Treasure Trove: Leon Blum-Socialist, Zionist, Survivor, Prime Minister of France

In 1943, Leon Blum was a prisoner in the Buchenwald concentration camp when the Leon Blum Colony (Kfar Blum in Hebrew) was dedicated.  This poster stamp raised funds, ten cents per stamp, for the establishment of this town which was built on land acquired by the Jewish National  Fund in the upper Galilee, about six kilometres southeast of Kiryat Shmona. 

The Kfar Blum area was the subject of many Hezbollah missile attacks in March and April.

Blum (1872-1950) was the first Jewish and Socialist prime minister of France, serving three terms (twice in the 1930s and the third in 1946 after he returned from Nazi concentration camps).  He first became politically active in the defence of Alfred Dreyfus who was wrongfully charged and then convicted of spying for Germany.  It was the Dreyfus trial that convinced Theodor Herzl to find a solution to antisemitism.

In 1937, Blum consented to a town being named after him and for the JNF to raise funds for this purpose.  There was a dinner in New York on December 6, 1938 to raise funds for the Leon Blum Colony.  Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at the gala, ignoring the advice of the State Department that she not attend.  Recognizing the plight of the many European Jewish refugees at the time and the intention to settle 1,000 Jewish refugee families in the Leon Blum Colony, Mrs. Roosevelt appealed to Americans to cling to their ideals and by virtue of their “thought and example” return the world to “kindness, goodwill and liberty.”

After the French capitulated to Germany in June 1940, Blum was arrested and brought to trial in February 1942  on the charge of treason.  His defence was so effective that the Germans suspended the trial and Blum was returned to prison.  He was moved to Buchenwald in March 1943 and then was moved to Dachau in April 1945 as the Allied Forces approached.  He was liberated one month later.

Blum’s public policies were shaped by his Jewishness, coupled with his socialist principles and promotion of working-class reforms, including introducing the 40-hour work week to France.  The most visible evidence of Blum’s commitment to his Jewish heritage was his support for Herzl’s solution to antisemitism- a Jewish state.

In 1919 Blum took a strong interest in Zionism, joining the “France-Eretz Israel” committee in 1927, the International Socialist Committee for Eretz  Yisrael in 1928 and the Jewish Agency in 1929.  Blum led a European country and advocated for a Jewish one, seeing no inconsistency between the two.

Prior to Israel proclaiming independence on May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion sent emissaries to France to consult with Blum in light of the US State Department’s strong opposition to declaring the State.  Blum’s advice was to go for it.  

He said, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime historic opportunity. If you do not take the risk now, such a chance will not come again.”

Clearly, that was good advice.

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For more treasures from the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, which has appeared weekly in the Treasure Trove column in the Canadian Jewish News (www.thecjn.ca) since February 2021, see https://herzlcollection.com/treasure-trove

Treasure Trove is a program of The Herzl Project.