"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (162 page)

21.
Bay. State Administrative Court of April 17, 1936 (Reger 56:329 ff.).

22.
Bay. State Administrative Court of July 5, 1938 (
DVerw
[1939]: 94):

According to a specific directive of the Bavarian Ministry of State for Economics of August 10, 1938—the scope of which was then extended to the whole territory of the Reich through a decree issued by the Reich and Prussian minister of economics—a license to run a public house exclusively for Jewish customers could be granted only with certain provisos: (1) that this restriction be made known by means of clearly legible notices; (2) that no female personnel of German origin be employed…. This is the view of the Reich ministry responsible regarding the requirements that ought to apply to the running of exclusively Jewish public houses, from the standpoint of the German people, staunchly faithful to the National Socialist worldview, as its perception of what constitutes public morals and customary practice. According to the principles of the Führer state, this judgment is binding on the authorities and spares the judge from having to make any more decisions along these lines.

23.
Bay. State Administrative Court (VGHE 1938, 17).

24.
Sächs. Oberverwaltungsgericht
(Prussian Administrative Supreme Court [Supreme Administrative Court of Saxony]), September 23, 1937 (
DVerw
[1938]: 95 [
JW
(1939): 79 ff.]), where among other things it was stated that “in the case in point, the position of the premises—which had been closed by order of the police—actually favored the secret liaison between the Jewish manager and the Aryan daughter of the landlord who lived in the same house…. The closure of the premises—whose position had favored the crime—by public demand was an appropriate action to take to end the liaison.”

25.
Prussian Administrative Supreme Court, Oldenburg,
Oldenburger Zeitung
, 1938, 35 (quoted in Echterhölter,
Das öffentliche Recht im Nationalsozialismus
, 220). The court left open the question as to whether the plea should not have been granted “also on legal grounds.”

26.
Bay. State Administrative Court, verdict of February 26, 1937 (
DVerw
[1937]: 354).

27.
RGBl.
I 1053.

28.
RGBl.
I 1667.

29.
In a decree circulated to the supreme
Land
police authorities of March 8, 1940, Himmler—in his capacity as chief of the German police—declared that Polish workers were to be subject to regulations applying to resident aliens until such time as their nationality status had been clarified (ZS, Versch. 26, Bl, 15 ff.). Just such a clarification was forthcoming with the Order on the Establishment of the German Ethnic Classification List (
Deutsche Volksliste
) and German Citizenship in the Annexed Eastern Territories, issued on March 4, 1941 (
RGBl.
I 118); from this point onward, the Resident Aliens Decree was no longer applicable to Polish seasonal workers and later other “guest workers.” The statement in the circular decree issued by the RFSSuChddtPol on September 10, 1943 (Erlaßsammlung RSHA, 150 ff.), to the effect that the Resident Aliens Decree was not applicable to Poles was therefore merely a confirmation of the existing legal situation. The fact that the Poles were not subject to the Resident Alien laws is shown by the administrative instruction of the
Reichsführer
-SS and chief of the German police that has already been mentioned, RFSS no. 12/c of February 9, 1942 (BA R 22/20994, reproduced in
Doc. Occ.
5:150 ff.), and the decree issued by the RFSS/RKF no. 420 of February 16, 1942 (reproduced in
Doc. Occ.
5:156 ff., reproduced in “Vertraul: Information der Parteikanzlei 51/680,” July 17, 1942, in
Verfügungen
, 2:169 ff., 176). This instruction concerns the treatment of Poles listed in category 3 or 4 of the German Ethnic Classification List. It is self-evident that the Resident Aliens Decree, which in spite of everything afforded some degree of constitutional protection to foreigners, would not be applied to other workers from Eastern Europe.

30.
BA, Schumacher Collection, 271.

31.
See also the decrees circulated by the Reich Criminal Police Department on September 7, 1939 (Erlaßsammlung Vorbeugende Verbrechensbekämpfung, 147, quoted in Broszat, “Nationalsozialistische Konzentrationslager,” 110); September 9, 1939 (BA R 58/1027); September 12, 1939 (Erlaßsammlung Vorbeugende Verbrechensbekämpfung, 147); and October 18, 1939 (157). For further details, see Broszat, “Nationalsozialistische Konzentrationslager,” 110 ff.

32.
Authorization quoted from the statement by the Reich minister of justice at the conference of State Superior Court presiding judges and chief public prosecutors held February 10–11, 1943, in Berlin (minutes in BA R 22/4200). It is not known whether this was merely an oral authorization or given in writing.

33.
Letter from RFSSuChddtPol to the deputy Führer dated March 8, 1940 (ZS, Versch. 26, Bl. 96 ff.); decree circulated by RFSSuChddtPol to the supreme
Land
police authorities of March 8, 1940, with supplements on September 3, 1940 (Bl. 15 ff., now also in
Doc. Occ.
10:11, 29 ff.); all regulations concerning the treatment of Polish workers are summarized in a decree circulated by RFSSuChddtPol of September 10, 1943 (
Doc. Occ.
10:57 ff.).

34.
RGBl.
I 555.

35.
For further details, see Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
(1964), 69.

36.
Cf. minutes of a discussion between Hitler and Sauckel, the plenipotentiary for the Forced Labor Service, January 4, 1944 (Nuremberg doc., PS-1292).

37.
ZS, G.J. no. 168, BI. 2357–64.

38.
With reference to the sphere of judicial administration, cf. summing up by the Reich minister of justice at the conference of State Superior Court presiding judges and chief public prosecutors held February 10–11, 1943, in Berlin (minutes, BA R 22/4200).

39.
Letter from RFSSuChddtPol to deputy Führer, March 8, 1940 (ZS, Versch. 26, Bl. 96–98; also
Doc. Occ.
10:25 ff.).

40.
Guidelines issued by RFSSuChddtPol on September 3, 1940, and July 5, 1941, quoted in
Doc. Occ.
10:108 ff.

41.
Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 157.

42.
A case that resulted in implementation of the quoted directive of the RFSSuChddtPol of March 8, 1940, was reported to the RSHA by the Gestapo Potsdam on December 17, 1940:

During October 1940, in Neumecklenburg, in the District of Friedeberg, the above-named repeatedly had sexual intercourse with a
Volkspole
(ethnic Pole), although she was aware of the relevant ban and of the fact that the man in question was an ethnic Pole…. After the incident became public knowledge in Nauen, the local population—with the aid of the district leadership of the NSDAP—decided to take direct action against R. On the afternoon of November 12, 1940, she was paraded through the streets, shaven-headed and clothed in sacks. She carried a placard bearing the message: “I am a dissolute individual, because I have gone with a Pole. That is why I am leaving this town in disgrace and going to prison.” (quoted in
Doc. Occ.
10:117)

However, such instances of public censure were later prohibited on Hitler’s orders; cf. express letter from RFSSuChddtPol to all Gestapo offices, November 4, 1941, according to which “public pillorying of German women of questionable honor … [had to] cease” (quoted from
Doc. Occ.
10:122 ff.).

43.
Express letter from the chief of the Security Police and the SD to all local Gestapo HQs (
Staatspolizeileitstellen
) and all commanders of the Security Police and the SD, August 5, 1940 (B. no. 3642/40 g-IV A 1 c) (BA Koblenz). Though formally the decree applied only to prisoners of war from countries of the Western Alliance (France, Britain, Belgium), they were used as forced labor (though officers were exempt). It was not possible to establish whether the scope of the decree also extended to the volunteers from France and Belgium—few though they were—who were allocated to work within the boundaries of the Reich.

44.
ZS, G.J. No. 168, Bl. 2357–64.

45.
Regarding the details of the instruction and the implementation of the “special treatment,” cf. minutes of a meeting of leading officials in the RSHA on September 26, 1939 (ZS, Versch. 26, Bl. 44; copy); guidelines issued by the RFSSuChddtPol on January 6, 1943 (ZS, G.J. no. 117, Bl. 259 ff.; copy).

46.
Administrative decrees circulated by the RFSSuChddtPol on September 3, 1940; July 5, 1941; March 10, 1942 (ZS, Versch. 9, Bl. 2345 ff.; copy); and circular from the Party Chancellery dated March 5, 1943 (ZS, G.J. No. 195, Bl. 2365 ff.). In a confidential administrative decree circulated on May 4, 1943, the chief of the Security Police and the SD impressed once more upon all Gestapo offices and commanders of the Security Police and the SD that Polish civilian workers having sexual intercourse with German women were to be sent either to a special SS camp or to a concentration camp (depending on racial origin and aptitude for Germanization). The decree reiterated the strictly binding nature of the circulars of the Reich minister of the interior of January 25, 1938 (concerning the directive on protective custody), and of October 4, 1939 (concerning prolongation of protective custody), and the decree of the chief of the Security Police and the SD of January 14, 1941 (concerning interrogation of those held in protective custody). Protective custody was also appropriate in cases where execution was a possible outcome. Because of the need for secrecy, the instruction was
not
to be passed on to district and local police authorities (Allgemeine Erlaßsammlung des RSHA, 2 F VIIIa; also as Nuremberg doc. NO-1532). In addition, the imposition of protective custody on Polish forced laborers was greatly facilitated by the fact that Himmler, as
Reichsführer
-SS and chief of the German police, had transferred the responsibility for ordering protective custody—hitherto a central responsibility of the RSHA—to the chief of the Security Police and the SD, Kaltenbrunner (and he, in turn, had transferred it to the local Gestapo offices and headquarters and the commanders of the Security Police and the SD in a decree circulated on May 4, 1943 [ibid.], with the directive not to release Polish detainees during the war).

47.
Decree circulated by the chief of the Security Police and the SD, January 8, 1940 (Nuremberg doc., NO-2430).

48.
Date unknown, ZS, Versch. 26, Bl. 99–100.

49.
See part 2, section 1, excursus, 3b (“Usurpation of Sentencing Powers in Specific Domains”).

50.
Decree circulated by RFSSuChddtPol to the supreme
Land
police authorities on March 8, 1940 (ZS, Versch. 26, Bl. 15 ff.; copy; also in
Doc. Occ.
10:11 ff.); see also decrees circulated—but not received—on March 20, April 8, July 10, September 3, 1940; December 10, 1941; July 26, 1942, rescinded by the decree circulated on September 10, 1943 (Allgemeine Erlaßsammlung des RSHA 2 A III f., BA R 19/3, which lists the decrees not received). For further details, see Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 125.

51.
For further details, see Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 169 ff., with further examples.

52.
Decree circulated by RFSSuChddtPol on September 27, 1943 (Allgemeine Erlaßsammlung RSHA 2 A III ff.).

53.
Letter from RFSSuChddtPol to district president of Potsdam, May 6, 1940, quoted in
Doc. Occ.
10:27 ff.

54.
Unpublished administrative decrees circulated by the RFSSuChddtPol regarding the treatment of forced laborers of Polish nationality, June 30 and September 10, 1943 (Erlaßsammlung, Allgemeine Erlaßsammlung RSHA 2 A III ff., 123 ff., 150 ff. [Cf. also
Doc. Occ.
10:57 ff.]). The regulations were probably only of a confirmatory nature; that is, the prohibitions had already been in force earlier, since regulations concerning discriminatory regulations against persons of “foreign race” were usually only confirmation of long-standing practices.

55.
Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 176.

56.
Guidelines issued by the RFSSuChddtPol of March 8, 1940; and decree circulated by the RFSSuChddtPol of September 10, 1943, quoted in
Doc. Occ.
10:82 ff., 57 ff. (also in Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 150 ff.).

57.
Implementing Order of Reich Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, June 13, 1940, quoted in Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 168; also in
Doc. Occ.
10:84 ff.

58.
Quoted from “Rundschreiben der Landesbauernschaft Baden,” Nuremberg doc., EL-068.

59.
Cf. a leaflet dated April 15, 1943 (quoted in
Doc. Occ.
10:312 ff.), and a letter from the Gauleiter of Wartheland to the
Kreisleiter
of the NSDAP, Scharnikau, July 20, 1943, quoted in
Doc. Occ.
10:229 f.

60.
Conditions in “work training camps” are described in the report of SS-
Sturms 2/8 Muskau
to the 8th SS-
Standarte Hirschberg
(Silesia) concerning the deployment of the SS for supervision of prisoners, July 6, 1940 (quoted in
Doc. Occ.
10:38 ff.); see also the regulations issued by the chief of the Security Police and the SD for labor camps, December 12, 1941 (quoted in
Doc. Occ.
10:163); these expressly forbade (surely not in accordance with actual practices) any “physical acts” (
körperliche Einwirkung
) against prisoners. Decree circulated by RFSSuChddtPol on September 27, 1943 (Allgemeine Erlaßsammlung RSHA, 2 A III f.). Cf. the RSHA statistics on the arrest of Poles for leaving their places of work between May 1942 and March 1943, quoted from
Doc. Occ.
10:199 f.