Days That Shook the World (2003) s01e07 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: The story of the Jewish people
in the 20th century
is one of disaster and triumph.
Kristallnacht begins the descent
into the abyss of the Holocaust,
and in less than a decade,
2,000 years of exile ends
with the birth of the State of Israel
This is a dramatisation of events
as they happened,
on two days that shook the world.
It is November 9th, 1938.
In California,
Walt Disney has wowed the world
with the first ever
feature-length cartoon, Snow White.
In New York, Orson Welles
is about to bring Martians to America
in a dramatic radio broadcast,
while, in China, a real invasion is
underway by Japanese imperial forces,
and, in Germany, Adolf Hitler
is about to sit down to dinner.
(SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
It's 700 in the evening.
Tonight is one of the highlights
of the Nazi calendar,
the anniversary of Hitler's
first attempt to seize power
here in Munich, 15 years ago.
It's a chance to catch up
with old comrades
from the early days of the struggle.
And, for the upper ranks, a night to put
aside their petty rivalries and relax.
But, behind the smiles,
there is tension.
Joseph Goebbels is Reichminister
for propaganda.
So far, in the eyes of the Führer,
he's been a man of limited value.
His career is very much on the line.
But, tonight, all that will change.
He will prove that
he, too, is a man of action.
A telegram arrives for the Führer,
news important enough
to interrupt a state occasion.
For Goebbels,
it is a gift from the heavens.
This one piece of news
will make his career,
if he can persuade the Führer
to let him take charge of the evening.
Hitler traditionally makes a speech.
Goebbels asks to make it instead.
It's an incredible demand,
given the importance of the occasion,
but Goebbels knows that this is
his moment, that he must seize it
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
Hitler finally gives way
and leaves the party early.
The telegram concerns a man
who, less than a week ago,
no one had even heard of.
At five that afternoon, Ernst vom Rath,
third secretary to the German ambassador
in Paris, is pronounced dead.
He has been shot.
And the man who pulled the trigger,
17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan,
is a Jew.
For this single act, the Jews
will be made to pay a millionfold,
with their homes and businesses,
with their freedom and with their lives.
(CROWD CHEERING)
7938 ls the fifth year
of Hitler's National Socialist regime.
For five years,
Jews have been blamed for every
economic failure of the nation
and, gradually, the legal noose
has closed around their necks.
(ALL CHANTING)
They are barred from most professions
and their shops and businesses
are boycotted.
Their books have been burned
and they are excluded from the arts.
Even their children are publicly
shunned and reviled.
Many wonder how much worse it can get
They will soon found out.
In Munich, Goebbels is about to light
the touchpaper to the Holocaust.
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
NARRATOR: He begins on a familiar theme,
attacking the Jew as a threat
to the peace and security of the Reich.
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
NARRATOR: He then breaks the news
of vom Rath's death.
It is the perfect platform on which
to build his case for revenge,
revenge for an act in which he says all
the world's Jews must share the guilt
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
NARRATOR: 700 kilometres north
of Munich lies the town of Krefeld.
It has a large and prosperous
Jewish community,
including Oscar Gompertz and his family.
A reasonably successful
travelling salesman,
Gompertz is just one
of 500, 000 Jews in the Reich.
(UPBEAT CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING)
They are all about to become
unwitting players
in a drama that will change the world.
(GOEBBELS SPEAKING GERMAN)
NARRATOR: 70 kilometres south of Munich,
across the Austrian border,
lies Innsbruck.
Even here, the tiny Jewish community
will feel the Nazis' wrath.
Richard Berger arrives home from work.
An engineer and trade union leader,
Berger is also president
of the Jewish community.
Six months ago, Austria was absorbed
into the German Reich
and now he lives under Nazi law.
He organised his workers
against the union with Germany.
Now Berger is a marked man.
Nazism is no longer confined to Germany.
As well as enjoying a new
and welcoming home in Austria,
the Reich has recently
swallowed Czechoslovakia
and parts of western Poland.
The machinery is in place
to turn Goebbels' poisoned words into
direct action across half the continent.
The only questions that remain,
how far dare he go?
(GOEBBELS SPEAKING GERMAN)
NARRATOR: And how far
will the people follow?
(ALL APPLAUDING)
NARRATOR: The party bosses
are roused to action.
It's 1:.20 am,
SS-Obergruppentführer Richard Heydrich
distils the essence of Goebbels'
speech into a series of direct orders.
To be sent to all police and SS units
across the Reich,
it's a blueprint for ethnic cleansing.
"Demonstrations against Jews are
expected and must not be prevented."
“Jewish properly may be destroyed
but not looted.
"Absolute protection must be provided
to non-Jewish properties."
"As many Jews as possible, for now
only healthy males, are to be arrested."
"All concentration camps
are to be alerted to accommodate them."
The orders are carefully worded
to suggest a containing role
for the police,
in the face of spontaneous public anger.
Meanwhile, another set of orders
is given over the phone.
And, throughout the Reich, gangs of
young men are let loose in the night
with a license to terrorise Jews
and destroy their properly.
But for some,
this does not go nearly far enough.
By tradition,
new SS recruits are sworn in tonight
in a mass ritual across the nation.
Here in Innsbruck, as elsewhere,
they will soon get the chance
to prove their allegiance to the Führer
by shedding blood.
(RECITING IN GERMAN)
SS-Oberführer Hans von Feil
has scores to settle.
A number of senior SS are ordered
to report in civilian clothes,
among them Gerhard Lausegger,
a 23-year-old student
Lausegger has been drinking all night,
celebrating his graduation.
Now a qualified lawyer, he will set
the law aside for the sake of the Reich.
They are briefed by von Feil
One Jew in particular
heads the hit list,
local union leader Richard Berger.
Lausegger and his team are dispatched
with Berger's name and address
and a reminder to be discreet
The Jewish community here
is small and tightknit
Berger's neighbours have had visits
from other special units.
They have not been very discreet.
His friend, Grabacht has been stabbed.
His wife has called a doctor,
but he is already dead.
Lausegger's team decide to deal
with Berger away from prying eyes
and he is taken away for questioning.
At least, that's what they tell Berger.
Already, Goebbels' eager servants
have gone beyond
the letter of their written orders,
as he hoped they would.
There had been a chance to put a lid
on the worst excesses.
It came at precisely 2:00 that morning.
In Munich, Goebbels receives the first
report of how the night is unfolding.
It includes
a list of destroyed properties,
and the first report of a death,
a Polish Jew.
There is also a personal message
from the police chief in upper Bavaria,
warning that more deaths will follow
unless a restraining order is given.
Goebbels refuses to get upset
by a dead Jew and issues no order.
The night is now set
on an irreversible course.
All across the Reich, the restraining
grip of the law is being loosened
and the order to arrest all male Jews is
being carried out with increasing zeal
In Krefeld, in northwest Germany,
the Gompertz family is asleep.
(GLASS SHATTERING)
(CLATTERING)
They are woken by the unmistakable
sound of doors being broken open.
(DOG BARKING)
Three floors below them, a squad of SS
have arrived to take Oscar into custody.
Oscar fears the worst
Rolf is Oscar and Selma's only child.
At 10, he already knows that, as Jews,
they are different from other Germans.
He is about to learn how different
(SHOUTING IN GERMAN)
(SHUSHING)
Only yesterday, Oscar had treatment
on an infected eye
and Selma is desperately
worried about his health.
(ARGUING IN GERMAN)
Selma convinces Oscar to let her
confront the soldiers,
hoping to convince them
that he's not at home.
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
The arrest is not
as straightforward as usual
Selma is a determined woman.
(BOTH SHOUTING IN GERMAN)
Rolf hears that
they have come to arrest his father
and decides he must do something.
He packs his small suitcase
and calls out to his father
that if they take him,
he will come, too.
Oscar will not allow his wife
to be abused any further,
nor will he go quietly.
In fact, he is determined
to make the soldiers leave.
It's a dangerous game but,
as the SS are about to discover,
Gompertz is used to danger.
Oscar Gompertz fought
in the First World War,
the same war where Adolf Hitler
fought for the same, beloved Fatherland.
And, just like Hitler, Gompertz was
awarded the Iron Cross
for conspicuous gallantry
in the face of the enemy.
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
NARRATOR: Now he is the enemy.
Rolf will never forget
what happened next
ROLF: They seemed to stare
at each other for ages.
What now?
The usual "dirty, rotten Jew"
and a rifle butt in the face?
Or worse, an even quicker, final answer,
a bullet in the head.
Suddenly, the Nazi signals
his men to leave
and they disappear into the night
without even breaking a single dish.
NARRATOR: Not everyone is so lucky.
All across the country,
windows are being smashed,
synagogues and businesses burnt,
home ransacked in a orgy of destruction.
In Laupheim, Englishman Michael Bruce,
witnesses a mob attacking
the Jewish hospital for sick children.
BRUCE: In minutes, the windows were all
smashed and the doors kicked in.
Then all the children were forced out,
barefoot, over the broken glass.
NARRATOR: In Berlin,
14 year-old Michael Lebeau
witnesses the wholesale destruction
of his home.
LEBEAU: We watched them destroy
the whole apartment of five rooms.
Everything my parents had worked
so hard for over 18 long years,
gone in 10 minutes.
NARRATOR: In Mannheim,
Günter Katz watches every Jewish home
in his neighbourhood broken open.
KATZ: All the contents
were thrown into the street.
Anything that wasn't stolen
by the neighbours,
was piled up outside and burned.
NARRATOR: All across the Reich,
the story is the same.
In over 150 towns and villages,
7,500 homes, businesses and synagogues
are being destroyed.
The message to the nation's Jews
is unmistakably clear
and the death toll is mounting.
An old lady in Oberstadt,
a couple of businessmen in Keil,
in Bremen, five Jewish neighbours
and, in Austria, Richard Berger
is being driven away by the SS.
Unterführer Walter Hopfgartner
recounts what happened next
HOPFGARTNER: We drove west
through Anichstrasse,
over the university bridge,
in the direction of Kranebitten.
Berger realised quite quickly that
this wasn't the way to the Gestapo
and wanted to know
where we were taking him.
He got a bit nervous and agitated.
Lausegger managed to calm him down,
at least for a while.
Then, just as we left the city,
Lausegger suddenly announced,
in a voice loud enough so everyone
could hear him,
that no firearms were to be used.
I think this upset Berger
and he went quiet
And I knew then that Berger
was to be killed.
NARRATOR:
Night gives way to a grey dawn.
It is the last one Richard Berger
will ever see.
(BERGER PLEADING)
Richard Berger, leader of his community,
husband and father, is dead.
But Robert Duy wants to be sure.
He disobeys Lausegger's order
not to use weapons.
In the SS, discipline is everything,
as Lausegger is careful to remind him.
When the body is finally recovered,
the Gestapo will record Berger's death
as suicide.
A line has been crossed
during the night
The rule of law no longer counts
for Jews, any Jew.
All Jews are now fair game.
Without restraint,
how far will their tormentors go?
November 10th.
A new day brings a new world for both
Jew and non-Jew in Hitler's Germany.
As Dr Arthur Flehinger recalls,
"it is a day of triumph
of the strong over the weak."
Flehinger is a professor at the main
high school here in Baden Baden.
And a Jew.
He is arrested at his home
and led into town.
Here in Baden Baden,
a total of 80 Jewish men
are rounded up in the early hours
of November 10th.
Too many to shoot.
The SS and local police
have other plans.
Paraded through the streets,
they are verbally abused
and spat on by their neighbours.
Then herded into the synagogue
where a grand finale awaits them.
Today, there will be a special service
in honour of the Führer.
And so begins the final lesson
in ethnic cleansing.
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
An SS officer welcomes them
to their own house of God.
The service is ready to begin.
And of course they will start
with a hymn.
A proper song,
the Nazi anthem, Horst Wessel Lied.
(SINGING HORST WESSEL LIED)
They are not in good voice,
so he makes them sing again.
And again, and again.
Their resistance is passive,
but it's still resistance.
He threatens to have them shot
if they don't put their hearts into it
It's important they get it right
That they open their throats
and swallow the essence of Nazism,
like a pill
And allow their very identity as Jews
to be consumed.
Eventually, the singing
meets with approval
Now it's time for the sermon.
What better text than Hitler's diatribe
against the Jews, Mein Kampf.
And who better to read
than the local school professor?
Flehinger is given the job
of enlightening his congregation.
(READING HALTINGLY)
The description of himself
as a vile enemy of his own country
sticks in Flehinger's throat
(SHOUTING)
He is encouraged to try harder.
(READING LOUDER)
But it is clear that even this pantomime
is just a sideshow
to the main event of the day,
the destruction
of their beloved synagogue
and their physical removal
from Baden Baden,
one way or another.
Eventually, bored
with the routine humiliation,
the SS torch the synagogue.
That night, a total of 275 synagogues
are burnt to the ground.
In a single stroke, the religious
and cultural landscape of Germany
is stripped of all its Jewish landmarks.
By mid-morning, November 10th,
the storm had blown itself out
But Germany has changed
and everyone knows it
The last shred of innocence has been
stripped from the Third Reich.
This is what the world will
remember as Kristallnacht,
the night of broken glass.
This is what the slogans mean.
Juden Raus!
It's decision time
for the German people.
Whose side are they on?
For Joseph Goebbels, it is
the launch pad to a glittering career.
He and other senior party officials
propose two resolutions.
Firstly, that the Jews themselves
should pay for the clean-up.
A billion Reichsmarks
is extracted in fines.
But this is just the beginning.
Secondly, they agree,
the Jewish question will demand
a more "systematic" solution.
A final solution.
Arthur Flehinger and 114 fellow Jews
are spared the flames
of Baden Baden synagogue.
Not out of compassion,
but for a more efficient means
of disposal
Here and there,
a few escape abroad before the storm
including Oscar Gompertz and his family.
But, in the course of Kristallnacht,
more than 26,000
are arrested and sent to the camps.
The world reacts with horror
but does nothing.
So begins the Holocaust
From all across Europe,
more than six million Jewish men,
women and children will follow,
never to return.
It took six years of world war
to bring the Holocaust to an end.
By 1948, new conflicts have emerged.
In Germany,
the Soviets are blockading Berlin.
In India, the assassination
of Mahatma Gandhi
has added to tensions
between India and Pakistan
while London gets ready to stage
the first Olympic games for 12 years.
And in the Middle East, a Jewish nation
is struggling to be born.
May 14th. It is just past midnight
David Ben-Gurion is creating history.
At 4:00 this afternoon
when he reads these words aloud,
he will change world politics forever.
In this simple text,
lies a dream of the Jewish people
that has endured 2,000 years of exile.
It is the Declaration
of the State of Israel
Yet the nation may not survive the day.
All around him,
powerful forces are working to obstruct
or destroy his fledgling nation.
In neighbouring Jordan,
King Abdullah heads
an alliance of five Arab nations
committed to strangling Israel at birth.
He is defying the United Nations, who
have their own plan for the Middle East
Civil war rages across the country.
The British Empire, which has played
regional peacekeeper for 30 years,
is leaving.
His only hope lies in Washington.
With the backing of President Truman,
Israel might have a chance to survive.
But right now,
he doesn't know if America
will even recognise the new state.
He is gambling with the future
of his people and the whole Middle Fast
David Ben-Gurion is a lawyer,
a Zionist and a pioneer.
Even at the age of 62,
he exercises every day.
Physical well-being is part of his
personal vision of a Jewish Utopia.
From the day he arrived on the shores
of the Holy Land from his native Poland,
his life has been devoted to
the Zionist dream of a Jewish homeland.
Tens of thousands
have followed his lead.
Since the war,
the trickle has become a flood,
as wave after wave of refugees
arrived from Europe,
to build and settle,
to till the land
and make the desert bloom.
Hebrew labour on Hebrew soil,
he believes,
is the only way for the Jewish people
to regain the land of Israel
The problem is, his land of Israel
lies in an existing country - Palestine.
Just six months earlier,
the United Nations tried to find
a political solution
to this age-old dilemma
by partitioning Palestine.
MAN ON TV: The Jewish State will include
the ports of Haifa and Tel Aviv
and the whole of the Negev valley.
The Arab will occupy
the fertile eastern part.
Jerusalem will come under
United Nations' trusteeship.
NARRATOR: Jews were ecstatic.
After the nightmare of the Holocaust,
they would have a land
to call their own,
but at the expense of the Palestinians.
Although they made up
65% of the population,
they would get just 40% of the land.
They rejected partition
and took up arms.
Sectarian violence
spilled over into civil war.
Trying to keep the two sides apart
is the British army.
The British have held a mandate to
rule Palestine since the First World War
but it ends at midnight tonight,
May 14th.
The sun rises
and the countdown has begun.
Laghud is 14 years old.
Today, he is scouting a sniping position
for his elder brother
in the bombed-out ruins of Jaffa.
According to the UN partition,
Jaffa was meant to be
a Palestinian town.
Most of it has already surrendered
to Jewish forces,
yet there are still pockets
of resistance.
Said's 19 year-old brother, Hassan,
was a student before the fighting.
Like most Palestinians,
he has no military training and
his rifle is from the First World War.
The British army is meant
to keep the opposing sides apart,
yet Israelis are sniping
and shelling over their heads
to force the last few Palestinians out.
Said believes he has spotted
where the snipers are holed up.
It will make little difference.
(GUNSHOTS)
When the last British soldiers leave,
they will have to fend for themselves.
As long ago as March,
the American government recognised
the UN partition was doomed to failure.
Something had to be done.
AUSTIN: 70 terminate the mandate
on May 15th, 1948,
if carried out by the United Kingdom,
would result in chaos.
The United Nations cannot permit
such a result
NARRATOR: American Secretary
to the UN Warren Austin
proposes that partition
be temporarily abandoned.
Instead, with the end
of the British mandate,
direct control of the country
would pass to the UN.
It promised a halt to the fighting,
but Jewish independence
would have to wait.
May 12th in Tel Aviv.
With just two days to go
before the end of the mandate,
Ben-Gurion calls his cabinet
to a crisis meeting.
Before them
is a single, burning question.
Will they take the cease-fire
and put off independence
or forge ahead and risk
losing everything in the war?
For Ben-Gurion,
independence is a once-only
opportunity to be seized at all costs.
But, first he has to
persuade his cabinet.
Many are afraid to go it alone
and with good reason.
Golda Meir has two children
fighting at the front.
As Ben-Gurion's envoy in Jordan,
she has just met with King Abdullah
to request his neutrality.
Abdullah has proposed his own solution.
Palestine would remain whole,
with himself as sole ruler.
The jews would be allowed a tiny,
autonomous ghetto around Tel Aviv,
but this would not be a state
and he would be King of the jews.
She told him, "Neo."
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
NARRATOR: There is worse news to come.
The cease-fire is a US initiative.
If they reject it, they could jeopardise
America's recognition of Israel
and, without that, they may not survive.
Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett
has just returned from Washington.
His mission,
to get Truman on their side.
The President is known to have
some sympathy with the Jewish cause
but, denied access to Truman,
Sharett has met instead with
Head of State Department,
Senator George Marshall
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
For Ben-Gurion, the future
suddenly looks very uncertain.
Yet, at this very moment in Washington,
an unlikely ally
has just got out of bed.
Dark Clifford is Truman's
domestic policy adviser.
At 4:00 this afternoon, he will
attempt to persuade the President
to commit himself to recognising Israel
Senator George Marshall
will also be in the meeting
and Marshall thinks Clifford is meddling
in affairs that don't concern him.
A 41-year-old lawyer,
Clifford's reputation is built
on the sharpness of his argument,
finely tuned before he steps into court.
Today, he will have to be
very sharp indeed.
Sir, the draft public speech,
which I worked on last week,
advocating the recognition
of the Jewish State, is, I believe
NARRATOR: Clifford is not employed
in foreign policy
but he has a compelling reason
to fight for the Jewish cause.
He wants to keep his job.
The Jews have been promised a homeland.
Senator, the Jewish State
has been accepted in principle
since The Balfour Declaration.
Sir, this is a moral issue, not just
Lecture, don't lecture Marshall
NARRATOR: 7948 ls a presidential
election year and Truman risks losing.
New York alone has
100,000 potential Jewish voters.
Yes, the numbers don't make sense.
Thirty million Arabs,
six hundred thousand Jews
Suddenly, Truman's
foreign policy decisions
could have a huge impact
on the survival of his administration.
The stakes are high for everyone.
And, if the Jews go it alone,
as I believe they will,
we have the opportunity
to support a country
that supports the democratic system
in the Middle East.
The Jewish State can be that,
if we help them.
And how's it gonna look?
If they turn to us for help
and we abandon
If we turn our backs
on a potential ally, a fellow democracy.
And there's also
the Soviets to consider.
If they support the Jewish State,
and it survives,
they will have gained
a foothold in the region.
NARRATOR: while the politicians argue,
the war intensifies.
Jewish forces are increasing
their stranglehold on Jaffa,
helped by the withdrawal of the British.
Yes, as one occupying army departs,
another waits in the wings.
Abdullah's legions are massing
at the border,
armies from Jordan, Syria, Egypt,
Iraq and Lebanon,
30,000 men with tanks,
artillery and air support.
Two days to go and counting.
In Tel Aviv, the meeting trails on
into the evening.
Ben-Gurion hopes that Truman
may yet come round.
But if he doesn't, what then?
Without legal recognition
they will be unable to buy
new weapons and ammunition.
Left on their own,
how long can they survive?
Ben-Gurion turns to 30-year-old
Chief of Operations Yigal Yadin.
The Jewish forces are short
of heavy weapons
and tomorrow,
if the Arabs invade as promised,
they face armoured columns
and artillery.
In most places, they are
outnumbered by irregular forces
and the kibbutz are being picked off
one by one.
They are running out of ammunition
and their lines of communication
are seriously overstretched.
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
Golda Meir hasn't heard
from her son in days.
Now she fears
for the very survival of her people.
MEIR: When I heard Yadin's words,
I felt a chill run down my spine.
For the first time,
I was genuinely afraid
and wondered if we were
making a huge mistake.
NARRATOR: But they have
to make a decision.
For Ben-Gurion,
it is a question of destiny.
History will never forgive them,
he believes,
if they fall to take this chance.
Yet, if they gamble and lose,
who will be left to forgive them?
It's time to vote.
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
The destiny of the Jewish people
and the whole Middle East
is literally in their hands.
Despite her fears,
Golda Meir remains true to the dream.
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
She votes against the cease-fire,
as does Sharett and Yadin.
With Ben-Gurion's own vote,
the decision is to reject the American
cease-fire by just six votes to four.
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
Yet they still depend
on Truman's recognition
and, in Washington, Clifford has failed.
Marshall has threatened to resign
and it appears to have swayed
Truman in his favour.
That was two days ago.
Today will be Israel's Independence Day
and, as far as they know,
they are still on their own.
Ben-Gurion finishes
the Declaration document.
The early drafts adhered
to the UN partition plan
but the Palestinians
have never accepted partition
and now he takes the decision to remove
all references to UN borders.
He doesn't want his new nation
to be limited in its ambitions.
For Ben-Gurion, Israel is the Holy Land.
All of it
just 60 kilometres east, in Jerusalem,
fighting intensifies
for control of the city.
It is the spiritual capital
for both Jews and Arabs.
Under the UN plan,
It is meant to be neutral,
but both sides are trying
to grab it while they can.
The Palestinians
are gaining the upper hand.
There is worse news.
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
A telegram arrives from &
collection of kibbutzim
south of Jerusalem called Gush Fizion.
Two days ago, two hundred and forty
settlers were massacred.
The commander of the block
has just surrendered to avoid a repeat.
The road to Jerusalem is now open
to the Arab Legion army.
Ben-Gurion's other big enemy today
is time.
In seven hours, America will awake.
The UN will sit down
to debate a new resolution,
appointing a mediator in the dispute,
legally taking over from the British.
Today is also a Friday, and at sunset
the Jewish Sabbath begins.
Past that point,
no Jew can work or travel,
or take part in any kind of business.
He cannot even sign a document.
So the delegates must be gathered
and the documents signed by 6:00 p.m.
(AEROPLANE WHISTLING OVERHEAD)
Meanwhile,
the British withdrawal continues
and the countdown
to all-out war ticks on.
At 8:00 o'clock, Sir Alan Cunningham,
the last British governor,
takes his leave.
At just 30 years, the British Empire
has had the shortest rule in history
and leaves behind a land in crisis.
In Jaffa, the Palestinian resistance
is on its last legs.
As the British leave,
Jewish forces are pushing
further and further into the city,
mopping up as they go.
(GUNSHOTS)
Said and Hassan are running out of time.
Early afternoon in Tel Aviv.
Ben-Gurion has presented his final draft
of the Declaration for approval
But there is a problem.
The Orthodox Jews
insist that reference be made to God.
Every new nation does, they say,
even the Americans.
The representative
of the left-wing parties, however,
is adamant that the new nation
will be secular
and doesn't need to place
its trust in the Almighty.
They eventually compromise on the phrase
Tzur Yisrael, Rock of Israel
And the secular/religious tensions
are submerged.
At least, for the time being.
Jaffa is now quiet in anticipation.
Said has gone to the harbour
in search of a ship.
Just a few weeks ago,
their middle brother, Ibrahim,
escaped to Beirut on a boat along with
thousands of other Palestinians.
But all the serviceable boats
have long gone.
In Tel Aviv, Ben-Gurion prepares
for the independence ceremony.
The time and location
have been kept secret
for fear of an attack
by the Egyptian air force.
The wording has finally been agreed
just half an hour ago.
They are committed now, come what may.
And Ben-Gurion is calm
in the eye of the impending storm.
Over 1,000 people have gathered
outside the Tel Aviv Art Museum.
The secret location
didn't stay secret for long.
It is 4:00. The Jewish People's Council
and 300 selected witnesses are ready.
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
(SINGING HATIKVA)
Just down the road in Jaffa, Said
and Hassan have a choice to make,
stay and fight or try and leave.
(SPEAKING ARABIC)
David Ben-Gurion reads the 650 words
of the Declaration of Independence
of the State of Israel
In less than 20 minutes, 2,000 years
of exile of the Jewish people
will be brought to an end.
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
He refers to the Bible, the Holocaust
and the UN resolution
as steps along the road
to this redemption.
But as one chapter in the history of
the Middle East closes, another opens.
For three-quarters of a million
Palestinians,
the exile is just beginning.
Said says he has heard
that there are spaces
on the last British convoy out of town.
They will even be allowed to take
their weapons. It is their last hope.
Hassan decides they will leave Jaffa
and link up with the Arab Legion army
wherever they can find it,
then return to liberate the town.
They take what mementoes they can
as well as the keys to their family home
and the deeds to their business.
Whatever happens after midnight
there will be a new authority
when they return
and they will need to prove ownership.
They expect to be back in a few days
with the liberation army.
It doesn't occur to them
that they may never return.
(SPEAKING HEBREW)
The climax of the Declaration
is Israel's commitment to peace
with its Arab neighbours.
For Golda Meir,
this moment of independence
is the realisation of a dream
she thought she would never see.
But there is sorrow mixed with the joy.
MEIR: I thought of my children fighting
and their comrades dying at this moment.
And I thought
of the six million who perished,
of all of those
who should have been here,
all those who will never see Israel
NARRATOR: Today is a precious moment
of triumph,
but she knows the real struggle
is just beginning.
The next few hours will be
make or break for the new nation
and the key to its survival
is 5,000 miles away.
In Washington, it's mid-morning.
Clark Clifford knows the Declaration
has been made.
His attempts to persuade Truman
to recognise the new state
have so far failed.
But he hasn't given up.
Yes, hello. Can you get me Mr Epstein
at the Jewish Agency, please?
NARRATOR: He calls the leader
of the Jewish Agency in Washington,
the unofficial ambassador to the US.
Mr Epstein? Clark Clifford.
Yes, sir. I'm fine, sir. Yes, listen.
I need you to do something for me.
I need you to write a letter
to the President
formally requesting recognition
of the Jewish State.
Yes, sir. Now, it's very important,
this must be done by 12:00 today.
NARRATOR: Clifford gambles
that the timing of the appeal
in the full flush of the Declaration
will push the President into acceptance.
Do you understand? Yes.
Then we're in agreement?
NARRATOR:
It's his last roll of the dice.
In New York, the UN is sitting down
to pass a new resolution,
appointing a mediator
to oversee the truce,
taking over from the British
at midnight
The diplomatic race
enters its final strait.
May the 14th draws to a close
in the new nation of Israel,
a nation in limbo.
It still doesn't officially exist
in the eyes of the world.
The Arabs are coming, the Israelis wait
Only one question remains.
And Truman's answer stuns the world.
At 6:11 pm Eastern Standard Time,
President Truman responds
to Jewish pleas
and signs his recognition
of the State of Israel
Like the Declaration,
it makes no reference to any borders.
Truman recognises
an effectively boundless state.
With America leading, the rest of the
world follows and Israel is a reality.
we expect the nations around the world
will help us in our difficult task.
NARRATOR: Elated by the news,
Ben-Gurion makes a radio broadcast
appealing for the world's support
At the time that I am speaking, Tel Aviv
is being bombed by hostile planes.
NARRATOR: In the background can be heard
the bombs of the Egyptian air force,
as Israel comes under attack.
King Abdullah makes good his promise
and attempts to destroy the new nation.
Yet the tide is about to turn.
With recognition, the Israelis
can buy the weapons they need
and the War of Independence
will ultimately be won.
Later that day, Israelis occupy
the last corners of Jaffa,
including the home
of Said and Hassan All-Abi Laghud.
Three quarters of a million Palestinians
will never return to their homes.
And in the first few hours
of independence,
the pattern of the next 50 years is set
The Jewish State survives to this day.
But Ben-Gurion's dream
remains unfulfilled.
Israel is still not at peace.