Deportations

Following the Wannsee Conference, the Jewish population was gradually deported from all territories under German control as well as from most countries allied with the German Reich. Section IV B 4 of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), headed by Adolf Eichmann, was responsible for the central planning of the deportations. The Foreign Office was involved in negotiations on the deportation of Jews from allied or dependent states. The German Reich Railway (Reichsbahn) took care of transport logistics. The course of the deportation process was determined by how dependent countries were on the German Reich, how willing their governments were to hand over their Jewish population, and the progress of the war. In the Reich, Western Europe and the allied countries, the deportations were characterised by the administrative process involved, which was based on a division of labour. By contrast, in occupied Eastern Europe the desire for annihilation became clearly apparent through an utterly violent and arbitrary process.

From the start of the war, deportation was a key element of National Socialist population policy. The aim was to achieve a “New Order” in Europe through murdering certain population groups, the fatal withdrawal of supplies and the forced deportation of millions of people, including the Jewish population. The failure of the planned “Blitzkrieg” against the Soviet Union at the end of 1941 meant that the murderous “settlement plans” could not be realised. As the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” unfolded, deportation now meant transporting the Jews to the East to be murdered.

11.1.

France

Following its defeat in June 1940, France was divided into an occupied zone under German military administration in the north and an unoccupied zone in the south. The subordinate French government was based in Vichy in the unoccupied south. Its authority nominally covered the whole of France, but in practice the administration in the north was under German control. Administrative structures remained more or less intact throughout the country. The Vichy government attempted to secure its scope for action through collaboration. Domestic politics were dominated by a “policy of national unity” – foreigners, minorities and above all Jews were excluded. After the Allied landing in North Africa, the Wehrmacht also occupied the south of France at the start of November 1942.

More than 300,000 Jews lived in France, about half in the occupied and half in the unoccupied zone. Almost half were of foreign nationality, including tens of thousands of refugees. In summer 1942 the German deportation plans were strongly supported by the Vichy government. In the face of various protests from the church as well as public opposition, that September the regime was forced to dissociate itself from its previous practice. Nonetheless, the deportation transports continued to leave France. The transports were not stopped until 22 August 1944, three days before the liberation of Paris. In barely two and a half years a total of around 76,000 Jews were deported, approximately 32,000 of them between 19 July and 30 September 1942 alone.

Marseille, 24 January 1943 (BA Koblenz)

Announcement by the military commander in France, 14 December 1941, published in the daily newspaper “Le Matin” on 15 December 1941.

The announced measures relate to an “Order of the Führer”. The deportations from France actually began with a so-called hostage transport on 27 March 1942. This transport, bound for Auschwitz, comprised Jews who, following several attacks on the German occupying forces, had been arrested in Paris in December 1941 and interned in Compiègne:

Excerpt from a note by Theodor Dannecker, Head of the Section for Jewish Affairs at the Security Police in occupied France, 10 March 1942

The number of Jews deported from France in 1942 far exceeded the quota determined in March.

(CDCJ Paris)

Telex from the Head of the Security Police’s Section for Jewish Affairs in occupied France to the RSHA, Re.: Jewish deportation from France, 6 July 1942

The RSHA in Berlin did not authorise the deportation of children under 16 from France until mid-August 1942. However, even before then the French police had had children between 12 and 16 deported in order to meet the deportation quotas agreed with the Germans.

On 8 August 1942 the Vichy government concluded an agreement with the German Reich to secure the greatest possible autonomy for the French police. In return, it had to commit to fighting all “enemies of the German Reich”.

For this reason, in August 1942 the Vichy government started to deport stateless Jews from the unoccupied zone. The deportation of Jews from the unoccupied zone to the transit camps in the occupied north was carried out exclusively by the French police.

Letter from the Commander-in-Chief of the Security Police in Occupied France to the Military Commander in France, the Commandant of Greater Paris and the German Embassy in Paris, 7 July 1942:

Faced with vehement protest from the church together with public opposition, in September 1942 the Vichy regime was forced to withdraw its firm support of the German deportation policy for the time being. The regime feared that it might otherwise endanger the essentially approving stance of the public towards its collaboration policy.

The Vichy regime balked at the systematic deportation of Jews of French nationality. Deportations of these people on a large scale only took place after September 1943, without the support of the French police. Only around 30 per cent of all those deported from France were French citizens.

Telex from the Commander-in-Chief of the Security Police in Occupied France to the RSHA, 25 September 1942:

Telex from SS Obersturmführer Klaus Barbie, commander of the Security Police and SD (KdS) in Lyon, to the commanders of the Security Police in France, Re.: Jewish children’s home in Izieu-Ain, 6 April 1944: 

11.2.

Bulgaria

Since 1935 there had been an authoritarian regime in Bulgaria, headed by Csar Boris III. The parliament had limited powers. Through rapprochement with the Third Reich the country hoped to gain economic aid and a revision of the territorial losses it had sustained after the First World War. On 1 March 1941 Bulgaria joined the Tripartite Pact between the German Reich, Italy and Japan. In April 1941, Bulgaria permitted the Wehrmacht to launch its campaign against Greece and Yugoslavia from Bulgarian territory. In return, Bulgaria received parts of the former Greek territory of Thrace and Yugoslavian territory of Macedonia.

In 1943, there were some 60,000 to 63,000 Jews living in Bulgaria, almost half of whom were in Sofia. There were 12,000 Jews in the annexed territories of Thrace and Macedonia, most of whom held Greek or Yugoslavian nationality. With the outbreak of war in September 1939 the country introduced anti-Jewish legislation in line with the Reich. However, this was only rigorously applied in the area of property rights. In March 1943 Bulgaria handed over the “foreign” Jews of Thrace and Macedonia for deportation. The Bulgarian Jews were spared because of protests from the Bulgarian public and parliament. With the shift in the course of the war later on that year, the Bulgarian leadership became increasingly unwilling to bring itself into international disrepute by handing over Bulgarian Jews. Jews from the Bulgarian heartland were thus able to survive

Excerpt from an agreement between Aleksander Belev, the Bulgarian “Commissioner for Jewish Affairs” and Theodor Dannecker, the “Jewish Affairs Adviser” deployed by the RSHA to the Police Attaché of the German Envoy in Bulgaria, 22 February 1943 (Translation from Bulgarian)

In the background: the first page of the agreement

The agreement contained the provision to hand over 20,000 Jews “from the new Bulgarian territories of Thrace and Macedonia”. The Council of Ministers approved the agreement on 2 March, knowing that there were only around 12,000 Jews living in the annexed territories. 8,000 Jews from throughout Bulgaria – with the exception of Sofia - were also to be deported in a top-secret operation. Belev later deleted the passages “from the new Bulgarian territories of Thrace and Macedonia” by hand.

(CDA Sofia)

The more than 4,000 Jews from Thrace were taken by boat from Lom to Vienna on 20 and 21 March 1943. In Vienna they were put onto trains and deported to Treblinka deathcamp.

The Macedonian Jews, over 7,000 in number, were also deported to Treblinka deathcamp between 22 and 29 March in trains belonging to the Bulgarian State Railway.

Excerpt from a report by the Police Attaché of the German Envoy Sofia to the RSHA, Attaché Group, Re.: Jewish deportation from Bulgaria, 5 April 1943

(PAAA Berlin):

Excerpt from a letter from the head of Group Domestic Affairs II at the Foreign Office to Dr Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Head of the RSHA, 31 August 1943

(PAAA Berlin):

11.4.

German Reich

Between October 1941 and April 1945 around 174,000 Jews from the German Reich were deported to Litzmannstadt, Minsk, Kaunas, Riga, Warsaw, the Lublin district, Theresienstadt, Maly Trostinec, Raasiku near Reval and Auschwitz – over 100,000 in 1942 alone. The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) determined the sequence of the transports and issued directives on the external factors concerning the deportations. Gestapo departments organised the exact sequence of events in the various locations. The financial administration robbed the victims of their possessions. Many sections of German administration and private businesses were involved in registering Jews, concentrating them in transit sites, the deportation process itself, as well as subsequently erasing each civil existence as a citizen. The German public were aware of the deportation of their Jewish neighbours. Many made profited from the property stolen from the deported.

Around 10,000-15,000 Jews escaped deportation by fleeing underground. Their life and survival were generally only possible with the help of non-Jews.

Organisation and Implementation of Deportations

The directives issued by the RSHA for example restricted the group of persons to be deported. Jews aged over 65, in a mixed marriage or deployed in labour essential to the war effort along with certain foreign Jews were still exempt from deportation at this stage. Deportees were only allowed to take a few clothes and everyday essentials with them on the transports. They had to leave all of their assets behind.

The deportation destination of Trawniki was changed at short notice. The German Jews deported to the Generalgouvernement during the spring and summer of 1942 were firstly sent to various transit camps in the Lublin district and to Warsaw. Later they were taken via Majdanek concentration camp to the Sobibór deathcamp.

State-Organised Robbery

According to RSHA directives, Jews who were over 65, who had been listed as injured in combat in the First World War or who had received higher war decorations after the First World War were exempted from deportation until summer 1942. At the beginning of June they were transported to the “Old Persons Ghetto” at Theresienstadt. By concluding Heimeinkaufverträge with the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, which was directly subordinate to the RSHA, they bought the alleged right to be housed for life in a home “or other community accommodation, also outside the Altreich”.

In Full View

Excerpt from a letter from the Head of the NSDAP party in Goettingen district to the Goettingen Gestapo, 19 December 1941

(BA Berlin)

Jews who went underground and their helpers

After the start of deportations in October 1941, around 5,000 to 7,000 Jews went underground in Berlin. Only about 1,500 to 1,700 of them managed to survive. Living and surviving underground were generally only possible with the help of non-Jews. The helpers did not have a common motive. Some of them acted out of pure humanity, whilst others sought material advantages.

Help for Antonie and Adalbert Lieban

Otto Jogmin entered the Liebans, a Jewish married couple, into the register under the name “Lüdeke” and as “Protestant”. After the register of the police station responsible was destroyed by a bomb, he registered them as bombing victims. This meant that they received ration cards. Before this, the Liebans had already lived a clandestine existence for over a year, mainly in the apartments belonging to Mr. Lieban’s “German-blooded” sister-in-law Madeleine Lieban, née Schmitt. After their residence at Zähringerstraße 20-21 in Wilmersdorf had been bombed, all three came to live in Wielandstraße. Under the false name Lüdeke they lived practically legally in the block and could move around freely. Jogmin hid other Jews in the cellars, which only he had access to as caretaker, telling them that they should only stay there for a limited period. The Liebans were denounced in summer 1944, probably by a fellow resident of the block, and they were deported to Theresienstadt on 11 August 1944. They were liberated there on 8 May 1945

Otto Jogmin

Otto Jogmin was born in the Schöneberg district of Berlin on 28 November 1894 as the third of eight children. The family had a very humble existence. After various auxiliary posts, in 1935 he got a job as caretaker at Wielandstraße 18, a street off Kurfürstendamm, and moved into a small one and a half room flat in the rear building. In 1936 he also started to work in the next-door block at number 17. During the war his wife and adopted daughter moved to the countryside on account of the bombing raids. After retiring from his job as caretaker at Wielandstraße 18 in 1957, he and his wife were forced to move into a council flat. In 1958, Otto Jogmin was honoured by the Berlin senate for the help he had given to the persecuted. Otto Jogmin died on 2 June 1989.

Excerpt from an interview with Otto Jogmin, 31 May 1985 (ZfA Berlin)

Text: Marcus Gryglewski

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