Haavara Agreement
Agreement between Nazi Germany and Zionist German Jews signed on 25 August 1933
The Haavara Agreement was an agreement between Nazi Germany and Zionist German Jews signed on 25 August 1933. The agreement was finalized after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank (under the directive of the Jewish Agency) and the economic authorities of Nazi Germany. It was a major factor in making possible the migration of approximately 60,000 German Jews to Palestine in 1933–1939. The agreement enabled Jews fleeing persecution under the new Nazi regime to transfer some portion of their assets to British Mandatory Palestine. Emigrants sold their assets in Germany to pay for essential goods (manufactured in Germany) to be shipped to Mandatory Palestine.
Quotes about edit
- Close to 40 percent of the 53,000 German Jews who were able to escape to Palestine between 1933 and 1941 arrived as "capitalists" thanks to the Haavara Agreement. It is true that the 140 million Reichsmarks they were able to rescue through Haavara represented only a very small part of the assets owned by German Jews in 1933. But for the people who brought those assets to Palestine, as well as for the economy of the Jewish yishuv, they were of great importance.
- The National Socialist government attempted to promote the emigration of its unwanted Jewish citizens. Two principal agreements were used by the state to regulate emigration: the "Haavara" and the "Rublee-Wohlthat." The Haavara Agreement was in force from 1933 until 1941 and concerned emigration to Palestine. This agreement is now regularly mentioned in the relevant literature. In 1972 the former director of the Haavara Agreement, Werner Feilchenfeld, self-published a brochure which has obviously not been read by most people who write about the Haavara; otherwise they might not write so much nonsense about it.
- Between 1933 and 1940, German policy encouraged and actively promoted Jewish emigration to Palestine
