Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews

H O L O C A U S T

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HOLOCAUST

The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews

PETER LONGERICH

1

3

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp

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q Peter Longerich 2010

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ISBN 978–0–19–280436–5

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Publisher’s Acknowledgements

The publishers would like to extend their especial thanks to Professor Jeremy

Noakes for his editorial contribution to the preparation of the English edition of

this book.

Acknowledgements

It would be impossible to list by name all the friends, colleagues, and other people

who in one way or another have contributed to the writing of this book.

I will therefore restrict myself to thanking the many archivists and librarians

who have helped me, as well as all my colleagues, both in Germany and abroad,

who have given me the opportunity to discuss various sections of the book and

some of the arguments to be found within it at various conferences, lectures, and

seminars. In fact, I would like to thank everyone with whom I have discussed this

subject, in whatever context, over the years.

The whole project would have been impossible without the generous assistance

of the German Department of Royal Holloway College, who once again gener-

ously gave me leave from my regular academic duties. I would like to thank all my

colleagues and students, in particular Maire Davies and Bill Jones. A ten-month

research residency at the International Research Centre of the Israeli Centre for

Remembrance and Research at Yad Vashem proved particularly enlightening, for

which I am very grateful to Israel Gutman, who was at that time the director of the

institute. I would also like to thank the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Universität

der Bundeswehr in Munich, in particular Michael Wolffsohn and Merith Niehuss,

to whom I submitted the original version of this book as my post-doctoral thesis.

The whole project would have been impossible without the generous assistance

of the German Department and the School of Modern Languages, Literature, and

Culture of Royal Holloway College. I would like to thank all my colleagues and

students. In particular I would like to express my deep gratitude to Jeremy Noakes

without whom the English edition would not exist.

London and Munich, November 2009

Contents

Abbreviations

ix

Introduction

1

Historical Background: Anti-Semitism in the Weimar Republic

10

P A R T I R A C I A L P E R S E C U T I O N , 1933–1939

1. The Displacement of the Jews from Public Life, 1933–1934

29

2. Segregation and Comprehensive Discrimination, 1935–1937

52

3. Interim Conclusions: The Removal of Jews from German Society,

the Formation of the National Socialist ‘People’s Community’,

and its Consequences for Jewish Life in Germany

70

4. The Intensification of the Racial Persecution of Non-Jewish Groups

by the Police Apparatus, 1936–1937

90

5. Comprehensive Deprivation of Rights and Forced Emigration, late

1937–1939

95

6. The Politics of Organized Expulsion

123

P A R T I I T H E P E R S E C U T I O N O F T H E J E W S , 1939–1941

7. The Persecution of Jews in the Territory of the Reich, 1939–1940

133

8. German Occupation and the Persecution of the Jews in Poland,

1939–1940/1941: The First Variant of a ‘Territorial Solution’

143

9. Deportations

151

viii

Contents

P A R T I I I M A S S E X E C U T I O N S O F J E W S I N T H E

O C C U P I E D S O V I E T Z O N E S , 1941

10. Laying the Ground for a War of Racial Annihilation

179

11. The Mass Murder of Jewish Men

192

12. The Transition from Anti-Semitic Terror to Genocide

206

13. Enforcing the Annihilation Policy: Extending the Shootings

to the Whole Jewish Population

219

P A R T I V G E N E S I S O F T H E F I N A L S O L U T I O N O N A

E U R O P E A N S C A L E , 1941

14. Plans for a Europe-Wide Deportation Programme after the Start of

Barbarossa

259

15. Autumn 1941: Beginning of the Deportations and Regional

Mass Murders

277

16. The Wannsee Conference

305

P A R T V T H E E X T E R M I N A T I O N O F T H E E U R O P E A N

J E W , 1942 –1945

17. The Beginning of the Extermination Policy on a European Scale in 1942

313

18. The Further Development of the Policy of Extermination after the

Turning of the War in 1942–1943: Continuation of the Murders

and Geographical Expansion of the Deportations

374

Conclusion

422

Notes

436

Bibliography

573

Index

627

Abbreviations

AA

Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Ministry)

Abt.

Department

ADAP

Akten zur Deutschen Auswärtigen Politik

AdV

Alldeutscher Verband

AGK

Archivum Glównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich

w Polsce

AOK

Army High Command

APL

Archivum Panstwowe w Lublinie

Aufl.

Edition

BAB

Bundesarchiv Berlin

BAM

Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv

Batl.

Battalion

Bd.

volume

BDC

Berlin Document Centre

BdO

Commander of the Order Police

BdS

Commander of the Security Police

BHSt.A

Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv

Biuletyn

Biuletyn Glownej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich

w Polsce

BLI

Bulletin Leo Baeck Institute

BT

Berliner Tageblatt

CDJC

Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine

CdZ

Head of the Civil Administration

CEH

Central European History

CV

Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens

(Central Assocation for Citizens of the Jewish Faith)

x

Abbreviations

DAF

Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labour Front)

DAZ

Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

DG

Durchgangsstrasse

DHR

German University Circle

DHV

German National Association of Commercial Employees

DGFP

Documents on German Foreign Policy

DiM

Dokumenty i Materialy

DNVP

German National[ist] People’s Party

DVFP

German Völkish Freedom Party

EK

Einsatzkommando (Task Force Commando)

EM

Ereignismeldung (Action Report USSR)

EWZ

Einwandererzentrale (Immigration Centre)

FRUS

Foreign Relations of the United States

FZ

Frankfurter Zeitung

Gestapa

Geheime Staatspolizeiamt (Secret State Police Office)

Gestapo

Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police)

GFP

Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Military Police)

GG

General Government

GSR

German Studies Review

GStaA

Geheime Staatsarchiv Berlin-Dahlem

HGS

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

HSSPF

Higher SS and Police Commander

1a

Senior Ranking General Staff Officer

1c

Third Ranking General Staff Officer (Intelligence)

IfZ

Institut für Zeitgeschichte

IKG

Israelitische Kultusgemeinde

IMT

International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg)

JA

Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung

JDC

Joint Distribution Committee

JR

Jüdische Rundschau

KdO

Commander of the Order Police

KdS

Commander of the Security Police

KL

Konzentrationslager (Concentration Camp)

KPD

German Communist Party

Abbreviations

xi

Kripo

Criminal Police

KTB

Kriegstagebuch (War Diary)

KZ

Concentration Camp

LAF

Lithuanian Activist Front

LBIY

Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook

LG

Landgericht (Provincial Court)

LV

Provincial Association

MBliV

Ministerialblatt fur die innere Verwaltung

MGM

Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen

NA

National Archives, Washington DC

NKVD

Soviet People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs

NS, ns

National Socialist

NSDAP

Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist

German Workers’ Party)

NS-Hago

Nationalsozialistische Handels-, Handwerks-und

Gewerbeorganisation (National Socialist Association for Commerce,

Crafts, and Trade)

NYT

New York Times

NZZ

Neue Züricher Zeitung

ObdH

Commander-in-Chief of the Army

OKH

Oberkommando des Heeres (Army High Command)

OKW

Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High

Command)

OS

Osabi Archive (Moscow)

OT

Organisation Todt

OUN

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

PAA

Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes

Pol.Abt.

Political department

RAF

Royal Air Force

Reg.Bez.

Regierungsbezirk (Government District)

RFSS

Reichsführer SS

RGBl

Reichsgesetzblatt

RKF

Reichskommisar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums

(Reich Commissioner for Settlement)

RMBliV

Reichsministerialblatt für die innere Verwaltung

xii

Abbreviations

RSHA

Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Head Office)

RVJD

Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland

RWM

Reichswirtschaftsministerium (Reich Ministry of Economics)

SA

Sturmabteilung (Storm Troop)

SD

Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service)