Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews (117 page)

Aly et al., eds, Biedermann und Schreibtischtäter. Materialien zur deutschen Täter-

Biographie. Institut für Sozialforschung Hamburg. Beiträge zur nationalsozialistischen

Gesundheits- und Sozialpolitik 4 (1987), 144.

51. Details see below p. 274.

52. Peter Witte, ‘Two Decisions Concerning the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”.

Deportations to Lodz and Mass Murder in Chemno’, HGS 9 (1995), 330. According to

Himmler’s official diary he telephoned the Foreign Office that evening. Further evi-

dence for the date of the decision can be drawn from a marginal note by the Foreign

Office’s Jewish expert, Rademacher, dated 13 September 1941, on a memo from Benzler

(the Foreign Office’s Plenipotentiary in Belgrade) dated 12 September 1941, which

reveals that Eichmann had not at this point been informed about the decision to

resume the deportations (‘Eichmann schlägt Erschießen vor’, facsimile in Robert

M. W. Kempner, Eichmann und Komplizen (Zurich, 1961), 291).

53. BAB, NS 19/2655, published in Ermordung, ed. Longerich 157.

526

Notes to pages 267–269

54. Wolf Gruner, points this out in ‘Von der Kollektivausweisung zur Deportation der

Juden aus Deutschland 1938–1945’, in Birthe Kundrus and Beate Meyer, eds, Die

Deportation der Juden aus Deutschland. Pläne—Praxis—Reaktionen (Gottinger,

2004), 48. Individual documents: Dienstkalender, 2 and 4 Sept. 1941; some days later

Eichmann informed Rademacher of the German Department of the Foreign Office that

it was currently impossible to accommodate Jews from Serbia or the Reich in the

General Government (handwritten note from Rademacher on telegram from Belgrade

Embassy, 13 September 1941, printed as facsimile in Kempner, Eichmann und Kompli-

zen, (291). Koppe’s memo of 10 Sept. 1941 has been lost, but it can be reconstructed from the Brieftagebuch (epistolary diary) of the personal staff of the RFSS (cf. commentary,

Dienstkalender, ed, Witte et al., entry for 4 Sept. 1941, p. 205).

55. Browning, Origins, 426.

56. Fröhlich, ed., Die Tagebücher, Teil II, vol. i. 480–1.

57. BAB, R 6/34, Koeppen-Aufzeichnungen, 21 Sept. 1941.

58. For the context see David Reynolds, The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance

1937–41: A Study in Competitive Co-operation (Chapel Hill, NC, 1981), 213 ff.

59. See p. 164.

60. Fröhlich, Die Tagebücher, Teil II, vol. ii: Oktober-Dezember 1941 (Munich, 1996), 24

Oct. 1941, p. 169.

61. Minutes of the propaganda conference, 23 Oct. 1941, NS 18 alt/622. Details in Peter

Longerich, ‘Davon haben wir nichts gewusst’! Die Deutschen und die Judenverfolgung

1933–1945 (Munich, 2006), 182–3.

62. See e.g. Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) of 20 Oct. 1941 (UPI-Meldung 18 October)

concerning deportations from the Rhineland and from Berlin to Poland: ‘In the

evening a large number of Jews from the Rhineland arrived in Berlin, before being

transported along with a number of Berlin Jews to Poland or other Eastern European

countries. According to reports, the number of these Jews is approaching 20,000. It has

been reported that around 1,500 Jews left the capital yesterday. They are to be trans-

ported to Litzmannstadt (formerly Lodz) and later possibly brought to the General

Government.’ The New York Times carried this report as early as 18 October 1941 with

further details concerning the situation of the Berlin Jews: on 22 October the NZZ

reported, on the basis of a United Press International report of 20 October, that the

deportations would continue, involving a total of 20,000 people.

63. Longerich, ‘Davon haben wir nichts gewusst’! 183–4.

64. It was not only the Jewish apartments that were in great demand; in many cities

auctions of Jewish household goods took place from 1941 onwards. For details see

pp. 287–8.

65. Of the five cities affected by the first wave of deportations, only for Hamburg can a simultaneous intensification of air attacks be demonstrated: between 15 and 30 September 1941 a series of attacks left a total of 138 dead: Hans Brunswig, Feuersturm über

Hamburg (Stuttgart, 1978), 452. In August and September Berlin had again suffered a

series of attacks without—in comparison with the previous year—the situation becom-

ing a great deal more dramatic. In August 1941 only 537 dwellings had been left

uninhabitable (Speer-Chronik, IfZ, ED 99, vol. 1). No bombs fell on Munich in 1941

see Hans-Günter Richardi, Bomber über München. Der Luftkrieg von 1939 bis 1945,

Notes to pages 269–270

527

dargestellt am Beispiel der ‘Hauptstadt der Bewegung’, (Munich, 1992), 67 ff.; in

Frankfurt a. M., Cologne, and Düsseldorf bombing raids were recorded, but little

damage was done; see Die geheimen Tagesberichte der Deutschen Wehrmachtführung

im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 1939–1945, ed. Kurt Mehner, vol. iii (Osnabrück, 1992).

66. The records of the office of the Inspector General for the Reich capital reveal that

in August 1941 Speer had ‘started a further action to clear some 5,000 Jewish

dwellings’, after a first action had been launched early in 1941 and another in

May 1941 to liberate ‘Jewish dwellings’. See Susanne Willems, Der entsiedelte Jude.

Albert Speers Wohnungsmarktpolitik für den Berliner Haupstadtbau (Berlin, 2002),

27 ff., 195 ff., and 258 ff. In September 1941 the Jews in Hanover were forced at short

notice to move into sixteen houses on the basis of an initiative from the Gau

headquarters, which had been pursuing this plan since March; it was planned to

resettle them in barrack accommodation; see Marlis Buchholz, Die hannoverschen

Judenhäuser. Zur Situation der Juden in der Zeit der Ghettoisierung und Verfolgung

1941 bis 1945 (Hildesheim, 1987), 28 ff.; see also report in the New York Times, 9

Sept. 1941. In May 1941 the Jews of Cologne were ordered at short notice to leave a

row of ‘Jewish’ houses in the desirable neighbourhoods, although the plan to

accommodate them in barracks did not come about; see Horst Matzerath, ‘Der

Weg der Kölner Juden in den Holocaust. Versuch einer Rekonstruktion’, in Gab-

riele Rogmann and Horst Matzerath, eds, Die jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozia-

lismus aus Köln. Gedenkbuch (Cologne, 1995), 534. On the deportation of the Jews

of Breslau to Tomersdorf near Görlitz see Willy Cohn, Als Jude in Breslau, 1941.

Aus den Tagebüchern von Studienrat a. D. Dr. Willy Cohn (Jerusalem, 1975), 8, 9, 15,

23 August, 11 September 1941.

67. See for example Witte, ‘Decisions’, 323–4, who provides evidence of the considerable

initiative on the part of the Hamburg Gauleiter in getting the deportations from

Hamburg under way. Browning, Origins, 386, quotes a statement from a post-war

trial before Cologne district court, according to which the Gauleiter of Cologne sent a

delegation to Hitler to demand the deportation of the Cologne Jews.

68. Walter Manoschek, ‘Serbien ist judenfrei’. Militärische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in Serbien 1941/42 (Munich, 1993), 43 ff.

69. Ahlrich Meyer, ‘ “ . . . dass französische Verhältnisse anders sind als polnische”. Die Bekämpfung des Widerstands durch die deutsche Militärverwaltung in Frankreich

1941’, in Guus Meershoeck et al., eds, Repression und Kriegsverbrechen. Die Bekämpfung

von Widerstands- und Partisanenbewegungen gegen die deutsche Besatzung in West-

und Südosteuropa (Berlin, 1997), 43–91; Wolfram Weber, Die Innere Sicherheit im

besetzten Belgien und Nordfrankreich, 1940–1944. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Besat-

zungsverwaltungen (Düsseldorf, 1978), 59 ff.; Fritz Petrick, ed., Die Okkupationspolitik

des deutschen Faschismus in Dänemark und Norwegen (1940–1945). Dokumentenaus-

wahl (Berlin and Heidelberg, 1992), 33.

70. Detlev Brandes, Die Tschechen unter deutschem Protektorat. Besatzungspolitik, Kolla-

boration und Widerstand im Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren bis Heydrichs Tod, vol. i

(Munich, 1969), 207 ff.

71. Peter Klein, ‘Die Rolle der Vernichtungslager Kulmhof (Chelmno), Belzec und Auschwitz-Birkenau in den frühen Deportationsvorbereitungen’, in Dittmar Dahlmann and Gerhard

528

Notes to pages 270–273

Hirschfeld, eds, Lager, Zwangsarbeit, Vertreibung und Deportation. Dimensionenen

der Massenvebrechen in der Sowjetunion und in Deutschland 1933–1945 (Essen, 1999), 473.

72. On 28 September Keitel modified the order to the effect that, depending on the

situation, hostages from nationalist and democratic bourgeois circles were also to be

shot. See Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht (Wehrmachtführungs-

stab), ed. Percy Ernst Schramm, led by Helmuth Greiner and Percy Ernst Schramm,

vol. i: 1940/41, document no. 101, 16 Sept. 1941 (Frankfurt a. M., 1961) and IMT xxvii.

PS-1590, S.373–4).

73. Ibid., 11 Oct. 1941 and Himmler’s negative reply, 22 Oct. 1941

74. BAB, NS 19/2655, Uebelhör to Himmler, 4 Oct. 1941 and 9 Oct. 1941, Heydrich to

Himmler, 8 Oct. 1941, Himmler to Uebelhör and Greiser, 10 and 11 Oct. 1941; further

material in the same dossier.

75. Ibid., 4 Oct. 1941.

76. BAB, 19/2655, Heydrich to Himmler, 8 Oct. 1941.

77. BAB, R 6/34 a, reports of Werner Koeppen, Rosenberg’s permanent representative to

Hitler; See Martin Vogt, ‘Selbstbespiegelungen in Erwartung des Sieges. Bemerkungen

zu den Tagesgespräche Hitlers im Herbst 1941’, in Wolfgang Michalka, ed., Der Zweite

Weltkrieg. Analysen, Grundzüge, Forschungsbilanz (Munich, 1989), 649.

78. SUA, 114-2-56 (also YVA, M 58/23).

79. Heydrich may have meant camps for civilian prisoners, like the ones that existed in

Minsk and Mogilev. See Christian Gerlach, ‘Plans for an SS Extermination Camp in

Mogilev Belorussia’, HGS 7/1 (1997), 62.

80. For literature concerning the preliminary phase of the deportations from France, see: Serge Klarsfeld, Die Endlösung der Judenfrage in Frankreich. Deutsche Dokumete 1941–

1944 (Paris, 1977); Klarsfeld, Vichy-Auschwitz. Die Zusammenarbeit der deutschen und

französischen Bechörden bei der ‘Endlösung der Judenfrage’ in Frankreich, vol. i (Nord-

lingen, 1989), 17 ff.; Ulrich Herbert, ‘The German Military Command in Paris and the

Deportation of the French Jews’, in Herbert, National Socialist Extermination Policies:

Contemporary German Perspectives and Controversies (New York, 2000) 148 ff.; Susan

Zuccotti, The Holocaust, the French and the Jews (Lincoln, Nebr., 1999), 641 ff.

81. On the persecution of the Jews, on the history of the Jews in France and their situation in 1940/1 see in particular Zuccotti, Holocaust, 7 ff. and Renée Poznanski, Jews in France during World War II (Hanover and London, 2001).

82. Dannecker to Zeitschel, 20 Oct. 1941, NG 3261. There were also several thousand Jewish prisoners of war.

83. Zuccotti, Holocaust, 53–4.

84. On their situation see, in particular, ibid. 65 ff.

85. CDJC, XXIV-1, Note, from Best, 19 Aug. 1940, in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 356.

86. CDJC, V 63, Note, 28 Jan. 1941, in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 363–4.

87. This is revealed by a ‘plan drawn up for a meeting’ that the leader of the administrative staff of the military administration, Werner Best, previously a department head in the

Reich Security Head Office, drew up in early April in preparation for a meeting of

the military commander with the Vichy Commissioner for the Jews, Vallat: CDJC,

XXIV-15a, in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 366–7.

88. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 25 und 28 ff.

Notes to pages 273–275

529

89. Herbert, ‘German Military Command’, 140.

90. Ibid. 150.

91. For the deportation of the French Jews, the same cynical ‘argument’ was used as had

previously been deployed by the head of the administrative staff of the military

commander in Serbia, Harald Turner, in a letter to SS-Gruppenführer Hildebrandt:

it was ‘actually wrong’ to shoot Jews for Germans killed by Serbs, but ‘we happened to

have them in the camp’ (see below, p. 300).

92. On these reflections see Herbert, ‘German Military Command’, 153 ff.

93. CDJC, V-8, 21 Aug. 1941, in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 367. Zeitschel was prompted to draw up

this plan by Theodor N. Kaufman’s book, which suggested the sterilization of all

Germans (see above, p. 266).

94. CDJC, V-15, in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 367–8. Zeitschel was absolutely certain, as a

further note on 14 September about the internment of Spanish Jews reveals

(CDJC, VI 126), that ‘in the end after the war all Jews are to be expelled from all

European states’, and hence no consideration was to be given ‘to any Jews of so-

called other nationality’.

95. Dienstkalender ed. Witte et al., 211–12. Zeitschel informed Dannecker, the Gesta-

po’s Jewish expert in Paris, about the content of the meeting on 8 October, CDJC,

V-16.

96. ADAP, series D, vol. 13,2. No. 327, 16 Sept. 1941.

97. See p. 269.

98. Dienstkalender, ed. Witte et al., 20 Oct. 1941, p. 241. For details see pp. 295 f.

99. CDJC, I-28, previously published in: Klarsfeld, Vichy, 369–70. Burrin, Hitler and the Jews, 145, interprets this memo as an authentic reflection of the ‘Führer’s order’ to

implement the final solution; the ‘deportation order’ was ‘also an annihilation

order’. In the interpretation of this memo, however, we must bear in mind that

the reason that Heydrich assumed responsibility for the attack and at the same time

invoked Hitler’s authority was because he wanted above all to protect the organizer

of the attack, the commander of the Security Police in France, Knochen, against