The Jewish Brigade's Bold Stand Against the Nazis: A Tale of Courage

In April 1945, towards the end of World War II, Nazi Wehrmacht soldiers were firmly entrenched along their well-fortified positions in Northern Italy, a stretch formerly known as the "Gothic Line." Using over 15,000 forced laborers, the Germans constructed more than 2,000 well-fortified machine-gun posts, bunkers, observation points, and artillery positions, aiming to make this line, naturally protected by the Apennine Mountains, impenetrable to the Allies.

After the Normandy invasion in June 1944, where the Allies succeeded in entering occupied France, Hitler ordered the line's name changed to the "Green Line," in hopes of downplaying its importance if the Allies broke through, stripping it of its symbolic protection associated with the Aryan race and reducing it to just a technical boundary...

The 76th Panzer Corps, under General Gerhard von Schwerin's command, was well-prepared and deeply dug in around the fortified line when General Clark of the U.S. Army broadcast a call for Italian partisans to rise up and assist in capturing the Green Line's defenses. Von Schwerin scoffed. Nothing in the world could conquer our "Genghis Khan Line" defenses, let alone partisans? He was unaware that the 15th Army Group, poised to assault Italy, consisted of over a million Allied troops!

A few days later, on April 9, 1945, Italy experienced unprecedented shelling. In the following days, Wehrmacht soldiers were battered. Inch by inch, the Po Valley was taken, Bologna was conquered, the "Venetian Defense Line" was obliterated. When the Allies reached Padua, they discovered that partisans had already captured Italy's fascist leader and Nazi collaborator, Benito Mussolini, and hanged him at a gas station canopy.

As the Wehrmacht soldiers, entrenched on the Po River's banks, were surrounded by Allied forces, they realized the end was near. A German paratrooper battalion came to their aid but was captured together with them. But this surprise was beyond their expectations: the soldiers who captured them were Hebrew-speaking "Jews." The soldiers bore flags with the Star of David. Such a humiliation for a Nazi, to walk with hands raised before a Jew aiming a rifle, even in their darkest nightmares, they couldn't have imagined it.

These were 5,000 Jewish Brigade soldiers, participating in the last major battle for Italy. Established by the British Army, the Jewish Brigade was composed of three battalions of Jews from Israel. The brigade's commander was Brigadier Levi Benjamin, who negotiated with the British Army the terms for its formation: the brigade would have a military rabbi to ensure kosher food, they would be allowed to pray on Yom Kippur, and Shabbat would be a day of rest. The military rabbi was Rabbi Moshe Dov Casper. The commander of the first battalion was Shlomo Rabinowitz (later the first general in the IDF and later Commander of the Navy).

The Jewish Brigade was established in September 1944, following Churchill's declaration: "There are a great number of Jews serving within our army and the American army, in all different services. But it seems to me truly fitting that a special unit of the same people, who have suffered unimaginable torments at the hands of the Nazis, be represented as a distinct brigade." Thus, the Jews of the Land of Israel were able to fight the Nazis on the battlefield, assisting in their defeat.

The brigade's army rabbi recounted: "It was surprising how quickly people organized and turned the town into a forward position for the Land of Israel. The Jewish presence was noticeable from afar by the Hebrew and English signs posted by the brigade's military police unit, along with the golden Star of David over a blue and white background, which became the unit's emblem on their signs. In addition, the Jewish flag flew across the entire camp, and the brigade’s vehicles were given Hebrew names, such as Tel Aviv, Sarah, and Metula."

The Jewish fighters' involvement in battle was brief, as the Nazis surrendered a few weeks later. However, they remained in Europe to assist the Holocaust survivors and aid in post-war migration efforts.