Encyclopaedia
Judaica

The Haavara agreement from August 1933
- emigration of German Jews to Israel

Money and
good transfer from the Third Reich to Palestine for about 60,000 emigrating Jews
1933-1939

presentation by
Michael Palomino (2007)

from:
-- Haavara; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol.
7
-- Israel, State of; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol.
9

The Haavara agreement

(from:
Haavara; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 7)

<HAAVARA, a
company for the transfer of Jewish property from Nazi Germany to Palestine.
The Trust and Transfer Office Haavara Ltd., was established in Tel Aviv,
following an agreement with the German government in August 1933, to
facilitate the emigration of Jews to Palestine by allowing the transfer of
their capital in the form of German export goods.

The amounts to be
transferred were paid by prospective emigrants into the account of a Jewish
trust company (PALTREU - Palestina Treuhandstelle zur Beratung deutscher
Juden [Palestine trust office for consulting of German Jews]) in
Germany  and used for the purchase of goods which the Haavara then sold
in Palestine.

The proceeds, in Palestine currency, were paid to the
emigrants living in Palestine. The rate of exchange was adjusted from time
to time by the Haavara according to the disagio, necessitated by the subsidy
which the Haavara granted the Palestinian importers, to make up for the
steadily deteriorating value of the Reich mark, so the German goods could
compete with other imports.

The ensuing disagio, borne by the
emigrants, accordingly increased from 6% in 1934 to 50% in 1938. The major
part of the transfer proceeds provided the 1,000 Palestine Pounds (then $
4,990) necessary for a "capitalist" immigration certificate of the Mandatory
administration, but also for other categories of immigration, such as youth
aliyah, students, and artisans as well as for the transfer of public
funds.

The transfer, which weakened the boycott of German goods
declared by many Jewish organizations around the world, met with
considerable opposition. The controversy was settled at the Zionist (col.
1012)

Congress in Lucerne (1935) which decided by a vast majority in
favor of the transfer and placed the Haavara under the supervision of the
*Jewish Agency. The Haavara continued to function until World War II, in
spite of vigorous attempts by the Nazi Party to stop or curtail its
activities.

The total transfer amounted to LP 8,100,000 (Palestine
Pounds; then $ 40,419,000) including LP 2,600,000 (then $ 13,774,000)
provided by the German Reichsbank in coordination with Haavara. The Haavara
transfer was a major factor in making possible the immigration of
approximately 60,000 German Jews to Palestine in the years 1933-1939, and
together with the money invested by the immigrants themselves, in providing
an incentive for the expansion of agricultural settlement and for general
economic development.> (col. 1013)

In £:
<Through the *Ha'avarah, the
transfer of Jewish assets to Palestine, some £6,000,000 were saved and
infused into the economy of Erez Israel (Ereẓ Israel) [[Land of Israel]] to
its great benefit.>
(from: Zionism; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971,
vol. 16

[[But Hitler projected to occupy the whole Middle East with
Palestine and then the Jews would have been under NS rule again and would
have been foreseen for other deportation and eventually annihilation by
work. Hitler would have had taken over the infrastructure which had been
installed by the Jews...]]

Bibliography

-- E. Marcus, in: Yad
Vashem Studies, 2 (1959), 179-204
-- S. Esh, in: Am Yisrael Be-Dorenu
(1964), 330-43
-- L. Pinner, in: In zwei Welten (1962),
133-66

[LU.P.]>

Encyclopaedia
Judaica: Haavara agreement, Vol. 7, col. 1012

Encyclopaedia
Judaica: Haavara agreement, Vol. 7, col.
1013

Details of the
Haavara agreement

(from: Israel, State of; In:
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 9)

<Almost a quarter of this sum [[of
the immigrants to Palestine]] came through a special arrangement between the
Jewish Agency and the German authorities for the transfer (*Haavara) of
German-Jewish capital. Under this agreement, emigrants from Germany obtained
their first £1,000 in cash so that they could get their immigration
certificates and deposited the rest of their assets with a clearinghouse in
Berlin; the sterling equivalent was recovered after arrival from a second
clearinghouse in Palestine, to which Jewish merchants made their payments
for goods imported from Germany, while the German exporters were paid in
Berlin. Moneys collected for the Jewish national funds and various other
remittances to Palestine were also transferred through Haavara.

The
arrangement was fiercely criticized as a breach of the worldwide Jewish
boycott of German goods, but it was strongly defended on the ground that it
was the only way to salvage the property of German Jews. The 19th Zionist
Congress, which met at Lucerne in 1935 and which paid special attention to
the plight of German Jewry, approved the agreement but ruled that it be
placed under the control of the Executive.> (col. 531)

Encyclopaedia
Judaica: Israel, State of, Vol. 9, col. 531-532,
with details about the
Haavara agreement

^