ABSTRACT
The recruitment of tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors who arrived in Israel during the War of Independence is an incomparably loaded and sensitive issue in both human and ideological-value terms. At the level of ideological values, at that very time many leading figures in the Yishuv were heard to draw a qualitative distinction between European Jewry during World War II and Israeli youth who were being put to the test. This chapter illustrates something of the problematic nature of the subject by quoting three boldly articulate personalities. They are: Yitzhak Sadeh, the legendary commander of the Palmach, the mobile striking force of the Haganah. Sadeh, Alterman and Harshav all expressed their own personal, impressionistic truth. However, they also highlighted the complexity of the historical situation of the 1948 War of Independence as reflected after the passing of more than fifty years.
