Segev - The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust

THE

SEVENTH

MILLION

THE ISRAELIS

AND

THE HOLOCAUST

TOM SEGEV

A controversial and powerful work, this monumental history is the first to show the decisive impact of the Holocaust on the identity, ideology, and politics of Israel. Drawing on thousands of pages of newly declassified documents, as well as on diaries and interviews, journalist-historian Tom Segev tells the dramatic story of how the yishuvthe Jewish community of pre-Israel Palestineconfronted the rise of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, and how Israeli society has dealt with the consequences since.

With unflinching honesty, Segev examines the most sensitive and heretofore closed chapters of his countrys history: the Zionists problematic response to the Holocaust while it was happening; the new Jewish states disturbing reception of Holocaust refugees, who found themselves despised by a society devoted to heroism and the new man; the revenge schemes against former Nazis, including a plot to poison the water systems of major German cities; the secret negotiations between Germany and Israel over reparations payments; and much more. As Segev masterfully traces the nations struggles with this paststruggles fraught with emotion and saturated with politics he also reveals how this charged legacy has at critical moments (the Exodus affair, the Eichmann trial, the Six-Day War, the case of John Demjanjuk) been molded and manipulated in accordance with the ideological requirements of the state.

A vast hidden history, full of engrossing portraits of the major personalitiesBen-Gurion, Begin, Nahum Goldmannand rich with the details of everyday life, The Seventh Million shows the common goals and conflicting needs of which history is made, and how the bitter events of decades past continue to shape the experience not just of individuals but of a nation.

ALSO BY TOM SEGEV

IQ49: The First Israelis

Soldiers of Evil: The Commandants of the Nazi Concentration Camps

The Seventh Million

Tom Segev

Translated by Haim JTatzman

The Israelis and the Holocaust

Hill and Wang

A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux / New York

BRIGHTON

Translation copyright 1993 by Haim Watzman Originally published in Hebrew Copyright 1991 by Domino Press Ltd.

All rights reserved

Published simultaneously in Canada by HarperCollinsCanadaLtd

Printed in the United States of America

Designed by Fritz Metsch First edition, 1993

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Segev, Tom. [Ha-milyon ha-shevii. English] The seventh million : the Israelis and the Holocaust I Tom Segev ; translated by Haim Watzman. p. cm.

Translation of: Ha-milyon ha-shevii. Includes index.

1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)Influence. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)Public opinion. 3. JewsIsraelAttitudes. 4. Public

• opinionIsrael. 5. Holocaust survivorsIsrael. 6. Israel Politics and government. I. Title.

D804.3.S44513 1993 940.53'18dczo 92-7372 CIP

Contents

Acknowledgmentsvii

PROLOGUE: Ka-Tzetniks Trip3

part I HITLER: The Yekkes Are Coming

• i. The Streets Are Paved with Money15

• 2. A Son of Europe55

part II HOLOCAUST: It Was in the Papers

• 3. Rommel, Rommel, How Are You?67

• 4. Happy Is the Match82

• 5. A Warm Jewish Heart97

part III ISRAEL: The Last Jews

• 6. At First I Thought They Were Animals113

• 7. A Certain Distance123

• 8. Six Million Germans140

• 9. A Barrier of Blood and Silence153

part IV RESTITUTION: How Much Will We Get for Grandma and Grandpa?

• 10. Add a Few Moral Arguments189

• 11. Gas against Jews211

• 12. The Baby Went for Free227

part V POLITICS: The Kastner Affair

• 13. It Is Hard for Us, the Judges of Israel255

• 14. His Soul to the Devil276

• 15. The Walls Are Beginning to Crack285

• 16. Jeremiah the Prophet, for Example296

• 17. There Is No Certainty That Our Children

Will Remain Alive3

( v

vi ) Contents

part VI TRIAL: Eichmann in Jerusalem

• 18. Let Them Hate, and Let Them Go to Hell323

• 19. Six Million Times No!345

• 20. Gloom Shall Not Prevail367

part VII GROWING UP: From War to War

• 21. Everyone Thought about It387

• 22. Hitler Is Already Dead, Mr. Prime Minister396

• 23. Deep in Our Souls405

part VIII MEMORY: The Struggle to Shape the Past

• 24. Holocaust and Heroism421

• 25. The Rest of Your Life with Monik and Frieda446

• 26. What Is There to Understand? They Died and Thats It458

• 27. When You See a Graveyard477

• 28. What Does It Do to Me?487

epilogue509

Notes519

Index581

This book, like my two earlier ones, has been written at the invitation of Domino Books of Jerusalem. It took much longer to write than planned. My first thanks go, then, to Deborah Harris, publisher, agent, and friend, for her patience and encouragement.

The book is based mainly on thousands of documents, many of which have not yet been published. This is the opportunity to say a kind word about Israels historical archives. Wherever I turned, I received generous help and good advice. My thanks to the staffs of these archives: the Central Zionist Archives, the National Archives, the Haganah Archives, the Labor Party Archives, the Ben-Gurion Archives, the Lavon Institute Archives, the Moreshet Archives, the Hashomer Hatsair Archives, the Jabotinsky Archives, the Weizmann Archives, the Institute for Oral Documentation of the Hebrew University, the Yad Vashem Archives, the Tel Aviv Municipal Archives, the Aviezer Yellin Archives of Jewish Education in Israel and the Diaspora, the Beth Hatefutsoth and the Kibbutz Hameuhad Archives. I also wish to express my thanks to the Israeli photographic department of the Government Press Office, and the National Archives in Washington.

Two of the books chapters are based in part on fascinating and extremely important material not made available to all researchers. Reuven Feurstein, Yaakov Rand, and Ada Oz of the Hadassah-WIZO Canada Research Institute, founded by Aliyat Hanoar, allowed me to inspect the personal files of Youth Aliya students, as well as the findings of their

( vii

viii ) Acknowledgments

research. I am grateful to the late Avner Rom of the United Restitution Organization Ltd. (URO), who generously allowed me to examine the personal files of people who demanded compensation from Germany. Permission to examine the Aliyat Hanoar and URO files was conditioned on anonymity, to prevent invasion of privacy, which is why the files have been quoted without mentioning names.

Naturally, I owe thanks to many researchers and writers. Their names appear in the notes, and some in the body of the text. Some were kind enough to allow me to use their material before it was published, which I appreciate especially. I benefited from the invigorating atmosphere in the reading rooms of the National and University Library in Jerusalem. My thanks also to the staff of the excellent library at Yad Vashem.

During the research for this book I spoke with people involved in a number of the events described here. I also made use of interviews I had conducted earlier, in my journalistic work. I am grateful, therefore, to Uri Avneri, Yitzhak Arad, Hannah Arendt, Gabriel Bach, David Ben-Gurion, Hanzi Brand, Haim Guri, Yehiel De-Nur (Ka-Tzetnik), William Hall, Isser Harel, Haim Cohen, Eliezer Lidovsky, Rolf Pauls, Yossi Peled, Ehud Praver, Victor Frankl, Shimon Peres, Gerhard Riegner, Dov Shilansky, and Eli Tabin.