The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

of Eichmann. For that Heydrich delivered a program, which had 4 aims: 68 1.
Jews as soon as possible into cities and towns. 2. Jews from the Reich to
Poland. 3. The remaining 30,000 Gypsies also to Poland. 4. Systematic
transport of Jews from German territories in freight trains. 69
On the 6 th of October 1939 Eichmann received the order from the leader of
the office IV „Gegnerbekämpfung” („enemy combat”), which was part of the
recently established Reichssicherheitshauptamt RSHA (Reich’s Security Main
Office), to contact Gauleiter Wagner in Kattowitz. This meeting was about the
deportation of about 70-80.000 Jews out of the district Kattowitz and the Jews
out from the Czech-Polish border town Ostrava (Mährisch-Ostrau). Eichmann,
who must have known about the plans of deportations since September 70 ,
immediately began to act and travelled between Berlin, Vienna, Ostrava,
Katowice and Galicia to prepare everything.
Stahlecker thought, that the „Judenfrage” („Jewish Question”) in Vienna
would also been „endgültig gelöst” („finally solved”) during those expulsions.
Those expressions, as well as „restlose Lösung der Judenfrage” („complete
solution of the Jewish question”) are already very similar to the later, at the SS
common term of the „Endlösung” („Final Solution”). But according to Safrian
those terms still meant a full expulsion and no genocide at this stage. 71
On the 15 th of October 1939 Eichmann reported from Ostrava, that the
railway station of Nisko at the San would be the aim of the deportations. In the
implementations of the deportations, Eichmann was given full backing of his
superiors and a very large scope of action. Due to the pressure and initiatives of
Eichmann, the first transport with more than 900 men left Ostrava already on
the 18 th of October 1939. Two days after, a train with 912 men from Vienna
followed. Those men had to be provided from the Jewish Community just as
construction equipment, which was needed for the construction of a camp.
Arrived at Nisko, after a cruel five hour walk, craftsmen were assigned to the
camp, but the majority were chased over the German-Soviet border line under
the use of guns. They were abandoned to their fate.
„Test Run successful”
The Nisko-Plan had barely begun, when the order came from above to stop
the action. The removal of Jews were instructed to stop. 72 What were the
reasons for the end? This question is answered in different ways.
Burleigh lists the following causes: 1. The high transport capacity that was
bound by it, that were needed by the Wehrmacht or for food shipments. 2.
68 SAFRIAN, Hans: Eichmann’s Men. 48-49.
69 Ibid. 49.
70 Ibid. 51.
71 Ibid. 52.
72 Ibid. 56.
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