The Beginning...
In May 1940, Heinrich Himmler advocated sending the Jews to Madagascar. About this plan, Himmler stated:
However cruel and tragic each individual case may be, this method is still the mildest and best, if one rejects the Bolshevik method of physical extermination of a people out of inner conviction as un-German and impossible."2
(Does this mean Himmler believed the Madagascar Plan to be a better alternative to extermination or that the Nazis were already starting to think of extermination as a possible solution?)
Himmler discussed his proposal with Hitler of sending the Jews "to a colony in Africa or elsewhere" and Hitler responded that the plan was "very good and correct."3
The news of this new solution to the "Jewish question" spread. Hans Frank, governor-general of occupied Poland, was elated at the news. At a large party meeting in Krakow, Frank told the audience,
As soon as sea communications permit the shipment of the Jews [laughter in the audience], they shall be shipped, piece by piece, man by man, woman by woman, girl by girl. I hope, gentlemen, you will not complain on that account [merriment in the hall].4
Yet the Nazis still had no specific plan for Madagascar; thus Ribbentrop ordered Franz Rademacher to create one.
The Plan
Rademacher's plan was set down in the memorandum, "The Jewish Question in the Peace Treaty" on July 3, 1940. In Rademacher's plan:
- French would give Madagascar to Germany
- Germany would be given the right to install military bases on Madagascar
- The 25,000 Europeans (mostly French) living on Madagascar would be removed
- Jewish emigration was to be forced, not voluntary
- The Jews on Madagascar would operate most local governmental functions but would be responsible to a German police governor
- The entire emigration and colonization of Madagascar would be paid by Jewish possessions confiscated by the Nazis
This plan sounds similar, though larger, to the set-up of the ghettos in Eastern Europe. Yet, an underlying and hidden message in this plan is that the Nazis were planning to ship four million Jews (the number did not include the Jews of Russia) to a location deemed ill-prepared for even 40,000 to 60,000 people (as determined by the Polish commission sent to Madagascar in 1937)! Thus, was the Madagascar Plan a real plan in which the effects were not considered or an alternate way of killing the Jews of Europe?
Change of Plan
The Nazis had been expecting a quick end to the war so that they could transfer European Jews to Madagascar. But as the Battle of Britain lasted much longer than planned and with Hitler's decision in the fall of 1940 to invade the Soviet Union, the Madagascar Plan became unfeasible. Alternate, more drastic, more horrific solutions were being proposed to eliminate the Jews of Europe. Within a year, the killing process had begun.
Notes
1. As quoted in Philip Friedman, "The Lublin Reservation and the Madagascar Plan: Two Aspects of Nazi Jewish Policy During the Second World War" Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust Ed. Ada June Friedman (New York: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1980) 44.
2. Heinrich Himmler as quoted in Christopher Browning, "Madagascar Plan" Encyclopedia of the Holocaust Ed. Israel Gutman (New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1990) 936.
3. Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler as quoted in Browning, Encyclopedia, 936.
4. Hans Frank as quoted in Friedman, Roads, 47.
Bibliography
Browning, Christopher. "Madagascar Plan." Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Ed. Israel Gutman. New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1990.
Friedman, Philip. "The Lublin Reservation and the Madagascar Plan: Two Aspects of Nazi Jewish Policy During the Second World War," Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust. Ed. Ada June Friedman. New York: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1980.
"Madagascar Plan." Encyclopedia Judaica. Jerusalem: Macmillan and Keter, 1972.
