What was the Nazis' Madagascar Plan?

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Hey, y'all. Kelly Clarkson here with Wayfair. I know holiday magic starts at home, so I tend to go a little overboard. The twinkling lights, the trees, the cozy blankets, but the thing I love even more than decorating is having everyone over and knowing my home is ready. With Wayfair, it's easier than ever to make holiday magic at home. Oh, I think I found room for one more wreath.

Don't wait. Head to wayfair.com and get your home holiday ready today.

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What was the Nazi's Madagascar Plan?

Thanks for asking.

When we talk about the Holocaust, most of us immediately think of death camps like Auschwitz or Dachau, chilling symbols of the Nazi's final solution. But before they reached that level of industrialised brutality, the Nazis explored other ways to remove Jews from Europe. One plan, both absurd and terrifying, was to send all Jews to the distant island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. How on earth did the Germans come up with that idea? Actually, the idea didn't originate in Germany. By the mid-1930s, and in the context of growing antisemitism, many European countries were convinced there was a Jewish question that needed addressing. In Poland, officials first raised the idea in 1936, exploring whether Jewish communities could be resettled overseas. France followed in 1937, when Colonial Minister Marius Mutte proposed sending Jewish refugees to Madagascar, which was a French colony at the time. His plan was framed as humanitarian, though it also reflected the colonial mindset of the time, overlooking the Malagasy population. By 1938, top Nazi officials were discussing the idea, and in 1940 Heinrich Himmler ordered it to be studied in earnest. What happened for the plan to take off in 1940? The French surrender. On June 22nd 1940, France signed the Armistice and came under German control, along with its colonies, including Madagascar. In May 1940, Franz Rademacher, an official in the foreign ministry, presented his plan to his superior. The idea was to move Jews from Eastern Europe to Lublin in Poland, and Jews from Western Europe to Madagascar. It was eventually passed up to Adolf Hitler, who liked it so much that he even told Mussolini about it. By August 1940, two SS officers submitted the official Madagascar project file. It proposed deporting a million Jews to the island every year for a four-year period, funded by their own assets, with the deportees living in camps.

Why didn't it happen then? The answer is quite simple. Madagascar was too far from Europe for mass deportation by sea to be practical. The Germans had also expected Britain to fall quickly, but that never happened. The British Navy controlled the seas that would have served as a transportation route if the Madagascar plan had gone ahead. In a grim twist, the Nazis' failure to defeat Great Britain paved the way for something far worse. From 1940 onwards, the Final Solution began to take shape. Einsatzgruppen or task forces were deployed on the Eastern front to murder Jews, but the Nazis considered them inefficient. By the summer of 1941, the idea of the Final Solution was emerging in full, and in January 1942, the highest ranking Nazi officials met at the Wannsee Conference to coordinate and implement it.

There you have it.

Now you know what the Nazis' Madagascar Plan was. In under three minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you will really know for sure.

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Hey y'all, Kelly Clarkson here with Wayfair. I know holiday magic starts at home, so I tend to go a little overboard. The twinkling lights, the trees, the cozy blankets, but the thing I love even more than decorating is having everyone over and knowing my home is ready. With Wayfair, it's easier than ever to make holiday magic at home. Ooh, I think I found room for one more wreath. Don't wait, head to wayfair.com and get your home holiday ready today.

Wayfair, every style, every home.

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