"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (167 page)

96.
Reich Governor Greiser at a speech in Kiel on June 10, 1942 (
Der Aufbau im Osten
, 9 f.): “We have come to grips with the problem of the labor force among the Jews, and I think that we have solved the Jewish question in a way that neither the Jews themselves, nor probably the German people, imagined in the past. The conclusion is that it is possible to make foreign labor useful to the German people if you approach things in an uncomplicated and unbureaucratic way. Certainly, however, I must note (and this is not a criticism, only an observation), if we had put good Prussian officials in to carry out these tasks, the Jews would probably still not be working today. We put in National Socialists, however, who have attacked the problem completely unbureaucratically.”

97.
For a summary, see von Rosen–von Hoevel, “Das Polenstatut” (1942).

98.
Report of July 8, 1941, by the district president of Hohensalza (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
856, sheet 30) and secret reports nos. 7 and 8 by the economic directorate of the Reich governor of Posen to the head of the Four Year Plan, December 12, 1941, and January 13, 1942 (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
855, sheet 19, 48).

99.
H. von Rosen–von Hoevel,
Deutsche Verwaltung
(1941), 114.

100.
For more details, see notes 48–61 above.

101.
See, for example, the general report of October 3, 1939, on the activity of the administration department to the head of the civil administration, Posen (State Archive Pozna
, head of the civil administration 53, sheet 45); letter dated June 10, 1940, from the district president of Posen to the chief of police in Posen and the district
Landräte
(State Archive Pozna
, Gendarmerie Schrimm 103, sheet 26).

102.
Telex from the chief of police of Łód
, no. 229, to the Reich governor of Posen, dated June 18, 1940 (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
1232, sheet 68), and his answer of October 1, 1943 (sheet 46); letter from the
Landrat
, Łód
, to the Reich governor of Posen (sheet 50).

103.
For more details, see Broszat,
Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik
, 50 f.; K. M. Pospieszalski,
Sprawa 58,000 Volksdeutschów
(c. 1985); cf. also A. Scheuermann, “Festigung deutschen Volkstums in den eingegliederten Ostgebieten,” in
Reich-Volksordnung-Lebensraum
, vol. 6, 475 ff.: “The Polish arbitrariness … makes particular consideration unnecessary.”

104.
Progress report of September 11, 1943, from the district president of Łód
for “Freedom Day” 1943 (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
65, 19): “It has generally been possible to repress the occasional attempts to revolt associated with the development of the overall political situation; unfortunately, certain elements of the local German population have not shown as strong a character as four years of German control of the area would lead one to expect. The educational work of the NSDAP has been brought into play in this connection to counter the difficulties.”

105.
All reports from the
Landkreis
authorities were to be transmitted via the
Landrat
, who passed them on to the district president with his own comments (decree of July 29, 1940, from the district president of Posen to the district
Landräte
, State Archive Pozna
, Landrat Schrimm, sheet 104). The district presidents for their part were required to report to the Reich governor. Only fragments of these reports are extant. The
only
complete reports from the Wartheland are those by the district president of Hohensalza from 1942 (Posen University Library), which were found by chance in Czech territory. The State Superior Court presidents and prosecutors general of the Annexed Eastern Territories, as in the Reich itself, regularly had to send, in addition to the usual business reports, so-called reports to the Reich Ministry of Justice, giving details not only of the legal practice but also of important individual cases, questions of interpretation, the activity of the police courtsmartial, etc., as well as the general political and economic situation, the mood of the population, and so on. Cf. Reich Ministry of Justice circulars of November 25, 1935 (Az. III 196, quoted in the report of August 11, 1942, by the chief state prosecutor of Königsberg [BA R 22/3375]); Reich Ministry of Justice decrees of April 29, 1940 (Az. 313 I a, 1015, quoted in the report of August 14, 1942, by the chief state prosecutor of Posen [BA R 22/3383]), and of October 29, 1942 (Az. 3130 I A o, 1746, quoted in the report of November 31, 1943, by the chief state prosecutor of Königsberg [BA R 22/3375]). The collected reports of the State Superior Court presidents and chief state prosecutors from the Annexed Eastern Territories will be found in BA R 22/850, 3360, 3372, 3375, 3383.