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German Nazis in Mandatory Palestine

(BBC News) Raffi Berg - The German Templer community was established in Palestine in 1869 by Christoph Hoffmann, a Protestant theologian from Ludwigsburg in Wuerttemberg, who sought to build a spiritual Kingdom of God in the Holy Land. They began to settle in the Jerusalem neighborhood known today as the German Colony in 1873, where most of their buildings, with their distinctive red-tiled roofs and green shutters, are still intact. After the Nazi party rose to power in Germany, the ripples spread to expatriate communities, including in Palestine. A branch was established in Haifa by Templer Karl Ruff in 1933, and other Templer colonies followed, including Jerusalem. A teacher at one of the Templer schools, Ludwig Buchhalter, became the local party chief and led efforts to ensure Nazism permeated all aspects of German life there. The British Boy Scouts and Girl Guides which operated in the German Colony were replaced by the Hitler Youth and League of German Maidens. Workers joined the Nazi Labor Organization and party members greeted each other in the street with "Heil Hitler" and a Nazi salute. Buchhalter's house served as the Nazi party headquarters and Buchhalter himself drove with swastika pennants attached to his car. According to Heidemarie Wawrzyn, author of the new book Nazis in the Holy Land 1933-1948, about 75% of Germans in Palestine who belonged to the Nazi party, or were in some way associated with it, were Templers. She says more than 42% of all Templers participated in Nazi activities in Palestine. In August 1939, all eligible Germans in Palestine received call-up papers from Germany, and by the end of the month some 249 had left to join the Wehrmacht. On September 3, 1939, when Britain declared war on Germany, all Germans in Palestine were classed as enemy aliens. In July 1941, more than 500 were deported to Australia, while between 1941 and 1944, 400 more were repatriated to Germany as part of three exchanges with the Nazis for Jews held in ghettos and camps.
2013-07-12 00:00:00
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