The Third Reich and the Transfer Agreement

The first problem involving Palestine which the Third Reich had to face was that of the transfer of Jewish capital from Germany. This arose from the new German regime's anti-Jewish policy, which naturally brought up the question of emigration from Germany in general. The withdrawal of property was a conditio sine qua non for many of the Jews if they were to emigrate, since the majority of them belonged to the middle classes. Furthermore, during the initial period of the rise of the Nazis and their take-over in Germany, there was scarcely a single Jewish leader in that country who really grasped what the full effect of the new situation on his community was bound to be. Insofar as Jewish institutions envisaged any emigration at that time, they were thinking not of an exodus, a total withdrawal, but of the gradual departure of certain social strata, persons of means and of suitable age who could be absorbed in other countries. The Zionist Organization, which dealt with immigration into Palestine, was chiefly concerned to secure the emigration of adolescents, young people who could be easily absorbed into local village life, and well-to-do people who could provide for their absorption from their own resources once they were in the country.' By March-April 1933 the Zionist Executive in London had already received a suggestion about the possibility of withdrawing Jewish capital from Germany. Even before any serious discussion had taken place in that body, Mr Sam Cohen of Hanotea, a private citrus-growing company, had signed an agreement with the German Ministry of Economics providing for the transfer to Palestine of one million marks belonging to German Jews in the

Ancient history · Archaeology · Economic history · Emigration · German · Immigration · Judaism · Mandatory Palestine · Nazi Germany · Nazism · Political science · Sine qua non · Sociology · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law

• A Jewish Collaborator in Nazi Germany

  Open Access•Herbert S Levine•Central European History•1975

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