Permanent exhibit - Room 5, part 2
War and Genocide in Eastern and South-eastern Europe, part 2
5.4.
USSR 1941: Criminal Orders
In spring 1941, Hitler and the leaders of the Wehrmacht established the aims of the planned “ideological war” (Weltanschauungskrieg) against the Soviet Union. The intended outcome was not just military conquest of the USSR but also to eliminate its entire leadership structure as an alleged “Jewish Bolshevist system”. To this end, central orders from the High Command of the Wehrmacht repealed international law provisions guaranteeing the protection of civilians in wartime and instructed the execution of political commissars. The authorisation of the SS and police to enact “executive measures” in the conquered territories opened up the possibility of murdering political opponents and entire population groups. During war campaigns, leading Wehrmacht generals also gave orders obliging troops to participate in the instructed “war of destruction” against the Jews.
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“In the framework of their duties, the Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommandos are authorised to take independent responsibility for executive measures against the civil population. They are obliged to work closely with the military intelligence service.”
Instruction from Walther von Brauchitsch, Supreme Commander of the Army, concerning the deployment of the Security Police and SD, 28 April 1941
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“1. Bolshevism is the deadly enemy of the National Socialist German people. Germany must fight this destructive ideology and those that promote it. 2. This fight requires a ruthless, energetic struggle against Bolshevist malicious agitators, guerrillas, saboteurs and Jews and the complete elimination of any active or passive resistance.”
Excerpt of the “Guidelines for the Behaviour of Troops in Russia” produced by the High Command of the Wehrmacht, 19 May 1941
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“Jewry serves as an intermediary between the enemy to our rear and the remnants of the Red Army and Red Leadership which are still fighting. It has a stronger hold over all key sectors of political leadership, administration, trade and business than it does in Europe and continues to form the cell for all disturbances and possible uprisings. […] The soldier must comprehend the necessity of carrying out harsh reprisals against the Jews, the intellectual forces behind the Bolshevist terror. These measures are also necessary to nip any uprisings in the bud, these mostly being incited by Jews.”
Excerpt of the army order from Erich von Manstein, Supreme Commander of the 11th Army, 20 November 1941
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5.5.
War of Destruction
The Wehrmacht provided a good deal of logistical and administrative support for the genocide of Soviet Jews. The military administration decided the fate of war prisoners and often on the assignment of Jews as forced labourers. Mobile police and SS units followed the advancing troops with the order to “pacify” Soviet-occupied territories. In practice, this was synonymous with carrying out selections of the civil population and the ruthless annihilation of all those classed as “inferior” or “useless”. During summer 1941 the murder squads firstly focused on persecuting Soviet functionaries and male Jews as the supposed “main opponents”. However, with the interplay of local initiatives and orders from the central authorities these operations were soon radicalised into the indiscriminate mass murder of the entire Jewish population.
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On 11 July 1941, members of the battalion are honoured for their “commitment” in Bialystok by Johann Pflugbeil, Commander of the superior 221st Security Division. |
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A commando of Einsatzgruppe D shoots Jewish women in a pit, Dubossary (Moldavia), 14 September 1941 |
Reports in the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on 24 September and 19 November 1974 concerning a trial of members of Einsatzgruppe D for NS-crimes.
Max Drechsel and Walter Kehrer were given lengthy prison sentences for crimes including the murder of Jews in Dubossary.
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Ahrens called me a lily-livered coward amongst other such things. He accused me of unsoldierly behaviour and so on. Only when Master Neubauer whispered something to him that I could not hear did he agree to release me from the execution commando, but to toughen me up he ordered me to take up position directly in front of the hole (mass grave). I did not protest against this order. Ahrens presumably just wanted to show me that a soldier has to do everything that he is ordered to do. He finished by saying disparagingly: “He’s not even worth being posted there!”, seeking to underline my uselessness for “hard operations”.” Witness statement by Friedrich Herrmann, member of Police Reserve Battalion 91, concerning a mass shooting near Wolkowysk (Belorussia) in February 1942, excerpt of a written record, 7 February 1963
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An die Gruppe A in Riga |
Telegram from Karl Jäger, Commander of the Security Police and SD in Kaunas, to Einsatzgruppe A on the executions carried out by Einsatzkommando 3 up to 1 February 1942, 9 February 1942
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The massacre at Babi Yar, 30-31 September 1941: clothing remains from shot Jews and levelling of the mass grave by Soviet prisoners of war, beginning of October 1941. Photographer: Johannes Hähle (Propaganda Company)
As reprisal for attacks on the German occupying forces, 33,771 Jewish residents from the town of Kiev were murdered in the nearby Babi Yar gorge by forces from Sonderkommando 4a and the Ordnungspolizei. |
5.6.
German Occupation in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, 1939-1942
5.7.
Serbia in 1941: Jewish Persecution and Occupation Terror
Directly after the occupation of Serbia in April,1941, the German military administration began to strip the Jewish population of their rights. The German occupation regime violently quashed any resistance and had no qualms about carrying out mass murders of civilians in the process. Jewish men were the prime targets of such “atonement measures” after attempts to deport the Serbian Jews failed in summer 1941. At least 4,000 male Jews and Roma fell victim to “hostage shootings” during the suppression of the Serbian uprising in autumn 1941. Approximately 7,000 Jewish women and children were murdered at the Sajmište concentration camp near Belgrade in spring 1942 using a “gas van”.
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“ I. Jews [...] §2 Within two weeks of the issue of this decree, Jews are to report to the Serbian police registration offices [...] to be entered into the Jewish register. [...] §3 Jews are obliged to wear distinguishing marks. They are to wear a yellow armband with the inscription “Jew” around the left upper arm. §4 Jews cannot hold public office. The Serbian authorities have the immediate task of removing Jews from office. §5 Jews may not practise as lawyers, doctors, dentists, vets or pharmacists. [...] §6 All Jews of both sexes between the ages of 14 and 60 are obliged to work in order to repair the damage arising from the war. [...] §7 Jews are forbidden from entering theatres, cinemas, entertainment venues of any kind, public swimming pools, sporting facilities and public markets. Jews are also forbidden from entering restaurants unless these are establishments specifically designated for Jews by the Serbian military commanders. These restaurants are to be specially marked. [...] II. Gypsies §18 Gypsies shall have the same standing as Jews. The provisions of this decree accordingly apply to them too.”
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“According to Sturmbannführer Eichmann (...) impossible to put them in Russia and General-Government, not even the Jews from Germany can be housed there. Eichmann proposes shooting them.”
Handwritten note by Franz Rademacher, Head of the “Department for Jewish Affairs” in the Foreign Office, concerning a telephone conversation with Adolf Eichmann, 13 September 1941.
The note in the margin is found on a telegram sent on 12 September 1941 by Felix Benzler, German Envoy in Serbia, to the Foreign Office concerning the planned deportation of Jews from the Sabac detention camp in Serbia.
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“Over the past 8 days [I have] had 2,000 Jews and 200 gypsies shot dead following the ratio 1:100 for German soldiers murdered in bestial fashion. A further 2,200, almost all Jews, will be shot dead in the next 8 days. It is not a nice job! But it has to be done to finally make people aware of what it means to even just attack a German soldier. Moreover, it is the quickest way of solving the Jewish question. If you look at it closely, it is actually wrong to shoot 100 Jews per murdered German when the ratio 1:100 should be at the cost of the Serbs, but we had them in the camp –after all, they are Serbian nationals too and they also have to disappear.”
Excerpt of a personal letter from Harald Turner, Head of the military administration in Serbia, to Richard Hildebrandt, Higher SS and Police Leader in Danzig, on the shooting of male Jews and Roma, 17 October 1941
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Document as *pdf-file (186 KB)
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“Months ago now I had all Jews to hand in this locality shot dead and all Jewish women and children concentrated in a camp. At the same time I procured a “delousing truck” with the help of the SD, which will also have completed the total clearance of the camp in about two weeks to a month.”
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Letter from Turner to Karl Wolff,
Chief of Staff of the Reichsführer SS, on the gassing of Jewish women
and children in the Sajmiste concentration camp in Serbia, 11 April 1942
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“In the interests of peace, the German administration firstly ended the Jewish influence on the public and the Serbian administration and economic leaders and the Jewish and gypsy questions were completely liquidated. (Serbia is the only country to have solved the Jewish question and the gypsy question).”
Presentation by Turner to Alexander Löhr, Wehrmacht commander of the “South-East” territories, excerpt of a written record, 29 August 1942
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Text: Florian Dierl
