SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 197
ern Poland. The attempt was possibly initiated by Eichmann, but it
failed. 571
In any case, the idea of Jewish emigration had not been altogether
abandoned, for it was recommended in the above memorandum: 572
“In order to render the Jew fit for emigration, it will be advisable,
if need be, to improve his education.”
Himmler wrote in a memorandum of May 1940: 573
“I hope to see the notion of a Jew melt away through the possibility
of a major emigration of Jews to Africa or some other colony.”
In the same document, he rejects “the Bolshevik method of the physical
eradication of a people [as it is,] according to my deeply rooted
conviction, ungermanic and impossible.” 573
On 24 June 1940 Heydrich, the head of the RSHA, asked the minister
of foreign affairs, Joachim Ribbentrop, to be informed of any ministerial
meetings concerning the “final solution of the Jewish question,”
explaining the request by saying: 574
“In 1939, the General Field Marshal [Göring], in his quality 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
considerably difficulties, to carry on the Jewish emigration successfully.
Since 1 st January 1939, when my office took over this task, more
than 200,000 Jews have so far emigrated from the Reich area. However,
the problem as a whole – 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.”
(Underlings in the original)
As a consequence of this letter, the foreign ministry developed the
Madagascar plan. 575
571 Seev Goshen, “Eichmann und die Nisko-Aktion im Oktober 1939,” in: Vierteljahrshefte
für Zeitgeschichte, 29(1), January 1981, pp. 74-96.
572 PS-660, p. 35. Cf. chapter 8.2.1., p. 236.
573 Heinrich Himmler, “Einige Gedanken über die Behandlung der Fremdvölkischen im Osten,”
in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 5(2), April 1957, p. 197.
574 T-173.
575 An extensive treatment of this question is provided by Magnus Brechtkens, “Madagaskar
für die Juden”: Antisemitische Idee und politische Praxis 1995-1945, R. Oldenbourg
Verlag, Munich 1998.