TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

Chapter VI: National-Socialist Policy of Jewish Emigration 195
kommissar Heinrich Lohse, was subdivided into the four general districts or
Generalkommissariate of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and White Russia, while
the Reichskommissariat Ukraine was governed by Reichskommissar Erich
Koch.
The first orders with respect to the Jews in the eastern territories were
harsh, but in no way aimed at extermination. The paragraph “Guidelines for
the handling of the Jewish question” in the ‘Brown Portfolio’ dating from
June 20, 1941, intended the isolation of the local Jews from the rest of the
population and their exclusion from economic, social, and cultural life by
means of ghettoization: 553
“Freedom of movement is immediately abolished for all Jews. A transfer
to ghettos is intended, which is facilitated in White Russia and in the
Ukraine by the presence of numerous more or less closed Jewish settlements.
A Jewish self-government with Jewish police can be given to these
ghettos under supervision.”
The “Temporary guidelines for the treatment of the Jews in the territory of
the Reichskommissariat Ostland”, which were presented to Rosenberg on August
13, 1941, also planned strict measures for the exclusion of Jews from
public life and their concentration in ghettos: 554
“The Jews are to be concentrated as far as is practicable in cities or
sections of cities, which already have a predominantly Jewish populace.
Ghettos are to be established there. The Jews are to be prohibited from
leaving the ghettos. In the ghettos, they are to be allowed to have as much
food as the rest of the populace can do without, but not more than necessary
for a scanty nutrition of the occupants. The same applies to supplying
them with essential goods.”
After a reference to the self-government in the ghettos, the “Guidelines”
deal with deployment of the Jews for labor:
“The Jews who are capable of working are to be conscripted for forced
labor according to the need for labor. The economic interests of residents
who are worthy of advancement, are not to be permitted to be injured by
the Jewish forced labor. The forced labor can be performed in work parties
outside of the ghettos, inside the ghetto, or, where ghettos have not yet
been established, also individually outside of the ghettos (e.g. in the workshops
of the Jews).”
These orders went into effect in the general district of Latvia on September
1, 1941. 555
553 “Richtlinien für die Führung der Wirtschaft in den neubesetzten Ostgebieten” (Grüne Mappe),
Berlin, September 1942. EC-347. IMT, vol. XXXVI, p. 349.
554 PS-1138.
555 “Orders for the treatment of Jews in the region of the former Free State of Latvia,” issued by
the Generalkommissar in Riga on August 30, 1941. GARF, 7445-2-145, pp. 29f.