Well...
First of all, the idea of shipping Jews to another country was nothing new. Like many of the horrible schemes of the Nazis, Jewish territorialism has roots in European history.
As early as 1885, Paul De Lagarde, proposed the idea of a Jewish state on Madagascar. Lagarde could be described as an "avant-la-lettre Nazi." His ideas helped inspire other Nazi figures.
Theodore Herzl, while arguing for a Palestine, also proposed lands in Argentina as a place to settle Jews.
Then you had the plans for a Jewish state in East Africa, that was cooked up by the British as an alternative to Zionism. Herzl did prefer Palestine, but he considered East Africa as a pragmatic alternative. This effort was nearly taken up, but the Zionist delegates who explored East Africa found its climate to be unsuitable.
In the 1930s, the Polish government themselves independently pursued the idea of the Madagascar plan. OTL 1930s Poland, while not the horror show of the Third Reich, was still not very fun for Jews. Due to the Great Depression and rising nationalism, the situation for all but the richest and most assimilated Polish Jews was somewhat difficult.
The Poles only canceled the plan because Madagascar didn't have the space for 4 million Jews.
You've hit the nail on the head. The march from Jewish boycotts to Yellow Badges to the death camps of Treblinka and Belzec was not an overnight thing. Even those who opposed Nazism never imagined the evil that was the Final Solution.
The increasingly horrible acts of the Nazis were directly proportional to several things: Their growing power, insanity, conquests, and desperation.
The Nuremberg Laws and all the early anti-Jewish was established only when Hitler's rise to power had become secure.
At this stage of racism, Hitler did offer Jews a soft landing of sorts with the Haavara Agreement. Which worked until the British slammed the door on Jewish migration.
In one TL I read where the Jewish East Africa plan was implemented, Hitler and other Europeans nations allow (and force) Jews to immigrate to Kenya.
As the 1930s progressed, and the Nazi policies became more and more unhinged, so to did Jewish migration become even more harsh. By this time, Nazis were stealing the property of the Jews who did migrate. Even if several major nations had opened their doors to these refugees, Hitler was forcing them to leave empty handed. This coincided with the annexations of Austria and Czechoslovakia.
By 1940, the Nazis once again reach new lows of unspeakable brutality as they persecuted Polish citizens of Jewish and non-Jewish roots.
The Madagascar Plan, unsurprisingly, had become far less nice than previous Nazi Jewish migration schemes. In fact, the Nazis seemed more interested in a Native American style reservation rather then a functioning state. Himmler expected Jews not to be able to prosper in an African island with little valuable resources.
And a potential shipping of Jews to the USSR would also have been utterly terrible too. Deportations to Siberia were also pretty deadly and horrific.
So yes, even if the Madagascar Plan had been implemented, or Soviet Jews deported East, it still would've been fatal to hundreds of thousands due to scarcities and the harsh climates.
First of all, the idea of shipping Jews to another country was nothing new. Like many of the horrible schemes of the Nazis, Jewish territorialism has roots in European history.
As early as 1885, Paul De Lagarde, proposed the idea of a Jewish state on Madagascar. Lagarde could be described as an "avant-la-lettre Nazi." His ideas helped inspire other Nazi figures.
Theodore Herzl, while arguing for a Palestine, also proposed lands in Argentina as a place to settle Jews.
Then you had the plans for a Jewish state in East Africa, that was cooked up by the British as an alternative to Zionism. Herzl did prefer Palestine, but he considered East Africa as a pragmatic alternative. This effort was nearly taken up, but the Zionist delegates who explored East Africa found its climate to be unsuitable.
In the 1930s, the Polish government themselves independently pursued the idea of the Madagascar plan. OTL 1930s Poland, while not the horror show of the Third Reich, was still not very fun for Jews. Due to the Great Depression and rising nationalism, the situation for all but the richest and most assimilated Polish Jews was somewhat difficult.
The Poles only canceled the plan because Madagascar didn't have the space for 4 million Jews.
This is my opinion but I think no one really thought the Nazis would go that far and so much stuff was going on at once when it happened. Even during the war I think many thoughts Jews were be targeted in some way just not the exact details. They probably honestly thought it was more pogrom level over what was actually going on. No one knew how far they would go or extremes of it. People thought these camps would be like gulags at worse not gas chambers and graveyards when they first found them.
You've hit the nail on the head. The march from Jewish boycotts to Yellow Badges to the death camps of Treblinka and Belzec was not an overnight thing. Even those who opposed Nazism never imagined the evil that was the Final Solution.
The increasingly horrible acts of the Nazis were directly proportional to several things: Their growing power, insanity, conquests, and desperation.
The Nuremberg Laws and all the early anti-Jewish was established only when Hitler's rise to power had become secure.
At this stage of racism, Hitler did offer Jews a soft landing of sorts with the Haavara Agreement. Which worked until the British slammed the door on Jewish migration.
In one TL I read where the Jewish East Africa plan was implemented, Hitler and other Europeans nations allow (and force) Jews to immigrate to Kenya.
As the 1930s progressed, and the Nazi policies became more and more unhinged, so to did Jewish migration become even more harsh. By this time, Nazis were stealing the property of the Jews who did migrate. Even if several major nations had opened their doors to these refugees, Hitler was forcing them to leave empty handed. This coincided with the annexations of Austria and Czechoslovakia.
By 1940, the Nazis once again reach new lows of unspeakable brutality as they persecuted Polish citizens of Jewish and non-Jewish roots.
The Madagascar Plan, unsurprisingly, had become far less nice than previous Nazi Jewish migration schemes. In fact, the Nazis seemed more interested in a Native American style reservation rather then a functioning state. Himmler expected Jews not to be able to prosper in an African island with little valuable resources.
And a potential shipping of Jews to the USSR would also have been utterly terrible too. Deportations to Siberia were also pretty deadly and horrific.
So yes, even if the Madagascar Plan had been implemented, or Soviet Jews deported East, it still would've been fatal to hundreds of thousands due to scarcities and the harsh climates.