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The Europa
Plan was devised by the semi-underground Jewish organization
Pracovna Skupina (Working Group) in Slovakia to spare the Jews of
Europe from extermination by means of ransom.
In the
summer of 1942, a group of activists at the Ustredna Zidov (Jewish
Center) in Slovakia sought to end the deportation of Slovak Jews to
extermination camps. One of the people whom these activists tried to
influence was Dieter Wisliceny, the SS officer who served as the
Jewish affairs adviser to the government of Slovakia. The plan was
to bribe him with a substantial sum of U.S. dollars. The
deportations did come to an end after the group reached agreement
with Wisliceny on the sum to be paid (between $40,000 and $50,000).
Although there is no evidence that it was Wisliceny’s intervention
that brought the deportations to an end, or that there was any such
intervention on his part, the members of the group believed this to
be the case. Encouraged by what the group regarded as a success, and
stunned by reports received from Poland about the fate of Jews
deported there, one of its leading members, Rabbi Michael Dov
Weissmandel, suggested that an attempt be made to end the
extermination process in Poland and to assist Jews who had already
been deported. On the basis of ties that two members of the group-Gisi
Fleischmann and Andrej Steiner-had established with Wislice, a plan
was worked out. It became known by various names: the Europa Plan;
the Rabbis’ Plan; and, the Great Plan. The substance of the plan
was that in exchange for an end to the Germans’ deportations and
exterminations, the Jews of the Free World would pay them a large
sum in hard currency-$2 million-$3 million.
Negotiations
over the plan continued for nearly a year, from the fall of 1942
until August 1943, when Wisliceny brought them to an end, because
the scheduled payments did not arrive. In the course of the
negotiations, the Working Group made attempts to save the Jews of
Greece through Wisliceny, and to establish contact between the SS
and several Hungarian Jewish leaders.
The members
of the Working Group were convinced that the Europa Plan failed
because the requisite funds had not been provided. In response to
its queries, Jewish organizations and institutions in Switzerland
and Istanbul informed the group that the money was unavailable and
that the transfer of funds to Axis countries was prohibited. The
negotiations conducted by the Germans in Hungary concerning the
rescue of Jews-"Blood for Goods"-were a direct sequel to
the Europa Plan. To this day, the plan has remained the subject of
searching debate. No clear-cut evidence has been found that the SS
was indeed ready to make a deal with the Jews in exchange for money;
the only accounts to this effect are testimonies given by Working
Group members and by Wisliceny. Because the appeals and entreaties
of the Group were sometimes met with disdain, derision, and
callousness, the surviving members of the Working Group smarted
under feelings of frustration and bitterness. |
