The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Shofar FTP Archive File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-048-03


Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-048-03
Last-Modified: 1999/06/02

State Attorney Bach:  Our next document is No. 1228.  The
Accused writes to Rademacher: He has heard that there were
Jews emigrating from Romania via Hungary, Croatia and Italy.
Since these are precisely the well-to-do Jews, there is a
danger that in the end only the main body of destitute Jews
will be left in Romania.  And he says:

     "In the interest of the smooth implementation of the
     planning for the Final Solution of the Jewish Question
     in Europe, I request you to prevent this development
     through all suitable measures.  Please inform me on the
     situation at your convenience."  Signed: Eichmann.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/1016.

State Attorney Bach:  The next document is No. 531.  Richter
writes to Lecca, objecting to the fact that a Jew by the
name of Fritz Kaufmann is still working in a leading
position with a certain firm, and he was not only a Jew but
was also married to a Jewess from Istanbul.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/1017.

State Attorney Bach:  The next document is No. 469. Here,
statistics about the Jews of Romania are transmitted to
Richter by the head of the research department of the
Central Office of Statistics of Romania.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/1018.

State Attorney Bach:  And in the next document, our No. 526,
Richter transmits this statistical information, which he
received in the preceding document to Obersturmbannfuehrer
Eichmann - "Population Census of 6 April 1941 - The Jewish
Population in Romania."

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/1019.

State Attorney Bach:  The next document is our No. 574.
Suhr from Eichmann's office informs Richter about Zionist
activities for illegal emigration to Palestine and asks him
to check these rumours, to investigate and report.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/1020.

Is there a Hebrew translation of this document, because it
is very difficult to read the original?

State Attorney Bach:  Yes, there is a Hebrew translation.

Presiding Judge: We received only one copy.  Do you have
additional copies?

State Attorney Bach:  I have a translation, but all sorts of
remarks are written on it.  I may be able to provide the
Court with these translations during the intermission.

Now, Your Honours, I have reached the three central
documents concerning the chapter of the Jews of Romania.
The first document is our No. 181, which was shown to the
Accused and numbered T/37(130).  This document was written
in Section IVB4, signed by Mueller, and sent to the German
Foreign Ministry.  It says that, starting approximately on
10 September 1942, the Jews from Romania are also to be sent
in special trains towards the east.  In the first instance,
those Jews are to be sent who are fit for work. He asks that
this be noted, and he assumes that also on the part of the
German Foreign Ministry, there is no objection to these
measures.

I draw the attention of the Court to the date: This letter
was written on 26 July 1942, and it speaks of Jews who are
fit for work and who are to be deported from Romania from 10
September onward.

Presiding Judge: Signed: Mueller.

State Attorney Bach:  Signed Mueller.  The Accused was asked
about this document, and he admitted that it was he who
drafted the document and dictated it.  His comments begin on
page 1068 of his statement, and at the bottom of page 1772
he was asked who drafted this letter.  His reply:

     "I drafted this letter and I dictated it, this is
     clear, is it not, it says here IVB4 and this went to
     Luther; Mueller signed.  I dictated the letter."

Presiding Judge: When it says "IVB4" without an additional
letter, that means he dictated it himself?

State Attorney Bach:  He personally dictated this letter.

The next document is No. 561.  From the office of the
Reichsfuehrer-SS a letter is sent to the personal office,
the personal staff of the Reichsfuehrer, enclosing a letter
which was also sent on 26 July 1942 from the Commander of
the Security Police and the Security Service, and it also
says that the Reichsfuehrer-SS asks that this be brought to
the attention of the Reich Foreign Minister.  We see here
that on the same day the letter to the Reichsfuehrer-SS from
the Commander of the Security Police and the Security
Service was also written, and he asks that this be brought
to the attention of the Foreign Ministry, among others.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/1022.

State Attorney Bach:  Now, Your Honours, what was that
letter written to the Reichsfuehrer-SS on that day, 26 July?
This we learn from the next document, No. 562, which was
shown to the Accused and marked T/37(177).  Here is an
internal note of the German Foreign Ministry.  They have now
received the copy of the letter to the Reichsfuehrer-SS, and
it says here that this is a report to the Reichsfuehrer-SS
of 26 July, and here also the subject is the expulsion of
the Jews, on 10 September as the intended starting date, to
the Lublin district, where "...der arbeitsfaehige Teil
arbeitseinsatzmaessig angesetzt wird, der Rest der
Sonderbehandlung unterzogen werden soll.  Es ist Vorsorge
getroffen, dass diesen Juden nach Ueberschreiten der
rumaenischen Grenze die Staatsangehoerigkeit verloren geht"
(...those who are fit will be put to work, while the rest is
to undergo the special treatment.  It has been arranged that
these Jews will lose their Romanian citizenship after
crossing the Romanian border).

At the end, there is further information for the
Reichsfuehrer-SS. Firstly, that negotiations have already
been held with the Reich Ministry of Transport, and besides,
that, in accordance with an order from the Head Office for
Reich Security, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Richter has been in
direct contact with Mihai Antonescu and has received a
letter from him which confirms the concurrence of the
Romanian Government.  And he encloses this letter.

Thus the Court will realize that two different versions were
sent on the same day from the same office - one to the
German Foreign Ministry, in which there is mention only of
fit people who are able to work, and one to the
Reichsfuehrer-SS, in which there is mention of "special
treatment" for those who are unable to work.  Only through
an error, apparently in the office of the Reichsfuehrer-SS,
they were not aware of this, of this attempted camouflage,
and they routinely sent a copy of this also to the German
Foreign Ministry.  And, therefore, we have seen both letters
side by side, because we obtained the archives of the German
Foreign Ministry, which included both versions of the
letters which went out on the same day.

The Accused was interrogated about this document also,
starting on page 2218 of his statement.  On page 2220 he
explains that this was really a report, a summary from IVB4
to the Reichsfuehrer-SS about what they were able to do in
this matter.  And then, on page 2221, he was asked what was
the meaning here of Sonderbehandlung.  Was the meaning that
all those who could not work would automatically have to be
given the "special treatment"?  And he said: "Yes, I have
already said so."  And then he said that that person, the
special representative in the Head Office for Reich
Security, was Richter, "my man, who dealt with this matter."

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/1023.

Judge Halevi: Who signature is this - Rintelen?

State Attorney Bach:  Rintelen belonged to the German
Foreign Ministry at that time; he sent this report to
Luther, amongst others.  He was a kind of roving ambassador,
and he appears in many places.

Presiding Judge: What does "Feldmark" mean?  Is this
Ribbentrop's train?

State Attorney Bach:  That was Sonderzug Westfalen (Special
Train Westphalia).  Feldmark was, if I remember rightly,
Ribbentrop's headquarters during a certain period.

The next document is our No. 850.  Here the German Foreign
Ministry informs Eichmann that it has no objection to the
inclusion of the Jews of Romania in the framework of the
measures against the Jews.  He mentions Lecca's visit to
Berlin and says: "Then the matter will be discussed with him
without binding us."

Presiding Judge: This will be exhibit T/1024.

State Attorney Bach:  The next document is our No. 470.
Here Richter again reports to the Accused about the law
which was published in Romania on Jews in labour service.
This will no longer be called Arbeitsdienst (Labour
Service), which is too respectable an expression for that
kind of labour.  He encloses the law.

Presiding Judge: This will be exhibit T/1025.

State Attorney Bach:  I proceed to our document No. 570.
Richter reports to the Accused by telegram saying that in
accordance with a suggestion by the Adviser - i.e., Richter
- the Zionist organizations in Romania have been dissolved
by order of Government Commissioner Lecca to the Central
Board of the Jews, dated 7 August 1942.

Presiding Judge: This will be exhibit T/1026.

State Attorney Bach:  I pass on to our document No. 403.
This is also a report about co-operation between the German
Foreign Ministry, the Head Office for Reich Security, and
Lecca, in carrying out the deportations.  The beginning of
the deportations from the districts of Arad and others are
mentioned in particular.  It is also mentioned that the
Adviser of the Romanian Government for Jewish Questions -
Lecca - has asked, through the intermediary of the German
legation, to be allowed to go to Berlin, in order to
negotiate details of the deportation of the Jews from
Romania with the Head Office for Reich Security.
Presiding Judge: This will be exhibit T/1027.

State Attorney Bach:  I proceed to our document No. 1348.
Here Rademacher transmits an invitation from the Accused to
Richter in Bucharest.  Richter is invited to a meeting in
Section IVB4 in Berlin on 28 August 1942.  The Court will
remember this meeting, which I have already mentioned in
connection with the representatives in France and Holland,
who were also invited and who reported about it.  Not only
the invitation for that date is important here, but also the
hand-written remark at the end of the document, which says:
"The study day, in which mainly heads of the Department for
Jewish Affairs inside Germany will take part, will deal with
technical questions of camp administration and will consist
almost exclusively of two inspections accompanied by
suitable instructions."

Presiding Judge: This will be exhibit T/1028.

Is it known which camps are referred to?

State Attorney Bach:  We did not know which camps.  There
are several possibilities of camps that are not too far from
Berlin, but we do not know which camps they were going to
visit.  One can only guess the nature of the camps, since it
is a matter of the specialists for Jewish Questions from the
various countries and from the Stapostellen of Germany.

I go on to our document No. 178.  It is von Killinger's
reaction to a letter which we do not have, a letter which he
apparently received from the German Foreign Ministry after
the two versions were received in the ministry - the letter
which was addressed to the ministry and the information sent
to Himmler, from which is was apparent that Richter arranged
the whole thing with Antonescu.  Killinger writes to the
German Foreign Ministry that he cannot understand how they
could think that he would leave the treatment of this matter
in the hands of an SS officer alone.  "Mr. Mihai Antonescu
may write as many letters as he likes, this makes no
difference to me."  And he says that, of course, everything
was done under his direction.

He also says, by the way, that when Lecca went to Berlin
without prior co-ordination with him, he was not received by
the officials of the German Foreign Ministry, but only by
the officials of the Head Office for Reich Security, and he
was really angry and offended.  Such a thing is not done!

Then he says: "I have now written a letter to the Romanian
Government."  From this letter it transpires that the steps
taken so far were only preparatory, and that only now will
he begin the real negotiations.  I draw your attention to
paragraphs 7 and 8 of the letter.  In paragraph 7 he
requests that in future matters of this kind be dealt with
in a different manner.  And in paragraph 8: "In addition I
should like to point out that all letters to SS
Obersturmbannfuehrer Eichmann were sent through the German
Foreign Ministry, so that the ministry was informed about
what was going on.  That Mr. Eichmann naturally did not
think it necessary to get in touch with the German Foreign
Ministry does not surprise me at all, since I am
sufficiently familiar with the methods of the gentlemen of
the SS.  Moreover, I should like to point out that
everything I report to Department Germany reaches the
Security Service."

Dr. Servatius Your Honour, the Presiding Judge, I should
like to remark that during the quick perusal one passage may
have been neglected, a passage which has special importance
for determining the nature of the Service and the
responsibility.  In paragraph 3, on page 1, it says: "The
Adviser on Jewish Affairs did the preliminary work in
accordance with my instructions."  It is obvious that this
means on the orders of the person who issued them, and
therefore not on the independent initiative of the Accused.

State Attorney Bach:  I think that I emphasized this very
passage, and it shows, precisely in this context, that
obviously Killinger did not even know about the letter which
Richter received from Antonescu; Killinger himself indicates
the meaning of the same passage.

Presiding Judge: I also see that in this letter Killinger
complains when he says: "Ich bedauere dass der Herr
Reichsaussenminister meine Gegenargumente...nicht erfaehrt"
(I regret that the Reich Foreign Minister is not being
informed of my counter-arguments), and somebody wrote a note
here underneath the letter. Was this Rademacher or Luther?

State Attorney Bach:  This is Luther's signature.

Presiding Judge: "I regret that Minister von Killinger
apparently does not want to understand."

State Attorney Bach:  What we have here, so it seems to me,
is very clear from the four letters I have submitted, i.e.,
a feud between the two offices, a complete by-passing of
Killinger by Richter, on instructions from Eichmann.

Presiding Judge: But Luther does not support Killinger?

State Attorney Bach:  They must have reprimanded him.  This
seems obvious from his reply to the letter of 17 August.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/1029.

State Attorney Bach:  We can now imagine Killinger's state
of mind when he has to send the next cable, our No. 215, in
which he has to inform the German Foreign Ministry that
Lecca invited Obersturmbannfuehrer Eichmann, at the time of
his visit to Berlin in August, to visit Romania, that
Antonescu has agreed to this visit, and that Lecca requests
Eichmann to come in January 1943.

Presiding Judge: This document will be marked T/1030.

State Attorney Bach:  With the permission of the Court, I
should now like to submit three documents together, because
they refer to the same subject and could be given a joint
number, since they are interconnected.  They are our numbers
989, 990, and 991.  Here Killinger complains again and says
that IVB4 has directly informed the Adviser for Jewish
Affairs at the embassy - in other words, Richter - that the
property of former German Jews in Romania may remain in
Romania, and that the German Government does not claim this
property for itself.  This is actually the application of
the "territorial principle" to Romania, a principle we have
already encountered, where the property of German Jews who
are deported - in this case from Romania - may remain in
Romania.  And Killinger asks: What about this letter? Was
this true, and what should he do about the matter?

The subject of document No. 990 is the internal procedure
within the German Foreign Ministry; Rademacher reports to
Luther.  I direct your attention specifically to the hand-
written remark on the left side of the document, where it is
explained who Suhr is - "a specialist for Jewish questions
abroad under Eichmann."  This is actually only a matter of
information, and there is no question of principle involved;
they only wanted to receive an explanation.

Nevertheless, we find in document No. 991 that Klingenfuss
writes to Eichmann informing him that Suhr has written such
a letter directly to Richter, and asking him to transmit in
future all questions of principle to foreign countries via
the Foreign Ministry.

Presiding Judge: The three documents together will be marked
T/1031.

State Attorney Bach:  The next document is our No. 194,
which here has been marked T/37(131).  This document is
being submitted in order to show the channels of
communication, again between Richter and the Accused.
Killinger informs the Foreign Ministry that he has written
to the Romanian Government, and then Richter informs
Eichmann that such a letter has indeed been written and
transmits its contents.  He (Killinger) adds: "On the basis
of the conversation between the head of the Romanian
Transport Administration and the representative of the
German Reich Railways in Bucharest, no difficulties are to
be expected with the implementation of the transports, once
the date of the deportation has been fixed.

Presiding Judge: The document will be marked T/1032.


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