Book Read Free

Hitler

Page 160

by Peter Longerich


  16. Herbert, Fremdarbeiter, 163ff.; Christian Streit, Keine Kameraden. Die Wehrmacht und die sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen (Stuttgart, 1978) 244ff.

  17. Führer order re: Armaments, 10 January 1942 (Thomas, Geschichte, Appendix No. 16). On the reforms introduced by Todt see Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 49ff.; Müller, ‘Mobilisierung’, 664ff. There is no reliable evidence for speculation that Hitler or Himmer murdered Todt. See Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 663f.

  18. On his appointment and the start of his work see Rolf-Dieter Müller, ‘Albert Speer und die Rüstungspolitik im Totalen Krieg’, in Bernhard Kroener (ed.), Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg. Kriegsverwaltung, Wirtschaft und personelle Ressourcen (Stuttgart, 1999), 275ff.; Joachim Fest, Speer. Eine Biographie (Berlin, 1999), 175ff.; Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 55ff.; Gregor Janssen, Das Ministerium Speer. Deutschlands Rüstung im Krieg (Berlin, 1969), 33ff.; Tooze, Ökonomie, 634ff.

  19. Eichholtz points this out in Geschichte, 2, 57f.

  20. On Speer as a ‘propaganda genius’ see important points in Tooze, Ökonomie 636ff. with numerous examples.

  21. For criticism of the ‘miracle man Speer’, see Tooze, Ökonomie, 634ff.; Jonas Scherner and Jochen Streb, ‘Das Ende eines Mythos? Albert Speer und das sogenannte Rüstungswunder’, in Vierteljahrsschrift für Sozial-und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 93 (2006), 172–96.

  22. RGBl. 1942 I, 179. On the appointment see Bernhard R. Kroener, ‘“Menschenbewirtschaftung”, Bevölkerungsverteilung und personelle Rüstung in der zweiten Kriegshälfte (1942–1944)’ in Kroener et al., Organisation und Mobilmachung des deutschen Machtbereichs (Stuttgart, 1999), 779ff.; Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 74ff.; Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 355ff.

  23. Speer, Erinnerungen, 215ff.; Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 59ff.

  24. After his meeting at headquarters on 19 February Speer noted Hitler’s explicit approval of the system of ‘self-responsibility in industry’ as point 5. See Boelcke (ed.), ‘Rüstung’, 64f.

  25. Müller, ‘Speer’, 312ff. On the establishment of the armaments organization see Budrass, Flugzeugindustrie, 741ff.; on the main committee, Naval Construction, see Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 77; Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 66; on the main committee, Rail Vehicles, see Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 123 and 126ff.; Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 66.

  26. RGBl. 1942 I, 165; Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 64.

  27. Edict concerning the Uniform Coordination of the Armaments Economy, 7 May 1942 (‘Führer-Erlasse’, No. 157). His gradual process of clearing people out is described in detail in Thomas, Geschichte, 307ff. Since summer 1943, with Hitler’s support, Speer had been gradually taking over the military armaments organizations in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark. See Janssen, Speer, 53f.; Müller, ‘Speer’, 289ff. and 365ff.

  28. Ibid., 303ff.; Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 79ff.; BAB, R 3/1562, Göring edict concerning a ‘Central Planning Office’, 22 April 1942 (copy).

  29. Müller, ‘Speer’, 307ff.; Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 94ff.; Thomas, Geschichte, 313ff.; Decree concerning the Reich Defence Commissioners and the Unification of the Economic Administration, 16 November 1942 (RGBl. 1942 I, 649ff.).

  30. Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 135.

  31. According to Boelcke in his introduction (ibid., 4).

  32. Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 73; Müller, ‘Speer’, 546ff.

  33. Tooze, Ökonomie, 652ff.; see above, p. 799 with note 17.

  34. Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 143f.

  35. Ibid., 126. Röchling visited Hitler in his headquarters a month later. See ibid., 122; Picker, Tischgespräche, 18 May 1942.

  36. Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 170ff.

  37. Hans Kehrl, Krisenmanager im Dritten Reich. 6 Jahre Frieden, 6 Jahre Krieg. Erinnerungen (Düsseldorf, 1973), 278.

  38. BAB, R 3/1692, Meeting of the Central Planning Office, 23 October 1942: according to Speer, Pleiger had sent a letter effectively forecasting the collapse of coal supplies during the coming winter. See also the quote in R 2/1694, meeting of 28 October1942: Household supplies were cut from 1,270 to 1,100 tons. See Tooze, Ökonomie, 656ff. On the creation of the RVE see Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 84ff.

  39. Rolf Wagenführ, Die deutsche Industrie im Kriege 1939–1945 (Berlin, 1963), 69 (figures in percentages of total value).

  40. Overview in Spoerer, Zwangsarbeit, 37ff.

  41. Der Arbeitseinsatz im Großdeutschen Reich, 20 February and 30 April 1943; the calculation in Herbert, Fremdarbeiter, 210, is incorrect. On the Soviet POWs see Streit, Kameraden, 274. At the end of 1942, Sauckel maintained that, since 1 April, his organization had recruited around 2.8 million extra workers, among them over 400,000 POWs. However, this appears to apply to those recruited rather than those actually deployed. See Herbert, Fremdarbeiter, 209.

  42. Streit, Kameraden, 244ff.

  43. Herbert, Fremdarbeiter, 178ff. This is based on the ‘eastern edicts’ of the RSHA of 20 February 1942: BAB, RD 19/3, Section 2 A IIIf, 15ff., quote p. 25.

  44. Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 86.

  45. See Dieter Pohl, Von der “Judenpolitik” zum Judenmord. Der Distrikt Lublin des Generalgouvernements 1939–1944 (Frankfurt a. M., 1993), 113ff.; David Silberklang, ‘Die Juden und die ersten Deportationen aus dem Distrikt Lublin’, in ‘Aktion Reinhardt’, 141–64; Dieter Pohl, Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941–1944. Organisation und Durchführung eines staatlichen Massenverbrechens (Munich, 1996), 179ff.

  46. Adler, Theresienstadt, 50f.

  47. Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 182ff.

  48. Pohl, ‘Judenpolitik’, 116ff.

  49. Dienstkalender, 20 October 1941.

  50. Ladislav Lipscher, Die Juden im slowakischen Staat 1939–1945 (Munich and Vienna, 1980), 99ff.; Büchler, ‘Deportation’.

  51. Klarsfeld (ed.), Vichy, 34ff.; Herbert, ‘Militärverwaltung’.

  52. This is how Heydrich put it during a visit to Bratislawa on 10 April 1942. See Longerich, Politik, 492.

  53. Goebbels TB, 20 March 1942.

  54. Ibid., 27 March 1942.

  55. Ibid., 27 April 1942.

  56. Sybille Steinbacher, ‘Musterstadt’ Auschwitz. Germanisierungspolitik und Judenmord in Oberschlesien (Munich, 2000), 285ff.; Danuta Czech, Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau 1939–1945 (Reinbek b. Hamburg, 1989), 20 March and 12 May 1942.

  57. On the judicial crisis see Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 399; Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 370f.; Gruchmann, ‘“Generalangriff gegen die Justiz”? Der Reichstagsbeschluß vom 26. April 1942 und seine Bedeutung für die Maßregelung der deutschen Richter durch Hitler’, in VfZ 51 (2003), 509–20.

  58. Picker, Tischgespräche, 8 February 1942.

  59. RGBl. 1942 I, 139f.

  60. Dieter Kolbe, Reichsgerichtspräsident Dr. Erwin Bumke. Studien zum Niedergang des Reichsgerichts und der deutschen Rechtspflege (Karlsruhe, 1975), 337ff.; Jens Luge, Die Rechtsstaatlichkeit der Strafrechtspflege im Oldenburger Land 1932–1945 (Hanover, 1993), 181ff.

  61. This became clear in 1937/38 in the so-called Fabig case. See Gruchmann, Justiz, 192ff.

  62. See also the report by Hitler’s pilot, Bauer, concerning the dictator’s irritated comments about the verdict in Picker, Tischgespräche, 22 March 1942.

  63. The legal basis for the reconsideration of a case that had been legally completed had been created in September 1939. See RGBl. 1939 I, 184, Law concerning the Alteration of Regulations governing Criminal Proceedings etc.

  64. BAB, R 43 II/1560, Letter of 24 March 1942, and Reich Chancellery minute, 1 April 1942, concerning Schlegelberger’s note.

  65. Picker, Tischgespräche, 29 March 1942.

  66. ‘Führer-Erlasse’, No. 153.

  67. Domarus, 2, 1868.

  68. Ibid., 1874.

  69. RGBl. 1942 I, 247.

  70. In fact the ministerial bureaucracy took over responsibility for the ‘conscientious review’, which, according to the Reichstag resolution, was envisaged for every individual case and, as a result, neutralized the t
hreat of Hitler intervening. Individual judges were dismissed, but in a legal fashion that preserved their rights as civil servants. See Gruchmann ‘“Generalangriff” ’.

  71. Meldungen, 10, 3671ff., 3685, 3696, and 3708 (about the continuing discontent); Goebbels TB, 27, 28, and 30 April 1942. See also ibid., 6, 8, and 13 May 1942 about the impact of Hitler’s speech, above all among jurists.

  72. Ibid., 13 April 1942.

  73. VB (B), 20 April 1942, ‘In Dankbarkeit und Treue’.

  74. Hubatsch (ed.), Weisungen, No. 41; the directive was preceded by a meeting with Hitler on 28 March. See Halder, KTB, 3, 28 March 1942. Bernd Wegner, ‘Der Krieg gegen die Sowjetunion 1942/43’, in Boog et al., Globaler Krieg, 761ff.

  75. Ibid., 774ff.; Hartmann, Halder, 311ff.

  76. Halder, KTB, 3, 21 April 1942. On the situation regarding the troops and the matériel of the army in the east in spring 1942 see Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 778ff.

  77. Ibid., 791ff.

  78. For details see ibid., 816ff. Also see Hans Wimpffen, ‘Die zweite ungarische Armee im Feldzug gegen die Sowjetunion. Ein Beitrag zur Koalitionskriegsführung im Zweiten Weltkrieg’, Dissertation. Würzburg, 1968; Thomas Schlemmer (ed.), Die Italiener an der Ostfront 1942/43. Dokumente zu Mussolinis Krieg gegen die Sowjetunion (Munich, 2005), esp. 23ff. (reinforcement of Italian forces in 1942) and 58ff. (deployment during the summer offensive); on the negotiations with Romania see ADAP E I, No. 244; Hillgruber (ed.), Staatsmänner, 2, Doc. 2.

  79. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 762ff.; Situation reports 13 February 1942, and situation assessment of the 20th according to Wegner, ‘Krieg’; Salewski, Seekriegsleitung, 3, No. 12.

  80. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 767.

  81. Halder, KTB, 3, 8 May 1942.

  82. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 841ff.

  83. Ibid., 852ff.

  84. Meldungen, 10, 3696f., 3708, 3718, 3729, 3746f., 3752f., 3787ff., 3802ff., 3823f., 3836ff., 3852, and 3872f. The positive news from North Africa is already reflected in the last two reports.

  85. Röver died on 15 May in the Berlin Charité hospital. Repeated rumours that he had been killed because of his growing criticism of the regime cannot be proved. See Carl Röver, Der Bericht des Reichsstatthalters von Oldenburg und Bremen und Gauleiters des Gaues Weser-Ems über die Lage der NSDAP aus dem Jahre 1942, ed. Michael Rademacher (Vechta, 2000), Introduction.

  86. Goebbels TB, 23 May 1942.

  87. On the bombing of Lübeck see Olaf Gröhler, Bombenkrieg gegen Deutschland (Berlin, 1990), 36ff. and 48ff.

  88. On these raids see Collier, Defence, 303ff. and 514f. (table); Horst Boog, ‘Strategischer Luftkrieg in Europa und Reichsluftverteidigung 1943–1944’, in Boog et al., Das Deutsche Reich in der Defensive. Strategischer Luftkrieg im Westen und in Ostasien 1943–1944/45 (Stuttgart and Munich, 2011), 560.

  89. On the motives for this raid see, in particular, his comments to Goebbels (TB, 27 April and 30 May 1942).

  90. For an overview see Gröhler, Bombenkrieg, 76f.

  91. See Heinz Dieter Hölsken, Die V-Waffen. Entstehung – Propaganda – Kriegseinsatz (Stuttgart, 1984), 85.

  92. See below, p. 874.

  93. However, Himmler’s office diary contains a possible insight into the decision-making process, as it refers to seven meetings between Himmler and Heydrich between the end of April and the beginning of May in three different places (Berlin, Munich, and Prague) and two meetings of Himmler with Hitler on 23 April and 3 May 1942. See Longerich, Holocaust, 359.

  94. From 11 May 1942 onwards almost all the Jews from the Reich were either shot or gassed in gas vans on their arrival at Maly Trostenez, a train station near Minsk. See activity report, 17 May 1942, in Unsere Ehre heißt Treue. Kriegstagebuch des Kommandostabes Reichsführer SS. Tätigkeitsberichte der 1. und 2. SS-Inf. Brigade, der 1. SS-Kavallerie-Brigade und von Sonderkommandos der SS, ed. Fritz Baade (Vienna, 1985), 236ff.; Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 237ff.; Peter Junge-Wentrup (ed.), Das Vernichtungslager Trostenez in der europäischen Erinnerung. Materialien zur Internationalen Konferenz vom 21. bis 24 März 2013 in Minsk (Dortmund, 2013); Paul Kohl (ed.), Das Vernichtungslager Trostenez. Augenzeugenberichte und Dokumente (Dortmund, 2003). Between 4 and 15 May, the Jews who had been transported from the Reich to Lodz in autumn 1941 – more than 10,000 people – were already being murdered in gas vans in Chelmno. See Lucjan Dobroszycki (ed.), The Chronicle of the Łódz´ Ghetto 1941–1944 (New Haven, CT and London, 1984), 159ff. From mid-May onwards Jews from the Reich who had been taken from the ‘Theresienstadt old people’s ghetto’, were murdered in the Sobibor extermination camp. See Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 206. From the beginning of April, and increasingly from the middle of June, the same thing happened to Jews who were transported directly from the Reich to Sobibor (ibid., 211ff.). From the beginning to the middle of June, transports from Slovakia were also murdered in Sobibor. See Yehoshua Büchler, ‘The Deportation of Slovakian Jews to the Lublin District of Poland in 1942’, in Holocaust and Genocide Studies 6 (1991), 153 and 166. See also Jules Schelvis, Vernichtungslager Sobibór (Berlin, 1998).

  95. Führer edict concerning the Establishment of a State Secretary for Security Affairs in the General Government 7 May 1942 (RGBl. 1942 I, 293); Edict concerning the Transfer of Responsibilities to the State Secretary for Security Affairs (Verordnungsblatt des Generalgouvernements 1942, 321ff.); see Longerich, Himmler, 583f.

  96. Longerich, Holocaust, 332ff.; Bogdan Musial, Deutsche Zivilverwaltung und Judenverfolgung im Generalgouvernement. Eine Fallstudie zum Distrikt Lublin 1939–1944 (Wiesbaden, 1999), 242ff.; Pohl, Judenverfolgung, 203ff.; Robert Seidel, Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Polen. Der Distrikt Radom 1939–1945 (Paderborn, 2006), 289ff.; Steinbacher, ‘Musterstadt’, 273ff.

  97. On the Reich Commissariats in Eastland and Ukraine see Yitzhak Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union (Lincoln, NE 2009), 251ff. and 263ff.; Longerich, Holocaust, 345ff.

  98. Wolfgang Scheffler, ‘Der Brandanschlag im Berliner Lustgarten im Mai 1942 und seine Folgen. Eine quellenkritische Betrachtung’, in Berlin in Geschichte undGegenwart (1984), 111. However, it is not clear whether these measures occurred on Goebbels’s initiative, as he claims in Goebbels TB, 25 May 1942, or whether Hitler passed on the order directly to Himmler, or rather Heydrich. (Scheffler, ‘Brandanschlag’, 106.)

  99. Brandes, Tschechen, 1, 251ff.; Guenter Deschner, Reinhard Heydrich. Statthalter der totalen Macht (Esslingen, 1977), 273ff.; Helmut G. Haasis, Tod in Prag. Das Attentat auf Reinhard Heydrich (Reinbek b. Hamburg, 2002); Eduard Calic, Reinhard Heydrich, Schlüsselfigur des Dritten Reiches (Düsseldorf, 1982), 476ff.

  100. Frank’s minute of 28 May 1942, quoted in Václav Král (ed.), Die Deutschen in der Tschechoslowakei. Dokumentensammlung (Prague, 1964), 474ff.

  101. Goebbels TB, 30 May 1942.

  102. See above p. 825.

  103. In the conversation that he had tête-à-tête with Hitler Goebbels evidently used remarks that the dictator had made at his daily lunch party.

  104. In Hitler’s terminology, in so far as it is recorded in Goebbels’s diary, he makes a definite distinction between west and central Europe, which would support this interpretation.

  105. VB (N), 10 June 1942, ‘Der Führer am Sarge Heydrichs’.

  106. Text of the speech in BAB, NS 19/4009.

  107. Domarus, 2, 1891.

  108. Frank’s notes in Kràl (ed.), Deutschen, 474ff.; Brandes, Tschechen 1, 260f.

  109. Ibid., 262ff.; Heinemann, ‘Rasse’, 515ff.

  110. Picker, Tischgespräche, 22 June 1942.

  111. Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 213.

  112. Ibid., 260ff.

  113. Czech, Kalendarium.

  114. Klarsfeld (ed.), Vichy, 379f. and 390. On 21 July 1942, for the first time, Jews ‘incapable of work’ from France like those from Slovakia were selected out and murdered. See ibid., 412.

  115. Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 242ff.

  1
16. Raul Hilberg, Die Vernichtung der europäischen Juden. Die Gesamtgeschichte des Holocaust (Frankfurt a. M., 1990), 761ff.; Sundhaussen, ‘Jugoslawien’, 323; Alexander Korb, Im Schatten des Weltkriegs. Massengewalt der Ustaša gegen Serbien. Juden und Roma in Kroatien 1941–1945 (Hamburg, 2013); Czech, Kalendarium, 18, 22, 26, and 30 August 1942.

  117. PAA, Inland II g 200, Killinger to FM, 12 August 1942, and to Himmler, 26 July 1942; Browning, ‘Endlösung’, 162ff.

  118. Hannu Rautkallio, Finland and the Holocaust. The Rescue of Finland’s Jews (New York, 1987), 163ff.; however, shortly afterwards Finland did deliver up some Jewish refugees. See Antero Holmila, ‘Finland and the Holocaust. A Reassessment’, in Holocaust and Genocide Studies 13 (2009), 413–40.

  119. Yitzhak Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. The Operation Reinhard Death Camps (Bloomington IN, 1987), 381ff. (overview of figures in tables); Steinbacher, ‘Musterstadt’, 278ff.

  120. Dienstkalender; the state secretary in the transport ministry, Ganzenmüller, responded to Wolff’s query on 29 July 1942 (BAB, NS 19/2655). See also Rudolf Höss, Kommandant in Auschwitz. Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen (Stuttgart, 1958), 157ff. and 176ff.; Longerich (ed.), Ermordung, 201.

  121. If Z, 626-NO.

  122. See above p. 786. Hitler’s decision cannot be dated; Keitel, however, referred to it in an order of 23 July 1942. See BAB, NS 19/1671. Himmler announced the new task on 31 July. See Reinhard Rürup (ed.), Der Krieg gegen die Sowjetunion. Eine Dokumentation (Berlin, 1991), 132. On Himmler’s appointment see Longerich, Himmler, 646f.

  123. Hubatsch (ed.), Weisungen, No. 46.

  124. If Z, 3392-NO, published in the illustrations section of Gerald Fleming, Hitler and the Final Solution (Berkeley et al., 1984).

  125. Stumpf, ‘Krieg’, 594ff.

  126. Domarus, 2, 1893.

  127. Stumpf, ‘Krieg’, 594ff.

  128. Ibid., 648ff.

  129. Wegner, ‘Krieg.’ 868ff.

  130. Bock, Pflicht, 457ff., 3–13 July 1941; Below, Adjutant, 313, refers to a ‘bitter row between Hitler and Halder and Bock’; Halder, KTB 3, 5 (lively debate during the Führer presentation) and 6 July 1942: Bock was unable to take a uniform line in his leadership of his armies. On Bock’s dismissal see Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 884f.; Hürter, Heerführer, 602f.

 

‹ Prev