The Transfer Agreement (22 page)

T
HE
CHALLENGE
now was implementation. Even before Professor Bro-detsky had received confirmation of the currency exemption, leading Zionist personalities in London began planning a so-called liquidation com
pany. The form this company would take and who would control it would determine the destiny of the Jewish State. Since Zionism's inception, Jewish Palestine had been built an acre and an edifice at a time by donations and dollarless idealists. Herzl had declared that the transplanting of the middle class and their wealth would be the true beginning of the Zionist culmination. So, like the Zionist movement itself, creating the liquidation company became a political struggle.

The first closed-door discussions about creating a liquidation company were organized by Palestine industrialist Pinchas Rutenberg, founder of the Palestine Electric Company. His idea was a company, initially capitalized by wealthy British Jews, to liquidate all Jewish assets in Germany and move the proceeds—along with the people—to Palestine.
¹
The idea was once again straight from Herzl's pages.

On the night of April 7, Rutenberg met with Nahum Sokolow and Berl Locker of the Zionist Executive Committee, at Sokolow's London home. In outlining the liquidation company, Rutenberg explained that Lord Reading had agreed to serve as chairman and that the Rothschilds had offered their bank to sell the shares. Rutenberg stipulated that the Jewish Agency would have to manage the company.
²

However, as discussion about a liquidation company began, a crosscurrent developed. The world Jewish community began donating large sums of relief money, despite the economic hard times of the Depression. How the money should be spent, and the political solutions to the refugees' status, suddenly threatened the Zionist solution.

Should German Jewish refugees be absorbed into the surrounding countries until the time was right to return to Germany?
If
Hitler remained in power, at least the refugees would be living in familiar communities: in France, Belgium, and the other haven states.

Or should the German Jews be assisted in Germany proper, thus reducing the factors precipitating their flight? People could be retrained. New employment found. Interim loans arranged. After transition to a new social niche, perhaps a Jewish presence would be accepted by the National Socialist regime, especially once the first waves of anti-Semitic violence ended. German Jews could then retain their German citizenship. Many Jewish organizations favored this approach, including the Joint Distribution Committee, the major international Jewish relief organization. On April
2,
the
Joint—as
it was known—opened a giant fund-raising drive in New York to help Jews maintain their existence in Germany. The same day, interfaith meetings were held throughout Canada protesting the Hitler regime and dedicating Canadian relief efforts to helping German Jews survive the times as legitimate citizens of the Reich.
³

Or should some larger-scale solution be found? Mass resettlement had been a frequent remedy for Jewish crises. After the Russian and Rumanian pogroms at the turn of the century, hundreds of thousands of East European Jews were resettled in America by relief groups, especially the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society or HIAS. After the Great War, Jews were resettled en masse in various parts of Central and Eastern Europe, and even in special agrarian "colonies" in the Ukraine and Crimea, principally through the efforts of the Joint. Now HIAS was suggesting another mass resettlement, this time in South America. HIAS had quickly convinced several Latin American governments to open their doors to German Jewish refugees, and was readying a worldwide effort to facilitate the mass resettlement.
⁴

All of the non-Zionist schemes for relieving the plight of German Jews required vast amounts of donations, which Jews and non-Jews alike were willing to give. But the Zionist movement saw these relief efforts as threats because the solutions excluded Palestine.
⁵
More important, the donations would divert funds from the Zionist movement. In other words, here was a Jewish crisis, and not only would the answer lie in lands other than Palestine, but the Zionist movement would suffer economic ruin in the process.

Depression agonies had already halted most international Zionist contributions. Many regular fund-raising drives were suspended indefinitely awaiting some improvement in the world economy.
⁶
Jewish Agency treasurer Eliezer Kaplan summarized the situation: "In
1933,
contributions to the Palestine Foundation Fund [the funding arm of the Jewish Agency] have reached an all-time low of
£160,000
[about
$800,000]. ...
Its [recent] deficit was over
£500,000 [$2.5
billion]. Settlement projects of the Jewish Agency Executive were discontinued in
1928.
The sole task of the Executive Committee in recent years has been: how to maintain the status quo and prevent bankruptcy."
⁷
If
the Jewish Agency's financial picture did not improve, the question was not
if
the Zionist Organization would go bankrupt, but
when.

Moreover, Jewish Palestine was desperately undermanned. At a time when impoverished Jews from Poland and Rumania sought entry into Palestine, strict British immigration quotas created seemingly insurmountable barriers. Jewish Palestine's well-known boom economy teetered precariously on the edge of an ever-extending cliff.
If
the right supply of manpower were not available to pick the oranges, construct the worker housing, and make Palestine's precious few factories function, the whole economy could topple over the brink. For example, during the
1932-33
manpower shortage, all schools were suspended and Jewish students from all over Palestine were trucked to the groves to help with the harvest.
⁸

The reminder was constant: Only one category of immigrant was free from quotas—the so-called capitalist in possession of
£1,000.
So the German Jewish refugees were suddenly spotlighted as the answer to an array of Palestinian problems. But the currency exemption and liquidation company would be futile if Jews were to be saved in a non-Zionist, non-Palestinian context.

On April 4, 1933, Berl Locker of the Zionist Executive in London wrote to Chaim Weizmann, in care of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. Weizmann had already left for Palestine to organize for the expected transfer. Having been forced out of the Zionist Organization presidency two years before, Weizmann held no official position. But his prestige among Jews and in governmental circles was indisputable, and indispensable to the Zionist drive for dominance in the fund-raising and relief effort. Aware of Weizmann's sensitive political position, Locker appealed to Weizmann on both pragmatic and historic grounds to help arrange some token act that would help the Zionists take over the relief movement. "In this tragic moment," wrote Locker, "there is much more need for leadership, which is now totally lacking.
If
we could just succeed in transferring a couple of thousand Jews to Palestine, an appeal for financial help would resonate among all Jewry."
⁹

Two days later, Dr. David Werner Senator, one of the four German Zionists in Jerusalem who initiated the Reich currency negotiations, wrote Bernard Kahn, a Jewish relief organizer in Paris. Senator's letter declared, "I believe this catastrophe can only be compared with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.... A large social and constructive aid operation [is needed]."
Constructive
in Zionist parlance meant activities building up Palestine.
"If
a leader can head this aid operation—and many of us are considering Weizmann—then such an emergency can bring millions of pounds. The Americans and English Jews of German origin are still rich enough today to mobilize for their own flesh and blood enormous sums of money, and they will do it, if we know how to get hold of them the right way." Senator added, "A lot will depend on the drafting of plans, if we know the people; and on negotiations with Jewish organizations in Europe and Palestine."
¹⁰

Senator then revealed to Kahn that a thousand immigration certificates had been issued to the Palestine Office in Germany. Immigration certificates were a controversial matter. The British Colonial Office, which administered the mandate over Palestine, governed the trickle of Jewish emigration to Palestine. Noncapitalists—those not possessing £1,000—were subject to a complicated "Labor Schedule," based on the "absorptive capacity" of the economy. Twice yearly the British government and the Jewish Agency would negotiate how many new entrants Palestine's economy could absorb. Once the figure was finalized—it often fluctuated between 500 and 1,500 per half year—it was wholly up to the Jewish Agency to distribute individual "immigration certificates." How many certificates were allowed for Czech Jewry, Polish Jewry, or any other Jewish community was based on Jewish needs in those countries, how the proposed emigrants would contribute to the social and economic reconstruction of the Jewish homeland and, of course, on the jagged course of Zionist and Jewish Agency politics. Most certificates had traditionally been allotted to impoverished Polish Jews eager to settle in the homeland. Few had been either requested by or granted to German Jews.
¹¹
But Senator saw these first
1,000
as only "the beginning," adding, "it now depends if we can make something out of this accomplishment, because these
1,000
families that come could transform into
1,000
returnees if the appropriate thing is not done for them."
¹²
To do the "appropriate thing," the Zionists would somehow have to divert relief donations from stabilizing German Jewry in Europe, and use those funds to construct Jewish Palestine.

All the questions of a Zionist versus non-Zionist solution, the relief-fund threat, and Zionist policy during the crisis were debated at an April 9 Jewish Agency Executive Committee session in Jerusalem. Attending were representatives of other Zionist bodies, including the Organization of German Immigrants, which virtually functioned as the ZVfD's alter ego in Palestine. As the meeting opened, only the German Zionists and two of the Jewish Agency's six Executive members—Senator and Arlosoroff—knew of the special currency exemption. And Arlosoroff was unaware that Sam Cohen was the negotiator. However, the others were preoccupied with another question: how Zionists could control the relief donations.

Emanuel Neumann, a prominent American Zionist leader, declared, "In America, two million dollars for the aid fund was collected, and there is not one Zionist among all the 'trustees.' This is a very unhealthy situation."
¹³

Some of the participants insisted on organizing an emergency collection under the auspices of the Palestine Foundation Fund. This would guarantee a large share of the money for building Palestine. Others reasoned that such a drive would be confusing, and Zionism's bad reputation for politicized financial mismanagement would repel wealthy Jewish contributors. So to avoid openly involving the Palestine Foundation Fund, yet retain financial control, the participants after much debate suggested the formation of a wholly new refugee fund. The new fund would be organized around Zionist "trustees" who would channel the dollars to both refugees and Palestinian "constructive" projects as they saw fit.
¹⁴

As they argued, Dr. David Werner Senator impatiently reminded them that as each hour passed, more money was being collected under non-Zionist auspices. "Speed is demanded," he said. "Because of our many speeches we lose time and we don't get to the action."
¹⁵

Finally, the men agreed that the special fund would bear a name that did not identify it with Palestine or Zionism. Just after the decision was adopted, Neumann added a condition, that the fund-raising committees in each nation agree
in advance
to "earmark" a suitable percentage for Palestine. Neumann made clear that without such a prearrangement, the Zionists would not participate in the relief effort. One man spoke up, asking if this wouldn't advertise Palestine's involvement and "through this, maybe not enough money will be given." Another in the group explained that only the administrators and trustees, not the donors, would know that some of the money was going to the Jewish homeland. Therefore, "the wealthy will not determine in advance that their contributions will go to Palestine."
¹⁶

All that remained was to secure Weizmann's titular leadership ofthe fund. Enjoying the respect of both Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, he was obviously the best man for the job and could probably be convinced. But some Executive members were concerned that Weizmann's involvement would threaten Nahum Sokolow, the man who had replaced Weizmann as Zionist Organization president. For much of the session, the men quibbled about how visible Weizmann could and could not be in the new drive. Finally, they agreed that Weizmann
as part of
a committee could dramatically inaugurate the fund-raising drive at an international relief conference in London in early May. By forcing Weizmann to operate with "a committee," the men reasoned, his personality would not dominate the operation
¹⁷

The gentlemen of the Jewish Agency did not speak very compassionately that day for the plight of German Jews. Their rhetoric was political and practical. They had seen the likes of Hitler before. At the outset of the April 9 meeting, the German Zionists had reported on the situation in Germany: 60,000
arrested; at least four detention camps in operation; constant disappearances; 9,000 doctors out of work. Jews in the big cities might be able to survive, but the Jews must emigrate from the small rural towns. One German representative forecast the problem this way: "Shortly, hundreds of people without means ... will be arriving. Many will not be suited to the work available here.
It
is necessary, therefore, to prepare: [refugee] camps, training centers, organization in the settlements."
¹⁸
Another German Zionist summarized their intent: "This time, Palestine must be first."
¹⁹