A New Look at the Betar “Idyll” in Hrubieszów in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume 37:1

A New Look at the Betar “Idyll” in Hrubieszów

In the canonical narrative of the Żydowski Związek Wojskowy (ŻZW; Jewish Military Alliance), the transfer of the core membership of Betar in the Warsaw Ghetto to farms in the Hrubieszów area is generally seen as a watershed moment in the evolution of the Revisionist underground. Dariusz Libionka and Laurence Weinbaum attempt to deconstruct the existing narrative, which of late has found an energetic advocate in the person of Moshe Arens. They contend that this episode, which began in the summer of 1941, has been incorrectly evaluated and that it actually had only negligible impact on the later crystallization of the ŻZW. They support their thesis using archival documentation from both Israel and Poland, as well a number of testimonies and survivor accounts. The authors identify the probable location of the estates to which the Betar members went and piece together many other hitherto unknown elements of the story of Betar's “Hrubieszów Idyll,” as it has been called.