The Transfer Agreement (23 page)

Up to this point in the meeting, Chaim Arlosoroff had said little. Arlosoroff saw the unending dissension of the Jewish Agency as a barrier to decisive action. Instead, he saw himself as the man ordained for the pivotal task ahead: negotiating the resettlement of Jewish citizens and their money from Germany to Palestine. He would do it all by himself if necessary.

Ukrainian-born and German-educated, Dr. Arlosoroff, as head of the political department of the Jewish Agency, functioned as the foreign-minister-in-waiting of the Jewish nation. Although only thirty-four years old in a movement dominated by elder pioneers, Arlosoroff stood out as one of the troika leading the Jewish Agency. His visionary Zionism never thought small. His words were selected carefully, and frequently remembered by those who heard them.
²⁰

Arlosoroff proffered a hint of his thoughts when he interrupted the bickering gentlemen to state, "The German crisis is a difficult experience for Zionism, and its results will be most important to the future of the movement. The young Jew must ask himself: What is the difference between the Jewish reaction to this oppression now—in a period of Jewish nationalism—and the reaction before? ... Since the start of Zionism, this is the first instance when Jews who are considered free have been placed in a situation like this. Also Palestine is put in a special situation for the first time.
If
Zionism will not do what is required of it, then there will be grave results."
²¹

Arlosoroff then alluded to currency regulations as the major obstruction to a political solution to the German situation. But he speculated that the regulations might be overcome by converting assets into merchandise and bringing the merchandise out of Germany. To handle the problem, Arlosoroff said, personal contact with the German Zionists in Berlin would be necessary.
²²

A representative of the German Zionists attending the Jewish Agency meeting, Dr. Zmora, spoke up at this point, saying, "We should not now talk about the specifics of the plan, because we still have to work them out." As Dr. Zmora spoke, Arlosoroff and the German Zionists were aware of the special currency exemption and how far discussions had gone. However, most of the others thought Arlosoroff was speaking of some nebulous future plan to be negotiated. To keep the exemption secret, Dr. Zmora proposed that the group dispense with discussing details and simply authorize Arlosoroff and Senator to travel to Berlin to contact the local Zionist leaders in a fact-finding mission.
²³

Arlosoroff and Senator voted in favor. But Neumann couldn't understand why they felt it was so essential to visit Germany. Referring to Rosenbluth and Lichtheim's mission, Neumann said, "Two people from there [Berlin] already went to London, so what is there still to clarify?"
²⁴

Arlosoroff answered that he would travel to London anyway for a relief conference in early May. So, on the way, he would just stop in Germany to discuss emigration and development plans for Palestine "in a basic and comprehensive way with the Zionist leaders." Arlosoroff suggested that the contact should be by a non-German, and sending several envoys was too expensive. Jewish Agency officers had other pressing duties. Therefore, he alone should do the job. He ended casually, "I thought of going next week."
²⁵

Neumann objected, "I'm not certain whether it is necessary.... Maybe it is still too early." Neumann was suspicious of Arlosoroff's well-known maverick style, and proposed "London be advised on this ... see what their opinion will be." Careful not to seem too eager , Arlosoroff backed off, saying, "I see that the reaction of the board is not favorable, and I am prepared to forgo my travels."
²⁶

The meeting ended indecisively with regard to both Arlosoroff's trip and Weizmann heading a Zionist refugee fund. Instead, the gentlemen did as they often did when decisions were necessary—they deferred to the nine-man London Executive Committee. That would take precious time, time that didn't exist in Arlosoroff's view. So Arlosoroff was convinced that a
fait accompli
was the only option And secrecy would still be crucial. Arlosoroff had learned a bitter lesson about sharing information with the Executive just the month before. In March, confidential land purchase discussions between the emir of Transjordan and Arlosoroff, and even some of Arlosoroff's privately expressed disparaging comments about the emir, had been leaked to Jewish and Arab newspapers in Palestine and Europe. The leaks obviously came from within the Jewish Agency Executive itself. The disclosures were so damaging to Zionist and Arab conciliation efforts that on March
23,
Arlosoroff told the Executive Committee that it could no longer be trusted and might just as well resign. Arlosoroff's comments prompted the other Executive members to recite their own lists of shocking leaks, with each member accusing the others of being responsible.
²⁷

Arlosoroff also knew that American Zionist representative Emanuel Neumann reported every development to Zionist leaders in New York.
²⁸
Any merchandise-oriented arrangement with the Third Reich would instantly come to the attention of Stephen Wise and the American Jewish Congress. The repercussions would probably destroy negotiations with Germany and obstruct the Zionist refugee fund as well.

If
there was to be a transfer of the Jewish nation to the Jewish State, Arlosoroff would have to arrange it alone, and in secret.

Q
UICKLY
the Jewish Agency Executive recognized that Arlosoroff was acting on his own, creating initiatives and making decisions in the
name of the Zionist movement. For example, the day before, on April 8, Arlosoroff held an unexpected and historic luncheon at Jerusalem's posh King David Hotel for Weizmann and the leading Arab sheikhs of Palestine. The luncheon was officially arranged on behalf of the Jewish Agency, but the members of the Executive weren't consulted until the night before. Most of the Jewish Agency Executive did attend, but grudgingly.
¹

Arlosoroff's luncheon was the first public meeting between Zionist and Arab leaders. No one understood how Arlosoroff managed to secure Arab attendance. Several of the Arabs owned strategic lands in the Huleh Valley (in Upper Galilee) and Transjordan (the area east of the Jordan River). Behind closed doors, Weizmann and Arlosoroff talked with the sheikhs about
arrival of many Jewish newcomers and plenty of commercial development.
²

Weizmann described the historic meeting as the beginning of a tunnel being dug from both sides with the parties destined soon to meet. The Arab sheikhs announced to reporters after the luncheon that they now realized that the hope of developing their regions lay in cooperating with the Jews, to whom they were now extending a warm welcome.
³

Stunned by the sudden rapport, Jewish Agency leaders wondered where Arlosoroff's one-man movement would go next. They might have been able to guess, had they known of secret contacts on binational matters between Arlosoroff and Arthur Wauchope, Britain's high commissioner for Palestine. Binationalism was an on-off movement among Zionists and within the British government. Binationalists debated many different formulas for joint or coequal Arab-Jewish national rule in Palestine. But all of them called for some sort of political arrangement whereby Jews and Arabs could achieve their separate but equal national aspirations. Some of Zionism's most influential leaders advocated binationalism in one form or another. Among them were Arthur Ruppin, David Ben-Gurion, Judah Magnes, and Chaim Weizmann, who would in later years support Palestine's partition into separate Arab and Jewish states. Importantly, German Zionism as a movement subscribed to binationalism, and despite frequent disagreements, considered itself Weizmann disciples.
⁴

Arlosoroff had vacillated over the years on binationalism, basically because as soon as Arab leaders agreed to any element of cooperation, anti-Jewish Arab agitation would discredit the Arab leaders as traitors representing no one but themselves. But now, in the context of the hoped-for German Zionist and Weizmann-led renaissance, Arlosoroff was convinced there could be no solution to the Jewish problem in Europe without a solution to the Jewish problem in Palestine.
⁵
Ideas, of course, were easy to come by.
It
was money—the lack of it—that made the difference between ideas and results. The German currency exemption, however, and other monetary aspects of the Hitler crisis, could finance binational ideas into binational realities.

Arlosoroff, sworn to secrecy by High Commissioner Wauchope, had been since mid-March 1933 negotiating with the Mandate government toward some sort of binational solution. In the initial project, Britain would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to resettle tenant Arabs displaced by Jewish land purchases. Arlosoroff was secretly advising the high commissioner on how best to spend the money, whether technical education should precede the construction of workman's quarters, and other details.
⁶
Such a liaison was unthinkable to his Jewish Agency colleagues, but Arlosoroff was convinced these days might actually constitute the live-or-die episode for Zionism. In mid-April Arlosoroff had received two important letters, one from Berl Locker of the Zionist Executive in London, the second from Martin Rosenbluth, the ZVfD liaison to London. Locker's letter stressed the urgency of Zionists quickly dominating the international relief and fund-raising effort, and of solving the German Jewish problem through Palestine: "Brodetsky and myself feel this is the last moment for us to make our voice heard, if we do not want to be the fifth wheel on the wagon." Locker added, "We still think it possible today to procure large sums . . . in connection with the situation in Germany. . . . We must act, to make our voice heard, and to prevent the new 'Help Fund.'" Locker emphasized, "The main point is: . . . We must at least tell the public that we place the question of Palestine at the center of the matter."
⁷

Rosenbluth's letter reinforced the inspiration that these were sudden and historic moments in Jewish history, moments that would terminate Jewish life in Europe and deliver the Jewish homeland to the Jewish nation. However, Rosenbluth also warned of a solution that would exclude Zionism and Palestine. "I fear that we shall be forced to fight [an idea] in the next few days which is basically against a special role for the Jewish Agency and Palestine." Rosenbluth maintained that if the non-Zionist solutions could be debunked or supplanted, the relief effort could be not only politically lucrative but commercially profitable to Jewish companies. "Here [in London] the belief is widespread that the slogan 'German Jews to Palestine' will be very attractive from the financial viewpoint. . . . They think, moreover, that it is no disaster if certain groups make attempts at obtaining big financial means for colonization of German Jews in Palestine on a more merchant-like basis."
⁸

Verification of the Zionist assumption that Jewish life was officially over in Germany came swiftly. On April 7, Hitler promulgated the first formal anti-Semitic decree, summarily dismissing virtually all Jewish government employees. Other decrees were readied to outlaw almost all non-Aryan attorneys, judges, jurors, or Jewish dentists and doctors working with social health plans. Simultaneously, the Nazis themselves elevated Palestine to new importance by abruptly halting the flow of refugees. National Socialism of course wanted Jews out of Germany. But in the first days of April, as thousands fled, the Reich realized that the refugees were a liability they could not afford. Nazi leaders such as Goebbels were certain that Jewish refugees in France, Great Britain, and other haven countries would naturally become the core of the anti-German crusade. Nazi economic planners such as Schacht were convinced that the outflow of Jewish businesspeople would cripple the nation's commerce, especially in foreign trading. And the Reich assumed that fleeing Jews would smuggle out whatever wealth they could, thus further debilitating the German economy.
⁹

Germany's crackdown on escape was at first sporadic. On April 3, Reich border guards fired at Jews as they frantically scrambled over the hillsides into Belgium and Holland. That same day, border police had stopped a trainload of Jews just before it entered Czechoslovakia. That night, Reich authorities announced that no Jew could leave Germany without a police exit
visa. And in Breslau the police actually confiscated all Jewish passports. Later, guards were posted every fifty yards along some border points to prevent Jewish flight.
¹⁰

Hitler's unexpected problem now was how to get rid of his country's Jews in an orderly fashion that would not pose a threat. The answer was methodical emigration with a gradual usurpation of Jewish status by Aryan replacements. One locale that could absorb thousands of German Jewish citizens, yet isolate them politically, was the stretch of desert and swamp at the far end of the Mediterranean Sea called Palestine. To the Nazis this territory was a convenient dumping ground, in a sense a remote, self-run concentration camp. To the Zionists, this territory was the Promised Land destined to be a Jewish State.

Arlosoroff saw the forces of good and evil, pain and prophecy racing toward one central point in time. Following the divisive April 9 Executive session, Arlosoroff remained convinced that the Agency's factionalism could not be overcome in time to seize the historic moment. Arlosoroff concluded that he alone would orchestrate the final negotiations for the liquidation of Jewish existence in Germany and its transfer to Eretz Yisrael.