The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 (109 page)

81. The contrary interpretations of Polish anti-Semitism before and during the Holocaust on the one hand and of Jewish anti-Polish attitudes on the other by Jewish and Polish historians respectively have not lost their pugnacity with the passage of time. On the overall issue see, among others, Michael R. Marries,
The Holocaust in History
(New York, 1987), pp. 96ff. On a typically mythical rendition of Jewish attitudes see David Engel, “Lwów, 1918: The Transmutation of a Symbol and its Legacy in the Holocaust,” in
Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath
, ed. Joshua D. Zimmerman (New Brunswick, 2003), pp. 32ff.

82. Anna Landau-Czajka, “The Jewish Question in Poland: Views Expressed in the Catholic Press between the Two World Wars,”
Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry
11 (1998), p. 263.

83. Ibid., p. 265.

84. Quoted in Brian Porter, “Making a Space for Antisemitism: The Catholic Hierarchy and the Jews in the Early Twentieth Century,”
Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry
16 (2003), p. 420. For Hlond’s pastoral letter and other such texts, see also Viktoria Pollmann,
Untermieter im Christlichen Haus: Die Kirche und die “jüdische Frage” anhand der Bistumspredigte der Metropolie Krakau 1926–1935
(Wiesbaden, 2001).

85. Porter, “Making a Space for Antisemitism,” p. 420.

86. See in particular Yisrael Gutman, “Polish Antisemitism Between the Wars: An Overview,” in
The Jews of Poland Between Two World Wars
, ed. Yisrael Gutman et al. (Hanover, NH, 1989), pp. 97ff. See also the somewhat apologetic article by Roman Wapinski, “The Endecja and the Jewish Question,”
Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry
12 (1999), pp. 271ff.

87. See for example the energetic intervention of the Polish government against anti-Semitic rabble-rousing in Lwow, in 1929, in part incited by church authorities and triggered by fictitious Jewish profanation of Catholic rituals. Antony Polonsky, “A Failed Pogrom: The Demonstrations in Lwow, June 1929,” in
The Jews of Poland Between Two World Wars
, ed. Yisrael Gutman et al. (Hanover, NH, 1989), pp. 109ff.

88. For a generally much milder view of Polish policies toward its Jewish population and thus a far more positive assessment of the situation of Polish Jewry on the eve of the war, see Norman Davies,
God’s Playground: A History of Poland
, vol. 2 (New York, 1984), pp. 259ff and 407ff.

89. Rossino,
Hitler Strikes Poland
, pp. 90ff. See also Mallmann and Musial,
Genesis des Genozids
, and Jochen Böhler,
Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg: Die Wehrmacht in Polen 1939
(Frankfurt, 2006).

90. Rossino,
Hitler Strikes Poland
, p. 92.

91. Ibid., p. 99.

92. Ibid., pp. 99–100.

93. Halder,
Kriegstagebuch
, vol. 1, p. 67.

94. Ibid.

95. Quoted in Omer Bartov,
Hitler’s Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich
(New York, 1991), p. 64.

96. Alexander B. Rossino, “Destructive Impulses: German Soldiers and the Conquest of Poland,”
Holocaust and Genocide Studies 7
, no. 3 (1997), p. 356.

97. Walter Manoschek, ed.,
“Es gibt nur eines für das Judentum-Vernichtung”: Das Judenbild in deutschen Soldatenbriefen 1939–1944
. (Hamburg, 1997), p. 9.

98. Ibid., p. 12.

99. Sierakowiak,
Diary
, p. 54.

100. Zygmunt Klukowski,
Diary from the Years of Occupation, 1939–44
, ed. Andrew Klukowski and Helen Klukowski May (Urbana, IL. 1993), p. 40.

101. Ibid., p. 41.

102. Ibid., p. 42.

103. Sierakowiak,
Diary
, p. 67.

104. Rossino,
Hitler Strikes Poland
, particularly pp. 227ff.

105. For Blaskowitz’s memorandum, see Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen, and Volker Riess, eds.,
“The Good Old Days”: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders
(New York: 1991), pp. 4–5.

106. Quoted in Rossino,
Hitler Strikes Poland
, p. 120.

107. Quoted in Pätzold,
Verfolgung
, pp. 236ff.

108. Ibid., p. 239.

109. For the full text of Heydrich’s letter see Henry Friedlander and Sybil Milton, eds.,
Archives of the Holocaust: An International Collection of Selected Documents
. vol. 11, part 1 (New York, 1992), pp. 132–33.

110. The most encompassing study remains Burleigh,
Germany Turns Eastwards
.

111. For the debate on Rothfels, see Joachim Lerchenmüller, “Die “SD-mässige” Bearbeitung der Geschichtswissenschaft,” in
Nachrichtendienst, politische Elite, Mordeinheit: Der Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers SS
, ed. Michael Wildt (Hamburg, 2003), pp. 162–63. Two major conferences on Rothfels, one in Berlin and the other in Munich, took place in July 2003. See, among other accounts, Rainer Blasius, “Bis in die Rolle gefärbt: Zwei Tagungen zum Einfluβ von Hans Rothfels auf die deutsche Zeitgeschichtsschreibung,”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, July 19, 2003. For more comprehensive assessments of Rothfels’s intellectual impact, see Jan Eckel,
Hans Rothfels: Eine intellektuelle Biographie im 20. Jahrhundert
(Göttingen, 2005); Johannes Hürter and Hans Woller,
Hans Rothfels und die deutsche Zeitgeschichte
(Munich, 2005).

112. Quoted in Götz Aly and Susanne Heim,
Vordenker der Vernichtung: Auschwitz und die deutschen Pläne für eine neue europäische Ordnung
(Hamburg, 1991), pp. 102–3. See also Ingo Haar,
Historiker im Nationalsozialismus: Deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft und der “Volkstumskampf” im Osten
(Göttingen, 2002); Peter Schöttler, ed.,
Geschichtsschreibung als Legitimationswissenschaft 1918–1945
(Frankfurt am Main, 1997); Winfried Schulze and Otto Gerhard Oexle,
Deutsche Historiker im Nationalsozialismus
(Frankfurt am Main, 1999).

113. For Schieder’s memorandum, as well as for the suggestions of the “Ostforscher” in the 1930s and after the beginning of the war, see Götz Aly,
Macht-Geist-Wahn: Kontinuitäten deutschen Denkens
(Berlin, 1997), pp. 153ff and particularly pp. 179ff.

114. Burleigh,
Germany Turns Eastwards
, p. 165.

115. Michael Burleigh, “Die Stunde der Experten,” in Mechtild Rössler, Sabine Schleiermacher, and Cordula Tollmien, eds.,
Der “Generalplan Ost”: Hauptlinien der nationalsozialistischen Planungs- und Vernichtungspolitik
(Berlin, 1993), p. 347.

116. Ibid.

117. Ibid., p. 348.

118. Ibid. On the scholars and their ideological commitment, see also Michael Falhlbusch,
Wissenschaft im Dienst nationalsozialistischer Politik: Die “Volksdeutscher Forschungsgemeinschaften” von 1931–1945
(Wiesbaden, 1999).

119. For a thorough study of the “Jewish policies” in East Upper Silesia see Sybille Steinbacher, “In the Shadow of Auschwitz: The Murder of the Jews of East Upper Silesia,” in
The Holocaust
, ed. David Cesarani (New York, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 110ff. See also Sybille Steinbacher,
“Musterstadt” Auschwitz: Germanisierungspolitik und Judenmord in Ostoberschlesien
(Munich, 2000) p. 138ff.

120. See mainly Gerhard Botz,
Wohnungspolitik und Judendeportation in Wien 1938 bis 1945: Zur Funktion des Antisemitismus als Ersatz nationalsozialistischer Sozialpolitik
(Vienna, 1975), p. 105. On this operation as such see Seev Goshen, “Eichmann und die Nisko-Aktion im Oktober 1939. Eine Fallstudie zur NS-Judenpolitik in der letzten Epoche vor der ‘Endlösung.’”
Vierteljahrshefte fur Zeitgeschichte
29 (1981); see also Seev Goshen, “Nisko-Ein Ausnahmefall unter der Judenlagern der SS,”
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
40 (1992); Hans Safrian,
Die Eichmann-Männer
(Vienna, 1992), pp. 76, 78ff.

121. Safrian,
Die Eichmann-Männer
, pp. 76, 78ff.

122. Quoted in Dieter Pohl,
Von der “Judenpolitik” zum Judenmord: Der Distrikt Lublin des Generalgouvernements, 1939–1944
(Frankfurt am Main, 1993), p. 52.

123. Quoted in Tatiana Berenstein, ed.,
Faschismus, Getto, Massenmord: Dokumentation über Ausrottung und Widerstand der Juden in Polen während des zweiten Weltkrieges
. (East Berlin, 1961), p. 46.

124. Raul Hilberg,
The Destruction of the European Jews
, vol. 1 (New Haven 2003), p. 208.

125. Hans Frank,
Das Diensttagebuch des deutschen Generalgouverneurs in Polen 1939–1945
, ed. Werner Präg and Wolfgang Jacobmeyer (Stuttgart, 1975), p. 165.

126. On the wrangling surrounding the expulsions from Kraków, see Christopher R. Browning and Jürgen Matthäus,
The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish policy, September 1939–March 1942
(Lincoln, Neb., 2004), pp. 131ff.

127. Ibid., pp. 135ff. In Radom and Lublin, the needs for billeting of Wehrmacht units in early 1941, in preparation for the attack against the Soviet Union, added pressure to the expulsion and ghettoization processes. See ibid.

128. For this evolution, with particular emphasis on Lublin, see Pohl,
Judenpolitik
, pp. 33ff.

129. For the
Selbstschutz
, see mainly Peter R. Black, “Rehearsal for ‘Reinhard’? Odilo Globocnik and the Lublin
Selbstschutz
,”
Central European History
25, no. 2 (1992) pp. 204ff; see also Christian Jansen and Arno Weckbecker,
Der “Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz” in Polen, 1939/40
(Munich, 1992).

130. Czerniaków,
Warsaw Diary
, p. 96.

131. Berenstein, ed.,
Faschismus, Getto, Massenmord
, pp. 55 and 55n.

132. Aly, “Judenumsiedlung,” pp. 79–80.

133. For the specific German measures in Lodz, see in particular Florian Freund, Bertrand Perz, and Karl Stuhlpfarrer, “Das Ghetto in Litzmannstadt (Lodz),” in
Unser einziger Weg ist Arbeit [Unzer eyntsiger veg iz arbayt]
, ed. Hanno Loewy and Gerhard Schoenberner (Vienna, 1990), p. 22.

134. Helma Kaden et al., eds.,
Dokumente des Verbrechens: Aus Akten des Dritten Reiches, 1933–1945
, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1993), pp. 176–77.

135. Quoted in Aly and Heim,
Vordenker der Vernichtung
, p. 204.

136. See Isaiah Trunk,
Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation
(New York), pp. 11ff.

137. Aharon Weiss, “Jewish Leadership in Occupied Poland—Postures and Attitudes,”
Yad Vashem Studies
12 (1977), p. 344. The same dual aspect could in fact be noted in the foundation and mainly in the evolution of the representation (then association) of the Jews of Germany (then
in
Germany).

138. Frank,
Diensttagebuch
, pp. 215ff.

139. More generally, tension and rivalry would soon develop throughout the General Government between Frank’s administration and the SS apparatus. See Pohl,
Judenpolitik
, pp. 60–62.

140. Trunk,
Judenrat
, pp. 21ff.

141. Weiss, “Jewish Leadership in Occupied Poland—Postures and Attitudes,” pp. 355–56.

142. Ibid., p. 353.

143. Czerniaków,
Warsaw Diary
, p. 85.

144. Kaplan,
Scroll of Agony
, p. 57.

145. For these measures, see mainly Bernhard Rosenkötter,
Treuhandpolitik: Die “Haupttreuhandstelle Ost” und der Raub polnischen Vermögens, 1939–1945
(Essen, 2003).

146. The most thorough studies of corruption in Nazi Germany are Frank Bajohr,
“Arisierung” in Hamburg: Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933–1945
(Hamburg, 1997), and Frank Bajohr,
Parvenüs und Profiteure: Korruption in der NS-Zeit
(Frankfurt am Main, 2001).

147. Emanuel Ringelblum,
Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum
, ed. Jacob Sloan (New York, 1974), p. 8.

148. Czerniaków,
Warsaw Diary
, pp. 90ff.

149. Trunk,
Judenrat
, p. 244.

150. Joseph Kermish, ed.,
To Live with Honor and Die with Honor!: Selected Documents from the Warsaw Ghetto Underground Archives “O.S.” (“Oneg Shabbath”)
. (Jerusalem, 1986), p. 250.

151. Sierakowiak,
Diary
, p. 69.

152. For most of the details included in this section Antony Polonsky and Norman Davies, eds.,
Jews in Eastern Poland and the USSR, 1939–1946
(New York, 1991).

153. Letter of March 12, 1940, from Moshe Kleinbaum to Nahum Goldmann, in Henry Friedlander and Sybil Milton, eds.,
Archives of the Holocaust: An International Collection of Selected Documents
. 22 vols. (New York: Garland, 1989–), vol. 8, 1990, [doc. 34], pp. 112–13.

154. Isaiah Trunk,
Jewish Responses to Nazi Persecution: Collective and Individual Behavior in Extremis
(New York, 1979), p. 44.

155. Kaplan,
Scroll of Agony
, pp. 49–50.

156. Jan T. Gross, “A Tangled Web: Confronting Stereotypes Concerning Relations between Poles, Germans, Jews and Communists,” in
The Politics of Retribution
, ed. István Deák, Jan T. Gross, and Tony Judt (Princeton, 2000), pp. 97–98; see also, from a Polish national perspective, Marek Wierzbicki, “Die polnisch-jüdischen Beziehungen unter sowjetischer Herrschaft: Zur Wahrnehmung gesellschaftlicher Realität im Westlichen Weissrussland 1939–1941,” in
Genesis des Genozids. Polen 1939–1941
, ed. Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Bogdan Musial (Darmstadt, 2004), pp. 187ff. Wierzbicki repeats the traditional Polish arguments about Jewish disloyalty, and so on.

157. Alexander B. Rossino, “Polish ‘Neighbors’ and German Invaders: Anti-Jewish Violence in the Bialystok District during the Opening Weeks of Operation Barbarossa,”
Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry
16 (2003), pp. 441–42.