Did Ze'ev Jabotinsky Forecast the Coming of the Holocaust?

by Gad Nahshon

The following is a translation from Yiddish of Jabotinsky's touching and sad speech in Tisha B'ev, Oct. 24, 1938, Warsaw, Poland. It was his prophetic warning to his people, to the masses of his brothers and sisters:

"It is already three years that I am calling upon you, Polish Jewry, who are the crown of World Jewry. I continue to warn you incessantly that a catastrophe is coming closer, I became gray and old in these days, my heart bleeds, that you dear brothers and sisters, do not see the volcano which will soon begin to spit its all consuming lava. I see that you are not seeing this because you are immersed and sunk in your daily worries. Today, however, I demand from you trust. You were convinced already that my prognoses have already proved to be right. If you think differently, then drive me out of your midst. However, if you do believe me, then listen to me in this 12th hour: In the name of G-D!! Let anyone of you save himself as long as there is still time, and time there is very little.

"And what else would I like to say to you on this day of Tisha B'ev: Whoever of you will escape from the catastrophe, he or she will live to see the exalted moment of a great Jewish Wedding: The rebirth and the rise of a Jewish state, I don't know if I will be privileged to see it: my son will! I believe in this as I am sure that tomorrow morning the sun will rise."

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