The History of Hashomer Hatzair

1933 a young Jewish student from Zurich University came into contact with the European Jewish youth organization Habonim („the constructers“). In the same year, a progressive circle of youngsters formed and began to take interest in the ideas of the Hashomer Hatzair.

Soon, "hot and aggressive" discussions came up in the Kwutzat bogrim (the “age group of the grown ups”). A separation ensued. This was the beginning of Hashomer Hatzair in Switzerland. To better understand this process let us look at some historical facts: 1933, Hitler had assumed power in Germany. Jews everywhere were in shock, and also in Switzerland anti-Semitic and extremist right-wing groups formed. Zurich University must have shown a displeasing atmosphere for German Jewish student fugitives, as more and more middle-classed young people drifted to the right wing.

Hashomer Hatzair was founded in 1913 and grew during the following 20 years into a Zionist organization, which demanded a chaluzic (“pioneering”) settlement in Israel. The Shomer movement viewed itself as a left avant-garde of the Jishuw, the Jewish population of Palestine, and held its ideology extraordinarily high. The Kibbutz should be born as a socialist community and become a model for the whole Jishuw.

The Zurich and Basel Kwutza of Bogrim of Habonim split up about this issue. Apparently, the Kwutza in Zurich sent a representative to the Zionist world congress, and officially they joined the world Shomer in March 1938 as the Swiss movement. At this time, they had 150 members. In World War II, Shomer was represented already in six Swiss cities.

 

How was the Shomer at that time? The Shomer in Switzerland went hiking together or gathered during, which was mostly in some parents’ home with a lot of secretiveness. Typical was the denial of the "decadent western culture" with its drugs, such as coffee and tea. This denial was openly intended to form a distance to the civil-parental society. Watching movies was considered decadent, at least if these were not critical against society. An alternative to the typical “bourgeois” dance was the folk dance Hora, which brought everyone together. Equal rights of gender were a central element, and therefore coeducation of boys and girls was important to the Kwutza. In camps, boys and girls would sleep in the same room, and even couples were accepted as long as it did not harm the relationships within the Kwutza. More and more Hebrew terms were used, and for camp, age group, and leader new words were coined: Machane, Kwutza, Madrich, Ken etc.

The Shomer was politically active and helped in important fields such as Zionism and refugee support.

It is reported that the relationships with the communities were not very harmonical. The Ken (the "nest") in Zurich had to move a lot because apparently the ICZ (Jewish Community of Zurich) refused to offer them housing. The community in Basel allocated one room to the Ken.

Some basic values - though the Swiss movement was never very strict about them - of the Shomer's ideology were:

• An agreement on refusal against the British imperialism
• A majority thought that there was to be one state in Palestine, made out of two nations - the Shomer was against the separation
• There was appreciation for the role of the Sowjetunion against National socialism
• Hagshama Atzmit (“self-fufillment”) did not mean only emigration, but also supportive participation in the agricultural development of Palestine. Industrialisation, at first, could hardly be imagined
• An important ideological decision was to never return to the countries one came from after the Holocaust

 

After World War II a big part of the movement emigrated to Palestine, the great time of Hashomer Switzerland was over. All the refugees were asked by the Swiss authorities to leave the country. Only the youngest ones stayed and some of the old, apparently the

Politically exposed. The Hanaga Eliona (the European “Upper Leadership”), which had been located in Switzerland during the war, was transferred to Prague.

After their departure ideological and political activities subsided. A new youth magazine, "Hamitzpe" (a political information magazine about Palestinian events), was issued. The Shomer returned to the daily routine.

The Shomer in Switzerland (then 20 Chaverim - “members” - in Basel and Berne, 40 in Zurich and 60 in Geneva) was busy building up the Ken and working on educational issues. During the 1940es, the Shomer took pride to be the most chalutzic youth movement of all in Switzerland. In 1945, the Shomer was the youth movement with the most members going on Aliya (“emigration to Israel”). To keep up with these goals, Shomer put a lot into a general Jewish Zionist education.

 

Shomer was able to expand to the whole country: in the 50’s there were small Kwutzot in Berne, Lausanne, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Biel, St. Gallen and Kreuzlingen with a strong relationship to the big Kinim. Camps were held together, and there was also a common Hanaga Rashit (“General Assembly”).

The Chawer (“friend, member of the movement”) was tightly bound to the movement: several meetings during the week, two camps, a Yom Tnua (“Day of movement, scouting”), parties on Saturday if a room was available. Constantly, the Ken fought with financial problems and had conflicts with the community. Finally, Shomer was given the opportunity to move into the basement of the ICZ in November 1964, and had its own place from there on. The Ken in Zurich was a happy community and danced Hora in train stations. They organized parties with up to 600 guests. However, the times - the end of the 1960's - were difficult: the Ken in Berne had to close down because they lost more and more Madrichim (“leaders”). The Ken in Basel had to stop its activities as well because its leaders emigrated to Israel in 1968.

The Ken in Zurich chewed over ideological questions in Seminars and other activities, and disputed over personal feelings and emotions. They started to work on their relationship to their parents and organized a party with them twice a year: Pessach and Chanukah.

Today, the Swiss movement consists of a single Ken in Zurich with about 100 Chaverim.