Hagadah shel Pesach - 1st Camouflage Co[mpan]y (Pal.) R[oyal] E[ngineers] / Plugat Haasva'ah Harishonah E[retz]-I[srael]

(HAGADAH)

n.p.

1945

Hebrew text. Hand-colored illustrations

Unrecorded

This highly scarce Hagadah printed in just a handful of copies reflects the unique perspective of the "Palestinian" Jews (as they were then referred to), serving in the British Army. It is a pastiche of elements of the traditional Hagadah together with elements of Zionist idealism concerning rebuilding the Land of Israel. The result is a fusion of age-old texts alongside songs of recent Chalutzic vintage. The illustrations contrast the Nazi oppression of the Jews of Europe with the vim and vigor of the youth of Eretz Israel. Thus, in the illustration to "Avadim Hayinu" (f. 5), we have at right a Nazi taskmaster swinging a whip over the head of a Jew with the Egyptian pyramids in the background, while to the left we see a young Jew in uniform with a gun slung over his shoulder and a young Jewess with hoe in hand, both standing erect in the Jewish homeland. The 1st Camouflage Company (Palestinian) of the Royal Engineers, was attached to the British Eighth Army, which served in North Africa. Upon the onset of the Second World War many Palestinian Jews joined the British Army to fight against Germany, however the British refused to permit a seperate Jewish unit. By the Summer of 1944, Churchill finally consented and the Jewish Brigade was formed, "moved as he was by the slaughter of Hungarian Jewry." Although as the Manchester Guardian caustically noted at the time, "it was five years too late." See M. Beckham, The Jewish Brigade (1999). Once Germany was defeated, members of the Jewish Brigade were actively involved in the Berichah Movement, assisting the survivors of the Holocaust traverse Europe and "illegally" reaching the Land of Israel