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Reviewed by:
  • Haven in Africa
  • Susanne Heim
Haven in Africa, Frank Shapiro (Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2002), 176 pp., $14.95.

Among the various regions under discussion for the resettlement of Jews during the 1930s was Northern Rhodesia, along with Mindanao, Alaska, British Guyana, and the Dominican Republic. According to the Philo-Atlas, the "Handbook for Jewish Emigration" published in 1938 in cooperation with the Hilfsverein der Deutschen [End Page 500] Juden, 1.3 million people lived in Northern Rhodesia, a country not quite the size of Norway and Sweden put together. Only 500 of them, or 0.03 percent, were Jewish. The handbook states the most important facts for emigrants: "No visa. The final admittance is decided upon by the local immigration official, who can demand a deposit of £100 for the return expenses by the immigrant himself or a local resident."1 In October 1938 the SD—the driving force, along with the SS, behind Jewish emigration—received a report from travel agent Heinrich Schlie in Vienna outlining the various options. Here the difficulties of Jewish immigration to Rhodesia were described more clearly: immigration would not be permitted unless several hundred pounds were deposited. "Only then, but based upon the personal presentation of the immigrant, the authority decides if the residency will be granted or not. This is a risk emigrants can hardly incur."2

Frank Shapiro scrutinizes both group settlement in and individual Jewish emigration to Northern Rhodesia. His investigation is based upon documents from the Zambian National Archives, several London archives, documents of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, and interviews with Jewish emigrants. Until the beginning of World War II, thirteen different plans for the guided emigration of European Jews were discussed. Estimates of the country's admission capacities ranged from 150 to 50,000. During the second half of 1936 the general secretary of the Hilfsverein, Mark Wischnitzer, surveyed settlement possibilities for Jewish emigrants in the British crown colony and delivered a rather pessimistic verdict: there was "very little" prospect for the settlers to make a living in agriculture. Engineers and skilled craftsmen had the best chances for success, in the copper district, while others were to develop a raw-material processing industry.3 The first proposals date back to 1934, but the debate gained momentum in 1938, when President Roosevelt invited the representatives of more than thirty states to the Evian Conference to discuss possible solutions to the problem of the German Jewish refugees.

Prompted by the forthcoming conference, the British government pushed for settlement in Africa as an alternative to Jewish emigration to Palestine. The government in London, however, taking into account public opinion in Northern Rhodesia, was critical of a mass settlement of European Jews in the colony. Especially among the approximately 10,000 European settlers, as well as on part of the copper miners union, the immigration of a large number of Jews met with fierce opposition. Here antisemitic resentment merged with economically induced fear of competition and refractoriness directed against the British colonial power. But Malcolm MacDonald, secretary of state for the colonies, as well as other influential officials in Great Britain and Northern Rhodesia, were open to the settlement plans. In addition to humanitarian considerations, they hoped Northern Rhodesia "would be opened up economically within a calculable period and would be won for the white race" (p. 24). Eventually, a commission dispatched [End Page 501] by Jewish organizations in Britain concluded that 400 to 500 families could be accommodated in Northern Rhodesia.

The supporters of the settlement project and European antisemites were likewise fond of indicating the abundant "empty spaces" in Northern Rhodesia, exceptionally suited for the accommodation of the displaced Jews. Hence in April 1939 the Hungarian government "generously" offered to the Chief Immigration Officer of Northern Rhodesia the "export" of 5,000 Jewish-Hungarian families to Northern Rhodesia. According to this plan, the Jews were to immigrate to Africa, without property or initial capital, "in view of the great possibilities, which such a group, by its industry, expert knowledge, and production would offer to a land" (p. 105).

Despite ambitious planning, in the end only 250 German Jews immigrated to Northern Rhodesia, even though—as...

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