Editing Templers (Radical Pietist sect) (section)

==Third Reich==
After the [[Machtergreifung|Nazi takeover]] in Germany, the new Reich's government streamlined foreign policy according to Nazi ideals, using financial pressure especially. The Nazi emphasis was on creating the image that Germany and Germanness were equal to [[Nazism]]. Thus, all non-Nazi aspects of German culture and identity were discriminated against as un-German. All international schools of the German language subsidised or fully financed by government funds were obliged to redraw their educational programmes and to solely employ teachers aligned to the Nazi party. The Reich government financed the teachers in Bethlehem, so Nazi teachers also took over there.

In 1933, Templer functionaries and other Gentile Germans living in Palestine appealed to [[Paul von Hindenburg]] and the Foreign Office not to use swastika symbols for German institutions, without success. Some German Gentiles from Palestine pleaded with the Reich government to drop its plan to boycott shops of Jewish Germans on 1 April 1933.<ref>Ralf Balke, ''Hakenkreuz im Heiligen Land: Die NSDAP-Landesgruppe Palästina'', Erfurt: Sutton, 2001, p. 81. {{ISBN|3-89702-304-0}}.</ref> Some Templers enlisted in the German Army. By 1938, 17% of the Templers in Palestine were members of the Nazi Party. According to historian [[Yossi Ben-Artzi]], "The members of the younger generation to some extent broke away from naive religious belief, and were more receptive to the Nazi German nationalism. The older ones tried to fight it."<ref name="Wurgaft">Nurit Wurgaft and Ran Shapira, [https://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1080663.html A life-saving swap], Haaretz, 23 April 2009.</ref>

At the start of [[World War II]] colonists with German citizenship were rounded up by the British and sent, together with Italian and Hungarian enemy aliens, to [[internment]] camps in [[Alonei Abba|Waldheim]] and [[Bethlehem of Galilee]].<ref name=LorenzCafe>[[Adi Schwartz]], [https://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/946133.html The nine lives of the Lorenz Cafe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080606182838/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/946133.html |date=6 June 2008 }}, ''Haaretz'', 20 January 2008.</ref> On 31 July 1941, 661 Templers and other Germans in Palestine were deported to Australia via Egypt, leaving 345 in Palestine.<ref name="PABJ">Nachman Ben-Yehuda (1992). ''Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice''. SUNY Press. {{ISBN|0-7914-1165-6}}.</ref>

In 1939, at the start of World War II, the [[British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument)|British authorities]] declared the Templers [[Enemy aliens|enemy nationals]], placed them under arrest and deported many of them to [[Australia]].<ref name=LorenzCafe/> During the war the British government brokered the exchange of about 1,000 Templers for 550 Jews under German control: "'The swap', Bauer stresses, 'stemmed primarily from British and German interests: Just as the British wanted to get the Germans out, Germany was happy for the chance to rid itself of a few hundred more Jews.'"{{Citation needed|date=July 2025}}<!--There were three exchanges that took place, one in 1941, one in 1942 and the last in 1944. In total only 480 persons, Templers and other Germans living in Palestine were exchanged.{{fact}}-->

After its foundation, the [[State of Israel]]—with the fresh memory of the [[Holocaust]]—was adamant in not permitting any ethnic Germans, of a community which had expressed pro-Nazi sympathies, to remain in or return to its territory. On 12 March 1946, a team from the Zionist ''[[Haganah]]'' assassinated the leader of the community, Gotthilf Wagner. Later, four more members of the sect were murdered in order to drive the group from Palestine.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bergman|first1=Ronen|title=Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations|date=30 January 2018|publisher=Random House|location=485}}</ref> The former Templer colonies were resettled by Jews.

In 1962, the [[State of Israel]] paid [[Deutsche mark|DM]]54 million in compensation to property owners whose assets were nationalized.<ref name=LorenzCafe/> Sarona was incorporated in [[Tel Aviv]], part of it becoming the compound of the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]] High Command Headquarters, while the other part housed various civil offices of the Israeli government, using the original German houses. In the early 21st century, the civil offices were evacuated, and the area was extensively renovated, becoming a pedestrian shopping and entertainment area.{{fact|date=February 2024}}