Thousands could have been rescued, By Frank Shapiro
Once World War II had broken out, it was too late to save the Jews of Europe. But prior to that, in the years and months leading up to the war, the Nazis were content to allow Jews to leave, albeit under harsh economic terms.
However, for the vast majority of this persecuted minority there was nowhere to go.
Western governments closed their gates to large-scale Jewish immigration. Some countries simply reinforced existing anti-immigration laws - such as the 1905 Aliens Act in Britain or the 1924 Immigration Act in the US. Others, such as the governments of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia in 1937, enacted new ones. Here and there allocations were reluctantly granted to individuals, but on the whole immigration was restricted to minuscule proportions.
Palestine, the natural solution according to the spirit of the Mandate granted to Britain by the League of Nations, was also out of bounds due to the 1939 White Paper. And the 1938 Evian Conference on Refugees petered out in a cloud of rhetoric.
As a result, the majority of Jewish refugees attempting to escape Nazi Europe had nowhere to flee. And the paradox was that Hitler was letting them out.
Was this, indeed, the only reality, or did other options exist? In stark contrast to the historical consensus to date, my research reveals that an extraordinary opportunity of salvation almost crystallized.
Astonishing plans I uncovered in my research at the British National Archives, in dozens of interviews and from the archives of several former British colonies in Africa show that considerable numbers of Jews could have been saved and resettled.
According to these plans Jews were about to be evacuated from Europe and allowed to settle in Northern Rhodesia, a British protectorate situated in southern central Africa.
Once the Jewish refugee-Northern Rhodesian nexus was established, 13 settlement plans for Jewish settlement in Northern Rhodesia were proposed between May 1938 and the outbreak of the Second World War. Scores of thousands of Jews, serving as an initial nucleus for future settlement, were on the brink of being brought out of Nazi Europe to a haven in central Africa.
In Britain, the Emigration (Planning) Committee, a sub-committee of the Council for German Jewry, took responsibility for the immigration of Jewish refugees to Britain and its colonies. This committee was organized and managed by the Anglo-Jewish leadership, whose members were the cream of British Jewry.
The committee worked closely with the Colonial Office and undertook a commitment that the Anglo-Jewish community would bear the financial burden of Jewish immigration.
The committee probed the possibility of settling Jewish refugees in colonies of the British Empire, not on the basis of individual settlement but rather toward the idea of mass settlement. Following meticulous examination the choice narrowed to several colonies in central southern Africa.In early January 1939, Northern Rhodesia was eventually selected as the country of choice.
DURING THE late 1930s, the Colonial and Foreign Offices began goading the Northern Rhodesian Government toward the implementation of these settlement plans. At the same time they urged the committee to oversee the pragmatic details of the plans. In March 1939 a vote was taken by the Legislative Council of Northern Rhodesia to keep the country open to Jewish influx and settle refugees in significant numbers.
As a result Northern Rhodesia was virtually the only country in the world legally open to Jewish immigration.
Thus the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia presented a unique position: Concurrent with planning for mass settlement, individual Jews were incessantly reaching the British protectorate and on their arrival found few problems in entering the territory and making it their new home.
In fact, entry requirements were so lax that no Jewish refugee ever faced refusal of entry. In this manner some 100 families, mainly from Germany, comprising some 250 Jewish souls, learned of this haven and settled there.
Recent research now reveals that much of the discussion concerning this diplomatic and humanitarian effort was kept under wraps. Furthermore, it appears that certain members of the committee, supposedly party to the deliberations, were often kept in the dark as to decisions and planning by other members.
The consequences of hushing up the information became startlingly poignant on November 10, 1938, when, in the wake of Kristallnacht, hundreds of thousands of despairing souls stood in line for days and weeks on end at consulates and embassies throughout the Reich, waiting for visas - to anywhere.
Apart from a few individuals who knew of the British protectorate through relatives residing in South Africa or Southern Rhodesia, the vast majority of the refugees were ignorant that a visa to Northern Rhodesia could be obtained simply by requesting one. Had this information been leaked countless lives would have been saved.
In the final analysis, full responsibility for suppressing the information lay with the committee. When the planning stages reached the moment of decision key members of the committee downplayed the plans' worth and effectiveness. The decision to procrastinate and abort every single proposed plan lay with the committee.
Why conceal this information when it could have saved so many lives?
The answer probably lies in the realm of the collective psyche of the well-established Anglo-Jewish world outlook. The overriding concern of the Anglo-Jewish leadership in the years leading up to World War II was marked by its assertion of loyalty to king and country, beyond all other considerations.
The writer is author of Haven in Africa, published by Gefen. (fshap@012.net.il)
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