ABSTRACT
After the Second World War, many European Haredi rabbis were criticized for failing to adequately motivate their supporters to flee from Nazi-occupied Europe to safety (particularly to Palestine) while it was still possible because Zionism was in direct conflict with their faith. 1 In any case, the Haredi Jews were one of the most vulnerable groups of the Jewish population during the war – they were vulnerable because of their pacifism and because they were often very poor (which limited their ability to emigrate); in addition, not only were they threatened by the Nazis, but they often did not enjoy the favour of the local population either. They were also – unlike the assimilated Jews – clearly recognizable by their appearance (for many non-Jews, they were ‘often so similar’ to various anti-Semitic cartoons) and, because of their intensively intellectual life-style they were usually not in particularly good physical condition, so they had a lower chance of surviving the hardships of war.
