This whole process started long before WW2.
I’ve been dreading posting in here but I’ve felt that I should at least chime in here.
Arguably, it goes back to the destruction of the second temple. In the Babylonian Talmud, specifically tractate ketubot (111a I believe, I haven’t studied the bavli Talmud in a few years) it was said that upon our exile there were three oaths were exchanged between us (Jews) and HaShem (god). Two oaths pertained to us, Jews (or nations acting on our behalf) can
not take back the land of eretz yisrael by force and in turn massively immigrate to it, or make aliyah(return) or rebel against the other nations of the world. The other oath was to the nations of the world not to subjugate the Jews, but we see how that shit turned out. Up until the Shoah, within the orthodox world, these words were considered law. Now, out of the Jewish world it is only the Haredim that hold these views. The majority of the Orthodox world was opposed to Zionism because they felt that it was a cop out, a circumvention of the three oaths that were exchanged, and a means of destroying the religious portion of being Jewish and exchanging them for use as a political point.
However, in verifiable and legitimate history, it goes back to the Balfour declaration which coincides with the British declaring war in the Ottoman Empire in 1914.
Sources: me, the bavli Talmud, and VaYoel Moshe by the Satmar Rav, Yoel Teitelbaum.