Rublee-Wohlthat-Plan

The Rublee-Wohlthat-Plan was an unrealized draft of an intergovernmental agreement on organizing the emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany and Austria, discussed in 1938-1939.

The plan failed due to the reluctance of other countries to accept refugees and the policies of the Nazis, who ignored preliminary agreements.

[4] He tried to convince the German authorities to give Jews the opportunity to emigrate with part of their capital to interest other countries in their immigration.

[9] Rublee proposed that Schacht develop a program for the emigration of all able-bodied Jews living in Germany within five years - both German citizens and stateless persons.

[13] As a result, after Schacht's removal from the post of chairman of the Reichsbank on January 20, 1939, Göring entrusted further negotiations with Rublee to the adviser of the Ministry of Economics, Helmuth Wohlthat.

[14][15] On February 1, Rublee drew up a top-secret memorandum with a draft agreement[16] based on the results of negotiations with Schacht and Wohlthat, which, among other things, contained the following points: The benefit to Germany from such a solution, which Schacht saw and supported, was that while Germany was getting rid of the Jews, it would simultaneously gain substantial exports of its goods with the subsequent demand for service and spare parts.

[17] The draft treaty did not contain any indication of how the Jewish assets were to be transferred to the fund or the planned maintenance (such as seizure of property).

In essence, the members of the committee refused any specific commitments regarding admission quotas, but simply "recognized" the creation of a private international organization for cooperation in financing emigration.

[24] But on February 21, Göring issued a decree requiring German Jews to surrender all items made of precious metals to the authorities within two weeks at a fixed price.

Pell had previously agreed with Emerson on the sending of commissions from the United States and Great Britain to select places for future emigration, while simultaneously working out the issue of financing.

[6] Moreover, without assuming that the alternative to the "ransom" of German Jews would be mass extermination, some Jewish organizations in the USA and Europe, especially from the left side of the political spectrum, opposed the plan.

[27] The dim prospects of the organized emigration plan encouraged the Nazi authorities, led by Heydrich, to increase pressure on the Jewish community with demands to leave the territory of the Reich.

[28] In the end, due to the lack of real opportunities for resettlement and its financing, the Rublee plan completely failed and lost its relevance with the outbreak of World War II.