Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews Peter Longerich (grave mercy .TXT) 📖

the solution of the

Jewish question in France’. Four days later, however, on 17 October, Luther

maintained that the RSHA had opposed this deportation ‘because of the meas-

ures to be taken after the end of the war for the fundamental solution of the

Jewish question’. 57 The decision to ban emigration was thus made at precisely the same time as the deportation of the Jews from the Reich began. It was a

crucial precondition for the existing plan of the total deportation of all

Jews under German rule to the occupied Eastern territories after the end of

the war.

Immediately after the emigration ban the Germans began to put in place

the necessary preconditions to involve the allied nationals living in the Reich in

the deportations: in November the Foreign Ministry officially asked the govern-

ments of Slovakia, Croatia, and Romania whether they had any objections to the

deportation of their Jewish nationals living in Germany. The governments of all

three countries replied positively; but the Slovakian government agreed only after

lengthy hesitation, and made it an express condition that its claims to the property

of its deported nationals were entirely secured. 58

286

Final Solution on a European Scale, 1941

The First and Second Waves of Deportation from the

‘Greater German Reich’

In fact the deportations from the Reich began in mid-October. 59 In a first wave, between 15 October and 9 November, some 25,000 people were taken to Lodz in

twenty-five transports, 10,000 Jews from the Old Reich, 5,000 each from the

Protectorate and Vienna and 5,000 Gypsies from the Burgenland. Between

8 November and 6 February a total of thirty-four transports went to Riga, 60

Kovno (Kaunas), 61 and Minsk. 62 Originally this wave of deportations was supposed to have ended by the beginning of December, and to have involved 50,000 people. 63

The deportations to Minsk had to be interrupted at the end of November because

of transport problems; by this time some 8,000 people had been deported to the

ghetto there. The deportations to Riga and Kovno (Kaunas) were suspended in

early February, when the planned figure of 25,000 people had almost been reached.

However, as early as November 1941, the RSHA assumed that the deportations

which could not be completed, as originally planned, in the course of that year

would be continued the following spring with a third wave of deportations. This

appears in a note from Goebbels concerning a discussion with Heydrich on 17

November:64 ‘Heydrich tells me about his intentions regarding the deportation of the Jews from the Reich . . . In the third instalment, which becomes due at the

beginning of next year, it should follow the procedure that I have suggested,

clearing city by city, so that when the evacuation begins in one city it is also

brought to an end as quickly as possible and the disturbance of public opinion

caused by it does not have too long and damaging an effect. Heydrich is also acting

very consistently with regard to this issue.’ In his entry for 22 November 1941

Goebbels noted in his diary that Hitler had agreed to ‘city-by-city’ deportation.

The deportations were organized by Eichmann’s ‘special department’ in the

RSHA, which was now responsible for ‘Jewish matters and Evacuation Affairs’; by

the spring of 1941 it already had a staff of 107.65

Responsibility for the implementation of the deportations lay with the regional

Gestapo offices, or with the Central Offices for Jewish Emigration in Austria and

in the Protectorate, which were controlled by the Gestapo. In larger cities the

Gestapo themselves organized the deportations, while in smaller towns and in the

countryside, where the Gestapo did not have offices of its own, it was the duty

of the local authorities, mayors, and district administrators, to implement the

deportations. Generally speaking, the administrative apparatus of the Jewish

communities was used to assemble the deportation lists and information about

the victims. 66

The deportations required considerable bureaucratic effort, and many offices

were involved. 67 Arrangements had to be made with the Reich railways concerning Autumn 1941: Deportation and Mass Murders

287

the provision of special trains, the fixing of timetables, and the calculation of travel

costs. 68 The deportation trains, most of which consisted of goods wagons, at first generally carried 1,000 people; later, attempts were made to increase the number of

passengers. In accordance with an agreement reached in September, the uniformed

Order Police were assigned to guard the trains. 69

Special efforts were made to seize any remaining property from the victims of

the deportations; this called for close collaboration with the financial authorities.

The people selected for deportation had to make a complete declaration of their

property before the beginning of the deportation; with the final notification of

the transport date the victims were then informed that their property had been

retrospectively confiscated. Here too efforts had been made to close any legal

loopholes. Thus, for example, transfers of property were expressly forbidden.

According to the 11th decree implementing the Reich Citizenship Law, this

confiscated property was assigned to the Reich as soon as the transport crossed

the German border. 70

The prospective deportees had to turn up a few days before the departure of the

train at collection points, where a meticulous check occurred. It was painstakingly

established what the deportees were allowed to take with them; their luggage—

they were allowed 50 kg per person—was searched, and many items were often

confiscated at random. Body searches were also performed. The property lists

were examined, and the victims had to hand over any valuable objects or personal

papers. Finally a bailiff from the local court arrived to issue stateless Jews, who

were not covered by the 11th ordinance, an order for the confiscation of their

property. In this way the legal appearance of these expropriations was preserved. 71

The collection points were rooms belonging to the Jewish communities, market

or exhibition halls, gastronomic enterprises, abandoned factories, and so on, often

building complexes in the centre of town. The way from the collection point to the

station was often covered on foot in closed columns, or on open trucks. 72 This often occurred in broad daylight, as many surviving photographs confirm. 73 The first part of the deportations thus occurred ‘in full view’; it was often the subject of

lively debates. 74

The victims had to pay a special fee for the transport; only a fragment was

actually used for the costs arising, most of it disappearing