Rublee Wohlthat Plan

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The Rublee-Wohlthat-Plan describes the draft for an international treaty between Germany and up to 32 other countries (countries participating in the Évian conference ) in 1939, the legal entry into force of which is controversial.

preparation

From August 6, 1938, the American lawyer George Rublee was together with Robert Pell executive director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (ICR).

In December 1938 there were unofficial talks between Rublee and the German Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht in London . The discussions concerned the planning of a program for the "emigration of all employable Jews of German nationality and stateless Jews from Germany within five years".

As a supplement to the Ha'avara Agreement on the emigration of Jews to Palestine , which was concluded in 1933 , the new agreement was intended to enable emigration to as many other countries as possible.

After Schacht was dismissed as President of the Reichsbank on January 20, 1939, Rublee continued talks with the German Ministerial Director Helmuth Wohlthat in Berlin.

Draft contract

As a result of the talks, on February 1, 1939, George Rublee wrote a strictly confidential memorandum with a draft contract, which included the following rules:

  • Definition of membership "Jew" according to the Nuremberg Laws
  • Classification of Jews into “wage earners” (Jews able to work between 15 and 45 years of age), “dependents” and “old and infirm” (over 45 years) and “unsuitable”.
  • Initially, the approximately 150,000 wage earners left for a period of 3–5 years
  • Separation of "Aryans" and "Non-Aryans" as long as Jewish wage earners work in German jobs.
  • Establishment of a trust fund to which two Germans and a foreign trustee belong, and to which 25% of the Jewish assets are allocated - the trust assets are to be used for the purchase of equipment, travel and freight costs as well as the "promotion of settlement projects" for emigration.
  • “The maintenance and the provision of the [...] people who are not able to earn their own living should primarily be covered by the Jewish property in Germany, apart from the part of this property, which [...] is used as a trust fund is to be postponed, [...] "
  • Advance of foreign currency as "emigration aid" for 150,000 emigrants by the member states of the ICR and subsequent transfer of the trust assets "after good foreign exchange situation".
  • Approval of the Haavara transfer process within the previously approved area.
  • Organizational regulations regarding passports, retraining and the goods allowed to be taken.

The draft contract did not contain any information on how the transfer of Jewish assets into the fund or the planned maintenance of livelihoods should take place (e.g. confiscation).

Further development

On February 12, 1939, the draft contract was negotiated and controversially discussed in the board meeting of the ICR. Among others, representatives of the French embassy ( René Thierry and Emmanuel Monick ), the Netherlands ( Teixeira de Mattos ) and Brazil ( Helio Lobo ) were present.

At the plenary session of the ICR on February 13th, the draft treaty was no longer put to the vote and therefore also not ratified by the international side . A ratification of the draft treaty by the German side has not yet been proven either. Rublee resigned as Executive Director of the ICR after a six-month term.

With the beginning of the Second World War on September 1, 1939 and the murder of Jews in Europe pursued by the National Socialists since July 1941 , the plan became obsolete.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Schacht Plan to Form Basis of Rublee Talks, Opening in Berlin Today. Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 11, 1939 (English)
  2. ↑ Guide to the YIVO Archives. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, 1998, ISBN 0-7656-0130-3 , page 143, collection No. 547. (14 microfilms, RG 562), report from January 11, 1939 (English)
  3. ^ Rolf Vogel (ed.): A stamp was missing. Documents on the emigration of German Jews. Munich / Zurich 1977, ISBN 3-426-05602-X , pp. 246-251
  4. ↑ Fritz Kieffer (Ed.): Persecution of Jews in Germany - an internal matter? Franz-Steiner-Verlag, 2002, page 414 ff. ( Online at Google Books )

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