Authorization letter of Goering to Heydrich, July 31, 1941

On the evening of July 31, 1941, the head of the RSHA, Reinhard Heydrich, presented a document to Hermann Goering for his signature. Goering occupied second place in the National Socialist hierarchy. Adolf Hitler had granted him an extensive degree of power which included the coordination of all anti-Jewish measures. With Goering’s signature, Heydrich’s role as the person in charge of planning the monstrous killing program was confirmed. Heydrich used this document in the RSHA and vis-à-vis other governmental agencies to legitimize both the murders committed by the Special Units and his own leading position in connection with the projected “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” (a euphemism for the deportation and extermination of all European Jews; “Evacuation” meant deportation). Every participant who had been invited on November 29, 1941 by circular letter to attend the Wannsee Conference received a copy.

Original German document (as *.pdf-file)
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     Reich Marshal of the Großdeutsches Reich                                     Berlin, July 31, 1941
     Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan
     Chairman
     of the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich

     To the

               Head of the Security Police and SD,
               SS-Major General [Gruppenfuehrer] Heydrich

                                                      Berlin.

         Supplementary to the task entrusted to you by the decree of January 24, 1939, to solve the
     Jewish question under the prevailing circumstances by emigration or evacuation in the most
     favorable way possible, I herewith commission you to carry out all necessary preparations in
     regard to organizational, practical and material matters for a total solution of the Jewish

     question [Gesamtloesung der Judenfrage] in the German sphere of influence within Europe.
         Inasmuch as the competences of other central organizations will hereby be affected, they are
     to be included.

         I further commission you to submit to my office in the near future an overall plan that shows
     the preliminary organizational, practical and material measures requisite for the implementation
     of the projected final solution of the Jewish question [Endloesung der Judenfrage].

     [handwritten signature] Goering