FREEDOM

By the end of World War Il, the Nazis and their collaborators had killed more than 6 million Jews, including about 1.5 million children. The Allied nations initially resolved to hold these killers responsible. Tribunals were formed in Allied-occupied Germany and other nations to prosecute those accused of war crimes. Yet most perpetrators escaped judgment or received leniency. Many sentences would later be reduced or suspended. The perpetrators and their collaborators came from all parts of Europe, all walks of life, and all levels of society. Some were antisemitic zealots, while others were motivated by peer approval or greed. Each played a role in what became a vast undertaking. Many leaders and local citizens collaborated with Nazi Germany as it expanded its control across Europe. The Nuremberg Trial was the major known prosecution of war criminals, where 21 major leaders of the Nazi party were charged with conspiracy to wage a war of aggression; with war crimes; and with crimes against humanity (killing). International Military Tribunal (IMT) also tried criminals. Brigadier General Telford Taylor, who directed the proceedings, originally wanted to prosecute 5,000 defendants, but only 185 were brought to trial. Of these, 25 received the death sentence, 20 were sentenced to life imprisonment, 97 were given lesser prison terms, and 35 were acquitted. War criminals who were tried in German courts often received mild sentences also. Justice is not always served.

DISPLACED- By the end of 1945, millions of people uprooted by World War Il had returned to their homes. Almost 2 million displaced persons (DPs), however, remained in the Allied occupation zones. Few countries would accept Jewish refugees, and the British were limiting Jewish immigration into Palestine to 1,500 refugees a month. In October 1945, David Ben-Gurion of the Jewish Agency for Palestine visited major Jewish DP camps. Veterans of the Jewish Brigade helped inspire the survivors to see the creation of a Jewish homeland as an answer to their hopes for the future. Jewish DPs soon became an important force in the Zionist struggle for the establishment of the state of Israel.

After Israel, the most favored destination of Jewish Holocaust survivors was the United States (after the war ONLY 22,950 DPs were admitted into the United States. By 1952, 137,450 Jewish refugees had settled in the United States.

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. On May 14, 1948, the Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion announced the formation of the State of Israel. Its Declaration of Independence stated:
“The Nazi Holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, proved anew the urgency of the reestablishment of the Jewish State, which would solve the problem of Jewish homelessness by opening the gates to all Jews and lifting the Jewish people to equality in the family of nations. Holocaust survivors now landed unhindered in the new state. Many would go on to fight in Israel's War of Independence.”Leggi altro