Madagascar Plan
Before the Nazis decided to murder European Jewry in gas chambers, they considered the Madagascar Plan – a plan to move four million Jews from Europe to the island of Madagascar. Whose idea was it? Like almost all Nazi ideas, someone else came up with the idea first. As early as 1885, Paul de Lagarde suggested deporting Eastern European Jews to Madagascar. In 1926 and 1927, Poland and Japan each investigated the possibility of using Madagascar for solving their over-population problems. It wasn’t until 1931 that a German publicist wrote: “the entire Jewish nation sooner or later must be confined to an island. This would afford the possibility of control and minimize the danger of infection.”1 Yet the idea of sending Jews to Madagascar was still not a Nazi plan. Poland was the next to seriously consider the idea; they even sent a commission to Madagascar to investigate.
