The 1940s

TIMELINE 17

Timeline 17 of 26

The 1940s

1940 to 1947

The Second World War and the Holocaust darken the decade. The Yishuv fights the White Paper, smuggles in refugees and wins the United Nations vote for a Jewish state.

TURNING POINTS

1942 The Biltmore Program. Zionist leaders meeting in New York call for a Jewish commonwealth after the war.

1944 The Jewish Brigade. Jews of the land fight Nazi Germany in their own unit of the British army.

1946 The King David Hotel bombing. The Irgun blows up the wing of the hotel that houses the British administration, and 91 people are killed.

1947 Jul 18 The Exodus. British forces seize the refugee ship off Haifa and send its 4,500 passengers back to Europe.

1947 Nov 29 The UN partition plan. On November 29 the General Assembly votes for a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accept and the Arabs reject.

1947 Dec 19 Natan Alterman publishes The Silver Platter. The poem honors those who will pay the price of statehood.

ALSO IN THIS PERIOD

1940 Feb Land Transfer Regulations restrict Jewish land purchases.

1940 Aug Avraham Stern founds Lehi, an armed underground group.

1940 Sep 9 Italian bombers kill 137 people in Tel Aviv.

1940 Nov 25 The refugee ship Patria sinks at Haifa, killing about 267.

1941 May 15 The Palmach is formed as the Haganah’s strike force.

1941 Jun 1 to 2 A mob kills about 180 Jews in the Farhud in Baghdad.

1941 Jun 8 Moshe Dayan loses an eye fighting Vichy forces in Lebanon.

1941 Marcel Janco, a founder of Dada, arrives from Romania.

1942 Feb 24 The refugee ship Struma is sunk and 781 die.

1942 Nov Palestine’s Jews learn of the mass murder in Europe.

1943 Apr 19 The Warsaw Ghetto uprising begins.

1944 Feb 1 The Irgun declares a revolt against British rule.

1944 Nov 6 Lehi assassinates Lord Moyne in Cairo.

1944 Nov 7 Hannah Szenes is executed in Budapest.

1945 May 8 Germany surrenders and the war in Europe ends.

1945 The violinist Itzhak Perlman is born in Tel Aviv.

1947 The Dead Sea Scrolls are found near Qumran.