Ben-Gurion On The Fate Of European Jewry

David Ben-Gurion speaking before the Zionist General Council:

Anyone who does not see what Jewry is facing is blind and is neither a Jew nor a human being. First of all, the Jews are not in their place. After the war, every last Jewish collective in every country will have been displaced. American Jewry is settled where it is, but we are only speaking of European Jewry, the Jews in the countries under Hitler. True, this has also happened to other peoples, to a small extent. Poles and Czechs have been displaced, and so now have the French. But it has not happened to them to the same extent. [The Nazis] have not displaced the entire French people. However, it is possible to displace the Jewish people; all of French Jewry, all of Dutch and Romanian Jewry can be displaced. They can also murder them all. I do not know if Jews will survive after Hitler. But if the world war ends, [members of other peoples] will return to their places and towns, and the Jews will have nowhere to return. Not a memory will remain of their homes, shops, and property.

[In these remarks, Ben-Gurion expresses the fear that [“the Nazis] can also murder them all and offers the solution: “immediate transfer . . . to Palestine.”

Source: Central Zionist Archives S25/293

Source: Yad Vashem