Tel Aviv, German colony Sarona, settler's house

The Templer settlement of Sarona was one of the first modern agricultural settlements in Palestine and became a model for the Jewish pioneers. In August 1871, the Templers purchased 60 hectares of land from a Greek monastery north of Jaffa. Part of the Plains of Sharon (after which it was named) near the River Audsche (Yarkon River) it was four kilometres from Jaffa. In October 1871, the foundation stones were laid for the first houses.

Extreme hardship and disease took a heavy toll in human life the first few years. Malaria caused the deaths of 28 of the 125 settlers of Sarona in 1872 alone. In an effort to dry the marshy land 1,300 eucalyptus trees were planted.

By 1889, 269 persons lived in Sarona. There were 41 homes, a communal hall, a winery, workshops, barns and sheds. The Sarona colonists brought modern farming tools and practices to the Holy Land. They focused on crops and products they could readily sell. This "agriculture-for-profit" was an economic innovation in a land that for centuries had practiced only "self-sustaining farming." Grain crops and dairy industry first, then orchards and vineyards were planted. Faced with a shortage of financial resources for infrastructure development, the community introduced Frondienst, a compulsory work system where every male member was required to do a certain number of hours of community work each month. The building of roads, development of land, roads and drainage and community facilities could thus be scheduled. The researcher and author Sven Hedin wrote of his visit to Sarona in 1916 "...many plants were in blossom. They mainly grow grapes, oranges and vegetables, [but] like in old times they also produce milk and honey."

In November 1917, British troops occupied Sarona, turning the community house into a field hospital and commandeering other buildings for military use. In July 1918, the Templers (a total of 850 people) were interned in Egypt at Helouan near Cairo. The Red Cross, Quakers and Unitarians took up their cause, and on July 29, 1920, after 270 internees had been repatriated in April to Bad Mergentheim in Germany, the House of Lords permitted the remaining internees to return to Palestine. The residents of Sarona returned to a plundered and vandalized colony. Following negotiations with the British authorities, compensation was paid, in some cases up to 50%.

By 1925 Sarona was still a small settlement, although grown in area. It was still a farming community but more emphasis was placed on tradesmen. With the increasing Jewish immigration to Palestine (80,000 immigrants arrived in 1920-1926 alone) the settlement prospered due to a ready market for their produce and their services.

After 1939, all Germans in Palestine turned into Enemy aliens. Some of the settlers with patriotic feelings went to Germany to join the war. Several were organised in Palestine in Nazi-organisations such as Hitler Youth, but many others were not.

The British authorities decided to intern most of the enemy aliens. For this purpose four settlements Sarona, Bethlehem, Waldheim and Wilhelma were converted into internment camps. Sarona held close to 1,000 persons behind a guarded, 4 m high barbed-wire fence. In summer 1941, 665 German internees, almost all young families with children, were released to Australia, where they could settle again. Many of the remaining Germans were either too old or too sick, to leave for Australia, while a second group did not want to go there. In December 1941 and in the course of 1942 another 400 German internees, mostly wives and children of men, who had followed the calls for recruitment and had left for Germany, were released to Germany on the purpose of Family reunification. By that time, almost all Nazi supporters or partriots among the settlers had left Palestine.
By November 1944, most of the remaining Sarona residents had been moved to the camp in the colony Wilhelma.

In 1945 the Italian and Hungarian internees were released. But the Britons refused to repatriate the remaining German internees to the British zone in Germany, because the British zone was flooded with millions of war refugees. Also most of the internees did not want to go to Germany, they had their home in Palestine. In 1947 the British authorities and Australia agreed to allow the remaining German internees to emigrate to the fifth continent. The end of the Mandate forced to hurry the resettlement, thus all the internees were first transferred to Cyprus, to a camp of simple tents near Famagusta.

By May 14, 1948, when Israel became independent, only about 50 Gentile Germans, mostly elderly and sick persons, were living in the new state. They voluntarily left the country or were successively expelled by the government.

The former Sarona houses were taken over and used by the British army and mandatory government, and as such were the target of raids and attacks by the Zionist underground organizations during their 1945–1947 struggle against British rule.

In 1948, when the British Mandate ended and British troops left Sarona, the old houses and army barracks were used by the newly-formed Israeli government as offices. The area became known as the "Kirya". Part became a military compound, comprising the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the General Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, and various other military installations. The pavement opposite the Ministry of Defense gate became since the 1970's the habitual venue for demonstrations by peace groups protesting government policies in the Occupied Territories. Other parts of the of the former Sarona were used to house the offices of civil ministries in the Israeli Government.

With the rapid growth of Tel Aviv, the Kirya became prime real-estate in the heart of the city. When plans for redeveloping the area were proposed in the mid-1970s, preservationists successfully campaigned against demolition. Consulting with historians, it was decided Sarona was of heritage value and 18 structures with distinct architectural styles would be preserved.

Since 2003, the Tel Aviv municipality has been working to preserve and restore Sarona. To make way for a highway, techniques were developed for moving some of the houses to a more convenient location.

Main source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarona_(colony)

Taken on: May 14, 2010

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Sets appears in: • Israel, 2010/2011, Central • Palestine, German Colonies

Groups appears in: • israel group • Israel more » • === The Israel Project === • Travel Photography • Middle East • Tel Aviv • Israeli flickr community • my israel • "History & Antiquities (Post 5 - Award 3)" • Germany im Ausland (Deutschland overseas) « less

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