Linguistic conceptualization of the Holocaust in Palestine and Israel, 1942-53

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 31, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 567-595

  Ofer, Dalia ^a,b  

^a Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry

^b HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0012807284     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002200949603100307     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. The expression Yad Vashem appears in Isaiah 56: 3-5, where it denotes an everlasting memorial to those who join the Lord. 'Neither let the alien, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak saying: The Lord will surely separate me from His people .... Even unto them will I give in My house and within My walls a monument and a memorial better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting memorial that shall not be cut off.' The Holy Scriptures: According to the Masoretic Text, A New Translation (Philadelphia 1956)
2. Benjamin Harshav, 'Masah 'al tehiyat halashon ha 'ivrit' (On the Revival of the Hebrew Language), Alpayim, 2 (1990), 9-54
3. Alan Mintz, Hurban: Responses to Catastrophe in Hebrew Literature (New York 1984)
4. The conference was convened in Jerusalem on 13-14 July 1947. Part of the proceedings, decisions and a list of participants can be found in the Central Zionist Archive (CZA) Jerusalem, S26/1326 and J1/6449. On the decision to establish Yad Vashem see letter of 26 November 1946 to the directory of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) (Keren Kayemet Leyisrael) from the National Committee (Va'ad Leumi), ibid., J1/6437
5. Uriel Tal, 'On the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide', Yad Vashem Studies, vol. 13 (1980), 7-43
6. Yehuda Bauer, The Holocaust in Historical Perspective (Seattle 1980), 30-50
7. On the position of the ultra-Orthodox and their attitude, see Menahem Friedman, 'The Haredin and the Holocaust', The Jerusalem Quarterly, 53 (Winter 1990), 86-114
8. Dina Porat, '"Amalek's Accomplices" Blaming Zionism for the Holocaust: Anti-Zionist Ultra-Orthodoxy in Israel during the 1980s', Journal of Contemporary History, 27, 4 (October 1992), 695-729
9. 'To the Hebrew Yishuv', 23 November 1939, CZA S25/326
10. Shoat yehudei Polin (The Shoah of Polish Jewry) (Jerusalem 1940)
11. Yechiam Weitz, Muda'ut vehoser onim: mapai lenokhah hashoah 1943-1945 (Aware but Helpless, Mapai and the Holocaust 1943-1945) (Jerusalem 1994), 153-73
12. Dina Porat, The Blue and Yellow Star of David (Cambridge, MA 1990), 43 (henceforth, Porat 1990)
13. Ha'aretz, 13 July 1942; see also note 11
14. Ya'akov Eshed, 'In expectation of those who would come, illegal boats search their way to our land', April 1942, in Shlomo Even Shosah and Zerubavel Gil'ad (eds), Heshbon shel zekhut (An Account for Right) (Tel Aviv 1978), 36-43. This concept was very clear from the Zionist resolution adopted at the Biltmore Conference in New York in April 1942, concerning the future of Palestine. For further information on this issue, see Yosef Heller, Bema'avak lemedinah (The Struggle for a State) (Jerusalem 1989), 46-51
15. Aaron Berman, Nazism, the Jews and American Zionism 1933-1948 (Detroit 1990), 85-95
16. Rabbi Binyamin (Feldman), at the writers' conference, Moznayim, no. 14 (1942), 377-80
17. Ben Zion Dinur (Dinaburg), Zakhor: neumim 'al hashoah velekakh (Remember: Speeches on the Shoah and its Lessons) (Jerusalem 1958), 14-48
18. A.N. Yirmiyahu in Mishmar (The Guard, newspaper of Hashomer Hatza'yir), 21 July 1947
19. Fishel Shneurson in Eliezer Turtziner (ed.), Psychological History of the Shoah and Renewal (Tel Aviv 1968), 72-82.
20. On the Al Domi group, see Dina Porat, 'Al Domi: Palestinian Intellectuals and the Holocaust 1943-45', Studies in Zionism, 5, 1 (1984), 97-124
21. Avraham Levinson, 'In memory of the Diaspora', the opening words of his plan to commemorate the destruction of European Jewry (no date [probably in early spring 1945]), CZA S26/1326; meeting on the establishment of Yad Vashem, in the office of the Va'ad Leumi, 4 June 1945, ibid., J1/3610
22. David Remez, Jacob Lestschinsky at the conference on 'Research on the Shoah and Heroism in our Time', Jerusalem, 13-14 July 1947, CZA J1/6449. For the decisions adopted by the conference, see ibid., S26/1326
23. Menahem Kaufman, Non-Zionists in America and the Struggle for Jewish Statehood: 1939-1948 (Jerusalem 1984)
24. Greenboim, at a meeting of the Jewish Agency Executive, Jerusalem, 19 January 1943, CZA S25/259
25. On Abba Kovner and his manifesto to the Jews in the ghetto, see Yitzhak Arad, Ghetto in Flames (Jerusalem 1980), 231-2. On the debate in Palestine, see CZA S25/259 and note 22
26. A group of sixty-nine Palestinian Jews who were caught in the war in Eastern Europe were allowed to return to Palestine in autumn 1942. They were an important source of information on the Final Solution and life in the ghettos. For further elaboration, see Porat 1990, 36-7
27. David Remez, at the conference on 'Research on the Shoah and Heroism in our Time', 13 July 1947, CZA J1/6449. See note 5
28. 31 May 1945, CZA S26/1326. During 1945 and 1946, a number of other commemorational proposals were presented to the Jewish Agency, established in 1929 by the Zionist movement and non-Zionist organizations to be responsible for the development of Palestine as the Jewish national home and to represent the Yishuv in relations with the Mandatory government, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the owner of all Jewish public land in Palestine, as well as the Va 'ad Leumi, which was responsible for the Yishuv's internal affairs. Several proposals were discussed at a number of meetings: 'In memory of the Diaspora', by Avraham Levinson op. cit.; 'A Memorial to the Destroyed Diaspora and to Those Who fell in the War of Independence', by Shragai, 19 February 1946, CZA J1/6442; 'In Memory of Our Holy Ones and Those Who Made Us Holy, in the Diaspora', by Leibele Goldberg, CZA, 12 September 1946
29. "They were condemned to be passive ... but the people were also active participants. Some two million [of them] joined the battle.' CZA, 2 May 1945, S26/1326
30. A proposal for the name of a commemorative authority, 25 February 1946, CZA J1/6442
31. This interpretation was given to the JNF Executive by its National Committee, 26 November 1946, CZA J1/5437
32. At a meeting of the JNF Executive devoted to the issue of commemoration, 16 September 1946, CZA KHU/B/3940, 10
33. Remez, in the JNF Executive asking that all efforts be made to avoid the separation of Shoah and gevurah, which 'should become the two pillars of our collective memory'. CZA, 19 November 1946, S25/5204
34. See also Remez, at the conference on 'Research on the Shoah and Heroism in our Time', 13 July 1947, CZA J1/6449; and Shenhabi's letter to Remez on this issue, 20 June 1945, CZA
35. Kovner, at the conference, see note 5
36. Remez, in his opening remarks to the conference, 13 July 1947, CZA J1/4669
37. Kovner, 'The Hill of Warning', cited in its entirety in Mishmar, 25 July 1947
38. Upon hearing Kovner's speech, Remez called for its publication so that Israeli youth would read it, 14 July 1947, CZA J1/6449. Thus, Davar (15 July 1947) reported that 'Kovner spoke of the close tie [indispensable connection] between Shoah and gevurah', and agreed that the great patriotism of the fighters be remembered and commemorated. Other newspapers, too, turned to the issue of gevurah. Between 15 and 20 July 1947, articles and readers' letters supporting Kovner appeared in Mishmar (15 July) and in Haaretz. On the other hand, Hatzofeh (20 July), the paper of the religious Zionist Mizrahi party, expressed opposition to research of the period and called upon the public not to lose the true pathos of commemoration and to avoid criticizing the martyrs (kedoshim) murdered by the nazis
39. A.N. Yermiyahu, Mishmar, 21 July 1947
40. See, for example, Nachman Blumenthal, Mishmar, 14 September 1947, and his reference to traitors; A.N. Yermiyahu, 'Yad Vashem: Impressions from the Conference', Mishmar, 21 July 1947
41. For a discussion of 'surviving remnants' see Dalia Ofer, 'From Survivors to New Immigrants: Sheerit Hapletah and Aliya' in Sheerit Hapletah 1944-1948: Rehabilitation and Political Struggle (Jerusalem 1990), 304-36
42. For a reference to redemption only being possible in Eretz Israel see, for example, 'Sheerit Hapletah', Hatzofeh, 14 March 1945
43. For the use of geulah vehazalah in the Zionist discourse see the discussion of the Small Zionist Executive, 18 January 1943, CZA S25/259. Also Dan Michman, 'Leberur hamusag hatzalah' (Clarifying the Term Rescue During the Holocaust), Yalkut Moreshet, 28, 1979, 55-76
44. also Dalia Ofer, 'The Dilemma of Rescue and Redemption: Mass Immigration to Israel in the First Year of Statehood', YIVO Annual, 20, 1991, 185-210
45. Rahel Rokah, Mishoah letekumah (From Holocaust to Rebirth) in Documents to the Study of Zionism, folder 11 (Jerusalem 1979), Mishoah letekumah (From Shoah to Rebirth) (no author), summary of a conference on activities in religious elementary schools in Israel (Jerusalem 1975). For further elaboration of the educational perspective see Nili Keren, The Impact of Public Opinion-Shapers and of the Historical Research on the Development of Educational Thought and Educational Programs Concerning the Holocaust in High Schools and in Informal Education in Israel 1948-1981 (PhD diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1985)
46. David Roskies, Against the Apocalypse: Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish Culture (Cambridge, MA 1984); Alan Mintz, see note 3; Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi, 'Considering the Apocalypse: Is the Writing on the Wall only Graffiti?' in Berel Lang (ed.), Writing and the Holocaust (New York and London 1990), 137-53, 47
47. A discussion at the JNF Executive, 16 September 1946, CZA S53/1671
48. See also Hatzofeh, 25 July 1945, suggesting that new settlements be named after destroyed Jewish communities. Haaretz, 24 July 1945 opposed the plans for Yad Vashem and gave the name of a new kibbutz, Ma'aleh Hahamishah, near Jerusalem, as an example of a proper constructive commemoration
49. Hagigim 'al ra'ayon gadol (Reflections on a Great Idea), Haaretz, 27 July 1947
50. Davar, 12 December 1942
51. D. Malkhin, Davar, 23 March 1947: 'A Mission and its realization: The stormy debate between negation of the Diaspora and its affirmation ended tragically. The negated Diaspora gained approval ..., however, the unique life of Israel in its land demands a certain way of life to realize its special mission ... to honour the memory of the past and yet to correct its defects.' M. Prager, "Al 'otzmat hashoah ve'oz haheavkut' (On the domination of the Shoah and the vigour of the battle), ibid., 13 July 1947
52. For an elaborate discussion see Yael Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition (Chicago 1994). It is interesting to see that in 1940 a book on Jewish heroism throughout the ages was published. The book related to the modern era and the Yishuv; M. Halpern (ed.), Sefer Hagevurah: antologia historit vesifrutit (The Book of Heroism. A Literary and Historical Anthology) (Tel Aviv 1940), 5 vols
53. 23 April 1948
54. 11 March 1948
55. 'Yad Vashem', Hamashkif, 20 and 23 April 1948; 'Yad Vashem', Davar, 23 April 1948; Haboker, 12 March 1951
56. Zivia Lubetkin, one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, in a memorial ceremony at Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot (Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz), Davar, 20 April 1950
57. Davar, 19 April 1950
58. Proceedings of the Knesset, vol. 14, the 227th and 229th meetings of the Second Knesset (Jerusalem no date), 1310-14
59. 1331-54; 2402-09 (henceforth Knesset, vol. 14)
60. Knesset, vol. 14, 1333. Presentation of Elimelekh Rimalt, of the General Zionists' party
61. Knesset, vol. 14, 1310. An unusual article, by Y. Ben Haim, 'Gam zeh lekah hashoah vehamered' (This is also a lesson of the Shoah and the uprising), appeared in the communist Kol Ha 'am (Voice of the People) on 18 April 1951. Writing of the celebration of the ninth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Ben Haim contrasted the ghetto fighters, who were socialists, with the Judenrat traitors who were bourgeoisie
62. Knesset, vol. 14, 1311. The poem of Hayyim Nachman Bialik, 'Im yesh et nafshekha lada'at' ('If Thou Wouldst Know', Selected Poems, Israel Efros (ed.) (revised edn) (New York 1965), 70-2
63. The speeches of the representatives of the Left appear in Knesset, vol. 14, on the following pages:1331-3
64. 1339-41; 1345; 1351; 1353; 2404-5
65. Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, 'Revisioning the Past: The Changing Legacy of the Holocaust in Hebrew Literature' in Salmagundi, the Literary Imagination and the Sense of the Past, no. 68-9, Fall 1985/Winter 1986, 248