Rule by Inspiration

John Connelly

The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy 1939-42 by Christopher Browning
Arrow, 615 pp, £9.99, April 2005, ISBN 0 09 945482 3

In the eyes of the Nazis, to die for the Third Reich was a privilege, a privilege reserved for ‘Aryans’. In 1943 that perception began to change, however. With Allied armies pressing in on Germany from several fronts, the Nazi leadership recruited ‘subhuman’ Slavs for military service, and by the war’s end hundreds of thousands of them had fought for Germany, among them Slovak, Croatian and Ukrainian SS units. Slavic workers supposedly constituted a threat to racial purity, but by 1945 labour shortages were so dire that millions were brought into the heart of Germany, where they worked and mixed with locals.

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Vol. 27 No. 13 · 7 July 2005 » John Connelly » Rule by Inspiration (print version)
Pages 27-28 | 3359 words

Letters

From Tony French

In his review of Christopher Browning’s The Origins of the Final Solution, John Connelly says that in early 1941 the Nazis were still, ‘in all seriousness’, intending to get rid of Europe’s Jews by shipping them to Madagascar (LRB, 7 July). How could it have been practicable to send masses of people from Eastern Europe to Madagascar while Britain still held the Suez Canal – not to mention Aden, the Sudan, Kenya and Tanganyika? The notion is so bizarre that I have often wondered whether ‘Madagascar’ was not another Nazi euphemism.

Tony French
Heidelberg, Victoria

From Derek Robinson

Tony French is sceptical of John Connelly’s claim that the Nazis meant to ship Europe’s Jews to Madagascar, on the basis that Britain still held Suez and much of East Africa, and wonders whether Madagascar is ‘another Nazi euphemism’ (Letters, 18 August). This is history by hindsight. At the time, Hitler believed the British were beaten but simply hadn’t realised it yet. He talked of plans to seize Gibraltar, establish bases in West Africa (Dakar, for instance) and overrun Suez, thus threatening India, all of this to be achieved with the possible help of France, which would be allowed to secure its Mediterranean colonies. On 20 June 1940, a Führer Conference on naval affairs discussed operations as far away as Indo-China, and Admiral Raeder recorded: ‘The Führer intends to use Madagascar for settling Jews under French supervision.’ That doesn’t sound like a euphemism. Hitler had just conquered most of Europe in less than a year: adding Madagascar probably seemed a minor detail.

Derek Robinson
Bristol