It was developed in the summer of 1942 by "The Working group" in Slovakia. The working group was an alliance between Zionists and Ortodox Jews. All of them were accionists. They were Jews trying to save Jews. The main leaders of this group were: Gisl Fleischmann and Michael Dov Weissmandel.
The working group by seeing the terrible future of the deported Jews, started to make negotiations with the Germans.
At first instance, they paid $ 50 000, with the support of rich Slovaks Jews. This first payment make three concentration camps to be converted in working camps, and several Jews not to be deported to those camps.
After the exciment of seeing how the plan was working, they propose to expand their succes and try to negotiate the termination of deportation across the European continent.
Germans accepted to stop the deportation of Jews in most parts of Europe. In late 1942, Germans established the price of $ 2 000 000 for axproximately one million Jews.
Convinced that they would achieve this again, they appealed for the money to the Jewish Agency and the Joint Distribution Comittee. But this did not have to same succes as the first attempt. US said that it was illegal to send money to German controlled territory, so they could not gather the money needed.
But the working group did not stop their efforts... They asked the Germans to lower the scale, Rabbi Weissmandl suggested that he would offer $ 200 000 for the release of 1000 children. The Germans accepted the trade, they transfered the Children form the Auschwitz to Thereisienstadt. And they would transfer them to Switzerland after receiving the money.
The Working Group never finished gathering the money needed for the rescue, Weissmandl and Fleishmann made a general call to the free world to provide the money, but with no resutls. Eventually the children were sent back to Auschwitz and murdered there.
By the lack of economic support, the Europa Plan collapsed.
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