The Secret Agreement of Zionist-Nazi Cooperation in April 1933

Little has been written on the early days of the Zionist alliance with Germany, particularly in the first months of Hitler. Yehuda Bauer, in his book "My Brother's Keeper: a history of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 1929-1939," argued that the Zionist leadership had little if anything to do with the start of the alliance, or the Transfer Agreement, in which Germany confiscated Jewish assets and transferred a tiny portion of them to Palestine.

But there is one document that disproves Bauer and makes it clear that the Zionist leadership in Palestine was in contact with the Hitler leadership from the start. And that the effort was led by none other than Haim Weizmann, who had resigned as head of the Zionist movement and Jewish Agency in 1930 but remained the leading interlocutor with the British leadership. Weizmann refused to cooperate with the Jewish Agency, and he and Pinchas Rutenberg, a leading Zionist friend of London, carried out their own foreign policy.

The document is a protocol of a Jewish Agency Executive meeting on April 16, 1933 in Jerusalem. The protocol was titled "On the Matter of Germany." During the meeting, Executive members described the secrecy of the Zionist negotiations with Berlin as well as the Mapai domination of the German issue.

The chairman of the meeting, Emanuel Neumann, disclosed the position of the Hitler regime: Any money transferred to Palestine must be used for the purpose of German Jewish immigration. Rutenberg, for example, sought to use at least 50 percent of the German funds for land purchases.

Few spoke at this session. Among the exceptions were Neumann and Joshua Farbstein, the latter a representative of Mizrahi. Farbstein said it was strange that a Jewish Agency panel on Germany excluded virtually everybody but Mapai. There were no representatives from Mizrahi, General Zionists or Revisionists. Farbstein also questioned whether there was a decision for Weizmann to formally head the Zionist venture with Germany.

Neumann responded that the drafting of Weizmann had not been approved by the Jewish Agency Executive. He complained that Weizmann and Rutenberg were secretly dealing with Germany while excluding the Executive. When an agreement would be reached, the Executive would be pressured to ratify the accord. Neumann said Mapai members were working with Rutenberg and Weizmann.

"We hear that there is an agreement with Weizmann and Rutenberg and everything is wrapped up," Neumann said. "We don't know what is the Rutenberg plan and what are Weizmann's intentions."

Neumann then announced his resignation from the new Executive panel on Germany and withdrew his approval of all activities already decided, including the recruitment of Weizmann to head the venture.

One of the decisions was that Haim Arlosoroff, the leading Mapai representative, travel to Germany and London. Arlosoroff said he opposed the exclusion of the "Zionist labor movement," or Mapai,' from the talks with Berlin. Arlosoroff, who would be assassinated two months later, refused to disclose any information of the talks with the Hitler regime but warned that any delays could lead to the cancellation of the purported agreement.

Arlosoroff wanted the Executive to act without approval from the Zionist Organization in London. He said he already sent three telegrams to London without a reply.

"We can't wait any longer and are frittering away a historical opportunity and betraying our mission," Arlosoroff said. "And because there is no possibility to receive an answer from London, we have to decide this morning and inform London."

The Executive meeting on April 16 seriously disputes the narrative of numerous historians. According to the protocol, Germany and Weizmann were believed to have reached an agreement within weeks of their negotiations. Second, the talks were limited to involvement by Mapai rather than German Zionists or businessmen in Palestine.

But the most revealing part of the Executive discussions on Germany took place a week earlier, on April 9. Here Neumann, a week before he resigned, laid down the principles of the Zionist relationship with Hitler.

"We also have to discuss political activities," Neumann said. Then, he warned that the World Zionist Organization must be kept out of any future dispute with Berlin because this could lead to the "closure of the Zionist Association in Germany."

In the end, the Zionist negotiations with Germany led to extensive cooperation. The two sides, despite the opposition of Diaspora Jewry, agreed on political, intelligence and economic relations that continued into World War II -- all this at the expense of the Jewish masses in Europe.