Haavara Agreement
Part of Auschwitz , May 1944 |
The Haavara Agreement (
The agreement enabled Jews fleeing persecution under the new Nazi regime to transfer some portion of their assets to British
Background
Although the Nazi Party won the greatest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, they did not have a majority, so Hitler led a short-lived
Within the Nazi movement, a variety of (increasingly radical) "solutions" to the "
Meanwhile, in Mandatory Palestine, a growing Jewish population (174,610 in 1931, rising to 384,078 in 1936[11]) was acquiring land and developing the structures of a future Jewish state despite opposition from the Arab population.
Hanotea company
Hanotea (הַנּוֹטֵעַ 'the Planter') was a citrus planting company based in Netanya and established in 1929 by long-established Jewish settlers in Palestine involved in the Benei Binyamin movement.[13] In a deal worked out with the Reich Economics Ministry, the blocked German bank accounts of prospective immigrants would be unblocked and funds from them used by Hanotea to buy agricultural German goods; these goods, along with the immigrants, would then be shipped to Palestine, and the immigrants would be granted a house or citrus plantation by the company to the same value.[14] Hanotea's director, Sam Cohen, represented the company in direct negotiation with the Reich Economics Ministry beginning in March 1933.[15] In May 1933 Hanotea applied for permission to transfer capital from Germany to Palestine.[15] This pilot arrangement appeared to be operating successfully,[citation needed] and so paved the way for the later Haavara Agreement.
The transfer agreement
CERTIFICATE
The Trust and Transfer Office "Haavara" Ltd. places at the disposal of the Banks in Palestine amounts in Reichmarks which have been put at its disposal by the Jewish immigrants from Germany. The Banks avail themselves of these amounts in Reichmarks in order to make payments on behalf of Palestinian merchants for goods imported by them from Germany. The merchants pay in the value of the goods to the Banks and the "Haavara" Ltd. pays the countervalue to the Jewish immigrants from Germany. To the same extent that local merchants will make use of this arrangement, the import of German goods will serve to withdraw Jewish capital from Germany.
The Trust and Transfer Office,
HAAVARA, LTD.
— Example of the certificate issued by Haavara to Jews emigrating to Palestine
The Haavara (Transfer) Agreement, negotiated by Eliezer Hoofein, director of the
Emigrants with capital of £1,000, (about $5,000 in 1930s currency value) could move to Palestine in spite of severe British restrictions on Jewish immigration under an immigrant investor program similar to the modern United States EB-5 visa. Under the Transfer Agreement, about 39% of an emigrant's funds were given to Jewish communal economic development projects, leaving individuals with about 43% of the funds.[19][20]
The Haavara Agreement was thought by some German circles to be a possible way to solve the "
After the
Responses
The agreement was controversial both within the Nazi party and in the Zionist movement.
The right-wing
See also
- Leopold von Mildenstein
- Évian Conference
- Fifth Aliyah
- Holocaust
- Madagascar Plan
- The Transfer Agreement
References
- ^ "Haavara". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
- ^ Krüger, C. G (2009). The English Historical Review 124 (510). Oxford University Press: 1208–10. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40270563.
- ABC-CLIO, accessed 7 May 2013.
- ^ a b c Yf’aat Weiss, The Transfer Agreement and the Boycott Movement: A Jewish Dilemma on the Eve of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem Shoah Resource Center, accessed 28 April 2016.
- ^ Francis R. Nicosia The Third Reich & the Palestine question, pp. 41-49.
- ISBN 978-0-14-303790-3.
- ISBN 978-0-671-62420-0.
- ISBN 978-1-906626-51-8.
- ISBN 978-0-14-303790-3.
- ^ Harran, Marilyn J. (2000). The Holocaust Chronicles: A History in Words and Pictures. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International. Full text
- ^ "Jewish & Non-Jewish Population of Israel/Palestine (1517-Present)". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
- ^ Jewish Responses to Persecution: 1933-1938, Jürgen Matthäus, Mark Roseman, Rowman & Littlefield, 2010
- ^ Nahum Karlinsky California Dreaming: Ideology, Society, and Technology in the Citrus Industry of Palestine, 1890-1939 SUNY Press, pp.76-8, 118, 218
- ^ Rafael N. Rosenzweig The Economic Consequences of Zionism, New York: BRILL, 1989, pp.82-83
- ^ a b Francis R. Nicosia: The third Reich & the Palestine question, p. 39 ff.
- ^ Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, p.101
- ^ a b "Haavara Pact Extended for Only 3 Months; Seen Losing Reich's Support". JTA. 8 March 1938. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
- ^ a b c "Haavara Winds Up Reich-palestine Transfer Operations; Handled $35,000,000 in 6 Years". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 8 September 1939. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
- ^ "Reich Migrants to Palestine Get Back 42% of Funds in Cash". JTA. 25 May 1936. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
- ^ Heritage: Civilization and the Jews (PBS)
- ^ Francis R. Nicosia The Third Reich & the Palestine question, pp. 132–133.
- ^ Francis R. Nicosia: The Third Reich & the Palestine question, pp. 140, 142.
- ^ "Ninety years ago a negotiated 'transfer' led more than 50,000 German Jews to Palestine". Le Monde.fr. 6 August 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ a b c Edwin Black "COULD WE HAVE STOPPED HITLER? Could American Jews have acted sooner and done more to save European" Reform Judaism Fall 1999
- ^ Aaron Berman Nazism, the Jews and American Zionism, 1933-1988, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992, p.39; Jennifer Ring, Political Consequences of Thinking, The: Gender and Judaism in the Work of Hannah Arendt, New York: SUNY Press, 1 Feb 2012, pp.59-63
- ^ Francis R. Nicosia Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany Cambridge University Press, 5 May 2008, p.99
Further reading
- Avraham Barkai: German Interests in the Haavara-Transfer Agreement 1933–1939, Yearbook of the Leo Baeck Institute 35; 1990, S. 245–266
- ISBN 978-0300068528
- Edwin Black: The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine, Brookline Books, 1999.
- Werner Feilchenfeld, Dolf Michaelis, Ludwig Pinner: Haavara-Transfer nach Palästina und Einwanderung deutscher Juden 1933–1939, Tübingen, 1972
- ISBN 0-8050-6660-8), especially p. 31ff
- David Yisraeli: "The Third Reich and the Transfer Agreement", in: Journal of Contemporary History 6 (1972), S. 129–148
- R. Melka: "Nazi Germany and the Palestine Question", Middle Eastern Studies. Vol. 5 No. 3 (Oct., 1969). pp 221–233.
- Hava Eshkoli-Wagman: "Yishuv Zionism: Its Attitude to Nazism and the Third Reich Reconsidered", Modern Judaism. Vol. 19 No. 1 (Feb., 1999). pp 21–40.
- Klaus Poleken: "The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany 1933–1941". Journal of Palestine Studies. Vol. 5 No. 3/4 (Spring–Summer 1976). pp 54–82.
External links
- Francis R. Nicosia The Third Reich & the Palestine question, Transaction Publishers, 2000.
- "Transfer Agreement" and the Boycott of German Goods