The man who negotiated directly with the British authorities during World War II to permit Palestine Jews to aid their brethren in Nazi-held Europe has accused the British Middle East Command of blocking the Jewish rescue plans.
Former Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, who was wartime political secretary of the Jewish Agency, told a meeting here that when he went to British Headquarters in Cairo with proposals to drop Jewish parachutists behind the German lines to organize resistance, the plan met with the strongest opposition.
Mr. Sharett’s disclosures were made at a memorial meeting for Hanna Senesh, a Jewish parachutist. who was dropped into Hungary in British uniform, captured by the Nazis, tortured and executed. His disclosures were confirmed by Brigadier Israel Galili, wartime Haganah commander, who had the men ready to be dropped behind the German lines.
Mr. Sharett declared it was not true that this Yishuv (the Palestine Jewish Community) had done nothing to save European Jewry. “There was a fire of desperate wrath,” he exclaimed, “which burst forth trying to breaking through the barriers. But there were powerful forces which blocked our access to the other side of the barrier.? He declared that, on some occasions, the British “misled us. “
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
