Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939 (65 page)

28. Pätzold,
Verfolgung, Vertreibug, Vernichtung
, p. 221. A precise inquiry into the events in Schleswig-Holstein and in North Germany more generally indicates that the concrete murder orders were often decided upon by local middle-ranking SA officers. Thus in Kiel, SA-Stabführer Carsten Vorquardsen of the SA Group Nordmark organized a meeting with delegates from the party district, the SS, the SD, and the Gestapo in which the decision was taken that at least two of the city’s Jewish businessmen, Lask and Leven, were to be put to death in reprisal for Rath’s assassination. The two were severely wounded but survived. In Bremen five Jews (three men and two women) were killed by members of the SA Group Nordsee after receiving their orders from Munich from the leader of their group and mayor of Bremen, Heinrich Böhnker. See Gabriele Ferk, “Judenverfolgung in Norddeutschland,” in Frank Bajohr, ed.,
Norddeutschland im Nationalsozialismus
(Hamburg, 1993), pp. 291–92. It seems therefore that rather than individual initiatives of low-level SA or SS men, the murders were perpetrated after orders were given by regional SA or SS leaders, who “translated” in their own way the orders they received from Munich. The Innsbruck case confirms the same pattern.

29. Peter Loewenberg, “The Kristallnacht as a Public Degradation Ritual”,
LBIY
32 (1987): 309ff.

30. Gauye, Imboden, and Bourgeois,
Documents Diplomatiques Suisses
, p. 1020.

31. Alfons Heck,
The Burden of Hitler’s Legacy
(Frederick, Colo., 1988), p. 62.

32. Some historians have nonetheless attempted to reinterpret the events of November 9 and 10 in terms of a process of chaotic radicalization in which anti-Jewish hatred as such played a minor role, once the initial orders had been given. For such an interpretation, see in particular Dieter Obst, “
Reichskristallnacht”: Ursachen und Verlauf des antisemitischen Pogroms vom November 1938
(Frankfurt am Main, 1991).

33. Hitler,
Reden und Proklamationen
, pp. 971, 973ff.

34. Ulrich von Hassell,
Die Hassell Tagebücher 1938–1944
, (Berlin, 1988), p. 70.

35. Local Group Hüttenbach to district leader’s office, 25.11.1938, “Hist.” Ordner No. 431, Zuwachs, Fa 506/14, IfZ, Munich.

36. Local Group Hüttenbach to district leader’s office, 7.2.39, ibid.

37. Michaelis and Schraepler,
Ursachen
, vol. 12, p. 581.

38. Hans Mommsen, “Reflections on the Position of Hitler and Göring in the Third Reich,” in Thomas Childers and Jane Caplan, eds.,
Reevaluating the Third Reich
(New York, 1993), pp. 86ff.

39. Michaelis and Schraepler,
Ursachen
, vol. 2, p. 600.

40. For a full text of the meeting see
Trial of Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal
[hereafter
IMT
], vol. 28, pp. 499ff.

41. Walk,
Das Sonderrecht
, pp. 254–55.

42. Ibid., p. 254.

43.
IMT
, 28, pp. 508–9.

44. Ibid., pp. 509–10.

45. Ibid., pp. 510–11. The benches actually carried the sign
FOR ARYANS ONLY (NUR FÜR ARYER
). For a photograph of a bench with this sign, see Gerhard Schoenberner,
Die Judenverfolgung in Europa, 1933–1945
(Frankfurt am Main, 1982), p. 38.

46.
IMT
, 28, p. 532.

47. Ibid., pp. 533–35. Heydrich’s opposition to the creation of ghettos in German cities was not new; in the September 9, 1935, memorandum sent to the participants in the conference that had been called in August by Schacht, the chief of the State Police and the SD explicitly took a stand against ghettoization of the Jews. See Wildt,
Die Judenpolitik des SD
, p. 71.

48.
IMT
, 28, pp. 536–39.

49. Ibid., pp. 538–539.

50. Freeden, “Das Ende der jüdischen Presse,” p. 8.

51. Ibid., p. 9.

52. Lynn H. Nicholas,
The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War
(New York, 1994), p. 43.

53. Walk,
Das Sonderrecht
, p. 256.

54. The Minister of Education…to the Education Administration of the
Länder
, the Reich Commissary for the Saar, etc…., 15.11.1938, Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft u. Erziehung, microfilm MA–103/1, IfZ, Munich.

55. Walk,
Das Sonderrecht
, p. 260.

56. Ibid., p. 262. For the full text of the edict see Hans-Adolf Jacobsen and Werner Jochmann, eds.,
Ausgewählte Dokumente zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus 1933–1945
(Bielefeld, 1961), section D, pp. 2–3.

57. Walk,
Das Sonderrecht
, pp. 262, 264, 270.

58. Michaelis and Schraepler,
Ursachen
, vol. 12, pp. 614–15.

59. Walk,
Das Sonderrecht
, p. 261.

60. Criminal police Memmingen to the Mayor of Memmingen, 10.11.1938 (Himmler Archives, Document Center Berlin, microfilm No. 270, Roll 2), LBI, New York, microfilm 133g.

61. Sauer,
Dokumente
, vol. 2, pp. 47–49. Although the seizure of archives took place immediately all over the Reich, some of the local SA and police units may not have hurried to transfer them to the Gestapo. On May 5, 1939, an order was issued by SA Headquarters in Munich to all regional and local units that Jewish archives seized during the November 1938 action had to be delivered as they were to the Gestapo. Himmler Archives, Berlin Document Center, microfilm No. 269, Roll 1 (LBI, NY 133f).

62. Susanne Heim and Götz Aly, “Staatliche Ordnung und ‘Organische Lösung’: Die Rede Hermann Görings ‘über die Judenfrage’ vom 6 Dezember 1938,”
Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung
2 (1993): 387.

63. Ibid., 391–92.

64. Ibid., 384.

65. Ibid., 393ff.

66. Ibid., 387.

67. Ibid., 384.

68. Ibid., 385–86.

69. Ibid., 386.

70. Ibid., 387–88.

71. Gestapo Würzburg to office heads…9.12.1938, Himmler Archives, LBI, New York, pp. 133ff.

72. Frick to Reichsstatthalter, Interior Ministers of the Länder,…4.12.1938, Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft u. Erziehung, microfilm MA 103/1. IfZ, Munich.

73. Department East, memorandum, 13.12.1938, Amt Osten, microfilm MA 128/3 IfZ, Munich.

74. A summary of the meeting, uncovered in the Hamburg municipal archives, was first published in 1991. See Susanne Heim and Götz Aly, eds.,
Beiträge zur Nationalsozialistischen Gesundheits- und Sozialpolitik
, vol. 9,
Bevölkerungsstruktur und Massenmord: Neue Dokumente zur deutschen Politik der Jahre 1938–1945
(Berlin, 1991), pp. 15ff.

75. For Göring’s decree see Michaelis and Schraepler,
Ursachen
, vol. 12, pp. 615–16; see also Ursula Büttner, “The Persecution of Chistian-Jewish Families in the Third Reich,”
LBIY
34 (1989): 284.

76. Klepper,
Unter dem Schatten deiner Flügel
, p. 726. Quoted and translated in Büttner, “The Persecution of Christian-Jewish Families,” 284.

77. Sauer,
Dokumente
, vol. 2, p. 84.

78. Walk,
Das Sonderrecht
, p. 292.

79. Alexander Kirk to Secretary of State, May 11, 1939, in Mendelsohn,
The Holocaust
, vol. 1, pp. 189–90.

80. Walk,
Das Sonderrecht
, p. 275.

81. Minister of Justice, 15.2.1939, Reichsjustizministerium, Fa 195/1939, IfZ, Munich.

82. Minister of Justice to the President of the Reich Supreme Court,…7.3.1939, idem.

83.
Heinrich Himmler, Geheimreden 1933 bis 1945 und andere Ansprachen
, ed. Bradley F. Smith and Agnes F. Peterson (Berlin, 1974), pp. 37–38.

84. Walk,
Das Sonderrecht
, p. 137.

85.
Akten der Parteikanzlei der NSDAP
(abstracts), part 1, vol. 2, p. 247.

86. Schmitthenner to the Minister of Religion and Education, Karlsruhe, 10.11.1938, Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft u. Erziehung microfilm MA 103/1, IfZ, Munich.

87. Minister of Religion and Education, Karlsruhe, to the Reich Ministry of Education, 24.11.1938, idem.

88. Pätzold,
Verfolgung, Vertreibung, Vernichtung
, p. 222.

89. Sauer,
Dokumente
, vol. 1, p. 246.

90. District Leader Neustadt a. d. Aisch to Fritz Kestler, Ühlfeld, 21.11.1938 (Himmler Archives, Berlin Document Center, microfilm No. 270, Roll 2), LBI, New York, microfilm 133g.

91. Ogilvie-Forbes to Halifax, Nov. 16, 1938,
Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1938, Third Series
, vol. 3,
1938–39
, (London, 1950), pp. 275–76.

92. De Montbas to Bonnet, 15.11.38,
Documents Diplomatiques Français 1932–1939
, 2nd series (1936–1939), vol. 12 (3 Octobre-30 Novembre 1938) (Paris, 1978), p. 570.

93. Kulka, “Public Opinion in Nazi Germany,” p. 138.

94.
Deutschlandberichte
5 (1938): 1352ff. For the excerpt and translation see Detlev J. K. Peukert,
Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition and Racism in Everyday Life
(New Haven, Conn., 1987), p. 59.

95. Albert Speer,
Inside the Third Reich
(London, 1970), p. 111.

96. Sereny,
Albert Speer
, p. 164.

97. Ibid.

98. Ibid., p. 165.

99. Gutteridge,
Open Thy Mouth for the Dumb!
pp. 188–89ff.

100. Report, 8.12.1938,
Die Kirchliche Lage in Bayern
, vol. 2, p. 301.

101. Saul Friedländer,
Pius XII und das Dritte Reich
(Hamburg, 1965), p. 70.

102. Helmreich,
The German Churches under Hitler
, p. 294.

103. Klaus Schwabe, Rolf Reichardt, and Reinhard Hauf, eds.,
Gerhard Ritter: Ein politischer Historiker in seinen Briefen
(Boppard, 1984), p. 339.

104. Ibid., n.1.

105. Ibid., pp. 769ff.

106. Hugo Ott, “Der Freiburger Kreis,” in Rudolf Lill and Michael Kissener, eds.,
20. Juli 1944 in Baden und Württemberg
(Constance, 1994), p. 147; Klaus Schwabe, “Der Weg in die Opposition,” in John, Martin, Mück, and Ott,
Die Freiburger Universität
, p. 201.

107. The text runs as follows: “
Um der Liebe zum eigenen Volke willen muss jedoch der Christ die Augen offen halten, ob enge Berührung oder gar Vermischung mit anderen Rassen sich nicht schädlich auswirken kann für Leib und Seele
,” in Schwabe, Reichardt, and Hauf,
Gerhard Ritter
, p. 769.

108. Schwabe, “Der Weg in die Opposition…,” p. 201. Whether the other members of the Freiburg Circle as well as other related opposition groups were aware of Dietze’s text is not entirely clear, but, as has been shown by Christoph Dipper, Carl Goerdeler’s ideas were no different; these ideas had been presented in Freiburg in late 1942. All in all Dietze expressed the themes of a conservative anti-Semitism accepted by most of the German resistance to Hitler—and by the great majority of the German academics. For the anti-Semitism of the German conservative resistance see Christoph Dipper,” Der Deutsche Widerstand und die Juden,”
Geschichte und Gesellschaft
, 9, no. 3 (1983): esp. pp. 367ff.

109. Bertram to Rust, 16.11.1938,
Akten deutscher Bischöfe
, vol. 4,
1936–1939
, ed. Ludwig Volk (Mainz, 1981), pp. 592–93.

110. Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3, p. 532.

111. Mendelsohn,
The Holocaust
, vol. 3, p. 241.

112. Lipstadt,
Beyond Belief
, p. 99.

113. Martin Gilbert, “British Government Policy towards Jewish Refugees (November 1938–September 1939),
Yad Vashem Studies
, vol. 13, 1979, p. 150.

114. Wyman,
Paper Walls
, p. 221.

115. Ibid., pp. 75ff.

116. Haskel Lookstein,
Were We Our Brothers’ Keepers? The Public Response of American Jews to the Holocaust, 1938–1944
(New York, 1985), p. 82.

117. For the details see, among others, Arthur Morse,
While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy
(New York, 1968), pp. 270ff.

118. Mann,
The Letters
, p. 297.

119. Vicki Caron, “Prelude to Vichy: France and the Jewish Refugees in the Era of Appeasement,”
Journal of Contemporary History
20 (1985): 161. According to a memorandum of December 20, 1938, circulated by Sonderreferat Deutschland (Germany Department), the following countries protested against the pogrom, usually in relation to damages caused to their Jewish nationals living in Germany: Italy, Britain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Brazil, Lithuania, the USSR, Guatemala, Latvia, Finland, Poland, the United States of America. Cf.
Documents on German Foreign Policy
, Series D (1937–1945), Vol. 5,
Poland
et al
…., June 1937–March 1939
, Washington/London, 1951, pp. 916–7.

120. Caron, “Prelude to Vichy,” p. 163.

121.
Documents on German Foreign Policy, Series D, vol. 4, October 1938–March 1939 (London, 1951)
, pp. 481ff. The great majority of the French population’s fear of war, and the widespread belief that the Jews were the instigators of a military confrontation with Nazi Germany, were exacerbated by the Sudeten crisis. In September 1938, anti-Jewish incidents took place in Paris and in a number of other French cities. The prevailing tension prompted Julien Weill, the Grand Rabbi of Paris, to warn his correligionists to avoid gatherings in front of synagogues during the High Holidays. Some French Jewish personalities again expressed their hostility to the foreign Jews in their midst, who supposedly were responsible for anti-German incitement. Michael R. Marrus and Robert O. Paxton,
Vichy France and the Jews
(New York, 1981), p. 40. The pogrom of November 9–10 did not change some of these attitudes and declarations. Thus, on November 19, Grand Rabbi Weill declared to the daily
Le Matin
that the Consistoire was unable to make “the least contribution” to the refugee question: the problem could be solved only on an international scale and France could not take in more refugees. Moreover, the Grand Rabbi declared, he did not want to take any initiative “that could in any way hamper the attempts presently made for a Franco-German rapprochement.” On the other hand, the Comte de Paris, the pretender to the French throne, stressed in an interview of December 1938 that the French Jews were Frenchmen equal to all others and that “excluding them…meant weakening the country.” For both quotations see Ralph Schor,
L’Antisémitisme en France pendant les années trente
(Bruxelles, 1992), pp. 215, 221.