The Eichmann Offer. The war afforded more than one opportunity to save Jews. Here is another
significant opportunity, the offer this time coming directly from Adolph Eichmann:
So I am ready to sell you - a million Jews. ... What do you want to save?
Virile men? Grown women? Old people? Children? Sit down - and talk. ...
Now I am going to prove to you that I trust you more than you trust me. When
you ... tell me that the offer has been accepted, I will [as an initial
demonstration of good faith, even before you make any payment] dissolve
Auschwitz and move 10 percent of the promised million to the border. You take
over the 100,000 Jews and deliver for them afterwards one thousand trucks. And
then the deal will proceed step by step. (Adolph Eichmann, quoted in Raul
Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1985, p. 1133-1134)
Eichmann's initiative, according to his testimony in Jerusalem, had been
influenced largely by the propensity of rival SS factions to negotiate with the
Jews. He was going to confine the offer to freeing 100,000 Jews, but then
thought that only a major gesture, involving a million, was going to have any
impact. When Himmler approved the scheme, Eichmann was actually surprised.
(Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1985, p. 1134)
However, Joel Brand, attempting to negotiate this exchange, met with no support, either from
representatives of the Allied nations, or from Jewish representatives. When he realized that
the offer would not be accepted, he burst out with:
Do you know what you are doing? That is simply murder! That is mass murder.
... [O]ur best people will be slaughtered! My wife! My mother! My children
will be first! (Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1985, p.
1137)
Among the objections was not that the deal would fail, but rather that it was undesirable that
the deal succeed:
"But Mr. Brand," the British host exclaimed, "what shall I do with those
million Jews? Where shall I put them?" (Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the
European Jews, 1985, P. 1140)
The plain fact was that there was no place on earth that would have been ready
to accept the Jews, not even this one million. (Adolph Eichmann in Raul
Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1985, p. 1140)
A similar comment was made with respect to the above-mentioned Antonescu Plan:
The British Foreign Office ... was concerned with the "difficulties of
disposing of any considerable number of Jews" in the event of their release
from Axis Europe. ... [W]ithin the Foreign Office there was fear of large-scale
success.... (Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1985, P.
1140)
And a similar reaction with respect to discussions concerning the rescue of Bulgarian Jews:
Hull raised the question of the 60 or 70 thousand Jews that are in Bulgaria and
are threatened with extermination unless we could get them out and, very
urgently, pressed Eden for an answer to the problem. Eden replied that the
whole problem of the Jews in Europe is very difficult and that we should move
very cautiously about offering to take all Jews out of a country like
Bulgaria. If we do that, then the Jews of the world will be wanting us to make
similar efforts in Poland and Germany. Hitler might well take us up on any
such offer and there simply are not enough ships and means of transportation in
the world to handle them. (Harry Hopkins in Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of
the European Jews, 1985, P. 1122)