Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State (18 page)

In the face of ever more brazen acts of criminality, the German military administration in Belgium called for special courts to combat pandemic corruption. The request failed because it was submitted to, of all people, Göring. The military administration’s final report from Belgium stated that “repeated requests” for a special court to try soldiers who had been caught black-marketeering had “never received a positive response.” The special court had been deemed necessary “because courts within individual parts of the Wehrmacht were inclined to dismiss or even endorse violations of rules by their own members. This was particularly the case in the Luftwaffe.”
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Göring was, of course, the commander in chief of that branch of the German military.

One document in particular sheds light on the topic of organized criminality and therefore merits extensive quotation. It originated in the postal censor’s office
(Abwehrstelle Briefpost
, or ABP) in Ukraine, where civil servants examined thousands of letters sent by Germans between the Reich and the occupied territory. The censors’ analysis offers precise insight into the ever expanding scope of activities pursued by German men and women from a variety of professions and walks of life. The document bears the rather baroque title “Report A on the Conditions in Ukraine Based on an Examination by the ‘German Service Post,’ Ukraine, of the Private Correspondence between the Reich and Ukraine of German Companies Deployed to the Reich Commission
[Reichskommissariat]
and Their Employees.” The Service Post was responsible for delivering correspondence to and from employees of the German civilian administration in the Reich Commission in Ukraine, as well as to and from employees of crman engaged in the “exploitation of the economic expansion territory of Ukraine.” The document is undated, but judging from references in one section to “the crisis at the start of the year” and “doubts and disheart-enment,” it was probably written after the battle of Stalingrad, most likely in the summer of 1943. All emphases are in the original.

Over the past six months the ABP has examined thousands of letters from Germans assigned to Ukraine. They show, on the one hand, that a large number of Germans in Ukraine have contributed diligently and enthusiastically to the enormous tasks, and [their efforts] reflect the gigantic work being done to build up the European East. The letters also reveal, however, serious and unsettling
signs of corruption
. Criticism and negative sentiments jump out at the reader, and the damage done to Ukraine may appear more significant than it is. But the content of the letters leaves no doubt that the damage is real and that it runs gravely counter to the interests of the Reich and undermines the great efforts undertaken to build up Ukraine.

First and foremost among the signs of corruption in Ukraine is
black marketeering
. The majority of letters from Ukraine are about barter. Conducting business transactions is the only thing about Ukraine that interests the majority of the authors. Everything imaginable and unimaginable is traded for native Ukrainian products (eggs, oils, bacon, ham, etc.). The commodities mentioned in the letters include, among other things, salt, matches, flints, yeast, old clothing, household goods, women’s lingerie, handbags, graters, cucumber peelers, suspenders, saccharin, face cream, baking soda, fingernail polish, baking powder, lipstick, and toothbrushes. The letters give the impression, as many of their authors themselves write, that Ukraine has become “the Reich’s flea market” and that Germany is unloading its entire surplus of junk wares onto Ukraine. As one letter puts it: Here you can “hawk” everything. The cheapest fake jewelry, medallions, and chains are fobbed off on Ukrainian peasant women. There’s apparently a huge market for old and unfashionable clothing in garish colors. In one case, a letter writer asks for the “cheapest glass jewelry,” promising to return the crate full of 2,000 eggs. The whole thing, writes one observer in Ukraine, is reminiscent of the “trade” with Negro tribes and the “exchange” of glass pearls for ivory.

The thread running through the letters home from Ukraine is: Scrape together everything you can get your hands on. “Buy up everything”—or something similar—is what the letters say. “Money is no object.” “Don’t worry about money—buy whatever you can.” Housewives are told to collect all the junk they have lying around at home. One housewife is even instructed not to give anything to the clothing drive: “I need everything here for myself.” Recipients are told to “hit up relatives and friends for old clothes,” dresses, used household goods, etc. . . . Money is borrowed for the necessary purchases. Shopping groups are formed. Whole branches of families come together to organize shipments of exchangeable goods to Ukraine. Friends and relatives pool their unused points on clothing ration cards from 1942. “I know our relatives won’t give up the points for nothing. You don’t have to ask them to do that.” Considerable sums of “reward money” are offered for help in procuring exchangeable goods. Chains of barter and swap are organized. Grandfather, as one particularly crass letter puts it, should send his new boots to Ukrainen return he’ll get eight liters of oil that he can swap for a new coat, which “we can probably hawk as well.” In another case, the letter writer offers to trade oil for out-of-fashion women’s shoes, with the idea of “cranking up business.” That’s how the exchange business is organized in Ukraine and in the Reich.

All scales
and sorts of barter are in evidence. Some people have pounds of salt sent to them and ship their families a dietary supplement of 5 to 10 eggs every fortnight. Others send home 10, 20, 30, 40 packages in rapid succession. Others still go so far as to have 10 tons of salt (!) transferred to Ukraine. (A ton of salt in Ukraine has an exchange value of 1,000 marks; for a pound of salt you can acquire a chicken, for 10 pounds a sheep.) Shipments of anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 eggs to individual families in Germany are not a rarity. One letter writer reports with pride that he sent his wife one and a half tons of goods for Christmas. Another writer mentions that an employee of a trade company in Ukraine distributes more butter for the purpose of bribes than the entire yearly ration in the Reich. The following deliveries have also been mentioned: “a crate of alcoholic spirits, karakul [lamb] skins, and 2,300 eggs (one shipment); a crate of spirits and two barrels of honey (one shipment); package no. 1: two chickens and honey; nos. 3-4: chickens; no. 5: eggs; no. 6: noodles; no. 7: semolina; no. 8: peas; no. 9: groats; no. 10: bacon; nos. 11-12: beans; nos. 15-16: meat and bacon; nos. 17-19: eggs, bacon, and flour; nos. 20-22: eggs, sugar, and butter; no. 23: sausage and cakes.” (The 23 packages were sent in the space of two consecutive days!)

The trade is not restricted to simple barter. There are also large-scale business transactions, which are possible only with the help of
bribery, corruption, and gross violations of regulations
. Such “large shipments” are smuggled in via official transports. Whole train cars are rerouted to the Reich with the assistance of transport companies and corrupt railroad workers. Train personnel are coveted “contacts” and are “greased” with hefty rewards. (The letters speak openly of this.) Large amounts of goods are transferred by plane—in part with the aid of flight crews. Black marketeers are organizing a parallel postal service. A great many letters and packages are carried by those on home leave or visiting Germany. It has been reported that a “golden pheasant,” i.e., a man in a brown uniform, took “a whole sack of letters” back with him on his leave. It is therefore likely that our unit here never got wind of many cases of corruption. The “tradable goods” and the deliveries back to the Reich are often the result of embezzlement. There are descriptions of the “help” of an acquaintance in the “card department” [the department for food ration cards], and the head of a meat company reports in blasé fashion that he has far too little turnover “to put much aside.” Deliveries from the Reich earmarked to supply the German administration in Ukraine (fixtures, wine, etc.) are being redirected back to Germany, where they are sold on the black market. Irreparable damage has been done to the economic foundations of Ukraine. It has been reported that irreplaceable karakul lambs needed for breeding have been slaughtered and their skins shipped to the Reich.

The illegal trade is not just aimed at acquiring personal family necessities. It is becoming a
“business,”
carried out on a commercial basis. People are investing and earning money. The letters promise that money grows on trees in Ukraine and that people can get rich there quickly. “Here, you can become a rich woman overnight.” Ordinary pple are in a position to write home that they have already “earned” thousands. Others want to convert profits made in Ukraine into cars and property in the Reich. In nouveau riche fashion, jewels and expensive furs are purchased for housewives. The letter writers tell of gigantic profits in Ukraine.

Glass jewelry is sold at a 1,000 percent markup. Matches fetch 6 “meters” (=marks), as they’re known here, and old suits can be sold for 600 marks. The letters are often written in revolting black market slang. People assure the recipients that they’re “good at organizing.” They brag about having “pulled off a thing” and praise the “brains” that carried out all these dirty deals. In one such letter, the situation is described as follows:

“Everyone seems to think that their most basic task is to make their own lives as comfortable as possible by hoarding as much food as they can and sending it back home. In any case, superhuman feats have been achieved in this area. Illegal trading and black marketeering are in full bloom. What the Jews used to do is now being carried out in much more highly perfected form by ‘Aryans.’”

Corruption is also seeping from Ukraine into the Reich
. The deliveries of goods from Ukraine serve as the basis for the new black market in Germany. As is reported in numerous letters, shipments of eggs that often greatly exceed what a family can consume are swapped for rationed or otherwise scarce commodities. Recipients take trips to the countryside to conceal oil smuggled in from Ukraine. People are purchasing material for suits from Ukraine with goods obtained illegally. And the treasures are even used as payoffs. In the case of one shipment of 500 eggs, the female recipient, who is apparently eligible to be drafted into wartime service, is instructed to give 100 to a person working at an employment office.

All of this supports the harsh conclusion that is often drawn in the letters: Ukraine is a black market paradise. People often refer to Germans working in business and civilian administration in Ukraine as ‘East hyenas.’ “
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The details of this report reflect the colonialist mentality of the Führer. In his table talks, Hitler sketched out how he wanted the “natives” in Eastern Europe to be dealt with: “We’ll give the Ukranians head scarves, glass jewelry, and everything else colonized peoples like.”
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Meeting with a representative from Germany’s ally Croatia, Hitler alluded to the prospect of opening Soviet territories as a market for industrially produced junk. The people there, according to Hitler, “didn’t even own the simplest tableware or cooking utensils.”
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In the summer of 1942, Hitler laid out a vision of the future that mirrored what his subjects were already eagerly practicing for their own private gain: “At harvest time, well set up shop in every larger market town in every larger spot where we can bring our cheapest products. At the market, grain and fruit will be sold too. Once you’ve sold something, you can buy something else. . . . The cheapest and brightest calico is wonderful here.”
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After a conversation with Hitler, the Reich commissioner for Ukraine, Gauleiter Erich Koch, declared: “The most ordinary kitsch is good enough for this populace.”
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Hitler was like the boss of the band of thieves. With every such utterance, he supported and encouraed the barely concealed greed of his corrupt soldiers and functionaries.

In the late summer of 1941, while people in the East were dreaming of a black market El Dorado, civilians in Germany’s northwestern cities were increasingly feeling the effects of British bombing. Within the space of weeks, the need for rapid assistance for those whose property had been damaged in air raids became one of the Nazi regime’s most important domestic issues. The gauleiter of Hamburg, Karl Kaufmann, reported that after heavy raids in September he “personally approached the Führer requesting to have the Jews evacuated so that at least some of those who had been hit by the bombs could be given new apartments.”

Such arguments helped persuade Hitler that fall to begin deporting Jews during the war instead of waiting for a decisive victory, as had been previously envisioned. “The Führer reacted immediately to my suggestion,” Kaufmann recalled, “and issued the relevant orders to have the Jews transported away.”
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At the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich underscored the importance of the “question of apartments and other social-political necessities” in the decision to commence with deportations.

On November 4, 1941, the head of the Finance Department in Cologne reported that in his district the “evacuation of the Jews began on October 21. . . for the purpose of freeing up apartments for those who suffered air raid damage in the cities of Cologne and Trier.” The process was “progressing steadily.”
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In fact, where Jews resided largely determined when they would be deported in the massive sweeps of late 1941. The first transports were filled with people who lived in northern and western German cities targeted by the RAF. That October, 8,000 Jews were forcibly resettled to the Lodz ghetto from the cities of Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, and Düsseldorf. Ten days later an additional 13,000 people were deported, mostly from cities such as Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, Bielefeld, Münster, Hanover, Kassel, and Frankfurt am Main, which had already been damaged by or were likely targets of air raids. The deportees were sent to ghettos in Riga, Kovno, and Minsk.
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