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The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania
© 1978, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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4. The Jewish Question in the Gestapo and the SD
before the War
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The Jewish question did not immediately
occupy an important place in the two police bureaus of Himmler and Heydrich,
that is to say in the SD for what concerns the SS and in the Gestapo for what
concerns the State.
Let us first sketch the situation in the Gestapo.
Political police units were developed in all the German countries immediately
after Hitler's rise to power. The two most important centers were those of
Bavaria and Prussia. In Bavaria the political police was presided over by
Himmler and directed by Heydrich. Goering presided over that of Prussia, which
he baptized "Geheime Staatspolizei": Gestapo. Its direction was confided to
Diels. As of April 1933 its judicial section was endowed with a service for
matters concerning Jews, Free-Masons and anti-Nazi emigration. This service was
directed by Hasselbacher.
Between 1933 and 1934, Himmler managed
progressively to obtain the direction of the political police for all the
regions of Germany. In April 1934, he first of all received from Goering, as
his assistant, responsibility for the Gestapo, the direction of which he
entrusted to Heydrich. Under Heydrich, the service of Hasselbacher was
transferred from the judicial section to that of "Enemies", main section of the
Gestapo, which had already distinguished itself under Diels by the hunt for
Communists and other representatives of the left. But Hasselbacher's activity
in the Jewish question remained rather unimportant. However, Himmler and
Heydrich rapidly transformed the Gestapo (Prussia) into a central authority
which surveyed the political police of all the regions of Germany. We shall
note that the Service for Jewish Questions in the Gestapo was attributed the
index IIB4.
Although directed by the Reichsführer-SS and by his
close collaborator, Heydrich, the Gestapo was not confounded with the SD. When
Heydrich moved into the Gestapo in Berlin, he brought with him professional
policemen from Munich all while keeping on certain men, such as Hasselbacher,
who had worked for Diels. The men of the SS were integrated into the Gestapo,
but it was the professional policemen who were to organize the work. The
section which contained Hasselbacher's office was at first directed by Flesch,
who in addition personally handled Jewish matters (CDXXXVII-20). He was
replaced in September 1937 for Jewish matters by Freytag. The latter remained
in this post until June 1938, to be finally replaced by Kurt Lischka
(CDXXXVII-23,25). (14) The SD,
intelligence service of the SS, was created by Heydrich on Himmler's orders in
1931. It developed a very considerable activity before Hitler's rise to power
(intelligence concerning political parties,
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The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania
© 1978, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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