Let's talk about Madagascar! No, not the overrated animated films starring Ben Stiller and Chris Rock. Madagascar, the island, once potential home for all of Europe's Jews! You heard that one, right?

The idea of turning Madagascar, a giant remote island off the east coast of Africa, into a Jewish settlement was first proposed in the late 1800s by both Zionists and antisemites. While quickly dismissed by the former, it was championed by the latter. So, in 1940, the Nazis (those fucking Nazis) hatched a plan. France was about to fall, and with it came its many overseas territories. Among those: Madagascar, the perfect place for those pesky Jews! Adolf Eichmann himself championed the plan.

Nothing came of it; the British naval blockade prevented the plan from being executed, and then the Nazis moved on from resettlement to extermination...

Which brings us to Abraham Schrameck. Despite the various desires to resettle Jews to Madagascar, he is the only Madagascary Malagasy Jew of note that we have discovered. Of course, calling him Malagasy is a stretch: Schrameck was a Frenchman who served as the colony's governor in 1918. He then returned to France, became Minister of the Interior, and was subjected to antisemitic persecution.

Somehow, Madagascar doesn't always seem like such a terrible alternative...