On this day

On this day: Letters of recognition

Hannah Tosh — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:01:24 +0100

In 1993 Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) finally reached agreement over the distribution of land with the Oslo Accords, fully named the "Declaration of Principles on Interim Self Government Arrangements".

This was the initial stage in the first direct attempts between the organisations to solve the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict.

The letters, agreed in Oslo, stated that Israel would now have the right to exist as a secure state with "peace and security" and also there would be preliminary acceptance of the division of land into territories in Gaza and the West Bank.

Moreover, both sides committed themselves to the peace process, hoping to eventually permanently solve all issues.

The Palestinian letter also said that "Accordingly, the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance prevent violations and discipline violators"

The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, responded and agreed with this letter. There was then a ceremony in Washington with the President at the time - Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat and Rabin.

The Oslo Accords were a move towards peace, made against the backdrop of the end of the Cold War.

What the JC said: The milestone draft accord between the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat's PLO is, of course, only a beginning. Even if the final textual details are satisfactorily resolved, Mr Rabin faces public anger at home over an accord denounced by its opponents as a formula for Israel's destruction. Still, it is an immensely important beginning…it represents an opportunity to put in place a process whereby peace, though by no means assured, is at least possible

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On this day: The Blitz begins

Hannah Tosh — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:57:22 +0100

Nazi Germany started bombing Britain in September 1940. The bombings continued on for 76 consecutive days - until May 10 1941 - as Germany attempted to destroy Britain's infrastructure and cripple the country's war economy.

It was reported at the time that the attacks were the worst offence committed by Germany since the war began.

Britain fought back and 88 German war planes were shot down; yet the bombings went on for many days with little pause for recovery.

Germany sometimes bombed for eight hours straight, even destroying air raid shelters and thus devastating London further.

London was the worst hit from the attacks, with Hull also badly damaged. More than a million homes were destroyed and 40,000 people were killed.

The Jewish community was caught up in the centre of all the bombings and the Jewish Chronicle reported that January that many of the main London synagogues had been practically destroyed. Likewise, many Jewish families were bombed out of their homes and had to rely on their communities for support.

Despite the Blitz, the Allies triumphed and Germany was defeated four years later.

What the JC said: Large numbers of Jewish dwellings and business premises have been wrecked and many Synagogues damaged in recent raids on the Metropolis. A London Synagogue suffered almost total destruction when a bomb fell on the-large sheds; adjoining the building in a recent raid. The Synagogue was built in 1904 and included classrooms and a beadle's flat. Most of the Sefarim had been sent into the country at the outbreak, of the war. Those that remained in the Synagogue were courageously rescued by the local demolition squad…When the bomb fell there were a number of casualties in houses nearby…The Chanucah lights of 5701 will be remembered by those many Jews - and non-Jews too-who saw them kindled in underground air-raid shelters this year. They brought rays of cheer into these black-out nights.

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On This Day: hostages at the Munich Olympics

Hannah Tosh — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:42:56 +0100

Nine members of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team were snatched from their apartment in the Olympic village and murdered by the terrorist group Black September.

Eight gunmen struck as the athletes slept. Others were spared when a colleague- Yossef Gutfreund heard a disturbance, raised the alarm.

The hostages had been taken as a response to the 200 Arab prisoners that Israel held at the time. Black September had demanded the release of two German prisoners. However, the Israelis refused to negotiate.

Israel offered to send Special Forces to help the German Police who had no hostage training. They declined.

The terrorists then threatened to kill two hostages and refused attempts to exchange them for unlimited amounts of money.

The hostages were killed when the gunmen retaliated by opening fire after a German sniper’s failed attempt to shoot the group’s leader.

What the JC said: Israel was dumbfounded and taken completely by surprise by the deaths of her nine members of her Olympic Games team murdered by Arab terrorists in air field battle near Munich…As the shattering reality of the disaster hit home the first reaction here was one of self condemnation for the failure, having relied exclusively on the security arrangements made by the Olympics Committee. All local authorities announced the cancellation of receptions and festivities planned for Rosh Hashana.

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On this day: Germany invades Poland

Hannah Tosh — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:53:00 +0100

For the second time in less than 20 years Britain and France were declaring war on Germany, this time, for the invasion of Poland.

Hitler's obsession with expanding Germany into a greater nation with more "Lebensraum" (living space) began with the Polish territories.

On the Eastern side of Germany past Poland laid another German territory, East Prussia. In the years leading up to this Hitler tried everything to unite the territories by manipulating Poland through schemes such as the Anti Commitern Pact and the German-Polish Non Aggression Pact. However, all had failed and Poland was becoming unsettled by Germany's behaviour with Russia; thus fearful of losing independence.

So, Hitler decided to obtain the land by force and without warning on the 1st September 1939 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland from the North, South and West.

In response to this Britain and France mobilised their troops to support Poland. Germany made swift progress by land and air because the Polish forces were weak and unprepared.

German bomber planes were obliterating large Polish cities such as, Krakow and Warsaw. Five separate armies were destroying the Polish defence on foot. There were many Jewish and Non Jewish casualties. By the evening the Nazis were listing their demands for dividing up the conquered Polish Land and as a result Britain and France had declared war in Poland's defence.

Early JC reports portrayed the environment as very difficult and the Polish Prime Minister talking to the paper stated "the Jews had done their duty in an exemplary manner, fighting heroically for Poland" and "the misfortune of war had united the entire nation" against the Nazis.

What the JC said: Meanwhile, official Nazi German broadcasts belie the reports of a change in the official attitude towards the Jews. Attacks are made regularly in the news bulletins. They are still saying that Britain is fighting for "Jewish financiers and Jewish gold." In one broadcast, it was declared that the verminous atmosphere left by the hundreds of thousands of Jewish inhabitants of, beleaguered Warsaw would have to be blown away.

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On this day: The liberation of Paris

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:48:16 +0100

The city had been occupied by Hitler's forces for four long years, but finally General Charles de Gaulle and the allied forces were able to march back into Paris.

After several days of fighting sparked by an uprising by the French resistance, the allies prevailed. On August 24, the French 2nd Armoured Division became the first one in, followed by other American and French troops and cheered on by residents.

The following morning the occupying forces led by General Dietrich von Choltitz, the commander of the Paris garrison, signed a document of surrender at Montparnasse station and ordered his troops to cease their fire.

As president of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, De Gaulle's first stop in the reclaimed city was the town hall, where he said "Vive Paris".

"Paris. Paris outraged. Paris broken. Paris martyred. But Paris liberated."

The next day, despite the continued presence of sniper fire, the city celebrated as thousands of people took to the Champs Elyeeses. More than 1,000 civilians had died in the uprising, but three months after D Day, France, not only Paris, was liberated.

What the JC said: Four years ago France fell, betrayed and overwhelmed, beneath the brute force and political poison gas of the conquering Hun. Many, in other countries, rashly concluded that she was for ever lost to the family of great nations. Others knew, the moment they heard that heroic call from De Gaulle at the hour of his country's deepest humiliation that the real France was not crushed but would surely rise again, and they have proved right. France, the real France, has struggled to her feet and her sons, fighting as Frenchmen on their own soil and liberating its capital city, have asserted her irrepressible vitality with an élan and gallantry that has inspired and thrilled the friend of their country everywhere. This splendid resurrection has its signal moral: No self-respecting people will submit to extinction while a spark of life exists amongst its true sons and daughters and while an ounce of proper pride stirs within it.

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On this day: Clifford Odets dies

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:04:47 +0100

The Philadelphia-born Odets gained world-wide fame in his career. When he died at the age of 57 he had authored almost 20 plays, writing on topics including the Nazis, the great depression and the trials of ordinary life.

His themes were not necessarily Jewish but, as the son of immigrants to America, his work often had a Jewish feel to it.

He started out as an actor and it was several years before he made the move behind the scenes, writing his first scenes for the theatre in 1935. His plays included The Country Girl, Rocket to the Moon and Golden Boy, with a musical of the latter made a year after his death.

Like Arthur Miller and other Jewish figures in the arts world, Odets was affected by the Red Scare and called for questioning by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

Forced into a corner, he named others he knew with communist links, although only those who were already known to the authorities.

What the JC said in 1938: "Awake and Sing," by Clifford Odets, the clever young Jewish playwright will be presented by the Stage Society at the Vaudeville on Sunday February 20th. The play deals with the experiences of a Jewish family in New" York. Mr. Leon M. Leon will produce. As the performance can only be attended by members of the Stage Society. an\ one interested in obtaining membership can get full particulars from Miss Mary Corn at 32, Shaftesbury Avenue. Wl

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On this day: Gaza settlements evacuated

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:55:54 +0100

As Israeli soldiers began removing Jewish Gaza residents from their homes, pictures of clashes, stories about the settlers and why they did not leave and musings about what Gaza would be like after appeared in newspapers around the world.

By the time of disengagement – two years after the plan was announced - Israel was awash with orange, the colour of those opposed to the plan. Some wore orange stars on their clothes – Holocaust imagery to show their anger.

In all, 25 Gaza and West Bank settlements were evacuated in six days. After the first day 1,842 people who had refused to leave voluntarily had been evacuated, and just a few hundred Jewish people remained in Gaza.

But it was not easy; the most extreme protesters were happy to resort to violence. They barricaded themselves into their homes, set fire to abandoned buildings and even pelted soldiers with eggs, flour and stones. A woman set her self on fire in anger at the decision.

"It's impossible to watch this, and that includes myself, without tears in the eyes," said then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He called on the protesters not to attack soldiers. "Don't make it harder for them, don't harm them. Attack me. I am responsible for this. Attack me. Accuse me."

The aim of the plan was to make Israel safer, by placing 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza outside of Israeli territory. That February, voters gave terrorist group Hamas a majority in legislative elections and, in June, terrorists snatched Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Then came rockets and mortar shells fired into Israeli towns near the border, then in December 2008, war.

What the JC said: The overwhelming lesson of the disengagement has been that when the Israeli government makes a decision to implement a policy, however unpopular that decision might be for a particular sector of the population, the apparatus of the state has sufficient power to ensure the decision's proper execution…. It would, however, be premature to conclude that a new dawn has broken in the Middle East, for there are many, more serious obstacles that lie ahead, but we have witnessed some rays of light breaking through the cloud.

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On this day: A Nazi sentenced

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:41:38 +0100

At the age of 25, in 1944, Josef Scheungraber was a Nazi commander operating in Italy. It was on his orders that the military police massacred 14 people in a quiet Tuscany village. His victims were ordered into a barn and the barn was then blown up.

It would take another 65 years for justice to be done. But finally a Munich court sentenced him to life after convicting him on 10 counts of murder as well as one count of attempted murder.

Scheungraber had denied the charges and his lawyers argued there was no evidence, despite the fact that he had already been convicted in an Italian military court for the same crime.

The case rested on photographs placing him at the scene and a conversation about why Scheungraber could not return to Italy, recounted by a key witness.

The sole survivor of the attack, then a 15 year old, told the court: "I heard a scream, and that was it then. They were all dead."

What Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff told the JC: People see a frail old gentleman. War criminals might be old now but in the prime of their lives they put all of their energy into murdering innocent people. I call it misplaced sympathy syndrome. These people had no mercy for their victims.

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On this day: Mahmoud Darwish dies

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:12:56 +0100

Darwish was an iconic figure to the Palestinians; a poet, but also a prominent political voice. When he died he was mourned by ten thousand Palestinians and the Ramallah Cultural Palace was renamed in his honour.

His poetry covered the themes of exile and conflict, and was intensely critical of Israel as well as some elements in the Palestinian leadership and the split between Hamas and Fatah.

It was also seen as a key contributor to the development of a Palestinian national identity in the years after 1948, with Darwish recruited to write a Palestinian Declaration of Independence by Yassir Arafat. In 1974 he penned Arafat's "gun and olive branch" speech to the United Nations

His work, more than 21 poetry collections was translated into some 20 languages and he was celebrated in the literary community.

Yet for all that he was a cultural icon, he was opposed to many of the efforts to secure peace between Israel and the Palestinians and often took a hard-line position.

He died at the age of 67 following complications in heart surgery.

What the JC said: Yossi Sarid, the former education minister, briefly introduced works by Mr Darwish into the Israeli curriculum in 2000. "Sometimes Darwish is very angry at us and that's natural," Mr Sarid said. "Once I spoke to him and he told me he had studied our national poet, Haim Nachman Bialik. He said it was a very illuminating experience."

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On this day: Britain declares war on Germany

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:55:06 +0100

As the Balkan power keg lit up Europe, Germany made its move and invaded Russia, and then Belgium.

In keeping with the terms of the 1839 Treaty of London, the Great Powers were required to protect Belgium's neutrality.

The German invasion violated that treaty and Prime Minister Herbert Asquith told parliament that Britain had been given an 'unsatisfactory reply' to the British ultimatum that Belgium must be kept neutral.

Accordingly, at midnight he declared war on Germany, interrupting the progress of the Schlieffen Plan, Germany's planned advance through Belgium. From then for more than four years, Europe would be divided and at war.

Much of the fighting took place in Belgium, creating a refugee crisis amongst the Jews of Belgium. A Jewish Chronicle editorial from that October noted that their case was "more bitter" than that of other refuges from Belgium, because most were not even Belgian.

The paper noted: "They are, most of them, Jews who once migrated from the horrors of Russia and Poland, or who have fled at some time from the sharp antisemitism which they encountered in Austria, or from the inimical surroundings in which they found themselves placed, because they were Jews, in the land of the Kaiser.

"To Belgium they went for their livelihood, in exchange for those qualities of energy, sobriety, adaptability, which are the Jew's all the world over. They went to Belgium, many of these Jewish refugees, as to a haven of rest, so that the children born to them should have a prospect of life compatible with elementary notions of justice and of freedom. And now this terrible Holocaust has burst upon them, and they are wanderers once again."

What the JC said: As we write we are faced with the fact that Great Britain is engaged in a monumental struggle for life or death as a nation, a struggle that was none of her seeking and that was forced upon her...England has been all she could be to Jews; Jews will be all they can be to England. We to-day will place aside any individual feeling we may have harboured as to the course of international affairs, even the bitter feeling that this country in this titanic struggle is linked with Russia. We know but a single cause, a single passionate desire. Our cause is the cause of England, our desire is the triumph of England with all that she has stood and stands for, so that she may- overcome her enemies, and come forth from the crowning ordeal as free, great, and mighty as ever.

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