The Madagascar Plan After World War II

Throughout time, the Jewish people had been discriminated, oppressed, mistreated, and even killed way before the Nazi era. From Christ-killers to being the devil, the Jews were never truly accepted anywhere. When Hitler came around, his hatred towards the Jews and other minorities went in crescendo. First using “legal” actions to repress and signal out the Jews in Germany, then measures got worse by the second. Right before Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the Jews were banned from every aspect of German life, social, religious, economic, etc. Unfortunately, from 1939 through 1941, the German Wehrmacht having tremendous success, their new weapons and tactics such as the Blitzkrieg caught their enemies by surprise. As a result, more than six

This would allow the Madagascar Plan to take place.“The desirable solution is: all Jews out of Europe.” (DOH 97) To further prove this point, on October 1940, a few months after the secret memorandum was written, instructions are given for deportation of Jews from Palatinate which is located in the south of France. More precisely, they were sent to Gurs, a concentration camp in Vichy France. (DOH 64) Due to its location, one can assume that perhaps these Jews will be sent to Madagascar. The Madagascar Plan could have still been an option, since by the time these deportations were taking place, the Battle of Britain was not over yet. The plan is said to have ended with the Battle of Britain. Moreover, Germany had already invaded France and Madagascar was a French colony at the time. The Jews were being deported to the south of France, a plausible route to South Africa. Also, the Nazis at this time were being “gentle” with the Jews. They were allowed to take cash, woolen blankets, a suitcase, food for several days, and even food utensils. (DOH 64) If they had the Jewish solution in mind, they would not worry about the pets in their

Through this document, the chaos and unpredictability of the Nazi officials was evident. Once they invaded Wloclawek, they killed some Jews, burned down synagogues, they were robbed, others were captured and taken to factories or barraks. “Those who were taken for work were beaten and abused unmercifully.” (DOH 79) The Jews were also ordered to attach a yellow badge to their clothes and had to walk in the middle of the streets, they were fined for no reason, tortured, and could only keep a limited amount of money. As one can see, there was no strict plan or order against the Jews. The Nazis were basically humiliating them on any chance they had, they were killing some, beating and torturing others, forcing them to work, and more but there was no specific plan yet. Aside from all these harsh treatments and forced labor, Jews were now in Ghettos. This idea came from Alfred Rosenberg, which was the Reich Minister for the occupied territories. He believed that at least, as long as the war was going on, Jews should be kept in ghettos and used for labor. Document 101 provides evidence that the Nazis’ plan at the moment was to separate Jews from the rest of the civilization and use them for labor since “about 80 percent of all the skilled labor was Jewish, it was indispensable and could not be shut away.” (DOH 101) Moreover, in Ostland, in August 1941 instructions by Lohse, the Reichkommissar for Ostland