The_Holokaust_-_origins,_implementation,_aftermath

HITLER’S DECISION TO EXTERMINATE JEWS
the Reichsführer-SS, to his Supervisor, Bach-Zelewski, July 25, 1943, BA NS 19/1770,
fols. 15–27 (published in Helmut Heiber, “Aus den Akten des Gauleiters Kube,” VfZ 4
[1956]: 67–92, esp. pp. 83–85 and p. 90 [notation dated December 2, 1941]); report of
Burkhart, adviser on Jewish Affairs for the Commander of the Security Service in Minsk,
January 1942, IfZ Fb 104/2. Kube took notice of the matter relatively late because he had
been in the Reich between November 10 and November 20. See Kleist, personal notebook,
entry of November 17, 1941; interrogation of H. v. R., May 18, 1966,
Staatsanwaltschaft Hamburg 147 Js 29/67, fols. 7149 f., and the indictment for the same
case, Anklageschrift, ibid., pp. 446 ff.; Kube to Rosenberg, November 4; Marquardt to
DAF-Oberführer Zillig, November 18, 1941, BA R6/27, fols. 23, 26.
46. As mentioned by Eichmann on March 6 at a conference to discuss the new deportation
directives, according to notes made by a police inspector from the State Police Office in
Düsseldorf, March 9, 1942. See H. G. Adler, Der verwaltete Mensch: Studien zur Deportation
der Juden aus Deutschland (Tübingen, 1974), pp. 194 ff.
47. One must concur with Safrian (p. 167, n. 96), who finds it unlikely that Kube’s protest
following his visit to the ghetto on November 29 would have reached Himmler just twentyfour
hours later.
48. Note dated November 10, 1941, in re the “Solution of Jewish Questions,” Eichmann Trial
Document Nr. 1193, BA F 5493. In Heydrich’s opinion, only “a few special Jews under
the protection of higher Reich offices” should be spared, “in order to avoid too great a
volume of requests for the sake of such Jews.”
49. It seems that the RSHA did make exceptions for, among others, decorated war veterans. In
a teletype dated April 17, 1942, Eichmann referred to the directive of November 20,
1941, and stated that Jews with decorations for wounds received during the war “are also
exempt from deportation to the east” (quoted in Fleming [n. 28 above], p. 129, n. 258
[emphasis added]). In fact the deportation directives had been issued prior to November
20, 1941. See Adam (n. 18 above), p. 316.
50. See entry in Goebbels of November 18, 1941, quoted in Broszat (n. 29 above), p. 752.
51. The individuals were (Hellmuth James) Graf v. Moltke and Lieutenant-Commander
Albrecht. See undated memoir by Karl Loewenstein, before June 1, 1956, copy in the
Bibliothek des Zentrums für Antisemitismusforschung, Berlin. For violations of the deportation
guidelines in the case of the Riga transports see also Fleming, pp. 88 f., n. 188.
52. Quoted in Andreas Seeger, “Gestapo Müller”: Die Karriere eines Schreibtischtäters
(Berlin, 1996), p. 121.
53. Dr. Wetzel, the racial adviser in the Ministry for the East, wrote to Lohse on October 25,
1941 (draft, Nuremberg Document NO-365). What he wrote can be interpreted to mean
that Lohse, too, wanted to eliminate German Jews incapable of work using “Brack’s
method,” i.e., poison gas, and that the Ministry for the East expressed “no reservations.”
But the meaning is not absolutely clear. I am grateful to Christoph Dieckmann for calling
my attention to this reference. The authenticity of the document was confirmed by Erhard
Wetzel during his interrogation, September 20, 1961, Staatsanwaltschaft Hannover 2 Js
499/61, vol. 2, fols. 18 ff.
54. Aly and Heim (n. 5 above), pp. 468 ff., have emphasized this issue. See also John A. S.
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