[A.
Destruction of the Jewish existence in Poland
1929-1939]
[5.6. Jewish voices say Palestine is no solution
- Zionists are blocked since 1935 by British block of
immigration into Palestine - unrealistic points of
view]
[Left Jewish Bundists
(anti-Zionists) say that emigration to Palestine is not
the solution - 30,703 Polish Jews officially emigrate in
1935, 24,300 to Palestine in 1935 - no counting of the
inofficial emigration]
Apart from the obvious difficulties in getting Jewish
emigrants accepted anywhere in the world, there was an
ideological tendency to see the Jews as loyal citizens,
and ultimately integrated members, of their various host
nationalities, paralleling what the leaders of JDC
considered to be their own experience in America. As a
result, those leaders rejected Palestine as even a partial
solution to the Polish Jewish problem, though 24,300 Jews
emigrated to Palestine in 1935 out of a total Polish
Jewish emigration of 30,703.
[That's the official figure for the emigration. The non
official emigration is not counted and can only be
estimated. Graml estimates in his study about emigration
that 100,000 Polish Jews have emigrated every year in the
1930s;
In: Herman Graml: Die Auswanderung der Juden aus
Deutschland zwischen 1933 und 1939; Gutachten des
Instituts für Zeitgeschichte; im Selbstverlag des
Instituts für Zeitgeschichte. München 1958, S.79-84;
Tel.: 0049-(0)89-12688-0].
[1936: George Backer also
says that emigration to Palestine is not the solution]
In the 1930s one of the central figures in JDC in New York
was George Backer, who was very active in anti-Nazi
politics in the United States and was also fairly friendly
toward Palestine causes. Even he declared in 1936 that
there was no use in glorifying Palestine "until the
structure of Jewish life in other countries has been
saved."
(End note 37: R15-Backer report, 4/27/36 [27 April 1936])
[1935: Zionists are
hampered by the British blockade of Jewish immigration
to Palestine]
The Zionists argued that Jewish life in Poland simply
could not be saved, but they were hampered by the fact
that the British increasingly barred the doors of
Palestine to Jewish entry after 1935, and thus removed
Palestine as an immediate solution. When Simon Marks of
England tried in 1937 to raise funds there for Polish
Jewry and intended that these monies reach "the Hechalutz
and Zionist groups", Kahn remarked that "these are just
the people who have not been very prominent in our work".
(End note 38: 44-3-Kahn to Baerwald, 1/17/37 [17 January
1937])
[1935: Harsher measures
of the anti-Semitic government in Poland]
After 1935 the attitude of JDC underwent a gradual change.
The main reasons for this were that
(1) Polish Jews (actually, the Zionist leader Yitzhak
Gruenbaum) themselves declared that one million Polish
Jews should emigrate; and
(2) the Polish government exercised ever-increasing
pressure both on Polish Jews and on international bodies
to help large numbers of Jews to emigrate.
JDC resisted these demands; Hyman complained especially of
the (p.191)
fact that the Jews themselves were expressing what
amounted to "demands for the expulsion of millions".
(End note 39: R13, Hyman to Budget and Scope [committee],
6/27/37 [27 June 1937])
[Unrealistic point of
view: Left Bundists state that Jews are foreigners]
Labor leaders close to the Bund were more explicit. In
Poland the Bund declared itself opposed to the notion that
Jews were an alien [foreign] people in their countries of
settlement;
(End note 40:
Jewish
Chronicle, 5/15/36 [15 May 1936], p.19)
[The unrealistic element of this statement: To be Jewish
is a religion and not a nation].
[Vladeck states that the
problem has to be solved in Poland]
in the U.S., Vladeck wrote in the Yiddish socialist paper
Forverts that "to
make the existence of the Polish Jews possible in Poland,
they must stop looking upon Palestine as the solution to
their problem. ...
They must dedicate their activities to a healthy, free,
and better Poland - and not Palestine."
[The unrealistic element of this statement: The
anti-Semitic Polish government will not give in].
[Asch states, 3 mio. Jews
cannot emigrate]
Sholem Asch was certain that once the Polish government
realized that 3 million Jews could not emigrate and that
economic betterment for all of Poland's citizens should be
their aim, the Jews would succeed in maintaining their
position as citizens of Poland.
(End note 41:
-- Executive Committee, 5/18/37 [18 May 1937].
-- Hyman to Oscar Janowsky, 11/24/37 [24 November 1937],
-- R13)
[The unrealistic element of this statement: Poland needs a
membership in an economic confederation for having a
better economy because the former Russian and Hungarian
Austrian sales markets are blocked since 1919].
[JDC Hyman states the
need of a liberal and tolerant system of society]
This was echoed by Hyman, who hoped that the situation in
Poland was "only a temporary setback to democracy and
liberal ideals." He still believed in finding a way "to
integrate the Jew with his environment under a liberal and
tolerant system of society."
[The unrealistic element of this statement: The
anti-Semitic Polish government will not give in and a
liberal and tolerant system of society is not to have when
economy is bad].
[Early 1936: Polish
government wants the emigration of all Jews]
When the British delegation of Lord Samuel, Lord Bearsted,
and Simon Marks came to the U.S. to discuss the emigration
of German Jewry in early 1936, Polish government circles
seized the opportunity to present their demand for the
mass emigration of Polish Jews. Prince Radziwill voiced
the demand in the Polish senate in early February [1936].
[Oct 1936: Polish
delegate at League of Nations appeals for opening of
other countries for Jews]
In October the Polish delegate at the sixth commission of
the League of Nations demanded that countries other than
Palestine be opened for the emigration of European Jews,
so as to allow for an emigration of Polish Jews as well.
(End note 42:
-- 46-reports 1936/7, October 1936 (the name of the
delegate was Tytus Komarinski);
-- and: ITA, 12/12/36 [12 December 1936])
[Kahn is against a
unilateral emigration]
A scheme for the yearly emigration of 18,000 was
discussed. Kahn reacted immediately and stated in a press
release that the scheme was "ill advised", that on
principle it was wrong to "single out Jews for such
emigration", and that this was a "discrimination against
the law-abiding Jewish citizens which (he) did not think
possible in Poland."
(End note 43: R14, press release, 2/1/36 [1 February
1936])
This indeed was slowly becoming the second line of defense
for JDC: objectively there might be a case for an ordered
emigration (p.192)
from Poland, but Jews should not be singled out. Within an
ordered program of emigration, the Jews would play their
part in proportion to their numbers.
