Judgment in the Trial of Adolf Eichmann 

[Part 8]

The Accused's activities in the Central Offices for Emigration in Vienna, Prague and Berlin. 

63. After the annexation of Austria to the Reich in March 1938, the Accused was sent to Vienna to deal with the forced emigration of Austrian Jewry.  It was his duty to administer the Central Office for the Emigration of Austrian Jews.  His superior there was the Security Police and SD Commander, Stahlecker (later one of the Operations Units' commanders).  At this point, the Accused ceased, in effect, to be engaged in intelligence work, although from the personnel point of view he always remained an SD man (T/37, 1544 et seq., Session 90, Vol. IV, p.xxxx14), and he began to deal with executive measures.  This work gave the Accused an opportunity to carry out his theories in practice, at an increased pace.  He began to display new qualities.  He now began to reveal his organizational skill, by simplifying the bureaucratic procedures connected with the emigration of Jews from the country, through the device of assembling representatives of the various authorities concerned under one roof.  As for his activities and his appearance before the Jews during that period, the Accused sought in his Statement before Superintendent Less and his evidence in Court, to describe them as an idyll of fair co-operation between him and the leaders of the Jewish Community, with both sides striving towards a common aim in a spirit of mutual understanding.  He also takes credit for the release of these Jewish leaders after they had been arrested by the Gestapo, and the re-opening of the Jewish institutions which had been closed down by the Gestapo (T/37, p. 97 et seq.; Session 90, Vol. IV, p.xxxx8 et seq.).  He does, however, admit that the general line was that of forced emigration, but asserts that he was not responsible for this line, which was determined from above. 

This is the claim made by the Accused.  But witnesses and the documents speak otherwise and contradict his version.  Dr. Meyer, whose testimony we have just mentioned, saw the Accused again during his Viennese period, when the leaders of German Jewry were summoned to Vienna in February 1939, in order to become acquainted there with the methods of operation of the Central Office for Emigration, with the view to copying them in Berlin.  And this is how the witness describes that meeting (Session 17, Vol. I, p. 268): 

"... I immediately told my friends that I do not know whether I am meeting the same man.  So terrible was the change ...in the whole approach...previously I thought that here was a minor official, what they call a `clerkÞbureaucrat' who carries out duties, writes reports, and so on.  Now, here was this man with the attitude of an autocrat controlling life and death; he received us impudently and crudely..." 

And this is the impression gained by the witness after seeing the arrangements at the Vienna Central Office for Emigration and speaking with the Jewish leaders there (Session 17, Vol. I, p. 269): 

"This is like an automatic factory, like a flour mill connected to some bakery.  You put in at the one end a Jew who still has capital and has, let us say, a factory or a shop or an account in a bank, and he passes through the entire building from counter to counter, from office to office, and he comes out at the other end without any money, without any rights, with only a passport in which is written: "You must leave the country within a two weeks, if you fail to do so,  you will go to a concentration camp!" 

Another German Jewish communal worker, Mr. Aaron Lindenstrauss, confirms this statement in a description of the same visit to Vienna (Session 15, Vol. I, p. 234): 

"...I still remember that these officials of the Jewish Community and the Palestine Office seemed to me like disciplined soldiers who stood to attention all the time and dared not utter a word..." 

Further confirmation of this is found in a letter written by the Accused, when he was still in the early stages of his work in Vienna, to his friend and colleague, Hagen (T/130): 

"At any rate, I keep these gentlemen here on the run, this you can believe me..." 

And again: 

"I have them completely in my hands, they dare not take a  step without first consulting me.  That is as it should be, because then much better control is possible." 

These were not just empty words, for in fact this is how the affairs of the Jewish institutions were administered, as evidenced by the memoranda prepared by Dr. Loewenherz, Chairman of the Jewish Community in Vienna, and the chief representative of Austrian Jewry in negotiations with the Accused (T/148, T/152, etc.). 

64. The Jews of Austria lived in an atmosphere of terror ever since the entry of Hitler into Vienna.  Mr. Fleischmann, one of the Jewish leaders in Vienna at the time, tells us how he was compelled by the SS to scrub the pavement (Session 17, Vol. I, p. 260). 

But the Accused did not content himself with the general feeling of fear for the advancement of his aim - to "purge" Vienna and the whole of Austria of Jews in the shortest possible time.  He added threats of his own in order to increase the pressure on the leaders who came to him on behalf of the Jewish Community.  It has not been proved to us that he took part in organizing the Crystal Night pogroms, on the eve of 10 November 1938, in Austria (behind which were the Gestapo and the SD), though the very same night information about the events was transmitted to him through service channels (T/138, T/140, N/34).  But it is a fact that he exploited for his own purposes the panic which reigned amongst the Jews because of these events, in order to speed up the process of forced emigration.  Mr. Fleischmann described the speech made by the Accused to the Jews who       crowded into the Palestine Office in Vienna on the day following Crystal Night: 

"He (the Accused) spoke about the unsatisfactory rate of the disappearance of Jews from Vienna.  He said that entirely different ways and measures would have to be used, and that he would see to that."  (Session 17, Vol. I, p. 262.)           And so we read in the general report describing the activities of Dr. Loewenherz about a conversation which took place in March 1939, when the Accused said to him, "that the number of applications for emigration had gone down considerably in the last few days, and if the number of applications did not go up within two days, he would propose the adoption of measures which could take on the same form for everyone as in November 1938" (T/154, p. 9; Session 90, Vol. IV, pp.xxxx15, 16; with regard to the authentication of the report, see Mr. Zidon's affidavit, T/37 (233)).  A similar threat was uttered by the Accused to the representatives of German Jewry after their visit to Vienna, when it displeased him that, while there, they contacted the Jews of Vienna of their own accord." 

"If this happens again, you will go to the Konzertlager" (instead of Konzentrationslager - concentration camp). (Session 15, Vol. I, p. 228.) 

The Accused also takes credit for having organized the financial arrangements connected with Jewish emigration by means of the Central Office for Emigration.  But the outcome of all these arrangements was that a Jew who was forced to emigrate to another country was allowed to take with him, in addition to his personal effects, only the sum of money which was needed to obtain the entry permit to the country to which he was immigrating (Vorzeigegeld).  The rest of his property he had to make over to the German Reich (Session 9, Vol. I, p. 126).  To enable those without means to emigrate, people of means were compelled to pay an extremely exaggerated rate of exchange for this sum of money, and this was transferred to the "Emigration Fund," set up at the Emigration Centre (T/37, p. 104; T/135).  This fund was also supported by gifts in foreign exchange obtained by Austrian Jews from their brethren abroad, with the Accused's encouragement, in order to make mass emigration possible (T/152, para. 3).  (Of course, the reference here is to emigration during the first stage, i.e., overseas).  The communal property of the Jewish organizations in Austria was also concentrated in the hands of the state (T/147).  The Accused's absolute control over the funds which were gathered in this way becomes apparent from Dr. Loewenherz' memoranda and from his final report (T/154). 

65. It is true that the Accused set the Jewish organizations in Vienna functioning again after they had been closed down by the Gestapo immediately after the annexation of Austria to the Reich.  But this was nothing else but the beginning of the system of "indirect rule" which the Accused developed so cleverly - a system which saved the German ruler manpower and turned the Jewish organizations against their will into an instrument in the hands of the ruler, for the realization of his sinister plans which increased in harshness from stage to stage. 

Through the pressure of the terror exercised against the Jews, the Accused succeeded in bringing about the emigration of a considerable part of Austrian Jewry (close to 150,000 persons - T/185, p. 4).  At a meeting presided over by Goering immediately after the Crystal Night, Heydrich boasts of the activity of the Central Office for Emigration in Vienna which had succeeded until then in bringing about the emigration of 50,000 Austrian Jews (T/114, pp. 19-22).  At the same meeting it was agreed to set up a similar office also in the area of the Old Reich.  The practical result was an instruction from Goering to the Minister of the Interior, dated 24 January 1939, to set up the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration (T/125).  The directives contained in this letter show that the experience gained in the Central Office for Emigration in Vienna under the Accused's direction was now used for the setting up of this central authority.  Its administration was entrusted by Goering to Heydrich himself as head of the Security Police.  Heydrich, in turn, put Mueller, the head of the Gestapo, in charge of the Central Office (T/116). 

The Accused argues that at that period he was not active in this central authority.  But Mr. Cohn and Mr. Meyer gave evidence that already in March 1939 the Accused visited Berlin and told the Jewish representatives there, after their visit to Vienna, that in Berlin, too, a Central Office for Emigration would be set up along the lines of the Central Office in Vienna, and he demanded of them, in the harsh style which he had developed in the meantime, that they co-operate with this Central Office (Session 15, Vol. I, pp. 228-230; Session 17, Vol. I, p. 268).  It appears, therefore, that the Accused, as the emigration expert, already began to deal, in fact, with matters belonging to the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Berlin a short time after its establishment, though it is possible that in the spring of 1939 he had not yet been formally appointed to direct the affairs of this Centre.  From the Chart N/2, which he himself drew up, it appears that he received the formal appointment at the beginning of October 1939 (see also T/43, p. 5).        66. In the meantime, Hitler established his domination over Bohemia and Moravia - first, in the autumn of 1938, over Sudetenland, and later, in March 1939, also over the interior of the country - and the Protectorate was set up there.  Thus the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia also were caught in the trap.  The Accused moved from Vienna to Prague, together with his superior, Stahlecker, and was given the task of setting up there also a Central Office for Emigration like the one in Vienna.  We heard from Dr. Paul Meretz, who was then chairman of the Czech Zionist Organization, about the activity of this Central Office in the short period from its establishment to the outbreak of war.  Here, too, great pressure was exercised upon the Jews to emigrate to other countries, legally or illegally.  After paying taxes (the `flight' tax and the `Jewish' tax), the emigrant had also to pay the full value of the movable goods which he was allowed to take with him.  He also had to hand over his apartment and was compelled to give a Power of Attorney to a bank in respect of the rest of his property, so that he left the country bare of all his property, with the exception of baggage weighing a few kilogrammes (Session 19, Vol. I, p. 294-295, and see also the evidence of Mrs. Walli Zimet, supra, p. 297). 

67. After the outbreak of war, in the autumn of 1939, the Accused was recalled to Berlin.  In the meantime he had risen to the rank of Hauptsturmfuehrer (Captain).  To conclude our survey of this period, of the setting-up of the Central Offices for Emigration, we quote from personnel reports about the Accused - first from one of the reports contained in exhibit T/55 (3): 

"Special qualities and abilities: to conduct negotiations, to speak, to organize. 

"...An energetic and impulsive man, with great talents in the administration of his area of activity...a recognized expert in his field." 

And from another, later, report, signed by the head of the Personnel Department in the RSHA (contained in exhibit T/55 (12)), in which he proposes that the Accused be promoted: 

"on the basis of the exceptionally fine achievements of Eichmann, who had already distinguished himself by purging the Ostmark (Austria) of Jews, when he was in charge of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration.  Thanks to Eichmann's work, tremendous assets were secured for the German Reich.  Similarly, Eichmann's work was excellent in the Protectorate, where he displayed striking initiative and the requisite stubbornness." 

If we translate these words of praise into ordinary language, we can agree, on the basis of the evidence before us, that the Accused played a major role in forcing the Jews to emigrate, especially from Austria and the Protectorate area, while robbing them of their private property and that of their institutions.  These Jews, in tens of thousands, were thus saved a much more bitter fate, but the Attorney General is right in emphasizing that it was not in order to rescue them that the Accused carried out his work, but because at that time he, too, did not yet know what fate was in store for those who did not manage to escape in time. 

Thus the Accused returned to Berlin, crowned with success in the eyes of his superiors, and especially of his commander, Heydrich.  It is not surprising, therefore, that from then on central responsibilities were placed upon him in regard to the battle against the opponent - Jewry. 

THE SECOND STAGE

FROM THE OUTBREAK OF THE WORLD WAR TO MID-1941 

68. When war broke out in early September 1939, and Poland was immediately divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, persecution of the Jews reached a new stage which was continued until Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941.  At this stage, there are various conflicting attitudes in regard to this matter amongst the German rulers.  It soon became evident that there was no hope of "purging" the German-ruled territory of its Jews by emigration across the seas, after masses of Jews had been added to them in the Eastern Occupied Territories.  This was a period of mass deportations without a uniform aim, except the desire to get rid of the Jews by all means. 

69. In September 1939, Polish Jewry as far as the demarcation line were handed over to the Germans, over two million souls, and the first wave of mass murders and other atrocities was set loose, carried out mainly by the SS Operations Units of the time, who entered Polish towns and villages in the wake of the advancing army.  We heard about these atrocities from the witnesses Ada Lichtmann, Zvi Pachter and others (see also T/358).  This was the first implementation of Hitler's threat in his speech to the Reichstag on 30 January 1939 (T/117): 

"If international financial Jewry, in and outside Europe, should succeed in plunging the nations once again into a world war, then the result will not be a Bolshevized world and thereby a victory for the Jews, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe." 

This trend is confirmed by the testimony of Lahousen, of the German counter-espionage, at the trial of the major war criminals at Nuremberg.  He said there that, already in September 1939, Hitler decided  upon the massacre of Polish Jewry (N/109, N/109a).  The truth seems to be - and the Attorney General did not contend otherwise - that Hitler had already decided to exterminate European Jewry as soon as he laid hands on them, and the decision was already known to a small circle at the head of the regime, but it had not yet been finally crystallized, and the explicit and comprehensive order for its implementation had not yet been given.  This conclusion is confirmed by a minute of a meeting convened by Heydrich on 27 September 1939 and attended by his chief assistants (T/164).  Another document was also submitted to us, addressed to the heads of the Operations Units of the Security Police, in which Heydrich sums up the directives he gave at that meeting (T/165).  Heydrich distinguishes there between "the final aim (requiring longer periods of time)" and "the stages for achieving this final aim (to be carried out within short periods)."  The final aim must be treated as top secret (vide, p. 1).  What this "final aim" meant was not said there.  It is possible that this referred to mass expulsion of the Jews from German-ruled territory.  This is hinted at by the words on page 3 of T/164: "Expulsion [of the Jews] across the border was confirmed by the Fuehrer."  

But there is ground also for another and more far-reaching assumption, viz., that the aim at the time was already the future physical extermination of the Jews.  The Accused supports this latter view in his Statement before Superintendent Less, as follows (T/37, p. 3141; Session 91, Vol. IV, p. xxxx9): 

"...After I read through this, I say to myself today that, according to this, the order for the physical extermination of Jewry was given by or came from Hitler, not near the beginning of the German-Russian War, as I had believed until now, but this basic idea was already rooted in the minds of the higher leaders of the men at the very top at the time these directives were drafted" (this in reference to the above-mentioned directives of Heydrich). 

70. The Accused appears in the list of those present at the consultation held by Heydrich as "SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Eichmann (Central Office for Jewish Emigration)."  The Accused did not deny his presence there in his Statement to Superintendent Less ("I cannot recall that I took part in this consultation.  Of course, there can be no doubt of it, since my name appears there"; p. 3151).  In Court, after he had had time to realize the serious implication of this matter, he tried to exclude himself from this meeting, by denying the correctness of the document, and using the excuse that at the time he had not yet been transferred to Berlin (Session 88, Vol. IV p.xxxx32; Session 91, Vol. IV p.xxxx9).  We do not accept this excuse.  In either case, whether the regular place of residence of the Accused on that day was Berlin or not, he was already handling the affairs of the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration, and his presence at this consultation was natural, even though he held the lowest rank of all the participants. 

The final aim had not yet reached the stage of implementation, and these are the directives which Heydrich announced were to be acted upon within a short time: 

(a) the concentration of the Jews in ghettos in the large cities, "in order to have better control, and later for evacuation" (T/164, p. 4); 

(b) the setting up of Councils of Jewish Elders; 

(c) the deportation of Jews from the Reich to Poland (the area of the Generalgouvernement) on freight trains. 

71.  From amongst these objectives, the Accused was to be charged with a central task of organizing transports from the Reich to Poland, as we shall see presently.  In the meantime, he continued to direct the activities of the Central Office for Emigration in Vienna, Prague and Berlin, through the organization of emigration overseas (T/798 of 19.12.39, section 5).  After the outbreak of war, emigration possibilities became limited.  During the first few months, an opening for emigration still remained via Russia and Japan, and also via Sweden (T/665, p. 4). 

The Nisko Chapter 

72. The first transports dealt with by the Accused were connected with the Nisko Plan, which he himself devised as far back as September 1939, together with Stahlecker, and he supervised its implementation in person.  Nisko is situated on the San river in the Radom district of what was the area of the Generalgouvernement, not far from the border.  The idea of the Accused, according to his Statement, was to set up a kind of Jewish state in the Radom district, after the evacuation of the Poles from that area.  But from the very beginning his intention was not a permanent settlement, but a temporary concentration of the Jews, prior to their deportation to another place.  This is what he notes in exhibit T/43, p. 4: 

"I said: Give me a sufficient subsistence area; then it will be possible to set up an autonomous Jewish pre-state (Judenvorstaat) from which gradual emigration could be carried out." 

and in T/37, p. 124: 

"We said to ourselves...this can be a solution for some time, at least for some time, so that meanwhile there will be no fire under our fingernails." 

It is, therefore, likely that this concentration of Jews near the demarcation line was planned as the first step towards their expulsion across the lines, in accordance with the Fuehrer's order, announced by Heydrich on 21 September 1939, as mentioned above. 

Heydrich supported this plan, and in October 1939 the Accused began to carry it out.  The first transport of 1,000 men was sent from Moravska Ostrava to Nisko, as a sort of pioneer corps intended to prepare the place for those who would follow them.  The witnesses Max Burger (Session 19, Vol. I, p. 299) and Dr. Hugo Kratky (Session 20, Vol. I, p. 309) were with this transport, and from their description it transpires clearly that the talk about a grandiose plan is far removed from the grim reality - the Accused acted with complete disregard for the health and life of the deportees.  They relate that people were brought to a hill open to the four winds, where they were addressed as follows by an officer of the SS: 

"Some seven to eight kilometres from here, across the San, the Fuehrer has promised the Jews a new homeland.  There are no dwellings and no houses; if you carry out the construction you will have a roof over your heads.  There is no water, the wells all around carry disease; cholera, dysentery and typhoid are rampant.  If you start digging and find water, then you will have water." 

From the testimonies of Burger and Dr. Kratky, there is much reason to believe that the speaker was the Accused himself.  In any case, even if the speaker was someone else, this was the spirit that reigned there. 

About a quarter of the number of those transported were expelled on the following morning towards the East, on foot, with the warning that anyone returning would be shot.  Dr. Kratky was one of those.  We heard from him about the misery which he and his friends suffered, as they walked a distance of 120-150 kilometres through the forests, until they reached Lublin, and thence still further towards the East.  Of the fate which befell those who remained in the camp, we heard from Mr. Burger (Session 19, Vol. I, p. 300).  After the camp was set up, additional transports of Jews arrived from Moravska Ostrava and from Vienna.  Some of them were not even permitted to enter the camp, but were driven on immediately, without the luggage they had brought with them.  A transport of one thousand extremely old Jews arrived.  The cold was unusual that winter and touched 40 degrees below zero. 

In the spring of 1940, the whole plan was liquidated, because of the objections of Hans Frank, the Governor General of Poland (Generalgouvernement area), who did not want additional Jews in his territory.  The survivors from amongst the deportees were returned to where they had come from.  Of the one thousand people who started off with Burger and Dr. Kratky from Moravska Ostrava, three hundred returned there.  The others were expelled or escaped across the border, into Russian territory, and most of them were caught there by the Germans after the German-Russian war broke out.  The Accused ordered that those who returned to Vienna from Nisko should be registered in the police records as "returning from vocational training" (Umschichtung) (T/801).   The responsibility for the entire operation, including all the human suffering which went with it, falls directly upon the Accused. 

Deportation from the Warthe District, etc. 

73. On 7 October 1939, Himmler received from Hitler an appointment to a new task, in addition to his other duties.  He was charged with bringing Germans back from abroad and resettling them in place of "parts of the population foreign to the nation, who are a danger to the Reich and to the community of the German people."  In this office, as "Reich Commissioner for the consolidation of the German people," Himmler immediately began expelling the Jews, and part of the Polish population, en masse, from the areas annexed to the Reich in the East (the Warthe District, East Prussia, Upper Eastern Silesia, and Western Prussia (T/206).  The deported Jews were sent to the Generalgouvernement area, between the Vistula and the Bug, and in their stead "people of German origin" (Volksdeutsche) were brought from the Baltic countries and from Volhynia.  This plan for resettlement (Umsiedlung) caused a kind of "organized" migration of peoples, which was conducted with extreme cruelty towards its victims.  

The implementation of the expulsion was entrusted by Himmler to Heydrich's Security Police (N/8, p. 1), and on 21 December 1939 the latter set up a special section in Department IV of the RSHA for the "central handling of Security Police matters connected with the carrying out of evacuation within the Eastern Territory," and appointed the Accused to head this section as "Special Referent" (T/170).  Later, in January 1940, this special section was converted to Section IVD4, and its tasks were "emigration, evacuation" (T/647, see also T/166, p. 1). 

The RSHA drew up a general expulsion plan, to be carried out in stages (N/8, p. 2).  The property of the deportees was, of course, stolen from them for the benefit of the Reich.  For this purpose, Goering set up a special office, and as usual a high-sounding name was given, to cover its real aim: "The Trusteeship Office East" (T/205). 

At a meeting held on 8 January 1940, presided over by the Accused, it is reported by the official in charge in the Generalgouvernement area, that it had happened that people were held in locked carriages for eight days without being permitted to satisfy their physiological needs.  One hundred persons froze to death while being transported (T/171).  In Hans Frank's diary we read (T/253, p. 28) that during that period 

"Freight trains loaded with people rolled daily to the Generalgouvernement, including carriages crammed to the top with dead bodies."

 The Accused contends that such cases happened even before he took over, and that he was appointed to avoid similar "mishaps."  Yet he admits that 

"it is possible that in this or that case, due to local difficulties, further mishaps occurred, but a thorough effort was made to avoid such happenings and the possibility of their recurrence." (Session 98, Vol. IV, pp.xxxx9-10.) 

But this same document in which the cases of freezing to death are reported (T/171) shows that there was, in any case, no radical change in the manner of carrying out deportations, as far as the lack of consideration for human life was concerned. The Accused merely gave directions for the future: 

"...to protect women and children (emphasized in the original) from freezing during severe cold, whilst being transported; women and children are to be loaded into passenger coaches as far as possible, and men into freight cars." 

This, then, was the measure of the Accused's regard for the lives of human beings at the time: Men would go on freezing to death; the freezing to death of women and children was to be avoided as far as possible.  It should be pointed out here that, at a later period, even this last spark left the Accused, and in all directives he gave, there is no longer any mention of any consideration for women and children. 

We shall return later to discuss again the deportation of Poles, which was also dealt with by Section IVD4 as from this period. 

74. The Accused maintains, in respect of this stage as well, the contention which he repeats over and over again later in connection with the deportation at the stage of the Final Solution, namely that he dealt with transport matters only, and that other authorities participated in these deportations.  But here a distinction must be made between expulsion of the Jews and expulsion of the Poles.  Actions against Poles were more complicated; there, for instance, it was necessary to sort out the deportees according to the race to which they belonged, in accordance with the National Socialist race theory.  This sorting out was apparently carried out by Department III of the RSHA, with the assistance of the "Resettlement Centres" (Umwandererzentralen) (T/166, p. 7).  As far as the Jews were concerned, no such problem existed; they were to be seized in their places of residence and taken to the places of deportation.  The Accused admits transporting them, and as far as their seizure is concerned, this was eminently a matter within the province of the local Security Police and SD branches (see for instance, T/1405, at the top of p. 7), and these branches were under the direct supervision of the Accused in his capacity as Special Referent in this matter.

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