The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann
Session 31
(Part 2 of 5)


Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, Eichmann trial, holocaust, Jewish holocaust
Attorney General: We have here the proclamation issued by the authorities in connection with these deportations. It is contained in Bulletin 2, page 109. The proclamation, which was widely published, says:
"Judaism and Communism endanger not only Germany and her Allies, but the whole of Europe and they intend to draw you, too, into the abyss. We have to enlist all the forces of Europe to fight this demonic force. Therefore we have to enlist those of you who are able to work, send them to Germany and employ them there...If you want to write to your children and relatives send the first letter to: Umwandrungszentrale (Migration Centre), Litzmannstadt, Adolf Hitlerstrasse 133 and from there the message will be delivered to your relatives. True, the separation from your families will be painful at first, but...the better you work, the faster you can be reunited with your families...."
Judge Halevi: When was this published?

Attorney General: This is not indicated, but according to the contents it must have been in 1943.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/380.

Attorney General: The next document is an internal report on the result of the Resettlement Action, Zamosc in the Warsaw District, which was published in the second Polish Bulletin on pages 119-120. It reports on the panic which started among the Polish population, their resistance, their conviction that after the extermination of the Jewish population the liquidation of the Poles will follow; it reports on the transports of children some of whom died on the way, about the sick, about intestinal, gastric and lung diseases and on the mortality among the Polish evacuees and deportees.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/381.

Judge Raveh: This is apparently not a complete document. Some parts seem to be missing. Are you aware of this?

Attorney General: This is what the Poles published. We submit to you what we found in their report. Our No. 288 is a report by Untersturmfuehrer Kinna from Zamosc about the transport of 644 Poles to Auschwitz. He says that this was done in accordance with instructions from the Head Office for Reich Security. In connection with deportation to work he says that persons with impaired working capacity, idiots, cripples and the sick must be sent to camps for liquidation in order to get rid of them there. This operation meets with difficulties because, in contradistinction to instructions from the Head Office for Reich Security concerning the Jews, the Poles are to die a natural death (that is to say, in contrast to the instructions concerning the Jews, who have to be killed, the Poles must be left to die a natural death). The camps administration is therefore asked for a ruling whether the new guidelines do not contradict the standing instructions of the Head Office for Reich Security.* {*In the original: "The camps administration requests not to send persons which are not fit to be put to work.}

Judge Halevi: In earlier documents it was already mentioned that "Value Group 4 was sent." What does that mean?

Attorney General: In that same document the various groups are defined. It defines there what is Group 1, what is Group 2, what is Group 3, and what is Group 4. It is stated specifically in the document itself. The division is in accordance with internal German data.

Judge Halevi: Your No. 1412?

Attorney General: I shall look it up immediately.

Presiding Judge: Your No. 288 will be marked as our T/382.

Attorney General: Yes, 1412. Here, Your Honour, in paragraph 1 it says that Polish families belonging to Groups 1 and 2 are to be separated and sent to Litzmannstadt. Groups 3 and 4 - these are children. All this, Your Honour, in accordance with the guidelines of the race doctrine. Who shall live and who shall die, who may join the German nation and who will be condemned to extinction.

Judge Halevi: Group 4 - that is the lowest value?

Attorney General: That is the lowest value.

The two last documents: Our No. 935 is Goering's order of 23 March 1940 which comes as a result of Frank's complaints. We already remember from Frank's diary that he complained about the chaotic transports which caused so much trouble and work to his staff. And he managed to obtain the order from Goering that from now on people are not to be sent to Generalgouvernement without Frank's personal consent.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/383.

Attorney General: However, only a year later was this order passed on by IVB4, over the signature of Mueller, to all the units concerned stating that for well-known reasons there are to be no deportations until further notice. Please note to which places this was sent: To Koenigsberg, Danzig, Gotenhafen, Posen, Litzmannstadt, to the Centre for Jewish Emigration in Vienna, and for information to the BdS.

Presiding Judge: Gotenhafen is Gdynia?

Attorney General: Yes.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/384.

Attorney General: Your Honour, this concludes for the present the evidence concerning Poland and the countries of the East. We shall now submit to the Court the chapter about the destruction in the West and in the North. My colleague Mr. Bach will present this material to the Court.

Presiding Judge: I wish to inform you that in the meantime the first four communications have been sent out by the Court for the examination of witnesses in Germany and Counsel for both parties may obtain copies of them at the end of this session. Please carry on, Mr. Bach.

State Attorney Bach: Your Honours, as you will remember, at the Wannsee Conference it was decided that Europe must be combed from West to East and that the Jews must be seized and transferred to what was called "The work effort in the East" - in actual fact, to their destruction.

We shall now demonstrate to the Court this process of combing Europe from West to East, this seizing of Jews and transferring them to extermination camps in the East. We shall show this country by country and stage by stage. We shall demonstrate that the Accused was the person immediately and directly responsible for the implementation of this operation, that he directed it, guided it and supervised it, whether personally or through his subordinates, the men of his Department.

We shall begin with a description of the holocaust of the Jews of France. First we shall submit a number of documents, then we shall present evidence which will give further substance to the contents of these documents. As far as possible I shall follow the chronological order of the documents.

One of the first actions taken after the occupation of France was the seizing of Jewish property there. The first document I shall submit is our No. 440, which was also published in Nuremberg in IMG Volume 32, pages 432-433. It is a letter from the German Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop, to the Commander of the Army, the Commander of the Wehrmacht in France. In it Ribbentrop announces the appointment of Otto Abetz as German Ambassador to France and informs the Commander of Abetz' functions. I draw the attention of the Court to paragraph 7 of this document in which one of Abetz' functions is defined as securing the public as well as private art property, and above all Jewish art property and taking possession thereof under specific instructions given especially for this purpose.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/385.

State Attorney Bach: What did this look like in practice? I shall submit to you our document No. 488. This was also No. 2851. It says here: Legationsrat Dr. Carltheo Zeitschel, Counsellor of the Embassy writes to Dannecker, the Accused's representative in Paris and informs him that there is a certain Jewish German emigrant who for some time has put himself under Spanish protection and lives at a certain address in Paris. He says that a short while ago, following a demand by the German Embassy, Spanish protection of the emigrant was discontinued. He writes that simultaneously the Jew started to send away all his furniture in numerous containers and crates, as Leutnant Faber informed him. To my regret, says Mr. Zeitschel, I received news about this matter only today, but according to the information some crates are still there. Perhaps it is still possible to grab something ("villeicht ist es noch moeglich, etwas zu schnappen") and to find out where all the crates and cases are and possibly to see to it that they are returned.

Presiding Judge: Somebody wrote on the margin: "c'est le but!"

State Attorney Bach: This is the aim. I saw this remark. I do not know, if it was made at the time. It was written at a later stage.

Presiding Judge: Somebody who read it wrote it.

State Attorney Bach: Not in Bureau 06, by the way.

Presiding Judge: This will be No. T/386.

State Attorney Bach: The next document is our No. 955. In it Luther from the German Foreign Ministry sends a reminder to the Reichsfuehrer-SS (Personal Staff) and in it he points out that he has not yet received a reply to his request for their views on the question of introducing anti-Semitic measures in France, which will make it possible to deport Jews from the unoccupied part of the country. Here I draw the attention of the Court especially to the marginal note in handwriting on the document. This is in fact the handwriting of Rademacher who writes in German: "Nach Auskunft von SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Guenther ist eine Antwort unterwegs. Die antisemitischen Massnahmen in Frankreich werden empfohlen" (According to information from Hauptsturmfuehrer Guenther the answer is on its way. The anti-Semitic measures in France are recommended). The importance lies in the date of that note.

Presiding Judge: It says: "Die beabsichtigten Massnahmen in Frankreich werden empfohlen" (The measures intended are recommended).

State Attorney Bach: I am sorry, Your Honour. Yes, it says: "Die beabsichtigten Massnahmen." You can see that the date of this annotation is 19 September. This fact is important in the light of the next document which I am about to submit.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/367.

State Attorney Bach: The next document is our No. 86. This is indeed Heydrich's reply to that request by Luther and a reply to the letter of 23 August 1940. The date 23 August 1940 is also mentioned in the preceding document. It is clear that the intention is to answer that letter and Heydrich does really say here that he agrees to those measures. The date of this letter is 20 September.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/388.

State Attorney Bach: The Court will see that on the letter which has just been submitted it says: "Geheime Reichssache" (State Secret),* {*The stamp on the letter, as amended, says: "Secret."} and it was signed, as I said, on the 20th of the month. We can see that already on the 19th of the month Guenther was in a position to transmit the contents of the letter to the Foreign Ministry. From this one can draw a certain conclusion concerning the office in which the letter was prepared and drafted. There are references here to measures prohibiting Jewish migration over the demarcation line back into occupied France, to the obligation on Jews to report, to prominent marking of Jewish businesses and to the appointment of trustees for Jewish shops.

Presiding Judge: What is S-IVD6?

State Attorney Bach: We have in fact not found any document that would define exactly what was IVD6 at that time, but we found that Heydrich signed several letters bearing that marking.

I only want to draw attention to one final remark by Heydrich when he says: "I consider extensive participation of the Security Police in France to be indispensable since it has experienced manpower available, especially in Jewish affairs." It is clear that Dannecker is meant here whose wide experience is constantly mentioned, as we shall also see later. I just want to point out that the legislation recommended by Heydrich was in fact adopted and passed; this has already been established by another exhibit submitted to you and marked T/196 which is a later report by Luther from the Foreign Ministry, on page 3 of which it says that on 27 September these laws were indeed adopted by the Military Commander in France.

The following document is our No. 1071, a letter signed by Knochen. Knochen was BdS (Senior Commander of the Security Police) in France, and of the SD, and at that time Dannecker was his desk officer for Jewish affairs. From the beginning of the letter it is clear that Dannecker was indeed the man who drafted it. The Court can see the letters DAN on the top and this points to the fact that Dannecker drafted it. The letter is addressed to the chief of the Military Administration in France and its subject is a recommendation to set up concentration camps for Jews who are nationals of foreign countries. Dannecker mentions here that almost half of the Jewish community of France is composed of foreign nationals and he proposes to set up concentration camps for Jews from foreign countries. He mentions French law which makes the housing of foreign Jews in concentration camps possible.

I just call your attention to the last paragraph of the letter, which says:

"It has become clear that breeding hatred of Jews on ideological grounds is almost impossible with the French, whereas approval of the fight against the Jews is more likely when economic advantages are offered. (Putting the approximately 100,000 foreign Jews who live in Paris into concentration camps would provide many Frenchmen with an opportunity to rise from the lower strata to the middle class)."
Presiding Judge: This will be T/389.

State Attorney Bach: The next document is our No. 442, the description of a meeting in Paris with the participation of Ambassador Abetz, Obersturmfuehrer Dannecker, and Counsellors Achenbach and Zeitschel. The subjects of the discussion were mainly an expose by Herr Dannecker on what had so far been done about the Jewish Question in France, and proposals by the Ambassador concerning important French personalities who might be considered for setting up "the Jewish Office" in France. On that occasion it transpired that an exemplary card index of all the Jews of Paris, in four types of listing, was almost completed, thanks to the preparatory work of the SD headed by Herr Dannecker, who had years of experience in Jewish affairs, starting back in Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Dannecker now quotes statistical figures for the Jews in Paris and France. And it says further: "Herr Dannecker made the most interesting disclosure that, on the basis of the Jewish laws of 4 October in the unoccupied sector, over 40,000 Jews are already in concentration camps and further arrests are taking place all the time."

Presiding Judge: This will be T/390.

State Attorney Bach: The next document is our No. 319. It is a letter from the Gestapo in Bordeaux to Dannecker's office in Paris and in it a District Commander in the Bordeaux area proposes to the office in Paris to let 150 Jews who are at present near the Spanish border emigrate to Spain.

Presiding Judge: T/391.

State Attorney Bach: Dannecker's reply is contained in our Document No. 167. A short answer, in one sentence:

"In this matter I refer again to my telegram No. 12071 of 28 June 1940. It is not possible to agree with Mr. Henkel, if only because the Head Office for Reich Security has decided in a statement of principle that emigration of Jews from the occupied Western Zone must be prevented and also, as far as possible, their emigration from unoccupied France. I request a report on the further development of the matter."
Presiding Judge: T/392.

State Attorney Bach: The next document is our No. 432. Here Dannecker sends Dr. Zeitschel a detailed report on the number of Jews in different parts of France...

Presiding Judge: T/393.

State Attorney Bach: ...and also a complaint about the inactivity of the French authorities in regard to the anti- Jewish measures in France.

The next document, which was received in France but has wider implications, is our document No. 1209 drawn up in Section IVB4b(Rz). It is signed by Mueller. The subject here is emigration of Jews and it says:

"The Reichsfuehrer-SS and Chief of the German Police has ordered with immediate effect that the emigration of Jews is to be prevented (zu verhindern ist) (This does not effect the deportation operations). I request that this order be brought to the attention of the internal German authorities concerned in the zone of jurisdiction there. Only in individual, exceptional cases, for instance where there exists a positive interest of the Reich, the emigration of individual Jews may be permitted after receipt of prior consent from the Head Office for Reich Security."
Presiding Judge: T/394.

State Attorney Bach: The next document, No. 1179, signed by the Accused, is a letter from him to the Foreign Ministry. He refers to an earlier letter and says:

"With reference to the last paragraph in the report of the German Embassy in Paris of 22 October 1941, I give notice that, in view of the impending Final Solution of the European Jewish Question, the emigration of Jews from the areas occupied by us has to be stopped. I ask to deal with this matter in strictest confidence and should like to add in this connection that the Reichsfuehrer-SS and Chief of the German Police has ordered in the meantime that all - jede - emigration of Jews has to be prevented."
And he repeats that the rest of the instruction was already formulated by Mueller.

Presiding Judge: T/395.


[ Previous | Index | Next ]

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor

© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012

This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and to combat hatred. Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.

As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.