The nationalist movement of the Jewish people is known as Zionism. The initial goal of the Zionist movement was to create a national homeland for Jews. Although progress toward this goal was made before 1939, the drive to create a Jewish nation assumed greater urgency after the Holocaust.

Throughout the war, Jewish immigration to Palestine was strictly limited by Britain, which held the mandate on the territory. Zionists in Europe, however, worked frantically to smuggle Jews into Palestine, and thousands of Jewish refugees successfully evaded capture by the British.

After the war, Zionist activists canvassed the displaced-persons camps, most of which were established in Germany to house Jewish refugees. The activists encouraged survivors of the Holocaust, such as the couple pictured, to immigrate to Palestine. They persuasively argued that only a Jewish nation could guarantee the safety of the Jewish people. Great Britain still refused to open the gates of immigration to Jewish refugees, and they returned most of the 65 refugee ships to Europe. The plight of Jews being turned back from the shores of Palestine contributed to a growing consensus among the world powers that Palestine should become a Jewish state. Subsequent Jewish-Zionist activism, and United Nations support, led to the establishment of Israel in 1948.
Photo: Gedenkstaette Bergen-Belsen / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive