Source: https://www.renegadetribune.com/national-socialist-emigration-evacuation-policies-for-jews/
The National-Socialist government, from 1933 to 1942, encouraged or induced the emigration of approximately one million jews from the territories under their control.
National Socialist Emigration-Evacuation Policy for Jews
by Carlo Mattogno
“I hope to see the term ‘jew’ extinguished completely through the possibility of large-scale emigration of all jews to Africa or some other colony” – Himmler
Shortly after Hitler’s rise to power, the Reich government entered into the so-called Haavara Agreement with the Jewish Agency for Palestine, a capital transfer agreement (haavara) for “German” jews emigrating to Palestine. The basis of the agreement was created with “Circular Decree No. 54/33 by the Reich Ministry of Economics of August 28, 1933 to all German foreign-exchange control offices” (Vogel, p. 107). According to statistics of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, 52,463 jews emigrated from Germany to Palestine from 1933 to 1942 on the basis of this agreement.
Until the outbreak of the [jewish] war – and during the [jewish] war, as long as circumstances permitted – emigration to all countries willing to admit the jews was the principal purpose of National Socialist policy, as confirmed by the report of the German Foreign Office titled “The Jewish Question as a Factor in Foreign Affairs in 1938” (“Die Judenfrage als Faktor der Außenpolitik im Jahre 1938”) dated January 25, 1939. The first four points of the document read as follows:
1. “The German policy on the jews as a prerequisite and consequence of the foreign-policy decisions of 1938
2. Aim of German policy on the jews: emigration
3. Means, ways and ends of jewish emigration
4. The emigrated jew as the best propaganda for the German policy on the jews.”
Then, “the necessity for a radical solution of the jewish question” was recognized, which basically consisted in the following:
“The ultimate goal of German jewish policy is the emigration of all jews living in Reich territory.”
The day before, 24 January, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring had issued a decree establishing the Reich Center for Jewish Emigration (Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung), the administration of which was entrusted to Reinhardt Heydrich. Göring first of all summarized concisely the principle that inspired National-Socialist policy (NG-2586-A):
“The emigration of jews from Germany must be encouraged by all means.”
Precisely with a view to what he instituted, the above-mentioned “Reichszentrale,” which was responsible for “taking all the measures for the preparation of an intensified emigration of the jews,” to provide for the preferential emigration of poor jews, and finally to facilitate bureaucratic practices for single individuals.
On November 25, 1939, Erhard Wetzel and G. Hecht, who occupied official positions in the field of racial policy, wrote a memorandum titled “The Issue of treating the population of the former Polish territory from the point of view of racial politics,” which constituted a first draft of the future “General Plan East.” Among other things, the draft set forth a plan for jewish resettlement in the occupied Polish territories, formulated as follows:
“The remaining Polish territory which, at the moment, has a population of 12.7 million, would thus reach 19.3 million.[7] In addition, there would be another 800,000 jews from the Reich (Altreich area, Austria, Sudetenlands, and Protectorate). Finally, another 530,000 jews from the former Polish territories now integrated into the Reich would have to be transferred as well.”
The destination of these deportations was no doubt the General Government, which had been officially created on 12 October. The plan was a follow-up to the directives issued by Heydrich to all the Einsatzgruppen leaders on the “jewish question in the occupied territories” by express letter dated 21 September 1939 (PS-3363), including the Nisko Plan (October 1939), which called for the creation of a jewish reservation in eastern Poland, was a failed attempt at implementation, perhaps on the initiative of SS Sturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann’s (see Goshen; see also Mattogno 2018, pp. 31f.). The idea of jewish emigration was not abandoned, however (PS-660, p. 35):
“In order to make the jew fit for emigration, it would be advisable, if need be, to provide him with a better educational training.”
In a memorandum written in May 1940, Himmler wrote (1957, p. 197):
“I hope to see the term ‘jew’ extinguished completely through the possibility of large-scale emigration of all jews to Africa or some other colony”
On June 24, 1940, Heydrich, who headed the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Reich Security Main Office), requested the Minister for Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop to keep him informed of any possible ministerial meetings relating to the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” (Endlösung der Judenfrage), justifying his request as follows (T-173):
“Dear Party Comrade Ribbentrop!
In 1939, the General Field Marshal [Göring], in his capacity as administrator of the Four-Year-Plan, entrusted me with the implementation of the jewish emigration from the territory of the Reich. Subsequently, it was possible, even during the war and in spite of considerable difficulties, to carry on the jewish emigration successfully.
Since 1st January 1939, when my office took over this task, more than 200,000 jews have so far emigrated from the Reich area. However, the whole problem – we are dealing with some 3¼ million jews in the areas presently under German sovereignty – can no longer be solved by emigration. Thus, a final solution on a territorial basis will impose itself.”
As a follow-up to this letter, the minister for foreign affairs wrote the so-called “Madagascar Project.” On July 3, 1940, Franz Rademacher, head of the jewish section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote a report titled “The Jewish Question in the Peace Treaty,” which opened with the following declaration:
“The impending victory gives Germany the possibility and, I think, makes it our duty, to resolve the jewish question in Europe. The most desirable solution is:
All jews out of Europe.”
The plan was approved by Ribbentrop and transmitted to the RSHA, which was responsible for implementing the technical preparations for the evacuation of the jews to the island of Madagascar, and supervising the evacuated jews (NG-2586-J). It was precisely this which comprised the “territorial Final Solution” to the Jewish Question advocated by Heydrich.
On August 30, Rademacher wrote a note “Madagaskar Projekt,” the “financing” paragraph of which opens with the following words (NG-2586-D):
“The implementation of the proposed final solution will require considerable resources.”
The “Final Solution” of the Jewish Question therefore simply referred to the transfer of the ‘European’ jews to Madagascar.
In October of 1940, Alfred Rosenberg wrote an article titled “Jews on Madagascar” (“Juden auf Madagaskar”), in which he reminded his readers that as early as the anti-jewish congress at Budapest in 1927,
“[…] the question of a future removal of the jews from Europe [was] discussed, and here, for the first time, the proposal was made to promote Madagascar as the intended homestead of the jews.”
Rosenberg himself endorsed this idea and expressed his wish for the “jewish high finance” in Britain and the USA to help with the creation of a “jewish reservation” in Madagascar, which he considered “a worldwide problem.”
According to the testimony of Moritz von Schirmeister, a former official at the German ministry of propaganda, even Joseph Goebbels spoke publicly of the Madagascar Plan several times (IMT, Vol. 17, p. 250), while Ribbentrop recalled the Führer’s intention to deport the “European” jews to North Africa or Madagascar (IMT, Vol. 10, p. 398).
The deportation of the “European” jews to Madagascar was not a fictitious plan, but a real and concrete project. In parallel with that plan, the authorities of the Reich continued to promote the emigration of the jews, particularly from Germany, by all means.
Zionist circles of Palestine fully supported this German policy. On January 11, 1941, one of their representatives sent a letter to the German Embassy in Ankara containing three attachments, including “a proposal from the National Military Organization of Palestine on the solution of the jewish question in Europe,” which stated:
“Germany’s leading National Socialist statesmen have in comments and speeches more than once emphasized that a New Order in Europe requires a radical solution of the jewish question through evacuation (‘jew-free Europe’).
The evacuation of the jewish masses from Europe is a prerequisite for solving the jewish question, which is possible only by resettling these masses in the homeland of the jewish people, Palestine, and by establishing the jewish State in its historic boundaries.
To solve the jewish problem in this way and once and for all to liberate the jewish people is the aim of the political activity and the ongoing struggle of the israeli freedom movement, the National Military Organization in Palestine.” (Irgun Zevai Leumi)
In this context, Irgun even offered “to actively take part in the war on Germany’s side.”
On May 20, 1941, Heydrich prohibited the emigration of jews from France and Belgium “in consideration of the doubtlessly approaching final solution of the jewish question,” that is, in view of the implementation of the Madagascar Project, which was considered imminent. First of all, Heydrich basically reaffirmed the principle that inspired National-Socialist policy towards the jews:
“In accordance with an instruction emanating from the Reich Marshall of the Greater German Reich [Göring], the emigration of jews from the Reich territory including the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia is to be implemented actively, even under the present state of war, within the conditions prevailing and taking into account the directives for the emigration of the jews.”
Heydrich then clearly explained the reasons for the prohibition (ibid.):
“As the jews on the territory of the Reich, for example, have only a limited choice of departure [routes], mainly via Spain and Portugal, an emigration of jews from France and Belgium would further reduce these possibilities.”
Two months later, on July 31, Göring entrusted Heydrich with the task of undertaking all necessary preparations for the “Final Solution,” that is, emigration or evacuation of all jews under German rule to Madagascar. This letter in fact declared (NG-2586-E, PS-710):
“In addition to the task already entrusted to you by the decree of 14 January 1939, viz. to bring about an optimum solution to the jewish question by emigration or evacuation in accordance with the conditions prevailing, I order you herewith to undertake all necessary preparations – organizational, administrative, and material – for a comprehensive solution of the jewish question within the German sphere of influence in Europe.
To the extent that the competence of other central agencies is concerned thereby, the latter are [to be requested] to participate. I order you furthermore to submit to me in the near future a comprehensive proposal concerning the organizational, administrative, and material requirements for the implementation of the final solution of the jewish question so envisaged.”
This document is fully in accordance with the Madagascar Project. The directives issued by Göring “in addition” to those already issued to Heydrich by means of the decree of 24 January 1939 consisted, in fact, of completing the solution to the jewish question “in the form of emigration or evacuation” of the jews of the Reich only, with a territorial “final solution” through evacuation to Madagascar of all the jews from the territories occupied by the Germans.
Precisely because it involved all the “European” jews of the occupied countries, this solution was called the “comprehensive solution” (“Gesamtlösung”), a term which not accidentally recalled the “whole problem” of Heydrich’s letter of June 24, 1940.
Writing on November 6, 1941, Heydrich himself, who had been responsible for preparing the “Final Solution” in Europe for years (PS-1624), clearly traced this responsibility back to the decree of January 24, 1939, and identified the “Final Solution” with the solution “in the form of emigration or evacuation” from Göring’s letter dated July 31, 1941.
This is also the context of the order conveyed to the foreign ministry by Adolf Eichmann on August 28, 1941, which prohibited “an emigration of jews from the territories occupied by us in view of the impending final solution of the jewish question in Europe now being prepared.”
Over the following months, the difficulties created by the war and the territorial prospects opened up by the Russian campaign led to an important change in destination in National-Socialist policies with regard to the jews: the “Final Solution” through deportation of the “European” jews to Madagascar was succeeded by a “territorial Final Solution” through the deportation of the “European” jews into the German-occupied eastern territories.
This change was proposed on August 22, 1941 by SS Sturmbannführer Carl Theo Zeitschel, advisor at the German Embassy in Paris, in a note drawn up by Ambassador Otto Abetz:
“The continuing conquest and occupation of large territories in the East could at present offer us a rapid solution of the jewish problem throughout Europe. As we can see from the cries for help addressed to the ‘American’ jews in the press of all the jews in Palestine, some 6 million jews are living in the regions recently occupied by us, especially in Bessarabia, amounting to one third of world jewry.
In the course of any new disposition of the eastern space, these six million jews would in any case have to be grouped and a special territory would have to be staked out for them. It should not be a major problem to include the jews from the remainder of the European states and to move there as well the jews who are presently crammed into the ghettos of Warsaw, Litzmannstadt (Łodź), Lublin etc.
As far as the occupied areas are concerned, such as Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece, it would be easy to issue military orders for the removal of the jews to the new territory in mass transports; other states could be encouraged to follow this example and to expell their jews to this territory. Within a short period of time, Europe could be made free of jews.”
In General Governor Hans Frank’s diary, dated July 17, 1941, we read (Präg/ Jacobmeyer p. 386):
“The Governor General does not favor any further ghettos because the Führer expressly declared on 19 June that the jews will soon be removed from the General Government with the latter becoming, as it were, a mere transit camp.”
On August 20, 1941, after a visit to the Führer’s headquarters, Goebbels noted in his diary (Reuth, pp. 1660f.):
“Furthermore, the Führer promised me that I could remove the jews from Berlin immediately after the termination of the eastern campaign.”
Zeitschel’s proposal was approved by Hitler a few months later, who decided to abandon the Madagascar Project temporarily, and deport East all jews found in the occupied territories. The Führer’s decision certainly dates back to September 1941 – according to some to September 17 (Konze et al., p. 185).
On October 23, Himmler declared jewish emigration effective immediately, and the evacuation of 50,000 western jews to the East was ordered the next day. On October 24, Kurt Daluege, head of the regular police (Ordnungspolizei), issued a decree bearing the subject “Evacuations of Jews from the Old Reich and the Protectorate,” which ordered (PS-3921):
“Between November 1 and December 4, 1941, 50,000 jews will be deported by the security police from the Altreich, the Ostmark [Austria], and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia into the region of Minsk and Riga in the East.
The deportations will be carried out by Reichsbahn trains of 1000 persons each. The trains will be assembled at Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Dortmund, Münster, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt/M., Kassel, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Munich, Vienna, Breslau, Prague, and Brünn.”
The new direction given to National-Socialist policies with regard to the jews was officially communicated to the old Party hierarchy at the Wannsee Conference, which was convened for this primary purpose.
The conference, initially scheduled for December 9, 1941 (PS-709; NG2586-F), was postponed due to the United States’s entry into the war, and was eventually held in Berlin, at Am Großen Wannsee 56/58, on January 20, 1942. Heydrich was the speaker. The associated minutes open with an extensive recapitulation of National-Socialist policies implemented with regard to the jews up until that time, as a consequence of which approximately 537,000 jews had emigrated by October 31, 1941, including:
– approximately 360,000 from the Old Reich since January 30, 1933
– approximately 147,000 from the Ostmark [Austria] since March 15, 1938
– approximately 30,000 from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia since March 15, 1939.
Then we read there, among other things (NG-2586-G):
“In the meantime, the Reichsführer-SS and Head of the German Police [= Himmler] has forbidden any further emigration of jews in view of the dangers posed by emigration in wartime and the developing possibilities in the East.
As a further possible solution, and with the appropriate prior authorization by the Führer, emigration has now been replaced by evacuation to the East. This operation should be regarded only as a provisional option, though in view of the coming final solution of the jewish question it is already supplying practical experience of vital importance.”
By Hitler’s order, therefore, the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” through voluntary or compulsory emigration of all the “European” jews to Madagascar, was replaced by their evacuation to the occupied eastern territories, but only as a “provisional option,” while awaiting the end of the war in order to return to the problem.
The Wannsee Conference was therefore convened to inform the authorities concerned of the abandonment of the policy of emigration or evacuation to Madagascar, and the commencement on a vast scale of a policy of deportation to the east, and to discuss the related problems.
The Madagascar Project was officially abandoned in early February 1942. An information letter from Rademacher to adjutant Harald Bielfeld of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated February 10, 1942 explains the reasons (NG5770):
“In August of 1940 I transmitted to you for your files the plan elaborated by my department for the final solution of the jewish question, whereby the island of Madagascar was to be ceded by France, with the practical implementation of this task to be entrusted to the RSHA. In accordance with this plan, Gruppenführer Heydrich was ordered by the Führer to carry out the solution of the jewish question in Europe.
The war against the Soviet Union has meanwhile opened up the possibility of providing other territories for the final solution. The Führer has decided accordingly that the jews will not be deported to Madagascar but to the East. Hence, Madagascar need no longer be considered for the final solution.”
The “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was therefore a territorial solution and consisted of the deportation of the “European” jews into the German-occupied Eastern territories.
Another important document, the memorandum by Martin Luther (an official in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs) dated August 21, 1942. In this document, Luther first recapitulates the essential points of National-Socialist policies with regard to the jews (NG-2586-J):
“The basic premise of the German policy in respect of the jews, starting with the seizure of power [by Hitler in 1933], was to promote jewish emigration by all available means. For this purpose, Generalfeldmarschall Göring, in his capacity as head of the Four-Year-Plan, created a Reich central agency for jewish emigration and assigned its leadership to Gruppenführer Heydrich, the chief of the security police.”
After setting forth the origins and development of the Madagascar Project, which was now superseded by events, Luther continued by noting that Göring’s letter of July 31, 1941 was a follow-up to Heydrich’s letter of June 24, 1940 according to which the jewish question would no longer be resolved through emigration, but required “a territorial final solution.”
“For that reason, Reichsmarschall Göring requested Gruppenführer Heydrich on July 31, 1941 to carry out all necessary preparations for a comprehensive solution of the jewish question within the German sphere of influence in Europe (cf. [Document] DIII 709g).
On the basis of this order, Gruppenführer Heydrich convened a meeting of all German agencies involved for January 20, 1942, with secretaries of state from the other ministries and myself from the foreign office attending. Gruppenführer Heydrich explained at the meeting that Reichsmarschall Göring had issued his order being so directed by the Führer, and that the Führer had now approved the evacuation of the jews to the East.”
Based on this order, Luther continued, the evacuation of the jews from Germany was undertaken. The destination consisted of the Eastern territories via the General Government:
“The removal to the General Government is a temporary measure. The jews will be moved on to the occupied eastern territories as soon as the material means are available.”
A circular letter dated October 9, 1942 titled “Preparatory measures for a solution of the jewish problem in Europe. Rumors concerning the situation of the jews in the East” containing “Confidential information” intended for party officials, inspired by the headings related to “very severe measures” in the occupied Eastern territories which began to be spread in Germany and which were “usually in a distorted or exaggerated manner,” summarized the stages and clearly explained the meaning of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”:
“Since the beginning of the war in 1939, emigration has become increasingly difficult; at the same time, the economic space of the German people has steadily increased in size compared to its living space so that, at the present time, a complete elimination through emigration is no longer possible in view of the large number of jews present in this [economic] space.
It is to be expected that already the coming generation will perceive this problem neither as vividly nor as clearly [as we do] on the basis of their own experience. Also, the matter has been set in motion and must be settled; hence, the problem as a whole must be resolved by the present generation.
Therefore, the complete expulsion or elimination of the millions of jews present in the European economic sphere is an imperative task in the fight to guarantee the existence of the German people.
Starting in the Reich itself and then extending into the other European countries made part of the final solution, the jews will be moved into large camps in the East, some already in existence, others yet to be set up, where they will be used directly as labor or moved on further east. Elderly jews, as well as those with high military decorations (EK I [Iron Cross], Golden medal for bravery etc.) will be moved continuously to Theresienstadt, a town in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.”
In a report dated December 14, 1942 titled “Financing the Measures for the Solution of the Jewish Question,” ministerial advisor Walter Maedel summarized National-Socialist policies regarding the jews in the following terms (NG-4583):
“Some time ago, the Reichsmarschall ordered the Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police to prepare the measures aiming at the final solution of the jewish question. The Reichsführer-SS has entrusted the Chief of the Security Police and SD with the execution of this task. The latter initially promoted the legal emigration of jews overseas by special measures.
When emigration overseas had become impossible after the outbreak of the war, he implemented the gradual cleansing of jews from the Reich by their deportation to the East. Lately, within the Reich territory, old-age homes (old-age ghettos) for jews have been set up, for example at Theresienstadt. For details see note of August 21, 1942. The establishment of other old-age homes in the eastern territories is being planned.”
In April 1943, Richard Korherr, the Reichsführer’s statistical inspector, wrote a report titled “The Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe,” in which he reported the following data (NO-5193):
Therefore, 557,357 jews emigrated from the Old Reich, Austria and Bohemia/Moravia, in addition to nearly 600,000 of the 762,593 jews from the General Government and the eastern territories cumulatively indicated by Korherr under the headings “Emigration” and “Excess mortality” (see Subchapter 3.12.).
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