A LARGE CONCENTRATION CAMP Just prior to the Holocaust, many Jews tried to escape from Germany. Many attempted to get into the United States, but they were turned down. The same thing happened in other countries. As a result, they were forced to return and eventually perished in the Death Camps. Others tried to immigrate to Palestine. The Haavara Agreement was an agreement between Nazi Germany and Zionist German Jews signed on 25 August 1933. The agreement was finalized after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank and the economic authorities of Nazi Germany. It was a major factor in making possible the migration of approximately 60,000 German Jews to Palestine in 1933–1939. For German Jews, the agreement offered a way to leave an increasingly hostile environment in Germany; for the Jewish community in Palestine, it offered access to both immigrant labour and economic support; for the Germans it facilitated the emigration of German Jews while breaking the anti-Nazi boycott of 1933, which had mass support among European and American Jews and was thought by the German state to be a potential threat to the German economy. Pushing forward for many Jews, the events of World War II underscored the need for a safe haven. Consequently, the State of Israel was founded in 1948, just three years after World War II ended. The Zionist militias gained the upper hand over the Palestinians, aided considerably by intra-Arab rivalries. Israel's declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, was quickly recognized by the United States, the Soviet Union, and many other governments, fulfilling the Zionist dream of an internationally approved Jewish state or as the future will tell us perhaps a very large concentration camp.