The Haavara agreement, under which Jews emigrating from Germany to Palestine are enabled to export part of their capital in the form of German goods, has been renewed for three months instead of the usual year, indicating that the plan no longer has the full support of the German Government.
In the view of observers, the authorities no longer believe that the Haavara operations fit the general economic needs of the country. The plan originally furnished a market for German goods and kept plants busy when unemployment was a serious problem, and furnished a means of getting rid of Jews without permitting currency export.
The situation at present is that war industries have taken up the slack in employment. The Reich’s chief need is for foreign exchange, which Haavara has not provided, while taking raw materials needed by Germany. These factors are considered a formidable obstacle in the way of prolonged operation of the plan.
Since the inauguration of the Germany-Palestine transfer agreement in November, 1933, the capital transferred reached a total value of 77,800,000 marks, or $22,500,000, by the end of 1937, it was reported last January at a meeting of the Haavara board of directors in Palestine.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
