August 15, 1940
Eichmann Issues a Madagascar Plan Memorandum
Historical context
On this day, August 15, 1940, Adolf Eichmann’s office issued a Madagascar Project memorandum calling for the forced resettlement of millions of European Jews on the island.
Archive record
Read the event, then follow its documented sources and archive threads.
- Date
- August 15, 1940
- Verified sources
- 1
- Archive threads
- 6
On this day, the Reich Security Main Office circulated a Madagascar Project memorandum. It summarized Security Police planning to deport about four million European Jews to the French island of Madagascar and to govern the settlement as a police state under the SS. Franz Rademacher of the German Foreign Office had already proposed Madagascar as a destination in June 1940, after the fall of France.
The plan assumed British naval power would no longer block the sea route. After Germany failed to defeat Britain that autumn, the project stalled. It was later abandoned as German policy moved to systematic murder. The memorandum is a deportation plan, not the later killing-center system, and it was never carried out.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Draft Copy of the Madagascar Project, Sent to Rademacher · Yad Vashem / RSHA · Yad Vashem View source
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