Churchill and the Jews

Details Churchill's friendship with individual Jews, especially Chaim Weizmann, and, more importantly, his Zionism, from his support for the implementation of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 through the establishment of the Jewish state. Churchill was consistent in this regard not only personally but also publicly. He supported Jewish immigration to Palestine, with the eventual goal of a Jewish majority and Jewish self-rule. He was an early opponent of Hitler and an arch-critic of the Munich agreement. During the war, as Prime Minister of Britain, he referred to the Holocaust as "possibly the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world". He was in favor of bombing the rail lines to Auschwitz, helped rescue Jews in Yugoslavia, and helped to establish the Jewish Brigade in the British army as a form of resistance. He was a persistent opponent of antisemitism in his country, among friends, family, and political figures whose antisemitism often took the form of anti-Zionism.

Early years : "This monstrous conspiracy" -- Killing the Aliens Bill -- Against anti-semitism: "Be good Jews!" -- A persistent friendship -- The South Wales pogrom -- The First World War and its aftermath -- "The struggle for the soul of the Jewish people" -- Responsibility for the Jewish national home -- In the promised land, March 1921 -- Building on the Balfour declaration -- Defending the "Jew" Rutenberg -- An anti-semitic libel -- The future of Palestine under the British mandate -- The rise of Hitler -- Defender of zionism -- Nazism rampant: "abominable persecution" -- "A great Jewish state there, numbered by millions" -- The partition debate, 1937: "a counsel of despair" -- Warnings, 1937-1938 -- Palestine the legitimate Jewish homeland -- The black paper, "this moral blow": May 1939 -- The first nine months of war, 1939-40 -- Prime minister: the Palestine dimension -- "Vile crimes" -- A vigilant eye -- Bombing Auschwitz: "get anything out of the air force you can" -- "If our dreams of zionism are to end" -- The Saudi Arabian dimension -- From war to peace: "I shall continue to do my best" -- The King David Hotel bomb: "we are to be at war with the Jews of Palestine" -- "A …