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Date: Thursday, September 20, 2012
Duration: All Day
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 An official communique by the War Office announces the formation of the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army, with the Zionist flag approved as its standard.
The unit included more than 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine, organized into three infantry battalions and several supporting units. Seven hundred of them would loose their lives fighting against the Germans in Italy.
Some 1.5 million Jews fought within the allied armies during World War II, but the request by Palestine’s Jews to create wholly-Jewish units as a clear symbol of Jewish participation in the fight was consistently refused by the British authorities, who accepted only individual volunteers and usually placed them in non-combat roles.
The Jewish Brigade Group was seen even at the time of its creation as too little, too late. In subsequent years, the contribution of Jewish fighting men was belittled or ignored, and Jews were often falsely portrayed as having avoided military service entirely or as having sought cushy and low-risk assignments. |
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