Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries
Gerard S. SloyanProfessor Emeritus of Religion, Temple University
It is almost as painful to read or write of the mutual antipathy between Christians and Jews as it is to learn of the horrible events of the Nazi period sixty years and an ocean’s distance away. Many in this country have childhood memories of those horrors. Others who were not in Europe have relatives who were put to death there. There are, moreover, not a few escapees living among us who were never indeath camps but who made their way here via Switzerland, the Low Countries or England, in some casesall three. Americans in their seventies and upwards, gentiles and Jews alike, have the uncomfortable roleof being guilty bystanders. What did they [we] know, if anything? What did they [we] do about it, ifanything? Probing the root causes of the irrational hatred that led to the death of millions is terribly important, ifonly to give some small assurance that nothing like it can happen again. An open wound can becauterized. A hidden, festering one cannot be healed. Many of today’s Jews are convinced that the horror of Hitler’s days was simply the culmination ofcenturies of Judenhass (“Jew Hate”). They may be right but the question needs examining. Books appear regularly that explain the Endlösung, the “final solution” worked out at Wannsee, Berlin in 1942 andreferred to as a plan for the total liquidation of European Jewry. The “final solution” is understood bymany to be the result of the contempt for Jews that had been taught for centuries and taken root in Austria, Germany, France, Poland, and Lithuania. But is this what happened? Were the baptizedChristians of Europe ripe for the pagan nationalism of Hitler, Rosenberg, Göring, Himmler, and the rest? Were they eager to be rid of their Jewish merchant, artist and professional neighbors, finally and forever? If not, were they willing to rid themselves of Jews as threats to their economic wellbeing in the Europethat followed Versailles? Volumes have been written on all these questions. The most one can hope to do here is provide a distillate of the history leading up to those horrible days.
To read more please click below
Journal of Southern African Studies
Jewish Refugees in Northern Rhodesia
It is by now well known that GermanJews - the primarytargets of Hitler's racial madness - found the doors of the United States of America, Canada, South Africa and other potential destinations tightly closed during the 1930s. Even the 1938 internationalconference at Evian on the question of
Jewish refugees failed in any substantialway to offer hope. One potential destination for German Jewish refugees that has hitherto received no academic attention was the British Protectorate of NorthernRhodesia, subsequentlyZambia. Technically without immigrationrestrictions, and constitutionally under the authorityof Britain, NorthernRhodesia was, as Shapiro's brief book informs us, a potential haven. Moreover,the British Colonial Office was fully aware of its potential and seriously considered plans for fairly large-scale Jewish settlement.
During late 1989, while engaged in a general study of ZambianJewry,3Shapiro wondered why advantage had not been taken of Northern Rhodesia's open door policy. To find answers to his question, he went in search of what turnedout to be forgottenBritish files, sealed for more than fifty years. Capturingthe drama of his discovery, Shapiro writes of being 'the first person to untie those ribbons since they had been archived away' (p. 2) and of having his initial findings made in Zambia, quickly confirmed.The whole question of Jewish emigration to NorthernRhodesia was, the author
notes, 'fast evolving into a provocative subject'.
Shapiro traces that subject, beginning in 1934 with initiatives taken by London's Emigration (Planning)Committee(an organisationof mainly Jewish notables),to amelioratethe plight of German Jews through settlement schemes in NorthernRhodesia. Not withstanding its efforts, publicity was
never given to this potential destination.The Foreign and Colonial Offices did, however, entertaina number of schemes designed to enable German Jews to settle in the British Protectorate.They all came to naught. The Jewish community of NorthernRhodesia certainly did its best, with innovative
schemes and financial help for their co-religionists. South African Jewry added its material support. However age-old anti-Jewishprejudicesamongst significant sectors of the settler population thwarted serious interventionand settlement.
Haven in Africa is an importantcontributiontowards the 'bystander'literatureand a depressing additionto a largercanvas of missed opportunities. Only two hundredand fifty Jews ultimatelyfound security in this remote part of southernAfrica. The British Government,in Shapiro's view, failed to
exercise its constitutionalmuscle. Moreovernegotiations were, as Shapiroputs it, 'kept under wraps as much as possible' (p. 132). Why this was the case remains a perplexing question. Also perplexing is why the Emigration(Planning) Committee,seemingly guided by Anthony de Rothschild, failed to publicise to would be refugees what was after all an open destination.
Shapiro deserves credit for chasing the documentation,judiciously examining responses, and clarifyingthe debate. At times a greatersense of political context would have enhancedthe discussion but, all in all, his pioneering and carefully researched account will be appreciated.
MILTONSHAIN
Kaplan Centrefor Jewish Studies and Research, Universityof Cape Town
In 1938, Adolf Hitler was Time magazine's man of the year and in 1939, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Zion in Africa: The Jews of Zambia by Hugh MacMillan; Frank Shapiro
Review by: Eugenia W. HerbertAfrican Studies Review, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Apr., 2001), pp. 158-160
Zion in Africa complements the historical narrative with thematic chapters about the roles of prominent Jews not only in business but also in religion, politics, and intellectual and professional life. If Welensky is the best known Jewish politician, we are reminded that a number of South African activists found refuge in Northern Rhodesia and Zambia, including Simon Zukas and Joe Slovo. At a moment in the 1960s, even Nadine Gordimer considered resettling in Zambia where her husband was a partner in an engineering firm on the Copperbelt. Perhaps the most surprising revelation, to this reader at least, is the information that the eminent American architect Denise Scott Brown was born in Nkana in 1931 to Shim and Phyllis Lakofski. From cattle to postmodern architecture-it is quite a story that Hugh Macmillan and Frank Shapiro have to tell.
New Jewish Museum recalls the early days of Livingstone
The Bulletin & Record, Vol III, Issue 10, November 2013
ROY KAUSA
For many centuries, Jewish people lived in Eastern Europe under extreme poverty and persecution, forbidden to own land and as a result were economically handicapped. As if that were not enough, by the end of World War II in 1945. a total of six million Jewish people would be dead. The once vibrant and legendary European life and culture of these people would be decimated.
Jews who migrated to Southern Africa faced new challenges - heat, wild animals, unknown diseases and strange traditions, cultures and religion in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But slowly these immigrants worked their way up to establish businesses in most of the major towns along the line of rail, including in Zambia.
’The Jewish community in Zambia played an important role in the economic and social development of this country. Jewish business people started to establish trading operations in Livingstone. Mwandi district in Western Province and the Copperbelt.
The history of these resilient people is available to visitors in the Gateway Jewish Museum, which recently opened in Livingstone. The museum is a rich depository of the history and migration of the Jewish people to Africa in general, but to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in particular, It honours and celebrates the contribution of the Jewish community to Livingstone and Zambia generally.
Please click on the link below to read more...
Evacuation of Polish civilians from the USSR in World War II
Northern Rhodesia
In October 1942 the Director of War Evacuees and Camps of Northern Rhodesia, Gore Browne, expected around 500 Polish refugees to arrive from the Middle East. In August 1945 the number of Polish refugees in Northern Rhodesia was 3,419 of which 1,227 stayed in camps in the capital Lusaka, 1,431 in Bwana Mkubwa at the Copperbelt,164 in Fort Jameson at the border with Nyasaland and 597 in Abercorn in the Northern Province.
The last camp that was built in Northern Rhodesia at Abercorn, today's Mbala, Zambia. It was set up in 1942. Approximately 600 Polish refugees were brought to Abercorn in contingents. They came by ship to Dar es Salaam and via Kigoma to Mpulunga on Lake Tanganyika and subsequently they went in groups to Abercorn by lorry. Wanda Nowoisiad-Ostrowska quoted by historian Tadeusz Piotrowski (The Polish Deportees of World War II) remembered that Abercorn camp was divided into six sections of single room houses, a washing area, a laundry, a church and four school buildings with seven classes. The cooking was done in a large kitchen situated in the middle. One of the administrators lived in a building that also had a community centre where films were shown. She depicted quite a sociable image with singing songs in the evening, listening together to the radio in order to be informed about the war in Europe and doing craft work with other women in the evenings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuation_of_Polish_civilians_from_the_USSR_in_World_War_II
Polish refugees in Uganda, 1942-1951
Polish refugees in Uganda, 1942-1951 lamus dworski As a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was attacked from the two sides at the very beginning of the World War 2: by the Nazi Germany from the West and the Soviet Russia from the East in September 1939. The territories of the Polish Republic were then divided into two parts between the aggressors. Afterwards, estimated 1,2-1,5 millions of Polish citizens from the former Eastern territories of the country were deported to Siberia and other remote locations of the Soviet Union by the order of Stalin, marked by his propaganda as “dangerous anti-Soviet elements". Their fate and the course of the war changed suddenly in 1941, after the Nazi Germany had attacked the Soviet Union. The deported Polish civilians were freed from the Soviet kolkhozs and gulags [see: Polish-Soviet Sikorski-Mayski Agreement], and around 115,000 of them managed to escape the Soviet lands with the use of the famous Anders’ Army [read more about their desperate journey south in the post here]. The main escape route went through Iran that was the first country to greet the refugees with open arms, unawared of the overwhelming number of refugees that were approaching their temporary camps. Originally set up for army members, the Iranian camps housed thousands of Polish civilians, mostly women and children. Later the Poles were transported to further refugee camps granted by the Allies and spread around the world.
A lot of Polish people during WW2 had to escape, they seem to have scattered all over during the war, some went to India, some to Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Northern Rhodesia etc… It may seem that predominantly they were from Jewish back ground… Here is a link that explains further…. Polish refugees in Uganda, 1942-1951 lamus dworski As a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was attacked from the two sides at the very beginning of the World War 2: by the Nazi Germany from the West and the Soviet Russia from the East in September 1939. The territories of the Polish Republic were then divided into two parts between the aggressors. Afterwards, estimated 1,2-1,5 millions of Polish citizens from the former Eastern territories of the country were deported to Siberia and other remote locations of the Soviet Union by the order of Stalin, marked by his propaganda as “dangerous anti-Soviet elements".
https://lamus-dworski.tumblr.com/post/125181241611/polish-refugees-in-uganda-1942-1951-as-a-result
Memories of WWII refugees live on in Tanzania
POSTED ON NOVEMBER 28, 2013 BY JARED KNOLL IN BY COUNTRY, FEATURES, FIELD NOTES, TANZANIA WITH 8 COMMENTS
ARUSHA – On the fringes of a small Tanzanian village called Tengeru lie buried 150 Polish war refugees, who did their best to make a life there.
Tengeru locals go about their daily lives.
The Third Reich invaded Polish territory on September 1, 1939 without declaration. It was the beginning of the Second World War. The Molotov Pact , signed one week before the invasion of Poland, partitioned more than half of Polish territory to the Soviet Union, beginning a campaign of terror against the civilian population.
Deportation to Siberia began on February 10, 1940 following purges of the Polish civil elite. When German armies invaded in 1942, the Polish government sided with the USSR in exchange for the release of Polish deportees, as well as 47 000 exiles. Many were sent to United Kingdom colonies – of those, about 18 000 Poles were sent on to refugee camps in East Africa. There were six camps in Tanzania, the largest of which was in the village Tengeru, with 5 000 refugees.
The Polish “settlers” developed a life for themselves, running specialized farms, small businesses, and nearly a dozen schools. They built clinics, hospitals, churches and one synagogue. In their history, it’s recorded as becoming a “scrap of distant homeland.”
With the end of the war, the refugees were able to return to Europe, but many had nowhere to go and no one to go home to. Some were taken from regions lost to Poland in the Yalta Agreement. Others were too afraid of the Soviet proxy governments to return. For almost a decade, these wayward peoples dispersed across the world. About 1000 remained in their African settlements – 151 of those stayed in Tengeru.
Young Edward Wojtowicz, perched amidst fellow refugees.
Today, hundreds of pilgrims come every year to the cemetery where 150 of them lay buried, the only vestige remaining of the refugee camp except for its sole survivor, Edward Wojtowicz. Wojtowicz, 94, still lives in Tengeru, and one day he will be the last person ever buried there. His mother was buried in 1985, his grandmother in 1955.
Simon Joseph is a local Tengeru man who operates the cemetery all on his own, as caretaker, gardener, contractor and guide for the many who visit. He says most visitors are descendants of the original 5,000 who lived there who come to trace a piece of their own history to those difficult times.
“All people buried here are refugees. They suffered here from malaria and influenza,” Joseph recalls.
“Before here they were in labour camps in Siberia. They were forced into slave labour.”
He lives just five kilometres away with his wife, Rota, and six children. He says he loves his work, and knows the history inside and out, telling the story again and again for each new visitor.
In 2015 all of the graves are set to be renovated, paid for by the Polish government, who has funded the cemetery all this time since the first Polish refugee, Michael Tchorz, was buried on October 23, 1942. There are just five Jews in the cemetery, buried separately near the wall which was erected in 2001. Joseph says the cemetery will be maintained in Tengeru forever.
The local villagers rarely come by, but they all know it’s there. The place where 5000 foreigners, abandoned by the rest of the world, made a little piece of home for themselves in the dusty plains.
http://speakjhr.com/2013/11/memories-of-wwii-refugees-live-on-in-tanzania/
http://www.friendsofmombasa.com/tanganyika/tanganyika-i/
https://qz.com/africa/1620841/the-polish-refugees-in-tanzania-during-world-war-ii/
Polish refugees in Uganda
How East Africa became home for Polish exiles
Memories of WWII Polish refugees live on in Tanzania
The forgotten story of Polish refugees in Zambia
Zambia's Bulletin & Record, Volume V, Issue 3, June 2015
In 1942-43 Polish families were deported from refugee settlements in Iran to Zambia. They stayed in camps in Lusaka, Bwana Mkubwa, Fort Jameson (now chipata) and in Abercorn (now Mbala). Dutch journalist and writer Mary-Ann Sandifort investigated this little-known history in the National Archives of Lusaka. She concentrated on the last camp that was built in Zambia, Abercorn, and went to Mbala to look for remains and to talk to people who could remember the camp.
Just outside Mbala, in the corner of a dry, grassy field, is a tomb with the Polish national coat of arms on it – a white eagle. It is one of the few tangible things that is left of the Polish refugee camp dating back to World War II.
To read more, please click on link below:
Mary-ann Sandifort is still researching Abercorn camp, so if you know anyone who stayed in Abercorn camp or anyone who has material of the camp, like pictures or letters, please contact maryannsandifort@gmail.com
This explains the Camps. These familes were mainly from military families and were encouraged to return to Poland after the war. Many settled in England where their men folk had been demobbed from the Polish Free Forces fighting for the allies in WWII. Very few were permitted to stay on in Northern Rhodesia.
THE THORNY ROAD TO ABERCORN
By Józefa Kierkiewicz (Grzeskowiak Abercorn)
My father was a forester, which is why my whole family was in the first group of deportees - on February 10th, 1940 - to the Archangel Province (oblast). For a few months we lived in the Iksa settlement (Niandom district), where Ukrainians who were deported from Ukraine in 1930 were living. When the barracks being built in the deep taaiga were finished, the building of the hut/shack was ended in the deeper taiga areas, Polish families were brought to this place, which designated as "Quarter 93". We were about a dozen families.
After the amnesty for Polish deportees was proclaimed, instructed by the Delegation of the Polish Embassy in Archangel, we left for the south of the Soviet Union towards the end of October 1941.
The trip from Poland to our exile had lasted two weeks and had made a deep impression on my childhood memory. The cattle wagons were jerked back and forth by the engineer so hard that one night I fell from the upper boards right onto the red-hot stove and to this day I still have the scar on my left arm. This second journey from the Siberian taiga was much longer. It took two months. Again there were the cattle wagons, again people crammed together, but this time no guards, wagons without lead plugs but this time exhausted people, worked-out, starving, sick, dirty and lice-ridden, riding into the unknown. Those that could walk, who were more healthy when the trains stopped would gather frozen potatoes, often just peels, from which we made "soup". Oil-seed cakes, destined for animal feed, were a rarity. Water was lacking. There was no medicine. No wonder, that the death toll among the travelers was dreadfully large. On the boards above us 10 or 11 people started the journey, and only three arrived at the final station.
After two very long months, across Tashkent and Samarkand, we arrived at the regional town of Denau, near the Uzbekistan-Tadzikistan border, 100 km from Dushnabe. From Denau we made our way to a "kolkhoz" collective farm, where cotton was cultivated. After a short while Father applied to the Polish Army in Guzar. In early June 1942, as an Army family, we got a special pass for the departure to Kermine. We were counting on meeting Father there, though by then he had already moved on to the Middle East.
In Kermine which means "Valley of Death" in the Uzbek language we camped under the trees near the train station for several days. I remember perfectly the cemetery in Kermine. Thousands of Polish graves, which were virtually washed out by the wind-swept sand duness. And after all, these were graves were only a couple of months, weeks, or even just a few days old. Sand and crosses! The saddest cemetery I have ever seen.
From Kermine we were directed to a kolkhoz near Kara-Kul. Fortunately, within two months we got on to a transport heading to Krosnovodsk. This was the last instalment of our nightmarish journey through the inhuman land.
Next was Persia, with two weeks in welcoming shelters on the beach at Pahlevi, three months in tents in the "third camp" in Teheran and half a year in the barracks stables in Ahwaz. In July 1943 we left Ahwaz for Karachi, where our transport was joined by more Poles and we went by ship to East Africa. The transport was divided into three groups. The first disembarked in Mombasa, the second in Tanga, and our group of 358 people under the leadership of J. Jakutowicz continued to the port of Dar es Slaam. Mainly we were women and children. After a quarantine period in Dar es Salaam, we continued our journey by train. It took us through the enormous African jungle to Dzub. From there, we continued by ship through the beautiful Lake Tanganika to the little port of Mpulung. From there, in red automobiles now only 40 km we were taken to the settlement of Abercorn. It was halfway through August 1943. A second transport to Abercorn arrived two months later, numbering about 200 people.
The settlement was built in the deep bush, in a large flat dale, about 2,000 metres above sea level. Like the other African settlements prepared for Polish refugees, Abercorn was divided into sections. Each section consisted of several clay huts with clay floors. The huts were roofed with elephant grass. They had very small windows, and instead of glass they were screened with wire mesh. Each section had its own showers, wash basins, hot water. I think that not only in Abercorn were conditions primitive, but they were heavenly compared to the lice-ridden barracks in the Archangel taiga, the Uzbek "kibiteks" or the Kazakh burrows. First of all, nobody was hungry or barefoot. The administration acted fairly. Immediately a school and preschool were organised. There was a hospital, church, community hall, post office, shop, and even a photo studio. A very important asset for the camp was a farm producing our own ham. There was also a Catholic Girls Youth Association set up by Jan Waligóra a missionary from Cracow in Africa since 15 years and continued by Father Antoni Wierzbinski, who came to Abercorn from the USA. Father Wierzbinski was actively involved in the cultural life of the camp. He was also a co-organiser of the scouts. The role of scoutmaster was played by Eugenia Kulman-Szuberla. The scouting organisation ("hufiec") was made up of two girls¹ troops, one boys¹ troop and two troops of Cub scouts. Altogether there were 113 members. Of particular was the amateur theater, which put on a presentation of the "Rydla" puppets in the community hall, enchanting not only its own public, but also the neighbouring English farmers, for who the presentation was repeated. One proud act of the Abercorn residents was the organisation and dispatch of packages to the prisoner of war camps and to fighting Warsaw.
At the beginning of 1944 I went with a group of 12 other youths to the High School in Kidugali. In the next school year the Abercornians were directed to the "internat" in Lusaka. Until the very end of our stay in Africa we were going to Lusaka. And even though I only returned to Abercorn once a year for my holidays, the sentiment to my "maternal" settlement remained the most intense. There is no way to forget the white huts ranged row on row amongst the tall grasses miniscule in the huge, ancient park. And the gardens in front of the huts with their tropical flowers with splendid, intense colours, but also with Polish Dalias.
It is true that I was a bit too young to be interested in local gossip or rumours. That is probably why, when years later the book by Waclaw Korabiewicz, "Where the elephant, and where Poland" ("Gdzie slon, a gdzie Polska"),appeared I was proud to read that in Abercorn there were a number of people qualified for "Katambor" .
We left Abercorn towards the end of May 1947, and waited in Mombasa for two more months for transport to Poland. We boarded the Dutch ship "Tabinta" refitted to carry troops in wartime for our journey to Genua. Waiting there for us were freight train carriages, which at first brought back feelings of terror. In our mothers¹ eyes we could read the verses of the poem by Teofil Lenartowicz, "Siberian shadows" (Cieni siberyjskich"):
"They who take measure of Siberia's wasteland,
Know how small is Europe's area indeed,
For them all distance disappears
And everything becomes insignificant.
Their eternity will not be created in death
Unbounded, grey like the dark steppe;
They do not care: brightness or underground dusk
And Hell In Hell it can't be any worse"
Despite our worries, we safely returned to the country on August 19th, 1947.
Abercorn was closed towards the end of 1948.
This is an important telegram from Sir Stewart Gore Browne outlining the plans for the Abercorn Camp. There are many more documents like this in the Zambian National Archives. (see below)
The Abercorn Arms Hotel and Bar in the 1950s and still going strong in Mbala today. It was once the most famous Bar in Central Africa. Clients joined locals and visitors in learned discussions about the breeding habits of Red Locusts or African Archeology or the movement of elephants in the Yendwe Valley. The fighting capabilities of the Gendarmes in Katanga was debated by well informed if shady drinkers. Well known characters lurked behind the bar, Rum Momma Simpson being a real dragon and the old Londoner Ted Davies among others.
Mbala / Abercorn Heritage and Tourism Centre
@www.Mbala.Abercorn ·
Mbala / Abercorn Heritage and Tourism Centre
TANZANIA’S STAIRCASE CUTS ZAMBIA’S FOREX REVENUE AT KALAMBO FALLS
We have always said on this site that the problem in Zambia is we talk a lot with very little action but that is not the case with other countries. They walk the talk. Now Zambia has lost revenue at Kalambo Falls because our colleagues mean business on the Tanzanian side. Read this report that was aired on ZNBC News on Wednesday 17th May 2021.
By Brian Mwale
Foreign exchange earnings at Africa’s second deepest waterfall, Kalambo Falls in Mbala have slumped following the erection of a staircase on the Tanzanian side to get a view of the site.
Kalambo Falls Heritage Site Conservation Assistant CHRISTIAN CHISHIMBA says Tanzanian residents and other international tourists have stopped crossing into Zambia to view the falls after a staircase to the foot of the falls was erected in 2019 in that country.
Mr. CHISHIMBA says tourists in Zambia wishing to get to the base of the falls from the Tanzanian side are also made to pay 10-dollars.
He however says Zambia still provides the best viewing points of the 2-hundred and 21 meter falls which is the 11th deepest falls in the world.
Mr. CHISHIMBA has since called on the Zambia Tourism Agency -ZTA- to enhance marketing of the falls because it still provides the best viewing points.
He has also lamented the poor state of the road saying it gets worse during the rainy season when the falls is at its peak thereby affecting attraction of tourists.
And, ZTA Public Relations Manager BETTY CHABALA says Zambia still provides the best viewing points of the Falls whose waters end up in Lake Tanganyika, the world’s second deepest lake.
Mrs. CHABALA who led a group of journalists visiting the Northern Tourism Circuit said the first spot allows one to view the falls in its totality while the other spot allows one to get to the edge of the falls and even touch the water in the Kalambo River hose source is Tanzania.
She appealed to both local and foreign tourists to visit the falls because the Zambian side is developed with lodging facilities and is electrified.
And Headman STEVEN SILWAMBA from Tafuna Chiefdom said the Lodge owned by a local private investor has provided jobs for locals and a market for Agro produce supplied by small scale farmers in the chiefdom.
This shows the First International Red Locust Control Conference that was held in Abercorn in the late 1940s. The building is the old Agricultural Research Station down at the Lucheche Gardens and was called "The Cathedral". It must have been near where Consul H.C Marshal built his stockaded Boma in 1894
https://www.facebook.com/www.Mbala.Abercorn/photos/a.717916898300463/1583035031788641
Abercorn International Airport
The story of Abercorn International Airport in Mbala/Abercorn is as old as the world history of Aviation. There is no dispute that Abercorn Airport was the first airport in Northern Rhodesia. The second airport in Northern Rhodesia was the Livingstone International Airport and both were built as airfields by the British South Africa Company because Abercorn was the Headquarters of the North Eastern Territory and Livingstone was the Headquarters the Barotseland-North Western Rhodesia between 1889 and 1911.
The two territories were amalgamated in 1911 as Northern Rhodesia, under the administration of the British South Africa Company (subject to the exercise of certain powers of control by the British Crown or Government) and this arrangement continued until 1924. Between 1911 and 1924 both Abercorn and Livingstone played a pivotal role in the administration of Northern Rhodesia
In 1924, the administration of the Northern Rhodesia territory was assumed by the British Crown or Government in terms of a settlement arrived at between the Crown and the Company, and the first Governor was appointed on 1st April, 1924. (COLONIAL REPORTS—ANNUAL No. 1721 Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of NORTHERN RHODESIA 1934)
The airports at both Abercorn and Livingstone were very important to the British South Africa Company between 1911 and 1924 and even after the British Government took over the administration of Northern Rhodesia territory. The Airport at Abercorn was significant between 1911 and 1924 and especially because of the World War 1 which took place between 1914 and 1918. Abercorn was at the war front during the First World War because of the hostilities form Germans in German East African Territory. German was very interested in the Tanganyika Plateau (the area between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi of which Mbala/Abercorn was at the center.
The Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane in 1903, recognized as "the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight". They built on the works of George Cayley dating from 1799, when he set forth the concept of the modern airplane (and later built and flew models and successful passenger-carrying gliders). Between 1867 and 1896, the German pioneer of human aviation Otto Lilienthal also studied heavier-than-air flight.
Following its limited use in World War I, aircraft technology continued to develop rapidly and by the start of the Second World War, 1939 and 1945 it had developed to the level of Jet fighters and passenger aircrafts and airports from just airfields.
The Mbala/Abercorn started under the British South Africa Company before the First World War (1914 -1918) and the first Aircraft landed before that period. (I would like to correct some documents that state that the first aeroplanes landed at Abercorn Airport in 1888. This is not correct because in 1888 there was no Abercorn, it was established in 1895 and the first aeroplanes came after 1903).
During the Second World War the British Government turned Abercorn Airport into a Military Airbase with numerous Jets and Bombers to protect Northern Rhodesia from the Germans in German East Africa now Tanzania. This also saw an inflow of many British Military and Civilians working at the British Abercorn Airbase. After the Second World War it reverted back to a civil airport.
After the Second World War when the the British Government established the International Red Locust Control Organisation for Central and Southern Africa (IRLCO-CSA) to control the outbreak of the locusts Mbala/Abercorn was an automatic choice for its Headquarters.
Abercorn Airport became Abercorn International Airport after 1924 with IATA registration MMQ and during the economic boom of the Federation of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953-1963) it became a very important international and it was during this period that saw the weekly first direct flight between London and Mbala/Abercorn under the Central African Airways. It was the first Airport in Central Africa connecting Cape to Cairo. This meant that passengers could connect to London from Cairo in Egypt.
It is therefore not farfetched when calls are made on this platform now that more investment be put in MBALA International Airport to be reinstated as both a civilian international airport and military airbase which it used to be until 1970 when it became exclusively for Zambia Air Force (ZAF) Base. The same amount of resources that have changed Harry Mwaanga International Airpport in Livingstone can be allocated to Mbala/Abercorn international Airport. This is the only airport that can service the whole of the Tanganyika Plateau, Eastern Congo and Western Tanzania. The idea of making Kasaba Bay International Airport is once again an ill-conceived idea because it will only serve tourists visiting the Nsumbu Game Reserve while Mbala International Airport will serve tourists, business people, traders and other private individuals who want to visit the land of their heritage Mbala/Abercorn.
The little known story of the Polish refugees who fled to East Africa during World War II
https://qz.com/africa/1620841/the-polish-refugees-in-tanzania-during-world-war-ii/
Tengeru Polish Refugee Camp
During World War 2 John was the commandant of Tengeru Polish Refugee Camp near Arusha, Tanganyika. He not only shows up in documents as such, but is mentioned in various books as well as appearing in photographs in the Camp.
Tengeru Polish Refugee Camp was one of over 22
different camps that housed 13,000 - 19,000 Polish exiles spread out across East and Southern Africa, some with more than 6,000 people, others with just a handful of families. Children were the vast majority of the refugees.
The Maharaja Who Saved Hundreds of Polish Orphans
During WWII hundreds of abandoned Polish children were brought to squalid Soviet orphanages. This would have condemned them to a bleak future, but a kind-hearted maharaja unexpectedly came to their rescue.
People often forget that when Germany invaded Poland in 1939, it acted in collaboration with the Soviet Union. The two totalitarian regimes had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact earlier that year, agreeing to partition Poland. Sixteen days after Hitler attacked the western border, the Red Army launched an eastern offensive. The two great powers carved up Poland according to plan and for a while co-existed peacefully, before jumping at each other’s throats in 1941. Stalin’s attack on Poland orphaned thousands of children, who were then were relocated deep into the Soviet Union, in camps and temporary orphanages where they were often left to die of illness or hunger.
In 1941 an amnesty allowing the destitute little refugees to leave the Soviet Union was declared. Some of them eventually found refuge in Mexico, New Zealand and other distant countries, but India was the first state to offer them shelter. Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji, the ruler of Nawanagar, a princely state in British India, volunteered to provide hundreds of children with a home. As a Hindu delegate to Great Britain’s war cabinet, the maharaja was well aware of the international situation at the time, and his generous nature prompted him to immediately come forth with his offer. The children were transported to India by members of Anders’ Army (a Polish armed force formed in the Soviet Union after the amnesty), the Red Cross, the Polish consulate in Bombay and British officials.
In early 1942, the first group, 170 orphans, travelled 1,500km in trucks from Ashgabat to Bombay (now Mumbai), from where they went to Balachadi, a small seashore town in north-western India, 25 km from the Maharaja’s capital Jamnagar. Compared to the hell they had experienced in the Soviet Union their destination must have seemed like paradise. The maharaja greeted the newcomers with the following words: ‘You are no longer orphans. From now on you are Nawangarians , and I am Bapu, father of all Nawangarians, so I’m your father as well’. He built dormitories in which each of them had a separate bed. He also generously provided for the children so that they could study, play and eat to their heart’s content.
Between 1942 and 1946 over 600 Polish children found a home in India thanks to the maharaja. They were all provided with food, clothes and medical care. The kind ruler let the guest house of his Balachadi palace be used as a school so that his little protégés could learn to read and write. A special library with Polish books was set up so that they wouldn’t forget their mother tongue. They often staged theatrical plays, which Digvijaysinhji always attended. After the representations ‘he would invite the young actors for a festive tea and give them sweets’ writes Wiesław Stypuła, one of these rescued orphans, in his book W gościnie u ‘polskiego’ maharadży (editor’s translation: At the ‘Polish’ Maharaja's). The children also played football, volleyball, grass hockey and even went camping. When the war ended and the orphans had to return to Europe, both the children and the maharaja were heart-broken.
https://culture.pl/en/article/the-maharaja-who-saved-hundreds-of-polish-orphans
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/polish-children-adopted-by-maharaja-1.5351763
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/polish-refugees-in-india
FamilySearch.org have just made available the Archdiocese of Lusaka, Church Records, 1950-2015. This is a non profit and free site but you need to register. It could be of use to those searching to document their prarentage etc.
Description
Dioceses and parish registers, including baptisms, births, confirmations, marriages, and death registers from the Archdiocese of Lusaka for the years 1950-2015.
Zionism and "Uganda Proposal": 1902–03
Uganda Scheme
Most of the settlers later indeed came not from Britain but from South Africa but what history will not reveal is in fact there was a plan in Jewish settlements in the British East Africa Protectorate. There was a plan and a clear mention of the land between Nairobi and the Mau Escarpment that would be ideal, especially the Uasin Gishu Plateau.
So, why was it that the Boers of South Africa who were already in Africa but were now given lucrative opportunity in travelling thousands of miles up North in acquiring free land for the most prosperous rich land yet the British people who were backed and supported by their own Imperialist government from Great Britain were suddenly reluctant to migrant to British East Africa?
EUROPEAN colonization of the East Africa Protectorate was not a premeditated affair. It was but one of several settlement schemes which were haphazardly encouraged by the Foreign Office during the early years of the Protectorate. The Foreign Office gave equal consideration to proposals for Indian settlement, and even, for an embarrassing period, a Jewish colonization scheme.
The indecision of the Foreign Office was a reflection of the widespread doubts whether Europeans could settle permanently in the tropics. European colonization in the past had been confined almost exclusively to temperate latitudes. In 1884 Sir John Kirk, who had lived much of his life on the tropical East Africa coast, stated that he did not believe ‘that a colony in the true sense of the term, where the white race can permanently exist and perpetuate itself, could be founded anywhere in Central Africa, Joseph Thomson, the first British explorer to cross the East African highlands, considered them unfit for European colonization.
As late as 1899 another explorer with much experience in tropical Africa, Sir Harry Johnston excluded the highlands from his regions of ‘Healthy Colonisable Africa’, even though in 1884 he had recommended the establishment of a British colony on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
The sole European settlement scheme attempted during the Company period was a ludicrous failure. This was the attempt of the Freeland Association to found a colony in ‘the African Alps’, near Mt. Kenya. The association was founded in Austria in 1892 by Dr. Theodore Hertzka, a celebrated Viennese journalist.
Although the Freelanders as a body were discouraged by the Foreign Office and the Company, they were still able to obtain land individually. Only two of them, the Englishmen Godfrey and Bosanquet, applied for land—500 acres on the Tana—but they did not stay to occupy it. This was an indication that settlement in the interior was virtually impossible without adequate communications.
It seemed more sensible to many of those concerned with East Africa to rely on Indian settlers. The Company considered introducing Indian peasant farmers, used the rupee currency and even obtained some Indian troops. The Foreign Office also looked to India—for troops, labour for the railway, subordinate clerical staff, for a legal code and legislation and, above all, for the extension of commerce into the interior.
By 1900 Nairobi, with its flourishing bazaar, was more of an Indian than a European township; and Indians soon penetrated into remote districts where, as Churchill put it, no European could earn a living, It was much the same with market gardening: Indians who obtained small plots of land were able to undercut European farmers in the sale of fresh produce.
The chief value of the Indian traders was that they developed trade with Africans and gradually introduced the use of the rupee currency. It was for this reason that Ainsworth in January 1896 promised to make every effort to encourage the settlement of Indian traders.
In 1899 he went one step further and suggested that Punjabi cultivators should be introduced to help improve Kamba agricultural methods: ‘There would not be the same scope for European emigrants as there is for Indians .... For a large number of Europeans the Country does not at present hold out sufficient inducements; naturally Europeans require to-make more money than does a native of India.
Sir John Kirk was another who advocated Indian settlement. Like Johnston, he referred to East Africa as ‘India’s America’. As late as April 1903 he scoffed at the idea of white settlement in the highlands; the Indian market gardeners near Nairobi were much more efficient than the Europeans, and the ‘most valuable colonist of the two’ George Mackenzie, one of the leading figures in the Company, thought similarly.
There was considerable support in the Foreign Office for this policy of Indian settlement. As Hill observed, the Foreign Office was ‘rather looking to India for our East African system and for development’. He suggested asking the Treasury to provide £1,000 to assist the Indian settlers.
Eliot, who had arrived in place of Hardinge early in 1901, and the few white settlers in Nairobi, had different ideas. In a dispatch of 5 January 1902, accompanying the proposals of the railway officials, Eliot recommended that Indian settlement should be confined to the lowlands. He had decided to reserve the highlands for Europeans: ‘Believing as I do that the East Africa highlands are for the most part a white man’s country ...
I doubt the expediency of settling large bodies of Indians in them, as even in Mombasa there is considerable friction between the European and Indian traders.’
The day before Eliot wrote this dispatch he had been to a meeting called by the European settlers in Nairobi. Nineteen settlers were present; they resolved that the highlands were ‘in every way suitable’ for European colonization and called on Eliot to prevent the immigration of Indians. Eliot promised ‘to promote and encourage the settlement of Europeans’. He assured those present that they had no reason to fear the Indians: ‘the cool grassy uplands, so attractive to the white man, were positively distasteful to the Hindu.’ But he added that Indian settlers would be ‘a good element’ in the lower country near the lake and along the coastal strip—‘warm, damp regions of great fertility, but at present little cultivated’. These assurances were not well received by the meeting which, Eliot observed, ‘was very hostile to the Indian element’—but they pointed the way to the creation of the ‘White Highlands’.
Having secured the highlands against Indians, the Nairobi Europeans were threatened by a totally unexpected settlement proposal. Moreover, the proposed new settlers were both white and European. They were Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe, fleeing from pogroms in Russia and Rumania. They were sponsored by the Zionist organization and encouraged to apply for land in East Africa by Joseph Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Because of the valuable Jewish investment in the Empire, particularly in the Rand mines, Chamberlain was anxious to conciliate the Zionists… (The early history of the Transvaal gold mines for long has been linked with imperialism, the Jameson Raid and the Boer War. The gold mine owners actually had no financial interest in war with the Boers since their money was made primarily by stock market manipulation, rather than in efficiently utilising the underlying assets. South African gold mining shares were consistently overvalued relative to their true earning power, both before and after the Jameson Raid. Only the outbreak of the war caused them to slump badly….
https://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/economics/history/Paper10/10graham.pdf .
THE RANDLORD'S BUBBLE 1894-6: SOUTH AFRICAN GOLD MINES AND STOCK MARKET MANIPULATION "More importantly still, this small group of men with a small number of confederates, representing the most highly organised form of international finance yet attained, controls the entire gold industry of the Transvaal. The names of the chief directors of the leading companies, Wernher, Beit, Eckstein, Rhodes, Rudd, Neumann, Rothschild, Albu, Goerz, Rouliot, Farrar, Barnato, Robinson, fairly indicates the distinctively international character of this financial power, as well as the concentrated form which it has taken."
Chamberlain, on his visit to the East Africa Protectorate in December 1902, en- route to South Africa, Chamberlain was struck by the suitability of the highlands for European settlement. When he returned to England Chamberlain offered the Zionists land in the highlands. Theodore Herzl, the Zionist leader, accepted the offer reluctantly, after an investigating commission had decided that land previously offered to the Zionists in the Sinai Peninsula was unsuitable (The so called Eastern European Zionist Jews had declined Britain’s offer in relocation in Argentina, Madagascar, Australia and had now possibly decided on settling in Kenya/Uganda, the very land that did not even belonged to Britain like all other that Britain invaded, so why were they so reluctant in offloading and offering illegally occupied land to a third party (Eastern European Zionist Jews)?
Zionism and "Uganda Proposal": 1902–03
Uganda Scheme
On 23 October 1902, Chamberlain met with Theodor Herzl and expressed his sympathy to the Zionist cause. He was open to Herzl's plan for settlement on the Sinai Peninsula near Arish, but his support was conditional on approval from the Cairo authorities. On 24 April 1903, convinced that such approval would not come, Chamberlain offered Herzl a territory in British East Africa.
The proposal came to be known as the Uganda Scheme, as Chamberlain saw the land as he was passing by on the Uganda Railway, though the territory in question was in modern Kenya. The proposal was rejected by both the Zionist Organization and British settlers in East Africa but was a major break-through for the Zionists, as Great Britain had engaged them diplomatically and recognised a need to find a territory appropriate for Jewish autonomy under British suzerainty…Wiki.
To Herzl and the Zionists, East Africa could be no more than an antechamber to the Holy Land, yet Zionists are a political movement and not followers of the religion of Judaism.
What is particularly of interest is that the Jewish population was kicked out of European counties over a hundred and nine times.. (as you might have realized, 700 years of European Jewish persecutions and expulsions ( data consisting of 1,366 city-level persecutions of Jews from 936 European cities between 1100 and 1800 file:///C:/Users/esodh/Downloads/769.pdf )
Forming the basis for a thought-provoking paper on SSRN titled "From the Persecuting to the Protective State? Jewish Expulsions and Weather Shocks from 1100 to 1800"—it explores whether there is a relationship between weather and growing season and the likelihood that the Jewish community would be expelled—is this incredibly detailed dataset culled from the Encyclopaedia Judaica. From the paper (further details about how the dataset was compiled are available in the appendix):
https://www.wired.com/2013/03/the-long-data-of-european-jewish-expulsions/
‘Savage state-sanctioned anti-Jewish riots aka pogroms, along with poverty made worse by widespread economic and political discrimination, caused over 2.5 million of the 6 million Jewish people living in Eastern European to flee their homes between 1870 and 1914. Most went to Western Europe and America but between 120,000 and 150,000 arrived in Britain. In response, Britain passed a law restricting immigration known as the 1905 Aliens Act.
https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/oms/jewish-immigration-and-the-aliens-act-1905
The Dreyfus Affair in France in 1894 ( Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish military officer who was falsely accused of espionage over a century ago. His trial ripped apart France, and the issues debated during Dreyfus’ court martial – including the role of Jews in France, antisemitism and the need for a Jewish homeland – continue to reverberate today)
https://aish.com/the-dreyfus-affair-5-important-facts-for-today/ and increasing hostility to Jewish immigrants in France and England took momentum, and other countries led many Jews to push for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, where Jews would be able to govern themselves and maintain their customs, religion and no longer fear persecution. This would result in the Zionist movement; with the goal of creating a Zionist Jewish homeland in either Australia, Argentina, Kenya/Uganda, Palestine …etc was on the cards.
Since there was growing anti-immigrant hostility in Britain itself, with nearly 100,000 Russian-born Jews living in the country by 1901, it was imperative to offload the Zionist Eastern European Jews somewhere further away from Europe for reasons that have already been illustrated herein, on the other hand 700 years of Eastern European Jewish persecutions and expulsions by Europe had to come to an end this would now be headed by Joseph Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies and Rothchilds who were now either connected through Imperialism or confederates of the Rand Mines Ltd in South Africa.
The relocating/displacing of the entire Eastern Europeans Jews out of Europe and to finally give them their own land through guise of a holy-land outside of Europe through Imperialistic illegal occupations of foreign land, was now seen as dumping their on-going 700 yrs old teething complications on to others and in doing so “on the expenses of others too”, thus washing their hands off this long heinous horror epic of centuries persecution of Eastern European Jews that would also see come to an end!
Seemingly in contrast to their century’s old persecution, now, from the Eastern European Jews perspective it certainly seemed like they the Imperialist were god sent saviours but an undeniable disaster waiting to happen for its indigenous land/people and its future coming descent/ancestry, which the Imperials took no interest what so ever over….but wanted to wash their hands over once and for all, the very repatriated from a foreign land, these displaced people without a land were now subjugated despondently over other colonised indigenous land/people.
In doing so, Imperialism made sure that they were now a new affiliated ally to these displaced persecuted East European people and had to now make sure to protect and to concrete their relocations where ever it desired for the East European Zionist Jews, this was now in the process of forming a new country run by themselves for a combined Eastern European Zionist Jews for the very first time ever after Khazar (Poland/Russia) where they all historically derived from.
In the century spanning the years 1820 through 1924, an increasingly steady flow of Jews made their way to America, culminating in a massive surge of immigrants towards the beginning of the twentieth century. Impelled by economic hardship, persecution, and the great social and political upheavals of the nineteenth century--industrialization, overpopulation, and urbanization--millions of Europe's Zionist Jews left their towns and villages and embarked on the arduous journey to the "Golden Land" of America.
The Zionists decided to make the most of the offer. Leopold Greenberg, Herzl’s London representative, presented Chamberlain with a draft agreement which, if granted, would have created a Zionist Jewish self- governing colony. He suggested that settlement of Zionist Jewish immigrants should be managed by a Jewish colonial trust, with a capital of £2,000,000 and complete control over the selection, sale and leasing of land and mines. Greenberg also wanted a Jewish governor, and the power to legislate for ‘internal administration’, to levy taxes, to control immigration, and to appoint judges. Finally, Jewish religion and social customs were to be respected.
These proposals were unacceptable to the Foreign Office. Greenberg then suggested that the Zionists would accept ‘municipal government’, so long as their religion and social customs were safeguarded. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne, decided that these proposals could be used as ‘a basis for discussion’ but only after he had consulted Eliot. He was, however, willing to allow the Zionists to send an investigating commission to the Protectorate. If the commission found suitable land, Lansdowne promised to ‘entertain favourably’ the proposals for a Jewish settlement. Lansdowne had virtually committed the Foreign Office to grant land to the Zionists.
In August 1903 rumours of the Zionist scheme began to reach East Africa. The settlers, now increasing in number through migration from South Africa, reacted with a vigour that was equalled only by their opposition to Indian settlement. According to the African Standard, ‘pulpit, public and press’ were united in opposition to the Zionists.
W. G. Peel, the Bishop of Mombasa, preached a sermon which stressed that the Jews would not be concerned with ‘lifting their heathen neighbours into the elements of Christian civilization’ and claimed that they would ‘use the [African] people to their fullest advantage’. Instead of Jews, the Bishop wanted ‘Christian settlers ... as living examples to the benighted Africans of the Christian life and Christian civilization’.
Dr. D. C. R. Scott of the Church of Scotland Mission supported Peel. The Christian settlers met in solemn concord at Nairobi to protest against the ‘threatened Jewish invasion’ and formed an ‘Anti¬Zionist Immigration Committee’ with Lord Delamere as its president. Delamere cabled The Times, protesting that the Foreign Office proposed to ‘give’ the best land in the highlands to ‘undesirable aliens’, and hurriedly wrote a pamphlet on the subject.
The African Standard waged a scurrilous campaign against the Zionists. It claimed that the ‘best portion’ of the Protectorate had been ‘coolly handed over’ to the Zionists, and spoke of a bargain ‘struck behind closed doors in Downing Street—or was it Lombard Street?’ The Standard demanded the reservation of the highlands ‘as the rallying-ground for a British settlement-(for) men of sinew, nerve, and knowledge.
Unwilling to admit to anti-Semitism (how are they Semites, I no idea), he pointed out that since prejudice nevertheless existed among the settlers, the introduction of Eastern European Zionists would only lead to hostility.
Eliot did not want any programs in East Africa, fearing friction amongst the British settlers and Easter European Zionists, Alfred Lyttelton who had replaced Chamberlain too was opposed to this scheme.
The Zionist Congress met again in August, rejected the East African proposal by a large majority and passed a motion urging the establishment of an autonomous Jewish Zionist state in Palestine.
The way was now clear for British and South African Colonization of the highlands.
Meanwhile, settlers in Kenya continued laying down the red carpet to arriving Europeans. In 1908, Governor Percy Girouard offered generous tracts of land to no fewer than 48 Afrikaner families from the Transvaal region of South Africa.
Led by Commandant James van Rensberg, the Afrikaners loaded their 47 wagons and 90 horses on to a chartered German ship and set sail for Mombasa from down under.
How Kenya almost became the Promised Land for Jews
Mombasa Visit of Rt Hon Joseph Chamberlain ( he was briefly Britain's secretary for the colonies) and his wife in 1902, Mrs Chamberlain is seated next to Sir Charles Eliot in the lead push car , they spent 6 days in the country on their way to South Africa.
During his visit , he gained the impression of a largely uninhibited land, ripe for exploitation, the seeds were sown for his subsequent decision to offer the Zionists 50000 square miles of East Africa as a self-governing Jewish settlement under British protection. There was a public outcry however the offer was finally turned down by the Jews themselves for the sole reason that it would have compromised their demands to carve out a Jewish homeland in Palestine. But for that rejection, the future development of Kenya might have turned out differently.
Now, imagine this started WW1, for this ridiculous reason... The simplest answer is that the immediate cause was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the archduke of Austria-Hungary. His death at the hands of Gavrilo Princip – a Serbian nationalist with ties to the secretive military group known as the Black Hand – propelled the major European military powers towards war. All to bring down the Ottoman Empire....Caroline Kere
A Jewish Homeland in East Africa
East Africa 1895-1920
The early years of the protectorate include several developments of significance in Kenya's subsequent history. One is the decision to encourage settlement in Kenya's temperate highlands by farmers of European origin, this prosperous region subsequently becomes known as the White Highlands exclusively for the white population that was to arrive, but arrive from where?
History tells us clearly that there were only limited number of British people who were interested in embarking on and into the unknown wilderness of Kenya?
The clear intention was to provide revenue for the railway driven northwest from Mombasa to reach Kisumu on Lake Victoria in 1901.
Most of the settlers later indeed came not from Britain but from South Africa but what history will not reveal is in fact there was a plan in Jewish settlements in the British East Africa Protectorate. There was a plan and a clear mention of the land between Nairobi and the Mau Escarpment that would be ideal, especially the Uasin Gishu Plateau.
These actions would cause 2 million Jews to abandon the Russian Empire between 1881 and 1913, meanwhile, anti-Semitic persecution further increased in Russia, culminating in the Kisinev pogroms in Bessarabia in April 19-20 1903. With nearly 75% going to the United States, and others settling in South America, Great Britain, Canada, South Africa, France and other countries. However, the arrival of destitute and culturally foreign refugees from Russia led to increased anti-Semitism in the West.
The Dreyfus Affair in France in 1894, and increasing hostility to Jewish immigrants in England, and other countries led many Jews to push for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, where Jews would be able to govern themselves and maintain their customs, religion and no longer fear persecution. This would result in the Zionist movement, with the goal of creating a Jewish homeland in either Australia, Argentina, Kenya/Uganda, Palestine etc. Since there was growing anti-immigrant hostility in Britain itself, with nearly 100,000 Russian-born Jews living in the country by 1901.
Meanwhile in London, the first Alien Act was passed in 1904 in an attempt to limit Jewish refugees and other foreigners from settling in the United Kingdom.
Britain had seen an increased number of persecuted European Jews towards the end of 1800’s and was too feeling the strain in taking aboard people of different descent, who most probably spoke other European language, Eastern European or Russian language and had to establish what other options there were, with the goal of creating a Jewish homeland in either Australia, Argentina, Kenya/Uganda, Palestine….. etc.
Arriving in London in October 1902, Herzl met with members of the British cabinet seeking their assistance in establishing a Jewish settlement under British protection. Leopold Greenberg, the head of the British Zionist Federation along with Herzl met with Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain and Foreign Secretary Lord Landsdowne in April 1903. It would be in this meeting that Chamberlain proposed establishing a Jewish settlement in the British East Africa Protectorate. He mentioned that the land between Nairobi and the Mau Escarpment would be ideal, especially the Uasin Gishu Plateau.
The British government had several reasons for wanting to settle British East Africa, besides simply assisting refugees. However, the Uganda Scheme as it became called was vehemently opposed by the majority of the Russian delegates in Basel. Despite this, three days later, the British government declared the British East Africa Protectorate to be a "Jewish Territory" under British protection.
As the Zionist movement spread amongst Jews in the West, the first Zionist Congress was held between 29 August and 31 August 1897 in Basel Switzerland with the ultimate goal of establishing a Jewish homeland in Ottoman-ruled Palestine. Though a small number of Eastern European Jews had been settling in Palestine since 1882, their numbers were insignificant and by 1900, Jews only constituted 6% of a population of 600,000.
However, the Zionist Organization, led by Hungarian-born Theodor Herzl, would continue to meet annually to pursue its goal and was committed to the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. To that end, in May 1901, they approached the Ottoman Sultan for a Charter to settle Jews in Palestine, but were rebuffed. Attempts to secure support from Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany seemed promising at first, however his support for the idea was withdrawn once he began to seek an alliance with the Ottomans.
In January 1905, the first eighty families arrived in Mombasa and from there would take the Uganda Railway to their future home on the Uasin Gishu Plateau. The settlers consisted largely of Jews from Moldavia, Wallachia and Bessarabia, many with little background in farming. In addition, a small number of English Jews began arriving as civil servants, skilled professionals in the territory.
The new settlers had mixed success in agriculture, but many who already had experience as pedlars and traders in Europe were able to utilize their skills in Africa, trading with the indigenous African inhabitants, assuming the roles of middle-men, with many eventually becoming large commercial and industrial enterprises.
The early years of the protectorate include several developments of significance in Kenya's subsequent history. One is the decision to encourage settlement in Kenya's temperate highlands by farmers of European origin, this prosperous region subsequently becomes known as the White Highlands exclusively for the white population that was to arrive, but arrive from where?
History tells us clearly that there was only limited number of British people who were interested in embarking on and into the unknown wilderness of Kenya?
The clear intention was to provide revenue for the railway driven northwest from Mombasa to reach Kisumu on Lake Victoria in 1901.
Most of the settlers later indeed came NOT from Britain but from South Africa but what history will not reveal is in fact there was a plan in Jewish settlements in the British East Africa Protectorate. There was a plan and a clear mention of the land between Nairobi and the Mau Escarpment that would be ideal, especially the Uasin Gishu Plateau. They changed Uganda’s demarcation /border for this very purpose.
The Africaans (Kaburus) from South Africa were encouraged due to the fact that they were already acclimatized to Africa, but they were third choice after their second choice Zionist Jews from Russia Empire.These actions would cause 2 million Jews to abandon the Russian Empire between 1881 and 1913.
Britain wanted this problem off their hands due to "The Dreyfus Affair" in France in 1894, and increasing hostility to Jewish immigrants in England.
Africans and Asian were never allowed any of the prosperous farming land or prime locations. The coolies were indentured workers bound by a contract that offered them a monthly wage of 30 rupees and freedom to return to India or remain at the expiry of their contract. The Blue Book for the East Africa Protectorate and Kenya, the White Paper of 1923 and so on made sure…
A movement to establish a Jewish homeland. Hertz's pamphlet "The Jewish State (1896)" proposed that the Jewish question was a political question to be settled by a world council of nations
Read into Theodor Hertz Arriving in London in October 1902, Visit of Rt Hon Joseph Chamberlain ( he was briefly Britain's secretary for the colonies) and his wife in 1902, Mrs Chamberlain is seated (photo) next to Sir Charles Eliot in the lead push car in Mombasa, they spent 6 days in the country on their way to South Africa.
British Zionist Federation and Herzl with Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain and Foreign Secretary Lord Landsdowne met in April 1903 on the relocation.
The so called Zionist Jews had declined Britain’s offer in relocation in Kenya, Uganda, Argentina, Madagascar, Australia and had settled for Palestine as Colonial Britain had promised them Palestine that did not even belonged to Britain!
The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population later gazumped by Eastern European Zionists.
After the war, the British government hoped to advance farming in Kenya and encouraged migration there, offering former soldiers land in Kenya on easy terms. White migration to Kenya rose along with the growth in number and size of European-owned farms.
Palestine & Zionists
JEWISH TERRORIST ACTIVITIES AND THE BRITISH
https://www.britishpathe.com/workspaces/df699ffd537d4e0c74710ad015dfd64d/MZjcsX80
The Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) was a Jewish terrorist organization that transitioned from a terrorist group to a political party. As a movement the group was founded in 1931 under Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s leadership, but even then their operations did not include violence against their enemies, the British or Arabs. Not until 1939, when group leaders recognized the need to start initiating violence, can the Irgun really be called a terrorist organization.
https://www.lycoming.edu/schemata/pdfs/Sellers.pdf
THE HISTORY, LEADERSHIP, AND ACTIVITIES OF THE MILITANT ZIONIST UNDERGROUND ARMY, THE IRGUN ZVAI LEUMI, ARE INVESTIGATED, AS WELL AS THE ACTIVITIES OF THE STERN GROUP AND THE HAGANAH, DURING THE YEARS 1929-1949.
Abstract: IN 1929, JEWISH-ARAB CONFLICT IN PALESTINE PRODUCED MANY DEATHS ON BOTH SIDES, DESPITE EFFORTS OF THE OCCUPYING BRITISH ARMY TO KEEP PEACE. THE HAGANAH HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED BY JEWISH ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICIALS TO PROVIDE WHAT PROVED TO BE LIMITED SELF-DEFENSE FOR JEWISH COMMUNITIES, WITH ORDERS NOT TO ENGAGE IN INDISCRIMINATE ATTACKS ON ARABS. COOPERATION WITH BRITISH SECURITY FORCES WAS HAGANAH POLICY. DURING THIS PERIOD OF INCREASING HOSTILITIES BETWEEN ARABS AND JEWS, THE IRGUN WAS FORMED UPON THE LEADERSHIP OF VLADIMIR JABOTINSKY TO ASSUME AN OFFENSIVE TERRORIST STRATEGY AGAINST THE ARABS WITH APPARENTLY ARBITRARY VIOLENCE AGAINST ARAB POPULATIONS. ANOTHER UNDERGROUND JEWISH TERRORIST GROUP, LOHAMEY HERUTH ISRAEL (FIGHTERS FOR THE FREEDOM OF ISRAEL) OR LEHI, WAS FORMED UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF AVRAHAM STERN AND CAME TO BE PERCEIVED BY CONVENTIONAL EYES AS THE MOST VIOLENT AND UNRESTRAINED TERRORIST ORGANIZATION OF THE MODERN ERA. WHEREAS THE HAGANAH ACTED AS AN UNDERGROUPND MILITIA AND THE IRGUN AS AN UNDERGROUND ARMY, LEHI FOCUSED ON THE ASSASSINATIONS OF SIGNIFICANT BRITISH OFFICIALS, THE MOST NOTABLE BEING THE MURDER OF BRITISH AMBASSADOR MOYNE IN EGYPT. THE IRGUN, WITH LEADERSHIP PASSING FROM JABOTINSKY TO MENACHEM BEGIN, CONTINUED ITS AGGRESSION AGAINST THE ARABS AND THE BRITISH OCCUPIERS (FREQUENTLY IN JOINT ACTIONS WITH LEHI) UNTIL PARTITIONING OF PALESTINE OCCURRED BY UNITED NATIONS ACTION. ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SOUGHT NONVIOLENT AND ACCOMMODATING RESOLUTIONS TO ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICTS, LEADING TO THE CENSURE OF IRGUN IN THE INTEREST OF A UNIFIED, OFFICIAL POLICY OF MODERATION. BEGIN EVENTUALLY DISMANTLED IRGUN TO ESTABLISH A LEGITIMATE POLITICAL PARTY. WHILE THE MODERATES OF ZIONISM AND ISRAELI OFFICIALDOM VIEWED THE VIOLENT ACTIVITIES OF IRGUN AND LEHI AS A MORAL BLIGHT ON THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND DESTRUCTIVE OF EFFORTS AT PEACEFUL RESOLUTIONS OF CONFLICTS, OTHERS VIEWED THESE GROUPS AND THEIR MEMBERS AS THE MOST DEDICATED, SACRIFICIAL, AND EFFECTIVE CONTRIBUTORS TO THE ZIONIST CAUSE. AN INDEX IS PROVIDED. (RCB)
Index Term(s): Assassination; Haganah; Irgun; Israel; Lohamey Heruth Israel; Revolutionary or terrorist groups; Terrorist profiles
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=62309
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=62309
Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948. The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_(militant_group)
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