18. Eugen Kogon et al., eds, Nationalsozialistische-Massentötungen durch Giftgas (Frank-
furt, 1983), 110 ff.
19. For details see Ch. 7, p. 139.
20. ND NO 365, also published in Helmut Krausnick, ‘The Persecution of the Jews’, in Hans Buchheim et al., eds, Anatomy of the SS-State (London, 1968), 114–15.
21. See p. 280.
22. Ibid.
23. Heberer, ‘Eine Kontinuität der Tötungsoperationen’, 295. The meeting between Himm-
ler and Brack has been substantiated in the official diary entry for 14 December 1941
with the note ‘Euthanasia’; see, Dienstkalender, ed. Witte et. al., 290. On the allocation 532
Notes to pages 280–282
of Brack’s staff see also in particular the memo from Brack to Himmler dated 23 June
1942, in which he declared himself willing to make further staff available and recalls the earlier agreement with Himmler (BAB, NS 19/1583).
24. Cf. and Robert-Jan van Pelt and Deborah Dwork, Auschwitz 1270 to the Present (New
Haven, 1996), 280 ff.; Franciszek Piper, Vernichtung in Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studien
zur Geschichte des Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz, vol. iii (Oswie-
cim, 1999), 88 ff.; On the murders of Jewish forced labourers see Sybille Steinbacher,
‘Musterstadt’ Auschwitz. Germanisierungspolitik und Judenmord in Ostoberschlesien
(Munich, 2000), 276–7.
25. Jan Erik Schulte, Zwangsarbeit und Vernichtung. Das Wirtschaftsimperium der SS.
Oswald Pohl und das SS Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt 1933–1945 (Paderborn,
2001), 50 ff.
26. Stanislaw Klodzinski, ‘Phenol’, in Die Auschwitz Hefte, vol. i (1994), 277–81; see
also Danuta Czech, Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-
Birkeanau 1939–1945 (Reinbek b. Hamburg, 1969), 108 and 151.
27. Jean C. Pressac, Die Krematorien von Auschwitz. Die Technik des Massenmordes
(Munich, 1984), 19.
28. On the other hand the date of December 1941, suggested by Pressac, Krematorien, 41–2, does not seem convincing. That the murder of these prisoners occurred in early September
1941 can be reliably assumed thanks to Klodinski’s investigation based on interviews with around 200 former inmates. According to Franciszek Piper, Die Zahl der Opfer von
Auschwitz (Oswiecim, 1993), 23, this mass murder was already preceded by experiments
with poison gas in August 1941; see also Czech, Kalendarium, 115 ff., and Jerzy Brandhuber,
‘Die sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz’, Hefte von Ausch-
witz 4 (1961), 5–46, and Wojciech Barcz, ‘Die erste Vergasung in Auschwitz’, in H. G. Adler et al., eds, Auschwitz: Zeugnisse und Berichte (Cologne and Frankfurt a. M., 1983), 17–18.
29. Cf. Browning, Origins, 398, 421; Steinbacher, ‘Musterstadt’ Auschwitz, 276–7, demon-
strates the murder of Jews from the Schmelt camps since November 1941 but leaves the
question of the killing method open.
30. Rudolf Hoess, Commandant in Auschwitz (London, 1959), 207 ff.
31. Ibid. 208–9.
32. Trial of Eichmann, vii. 376 ff.
33. OS, 502-1-312, Topf Company to building management, 31 Oct. 1941; See Pressac,
Krematorien, 31 ff.
34. Michael Thad Allen, ‘The Devil in the Details: The Gas Chambers of Birkenau, October
1941’, HGS 16/2 (2002), 189–216; van Pelt and Dwork, Auschwitz, 322; Browning, Origins,
358, has spoken out in favour of Allen’s dating
35. See pp. 317 f.
36. Pressac, Krematorien, 38 ff.
37. See Götz Aly, ‘Final Solution’: Nazi Population Policy and the Murder of the European Jews (London, 1999), 223–4; Christian Gerlach, ‘Failure of Plans for an SS Extermination Camp in Mogilew, Belorussia’, HGS 7 (1997), 60–78.
38. Evidence for this may be found in Sandkühler’s work on Galicia, see Thomas Sand-
kühler, ‘Endlösung’ in Galizien: Der Judenmord in Ostpolen und die Rettungsinitiativen
von Berthold Beitz, 1941–1944 (Bonn, 1996), 156 ff.
Notes to pages 283–285
533
39. See Hitler’s statements in the discussion about ‘Eastern questions’ on 16 July; IMT
xxxviii. 86 ff., 221-L.
40. For Lemberg, however, there is only one reference to plans for the construction of an extermination camp. In the area of Minsk thousands of Jews deported from the Reich
were murdered in Maly Trostinets from the spring of 1942 onwards.
41. This is evident in a presentation by the Propaganda department of Goebbels’s ministry dated 17 August 1941, which—clearly in connection with Hitler’s speech the same day—
lists the arguments for a marking of the Jews (MA 423, in H. G. Adler, Der Verwaltete
Mensch. Studien zur Deportation der Juden aus Deutschland (Tübingen, 1974), 50–1).
42. On the history of this: on 21 April Goebbels had commissioned his Secretary of State, Leopold Gutterer, to prepare for the marking of the Berlin Jews: Kriegspropaganda
(Boelcke) and Akten der Parteikanzlei, 2 parts, ed. Helmuth Heiber et al. (Munich 1983
and 1991), Mikrofiches, vol. 4, 76074, memo Tießler, 21 Apr. 1941. It was subsequently
established in the Propaganda Ministry that a proposal for cross-Reich identification of
the Jews had already been proposed by Himmler or Heydrich (IfZ, MA 423, Taubert to
Tießler 22 Apr. 1941 and memo of Tießler, 25 Apr. 1941). Goering had received such a
proposal from the Führer’s Deputy (StdF) and the SD the previous year, when
Heydrich had first suggested the marking of Jews after Kristallnacht (ibid., 76069,
from BAB, NS 18alt/842, memo from Reischauer to Tießler, 24 May 1941.
43. On 14 August the State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior, Wilhelm Stuckart, in a memo to Lammers, had supported Karl Hermann Frank’s suggestion that marking
should be introduced in the Protectorate (ND NG 1111). Heydrich too had asked
Bormann—after consulting Goering—in a memo of 17 August 1941 to urge Hitler to
agree to the marking of the Jews, as the draft from the Propaganda Department for
Goebbels of 17 August 1941 makes plain (IfZ, MA 423). With his initiative Goebbels thus
came just ahead of other offices.
44. See p. 266 on the propaganda campaign.
45. In Walter Strauß, ed., ‘Bernhard Lösener, “Als Rassenreferent im Reichsministerium
des Innern” ’, VfZ 9 (1961), 262–313, 302 ff.
46. Fröhlich, ed., Die Tagebücher, Teil II, vol. ii, 19 Aug. 1941, p. 265. Goebbels had already recorded his intention to mark the Jews in his diary entry for 12 Aug. 1941, p. 218.
47. Reichsgesetzblatt (RGBl) 1941, I, p. 547; See express letter from the Reich Interior
Ministry, 15 Sept. 1941, with guidelines for the implementation of the police regulation
of 1 Sept. 1941. See Paul Sauer, ed., Dokumente über die Verfolgung der Judischen Bürger
in Baden-Württemberg durch das nationalsozialistische Regime, vol. ii (Stuttgart, 1966),
207 ff. Cf. Adler, Verwaltete Mensch, 47 ff.
48. RGBl, 1941, I, p. 675.
49. RGBl 1941, I, pp. 681–2.
50. See Longerich, Vernichtung, 446.
51. Decree, 4 November 1941; see Joseph Walk, ed., Das Sonderrecht für die Juden im NS-
Staat. Eine Sammlung der gesetzlichen Massnahmen und Richtlinien—Inhalt und
Bedeutung (Heidelberg, 1981), iv. 261.
52. RGBl, 1941, I, pp. 722 ff.
53. Order from the Reich Minister of the Interior of 3 December, ND NO 5336, in Adler,
Verwaltete Mensch, 503–4, and commentary, ibid. 491 ff.
534
Notes to pages 28
5–286
54. BAB, NS 19/1438.
55. CDJC, XXVb-7.
56. Cf. in general Adler, Verwaltete Mensch, 29 ff.
57. PAA, Pol Abt. III 245; See Christopher Browning, The Final Solution and the German
Foreign Office (New York, 1978), 66.
58. Cf. PAA Inland II g 174: Luther’s request via the German embassies in the three
countries, 10 November. Agreement from the Romanian, Croatian, and Slovakian
governments was conveyed by telegram from the German embassy heads in Bucharest,
Agram, and Pressburg on 13 November 1941, 20 November 1941, and 4 December 1941;
Luther informed Eichmann about the result of his efforts on 10 January 1942. Cf.
Browning, Final Solution, 67–8.
59. Heydrich to Himmler, 19 October, Eichmann Trial, Doc. 1544. The best overview
of the first two deportation waves is now contained in the book by Alfred
Gottwaldt and Diana Schulle, Die ‘Judendeportationen’ aus dem Deutschen Reich,
1941–1945. Eine kommentierte Chronologie (Wiesbaden, 2005). Less recent litera-
ture includes, alongside the groundbreaking work by H. G. Adler, Verwaltete
Mensch, the essays by Ino Arndt and Heinz Boberach on the German Reich,
Ino Arndt on Luxembourg, Jonny Moser on Austria, and Eva Schmidt-Hartmann
on Czechoslovakia, all in the collected volume Wolfgang Benz, ed., Dimension des
Völkermords. Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (Munich, 1991).
On the deportation of the Burgenland Gypsies, see Michael Zimmermann, Rasse-
nutopie und Genozid. Die nationalsoialsozialistische Lösung der ‘Zigeuerfrage’
(Hamburg, 1996), 223 ff.
60. On the deportations to Riga, see Wolfgang Scheffler, ‘Das Schicksal der in die
baltischen Staaten deportierten deutschen, österreichischen und tschechoslowakischen
Juden 1941–1945’, in Wolfgang Scheffler and Diana Schulle, eds, Buch der Erinnerung.
Die ins Baltikum deportierten deutschen, österreichischen und tschechoslowakischen
Juden, vol. i (Munich, 2003), 1–43; Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 110 ff.
A total of 19,283 people were deported to Riga in twenty transports between 27
November 1941 and 6 February 1942.
61. The transports originally meant for Riga had been diverted to Kovno. Without excep-
tion, the 5,006 people deported there in those five trains between 17 and 25 November
1941 were shot, as were the inmates of the first Riga transport: Wolfgang Scheffler,
‘Massenmord in Kowno’, in Scheffler and Schulle, eds, Buch der Erinnerung, i. 83–7;
Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 98 ff.
62. On the seven deportations to Minsk that took place between 11 November and 5
December 1941, see Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 84 ff.
63. IfZ, Fb 95, 27, note from Gotenhafen, 24 Oct. 1941, summary of a discussion with
Eichmann.
64. Fröhlich, Die Tagebücher, Teil II, vol. ii, 18 November 1941, p. 309.
65. Browning, Origins, 378. At the time Eichmann’s office was still called the ‘Special
Department for Jewish matters and Evacuation Affairs’.
66. Adler, Verwaltete Mensch, 354 ff. Adler still provides the most detailed overview of the deportations.
67. Details ibid. passim.
Notes to pages 287–288
535
68. This collaboration is described in Raul Hilberg, Sonderzüge nach Auschwitz
(Mainz, 1981).
69. Adler, Verwaltete Mensch, 450 ff.
70. Ibid. 499 ff.
71. Ibid. 380 ff.
72. That the deportations occurred openly in many places and were observed by the
population is documented in many local studies; see e.g. Michael Zimmermann, ‘Die
Deportation der Juden aus Essen und dem Regierungsbezirk Düsseldorf’, in Ulrich
Borsdorf und Mathilde Jamin, eds, Über Leben im Krieg. Kriegserfahrungen in einer
Industrieregion, 1939–1945 (Reinbek b. Hamburg, 1989), 126–42, on the deportation of
the Jews of Essen, as well as Zimmermann, ‘Die Gestapo und die regionale Organisation
der Judendeportation. Das Beispiel der Stapo-Leitstelle Düsseldorf’, in Gerhard Paul
und Klaus-Michael Mallmann, eds, Die Gestapo. Mythos und Realität (Darmstadt,
1995), 357–72; Frank Bajohr, ‘ “damit bitte keine Gefühlsduseleien”. Die Hamburger
und die Deportationen’, in Die Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte und das Institut für
die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, eds, Die Deportation der Hamburger Juden 1941–
1945, 2nd edn (Hamburg, 2002), 13–29. Scheller and Schulla, Buch der Erinnerung
provides numerous other examples to show that the first stage of the deportations (as
a closed march from a collection point to the station) took place publicly in many
places at the end of 1941, including the cities of Berlin, Würzburg and Nuremberg,
Hamburg, Kassel, Bielefeld, and Hanover (contributions from Klaus Dettmer, Eck-
ehard Hübschmann, Jürgen Sielemann, Monica Kingreen, Monika Minninger, and
Peter Schulze).
73. Summarized in the volume of photographs by Klaus Hesse and Philipp Springer, Vor
aller Augen. Fotodokumente des nationalsozialistischen Terrors in der Provinz (Essen,
2002), 135 ff.
74. This is apparent in official surveys, some of which included critical voices: Stapostelle Bremen, 11 Nov. 1941, Stadt Münster, Bericht aus der Kriegschronik, 1 Dec. 1941; SD
Außenstelle Minden, reports on 6 Dec. 1941 and 12 Dec. 1941, and SD Hauptaußenstelle
Bielefeld, 16 Dec. 1941. These reports can be found in the publication compiled by Otto
Dov Kulka and Eberhard Jäckel, Die Juden in den geheimen NS-Stimmungsberichten,
1933–1945 (Düsseldorf, 2004), Nos. 3371, 3401, 3387, 3388, 3386. That the deportations did not meet with indifference on the part of the public is also apparent from diaries,
letters, and reports from foreigners who were staying in the Reich at the time.
75. Adler, Verwaltete Mensch, 562 ff.
76. Ibid. 414.
77. Ibid. 491 ff. and 589 ff. and Wolfgang Dressen, Betrifft: ‘Aktion 3’. Deutsche verwerten jüdische Nachbarn (Cologne and Berlin, 1998). The topic of the auctions and the putting
to other uses of Jewish household goods for the benefit of German citizens is, in recent
years, increasingly being covered in local studies; for example: Jehuda Barlev, Juden und jüdische Gemeinde in Gütersloh, 1671–1943, 2nd edn (Gütersloh, 1988), 113; Matthias
Krispin et al., Ein offenes Geheimnis. ‘Arisierung’ in Alltag und Wirtschaft in Oldenburg zwischen 1933 und 1945 (Oldenburg, 2001), 119 ff.; Christiane Kuller, ‘ “Erster Grundsatz: Horten für die Reichsfinanzverwaltung”. Die Verwertung des Eigentums der deportierten Nürnberger Juden’, in Christoph Dieckmann et al., Die Deportation der Juden
536
Notes to pages 288–290
aus Deutschland. Pläne—Praxis—Reaktionen, 1938–1945 (Göttingen, 2004), 160–79;
Regina Bruss, Die Bremer Juden unter dem Nationalsozialismus (Bremen, 1983),
217–18; M. Buchholz, ‘Die hannoverschen Judenhäuser. Zur Situation der Juden zur
Zeit der Ghettoisierung und Verfolgung. 1941 bis 1945’, Quellen und Darstellungen zur
Geschichte Niedersachsens 101 (1987); Bernd-Lutz Lange, Davidstern und Weihnachts-
baum. Erinnerungen von überlebenden (Leipzig, 1992); in his study of Hamburg, Frank
Bajoh estimates around 100,000 beneficiaries of Jewish property in Hamburg and the
immediate area (‘Arisierung’ in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen
Unternehmer
1933–1945 (Hamburg, 1997), 331 ff.).
78. Adler, Verwaltete Mensch, 606 ff.; Susanne Willems, Der entsiedelte Jude. Albert Speers Wohnungspolitik für den Berliner Hauptstadbau (Berlin, 2000). The NSDAP district
headquarters in Göttingen reported in December 1941 that ‘the intention to transport
the Jews out of Göttingen in the near future’ had become ‘generally known among the
populace’; in consequence, the headquarters was ‘overrun’ with applications for allo-
cations of the abandoned dwellings (Kulka and Jäckel, Juden, No. 3400, NSDAP
Kreisleiter Göttingen, report 19 Dec. 1941).
79. Details in Longerich, ‘Davon haben wir nichts gewusst’, 171 ff. The police regulation of 24 Oct. 1941 was reproduced in Goebbels’s article ‘Die Juden sind schuld’ (The Jews are
to blame) on 16 Nov. 1941 in the weekly journal Das Reich in the form of ten
commandments on the treatment of Jews. On the avoidance of the subject of the
deportations in German propaganda see Goebbels’s instruction at the internal propa-
ganda conference on 23 Oct. 1941 (BA, NS 18alt/622).
80. Zimmermann, Rassenutopie, 176 ff.
81. Guenter Lewy, The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies (New York, 1999), 112 ff.; Zimmer-
mann, Rassenutopie, 228 ff.
82. PAA, Inland II AB, 59/3; Cf. Browning, ‘Decision’, 27.
83. Werner Jochmann, ed., Adolf Hitler: Monologe im Führer-Hauptquartier 1941–1944. Die
Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heins (Hamburg 1980), 25 Oct. 1941, p. 106.
84. Das Reich, no. 46, 1941. English translation in J. Noakes and G. Pridham, eds, Nazism 1919–1945, vol. iii: Foreign Policy, War and Racial Extermination, rev. edn (Exeter,
2001), 515 ff.
85. Minutes of the speech; quoted in Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm, Rassenpolitik und Kriegfüh-
rung. Sicherheitspolizei und Wehrmacht in Polen und der Sowjetunion (Passau, 1991),
131–2, following PAA, Pol XIII, 25, VAA-Berichte; Cf. the note from a reporter,
published in Jürgen Hagemann, Die Presselenkung im Dritten Reich (Bonn, 1970), 146.
86. ADAP D XIII/2, no. 415, record of meeting between Hitler and the Great Mufti in the
presence of the Reich Foreign Minister on 28 November 1941 and 30 November 1941.
Arguably, Hitler’s statement to a visitor who was not a close and trustworthy ally
Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews Page 97
