Nisko Plan

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The Nisko Plan, also known as the Lublin Plan was an SS territorial solution to the Jewish Question in Nazi Germany developed in September 1939.[1] Furthermore, the Nisko Plan was the solution developed by Adolf Eichmann, one of the Nazi officials of Jewish emigration, to Adolf Hitler's desire for Germany to become Judenrein (rid of Jews).

As antisemitism grew in Nazi Germany, the desperation for a permanent solution to the Jewish question became the primary focus for members of the Nazi party. In late summer 1939, Adolf Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg developed the idea for a Jewish reservation or Judenreservat. Adolf Eichmann, then head of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, found a new place for Czech Jews and the perfect space for Hitler's idea of a Jewish reservation.[2] The location was a neighboring town of Lublin that is located between the San River and Vistula River on the west and the Bug River on the east, in the center of the General Government of Poland also known as Nisko.[3] Eichmann then told his supervisor, fellow Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich then told his superior Heinrich Himmler who happened to be the highest ranking Nazi official next to Hitler. He shared the location information with Hitler and Rosenberg and they appointed Himmler's SS police and Hans Frank as the overseers of the Nisko or Lublin Plan.[4]

On September 28, 1939, Germany gained control over the Lublin area through the German-Soviet agreement in exchange for Lithuania.[5] The first Jews to arrive in Lublin less than three weeks later on October 18, 1939 and the first train loads consist of deported Jews from Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.[6] By January 30, 1940 it was estimated that a total of 78 000 Jews had been deported to Lublin from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.[7] By the time the Nisko Plan was stopped, the total number of Jews that had been transported to Nisko grew to 95 000, although many had died due to starvation.[8]

The Nisko Plan is also a strong example in the intentionalist/functionalist historiography debate that Holocaust historian, Christopher Browning, has written numerous articles about. In his article, Nazi Resettlement Policy and the Search for a Solution to the Jewish Question, 1939-1941, he focuses on the territorial solutions and how they are interpreted for different use.[9] On October 24, 1939, The Times noted that the German plan to create a Jewish state was cynical and would surely doom the Jews to famine.[10] This is why the Nisko Plan is viewed by intentionalist historians as a preview to the Final Solution. Meanwhile, the functionalist Holocaust historian discusses the Nisko Plan and how it serves as an example of how Hitler did not have previous intentions for the Genocide of the Jews. The Nisko or Lublin Plan, and later the development of the Madagascar Plan and Pripet Marsh Plan, all serve as territorial solutions to the Jewish question, but remain separate to the Final Solution.[11]

The Nisko Plan was temporarily put on hold by Hitler's political heir, Hermann Göring on March 24, 1940 and towards the end of April, the plan was abandoned entirely.[12] The plan failed to meet Nazi expectations because there was not enough space to hold all of Europe's Jews at the time. The territorial solution was then shifted to the relocation of European Jews to the island of Madagascar on August 15, 1940.[13] However, this plan was never implemented like the Nisko Plan because it also proved to be unfeasible. There was not a question of satisfactory living space but, because there were complications with determining an economic method of transporting all the European Jews there.

The introduction of the Nisko Plan in the Nazi policy and the involvement of such distinguished leaders lends favorably to the functionalist debate in which Hitler did not have a predetermined intent of killing the Jews. However, during the emigration processes the number of Jews that died during transportation increased and Nazi sympathy towards these matters became extinct. The morality of killing Jews or, rather, allowing them to die, became flexible and this is why some historians say that the failure of the territorial solutions, like the Nisko or Lublin Plan, gave birth to the 'Final Solution' to the Jewish question

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Nicosia, Francis, Niewyk, Donald, “The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust”, Columbia University Press, New York, 2000, 232.
  2. ^ Dwork, Debórah, Jan van Pelt, Robert, “Holocaust: A History”, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 2003, 206.
  3. ^ Yahil, Leni, “The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945”, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, 1990, 160.
  4. ^ Ibid., 129.
  5. ^ Nicosia and Niewyk, “The Columbian Guide to the Holocaust”, 232.
  6. ^ Ibid., 153.
  7. ^ Kats, Alfred, “Poland's Ghettos at War”, Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York, 1970, 35.
  8. ^ Dwork and Jan van Pelt, “Holocaust: A History”, 208.
  9. ^ Browning, Christopher, “Nazi Resettlement Policy and the Search for a Solution to the Jewish Question, 1939-1941”, German Studies Review, Vol. 9, No. 3., 497-519, October 1986, 500.
  10. ^ Dwork and Jan van Pelt, “Holocaust: A History”, 207.
  11. ^ Ibid., 211.
  12. ^ Nicosia and Niewyk, “The Columbian Guide to the Holocaust”, 154.
  13. ^ Ibid., 154.

[edit] Bibliography

Browning, Christopher, “Nazi Resettlement Policy and the Search for a Solution to the Jewish Question, 1939-1941”, German Studies Review, Vol. 9, No. 3., 497-519, October 1986.

Dwork, Debórah, Jan van Pelt, Robert, “Holocaust: A History”, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 2003. ISBN 0393325245

Kats, Alfred, “Poland's Ghettos at War”, Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York, 1970. ASIN B0006D06QE

Nicosia, Francis, Niewyk, Donald, “The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust”, Columbia University Press, New York, 2000. ISBN 0231112009

Yahil, Leni, “The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945”, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, 1990. ISBN 0195045238

[edit] External links

http://www.yadvashem.org/