In 1940 the British Army decided to found infantry units for Jews and Arabs. These units were part of the Royal East Kent Regiment. The first Jewish unit was formed in 1941. Fourteen more units were formed in the upcoming year. All in all, 5,300 Jews served in the Palestine Buffs.
The Buffs received only basic training, and in many cases the soldiers were given weapons from the First World War. They were used mainly for security and guarding, as well as for escorting convoys. But in 1942 these units were harnessed to form the basis of the three battalions of the Palestine Regiment, an important step on the way to the founding of the Jewish Brigade in 1944.
The pictures presented here, were taken in 1941 by the Hungarian-born photographer Zoltan Kluger (1896-1977). Kluger made aliyah in 1933, and became a partner and an important photographer in the "Eastern Company for Journalistic Photography" founded by Nathen Shifrin. He worked extensively for the Jewish yishuv, and left an archives comprising about 5,000 negatives, kept in leading historical archives in Israel.