Hitler's Hangman (82 page)

ische Besetzung der Tschechoslowakei und Polens
(Stuttgart, 1977), 166. According to

Wodzimierz Borodziej, 30,000 people were killed in Danzig-West Prussia, 10,000 in the

Wartheland, 1,500 in Eastern Upper Silesia and 1,000 in the Zichenau district. See

Borodziej,
Terror
, 29. No concrete figures have been established for how many of these

victims were killed by the task forces as opposed to the Selbstschutz. See Mallmann et al.,

Einsatzgruppen
, 87f. See, too, Volker Riess,
Die Anfänge der Vernichtung ‘lebensunwerten

Lebens’ in den Reichsgauen Danzig-Westpreussen und Wartheland 1939/40
(Frankfurt am

Main, 1995), 173ff.

13. On the Selbstschutz: Christian Jansen and Arno Weckbecker, ‘Eine Miliz im

“Weltanschuungskrieg”. Der “Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz” in Polen 1939/40’, in Wolfgang

Michalka (ed.),
Der Zweite Weltkrieg. Analysen, Grundzüge, Forschungsbilanz
(Weyarn,

1997), 482–500. On the participation of ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers in the atrocities, see

Joachim Böhler,
Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg. Die Wehrmacht in Polen 1939
(Frankfurt am

Main, 2006); Rossino,
Poland
, 90f. and 99. On Alvensleben, see BAB, BDC, SSO

Alvensleben; see, too, Dieter Schenk,
Hitlers Mann in Danzig. Albert Forster und die

NS-Verbrechen in Danzig-Westpreussen
(Bonn, 2000), 157, n. 12.

14. Heydrich to Daluege, 2 July 1940, BAB, R 19/395; Müller to Eicke, 10 October 1939,

informing Eicke that Heydrich was investigating incidents of plunder in Wloclawek, in

USHMMA, RG 48.004 M, reel 3, folder 300041. See, too, Rossino,
Poland
, 102; Mallmann

et al.,
Einsatzgruppen
, 59.

15. Heydrich shared this attitude with Himmler, who, in his infamous Posen speech of 4 October

1943, explicitly threatened personal enrichment from Jewish property with the death penalty

– an almost absurd twist of logic in light of the mass theft organized by the Nazi state. For

Himmler’s speech, see
IMT
, vol. 29, doc. 1919-PS, pp. 110–73, here p. 146.

16. Groscurth’s diary entry of 8 September 1939, in Groscurth,
Tagebücher
, 201. Heydrich

repeated the same sentiments in a conversation with Eduard Wagner some days later. See

Jacobsen,
Halder:
Kriegstagebuch
, vol. 1, 79 (19 September 1939).

17. Groscurth,
Tagebücher
, 201f.

18. ‘Vermerk Oberstleutnant Lahousen vom 14.9.1939. Besprechung im Führerzug in Illnau

am 12.9.1939’, in IfZ, Nbg. Dok. PS-3047.

19.
Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik
, series D, vol. 7, doc. 193. On Hitler’s response to the

massacres of ethnic Germans, see Kershaw,
Hitler: Hubris
, 242.

20. OKH to AOK 4, 11 September 1939 as quoted in Krausnick and Wilhelm,
Truppe des

Weltanschauungskrieges
, 33 and 57; Böhler,
Auftakt
, 205ff. See, too, Groscurth,
Tagebücher
, 360.

21. Brauchitsch to army commanders, 18 September 1939, Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv

(Freiburg), RH 1/58; Groscurth,
Tagebücher
, 206.

22. Wagner,
Generalquartiermeister
, 134; Jacobsen,
Halder:
Kriegstagebuch
, vol. 1, 79 (19

September 1939).

23. BAB, R 58/825.

24. Jacobsen,
Halder:
Kriegstagebuch
, vol. 1, 82 (20 September 1939); Brauchitsch’s order

‘Tätigkeit und Aufgaben der Polizei-EG im Operationsgebiet’ of 21 September 1939, in

BA-MA, RH 20–14/178.

25. Groscurth,
Tagebücher
, 361–2; BA Ludwigsburg, ‘Einsatzgruppen in Polen’, vol. 1, 129ff.;

see, too, Browning,
Origins
, 19.

26. Groscurth,
Tagebücher
, 209 and 362; Wagner,
Generalquartiermeister
, 135.

27. Protocol of the RSHA meeting of departmental heads and task-force commanders in

September, in IfZ, Eich 983; see, too, Wildt,
Generation
, 460; Rossino,
Poland
, 118.

Heydrich’s order appears to have been a direct result of a meeting between Himmler and

Brauchitsch earlier that day. See Mallmann et al.,
Einsatzgruppen
, 64.

28. Blaskowitz to OKH, 27 November 1939, as quoted in Kershaw,
Hitler
, vol. 2, 342. Similar

complaints were made by General Walter Petzel, General Wilhelm Ulex and Lieutenant

General Fedor von Bock; see Evans,
Third Reich at War
, 25f. See, too, Krausnick,

‘Einsatzgruppen’, 80ff.

N OT E S to pp. 148–56

323

29. Browning,
Origins
, 17; Catherine Epstein,
Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of

Western Poland
(Oxford, 2010), 124ff.; Umbreit,
Militärverwaltungen
, 154f.; Rossino,

Poland
, 116f.; Gerhard Engel,
At the Heart of the Reich: The Secret Diary of Hitler’s Army

Adjutant
(London, 2005), 79 (entries for 15 October and 18 November 1939). On army

jurisdiction, see Heydrich’s comments during the RSHA meeting of 21 September, in

BAB, R 58/825. Martin Broszat,
Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik (1939–1945)
(Stuttgart,

1961), 34f.

30. ‘Protokol der Amtschefbesprechung’, 7 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/825. Similar senti-

ments were expressed in Himmler’s memorandum on the ‘treatment of alien peoples in the

East’ which he submitted to an approving Hitler in the spring of 1940. See
VfZ
5 (1957), 195ff.

31. ‘Protokoll der Amtschefbesprechung’, 21 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/825, and 29

September 1939, in IfZ, Eich 983. Hitler referred to the idea of an Eastern Wall in a

conversation with Rosenberg one week later. See Hans-Günther Seraphim (ed.),
Das poli-

tische Tagebuch Alfred Rosenbergs 1934/35 und 1939/40
(Munich, 1956), 98.

32. ‘Protokolle der Amtschefbesprechung’, 29 September, 3 October, 10 October and 14

October 1939, all in BAB, R 58/825. The term ‘unweaving’ was coined by Bloxham,
Final

Solution
, 59ff.

33. ‘Protokoll der Amtschefbesprechung’, 21 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/825; ‘Rundbrief

Heydrich an Chef der Zivilverwaltung in Polen und Einsatzgruppen’, 30 September 1939,

in IfZ, MA 682, ff. 797f.

34.
Verhandlungen des Reichstages
, vol. 460, 51ff.

35. ‘Erlass des Führers und Reichskanzlers zur Festigung des deutschen Volktums’, in
IMT
, vol.

26, doc. 686-PS, pp. 255f.; see, too, Phillip Terrell Rutherford,
Prelude to the Final Solution:

The Nazi Program for Deporting Ethnic Poles 1939–1941
(Lawrence, KS, 2007), 55. Heydrich

had already announced Himmler’s imminent appointment as RKFDV to his departmental

heads and the
Einsatzgruppen
commanders on 21 September. See ‘Protokoll der

Amtschefbesprechung’, 21 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/825.

36. Heydrich’s order of 13 October 1939 and 22 December 1939, in USHMMA, RG 15.007 M,

8/101/13; see, too, Heinemann,
Rasse
, 195ff. and 232ff.; and Aly and Heim,
Vordenker
, 152.

37. A good general discussion of these themes can be found in Bloxham,
Final Solution
, 58ff.

38. ‘Protokoll der Amtschefbesprechung’, 14 October 1939, in BAB, R 58/825.

39. Jansen,
‘Selbstschutz’
, 154ff., 212ff.; Browning,
Origins
, 32ff.

40. Friedländer,
Extermination
, 40.

41.
Verhandlungen des Reichstages
, vol. 460, 51ff.

42. Bogdan Musial,
Deutsche Zivilverwaltung und Judenverfolgung im Generalgouvernement. Eine

Fal studie zum Distrikt Lublin 1939–1944
(Wiesbaden, 1999), 183ff.; Rossino,
Poland
, 88ff.

43. Longerich,
Politik
, 224 and 251f.; Browning,
Origins
, 12.

44. ‘Protokoll der Amtschefbesprechung’, 7 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/825; and order to

Stapoleitstellen in the Reich, 8 September 1939, in IfZ, Eich 1633.

45. ‘Protokoll der Amtschefbesprechung’, 14 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/825.

46. ‘Protokoll der Sitzung des Ministerrats für die Reichsverteidigung’, 19 September 1939, in

IMT
, vol. 31, 230–2. See, too, Wildt,
Generation
, 457.

47. Broszat,
Polenpolitik
, 20.

48. ‘Protokoll der Amtschefbesprechung’, 21 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/825.

49. Heydrich’s courier letter of 21 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/276. See, too, Broszat,

Polenpolitik
, 21f.; Dan Michman, ‘Why Did Heydrich Write the “Schnellbrief ”? A Remark

on the Reason and on its Significance’,
Yad Vashem Studies
32 (2004), 433–47; Browning,

Origins
, 111f.

50. Heydrich’s courier letter of 21 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/276; see, too, Michman,

‘Schnellbrief ’; Hans Mommsen,
Auschwitz: 17. Juli 1942
(Munich, 2002), 97.

51. Protocol of the RSHA Amtsleiter and task-force commander meeting of 29 September

1939, in IfZ, Eich 983. See, too, Longerich,
Himmler
, 456.

52. Heydrich’s courier letter to al
Einsatzgruppen
commanders, 21 September 1939, in BAB, R

58/276. Heydrich told Brauchitsch on 22 September that the area around Kraków had been

chosen as the location for the future ‘Jewish state’. See Groscurth,
Tagebücher
, 361.

53. Heydrich to Brauchitsch, in Groscurth,
Tagebücher
, 361f.

54. Rutherford,
Prelude
, 258.

324

N OT E S to pp. 156–62

55. ‘Protokoll der Amtschefbesprechung’, 29 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/825.

56. Rosenberg,
Tagebuch
, 98.

57. Mallmann et al.,
Einsatzgruppen
, 63f.

58. Wildt,
Generation
, 464f.

59. Browning,
Origins
, 27; Mallmann et al.,
Einsatzgruppen
, 64.

60. Schnellbrief, 30 September 1939, in BAB, R 58/276.

61. ‘Protokoll der Einsatzgruppenleitertagung’, 3 October 1939, in BAB, R 58/825; see, too,

Mallmann et al.,
Einsatzgruppen
, 64.

62. Mül er to Eichmann, 6 October 1939, Akten der Gestapo Mährisch-Ostrau, Yad Vashem

Archives, 0–53/93/283. See, too, Seev Goshen, ‘Eichmann und die Nisko-Aktion im Oktober

1939. Eine Fal studie zur NS-Judenpolitik in der letzten Etappe vor der Endlösung’,
VfZ
29

(1981), 74–96; Longerich,
Politik
, 256ff.; Wildt,
Generation
, 468ff.; Cesarani,
Eichmann
, 78.

63. On Eichmann’s conversation with Wagner see Longerich,
Himmler
, 456–7; on Eichmann’s

conversation with Bürckel’s Jewish expert, Becker, on 7 October 1939, see Longerich,

Politik
, 257.

64. On the ‘Nisko project’, see Miroslav Kárný, ‘Nisko in der Geschichte der Endlösung’,

Judaica Bohemiae
23 (1987), 69–84; Goshen, ‘Nisko-Aktion’, 74ff.; Jonny Moser, ‘Nisko: The

First Experiment in Deportation’,
Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual
2 (1985), 1–30; Ludmila

Nesládková (ed.),
The Case Nisko in the History of the Final Solution of the Jewish Problem

(Ostrava, 1995).

65. Goshen, ‘Nisko-Aktion’, 89ff.; Safrian,
Eichmann-Männer
, 77ff.; see, too, Lukáš Přibye,

‘Das Schicksal des dritten Transports aus dem Protektorat nach Nisko’,
Theresienstädter

Studien und Dokumente
7 (2000), 297–342.

66. Browning,
Origins
, 40f.

67. Longerich,
Himmler
, 457.

68. ‘Fernschreiben SD-Hauptamt an Sipo und SD Donau, Mährisch-Ostrau vom 19.10.1939’,

Yad Vashem Archives, 053/87. See, too, Himmler’s letter to Bürckel of 9 November 1939,

as quoted in Gerhard Botz,
Wohnungspolitik und Judendeportation in Wien 1928–1945

(Vienna, 1975), 196. See, too, Longerich,
Politik
, 259.

69. Wildt,
Generation
, 471, n. 176.

70. Browning,
Origins
, 42.

71. Heydrich to the HSSPF in Krakau (Krüger) and Posen (Koppe) and to the Sipo

commanders in both districts (Streckenbach and Damzog), 28 November 1939, in DÖW,

21732/62.

72. Although no copy of the finalized ‘long-term plan’ seems to have survived the war, an

undated draft can be found in BAB, R 69/1146.

73. Heydrich to Sipo Krakau, Breslau, Posen, Danzig and Königsberg, 21 December 1939, in

BAB, R 58/276.

74. ‘2. Nahplan’, 21 December 1939, USHMMA, RG 15.015 M, 2/97/1–7. See, too, Götz Aly,

‘Final Solution’: Nazi Population Policy and the Murder of the European Jews
(London and

New York, 1999), 73ff.; Longerich,
Politik
, 266.

75. Protocol of the meeting with representatives of the General Government in Berlin of 8

January 1940, in IfZ, MA 225; BAB, R 58/1032, protocol of the RSHA meeting of 30

January 1940. See, too, Browning,
Origins
, 59–60.

76. Longerich,
Himmler
, 461; Aly,
‘Final Solution’
, 157; Sybil e Steinbacher,
‘Musterstadt’ Auschwitz.

Germanisierungspolitik und Judenmord in Ostoberschlesien
(Munich, 2000), 133f.