Sensing what was in the wind, the newly appointed, highly ambitious head of the Foreign Ministry’s ‘Jewish Desk’ (Judenreferat), Franz Rademacher, prepared a lengthy internal memorandum on 3 June putting forward, as a war aim, three options: removing all Jews from Europe; deporting western European Jews, for example, to Madagascar while leaving eastern Jews in the Lublin district as hostages to keep America paralysed in its fight against Germany (presuming the influence of American Jewry would in these circumstances deter the USA from entering the war); or establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine — a solution he did not favour.233 This was the first time that Madagascar had been explicitly mentioned in a policy document as a possible ‘solution to the Jewish Question’.234 It was a product of Rademacher’s initiative, rather than a result of instructions from above.235 With the backing of Ribbentrop (who had probably himself gained the approval of Hitler and Himmler), Rademacher set to work to put detail on his proposal to resettle all Europe’s Jews on the island of Madagascar, seeing them as under German mandate but Jewish administration.236 Heydrich, presumably alerted by Himmler at the first opportunity, was, however, not prepared to concede control over such a vital issue to the Foreign Ministry. On 24 June he made plain to Ribbentrop that responsibility for handling the ‘Jewish Question’ was his, under the commission given to him by Göring in January 1939. Emigration was no longer the answer. ‘A territorial final solution (territoriale Endlösung) will therefore be necessary.’ He sought inclusion in all discussions ‘which concern themselves with the final solution (Endlösung) of the Jewish question’ — the first time, it seems, the precise words ‘final solution’ were used, and at this point plainly in the context of territorial resettlement.237 By mid-August Eichmann and his right-hand man Theo Dannecker had devised in some detail — their memorandum was fourteen pages long — plans to put 4 million Jews on Madagascar. The SD’s plan envisaged no semblance of Jewish autonomous administration. The Jews would exist under strict SS control.238
Soon after Rademacher had submitted his original proposal, in early June, the Madagascar idea had evidently been taken to Hitler, presumably by Ribbentrop. According to Paul Schmidt, Hitler had said to Mussolini during the meeting in Munich just following the French announcement of their readiness for an armistice that ‘an Israelite state could be erected on Madagascar’.239 Ribbentrop had told Ciano at the same time ‘that it is the Führer’s intention to create a free Jewish state in Madagascar to which he will compulsorily send the many millions of Jews who live on the territory of the old Reich as well as on the territories recently conquered’.240 Two days after his meeting with Mussolini, Hitler again mentioned Madagascar to Grand Admiral Raeder.241 On 8 July he returned to the topic during discussions with Hans Frank about the situation in the General Government. Frank told his colleagues on 12 July of the important decision of the Führer, supporting his own proposal, that no further Jewish transports should be sent to the General Government. ‘In general political terms I would like to add,’ remarked Frank, ‘that it is planned within the shortest time imaginable following the conclusion of peace to transport the entire Jewish tribe (Juden-sippschaft) in the German Reich, in the General Government, and in the Protectorate to an African or American colony. One is thinking of Madagascar…’ Since he had managed to have the General Government included in the plans, it would amount ‘here too to a colossal relief in the foreseeable future’.242 At the beginning of August, Hitler mentioned to the German Ambassador Otto Abetz in Paris ‘that he intended to evacuate all the Jews from Europe after the war’, which, of course, he thought would soon be over.243 And in the middle of August, reporting on a conversation with Hitler, Goebbels noted: ‘We want later to transport the Jews to Madagascar.’244
Already by this time the Madagascar plan had had its brief heyday. Putting it into effect would have depended not only on forcing the French to hand over their colony — a relatively simple matter — but on attaining control over the seas through the defeat of the British navy. With the continuation of the war the plan fell by the end of the year into abeyance and was never resurrected. But through the summer, for three months or so, the idea was taken seriously by all the top Nazi leadership, including Hitler himself.
