Writing Madagascar Back into the Madagascar Plan

摘要

For all that is known of the infamous “Madagascar Plan” to send European Jews to the Indian Ocean, both its origins and its dénouement remain shrouded in mystery. On the basis of primary research in archives and libraries in Madagascar, the author of this article suggests that the Madagascar Plan rested upon a widely held belief that the Malagasy claimed a distant Jewish ancestry. He then shows how local authorities, contexts, and actors contributed to the demise of the project in the 1930s.