The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Secret Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine

by Edwin Black

First published to international acclaim in 1984, The Transfer Agreement stunned readers worldwide with its revelations of a pact between Zionist leaders and Hitler's Third Reich. Concluded in 1933, the agreement transferred 60,000 Jews and $100 million to Palestine on the condition that Zionist organizations would halt their economic boycott of Nazi Germany - a strategy that openly threatened to topple Hitler's government, then only in its first year of power.
The debate over this controversial deal virtually tore apart the Jewish world in the pre-World War II years, and it is still hotly debated today. The Transfer Agreement ultimately saved many lives, rescued assets, and helped lay the foundation for what would become Israel in 1948. With the world now confronting such morally complex issues as the compensation for wartime slave labor and the reluctance of Swiss banks to return Jewish assets to their rightful heirs, the boycott and the Transfer Agreement stand out strikingly as early examples of organized Jewish initiatives against Nazi terror. However difficult the choices made by Jewish leaders in the 1930s, they take on special meaning today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Israel, World War II, Holocaust, War, Middle East

454 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1984

About the author

Is an American syndicated columnist and journalist. He specializes in human rights, the historical interplay between economics and politics in the Middle East, petroleum policy, the abuses practiced by corporations, and the financial underpinnings of Nazi Germany.

Reviews

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edwin Black tells a piece of history which is not well known, perhaps purposely kept from public view because it is so embarrassing to the participants.

In 1933, the worldwide Jewish community began a protest versus the antisemitic Nazis who had just come to power by organizing a huge and successful boycott versus German goods. This action inflicted severe damage on the German economy and threatened to create so much chaos that the Hitler government was expected by many to fall before winter.

However, a group of Zionist leaders (but far from all Zionists) undermined the boycott in order to carry out a Transfer Agreement with the Nazis that allowed some wealthy Germans to emigrate to Palestine with some portion of their wealth. Working against the boycott was part of that deal. The motivations of these Zionists varied from a fervent desire to bolster Palestine’s chances to survive to personal financial gain. The motivations of the Nazis were clear. Terrified by the prospects of the boycott to destroy the German economy, they made a deal with Jews they had sworn never to accommodate.

In addition to the economic impact of the boycott, it served as a focal point of moral outrage against the Nazis that evoked worldwide sympathy among Jews and Christians alike. Had it continued, that moral outrage might have become even more important than the economic devastation it caused the Nazis.

Rabbi Stephen Wise, the most important American Jewish leader of the time, spoke for the boycott but in the end failed to support it. Wise’s motivations were never clear, since he worked hard to keep his actions hidden, but my reading of Black’s detailed presentation is that Wise was far more interested in his personal power and prestige than he was in bringing down Hitler. Wise said he supported the boycott but when the moment came, he did not; it is this duplicity which I find far more disgusting than his decision.

Without Wise’s support, the boycott failed, the western countries (US, Britain & France) failed to effectively oppose Hitler, and the worst demagogue in history stayed in power. While nobody in 1933 could have predicted the Holocaust, in the end the result was that 60,000 Germans got to Palestine via the Transfer Agreement, 3,000,000 Jews were murdered, and 60,000,000 lives were lost as a result of Hitler’s aggressive wars.

In hindsight, my conclusion is that the decision to favor the Transfer Agreement over the boycott was a horrible one. At the time, the decision was excruciatingly difficult, and I hope I am able to show those difficulties by having my characters struggle with it in the sequel to A FLOOD OF EVIL.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Transfer Agreement was a fascinating and yet heartbreaking book for me to read. It revealed an unknown layer of Nazi and Jewish history that I was completely ignorant of. It involves a highly secretive deal made by Zionists with the Reich after Hitler came to power and he and his minions began dismantling the lives of German Jews. We all know that Jews were kicked out of their professions, lost their citizenship, and many were tortured and even killed in those early months of the Third Reich. The response of the rest of the world, both Jews and non-Jews, was to boycott German goods in hopes of starving the people and bringing an end to the antisemitic regime. As more atrocity stories leaked out, the boycott movement grew. As German industry and banking watched with growing consternation the unraveling of the German economy, there were some efforts to restrain the mistreatment of Jews. Zionists, who had been trying to achieve a Jewish state, saw an opportunity to move forward dramatically in this endeavor, by emigrating German Jews to British controlled Palestine, where there was already a fledgling Jewish community of Zionists. Trouble was, Germany had blocked the bank accounts of all Jews, and Britain required money to enter so immigrants had something to start with when they got there.

Enter the German Zionists and some less than altruistic businessmen who saw an opportunity to transfer some German Jews along with much of the wealth of German Jews to Palestine to jump start the creation of Israel. The Reich was interested in getting rid of the Jews, but also in enhancing the economy to create jobs for Germans growing impatient with the new regime. Boycotting would hurt the Transfer, because it would diminish the Jewish wealth along with that of Germany. So the deal was, squelch the boycott, and deal with the Reich, or no immigration, and no transfer of wealth. This was the deal which became the Transfer Agreement. It tore the Jewish world apart, as you hear of the wrangling around the world over which avenue to take. Starve Germany and sacrifice the German Jews and their accumulated wealth, or deal with the devil. Ultimately the deal was sealed.

Would Germany, especially Nazi Germany, have collapsed if the boycotts being called for around the world at the time, been allowed to continue? How ironic it is that the transfer, or Ha'avra, necessitated the Germans and World Jewry to actually help stabilize the German economy, so as to protect the wealth of German Jewry so there was something to transfer! We all know what happened to European Jews, some 6 million killed. Would this have happened if the German economy collapsed via boycotts? Heavy must have been the hearts and minds of those who envisioned and carried out the work of the "Transfer Agreement" as they watched Jews be slaughtered. Heartbreaking!

The Liquidation banks created to receive this wealth actually purchased shares in German railroads to assist the German economy. The same trains used to deport German Jews to death camps? Barter deals in oranges were made in 1933: Palestinian oranges for German products, no exchange of money. This while the world was trying to starve Germany over its treatment of German Jews! And Palestine was dealing with the Germans, taking German products. Such chutzpah!

The transfer focused on rescuing German Jews wealth much more so than rescuing German Jews. Zionists were not interested in protecting European Jews, just in establishing a Jewish state!
The Zionists created not an economic boycott, but an economic bond between Germany and Palestine.

Some quotes from the book:

"There was a time to be a Zionist, and there was a time to be a Jew. Only one issue could make any of them understand the difference. That issue was the recently revealed, but little understood, Transfer Agreement."
"But now the Zionist Organization was willing to betray the boycott in exchange for the same economic stimulus many in the world were being urged to relinquish. In the minds of the boycotting Jews, the Transfer Agreement was an unthinkable breach of the boycott"

"It is playing into the hands of the enemy, and destroying the only opportunity...to liberate their victims by bringing about the certain economic downfall of the Hitler regime." "It is simply inconceivable that we should ever become parties to such an unholy compact." Quote from Untermyer, a boycott organizer.

"Why, the very idea of Palestinian Jewry negotiating with Hitler about business instead of demanding justice for the persecuted Jews of Germany is unthinkable."
Rabbi Silver of Cleveland

"Some compared the confrontation with Hitler to the confrontation with the Egyptian pharaoh. Then, too, it was a question of freeing a stubborn and reluctant people from captivity, freeing them with their cattle and goats and possessions. Was Moses to refrain from negotiating with the pharaoh? If he had, the Jews would never have made an exodus to Israel with possessions needed to establish themselves. Hitler was the new pharaoh, pro-transfer people argued......these well-meaning men forgot that Moses would not compromise and that freedom for the children of Israel was secured not by prizes but by plaques."

" Mapai members(labor party) ..defended the transfer. They maintained that the boycott, even the German crises itself, was secondary to the needs of Palestine."

So, this agreement, after much shock around the world, especially among Jewish leaders, was carried out.


We know the rest of the story........


My criticism of the book, and the reason for the 4 stars, is that it got bogged down in details for me between the warring factions, Mapai, versus Revisionists and other Zionist groups. I am not Jewish, and did not feel the need for mountains of details, but I understand that others might.

This is an important piece of history which should be brought out of darkness into the light of day. I am grateful to the author for his work.

[D. Ennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edwin Black has brought incredible clarity to this murky subject. Occasionally Black can mail it in with books that are partially regurgitated previous works. However, when he tackles a new subject (IBM and The Holocaust, War Against the Weak) as he does with The Transfer Agreement he will not miss a single detail. The complex politics behind this story are fascinating and compelling. There are no good guys and no bad guys. Just various responses to a world on the brink and the future of Palestine and world Jewry on the line.

[Ben Pashkoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy or entertaining read, but well worth the effort. At points (reminded me of other histories frm the era) it was simply tedious. I had to keep reminding myself of what it might have been like in that place, at that time. Could I have made the decsions that they had? They were a generation of giants, faced with seriously world-changing challenges.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very highly researched and a fascinating history of which I was unaware.
1933. Boycott Germany or buy Nazi merchandise to facilitate emigration of German Jews from Germany, and asset transfer through the purchase of German goods in Palestine to develop Eretz Yisrael. Do the Zionists betray the Jewish people in Europe or take advantage of German Jewish assets already grabbed by Hitler, for Eretz Yisrael. Months and months of deliberation by prominent people, at the grassroots level and national and international Congresses, with no real clear answer. The initial boycott might have destroyed Hitler's plans, but it suffered from the lack of central organization. The boycott fell apart after 1934, and the transfer agreement was in effect until the war began, and Palestine, under British rule, had to break all relations with the enemy, Germany.

"The story of the Transfer Agreement is the story of the terrible choices the Jewish people made in the absence of any official opposition to the ascent of Nazism. When the Jews failed to destroy the Third Reich, no one else tried until it was too late.

The lessons of economic appeasement have been learned, however. In recent years (this book was published in 1984) America's first crisis weapon has been economic. We have learned that dollars do more damage than gunpowder. They should be measured as warning shots that business cannot be conducted as usual with governments transgressing into outlawry. Aggressors and oppressors will think twice or moderate when the fruits of their evil include sacrifices from their own economy." (page 382)

Haunting question: Was the continuing economic relationship with Germany an indispensable factor in the creation of the State of Israel. Yes. (p. 381)

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled in many blank spots of my knowledge & understanding about Zionists History. Most of the book is about the six months between March -September 1933, and the wrangling between the extreme factions of the Zionists’ movement; David Ben Gurion’s Mapai Party & Jabotinsky’s Revisionist Party. Details the minutia of the 18th Zionists Congress in Prague followed by the World Jewish Congress in Geneva. One was concerned with ignoring the German Boycott problem & concentrated on expelling the Revisionist suspected of assassinating yishuv Mapai leader Arlosoroff in Tel Aviv, days before the Zionists Congress convened, while the subsequent Jewish Congress concentrated on the worldwide German Boycott & refuting the Transfer Agreement.
Mapai’s claimed Revisionist used terrorists gangs ( Irgun & Stern gang) .
The epilogue describes the gruesome, horrific events of 1935 Nuremberg laws ,the 1936-39 Arab Revolt in Palestine & the 11/9-10//1938 Kristallnacht😱 After reading the Afterword, contemplating current events in Gaza, one wonders if/why history world is cycling backwards 90 years 🫣.
The book is unputdownable . It reads like a suspense novel, building up to the anti/climax 😩. The reader is introduced to the main characters of different factions in the Zionists Movement. Early on, Herzl’s words are quoted verbatim .
The reader comes away with an understanding of just how ruthless Zionists were/are

[Herrholz Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

According to Black, an unelected leadership of Zionists, (people who espoused the creation of a Jewish state), managed to push through their plan to cooperate with the Third Reich in the transfer agreement and stymie the popular demand for a boycott of Nazi Germany. This was done primarily by resisting the move to organize the boycott movement in a decisive way.

But there was, nevertheless, a grass roots boycott movement developing worldwide which apparently continued. Unfortunately, Black does not elaborate on this issue and the question of whether Nazi Germany would have been put out of business at an early stage had there been a properly organized boycott is never convincingly addressed. Maybe no one knows. Anyway, the point of the transfer agreement was to accelerate the emigration of jews to Palestine and may to a degree be seen as separate to any attempt to disable the third Reich.

It should be noted that the events recounted here took place in 1933, so a good few years before the calamities of WWII. Few could have foreseen what was to come to pass. Again, it would have been useful to get some idea of the nature and effectiveness or otherwise of the boycott in subsequent years leading up to WWII. But the book tends rather to focus on the infighting and intrigue between the rival factions of Zionists and others.

I found the book to be not terribly well written and there are a lot of typos in the kindle version.

[Ralph · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Haavara Agreement or Transfer Agreement was a program for moving jews out of Germany to Palestine. The German Interior Ministry was put in charge of the logistics for the program and the Reichsbank and the German Treasury were responsible for financing the mass emigration. By November, 1933 the program was in full swing and it kept functioning until well into 1942.The aim was to conduct a peaceful and painless transfer of jews out of Germany to Palestine with as little inconvenience to jews as possible.
The Zionists even offered suggestions on ways to speed up the emigration process...for example, to force jews to wear the yellow stars.
Contrary to popular myth today, Germany's jews were permitted to leave with practically all their possessions and all of their wealth.
Some 40 camps were set up throughout Germany where prospective settlers were trained for their new lives in Palestine.
All this was paid for by the German government at a considerable cost.
(The Myth of German Villainy, Benton L Bradberry, chapter 12-The Nazis and the Zionists Actually Work Together for Jewish Emigration Out of Germany)

https://archive.org/details/TheMythOf...

[Kaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5-this was a long book pack filled with information, not always engaging but with history that is often the case. a lot of economics which makes sense but it was a lot. It was surprisingly pro Zionist and to me really downplayed the effects of the transfer agreement. early 30's while the agreement is being made Germany is struggling economically but then in 37 the reich is economically formidable..how did that happen? Also a lot of points that jewish leaders were making in the book about suppression and non physical attacks can still be a form of oppression and can be applied to Palestinians today who have always been in Palestine. I wish there was more about how the transfer agreement was used after the agreement is made, there is not much info on how the deal was used during the ww2 just before.

[Danilo דניאל Lipisk · Rating 3 out of 5]

הספר הוא משהו אחר למה שאני ציפיתי. חשבתי שהספר יעסוק יותר בתקופה של הסכם ההעברה, למרות זאת, הספר עוסק הרבה יותר בנושא החרם העולמי שהיהודים עזרו לארגן נגד גרמניה הנאצית מיד אחרי עלייתו של היטלר לתפקיד של קנצלר.

הספר מצוין, מפורט מאוד, הספר מכסה את התקופה מעלייתו של היטלר ועד אמצע ספטמבר 1933 עם מסקנות הקונגרס הציוני ה-18 בפראג שהגדיר את הסכם ההעברה של יהודי גרמניה בתמורה לסיום החרם על גרמניה.

מה תיארתי לעצמי לגבי הספר הזה כי יסופר התהליך העברה של היהודים הגרמנים והקצת שהם הצליחו להביא עימם לא''י , כיצד הם הגיעו, כיצד הסתדרו, סיפורים אישיים וכו'. אבל הספר עסק רק בדיונים בין הציונים כיצד יפעלו כדי להציל את יהודי גרמניה ולהעבירם לא''י בניגוד למאבק העולים של ארגונים יהודים אחרים שהיו בעד החרם ההרמטי נגד גרמניה הנאצית וכיצד הציונים הצליחו "לנצח" בוויכוח הזה.

[Oron Stenesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book chronicling, largely, the period from March – September 1933, and the heated debate around how best to both tactically challenge an ascendant Hitler’s Germany and seed the State of Israel. Though written in 1984 (50 years after this period), I was struck by the incredible research and painstaking detail behind it; it’s amazing that Black was able to reconstruct this time to seemingly the minutes and seconds when machinations between Jewish factions across the globe were trying to figure out how best to respond to the imminent threat to German Jews. A “devil’s bargain,” for sure, but a rational and pragmatic solution that, with the gift of hindsight, charted a successful future for the Zionist aims of the time.

[Wil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening book, what people are told by the government and find it's a cover of the truth.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the beginning about the world Jewish boycott of the Nazis in 1933 and the cooperation between Nazis, who wanted all Jews out of Europe, and the Zionists who wanted all Jews to go to Palestine.

Later boredom crept in when lots of unrelated names were thrown around without any apparent connections to each other.

[Julie Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what an interesting flood of knowledge about what the Jews of the world did and did not do to save each other from Hitler's terror.

[Quratulain · Rating 5 out of 5]

GB

[Joanne Rolston · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's very thorough but it was long, and reading it was like eating dry weetbix. I stuck with it in order to learn something but could only do it 5 pages at a time.

[Dickson]

Historically