[August
1933: Haavarah agreement
for Jewish capital transfer from NS Germany to Palestine - connected
with exports of German goods]
In August 1933 the Haavarah agreement was arrived at between
Palestinian Jewish interests supported by the Jewish Agency and the
Germans; under this agreement Jews could transfer capital to Palestine
- by promoting German exports to that country. The procedure was as
follows:
a Jewish immigrant deposited his money (usually the equivalent of the
1,000 pounds that entitled him to a "capitalist" immigration
certificate to Palestine) in a German bank; then a German exporter
shipped goods to Palestine for which he was paid with the immigrant's
money; in Palestine the goods were sold to customers who paid the price
to an authorized bank, which in turn paid it out to the immigrant.
The
Jewish Agency justified this arrangement by saying that it was
essential to save Jews and their money, and that importing capital into
Palestine enabled that country to absorb many others who came there
without means. According to one calculation, the total transferred by
Haavarah between 1933 and the end of 1937 amounted to about 4,400,000
pounds.
(End note 53: 15-32)
JDC had no part in this particular transfer scheme, but the program
aroused its interest because it shared the view of the Jewish Agency
that no stone should be left unturned in the effort to bring Jewish
capital out of Germany, and thereby improve the prospects of emigration
for those who had to leave.
In Germany it was mainly Max M. Warburg who displayed great interest in
that sort of plan.
[Money transfer within the
Haavarah agreement]
The Germans at first allowed Jewish men of means to buy free foreign
currency at tremendously inflated prices through a special office
(Golddiskontstelle); then in 1936 another office, the Reichsstelle für
Devisenbeschaffung, allowed the transfers of sums up to 4,000 gold
marks, for which 8,000 (p.128)
marks were paid in Germany - although people actually had to pay in
considerably more than that under various pretenses. In early 1937 a
Jewish bank called Altreu was established to receive these payments,
which then went partly to finance ZA. Whereas the Haavarah bank - the
Paltreu - dealt with transfers to Palestine or to the Middle East only,
Altreu transferred monies to other countries.
Warburg was connected with all these ventures. He was also behind the
establishment, in March 1936, of a bank in London called the
International Trade and Investment Agency (INTRIA), whose managing
director was Siegfried Moses, a German Zionist. This bank placed orders
for German goods in Germany; Altreu then paid for them out of the funds
paid into it by emigrants. the goods were then sold outside Germany,
and the emigrant received his money back in foreign currency from
INTRIA when he arrived in his country of destination. The principle was
the same as with Haavarah, and really amounted to saving Jewish capital
at the price of promoting German exports, albeit with no foreign
currency accruing to the Germans.
(End note 54:
-- 15-3 (10/26/36 [26 October 1936])
-- 25-Gen. & Emerg. Germany, INTRIA, esp. Kahn's letter to Hyman,
8/25/36 [25 August 1936])
[1936: Modification of the money
transfer]
In the summer of 1936 the Germans suggested to JDC a somewhat different
arrangement for the transfer of funds: the emigrants would pay the
German marks into a JDC account in Germany; the Germans would give to
JDC Polish zloty for their marks (Germany had a superabundance of zloty
at the time), and this would finance JDC programs in Poland; JDC would
then pay the emigrant back in foreign currency once he had left
Germany. Kahn's answer was negative, because the Polish program was too
small to satisfy the capital transfer needs of German Jewish emigrants;
in any case, Zionist funds in Poland were used to effect a similar
arrangement between JDC and the Jewish Agency (the Jewish Agency
getting pounds in Palestine from JDC in return for its Polish zloty,
which were used by JDC in Poland). Obviously, the Jewish Agency
arrangement was preferred.
(End note 55: Ibid.)
[Money transfer by "benevolent"
marks]
By 1937 another plan for the transfer of funds was arranged - the
"benevolent" marks. A benefactor outside Germany who (p.129)
wished to help an individual in Germany would pay a sum of money into a
bank in his own country. The bank would transfer the money to INTRIA.
The equivalent of that sum in marks would then be paid by Altreu to the
recipient in Germany out of funds deposited by an emigrant. When that
emigrant left Germany, the money would be repaid to him by INTRIA.
There was no export involved in this kind of transaction, and JDC,
which was of two minds about the various export arrangements, had no
hesitation in supporting this scheme. It was estimated that in 1937
some $ 400,000 was transferred to Germany in this way.
(End note 56: Ibid.)
The Germans, for reasons of their own, liberalized these arrangements
in late 1937 and early 1938; people could pay up to 50,000 marks to
Altreu, and sometimes received up to 50 % of this sum in foreign
currency. RV [Reichsvertretung] received a certain percentage of these
monies for its operations. However, on the whole JDC tried to avoid any
direct connection with these banks and agencies, children of Max M.
Warburg's resourceful brain - many Jews were opposed to any kind of
transaction with Nazi Germany, and JDC was intent on remaining as
independent as possible, and not exposing itself to attack by any side.
[At the end Palestine was in danger to be occupied by NS armies, but
Rommel's army could be stopped before entering Egypt. But basically
Hitler's plan was to destroy Jewry also in Palestine, so first should
be the emigration, and then enslavement and destruction as a second
step].
