Page 24 - Unlikely Stories 1

Madagascar Madness

citizenship; I knew Romania had no consular representative here. I
dared not keep my American passport; it is long gone.”
The soldier fidgeted. “Sir, I do need to return to Diego
Suarez before dark.”
“Yes, of course. Forgive the ramblings of an old man, finally
able to unburden himself to a countryman. To summarize my time
here before the war broke out, I made slow but steady progress in my
practice, at last detaching from my ego and former life as a celebrated
performer on—how many?—several continents. From that peak, the
seeker has nowhere to go but death or a return to the world as a
healer or teacher. The people here respect a shaman, particularly one
who can establish contact with venerated ancestors. I was planning to
use elements of the old spiritualist acts to cover real applications of
the powers I had mastered. The war, however, forced me to make a
difficult choice. I don’t think it is well-known outside of Germany,
but the Nazis were looking for a way to deport the Jews of Europe to
another country in the Thirties.”
“No, I never knew that. If it wasn’t in the newspapers or on
the radio when I was a kid, then I wouldn’t have heard about it.”
“Well, word of it reached this place without benefit of those
organs of officially-sanctioned information, primarily because
Madagascar was one of the proposed recipients of that vast Jewish
population. Apparently the Zionists themselves, as well as the anti-
Semites, had been searching for such a solution to the failure of most
European countries to integrate their Jewish inhabitants—I cannot
say, citizens—into societies too easily swayed by ethnic rivalry and
scapegoating by religious and political leaders. And the Jews who had
been successful were often wealthy: thus the transport of millions of
men, women and children to some distant exile could be financed by
confiscating their property. In 1940 France was defeated, her colonies
controlled by Vichy, and the Madagascar Plan reached the desk of
high Nazi officials in Berlin.”
Seidell’s eyes widened. “Wow!”
“Indeed, my friend: ‘wow!’” Weiss managed a wan smile.
“Would it have worked? Could the transplantation of European

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