Judgment in the Trial of Adolf Eichmann 

[Part 9]

The Deportation of the Jews of Stettin

75. At the same time, the Jews of Stettin were being deported to the Generalgouvernement area.  This action (as well as similar action against the Jews of Schneidemuehl) was out of the ordinary at this stage in the development of affairs, because here, for the first time, Jews of German nationality were deported from the Old Reich, and not from territories in the East recently annexed to the Reich.  The first indication of this we find in the minutes of the above meeting dated 30 January 1940 (exhibit T/166), at which Heydrich stated that "in the middle of February, one thousand Jews will be deported from Stettin, since their apartments are urgently required for reasons connected with the war economy, and they, too, will be sent to the Generalgouvernement area (see p.7 supra). 

The deportation from Stettin was carried out during one single night in the early hours of 13 February 1940.  The Jews were taken from their apartments.  They were allowed to take one suitcase with them.  Every head of family had to sign a waiver in respect of all his property.  They were not allowed to take with them provisions for the journey.  One thousand three hundred persons were evacuated; amongst them children and old people.  If anyone was unable to walk, he was taken to the railway station on a stretcher.  Twenty-four hours later, the first corpses were removed from the train.  The deportees were taken to Lublin, and from there all of them - men, women and children - were taken on foot to villages at a distance of 26-30 kilometres from the town.  The temperature was 22 degrees below zero and the snow was deep.  During this march, which lasted fourteen hours, seventy-two persons fell by the way, and most of these froze to death.  In one of the reports from which these details are taken (T/666; T/669), we read about a woman who was found frozen on the road with a child of three in her arms, whom she had tried to protect with her clothes from the cold.  Most of those who reached the three villages were housed in stables and farms, under terrible hygienic conditions.  By 12 March 1940, 230 people of this transport had died.  When the Accused was questioned in connection with the reports on this deportation, this was his reaction: 

"There is a grain of truth in this information.  The reason is the exaggerated speed with which these deportations and expulsions were ordered to be carried out.  Only fifteen days elapsed from the day the order was given until the expulsion was carried out."  (Session 76, Vol. IV, pp. xxxx116-120.) 

The deportation of Jews from the Reich to the Generalgouvernement area again aroused resistance from Frank.  In March 1940, Goering responded to his pressure and prohibited further deportations without his and Frank's consent (T/383).  But in a later document (T/384), we see that at the beginning of 1941, and until March 1941, once again Jews were deported from Eastern Territories annexed to the Reich, and also from Vienna, to the Generalgouvernement area.  The Accused bears responsibility for all the deportations to the Generalgouvernement area described above, because of the role of "central direction" which he played in this matter, in accordance with the appointment he had received from Heydrich.  When cross-examined by the Attorney General, he finally admits and says, in connection with the Stettin deportation (Session 98, Vol. IV, p.xxxx15): 

"This was divided into a number of parts, this was not one independent matter.  A number of authorities participated.  As far as I was competent to do so, I had to carry this out." 

The Madagascar Plan 

76. This was a plan for the total deportation of the Jews from German-ruled territory, which occupied the Accused considerably sometime later in the year 1940.  The idea of deporting European Jewry to this far-off island and isolating them there was not a brainchild of the Accused.  This idea had already been floating around in the world of anti-Semitic thought for a number of years.  Already when he was in Department II 112 at the SD Head Office, in March 1938, the Accused was commissioned to examine the possibilities latent in this idea (T/111).  When the armistice was signed with France, the idea received a new impetus towards realization, for here the chance offered itself of obtaining Madagascar for this purpose from the French in the peace treaty which was to be drawn up.  Until this idea was shelved, the Madagascar Plan was sometimes referred to by the German rulers as the "Final Solution" of the Jewish Question. 

In a memorandum written by Luther of the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in August 1942 (T/196), we read that the first initiative for the preparation of the actual plan originated there in July 1940.  Luther continues (p. 2, supra): 

"The Madagascar Plan was received by the Head Office for Reich Security with enthusiasm.  The Foreign Ministry is of the opinion that this is the only office capable, because of its experience and technically, to implement the evacuation of the Jews on a large scale and to guarantee control of the evacuees.  Therefore, the competent department worked out a detailed plan for the evacuation of the Jews to Madagascar and their settlement there, and the plan was approved by the Reichsfuhrer-SS" 

The "competent department" mentioned here was that of the Accused.  His assistant, Dannecker, worked out, together with him, the detailed plan which is before us (T/174).  In his Statement, T/37, and in his testimony before us, the Accused described the plan in rosy colours, as if the main purpose was only to put "solid ground under the feet of the Jews," by the setting up of a state of their own.  This, he claimed, was his own aspiration no less than that of the Jews themselves, and for its fulfilment he spared himself no trouble, until he finally succeeded in obtaining the consent of all the authorities concerned to the implementation of the plan.  Had the plan materialized, everything would have been in perfect order to the satisfaction of the Germans and the Jews; hence, his great disappointment when a change in political circumstances caused the plan to be shelved. 

Here, too, the Accused's version is far from the truth.  Of course, even deportation to Madagascar would have been preferable to the physical extermination which later befell European Jewry.  But here again, the Madagascar Plan must be viewed in terms of the pre-extermination period.  It is sufficient to glance through the details of the written plan, in order to discover its true significance: The deportation of four million Jews - the whole of Jewry at that time under the rule of the Hitler regime - within four years into exile, and their complete isolation from the outer world.  It is stated there explicitly that organizing Jews as an independent state is out of the question, but that this would be a "police state," supervised by the RSHA (ibid., p. 5).  A Council of Jewish Elders would be set up, attached to the German Resettlement Head Office, and would have to fulfil orders given to it, "because this system of work proved to be the most efficient in the operation of the Central Offices for Jewish Emigration, and shifts most of the work on to the Jews themselves" (p. 12).  Apparently, economic means of livelihood for millions of Jews in their new place of residence did not worry the authors of the plan particularly.  They had in mind employing them for many years on public works, such as the draining of swamps and building roads for communication - that is to say, on forced labour under the supervision of the German masters of the island.  Moreover, the control authorities would not have to worry about the health of these forced labourers in the difficult climate of the island, for "the Jewish authorities must see to the correct posting of all the doctors they have, in the various districts, in order to ensure hygienic conditions to a certain extent (einigermassen) (p. 13).  As for finance, this would in part come from the property of the Jews themselves, which would be confiscated when they left their places of residence and would be transferred to "a central settlement fund," while the rest would be raised by imposing a tax on Jewish citizens in the countries of the Western Powers, payment to be guaranteed by the peace treaty (p. 13).  The Jews of the West would also pay for the transport of the deportees to Madagascar, as "reparations for damage caused to the German nation by the Jews economically and otherwise as a result of the Versailles Treaty" (p. 11). 

This was the RSHA version of the "Jewish State" plan, the very same plan which the Accused dared mention in one and the same breath with the name of Herzl from whom, so he says, he drew his inspiration.  In fact, there is a direct line leading from the forced emigration organized by the Central Office for Emigration set up by the Accused, via the Nisko Plan, to this plan for isolating the Jews in a slave state - a line of increasing severity. 

The Expulsion of the Jews of Baden 

77. In October 1940, another expulsion took place, this time westward.  All the Jews of the district of Baden and the Saar Palatinate (Saarpfalz), 7,450 in all, were deported to the area of unoccupied France.  This was done in accordance with the proposal of the governors of those districts.  In the report found in the files of the German Foreign Ministry (T/674), we read of the customary cruelty in carrying out this deportation.  All Jews, young and old (the report mentions a man 92 years old), were taken out of their beds at dawn.  They were given a respite of a quarter of an hour to two hours to get ready for the journey.  They had to leave all their belongings behind, and this is how they were taken to France.  They were put into the Gurs camp at the foot of the Pyrenees under the worst possible conditions (Session 41, Vol. II, p. 699). 

The Accused's Section IVD4 participated in the execution of this deportation, too, by organizing the transport of the Jews in sealed carriages.  Moreover, the Accused personally played an additional part at a critical moment, when the French had to be convinced that they should allow the entry of the trains into the unoccupied area of France - something which they were not obliged to permit by the terms of the armistice (T/37, p. 143; T/637).  In his testimony, he told the Court how he succeeded in convincing the French station master at the border railway station that these were German military transports, and thus succeeded in casting the Jews across the border (Session 77, Vol. IV, pp. xxxx26-30). 

The Organization Plan for Jewish Affairs in the RSHA 

78. In March 1941, the organization chart in the RSHA was revised, and the Accused was put in charge of Section IVB4, which was to deal with "Jewish affairs, evacuation affairs" (T/99).  In November 1941, he reached the rank of Obersturmbannfuhrer (Lieutenant Colonel) in the SS.  

Here, we must review briefly the organizational side of the handling of Jewish affairs within the framework of the RSHA, as it developed in the course of time.  At the beginning, there were two aspects to this, intelligence work and executive measures.  At the SD Head Office, intelligence work in connection with Jewish affairs was in the hands of the Accused's old Department II 112, and with the setting up of the RSHA, this Department was brought within the new framework as Section IIB2.  Additional duties of intelligence against Jews abroad were carried out by Section VIH2 of the RSHA, "Judaism and Anti-Semitism", headed by Hagen, the Accused's former colleague (T/99, pp. 24, 26 and T/647).  As mentioned above, in December 1939, the Accused was transferred to Department IV of the RSHA, that is the Gestapo, which was the office which occupied itself with executive police duties (T/170).  Thus, the gradual transformation of the Accused from an intelligence officer to an executive officer, which began with his activities at the Central Office for Emigration in Vienna, was completed.  

In January 1940, his department was absorbed within the regular framework of Department IV as Section IVD4, "Emigration and Evacuation" (T/647).  Jewish affairs, as such were still handled in another section of Department IV, namely Section IVD3, headed by a man named Schroeder.  Of course, this does not detract from the fact that during this period the Accused was already dealing with Jewish matters within the framework of his own Section, "Emigration and Evacuation."  As already mentioned, in March 1941 Jewish affairs as such were also specifically handed over to him within the framework of Section IVB4, in addition to his previous task of "evacuations."  In this same organization chart (T/99), Jewish affairs appear also in Department VII - a new department set up in the meantime for the "Research and Evaluation of Foreign Ideologies," - in other words, intelligence matters, in Section VIIBi, "Freemasons and Jews."  No Referent was appointed to this Section (p. 22, supra).  Therefore, from now on, the Accused's Section dealt centrally with all matters in the RSHA connected with operations against Jews.  

An additional stage in the development of these matters we see in the organization chart dated 1 October 1943 (T/104).  Here, the Accused, as head of Section IVB4, also took over matters concerning "confiscation of property of persons hostile to the people and the state, and the cancellation of German nationality," which was previously within the jurisdiction of Section IIA5 (T/99, p. 8).  This change-over was dictated by the circumstances, since confiscation of property and cancellation of nationality mainly affected the Jews.  The intelligence side was now represented by Section VIIB2, "Judaism," headed by one Ballensiefen (see exhibit T/104 in extenso, which appears in vol. 38 of the Nuremberg Documents, German edition, at p. 60 et seq.). 

In the last stage, in 1944, the Accused's Section was given a new designation, IVA4 (T/55 (14), evidence of Huppenkothen, p. 14).  In the meantime, the handling of church matters was also transferred to his Section (T/37, pp. 261/2). 

The person directly in charge of the Accused from the time he joined Department IV was the head of the department, SS Gruppenfuhrer and Police Lt. General Mueller, but it is not disputed that, in fact, the Accused had direct access to Mueller, thus by-passing the head of the Group. 

THE THIRD STAGE - THE FINAL SOLUTION 

FROM THE INVASION OF RUSSIA TO THE WANNSEE CONFERENCE 

79. On 22 June 1941 Hitler began the war against the Soviet Union.  At the same time, came the transition of the third and final stage in the persecution of the Jews within the area of German influence, namely the stage of total extermination.  From then onwards, all German actions against Jews in their places of abode, and their deportation to the East, were aimed towards extermination, which was by now regarded by all German authorities dealing with Jewish affairs as the Final Solution of the Jewish Question. 

The order for extermination was given by Hitler himself at a time close to the date of the invasion of Russia.  We do not know if the original order was ever put in writing.  At the Wannsee Conference - upon which we shall dwell later - Heydrich speaks of the extermination order in disguised language ("the evacuation of the Jews to the East") as having been confirmed by the Fuehrer as a possible solution instead of emigration (T/186, p. 5).  Also Luther, a Foreign Ministry official, states in a memorandum T/196, quoting Heydrich, that the order for "evacuation to the East" was Hitler's order. 

The first victims of the total extermination were the Jews, who were murdered en masse by shooting by the RSHA Operations Units.  These Units were set up already before the invasion of Russia, and launched upon their murderous activities as soon as the invasion began, in the rear of the advancing German army.  We shall come back later to the activities of these groups (paras. 120-121).  At this stage, we shall first describe the actions taken against the Jews within the Reich itself and within other countries of Europe in the area of German influence, outside Eastern Europe.  In general, no direct extermination actions were committed within those countries and on German soil, but their Jews were rounded up and deported to the East, there to find their death. 

80. The implementation of the "Final Solution," in the sense of total extermination, is to a certain extent connected with the stoppage of emigration of Jews from territories under German influence.  In his Statement T/37, the Accused says (on p. 171): 

"As soon as the war against Russia began, Himmler forbade all emigration, even when opportunities existed for it." (See also the Accused's Memoirs, T/44 at pp. 93, 101.) 

Mr. Max Plaut, in his affidavit, T/665, also puts the date of the prohibition of emigration at the outbreak of war against Russia (p. 4 supra).  In fact, the final order for the cessation of emigration seems to have been given by Himmler only in October 1941 (see T/394; T/395).  All emigration of Jews was prohibited as from that date, except in special, individual cases.  But it is correct that from the outbreak of war with Russia, practical emigration possibilities for Jews from German-influenced territories were limited to such an extent that during the months until October 1941 emigration proceeded only in "a tiny trickle" (see T/683).  From the evidence given by Mrs. Henschel, it appears that the last transport of emigrants from Germany left for Lisbon on 15 October 1941, or one day earlier (Session 37, Vol. II, p. 668). 

Heydrich's Appointment by Goering 

81. We have stressed the connection between the cessation of emigration and the extermination order, because this is important for the understanding of document T/179, which is one of the basic documents in the history of the extermination.  This is Heydrich's letter of appointment from Goering.  In the copy submitted to us, the letter is dated July 1941, without specifying the day, but it is clear from other documents (T/180, T/181) that the date of appointment was 31 July 1941.  And this is the text of the letter: 

"In addition to the task with which you were already charged by an order dated 24.1.39, namely to bring the Jewish problem to a suitable solution, as far as possible, according to prevailing conditions, by emigration or evacuation, I further direct you hereby to make all the necessary organizational, substantive and material preparations for the general solution of the Jewish problem within the area of German influence in Europe. 

"To the extent that the competence of other central authorities be involved in this matter, they should be asked to co-operate.                

"I also order you to supply me shortly with a general proposal in regard to preliminary organizational, substantive and material steps to be taken for the implementation of the desired Final Solution of the Jewish Question"              

  The letter, dated 24 January 1939, is document T/125, mentioned above, wherein Heydrich was appointed to head the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration. 

In the above memorandum by Luther (T/196), Heydrich is quoted as saying that this letter of appointment, too, was given to Heydrich by Goering in accordance with an order from Hitler (supra, p. 5). 

A comparison of the two documents (T/179 and T/125) shows that this time (in document T/179) reference is made to "a general solution of the Jewish question within the area under German influence in Europe" and to "the desired Final Solution of the Jewish Question."  These expressions were missing in the previous document (T/125).  The principal material difference lies in the word "evacuation," which appears in T/179 and does not appear in T/125.  But in T/179, as well, there is no mention of the word extermination.  However, there is no mistaking the true meaning, as the Accused himself confirms in his statement T/37, p. 168.  The date of the letter T/179 (not shown to the Accused at the time) was not known to him, and he ascribed it to a later period.  But he is conversant with its implication, for this is what he says of the letter of appointment: 

"We can attribute it to the period when emigration was no longer possible, and the radical solution began." 

Thus, at the time of this appointment, emigration had ceased to be a practical solution for the removal of masses of Jews, whose numbers had increased in the meantime because of new conquests in the East.  Accordingly, the stress in the letter of appointment is on "evacuation," which means extermination. 

The Jewish Badge 

82. To facilitate the activities of isolating the Jews and their concentration for deportation, they were obliged to wear the Jewish Badge.  On 21 August 194,1 Rademacher, the Referent on Jewish affairs at the time in the German Foreign Ministry, prepared a memorandum intended for the UnderÞSecretary of State, Luther, for the purpose of receiving a decision from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ribbentrop.  It read (T/682):                                      

  "Sturmbannfuehrer Eichmann of the RSHA telephoned me and informed me confidentially that he (Heydrich) received a cable from the Fuehrer's headquarters, according to which the Fuehrer agreed that the Jews in Germany bear a distinguishing mark.  Eichmann asked my opinion as to whether this could be applied to Jews of foreign nationality..."

Already on 1 September 1941 (T/635) a "Police Regulation in Regard to the Marking of Jews," signed by Heydrich on behalf of the Minister of the Interior of the Reich, was published in the German Official Gazette.  This Regulation obliged Jews of German nationality within the Reich and the Protectorate to carry the Jewish Badge (a star bearing the word "Jew") from the age of six, and forbade them to leave the district of their residence without special permit. 

To implement this "Police Regulation," two urgent letters (T/209) were dispatched from the Accused's office on 15 September 1941 for action or information, to a considerable number of central and local institutions. 

Paragraph 4 of the original Regulation (T/635) provided: 

"(a) Anyone wilfully or negligently acting against the prohibition contained in paragraphs 1 and 2 will be punished by a fine of up to 150 Reichsmark or by arrest of up to six weeks. 

"(b) This does not exclude far-reaching police security measures or regulations according to which a more severe punishment may be inflicted." 

On the other hand, two letters, included in exhibit T/209, mention in connection with "offences" regarding the wearing of the Jewish Badge, "wilful violation of the Regulation or of the executive orders...are punishable on principle by protective custody" - that is, by deporting the Jew to a concentration camp.  The instructions, which were phrased in extreme language according to T/209, were passed on to their recipients in secret, with special emphasis that they were not to be made public. 

The First Expulsions within the Framework of the "Final Solution" 

83. On 10 October 1941 a meeting held in Prague was attended, amongst others, by Heydrich (to whom in the meantime had been entrusted - in addition to his tasks as head of the Head Office for Reich Security - effective rule in the Protectorate)  and the Accused.  A memorandum of this meeting has been preserved and was submitted to us as exhibit T/294. 

At this meeting, a programme was set for future action for the solution of the Jewish question in the Protectorate and the territory of the Old Reich, but measures already taken were also mentioned.  The main points may be summed up thus: 

(a) The date for the beginning of evacuation had already been set earlier for 15 October 1941. 

(b) Reference was made to difficulties with the authorities in Lodz (the Lodz Ghetto was intended to be one of the main places of reception for deported Jews). 

(c) 50,000 Jews were to be sent to Minsk and Riga. 

(d) "SS Brigadefuehrer Nebe and Rasch could also receive Jews in camps for Communist detainees within the operations areas.  This had already begun, as was reported by SS Sturmbannfuehrer Eichmann." 

In connection with paragraphs (c) and (d), we shall see presently that Riga was the centre for Operations Unit A, commanded by Stahlecker, that Nebe commanded Operations Unit B (with Minsk as its centre), and that Rasch was commander of Operations Unit C. 

(e) Terezin (Theresienstadt) was decided upon as the place for the concentration of Jews from the Protectorate, and the memorandum includes many details in connection with the carrying out of the concentration and the administration of the ghetto to be set up there. (We shall devote a separate chapter to this later on.) 

(f) Gypsies were to be transferred to Riga. 

At the end of the memorandum, there is a remark: 

"Since the Fuehrer's wish is that, by the end of the year, the Jews be removed, to the extent possible, from the German area, all pending problems are to be solved immediately.  Even the problem of transportation is not to present difficulties in this matter." 

First, Jews were expelled to Lodz.  On 30 September 1941, Brunner, one of the Accused's assistants, who at the time was in charge of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna, informs Dr. Loewenherz that: 

"because of the need of the Aryan population to change their residences, due to air raids, some of the Jews from the Old Reich, from the Protectorate and Vienna must be removed to Lodz." 

A quota of 5,000 people was fixed.  They were permitted to take with them luggage up to 50 kilogrammes and 100 Reichsmark only.  Thus, from 15 October up to 2 November 1941, 5,002 people were deported (Loewenherz Report, T/154, pp. 35, 36 of the original). 

We have received a series of documents (T/200, dated 9.10.41; T/243, dated 11.10.41; T/222, dated 19.10.41, and T/244 - the date is not clear, but appears to be 22.10.41), all of which show that as from 15 October 1941, 20,000 Jews, including 5,000 Jews of Vienna, were deported from the Reich to the Lodz Ghetto, and also 5,000 Gypsies.  As far as we know, these were the first expulsions from Reich territory after Hitler issued the order for the Final Solution. 

The Loewenherz Report (T/154) also describes the deportations to Riga and Minsk.  Dr. Loewenherz received information on this from Brunner on 27.10.41, and on 25.11.41, 28.11.41 and 2.12.41, 3,000 Jews were deported from Vienna to Riga and Minsk. 

Amongst the deportees from Vienna to Riga was the witness Liona Neumann (Session 30, Vol. I, p. 508), who was deported in January 1942. 

84. The documents submitted to us illustrate the method of carrying out these expulsions to Riga and Minsk, as follows: 

(a) T/714, on 24 October 1941, the head of the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) in Berlin (General Daluege) writes to the commanders of the Order Police of the Reich in Vienna, Prague and Riga that, during the period 1 November 1941 - 4 December 1941, the Security Police will expel 50,000 Jews from the Old Reich, from Austria and the Protectorate, to the East to the vicinity of Riga and Minsk, and continues: 

"According to what has been agreed with the head of the SD and the Security Police, the Order Police undertakes to guard the deportation trains by posting an escort...details should be worked out in co-operation with the local SD authorities.  The duty of the escorting guards ends with the handing over of the transports in due order at the places of destination to the competent authorities of the Security Police ..."

(b) Document T/720 shows, by way of example, how the plan was carried out at the local level.  On 11 November 1941, the Nuremberg Gestapo office sends to its affiliated authorities organizational instructions for the evacuation of Jews on 29 November 1941.  The instructions were given in reliance upon a decree by the Reichsfuehrer-SS (Himmler) dated 31 October 1941, bearing the reference number of the Accused's Section IVB4, and therefore issued from this Section.  The directives were styled with the accuracy of a military operation order and allocated the various duties - who would receive the Jews arriving from other places; who would transfer them to the place of concentration; who would guard them until they were loaded on to the freight cars of the train.  Nor was the robbery of the evacuees' property forgotten.  This, too, would be carried out according to plan.  On a certain date, Jews were to be informed that, retroactively as from 15 October 1941, all their property was considered as confiscated by the State Police, and that they were to draw up a full list of their property for this purpose. On the day of expulsion, their apartments were to be closed and sealed by the police.  A search was to be carried out upon the persons of the evacuees, and every object of value was to be taken away, except a watch and a wedding ring.

(c) Document T/719 includes three letters dated 27.11.41, 3.12.41 and 11.12.41 sent from the Accused's office and signed by Heydrich and Mueller.  They contain instructions to prevent the irregular transfer of property by Jewish evacuees.

(d) In document T/302 (December 1941), the local authority in Duesseldorf informs the Accused's Section - for the attention of the Accused or his deputy, and the commander of the SD and Security Police, Operations Unit A in Riga, that on 11 December 1941 a train with 1,007 Jews left the Duesseldorf railway station for Riga.  Handwritten notes are attached to this document which cannot fail to stir the heart of the reader.  They show the composition of the transport, according to age, sex and profession.  1,007 personal tragedies found their expression in lines - one line per man, woman or child, four straight lines cut by one slanting line, until the full number is reached.  The document is continued in exhibit T/303 dated 26 December 1941, in which Police Captain Salitter, the commander of this transport, reports on the journey, up to the handing over of the unheated train at its destination in a temperature of 12 degrees below zero on the night of 13-14 December.  According to the report, there were in Riga previously 35,000 Jews who had been transferred to the ghetto, and he continues:

"Now, from what I have heard, there are in this ghetto only 2,500 male Jews exploited as manpower.  The other Jews were directed to some other suitable occupation (Verwendung) or shot to death by the Latvians."

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