When I first read about this 5 years ago, I genuinely thought it sounded like a conspiracy theory.

But it’s all thoroughly documented history and backed by primary sources, German and Zionist archives, and written about by Jewish historian Edwin Black in his 1984 book The Transfer Agreement.

In early 1933, right after Hitler took power, the global Jewish community launched a massive anti-Nazi boycott of German goods. It significantly hurt German exports (reducing U.S. imports from Germany by nearly a quarter) and weighed heavily on the regime.

→ Full context: 1933 anti-Nazi boycott

In response, Nazi officials and Zionist organizations negotiated the Haavara Agreement, signed on 25 August 1933.

Under the deal:

• German Jews could sell their homes, businesses, and assets in Germany.
• The proceeds were used by a Zionist-controlled organization to purchase essential German-manufactured goods.
• The Nazis allowed these Jews to emigrate to British Mandatory Palestine.
• The goods were shipped to Palestine, and the emigrating Jews received a portion of their money and the value of these goods once they arrived (roughly 43% after deductions for communal projects).

It was a win-win-win situation:

• Zionists gained tens of thousands of Jewish settlers plus economic support for the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine).
• Nazis broke the international boycott, boosted German exports, and facilitated Jewish emigration.
• ~60,000 German Jews escaped persecution at a time when almost no other country would take them.

The agreement operated until 1939 and provided a substantial export market for German factories while helping seed the early Jewish economy in Palestine.

→ Full Wikipedia page: Haavara Agreement

→ Edwin Black’s 1984 book: The Transfer Agreement

Some argue this early cooperation laid groundwork for Israel’s state-building. Others point to longer-term visions like the Yinon Plan. This is a 1982 Israeli strategic paper by Oded Yinon that called for the fragmentation of Arab states into ethnic and religious groupings to ensure Israeli regional dominance (an idea often linked in public debate and theories to broader “Greater Israel” concepts).

→ Yinon Plan

A documented deal between the Third Reich and Zionist groups that transferred both Jewish people and German industrial goods to Palestine, decades before Israel declared independence in 1948.

What do you make of it?

Was it cynical pragmatism in a desperate time, or Zionists leveraging antisemitism to bring Jews to Israel?