewish state gave them two things first of all they it gave them purpose it gave them something to look forward to and second it gave them hope when ben gurion already visiting the dp camps in the winter 45 said to them openly i have nothing in my pocket to give you but i have a promise remember the hatikvah our national song that one day you will arrive and will do everything to do it that meeting ended with the singer of the hatikvah we came away from the camps with the feeling that these people he understood were ready to fight for the jewish state because this was a fight for their own life the situation for the jewish refugees in the dp camps was intolerable with pressure especially from the zionists world indifference and opinion began to change to his everlasting credit truman prodded by morgenthau who's prodded and turned secretly by zionists sends earl harrison a non-jew prominent dean of the university of pennsylvania law school to the camps to see what's going on harrison is so bold over that he reports back to truman we're treating the jews here even worse than the nazis did and he recommends what the zionists had already recommended weitzman to churchill in october 44 right after the war a hundred thousand jews had israel somehow that magic number of a hundred thousand keeps reappearing and truman uncharacteristically for an american president bites the bullet on the spot contacts his opposite number athlete says uh clement don't you think we should send a hundred thousand of these people to palestine and then we'll solve the problem of the jews that's a humanitarian response he's not tro zionist at this point the british are shocked they weren't expecting this so atlee turns to his counterpart of vis-a-vis foreign affairs that's ernest bevin foreign secretary and the cabinet this is atlee and bevin mainly working together come up with the decision well let's form an anglo-american commission of inquiry the anglo-american commission of inquiry into palestine consisted of six british and six american members [Music] and we went from one dp camp to another and got all these stories and it you could see it affecting members of the committee they broke up some went to poland someone to germany and then we went on to jerusalem and dr weitzman who later became the first president of israel and was the first one to testify and he told the committee that there had to be a homeland that everything he had been telling them would happened was now happening and he was so impressive that you wondered how anybody could not believe what he was saying all 12 members unanimously recommended that 100 000 refugees be sent to palestine and that palestine should become a bi-national state guaranteeing safety for jews and arabs alike under international trusteeship the zionists were in a quandary we want a hundred thousand we certainly don't want bi-nationalism the arabs are certainly opposed because they want it all they certainly don't want hundred thousand they don't want by nationalism the recommendation of the committee came as a shock to the british government and they immediately rejected the plan the jews should establish a monument to commemorate ernest bevin the british foreign minister because of his obstinacy because had he agreed to the influx of a hundred thousand jews to palestine maybe the whole question of the jewish national home of the jewish state would evaporate because people would say okay we have solved the question of the survivors we gave them their one hundred thousand that they demanded and that's the end of the story but the british would not do that anz bevin would not allow one additional jew to the 75 000 promised in the white paper of 39. ernest bevin's actions can be viewed as yet another example of heaven's hidden hand in jewish history just like the lord hardened pharaoh's heart and pharaoh would not allow the jews to go to the holy land bevan's heart was also hardened against the survivors returning to the very same holy land [Music] it is ironic bevin's intransigence steal the will of the survivors and it was now their persistence against british injustice that influenced world opinion and eventually led to the creation of the state of israel throughout the war in palestine there had been ongoing disagreement between the two zionist camps on how to deal with the british crime weizmann david ben-gurion and the jewish agency who had maintained a truce with them throughout the war believed the road to a jewish homeland was through political expediency pressure and negotiation on the other side there were two underground militant organizations the ergun led by menachem began a polish immigrant whose parents were murdered in the holocaust and its breakaway the extreme anti-british lehi started by avraham stern both the irgun and the lehi felt the only way to get a jewish homeland was to fight for it the british were our enemies enemies in any way you can name it they worried about the oil they wanted arab sympathy and they backed them at that time they blocked the way for the jews in europe to come here and more than 50 percent of world's oil fields were in the middle east owned by the british and that was a very good reason why they needed this land for the empire but we didn't care about that we needed our land for our freedom the unrelenting policy of the jewish freedom fighters was armed resistance getting rid of the british by force they attacked them wherever they could and however they could at the same time ben gurion actually didn't believe that we can kick out the bridge for here and that's why he thought that what we did was dangerous for the relations of the british the inflexible attitude of the british changed their relationship although ben-gurion weizmann and the jewish agency could not officially alter their position unofficially through their military wing the haganah they join forces with the argun and the lekhi the united resistance movement created after october 45 when the british continue basically the white paper restrict jewish immigration even after the holocaust into eretz israel led to the unity of the armed different groups in editing islam they worked together for the first time blowing up railroads uh bridges leading territorial british boats trying to intercept and radar stations also it was very difficult to fight the british we were viewed all over the country and the british had about 100 000 troops soldiers and policemen in this country we didn't have proper arms to fight such an empire the only way to get arms was by breaking into british camps to get arms from their stores and we knew that by that we sacrificed lives it was a painful way to get out but we had to do it ignoring the unbending policy of the british against jewish immigration the zionist escape movement in europe the brichard with the covert help of the french and italian governments stepped up its clandestine efforts to smuggle jewish refugees to palestine in the summer of 1946 more than 4 000 immigrants were smuggled into palestine they were moved secretly in small groups across europe from country to country on foot and in disguised trucks they told us that in the evening we are going to cross the border between hungary and himalaya we were all sitting pushed together covered by blankets that nobody should see that these are human beings the people who were supervising the border were paid by the zionist movement a nice sum of money and they closed their eyes and they left the trucks to go over to romania it was a treacherous journey over thousands of miles of difficult terrain under constant threat of detection and when they arrived at ports in italy or france they were crowded into decrepit old boats that the zionists had purchased clandestinely to smuggle the survivors into palestine we went to the port city of costanza and we saw from far away and we were thinking my god a sheep like this you know it's for the animals it's not for human beings but in the same token who cares as long we are going to get this rat hashem to erase israel the british could not stop the ships at the ports of embarkation because france and italy did not cooperate with them and they could not allow the ships to palestine because this would be the end of the white paper policy that the arabs would not agree to the british however soon committed overwhelming forces to counteract further immigration they mobilized 80 000 british troops as well as the bulk of the mediterranean fleet of the royal navy to prevent the immigrants from entering palestine ignoring international law the british set up a naval blickay stopping and boarding the immigrant ships in mid-ocean taking control of them they escorted the ships into palestine where the refugees were sent to a detention camp in atlet a small village outside haifa of the 63 boats that attempted to break the british blockade only one officially succeeded we were coming near to hafa and then after a few hours we see some huge army boats coming towards our boat and they took their microphone and they were calling to us we are the british occupiers of palestine you cannot enter the country our leaders toward us don't be afraid we will get to earth israel you just go all on the deck of the ship and cry this one was not difficult for us to cry and beg them that you went through the hell which one is all true and you want to come to this country because you need to recover from all the hardship that you lost your parents you have nobody you young you're not coming here as soldiers so after a few hours of discussion between the leaders of our boat our ship and between the british army we were given the permission to come to the port of haifa [Music] the lines of people were unbelievable waiting at the port this was the first boat to arrive to israel after the war they wanted to see whose children are alive whose relatives remained [Music] there were 63 boats that made it from the cursed ground of europe on the way territory stopped by the british 52 000 jews on those boats they endangered everything their lives but they knew the risk was certainly worth it far better than what preceded them in europe every month according to the quota of the white paper the british released 1500 jewish refugees from atlet into palestine but the immigrants continued to arrive and the camp soon became overcrowded beyond its capacity in the summer of 1946 the british decided to deport the immigrants to cyprus they hoped that these detention camps would act as a deterrent but they didn't the immigrant ships kept coming and the confrontations between the desperate survivors and the british often turned violent the most infamous incident involved the 4500 survivors on the immigrant ship the exodus the english intelligence got to know about the plan and as we came out from france they were there daily they would approach us they would say in the name of his majesty's government we know that you are jewish illegal refugees please turn around go back because you will not be allowed to land at your destination by the time we reach the last day there were seven british ships around us when they came to the conclusion that we are not heeding their command they ramped the ship the british boats are sandwiching us in now and our boat was lifted up into the air and we heard the boards of our ship cracking now splintering the water vent alien people were standing until uh here in water the people that were on the lowest deck [Music] soldiers helmets on they had each of them had a shield in his hand and they were ready to jump from their boat but 800 hands were raised and 800 cans of goods were flying in the direction of the british and within a few seconds the british decks on the two sides were cleared the soldiers ran away because there was an overwhelming response cheers of the young people and that was the first time that our people could give expression to their to their frustrations of all those years you know we were fighting back you see that was a great moment there was a battle that was maybe one and a half to two hours until the english uh just threw in tear gas and we didn't see anything a young fellow threw himself at the grenade and threw him back at the british boat now the british saw that he has picked up the grenade and killed him additionally the first mate of the exodus was killed and many refugees were injured now under british control the crippled exodus was taken into haifa port all of a sudden from one of the rooftops comes the merode viatiqua [Music] and then when the shore stops in the front of our boat picked up the attic [Music] and it was to the mel de vertigo that the dog sailed into heifer it was a great moment it was the most tearful the most screaming khatikrah that can be all those people after all everyone with his bundle of suffering that he went through and here you see palestine and and the english eye at your back [Music] in haifa any hopes the survivors had of staying in palestine were dashed they were met by british troops who immediately transferred them to three waiting ships that had been refitted and fenced in to prevent any resistance the survivors thought they were being deported to the internment camps in cyprus however the british had decided to ship them back to france as a deterrent against illegal immigration in the harbor of dubuque france another act of the drama unfolds as the runny mead park one of three ships bearing 4 500 refugees the displaced persons removed from the exodus bound for palestine refused to land in france israel only to israel only to israel [Music] for three weeks the standoff between the british and the survivors on the ships continued [Music] living conditions were deplorable the refugees were crammed into overcrowded holes and endured stifling heat yet they would not give in the british ran out of patience and they said if you will not leave the boat by the end of next day then we are taking you to germany it immediately created such an outrage around the world that hundreds of correspondents came to port taboo to cover the story a story of a country sending these jews who had suffered so much back to germany to the death land the irony is that the british plan backfired the plight and resistance of the exodus survivors swayed world opinion against the intransigent british and in favor of the jewish cause seemingly these refugees had come so far for so little however with only a glimpse of the promised land before being sent back to europe and armed only with their own will and determination these saved remnants were a pivotal force in the fight for the jewish homeland on another front in palestine the british had to face mounting pressure from the united resistance movement of the hagana the ergun and the lehi we blew up their trains police headquarters again and again shot british policemen many of us were killed many were wounded many were arrested my best friend alexander bovich was tortured to death by the british when he was 16 and a half years old they tried to get from him information about his friends about the organization where we hide arms where we meet and they didn't get from him one word i got wounded twice once badly in my head and blinded my right eye and i want to tell you it's nicer to see with two eyes but it's much much nicer to see our freedom with one eye than to see the british around ruling with two eyes the british realized that there was this united resistance how do you capture the leadership of both the hagan and the jewish agency and bring moderates into the picture put an end to more militant zionism so they came up with a plan called operation agatha which the jews called hashabata the black sabbath because it was on the sabbath the last one in june 1946 that the british raided not only the jewish agency building but rounding up the zionist leaderships and others and the hacking our leadership over 5000 people including almost all the leaders of the yeshua were arrested with the exception of david ben-gurion who was out of the country and moshe snare the head of the haganah who managed to escape the british then blockaded a large section of central jerusalem to prevent further attacks the ergun were quick to retaliate their target was the british military headquarters at the king david hotel in jerusalem the agun put some explosives in milk cans underneath in the basement of the king david hotel according to its version warning then the british as they always did and others around an explosion is going to occur vacate the hotel it didn't happen the british position was either their position we never got the warning at the top or b we're going to take orders from the good and as a result either way you see it it led to a terrible tragedy the hotel housed the british army headquarters and the palestine government offices the tragic scene is like a serious incident during the blitz and casualties were very heavy almost 100 people were killed this obviously soured the public and agana distanced itself immediately from the agon saying we never gave any support etc and from that time on the united resistance movement was over at this point in palestine with jewish unity in disarray increased british intransigence and no foreseeable solution for the survivors in europe things seem that they're blackest for the jews but as throughout our history as the talmud teaches us things may change at the blink of an eye yes the salvation of god comes to israel in the blink of an eye there is a growing wave of support humanitarian simple as that and with truman as well eleanor roosevelt the number one international woman in the world i mean it's clear it's sent by truman later to travel around the world as a goodwill ambassador she comes to one of these decrepit mud-filled cold dp camps in germany and she doesn't speak the language of these people she knows english they're speaking all yiddish this is mama lotion this is their mother's tongue and an elder woman she seems elderly she could have been 40 years younger given the horror she went through she wants to get to eleanor roosevelt and eleanor roosevelt writes that this woman cannot communicate with me in english sinks to her knees in the mud grasps me around my legs looks at me imploringly and says palestina palestine says el nor roosevelt that's the first time i understood that jewish need and aspiration to come home because there are no homes elsewhere with world opinion swinging in favor of the refugees in europe and the establishment of a jewish state the zionists in palestine and the dp camps still needed the help and influence of world jewry to support their cause especially in america in america although not everyone is caught up equally in the excitement of the move towards establishment the state of israel the membership figures in the zionist organization of america double triple in the period from let's say 1945-1948 people are very involved in supporting the state of israel there's a lot of excitement and they get involved by contributing money by going to rallies at places like madison square garden going to street demonstrations or petitioning their elected officials doing what can be done within the confines of the american democracy [Music] in palestine bombings ambushes killings and retaliatory murders were daily events the british faced increasing pressure from both jewish and arab insurgents as well as the growing problem of the jewish refugees and president truman openly seeking a humanitarian solution in frustration and with the inability to solve the problems foreign minister ernest bevin decided to extricate britain from palestine and refer its fate to the united nations though david ben-gurion and the leaders of the jewish agency had condemned and disassociated themselves from the violent methodology of the irghun and the lehi the military blow struck against the british forces in palestine undoubtedly contributed to the british decision they could not cope with the question of illegal immigration and the struggle in the country became worse from day to day and the british appeared more and more like oppressors now public opinion in the world would not accept it at a certain point the british felt they don't know what to do and they decided to quit they felt that they were the punching bag of both the jews and the arabs because both sides would not agree to anything that was acceptable to the other the british government had won a pyrrhic victory in world war ii it emerged as a nominal victor but its empire had been severely weakened among other places in the middle east the british were beginning to draw down their empire in the middle and late 1940s they were going to withdraw from india from palestine from other parts of the middle east the soviet union welcomed this and regarded palestine as perhaps one of the first big cracks in the british wall of imperialism britain having exhausted its resources and energy fighting the war now stepped back and america stepped forward to lead the western allies having learnt the lessons of world war one the allies now began to focus their efforts on rebuilding europe especially germany there's a recognition that the mistakes of world war one of abandonment of the international scene uh is something that america cannot afford to do and we as an american people as an american government as american nation emerge from world war ii as one of the two great world powers along with our antagonist soviet union so abandonment of the battlefield this is the political battlefield is something that cannot take place and one of the ingenious uh plans that is promulgated by american government is the marshall plan to get western europe and central europe germany and austria and the countries they decimated back on their feet so that they will not become victims of the incursions of the soviet union which had desires to move even further westward as the soviets reassert the communist idea of being an international movement the end of the war saw the soviet union as the great victor on the continent because the dividing line between american and british and french forces on the one hand and the soviets on the other hand left actually in the soviet uh military control all of eastern europe and the result was that now the british felt threatened the british needed american support against the russians all over europe because otherwise the russians would have proven an enemy that britain cannot face it was not by chance the churchill declared at that time that an iron curtain descended all over europe the iron curtain was the symbol of what was to become the cold war between the soviet union and the free world soviet expansionism was becoming a dominating threat not only in europe britain and america but also in the middle east [Music] stalin begins to revert in 1945 certainly when the war is over to the traditional soviet posture of anti-western policies he understands the victory of the war as the defeat of fascism and what is fascism fascism is the last stage of capitalism it means now that the rest of the capitalist world is doomed and the proof is that hungary romania czech slovakia poland bulgaria and the eastern part of germany have all become socialist the wave of the future is socialism to consolidate his power in eastern europe stalin closed the doors on soviet immigration the effect of this was that now several million jews were trapped behind the soviet iron curtain with no hope of escape ironically the soviet union would play a very different role in deciding the issue of a jewish homeland in palestine in the united nations in april 1947 having been given the palestine problem to solve the united nations formed unscope the 11-member united nations special committee on palestine to investigate the situation it was now up to this committee to determine the possibility of a jewish state in palestine i traveled everywhere they went and and found the members of that committee so wise and so wide-eyed and so open to everywhere we went that i felt this committee is going to do something real it was remarkable because its members consisted of small states not of america not of russia certainly not the british etc unscope did exactly what the anglo-american commission did it sent its delegates first to the dp camps it heard testimony in washington and in london then went australia to israel they were boycotted by the arabs as they were earlier and so they basically got to see the zionist side but they also saw the viability of the jewish enterprise in erit israel not only agriculture industry culture that they could defend themselves so unscop on the first of september 1947 announced its recommendation majority and minority majority would clearly be a separate jewish and a separate arab state in palestine the minority to favor clearly the arab side that day to me is again the hand of god in history i don't want to be over dramatic but let's remember that herzl where the whole story politically began for zionism writes in his diaries after the first world zionist congress on the first of september 1897 if i say that in two three five years a jewish day will be created everybody would laugh at me this is secret in his diaries but in 50 years it will happen exactly 50 years to that date unscope's majority report came out for a jewish state with another dramatic swing of history's pendulum for the first time in almost 2 000 years the reality of a jewish homeland seemed possible but with 56 members of the united nations yet having to vote on the partition plan the outcome was far from certain to add to this uncertainty even with a desperate need to solve the refugee problem there were issues regarding the establishment of a jewish state that divided the jewish world there are significant pockets of non-zionist and anti-zionist feeling within the united states some of them were involved in the reform movement which in the 19th and early 20th century was doctrinally anti-zionist anti-nationalist also part of the story is that the orthodox theological problem with the state of israel is based upon two fundamental principles one the idea that jews were exiled by god and they are to remain in diaspora in gola until in a messianic context god will redeem the jewish people and anyone who attempts to hasten that return is running counter to the thrust of jewish tradition and if you say that what's going on now namely the zionist movement is the beginning of the foretold redemption the people who are running this redemption aren't exactly the most appropriate jewish role models so there's a basic theological problem and it's a question with the secular nature of zionism by time we get to 1948 zionism has swept the field in terms of american jury from reform to orthodox there's a general positive sense that this is a very important moment for the jewish people and for jewish history sparta jews are often accused of not having been zionists political zionism as a european socialist movement was not part of their world but closeness to the land of israel was the return of the jews from the muslim world to israel had begun a hundred years before jews of bukhara of central asia were among the first to come and settle outside the walls of the old city of jerusalem the jews of bukhara did not have to have a zionist emissary tell them come become a new jew they were already coming to its israel the jews of yemen had come a hundred years before the excitement of return the sense of redemption that's filled the hearts of the spartak jews throughout the mediterranean world occurred it wasn't a political solution of rational problems it was a fulfillment of a jewish dream the race for palestine was on and the diplomatic maneuvering by both the arabs and the jews to lobby the member nations of the un for their vote became a country by country struggle by the zionists to ensure support for their dream of creating a jewish state and returning to the homeland of the jewish people so there are various factors involved a lot of it is luck some of it is humanitarian support but every string was pulled by the jews it was a nip and tuck thing there was no certainty of a two-thirds majority the un's partition plan for palestine gave the jews a disjointed sometimes disconnected gerrymandered country it also separated jerusalem from the rest of the jewish state and placed it under u.n international supervision the response by both jews and arabs that his united nations plan would eerily foreshadow all future arab israeli peace negotiations held much later in the century when the arabs again would fail to agree to peace treaties that clearly favored them although the un's proposition was far from ideal for the jews the zionists quickly agreed to the u.n plan of two states one jewish one arab however the arabs not only rejected the plan in its entirety they warned that they would push the jews into the sea on november 29 1947 the resolution to partition palestine and establish a jewish state was put to the vote afghanistan argentina argentina abstention saudi arabia no soviet union yes united kingdom [Music] 10 abstentions [Applause] [Music] amazingly the world powers have finally declared a jewish state in palestine to be legitimate a dramatic result given that it came so closely on the heels of one of the most anti-semitic periods in jewish history and the arabs stood up and said over our dead bodies and walked out i was at the u.n when they did that the arab states of course voted against the establishment of these two states with the philosophy that either we get all or nothing at all this maximalist stance proved to be their undoing for the next 50 or more years one of the great surprises in the un vote for partition was the soviet union's decision to support the founding of the jewish state it's miraculous to a jewish believer it's perfectly understandable someone higher up is pulling the strings but to the historian it's the only time when the soviets and the americans are agreeing at the u.n at the height of the cold war on a major issue why did the soviet union support the creation of a jewish state in palestine andrei grommika the ussr representative to the u.n depicted it in humanitarian terms and he said the jewish people had suffered tremendously in the last war millions of jews are displaced they have no place to go he was not of course referring to soviet jews but to the refugees from poland and czech slovakia and hungary and romania and so on they need a homeland a jewish state in palestine would provide that that was the official reason the unofficial reason for supporting the jewish state was that it would get the british out and begin a process whereby the british would be forced to withdraw from jordan from egypt from the sudan from iraq and so on moreover of all these countries the jewish yeshua what was to become the state of israel had the greatest potential for becoming a socialist state what the soviets seem to have neglected was that the dominant socialist party in palestine in the jewish issue was not a marxist party and when the soviets began the anti-semitic internal domestic campaign in 1948 most of the issues not all of it but most of the issues turned anti-soviet the repercussions of the un vote for partition would have a direct effect on the nearly one million sephardic jews living in arab countries the jews of muslim lands were sitting on a volcano the events of palestine that is the riots the attacks on the jews the discussions within the united nations of what would be the fate of palestine all of these incidents begin to have local reverberations in muslim lands almost a million jews were caught in various stages of destruction jewish bank accounts had been frozen in syria in lebanon the setting on fire of synagogue in libya pogroms and cairo all of these have been part of the upheaval of the arab nationalist spark that were going on in the near eastern countries if the state of israel would succeed in emerging they would be endangered if the state of israel did not succeed in emerging they would also be danger so that they were waiting with baited breath with much trepidation with a sense that their fate hung in the balance once again looking back at the partition plan there was one vital thing left out that may have changed the course of history in the middle east no provision was ever made for a u.n mediating force to implement the plan the world and the british turned their backs and left the jews and the arabs to sort out the problem by war even while defending themselves from increasingly violent arab attacks the jews continually attempted to offer the arabs their hand in peace unfortunately for everyone jew and arab alike the arabs would have none of it after the u.n vote arab anti-jewish aggression escalated within the first week 62 jews were murdered by the arabs over the next several months throughout palestine in cities and settlements jews were attacked and killed during february of 1948 arab militants exploded two major bombs in jerusalem the first destroyed the palestine post building and two weeks later a bomb was detonated on benuhuda jerusalem's main street killing 44 people a hadassah medical convoy with markings of the hadassah hospital killing 77 jewish doctors nurses medical students on their way to mount scopus the british were nearby and lifted an area finger until it was too late by may of 1948 1256 jews mostly civilians had been killed by the arabs the british not only continued to prevent jewish immigration but increasingly clamped down on the jews in palestine from importing desperately needed arms and ammunition to defend themselves one of their major aims was to find the caches of jewish arms and to confiscate them and they did indeed locate the main cache of arms in kibbutziagu and it was a great disaster to compound the problem while jews were restricted from entering palestine arab infiltrators from jordan syria egypt and lebanon entered the country unhindered jerusalem was cut off by an arab blockade and the jewish quarter of the old city was besieged and bombarded the arabs attacked the jews in their most vulnerable positions namely the roads almost all the roads were under arab control because the roads were dispersed with arab villages and they would attack jewish convoys going from point to point especially vulnerable was the road from tel aviv to jerusalem it was one road going through a very narrow strip of land between arab villages and the mountains and the result was casualties and also jerusalem could not be supplied with food with fuel and it became a very crucial situation with the arab control of the roads and jerusalem under siege many outlying jewish settlements were isolated and vulnerable to attack miraculously only two of them fell to the arabs after a fierce battle and tragic loss of life the ezion block of settlements in the hebron hills and the kibbutz mishmar hayaden on the syrian border succumbed to the attackers disunity among the arab forces in 1947-48 tremendously weakened their position whereas the jews had this very impressive experience tagana with etzel and lefki contributing their own parts to the struggle of the jews the palestinian arabs had no real cohesive force had no united leadership and no infrastructure to fight the jews and ultimately this led to their downfall the leadership and the educated classes in the arab cities prefer to leave the country and not to stay in the war zone with the departure of the leadership the simple people felt that they had no guidance anarchy became the the rule of the day in the arab areas so much of the arab struggles were not so much against the jews at first but different arab chieftains and people come from the outside who could not get along one with another a power struggle erupted amongst the arab leadership the grand mufti of jerusalem al-husseini who had spent a major part of the war in nazi germany allied with hitler organizing the nazi muslim legion wanted to secure his domination of arab palestine [Music] in syria the arab league formed the arab liberation army in the fall of 1947 to counter the mufti's ambitions on another front king abdullah of trans jordan had his own ambitions to merge palestine with his kingdom fawzi al-kauji who had previously led the writing against the jews in 1936 and had also returned from living in exile in nazi germany with the force of seven thousand men and the aid of the lebanese and syrian armies sought to drive the jews out of the galilee and all of northern palestine hundreds of volunteer syrians iraqis and fascist bosnians who had served in the nazi muslim legion and exiled palestinians infiltrated palestine and formed the nucleus of jihad al-mukarras holy fighters several thousand local palestinians joined them also the muslim brotherhood mostly fanatic islamic fighters from egypt fought in the hills of hebron and the negev however in reality despite isolated victories the arabs were beginning to lose their war over the control of palestine the arab armies could not unite themselves and therefore when they instructed some arabs to leave jaffa was controlled by seventy thousand arabs overnight when the haganah for example forces got major key posts almost all of these arabs fled they didn't have to flee the jews in haifa begged and the others the mayor stay they fled and many assumed as in past wars or struggles that they would return home that was not to be the case the mass of palestinian arabs did not understand that this war against the jews was fundamentally different from previous colonial wars in the area in past wars the local arabs fled their villages knowing they would return after the conflict ended but this time it was different because of arab aggression this war had become a nationalistic conflict over territory where the jews were fighting for their survival people forget that this was war and we have no choice our backs are to the wall the arabs thought they'd retreat they'd come back it was a different story the jews were fighting for their lives the arabs believed that the arab countries would come to their assistance with their victorious arab armies or they believed that eventually some sort of reputation of them would happen but this is not what happened in early may 48 before the state was created hagana radio repeatedly begged the arabs to stay in khaifa the appeal fell on deaf ears in direct response to the zionist's appeal the arab league and the grand mufti forbade arabs to remain in territories where they would have to submit to jewish rule the flight of arabs from palestine has been a deeply contentious issue for more than 60 years after the fact we are talking about a period when the idea of repatriation was not accepted neither by european states nor by india there was the experience of the partition of india with great movements of people on both sides in europe at the end of the second world war germans were expelled from eastern prussia where they were settled for hundreds of years they were expelled from poland they were expelled from czechoslovakia about 12 million germans had to be on the move now the jews believed that the arabs are the attackers because they did not accept any compromise and they did not accept the partition proposal accepted by the un so there was a feeling that here we have a partition along the lines of ethnic division between the groups so in the same way the germans were not allowed back to the countries where they were expelled from or the pakistanis back to india the jews believed that this is a similar case and that the palestinian refugees would settle in the arab countries bordering on israel this is not what happened for the ordinary local arab living in palestine the situation was personally tragic but let us not be naive here the palestinian arab leadership and the leadership in the surrounding arab countries knew exactly what was happening this was an escalating war for the complete control of palestine [Music] abdullah farook of egypt and ibn saud of arabia unite the arab world against the jewish state abdullah alone commands an efficient fighting force the arab legion trained and equipped by britain under the terms of her treaty with transgender [Music] on one hand after the most terrible persecution in their history where nearly 40 percent of the world's jewish population had been murdered in europe the jews were fighting for their right to return to their legally apportioned part of palestine as decided and approved by the united nations on the other hand the arab leadership having rejected the united nations partition plan made their position quite clear they were fighting for total control of palestine and they were determined to drive the jews into the sea the borders of the new jew estate were now emerging not from u.n resolutions but from the bloody battles between arabs and jews on april the 18th 1948 the british evacuated swat and tiberius in northern palestine immediately the jews and the arabs rushed to take possession of the former british strongholds in a battle reminiscent of the maccabee victory over the greeks the palmach the strike force of the haganah with only 1400 soldiers under the command of yigal alone defeated 10 000 arab fighters to take control of svat in the galilee here too many thousands of arab residents fled to surrounding arab countries [Music] britain indicated it would leave the country by august 1948 but as the fighting began to turn against the local palestinian arab forces it moved the departure to may the 15 convinced that neighboring arab armies would invade and overwhelm the jews in the united states all tensions emerged anew president truman began to support the creation of a jewish state but was bitterly opposed by secretary of state george marshall and secretary of defense james forrestal initially president truman refused the entreaties of an aged and ailing crime weizmann to meet with him but at this point in time divine providence revealed itself years earlier president truman had been in partnership in a haberdashery store in kansas city missouri with a man named eddie jacobson who had remained his lifelong friend [Music] zionist leaders approached jacobson to prevail upon truman to talk with weitzman the zionists contact jacobson and basically persuade him you're the only man who can get the truman now this is the 12th hour you've got to persuade him to receive weitzman the weizmann will do the rest jacobson goes to truman and he gets nowhere the minute he walks in truman says eddie before we go further i don't want to hear a word about zionism he's tongue-tied what can you say that was the whole mission goes around screwed scooter skating rap gets nowhere he's about to go when this very simple man eddie jacobson looking outside the white house window lafayette square park there's a statue of andrew jackson there says harry i know that andy jackson has always been your hero well invites me has always been my hero you've got to see him truman's splunk says you son of a [ __ ] i'll see him but don't tell anyone just straight out expletives and all and jacobson goes out reports to his people the word gets the weitzman and he goes to see truman that meeting has never been written down but truman basically says to weitzman if you declare a jewish state i will back you declaring a jewish state was one thing defining the nature of that jewish state was something entirely different as usual throughout our history we jews have always argued especially over the issue of jewish identity how we define ourselves the declaration of independence itself is a reflection of the tensions between the secular and religious camp and that's always plagued zionism for example does one mention god's name in the declaration of independence secularists and extreme ones such as groin bound of the jewish agency wanted to have no mention whatsoever the religious insisted how can you have a jewish state in a declaration without the name of god mentioned the compromise was israel the rock of israel for religious jews that clearly meant god we say it in our prayers so israel before the amidah of the tree love every day on the other hand for secularists that could mean anything and that was purposely done if you will to paper up the differences between the religious and the secularists on the afternoon of may 14th the british finally left palestine after 30 years of mandatory rule amidst the increasing violence and chaos of the collapsing palestinian society around them and in the face of the threat of arab invasion from other countries the executive committee of the jewish agency voted in favor of the establishment of a jewish state david ben-gurion declared independence immediately naming the new state israel [Music] [Music] the date of friday may 14th 1948 on the eve of the sabbath was a turning point in jewish history for the first time in 2000 years the jews regained sovereignty over their ancient homeland eleven minutes after ben gurion's declaration president truman was the first world leader on behalf of the united states of america to officially recognize the new state of israel the united states recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new state of israel it was announced by loudspeaker in the streets you know and everybody who could move who could walk went and together we were dancing in the streets and and thanking hashem that he helped the people of israel to become again a nation and for us survivors for sure it meant a lot that we can be in our country and we won't be called again the jew for the survivors of the holocaust waiting in the dp camps in europe and the internment camps in cyprus this moment which they had prayed and suffered for for so long was finally a reality they together with jews world over celebrated this historic moment but their celebration soon turn to concern on the one hand the declaration of israel's independence could be viewed as an act of possible national suicide the whole arab world against israel and with borders that according to military experts could not easily be defended especially at that time the odds according to logic were therefore against israel's survival was no other country in the world willing to fight for us or even with us and after all how many were there of us with only a few fighter planes and a handful of armaments the state looked like sheer insanity on the other hand it was an act of faith ain't breyra we really had no choice there was nowhere else to go so despite all the disagreements once the state was established world jewry held its breath and prayed for israel's success and survival within hours of israel's declaration of independence syria attacked the infant state followed the next day by four other arab states in an official cablegram from the secretary general of the league of arab states to the u.n secretary general on may the 15th 1948 the arab states publicly proclaimed their aim of creating a united state of palestine in place of the jewish and arab two-state u.n plan egyptian bombers attacked tel aviv and army units from iraq syria trance jordan and lebanon crossed the borders into israel the whole world played the numbers game how can six hundred thousand jews defeat thirty million arabs our state department played that games that those jews are going to be driven into the sea and the whole world believed that except those of us who had been there and had seen these new jews they would fight to the end for the survival of the state of israel the outcome of the war in the coming weeks and months was far from certain for the believing jew the remarkable resurgence of jewish life after the holocaust and having the land of israel back in our hands after 2 000 years of exile were miracles direct signs of the divine hand in jewish history the lord had promised to return us to our homeland but then the war for israel's survival was only just beginning and unfortunately it's a war that continues to this day it's really a tragedy that the arab leaders in 1948 found no place in their hearts to live and let live and accept the united nations partition plan which was so favorable to them had they done so at that time how different the story of the middle east and the world might have been today perhaps during no other decade in the 20th century had the pendulum swung as widely for the jewish people as it did from 1945 to 1948 for every jew in the world especially each and every survivor who lived through the holocaust and saw the jewish state miraculously emerge just three years later with the war of independence still raging the story was far from over [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: JewishHistoryDotOrg

Views: 48,444

Keywords: Jewish history documentary, jewish history, israel, the state of israel, the founding of israel

Id: 1cBJiFA6FX4

Length: 110min 46sec (6646 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 08 2020