Kimberley Plan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kimberley Plan (English: Kimberley Plan or Kimberley Scheme ) was a failed plan of the Freeland League to settle Jewish refugees from Europe in northern Australia before and during the Holocaust .

history

As anti-Semitism increased in Europe, the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization was founded in the USA in July 1935 , which was supposed to search for a home and refuge for the Jews . The league was a non- Zionist organization headed by Isaac Nachman Steinberg . Steinberg was a Russian lawyer, politician, and publicist who was Minister of Justice of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1918 .

Shortly after it was founded, an Australian farm offered the League 16,500 km² of land in the Kimberley region of Australia for sale. The area extended from northern Western Australia to the Northern Territory . The League sent the Yiddish poet and essayist Malech Ravitch to the Northern Territory in the 1930s to explore the region and collect topographical and climatic data.

The league was considering the proposal to buy 28,000 km² of farmland for 75,000 Jewish refugees from Europe. The plan stipulated that 500 to 600 pioneers should build necessary facilities such as houses, irrigation systems and power plants as a vanguard.

Steinberg traveled to Perth , Western Australia on May 23, 1939 to further examine the feasibility of the project and to ask the Australian government for assistance. Steinberg had the support of churches, leading newspapers, and many prominent politicians and public figures (including the Prime Minister of Western Australia John Willcock ) in 1940 . A number of Jewish leaders also supported him. However, there was also strong opposition to his plan. In June 1943 Steinberg returned to Canada to join his family.

An opinion poll in 1944 found that 47 percent of Australians were against the plan. It was feared that the Jewish settlers would very quickly leave the Kimberley region and settle in large numbers in the cities. On July 15, 1944, the Australian government vetoed the plans and Prime Minister John Curtin informed Steinberg that the Australian government would not tolerate foreign settlements on their territory.

Others

In 1948 Steinberg published the book Australia, the unpromised land. In search of a home .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Kimberley Scheme (English), on guides.naa.gov.au. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  2. ↑ Beverley Hooper: Steinberg, Isaac Nachman (1888–1957) (English), on adb.anu.edu.au. Retrieved December 8, 2015.