Nazi Party of Palestine and the Levant | |
---|---|
Founded | 1933 |
Dissolved | 1939 |
Ideology | Nazism |
The Nazi Party in Mandatory Palestine, also referred as the Nazi Party of Palestine and the Levant was a local branch of the Nazi Party in British-ruled Mandatory Palestine, established by members of the German Templer colonies in Palestine. The branch was established in March 1933 [1] and gradually eradicated during the World War II by the British authorities via deportation of its members and their families. Some of the party members enlisted into the Nazi German military and participated in operations on behalf of the axis powers, notoriously including Operation Atlas targeting Mandatory Palestine.
After the Nazi takeover in Germany the new Reich's government streamlined foreign policy according to Nazi ideals, imposed and regulated financially. The Nazi emphasis was on creating the image that Germany and Germanness were equal to Nazism. Thus, all non-Nazi aspects of German culture and identity were discriminated against as un-German. All international schools of German language subsidised or fully financed by government funds were obliged to redraw their educational programs and to solely employ teachers aligned to the Nazi Party. The teachers in Bethlehem were financed by the Reich government, so Nazi teachers also took over there.
Karl Ruf from Haifa set the two chapters of the Nazi Party Palestine branch in Sarona and Jaffa in March 1933, but during most of the time it was Cornelius Schwarz who served as head of the party. [1] In 1933, Templer functionaries and other Gentile Germans living in Palestine appealed to Paul von Hindenburg and the Foreign Office not to use swastika symbols for German institutions, though without success. Some German Gentiles from Palestine pleaded with the Reich government to drop its plan to boycott Jewish owned shops, in April 1933. [2] Some Templers enlisted in the German Army. In the summer of 1933 the party numbered 42 members. [1]
In 1934, the Nazi Party numbers reached 239, with the largest chapter in Jerusalem counting some 67 members. [1]
By 1938, 17% of the Templers in Mandatory Palestine were members of the Nazi Party. According to historian Yossi Ben-Artzi, "The members of the younger generation to some extent broke away from naive religious belief, and were more receptive to the Nazi German nationalism. The older ones tried to fight it." [3]
After the outbreak of World War II, the British disbanded the Nazi Party in Mandatory Palestine. [1] Templar colonists with German citizenship were rounded up by the British authorities and sent, together with Italian and Hungarian enemy aliens, to internment camps in Waldheim and Bethlehem of Galilee. [4] On July 31, 1941, 661 Templers and other Germans in Palestine were deported to Australia via Egypt, leaving behind 345 in Palestine. [5] Likewise the British authorities declared the Templers enemy nationals, arresting and deporting many them to Australia. [4] During the war the British government brokered the exchange of about 1,000 Templers for 550 Jews under German control. These Jews were mostly Palestinian or residents with relatives in British Palestine. [6] As a result, the Nazi Party branch remained with very few members.
Operation Atlas was the code name for an operation carried out by a special commando unit of the Waffen SS which took place in October 1944. It involved five soldiers: three who were previously members of the Templer religious sect in Mandatory Palestine, and two Palestinian Arabs who were close collaborators of the mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini. [7]
Atlas aimed at establishing an intelligence-gathering base in Mandatory Palestine, radioing information back to Germany, and recruiting and arming anti-British Palestinians by buying their support with gold. [8]
The plan failed utterly, and no meaningful action could be undertaken by the commandos. Three of the participants were arrested by the Transjordan Frontier Force a few days after their landing. The German commander was captured in 1946 and the fifth, Hasan Salama, succeeded in escaping.
On 12 March 1946 a team from the Zionist Haganah assassinated the leader of the Templer community, Gotthilf Wagner, considered by Palestinian Jews to be an ardent member of the Nazi Party, although his family and the wider Templer community argued otherwise. [9] [10] [11]
The Irgun, or Etzel, was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts.
Zionist political violence refers to acts of violence or terrorism committed by Zionists in support of establishing and maintaining a Jewish state in Palestine. These actions have been carried out by individuals, paramilitary groups, and the Israeli government, from the early 20th century to the present day, as part of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Lehi, often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang, was a Zionist paramilitary militant organization founded by Avraham ("Yair") Stern in Mandatory Palestine. Its avowed aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by use of violence, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state. It was initially called the National Military Organization in Israel, upon being founded in August 1940, but was renamed Lehi one month later. The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out acts of terrorism.
Mohammed Amin al-Husseini was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine. Al-Husseini was the scion of the al-Husayni family of Jerusalemite Arab nobles, who trace their origins to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
Bethlehem of Galilee or Bethlehem-in-the-Galilee is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Galilee near Kiryat Tivon, around 10 kilometres north-west of Nazareth and 30 kilometres east of Haifa, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council. As of 2022 it had a population of 824.
Yishuv, HaYishuv HaIvri, or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el denotes the body of Jewish residents in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 25,000 Jews living in that region, and continued to be used until 1948, by which time there were some 630,000 Jews there. The term is still in use to denote the pre-1948 Jewish residents in Palestine, corresponding to the southern part of Ottoman Syria until 1918, OETA South in 1917–1920, and Mandatory Palestine in 1920–1948.
Greater Israel is an expression with several different biblical and political meanings over time. It is often used, in an irredentist fashion, to refer to the historic or desired borders of Israel.
The German Templer Society, also known as Templers, is a Radical Pietist group that emerged in Germany during the mid-nineteenth century, the two founders, Christoph Hoffmann and Georg David Hardegg, arriving in Haifa, Palestine, in October 1868 with their families and a few fellow Templers in order to establish a colony. Templer theology is rooted in the legacy of preceding centuries during which various Christian groups undertook to establish the perfect Christian religion in preparation for Christ's promised return. The movement was founded by Christoph Hoffmann, [1815-1885] who believed that humanity's salvation lay in the gathering of God's people in a Christian community. He also believed that the second coming of Christ was imminent, and that according to Biblical prophecy it would take place in Jerusalem, where God's people were to gather as a symbol of the rebuilding of the temple.
Haim Arlosoroff was a Socialist Zionist leader of the Yishuv during the British Mandate for Palestine, prior to the establishment of Israel, and head of the political department of the Jewish Agency. In 1933, Arlosoroff was assassinated while jogging on the beach in Tel Aviv.
Sarona is a neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel which started as a German Templer colony in Palestine in 1871. It was one of the earliest modern villages established by Europeans in Ottoman Palestine. In July 1941, the British Mandate authorities deported 188 residents of Sarona, who were considered ardent Nazi sympathizers. By the 2000s, the area had fallen into disrepair and was a haven for drug users. However, since 2003, the area has undergone massive renovation, which involved moving and relocating historical buildings before their restoration. The area is now a popular shopping district, as well as home to museums, cultural artifacts centering on its history, and IDF complexes.
The Haavara Agreement was an agreement between Nazi Germany and Zionist German Jews signed on 25 August 1933. The agreement was finalized after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank and the economic authorities of Nazi Germany. It was a major factor in making possible the migration of approximately 60,000 German Jews to Palestine between 1933 and 1939.
As an organized nationalist movement, Zionism is generally considered to have been founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897. However, the history of Zionism began earlier and is intertwined with Jewish history and Judaism. The organizations of Hovevei Zion, held as the forerunners of modern Zionist ideals, were responsible for the creation of 20 Jewish towns in Palestine between 1870 and 1897.
Wilhelma, originally Wilhelma-Hamîdije, was German Templer Colony in Palestine, located southwest of al-'Abbasiyyah near Jaffa.
Alonei Abba is a moshav shitufi in northern Israel. Located in the Lower Galilee near Bethlehem of Galilee and Alonim, in the hills east of Kiryat Tivon, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 990.
Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
The Mandatory Palestine national football team, also known as the Eretz Israel national football team, represented the British Mandate of Palestine in international football competitions, and was managed by the Palestine Football Association.
Wine in Palestine has been in production for several years. In the region of Palestine, the use of wine was not only an important factor in Jewish religious ritual, but also a necessity for social interaction, general dietary consumption and medicinal purposes. During the Byzantine period, large-scale production led to international commerce in the commodity, and Palestinian wine was exported around the Mediterranean region. Production by Christians diminished with the Islamic conquest in the 7th century and was temporarily revived with the settlement of Frankish Christians under the Crusades in the 12th-13th centuries. Jews continued to cultivate vineyards in the late 15th century into the Ottoman period. The first modern wineries were established by German settlers at Sarona in 1874/5 and by Jews supported by Baron Edmond de Rothschild from France at Rishon LeZion in 1882.
The German Templer colonies in Palestine were the settlements established in Ottoman Palestine and Mandatory Palestine by the German Pietist Templer movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. During and shortly after World War II, these colonies were depopulated, and its German residents deported to Australia.
On 22 March 1946, Gotthilf Wagner, the leader of the German Templer colonies in Palestine, was assassinated by the Haganah as part of the Jewish Resistance Movement.
The Old German Consulatebuilding is a historic building, built as the Consulate of the German Empire in the Templar neighborhood of "Walhalla" in Jaffa, nowadays part of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Its construction began in 1913, next to Nablus Road.
Furthermore, from the Jewish point of view Wagner was seen as an ardent Nazi and the leader of the Germans in Palestine, whom they learned had been named to be Gauleiter for the region had the Germans occupied Palestine. The assassination was intended to make it unmistakably clear that Palestine-Germans could no longer remain in the country. "They will not last here," was the headline in Jewish newspapers. According to the C.I.D., Wagner's murder took place in the context of land politics, for he had consistently instructed members of his settlement not to sell land to Jews. The Templers, however, considered Gotthilf Wagner an anti-Nazi and victim of Jewish terror.