Bentwich, Norman

Norman de Mattos Bentwich (1883-1971 London) was a British Zionist barrister and legal academic. From 1920 he was the British-appointed attorney-general of Mandatory Palestine. Bentwich was close to the moderate wing of the Zionist movement. He survived an assassination attempt on his life by an Arab assassin in 1929, and was forced to resign in 1931. In 1932, Norman Bentwich was appointed head of the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During the 1930s he played an active role in welfare efforts for German Jewish refugees and from 1936 he was a member of the "Professional Committee" of the Council for German Jewry. He was also one of the honorary directors of the Council. The collection includes documents relating to Norman Bentwich’s public activity — mainly files of the "Council for German Jewry, London." This organization was established to help German Jews leave Germany in response to the racial Nuremberg Laws of 1935. An important part of the collection is Bentwich’s correspondence with organizations and personalities about the refugees and the emigration from Nazi Germany. The collection contains files of Bentwich's correspondence in 1936-1943 with the British statesman Lord Herbert Samuel (the first High Commissioner for Mandatory Palestine in 1920-1925). There are also requests for visas for refugees with permits to the United Kingdom, and lists with names of people, some of whom were in concentration camps, and who were waiting for the renewal of their visas. Many of these records pertains to the Kitchener Camp for the refugees on the Kent seashore. In addition, the collection contains notes and drafts by Bentwich about organizations in which he was active, documents about the situation in Poland, on religious issues, typed manuscripts of articles by Norman Bentwich, and printed materials -- Read more