The next plan for a ‘solution to the Jewish question’ in Europe was born in the spring of 1940 and connected with Germany’s subsequent conquests. Success on the western front meant that by the middle of the year the German Nazis had several million Jews under control. With the failure of the ‘Lublin reservation’ project, the problem of finding a new place where the Jews could be resettled became urgent. So, the idea of using the French colonial island of Madagascar was revived.
Ideas of relocating the Jewish population to Madagascar already appeared in Europe in the second half of the 19th century. In the interwar period these ideas returned to in many European countries, including France, the UK, the Netherlands and Poland. In Nazi Germany, this option was investigated by A. Eichmann, commissioned to prepare a corresponding report. The idea was revived towards the end of May 1940, when following the fall of France, Hitler officially approved the Madagascar plan. It soon became apparent, however, following German defeat in the Battle of Britain in October 1940, that the Madagascar plan was technically impracticable.
Following the failure of the two plans, as well as the lack of possibilities for the legal emigration of Jews from Germany and German-occupied countries, the Nazi leaders found themselves forced to rethink yet again a ‘solution to the Jewish question’.
