What if Britain had let all the Jews of Europe into Israel in the 30s?

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Many European Jews wanted to move to Israel when Hitler rose to power, but to appease the local Arabs, the Brits didn’t allow many to move.

What if the Brits had allowed it? How would 9 million Jewish migrants in the 1930s change things?

My guess is that there would be a larger Israel with a smaller Arab population.
 
And a bunch of sectarian violence as Palestine erupts into chaos and anarchy which the British did not want.

Also, I like that name of yours.

In retrospect, it would have prevented the Holocaust, which is obviously a far greater evil than sectarian violence.

And I’m glad you like my name :)
 
In retrospect, it would have prevented the Holocaust, which is obviously a far greater evil than sectarian violence.

And I’m glad you like my name :)
Well, it's not that simple.

In the '30s, no one knew the Holocaust was going to happen, at least publicly, and the British would not want to let all the Jews in precisely because they feared sectarian violence between the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs.
 
Well, it's not that simple.

In the '30s, no one knew the Holocaust was going to happen, at least publicly, and the British would not want to let all the Jews in precisely because they feared sectarian violence between the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs.

I know that, but in retrospect, it would have been a good idea.
 
You must bear in mind though that they all might not have wanted to go there. Plus several governments may also try to stop such an exodus too.
Regardless, there is no reason for Britain to do this. The complicated relations across the Middle East would be ruined.
 

nbcman

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Many European Jews wanted to move to Israel when Hitler rose to power, but to appease the local Arabs, the Brits didn’t allow many to move.

What if the Brits had allowed it? How would 9 million Jewish migrants in the 1930s change things?

My guess is that there would be a larger Israel with a smaller Arab population.
Britain couldn't allow it as Palestine in the 1930s (OTL population of about 1 million) couldn't support an additional 9 million people. Hitler would get his wish to liquidate the Jews and could point to the British for doing the deed. It is the same result as the Madagascar plan.
 
Would have to agree the British mandate territory at the time would not have been able to support that amount of refugees fleeing Europe, though it could have supported a fairly significant number.

The question then becomes which other locations could the remaining refugees have fled to, the Dominican Republic was said to be willing to accept 200k refugees until US pressure put a stop to it (due to the FDR admin's own motivations via M Project, etc). Not sure if any other countries could have been persuaded to accept more refugees (e.g. South America or other Caribbean territories, Italian Eritrea, Japanese Taiwan / Shanghai, etc).
 
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Lusitania

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Retrospectively it would of been simpler and cheaper for British to assassinate Hitler and prevent both the war and holocaust.

To state that they would of done us simplistic because no one had any inkling that the situation in the 1930s would lead to the holocaust.
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
Retrospectively it would of been simpler and cheaper for British to assassinate Hitler and prevent both the war and holocaust.

To state that they would of done us simplistic because no one had any inkling that the situation in the 1930s would lead to the holocaust.
Hitler wasn't the only German politician who wanted a war. If anything, he could be replaced with a more competent leader. Retrospectively the best decision would be to stop Hitler at the Rhineland. That was really France's responsibility, but with Britain backing them up France might actually show a spine.
 
If a nation without lands that have Arab and Muslim populations gets the mandate instead of Britain they might be more willing to disregard the local population wishes. Britain could also maybe give it to someone else later. Britain letting in that many Jews are likely to cause some unrest in all of its Arab holdings.
 
And a bunch of sectarian violence as Palestine erupts into chaos and anarchy which the British did not want.

Also, I like that name of yours.

Very little sectarian violence; there would have been an overwhelming number of Jews, and they would have been so much better organized that any violence would have been incredibly one-sided. It's unlikely that outside countries would intervene if it was all still officially under the aegis of the British.

Biggest problem is starvation and thirst. Israel feeds itself today and has 9 million people (as of...last week, I think?), but before the Green Revolution...not good.
 
Very little sectarian violence; there would have been an overwhelming number of Jews, and they would have been so much better organized that any violence would have been incredibly one-sided. It's unlikely that outside countries would intervene if it was all still officially under the aegis of the British.

Biggest problem is starvation and thirst. Israel feeds itself today and has 9 million people (as of...last week, I think?), but before the Green Revolution...not good.
Isn’t otl Israel a pioneer and big innovator in modern agricultural production?
 
I know that, but in retrospect, it would have been a good idea.

The thing is - even if the British had a magical foresight machine (or a history book from the year 2015, or whatever), they still wouldn't have done it. Instead they would have just pressured France into getting aggressive with Germany prior to 1940, split Rome from Berlin prior to the Anti-Comintern pact, or taken literally any number of steps that involve removing Hitler from the picture before the war gets out of hand. (Personally I'm a fan of the 'Move a bunch of troops into Germany after the invasion of Czechoslovakia, which means Hitler gets couped by his own generals' strategy).

Even in a world where the British have such advantages, moving all the Jews to Palestine would be a needlessly complex and unpopular way of solving a problem.
 
Didn’t the otl creation of Israel get the benefit of US and USSR support to help in its creation? The US seemed to be pushing hard for it while the UK seem more iffy on it. USSR support was more passive. Does this impact Israel being created?
 
How many Jews were actually interested in immigrating to Palestine in the 1930s? While German (and later Austrian and Czechoslovakian) Jews would probably flee en masse, would Jews from any other country do so?
 
How many Jews were actually interested in immigrating to Palestine in the 1930s? While German (and later Austrian and Czechoslovakian) Jews would probably flee en masse, would Jews from any other country do so?
The USSR is probably the exception. Most Jews will likely start leaving in large numbers in Eastern and Central Europe by state “encouragement” around the 30s. Nazis and some fascist rather just deport them and take their stuff if they can over killing them all. That’s what Europeans countries been doing to Jews for 1000 years. But in the 30s they had no one really willing to take them or any were to push them. Immigration and emigration was stricter between countries back then. US didn’t want people like 50 years go. Due to state control people could not just leave the Soviet Union like they did with the Russian Empire. If the Jews are being treated poorly in these nations and being pressured to leave they will if they can. Israel is better then Germany by 38 and 39 for Jews. Same goes for many other European nations. Western Europe would be the slowest but a otl ww2 would clear most places of their Jewish populations if they are still able to flee to Israel during the war. Soviet Jews probably still suffer death and Nazi camps. Soviets Jews might not be fully able to leave the Soviet Union until the 90s or they fall apart. America and UK Jews could go there at otl rates. Middle East and Africa would also be otl rates. The big difference now is Israel is going to be much more European in culture and political divided. I also think a larger religious and secular divide will be a issue. Holocaust greatly changed the Jewish culture and identity especially the Israelis one.
 
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