As early as 1885, Paul de Lagarde suggested deporting Eastern European Jews to Madagascar. In 1926 and 1927, Poland and Japan each investigated the possibility of using Madagascar for solving their over-population problems.

It wasn't until 1931 that a German publicist wrote: "the entire Jewish nation sooner or later must be confined to an island. This would afford the possibility of control and minimize the danger of infection."1 Yet the idea of sending Jews to Madagascar was still not a Nazi plan.

Poland was the next to seriously consider the idea; they even sent a commission to Madagascar to investigate.

The Commission
In 1937, Poland sent a commission to Madagascar to determine the feasibility of forcing Jews to emigrate there. Members of the commission had very different conclusions. The leader of the commission, Major Mieczyslaw Lepecki, believed that it would be possible to settle 40,000 to 60,000 people in Madagascar. Two Jewish members of the commission didn't agree with this assessment. Leon Alter, the director of the Jewish Emigration Association (JEAS) in Warsaw, believed only 2,000 people could be settled there. Shlomo Dyk, an agricultural engineer from Tel Aviv, estimated even fewer.

Even though the Polish government thought Lepecki's estimate was too high and even though the local population of Madagascar demonstrated against an influx of immigrants, Poland continued its discussions with France (Madagascar was a French colony) over this issue.

It wasn't until 1938, a year after the Polish commission, that the Nazis began to suggest the Madagascar Plan.

http://www.kdhs.org.uk/history/as/as...madagascar.htm

Polish really thought of that as a place to send people away??!

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*Bump*

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I heard this a while ago. That's nuts! Even if they could send 60000 jews to Madagascar, what good would it do to them?

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"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."
A.H.

Many counties have considered this posibility, especially as Madgascar was far away and needed labor. Poland was highly involved because it had a large Jewish population, but many other countries were lurking at the conclusions of the commission. After the war this embarrassing idea was given up. This is also one of the reasons why Israel was eventually created.
One shouldnt forget that deporting people to other countries was common in colonial territories. When workers were eventually needed in Madagascar, they came from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and you can easily recognise their descendants.

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Eichmann investigated this possibility but it appears it was not an original idea on his part. Evidently, he was keeping an eye on these developments.

Later

Eichmann could not physically do this anyway, for neither the English and the Amercians, nor the Free French would have let German transport go around Cape good hope. If Rommel had taken Suez , he could have reconsidered his position and forced to Aden and onwards, but that would have impossible in my opinion. I also want to emphasize the hypocrisy of many governments who were interested in the idea but would pretend they weren't (France, Poland, Japan). Japan intended to send other populations, such as Coreans.

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After all it doesn't seem to be a bad idea for some.

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"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."
A.H.

I didn't think about that one
Also Madagascar is one of the last places where you can find wild vanilla. Fort Dauphin must have been a nice place.

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Skipper, I believe that Eichmann's study of this possibility came pre-war. And, if memory serves me, the reason the idea was discarded was it would cost too much money.

Later

You're right, that drives us to another question: Suppose Germany had the money. Do you think the (future) allies would have allowed or opposed pre war transports to Madagascar and if yes, would some countries have assisted Germany or do the same? Remember several countries have used these methods in their colonies on smaller scales, and not just with colonials .

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I think with the climate of the times a "blind eye" would have been turned, for the most part. Some countries would surely have helped. Anit-Semitism wasn't restricted to Nazi Germany.

Later

Does anybody remember this ship with Jewish refugees that sailed from country to country and that nobody would allow to enter their Harbours?

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The St. Louis, they made a movie about it.

Later

Thanks a lot, I was looking for that name. I remember having seen the movie a long time ago. It really summerizes the situation the jews went through in those years.

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