Madagascar Plan
Encyclopedia
The Madagascar Plan was a suggested policy of the Nazi
government of Germany to relocate the Jewish population of Europe to the island of Madagascar
.
, an anti-semitic orientalist scholar, apparently first suggested the idea in 1885, and it was taken up in the 1920s by Henry Hamilton Beamish
, Arnold Leese
and others.
For its part, the Zionist Movement in 1904-5 seriously debated—though it ultimately rejected—the British Uganda Programme by which Jews were to be settled in Uganda (present-day Kenya
). The adherents of Territorialism
split off from Zionism and looked throughout the world for places where Jews might settle and create a state or at least an autonomous area—though they are not known to have considered Madagascar, specifically, in that role.
seized on the idea, and Adolf Hitler
signed off on it in 1938. In May 1940, Heinrich Himmler
, in his Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East, declared: "I hope that the concept of Jews will be completely extinguished through the possibility of a large emigration of all Jews to Africa or some other colony."
, Hermann Göring
, Alfred Rosenberg
and Joachim von Ribbentrop
, it was not until 1940 that the planning process was actually set in motion. Following the Franco-German armistice of 25 June, Franz Rademacher
recommended as one of the terms of a peace treaty with France, that France make her colony Madagascar available as a destination for Jews from Europe.
Rademacher, recently appointed leader of the Judenreferat III der Abteilung Deutschland, or Jewish Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, included in the memorandum to his superior Martin Luther
a definition of the mechanics of Jewish evacuation out of Europe. "The desirable solution is: all Jews out of Europe," said Rademacher. Rademacher believed that Jews transported to Madagascar should be deprived of their citizenship. Once Jews had been transported to Madagascar, further theorized Rademacher, they would be used as hostages to ensure "future good behavior of the members of their race in America".
On receiving the June 3rd memorandum, Luther broached the subject with Foreign Minister Ribbentrop. By June 18, Hitler himself, as well as Ribbentrop, spoke of the Plan with Benito Mussolini
in reference to the fate of France after its defeat. On June 20, Hitler spoke directly of the Madagascar Plan with Grand Admiral Erich Raeder
.
Once learning of the new potential of the Plan, Reinhard Heydrich
, appointed in 1939 by Göring to oversee Jewish evacuation from German-occupied territory, had Ribbentrop relinquish any future actions to the RSHA
(Reich Main Security Office). In this way, Adolf Eichmann
, who headed the sub-office of Jewish evacuation in the RSHA, became involved. On August 15, Eichmann released a draft titled Reichssicherheitshauptamt: Madagaskar Projekt, calling for the resettlement of one million Jews per year over four years, and abandoning the idea of retaining any Jews in Europe whatsoever. The RSHA, he emphasised, would control all aspects of the program.
Most Nazi officials, especially the authorities of the General Government
(which administered the rump remains of Poland
) including Hans Frank
, viewed the forced resettlement of 4,000,000 Jews to Madagascar as being infinitely more desirable than the heretofore piecemeal efforts at deportation into Poland. As of July 10, all such deportations were cancelled, and construction of the Warsaw ghetto
was halted, since it appeared to be unnecessary.
would oversee the administration of the Plan's economics.
Additionally, Rademacher foresaw roles for other government agencies. Ribbentrop's Foreign Affairs Ministry would negotiate the French peace treaty that would result in the handing over of Madagascar to Germany. It would also play a part in crafting other treaties to deal with Europe's Jews. Its Information Department, along with Joseph Goebbels
in the Propaganda Ministry, would control information at home and abroad regarding the policy. Victor Brack of the Führer Chancellory would oversee transportation. The SS
would carry on the Jewish expulsion in Europe, and ultimately govern the island in a police state. It was envisioned that the Third Reich would win the Battle of Britain
and invade and conquer Great Britain
in Operation Sea Lion--then the British Fleet
could be taken over by Germany and used to transport the Jews to Madagascar. How the native Malagasy
population of Madagascar was to fit in with this plan was never elaborated upon.
The Germans' desired perception from the outside world would be that Germany had given "autonomy" to the Jewish settlement in Madagascar; however, Eichmann made it plain in his draft that the SS would control and oversee every Jewish organization that was created to govern the island.
The resistance of the United Kingdom
during the Battle of Britain
, and Germany's failure to achieve a quick victory by September, were the ultimate causes of the Plan's collapse. The British fleet would not be at Germany's disposal to be used in evacuations, and the war
would continue indefinitely. Mention of Madagascar as a "super ghetto" was made once in a while in the ensuing months, but by early December, the Plan was abandoned entirely. When the British and Free French forces took over Madagascar
from Vichy
forces in 1942, this effectively ended all talk of the Plan.
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
government of Germany to relocate the Jewish population of Europe to the island of Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
.
 |
Origins
The evacuation of European Jews to the island of Madagascar was not a new concept. Paul de LagardePaul de Lagarde
Paul Anton de Lagarde was a polymath German biblical scholar and orientalist. He also took some part in politics. He belonged to the Prussian Conservative party, and was a violent antisemite. The bitterness which he felt appeared in his writings...
, an anti-semitic orientalist scholar, apparently first suggested the idea in 1885, and it was taken up in the 1920s by Henry Hamilton Beamish
Henry Hamilton Beamish
Henry Hamilton Beamish was a leading British antisemite and the founder of The Britons.The son of an admiral who had served as an A.D.C...
, Arnold Leese
Arnold Leese
Arnold Spencer Leese was a British veterinarian and fascist politician. He was born in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England and educated at Giggleswick School....
and others.
For its part, the Zionist Movement in 1904-5 seriously debated—though it ultimately rejected—the British Uganda Programme by which Jews were to be settled in Uganda (present-day Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
). The adherents of Territorialism
Territorialism
Territorialism, also known as Statism , was a Jewish political movement calling for creation of a sufficiently large and compact Jewish territory , not necessarily in the Land of Israel and not necessarily fully autonomous.-Development of territorialism:Before 1905 some Zionist leaders took...
split off from Zionism and looked throughout the world for places where Jews might settle and create a state or at least an autonomous area—though they are not known to have considered Madagascar, specifically, in that role.
In Nazi Germany
The leaders of Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
seized on the idea, and Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
signed off on it in 1938. In May 1940, Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, in his Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East, declared: "I hope that the concept of Jews will be completely extinguished through the possibility of a large emigration of all Jews to Africa or some other colony."
Planning begins
Although some discussion of this plan had been brought forward from 1938 by other well-known Nazi ideologues, such as Julius StreicherJulius Streicher
Julius Streicher was a prominent Nazi prior to World War II. He was the founder and publisher of Der Stürmer newspaper, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine...
, Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
, Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg
' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...
and Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
, it was not until 1940 that the planning process was actually set in motion. Following the Franco-German armistice of 25 June, Franz Rademacher
Franz Rademacher
Franz Rademacher was an official in the Nazi government of the Third Reich during World War II, known for initiating action on the Madagascar Plan.-Nazi Beginnings:...
recommended as one of the terms of a peace treaty with France, that France make her colony Madagascar available as a destination for Jews from Europe.
Rademacher, recently appointed leader of the Judenreferat III der Abteilung Deutschland, or Jewish Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, included in the memorandum to his superior Martin Luther
Martin Luther (diplomat)
Martin Franz Julius Luther was an early member of the Nazi Party. He served as an advisor to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, first in the Dienststelle Ribbentrop , and later in the Auswärtiges Amt as a diplomat when von Ribbentrop replaced Konstantin von Neurath...
a definition of the mechanics of Jewish evacuation out of Europe. "The desirable solution is: all Jews out of Europe," said Rademacher. Rademacher believed that Jews transported to Madagascar should be deprived of their citizenship. Once Jews had been transported to Madagascar, further theorized Rademacher, they would be used as hostages to ensure "future good behavior of the members of their race in America".
On receiving the June 3rd memorandum, Luther broached the subject with Foreign Minister Ribbentrop. By June 18, Hitler himself, as well as Ribbentrop, spoke of the Plan with Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
in reference to the fate of France after its defeat. On June 20, Hitler spoke directly of the Madagascar Plan with Grand Admiral Erich Raeder
Erich Raeder
Erich Johann Albert Raeder was a naval leader in Germany before and during World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of Großadmiral — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz...
.
Once learning of the new potential of the Plan, Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
, appointed in 1939 by Göring to oversee Jewish evacuation from German-occupied territory, had Ribbentrop relinquish any future actions to the RSHA
RSHA
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS...
(Reich Main Security Office). In this way, Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
, who headed the sub-office of Jewish evacuation in the RSHA, became involved. On August 15, Eichmann released a draft titled Reichssicherheitshauptamt: Madagaskar Projekt, calling for the resettlement of one million Jews per year over four years, and abandoning the idea of retaining any Jews in Europe whatsoever. The RSHA, he emphasised, would control all aspects of the program.
Most Nazi officials, especially the authorities of the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
(which administered the rump remains of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) including Hans Frank
Hans Frank
Hans Michael Frank was a German lawyer who worked for the Nazi party during the 1920s and 1930s and later became a high-ranking official in Nazi Germany...
, viewed the forced resettlement of 4,000,000 Jews to Madagascar as being infinitely more desirable than the heretofore piecemeal efforts at deportation into Poland. As of July 10, all such deportations were cancelled, and construction of the Warsaw ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
was halted, since it appeared to be unnecessary.
Planning continues
Rademacher envisioned the founding of a European bank that would ultimately liquidate all European Jewish assets in order to pay for the Plan. This bank would then play an intermediary role between Madagascar and the rest of Europe, as Jews would not be allowed to interact financially with outsiders. Göring's office of the Four Year PlanFour year plan
The Four Year Plan was a series of economic reforms created by the Nazi Party. The main aim of the four year plan was to prepare Germany for war in four years...
would oversee the administration of the Plan's economics.
Additionally, Rademacher foresaw roles for other government agencies. Ribbentrop's Foreign Affairs Ministry would negotiate the French peace treaty that would result in the handing over of Madagascar to Germany. It would also play a part in crafting other treaties to deal with Europe's Jews. Its Information Department, along with Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
in the Propaganda Ministry, would control information at home and abroad regarding the policy. Victor Brack of the Führer Chancellory would oversee transportation. The SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
would carry on the Jewish expulsion in Europe, and ultimately govern the island in a police state. It was envisioned that the Third Reich would win the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
and invade and conquer Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in Operation Sea Lion--then the British Fleet
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
could be taken over by Germany and used to transport the Jews to Madagascar. How the native Malagasy
Malagasy people
The Malagasy ethnic group forms nearly the entire population of Madagascar. They are divided into two subgroups: the "Highlander" Merina, Sihanaka and Betsileo of the central plateau around Antananarivo, Alaotra and Fianarantsoa, and the côtiers elsewhere in the country. This division has its...
population of Madagascar was to fit in with this plan was never elaborated upon.
The Germans' desired perception from the outside world would be that Germany had given "autonomy" to the Jewish settlement in Madagascar; however, Eichmann made it plain in his draft that the SS would control and oversee every Jewish organization that was created to govern the island.
Plan abandoned
In late August 1940 Rademacher entreated Ribbentrop to hold a meeting at his Ministry to begin drawing up a panel of experts to consolidate the Plan. Ribbentrop never responded. Likewise, Eichmann's draft languished with Heydrich, who never approved it. The Warsaw ghetto was completed and opened in October. Expulsions of Jews from German territory into occupied Poland continued again from late autumn 1940 to spring 1941.The resistance of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
, and Germany's failure to achieve a quick victory by September, were the ultimate causes of the Plan's collapse. The British fleet would not be at Germany's disposal to be used in evacuations, and the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
would continue indefinitely. Mention of Madagascar as a "super ghetto" was made once in a while in the ensuing months, but by early December, the Plan was abandoned entirely. When the British and Free French forces took over Madagascar
Battle of Madagascar
The Battle of Madagascar was the Allied campaign to capture Vichy-French-controlled Madagascar during World War II. It began on 5 May 1942. Fighting did not cease until 6 November.-Geo-political:...
from Vichy
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
forces in 1942, this effectively ended all talk of the Plan.
See also
- Holocaust
- Nazi GermanyNazi GermanyNazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
- Haavara AgreementHaavara AgreementThe Haavara Agreement was signed on 25 August 1933 after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany , the Anglo-Palestine Bank and the economic authorities of Nazi Germany...
- British Uganda ProgramBritish Uganda ProgramThe British Uganda Programme was a plan to give a portion of British East Africa to the Jewish people as a homeland.-History:The offer was first made by British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain to Theodore Herzl's Zionist group in 1903. He offered of the Mau Plateau in what is today Kenya...
- Fugu PlanFugu PlanThe Jewish settlement in Imperial Japan involved the movement of Jews to and through Japan to its occupied areas of China shortly prior to and during World War II, coinciding with the Second Sino-Japanese War...
- Functionalism versus intentionalismFunctionalism versus intentionalismFunctionalism versus intentionalism is a historiographical debate about the origins of the Holocaust as well as most aspects of the Third Reich, such as foreign policy...
- Operation Ironclad