AHC: Nazi Berlin captured by Jews

The issue would be that Britain was actively preventing Jews from arriving into Mandatory Palestine from 1939 onward. While I'm sure Ethiopian Jews could get smuggled into Mandate Palestine, or find a way inside, the Royal Navy would prevent any mass migration.
Could it be possible for Ethiopian Jews to form their own contingent in an Ethiopian Expeditionary Force sent to North Africa and eventually join the Jewish Brigade?
 
Could it be possible for Ethiopian Jews to form their own contingent in an Ethiopian Expeditionary Force sent to North Africa and eventually join the Jewish Brigade?

Maybe? The issue would be getting enough volunteers, there just weren't a lot of Ethiopian Jews at the time (maybe between 50,000 and 60,000). It took until August 1944 for the British to raise the Jewish Brigade, when it was already too little, too late; I just don't see the British raising an Ethiopian Expeditionary Forces with a distinct Ethiopian Jewish contingent.

And there were still doubts about their Jewish identity. It wasn't until 1973 when Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said Ethiopian Jews were Jewish according to halakha (Jewish law), and cited a 16th century rabbi (the Chief Rabbi of Egypt), David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (also known as the Radbaz), who said not only were Ethiopian Jews to be considered Jewish by Jewish law, but that they were descendants of the Tribe of Dan. Even then, it wasn't until 1975-77 when the Israeli government said they were eligible to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return.
 
Warsaw Uprising is given support. Jewish Rebels join Soviet forces. Push faster then the Soviets to try to capture Hitler alive. Find Hitler dead.
 
If the Nazis don't do anything stupid like the battle of the Ardennes and strengthen their defenses they can hold out longer.
Increased Soviet casualties might give the Russians a brilliant idea " We have thousands of men just released from concentration camps who hate the Nazis, and want pay back really really bad." Of course it might take a little while to get them into fighting condition , but the Nazis retreating from indefensible areas in Eastern Europe could speed up the liberation of Poland and the concentration camps. Having the Nazis build aa concentratio camp in the Ukraine would also speed up the liberation of prisoners.
Those soldiers would volunteer for the assault on Berlin.
As for Anne Frank she died in Auschwitz 4 days before it was liberated , a quick elaboration could spare her life and she could become an official morale officer for the unit, demanding Hitler and his henchmen be taken alive to be put on trial.
The vengeance division storms the bunker with such speed and fury it's captured before its occupants know what's going on.
Hitler was caught on the toilet and dragged out with a cameraman filming it all.
 
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have a Jewish rebel group, supported by the Allies, successfully capture Berlin in 1945.

"Total strength: 2,300,000 soldiers (+155,900-200,000
Polish Army in the East)[1][2]

6,250 tanks and SP guns[2]
7,500 aircraft[2]
41,600 artillery pieces.[3][4]
For the investment and assault on the Berlin Defence Area: about 1,500,000 soldiers[5]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin

"In 1939, the core Jewish population reached its historical peak of 17 million (0.8% of the global population). Because of the Holocaust, the number was reduced to 11 million in 1945.[5]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jewish_population_comparisons

It's only a slight exaggeration to say that you would need the entire able-bodied Jewish adult male population of the world!

(BTW, leaving aside the purely military considerations, the Allies knew the strength of anti-Semitism--and the very last thing they wanted to do was to give the impression that it was a "Jewish war" against Nazi Germany. That's one reason why Allied propaganda portrayed Nazi atrocities against the Jews as simply part of a larger pattern of Nazi brutality against many nationalities. In particular, for decades Soviet propaganda portrayed "those murdered at Babi Yar and a hundred other sites [as] simply 'Soviet citizens, victims of Fascism.'" https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/...action-the-jewish-anti-fascist-committee.html)
 
Warsaw Uprising is given support. Jewish Rebels join Soviet forces. Push faster then the Soviets to try to capture Hitler alive. Find Hitler dead.
They were hardly any Jews left in Warsaw by the time of Warsaw Uprising. TBH, they were few Jews left in Warsaw by the time of the earlier Ghetto Uprising (which could not receive any support anyway, as by then Soviets were beyond Dniepr and the Allies still in England.


The best chance would be if for some strange reason Nazis exchanged Jews from their occupation area for Poles from Soviet occupation area in the period between Battle of Poland and Barbarossa.
 

True, but I think there's also the propaganda victory of having a Jewish force take Berlin.

Now you could have the British raise the Jewish Brigade a lot earlier, or even have Ze'ev Jabotinsky not die (the below paragraph is from an old post of mine referenced here). A Jewish army is raised in 1941-42. After all, Jabotinsky was the force behind the Jewish Legion in World War I, along with Joseph Trumpeldor. The biggest issue is that the British would be reluctant to raise a Jewish army, the Americans are isolationist, and Weizmann & Ben-Gurion would be cautious of the Revisionist movement. But if they come to an agreement with Jabotinsky, Ben-Gurion, and Weizmann to have it like the Jewish Legion in the First World War, it might be acceptable.

But let's say a Jewish army is created in 1941-42. Jews would be fighting in a Jewish army, under a Jewish flag (which the British wouldn't like, as they rejected Weizmann's offer). In his June 19 speech in Manhattan, Jabotinsky said, "There is stuff for well over 100,000 Jewish soldiers even without counting American Jews...that source alone would have yielded three to four divisions." We're talking about thousands of trained Jewish soldiers and officers, possible involvement of former members of the Jewish Legion, and the Revisionist movement most likely would even put forth a platform for rescuing European Jews from the Nazis and funnel them to Mandate Palestine.

I could see two main ways this Jewish army could be involved in fighting the Nazis and have a shot at taking Berlin. The first is being attached to the British in North Africa, and then getting diverted through Italy northwards. The second is being attached with the British when they land at Juno and Sword Beach and move through Nazi-occupied Europe. Maybe a race to reach Berlin first?
 
But let's say a Jewish army is created in 1941-42. Jews would be fighting in a Jewish army, under a Jewish flag (which the British wouldn't like, as they rejected Weizmann's offer). In his June 19 speech in Manhattan, Jabotinsky said, "There is stuff for well over 100,000 Jewish soldiers even without counting American Jews...that source alone would have yielded three to four divisions." We're talking about thousands of trained Jewish soldiers and officers, possible involvement of former members of the Jewish Legion, and the Revisionist movement most likely would even put forth a platform for rescuing European Jews from the Nazis and funnel them to Mandate Palestine.

Leaving aside other problems, "well over 100,00 Jewish soldiers" would be a drop in the bucket, so far as the Battle of Berlin was concerned. In OTL we are talking about 2,300,000 Soviet soldiers (plus up to 200,000 in the Polish Army in the East). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin
 
Leaving aside other problems, "well over 100,00 Jewish soldiers" would be a drop in the bucket, so far as the Battle of Berlin was concerned. In OTL we are talking about 2,300,000 Soviet soldiers (plus up to 200,000 in the Polish Army in the East). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin

I'm well-aware of that. OP said a Jewish rebel group supported by the Allied Powers. If this 100,000-strong Jewish army is the first to take Berlin, I had assumed that they would be supported by Allied forces as well.
 
True, but I think there's also the propaganda victory of having a Jewish force take Berlin.

It was Nazi propaganda that tried to represent the Allies as waging a "Jewish war." The Allies, aware of how widespread anti-Semitism was, tried to de-emphasize the Holocaust as being directed specifically against the Jews and to portray it as simply part of Nazi barbarism against all non-Germans.
 
True, but I think there's also the propaganda victory of having a Jewish force take Berlin.

Now you could have the British raise the Jewish Brigade a lot earlier, or even have Ze'ev Jabotinsky not die (the below paragraph is from an old post of mine referenced here). A Jewish army is raised in 1941-42. After all, Jabotinsky was the force behind the Jewish Legion in World War I, along with Joseph Trumpeldor. The biggest issue is that the British would be reluctant to raise a Jewish army, the Americans are isolationist, and Weizmann & Ben-Gurion would be cautious of the Revisionist movement. But if they come to an agreement with Jabotinsky, Ben-Gurion, and Weizmann to have it like the Jewish Legion in the First World War, it might be acceptable.

But let's say a Jewish army is created in 1941-42. Jews would be fighting in a Jewish army, under a Jewish flag (which the British wouldn't like, as they rejected Weizmann's offer). In his June 19 speech in Manhattan, Jabotinsky said, "There is stuff for well over 100,000 Jewish soldiers even without counting American Jews...that source alone would have yielded three to four divisions." We're talking about thousands of trained Jewish soldiers and officers, possible involvement of former members of the Jewish Legion, and the Revisionist movement most likely would even put forth a platform for rescuing European Jews from the Nazis and funnel them to Mandate Palestine.

I could see two main ways this Jewish army could be involved in fighting the Nazis and have a shot at taking Berlin. The first is being attached to the British in North Africa, and then getting diverted through Italy northwards. The second is being attached with the British when they land at Juno and Sword Beach and move through Nazi-occupied Europe. Maybe a race to reach Berlin first?

Problems:
American Jews had been fighting in the US Army and there was no reason to change that just to please Jabotinsky: not all American Jews shared his ideas and it would be strange for US citizen to be forced to serve in a “foreign” army (not to mention numerous organizational and social problems).

Then, in OTL neither US nor British troops came anywhere close to Berlin and Bradley in his book General at War explained why Ike rejected the ideas of race to Berlin even if both ‘primadonnas’ had been advocating them: it required a (long) narrow thrust operation with most of the resources taken from other armies and was heavily based upon an assumption that everything would go just fine and enemy is not going to do anything funny like resisting or trying to cut off the advancing force (which the rest of the allied forces would not be able to prevent due to the shortage of gas). Plus there were trifles related to a need of maintaining a very heavy traffic along few roads and a high probability of suffering heavy losses if the enemy decides to fight for Berlin.
 
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