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His Majesty's Jewish Brigade
Almost from the opening moments of WW II, Jewish men began volunteering to join the British armed forces. Political sensitivities, including the arguments raised by the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, and the War Office negated the opportunity for these volunteers to be accepted in a ground combat role as a specifically Jewish unit. Instead, the volunteers were relegated to labor, transportation, and other service units in North Africa. These volunteers did not help their cause when British weapons under there control began disappearing – and being smuggled to Palestine. Service in the British Army was seen more as a means to an end. Sir Winston Churchill challenged all three offices and others – and eventually won. On September 20,1944, Churchill announced over the BBC that His Majesty's government had decided to form a Jewish Brigade to take part in active operations. This is what thousands of Jews had been waiting for - to fight under their own flag. It had been almost 2000 years since a Jewish army had taken the field of battle. The Brigade was composed of 5500 men representing 52 nationalities with 20 spoken languages. In the early days of combat training, the Palestine Jews (not yet the Brigade), were trained by the British army in North Africa to learn to fight as a cohesive unit. Even though the Brigade's pride was second to none, they were still less than ideal in the eyes of the British army. Assigned to the British 8th Army, the Brigade was finally allowed to go into battle against the German army at the from the Gothic Line to the Po Valley in early 1945 fighting under their own flag. There, they distinguished themselves, suffering fewer casualties than they inflicted. German prisoners were terrified when they were captured by soldiers wearing British uniforms with shoulder insignia displaying the Star of David. After WWII ended and Germany surrendered, the Brigade had an agenda of its own, dictated more from Tel Aviv than from London. The Brigade had roving squads in Europe (aided by elements of American intelligence) who sought out Nazis who had escaped Allied arrest and administered their own brand of retribution. As many as 1500 Nazis, perhaps more, found summary justice at the hands of the Brigade. One of the Brigade’s little-known feats was infiltrating and destroying a secret Nazi sect that was running ex-SS officers underground into South America. Despite the active opposition of the British and in defiance of British colonial immigration laws, the Brigade soon turned to rescuing the remaining Jews of Europe and making sure that they returned to their historical homeland in Palestine The members of the Brigade not only provided strength and logistical support to the flow of refugees back to Palestine they also inspired confidence that the Holocaust would not be the final word for the Jewish people. The Brigade was the seed that eventually became the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). The Formation Badge for the Jewish Brigade is approximately 2 inches square with two vertical blue stripes and one vertical white stripe; each stripe being two thirds of an inch wide. In the center of the white stripe is a yellow Star of David (Mogen David). This six pointed star is usually white but yellow was chosen in defiance of the Nazi order requiring all Jews in occupied territories to wear a yellow Star on their garments. There are two variants found. The title above Figure 1 has the English words "Jewish Brigade Group" and the Hebrew acronym for "Army"; the badge is fully embroidered and is most likely for an enlisted man. Figure 2 is embroidered on wool (there are three wool stripes), and most likely for an officer.
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