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Many
antisemites had long toyed with the idea of deporting European Jewry
to Madagascar and, briefly, in the summer of 1940, this scheme was
the centerpiece of the Nazis’ Jewish policy. In the spring of
1940, after the victory over France, Himmler proposed to Hitler that
the Jews be banished to some African colony. However, the official
who made this plan practical was Franz Rademacher, the expert on
Jewish affairs in the German Foreign Office. Hitler disclosed the
plan to Mussolini in June 1940 as part of its elaboration. The
Madagascar Plan was shelved when, in the autumn of 1940, Germany
failed to win its battle with Britain. The French also refused to
cooperate with the plan. Essentially the plan was not feasible
logistically.
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