When Hitler came to power at the end of January 1933, at the latest with the »Jewish boycott« of April 1, the number of newcomers grew rapidly: In Palestine, many of those oppressed and persecuted by the Nazis wanted to build a new life for themselves.
This sight in Jerusalem was shocking: a swastika flag was waving in the middle of the old town.
The photo from the 1930s often causes irritation, especially in Israel itself. How was it even conceivable to hang this flag, a symbol of oppression and hatred of Jews, on a hotel just a few hundred meters from the famous Jaffa Gate?
In 1907 Maria and Abraham Fast opened the hotel.
Later the sons Herman and Friedrich took over, grandson Waldemar ran a travel agency there.
The sophisticated three-story building was one of the leading houses in the city, best known for its kosher restaurant, which was appreciated by Jewish customers.
In Germany, President Paul von Hindenburg officially declared the swastika flag to be a national flag on March 13, 1933.
With the black-white-red flag of the empire, it should fly on offices and authorities in the future.
Arab children embroidered a swastika flag
The decree also reached the German consulate general in Jerusalem, but initially went unnoticed. Consul General Heinrich Wolff was responsible for the concerns of all German Reich citizens, thus for Jews as well as non-Jews. He was anxious to find a compromise and was married to a Jew who had converted to Protestantism and was involved in the Protestant community.
The diplomat negotiated an agreement between the German Reich and the Jewish Agency: Jewish emigrants were allowed to bring part of their assets in the form of German manufactured goods with them to Palestine in order to promote the export of agricultural and construction machinery in particular. Wolff therefore also called for an end to the "Jewish boycott," which was damaging the sale of German goods in Palestine. After the flag decree, he sent Hindenburg a request by telegram from Jews of German descent in Jerusalem:
»We wholeheartedly agree with the black-white-red flag, since many of us fought in its shadow for the German homeland, and we also identify with the political and economic goals of the national movement; Unfortunately, we have to state that the sight of the swastika flag draws the attention of the Jews to the most recent, greatly exaggerated reports of acts of violence perpetrated against Jews in Germany. "
The telegram went unanswered.
On March 18, a problem became urgent: the consulate general in what was then the British mandate was expressly requested to hoist the swastika flag on the following day - but it did not have any.
Help came from an orphanage: the director of the institution instructed Arab children to embroider one.
"We tore the flag from the consulates"
However, the flag did not last long.
Ya'acov Orenstein described the reaction of the radical Zionist, paramilitary underground organization Lechi as follows:
“Within a week, despite the strict surveillance of the British police, we tore the swastika flag from the German consulates in Jaffa and Jerusalem. We smashed shop windows in which German goods were on display - that night we attacked the German consulate in Jerusalem and flames went up from the lighted consulate building. "
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After that, Consul General Wolff refrained from hoisting the flag.
In August 1934 a letter of denunciation was received in Berlin:
“In the last few weeks it has been found that the Consulate General only hoists small flags in both good and bad weather. What is even more regrettable, however, is that it does not hoist the swastika flag at all. Is the State Department so impoverished that it has to be sparing even when it comes to displaying our symbols? "
As the writer of the letter, Ludwig Buchhalter revealed that the "policy of very small flags" was aimed at appeasing the Jews:
“I am aware that the Foreign Office values Consul Wolff's economic abilities, but in my opinion he is better suited for another country. In the Land of Israel we need someone who is not emotionally connected to the Jews. "
The Templars welcomed Hitler's rise to power
Accountant alluded to Wolff's wife;
she had also made negative comments about the "Third Reich" to the British.
For months, the teacher at the German School warned the Foreign Office to get rid of Wolff - ultimately with success: Wolff was forced into retirement in 1935 and Walter Döhle was his successor.
Later, the aggression against the German Consulate General increased, especially after the November pogroms in 1938. Therefore, the British mandate sent Jewish police officers to protect them, which Döhle refused with thanks.
And the Hotel Fast?
The reason for the flagging in the photo above was the coronation of King George VI.
and his wife Elizabeth on May 12, 1937 in London, an important day for Great Britain and the British Mandate: This was to end the grave crisis in the British monarchy that the original heir to the throne, Prince Albert's brother Eduard, triggered by the election of his lover Wallis Simpson would have.
The event explains the British flag.
The rest of them have a different background.
The building was designed by the German architect Theodor Sandel in 1891.
Like the Fast family and the majority of non-Jewish Germans living in Palestine in the 1930s, he belonged to the so-called Temple Society, a Protestant sect.
In 1868 the first members from Württemberg emigrated to the Holy Land.
Brown traces in Palestine
In the 1930s, tensions grew between Templars and Jewish newcomers, who were competing for jobs, for example.
The German Templar communities had welcomed Hitler's accession to power, founded local NSDAP groups and maintained close contact with Consul Döhle.
Ludwig Buchhalter, who had blackened Consul Wolff for the "flag policy", was also a member of the Temple Society.
At the same time he headed the NSDAP in Jerusalem.
In 1934 Waldemar Fast also joined the NSDAP.
The contacts opened up new business for him: As a general agent for airlines and shipping companies, he organized sightseeing flights for tourists.
An uncle had given him his stubble field as a runway for this purpose.
With the beginning of the Second World War, the Wehrmacht called in Palestinian German reservists and conscripts, the consulate closed, and the British Mandate Government sealed off the Templar colonies as internment camps for the Germans who remained in the country. Hundreds of Templars were deported to Australia, others exchanged for Jews and transferred to Germany. Later, after the founding of Israel, the Israeli authorities asked the last Templars to leave the country in 1950.
The Fast family had to give up their hotel.
Waldemar Fast, SS-Untersturmführer from 1941, was able to move to neutral Turkey, where he was attached to the German embassy and promoted to SS-Obersturmführer in 1944.
At the end of the war he was captured by the British and released after two years.
Fast founded a travel agency in Hamburg in 1950, with which the temporary president of the German Travel Agency Association went bankrupt in 1983.
The orphaned Hotel Fast in Jerusalem was home to immigrants in the 1950s and was demolished in 1975.
The field where Waldemar Fast operated his runway is now Israel's largest airport, Ben Gurion.