
From 1933 to 1939, Hitler provided the future government of Israel with the assets of German Jews in exchange for aid undermining an international anti-Nazi boycott.
“An Indispensable Factor in the Creation of the State of Israel”
The collusion between Nazis and Zionists reached its apex in “the Transfer Agreement,” an arrangement between them that allowed the former to undermine an international boycott against German goods and the latter to access the assets of German Jews. The partnership between such ostensible enemies underscored the one point on which they both agreed: Jews had no future in Europe.
Proof positive Zionists put the Israeli nation-state over Jews themselves. German Jews at the center of were relatively non-Zionist, wealthy and assimilated into German society. While supportive of the voluntary migration to Palestine from places like Poland, a stronghold of Zionism they were much more likely to seek refuge in neighboring European countries. Even the Nazis acknowledged the fundamental disconnect between German Jews and Zionism. Estimated to be only 1 or 2 per cent of German Jews who considered themselves assimilated, loyal Germans.
Zionism was equally repugnant to orthodox German Jews, who spurned Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land on religious grounds (e.g. that only the Jewish Messiah could reinstate the Kingdom of the Jews). In 1933, then, Zionism in Germany was a mere Jewish fringe movement. To even say that only 4% today don’t support Netanyahu is fiction as 20% of Israelis are Orthodox.
In 1933 Zionists were equally self-interested: If German Jews were going anywhere but Palestine, their $$$ could not be put toward building the Jewish state.
So, the Nazis and the Zionists were well-positioned to help each other. The Nazis could grant the Zionists access to the assets of those German Jews forcefully deported, and the Zionists could help the Nazis undermine the international boycott.
The negotiations suited both parties and included future prime ministers David Ben-Gurion, Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir: The assets of German Jews were liquidated kept and used to pay for German-made goods destined for Palestine. That agreement allowed the Nazis to continue expelling German Jews withholding their capital and using it instead to finance the import and export of German goods to Palestine, undermining the international boycott. For their part, the Zionists were able to establish an economic base for the future Israeli state. Had this not occurred on a large scale the Nazi government may have fallen by 1934,
Zionists prioritizing the Israeli nation-state over Jews goes on today. While Netanyahu and the rest of the Israeli government maintain that they are acting in the interests of Jews everywhere, they are in fact whipping up antisemitism their forever driving force to get Jews to flee to mother Israel. Even as anti-Zionist Jewish groups in the diaspora like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow decry the daily Gazan massacres, and Israelis take to the streets to demand their government accept a cease-fire deal. While Netanyahu’s government continues to declare even more of the hostages in Gaza to be dead.
The Transfer Agreement: Nazi Support for a Jewish State in Palestine
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