"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (169 page)

112.
Reichsstatthalter
Greiser in the
Gauamtsblatt of the NSDAP Gau Wartheland
, no. 11/43 of June 1, 1943, p. 1 (State Archive Pozna
): “I set particular store by consistency and consistent application of the principles I represent regarding the treatment of the Polish people in all walks of life.” Łuczak,
Diskriminierung der Polen
, 53 f.

113.
Position paper of October 1944 from the RSHA/Abt. III, BA R 58/1002, 157 ff.

114.
Directives of September 29, 1939, from the head of the Civil Administration Posen on the administrative structure (ZS, Poland, film 14, sheet 764 ff.; copy).

115.
The ultimate aim according to the directives of the RFSS/RKF was a new order of the whole settlement such that so-called central villages, each with six villages grouped around it, constituted a focal point for the settlement and administration (RFSS/RKF general order II/7 of November 26, 1940, quoted in the Reich Ministry of the Interior directives on the Redesign of the Rural Settlement Structure, I Ost 623/41/4150, undated [presumably end of 1940], BA R 18/1205).

116.
Cf. Noack, “Das deutsche Kriegsrecht-Kriegsgesetzgebung” (1940); K. Lemigi, “Die Rechtsentwicklung auf dem Gebiet des Verwaltungsrechts,”
DR
(1943) (A): 127 ff.

117.
This included the obligation for Germans to wear a badge making them recognizable as such (circular of May 6, 1940, from the Gauleiter and Reich governor of Warthegau to all Party and state offices, State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
3, sheet 39). All uniformed members of the Wehrmacht and the Party were to demonstrate German unity to the “foreign population” by saluting one another (circular of May 23, 1940, from the
Gauleitung
of the NSDAP, Posen, sheet 53). Convictions of Germans were not published, in order not to endanger the “authority of Germanness” in the East (information sheet—strictly confidential—of the
Gau
press office, Wartheland, dated February 20, 1942, State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
468, sheet 4).

118.
Greiser,
Der Aufbau im Osten
, 19.

119.
On the “German Restructuring Effort,” see, for example, Holtz, “Zur Volksgeschichte der Ostgebiete” (1940); Höhn and Seydel, “Der Kampf um die Wiedergewinnung des deutschen Ostens” (1941); Schürmann, “Festigung deutschen Volkstums in den eingegliederten Ostgebieten” (1943); Reich Governor A. Greiser: The “greatest reforestation program” in the world is planned in the Warthegau, reforestation of 400,000 hectares; a reservoir with a capacity of over a thousand million square km. is planned for the Wartheland, etc. (
Der Aufbau im Osten
, 18). A total of 500,000 Germans (from Bessarabia, Wolhynia, Bukovina, Galicia, the Baltic, etc.) were said to have immigrated to the Reich, 300,000 of them to the Warthegau; this was “double” what the Prussian Settlement Commissions managed over a period of peace of thirty years in two provinces; but it was only a beginning (14). In the Wartheland all state-owned property as well as that of the monasteries and churches was confiscated. The local
Gau
administration thus became “the largest landowner in the
Gau
” (10).

120.
“Thousands of German businesses, thousands of official and teaching posts will in the very first instance be occupied by German soldiers; not only technically qualified officials are needed in the German East: anybody who has his heart in the right place … good common sense,” can become an employee or an official in the East, too. Thus the Fatherland thanks its soldiers (Greiser,
Der Aufbau im Osten
, 14).

Part One. Section 2. Introduction. II. The New Type of Administration in the Annexed Eastern Territories

1.
Greiser,
Der Aufbau im Osten
(1942), 14.

2.
Cf. Hitler at the working supper of June 24, 1942 (quoted by Picker,
Hitlers Tischgespräche
[1951], 190): “If, in a manner of speaking, he had made
Gaukönige
(‘
Gau
Kings’) of the Gauleiter, who received only major orders from above, he is now giving the individual Reich governors a large measure of freedom—even if this does not meet with the approval of the minister of the interior. Only when you give Reich governors and Gauleiter sufficient scope to act on their own initiative do you get to know who has the talent. Otherwise all you get is a stupid bureaucracy.”

3.
More details in Broszat,
Der Staat Hitlers
(1969), 162 ff.

4.
Cf. Hubrich, “Gliederung und Verwaltung der Ostgebiete” (1939) (Hubrich was
Ministerialrat
in the Reich Ministry of the Interior and head of the New Order Division in the Incorporated and Occupied Territories, Foreign Administration); Best, “Die bisherige polnische Verwaltung” (1939).

5.
For the development of the NSDAP in the
Reichsgau
Wartheland, see the circular of December 9, 1939, from the Reich governor of Posen (Pozna
) to all state agencies, which contained an appeal to further the development of the Party organization by all available means (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
2, Bl. 70). The most important agencies were (1) the
Gau
Personnel Office, which had to report whenever a member of the Civil Service, but also a private individual, was to take up an important position in the Party, the administration, or the economy (see the statements by the head of the
Gau
Personnel Office for the
Reichsgau
Wartheland,
Gauamtsblatt der NSDAP Gau Wartheland
, May 1, 1940, Bl. 1, State Archive Pozna
); (2) the
Gau
Civil Service Office, which was responsible for the clearance of all officials at their recruitment and transfer to other positions and also participated in Civil Service legislation (ibid.); with regard to the work of officials in the Party, see the letter of April 30, 1941, from the Reich governor of Posen to the
Gau
Personnel Office; minutes of the head of Dept. I of the office of
Reichstatthalter
Posen of August 4, 1941; see also the directive of August 30, 1941, issued by the Reich governor of Posen to the district presidents, requiring them to commit all officials to work harder within the Party and its sections and affiliated organizations (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
924, Bl. 21, 2, 1); (3) the
Gau
Legislation Office, which was responsible for the political alignment of the administration in assimilating the law to that of the “Old Reich,” participation in the legislation, recruitment of all law officers to Party service, and the legal charge of the German settlers (
Gauamtsblatt der NSDAP Gau Wartheland
, May 1, 1940, Bl. 1, State Archive Pozna
); (4) the
Gau
Office for Community Policy, which had the task of nominating Bürgermeister and official commissioners for office and investigating their credentials, overseeing the municipal structure, etc. (ibid.); (5) the Race Policy Office, which was entrusted with the “uniform alignment of the ethnic German group” toward “correct race-political thinking,” information on “Polish nationality problems,” and participation in dealing with the “asocial question” and the “solution of the Jewish question” (ibid.); (6) the Party jurisdiction (
Gau
court), which was responsible for the supervision and discipline of Party members (ibid.); (7) the Gau Bureau of Nationhood Affairs, which took care of the “right” political treatment of “non-Germans” and worked closely with the Nationhood Policy Division in the office of the Reich governor (merging of top posts; see note 11).