Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-020-05 
Last-Modified: 1999/10/10

Presiding Judge: What is "Br." Is that known?

Attorney General: No, Your Honour.

Presiding Judge: Maybe "Br." is the typist?

Attorney General: It probably is. Eichmann apparently
drafted the letter, which includes a reference to him.
Heydrich says, on 21 December 1939, in accordance with an
instruction he received: "For practical reasons centralized
treatment of the Security Police aspects connected with the
evacuation of the Eastern area becomes necessary. As my
special Rapporteur in the Office for Reich Security I have
appointed SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Eichmann (his deputy:
Hauptstu7rmfuehrer Guenther)." There follows the address of
the office. Eichmann became the officer in charge authorized
to carry out the deportation and evacuation on the strength
of the document of 21 December 1939.

Presiding Judge: Evacuation not only of Jews?

Attorney General: Not only Jews. We also charge him with
uprooting not only Jews, but also of Poles and Gypsies.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/170.

Attorney General: Our next document is No. 1399. Its date is
8 January 1940.

Presiding Judge: How does this fit with the bureaucratic
structure according to your argument, Mr. Hausner? He was in
his own Department, wasn't he?

Attorney General: At first he was there, then in Department
IVD4. Department IVB4 was not created until March-April
1941.

Presiding Judge: Did Department IVB4 have such functions of
transferring populations in general?

Attorney General: Yes, we can show this to the Court. At
that time the task of IVB4 was population removal and
transfer of persons. At the same time he did not cease to
act as officer in charge of Jewish affairs. That is a
different question. We shall also see his other activity.
But this was an additional job.

Document 1399 is a minute of a meeting concerning the
evacuations. It took place in Danzig on 8 January 1940. SS
Hauptsturmfuehrer Eichmann from the Head Office for Reich
Security presided.

Presiding Judge: Why do you say Danzig. At the top it says
Berlin, does it not?

Attorney General: The document is from Danzig, the meeting
was in Berlin.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/171.

 Attorney General: Authentication- Bulletin 12, document 12.
In paragraph 2 of this internal minute Hauptsturmfuehrer
Mohr said he had to draw particular attention to the
difficulties arising in some cases where the quota of
evacuees approved by the Government was exceeded. In one
transport during the great cold spell there were 100 cases
of death from cold, he said.

In paragraph 3 it says: "The experts of Inspectors North
East, South East and Warthegau quoted the following figures
for the immediate evacuation of Jews: North East - 30,000,
South East 120,000-125,000, Warthegau (Lodz) 200,000. In
addition Warthegau wants to evacuate 80,000 Poles
immediately in order to make room for Volksdeutsche from
Galicia and Volhynia. (So far Warthegau has evacuated 87,000
Poles).

At the end of the document, in sub-paragraph 9 it says: "The
Commander of the Security Police and SD in Cracow and the
RSHA Department IV, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Eichmann, must be
informed by cable of the departure of each transport."

The last sentence reads: "RSHA, Department IV intends to put
at the disposal of the Inspector of the Security Police and
the SD one assistant and one orderly each for the
preparation of the measures to be taken."

Presiding Judge: Was this shown to the Accused?

Attorney General: I do not think so, Your Honour.

The next document connected with this affair is our No.
1400. This is the minute of a meeting which took place
between Eichmann and Seidl, in the presence of Guenther and
Rajakowitsch, in connection with the evacuations.
Authentication: The Polish Bulletin 12, document No. 16.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/172.

Attorney General: Under discussion is the fact that in Lodz
difficulties were created by the evacuation from Volhynia,
that 10 trains arrive daily and 6 additional trains from the
Altreich are in preparation. At the end of the second
paragraph there is a sentence which I should like to read in
German: "Die Juden muessen eben aus Lodz nach Posen gebracht
und dort verladen werden" ("Well then, the Jews would have
to be taken from Lodz to Posnan and loaded for despatch from
there.")

In the final remark in that document Eichmann announces that
there will be an additional consultation on 30 January  at
11 a.m. where Heydrich will preside and the District Chiefs
from the Generalgouvernement will take part.

These are the documents concerning the displacement and
evacuation from Poland.

On 24 June 1940 Heydrich wrote to the German Foreign
Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop. This is our document No.
464. It is a short document. Heydrich invokes Goering's
order which puts him, Heydrich, in charge of Jewish
emigration. That order was contained in a document of
January 1939 which was submitted to you yesterday. Heydrich
says that since he took over the task, 200,000 Jews had
emigrated from the Reich but "the problem as a whole - which
is already a matter of 3 1/4 million Jews in the areas under
German sovereignty is, therefore, becoming necessary." The
document appears under the letterhead IVB4.* {*Actually
IVD4)}  It is mentioned in the interrogation of the Accused
from page 1742 onward.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/173. What is "eine
territoriale Endloesung" (a final territorial solution)
according to your argument?

Attorney General: We argue that at that time certain German
circles still toyed with the hope of a territorial solution
- perhaps: Madagascar, perhaps Guinea, perhaps Nisko, this
was not yet clear. There may have been some who knew very
well what the intention was, but our argument is that at
that time the decision of the final physical destruction had
not yet been taken.

Presiding Judge: Could we perhaps stop here?

Attorney General: Perhaps the next document will bring the
chapter of the territoriale Endloesung to an end, as far as
the Accused is concerned and I shall not to have to come
back to it.

This is a memorandum on the Madagascar Project which Theodor
Dannecker from the Department of the Accused wrote to the
Foreign Ministry on 15 August 1940. Our document No. 172. I
shall not read out the entire programme; it is very long. It
is Dannecker's project - and according to our argument
Eichmann's project, because Dannecker was subordinate to
him; it originated in the RHSA as indicated in the document
- to transfer four million Jews to Madagascar over a period
of four years under supervision of the SS. Dannecker sees
the main advantage of the project in the fact that
Madagascar is an island and therefore the Jews would not be
able to exercise a harmful influence on anybody else; they
would be under the supervision of the SS. And the transfer
would of course be carried out at the expense of the Jews.
This document was shown to the Accused.

Presiding Judge: This document will be T/174.

Attorney General: Here I should perhaps explain the subject
of Adolf Boehm. On pages 806-807 of his statement the
Accused speaks of this programme. He further speaks about it
on page 790 of the interrogation. But on pages 806-807 the
Accused says to Inspector Less that, as is known, he was
under the influence of Adolf Boehm's book, he had not yet
forgotten it and here was an opportunity to obtain a
territory. And I shall read the final sentence of the
passage:

     "Here it is possible to hand the area to the Jews and
     to clear it for settlement."

The Court will remember Rosenberg's speech concerning the
Madagascar project, a document already submitted.

Our next document is No. 1097 and it contains a secret
covering letter as well as the arrangement made on the eve
of Operation "Barbarossa" between the Security Head Office
and the German Army. Signed by von Brauchitsch, it envisages
cooperation between the Army and the Security Police in the
occupation zone in the USSR. Already on 28 April guidelines
were laid down to the effect that security police objectives
made participation of the Security Police in the operation
necessary.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/175.

Attorney General: The participation was made in such a way,
as stated on page 2, that the Sonderkommandos were
authorized within the framework of their functions to take
executive action against the civilian population on their
own responsibility. And on page 3 it says that they are to
receive their professional guidelines from the Head of the
SIPO (Security Police) and the SD. Communication channels
were established between the Security Police and the Head
Office. The signature is that of von Brauchitsch, the German
Commander for the invasion of the USSR.

The next document is our No. 1091, an order of the Fuehrer
dated 17 July 1941. This is already after the outbreak of
war. It decrees that, after the civil administration begins
to operate in the occupied territories,  the Reichsfuehrer
SS is authorized to issue orders to the Reichskommissars. In
order to ensure police protection a senior SS and Police
Commander will be seconded to each Reichskommissar who will
be directly subordinate to the Reichskommissar personally.
Signed: Adolf Hitler, Keitel, Dr. Lammers. This Erlass
(Decree) is known as the "Kommissarerlass" (the Commissars
Decree).

Presiding Judge: This will be exhibit T/176.

Attorney General: As a follow-up to this, detailed
instructions were given on the same day on how to deal with
Jews, politicos, Soviet Commissars. I submit the document.

Presiding Judge: It will be T/177.

Attorney General: The document comes from Department IV. It
prescribes, within the framework of cooperation between the
Wehrmacht and the Security Police, that the units shall act
independently, within the camp procedures, on the basis of
special powers and guidelines given to them.

Firstly, all important office holders in the State and the
Party must be located, especially professional
revolutionaries, officials of the Comintern, all important
party functionaries of the USSR and its affiliated
organizations in the central, district and local committees,
all People's Commissars and their deputies, all former
Politico-Commissars in the Red Army, all Jews. Further on
the document, states that executions - "special treatment"
as they are called here - are to be carried out as far as
possible in the former Soviet area. What is "special
treatment?" The term has been known for a long time, and was
also used by the Accused. But we have it black on white in a
document as far back as 26 September  1939, No. 410, which
we submit herewith and where it says: "Sonderbehandlung"
(Execution).

Presiding Judge: This will be exhibit T/178.

Attorney General: And now to the basic document, Goering's
order to Heydrich, which is not dated exactly. It is dated
July 1941. In other copies, which were submitted to the
International Tribunal the date 31 July is indicated.

Presiding Judge: This will be exhibit T/179.

Attorney General: Because of its importance I shall read it
in full. It is a short document:

     "Further to the task imposed upon you by order of 24
     January 1939, to bring the Jewish question to as
     favourable conclusion as possible under the present
     circumstances through emigration or evacuation, I
     herewith instruct you to make all necessary
     preparations, organizational, practical and material,
     for an overall solution of the Jewish question in the
     German sphere of influence in Europe.
     
     To the extent that the competence of other central
     authorities is affected thereby, they are ordered to
     cooperate in this matter.
     
     I further instruct you to submit to me as soon as
     possible an overall draft for the preliminary
     organizational, practical and material measures towards
     the implementation of the desired final solution of the
     Jewish question."
     
     (Signed) Goering

The next document is our No. 890. It contains the first
preparations for Wannsee. The document is dated 29 November
1941.

Judge Raveh:   Mr. Hausner, in the previous document there
is no date...oh yes, on the copy there is a date. In the
original is there the month without the day?

Attorney General: This is how it is in the original. We know
that in the I.M.T. the same document appears in a different
copy, which is not in our possession, and there it states 31
July.

Presiding Judge: There is something very faint here, as if
written in pencil, which could be 31.

Attorney General: The Court will also notice in the next
documents, where Heydrich refers to it, and also in the one
I have just submitted, document No. 890, he says that the
date is 31 July.  Here, right at the beginning of document
No. 890, Heydrich's letter to Gruppenfuehrer Hoffmann, this
is the first invitation to the Wannsee Conference. He
mentions Goering's instructions of 31 July.  And this is
what he says: "On 31 July the Reichsmarschall of the Great
German Reich charged me with the task..."

Presiding Judge: This will be T/180.

Attorney General: The Court will note that the invitation is
for 9 December 1941 to a discussion of matters pertaining to
the "final solution" with breakfast following, so it says.
The venue is the Office of the International Criminal Police
Commission in Berlin. At the end of the letter it says that
in accordance with a telephone conversation with
Sturmbannfuehrer Guenther the date has been changed.
Heydrich writes that he has addressed similar letters to
Frank, Meyer, Stuckart and others. We do not know why the
Wannsee Conference did not take place on 9 December after
all. We assume it was because the war with the USSR started
close to that date. Then there was the attack on Pearl
Harbour. At any rate, document No. 946 is an invitation,
similar to the one I have just submitted, except that that
one was addressed to Hoffmann, while this is addressed to
Luther.

Presiding Judge: This document will be T/181.

Attorney General: Our next document is No. 1101 and it is a
memorandum prepared in Department IVB4 for the Wannsee
Conference. I submit it herewith. The subject is "The Final
Solution of the Jewish Question." It says that on 28 January
SS Obergruppenfuehrer Krueger came to the Chief of the SP
and SD in order to discuss the centralized treatment of the
Jewish affairs in the Generalgouvernement. From the steps
taken recently in this respect it can been seen more and
more clearly that the Governor General aims at dealing with
the entire Jewish Question himself.

Presiding Judge: Who signed it?

Attorney General: This is a draft, Your Honour. We have no
signature here. This is the draft of an internal memorandum
in preparation of the Conference.

Presiding Judge: This document will be T/182.

Attorney General: It says here that at the meeting
instructions were given to the Head of Department IVB4 to
extend additional invitations to the meeting on 9 December
1941. In anticipation of the discussions there was an
internal exchange of letters in the various departments on
how they envisaged the solution of the Jewish Question in
Europe. Our document No. 465 is a letter from the Foreign
Ministry presenting their wishes and ideas ("Wuensche und
Ideen") concerning the proposed "Total Solution of the
Jewish Question in Europe."

Judge Raveh:   In T/182, 28 January is mentioned as the
date. Isn't this an error?

Attorney General: No, this was actually in 1941. In the
beginning of 1941 there were discussions in the direction of
such solutions, but in the meantime Frank dealt with these
matters in Poland in his own way. And when there was a
decision on the "Final Solution" it was decided that this
was to be entirely in the hands of the
Reichssicherheitshauptamt. And therefore it was necessary to
invite all concerned to a meeting.

Presiding Judge: This document will be T/183 (The Minute on
the Wishes of the Foreign Ministry).

Attorney General: T/183 gives notice of the following
wishes: Deportation of the Croatian, Slovak and Rumanian
Jews to the East; deportation of all Jews who formerly held
German nationality; deportation of all Serbian Jews;
deportation of all Jews handed over by the Hungarian
Government; influencing the Bulgarian and Hungarian
Governments to introduce laws regarding Jews in accordance
with the Nuremberg model.

Our next document is No. 891 and this is already the final
invitation to the Wannsee Conference, again addressed to SS
Gruppenfuehrer Hofmann. "Lieber Hofmann" Heydrich writes,
apologizing for having had to postpone the meeting of 9
December, and adds that since the question to be clarified
does not suffer delay, he extends a new invitation, again
with breakfast, on 20 January 1942 in Berlin "Am Grossen
Wannsee 56-58."

Presiding Judge: This document will be T/184.

Attorney General: The next document, our No. 74, is the
Wannsee Protocol. It has already been submitted and marked
as T/37 (41). Will the Court kindly note the list of
participants from all the important offices concerned.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/185.

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