Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Judgment/Judgment-042
Last-Modified: 1999/05/27

133. As to the Warthe [Warthegau] district, the Accused
claims that there special orders were given for the Solution
of the Jewish Question, and that the authorities in that
region, headed by the Reich Governor, Greiser, dealt with
the matter independently, without the participation of the
Accused's Section, IVB4.

We do not accept this argument.  It is possible that Greiser
showed activity and enthusiasm of his own in bringing about
the Final Solution, but one cannot conclude from this that
the Warthe district was outside the jurisdiction of the
Accused's Section in the RSHA.  We have already spoken about
deportations during the year 1939-1940 from the areas
annexed to the Reich in the East and including the Warthe
district, and have shown that the Accused, through his
Section IVB4, directed these deportations by virtue of his
central authority.

The Accused's authority in the Warthe district is confirmed
by him personally in his Statement to Superintendent Less
(T/37, p. 3083):

     "Q. If so, do I understand you correctly that the
     district offices of the State Police (Stapoleitstellen)
     in the Warthe area were also subordinate to the RSHA?
     
     "A. Yes, yes, this is self-understood.
     
     
     "Q. And as far as Jewish matters were concerned, were
     these also subject to the authority of your Section?
     
     "A. This is quite clear, yes."

As to the Lodz Ghetto - the second largest of all the
ghettos, also situated in the Warthe district - we have
mentioned Kaltenbrunner's cable dated 30 June 1943 (from the
files of the Duesseldorf Gestapo).  He there gives notice of
a visit to be paid by the Accused to the Lodz Ghetto in
connection with the deportation of Jews from there.  Then,
at a later stage, it seems at the beginning of 1944, the
Accused's name appears as Kaltenbrunner's representative at
talks about liquidating the Lodz Ghetto and turning it into
a concentration camp, to be handed over to the Economic-
Administrative Head Office (T/247).  In another document
(T/248) also, we read that the Accused took part in the
preparation of a report on economic enterprises in the Lodz
Ghetto, together with Horn, the manager of OSTI.  From these
documents, we learn that the Accused held sway over the
affairs of the Lodz Ghetto, since he was the person handling
Jewish affairs on behalf of the RSHA.

134. As to other areas annexed to the Reich in the East ,
the Accused himself admits that his powers there were not
different from those in the Old Reich.  He confirms the
contents of the statement made by Friedel (T/293, pp. 16,
21), the man in charge of the ghetto in Bialystok, that the
evacuation of the Jews from the Bialystok Ghetto to
Treblinka in February 1943 was carried out by Guenther, the
Accused's permanent deputy.  This is what he says on the
subject (Session 100, Vol. IV, p.xxxx9):

     "Bialystok was within the Reich territory, that is the
     territories in the East annexed to the Reich.  As far
     as I know, the order for deportation in regard to all
     those Eastern Occupied Territories were given by
     Himmler, and Section IVB4 had to deal with and prepare
     the action."

(Deportations carried out by Guenther are also mentioned by
the witness Karasik, Session 28, Vol. I, p. 468-473).  The
deportation of 30,000 Jews from Bialystok is also mentioned
in Mueller's cable of 16 December 1942, bearing the
reference number of the Accused's Section (T/292).

Similarly, in relation to Ciechanow: The Accused transmits
to the local Gestapo station Himmler's order for the
execution by hanging of seven Jews "in the presence of
members of their race."  The report on the carrying out of
these hangings is to be sent to the Accused's Section
(T/200; see also T/201).

The Accused's Activities in the Generalgouvernement Area

135. Were the Accused and his Section active against the
Jewish inhabitants of the Generalgouvernement, and to what
extent?  We do not include in this question the actual acts
of extermination in the camps in the East, for these we
shall discuss separately later.  The Accused alleges that
within the Generalgouvernement matters were run according to
special orders from Himmler, of which he, the Accused, had
no knowledge.  This is not an easy question, for, on the one
hand, many special factors are connected with it - factors
which did not exist in other countries - whilst, on the
other hand, the evidence brought before us in connection
with the Generalgouvernement area and the measures adopted
against the millions of Jews who lived there at the time of
the Germans' entry into the area is rather scanty.  Amongst
the factors mentioned, the one to be stressed particularly
is the very existence of autonomous rule in that area, with
a government of its own, headed by Frank.  This in itself
was an unfailing source of friction between Frank, who
jealously guarded his prerogatives as all-powerful ruler in
the area entrusted to him, and the Reich authorities, who
strove to centralize power in their own hands.  This
competition was especially noticeable between Frank and
Himmler and his representative in the Generalgouvernement
area, Krueger, Senior commander of the SS and the Police,
who served at the same time also as State Secretary for
Security Affairs in the Frank government.

In Frank's diary (T/253), we read his statement to his
government on 16 December 1941:

     "...with regard to the course of action against the
     Jews, we act within the general framework of the
     Reich..." (p. 22)

but on the other hand, on 21 September 1942, he still
emphasized:

     "...all the main departments, having the interest of
     the Reich at heart, must pay attention to the fact that
     the sole responsibility for what is happening in this
     area, in the land of the Generalgouvernement, has not
     been denied to us by a single person to date...to my
     regret, I notice here and there perhaps a cautious
     trend in another direction.  They think that now
     perhaps it is possible, gradually, to relax the
     complete and close links which exist with the
     Generalgouvernement, by a closer relationship with
     central authorities in the Reich... May I therefore
     remind you, Messrs. Directors of the main departments,
     as well as the gentlemen from the State Secretariat for
     Security Matters again and again, that in the unitary
     and complete administration of this area there has not
     been the slightest change." (p. 27)

At another meeting, on 25 January 1943, he protests strongly
at the fact that Krueger executed Himmler's order without
informing him (Frank).  He adds that this is a typcial
example of the way police actions are executed in accordance
with the Reichsfuehrer's order, "about which I have had no
knowledge, in contradiction to the Fuehrer's order, and to
which I have not given my consent" (p. 31).  Yet, Frank
explains that the responsibility for the extermination of
the Jews does not lie with the government of the
Generalgouvernement area, since "the order to exterminate
the Jews came from higher authorities" (p. 29).

Perhaps, in order to overcome Frank's isolationist
aspirations, it was necessary for Himmler from time to time
to exert his authority by issuing orders for police actions
against Jews directly to his representative Krueger, and not
via Heydrich and the RSHA.  Krueger, for his part, would act
through the police and SS commanders, such as Globocnik in
the Lublin district and Katzmann in Galicia, neither of whom
belonged to the RSHA establishment.  An important fact
pointing in this direction is that the final report of 30
June 1943 on "The Solution of the Jewish Question in
Galicia," which states that 434,329 Jews had been
exterminated (T/215), came from Katzmann and was submitted
by him to Krueger.  This proves that these actions were
carried out in accordance with orders transmitted in the
line of command from Himmler to Krueger to Katzmann, and we
have no evidence of RSHA participation through a line of
command from Himmler to Heydrich (Eichmann) to the BdS,
Cracow.  As against this, it should be said that, at any
rate as from the Wannsee Conference, Heydrich's general
authority in connection with the Final Solution was
recognized, without territorial limitations.  The
representative of the Generalgouvernement, State Secretary
Buehler, who participated in the conference, also fully
admitted this authority when saying that:

     "The centralizing authority for the Solution of the
     Jewish Question in the Generalgouvernement area lies in
     the hands of the Head of the Security Police and the
     SD, and his actions are supported by the
     Generalgouvernement authorities."  (T/185, p. 15)

Buehler was invited to the Wannsee Conference, in order to
clarify this very question (see T/182), and as already
stated, Heydrich won the day, when the representative of
"the opponent" surrendered without a fight and admitted his
authority.

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