Madagascar Plan

The Madagascar Plan (German: Madagaskarplan) was a plan proposed by the Nazi German government to forcibly relocate the Jewish population of Europe to the island of Madagascar. Franz Rademacher, head of the Jewish Department of the German Foreign Office, proposed the idea in June 1940, shortly before the Fall of France. The proposal called for the handing over of control of Madagascar, then a French colony, to Germany as part of the eventual peace terms.

The idea of re-settling

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, there were a number of resettlement plans for European Jews that were precursors to the Madagascar Plan.

Adherents of territorialism split off from the main Zionist movement and continued to search for a location where Jews might settle and create a state, or at least an autonomous area.^[10] The idea of Jewish resettlement in Madagascar was promoted by British antisemites Henry Hamilton Beamish (founder of the British antisemitic society The Britons), Arnold Leese (founder of the Imperial Fascist League), and others.^[11] With the cooperation of the French, the Polish government commissioned a task force in 1937 to examine the possibility of settling Polish Jews on the island.^[2] The head of the commission, Mieczysław Lepecki [pl], felt the island could accommodate 5-7,000 families, but Jewish members of the group estimated that, because of the climate and poor infrastructure, only 500 or even fewer families could safely be accommodated.^[1][12][a]

The Nazi leadership seized on the idea of deporting the remaining German Jews overseas. Barren, unproductive lands were viewed as appropriate destinations as this would prevent the deportees from flourishing in their new location.[18] In his May 1940 memorandum to Hitler, Concerning the Treatment of the Alien Population in the East, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler declared that he hoped to see "the term 'Jew' [...] completely eliminated through the massive immigration of all Jews to Africa or some other colony".^[19]

Initial discussions began to take place in 1938 among Nazi ideologues such as Julius Streicher, Hermann Göring, Alfred Rosenberg, and Joachim von Ribbentrop.^[20] Ten per cent of Jews under German jurisdiction by that date were Polish nationals. Józef Lipski, the Polish ambassador to Germany, expressed his country's reluctance to take them back, and the Polish government decreed that Polish passport holders would not be permitted to return except under specific conditions.^[21] When Ribbentrop raised the matter with French foreign minister Georges Bonnet in December of that year, Bonnet expressed French reluctance to receive more German Jews and inquired if measures could be taken to prevent their arrival. France itself was contemplating how to deport some 10,000 Jews and considered whether Madagascar might be an appropriate destination.^[22] Planning for German deportations to Madagascar formally began in 1940.^[23] Franz Rademacher, recently appointed head of the Jewish Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, forwarded on 3 June to his superior, the diplomat Martin Luther, a memorandum on the fate of the Jews.^[1] Rademacher said: "The desirable solution is: all Jews out of Europe".^[19] He briefly considered Palestine as a destination, but deemed it unsuitable, as he considered it undesirable that a strong Jewish state should be created in the Middle East. In addition, Palestine was under British control at the time.^[24] Rademacher recommended that the French colony of Madagascar should be made available as a destination for the Jews of Europe as one of the terms of the surrender of France, which the Germans had invaded on 10 May 1940.^[25] The resettled Jews, noted Rademacher, could be used as hostages to ensure "future good behaviour of their racial comrades in America".^[19] The plan was developed by Referat D III of the Abteilung Deutschland.^[26]

Luther broached the subject with Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, who was simultaneously developing a similar scheme. By 18 June, Hitler and Ribbentrop spoke of the Plan with Italian leader Benito Mussolini as a possibility that could be pursued after the defeat of France.^[19][20] Once he learned of the plan, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), insisted that Ribbentrop relinquish any future responsibility for the Plan to that office. As Heydrich had been appointed by Göring in January 1939 to oversee Jewish evacuation from German-occupied territory, the Jewish question was hence under his purview.^[20] Adolf Eichmann, head of the RSHA Sub-Department IV-B4, which dealt with Jewish affairs and evacuation, soon became involved. On 15 August, he released a memorandum titled Reichssicherheitshauptamt: Madagaskar Projekt (Reich Security Main Office: Madagascar Project), calling for the resettlement of a million Jews per year for four years and abandoning the idea of retaining any Jews in Europe. The RSHA, he emphasised, would control all aspects of the program.^[27] While Rademacher called for the colony to be under German control but self-governing under Jewish administration, Eichmann made it plain that he intended for the SS to control and oversee every aspect of life on the island, which they would govern as a police state.^[28] France surrendered on 22 June.

Most Nazi bureaus, including the Foreign Office, the Security Police, and the

Rademacher envisioned the founding of a European bank that would ultimately liquidate all European Jewish assets to pay for the plan. This bank would then play an intermediary role between Madagascar and the rest of the world, as Jews would not be allowed to interact financially with outsiders. Göring's office of the Four Year Plan would oversee the administration of the plan's economics.^[30]

Additionally, Rademacher foresaw roles for other government agencies. Ribbentrop's

• Proposals for a Jewish state
• Uganda Scheme
• Nisko Plan
• Jewish Autonomous Oblast

Informational notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Andrews, Evan (3 June 2015). "Remembering Nazi Germany's Madagascar Plan". History Channel. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
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• Evans, Richard J. (2008). The Third Reich at War. New York: Penguin.
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• Gerdmar, Anders (2009). Roots of Theological Anti-Semitism: German Biblical Interpretation and the Jews, from Herder and Semler to Kittel and Bultmann. Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill.
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• Hilberg, Raul (1973). The Destruction of the European Jews. New York: New Viewpoints.
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• Kershaw, Ian (2008) [2000]. Hitler: A Biography. New York: Norton.
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• Kershaw, Ian (2015) [1985]. The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation. London; New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
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• Longerich, Peter (2012). Heinrich Himmler: A Life. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
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• Nicosia, Francis R. (2008). Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
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• Ainsztein, Reuben (1974). Jewish Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Eastern Europe. London: Elek Books.
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• Brechtken, Magnus (1998). Madagaskar für die Juden: Antisemitische Idee und politische Praxis 1885–1945 (in German). Oldenbourg: Wissenschaftsverlag.
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• Video overview of the Madagascar Plan on
  YouTube by the German historian Magnus Brechtken
• Text of the Madagascar Plan