The_Holokaust_-_origins,_implementation,_aftermath

CHRISTIAN GERLACH
was thus notified in advance as well.
38. Kleist, personal notebook, entry for November 22, 1941, Staatsanwaltschaft Hamburg 147
Js 29/67, vol. 65, fol. 12460. Before handing over his notes to the authorities, Kleist had
made one of these lines illegible (as he did in several other sensitive passages). But he
overlooked the following passage: “Very good impression by Staf. Jäger. He agrees completely
with Lith.[uanian] cooperation. If the local administration can be involved in this
sensitive area, then there will be no excuse for other areas.” It is known that Jäger made
widespread use of Lithuanian commandos in the executions of Jews. On November 21,
Kleist made the following notation on his stay in Kaunas: “Afternoon in the ghetto,
chicken in the pot, isolation hospital, covered graves next to it.”
39. Safrian (n. 5 above), p. 153. See also the interrogation of Friedrich Jeckeln, December 14,
1945, Bundesarchiv-Zwischenarchiv Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten (BA D-H) ZM 1683, vol.
1, fols. 12f.
40. This was reported the next day to Kleist by officials of the Reich Commissariat Ostland in
Riga: “Told about shootings of 10, 000s of German and Latvian Jews by SS. Reich
Commissar was witness.” Kleist, personal notebook, entry for December 1, 1941, StA
Hamburg 147 Js 29/67, vol. 65, fol. 12460. Kleist received the news of the massacre of
the German Jews with no visible reaction. This, too, suggests agreement by the Ministry
for the East. After the war, Lohse voluntarily admitted that he had witnessed a mass
execution in Riga in Jeckeln’s presence. He put its date at the beginning of December
1941. See interrogation of Hinrich Lohse, April 19, 1950, Staatsanwaltschaft Hannover 2
Js 499/61, Sonderheft 4, fols. 82 ff.
41. Safrian, p. 149.
42. Frank Flechtmann, “November 1944: ‘Und nun erst recht!’ Ein Homberger lässt schiessen”
(Die Ortenau [1996]: 471–91, esp. p. 482). It is asserted, with no source cited, that
reports of the event had been broadcast that same evening by British and Soviet radio.
The assertion is based on eyewitness accounts from some of the perpetrators at their
trial after the war. I am grateful to Dieter Pohl for calling my attention to this publication.
On December 19, a report of the incident reached the Reich interior ministry; see Bernhard
Lösener, “Als Rassereferent im Reichsministerium des Innern,” VfZ 9 (1961): 264–313,
esp. p. 310.
43. See Ezergailis (n. 4 above), pp. 352–59; Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm, Die Einsatzgruppe A der
Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, 1941/42 (Frankfurt am Main, 1996), pp. 124–31; excerpt
from an undated report of Einsatzgruppe A, in Pätzold and Schwarz, eds. (n. 23 above),
pp. 99 f.
44. Undated report of Einsatzkommando 2, cited in Wilhelm, p. 130. See also Bernhard Press,
Judenmord in Lettland, 1941–1945 (Berlin, 1992), pp. 117–19; Reitlinger (n. 17 above),
p. 103.
45. See Kleist, personal notebook, entry for December 8, 1941: “Jew-Kube-shot Schmitz,”
StA Hamburg 147 Js 29/67, vol. 65, p. 12460. Schmitz was the relevant official in Section
I (Politics) of the Ministry for the East. See also official report of the commander of the
Security Service in Minsk, November 29, 1941; and Heydrich’s reply to Kube, March
21, 1942, in report of Strauch, Abwehroffizier of the Head of the Anti-partisan Units of
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