Documentation from the Hakibbutz Ha'arzi Archives: Activities of the Hashomer Hatzair Movement in Europe during World War II

Hashomer Hatsair is a Socialist–Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary. By 1939, Hashomer Hatzair had 70,000 members worldwide. The movement's membership base was in Eastern Europe. With the advent of World War II and the Holocaust, members of Hashomer Hatzair focused their attention on resistance against the Nazis. Mordechaj Anielewicz, the leader of Hashomer Hatzair's Warsaw branch, became head of the Jewish Fighting Organization and one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Other members of the movement were involved in Jewish resistance and rescue in Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia. The leaders of Hashomer Hatzair in Romania were arrested and executed for anti-fascist activities. After the war, the movement was involved in organizing illegal immigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine This Record Group includes "The Collection of material regarding the Ha shomer Hatzair activity in t the Holocaust from "The Hakibbutz Ha'arzi Archives", which changed its name and today it is called the Yad Yaari Archive. An expanded description of the documents comprising the Collection, as well as a list of the reels which include each of the original Record Groups can be found in file O.300/55 in the YV archives. YV archives The collection contains mainly documentation regarding the activities of the Hashomer Hatzair Movement during the war in various countries in Europe. The Collection was gathered and brought to Eretz Israel by members of the movement. The documentation from the Hakibbutz Ha'arzi Archives was originally arranged and organized in Record Groups: 1. The Vilna Ghetto Record Group; 2. The Warsaw Record Group; 3. The Bialystok Record Group; 4. The Hashomer Hatzair Movement in cities and ghettos in Poland during the war; 5. The Movement in Hungary, Slovakia, parachutists; 6. The PCh"Ch Archive in Germany; 7. The Archive of the Hashomer Hatzair Chapter in the Lodz Ghetto; 8. The She'erith Hapletah Record Group, rescue of children and organization of the Movement in Poland after the war.