Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews (104 page)

21. Lagebericht 1 Jan.–31 Mar. 1938, OS, 500-1-316.

22. OS, 500-1-549.

23. This is apparent from the marginal notes, ibid.

24. OS, 500-1-603, edited and introduced by Wolf Gruner: ‘ “Lesen brauchen sie nicht zu

können: . . . ” Die Denkschrift über die Behandlung der Juden in der Reichshauptstadt

auf allen Gebieten des öffentlichen Lebens vom Mai 1938’, Jahrbuch für Antisemitis-

musforschung 4 (1995), 305–41.

25. OS, 500-1-603, Statement by Hagen, 17 May 1938.

26. Meldung II 112 an II 1, 28 June 1938, concerning the Memorandum Concerning the

Treatment of the Jews in the Reich Capital; cf. Gruner, ‘Denkschrift’, 310 ff.

27. OS, 500-1-603, Meldung II 112 v. 28 June.

28. OS, 500-1-645 US. Bericht UA Berlin v. 29 June 1938 and Bericht II 112, 24 June 1938.

29. Goebbels’s Diary, entry of 4 June 1938. See Fröhlich, Die Tagebücher Teil I, vol. v, p. 333.

30. Entry for 11 June 1938. Ibid. 340.

468

Notes to pages 103–108

31. On the ‘Asocial Action’, Ayaß, ‘Gebot’.

32. OS, 500-1-261 (88).

33. Harry Stein, Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937–1945 (Göttingen, 1999), 23.

34. OS, 500-1-645, Berichte v. 24 June and 29 June. For further details see also the extracts from the reports of the SD-OA Ost of 16 June, 17 June, 18 June. The reports in the

Völkischer Beobachter on the events (esp. 19 June and 21 June) provide an exemplary

demonstration of the attempt to connect the ‘asocial question’ with the ‘Jewish question’.

35. OS, 500-1-645 Bericht I 112, 5 July 1938.

36. Elke Fröhlich, ed., Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I: Aufzeichnungen 1923–

1941, vol. v: Dezember 1937–Juli 1938 (Munich, 2000), 355.

37. OS, 500-1-261, letter to SD-Führer OA Süd.

38. When Hagen, on Heydrich’s instructions, complained to Under Secretary Berndt in

the Ministry of Propaganda of false figures that the VB had given concerning the

supposed migration of Jews to Berlin on 21 June, Berndt informed him that the

quotation of these—wrong—numbers had occurred ‘with the permission of the Führer

on the order of the Reich Minister of National Enlightenment and Propaganda as

arguments for the defence of the Operation against the Jews’ (OS, 500-1-645, note from

Hagen, 30 June 1938).

39. OS, 500-1-645.

40. OS, 500-1-645, signed Six.

41. OS, 500-1-380, Report SD-OA Südwest; OS, 500-1-645, radio broadcast SD-OA Elbe;

500-1-261, report SD-OA Hanover.

42. Ralph Weingarten, Die Hilfeleistung der westlichen Welt bei der Endlösung der

deutschen Judenfrage. Das ‘Intergovernmental Committee on Political Refugees’ IGC

1938–1939 (Bern, Frankfurt a. M., Las Vegas, 1981).

43. OS, 500-1-649, 29 July 1938.

44. OS, 500-1-610, Auflösungs-Erlass des RFFS v. 23 July 1938 and additional material.

45. BAB, R 58/486: quoted in Rosenkrantz, Verfolgung, 122–3.

46. On the history and foundation of the Central Office, Safrian, Eichmann-Männer, 23 ff.; Rosenkrantz, Verfolgung, 120 ff.

47. The Trial of Adolf Eichmann, 9 vols (Jerusalem, 1992–5), vii. 101.

48. OS, 500-1-625, Minute, 16 May 1939.

49. Ibid.

50. OS, 500-3-318, 3 Sept. 1938, Schreiben II 112 für II 1.

51. A military reserve consisting of unfit and limited-service men under 35 who had not

been trained.

52. OS, 500-1-316 Zentral-Abteilung II/1 v. 1 Oct. 1938–31 Oct. 1938.

53. OS, 500-1-630 US.

54. Details from SD report, ibid.

55. OS, 721–1–2555, Report LV Rheinland of the CV, 3 Oct. 1938.

56. Report in OS, 500-1-630.

57. Kershaw, Opinion, 258.

58. Ibid. 259.

59. Wolf-Arno Kropat, Kristallnacht in Hessen. Der Judenpogrom vom November 1938. Eine

Dokumentation (Wiesbaden, 1988), 23.

Notes to pages 108–111

469

60. Ernst Bloch, Geschichte der Juden von Konstanz im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Eine

Dokumentation (Konstanz, 1971), 138–9.

61. OS, 721-1-2555, Report LV Rheinland of the CV v. 3 Oct. 1938.

62. OS, 721-1-630 US and 721-1-2555.

63. OS, 500-1-316. Situation Report of the Central Department II/1, 1 Oct. 1938–31 Oct. 1938.

64. Ibid.; cf Rosenkrantz, Verfolgung.

65. OS, 500-1-549 US, extract from the daily news bulletin—I 12—6 July 1938.

66. OS, 500-1-630 SD-OA Süd 28 Oct. 1938 (according to a communication from the

Stabskanzlei to II 112, 28 Oct. 1938).

67. OS, 500-1-630. The matter was put off until 1 December and then overtaken by the

events of 9 November.

68. Session on 14 Oct. 1938, PS 1301 in IMT XXVII, 160 ff.

69. OS, 1458-1-454, note, 18 Oct. 1938.

70. On the Polish deportation see Trude Maurer, ‘Abschiebung und Attentat. Die Auswei-

sung der polnischen Juden und der Vorwand für die “Kristallnacht” ’, in Walter Pehle,

ed., Der Judenpogrom 1938. Von der Kristallnacht bis zum Völkermord (Frankfurt a. M.,

1988), 52–72. Sybil Milton, ‘The Expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany October 1938

to July 1939: A Documentation’, LBIY 29 (1984), 169–99; Longerich, Politik der Ver-

nichtung, 195 ff.; Bettina Goldberg, ‘Die Zwangsausweisung der polnischen Juden aus

dem Deutschen Reich im Oktober 1938 und die Folgen’, Zeitschrift für die Geschichts-

wissenschaft 46 (1988), 52–72; Michael G. Esch, ‘Die Politik der polnischen Vertretun-

gen im Deutschen Reich 1935 bis 1939 und der Novemberpogrom 1938’, Jahrbuch für

Antisemitismusforschung, 8 (1999), pp. 131–54; extensive material on this subject in OS,

500-1-88.

71. The press conferences and newspaper reports are quoted in Dieter Obst, ‘Reichskris-

tallnacht’. Ursachen und Verlauf des antisemitischen Pogroms vom November 1938

(Frankfurt a. M., 1991), 65 ff.; and Benz, ‘Der Rückfall in die Barbarei. Bericht über

den Pogrom’, in Pehle, Der Judenpogrom, 14 ff. On the pogrom, see also Wildt,

Volksgemeinschaft, 301 and passum.

72. On the events in Kurhessen, see Obst, Reichskristallnacht, 67 ff.; Kropat, Kristallnacht, 21 ff.

73. This is the view of Obst, Reichskristallnacht, 79–80; the central role of Goebbels is also stressed in Philippe Burrin, Hitler and the Jews: The Genesis of the Holocaust (London,

1994), 59–60.

74. Diary entry for 10 Nov. 1938 in Elke Fröhlich, ed., Die Tagebücher von Joseph

Goebbels, Teil I: Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941, vol. vi. Bearbeitet von Jana Richter

(Munich, 1998), 180. Vom Rath, attended to by Hitler’s personal doctor Brandt with

the express task of ‘consultation and immediate report’, had died at about 4 p.m. (VB,

9 Nov. 1938); the arrival of the news of his death in Munich in the course of the

afternoon is also confirmed by Reich Chief of Press Otto Dietrich (12 Jahre mit Hitler

(Munich, 1955), 56) and the Gauleiter of Magdeburg-Anhalt, (Rudolf Jordan, Erlebt

und Erlitten. Weg eines Gauleiters von Munich bis Moskau (Leoni am Starnberger

See, 1971), 180).

75. Cf. Peter Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone. Geschichte der SA (Munich, 1989),

232–3.

470

Notes to pages 111–115

76. See Goering in his speech to the Gauleiters etc. on 6 Dec. 1938 (cf. note 88), in which he attempted to represent the murders committed on 9 November as the result of

misunderstandings.

77. BAB, NS 36/13; also 3063-PS IMT xxxii. 20 ff.

78. This was the purpose of the telegrams that Müller and Heydrich dispatched to the

Gestapo offices during the night. BAB, R 58/276; also 33051-PS, IMT xxxi. 515 ff. and 74-

PS, IMT xxv. 376 ff.

79. Detailed account in Obst, Reichskristallnacht. Barbara Distel, ‘ “Die letzte ernste Warnung vor der Vernichtung”. Zur Verschleppung der “Aktionsjuden” in die Konzen-

trationslager’, Zeitschrift für die Geschichtswissenschaft 46 11(1998), 985–91; and Heiko Pollmeier, ‘Inhaftierung und Lagerführung deutscher Juden im November 1938’, Jahrbuch für die Antisemitismusforschung 8 (1999), 107–30. Distel and Pollmeier refer to

more than 26,000 prisoners, Stein, Konzentrationslager, to 30,000. See also Ben Barkow,

ed., November Pogrom 1938. Die Augenzeugeberichte der Wiener Library London

(Frankfurt a. M., 2008).

80. BAB, NS 36/13; quoted in Peter Longerich, Die Ermordung der Europäischen Juden

(Munich, 1989), 43 ff.

81. See Stein, Konzentrationslager, about conditions in Buchenwald concentration camp,

where a ‘special camp’ was set up for the arrested Jews. The camp staff mistreated these

Jews particularly badly; the days between 10 and 14 November turned into a week of

murder. This violent ‘welcome ritual’ was also performed in the other concentration

camps; but the mistreatment continued long after. The prisoners’ everyday existence in

the camp was characterized by hunger, overcrowded huts, indescribable conditions of

hygiene and theft by the staff. See also Distel, ‘Warnung’, and Pollmeier, ‘Inhaftierung’.

82. OS, 1458-1-98, Annex to the Reich Economic Minister’s minutes of the departmental

meeting of 26 Jan., 28 Jan. 1939; this figure, which has made it possible to correct earlier estimates in the research literature, was first published in Longerich, Politik, 203. These figures have been confirmed in the thorough investigation of this complex by Gerald

Feldman, Allianz and the German Insurance Business 1933–1945 (New York, 2001), 269.

83. OS, 1458-1-98, Aufstellung Fachgruppe Feuerversicherugen und Nebenzweige, 21 Dec.

1938.

84. On the atmosphere; see Bankier, Meinung, 118 ff.; Longerich, Politik, 204–5.

85. 1816 PS, IMT xxviii. On this meeting see also the description in Walter Strauss, ‘Das Reichsministerium des Innern und die Judengesetzgebung. Aufzeichnungen von Dok-tor Bernhard Lösener’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 9/3 (1961) (note from

Lösener), 286 ff.

86. According to Adolf Diamant, Zerstörte Synagogen vom November 1938. Eine Bestands-

aufnahme (Frankfurt a. M., 1978), during the whole Nazi era some 1,200 synagogues

and prayer rooms within the Reich in its 1938 borders were destroyed, most of them

during the November pogrom, the rest mostly as a result of war damage.

87. These prohibitions had already been passed by the Reich Chamber of Culture on the

day of the meeting, 12 Nov. See Walk, Sonderrecht, iii. 12.

88. OS, 1458-3-2216. On this meeting see also the circular of the Baden Gau headquarters, quoted in: Dokumente über die Verfolgung, Nr. 339, commented upon in Adam,

Judenpolitik, 218.

Notes to pages 116–118

471

89. As early as 14 November Department II of SD Headquarters, on the instructions of

Heydrich, presented five drafts for a badge for the identification of the Jews: OS, 500-1-659.

90. Published by Götz Aly and Susanne Heim in Beiträge zur nationalsozialistischen

Gesundheits- und Sozialpolitik, 9 (1991), Dokument 1, 15–21.

91. Amongst other things, Frick made the following statements on the issue: Jews were to

leave the retail trade by January 1939; profits made through ‘Aryanization’ were to be

skimmed off; rent control for Jews would be abolished within the next few days; Jews

were to be concentrated in certain buildings. Otherwise, for the employment of the Jews

there were ideas for ‘labour columns’ and for the existence of certain Jewish businesses.

92. First Decree for the Elimination of the Jews from Economic Life, RGBl, 1938, I, p. 1580.

The first implementation provision of 23 Nov. 1938 regulated further details, RGBl,

1938, I, p. 1642.

93. RGBl, 1938, I, p. 1581.

94. RGBl, 1938, I, p. 1579; the implementation order by the Reich Minister of Finance of 21

Nov. 1938 governed taxation. Walk, Sonderrecht, iii. 21 and 24; cf. Barkai, Boykott, 151.

95. According to Kratzsch, Gauwirtschaftsapparat, 203.

96. Decree for the deployment of Jewish assets, RGBl, 1938, I, pp. 1709 ff.

97. Listed in Adam, Judenpolitik, 212 ff.

98. Fricke-Finkelnburg, Nationalsozialismus und Schule, 271.

99. Walk, Sonderrecht, iii. 56.

100. Decree against the Ownership of Weapons by Jews, 11 Nov. 1938, RGBl, I, p. 1573.

101. Decree of the President of the Reich Chamber of Culture, 12 Nov. 1938; see Walk,

Sonderrecht, iii. 12.

102. Order of the Reichsführer SS and Chief of German Police, revealed in the press on 8

Dec. 1938. See VB 8 Dec. 1938.

103. RGBl, 1938, I, pp. 1676, 1704.

104. Walk, Sonderrecht, iii. 37.

105. Dieter Maier, Arbeitseinsatz und Deportation. Die Mitwirkung der Arbeitsverwaltung

bei der nationalsozialistischen Judenverfolgung in den Jahren 1939–1945 (Berlin, 1994),

26 ff.; Wolf Gruner, Der geschlossener Arbeitseinsatz deutscher Juden. Zur Zwangsar-

beit als Element der Verfolgung 1938–1943 (Berlin, 1997), 66 ff.

106. 069-PS, IMT xxv. 131 ff.

107. Walk, Sonderrecht, iii. 154.

108. Law concerning Rental Relationships with Jews, 30 Apr. 1939 (RGBl, 1939, I, p. 864).

109. Circular of the Reich Minister of the Interior, RMBliV, p. 1291, 16 June 1939.

110. Instruction by the Reich Minister of Economics of 16 Jan. 1939. Walk, Sonderrecht, iii.

106 and Third Decree to implement the Decree concerning the Reporting of Jewish

Property of 21 Feb. 1939, RGBl, I, p. 282.

111. Decree to Alter the Decree concerning Medical Examination and Recruitment of 7

Mar. 1939, RGBl, 1939, I, p. 425.

112. On ‘Compulsory Entjudung’, see Kratzsch, Gauwirtschaftsapparat, 202 ff.

113. Cf. ibid. 204–5; circular of 25 Feb. 1939.

114. BAM, RW 19/2374, 5 Jan. 1939. On the practice of Aryanization see also the case study of Marburg: Barbara Händler-Lachmann and Thomas Werther, Vergessene Geschäfte,