Himmler’s notes on a meeting of 24 November 1941 in Friedrichsruh with Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary (Staatssekretär) at the Reich Ministry of the Interior, including the entry:
“Jewish question are [sic!] mine"
(RGVA Moskwa)
Permanent exhibit - Room 8
Authorities participating in the Conference
Many offices were involved in anti-Jewish policy. The general structure of this policy was initially laid down by the Interior Ministry. In January 1939 Hermann Göring gave Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the Security Police and the SS Security Service (SD), the responsibility for preparing the expulsion of Jews from the German Reich. During the war the SS increasingly assumed the leading role in anti-Jewish persecution measures. Heydrich was now working on a “total solution to the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe“.
From autumn 1941, representatives of the authorities involved presented their various standpoints at a close succession of meetings. Along with competition for responsibility, there was conflict over the exact steps to take in implementing the process of murder and a possible extension of the definition of the term “Jew” (Judenbegriff). On 29 November 1941 Heydrich convened, for this reason, a major meeting which eventually took place on 20 January 1942.
The 15 participants represented the SS and police bodies, the NSDAP, a number of ministries and the occupying administrations in the areas of Eastern Europe under German rule. As members of the functional elite of the National Socialist regime they advised the political leaders. They were to translate political goals into administrative action.
8.1.
Announcement and Postponement of the Conference
The meeting was originally scheduled for 9 December 1941. However, this was the day when Hitler wanted to announce the declaration of war on the USA at a Reichstag session. Roland Freisler, Reinhard Heydrich, Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger and Alfred Meyer were members of the Reichstag and Wilhelm Kritzinger was frequently present at Reichstag sessions. For this reason the meeting was postponed at short notice to 20 January 1942.
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Himmler’s notes on a meeting of 24 November 1941 in Friedrichsruh with Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary (Staatssekretär) at the Reich Ministry of the Interior, including the entry:
“Jewish question are [sic!] mine"
(RGVA Moskwa) |
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Reichsführer SS and Head of German Police at the Reich Ministry of the Interior, Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of Germandom Heinrich Himmler
Reich Security Main Office Head of the Security Police and the SD, SS-Obergruppenführer and Police General Reinhard Heydrich, Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia Department IV: Investigating and Combating Opponents (Secret State Police = Gestapo) SS-Gruppenführer and Major General of Police Heinrich Müller Section IV B 4: Jewish Affairs and Expulsions SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann
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Karl Hermann Frank, State Secretary in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (second from left); Reinhard Heydrich, Acting Reich Protector (third from left); and Heinrich Müller, Head of the Gestapo (fourth from left), at a meeting in Prague around 1941-42 |
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Adolf Eichmann,
head of the Gestapo’s “Jewish section”, around 1940
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Reich Security Main Office (RSHA)
Headquarters of surveillance, persecution and terror in Europe. Departments and responsibilities included the domestic and foreign secret service of the NSDAP (SD), the fight against political opponents (Gestapo), the fight against crime (criminal investigation department), passport matters, and immigration and border police. Role in persecution of the Jews:
- Control of Jewish organisations - Policy of forced expulsion of German and Austrian Jews - Sending Jews to concentration camps following the November pogrom in 1938 - Deportation to the ghettos of Eastern Europe, later to the extermination sites - Responsible for drawing up a plan for the Final Solution - Inciting pogroms in the occupied territories - Mass shootings, initially in the occupied Soviet Union - Establishment and control of the Theresienstadt ghetto
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Letter of 29 November 1941 from Heydrich to SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann, SS Race and Resettlement Main Office, inviting him to the planned meeting on 9 December 1941:
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Chief of the Security Police Berlin SW 11, 29 November 1941 and SD Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8 IV B 4 -3076/41g (1180) phone [etc]
Personal.
To Gruppenführer Hoffmann [wrongly spelled “ff”] Race and Resettlement Main Office Berlin
Dear Hoffmann!
On 31 July 1941, the Reich Marshal of the Großdeutsches Reich has commissioned me, together with other pertinent central agencies involved, to carry out all necessary preparations in regard to organizational, practical and material measures requisite for the total solution of the Jewish question in Europe, and to submit to him in the near future a general outline thereof. I am enclosing with my letter a photocopy of this order. Considering the exceptional importance of these measures, and in order to reach a common agreement on all aspects connected with this final solution among the central agencies concerned, I suggest that we’ll make these problems a matter of joint discussion, especially because since 15 October 1941 Jews are already continuously being transported from the territory of the Reich, including the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, to the East.
I therefore invite you to attend such a meeting, to be followed by breakfast, on 9 December 1941 at noon, at the office of the International Criminal Police Commission, Berlin, Am Kleinen Wannsee No. 16 [handwritten crossed out and corrected to] Am Großen Wannsee Nr. 56/58. [handwritten marginal note: According to a tel. call of Sturmbannführer Günther at 4 December 1941 street changed]. I have sent similar letters to Governor General Dr Frank, Gauleiter Dr Meyer, State Secretaries Stuckart, Dr Schlegelberger, Gutterer and Neumann as well as Reich Administrative Director Dr Leibbrandt, Undersecretary Luther, SS-Obergruppenführer Krüger, SS-Gruppenführer Greifelt, SS-Oberführer Klopfer, and Permanent Secretary Kritzinger.
Heil Hitler! Yours, Heydrich [handwritten signed]) Enclosure: 1 |
Reply from Hofmann to Heydrich, 4 December 1941:
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December
4, 1941 |
Letter of 8 January 1942 from Heydrich to Hofmann inviting him to the rescheduled meeting on 20 January 1942:
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Prague, January 8, 1942 Hedemannstr.
Dear
Hofmann!
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Not all of those who Heydrich invited to the conference were able to attend on 20 January 1942. Leopold Gutterer (Ministry for Propaganda), Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger (Higher SS and Police Leader in Cracow) and Ulrich Greifelt (Head of the Headquarters of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of Germandom) could not be present. Franz Schlegelberger (Reich Ministry of Justice) was represented by his colleague Roland Freisler.
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Otto Hofmann (second from left), Head of the SS Race and Resettlement Main Office, visits the “Jugendschutzlager” (youth protection camp) Litzmannstadt, a concentration camp for Polish juveniles in the Warthegau, around 1943 (USHMM Washington D. C.) |
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SS Race and Resettlement Main Office (RuSHA)
Responsible for racial checks on SS members and for “re-Germanisation”. Involved in examining and reporting on resettled persons and immigrants and selecting the East European population. Role in persecution of the Jews: - Compiling an “index of Jews and Jewish Mischlinge“ - Expertise on race and descent - Involvement in expulsion and resettlement in occupied and annexed territories
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