The reality of wartime

As it turned out, the first shots fired by British units at the moment the Second World War began were directed against Jewish refugees, passengers of the freighter Tiger Hill. This incident opened up a bitter chapter in the British-Jewish struggle for the right to free immigration to Palestine. This was brought about not by anti-Semitism but the circumstances resulting from Great Britain's strategy in the Middle East. This strategy stipulated that MacDonald's “White Paper” was imperative if Great Britain intended to maintain its position in this dangerous region.

The outbreak of the Second World War appeared to bring with it new political conditions. Many Jews were familiar with the dilemma of reconciling the resolutions of the “White Paper” with the figure of Great Britain as an ally in the battle against Hitler. Fight the war as if there were no White Paper – answered David Ben-Gurion – and fight the White Paper as if there were no war. The chance for dialogue appeared not to be accepted. Great Britain opposed, among other things, the drafting of Jewish volunteers from Palestine into its army (in total 136,000 Jews expressed a willingness to fight) and only at the very end of the war in 1944 did it agree to the creation of aseparate military unit under the name of the Jewish Brigade (within the framework of the British armed forces), which was then to fight in Italy.