The Gildemeester plan for refugee settlement of the Lake Tsana area in Ethiopia has been received with open distrust in Vienna Jewish circles, according to reliable advices reaching here. Trustworthy sources voice the belief that Gildemeester is a tool of the Gestapo and has cooperated with it for some time.
It is recalled that during the Dolfuss and Schusschnigg regimes in Austria, Gildemeester took up the fight for the Nazis, whom he considered persecuted. Following the Anschluss last year, the banker published a statement in which he asserted that he considered it his duty to help the Jews. He thereupon established the Gildemeester Foundation to organize emigration of Jews, but his office, it soon became apparent, had connections with the Gestapo.
Informed circles consider the Gildemeester plan “absurd.” The point out that Italy, with all its financial advantages, has hardly succeeded in settling 1,500 families who followed the Italian army into Ethiopia. The difficulties of attempting to colonize in a territory where the natives are hostile to the Italian regime, they point out, are quite clear.
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