Recently declassified Israeli archive documents have shed further light on attempts by a Zionist militia to forge a relationship with Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s.
The documents, reported by Haaretz, reveal that Avraham Stern and other members of his Stern Gang made several attempts to forge a partnership with Nazi Germany, based in part on shared opposition to the British, who were then occupying Palestine, where the Zionist movement hoped to create a Jewish state.
Naftali Lubenchik, a Stern Gang member, was sent to meet with German representatives. A document written in 1951 stated that he believed Nazi Germany and its allies did not seek “the physical destruction of the Jewish people, but rather their expulsion from Europe and their concentration in one place…"
The documents show that in May 1941, Eliyahu Golomb, de facto commander of the Haganah, the main Zionist paramilitary operating in Mandatory Palestine, told a small group of people: “I have information... about suspicion regarding a group of Jews who have connections with the enemy.
“According to the information, there is a man who contacted the Germans. This man is known; his name is S,” Golomb said.
