|
“Final Solution” Chronology 1904-07
Hitler in Linz:
remark to friend re. synagogue: “This doesn’t belong
in Linz.” (Fleming)
1919
16 September 1919: Hitler letter to Gemlich
outlining political
action plans “removal”
(Entfernung) = murder
(Dawidovicz 16-17) A
deterministic, teleological interpretation which does not explain why
all Jews did not flee at once. (Bauer 36)
13 November 1919: Hitler’s first public speech: “We will
carry on the struggle until the last Jew is removed from the German
Reich.” (Dawidovicz 17) 1920
The
Nazi party twenty-five point program
on Jewish policy is announced. (Friedlander) A ‘blueprint for
anti-Jewish legislation’, Hitler advocates “the removal (Entfernung) of the Jews from our
nation, not because we would begrudge them their existence- we would
congratulate the rest of the world on their company- but because the
existence of our nation is a thousand times more important to us than
that of an alien race.” (Dawidovicz 56) 1922
Fall
1922: Himmler joins Reichsflagge, a military group under Ernst Rohm 1923
August
1923: Himmler joins NSDAP, following Rohm. He is Bavarian Reichswehr
and participates in the Putsch as an SA standardbearer. (Dawidovicz )
8-9 November 1923: Beer Hall Putsch (Munich) 1924 Hitler imprisoned at
Landsberg Mein Kampf: Hitler’s
death wish against Jews: “If at the beginning of the war twelve or
fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corruptors of the people had been held
under poison gas...” (Dawidovicz 3) From Anti-Semitic
ideology came the energy that eventually propelled the Nazis towards
Auschwitz, but in 1933, to say nothing of 1919 or 1925, no one yet
imagined where that energy might lead. (Schleunes 56) “The
Jew” occupied a significant place in Mein Kampf. He
appeared in many different guises: the anithesis of the German Aryan,
the purveyor of modernity, the prime mover of parasitic capitalism, the
agent of Marxist subversion, and the master of Bolshevist Russia. It
seems as if Hitler, determined to provide the Nazi movement with a
single enemy, seized upon “the Jew” as best suited to make ‘widely
separated adversaries appear as if they belonged to but one
category.’(Mayer) In Mein
Kampf there is nothing to suggest that the drive to the east
was intended to de-capitate the “Jewish octopus” or to seize Europe’s
principal reservoir of Jews, located in Poland and Russia.... Anti
-Semitism permeated Hitler’s worldview and project. It was also
consonant with his interpretation- and execration- of the corruption of
the modern world. But while Hitler condemned the Jews as the chief
disease carrying poisoners and parasites of contemporary society, he
struck out through them against the processes and forces of
emancipation and modernization, which for him were the ultimate source
of pollution. (Mayer) People rallied to a
syncretic creed of ultranationalism, social Darwinism, anti-Marxism,
anti-bolshevism, and anti-Semitism, as well as to a party program
calling for revision of Versailles, the repeal of reparations, the curb
of industrial capitalism and the establishment of a Volkish welfare
state. (Mayer) Anti-Semitism in its
basest form, but it is hardly a blueprint for the planned mass killing
of all European Jews….“If at the beginning of the war twelve or fifteen
thousand of these Hebrew corruptors of the people had been held under
poison gas...” : “a solitary sentence in a thick book of turgid German
prose.” “Until the end of 1938 neither Hitler nor any of his chief
propagandists of the regime suggested any other solution for what they
called the Jewish problem than eviction from Germany.”(Bauer 37) 1924
From 1924 to 1930 NSDAP members of the Reichstag
introduced anti-Jewish legislation seeking to prevent Jews from taking
jobs in the civil service. In 1930 they even introduced legislation
which attempted to expropriate funds from Jewish ‘bank and stock
exchange princes’. (Dawidowicz 56) early 1924: Himmler
joins NSFB, led by Ludendorf and Strasser
June 1924: Himmler becomes Strasser’s secretary
(NSFB Gauleiter for Lower Bavaria). (Dawidovich) 1925
May 1925: NSFB joins NSDAP; Himmler- deputy
Gauleiter for Lower Bavaria under Strasser 1926
Strasser becomes party propaganda leader; Himmler
remains his deputy. 1927
Himmler appointed deputy leader of the SS.
Helmut Nikolaiis assigned to plan
anti-Jewish legislation for the Ministry of the Interior (Frick) upon
the Nazi accession to power. His overall purpose is to repeal
‘Jewish-Roman law’ and assert a conception of citizenship based on
Germanic law: volk and race. (Dawidovicz 58) 1928
Late 20’s Nazi
Anti-Semitic Ideology:
Hitler’s
Second Book written but not published in 1928. He
said that the Jews were an anti-race, formed out of a hybrid,
indeterminate mongrel core, a nomad people of eternal restlessness,
incapable of independent political, territorial existence… their
religion was a cover for their lust for power and for absolute rule
over others…. Their control of the world based on financial
machinations. First, the Jew will demand equal rights and then superior
rights…. The Jew’s character was parasitic, and incapable of a separate
existence; his rule would lead not only to the destruction of nations
oppressed by him but also to his own demise. Years before the wish to
murder the Jews became articulate in their own minds, they formulated
it in obverse fashion. They
could murder because they accused the Jews of wanting to murder them.
Rosenberg, Goebbels and others use Christian anti-Semitism and its
identification of Jews as a people possessed by the Devil and build a
modern demonology based on fears of Bolshevik world domination. (Bauer
37) Given their
commitment to anti-Semitism it is surprising that they had no clear
plans about how to handle the Jewish question when they cam to power in
1933. (Schleunes 57) 1929
Himmler appointed
Reichsfuhrer-SS
Gregor
Strasser, second to Hitler in party leadership, establishes a think
tank within the party (OA II) that was charged with making the
‘intellectual preparations for the future National Socialist State’: a
shadow cabinet, producing detailed programmatic statements. However,
nothing of comparable nature was produced regarding the Jewish
question.
The few plans that were made were largely the work
of Dr. Helmut Nikolai:
racial hygiene measures and locking out of professions, precursors to
the Nuremburg laws. He indicates that legal measures can be pursued if
the Nazis come to power through absolute majority, by administrative
means if through a coalition. However, there is no reason to
believe that Hitler ever took the slightest note of what Nicolai had to
say… Hitler was in no mood to delegate authority in Jewish affairs. (Schleunes
58) Reichstag
Election KPD
SPD
Catholic
DNVP
NSDAP 77
143
(-33)
107 (+12) 18% Polarization and
paralysis of Reichstag; Nazis disrupt legislative.
1931
Himmler sets up Race and Settlement Office (RuSA,
later RuSHA) to screen prospective SS candidates for racial purity.
Fall: NSDAP (w/ SA left wing workers), veterans
organizations (Stahlhelm) and DNVP (Schacht, Hugenburg)
19
September 1931: Geli Raubal Scandal
The SD is established within the SS as the chief
intelligence office of the organization. Ic Subdivision (intelligence)
under Heydrich.
Winter: Hindenburg
wants to retire.
May 1932: Goring, then chief delegate to Reichstag
explains to an Italian journalist what the Nazis plan to do eventually
to the Jews: marriage laws, expulsion of post 1914 Jewish immigrants,
exclusion of Jews from professions, but Merchants would be allowed to
stay in business. (Schleunes 58)
January 1932: Hitler Industry Club Speech. Hitler meets with Fritz Thyssen
6 November Reichstag
Elections: Communists-17%,
Socialists-20%, Catholics-15%, NSDAP- 33%, DNVP-9% 10 March Presidential Elections:
KPD
Center
NSDAP
Stahlhelm
13%
49.6%
30%
6-8% Runoff
10%
53%
37%
Bruning: chancellor
tries to reign in SS and SA 5/30 Bruning resigns
and is replaced by von Papen (Catholic, Prussian aristocrat)…
Schleicher as Defense Minister will run government.
6/16 Von Papen lifts
restrictions on SS and SA, new civil war between Nazis and communists.
Von Papen dismisses SPD premier 31 July
1932 Reichstag
Elections KPD
SPD
Center
NSDAP
DNVP 89 (+12)
133(-10)
75(+6)
230 37.5%
37(-4) Von Papen inept,
Hindenburg reluctant to turn to Hitler; Von Papen offers Hitler the
vice-chancellorship and Hitler holds out. Von Papen unable to form
majority of the right. Nazi popularity tops out. Von Papen dissolves
the Reichstag after vote of no confidence SA violence starts
to sour industry’s support of Nazis 6
November 1932 Reichstag Elections KPD
SPD
Center
NSDAP
DNVP 100 (+11)
decline
decline
196(-30) 33%
52(+15)9% setback of NSDAP vonPapen plots
against Schleicher after Hindenburg asks him for his resignation von Papen schemes
with Hitler to regain top post; Schleicher becomes Chancellor Schleicher:
Hindenburg attempt to split NSDAP by offering Strasser cabinet position Schleicher tries
towin over the Socialists by offering public work projects, but SPD
won’t cooperate. Von Papen schemes to
regain power 1 January 1933
meeting with Hitler and DNVP conservatives: plot to overthrow the
Weimar in legislative coup Hitler: Chancellor; von-Papen Vice
Chancellor but running things behind the scenes. Von Ppapen persuades
Hindenburg that he can manage Hitler in an authoritarian government. 30 January 1933: Hitler named
Chancellor: Upon accession to
power, Hitler moved methodically to implement the Final Solution, but in order to do so, he had
to restrain party radicals and give his actions the veneer of legal
process. Legislation would lead first to political, legal and economic
disenfranchisement, then it would seek to identify and define Jews as
sub-human, subject to medical measures. (Dawidowicz 48) In reference to the
first six year of Hitler’s rule, one cannot speak of a Nazi Jewish
policy. Instead, one must speak of many Jewish policies, no one of them
truly official, no one of them coordinated with others, and many of
them pursued in contradiction to each of the others…” (Schleunes 56)
nor until 1939 in the aftermath of Kristallnacht can the intervention
of Hitler clearly be seen. Himmler
wound up winning this fiercely contested struggle…”that the struggle
was a bitter one is evidence confirming the importance of anti Semitism
to [Hitler] and the Nazis. (57)
How
can Schleunes argue that Jewish policy was essential to Hitler, an
issue over which he refused to delegate control, yet he ignored it
until Kristallnacht? Hitler’s hatred of
the Jews is undeniable, but it is not clear that he participated in any
specific way to realize any measures. He did not appoint a leader of
Jewish policy, and he consistently chose less radical solutions when
confronted with choices for action. Anti-Jewish policy underwent a
process of ‘cumulative radicalization’ spurred by competition within
the bureaucracy. To maintain control in the face of Nazi party efforts
to infiltrate the government, the civil bureaucracy gradually made
concessions on the Jewish question as a sop to party ideologues who
could only exercise power in this limited arena. The radicalization was
a natural result of the competition for this ministry. (Mommsen) Although the
anti-Semitism of Hitler and the Nazis was hard set, it could not have
become genocidal without a whole series of enabling and catalyzing
contingencies, which ultimately included the opportunistic conquests
and irreversible insufficiencies of an ideologically immutable warfare
state.... The most crucial of these contingencies was the deep-seated
convergence of interests between, on the one hand, the cartel of
traditional conservatives and reactionaries, and, on the other hand,
Hitler and the National Socialist movement.... Although there were
scattered and spontaneous anti-Semitic incidents during Hitler’s first
two months in office, his government and political movement
concentrated on hounding leftists, not Jews.” (Mayer) Anti-Jewish
Legislation: 1933-35 (I) During this
period we see that the first stage of the implementation of Hitler’s
plan to kill the Jews involved: a) the political, legal and economic
disenfranchisement of the Jews which began in April of 1933. b) The
dehumanization of the Jews through laws forbidding intermarriage at
Nuremburg in 1935. (F) Hitler had
difficulty consolidating control over party fanatics like Rohm who were
eroding his political image and he had to give non-Jewish actions the
veneer of legal process. Having gained state power, Hitler consolidated
real power of the violent forces within in his own party. Henceforth,
control of Jewish policy and ascendancy within the police state would
be synonymous.
January 1933: Upon Hitler’s accession to power, the
SS has 50,000 members: General SS (Allgemeine SS) and two spin offs:
the Reserve SS (Verfugungstruppe) and the Death’s Head Units
(Totenkopfverbunde)
1 February 1933: Hitler decree blames Marxist
parties for the misery of Germany. He insists that he will not complete
the nation’s ruin by tolerating ‘the red flag of destruction’. (Mayer)
4 February 1933: Suppression of Socialist and
Communist political parties (Dawidowicz 49)
20 February 1933: Hitler and Goring address
prominent industrialists and bankers. Disparages liberalism and refers
to the coming election: ‘there’s no going back’. There will be “no
internal peace until Marxism is finished off.” (Mayer)
January to April 1933: Ernst Rohm’s SA troopers
engage in terrorization program: beatings and vandalism. Hitler is
embarrassed by their activities because he was a
‘law and order’ candidate. To curtail SA hoodlums,
SS units were sometimes called in to maintain order (Schleunes 60)
27 February 1933: Reichstag fire: In emergency decrees,
Goring suspends freedom of political discourse, orders the arrest of
all Communist deputies in the Reichstag, and closes all KPD offices,
newspapers and meeting halls. (Mayer)
5 March
1933: Reichstag Elections: NSDAP: 44% DNVP 8%
(Dawidowicz 50)
9 March 1933: Himmler appointed acting
police president of Munich. Himmler heads all police except
in Goring’s powerbase in Prussia (the Gestapo).
10 March 1933: Hitler calls on the party, SA and SS
to continue giving first priority to “the destruction of Marxism”.
(Mayer)
11 March 1933: Goring sanctions anti-Jewish boycott
violence (Dawidowicz 52), but even she acknowledges that the boycott
originated in spontaneous SA hooliganism, yet later she describes the
event as an example of Hitler’s “improvisatory and opportunistic
manner” and acknowledges that he was forced to get involved to prevent
the SA from getting out of control. (Dawidowicz 53-54)
20 March 1933: Himmler
opens Dachau. (Dawidowicz 51)
The first contingent of two hundred prisoners, all
of them Communists, arrive two days later. During the first six months
of Hitler’s chancellorship 27,000 people would be imprisoned, primarily
for political purposes. (Mayer)
21 March 1933: Spectacular national celebration
orchestrated by Goebbels on Potsdam Day to mark the investiture of the
new Reichstag. Hitler and Hindenburg do honor to the tombs of Frederick
II and Frederick the Great. In less than eight
weeks Hitler accomplished his ‘legal revolution’. (Dawidowicz) Having consolidated
‘legislative’ power, Hitler would move to secure real control by
defeating rivals within the Nazi Party. Controlling Jewish policy meant
control of ideology from the inner circle and hands on the levers of
power in the police state. Combatants: Goring (Prussian secret police-
Gestapo), Rohm (SA), Goebbels (Ministry of Propaganda), Streicher
(publisher of Der Sturmer), Rosenberg (Hitler’s
ideological mentor), Frick (Interior), Himmler (SS). (Schleunes 61) In
this contest Hitler’s interventions appeared to be restraining ones. He
did not deem Jewish policy important enough to appoint one leader, and
he did not contribute specific ideas. (Unlike autobahn plans which were
hands on.) (Schleunes 62)
26 March 1933: Hitler meets with Goebbels to discuss
planned anti-Jewish boycott of April 1.
(Friedlander)
26 March 1933: Goring meets with leaders of Jewish
organizations to get them to pressure
Hitler wants to steer SA activity into more limited,
officially sponsored activities, overseen by the SS. (Schleunes 61)
April 1933: Goring maintains power base as head of
Prussian Political Police-Gestapo.
April 1933 National
Defense Council:a committee of
military and political leaders formed to make Germany powerful again.
They lay the military and diplomatic plans for 1.
Withdrawal from the League of Nations 2.
Remilitarization 3.
Re-occupation of the Rhineland 4.
Four Year Plan
1-3 April 1933: The April
1933 Boycott Official boycott of
Jewish businesses led by Streicher fails. Goebbels begins campaign to
‘aryanize’ Jewish businesses, limited by economic rationality. Another
failure. (Schleunes 61) The anti-Jewish
boycott demonstrated Hitler’s talent for rationalizing and politicizing
raw anti-Semitism. (Dawidovicz)
4 April 1933: Hindenberg letter to Hitler in which he seeks to prevent the forced resignation of Jewish war veterans. Hitler backs down and agrees to limit SA terrorization activities. “The solution of this problem will be carried out legally, and not by capricious acts.” (Dawidovicz)
(I) During this
period we see that the first stage of the implementation of Hitler’s
plan to kill the Jews involved: a) the political, legal and economic
disenfranchisement of the Jews which began in April of 1933. b) The
dehumanization of the Jews through laws forbidding intermarriage at
Nuremburg in 1935. (F) Hitler had difficulty consolidating control over party fanatics like Rohm who were eroding his political image and he had to give non-Jewish actions the veneer of legal process. Having gained state power, Hitler consolidated real power of the violent forces within in his own party. Henceforth, control of Jewish policy and ascendancy within the police state would be synonymous.
7 April to October 1933
Anti-Jewish Legislation preventing Jews from holding jobs in
a variety of professions: civil service, bankers, judiciary,
professors, students, journalists, entertainers, writers, thereby
eliminating their ability to influence policy. “the exclusion of Jews
from public life, government, culturem and the professions.”
(Dawidowicz 59) Ministries form Judenreferat to monitor compliance. Anti Jewish
legislation: 1.
eliminate eligibility for Jews in legal, civil
service and school jobs 2.
legally define who a Jew is (vital to more radical
‘removal’ methods 3.
WPA for Mittelstand/ bogus economics 4.
maintain permanent revolutionary spirit (Dawidovicz
61) 5.
replace class concerns with racial concerns 6.
good Germans cowed by Nazi police actions and by
fears of Communist revolt. Over 500,000 Jews
flee the Reich. The next year only 135,000 Jews would leave, indicating
the failure of Nazi’s emigration plans due to opposition within
Interior to the flight of Jewish capital from the country. (Schleunes
64) Hands
off? Hitler’s is acceding to Schacht on flight of Jewish wealth. It
would not be until 1934 and the accession of Himmler to power within
the Interior Ministry that he would gain control of the forced
emigration of Jews. Until then the “Haavra” policy was followed. (Schleunes 64) Emigration was still
handled by Interior which was staffed by old line Weimar bureaucrats
sympathetic to the Jews. (Dawidovicz )
June 1933: Himmler appoints Theodor
Eicke (recently released from a psychiatric unit) to be commandant at
Dachau and bring under control the ‘wild improvisations’ going on
there. (Dawidovicz
28 June 1933: Frick Speech on Genetic Purity
(Dawidovicz 65) Interior Minister Frick announces policy on race whose
goal is genetic purity. Frick resisted pressure to issue an immediate
ban on Jewish-Aryan marriages (proposed by Dr. Gerhardt Wagner) because
Germany’s reputation abroad would suffer from such an assault on a
basic human right. (Schleunes 63)
14 July 1933: Sterilization legalized for people
suffering from hereditary diseases a precursor of “positive eugenics”
(euthanasia) programs to be administered by Hereditary Health Courts.
(Dawidovicz 65),
August 1933: the “Haavara agreements”: negotiations
between Ministry of Economy and the Jewish Agency for Palestine to
allow emigrating Jews to deposit assets in a Jewish trust company. Once
in Palestine, the Jew would be payed half the deposited amount.
(Dawidovicz)
10 September 1933: Concordat
with Vatican Catholics maintain
religious rights at expense of political rights. (Dawidovicz 61)
October 1933: Germany
withdraws from League of Nations
24 October 1933: Hitler allows “Haavara agreements”
to stand thus demonstrating his willingness to allow emigration to
Palestine. Hitler would support the emigration of Jews to Palestine
until mid-1937, after the Peel Commision on Palestine, when the foreign
ministry came out against the creation of a Jewish state: ‘a new
Vatican’. (Dawidovicz
62)
November 1933: German Medical Association under Dr.
Gerhardt Wagner launches campaign urging an immediate ban on marriages
between Jews and Germans. Initially opposed by Frick who feared world
reaction to an assault on basic human rights. (Schleunes 63) 1934
May 1934: Eicke
promoted to reorganize other camps in the Nazi prison system.
9 June 1934: Hitler makes SD head of all NSDAP
intelligence services.
Eicke shoots Rohm as
part of the SA purge; he is later promoted to head the Nazi
concentration camp system. Aftermath of the purge: no significant
anti-Jewish legislation enacted in 1934. Even expulsion was no longer
pushed due to opposition from Interior (Frick and Goring) (Dawidovicz
62) A demonstration of Hitler’s true concerns: holding power. Hitler’s decimation
of the SA leadership finally gave the SS full independence. (Schelunes
64)
Hitler to his personal secretary, Christa Schroeder: "So Fraulein Schoeder, now I have had a bath and I am as clean as a newborn babe again." (Rosenbaum 64)
late June 1934: Heydrich
begins to expand SD bureaucracy and to penetrate political police with
SD personnel. Heydrich creates desk for Jewish Affairs, SDII-112, under
Leopold von Mildenstein. Later in 1934 he will hire Adolph Eichmann as
an expert in Zionism, SD Desk-II- 1123. Heydrich also participates in
the planning for an expansion of the prison system as well as the
creation of a military force independent of the Wehrmacht.
July 1934: Hitler makes the SS an independent
organization within the framework of the NSDAP.
Summer 1934: S.S. ‘Situation Report- Jewish
question’ encourages massive Jewish emigration, even support for
Zionism. (Dawidovicz) For the first time mention was made of organizing
a massive emigration of Jews from Germany. “It had occurred to the SS
that to support Zionist sentiment among Jews could serve to encourage
their departure!” (Schleunes 64)
August 1934: Hitler
named ‘Fuhrer’.
September 1934: The Verfugungstruppe is accorded
official status by Defense Minister despite resentment from Wehrmacht
leaders. “A standing armed force for such special internal tasks as may
be allotted to the SS by the Fuhrer.” ((Dawidovicz) 1935
28 January 1935: Heydrich, as head of Bavarian
Police, allows Zionist oriented youth organizations to prepare children
for emigration to Palestine. ((Dawidovicz 84)
Himmler creates “Lebensborn” program: positive
eugenics
16 March 1935: Hitler
repudiates Versailles Treaty and begins to rearm
Wehrmacht. Military service becomes compulsory.
March 1935: Prison camp system has expanded to 7
camps with a total population of 10,000. Totenkopfuerbunde units and
other camp expenses are financed through Ministry of Interior budget.
(Dawidovicz)
21 March 1935: Hitler foreign policy address assures
world that he seeks peace. (Dawidovicz 62)
March: Renewed anti-Jewish street terrorism quickly
curtailed. (Dawidovicz 63)
15
May 1935: Scwartze Korpspublication supports
Zionists vs. assimilationists. (Dawidovicz 84)
April 1935 SS
emigration directive supporting as the solution to the Jewish
problem in Germany (Dawidovicz 84-85)
Note Dawidovicz rebuttal.
18 June 1935 Naval Agreement with Great Britian
27 July 1935
Frick memo announcing coming legislation against
Aryan/non-Aryan marriage. (Dawidovicz 66)
20 August 1935 Schacht, in conference at the
Ministry of Economy, complains of disorders to business caused by
“irresponsible Jew-baiting” (Dawidovicz 63)
30 August 1935: Promulgation of Jewish Laws reported
to be forthcoming by foreign press. (Friedlander)
approaching annual
NSDAP Rally in Nuremburg Hitler orders
legislation regulating “German-Jewish” blood relations. (Dawidovicz 66)
Frick and associates hurry legislation into shape and compromise on the
legal definition of Jewishness (Dawidovicz 66) Foreign Minister Von
Neurath convinces Hitler to drop plans to take advantage
15 September 1935:
The Nuremberg Laws: decree Jews to be second class subjects
rather than citizens; limit placed
on Aryan-Jewish marriage/ sex; the ‘tolerated Jew’ status of the 17th
and 18th centuries. (Laws rushed to passage after collapse of policy
declaration re. the Abysinnian conflict.) (Schleunes ) The centrality of
blood and race was transformed into state policy. Jews were defined and
identified as a medical threat: a new departure and an essential step
towards the Final Solution. Reich Citizenship Law rejects doctrines
based on equality of man grounded in natural law in favor of
citizenship based on racial and national differences.
(Dawidovicz 69) The term citizen is
revoked from non-Aryans. After a century of assimilation, the Nazis,
the Nazis declare a new natural law. If one of four grandparents are
Jewish, then you are Jewish. Ominous
interpretation: 1.
Elimination of Jew from white collar workplace 2.
Definition of Jew using racial terminology 3.
concentration and “removal” Note that Jews
maintained economic rights. Rather than an
ominous step forward the Nuremburg Laws could be regarded as a
compromise that reassured German Jews by establishing a understood
staus with historical precedents: the tolerated Jew of the 17th
and 18th centuries. No further legislation was
enacted in the next couple years.
24
September 1935: Secret Fuhrer Conference in Munich:
Hitler adopts Interior’s position on a more limited legal definition of
Jewishness. Mischlinge status clarified. (Mommsen)
(Dawidovicz 68) Hitler claims he needs four more years to be ready for
war. (Dawidovicz 92) 1936 7March 1936: Germany
Reoccupies Rhineland: Neutral
de-militarized land on the west bank of the Rhine made into a buffer
zone between France and Germany by Versailles Treaty
March 1936: Massive
emigration plan: Eichmann (S.D.) raises possibility of buying
an Ecuadorean province for Jewish emigration (Schleunes)
17 June 1936: Hitler
makes Himmler Reichsfuhrer-SS and Chief of German Police. The completion of
Himmler’s infiltration of the police apparatus: the party now controls
the police; Himmler has won out over Goring. Himmler reorganizes the
police into two major departments: Orpo (Regular Police: uniformed
urban and rural police) under Kurt Daluege and Sipo (Security Police:
political police (Gestapo) and criminal police (Kripo) under Heydrich.
(Dawidovicz “Situation Report-
Jewish Question”: first mention made of organizing a massive emigration
of Jews from Germany. SS support for Zionist sentiment among Jews.
Eichmann proposes purchase of uninhabited province in Ecuador
for Jewish emigrants. (Schleunes)
August 1936: Hitler
drafts memorandum in Berchtesgaden which became the Four Year Plan: the plan to put Germany
economically and militarily on a war footing by August 1940. Lebensraum:
rationale for a war of conquest against Russia: war would create
breathing room to expand population, return it to its agricultural
roots, defeat the Bolsheviks, remove the Soviet Regime and annihilate
Jewry. The preamble reads like Mein Kampf. A call
for a holy war against the Jewish Bolshevism. The preamble calls for
the expropriation of all Jewish property and wealth. (Dawidovicz 90-93)
Hitler stated that
Germany must be ready for war within four years because “the loss of
months may cause damage that will be irreparable in hundreds of years.”
Then prospective victory of Jewry “whose most radical expression is
Bolshevism… will not this time lead to a new Versailles treaty, but to
the final destruction, that is the extermination of the German
people”…. Which will cause “the catastrophic destruction of the
European nations, such as humanity has not known since the demise of
the states of antiquity.” (Bauer 38) Germans were
fighting a defensive battle against Jewry. Murder is required; it is a
positive ethical command to save the world. Jews are demons and vermin;
since they are not human, they can be killed. But according to Bauer,
we cannot regard such rhetoric as actual planning; the murder of the
Jews is implied but not stated. We cannot regard this type of
apocalyptic thinking as evidence of actual planning for mass murder:
the idea remains an “unarticulated wish”. (Bauer 39) Was the
Berchstaden memorandum intended for public eyes? If not, can it be
regarded merely as propaganda designed for political purposes? Isn’t it
an expression of hard core Nazi ideology put into practical
application? Hitler is preparing for total war with Russia and he is
presenting the struggle with the Jew/Bolshevik in apocalyptic terms.
Can there be any doubt that mass killing will be committed?
28 August 1936: SD officer Schroder, Eichmann’s
superior, describes his section’s work as reaching an encompassing
National Socialist definition of “Jewry as an enemy of the State and
Party”. The Jew simply by being a Jew was defined as an enemy of the
party. Ideology is being transformed into a legal concept. (Dawidiwicz)
September
1936: Schacht resigns as Minister of Economy,
and Goring is made Plenipotentiary of Four Year Plan, thus
assuming total
control of economic policy, and he proceeds to Aryanize nearly 40.000
Jewish owned businesses that had been protected by Schacht (Dawidovicz
95-96)
October 1936: Rome-Berlin-Tokyo
Axis formed.
November 1936: Spanish
Civil War: Germany recognizes
Franco, openly supplying his forces during war. 1937
29 April 1937: Hitler
warns radicals of party not to demand steps in Jewish matters
which he has not carefully planned beforehand. (Friedlander) Hitler’s
craft to plan and patience to wait for the best opportunity.
(Dawidovich)
‘by mid-1937’: Goring has emerged as Hitler’s chief
troubleshooter and determines to have a fundamental settling of the
Jewish question. New, more vigorous efforts at Aryanization of Jewish
businesses. (Schleunes 66)
17 August 1937: Hitler secret directive reaffirms
the military character of the Verfungstruppe, in
peacetime under Himmler’s command, in wartime under the Wehrmacht. They
were to be available for ‘internal political tasks’.
13 September 1937: Hitler speech at NSDAP Congress
reviling Jewish-Bolshevik enemy (Dawidovicz
94)
5 November 1937: The
Hossbach Memorandum: Hitler
speech to Wehrmacht high command in Reich Chancellery: agenda presents
Hitler’s timetable for the conquest of Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Preference for attack, as early as 1938. (Dawidowicz 94) Was Hitler flushing
out high military officials whose loyalty could not be depended upon:
Blomberg, Fritsch, and Neurath are out.
(Taylor)
Peel Commission (Brit) recommendation for a Jewish
state in Palestine ends Nazi flirtation with
Zionism. The specter of a sovereign Jewish state
gave some Nazis second thoughts about encouraging Zionism. Ribbentrop
warned Hitler about the dangers that might emanate form a “Jewish
Vatican”. (Schleunes 65) 1938
5 January 1938: ID cards are required for all Jews.
January 1938: Goring initiates systematic planning for
‘Aryanization’ of Jewish businesses.He asserts the
government’s control (his ministry’s control) over party members who
were seizing Jewish businesses. (Dawidiwicz 96-97) By April of the next
year over 20,000 businesses had been Aryanized or ‘liquidated’ under
Goring’s direction. This was his method for dealing with the Jewish
problem without losing Jewish capital. (Schleunes 66) Between then and
the end of the year, control of Jewish policy would be seized by
Himmler and the SS.
25 January 1938: Interior Department decree allows
police to arrest any suspicious persons
February 1938: SD gets Hitler’s approval to control
emigration policy. (Adam)
February 1938: Himmler
orders expulsion of Soviet Jews to be carried out in ten
days. By May they are rounded up and sent to concentration camps in
preparation for “emigration”. (Schleunes 66) Nazi persecutions reached
a new level of fury in the summer of 1938.
12 March 1938: Anschluss: the German
invasion and annexation of Austria:
200,000 more Jews fall under Nazi control.
March 1938: Eichmann (S.D.) forces 50,000 Austrian Jews to
emigrate in six months.Over 100,000 more Austrian Jews would
leave the country before the war. Eichmann controlled SS street terror,
centralized an emigration office, reestablished a Jewish organization
and freed Jewish leaders from jail. Then using terror and appeals to
Jewish leadership, he forced Jewish emigration. (Dawidovicz 99, 104) Eichmann was a minor
SD official hired in 1934. The emergence of Eichmann as an important
figure in Jewish policy provides persuasive evidence that the Final
Solution was not the result of a long standing grand design: a failed
used car salesman who was not overtly anti-Semitic becomes within a
year the SD’s resident Jewish expert. (Schleunes 64) His first grand
idea was forced emigration to Ecuador Schleunes (65)
After the Anschluss, though, could be made the
laboratory in which to test methods for solving the Jewish problem
March 1938: Expropriation of Jewish businesses sped
up.
28 March 1938: Fuhrer himself decrees all existing
Jewish organizations illegal, forcing the creation of one organization
for Jewish affairs under total police control. (Dawidovicz)
22-26 April 1938: Goring decree forces Jews to
identify themselves as owners of businesses. (Dawidovicz 96-97)
22 April 1938: Goring decrees that Jews must report
value of wealth. (Dawidovicz 97)
1 June 1938: Heydrich instructs police to make mass
arrests to create pool of able-bodied men for forced labor at
Buchenwald. (Dawidovicz 99)
14 June 1938: Goring: Reich Citizenship Law defines
business enterprises that are Jewish. (Dawidovicz 96)
June 1938: Supplement to Nuremberg laws: Jewish
professionals barred from practice.
June 1938: Soviet Jews sent to camps preparatory for
‘emigration’ to the Soviet Union. 1500 German Jews arrested and sent to
Buchenwald. (Schleunes 66)
15 July 1938: Jews barred from medical practice.
July 1938 Evian
Conference in France: US and Great
Britain make Jewish emigration more difficult (Landau)
17 August 1938: Hitler clarifies chain of command
for armed SS units which will remain directly under Hitler (and
Himmler) unless war breaks out. Then the SS units would fall under
Wehrmacht command. (Dawidiwicz)
17 August 1938: Goring outlaws name changes. All
Jews renamed Israel and Sarah. (Dawidiwicz)
27 September: Jews barred from legal profession.
29 September 1938: Munich
Conference- Czechoslovakia
dismembered and Sudetenland annexed. (The rest of Czechoslovakia would
be annexed the following year.)
7 November 1938: Herschl Grynszpan, a 17 year old
Polish Jew living in Paris, shoots and wounds Ernst vom Rath, a German
diplomat.
8 November 1938: The Nazi elite had gathered in
Munich to celebrate the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. There,
Himmler addresses
SS officers about the coming change in Jewish policy and how they must be prepared for hard tasks
to be carried out without pity in the days ahead. (Breitman)
8 November 1938: Hitler is seen speaking with
Goebbels at a
dinner celebrating the Putsch. Hitler leaves the party early, and
Goebbels delivers a vitriolic anti -semitic speech, in essence, cutting
the SA loose to act out reprisals. Himmler orders Heydrich to instruct the SS to remain neutral
and insure that non-Jewish property is not destroyed. (Friedlander)
(Breitman)
9 November 1938:
Kristallnacht: massive pogrom
organized by Goebbels, opposed by Himmler and Goring . When told that
those responsible had to be punished, Goring replied: “You want to
punish Hitler?” (Breitman quoting Adam) Mass arrests of 30,000 Jews
sent to Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen (Dawidovicz 100-02)
Of the approximately 30-35 thousand internees in
Nazi concentration camps taken there on Kristallnacht most were set
free in 1939 when emigration papers or opportunities were obtained for
them from their frantic relatives. (Bauer 40)
The Night of Crystal was the kind of anti-Semitic
orgy for which Nazi ruffians had been yearning since 1933. It was also
to be their last independent action. Goring complained of vast
insurance damages to German busisness, and he spent the next two days
closeted with Hitler. No protocol of these talks exists. (Schleunes
67).
12 November 1938: Air Ministry meeting Goring announces
that he has been given responsibility for handling the Jewish question
‘one way or another’, thus removing Goebbels from power as an architect
of Jewish policy. Heydrich boasts of the success of Eichmann’s forced
emigration of the Austrian Jews. Goring and Heydrich are primarily
concerned with finding the most profitable means of forcing emigration.
(Schleunes 67) (Brietman) Kristallnacht
provided the Nazis with the opportunity to proceed with the total
expropriation of Jewish businesses and the complete removal of their
freedom. (Dawidowicz 102)
15 November 1938: Education Ministry bars Jewish
children from schools. (Dawidovicz 103)
24 November 1938: post-
Kristallnacht article in SS journal Das
Schwartze Korps threatens
Jews with ‘fire and sword’ quoting Heydrich at Goring meeting. The
article raises the possibility that other nations might still take in
Germany’s Jews. It even claims that it would welcome the creation of a
Jewish state. Barring that, Germany would go ahead and resolve the
problem. Suggestion that Goring opposed war and believed a resolution
of the Jewish question would calm the West. (Brietman) (Bauer 41)
24 November 1938: Hitler meets with South
African minister for Defense, Oswald Pirow. He tells him,
“The problem will soon be solved.” He also says that he did not intend
to export Nazism, but he would export anti-Semitism by sending the Jews
elsewhere. (Breitman) A
few weeks later Hitler meets with Czech Foreign Minister Chvalkovsky: “We are going to
destroy the Jews....The day of reckoning has come.” (Bauer
41)(Schleunes) “We have every
evidence that these plans (Schacht-Rublee, Madagascar) were meant
seriously, and no evidence that any mass murder plan exists at that
stage!” Bauer (41)
29 November 1938: Goring meets privately with Hugo
Rothenberg, a Danish Jew. During the meeting Goring admits that the
pogrom had been a financial disaster, but he insists that foreign Jews
need to come up with loans to enable German Jews to finance emigration.
Goring mentions that if such loans were not
forthcoming, Germany naturally had other ideas in
case emigration didn’t work. (Breitman)
December 1938: Schacht-
Rublee negotiations: Hitler gives permission to
Schacht, the former Minister of Economy, now an associate of Goring, to
negotiate with American lawyer George Rublee to arrange finances to
allow the emigration of over 150,000 German Jews. He warns a delegation
of American Quakers to ... “be
quick, for nobody knows what happens in this country tomorrow.” (Bauer)
(Breitman) If Jews were not
really human, one could sell them—if there were someone who would buy.
The tragedy was that there was no buyer. (Bauer 41)
14 December 1938: Goring sends a memorandum to Reich
high officials confirming his office’s control of Jewish question.
(Schleunes 68)
mid-December 1938: Reich Health Leader Conti tells
government physicians that the state intended to find a ‘final
solution’ to the Jewish problem in Europe. (Breitman) 1939
January 1939: Rublee comes to Berlin to continue
negotiations. Foreign Office tries to prevent initialing of agreements
and any promises about the future treatment of Jews in Germany.
(Breitman)
20 January 1939: Schacht is dismissed as the head of
Reichbank. Publicly, Goring indicates that Schacht was dismissed
because of his refusal to follow Hitler’s financial policy. There are
reports that Himmler, long an enemy of Schacht, had intervened and
convinced Hitler that Schacht had been disloyal to Nazi interests
during the negotiations. Nevertheless an agreement is signed with
Goring’s approval. (Breitman)
mid-January 1939: Hitler meets with Goring and
informs him of the major rhetorical attack coming in the January 30
Reichstag speech. Hitler does not object to the Wohlthat-Rublee
agreement. Goring implies that Hitler has given him six months to work
out a deal. (Breitman)
24 or 25 January 1939: Heydrich ratchets up the
rhetoric as he addresses high ranking SS officers, discusses the danger
from the Jews, “the eternal sub-humans”. A new height in anti-Semitic
rhetoric usage in 1939, but common after 1941. Heydrich notes that Jews
had frequently, throughout history, been expelled, which had been an
error- presumably because it had never resolved the problem. (Brietman) In the SS report
(Lagebericht) for 1939 the Jewish problem is defined as ‘the problem’
of world politics (Bauer 40)
24 January 1939: Goring
orders Heydrich to speed up forced emigration of the Jews using
Eichmann’s techniques: establishment of Reich
Central Office for Jewish Emigration concentrates authority
for handling the Jewish question under Heydrich’s authority. In June Heydrich would
found the Reich Association of Jews in Germany- the only Jewish
association that was legal. (Adam) which drafts Jewish leaders to
facilitate emigration procedures (Dawidowicz 104-05)
25 January 1939: Goring dispatch to all German
diplomatic missions to ‘speed up emigration of all Jews living in the
territories of the Reich.... the ultimate aim of the Jewish policy.”
(Schleunes 67) “The expulsion of
the Jews would cause greater understanding of Germany’s stand by
foreign powers because the expelled Jews would cause anti-Semitic
reactions in their new abodes and this would help Germany!” (Bauer 40)
30
January 1939: Hitler, in Reichstag speech,
publicly threatens the ‘annihilation’ of the Jewish race in Europe if
international Jewry unleashes another world war. (Dawidowicz 106)
Hitler is warning the Western powers not to interfere with his planned
expansion in the East. Hitler needed to have Jewish hostages in Germany
in the hope of controlling Western behavior. If war broke out, the
Jews’ value as hostages would diminish sharply. (Breitman) (Rhetoric:
to increase pressure for emigration)
January 1939: Euthanasia
program planning begun which will kill 70,000 to 80,000
Germans by 1941.
7 February 1939: Alfred Rosenberg press conference.
He alludes to the possibility of the eventual emigration from Europe of
as many as 15 million Jews. (Schleunes 67)
10 February 1939: Hitler private speech to Wehrmacht
generals in which he indicates that an ideological and racial war is
coming, and in it the fate of the German race will be determined.
(Breitman)
11 February 1939: First meeting of Reich Central Office for Jewish
Emigration: Heydrich instructs staff to proceed as if
agreement with international committee does not exist. (Breitman)
Eichmann appointed to leadership position. The outbreak of war ended
the opportunities for Jewish emigration. In October 1939 the creation
of RSHA would make put this iffice within the jurisdiction of the
political police: RSHA Desk IV-B-IV: “Jewish Affairs and Evacuation
Affairs” (IV-B-4): this is the office that would schedule, organize,
and manage the deportation of German Jews to the death camps.
15 March 1939: Addition
of Rump Czechoslovakia adds more Jews to
Reich. (Schleunes 67)
March 1939: Goebbels presses for the total
elimination of the Jews in more humane fashion during time of peace, in
more inhumane fashion during war. (Breitman)
April 1939: Geist
letters to Washington- US intelligence in Washington
indicates a fundamental change in policy is in the works: an
acquaintance of Himmler and Heydrich predicts the future course of SS
policy: placing able bodied Jews in work camps, confiscating wealth,
isolating Jews, putting additional pressure on whole community, and
getting rid of as many as possible by force. The SS continued to pursue
emigration policies, but when war came it
was clear that the steps toward the Final Solution
would commence. Source: Gestapo Hasselbacher in Muller’s office.
(Breitman)
29 April 1939: Hitler speech NSDAP Regional Meeting:
Referring to constant demands for resolution of the Jewish question:
“The final aim of our whole policy is quite clear for all of us…”
(Dawidovicz 93)
early May 1939: another Geist letter arrives in
Washington warning that time was running out to make a deal. Roosevelt
indicates so in a meeting with a small number of prominent American
Jews who resisted the idea of Nazi extortion. Roosevelt indicates that
lives may be at stake. (Breitman)
June 1939: Heydrich complains that emigration is not
proceeding satisfactorily due to organizational problems as well as
foreign unwillingness to accept immigrants. (Schleunes) Heydrich
creates the Reich Association of Jews in Germany- an Eichmannn inspired
organization which encouraged Jewish emigration by actually softening
emigration fees. (Adam)
23 June 1939: Goring meeting with Reich Defense
Council to discuss manpower problems that war would impose. Himmler
suggests forced labor in the camps. Goring backs bringing foreign
workers into the Germany. A slave labor network is discussed.
(Dawidovich)
July 1939: T-4
euthanasia program initiated from the Fuhrer Chancellery to
kill ‘defective’ adults. Program proceeds under the authority of SS
officer Philipp Bouhler, SS officer Victor Brack, and Hitler’s personal
physician, Karl Brandt. An estimated 5,000 children would be killed in
this program, in operation until November 1944. Hitler next moved to
the official destruction of other people deemed "racially valueless":
the adult insane. Bouhler wound up the head of this program as well
because he would accept oral orders. The program was named
Tiergartenstrasse 4 (Bohler's office at the chancellery) code name:
T-4. (Dawidovicz 131-32)
July
1939: Operation Tannenberg:
Heydrich reaches an agreement with an officer of the army general staff
according to which special units of the Security police and SD will
accompany the army into foreign territory and combat elements hostile
to Germany behind the lines of the regular troops. The Einsatzgruppen
were composed of SD officers and both Security police and Order Police
manpower.Technically these troops were under Wehrmacht
command, but their real responsibility was to
Himmler and Heydrich. (Breitman)
23 August 1939: Nazi-Soviet
Pact: Hitler says, “Pact
with Satan so as to drive out the Devil.”
22 August 1939: Hitler
speech to commanders of the armed services: “Our strength is
in our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Kahn had millions of women
and children killed by his own will and with a gay heart. History sees
only in him a great state builder.... Thus for the time being I have
sent to the East only my “Death’s Head Units” with the order to kill
without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or
language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need.
Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?”
(Breitman)
1 September 1939: Blitzkrieg
into Poland: “War and the
annihilation of the Jews were interdependent. The disorder of war would
provide Hitler with the cover for the unchecked commission of
murder.... He had set in motion a two-fold war- one that was
traditional in its striving for resources and empire and that would be
fought in traditional military style, and one that was unconventional
inasmuch as its primary political objective was to attain National
Socialist ideology and that would be attained in an innovative style of
mass murder.” Poland: the launching ground of the Final Solution.
(Dawidovicz) 27 September 1939: Warsaw Falls
Segregated air-raid
shelters, confiscated radios and telephones, curfews for Jews in Germany
12 September 1939: Wehrmacht
complaints about the indiscriminate killing of Poles by
Einsatzgruppen, Hitler personally informs officers that in unambiguous
terms that “it was necessary to eliminate the clergy, the aristocracy,
the intelligentsia, and the Jews.” Planning
and authorization at the highest level of an SS campaign to murder and
incarcerate perceived Polish and Jewish enemies that extended beyond
the length of the military campaign. The Wehrmacht officers sought
thenceforth to insulate their troops from the SS activities. (Breitman)
21 September 1939: Heydrich orders to Einsatzgruppen Officers A memorandum instructs the SS to establish ghettos
and Judenraete
in Poland. In an express letter to Einsatzgruppen
officers instructing them to relocate Jews and other enemies to Lublin
area, he alludes to the ‘final goal’ of Jewish policy which could be
accomplished only through stages . The most far reaching goal mentioned
in the letter is the deportation of Jews to the Lublin area. (Breitman)
To Dawidovich this
is a seminal document. First, it ordered the concentration of Poland’s
Jews in a few large centers near railway lines. Second, it exploited
Eichmann’s method of negotiating with the Jews through councils
directed by Jewish leaders. Eichmann’s method had proved successful in
forced emigrations. (Dawidovicz) “A brutal plan to
evict a maximum number of Jews, starve them as much as possible, and
concentrate them so as to facilitate a later massive expulsion. With
all the suffering and massive mortality in the ghettos of Eastern
Europe between 1939 and 1942, the large mass of Polish Jewry would have
survived the war has the decision to mass murder them not been made.”
(Bauer 42)
Get Browning's spin.
27
September 1939: Himmler reorganizes the
Gestapo and SD, creating an umbrella security organization called the
Reich Security Main Office (RSHA).
Under Heydrich’s leadership, the RSHA was to be heavily involved in the
resettlement program in Poland. (Breitman) As part of the
reorganization, Eichmann is shifted to RSHA under Muller. Desk for
Emigration and Evacuation IV-D-4, later reorganized as Jewish Affairs
and Evacuation Affairs: IV-B-4, the office which organized the
transport of European Jews to the death camps. (Dawidovich) October 1939: Hitler T-4 Memo, on his personal stationary, writes a brief authorization for selected doctors to grant ‘incurable’ patients a merciful death. (Breitman) The T-4 program was in business. (Dawidowicz 133) A protocol was drawn up to identify and select patients in state hospitals for euthanasia, and the program was administered by SS personnel (Himmler himself was kept apprised of the operations.) Six euthanasia centers were set up within Germany, and a means for mass killing that would disguise to the victims what was in store for them and deceive their families was sought. Experiments commenced with carbon monoxide gas and Zyklon-B cyanide.
3 October 1939: Heydrich complains that the old
problems between the SS and the military had arisen once again with
full gravity. (Breitman)
October 1939: Ribbentrop gives Heydrich permission
to attach RSHA intelligence agents to diplomatic missions abroad. By
1941, these agents would be effectively intruding on the Foreign
Office’s jurisdiction. (Dawidovicz)
7
October 1939: Himmler appointed Reich
Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germandom (RFV) (Schleunes 70) This
position made Himmler, to the dismay of several rivals, the person in
charge of plans for massive relocation of millions of people in western
Poland to make room for colonization of the area by ethnic Germans.
(Breitman) Himmler’s path has been cleared to become ruler of Nazi
dystopia in annexed territories in Western Poland (eventually all of
Eastern Russia) The appointment also gives a huge boost to his
“positive eugenics” colonization schemes.
8 November 1939 Assassination Attempt on Hitler
12 October 1939: Hitler issues a decree establishing
a civilian administration in Poland, the General Government to be run
by Karl Frank. (Dawidovich)
17 October 1939: Hitler
confers with Himmler, then meets with Wehrmacht General Keitel to
explain how the army is to be relieved of administrative matters in Poland.
He informed the General that there would be massive resettlement in
areas to be annexed to the Reich, and the General Government was to be
the dumping ground for unsuitable Poles and all Jews. Authority for the
relocation would be in civilian and police hands. Resettlement would be
accomplished through cleverness and harshness. Breitman interprets the
exchange as a warning to the military to stay out of matters which no
longer concerned it. That
same day Himmler reorganizes programs for ethnic Germans in Europe to
fall under RFV authority. (Breitman)
19 October 1939: Goring
announces that his Office of the Four Year Plan would take over all
Polish and Jewish territory in the annexed sections of Poland.
He delegates agricultural property to RFV but maintains control over
all urban and industrial property. (Breitman)
28 October 1939: Himmler issues order for the entire
SS and police to father as many children as possible to compensate for
military losses. He says that it would be permissible for officers to
overstep the boundaries of law and common practice to produce children
outside of marriage. The Wehrmacht high command was outraged by the
order. (Breitman)
30 October 1939: After a tour of major Polish cities
(Bromberg, Lodz, Warsaw,and Lublin), during which he
personally observed killings, heard reports from
heads of killing squads, and observed conditions in Lublin (a huge
concentration camp), Himmler issues orders
for the next round of relocations: all Jews from annexed
territories (Danzig- West Prussia, the Wartheland, East Upper Silesia)
as well as all Poles who had moved into the area in recent decades and
hostile Poles were to be moved into the Government General. (Breitman)
October 1939: Hitler/ Himmler order: ‘Suspicious
Jews to concentration camps.’
8 November 1939: Himmler and Hitler escape bombing
assassination attempt in Munich to celebrate Beer Hall Putsch.
24 November 1939: Hitler calls meeting of Wehrmacht
high command to announce his decision to attack in the West.
November 1939: Polish Jews ordered to wear arm bands.
5 December 1939: A
possible smoking gun: Himmler meets with Oswald Pohl, head of
SS economic enterprises, to discuss recent deaths at Buchenwald and to
discuss plans for new camps. Himmler’s agenda for the meeting still
exists; Item 7 on the agenda: ‘crematoriun-delousing units’. Although
there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Himmler saw poison gas
technology as the only solution to the Jewish problem, he clearly was
aware of this method of killing people. (Breitman)
7 December 1939:
Gassing of psychiatric patients begins in gas vans at Tiegenhof asylum,
Wartheland: a T-4 operation. A Hitler Directed Program! In
August 1941 public clamor would force Hitler to call a halt to the
gassings, only after between 80,000 and 100,000 murders. The staff was
then shifted east to build killing facilities in Chelmno, Belzec,
Maidanek, Treblinka and Birkenau. In early 1941, Bouhler would also
begin supplying Himmler with personel and equipment to gas inmates in
concentration camps: “Sonderbehandlung (special treatment) 14 f
13” (Breitman) Hitler was informed of the results of testing with
carbon monoxide gas and with Zyklon-B (cyanide) and ordered that CO2 be
used (Dawidovicz 133)
December 1939: Food rations for Jews shortened. December 1939 Hitler Approves Plans for Invasion of Denmark and Norway 1940
January 1940: Heydrich
approves ‘camouflaged’ killings at Soldau Castle, near town
on E. Prussian border with Poland. (Dawidowicz)
late January 1940: Himmler
meets with Frank who complains of the disorganized nature of
the resettlement program. Huge numbers of people were being dumped into
the General Government. Frank argues against genocide for the Poles
because of its expense and labor problems within the Reich. Frank’s
arguments find favor with Goring. Himmler states that RSHA desk IV-D-4
was coordinating all future deportations. (Breitman)
2 February 1940: Himmler suggests creation of a huge
anti-tank ditch on border of Soviet controlled Poland as a means of
using the huge slave labor supply in the masses of people being
relocated into the General Government. He conceivers of a work force of
2.5 million: the number
of adult male Jews in the conquered territories. The families of the
workers would be dumped into the General Government. (Breitman)
12 February 1940: Goring, Himmler
and Frank meet. Goring opposes evacuation
measures that would deplete labor in the East. He directs
that resettlement of Jews from the territories take place in an orderly
manner and only with the permission of Frank.
(Goring attempt to assert authority over Himmler.)
Himmler concurs, but basically ignores the order. (Breitman)
29 February 1940: Himmler secret speech explains the
mission given him by the Fuhrer: to ensure that the annexed territory
be made Germanic in the near future. He offers a racial analysis of the
problem and defends the executions of opposition leaders despite the
psychological effects being imposed on his brave troops. (Breitman)
2 March 1940: Frank meeting with Himmler in attempt
to assert his authority over the General Government. He insisted that
the Jewish problem in the territory presented no immediate danger.
(Breitman)
3 March 1940: Himmler addresses Wehrmacht officers
re. Oct. 28 ‘fathering’ order and the resettlement policies in the
East. He elaborates at length on racial policy, rejecting the
“Bolshevist method’ of mixing races which would ask for trouble in the
future. He claimed that execution of opposition leaders was authorized
at the highest levels. “I do nothing that the Fuhrer doesn’t know.” He
asks for cooperation in the creation of a Nordic Empire while disposing
of Slavs. A veiled reference to Jews as that ‘other problem’. (Breitman)
24 March 1940:
Goring, at Frank’s request, forbids further deportations of Jews and
Poles into the General Government without Frank’s approval.
Himmler responds by issuing a decree through Heydrich which banned
emigrations of Jews from the General Government. (Breitman) (Mommsen)
5 April 1940: Blitzkrieg
against Norway and Denmark
5 April 1940: Himmler speech to industrialists (many
with Wehrmacht connections) outlining solution to racial problem in the
East. Three choices: Russian mixing, Genghis Kahn extermination, or the
German humane solution of sifting racially valuable from racially
useless and dumping the latter into the General Government. (Breitman)
27 April 1940: Himmler in Plock, meeting with SS
leaders, grants permission for Lange’s ‘gas van’ unit to be used to
kill mental patients from East Prussia and Soldau. The killings take
place between May 21 and June 6. (Breitman)
March 1940: Himmler order: ‘No Jews released from
camps during the war.”
May 1940: Hitler dismisses Blaskowitz, a Himmler
opponent, as commander in chief in the East, prevents Ulex’ succession.
Instructions from Army over all commander in chief to not interfere
with political authorities in resettlements and killings of opposition
leaders. (Breitman)
10 May 1940: Blitzkrieg
against Belgium, Netherlands and France
22
May 1940: Himmler on Madagascar Plan:
He meets with Hitler in flush of military victory in West to discuss
the resettlement policies in the East. Hitler discourages mass murder
of Poles but authorizes the continuation of racial selections. In
reference to the Jews, Himmler mentions the possibility of a great
peacetime forced migration of the Jews to Africa to a colony to be run
by the SS. Breitman reads the Madagascar plan as a radicalization of
policy. By getting approval for a plan to remove all Jews from Europe
to Africa, Himmler could assert control over a continent wide program.
The policy satisfied Hitler, Goring and Frank, gave the appearance to
the outside world that Germany was behaving responsibly and drew Jewish
policy more tightly under SS control. (Breitman)
27 May 1940: British Begin Evacuation of Dunkirk.
3 June 1940: BVP (Labor) orders restrictions upon
labor benefits for Jews, at the same time maintaining the staus of
Jewish employment gurantees. The BVP functioned as a moderate force
against ideological extremists in
StdF (the Hitler Chancellery under Bormann) and the
SD. (Adam)
12 June 1940: Rademacher of Foreign Ministry submits
Madagascar Plan.
21 June 1940: Fall of
France
24
June 1940: Hitler, Ribbentrop meet with Mussolini and Ciano to discuss
peace after the Fall of France. Ribbentrop proposes the idea of a
Jewish colony in Madagascar to Ciano. Heydrich
got wind of the conversation and wrote a pointed note to Ribbentrop
reminding him that in January 1939 Goring had entrusted him with full
authority over Jewish emigration. He mentions that since there were 3.5
million Jews under German control, emigration could no longer provide
the solution: ‘a territorial final solution is
therefore necessary.’ Heydrich insisted that he be included
in all further discussions of the ‘final solution’ of the Jewish
problem. (Breitman)
25 June 1940: Representative of the Reich
Association of Jews in Germany is informed of a plan to resettle vast
numbers of Jews in some as yet undesignated colonial reservation.
Eichmann still favors an extensive program of emigration to Palestine.
(Mommsen)
3 July 1940: Heinrich Muller to Rudolf Brandt:
Himmler had decided that ‘the other half should remain’ referring to
plans for relocation of European Jews to Madagascar. Hitler had
recently decided to prepare for a landing against Britain. The war
would go on; no opportunity to take on a massive relocation to Africa
would be possible. Even so, Himmler continued to back the plan in
public, as it improved his relations with Frank. (Breitman)
July 1940: Heydrich informs German authorities in
occupied France that the active participation of Security Police
experts was essential to a successful resolution of the Jewish question
there.
31 July 1940: Hitler Orders Planning Begun for Invasion of Russia (Wall 149)
August 1940: Eichmann and
Dannecker present the RSHA version of the Madagascar Plan :
Heydrich would lead it, and the SS would be in complete control.
August to September 1940:
Battle
of Britain
August 1940: Mussolini Invasion of Egypt
21 August 1940: Greifelt
letter to Frick of Interior re. enforcement of Nuremberg Laws
in annexed territories. He discouraged use of the laws at that time. He
revealed that Hitler had set the maximum number of assimilable Poles at
one million. He saw no reason to protect non-assimilable Poles from
breeding with Jews since ‘a final cleansing of the Jewish question and
the mixed-blood question was foreseen for after the war.’ (Breitman)
30 August 1940: Brack, head of euthanasia operations
at Hitler Chancellery, issues directive for the concentration of of all
Jewish asylum patients in a single institution. (Breitman) .
9 September 1940: Himmler speech to SS officers in
which he recognizes the importance of economic considerations in the SS
empire, indicating that Jews capable of labor should be put to work.
(Breitman)
11 September 1940: Heydrich memo on Germanization of
mixed blood (German-Slav) in Bohemia- Moravia. What to do with those
not suitable? “One could only set the imaginary goal of evacuating
those remaining Czechs to a currently imaginary Government’. (Breitman)
15 September 1940: Operation Sea Lion postponed
25 September 1940: Hitler meets with Gauleiter of
Alsace-Lorraine. He indicates that he would not be opposed to
Germanization of the region ‘through whatever means’. The Gauleiter
respond by dumping 105,000 people into unoccupied France.(Breitman)
28 October 1940: Himmler visits Gross-Rosen in
Silesia and inspects the stone breaking operations there. Breitman
notes that many of the Jews there and nearby at Mauthausen were being
intentionally worked to death. (Breitman)
September
1940: Anti-Comintern
Pact
late October 1940: RSHA decree bans emigration of
Jews from the Generalgouvernement. (Breitman)
26 October 1940: Himmler and Frank meet in Cracow.
23 November 1940: Frank’s office accepts new RSHA
policy banning emigration of Jews from Generalgouvernement.
October 1940: Hitler
expels the Jews of the Mannheim-Pfalz area in western Germany
to France, not Poland. Viennese Jews are sent to Poland (an act that
only makes sense if a final expulsion to Madagascar was envisaged.
(Bauer 42) Bauer argues that by May 1941, Einsatzgruppen units were
being trained to kill Jews and Communists in Operation Barbarossa. An
oral order must have come down sometime between this time and May 1941.
Fall 1940: Gestapo register all unemployed Jews for
special work.
Fall 1940: Battle
of Britain
28 October 1940: Mussolini invades Greece
November 1940: Warsaw ghetto sealed off.
11 November 1940: 1945 inventory of Himmler papers
reveals some statistical material on Jewish emigration, death rates,
numbers of Jews left in the Reich, and ‘suggestions to solve the Jewish
question’. Brack, under interrogation after the war acknowledged that
the decision to destroy the Jews was an open secret by this time.
(Breitman)
10 December 1940: Himmler speech to Gauleiter in
Berlin about the necessity to make the Eastern provinces German and of
the limit of one million non-Germans. He referred to the upcoming
Jewish emigration in the Generalgouvernment.
Breitman: Himmler knew there would be no emigration. It went against
the recent RSHA decree. (Breitman)
11 December 1940: Hitler to Frank: an old Japanese
proverb- ”After victory, bind the helm faster.”
13 December 1940: Himmler orders euthanasia
operation at Graffneck in Wurttemberg shut down due to public
outrage in the locale. He learns the necessity of secret operations.
(Breitman)
18
December 1940: Hitler signs Operation
Barbarossa orders. Hitler and Himmler meet that night in the
Chancellery. (Breitman) The decision for the practical implementation
of the final solution came from Hitler After Dec. 18 and before March
1. (Dawidovicz)
30 December 1940: A Finance Ministry decree
concerning War Damage Reparations allows Jews to apply. The Finance
Ministry would wait another six months before forbidding Jews from
applying. (Adam) 1941
January 1941: The
administrative officials of the RSHA are instructed to prepare for a
large scale police action in broad areas. (Breitman)
January 1941: British Defeat Italians in North Africa (Tobruk)
January 1941: Hitler gives order or wish to free
Germany of Jews by the end of 1942. Breitman interprets the vagary as
restraint to deceive foreign powers, particularly the United States. In
January Roosevelt would propose Lend-Lease to Congress. (Breitman)
8 January 1941: Heydrich orders 90,000 Jews sent
from Warthegau to General Government area in Poland. Greiser, the
Gauteir of the Wartheland, later made a separate deal with Goring to
deport the Jews to the Reich to work in the war
effort. In April Hitler would ban employment of foreign Jews in the
Reich. (Adam)
January 1941: Heydrich approves scheme for expansion
of Auschwitz. Auschwitz I would take in criminals ‘capable of
rehabilitation.’ Auschwitz II appeared on a list of concentration camps
where dangerous criminals were to be ‘educated’. Hoss would only find
out later that his camp had been designated for expansion. (Breitman)
early February 1941: An application by a
Sonderkommando named Kunsberg to have his unit join the SS revealed the
Heydrich had been in negotiations with Wehrmacht officers regarding the
use of Security Police alongside combat troops in Barbarossa: ‘special
tasks’. (Breitman)
February 1941: Heydrich is still speaking of "sending then [the Jews] off to whatever country will be chosen later on." And the Foreign Office continued to cooperate with RSHA to block emigration from other countries so as to monopolize emigration possibilities for Jews from Germany. (Browning 104)
10 February 1941: Rademacher of Foreign Office
reports that the war against Russia would provide the possibility of
using other territories for the final solution so the Madagascar Plan,
at the instruction of the Fuhrer, had been dropped. (Mommsen)
March 1941: Germans Attack British in North Africa
early
in 1941: T-4 head Bouhler provides
euthanasia
personnel and equipment to Himmler
for use in camps; Action Special Treatment 14 f 13. Medical
selections and gassings in camps using Wirth’s CO2 gas chamber. There
is testimony (in Lifton) that this type of medically selected killing
had begun in the camps as early as the summer of 1940. (Dawidowicz 134)
(Lifton 135)
1 March 1941: Himmler
visits Auschwitz and outlines the expansions to be made for
Hoss: expand existing camp, build IG Farben Buma works, construction of
camp for 100,000 at Birkenau.
2
March 1941: Himmler visits camp at Breslau: a resettlement facility for
ethnic Germans from the Burgenland region of Hungary. There officials
determined loyalty by methods including physical examination of racial
features. Recapturing German blood for the Reich was part of the task
of developing the Greater German Empire. (Breitman)
3 March 1941: General Jodl announces Fuhrer’s
guidelines for planned administration of conquered territory in Soviet
Union. Collision of ideologies requiring elimination of
Jewish-Bolshevik intelligentsia. The military would control as little
territory as possible. Civilian commissioners would rule over the rest,
accompanied by police authorities. No military court martial. Summary
executions. (Breitman)
12 March 1941: Further guidelines to military:
Himmler was to act independently and on his own responsibility.
Military was to cooperate in handing over of prisoners to SS troops.
13
March 1941: Keitel issues secret directive for Operation
Barbarossa. In it he defines jurisdiction of armed forces,
SS and civilian administration of conquered territories. The SS is to
be entrusted with ‘special tasks’ for the preparation of the political
administration, “tasks entailed by the final struggle that will have to
be carried out between two opposing political systems”, ie plans to
kill all Jews.
17 March 1941: Hitler meets privately with Frank in
Reich Chancellery.
20 March 1941: Eichmann refers to Heydrich as being
in charge of the ‘final evacuation of the Jews’ to the Government
General. (Breitman) 26 March 1941: Anti-German Military coup in Belgrade
30 March 1941: Hitler speech provides impetus for
Commissar Order: the execution of alleged Soviet commissars without
trial. Nazi propaganda dating back to 1935 closely identified
commissary and party functionaries with Jews. Order designed to exploit
military’s anti-Bolshevist sentiment and move it toward acceptance of
the general killings of Jews. (Breitman)
Mid-March 1941: Einsatzgruppen are being trained.
March 1941: Hitler orders end to Jewish employment
in Germany. The decree was made in response to a deal made by Greiser
and Goring to deport Jews from the Wartheland to the Reich to provide
workers for the war effort. (Adam)
2 April 1941 After a conference with Hitler, Rosenberg ominously noted: "What I do not want to write down today, I will nonetheless never forget." (Browning 104)
April 1941: Blitzkrieg
into Yugoslavia and Greece: forces
postponement of Operation Barbarossa.
May 1941: Goring orders emigration of German Jews
hastened; Belgian and French Jewish emigration ended.
May 1941: Hess Flight to England
May, June, July?
1941 : According to Hoss’ testimony five years
later at the Nuremburg Trials, he received orders from
Himmler to prepare the camp for mass annihilation of the
Jews. The order could have come as early as June 1941 when Hoss met
with Himmler. (Friedlander)
Whether in July or shortly thereafter is unclear, Himmler and Heydrich began to act on the assumption that Hitler had given the "green light" to prepare an extermination program. (Browning 106)
23 May 1941: Economic Headquarters of the East
report states that the population of the northern frost region faced a
great famine after the invasion. Tens of millions of people would be
superfluous and face starvation or evacuation. “Absolute clarity must
prevail in this regard.” (Browning
p. 110)
26 May 1941: Himmler assigns a group of Waffen-SS
units to what he called the Commandostab Reichsfuhrer SS,
in effect his own private army.
6 June 1941: ‘Commissar
Order’ by General Warlimont allows summary execution of all
suspected political captives.
17 June 1941: SS honors Himmler. Heydrich addresses
Einsatzgruppen commanders: “Eastern Jewry provided the ‘reservoir of
intellectuals for Bolshevism’, and the Fuhrer and the leadership of the
state held the view that it must be destroyed." (Breitman)
22 June 1941: Operation
Barbarossa launched.
23 June 1941: Einstazgruppe A, under Stahlecker,
arrives in Tilsit, East Prussia near border with Lithuania. Stahlecker
orders Lithuanian police to clear 25 sq. mi. area of Jews and subject
them to ‘special treatment’. First mass killings, of 231 Jews, occur
over next two days. (Breitman)
25 June 1941: Stahlecker enlists Lithuanian militia
to participate in the killings in Lithuanian capitol of Kovno. Pogroms
take place over the next few nights resulting in the deaths of 3800
Jews. “without any visible indication to the outside world of a German
order or German participation.” (Breitman)
30 June 1941: Himmler and Heydrich tour conquered
Polish cities of Augustowo and Grodno near E. Prussian border. They
find no killings taking place. Heydrich directs Einsatzgruppen A to
keep pace with military developments and take the initiative. Killings
begin there the next week. Haste may have been required to make the
killings appear as if they were part of the war itself. No one believed
the war would last for longer than eight weeks. (Breitman)
July 1941: Local discussion of possible
extermination of Lodz ghetto Jews to solve overcrowding. (Friedlander)
1 July 1941: Bialystock: Order Police sweep Jewish
section. Himmler orders 2,000 Jews killed because they had participated
in looting of Russian shops before the arrival of the Germans. Breitman
argues that in situations where local police could not be convinced to
perform the pogrom, the Germans would do it themselves using the idea
of reprisal as a cover for the action. (Breitman)
3 July 1941: Latvian auxiliary police carry out
pogroms killing over 400 Jews and destroying synagogues.
16
July 1941: Hitler at Rastenberg meets with Goring, Keitel, Bormann,
Lammers and Rosenberg. He discusses the pacification and future
colonization of the conquered territories and how to present this
occupation to the world. Since the Russians had put out a call for
partisan warfare behind the lines, Hitler declared that anyone opposing
them should be exterminated. “Shoot anyone who even has a cross look.”
16 July 1941: SS officer
Hoppner letter to Eichmann describes catastrophic conditions
in Wartheland in the Lodz ghetto, a transit camp for the Jews
transported from the old Reich. Greiser had complained as early as
summer 1940 of the conditions in the ghetto and also of the existence
of such a ghetto in the Reich itself. Hoppner suggested ‘it should be
seriously considered whether it might not be the most humane solution
to dispose of those Jews who are unfit for work by some quick acting
means. At any rate it would be more agreeable than letting them
starve.” Suggestion that the idea for the final solution emerged from
the bottom up. “The partial liquidation of transports of Jews from the
Old Reich and the annexed territories was a desperate new step. It
could not be justified as part of the destruction of bolshevik
resistance cells. A pseudo-moral justification was needed as a
pre-condition for the systematic implementation of the Final Solution.”
(Broszat) (Mommsen)
17 July 1941: Hitler
decree gives Himmler authority to pursue SS policies in the East despite
civilian authority’s opposition. Himmler wins over Rosenberg and
Economic Department.
15 July 1941: RSHA (Eichmann) submits plan to mark
German Jews, dodged by Goring and blocked by Bormann in Reich
Chancellery. Bormann had previously blocked an effort by Goebbels to
initiate a marking plan which he had announced publicly. Goebbels would
later meet face to face with Hitler to get control of the amrking
pprogram, but at the last minute Hitler would give the RSHA approval to
issue the decree. (Adam)
17 July 1941: Heydrich directive in agreement with
Army gives Einsatzgruppen authority to to remove political prisoners
from prisoner of war camps.
20
July 1941: Himmler appoints Globocnik his deputy to create an SS
stronghold in the newly conquered areas.
“Program Heinrich” (Operation Reinhard) involved
the creation of a new forced labor camp, Maidanek, for 25 to 50
thousand inmates in the Lublin area. This was the first step in the
imagined post war resettlement of the east: a racial magnet to select
the pure of blood and dispose of the others. Discussion of ‘cleansing’
of all Poles and Jews from the General Government? (Breitman)
30 July 1941: Himmler order to Bach-Zelewski in
Pripet River region near the border of Byetlrussia and Ukraine: “All
Jews must be shot. Drive the women into the swamp.” 31 July 1941: Goring orders Heydrich to prepare “complete solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe” (Gesamtlosung) Goering Order to Heydrich Concerning the finding of a "solution of the Jewish problem". July 31, 1941 For a discussion of the significance of this document, see Destruction of European Jewry Explanatory Timeline, July 31, 1941 Goring acted as an
administrative conduit who, acting under Hitler's orders,
authorized the involvement of state apparatus in the Final Solution and
legitimated it as a state undertaking. Administrative responsibility
for the Final Solution was lodged in the RSHA’s office IV-B-4 where
Eichmann supervised “Jewish Affairs and Evacuation Affairs”.
(Dawidovicz 130) Himmler and Heydrich
were planning arrangements for a continent wide solution of the Jewish
question, and they wanted Goring to sign off. (Breitman) The authorization
was drafted by Eichmann and submitted to Goring for his signature.
There is no indication that it is connected with any previous order
from Hitler. It could refer to pursuing a solution that would no longer
be implemented under the cover of war. (Mommsen) Heydrich already had
an authorization signed by Goring for coordinating Jewish emigration
(Jan. 1939). When Jewish emigration gave way to plans for massive
resettlement, Heydrich had felt no need for a new charter and cited the
older one when asserting his jurisdiction over the emerging Madagascar
Plan in 1940. Moreover, Heydrich had just spent the previous months
organizing the Einsatzgruppen for the extermination of the Russian
Jews, and that murder campaign was now in full swing. The historical
context would thus suggest that if indeed Heydrich was the initiator of
the July authorization, he did not need it to continue emigration and
resettlement activities, but rather because he now faced a new and
awesome task that dwarfed even the systematic murder campaign of the
Einsatzgruppen. (Browning pp.105-06)
1 August 1941 "Specific orders of the Reichsfurher-SS [Himmler] stated that 'all Jews must be shot; Jewish females driven into swamps.'" (Browning 103)
3 August 1941:
the Catholic Bishop of Munster von Galen openly accused the government of carrying out mass murder of the mentally ill at
the Marienthal Asylum. He condemned the idea that any human
being could be considered unworthy of life. Hitler backed down and
stopped the euthanasia effort there. The gassing specialists within the
program then became available for activities in the East. (Breitman)
early August 1941: Himmler
witnesses a mass execution in Minsk. A blond, blue-eyed boy
approached Himmler and was told that he could not be helped. Himmler
became more and more uncomfortable during the shootings. Afterwards he
addressed the killers, telling them that the orders though harsh had to
be obeyed unconditionally. He said the orders came from Hitler
personally. The next day, still shaken by the shootings, he told Nebe,
the Einsatzgruppen leader, that shooting was not the most humane
method. Nebe asked for permission to experiment with dynamite and it
was granted. (Breitman)
early August 1941: Eichmann
visits Hoss at Auschwitz:
discussion of future transports and methods of killing. Shooting and
gas vans were ruled out due to inefficiency and expense of building
construction. Eichmann said he would try to find a gas available in
large quantities that would not require special installations.
(Breitman)
According to Hoss, Eichmann mentioned "killing with showers of carbon monoxide while bathing as was done with mental patients in the Reich." (Dawidovicz 131)
Despite their discussion of the inadequacy of existing killing methods, actual final methodology remained in question until Hoss attended a conference of Eichmann's men in Berlin in November. (Browning 106) Browning argues that
documents from fall 1941 indicating frenetic planning was underway and
that key ingredients of the Final Solution- special reception camps for
deported Jews, and gassing- were being discussed not only in the SS but
also in the Hitler Chancellery, the Foreign Office and the
Ostministerium. These documents enhance the credibility of Eichmann and
Hoss’ testimonnies. (Browning p.109)
15 August 1941 Walter Stahlecker, commander of Einsatzgruppen A, submitted a summary report of events through October 15, 1941 which stated, "it was expected from the start that the Jewish problem would not be solved solely through pogroms. On the other hand the security-police cleansing work had according to basic orders the goal of the most complete removal as possible of Jews. Extensive executions in the cities and flat lands were therefore carried out through special units." Browning asserts that by mid-October Einsatzgruppen A had executed 118,430 Jews! Evidence that the order for implementation of the first stage of the Final Solution, ie all the Soviet Jews, had been made before Operation Barbarossa commenced. (Browning 103)
24 August 1941: Hitler gives Brandt a verbal order to stall operation T-4.
26 August 1941: Himmler’s office manager telephones
Heydrich’s office to say that Himmler ahd agreed to Heydrich’s plans.
28
August 1941: Eichmann letter to Jewish specialists in the Foreign
office referring to the ‘coming Final Solution now in preparation.’ The
timing of the change in phraseology coincides with Eichmann’s own
account of learning about the extermination order in late summer.
(Browning p.107)
late summer 1941:
Operation Reinhard transfers T-4 to East:
Gassing specialist Christian Wirth tells another officer that he has
been transferred to a new facility in the Lublin area of the
Generalgouvernment along with ninety two other men from the chancellery
After the war, Brack, who ran the euthanasia program in the
Chancellery, admitted that Wirth had been transferred to Globocnik’s
command to start a new euthanasia program after the war. (Breitman)
late
August 1941: 11,000 stateless Jews expelled from Hungary and massacred
at Kamenets-Podolsk. (Friedlander)
1 September 1941: Heydrich
RSHA decree to mark all Jews older than six in the Reich with the star
of David. This decree countermanded a Fuhrer order in effect
since December of
1938 which prevented either the marking (SD plan) or ghettoization (BVP
plan) of German Jews. Eichmann and Heydrich had wrested the control of
the issue from Goebbels and the BVP at the last minute. (Adam)
3
September 1941: first experimental gassing
with Zyklon B, of Soviet prisoners
is conducted at Auschwitz in Block11 on 600
Russian prisoners of war, the brainchild of one
Hauptsturmfuhrer Fritsch, who used gas obtained from a Hamburg
pesticide firm, Tesch and Stabenow, which had been used before at the
camp to fumigate lice-riden buildings. Zyklon B was manufactured by a
Frankfurt firm called Degesch, in which I.G. Farben held an interest.
(Bauer 42)
10 September 1941: Himmler approves transfer of
gassing specialists to Globocnik. He discusses with Pohl, Klammer and
Vogel, the planning, construction and administration of Maidanek,
Belzec and Birkenau. (Breitman)
18 September 1941: Himmler, acting under Hitler’s
orders, commands that the old Reich and Bohemia-Moravia be cleared of
Jews. They are to be sent first to the annexed Polish territory then by
early 1942 ‘farther to the east’. (Breitman)
19 September 1941: Germans Capture Kiev
26 September: Germans Resume Attack on Moscow
29, 30 September 1941: Babi
Yar massacre of 33,000.
late September 1941: Inspiring military situation on
the Eastern front: German forces had surrounded Leningrad, the
southwestern army group had triumphed near Kiev. A new offensive
against Moscow was being planned. The Russian situation was at its
lowest ebb. At this time Hitler’s final solution plans were in active
planning stages: a post war plan, not as many argue a reaction in
frustration to bad news in the East. (Breitman)
? Fall 1941: Deportations from Reich begin, mostly
to Lodz, Kovno, Minsk and Riga (mass killings near Riga in November.)
(Friedlander)
October 1941: Stahlecker’s report about the
activities of Einsatzgruppen A: “the goal of the cleansing operation of
the Security Police, in accordance with the fundamental orders was the
most comprehensive elimination of the Jews possible.” (Breitman)
3 October
1941: BVP (Goring) defines special labor situation of
German Jews. Later in the month new restictions
would deprive the Jews of any labor rights- indicative of a change in
policy. Even so, as late as December 19, 1941 the Labor Ministry would
issue a decree to protect working German Jews from the Gestapo. (Adam)
10
October 1941: Heydrich at conference in Prague mentions Riga and Minsk
as destinations for deported Jews. He also indicates that deported Jews
should be turned over to Einzatzgruppen commanders who were supervising
the killings of Communists and Jews. (Browning p.109)
13
October 1941: Heydrich approves the proposal of Martin Luther, the
under-secretary of state, that Spanish Jews resident
in France be included in the Spanish cabinet’s plan to send their Jews
to Morocco. A few days later his decision was revoked. Those Jews would
be beyond the German sphere of influence. An
indication of confusion about policy toward Western European Jews even
at this late date. (Mommsen) Four days later,
however, Heydrich’s RSHA informed Luther by telephone of its opposition
to the Spanish proposal, as the Spanish government had neither the will
nor the experience effectively to guard the Jews in Morocco. “In
addition these Jews would also be too much out of the direct reach of
the measures for a basic solution of the Jewish question to be enacted
after the war.” Indicates a fundamental shift in Nazi Jewish policy.
(Browning pp.107-08) Browning further
quotes an Eichmann associate, Fredirich Suhr,
who had traveled with Franz Rademacher of the
Foreign Office to Belgrade to deal with the Jewish question in Serbia.
Rademacher reported that “as soon as the technical possibility exists
within the framework of a total solution of the Jewish question the
Jews will be deported by waterway to the reception camp in the east.” Browning assumes that the
Jewish experts traveling to and from Berlin in October were aware of
plans for a ‘reception camp’ in the East
to receive Jews incapable of heavy labor and for
‘special measures’ for extermination. Clearly, the continent wide final
solution is in gear. (Browning p. 108)
mid-late October 1941: Planning begins for the
construction of the Chelmno death camp in time for December transports
from Lodz. (Browning p.111)
23 October 1941: The Head of the Gestapo, Muller, announces the prohibition
of further Jewish emigration from German-occupied areas of continental
Europe although the emigrations had been previously and
publicly approved. An indication of slow change in RSHA Jewish policy.
(Mommsen) No general order? (Friedlander)
25 October 1941: Hitler Table Talk: Late night conversation with Himmler and Heydrich, among others, which he knows is being recorded for posterity: "From the rostrum of the Reichstag, I prophesied [in 1939] that in the event of war's proving inevitable, the Jew would disappear from Europe. That race of criminals has on its conscience the two million dead of the First World War and now already hundreds of thousands more. Let nobody tell me that all the same we can't park them in the marshy parts of Russia! Who's worrying about our troops? It's not a bad idea, by the way, that public rumor attributes to us a plan to exterminate the Jews. Terror is a salutary thing." What was the expression on Hitler's face during this episode? (Rosenbaum 62) If the rumor were true, then the killings would be just! The Holocaust did not happen, but if it did, the Jews deserved it!
October 1941: Hans Klammers’ SS construction office
begins work at Birkenau.
October
1941: construction of Belzec death camp begins.
Gassing would begin in March 1942 under the supervision of its new
commandant, Christian Wirth. (Breitman) If the plans for the
Belzec camp were being drawn up in mid-October and work began on
November 1, and if Lange was in Berlin making final arrangements for
Chelmno in late October and work began there by early November, it is
very difficult to avoid the conclusion that sometime in October Hitler
had approved the extermination plan he had solicited the previous
summer. (Browning p.112)
October 1941: Ministry of Labor: all employment
rights cut off for
Jews. Indication to Adam that a fundamental change in Jewish policy was
in the works, reversing the January decision to recognize minimal
Jewish employment guarantees. Even so, in December, the Labor Ministry
would try to protect working German Jews from the Gestapo. (Adam) In addition to their
efforts to devise a Final Solution to the Jewish question in all of
Europe, the planners suddenly had to improvise immediate deportations
as an interim solution for the Reich. The attempt to carry out these
deportations before the death camps now being conceived were built
caused difficulties and confusion. Broszat and Adam argue that the
stalled military campaign which blocked transit and backed up
deportations led to the frustration which initiated the Final Solution.
Killing became the only alternative. Browning relies upon the testimony
of Hoss and Heydrich and the events of October to show that the Germans
were working on the extermination program even before the deportations
began. (Browning 115)
November 1941: German Jews outside Reich forfeit
property.
10 November 1941: Himmler orders relayed to Baltic
Reichcommissar Lohse, re. the Riga exterminations: “Tell
Lhose that it is my order, which is also the Fuhrer’s wish.” (Friedlander)
11 November 1941: Himmler tells Kersten that “the
destruction of the Jews is being planned... Now the destruction of the
Jews is imminent.” (Browning p.112)
18 November 1941: Rosenberg background report to
German press that asserts that the Jewsish Question can only be solved
in a biological extermination of all the Jews in Europe.” (Browning p.
113)
25 November 1941: First massacre in Kovno
29
November 1941: Invitations to Wannsee Conference mailed,
originally scheduled for December 9th . The invitations contain a copy
of Goring’s July 31st authorization. (Browning 113)
30 November 1941: First massacre in Riga
December 1941: Maidanek, near Lublin, under
Globocnik’s command, receives its first transport of Jews. This first
group would all be dead by February. By July 1942, it had a
crematorium. Two months later it had a set of gas chambers. (Breitman)
early December 1941: German Offensive Against Moscow Stalls
7 December 1941: Pearl Harbor
8
December 1941: Herbert Lange, see 1940 gas van using bottled CO2, uses second generation of gas vans developed
in September 1941 by RSHA Criminal Technical Institute which redirected
its own exhaust into prisoner compartment. With this innovation Chelmno, 35 miles NW of Lodz, became the first
death camp in operation. (Breitman) (Bauer 42)
9 December 1941: Original date set for Wannsee
Conference. (Friedlander)
11 December 1941: Germany Declares War On U.S.
16 December 1941: Frank states that the 3.5 million
Jews in the General Government could not be liquidated, but ‘that action must be taken
that will lead to successful destruction, in connection with the major
measures which are to be discussed at Reich level (ie the Wannsee
Conference)’ Indication that a formal plan had not been implemented.
(Mommsen) Browning cites the
same Frank report to indicate that Frank had no doubt of the goal of
the meeting. (p.113)
18 December 1941: Lohse memo: Berlin overrules attempts to protect Jewish workers with essential jobs in the war effort. "As a matter of principle economic considerations should be overlooked in the solution of the problem." (Dawidovicz 144)
19 December 1941: Labor
decree to protect working German Jews from the Gestapo. (Adam)
late December: Over 1 million Jews already killed by
Einsatzgruppen in U.S.S.R. (Friedlander) 1942
20 January 1942: Wannsee
Conference Originally scheduled
for 9 December 1941 but postponed because of Pearl Harbor. Heydrich
hints strongly that Hitler has agreed to extermination plan.
(Dawidovicz 136) Official policy:
work to death. Reference is still made to the ‘territorial final
solution’, but “the
formulation that ‘certain preparatory work for the Final Solution’
should be carried out ‘in the areas concerned’ (ie the General
Government) signified the beginning of selective liquidations.... The
killings began in early 1942 and gradually acquired the character of a
planned and systematic program.. Even then, however, it was implemented
with varying degrees of intensity... the program of annihilation thus
retained its character as a temporary measure taken during the wartime
state of emergency.” (Mommsen) If the goal and
scope of the Nazi Jewish policy were no longer in doubt, some aspects
of the final Solution were still unsettled: practical
killing methods were still being tested, proportions
to be killed and spared for work were still unclear. (Browning p.114)
27 January 1942: Himmler issues instructions to
‘equip’ the SS concentration camps primarily with German Jews.
Indication that even after the Wannsee conference Jewish labor was
considered important to the war effort. Birkenau was never considered a
pure extermination camp. (Mommsen)
Feb 1942: Belzec, near Lublin, becomes operational
March 1942: Jews forbidden to use public
transportation.
May 1942: Heydrich assassinated in Prague.
late summer 1942: Himmler letter to Rosenberg: "The occupied Eastern territories are to become free of Jews. The execution of this very grave order has been placed on my shoulders by the Fuhrer. No one can deny me the responsibility anyway." (Dawidovicz 129)
September 1942: Food rations of Jews shortened: no
meat, dairy, tobacco or tropical fruit.
21 November 1942: Arthur Greisler (Gaultier of Lodz,
Chelmno) meets with Hitler and is instructed ‘to act according to own
judgment’ He had been killing Jews for nearly a year. He took the
comment to mean that he should kill the rest of them. Limited
contradictory decisions took place notwithstanding
the general plan. (Friedlander)
21 December 1942: Direct report to Hitler re.
Einsatzgruppen exterminations per Hitler’s request. (Friedlander)
3 February 1943: Germans Surrender at Stalingrad
13 May 1943: Germans Surrender in North Africa
9 July 1943: Anglo-American Forces Invade Sicily
October 1943: Himmler speech at Poznan seems to
attest to a verbal order made by Hitler to implement the Final Solution
through mass killing. (Bauer 42)
June 1944: Allies Take Rome 6 June 1944: D-Day: Allied Invasion of Northern Europe 20 July 1944: Assassination Attempt on Hitle 1945
29 April 1945: Hitler in
bunker on eve of suicide:
boasts of extermination of the Jews as greatest service of National
Socialism to humanity. (Friedlander) He
exhorted the German people to continue the battle with the Jews, the
"universal poisoners of all nations." Fackenheim argues that
Hitler went to his grave the poser, actor and opportunist he always
was. (Rosenbaum
58)
30 April 1945 Hitler commits suicide. According to Bullock, he used cyanide, not the soldier's way out. Trevor-Roper argues that Hitler, the true believer, shot himself. Later, Bullock argued that Hitler bit the cyanide and pulled the trigger simultaneously. Hitler: the actor who comes to believe his mask is his true face. Earlier in his career Bullock had argued that Hitler was a pure opportunist, an actor; later, he came to believe that Hitler started believing his own act after the initial success in Operation Barbarossa. (Rosenbaum 68)
|