TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

180 Carlo Mattogno, Jürgen Graf: Treblinka
tial emigration of poor Jews and, lastly, of facilitating bureaucratic procedure
for individuals. 509
On June 24, 1940, Heydrich asked Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop to
inform him of possible ministerial meetings regarding the ‘final solution of the
Jewish question.’ The German wording of this phrase, upon which so much
print has been expended and about which so much disinformation has been
propagated, is “Endlösung der Judenfrage.” Heydrich gave these reasons for
his request: 510
“The Herr General Field Marshall, in his capacity as delegate for the
Four Year Plan, charged me in the year 1939 with the execution of Jewish
emigration from the entire territory of the Reich. In the period that followed
we have managed, despite great difficulties even during the war, in
successfully continuing the Jewish emigration.
Since my administrative office assumed the task on January 1, 1939,
more than 200,000 Jews have emigrated from the territory of the Reich.
The whole problem – there are already approximately 3¼ million Jews in
the territories subject to German sovereignty today – can, however, no
longer be solved by emigration.
A territorial final solution is thus becoming necessary.”
As a result of this letter, the Foreign Ministry devised the so-called Madagascar
Plan. On July 3, 1940, Franz Rademacher, director of the Jewish Department
in the Foreign Ministry, composed a report entitled “Die Judenfrage
im Friedensvertrage” (The Jewish Question in the Peace Treaty), which begins
with the following declaration:
“The approaching victory gives Germany the possibility and, in my
opinion, also the duty of solving the Jewish problem in Europe. The most
desirable solution of all is: all Jews out of Europe.”
Rademacher explained that by the peace treaty – regarded as imminent –
with France, Germany would receive the island of Madagascar as a mandate,
to which all European Jews would be deported and which would form an
autonomous state under the control of Germany: 511
“The island will be transferred to Germany as a mandate. […] Other
than that, the Jews receive self-government in this territory: their own
mayors, their own police, their own post office and rail administration etc.
The Jews will be liable as co-debtors for the value of the whole island.”
The project was approved by Ribbentrop and was referred to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt,
which was to be responsible for the technical preparations
509 NG-2586-A.
510 T-173.
511 NG-2586-B.