From The Encyclopedia Britannica, Thirteenth Edition (1926), Volume 2:
Effects of the War
Eastern Europe – The War completely changed the face of the Jewish world. In the Russian Empire it brought the Jews political emancipation, but it also brought them unspeakable suffering and ended by submerging them in the flood of anarchy which followed the collapse of orderly government. … Finally, the War led up to the Balfour Declaration, which foreshadowed the establishment under international guarantees of a national home for the Jews in Palestine.
Stein, Leonard, Jews, p605
Though I knew that Eastern European Jews struggled, particularly in the Pale of Settlement, what I didn’t realize is how the situation deteriorated after World War I. Interestingly enough, thew Jews in Russia went from 7 million to 3 million after the war, with almost 3 million ending up in Ukraine. Ukraine and the newly resurrected Poland fighting a war themselves, which likely impacted the Jewish refugees even more.
What we didn’t know in 1926 is how the British would control the entry of Jews into Palestine, with strict quotas that were not adjusted during the War. In fact, boats filled with Jews who survived World War II and wanted to leave Europe behind, arrived in Palestine and were forcibly kept from landing.
Jews in Eastern Europe
While the Minority Treaties were being negotiated in Paris a dangerous situation was developing in eastern and southeastern Europe. The Jews were in an unenviable position, both in the succession states, where an intolerant Nationalism was in the ascendant, and in what was left of the dismembered empires, where scapegoats had to be found for the humiliations of the peace settlement. They were peculiarly exposed to attack in the atmosphere created by Bolshevism in Russia and its momentary irruption into Hungary
Stein, Leonard, Jews, p606
At the Paris Peace conference, a delegation of Eastern European Jews demanded that Jews be recognized as a “national minority” in successor states (e.g., the newly-founded countries) and have some semblance of self-government. However, British and French Jews were against this, as it would establish a state-within-a-state.
The part of the quote about intolerant Nationalism would seem to apply equally after World War II, as those Jews who survived often failed to reclaim their homes in whatever village they were from, finding others living there and local governments either unwilling or unable to force them to leave.
The entire entry in the 13th edition is very interesting, as it was written pre-Depression and before the rise of Nazi Germany but makes it easier to understand the underlying conditions that perhaps led to rising anti-semitism (which is still very prevalent across Europe).
Image Credits
- “Pale of settlement” by Claude Zygiel is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- “The first plenary session of the peace conference, held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, on January 18, 1919” by unknown is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
