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Did a German Officer Prevent the Massacre of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael During World War I?

(Israel Daily Picture) Lenny Ben-David - A German photographic collection contains a picture of General Erich von Falkenhayn leaving Palestine in 1918 and bears an amazing caption which claims that Falkenhayn prevented a Turkish massacre of the Jews of Palestine in World War I. Falkenhayn served as the Chief of Staff of the German Army and was the commander of Turkish and German troops in 1917-1918. A Falkenhayn family genealogy, posted on the Internet, elaborates further: "While he was in command in Palestine, he was able to prevent Turkish plans to evict all Jews from Palestine, especially Jerusalem. As this was meant to occur along the lines of the genocide of the Armenians, it is fair to say that Falkenhayn prevented the eradication of Jewish settlements in Palestine." Dr. Jacob Thon, head of the Zionist Office in Jerusalem, wrote in 1917, "It was a special stroke of good fortune that in the last critical days General von Falkenhayn had the command. Jamal Pasha [Turkish governor of Syria and Palestine] in this case - as he announced often enough - would have expelled the whole population and turned the country into ruins."
2011-12-09 00:00:00
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