The SS would undertake the expulsion of the Jews from Europe and govern the island as a police state.[30] The Nazis expected that after the invasion of the United Kingdom in Operation Sea Lion that they would commandeer the British merchant fleet to transport the Jews to Madagascar.[29] Many deportees were expected to perish in the harsh conditions or die at the hands of the SS.[31] The plan has been characterised by the historian Ian Kershaw as genocide by an alternative method.[32]