Original subtitles

PHILIPPE SOLLIER (NARRATES): History is not an exact science.

It is never set in stone.

As time passes, knowledge of the past is refined,

and evolves.

But by definition, existing ideas have thick skins,

and are hard to shift.

To understand the realities of the world,

you sometimes have to shake them up,

and decipher the facts by looking at them another way.

Posterity has made the creation

of Israel a direct consequence of the holocaust.

And yet.

May the 8th 1945, Germany lay under the rubble,

crushed by the magnitude of its crimes.

Auschwitz, Birkenau, Sobibor, Treblinka,

the list of atrocities committed was immense.

6 million Jews were brutally exterminated.

The survivors of this tragedy endured.

They lived through the deportations, the death marches.

They lost everything and had nowhere to go.

Their fate depended on the great victors

of the conflict.

But in the immediate post-war period,

providing the Jewish people a homeland

was not the priority.

At the time,

the Allies were overwhelmed by countless challenges.

The most urgent task

was to re-establish lines of communication,

to manage the masses of German prisoners, and, above all,

to repatriate the tens of millions of people

displaced by the conflict.

The logistics worked wonders.

Within a few months, deportees,

resistance fighters, forced labourers,

civilians who had fled the fighting,

and demobilised soldiers found their home.

Others were not so lucky.

In the autumn of 1945,

nearly 70,000 survivors of the Holocaust

were still waiting for the world

to find a solution to their predicament.

Gathered in displaced person camps,

they came from Poland, Ukraine and Hungary

and refused to return to these bloody lands

that were the site of so many massacres.

Many sought to emigrate to rebuild their lives.

But lands of asylum were scarce,

and even Palestine, the cradle of their ancestors,

refused to open its arms to them.

And for good reason,

the English who governed the territory

were opposed to their coming.

The reason?

As a strategic crossroads,

Palestine was the heart of the British Empire

in the Middle East.

Just a stone's throw from the Suez Canal,

Haifa was where the pipeline

that transported precious Iraqi oil ended.

And in Iraq, as in Transjordan and Egypt,

there were monarchs that London wanted to protect.

Their influence in the region depended on it.

Thus, after encouraging Jewish immigration,

the British promised the Arabs to limit visas to 1,250 per month.

Present on the territory since time immemorial,

the Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim,

regarded the Jews as invaders, settlers.

For them, the tragic fate of the Holocaust survivors

could not serve as a pretext for the invasion of their country.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

On the other hand,

for the 500,000 Jews already settled in Palestine,

the mass arrival of Holocaust survivors

was of paramount importance.

Entrepreneurs and builders,

since the arrival of the first pioneers,

they continued to prosper.

Their farms, the so-called 'kibbutz,'

created against all odds from the desert,

increased in number.

Within just a few years,

the city of Tel Aviv became a modern metropolis

with 200,000 inhabitants.

Zionists from the outset, they aspired to found a state,

as vast as in the days of Kings David and Solomon.

In other words, although they were in the minority,

they laid claim to the whole of Palestine.

However, this goal came up against a major problem,

there were twice as many Arabs as Jews,

and the extermination of the Jews in Europe

deprived them of the main source of emigrants

on which they were counting, to force out their population.

So, as long as the British restricted

the conditions of immigration,

their state project was doomed to fail.

One man rejected this inevitability, David Ben-Gurion.

At the head of the Jewish Agency, a kind of embryonic government,

his whole life was focused on a single goal, a single idea,

a single passion, to give his people a state,

so that the Jews would finally have a land of their own.

On the 16th of October 1945, during a visit to Germany,

the representative of the Jews of Palestine took action.

(SINGING)

That it was Jewish people who made Palestine,

that was Palestine who made the Jewish people.

There's no other people in the world who made Palestine.

(APPLAUSE)

He was a pragmatist,

and he knew that the survivors were a tool for the Zionist course,

and he was ready to do anything to populate his future state.

Quickly, the displaced persons camps

were transformed into recruitment centres.

To prepare the prospective recruits,

Zionist militants give Hebrew lessons to the youngest.

All lessons in History and Geography.

The adults were introduced to the rudiments of agriculture.

For all, the learning of folk songs and dances

forged a community with a common destiny.

As the weeks went by,

the number of volunteers for the Promised Land grew.

But they still needed visas.

Ben-Gurion hoped to obtain them.

(SPEAKS HEBREW)

In the spring of 1946,

the old leader mobilised international opinion.

The objective was to criticise the inflexibility of the English.

No less than 100,000 visas were required

for all those Jews wishing to immigrate.

All the networks of the Jewish world were mobilised,

in Europe and especially in the United States,

Britain's most faithful ally.

The Zionist message was clear,

the British migration policy must be fought.

With a Jewish community of 5 million people,

the American Zionist movement was the most powerful,

active and wealthy in the world.

Like Ben-Gurion,

its supporters fought ardently for the creation of a Hebrew state,

following the example of Nahum Goldman,

one of the founders of the World Jewish Congress.

If there would have been a Jewish state in Palestine

when Hitler appeared to the horizon and came to power,

this state in a country would have opened its gates

to all the Jewish who want to come.

(APPLAUSE)

But however strong the argument,

State rationale had no use for such considerations.

For Secretary of State, George Marshall,

supporting the Zionists meant risking the United States' access

to oil in the Middle East.

Moreover, in this immediate post-war period

when communism was on the rise,

he didn't want to alienate his British allies.

President Harry Truman was undecided.

He was a fervent Christian,

and his compassion for the Jews was sincere.

More than any other head of state,

he was sensitive to the tragedy of the Holocaust.

Despite the reluctance of his advisers,

he declared himself in favour of the 100,000 visas

demanded by Ben-Gurion.

Stung by this, the English reacted without delay.

Ruined by the war,

the country was struggling to recover.

A former major world power,

England was living with restrictions and shortages.

The country had no money left and survived,

thanks only to the financial help of the United States.

Despite this dependence, Ernest Bevin,

the Minister of Foreign Affairs,

did not want his migration policy to be challenged.

Outraged by the interference, he curtly replied to Truman

that he should welcome the survivors in the United States himself.

Very quickly, the divergence between the two countries

spread around the chancelleries.

Nikolai Novikov, a Soviet diplomat, alerted the Kremlin.

The US request to allow 100,000 Jews into Palestine,

could undermine US-British relations.

Joseph Stalin seized this chance.

The opportunity was too good to miss,

so, he took advantage of it.

Aggravating the dispute between the two countries

could destabilise England

and open the doors to the Middle East,

a region from which the Soviet Union had always been excluded.

He was a cunning man, and advanced his pawns.

Overnight, Moscow allowed Jews from countries occupied

by the Red Army to cross the borders.

In Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania,

a human river began to flow.

In a hurry to flee the anti-Semitism

that continued to rage in these countries,

thousands of families placed themselves

under the protection of the Allies.

Their destination, Germany and its displaced persons camps.

Very quickly, the British and the Americans were overwhelmed

by the number of refugees.

David Wahl, an American Zionist, rejoiced.

The Soviet government increased the number of displaced persons

from 70,000 to 250,000.

This population is invaluable

for increasing Jewish immigration to Palestine.

Meanwhile, all over Europe,

illegal immigration networks were multiplying.

Hundreds of Jews, in a hurry to reach the Promised Land,

set out on their adventure.

In the Balkans, people smugglers sent by Ben-Gurion

were there to guide them.

An exhausting journey, through trails and mountain roads,

before reaching the small and inconspicuous port

of the Mediterranean.

Crowded into makeshift vessels, despite the deplorable conditions,

the immigrants savoured the end of their wanderings,

and the dawn of a new life.

It was a short-lived reprieve.

In most cases, as they approached the Palestinian coast,

they were arrested by the Royal Navy.

British soldiers, whose feet I would have kissed

because they had liberated me in Germany,

were making their way onto our boat with clubs.

Prisoners of the British,

the passengers were then taken under guard

to a camp in Atlit near Haifa.

For them, the promise of paradise turned into hell.

London remained indifferent, and Ernest Bevin warned...

"The Jews of Europe should not over-emphasise

"their racial situation.

"If they try to elbow their way in, they cannot be surprised

"if there is a resurgence of antisemitism across Europe."

It was the spark that set the world alight.

(GROOVY MUSIC)

The Jews of Palestine were appalled and began to rebel.

Yesterday's peaceful civilians were transformed into fighters.

In hiding, they tried their hand with weapons.

The time for submission had passed.

It was now time to show

that Jews would no longer bow to the dictates of the English.

After a number of explosions caused by terrorists,

fire broke out in the oil zone.

Rough estimates already put the costs at

over a quarter a million pounds.

Smoke rising from a street in Jerusalem

indicates yet another vain attempt by the Jewish terrorist gang

to intimidate authority.

(SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

In the summer of 1946, a wave of unprecedented attacks

was directed against British national interests.

Oil infrastructure, military facilities,

communication routes, everything was blown up.

On July the 22nd, a new threshold was crossed.

In Jerusalem, a group of guerrilla fighters

struck the headquarters of the British administration.

The British mandate in Palestine was hit in the heart.

In the rubble of the King David Hotel,

there were 91 dead and more than 40 injured.

In total, nearly 250 of Her Majesty's soldiers

lost their lives that summer.

Their reaction was merciless.

Street by street, house by house,

the real or presumed culprits were hunted down.

More than 3,000 sympathisers were imprisoned.

The hard core of the Zionist movement

was broken.

At the docks meanwhile,

the drama of the illegal immigrant ships continues.

The question of immigration,

is the immediate cause for the conflict in Palestine.

Faced with the incessant flow of stowaways,

the British redoubled their severity.

For the unfortunate ones who undertook the crossing,

the contact with the Promised Land

was limited to a few minutes on the dock.

Transferred to prison ships in undignified conditions,

they were deported to Cyprus,

where a huge detention camp had recently been built

especially for them.

After having escaped the horror of the Nazi camps,

they found themselves once again behind barbed wire,

surrounded by watchtowers and armed guards.

(NOISE)

By locking up Jews after all they had suffered,

Great Britain proved how determined it was not to yield.

To break the deadlock, Ben-Gurion then played his trump card.

In order to make the Zionist project more acceptable,

he gave up the idea of claiming the whole of Palestine,

and claimed only a part of it...

leaving the option for Arabs wishing to emancipate themselves

to create their state on the rest of the land.

The manoeuvre did not go unnoticed.

On behalf of the Arab community, Jamal Husayni protested.

For the last thirty years,

alien immigrants have been forced upon us.

Now, these immigrants, though still in minority,

want to have a Jewish state in our country,

in which we would become the minority.

The Americans welcomed this concession.

On October 4th, 1946, for the first time,

Harry Truman spoke out in favour of a Jewish state

on a portion of Palestinian territory.

For England, it was a stab in the back.

Abandoned by the Americans, under pressure from the Arabs,

in the grip of Zionist terrorism,

its control over Palestine became an impossible mission.

Especially since the Palestinian stalemate

had bad press.

It had involved over 100,000 soldiers

even though the war had been over for two years.

And it swallowed up considerable sums of money,

a luxury that the Crown could no longer afford.

On the 17th of February 1947, during a session in the Commons,

Bevin threw in the towel.

With a heavy heart,

he announced that he would have to take the matter

to the fledgling United Nations.

The Arabs of Palestine had lost their protector.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

In Moscow, Stalin was jubilant.

The refugee situation had delivered on its potential,

the Anglo-American front had been broken,

the British mandate was on its last legs,

and thanks to the support of its sister countries,

the USSR was in a strong position

to influence the debates at the United Nations.

Stalin's plan to gain a foothold in the Middle East was taking shape.

Two months later, in New York,

the representatives of some 50 countries took the stage.

Now that you are all very diligent?

On the agenda of this extraordinary session,

finding a political solution to the conflict

that was tearing Palestine apart, while satisfying both communities.

Two communities that did not start on equal terms.

On the Zionist side,

two talented lieutenants of Ben Gurion,

Abba Eban who spoke English with a Cambridge accent,

and Moshe Sharett, a brilliant orator.

These two men had an advantage.

The Zionist movement had already rallied

most democratic countries to its course.

On the other hand, Jamal Husayni,

in the name of the Arab High Committee,

was alone defending the interests of the Palestinians.

The big question was the position of the Soviet Union.

Everyone was wondering.

Moscow had always fought Zionist ideology.

Its supporters were systematically sent to Gulags,

or even assassinated,

but Stalin was no stranger to contradiction.

On the 14th of May, 1947, Andrei Gromyko, his delegate,

ended the suspense.

To everyone's surprise,

the USSR declared itself in favour of the existence of a Hebrew state.

Abba Eban was stunned.

This was a tremendous opportunity for us.

In an instant, all our predictions and calculations

about the outcome of the discussion at the United Nations

were turned upside down.

Things looked grim for the Arab world,

but the game was not yet lost.

In order to reach a compromise, a commission of enquiry was formed.

It was headed by Emil Sandstrom, a Swedish diplomat.

Its mission, to travel through Palestine,

to hear from both sides and find a solution

for Jerusalem and the holy sites.

I want to thank you,

gentlemen, for the confidence you have shown me.

It's certainly a very difficult task that has fallen upon me.

And that with joint efforts,

we should be able to achieve the mission

which has been given to us.

That summer, Emil Sandstrom, along with 11 delegates,

arrived in the Holy Land under a blazing sun.

Apart from a few prominent people,

the Arab leaders refused to cooperate.

Palestine was their land,

there was no need to state the obvious.

Boycotted, the members of the commission

were denied contact with the population.

They simply walked through the villages

and observed the destitution.

The Jews, on the other hand, gave them an enthusiastic welcome.

Ben-Gurion did everything possible to dazzle his visitors.

Songs, dances, nothing was excluded.

It became a real propaganda tour.

In the spotlight, Zionism's finest achievements...

its nascent industry...

its prosperous agricultural settlements...

its efficient school system.

However, between two shows and a visit to a kibbutz,

the commission witnessed the omnipresence

of the British repressive apparatus.

There was barbed wire,

checkpoints and roadblocks everywhere.

The Guatemalan delegate described it as a real police state.

Taking advantage of the presence of the United Nations Commission,

the Jewish Agency had organised an operation

that would make a lasting impression.

On the 12th of July 1947,

an old steamer renamed 'Exodus' set sail in the Mediterranean.

On board were 4,500 Holocaust survivors,

led by militants ready to fight.

For Ben-Gurion, the objective was not to bring

illegal immigrants into the country,

but to exploit their subsequent deportation.

It was a calculation that would pay off.

Off Gaza, the ship was spotted by the British.

Soldiers boarded the ship and a fight broke out.

The result was 3 dead and 28 injured among the passengers.

The battered Exodus was towed to the port of Haifa.

Emil Sandstorm and his colleagues were alerted

and witnessed a revolting spectacle at first hand.

They watched as the passengers were transferred to prison ships,

before being taken back to Germany,

the country of their tormentors.

The images that circulated the world shook the conscience of the West.

Back in New York,

the commission delivered its conclusions.

The recommendations, end the British mandate...

divide Palestine into two independent states,

one Jewish, the other Arab, and make Jerusalem,

the thrice holy city, an international zone.

In an instant, the skies over the Arab world darkened.

Transjordan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq

threatened military intervention if the partition was approved.

From Cairo to Baghdad, from Amman to Damascus,

the streets were ablaze with demands for war.

In Palestine, militias were being organised...

weapons were being brought out of storage.

The possibility of an uprising in the Arab world

was on everyone's mind.

A godsend for Stalin,

who banked on this turmoil to destabilise the region.

In Washington, mistrust was the order of the day.

George Marshall was worried.

The Middle East had been a zone of containment of communism

and the unexpected rapprochement between Zionists and Soviets

risked bringing it under the influence of Moscow.

On the Zionist side,

the battle for influence was intensifying.

All over the country, marches, parades

and demonstrations were on the increase,

under the direction of Rabbi Abba Silver,

one of the leaders of this mobilisation.

Palestine is the land of Israel,

it's the historical home of the Jewish people,

where it produced the Bible.

Harry Truman was harassed day and night.

He wrote, "The leading Zionist leaders

"were exerting all kinds of pressure on me to use power

"in the service of their aspirations.

"I have never been the object

"of such a virulent propaganda campaign."

The United States delegation?

On the 11th of October 1947, America officially announced

that it would support the partition of Palestine into two states.

In the wake of this,

the nations of the free world followed suit.

Delighted to put a nail

in the coffin of the British mandate,

the USSR, followed by its sister countries,

also rallied to the partition.

When suddenly, a few days before the vote,

the Zionist delegation realised

that it was still a few votes short of winning.

Fearful of giving the Communists the upper hand,

the United States was quick to show that it

too had the power to shift the balance.

American diplomats and businessmen were immediately called in.

Mr Firestone, a giant of the tyre industry,

was asked to co-operate.

The industrialist was threatened.

"If you don't, we will boycott you

"and your rubber plantations will rot on the spot,

"to the great misfortune of Liberia."

Mr Firestone took it upon himself to convince the Liberian leaders.

Similar pressures were also applied to the Philippines and Haiti.

Poor countries, dependent on Washington's subsidies,

they were rallied by the dollar diplomacy,

to the support of their benefactor.

On the 29th of November 1947,

Palestine had a rendezvous with its destiny.

We will proceed the roll call.

Argentina, abstention,

Australia, yes, France,

yes, Ukraine, yes,

Soviet Union, yes,

United Kingdom, abstention,

United States, yes.

In a few minutes, the future of the territory was decided.

The Resolution of the Ad Hoc Committee

for Palestine was adopted by 33 votes,

13 against 10 abstentions.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

When the result was announced, the Jews rejoiced.

After 2,000 years of waiting, they had reached their goal.

In a few months, their state would come into being.

David Ben-Gurion, however, was less optimistic.

He wrote in his diary, "Today they dance,

"tomorrow they will cry tears of blood."

On the Arab side,

an immense feeling of injustice prevailed.

Amin al-Husseini, a high Palestinian dignitary, proclaimed,

"We will fight...we will fight against the division of the country.

"We will not accept any compromise."

Jerusalem, erupted into unrest.

A protest turned into a riot.

Jewish businesses were vandalised.

7 Jews were killed that day.

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets.

Jewish settlements were attacked.

Soon, isolated shootings evolved into full-scale gunfights.

Despite his daily yoga sessions, David Ben-Gurion remained anxious.

Certainly, Moscow's support paved the way for a Hebrew state,

but its survival was already under threat.

The Arab states were preparing to attack

as soon as the last British soldier had left.

They had tanks and planes.

Ben-Gurion had none.

His modest army equipped for guerrilla warfare

would not be able to cope.

He needed weapons, and quickly.

Once again, Stalin offered him a lifeline.

Ehud Avriel, the best Mossad agent, flew to Czechoslovakia.

With an economy in a sorry state, a stark lack of currency,

and under pressure from the Kremlin,

the country proved to be a first-class supplier.

Arriving in Prague, Ehud Avriel was received like a prince.

The Czechs offered to get him a real arsenal,

starting with a stock of Mauser rifles,

a good part of which, ironically, had been confiscated from the Nazis.

Better still, the surplus of the Skoda arms factory

was made available.

It was a woman who was in charge

of finding the funds for the project,

Golda Meir, a close friend of Ben-Gurion.

The only potential donors were the 5 million American Jews

who were already contributing a lot,

but she was able to find the words to inspire them to donate.

Jews who are fighting in Palestine, the state of Israel,

are fighting for the only thing that they have in their possession.

It is life and death to them.

And I am here to ask the Jews of United States

that as long as they give us the aid that we require,

in a very short time,

the state of Israel will be a state in peace.

For two months, she scoured the United States.

From Los Angeles to San Francisco, from New York to Chicago,

meetings, galas and raffles followed one another,

and the money flowed freely.

The result, instead of the expected amount,

she collected twice as much.

$50 million that went directly to Czechoslovakia.

The arms were crated in Prague, transited through Hungary,

and then loaded onto cargo ships in Yugoslavia,

three democracies that had bowed to the Kremlin's demands.

On the 3rd of April 1948,

the first shipment of weapons arrived in Palestine,

buried under a mountain of onions.

Ben-Gurion's army seized them.

They would completely change the situation.

On the 14th of May 1948, after three decades of domination,

the last of the British forces quietly left Palestine.

Freed from their burden,

Her Majesty's soldiers bowed out, visibly relieved.

In a hurry to leave,

the official commentator didn't linger.

The Union Jack was hauled down

and the doors closed for good on the British mandate.

The British mandate in Palestine had come to an end.

At 4pm on the 14thof May 1948,

David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the birth of the Jewish state.

(APPLAUSE)

However, he failed to acknowledge the decisive role

the Soviets played in its creation.

The next day, at dawn,

Arab forces swept into the territory of the newborn state.

A merciless battle began,

but thanks to the weapons supplied by the Czechs,

the Israeli army was ready to sustain the shock.

It now had the equipment needed

to defend its borders and repel attackers.

As the troops advanced, Arab villages were taken one by one.

Fleeing the combat, many villages were already deserted.

Those who remained were driven out by violence or intimidation.

Then it was the turn of the big cities, in Haifa,

Jaffa and Lod, the Arabs were expelled.

Forced to abandon their homes,

several hundred thousand Palestinian men,

women and children went into exile.

At the same time, the survivors who'd been languishing in camps

arrived en masse in their new country.

The first were the prisoners in Cyprus.

For them, the dream of the promised land

was finally fulfilled.

As soon as they stepped off the boat,

they became Israeli citizens.

Men of fighting age immediately joined the army.

Many had tattoos on their forearms...

but the new Jewish state had no interest

in their painful past.

After a few days of training,

they were sent to the battlefront to defend their new homeland.

During this conflict,

one out of three Israeli casualties was a holocaust survivor.

However, the young Hebrew state won this war outright.

It even extended its territory beyond the borders set by the UN.

The towns of Nazareth and Acre,

which the partition plan had assigned to the Arabs,

were annexed.

It was a military victory and a demographic one.

The 750,000 dispossessed Arabs,

who were crammed into camps in Gaza and the West Bank, never returned.

Their right to return was discussed at the UN,

but Israel refused to receive them, supported by Moscow,

which always stood by them and imposed its veto.

Ben-Gurion wrote to Stalin,

"Our people will never forget the help given by the USSR,

"nor its loyal support for Israel in its struggle

"for independence in its historic home."

But the honeymoon between the two countries was not to last.

The enthusiasm of Soviet Jews for Israel

quickly upset the Kremlin.

Stalin saw it as a threat

which could turn them away from the communist ideal

which was the foundation of the motherland.

Appointed ambassador to Moscow,

Golda Meir witnessed the deterioration of this alliance,

which would gradually come to an end.

She said...

"From January 1949,

"Russian Jews paid dearly for their betrayal.

"Five months later,

"there was not a single Jewish organisation left in Russia."

No Soviet Jew would be allowed to emigrate to Israel.

But, so, what?

From the first year of its creation,

nearly 300,000 Jews from all over Europe

flocked to the country.

Among them were almost all those

who had lived in the displaced persons camps.

With raw memories of the genocide,

they would keep silent about their sufferings

in order to integrate with the native Israelis,

who would remain deaf to their tragedies.

A Warsaw Ghetto survivor confessed,

What separates us are oceans of thought and experience.

They could not understand us,

they didn't speak our language, the language of the survivors.

Thus, for a long time,

the Holocaust remained a matter for the survivors alone.

Since then, time has passed.

The Holocaust is now at the heart of Israeli identity.

It has become a national issue.

Once a year, on Remembrance Day, everything stops.

In memory of its martyrs,

the country is frozen in silence and contemplation.

(APPLAUSE)

For some years now,

female survivors have been honoured in a beauty contest.

In celebration of life,

the title of Miss Holocaust Survivor is awarded to the winner.

The tragedy of the European Jews,

now so strongly legitimises the existence of the Jewish state

that the world has forgotten that its creation was above all

the result of the cynical game of the great powers.

In reality, the ashes of Auschwitz

did not weigh heavily on the birth of Israel.

Captioned by Ai-Media ai-media.tv