The "Holocaust" (Greek for sacrifice by fire) as we have come to understand and know it was a methodical, brutal, state-sponsored persecution of groups categorized by the anti-Semitic Third Reich as "racially inferior". They targeted groups included but was not limited to Jews, Gypsies, the mentally challenged, homosexuals, Jehova's Witness and others. The Nationalist Socialist Party headed by Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933 and convinced many sympathizers that the root cause of many ills that had befallen Europe and particularly Germany was due largely to the practices, functions, presence and existance of the Jewish community.

Hitler unfolded a formula to institute a "cultural revolution". His vision for a better world and a greater Germany was to generate a master race free from detractor groups. To do so included the extermination of those who could rebate the proliferation of a pure race and the betterment of a Nazi State. Hitler's conclusion was the implemantation by his collaborators of a program termed as the "Final Solution".

Hitler also plunged Germany into WWII and the darkest period of modern history. As the war raged on, concentration camps were established to brutalize, exploit, and murder entire populations.

Much of the world responded slowly to the process of rounding up people and exporting them to slave and extermination camps. However, a strategy formulated by a semi-underground convocation of activists known as the "Working Group" (Pracovna Skupina) was put into play. Their idea was to rescue Slovak Jews from deportation to extermination camps by bribing Nazi officials with considerable sums of money.

An SS officer and former journalist named Dieter Wisliceny was designated as the adviser of Jewish Affairs to the goverment of Slovakia. He was contacted and offered a ramsom of an estimated $40,000 to $50,000 to cease and desist from the process of deporting Jews. The deportation came to a stop. However, there is no clear evidence that it was indeed Wisleceny's intervention that garnished positive results. Nevertheless, the Working Group members believed that their efforts paid off. Encouraged by this an activist named Rabbi Michael D. Weissmandel proposed to also end the extermination process in Poland and to aid those who had already been deported. Two prominent members of the Jewish movement, Gisi Fleischmann and Andrej Steiner had established ties with Wislilceny and based on that contiguity, the undertaking became known as the "Rabbi's Plan", "The Great Plan" or the "Europa Plan". The contigency proposed that the Jews of the "Free World" raise between $2 million and $3 million in hard currency and instiute the rescue effort.

The ramsom effort continued from the fall of 1942 to August 1943. The activists also attempted to aid Greek Jews by establishing a dialogue between the SS and various Hungarian Jewish leaders. However, the arrangement fell apart when the lack of agree payments did not materialize.

Jewish organization institutions in Swithzerland and Istambul declared that the money was not made available because the transfere of funds to Axis countries was strictly prohibited. These efforts by Pracovna Skupinia and others has at times been met with resentment and derision. Although, the intended effort was generally fruitless since only a handful of people were ramsomed, it was grand gesture that left the well-intentioned activist bitter, depsondent and rejected by a portion of the free communities.

Source: Yad Vashem The HOlocaust Martyrs' and Heroes Remembrance Authority