Why was Madagascar chosen?
Was actually a pre WW2 plan put forward by Poland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan
The
Madagascar Plan was a proposal by the
Nazi German government to relocate the
Jewish population of Europe to the island of
Madagascar.
Franz Rademacher, head of the Jewish Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the German government, proposed the idea in June 1940, shortly before the
Fall of France. The proposal called for the handing over of control of Madagascar, then a French colony, to Germany as part of the French surrender terms.
The idea of deporting
Polish Jews to Madagascar was investigated by the Polish government in 1937,
[1][2] but the task force sent to evaluate the island's potential determined that only 5,000 to 7,000 families could be accommodated, or even as few as 500 families by some estimates.
[a] Because efforts by the Nazis to encourage the emigration of the Jewish population of Germany before World War II were only partially successful, the idea of deporting Jews to Madagascar was revived by the Nazi government in 1940.With
Adolf Hitler's approval,
Adolf Eichmann released a memorandum on 15 August 1940 calling for the resettlement of a million Jews per year for four years, with the island being governed as a police state under the
SS. They assumed that many Jews would succumb to its harsh conditions should the plan be implemented.
[4] The plan was not viable due to the British
naval blockade. It was postponed after the Nazis lost the
Battle of Britain in September 1940, and it was permanently shelved in 1942 with the commencement of the
Final Solution,