https://amsterdam.ninkilim.com/articles/zionism_and_nazism/en.html
In September 1934, Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda newspaper Der Angriff (The Attack) launched a special feature: a 12-part travelogue by SS officer Leopold von Mildenstein describing his visit to Palestine with Zionist official Kurt Tuchler. To promote the series, Goebbels had a commemorative bronze medal struck in Nuremberg: one side bore a Star of David with the inscription “Ein Nazi fährt nach Palästina” (“A Nazi Travels to Palestine”), the other a swastika with the phrase “Und erzählt davon im Angriff” (“And tells about it in Der Angriff”).
This medal captured a fleeting yet striking reality: Nazi officials and Zionist leaders shared an interest in Jewish emigration to Palestine. The Nazis wanted Germany judenrein (free of Jews); Zionists wanted to populate their future state. Their collaboration, pragmatic and opportunistic, flourished during the 1930s.
The 19th century witnessed the rise of ethno-nationalism - the belief that each people (defined by ethnicity, language, and “blood”) should live in its own state. This was the ideological fuel for the unifications of Italy and Germany and the nationalist uprisings across the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires.
Minority groups suffered under this new order:
Most of these groups responded by fighting for rights or independence. Zionism, by contrast, argued that the solution for Jewish oppression was not equality within Europe but colonization of Palestine.
Antisemitism was pervasive long before the Nazis:
Zionists interpreted antisemitism as confirmation that Jews did not belong in Europe. Herzl’s Der Judenstaat (1896) concluded: antisemitism would never disappear, therefore Jews needed a state of their own.
On 21 June 1933, the Zionist Federation of Germany (ZVfD) sent a memorandum to Adolf Hitler. It declared:
“On the foundation of the new state, which has established the principle of race, we wish so to fit our community into the total structure so that for us too, in the sphere assigned to us, fruitful activity for the Fatherland is possible… Because we, too, are against mixed marriage and are for maintaining the purity of the Jewish group.”
On 25 August 1933, Nazi Germany and the Jewish Agency signed the Haavara (“Transfer”) Agreement.
In spring 1933, Kurt Tuchler, a Zionist official, approached SS officer Leopold von Mildenstein to promote emigration through positive Nazi media coverage. Mildenstein and his wife traveled with the Tuchlers through Palestine, visiting Tel Aviv, kibbutzim, the Jezreel Valley, Safad, Hebron, and Jerusalem.
The journey produced the series “Ein Nazi fährt nach Palästina” (A Nazi Travels to Palestine), serialized in Der Angriff from 26 September to 9 October 1934.
A Nazi Travels to Palestine and Tells About It in Der Angriff
Each installment included photos of Zionist settlements and pioneers. Below are selected excerpts.
“At the Berlin station, Jewish youth boarded the train. They sang Hebrew songs, their voices filled with optimism. They shouted their farewell: Shalom! … It was the call of a people setting out to build anew.”
“In the harbor of Haifa, Arab porters thronged about, shouting and grabbing for luggage with greedy hands. In contrast, the Jewish officials of the immigration office received us with order and discipline, their documents neatly prepared.”
“Here only Jews live, here only Jews work, here only Jews trade, bathe and dance. The language of the city is Hebrew - an ancient tongue, revived - yet the city itself is modern and Western, with broad streets and attractive shops. Everywhere construction rises to meet the swelling population.”
“The great majority of Jews in Palestine are optimistic, hard-working, idealistic people who intend to build the land with their own sweat - the exact opposite of the stereotype usually applied to Jews.”
“On the kibbutz, every hand works: men, women, and children alike. The swampy ground is drained, orchards planted, barns raised. Here a new type of Jew is born - rooted in the soil, close to the earth.”
“In the youth colony of Ben Shemen, young pioneers are trained not only in study but in labor. They till the ground, care for livestock, and march with discipline. In their eyes shines the spirit of the future.”
“In the Jezreel Valley I met Ben-Gurion, a leader among the settlers. Around us, what was once swamp and wilderness has become fertile farmland. The settlers here live communally, sharing all, with the conviction that they are forging a new nation.”
“Some old women sit opposite me. The very old are no longer veiled, though one would wish they were… and these dirty children. The bus rocks miserably. A little girl becomes carsick. There were already Arab odors surrounding us, but now it becomes unbearable. We too hang our heads out of the window.”
“In Safad the atmosphere is tense. Arabs demonstrate against the British, waving fists and shouting. The Jews, in their small quarter, remain behind guarded doors. Here one sees clearly: the Arab resists progress.”
“We passed through the burnt-out Jewish quarter of Hebron. The ruins stood as a reminder of the bloody days of 1929, when the Arab mob fell upon their neighbors. Stones blackened with fire, empty houses, silence where once Jewish life had thrived.”
“At the Wailing Wall, Jews murmured prayers. Arabs walked by and mocked, shouting and jeering, disturbing their devotion. In the evening, I attended a gathering of Jewish writers in Jerusalem - a salon alive with conversation, where old tradition met youthful renewal.”
“Palestine has the capacity to receive many more thousands. The progress already achieved shows what can be done when idealism and work unite. But the British hesitate, fearing unrest, and the Arabs grow restless.”
“In Palestine, the Jewish question finds its solution. Here the Jew becomes productive, creative, tied to the land. The problem that burdens Europe finds healing in the soil of Erez Israel.”
By 1935, Adolf Eichmann joined Mildenstein’s department. He studied Herzl’s Der Judenstaat, learned Hebrew and Yiddish, and described himself as a “Zionist” - not from belief, but as a means of promoting emigration as the solution to the “Jewish problem.”
In July 1938, the Evian Conference gathered 32 countries to discuss Jewish refugees. Most refused to increase immigration quotas; only the Dominican Republic offered land for 100,000, though only a few hundred were settled.
Nazi propaganda gloated: “Jews for sale - nobody wants them.” Zionist delegates focused exclusively on Palestine, rejecting other destinations. The failure of emigration contributed to the Nazi shift from expulsion to extermination.
In 1937, Haganah agent Feivel Polkes met Eichmann and Herbert Hagen. Polkes requested arms and Nazi assistance against the British, framing Britain as a common enemy. Eichmann and Hagen traveled to Palestine under false identities, were expelled by the British, and met Polkes again in Cairo. No agreement was reached, but the episode illustrates the pragmatism - and desperation - of both sides.
Before genocide, Nazi policy involved:
Observers note structural parallels in Israel/Palestine today: dispossession of land, denial of citizenship, separate legal systems for settlers and Palestinians, and administrative detention.
Zionism and Nazism, though opposed in outcome, shared a common framework: both were ethno-nationalist projects that rejected assimilation, glorified separation, and defined identity biologically.
The Der Angriff medal with its swastika and Star of David is more than a collector’s curiosity - it is a reminder that European antisemitism was not resolved in Europe but exported to Palestine, where Palestinians became the victims of a “solution” devised by two racial-nationalist ideologies.