Since the Shoah: Britain

Britain was the eminent and formidable opponent of Germany during World War II. Both countries were known for their imperialism and desire for World conquest. Nazi Leaders saw Great Britain as their first & primary foe, for they knew that at least in Europe, Britain alone had the resources and tenacity to fight a formidable ground war. The RAF was unsurpassed, and in the beginning of the war, outperformed even the Luftwaffe under Goering.

Britain, as all now know, was reluctant under Chamberlain to enter the War. If Great Britain had entered the War with the Anschluss , Rhineland & Sudentenland, it is very possible that the war would never have escalated into mass genocide and worldwide destruction.

At the end of the War, Britain along with the Russians, French, US, Austrailians, and others(allied forces) liberated Europe and the Killing Centers and new boundaries were drawn. At the end of World War II; Britain had control over what was then called "palestine" but which we now know as Israel. According to the Balfour Agreement, which had been established even before the Shoah; the land was to be returned to the Jews as a Homeland; and in 1948, this took place, although British armed forces were less than accomodating in the process, and in some instances even opened fire on unauthorized vessels full of refuges attempting to settle in Israel, most having been released from the nightmare of the Concentration Camps.

While as elsewhere there has been strains of anti-semitism in GB, England has been one of the stronger supporters of the State of Israel; a factor critical in the establishment of the 10 nation European Union, as well as in the United Nations. The future in Europe is currently tenuous with the effort to unify European nations into one force, an endeavor strikingly similar to Hitler's desire for a "NEW European Order."


© 2002 all rights reserved; Elizabeth Kirkley Best, PhD
Shoah Education Web Project.