''The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine'' is 1984 a book written by author

Edwin Black Edwin Black (born February 27, 1950) is an American historian and author, as well as a print syndication, syndicated columnist, investigative journalist, and weekly talk show host on The Edwin Black Show. He specializes in human rights, the hist ...

, documenting the transfer agreement (" Haavara Agreement" in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

) between

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

organizations and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

to transfer a number of Jews and their assets to

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

Background

Black is the son of Holocaust survivors from Poland. Betty Kliewer
"Ethyl Black Inspired a Generation with Holocaust Survival,"
''The Cutting Edge News,'' Feb. 15, 2005. Edwin Black, "Introduction to the 1984 Edition," ''The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine.'' Washington, DC: Dialog Press, 2009; pg. xxii -xx111. In ''The Transfer Agreement'', he notes that following in the beliefs of his parents, he was from his earliest days a supporter of the State of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. In 1978, as a young journalist, Black interviewed the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

lawyer who represented members of the

American Nazi Party The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American neo-Nazi Political parties in the United States, political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell in 1959. In Rockwell's time, it was headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It was renamed the Natio ...

, which had marched provocatively through the predominantly Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie. In preparing himself for that interview, Black's interest was piqued by the hidden history of relations between the government of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

and

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

Zionists Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the Jewish people, pursued through the colonization of Palestine, a region roughly cor ...

during the first years of the Nazi regime. Five years of research followed, ending in publication of ''The Transfer Agreement''.

Main thesis

This book documents the agreement between Nazi Germany and an organization of German Zionists in 1933 to salvage some German Jewish assets and the voluntary emigration of German Jews to Palestine before the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

implemented expulsion and then extermination. The Transfer Agreement rescued some 60,000 German Jews. A sweeping, worldwide economic boycott of Germany by Jews helped spur a deal between the Nazis and Zionists. The book also documents the controversy within the Zionist movement and Jewish diaspora over the agreement, which Black shows "tore apart the Jewish world in the pre-World War II era". In particular, it describes the conflict between, on one side, German Zionists and German-descended communal leaders in the US, who argued for the agreement, and, on the other side, the mainstream Eastern European-descended American Jewish Zionist leaders (such as the

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...

and Jewish War Veterans) who opposed the agreement and argued instead for a full boycott of Nazi Germany.

Reception

After its publication, the book was cited by far-right activist

Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization, the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy ...

and

Nation of Islam The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A centralized and hierarchical organization, the NOI is committed to black nationalism and focuses its attention on the Afr ...

leader

Louis Farrakhan Louis Farrakhan (; born Louis Eugene Walcott; May 11, 1933) is an American religious leader who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI), a Black nationalism, black nationalist organization. Farrakhan is notable for his leadership of the 1995 Million M ...

to claim that Zionism was a racist movement that collaborated with Nazi Germany so that wealthy Germans could transfer their assets to Palestine. In a review in the academic journal ''

Shofar A shofar ( ; from , ) is an ancient musical horn, typically a ram's horn, used for Jewish ritual purposes. Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying the player's embouchure. The ...

'', scholar Lawrence Baron noted the controversy generated by Black's conclusion that the

World Zionist Organization The World Zionist Organization (; ''HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit''), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the Zionist Organization (ZO; 1897–1960) at the initiative of Theodor Herzl at the F ...

(WZO) broke the potentially successful anti-Nazi boycott of Germany to fortify the Jewish presence in Palestine. Baron described the book as "a well-written and diligently documented narrative"; however, he stated it indulged in dubious retrospective speculation and cast unfair aspersions on the motives of those who defended the WZO. To Baron, Black's portrayal of the Zionist leadership's strategy as "one-sided", with his criticisms "ahistorical and simplistic". Historians Ben Halpern and Henry Feingold wrote highly critical reviews. Historian Richard S. Levy in '' Commentary'' wrote, "

lack Lack may refer to: Places * Lack, County Fermanagh, a townland in Northern Ireland * Lack, Poland * Łąck, Poland * Lack Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, US Other uses * Lack (surname) * Lack (manque), a term in Lacan's psychoanalyti ...

relies on outmoded secondary works, makes numerous errors, and distorts his subject ..Black’s neglect of the secondary scholarly literature is perverse and leads him to his most serious error of judgment—drastic overestimation of the political and economic efficacy of the boycott weapon." He further described the book as "conspiracy-mongering, innuendo, and

sensationalism In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emoti ...

Awards

* 1985

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg w ...

Award of the Friends of the

Chicago Public Library The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the Chicago, City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, three regional libraries, and branches distributed thr ...

for best non-fiction book of 1984 for the book ''The Transfer Agreement.''Martin Barillas
"Author Holds Historic Event on The Transfer Agreement,"
The Cutting Edge.com, October 12, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2010.

References

History books about the Holocaust 1984 non-fiction books {{Jewish-hist-book-stub fr:The Transfer Agreement

Background

Main thesis

Reception

Awards

See also

References