Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews
Page 103
estimated at 90,000, of whom 42,000 were registered as Jews in autumn 1942. The
Germans calculated additional unrecorded children (ibid. 109–10).
85. Zeller and Griffioen, ‘Judenverfolgung’, pt. I, 41.
86. This is a summary of the significant findings of Zeller and Griffioen, ‘Judenverfolgung’.
87. PAA, Inland II g 194, correspondence between the Foreign Ministry and the embassy
March/April; according to Czech’s Kalendarium, the trains arrived in Auschwitz on 7
and 13 May.
88. PAA, Inland IIg 194, Helm’s report from 18 Apr. 1944.
89. See below, pp. 402 f.
90. Hilberg, Destruction, 718.
91. See the telegram from the embassy in Berne to Luther, 4 Jan. 1943, Inland II g 204; see.
Browning, Final Solution, 155.
92. Klingenfuß to Eichmann, PAA, Inland II g 203 a; on this complex, see Browning, Final
Solution, 154 ff.
93. Ibid. 155.
94. PAA, Inland II g 177.
95. PAA, Inland II g 177, Presentation note by Wagner, 12 July 1943.
96. See the telegram from the embassy in Berne to Luther, 4 Jan. 1943, Inland II g 204;
cf. Browning, Final Solution, 155.
564
Notes to pages 390–393
97. ND NG 2652.
98. They were contained in Heydrich’s figure of 700,000 French Jews living in the
‘unoccupied zone’.
99. On the deportation of the Greek Jews, See Hilberg, Destruction, 740 ff.; Fleischer,
‘Griechenland’, in Benz, ed., Dimension, 241 ff.; Danuta Czech, ‘Deportation und
Vernichtung der griechischen Juden im KL Auschwitz’, in Hefte von Auschwitz 11
(1970), 5–37.
100. PAA, Inland II g 190.
101. On the transports see the schedule in Fleischer, ‘Griechenland’, 273; on the Bergen-
Belsen Transport, ibid. 255 ff.
102. See PAA, Inland II g 190; Browning, Final Solution, 161–2; Jonathan Steinberg, All or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust 1941–1943 (London, 1990), 94 ff.; and Meir
Michaelis, Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question
in Italy, 1922–1945 (Oxford, 1978), 313 ff.
103. Chary, ‘Bulgaria’, 124 ff.; on the persecution of the Jews in Bulgaria in 1943 see in particular also Hoppe, ‘Bulgarien’, 285 ff.; Nir Baruch, Der Freikauf. Zar Boris und das
Schicksal der bulgarishen Juden (Sofia, 1996); Michael Bar-Zohar, Beyond Hitler’s
Grasp: The Heroic Rescue of Bulgaria’s Jews (Holbrook, 1998); on Dannecker see
Claudia Steur, Theodor Dannecker. Ein Funktionär der ‘Endlösung’ (Essen, 1997), 92 ff.
104. Chary, ‘Bulgaria’, 129 ff.; see also Baruch, Freikauf, 103 ff. Translation of the preserved original in Dieter Ruckhaberle and Christiane Ziesecke, eds, Rettung der bulgarischen
Juden—1943. Eine Dokumentation (Berlin, 1984). This exhibition catalogue also con-
tains other major documents in facsimile.
105. Chary, ‘Bulgaria’, 178 ff., 197 ff., 224 ff.
106. Ibid. 178 ff.; Baruch, Freikauf, 120 ff.
107. Ribbentrop to Beckerle, 4 Apr. 1943, PA, Büro Staatssekretär Bulgarien, 5; cf. Chary,
‘Bulgaria’, 269–70.
108. Chary, ‘Bulgaria’, 275 ff.
109. Ibid. 295 ff.
110. On the Jewish question in France after the occupation of the southern zone see
Klarsfeld, Vichy, 193 ff.; Susan Zuccotti, The Holocaust, the French and the Jews
(London, 1993), 166 ff.; Renee Poznanski, Jews in France during World War II (Lon-
don, 2001), 356 ff.
111. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 194 ff.
112. Ibid. 200 ff.
113. Transport nos. 46–53, 9 Feb.–25 Mar. 1943; details in Klarsfeld, Vichy, document
section.
114. CDJC, XXVI-71, published in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 489 ff.; on this see also ibid. 208.
115. This involved the marking of identity cards and food cards and the internment of Jews without French nationality in the border and coastal regions: Klarsfeld, Vichy, 198 ff.
116. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 205, 210 ff.; Daniel Carpi, Between Hitler and Mussolini: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia (London, 1994), 113–14.
117. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 198, 206, 214 ff.; Carpi, Between, 105 ff.
118. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 220; Carpi, Between, 125 ff.; Letter from Mackensen to the Foreign Ministry, 18 Mar. published in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 510–11.
Notes to pages 394–397
565
119. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 220 ff.; Carpi, Between, 129 ff.
120. Details in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 226 ff.; Carpi, Between, 136 ff.
121. Current state of the Jewish question in France, CDJC, XXVc 214, published in
Klarsfeld, Vichy, 501–2.
122. He later spoke in terms of three months: Note for Knochen of 27 Mar. 1943, CDJC,
XLVI–V, 27 Mar. 1943, published in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 516 ff.
123. See p. 363.
124. Note for Knochen of 27 Mar. 1943, CDJC, XLVI–V, 27 Mar. 1943, published in
Klarsfeld, Vichy, 516 ff.; see ibid., 224–5.
125. CDJC, XXVc-235, published in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 519.
126. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 224.
127. Ibid. Vichy, 230 ff.
128. Ibid. 232.
129. Hagen to Röthke, 16 June 1943, CDJC, XXVII-17, published in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 535.
130. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 242 ff., 255–6.
131. Ibid. 239 ff.
132. Ibid. 256.
133. Note by Hagen, 11 Aug. 1943, CDJC, XXVI 35, Klarsfeld, Vichy, 550–1.
134. Note by Röthke, 15 August about discussion with Laval the previous day, CDJC, XXVI-
36; Klarsfeld, Vichy, 551 ff.; see the account ibid. 262 ff.
135. Note from the head of state to Ambassador Brinon, 24 Aug. 1943, CDJC, XXVII-33;
Klarsfeld, Vichy, 557; see the account ibid. 270.
136. Current state of the Jewish question in France, 21 July 1943; Klarsfeld, Vichy, 545 ff.
137. On the history of the Italian Jews under Fascism see Susan Zuccotti, The Italians
and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue and Survival (New York, 1987); Michaelis,
Mussolini.
138. Himmler’s note about his visit to Mussolini on 11–14 Oct. 1942, published in Helmut
Krausnick, ‘Himmler über seinen Besuch bei Mussolini’, VfZ 4 (1956), 423–6.
139. The different attitudes towards the ‘Jewish question’ are examined in detail in Steinberg, All or Nothing.
140. Müller to Bergmann AA, 25 Feb. 1943 with a quotation from Himmler’s letter to
Ribbentrop, 29 Jan. 1943, published in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 495 ff.
141. ND NG 4956, Teleprinter message from the special train Westphalia to Wolf; Reply
from Abteilung Deutschland, 24 Feb. 1943.
142. Sztojay to Horthy, 28 Apr. 1943, published in Eichmann in Ungarn. Dokumente, ed.
Jenó Levai, (Budapest, 1961), 61 ff.
143. Message to Knochen, 24 May 1943 CDJC, XLVIIIa-24, Klarsfeld, Vichy, 528.
144. Best’s letters to AA, 13 Jan. 1943, PAA, Inland II g 184 (ADAP E V, 39). Shortly before, Best had discussed the situation with Luther and Rademacher in Berlin after Luther
had decided to postpone further measures for the time being. PAA, Inland II g 184,
note by Rademacher of 23 Dec. 1942. On these events see Herbert, Best, 361–2;
Browning, Final Solution, 160–1.
145. Report by Best of 24 Apr. 1942, ibid., ADAP E V, no. 344.
146. Luther to Ribbentrop, 28 Jan. 1943 and Ribbentrop’s marginal notes on this document
of 1 Feb. 1943 (PAA, Inland II g 184). Himmler decided in June that ‘provisional Jewish
566
Notes to pages 397–402
question’; ibid., Wagner to Kaltenbrunner, 30 June 1943.
147. Best to Himmler, 22 Aug. 1943, BAB, NS 19/3302; cf. Herbert, Best, 351; further
Telegram to AA, 30 Aug. 1943, ADAP E VI, 259.
148. Telegram from Ribbentrop (Führerhauptquartier) to Best, 31 Aug./1 Sept. 1943, PAA,
Inland II g 184, ADAP E VI, 268.
149. PAA, Inland II g 184, Telegram of 31 Aug. 1943, ADAP E VI, 259, note 4.
150. Report by Best, 6 September, PAA, Inland II g 184, ADAP E VI, 282; Herbert, Best, 358.
151. PAA, Inland II g 184 (ADAP E VI, 287). On the interpretation of the telegram see esp.
Herbert, Best, 362 ff. Best aimed for the right of command over all police troops in
Denmark, and wanted to set up a special court with himself at its head. See telegram to
AA, 1 Sept. 1943, ADAP E VI, 271.
152. Ribbentrop’s ‘note for the Führer’, 23 Sept. 1943, ADAP E VI, 344.
153. As Best put it in his telegram of v. 5 Oct. 1942.
154. Telegram to AA, 20 Sept. 1943, ADAP E VI, 332.
155. For greater details see Leni Yahil, The Rescue of Danish Jewry (Philadelphia, 1983), 223 ff. Gunnar S. Paulsson, ‘ “The Bridge over Oeresund”. The Historiography on the
Expulsion of the Jews from Nazi-Occupied Denmark’ in Journal of Contemporary
History 30 (1995), 431–64, and (ibid., 465–79) the reply by Hans Kirchhoff, ‘Denmark:
A Light in the Darkness of the Holocaust? A Reply to Gunnars S. Paulsson’. See also
Hans Kirchhoff, ‘ The Rescue of the Danish Jews in October 1943’ in David Bankier
and Israel Gutman eds, Nazi Europe and the Final Solution (Jerusalem, 2003), 539–55.
156. PAA, Inland II g 184, telegram 5 Oct. 1942.
157. Fröhlich, Die Tagebücher, Teil II, Band 4, 4 June 1942, p. 444; ibid., Band 12, 11 May 1944, p. 270.
158. Ibid., Band 6, 13 Dec. 1942, p. 439; ibid., Band 9, 7 Aug. 1943, pp. 231–2; ibid., Band 11, 14
Jan. 1944, pp. 87–8.
159. Ibid., Band 8, 30 May 1943, p. 22; ibid., Band 13, 23 Aug. 1944, pp. 295–6.
160. Ibid., Band 8, 21 Mar. 1943.
161. Ibid., Band 7, 2 Mar. 1943, p. 454.
162. In the case of Bulgaria, the Western powers expressly made the signing of the ceasefire with Bulgaria in September 1944 dependent on the repeal of the Bulgarian anti-Semitic
laws. Baruch, Freikauf, 159 ff. See also pp. 148–9, according to which there were
indications that the American side, in their first probings concerning the withdrawal
of Bulgaria from the Axis, raised the issue of Bulgaria’s policy towards the Jews
163. On the persecution of the Jews in Italy after September 1943 see Lliana Picciotto
Fargion, ‘Italien’, in Benz, ed., Dimension, 199–227; Michaelis, Mussolini, 342 ff.; Lutz Klinkhammer, Zwischen Bündnis und Besetzung. Das nationalsozialistische Deutschland und die Republik von Saló (Tübingen, 1993), 530 ff.
164. On Dannecker’s work in Italy see Steuer, Dannecker, 113 ff.
165. Presentation note by Wagner, 4 Dec. 1943, PAA, Inland II g 192, in ADAP E VII, 111.
166. Ibid.
167. Michaelis, Mussolini, 388–9.
168. Fargion, ‘Italien’, 206 and 222–3.
169. On this see Fleischer, ‘Griechenland’, 260 ff.
Notes to pages 402–407
567
170. See the memoirs of Errikos Sevillias, Athens-Auschwitz (Athens, 1983). In April there was also a corresponding ‘action’ in Albania, in which around 300 Jews were arrested
and deported via Belgrade to Bergen-Belsen. See Gerhard Grimm, ‘Albanien’, in Benz,
ed., Dimension 227.
171. Fleischer, ‘Griechenland’, 265 ff.
172. Sundhausen, ‘Jugoslawien’, 325.
173. On German Judenpolitik in France after the collapse of Italy see Klarsfeld, Vichy, 276 ff.; Steinberg, All or Nothing, 163; Zuccotti, Holocaust, 180 ff.; Poznanski, Jews, 390 ff.
174. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 278 ff.; Zuccotti, Holocaust, 181 ff.
175. See pp. 392 ff.
176. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 289.
177. Ibid. 298 ff.; Zuccotti, Holocaust, 190 ff.
178. On the government reshuffle see Eberhard Jäckel, Frankreich in Hitlers Europa. Die
deutsche Frankreichpolitik im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Stuttgart, 1966), 293–4.
179. CDJC, CXXXII-56, Klarsfeld, Vichy, 574 ff.; Zuccotti, Holocaust, 197 ff.
180. Klarsfeld, Vichy, 320. Slightly different figures quoted in the literature may be found in Juliane Wetzel, ‘Frankreich und Belgien’, in Benz, ed., Dimension, 132–3.
181. Hilberg, Destruction, 699 f.
182. Ladislav Lipscher, Die Juden im slowakischen Staat 1939–1945 (Munich, 1979), 114.
183. NG 4407, 29 June 1943.
184. Lipscher, Juden, 137 ff.; Gilda Fatran, ‘Die Deportation der Juden aus der Slowakei’, Bohemia 37 (1996), 98–119, 98–9; Tatjana Tönsmeyer, ‘Die Einsatzgruppe H in der
Slowakei in Finis Mundi—Endzeiten und Weltenden im östlichen Europa’, in Joachim
Hösler and Wolfgang Hösler, eds, Festschrift für Hans Lemberg zum 65. Geburtstag
(Stuttgart, 1998), 167–88.
185. 21 July 1943, ND NG 4749.
186. Report by Veesenmayer, 22 Dec. 1943, ND NG 4651; see also Statement by Wisliceny,
ND NG 1823.
187. Hilberg, Destruction, 789 f.
188. Lipscher, Juden, 144 ff.; Ivan Kamenec, ‘Die erfolglosen Versuche zur Wiederauf-
nahme der Deportationen der slowakischen Juden’, TSD (2002), 318–37.
189. Lipscher, Juden, 178–9; Fatran, ‘Deportation’, 116 ff.
190. PAA, Inland II g 208, Luther to Ribbentrop, 16 Jan. 1942; cf. Browning, Final Solution, 132.
191. PAA, Inland II g 208, Bergmann to Bormann. 9 Mar. 1943.
192. IMT xxxv. 428, D-736.
193. Sztojay to Horthy, 28 Apr. 1943, in Eichmann in Ungarn, ed. Lévai, 61 ff. On German activities with regard to Hungary in the spring and summer of 1943 see Braham, Politics, 250 ff.
194. Diary entry 8 May 1943, See Fröhlich, Die Tagebücher, Teil II, Band 8, p. 236 on
statements by Hitler the previous day.
195. ADAP E VI, no. 43.
196. Donauzeitung, 1 June 1943, cf. Hilberg, Destruction, 876.
197. Report of 10 Dec. 1943, NG 5560, in Randolph L. Braham, The Destruction of Hun-
garian Jewry: A Documentary Account (New York, 1968), no. 110.
198. Braham, Politics, 381 ff.; on the organization of the occupying administration, ibid. 406 ff.
199. Ibid. 396 ff.
568
Notes to pages 407–408
200. In Götz Aly and Christian Gerlach, Der letzte Kapitel Realpolitik, Ideologie und der Mord an den ungarischen Juden (Stuttgart, 2002) the authors argue in contrast that
four stages of escalation can be perceived within the decision-making process con-
cerning the deportation of the Hungarian Jews (Aly and Gerlach, Kapitel, 249 ff.).
Thus, according to them, there had been no ‘long planned preparation of the
deportations’, no deportation plan existing from the beginning; the decision for
ghettoization and deportation was to be seen not as a ‘unique act’ but as an ‘interactive process’ (ibid. 252, 266, 416). In their view many factors must be taken into account to
explain this process: the redistribution of resources (finance, labour, food supplies,
military and economic potential), the disposing of social burdens, internal political
mobilization in Hungary, relations with the German ally, etc. In their view, ‘Hungar-
ian pressure’ played a large part in the acceleration of the deportations (ibid.,
summary on p. 265). This interpretation is the res
ult of an analysis of situational
factors and in my view takes too little account of the intention of the Germans,
demonstrable as early as the end of 1941, and pursued continuously from then
onwards, to set the deportations in motion with the help of the Hungarians. It was
the German occupation that created the crucial preconditions for radicalizing the
anti-Semitic policy of the Hungarian government to such an extent that the deport-
ations could begin. The events of 1944 must be seen in this perspective. Moreover, in
my view, Aly and Gerlach overstress rational m0tives (Zweck-rational) in their
analysis of the decision-making process. Thus, for example, the Germans plainly
had no genuine interest in an effective exploitation of the workforce of the Jewish
prisoners, as Aly and Gerlach themselves show in their account of the treatment of the
deported workers: only a very few of the 200,000 Jewish forced labourers were in fact
deployed in the context of the Fighter Programme for which they had originally been
requested. Instead, they worked mostly in functions that had little to do with the war
and with no regard for their qualifications. Because of their bad treatment, the
productivity of the forced labourers, who had been robbed of all material and
emotional support by separation from their families, was poor and mortality rates
were extremely high so that a third of the forced labourers had died by the end of the
war (ibid. 409).
201. Ibid. 259.
202. Veesenmayer to the AA, 22 Apr. 1944, BD no. 144.
203. Braham, Politics, 510 ff. and 446 ff.
204. Diary entry 27 Apr. 1944 in Fröhlich, Die Tagebücher, Teil II, Band 12, p. 199.
205. Braham, Politics, 573 ff.
206. Ibid. 674 ff.
207. Ibid. 662 ff.
208. Veesenmayer was already working on the basis of four transports each carrying 3,000
Jews on 4 May 1944: telegram to the AA (BD, No. 153).
209. BD, no. 157, Thadden to German Mission in Bratislava, 6 May 1944.
210. See Braham, Politics, 733 ff.
211. The figure of 433,000 also contains several thousand Jews who were deported to
Auschwitz after the official halt to deportations.
212. Braham, Politics, 780 ff.
Notes to pages 408–412
569
213. Ibid. 850 ff.