When the trapped Zionists struck a deal with the Nazis in 1933

In 1933 the Jewish lobby ended a boycott of the Nazi-government in Berlin. In return 60.000 Jews were allowed to sell their German properties, and were able to raise funds to pay the British entry fee to Palestine.

On the afternoon of August 7, 1933, at 76 Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin, on a day when well-dressed Jews in Germany could not step into the street without fear. On this fateful day in the first summer of the Hitler regime, an official delegation of four German and Palestinian Zionists and one independent Palestinian businessman were ushered into an Economics Ministry conference room. The Jews had been authorized by a combine of Jewish and Zionist bodies to negotiate with the Third Reich.

After hours of wrangled debate, Hans Hartenstein, director of the Reich Office of Currency Control, was about to call the meeting to an inconclusive close when a messenger from Deutsche Reichpost delivered a telegram from the German consul in Tel Aviv. The telegram advised Hartenstein that a coalition of official and commercial Zionist interests in Palestine was the best way to break the growing Jewish-led worldwide anti-Nazi boycott that was crippling the Hitler regime in its first months. A deal with the Zionists would be necessary.

And so it was done. The Transfer Agreement was created. There was no hard-copy contract with names penned at the bottom. The agreement was actually an official Reich decree, 54/33, issued three days later, on August 10, by the Reich Economics Ministry. The decree authorized the Zionists to create two transfer clearinghouses, one under the supervision of the German Zionist Federation in Berlin, one under the supervision of Anglo-Palestine’s trust company in Palestine.

The office in Tel Aviv was called Haavara Trust and Transfer Office Ltd. Often called Haavara Ltd. for short, this corporation was organized under the Palestinian commercial code and operated by business managers. Its stock was wholly owned by the Anglo-Palestine Bank, which was later renamed Bank Leumi.

What were the motives behind this deal?

Jews could not enter Palestine without a so-called «Capitalist Certificate» issued by the British proving they possessed the equivalent of USD 5,000. The Transfer agreement made this possible. Addressing more than just active emigrants, the Transfer Agreement allowed «potential emigrants» to protect their assets in these special bank accounts which again could not be accessed without purchasing and reselling German goods. Between the active and potential emigration accounts, the Transfer apparatus meant millions of reichsmarks, to both the Germans and Zionists.

Whole branches of Jewry would wither, but the trunk would survive : Herzl’s words. This one time, this crucial and unparalleled time, the Jewish emergency would be used to secure a future, not ransom a past. From this crisis of humiliation, agony and expulsion would come sanctuary, nationhood and a new Jew, with a new home to call his own.

In its various public and private forms, the Transfer Agreement shifted some 60,000 Jews and $100 million to Jewish Palestine. This is almost $1.7 billion in 2009 dollars. Ultimately, the Transfer Agreement saved lives, rescued assets and seeded the infrastructure of the Jewish state to be.

Source: Abraham Foxman.

The writer is the award-winning best-selling author of IBM and the Holocaust, and his first book, The Transfer Agreement, has now been rereleased in a 25th anniversary edition (Dialog Press).

My comment:

Back in 1933, it was not possible to see the full scale of the tragedy that would take place in the years between 1941 and 1945. Thats why we who can look back on the Holocaust should not judge the Jews involved in the deal.

But its easy to reflect on the Transfer Agreement, from many perspective.

Was it the Jews or was it the British Government, who made it impossible for the poor section of the Jewish people to enter into the promised land? 5.000 USD in 1933, is equivalent to 85.000 USD today?

Obviously, London had made it almost impossible for Jews to immigrate to their homeland. Jews who did not own their own houses would never be able to escape Nazi-Germany and enter the British occupied Palestine.

The second issue:

Should the Jews had stayed behind and boycottet Nazi-Germany, and not sell their properties and leave?

Albert Einstein is one Jew who choose to sell and leave. He did not migrate to British Occupied Palestine, but chose to search for liberty and freedom in America.

If the Jews had kept on boycotting Nazi-Germany, would the regime have been defeated before the out-break of World War II?

Thats the same issue as todays debate on Iran. Should we attack the Fascists, before they get to powerful, should we strike a deal with them, or should we ran away?

If the World have learned anything from the deal the trapped Zionists struck with the Nazis, we all have to go for the first option. To strike as soon as possible, and cripple the evil regime of Iran. Later on the cost of dealing with Iran will get as high, and may even be higher than the cost of defeating Nazi-Germany.