Deli Tobacco in Ukraine: The Failed Nazi Plan to Replicate Dutch Colonialism
Historian Michael Miller from University of Miami brought about an obscure history: When East Met East: Dutch East Indies Planters and the Ukraine Project (1942–1944).
The Ukraine Project was a plan by Nazi officials during World War II to establish a colonial plantation empire in Ukraine, based on the model of Dutch colonialism in Sumatra. The centre of the project was the Deli Maatschappij. The project from 1942–1944 failed miserably due to the misunderstood bygone pioneering spirit. The project faced challenges due to the differences between the two regions and the reluctance of the Dutch planters to participate in Nazi imperialism.
Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, and a year later invaded Ukraine. The Ukraine Project was a plan during World War II by the Nazi to use the Dutch colonial companies’ expertise from the Dutch Indies for large-scale commodity production in occupied Ukraine. The plan aimed to exploit the natural resources and food production in the conquered Russian “eastern territory” and compensate for lost holdings in the Dutch East Indies after the Japanese conquest. The main target was the Deli Maatschappij, a famous tobacco plantation company in Eastern Sumatra, which would bring along other companies once involved.
Russian tobacco-growing lands had been a source of low-grade tobacco, which did not meet German standards. Therefore, introducing premier Dutch cultivators who successfully produced the famous Deli tobacco to produce high-quality tobacco made sense.
The Deli Mij was a potential model for the Nazi empire due to its famous pioneering and frontier spirit in transforming jungles into gardens of highly valuable crop and achieving elite status. The Dutch planter’s stern racial hierarchy and use of penal sanctions to enforce contracts to collies were appealing. The romance convinced the Nazi that using highly skilled plantation managers could lead the way in their overseas projects.
The central figures in the Ukraine Project had spent years in the Dutch East Indies, and many Germans were managers or assistant managers of Deli Mij estates before the war. Indeed the National-socialist German Workers’ Party was quite popular and active in Medan.
The three main leaders of the Ukraine Project were Jarl, Salcher, and Kufahl. They were deeply influenced by their experiences in the Dutch East Indies and greatly respected the Dutch colonial power.
The Ukraine Project’s origins came from Arthur Salcher, an Austrian engineer who was the head of the German Reich Propaganda Office in the Salzburg district. After the German occupation of the Netherlands, Salcher was promoted to head all Dutch East Indies plantation firms placed under German administration (Verwaltung). Verwaltungen, or administrations, were often used during the Third Reich to harness enterprises to the German war effort or plunder Jewish-owned firms. Salcher, a former estate manager for the Deli-Batavia Rubber Maatschappij, drew on his experience in the Dutch East Indies to develop the Ukraine Project. The story goes that he proposed the idea to Göring, which was well received. Despite joining the Nazi Party in 1934, Salcher protected a Jewish business owner and oversaw numerous Dutch trading and estate companies. However, his association with Baron Hermann von Rautenberg, who trafficked in plundered Jewish diamonds and jewellery, is a concern.
Friedrich Jarl, also an Austrian who admired the Dutch empire since his childhood in Vienna, achieved his dream of becoming a planter in the Dutch East Indies. Jarl was promoted as a Verwalter, or supervisor of at least two dozen other Dutch colonial firms, including Deli Mij and Internatio, one the largest Dutch trading company in the Dutch Indies. Jarl arrived at Deli Mij headquarters in Den Haag one day and declared that he was taking over the firm.
Oskar Kufahl, the team’s most senior member, had worked in the East Coast of Sumara for almost 29 years. His last position was the administrator of the Deli Toewa estate of Deli Mij. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933. He left Deli in 1939, returned to Germany and co-founded N.V. Dunema with von Rautenberg. Still, his ethics were questionable during the war, as indicated by receipts from Liro and his champagne and wine supplier. Kufahl likely joined the Ukraine Project through von Rautenberg and Salcher and served as Verwalter for various Dutch colonial companies under Salcher’s leadership.
The officials involved in the Ukraine Project erroneously believed they could transplant the Dutch colonial plantation system from Deli to Nazi-occupied Ukraine. The Deli Dutch planters were known for their pioneering spirit in the late 19th century. However, by the 1930s, the frontier days were over, and the Deli Mij was a well-established international corporation. The tobacco success of Deli Mij depends on the use of a large number of cheap labour from China and Java. The hare brain idea failed to realise that the circumstances were very different.
In addition, the Dutch planters involved in the project had no sympathy for Nazi ideology, and many in the Netherlands had already turned against Germany and were avoiding collaboration with the occupier. The Deli Mij failed to see the connection between their history in Sumatra and their plans in Ukraine. They believed they only had expertise in the Dutch Indies, with a reputation for the quality of Deli tobacco that could only be grown in Deli. The German plans for mass production of inferior tobacco in Ukraine contradicted Deli Mij’s values. The head of Deli Mij, Herbert Cremer, son of J. T. Cremer wrote that the Deli Mij “possess experience with work in the Netherlands Indies but in no way experience concerning lands such as Heer Salcher has described.”
Reports from study trips increasingly warned of the danger in Ukraine, with several thousand partisans active in the area. By 1943, the area was completely unsafe, and the Dutch delegation was advised not to come and plant tobacco there.
Ultimately, the Ukraine Project failed miserably in transferring colonial expertise between empires. Ironically, the insecurity that the Dutch planters tried to avoid in Ukraine was what they faced upon returning to Sumatra, the Indonesian independence fighters.
Reference:
Miller, Michael B. “When East Met East: Dutch East Indies Planters and the Ukraine Project (1942–1944).” Central European History 53.3 (2020): 613–635.