TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

Chapter VIII: Indirect Transports of Jews to the Eastern Territories 253
number of Jews from the west is needed in the months of May and June. It
was agreed that at first the Jews made available for transportation will be
shipped, if possible by the first half of the month, by means of combining
several trains; the Westerbork Camp [in Holland] is therefore being emptied
quickly. The figure of 8,000 is the goal for the month of May. Train arrangements
are being taken care of by the BdS, Den Haag, with the RSHA.
3.) The Hertogenbusch Camp:
Since the RSHA requires a further 15,000 Jews in June, the point in
time at which the inmates of the Hertogenbusch Camp [in Holland] can
also be called upon must be reached as quickly as possible.”
A report produced at the beginning of 1944 and delivered to the Warsaw
Delegation – that is, the representation of the government-in-exile residing in
London – states with respect to the Jewish population of the General Gouvernement
in December 1943: 736
“According to information received, at the end of December there were
approximately 150,000 Jews on Polish territory, in legal groupings, half of
them foreign Jews.”
Who could these “foreign Jews” on Polish territory be, if not western Jews
processed into the General Gouvernement via Auschwitz?
6. Final Destination of Jews Deported to the East
The deportations of Jews to the east therefore took place in two stages: the
Jews were first temporarily settled or lodged in transit camps, and then deported
farther east. In view of the paucity of existing documentation, we cannot
determine with certainty what the final destination of this deportation was,
but there exist various pieces of evidence, which make it possible for us to
draw plausible conclusions.
In the “Guidelines for handling of the Jewish question,” which go back to
the summer of 1941, the following paragraph appears: 737
“The goal is a transfer into ghettos with simultaneous separation of the
sexes. The existence of numerous more or less closed Jewish communities
in White Russia and in the Ukraine facilitates this task. For the rest, locations
are to be chosen, which, due to pending work projects, make possible
the full utilization of the Jewish labor force.”
On August 14, 1942, SS-Brigadeführer Otto Rasch, Leader of Einsatzgruppe
C, proposed to Berlin the following solution of the Jewish problem: 738
736
Faschismus – Getto – Massenmord, op. cit. (note 290), p. 286.
737
PS-212. IMT, vol. XXV, p. 304.
738
The Chief of the Sicherheitspolizei and of the SD. Event Report USSR no. 52 of August 14,
1941. NO-4540.