168

- 3 -

 

 

         

            The authority for directing the final solution of the Jewish question rests with the Reichsführer-SS and Chief of German Police [i.e. Himmler] (Head of the Security Police and the SD) [i.e. Heydrich], without regard to geographic boundaries.

 

            The Head of the Security Police and the SD [Heydrich] then gave a brief review of the struggle conducted so far against this foe. The most important elements are:

     a) forcing the Jews out of the various spheres of life of the German people,

     b) forcing the Jews out of the German people’s living space (Lebensraum).

 

            In pursuance of these endeavors, an accelerated emigration of the Jews from the territory of the Reich was seen as the only temporary solution and was accordingly embarked upon in an intensified and systematic manner.

 

            On instruction of the Reich Marshal [i.e. Göring], a Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration was established in January 1939; its direction was entrusted to the Head of the Security Police and the Security Service (SD) [i.e. Heydrich]. Its particular tasks were:

 

     a) to take measures for the preparation of increased Jewish emigration,

     b) to direct the flow of emigration,

     c) to speed up the emigration process in individual cases.

 

                The aim of this task was to purge German living space of Jews by legal means.

 

 K210402                                                                               372026

 

169

- 4 -

 

 

         

            The disadvantages of such forced emigration methods were evident to all agencies concerned. Yet in the absence of other feasible solutions they had to be accepted for the time being. After a while, the handling of emigration was not merely a German problem but one that affected also the relevant authorities of the countries of destination.

 

 

            Financial difficulties such as the increased surety immigrants had to show upon landing; higher landing fees that different foreign countries demanded; a lack of berths on ships, constantly increasing restrictions and bans on immigration, all of these impeded emigration efforts exceedingly. Yet despite these difficulties, roughly 537,000 Jews were compelled to emigrate between the [Nazi] seizure of power  [January 30, 1933] and the fixed date of October 31, 1941. Of these,

 

            ca. 360,000 left the Altreich [Germany with its 1937 borders].

            ca. 147,000 left the Ostmark [Austria after March 15,1938],

            ca. 30,000 left the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia [after March 15, 1939].

 

 

            Emigration was financed by the Jews themselves or by Jewish political organizations. In order to make sure that the proletarianized Jews would not stay behind, it was determined that affluent Jews had to finance the emigration of Jews without means. Based on assessments of assets, an appropriate apportionment or an emigration tax was imposed on the former in order to pay for all financial obligations impecunious Jews had incurred in the course of their emigration.

 

    
K210403                                                                                372027

 

170

- 5 -

 

 

         

            In addition to this levy in Reichsmarks, foreign currency was required as security to be presented upon arrival abroad and as landing fees. In order to conserve the German holdings of foreign currency, Jewish financial institutions abroad were called upon by Jewish organizations in this country to make sure that the required sums in foreign currency were supplied. Up to October 30, 1941, a total of about $ 9,500,000 all told was provided in this way as gifts by these foreign Jews. In the meantime, the Reichsführer-SS and Head of the German Police [i.e. Himmler] has forbidden any further emigration of Jews in view of the dangers posed by emigration in wartime and the looming possibilities in the East.

 

 

III.          As a further possible solution, and with the appropriate prior authorization by the Führer, emigration has now been replaced by evacuation to the East. This operation should be regarded only as a provisional option, though in view of the coming final solution of the Jewish question it is already supplying practical experience of vital importance.

 

            In connection with this final solution of the Jewish question, roughly eleven million Jews will have to be taken into consideration. They are distributed over the individual countries as follows:
 

 

K210404                                                                                     372028

 

 

  K210405                                                                             372029

 

 

172

- 7 -

 

 

         

            The figures of Jews in the different countries listed here, however, pertain only to those who are of Jewish faith (Glaubensjuden) as definitions of Jews along racial lines are in part still lacking there. Given the prevailing attitudes and conceptions, in particularly in Hungary and Romania, the handling of the problem in the indivudual countries will encounter certain difficulties. For instance, a Jew in Romania even today can still buy for cash the appropriate documents that certify officially that he is of foreign nationality.

 

            The influence that Jews exert everywhere in the USSR is well known. In the European part of Russia live approximately five million Jews; in the Asian part barely a quarter of a million.

 

            The occupational distribution of Jews living in the European part of the USSR was approximately as follows:

 

Agriculture	9.1%
Urban workers	14.8%
Trade	20.0%
State employees	23.4%
Professions            - medicine, press, theater, etc.	32.7%

 

         

            In the course of the final solution and under approriate direction, the Jews are to be utilized for work in the East in a suitable manner. In large labor columns and separated by sexes, Jews capable of working will be dispatched to these regions to build roads, and in the process a large number of them will undoubtedly drop out by way of natural attrition.

 

K210406                                                                           372030

 

173

- 8 -

 

 

         

            Those who ultimately should possibly get by will have to be given suitable treatment because they unquestionably represent the most resistant segments and therefore constitute a natural elite that, if allowed to go free, would turn into a germ cell of renewed Jewish revival. (Witness the experience of history.)

 

            In the course of the practical implementation of the final solution, Europe will be combed through from West to East. Priority will have to be given to the area of the Reich, including the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, if only because of housing shortages and other sociopolitical needs.

 

            The evacuated Jews will first be taken, group after group, to so-called transit ghettos from where they will be transported further to the East.

 

            As SS-Lieutenant General (Obergruppenführer) Heydrich pointed out in addition, one important prerequisite for carrying out the evacuation at all will be the precise designation of all persons to be involved.

 

            The intention is not to evacuate Jews over the age of 65 but to send them to an old people’s ghetto Theresienstadt has been earmarked for this purpose.

 

            In addition to these age groups - and of the 280,000 Jews who lived in the Altreich and the Ostmark on October 1, 1941, some 30% are over 65 - the old people’s ghetto will also receive Jews with war injuries and Jews with war decorations (EK I) [Iron Cross First Class]. With this

 

K210407                                                                        372031

 

175

- 10 -

 

            In view of the insignificant number of Jews involved there, such a postponement would in any case not amount to a substantial restriction.

 

            On the other hand, the Foreign Office visualizes no major difficulties in southeastern and western Europe.

 

            SS Major General [Gruppenführer] Hofmann voiced his intention to send to Hungary a specialist from the Race and Settlement Main Office for general orientation whenever the Head of the Security Police and the Security Service (SD) gets ready to tackle the matter over there. It was resolved that this specialist -- who is not to become actively involved -- be officially seconded, on a temporary basis, as an assistant to the Police Attacheé.

 

 

IV.       During the implementation of the plan for the final solution its basis, as it were, should be the Nuremberg Laws, whereby the solution of the problem of mixed marriages [Mischehen] and mixed parentage [Mischlinge] must likewise be a prerequisite for the definitive settlement of the questions.

 

            With reference to a letter from the Head of the Reich Chancellery, the Head of the Security Police and the Security Service (SD) thereupon discussed -- for the moment still theoretically – the following issues:

 

1) Treatment of first-degree Mischlinge

            First-degree Mischlinge will be treated like Jews in regard to the final solution of the Jewish question.

 

K210409                                                                         37203₃

 

176

- 11 -

 

 

The following will be exempt from this treatment:

a) First-degree Mischlinge married to persons of German blood,
    from whose marriages there are children (second-degree Mischlinge).
    Such second-degree Mischlinge are essentially in the same position as Germans.
b) First-degree Mischlinge for whom up to now exceptions were granted in
    some (vital) area by the highest authorities of the Party and the State.
    Each individual case must be re-examined, and it is not excluded that the
    new decision will again be in favor of the Mischlinge.

         

            Prerequisites for any special exception must always be the fundamental services rendered by the Mischling in question himself. (The merits of the German blooded parent or marriage partner do not count).

 

            Any first-degree Mischling to be exempted from evacuation will be sterilized in order to prevent any progeny and to settle the Mischling problem once and for all. Sterilization will be voluntary, but it is the precondition for remaining in the Reich. The sterilized Mischling will henceforth be exempt from all restrictive regulations to which he was previously subjected.

 

 

2)   Treatment of second-degree Mischlinge

 

          Second-degree Mischlinge are on principle classed with persons of German blood, with the exception of the following cases, in which the second-degree Mischlinge are considered equivalent to Jews:

 

K210410                                                                       372034

 

177

- 12 -

 

 

a) Descent of the second-degree Mischling from a bastard marriage
    (both spouses being Mischlinge).
b) Racially especially unfavorable appearance of the 
    second-degree Mischling, which will class him with the Jews on
    external grounds alone.
c) Especially bad police and political rating of the
    second-degree Mischling, indicating that he feels and behaves
    as a Jew.

          Even in these cases exceptions are not to be made if the second-degree Mischling is married to a person of German blood.

 

3)   Marriages between full Jews and persons of German blood

 

          Here it must be decided from case to case whether the Jewish spouse should be evacuated or whether he or she should be sent to an old-age ghetto in consideration of the effect of the measure on the German relatives of the mixed couple.

 

 

4)   Marriages between first-degree Mischlinge and persons of German blood

a) Without children

 

   If there are no children of the marriage, the first-degree Mischling is evacuated or sent to an old-age ghetto. (The same treatment as in marriages between full Jews and persons of German blood, para. 3.)

 

K210411                                                                                37203₅

 

178

- 13 -

 

 

b) With children

 

   If there are children of the marriage (second-degree Mischlinge), they will be evacuated or sent to a ghetto, together with the first-degree Mischlinge, if they are considered equivalent to Jews. Where such children are considered equivalent to persons of German blood (the rule), they and also the first-degree Mischling are to be exempted from evacuation.

 

5)   Marriages between first-degree Mischlinge and first-degree Mischlinge or Jews

 

          In such marriages all parties (including children) are treated as Jews and therefore evacuated or sent to an old-age ghetto.

 

 

6)   Marriages between first-degree Mischlinge and second-degree Mischlinge

 

          Both partners to the marriage, regardless of whether or not there are children, are evacuated or sent to an old-age ghetto, since children of such marriages commonly are seen to have a stronger admixture of Jewish blood than the second-degree Jewish Mischlinge.

 

 

          SS Major General [Gruppenführer] Hofmann takes the view that extensive use must be made of sterilization, notably because once the Misch-

 

K210412                                                                          37203₆

 

179

- 14 -

 

 

ling, faces the choice between evacuation and sterilization, he will prefer to be sterilized.

 

            State Secretary Dr. Stuckart noted that the actual implementation of the possible solutions regarding mixed marriages and Mischling questions just discussed would, in this form, constitute endless administrative work. And in order to take into account the biological aspects involved as well, State Secretary Stuckart suggested that forced sterilization be embarked upon.

 

            To simplify the problem of mixed marriages, further possible solutions should be considered with the objective, for instance, of the legislative body simply ruling: “these marriages are dissolved.”

 

            State Secretary Neumann stated in regard to the question of how the evacuation of the Jews will effect the economy that Jews now working in essential war industries cannot be evacuated as long as there are no replacements for them.

 

            SS Lieutenant General [Obergruppenführer] Heydrich thereupon pointed out that on the basis of the guidelines for the implementation of the currently proceeding evacuations previously approved by him, these Jews would not be evacuated anyway.

 

            State Secretary Dr. Bühler declared that the Generalgouvernement would welcome it if the final solution of this question would begin in the General-gouvernement first because the transportation problem was no overriding factor there,

 

K210413                                                                        372037

 

180

- 15 -

 

 

and because considerations of labor utilization would not impede the course of this action. Jews should be removed from the territory of the Generalgouvernement as speedily as possible because precisely there the Jews constitute a significant danger as carriers of epidemics. In addition, they were contantly upsetting the economic structure of the region through ceaseless black market activities. Moreover, the majority of the 2 1/2 million Jews in question were anyhow unfit for work.

 

            State Secretary Dr. Bühler noted further that the Head of Security Police and SD [Security Service] was in charge of the final solution of the Jewish question in the Generalgouvernement, and that the administrative agencies of the Generalgouvernement would assist him in his work. He had only one favor to ask: that the Jewish question in this territory be resolved as fast as possible.

 

            In conclusion there was a discussion about the various types of possible solutions. Here Gauleiter Dr. Meyer and State Secretary Dr. Bühler both took the position that in connection with the final solution certain preparatory measures be carried out in the occupied territories at once, but in such a way that the population there would not become apprehensive.

 

The Head of Security Police and SD [Heydrich] terminated the conference with the request that all participants in today’s deliberations give him their cooperation in implementing the tasks connected with the solution.

K210414                                                                            372038

 

◄

homepage