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

construction of the other

extermination camps in the General Government began only in the spring of 1942,

indicates that, in the autumn of 1941, Globocnik had still received no orders to

make preparations for the murder of all the Jews in the General Government, but

that his assignment covered the district of Lublin, and perhaps already the district

of Galicia as well. 121

The further radicalization of the persecutory measures in the General Govern-

ment, particularly in the districts of Lublin and Galicia, had already been heralded

since the beginning of 1942. On 20 January 1942 the Department of Population and

Welfare of the government of the General Government called upon the relevant

district governors’ offices to provide detailed information about the existing

ghettos and their Jewish inhabitants. 122

In the district of Lublin compulsory identity cards were introduced for Jews

in early February, and in March the papers of those still required as workers

were marked accordingly. 123 From January 1942 the civil administration in the district of Galicia had planned the ‘resettlement’ of Jews unfit for work from

Lvov to the surrounding communities (Gemeinden) in the district. Early in

January the district (Kreis) leaders were ordered to have the Jewish councils

arrest any Jews who had immigrated illegally and ‘hand them over to the relevant

security office to be transported to camps for intensified, long-term forced

labour service’. 124 In practice, this meant ‘extermination through work’ in the SS forced labour camps. 125 The ‘action’ itself, which was originally to take place on 1 March, was then postponed to the period after 1 April. 126 It is unclear whether the planned ‘resettlement’ to the rural communities was a euphemism

for deportation to Belzec, or whether the plans were further radicalized in the

first months of 1942.127 At any rate the Jewish council was ‘instructed to provide a list all those Jews and Jewish families who were not engaged in productive

labour’. 128

Autumn 1941: Deportation and Mass Murders

297

General Commissariat Ostland: The Mass Murders

in Kovno (Kaunas), Riga, and Minsk

From the beginning of October 1941 the Security Police in the territory of the

German-installed General Commissariat Ostland (incorporating the Baltic states

and Belarus) once again pursued the plan already set out in August 1941 for the

construction of a large concentration camp near Riga. The reason it now gave was the

need to accommodate the expected 25,000 Jews transported from the Reich. 129 This wish was authorized by the RSHA. In the further negotiations with the civil administration Franz Stahlecker, the BdS Eastland, referred expressly to a ‘wish’ of Hitler’s to set up a large concentration camp for Jews from the Reich and the Protectorate in the

area around Riga and Mitau. 130

However, Reichskommissar Hinrich Lohse, the head of the civil administration,

tried to prevent this project. As we have already seen, while Lohse was trying to

find an alternative, Wetzel, the Jewish expert of the Eastern Ministry, in his

notorious memorandumn of 25 October, offered to send him euthanasia staff to

build a gas chamber in Riga. 131

On 8 November, ignoring the Reich Commissar’s protests, Lange informed

Lohse about the imminent arrival of 50,000 Jews, 25,000 each for Riga and Minsk.

The first transport would arrive in Riga on 19 November. As the construction of

the planned concentration camp had not advanced in the meantime, the first five

Riga transports could be redirected to the ghetto in Kovno (Kaunas). There was

also, Lange wrote, a temporary possibility of accommodation in Jungfernhof

(Jumpravmuiza), in the grounds of a former airport. 132 The following day, Lohse’s political adviser, Friedrich Trampedach, wrote to the Eastern Ministry with a

request to stop these transports as ‘Jewish camps must be moved considerably

further to the East’. 133 The Eastern Ministry replied immediately that the camps in Riga and Minsk were only temporary measures: ‘Jews are going further East . . .

Hence no concerns.’134

A short time before, another message from the Eastern Ministry had reached

Lohse’s office, in which the Reich Commissar had been asked to respond to

accusations from the RSHA that he had ‘prohibited the executions of Jews in

Libau’. On 7 November Lohse’s adviser Trampedach had also, in response to

complaints from Wehrmacht authorities, instructed the District Commissar of

Vilnius to prevent further shootings of Jewish skilled workers; in a file note he had

demanded ‘fundamental instructions’ on this matter. Moreover, early in Novem-

ber a complaint from District Commissar Kube concerning murder actions

carried out by the SS in Belarus had reached Lohse. 135 Thus, there were reasons enough for Lohse to request fundamental clarification about further action in the

‘Jewish question’.

298

Final Solution on a European Scale, 1941

Lohse reacted to these objections on 15 November. He made it clear to the

Eastern Ministry that he had banned the ‘arbitrary executions of Jews in Libau’

because ‘the manner of their execution had been unacceptable’. Lohse now

requested the Eastern Ministry for clarification about whether its position could

be understood as being ‘that all the Jews in the Ostland are to be liquidated’, and

whether this was to occur ‘without concern for age and sex and economic interests’

(e.g the Wehrmacht’s interest in ‘skilled workers in munitions factories’). 136

The reply from the Eastern Ministry reached Riga on 22 December: referring

to ‘oral discussions’ that had taken place in the meantime, it was stated that

‘economic concerns . . . should be fundamentally disregarded in dealing with

the problem’. All doubtful cases were to be resolved directly with the HSSPF.

Thereupon Lohse abandoned his protest. 137

This clear answer from the Eastern Ministry had come after Rosenberg had had

a conversation with Himmler lasting several hours, concerning Judenpolitik

amongst other things. 138 Three days later, at a press conference in the Eastern Ministry, Rosenberg had delivered his confidential declaration, already mentioned

above, in which he had spoken openly of the ‘biological extermination of the

whole of Jewry in Europe’, and stated that ‘they were to be forced over the Urals or

otherwise exterminated’. 139

The first transport to the Minsk ghetto left Hamburg on 8 November. 140 The previous day the German Security Police and auxiliaries had murdered some

12,000 inhabitants of the Minsk ghetto in a ‘large action’. The Jews from the

Reich were now placed in their accommodation. Protests against the deportations

came from various sources: the commanders of the Army Group Centre, Field-

Marshall von Bock, and the Wehrmacht Commander Ostland