[4.11. 1933-1938:
Legal German Jewish immigration to
Palestine: 44,537 (official number)]
[Figures]
During the first three years, 1933-1935, the figures were most
impressive. Of a total of about 81,000 Jews who left Germany 22,700 (28
%) left for Palestine. In 1935, when 62,000 Jews entered that country,
it seemed as though this was the most practical solution to the problem
of the refugees, politics and ideology aside.
[The Palestinians are not asked or mentioned, and the Arab protest
seems to be simply repressed].
[Joint fights for priority to
German Jews coming to Palestine]
Yet even in that heyday of optimism as regards the future of the Jewish
settlement in Palestine, two problems arose to plague JDC. The first
was the obvious fact that while the German emergency was getting
grimmer year by year, the Jewish Agency allocated to German Jews well
under a third of the entry permits into Palestine. JDC exerted
considerable pressure on the Agency to change this policy and to give
German Jews an absolute priority.
Table
8: Immigration (Legal) to
Palestine of Jews from Germany and Austria
|
Year
|
From
Germany
|
From
Austria
|
Total
|
% of
total (legal)
immigration
|
1933
|
6,803
|
328
|
7,131
|
22.3
|
1934
|
8,497
|
928
|
9,425
|
21.4
|
1935
|
7,447
|
1,376
|
8,823
|
14.5
|
1936
|
7,896
|
581
|
8,477
|
26.8
|
1937
|
3,280
|
214
|
3,494
|
28.1
|
1938
|
4,223
|
2,964
|
7,187
|
40.5
|
Total
|
38,146
|
6,391
|
44,537
|
22.3
|
(End
note 62: Sources: 15-2, Max Birnbaum; Rosenstock, op. cit, pp. 15-32,
HOG report on immigration to Palestine. The figures included "tourists"
who stayed on in Palestine and were later legalized by the government.
If we combine the above figures with those in Table 7, we will see that
Palestine absorbed approximately 18.4 percent of total Jewish
emigration from Germany in 1933, 36.8 % in 1934, 35.4 % in 1935, 31.5 %
in 1936, 14.2 % in 1937, and 12 % in 1938. The figures may have to be
revised upwards very slightly to take into account illegal immigration
to Palestine in those years. Between 1933 and the end of 1938 about
165,000 Jews left Germany, and of these about 45,000, or 27.2 %,
entered Palestine).
|
(p.163)
However, the Central Bureau for the Settlement of German Jews in
Palestine, an Agency office run by Dr. Weizmann, could not accede to
the request. The Agency had to consider the claims of Jews in Poland,
Lithuania, and Romania, because those were the main constituents of the
Zionist organization and also because the situation of the Jews in
Eastern Europe was, from the economic point of view certainly, even
worse than that of the Jews in Germany. In desperation, the Zionists
even looked to Syria and other Middle Eastern countries as temporary
havens. Weizmann stated that "there was plenty of room in Syria for
Jewish immigrants and that he understood that Jews would be
welcomed to that country."
(End note 63: 14-51, CBF Allocation Committee meeting, 5/7/34 [7 May
1934])
JDC's second problem was that the Zionists attempted to make it use its
funds for transporting emigrants to Palestine. In this they succeeded
in a large measure. JDC put the cost of transport to Palestine,
including its expenditures for vocational training for Palestine, at
about $ 993,000 between 1933 and the end of 1938.
(End note 64: 42-Palestine immigration, 1938-43)
Even if the computation was exaggerated, as it seems to have been,
there is no doubt at all that JDC did in fact support immigration to
Palestine to a marked degree. This was at a time when there was
considerable competition for funds in the United States between JDC and
the United Palestine Appeal. According to one JDC compilation, various
Palestine-oriented appeals collected a total of $ 2,848,000 in the
United States in 1933/4, whereas the JDC collections amounted to $
2,553,000
(End note 65: 42-Palestine, general, 1933-38)
at the same time. Weizmann's Central Bureau in London received 936,000
pounds
(End note 66: 15-32)
between October 1933 and December 1938, or about $ 5 million. JDC
income between 1934 and 1938 came to about $ 12.8 million;
[Reasons for the Joint
Distribution Committee to support emigration for Palestine - connection
with ZA (Zentral-Ausschuss)]
but JDC had to give aid to East European Jewry, apart from looking
after refugees everywhere and supporting German Jewry as well. Why then
should JDC also support Palestine ventures?
In April 1934 JDC issued a statement of policy, which said: "Were the
CBF, the ICA, the Jewish Agency for Palestine to agree to a sharing of
these responsibilities (for everything outside of Palestine), which no
other agency in large measure has attempted to meet, the JDC (p.164)
could see its way clear to an understanding whereby important part of
its resources can be applied toward the settlement of German Jews in
Palestine."
(End note 67: 14-46, Statement of Policy, 4/20/34 [20 April 1934])
Despite the declaration, in practice JDC had no choice but to support
the Palestine immigration office in Berlin, because it was part of the
Zentral-Ausschuss, and JDC could not help supporting ZA in all its
activities. Even apart from that, Kahn found it necessary to support
Hechalutz in France and Poland, in Holland and Austria, because it was
one of the agencies that made the most effective use of the money given
them. On Palestine, JDC suffered from a split personality; while heated
arguments might take place in its Executive Committee on how to avoid
spending too much money there, Warburg would declare at the National
Council that "the money spent there, which at one time might have
worried us, is well founded and well spent."
(End note 68: JDC Library, National Council meeting, 4/13/35 [13
April 1935])
