Jews for Sale?: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945

320 Pages·1996·17.288 MB·English

by  Yehuda Bauer

Jews for Sale?
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Jews for Sale?
Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945
Yehuda Bauer
Yale University Press New Haven and London
Dedicated to the Max and Rita Haber Research Endowment Fund in
Holocaust Studies, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University
Copyright © 1994 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in pan, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections
107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the
public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Designed by Sonia L. Scanlon.
Set in Ehrhardt type by Marathon Typography
Service, Inc., Durham, North Carolina.
Printed in the United States of America by Lightning Source
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bauer, Yehuda.
Jews for sale?: Nazi-Jewish negotiations, 1933-1945 / Yehuda Bauer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-300-05913-2 (cloth)
0-300-06852-2 (pbk.)
ISBN 13: 978-0-30006-852-8
1. Jews—Germany—History—1933-1945. 2. Holocaust,Jewish(1939-1945)—
Germany. 3. World War, 1939-1945—Jews—Rescue—Germany. 4. Germany-
Emigration and immigration. I. Title.
DS135.G3315B38 1994
940.53'18'0943—dc20 94-27780
CIP
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Contents
AAccknkownleodwgmleentds gments vViiii
List of Abbreviations ix
Note on Names xiii
Prologue 1
1
Dellverarance Through Property Transfer 5
2
FallmofalMt-MlmrtBllescmAtleMirt 30
3
Enemies with a Common Interest 44
4
The Road to the" Final Solution" 55
5
"Willy" a
6
What Really Did Happen Slovakia? 91
7
Hlmmler's-Indecision, 1942-1943 102
8
Dogwood's Chains 120
9
Satan and the Sonl-Hungary, 1944 145
10
The Misson to Istanbul 172
Contents vi
11
The Bridge at Saint Margarethen 196
12
The Swiss Talks and the Budapest Tragedy 222
13
The Final Months 239
Epilogue 252
Notes 261
Bibliography 291
Index 217
Acknowledgments
This book is the result of a protracted research effort initiated and
supported by the Institute of Jewish Affairs in London under the
direction of Steven Roth, whose help and interest kept it going for
years. His successors, Michael May and later Antony Lerman, were
equally helpful, and I am grateful to the IJA for releasing me from
formal obligations to them. I am also grateful to Mary Pasti of
Yale University Press for having been such an efficient and kind
editor.
I used materials from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.,
where the help and kindness extended to me by Robert Wolfe and,
especially, by John Taylor and other members of the staff of the Mil-
itary Archives were outstanding. The late Martin Broszat was equally
helpful at the Institut fur Zeitgeschichte in Munich, as were the
archivists at the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz. The late Gyorgy Ranki in
Hungary gave me some invaluable materials. I also wish to thank the
staff of the British Public Records Office in Kew and the Swiss
National Archives in Bern for their kindness.
Of the many friends whose help was essential in this venture, my
collaboration with Barry Rubin was very important and enjoyable:
we found "Dogwood" (Alfred Schwarz) and worked on his role in the
OSS together. I am grateful to Gila Fatran, whose book on Slovakia,
based on her Ph.D. dissertation, was of great importance in prepar-
ing this book. Shlomo Aronson, who worked on much the same mate-
rial, reached similar, though not identical, conclusions, and we
worked in harmony and mutual friendship; the same is true of
Richard Breitman, whose comments were of crucial importance in
the last stages of the work. Avraham Barkai prepared much of the
material for the Ha'avarah chapter, and I wish to thank him very
much for it. Dov Dinur worked on the Hungarian and the Swedish
end and helped me a great deal. Rachel Arzt and Miriam Levine
were the computer wizards who enabled me, a computer illiterate, to
emerge into the present quarter-century. My overworked secretary,
liana Dana, bore her fate with fortitude and solicitous care for her
viii
Acknowledgments viii
errant boss. Israel Gutman, my close companion, suffered my evolving theo-
ries with the skepticism they deserved. My daughters, Danit and Anat, pro-
vided me with the peace of mind that enabled me to write under difficult cir-
cumstances. Lastly, with love, I present this book to Ilaniki.
Abbreviations
AA
Auswartiges Amt (German Foreign Office)
AB
Aliyah Beth ("Illegal" Jewish Immigration to Palestine; B immigration)
AHA
Aussenhandelsamt der AO (Foreign Trade Office of the AO)
AJC
American Jewish Committee
Altreu
Allgemeine Treuhandstelle fur die judische Auswanderung
(General Trust Organization for Jewish Emigration)
AO
Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP (NSDAP Organization Abroad)
Ast
Aussenstelle der Abwehr (Branch Office of the Abwehr)
CIC
Counterintelligence Corps of the U.S. Army
DDSG
Deutsche Donau-Schiffahrtsgesellschaft
(German Danube Shipping Company)
FS
Freiwillige Schutzstaffel (Voluntary Defense Unit [Slovakia])
GG
Generalgouvernement (General [German] Government in Poland)
HG
Hlinkova Garda (Hlinka Guard)
lx
Abbrevations x
HUEF
Hilfsverein fur jiidische Fliichtlinge im Ausland
(Aid Organization for Jewish Refugees Abroad)
HSSPF
Hoherer SS- und Polizeifuhrer (Higher SS and Police Leader)
la
Operations Officer
ICJ
Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University
IGCR
Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees
IRC
International Red Cross
JA
Jewish Agency for Palestine
JAE
Jewish Agency Executive
JDC
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
KRIPO
Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police)
NSDAP
Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (Nazi Party)
OSS
Office of Strategic Services
PKR
Podkarpatska Rus (Subcarpathian Russia; Karpatalja in Hungarian)
RDB
Reichsstelle fur Devisenbeschaffung (Reich Office for Currency
Acquisition, Foreign Currency Office)
RELICO
Relief Committee (Committee for Relief of the War-Stricken
Jewish Population)