The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

(„Zentralstelle für die Abwanderung der Juden Österreichs”). This office
should facilitate the bureaucratic affairs of the Jews.
Eichmann passed those blueprints on to Reichskommissar Bürckel, who set up
the „Zentralstelle” under the formal leadership of the SD-leader of the SS-
Oberabschnitt Donau, Dr. Stahlecker on the 20 th of August 1938, after he had held
consultations with Dr. Best. Practically, however, Eichmann led this office. 41
Eichmann claimed in relation to the „Solution of the Jewish Question”
between 1938 and 1941 often, that he had the crucial ideas for this plans and
wanted to give the impression that he is the inventor of the „Vienna model”. 42
The tasks he defined that way: „…providing opportunities for emigration
through negotiations for entrance permits and obtaining foreign currency;
establishment and surveillance of retraining centers; supervision of Jewish
political organizations; publication of guidelines; and effective, sustained
cooperation with all institutions in Vienna involved in the political, policerelated,
and financial aspects of Jewish expulsion.” 43
Eichmann installed this system, which was based on the following
principles: 1. The emigration should no longer happen on one’s own decision
and its organization lays no longer in the hands of the Jews, but run under the
supervision of the Security Police. 2. This forced emigration should be carried
out by the existing Jewish organizations, who had to act out the instructions of
the SD. 3. The economic power of the Jews was to destroy and the assets of the
emigrants to confiscate, so that they remained only the amount that was
required for entry into the intended country of immigration. 44
In the installation of the „Vienna model” the initiatives and career
promotional activities of Adolf Eichmann become clear. Simultaneously he had
nothing „invented”. He just took present plans on and passed them on to higher
positions. But inside of the Apparatus he let everyone know, that he was the
inventor of this frighteningly well-functionating model and therefore he was
celebrated by the others. 45
Following an inspection of the „Vienna approach” Hagen praised in his
afterwards prepared report on the one hand the rapid bureaucratic completion of
41 SAFRIAN, Hans: Eichmann’s Men. 31.
42 LEGENSTEIN, Roland: Adolf Eichmann - der Schreibtischtäter. Koordinator der
„Endlösung” Dipl.-Arb., Wien, 2002. 36.
43 SAFRIAN, Hans: Eichmann’s Men. 31.
44 YĀḤÎL, Lenî: Die Shoa. Überlebenskampf und Vernichtung der europäischen Juden.
München, 1988. 161. LEGENSTEIN, Roland: Adolf Eichmann - der Schreibtischtäter.
Koordinator der „Endlösung” Dipl.-Arb., Wien, 2002. 37. In the original: „1. Die Auswanderung
sollte nicht mehr aus eigener Entscheidung geschehen und ihre Organisation nicht mehr in den
Händen der Juden liegen, sondern unter Aufsicht der Sicherheitspolizei ablaufen. 2. Diese
erzwungen Auswanderung sollte von den vorhandenen jüdischen Organisationen durchgeführt
werden, die aus Anweisung des SD zu handeln hatten. 3. Die Wirtschaftskraft der Juden war zu
zerstören und das Vermögen der Emigranten zu konfiszieren, sodass ihnen nur die Summe blieb,
die zur Einreise in das vorgesehene Einwanderungsland benötigt wurde.”
45 SAFRIAN, Hans: Eichmann’s Men. 32.
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