Reichskommissariat Madagaskar

After the British capitulation in September 1941 and the final collapse of the Soviet Union in the fall of 1943, the plan that in our timeline remained only an RSHA memorandum (the infamous “Madagascar Project”) became a grim reality.

In March 1942, while the last Soviet pockets east of the Urals were being extinguished, Hitler signed the directive establishing the Reichskommissariat Madagaskar. The island, seized by force from Vichy France during an Italian–German amphibious operation in May–June 1942, was declared an “autonomous territory of the Reich under SS administration.”

Governor-General: SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Harmel

In 1945, at only 37 years old, Heinz Harmel (historical commander of the 10th SS Panzer Division “Frundsberg”) was appointed Reichskommissar of Madagascar. The choice was deliberate: young, charismatic, absolutely loyal to Himmler, and with real combat and administrative experience, Harmel was the ideal man to lead what the Reich presented to the world as “the territorial final solution to the Jewish problem.”

Under his rule, the island became a massive labor camp and site of slow extermination. German propaganda calls it “Neues Judäa” or “Judenreservat Madagaskar”; prisoners call it simply “die Insel des Todes” (“the island of death”).

Demographics (Estimate, 1946)

• Deported Jews: ≈ 1,050,000 (mainly from Poland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and remnants of Eastern Europe)
• Political prisoners and POWs: ≈ 120,000
• Native Malagasy population: ≈ 2,800,000 (many forced into labor or displaced inland)
• German personnel and auxiliaries: ≈ 28,000 (SS, administrators, technicians)
• Garrison troops: 15,000 (Waffen-SS, colonial police, and auxiliary hiwi units)

Administrative Organization

The island is divided into four major labor districts:

• Antsiranana (Diego Suarez): main arrival port and sorting center.
• Toamasina (Tamatave): rubber and sisal labor camps; site of the largest barracks complex.
• Antananarivo (Tanarive): administrative center and main experimental-hospital complex.
• Toliara (South): graphite, ilmenite, and mica mines; especially brutal conditions.

The Realm of Mengele

His most notorious facilities included:

• Central Experimental Camp “Block Engel” (named mockingly by Mengele himself)
• Mass sterilization program using X-rays and chemical injections
• Experiments with tropical diseases: deliberate injection of cerebral malaria, yellow fever, and elephantiasis to test “Reich vaccines”
• Extensive twin studies: over 1,200 pairs documented by 1946
• Human endurance trials involving extreme heat and dehydration in the southern mines

Corpses were incinerated in four large crematories built by Topf & Söhne (the same firm that built those of Auschwitz), or thrown into the sea from the western cliffs.

Daily Life (If It Can Be Called That)

• Official ration: 800–1,100 calories per day (mostly rotten rice and cassava)
• Labor: 14–16 hours daily under equatorial sun
• Mortality: 22%–28% annually; by 1946, between 380,000 and 420,000 deportees are estimated to have died
• Resistance: small sabotage groups exist (Malagasy and Jewish), known as the “Zoba-Rouge,” but the island is isolated and the German Navy controls the Indian Ocean completely

Public Image in the Reich

In Germany and its satellite states, Madagascar is portrayed as “the promised Jewish homeland.” Color documentaries show “Jewish settlers” happily working under palm trees. No mention is made of crematories or experiments. High-ranking German tourists can even visit Antsiranana on cruises organized by the KdF (Kraft durch Freude).

Harmel, with his immaculate white uniform and Prussian-officer smile, appears frequently in Luce and Die Woche newsreels greeting the cameras:

“In Madagascar we have given the Jews what they always wanted: a national home… under the protective sun of the Reich.”

In private, in letters to Himmler, he writes something else entirely:

“The island fulfills its purpose. In ten or fifteen more years, the problem will be resolved by natural causes.”