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The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania
© 1978, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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solution" was to be rapidly and brutally led to the
very end, the Jewish masses transported to special camps in the East were,
according to criteria which remained inexpressed [sic], either kept in these
regions to work or transported farther east to be submitted to a treatment the
nature of which was not at all mentioned. A close examination of the text
reveals that an alternative defining the fate of the deported Jews had already
been presented in a preceding paragraph: the Jews were either to be put out
(Verdraengung) or eliminated (Ausscheidung). In addition, the principle had
already been established in the ordinance that the exclusion of the Jews from
the new "economic space" of the German people, that is to say, the "European
economic space," was to be total (voellige Verdraengung). In these conditions,
the deportation "still farther east" for a purpose apparently inexpressable
[sic], but which was to be attained by means of an "unmitigated harshness,"
could only appear in the sense of the disappearance of that part of the
deportees brought "still farther east." The "unmitigated harshness" was
applicable for this part as well as for the other, kept only for work; and to
both was applied the imperative of the elimination of the Jews from the
"European economic space."
The plan of the "final solution" exposed by
Heydrich at the Conference of Wannsee was faithfully reproduced in these
directives. There were the two stations of deportation: first of all, "in the
East" for work, after "farther east." On January 20, 1942, Heydrich evoked
"transit ghettos" for the first station; the ordinance spoke of "big camps." As
for the final liquidation intimated by Heydrich, there is no evocation of it
but only an enigmatic silence as to the fate of those deported "far to the
East." Thus the ordinance proposed nothing to combat the sordid news spread by
those on leave from the East who told what they had seen. It added, however,
that a part of the deportees were kept for work. But the German who wondered
about those brought farther away was to learn nothing directly. He reflected,
however, on the "unmitigated harshness" of the treatment of the Jews and the
racial purification of the "European economic space" that the ordinance forbade
to evoke. These indications were disquieting for the Jews who, despite their
deportation "far to the East," remained in this space and concerning whose fate
the ordinance was silent. But a person who was not informed must have probably
hesitated to draw the conclusion that these Jews were eliminated by their
physical liquidation. But in this case it was not a question of people not
informed. The ordinance spoke of the information to be given to people already
troubled by the stories of what had been seen in the East. The information
given to them by members of the Party could only confirm their suspicions of a
collective massacre. The ordinance of October 1942, indicated that the
conviction was spreading in Germany that the deportation of the Jews to the
East had the "final solution" by extermination for its objective. But it was
not said for as much that the technique of this operation was known by many
people.
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The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania
© 1978, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 67 |
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