|Young women outside of a "recruiting office" during the 1939 |
protests against the White Paper. The women on the right are
identified as "revisionists" or "brownshirts."
|Anti-White Paper demonstration outside |
of Jerusalem's Yeshurun Synagogue.
Procession led by Chief Rabbi Isaac
Herzog (in top hat).
|Recruits signing up and here|
According to one newspaper account at the time, "All men and women between the ages of 18 and 35 have been asked to voluntarily register and place themselves at the disposal of the Jewish authorities for any duties in order to defeat the new policy."
|Recruiting station at the Jerusalem Egged bus station. The sign on|
the left reads "census station."
Presumably, they would later serve in the Jewish militias such as the Haganah or Irgun, and many would join the British army to fight the Nazis in Europe and North Africa. An estimated 30,000 Jews of Palestine fought in the British Army in World War II.
Coincidentally, as the White Paper was issued, 937 Jewish passengers were sailing on the SS St. Louis from the German port of Hamburg seeking refuge in Cuba and the United States. Entry was denied. The ship and its passengers were forced to return to Europe because the gates to Palestine were also shut.
One newspaper provided an account of Lithuanian Jews in Kaunas delivering a protest against the White Paper to the British legation and the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry. Tragically, the Lithuanian Jewish community was wiped out by the Nazis.