Presenting to your kind attention the attached Memorandum containing the results of my consideration of the most effective means of at least partially solving the Jewish Problem in Poland, I beg to point out that the work was begun in 1936 and concluded in the beginning of 1937.
A Memorandum containing a complete outline of the Plan was deposited at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw in February 1937. That dealing with the Jewish problem insofar as it affects British policy was deposited with H.M. Consulate General at Warsaw in October of the same year. Conversations with the Polish Government regarding the Plan lasted for a considerable time and it was, in addition, necessary to await the development of circumstances; this is why action for the realization of the Plan has only now reached a point where efforts can be undertaken in order to strive for the collaboration of the appropriate quarters in Great Britain and the United States. This is the subject of the present communication.
More than a year has passed since the two memoranda were written; during this period the forecasts and theses contained in them have not been disproved or weakened in any way; on the contrary, their significance has been largely reinforced and confirmed. And a number of recent events in various European countries have made the subject matter of these memoranda of such urgent, current importance that no time may now be lost in attacking the problem and passing to the realization of the solution proffered herein.
Since these memoranda were written, hundreds of Austrian Jews were overnight flung from a tranquil and happy life into a hopeless situation, broken morally and materially, in a manner which was often nothing but a mockery of all the tenets of humanity.
Shortly before, Romanian Jewry found itself on the brink of destruction after the sudden enactment of draconic anti-Jewish laws by the previous Government. The direct threat of danger was temporarily removed, but this transient success should not lull the vigilance of those who should not consider that such and similar enactments cannot affect them; they should rather feel bound to collaborate in removing or at least in modifying their results.
The fate of the Jews in Hungary has been seriously affected by the application of legislation which radically reduces their participation in business and cultural life. Moreover, it is quite possible that changes will take place in Czechoslovakia which will reduce the Jewish population of that country to a situation similar to that in Austria.
The French Parliament was recently the scene of bitter attacks on [Prime Minister Leon] Blum and other politicians in France on the ground of their racial allegiance (and there was even a sensational interlude of this kind in the House of Commons which is a sign of the times in Great Britain). These are indications of deep-lying antagonisms, for long inarticulate, which are steadily gathering force. With the end of the Civil War in Spain, and with the final passage of those perturbations which France will endure in her uphill struggle for nationalist aspirations - made all the more difficult by the counteraction of powerful and old-established international influences inspired by hidden factors - these antagonisms will break out with yet greater force after being pent up for so long.
In the case of Poland, every impartial observer must affirm that the situation of the Jews has undergone great deterioration. Anti-Jewish slogans, hitherto spread with extreme energy only by a few, more or less influential political groupings, are now being taken up by the broad masses of the public and not infrequently find expression in official enunciations.
The present writer will not for a moment consider to what extent tactless or unwise moves by Jews have [page missing]
It is not too late to reform this state of affairs by means of planned, far-reaching action, which should be undertaken without further procrastination as irretrievable disaster is looming ahead and the time left is very short. All those in the world who are especially qualified to express an opinion on this matter by reason of their position, their Jewish descent or sympathies, their humanitarian or political sentiments, and particularly owing to the possibilities at their command, must as soon as possible elaborate means for solving, or at least of relieving, this problem on the basis of workable, practical plans. Of those so far propounded, the present writer ventures to express the belief that the plan outlined herein will not be the least worthy of consideration.
Prompt action is all the more necessary because Poland has the largest relative and absolute Jewish population in Europe: three and a half million Jews who constitute about l0% of the aggregate population. In Europe, Poland is today the only country with a large agglomeration of Jews which has not introduced any anti-Jewish laws, and the Polish Government has successfully headed off organized discrimination against the Jews, Jew-baiting, etc. But Poland is being subjected to powerful influences from many quarters: she may quite possibly submit to the powerful attraction of the example set by Germany and may adopt the 'fashionable' mode of dealing with the Jews, the more so that this would meet with the unqualified approval of a very considerable and influential section of the younger generation of Poles.
Poland can be relieved of this burden and of this centre of inflammation by the removal of the excess Jewish population under a scheme of planned emigration. Such action will not only be highly advantageous for Poland, for the Jews inhabiting that country, but also for the whole world.
Warsaw, May 1938.