THE CRADLE
Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang, wanted to partner with Nazi Germany to expel Britain from Mandatory Palestine and establish a Jewish State
Newly declassified Israeli files reveal pre-state Zionist militias contacted Nazi Germany officials for help in establishing a Jewish state in Palestine as World War II raged.
The newly released files are from the Israeli army’s archive, and were declassified at the request of Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
One file from May 1941 includes statements from Eliyahu Golomb, founder and de facto commander of the Haganah, a pre-state Zionist militia in Mandatory Palestine, which was under British control.
Golomb indicates that a rival Zionist militia was seeking to establish contacts with officials in Nazi Germany for help in expelling the British.
“I have information … about suspicion regarding a group of Jews who have connections with the enemy,” Golomb said, referring to the Germans.
“According to the information, there is a man who contacted the Germans. This man is known; his name is S,” he added.
“S” was Avraham “Yair” Stern, leader of Lehi, the pre-state underground Zionist militia also known as the Stern Gang.
Golomb’s remarks were recorded in real time in a Haganah intelligence document filed under “Contacts with the Axis.”
The declassified file includes material collected by the Haganah, and later by the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service) and the Israeli army, regarding the Stern Gang’s attempts to establish ties with the Axis powers, Italy and Germany.
Stern wanted help from Nazi Germany to expel the British and capture Palestine from its indigenous Muslim and Christian Palestinian inhabitants for the Jews.
His position differed from that of most of the Jewish community in Palestine, which had suspended its struggle against Britain to fight Germany in the broader European war.
“With the outbreak of World War II … there is no better time for a war of independence than during wartime. Britain’s forces are tied down … and it would be possible to overcome them,” Stern argued.
“The Jews are a party in the war and therefore cannot be neutral. Britain betrayed the Jewish people and will never allow the establishment of a Jewish state. On the other hand, Germany has no special interest in Palestine, and since the Nazis want to cleanse Europe of Jews, nothing is simpler than transferring them to their own state,” he added.
The document further states that Stern believed “it is possible to reach a practical agreement with the Germans … negotiations should be opened, and Jews of Europe should be recruited into a special army that would fight its way to Palestine and conquer it from the British. The Germans, he argued, would agree because it would rid them of the Jews while also removing the British from the Near East.”
According to Stern, some German officials supported strengthening Jewish settlement in Palestine by bringing Jews from Europe, believing they would be grateful and would later assist Germany.
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