The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

adoption of the model it became clear, that the form of organization was just
one of several factors that influenced the acceleration of the expulsion of the
Jews. The central of the Reich was namely in terms of the numbers from
Vienna, far behind the expectations of the Nazi leaders.
It was quickly noticed, that in Vienna mainly through the pressure from the
state police and the society, the „emigration figures” remained high. Here it
becomes again evident in a sad way that the Austrians did not act according to
the ideology of a German elite. Quite the reverse. The Nazis in the „Ostmark”
had, as it is described by Safrian, those in the „Altreich” well ahead. 57
Safrian summarizes the reasons of that „well” functioning model in that
way: „The origin, structure, and „success” of the „Zentralstelle” can neither
be oversimplified by crediting Eichmann’s organizational talents nor explained
through the historic growth of bureaucracies and thus exclusively the work of
technocrats of repression or planning. They can be understood only by
including considerations of sociohistorical aspects. The example of the
Ostmark in 1938 reveals to what extent a number of factors influenced each
other. Specifically, there were the participation of many thousands of „Aryan”
citizens, non-Jews of presumably „pure” Germanic ancestry, in racist policies,
such policies and, conversely, the aggressive activities of institutions in the
formulation of such policies and their conversion into political measures. In
addition to ideological factors, another reason for the step-by-step
radicalization of anti-Semitic policies is to be sought in „concrete material
interests”.” 58 However, Eichmann and his men pretended that those numbers
of the already fled Jews from Vienna were their work. In doing so, they
justified their further careers in the Nazi power apparatus. 59
From the „emigrations” to the deportations
After German troops occupied Prague on the 15 th of March 1939 there was
also set up a central office („Zentralstelle”) on 26 th of July 1939 following the
Vienna example. It was also led by Eichmann, who became SS-
Hauptsturmführer in the meanwhile. So another about 120.000 Jews came in
the immediate Nazi sphere of influence. 60 After the Munich Agreement
57
SAFRIAN, Hans: Eichmann’s Men. 38: „Because of stronger pressure from below, Austrian
pogrom antisemites’ forging ahead, and internal National Socialist squabbles about distribution of spoils,
Nazi administrators and bureaucrats in Vienna felt pressured much earlier than their counterparts in the
Altreich to devise pseudo-legal procedures and organizational innovations and to create new
administrative machinery for handling these challenges. Moreover, these pressures would not lessen after
1938: They provided the impetus for earlier organization of mass deportations from Vienna than from
other cities of the Greater German Reich, and for their speedy completion by Fall 1942.”
58
Ibid. Eichmann’s Men. 15.
59
Ibid. 36-38.
60
LEGENSTEIN, Roland: Adolf Eichmann - der Schreibtischtäter. Koordinator der
„Endlösung”. Dipl.-Arb., Wien, 2002. 43.
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