1948 in Jerusalem: Diaries, Letters, and History
Keywords:
War of Independence (1948 War), War of Independence in Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Jewish Population, Siege of Jewish JerusalemAbstract
The history of Israel’s 1948 War of Independence is a topic dealt with by professional historians, the media, and veterans of the period. The memory of the battles is mediated by various memory agents whose perceptions of the war have been defined and mitigated through the prism of time, the novels they read, films they see, and stories they hear.
The article describes the war from a contemporary view: how the men and women who actually experienced the trauma perceived what was happening at the time, and how they interpreted the events that they witnessed and their own reactions to the harsh reality. It is based on the letters and journals of fourteen people: men, women, youth, adults, native-born, new immigrants, and Holocaust survivors. The location and time: Jerusalem, from December 1947 to July 1948 (for most of this period the Jewish part of the city was besieged and isolated).
The letters and diaries convey claustrophobia, anxiety, fear, existential tension, and the breakdown of solidarity; on the other hand, they also reveal determination, resilience, heroism, and simple humanity toward the weak, the victims, and even the enemy.
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