Hashomer Hatzair

Hashomer Hatzair 

Zionist socialist youth movement created in Galizia (at that time a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Hashomer Hatzair forthwith adopted a Zionist ideology and stressed the need for the Jewish people to normalize their lives by changing their economic structure (as merchants) and to become workers and farmers, who would settle in the Land of Israel and work the land as"chalutzi" (pioneers). They were influenced, as well, by the burgeoning socialist movement, and they dreamt of creating in their new homeland a society based on social justice and equality. During the Holocaust Hashomer Hatzair was active in leading resistance in the ghettoes, the forests and the concentration camps. In the Warsaw ghetto, members of the movement were among the organizers of the Jewish Fighting Organization, and a member of Hashomer Hatzair, Mordechai Anilewicz, stood at its head. In Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia and elsewhere in Nazi-occupied Europe, members of Hashomer Hatzair were to be found in the front ranks of the Jewish and general resistance and in attempts to rescue Jews.