Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (48 page)

The Austria where Erika
Erika M. quotations: FVA, 2617. On the idea of
Lebensunfähigkeit
: Pauley, “The Social and Economic Background.” Figures: Heim, “Einleitung,” 27, 31.

The contradictory Austria
These themes are developed at lurid length in the second chapter of
Mein Kampf
.

Although Hitler did not
For richer discussions, contrast Steininger, “Road to the Anschluss” and Gehl,
Austria, Germany, and the Anschluss
. See also Stourzh,
Vom Reich zur Republik
. On National Socialism in interwar Austria, see Pollack,
Der Tote im Bunker
.

Yet for Erika M
. See Rabinbach,
Crisis
.

Beyond Vienna, the leading
On Friedrich von Wiesner and Jews and monarchism, see Vasari,
Leidenschaft
, 114; Snyder,
Red Prince
, chap. 7.

Austria’s major political conflict
On interwar Austrian politics, see Goldinger and Binder,
Geschichte der Republik Österreich;
and then Steininger,
Der Staatsvertrag
.

The Nazis were never
Heim, “Einleiting,” 31–32.

The rise of Hitler
Ibid., 17.

Erika M. was right
Klamper, “ ‘Anschlusspogrom,’ ” 25; Botz,
Nationalsozialismus in Wien
, 136. A spiritual portrait of the moment is Stefan Zweig’s
Schachnovelle
, in which the action takes place in the year between the destruction of Austria and the destruction of Czechoslovakia.

The next morning the
Hecht, “Demütigungsrituale,” 41, 43; Raggam-Blesch, “Anschluss-Pogrom,” 112, 119; Botz,
Nationalsozialismus in Wien
, 127. Amusement: FVA, 1224, Ernest Pollack. Journalist: Gedye,
Betrayal
, 9–10.

The symbolic destruction of Jewish status
Hecht, “Demütigungsrituale,” 53, 67; Heim, “Einleitung,” 35.

The “scrubbing parties” were
FVA, 1371, Herman R.; Gedye,
Betrayal
, 297. See also Petscher,
Anschluss
, 43–47;
Der Standard
, 2 March 2013; and Botz, “ ‘Judenhatz,’ ” 19.

The Austrian satirist Karl Kraus
All of a sudden: FVA, 3970, Charles H.

What Austrian Nazis managed
See Dean,
Robbing the Jews
, 86, 94, 105, 109. Göring: Aly and Heim,
Vordenker
, 33.

In 1938, some sixty thousand Jews
Figures: Heim, “Einleitung,” 44.

Avraham Stern, the radical Zionist
See Wasserstein,
On the Eve
, 371; Stern: FVA, 226, William N.

On March 15, 1938
Polish approaches to the United States: HI, Polish Embassy Washington, Jewish alphabetical files, Warsaw to Washington, “Notatka do rozmowy z sekretarzem stanu,” 15 March 1938; HI, Polish Embassy London, Jewish Emigration 1938, Warsaw to Washington, 20 May 1938.

Polish diplomats worked
Drymmer,
W słuzbie
, 151; Tomaszewski,
Preludium
, 70; Weiss,
Deutsche und polnische Juden
, 195; quotation of Drymmer from Skóra,
Słuniba konsularna
, 582. Mechanism: JPI, 67/76, Lipski to Beck, 12 November 1938.

The Nazis understood the implications
Tomaszewski,
Preludium
, 114; Weiss,
Deutsche und polnische Juden
, 200. See also chapter 3. The SS had learned lessons from two prior and smaller attempts at expulsion in 1938: Soviet Jews and Jews from the Burgenland.

In European capitals in 1938
The mutual reinforcement is a theme of Wasserstein,
On the Eve
.

The Grynszpan family
Kirsch,
Short Strange Life
, quotation at 82–83.

Some of the top Nazis saw an
See Hilberg,
Destruction
, 1:94–95.

With
Kristallnacht
,
Goebbels
Benz, “Pogrom und Volksgemeinschaft,” 13; Jäckel, “Der November pogrom,” 67–71; Engel,
Holocaust
, 21; Husson,
Heydrich
, 100; Kershaw,
Hitler Myth
, 238; Bajohr and Pohl,
Der Holocaust
, 43.

Hitler did nothing to defend
Friedman,
Roads
, 45. Göring now spoke of Madagascar: see Polian, “Hätte der Holocaust,” 4; Steinweis,
Kristallnacht
, 45. See also Hilberg,
Destruction
, 1:46. Henryk Grynberg notices this chain of events:
Monolog
, 10.

Czechoslovakia was thus like
Ragsdale,
Munich Crisis
, 167.

Czechoslovakia was a creation
See Khlevniuk,
Stalin
, 162–63.

Unfortunately for the French
50 percent of officers killed: Wieczorkiewicz,
Łańcuch
, 296. See Ragsdale,
Munich Crisis
, 36.

Even as London and Paris
Troikas: Petrov and Roginskii, “Pol’skaia operatsiia,” 30–31. Completely destroyed: Jansen and Petrov,
Loyal Executioner
, 96.

Throughout the territory of Soviet Ukraine
Village to village: Stroński,
Represje
, 235; Iwanow,
Pierwszy naród
, 153; Kupczak,
Polacy na Ukrainie
, 327. 1,226: Nikol’skij, “Die Kulakenoperation,” 635.

That was the day that Hitler
Ragsdale,
Munich Crisis
, 167.

Czechoslovakia had no part
Osterloh,
Reischsgau Sudetenland
, 186–98; Husson,
Heydrich
, 84. Seventeen thousand and banking: Rothkirchen,
Jews of Bohemia
, 78–79 and 105–6.

Poland bordered all parties
Artificial creation: JPI, 67/3/11, Beck to Lipski, 19 September 1938. Absurdity: Zarański,
Diariusz
, 225.

Poland looked like a German
Position: JPI, 67/76, Lipski to Beck, 12 November 1938; Moltke to Berlin,
Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918–1945
, D, 5:87.

The destruction of Austria
Segal, “Imported Violence,” 315–17; Jelinek,
Carpathian Diaspora
, 227; Roos,
Polen
, 375. Lukacs is unusual among scholars writing in English in drawing attention to this admittedly complicated issue.
Last European War
, 34 and passim.

As 1939 began, Hitler
Hitler and Beck, Memorandum of Conversation, 5 January 1939; and Ribbentrop and Beck, Memorandum of Conversation, 9 January 1939; [conversation of 6 January],
Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918–1945
, D, 5:153, 160. See also Müller,
Der Feind
, 110.

Hitler’s problem was
Ribbentrop and Beck, Memorandum of Conversation, 1 February 1939 [conversation of 26 January],
Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918–1945
, D, 5:168; Zarański,
Diariusz
, 484;
New York Times
, 25 January 1939. On 25–26 January as the turning point: Roos,
Polen
, 395–96; Kershaw,
Hitler
, 475.

The day of Ribbentrop’s return
This interpretation is more or less standard among diplomatic historians such as Roos, Cienciała, Kornat, and Karski who use the Polish as well as the German sources. These leave no doubt that Polish diplomats were working hard to keep up an appearance of rapprochement with Germany while never considering joining Germany in an offensive war. The idea of a German “illusion” also appears in Korzec,
Juifs en Pologne
, 255.

Hitler decided to eliminate Kornat
,
Polen
, 158, 169, 174.

On March 21, 1939
, Press coordination: Roos,
Polen
, 135. As late as 1938: JPI, 67/3/11, “Sprawozdanie P. Ministra Spraw Zagranicznych z Ministrem Propagandy Rzeszy Dr. Goebellsem w obecności Amb. R. P. w Berlinie Lipskiego,” 13 January 1938. Historians of Germany often treat March 1939 rather than January as the moment of the decisive break with Poland. This confuses the mass politics with the diplomacy. In March, Hitler publicized demands that he knew that the German public would find popular and that he could expect that Western states might find reasonable, but which were already irrelevant to the German-Polish discussion, the main subjects of which had been the USSR and the Jews. This is clear from the diplomatic correspondence on both the German and the Polish sides and unmistakable in the Polish memoir material. The confrontation of September 1939 was never about Danzig and the corridor; presenting it that way requires an indulgently literal reading of limited German sources and the exclusion of two important contexts: Hitler’s prior convictions and, of course, the subsequent Second World War.

The Poles were in a relatively
Satellite status: Roos,
Polen
, 380–81. Pasture: Cienciala, Lebedeva, and Materski,
Foreign Policy
, 148. Honor: Wandycz, “Poland,” 203.

Yet neither the collapse
HI, Polish Embassy London, Jewish Emigration from Poland 1939, Consular Department Warsaw to Washington, 10 June 1939; HI, Polish Embassy London, Jewish Emigration 1938, Consular Department in Warsaw to Paris, 23 November 1938; HI, Polish Embassy London, Jewish Emigration 1938, “Problem emigracji żydowskiej,” official policy paper, 20 December 1938. See also JPI, 67/3/14, “Krótkie sprawozdanie z rozmowy Pana Ministra Spraw Zagranicznych z p. Himmlerem w Warszawie,” 18 February 1939.

Polish relations with Britain
Geneva: NA, CO/733/368/5/29–31; NA, CO/733/368/5/37–39.

When Beck flew to London
Ambassador in Warsaw: Kennard to Cadogan, 7 March 1939; Halifax to Kennard, 8 March 1939, in
Documents on British Foreign Policy
, Third Series, 3:203, 205. For the broader setting: Pedersen, “Impact of League Oversight,” especially at 60. See also Mallmann and Cüppers,
Halbmond und Hakenkreuz
, 27; Wasserstein,
On the Eve
, 413.

Despite Warsaw’s new
A million: Wasserstein,
On the Eve
, 412. Make the case: Shavit,
Jabotinsky
, 221.

Between February and May
Details of training: Lankin,
To Win
, 35–37; Shilon,
Menachem Begin
, 149. See also Yisraeli, “ha-Raikh,” 317; Drymmer, “Zagadnienie,” 71; Heller,
Stern Gang
, 46. Significance: Weinbaum,
Marriage of Convenience
, 146–49. A list of the Irgun members trained is in Niv,
M’arkhot ha-Irgun
, 172. Unfriendly quotation: Lankin,
To Win
, 32.

The men to whom Stern
Bell,
Terror
, 48. For discussions among British diplomats and intelligence officers on the provenance of the weapons, see NA, CO/733/375/5.

Polish military intelligence
There is a broad literature on Enigma in Polish and English. See, for example, Körner,
Pleasures of Counting
, chap. 13; Gondek,
Wywiad polski
, 262–63; Kozaczuk and Straszak,
Enigma
, and Pepłoński,
Kontrwywiad
.

After 1933, Polish
Mein Kampf
, 145.

The Poles could be forgiven
Decisive: Govrin,
Jewish Factor
, 33. 20 August: Haslam,
Soviet Union
, 227. Propaganda: Herf,
Jewish Enemy
, 104. See also Weissberg-Cybulski,
Wielka Czystka
, 520. Litvinov was fired on 3 May 1939.

By chance the World Zionist Congress
Wasserstein, who recalls the scene in
On the Eve
, 427, departs a bit from the quotation as reported by Yiddish newspapers at the time.

Just as pertinent
On propaganda harmony: Govrin, “Ilya Ehrenburg.” Equilibrium and blood: Weinberg,
World at Arms
, 25, 57.

Aside from Soviet
Weber,
On the Road to Armageddon
, 92.

Avraham Stern in Palestine
Stern on pact: Heller, “Zionist Right,” 101. Tank: Shapira,
Land and Power
, 198. See generally Hazani, “Red Carpet, White Lilies.”

Stern was about to lose
Quotations: Mallmann,
Einsatzgruppen
, 54. See also Böhler,
Der Überfall
, 15.

The invasion of Poland
Parade: Moorhouse,
Devils’ Alliance
, 10–11. Bombing: Böhler,
Der Überfall
, 169–72. Seven thousand: Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 18.

The German invasion of Poland
Klafkowski,
Okupacja niemiecka
, 38, 41, 52, 55, 72, 73, 85, 95; Madajczyk, “Legal Conceptions,” 138, 143; Mazower, “International Civilization,” 556, 562. Mazower’s important arguments draw from Madajczyk, who draws in his turn from Klafkowski’s pioneering work, written immediately after the war. Klafkowski’s study was a response to Carl Schmitt, written from the perspective of an international lawyer who had experienced firsthand the practical implications of Schmitt’s arguments.

The nullification of statehood
Virgin territory: Chapoutot, “Le loi de sang,” 330. Italians: Madajczyk, “Legal Conceptions,” 144.

The destruction of the Polish
Massive extermination: Mańkowski, “Ausserordentliche,” 7. See Weitbrecht,
Der Executionsauftrag
, 17. Heydrich’s instructions: Husson,
Heydrich
, 201, 207.