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The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania
© 1978, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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8. Hitler's Approval of the Generalized "Final
Solution" and the Conference of Wannsee (January 1942)
At the
important conference commonly known as the Conference of Wannsee (from the name
of the suburb of Berlin where it was held), Heydrich presented all of the
"final solution" as deportation still farther east. The Gauleiter Meyer,
representing the "Ministry of the Territories Occupied in the East" (where,
according to this program, the massacre of about two million Jews of the
General Government should have taken place), and Bühler, Secretary of
State in the General Government, recommended, on the subject of this
deportation to the East from the General Government, that "certain preparatory
work in the process of the "final solution" should be done on the spot, but
whilst taking care not to disquiet the population."
(125) The allusion to the
uncamouflaged[sic] killings which were taking place in the "zones of operation"
of the Einsatzgruppen, and which should have been avoided, is clear. It does
not at all appear in the protocol that Heydrich had revealed the mission that
Globocnik was preparing. However, Bühler expressly recognized at this
conference that the operation was in the competence of the Sipo-SD, provided
that this work be accomplished as rapidly as possible.
The Conference
of Wannsee by presenting the "final solution" to all of the authorities of the
Reich who were to collaborate in it consecrated its acceptance by Hitler. The
connection between the orders, beginning with that of January 24, 1939, to
which that of July 31, 1941, referred, was scrupulously brought to light and
confirmed that the operation was highly official. In fact, Heydrich referred to
Goering's decree of July 31, 1941 which entrusted him with organizing "the
final solution of the Jewish question by emigration or by evacuation." He
added:
"In the meantime, the Reichsführer-SS
and Chief of the German Police has forbidden the emigration of the Jews because
of the dangers of emigration in war-time, and taking into consideration the
possibilities offered by the East. In place of emigration has now come, after
the Führer's preliminary acceptance to this effect, the evacuation of Jews
to the East, as a new possibility of a solution." The "solution"
by the deportation of Jews from the Reich and from the Protectorate to the
"zones of operation" in the East had already been practiced since the autumn of
1941, but had not yet the firm consent of Hitler. Now Heydrich could announce
this consent. He spoke of it as relating to the deportation directed to the
East even from the General Government, as proven by the positions taken by
Bühler and Meyer that we have cited. Luther, Under-Secretary of State at
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was present at the conference and specified in
his report of August 1942 to Ribbentrop (NG-2586, Memorandum, p. 12)
(126):
"The transport to the General Government is
a temporary measure. The Jews will be transported farther, to the occupied
zones in the East, as soon as the technical conditions allow it."
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The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania
© 1978, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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