In spite of the fact that there is a considerable amount of literature on the Holocaust, Polish and German attempts to solve Jewish issue by sending the Jewish people to Madagascar have not been studied sufficiently yet. Soviet Birobidzhan project is not in the focus of scientific attention either. There were plans to create in the Far East of the USSR the Jewish Autonomous Region (it was created in 1934 and still exists)
What units these plans? Firstly, German Nazi tried to use the idea of attracting immigrants from Europe to Birobidzhan to their own interests. There is a document which serves as evidence that Germany tries to negotiate with USSR about Polish and German Jews to be sent to Birobidzhan. Secondly, Birobidzhan and Madagascar projects were united by social engineering, which was a typical feature of totalitarian regimes (in the USSR there was an idea of creating “a new socialistic person” in general, and “Jewish social nation, in particular; in Third Reich there was an idea of building social state for the “upper” race at the cost of liquidation of “inferior races and nations” and depriving them of all their wealth. To achieve this effect an attempt was made to solve Jewish issue from “above”, that is with the help of state-administrative methods.
However, one should take into account the fact that the Po;ish-Nazi plan Madagascar was a plan of involuntary deportation of the Jewish people– a step to wipe out European Jews, while Birobidzhan project was a voluntary relocation within the USSR territory. The Soviet project Birobidzhan helped to save Jews during the Second World War. This makes a principle difference.
Key words: Jewish issue, plan “Madagascar’, Birobidzhan project
ХАВКИНCitation link: Khavkin B.L. The Birobidzhan project and the plan "Madagascar" // Humanities researches of the Central Russia. - № 4 (17). - 2020. - S. 25-45.
DOI: 10.24411/2541-9056-2020-13001