The fundamental problem of just about every history book (unless it is a wild conspiracy theory which is not history at all) is that it quickly becomes… well, boring – especially when its topic is not exactly “sexy” in general terms.
Which I can not afford – this book is popular history, not an “academic” one (the latter is boring almost by definition).
Another important consideration is that readers worldwide years ago got accustomed to reading blog posts and social media posts with each post being no more than 2500 words long and telling a complete story.
Consequently, to prevent this book from being boring, I decided to break it down into 100 “blog posts” with each “post” telling a complete story (a separate fact about Wannsee Conference) and all stories together making a coherent, comprehensive narrative of Wannsee Conference – and of the Holocaust.
Due to its “blog post” structure, you can start reading the book pretty much anywhere and still obtain valuable knowledge. However, if you want to get a comprehensive understanding of Wannsee Conference and the Holocaust – and I sincerely hope you do – I strongly suggest that you read it cover to cover – from the beginning to the end.
Wannsee Conference in 100 Facts
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RolandVT
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RolandVT
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Ресторан Сан-Суси
Внешний вид ресторана Сан-Суси. Вилла Марлир - соседний дом справа
Scribo, ergo sum
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RolandVT
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Sources of Information for This Book
This book is popular history, not academic history; besides, so much was written about Wannsee Conference – and the Holocaust – that secondary sources (books, research papers, articles, blog- and social media posts, etc.) contain just about all data and information that I need to mine knowledge on these subjects.
However, I (obviously) used primary sources as well – documents related to Wannsee Conference (and the Holocaust) and related subjects (such as Aktion T4).
However, I (obviously) used primary sources as well – documents related to Wannsee Conference (and the Holocaust) and related subjects (such as Aktion T4).
Scribo, ergo sum
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RolandVT
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RolandVT
- Posts: 18922
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Structure & Logic of This Book
My background is in investment banking (corporate finance), so the book begins with Executive Summary that provides key information on Wannsee Conference and the Holocaust in general. Executive Summary is followed by Timeline that presents key events leading to Wannsee Conference and in its aftermath.
Timeline is followed by five parts/chapters of the book core. The first chapter presents the essence of Wannsee Conference (it was a criminal conspiracy to commit serial mass murder – genocide of Jews under German control) and explains why it was the centerpiece of the whole “Holocaust project” (the “final solution of the Jewish question”) and the Holocaust infrastructure.
The second chapter presents the “road to Wannsee Conference” – a brief description of decisions made and actions taken (prior to this Conference) by Nazi leadership (mostly Hitler, Himmler and Heydrich) to implement the “final solution to the Jewish questions” and why they believe that total extermination of Jews under their (direct or indirect) control was their only option.
The third chapter presents the attendees of the Wannsee Conference and explains their role (and the role of their organizations) in the subsequent “final solution of the Jewish question”.
The fourth chapter is devoted to the conference proper and the fifth chapter presents the key events in the “final solution of the Jewish question” after the Wannsee Conference (and the contribution of each of its attendees to the “Holocaust Project”).
The book will end with Conclusions, Appendices and Bibliography.
Timeline is followed by five parts/chapters of the book core. The first chapter presents the essence of Wannsee Conference (it was a criminal conspiracy to commit serial mass murder – genocide of Jews under German control) and explains why it was the centerpiece of the whole “Holocaust project” (the “final solution of the Jewish question”) and the Holocaust infrastructure.
The second chapter presents the “road to Wannsee Conference” – a brief description of decisions made and actions taken (prior to this Conference) by Nazi leadership (mostly Hitler, Himmler and Heydrich) to implement the “final solution to the Jewish questions” and why they believe that total extermination of Jews under their (direct or indirect) control was their only option.
The third chapter presents the attendees of the Wannsee Conference and explains their role (and the role of their organizations) in the subsequent “final solution of the Jewish question”.
The fourth chapter is devoted to the conference proper and the fifth chapter presents the key events in the “final solution of the Jewish question” after the Wannsee Conference (and the contribution of each of its attendees to the “Holocaust Project”).
The book will end with Conclusions, Appendices and Bibliography.
Scribo, ergo sum
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RolandVT
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Wannsee Protocol
This English text of the original German-language Wannsee protocol is based on the official U.S. government translation prepared for evidence in trials at Nuremberg, as reproduced in John Mendelsohn, ed., The Holocaust: Selected Documents in Eighteen Volumes. Vol. 11: The Wannsee Protocol and a 1944 Report on Auschwitz by the Office of Strategic Services (New York: Garland, 1982), 18-32.
Revisions to the Nuremberg text were made for clarification and correction. This document is in the public domain and may be freely reproduced. In the process of being programmed for the World-Wide Web, its appearance (particularly with regard to tabs, spaces, columns and indentations) was forced to deviate from the original.
—————————————————————————————————-
The Wannsee Conference January 20, 1942
List of Participants
SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich (Chief of the RSHA and Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia), presiding
Dr Josef Bühler (Government of the General Government, Representing Hans Frank) Dr Roland Freisler (Reich Ministry of Justice, State)
SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann (Race and Resettlement Main Office, RuSHA)
SA-Oberführer Dr Gerhard Klopfer (NSDAP Chancellery, Representing Martin Bormann)
Ministerialdirektor Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger (Reich Chancellery, State) SS-Sturmbannführer Dr Rudolf Lange (Commander of the SD for Latvia)
Reichsamtleiter Dr Georg Leibbrandt (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories, State)
Martin Luther (Foreign Office, State)
Gauleiter Dr Alfred Meyer (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories, State)
SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller (Chief of Amt IV (Gestapo), Reich Security Main Office (RSHA))
Erich Neumann (Director, Office of the Four-Year Plan, under Göring)
SS-Oberführer Dr Karl Eberhard Schöngarth (SD, assigned to the General Government) Dr Wilhelm Stuckart (Reich Ministry for the Interior, State)
SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann (Head of Referat IV B4 of the Gestapo), minutes secretary
* * * * * *
Stamp: Top Secret
30 copies 16th copy
Minutes of discussion. I.
The following persons took part in the discussion about the final solution of the Jewish question which took place in Berlin, am Grossen Wannsee No. 56/58 on 20 January 1942.
Gauleiter Dr. Meyer Reich Ministry for the Occupied and Reichsamtleiter Eastern territories
Dr. Leibbrandt Secretary of State
Dr. Stuckart Reich Ministry for the Interior Secretary of State
Neumann Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year Plan
Secretary of State Dr. Freisler Reich Ministry of Justice
Secretary of State Dr. Bühler Office of the Government General
Under Secretary of State Foreign Office Dr. Luther
SS-Oberführer Klopfer Party Chancellery
Ministerialdirektor Kritzinger Reich Chancellery
SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann Race and Settlement Main Office
SS-Gruppenführer Müller Reich Main Security Office
SS-Obersturmbannführer Eichmann
SS-Oberführer Dr. Schöngarth Security Police and SD
Commander of the Security Police and the SD in the Government General
SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Lange Security Police and SD Commander of the Security Police and the SD for the General-District Latvia, as deputy of the Commander of the Security Police and the SD for the Reich Commissariat “Eastland”.
II.
At the beginning of the discussion Chief of the Security Police and of the SD, SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich, reported that the Reich Marshal had appointed him delegate for the preparations for the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe and pointed out that this discussion had been called for the purpose of clarifying fundamental questions.
The wish of the Reich Marshal to have a draft sent to him concerning organizational, factual and material interests in relation to the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe makes necessary an initial common action of all central offices immediately concerned with these questions in order to bring their general activities into line.
The Reichsführer-SS and the Chief of the German Police was entrusted with the official central handling of the final solution of the Jewish question without regard to geographic borders. The Chief of the Security Police and the SD then gave a short report of the struggle which has been carried on thus far against this enemy, the essential points being the following:
a) the expulsion of the Jews from every sphere of life of the German people,
b) the expulsion of the Jews from the living space of the German people.
In carrying out these efforts, an increased and planned acceleration of the emigration of the Jews from Reich territory was started, as the only possible present solution.
By order of the Reich Marshal, a Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration was set up in January 1939 and the Chief of the Security Police and SD was entrusted with the management. Its most important tasks were
a) to make all necessary arrangements for the preparation for an increased emigration of the Jews,
b) to direct the flow of emigration,
c) to speed the procedure of emigration in each individual case.
The aim of all this was to cleanse German living space of Jews in a legal manner.
All the offices realized the drawbacks of such enforced accelerated emigration. For the time being they had, however, tolerated it on account of the lack of other possible solutions of the problem.
The work concerned with emigration was, later on, not only a German problem, but also a problem with which the authorities of the countries to which the flow of emigrants was being directed would have to deal.
Financial difficulties, such as the demand by various foreign governments for increasing sums of money to be presented at the time of the landing, the lack of shipping space, increasing restriction of entry permits, or the cancelling of such, increased extraordinarily the difficulties of emigration.
In spite of these difficulties, 537,000 Jews were sent out of the country between the takeover of power and the deadline of 31 October 1941. Of these approximately 360,000 were in Germany proper on 30 January 1933 approximately 147,000 were in Austria (Ostmark) on 15 March 1939, approximately 30,000 were in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on 15 March 1939.
The Jews themselves, or their Jewish political organizations, financed the emigration. In order to avoid impoverished Jews’ remaining behind, the principle was followed that wealthy Jews have to finance the emigration of poor Jews; this was arranged by imposing a suitable tax, i.e., an emigration tax, which was used for financial arrangements in connection with the emigration of poor Jews and was imposed according to income.
Apart from the necessary Reichsmark exchange, foreign currency had to presented at the time of landing. In order to save foreign exchange held by Germany, the foreign Jewish financial organizations were – with the help of Jewish organizations in Germany – made responsible for arranging an adequate amount of foreign currency. Up to 30 October 1941, these foreign Jews donated a total of around 9,500,000 dollars.
In the meantime, the Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police had prohibited emigration of Jews due to the dangers of an emigration in wartime and due to the possibilities of the East.
III.
Another possible solution of the problem has now taken the place of emigration, i.e., the evacuation of the Jews to the East, provided that the Führer gives the appropriate approval in advance.
These actions are, however, only to be considered provisional, but practical experience is already being collected which is of the greatest importance in relation to the future final solution of the Jewish question.
Approximately 11 million Jews will be involved in the final solution of the European Jewish question, distributed as follows among the individual countries:
Country Number
A. Germany proper 131,800 Austria 43,700
Eastern territories 420,000
General Government 2,284,000
Bialystok 400,000
Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia 74,200
Estonia – free of Jews
Latvia 3,500
Lithuania 34,000
Belgium 43,000
Denmark 5,600
France / occupied territory 165,000 unoccupied territory 700,000
Greece 69,600
Netherlands 160,800
Norway 1,300
B. Bulgaria 48,000
England 330,000
Finland 2,300
Ireland 4,000
Italy including Sardinia 58,000
Albania 200
Croatia 40,000
Portugal 3,000
Rumania including Bessarabia 342,000
Sweden 8,000
Switzerland 18,000
Serbia 10,000
Slovakia 88,000
Spain 6,000
Turkey (European portion) 55,500
Hungary 742,800
USSR 5,000,000
Ukraine 2,994,684
White Russia excluding Bialystok 446,484
Total over 11,000,000
The number of Jews given here for foreign countries includes, however, only those Jews who still adhere to the Jewish faith, since some countries still do not have a definition of the term “Jew” according to racial principles.
The handling of the problem in the individual countries will meet with difficulties due to the attitude and outlook of the people there, especially in Hungary and Rumania. Thus, for example, even today the Jew can buy documents in Rumania that will officially prove his foreign citizenship.
The influence of the Jews in all walks of life in the USSR is well known. Approximately five million Jews live in the European part of the USSR, in the Asian part scarcely 1/4 million.
The breakdown of Jews residing in the European part of the USSR according to trades was approximately as follows:
Agriculture 9.1 %
Urban workers 14.8 %
In trade 20.0 %
Employed by the state 23.4 %
In private occupations such as medical profession, press, theater, etc. 32. 7%
Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes.
The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as the seed of a new Jewish revival (see the experience of history)
In the course of the practical execution of the final solution, Europe will be combed through from west to east. Germany proper, including the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, will have to be handled first due to the housing problem and additional social and political necessities.
The evacuated Jews will first be sent, group by group, to so-called transit ghettos, from which they will be transported to the East.
SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich went on to say that an important prerequisite for the evacuation as such is the exact definition of the persons involved.
It is not intended to evacuate Jews over 65 years old, but to send them to an old-age ghetto – Theresienstadt is being considered for this purpose.
In addition to these age groups – of the approximately 280,000 Jews in Germany proper and Austria on 31 October 1941, approximately 30% are over 65 years old – severely wounded veterans and Jews with war decorations (Iron Cross I) will be accepted in the old-age ghettos. With this expedient solution, in one fell swoop many interventions will be prevented.
The beginning of the individual larger evacuation actions will largely depend on military developments. Regarding the handling of the final solution in those European countries occupied and influenced by us, it was proposed that the appropriate expert of the Foreign Office discuss the matter with the responsible official of the Security Police and SD.
In Slovakia and Croatia, the matter is no longer so difficult, since the most substantial problems in this respect have already been brought near a solution. In Rumania the government has in the meantime also appointed a commissioner for Jewish affairs. In order to settle the question in Hungary, it will soon be necessary to force an adviser for Jewish questions onto the Hungarian government.
With regard to taking up preparations for dealing with the problem in Italy, SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich considers it opportune to contact the chief of police with a view to these problems.
In occupied and unoccupied France, the registration of Jews for evacuation will in all probability proceed without great difficulty.
Under Secretary of State Luther calls attention in this matter to the fact that in some countries, such as the Scandinavian states, difficulties will arise if this problem is dealt with thoroughly and that it will therefore be advisable to defer actions in these countries. Besides, in view of the small numbers of Jews affected, this deferral will not cause any substantial limitation.
The Foreign Office sees no great difficulties for southeast and western Europe.
SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann plans to send an expert to Hungary from the Race and Settlement Main Office for general orientation at the time when the Chief of the Security Police and SD takes up the matter there. It was decided to assign this expert from the Race and Settlement Main Office, who will not work actively, as an assistant to the police attaché.
IV.
In the course of the final solution plans, the Nuremberg Laws should provide a certain foundation, in which a prerequisite for the absolute solution of the problem is also the solution to the problem of mixed marriages and persons of mixed blood.
The Chief of the Security Police and the SD discusses the following points, at first theoretically, in regard to a letter from the chief of the Reich chancellery:
1) Treatment of Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree
Persons of mixed blood of the first degree will, as regards the final solution of the Jewish question, be treated as Jews.
From this treatment the following exceptions will be made:
a) Persons of mixed blood of the first degree married to persons of German blood if their marriage has resulted in children (persons of mixed blood of the second degree). These persons of mixed blood of the second degree are to be treated essentially as Germans.
b) Persons of mixed blood of the first degree, for whom the highest offices of the Party and State have already issued exemption permits in any sphere of life. Each individual case must be examined, and it is not ruled out that the decision may be made to the detriment of the person of mixed blood.
The prerequisite for any exemption must always be the personal merit of the person of mixed blood. (Not the merit of the parent or spouse of German blood.)
Persons of mixed blood of the first degree who are exempted from evacuation will be sterilized in order to prevent any offspring and to eliminate the problem of persons of mixed blood once and for all. Such sterilization will be voluntary. But it is required to remain in the Reich. The sterilized “person of mixed blood” is thereafter free of all restrictions to which he was previously subjected.
2) Treatment of Persons of Mixed Blood of the Second Degree
Persons of mixed blood of the second degree will be treated fundamentally as persons of German blood, with the exception of the following cases, in which the persons of mixed blood of the second degree will be considered as Jews:
a) The person of mixed blood of the second degree was born of a marriage in which both parents are persons of mixed blood.
b) The person of mixed blood of the second degree has a racially especially undesirable appearance that marks him outwardly as a Jew.
c) The person of mixed blood of the second degree has a particularly bad police and political record that shows that he feels and behaves like a Jew.
Also, in these cases exemptions should not be made if the person of mixed blood of the second degree has married a person of German blood.
3) Marriages between Full Jews and Persons of German Blood.
Here it must be decided from case to case whether the Jewish partner will be evacuated or whether, with regard to the effects of such a step on the German relatives, [this mixed marriage] should be sent to an old-age ghetto.
4) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree and Persons of German Blood.
a) Without Children.
If no children have resulted from the marriage, the person of mixed blood of the first degree will be evacuated or sent to an old-age ghetto (same treatment as in the case of marriages between full Jews and persons of German blood, point 3.)
b) With Children.
If children have resulted from the marriage (persons of mixed blood of the second degree), they will, if they are to be treated as Jews, be evacuated or sent to a ghetto along with the parent of mixed blood of the first degree. If these children are to be treated as Germans (regular cases), they are exempted from evacuation as is therefore the parent of mixed blood of the first degree.
5) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree and Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree or Jews.
In these marriages (including the children) all members of the family will be treated as Jews and therefore be evacuated or sent to an old- age ghetto.
6) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree and Persons of Mixed Blood of the Second Degree.
In these marriages both partners will be evacuated or sent to an old- age ghetto without consideration of whether the marriage has produced children, since possible children will as a rule have stronger Jewish blood than the Jewish person of mixed blood of the second degree.
SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann advocates the opinion that sterilization will have to be widely used, since the person of mixed blood who is given the choice whether he will be evacuated or sterilized would rather undergo sterilization.
State Secretary Dr. Stuckart maintains that carrying out in practice of the just mentioned possibilities for solving the problem of mixed marriages and persons of mixed blood will create endless administrative work. In the second place, as the biological facts cannot be disregarded in any case, State Secretary Dr. Stuckart proposed proceeding to forced sterilization.
Furthermore, to simplify the problem of mixed marriages possibilities must be considered with the goal of the legislator saying something like: “These marriages have been dissolved.”
With regard to the issue of the effect of the evacuation of Jews on the economy, State Secretary Neumann stated that Jews who are working in industries vital to the war effort, provided that no replacements are available, cannot be evacuated.
SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich indicated that these Jews would not be evacuated according to the rules he had approved for carrying out the evacuations then underway.
State Secretary Dr. Bühler stated that the General Government would welcome it if the final solution of this problem could be begun in the General Government, since on the one hand transportation does not play such a large role here nor would problems of labor supply hamper this action.
Jews must be removed from the territory of the General Government as quickly as possible, since it is especially here that the Jew as an epidemic carrier represents an extreme danger and on the other hand he is causing permanent chaos in the economic structure of the country through continued black market dealings. Moreover, of the approximately 2 1/2 million Jews concerned, the majority is unfit for work.
State Secretary Dr. Bühler stated further that the solution to the Jewish question in the General Government is the responsibility of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD and that his efforts would be supported by the officials of the General Government. He had only one request, to solve the Jewish question in this area as quickly as possible.
In conclusion the different types of possible solutions were discussed, during which discussion both Gauleiter Dr. Meyer and State Secretary Dr. Bühler took the position that certain preparatory activities for the final solution should be carried out immediately in the territories in question, in which process alarming the populace must be avoided.
The meeting was closed with the request of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD to the participants that they afford him appropriate support during the carrying out of the tasks involved in the solution.
Revisions to the Nuremberg text were made for clarification and correction. This document is in the public domain and may be freely reproduced. In the process of being programmed for the World-Wide Web, its appearance (particularly with regard to tabs, spaces, columns and indentations) was forced to deviate from the original.
—————————————————————————————————-
The Wannsee Conference January 20, 1942
List of Participants
SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich (Chief of the RSHA and Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia), presiding
Dr Josef Bühler (Government of the General Government, Representing Hans Frank) Dr Roland Freisler (Reich Ministry of Justice, State)
SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann (Race and Resettlement Main Office, RuSHA)
SA-Oberführer Dr Gerhard Klopfer (NSDAP Chancellery, Representing Martin Bormann)
Ministerialdirektor Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger (Reich Chancellery, State) SS-Sturmbannführer Dr Rudolf Lange (Commander of the SD for Latvia)
Reichsamtleiter Dr Georg Leibbrandt (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories, State)
Martin Luther (Foreign Office, State)
Gauleiter Dr Alfred Meyer (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories, State)
SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller (Chief of Amt IV (Gestapo), Reich Security Main Office (RSHA))
Erich Neumann (Director, Office of the Four-Year Plan, under Göring)
SS-Oberführer Dr Karl Eberhard Schöngarth (SD, assigned to the General Government) Dr Wilhelm Stuckart (Reich Ministry for the Interior, State)
SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann (Head of Referat IV B4 of the Gestapo), minutes secretary
* * * * * *
Stamp: Top Secret
30 copies 16th copy
Minutes of discussion. I.
The following persons took part in the discussion about the final solution of the Jewish question which took place in Berlin, am Grossen Wannsee No. 56/58 on 20 January 1942.
Gauleiter Dr. Meyer Reich Ministry for the Occupied and Reichsamtleiter Eastern territories
Dr. Leibbrandt Secretary of State
Dr. Stuckart Reich Ministry for the Interior Secretary of State
Neumann Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year Plan
Secretary of State Dr. Freisler Reich Ministry of Justice
Secretary of State Dr. Bühler Office of the Government General
Under Secretary of State Foreign Office Dr. Luther
SS-Oberführer Klopfer Party Chancellery
Ministerialdirektor Kritzinger Reich Chancellery
SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann Race and Settlement Main Office
SS-Gruppenführer Müller Reich Main Security Office
SS-Obersturmbannführer Eichmann
SS-Oberführer Dr. Schöngarth Security Police and SD
Commander of the Security Police and the SD in the Government General
SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Lange Security Police and SD Commander of the Security Police and the SD for the General-District Latvia, as deputy of the Commander of the Security Police and the SD for the Reich Commissariat “Eastland”.
II.
At the beginning of the discussion Chief of the Security Police and of the SD, SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich, reported that the Reich Marshal had appointed him delegate for the preparations for the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe and pointed out that this discussion had been called for the purpose of clarifying fundamental questions.
The wish of the Reich Marshal to have a draft sent to him concerning organizational, factual and material interests in relation to the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe makes necessary an initial common action of all central offices immediately concerned with these questions in order to bring their general activities into line.
The Reichsführer-SS and the Chief of the German Police was entrusted with the official central handling of the final solution of the Jewish question without regard to geographic borders. The Chief of the Security Police and the SD then gave a short report of the struggle which has been carried on thus far against this enemy, the essential points being the following:
a) the expulsion of the Jews from every sphere of life of the German people,
b) the expulsion of the Jews from the living space of the German people.
In carrying out these efforts, an increased and planned acceleration of the emigration of the Jews from Reich territory was started, as the only possible present solution.
By order of the Reich Marshal, a Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration was set up in January 1939 and the Chief of the Security Police and SD was entrusted with the management. Its most important tasks were
a) to make all necessary arrangements for the preparation for an increased emigration of the Jews,
b) to direct the flow of emigration,
c) to speed the procedure of emigration in each individual case.
The aim of all this was to cleanse German living space of Jews in a legal manner.
All the offices realized the drawbacks of such enforced accelerated emigration. For the time being they had, however, tolerated it on account of the lack of other possible solutions of the problem.
The work concerned with emigration was, later on, not only a German problem, but also a problem with which the authorities of the countries to which the flow of emigrants was being directed would have to deal.
Financial difficulties, such as the demand by various foreign governments for increasing sums of money to be presented at the time of the landing, the lack of shipping space, increasing restriction of entry permits, or the cancelling of such, increased extraordinarily the difficulties of emigration.
In spite of these difficulties, 537,000 Jews were sent out of the country between the takeover of power and the deadline of 31 October 1941. Of these approximately 360,000 were in Germany proper on 30 January 1933 approximately 147,000 were in Austria (Ostmark) on 15 March 1939, approximately 30,000 were in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on 15 March 1939.
The Jews themselves, or their Jewish political organizations, financed the emigration. In order to avoid impoverished Jews’ remaining behind, the principle was followed that wealthy Jews have to finance the emigration of poor Jews; this was arranged by imposing a suitable tax, i.e., an emigration tax, which was used for financial arrangements in connection with the emigration of poor Jews and was imposed according to income.
Apart from the necessary Reichsmark exchange, foreign currency had to presented at the time of landing. In order to save foreign exchange held by Germany, the foreign Jewish financial organizations were – with the help of Jewish organizations in Germany – made responsible for arranging an adequate amount of foreign currency. Up to 30 October 1941, these foreign Jews donated a total of around 9,500,000 dollars.
In the meantime, the Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police had prohibited emigration of Jews due to the dangers of an emigration in wartime and due to the possibilities of the East.
III.
Another possible solution of the problem has now taken the place of emigration, i.e., the evacuation of the Jews to the East, provided that the Führer gives the appropriate approval in advance.
These actions are, however, only to be considered provisional, but practical experience is already being collected which is of the greatest importance in relation to the future final solution of the Jewish question.
Approximately 11 million Jews will be involved in the final solution of the European Jewish question, distributed as follows among the individual countries:
Country Number
A. Germany proper 131,800 Austria 43,700
Eastern territories 420,000
General Government 2,284,000
Bialystok 400,000
Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia 74,200
Estonia – free of Jews
Latvia 3,500
Lithuania 34,000
Belgium 43,000
Denmark 5,600
France / occupied territory 165,000 unoccupied territory 700,000
Greece 69,600
Netherlands 160,800
Norway 1,300
B. Bulgaria 48,000
England 330,000
Finland 2,300
Ireland 4,000
Italy including Sardinia 58,000
Albania 200
Croatia 40,000
Portugal 3,000
Rumania including Bessarabia 342,000
Sweden 8,000
Switzerland 18,000
Serbia 10,000
Slovakia 88,000
Spain 6,000
Turkey (European portion) 55,500
Hungary 742,800
USSR 5,000,000
Ukraine 2,994,684
White Russia excluding Bialystok 446,484
Total over 11,000,000
The number of Jews given here for foreign countries includes, however, only those Jews who still adhere to the Jewish faith, since some countries still do not have a definition of the term “Jew” according to racial principles.
The handling of the problem in the individual countries will meet with difficulties due to the attitude and outlook of the people there, especially in Hungary and Rumania. Thus, for example, even today the Jew can buy documents in Rumania that will officially prove his foreign citizenship.
The influence of the Jews in all walks of life in the USSR is well known. Approximately five million Jews live in the European part of the USSR, in the Asian part scarcely 1/4 million.
The breakdown of Jews residing in the European part of the USSR according to trades was approximately as follows:
Agriculture 9.1 %
Urban workers 14.8 %
In trade 20.0 %
Employed by the state 23.4 %
In private occupations such as medical profession, press, theater, etc. 32. 7%
Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes.
The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as the seed of a new Jewish revival (see the experience of history)
In the course of the practical execution of the final solution, Europe will be combed through from west to east. Germany proper, including the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, will have to be handled first due to the housing problem and additional social and political necessities.
The evacuated Jews will first be sent, group by group, to so-called transit ghettos, from which they will be transported to the East.
SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich went on to say that an important prerequisite for the evacuation as such is the exact definition of the persons involved.
It is not intended to evacuate Jews over 65 years old, but to send them to an old-age ghetto – Theresienstadt is being considered for this purpose.
In addition to these age groups – of the approximately 280,000 Jews in Germany proper and Austria on 31 October 1941, approximately 30% are over 65 years old – severely wounded veterans and Jews with war decorations (Iron Cross I) will be accepted in the old-age ghettos. With this expedient solution, in one fell swoop many interventions will be prevented.
The beginning of the individual larger evacuation actions will largely depend on military developments. Regarding the handling of the final solution in those European countries occupied and influenced by us, it was proposed that the appropriate expert of the Foreign Office discuss the matter with the responsible official of the Security Police and SD.
In Slovakia and Croatia, the matter is no longer so difficult, since the most substantial problems in this respect have already been brought near a solution. In Rumania the government has in the meantime also appointed a commissioner for Jewish affairs. In order to settle the question in Hungary, it will soon be necessary to force an adviser for Jewish questions onto the Hungarian government.
With regard to taking up preparations for dealing with the problem in Italy, SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich considers it opportune to contact the chief of police with a view to these problems.
In occupied and unoccupied France, the registration of Jews for evacuation will in all probability proceed without great difficulty.
Under Secretary of State Luther calls attention in this matter to the fact that in some countries, such as the Scandinavian states, difficulties will arise if this problem is dealt with thoroughly and that it will therefore be advisable to defer actions in these countries. Besides, in view of the small numbers of Jews affected, this deferral will not cause any substantial limitation.
The Foreign Office sees no great difficulties for southeast and western Europe.
SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann plans to send an expert to Hungary from the Race and Settlement Main Office for general orientation at the time when the Chief of the Security Police and SD takes up the matter there. It was decided to assign this expert from the Race and Settlement Main Office, who will not work actively, as an assistant to the police attaché.
IV.
In the course of the final solution plans, the Nuremberg Laws should provide a certain foundation, in which a prerequisite for the absolute solution of the problem is also the solution to the problem of mixed marriages and persons of mixed blood.
The Chief of the Security Police and the SD discusses the following points, at first theoretically, in regard to a letter from the chief of the Reich chancellery:
1) Treatment of Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree
Persons of mixed blood of the first degree will, as regards the final solution of the Jewish question, be treated as Jews.
From this treatment the following exceptions will be made:
a) Persons of mixed blood of the first degree married to persons of German blood if their marriage has resulted in children (persons of mixed blood of the second degree). These persons of mixed blood of the second degree are to be treated essentially as Germans.
b) Persons of mixed blood of the first degree, for whom the highest offices of the Party and State have already issued exemption permits in any sphere of life. Each individual case must be examined, and it is not ruled out that the decision may be made to the detriment of the person of mixed blood.
The prerequisite for any exemption must always be the personal merit of the person of mixed blood. (Not the merit of the parent or spouse of German blood.)
Persons of mixed blood of the first degree who are exempted from evacuation will be sterilized in order to prevent any offspring and to eliminate the problem of persons of mixed blood once and for all. Such sterilization will be voluntary. But it is required to remain in the Reich. The sterilized “person of mixed blood” is thereafter free of all restrictions to which he was previously subjected.
2) Treatment of Persons of Mixed Blood of the Second Degree
Persons of mixed blood of the second degree will be treated fundamentally as persons of German blood, with the exception of the following cases, in which the persons of mixed blood of the second degree will be considered as Jews:
a) The person of mixed blood of the second degree was born of a marriage in which both parents are persons of mixed blood.
b) The person of mixed blood of the second degree has a racially especially undesirable appearance that marks him outwardly as a Jew.
c) The person of mixed blood of the second degree has a particularly bad police and political record that shows that he feels and behaves like a Jew.
Also, in these cases exemptions should not be made if the person of mixed blood of the second degree has married a person of German blood.
3) Marriages between Full Jews and Persons of German Blood.
Here it must be decided from case to case whether the Jewish partner will be evacuated or whether, with regard to the effects of such a step on the German relatives, [this mixed marriage] should be sent to an old-age ghetto.
4) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree and Persons of German Blood.
a) Without Children.
If no children have resulted from the marriage, the person of mixed blood of the first degree will be evacuated or sent to an old-age ghetto (same treatment as in the case of marriages between full Jews and persons of German blood, point 3.)
b) With Children.
If children have resulted from the marriage (persons of mixed blood of the second degree), they will, if they are to be treated as Jews, be evacuated or sent to a ghetto along with the parent of mixed blood of the first degree. If these children are to be treated as Germans (regular cases), they are exempted from evacuation as is therefore the parent of mixed blood of the first degree.
5) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree and Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree or Jews.
In these marriages (including the children) all members of the family will be treated as Jews and therefore be evacuated or sent to an old- age ghetto.
6) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree and Persons of Mixed Blood of the Second Degree.
In these marriages both partners will be evacuated or sent to an old- age ghetto without consideration of whether the marriage has produced children, since possible children will as a rule have stronger Jewish blood than the Jewish person of mixed blood of the second degree.
SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann advocates the opinion that sterilization will have to be widely used, since the person of mixed blood who is given the choice whether he will be evacuated or sterilized would rather undergo sterilization.
State Secretary Dr. Stuckart maintains that carrying out in practice of the just mentioned possibilities for solving the problem of mixed marriages and persons of mixed blood will create endless administrative work. In the second place, as the biological facts cannot be disregarded in any case, State Secretary Dr. Stuckart proposed proceeding to forced sterilization.
Furthermore, to simplify the problem of mixed marriages possibilities must be considered with the goal of the legislator saying something like: “These marriages have been dissolved.”
With regard to the issue of the effect of the evacuation of Jews on the economy, State Secretary Neumann stated that Jews who are working in industries vital to the war effort, provided that no replacements are available, cannot be evacuated.
SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich indicated that these Jews would not be evacuated according to the rules he had approved for carrying out the evacuations then underway.
State Secretary Dr. Bühler stated that the General Government would welcome it if the final solution of this problem could be begun in the General Government, since on the one hand transportation does not play such a large role here nor would problems of labor supply hamper this action.
Jews must be removed from the territory of the General Government as quickly as possible, since it is especially here that the Jew as an epidemic carrier represents an extreme danger and on the other hand he is causing permanent chaos in the economic structure of the country through continued black market dealings. Moreover, of the approximately 2 1/2 million Jews concerned, the majority is unfit for work.
State Secretary Dr. Bühler stated further that the solution to the Jewish question in the General Government is the responsibility of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD and that his efforts would be supported by the officials of the General Government. He had only one request, to solve the Jewish question in this area as quickly as possible.
In conclusion the different types of possible solutions were discussed, during which discussion both Gauleiter Dr. Meyer and State Secretary Dr. Bühler took the position that certain preparatory activities for the final solution should be carried out immediately in the territories in question, in which process alarming the populace must be avoided.
The meeting was closed with the request of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD to the participants that they afford him appropriate support during the carrying out of the tasks involved in the solution.
Scribo, ergo sum
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RolandVT
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Gemlich Letter
September 16, 1919
Dear Herr Gemlich,
If the threat with which Jewry faces our people has given rise to undeniable hostility on the part of a large section of our people, the cause of this hostility must be sought in the clear recognition that Jewry as such is deliberately or unwittingly having a pernicious effect on our nation, but mostly in personal intercourse, in the poor impression the Jew makes as an individual.
As a result, antisemitism far too readily assumes a purely emotional character. But this is not the correct response. Antisemitism as a political movement may not and cannot be molded by emotional factors but only by recognition of the facts. Now the facts are these:
To begin with, the Jews are unquestionably a race, not a religious community. The Jew himself never describes himself as a Jewish German, a Jewish Pole or a Jewish American, but always as a German, Polish or American Jew.
Jews have never adopted more than the language of the foreign nations in whose midst they live. A German who is forced to make use of the French language in France, Italian in Italy, Chinese in China does not thereby become a Frenchman, Italian, or Chinaman, nor can we call a Jew who happens to live amongst us and who is therefore forced to use the German language, a German.
Neither does the Mosaic faith, however great its importance for the preservation of that race, be the sole criterion for deciding who is a Jew and who is not. There is hardly a race in the world whose members all belong to a single religion.
Through inbreeding for thousands of years, often in very small circles, the Jew has been able to preserve his race and his racial characteristics much more successfully than most of the numerous people among whom he has lived.
As a result, there lives amongst us a non-German, alien race, unwilling and indeed unable to shed its racial characteristics, its particular feelings, thoughts and ambitions and nevertheless enjoying the same political rights as we ourselves do. And since even the Jew’s feelings are limited to the purely material realm, his thoughts and ambitions are bound to be so even more strongly.
Their dance around the golden calf becomes a ruthless struggle for all the possessions that we feel deep down are not the highest and not the only ones worth striving for on this earth.
The value of an individual is no longer determined by his character or by the significance of his achievements for the community, but solely by the size of his fortune, his wealth. The greatness of a nation is no longer measured by the sun of its moral and spiritual resources, but only by the wealth of its material possessions.
All this results in that mental attitude and that quest for money and the power to protect it which allow the Jew to become so unscrupulous in his choice of means, so merciless in their use of his own ends. In autocratic states he cringes before the ‘majesty’ of the princes and misuses their favors to become a leech on their people.
In democracies he vies for the favor of the masses, cringes before ‘the majesty of the people’, but only recognizes the majesty of money.
He saps the prince’s character with Byzantine flattery; national pride and the strength of the nation with ridicule and shameless seduction to vice. His method of battle is that public opinion which is never expressed in the press but which is nonetheless manages and falsified by it.
His power is the power of the money, which multiplies in his hands effortlessly and endlessly through interest, and with which he imposes a yoke upon the nation that is the more pernicious in that its glitter disguises its ultimately tragic consequences. Everything that makes the people strive for higher goals, be it religion, socialism, or democracy, is to the Jew merely a means to an end, the way to satisfy his greed and thirst for power.
The results of his works is racial tuberculosis of the nation.
And this has the following consequences: purely emotional antisemitism finds its final expression in the form of pogroms. Rational antisemitism, by contrast, must lead to a systematic and legal struggle against, and eradication of, the privileges the Jews enjoy over the other foreigners living among us (Alien Laws).
Its final objective, however, must be the total removal of all Jews from our midst. Both objectives can only be achieved by a government of national strength and not one of national impotence.
The German Republic owes its birth not the united national will of our people, but to the underhand exploitation of a series of circumstances that, taken together, express themselves in a deep, universal dissatisfaction.
These circumstances, however, arose independently of the political structure and are at work even today. Indeed, more so than ever before. Hence, a large part of our people recognizes that changing the structure of the state cannot in itself improve our position, but that this can only be achieved by the rebirth of the nation’s moral and spiritual forces.
And this rebirth cannot be prepared by the leadership of an irresponsibly majority influence by party dogmas or by the internationalist catch-phrases and slogans of an irresponsible press, but only by determined acts on the part of nationally minded leadership with an inner sense of responsibility.
This very fact serves to deprive the Republic of the inner support of the spiritual forces any nation needs very badly. Hence the present leaders of the nation are forced to seek support from those who alone have benefited and continue to benefit from changing the form of the German state, and who for that very reason become the driving force of the Revolution — the Jews.
Disregarding the Jewish threat, which is undoubtedly recognized even by today’s leaders (as various statement from prominent personalities reveal), these men are forced to accept Jewish favors to their private advantage and to repay these favors. And the repayment does not merely involve satisfying every possible Jewish demand, but above all preventing the struggle of the betrayed people against its defrauders, by sabotaging the antisemitic movement.
Yours truly, Adolf Hitler
Dear Herr Gemlich,
If the threat with which Jewry faces our people has given rise to undeniable hostility on the part of a large section of our people, the cause of this hostility must be sought in the clear recognition that Jewry as such is deliberately or unwittingly having a pernicious effect on our nation, but mostly in personal intercourse, in the poor impression the Jew makes as an individual.
As a result, antisemitism far too readily assumes a purely emotional character. But this is not the correct response. Antisemitism as a political movement may not and cannot be molded by emotional factors but only by recognition of the facts. Now the facts are these:
To begin with, the Jews are unquestionably a race, not a religious community. The Jew himself never describes himself as a Jewish German, a Jewish Pole or a Jewish American, but always as a German, Polish or American Jew.
Jews have never adopted more than the language of the foreign nations in whose midst they live. A German who is forced to make use of the French language in France, Italian in Italy, Chinese in China does not thereby become a Frenchman, Italian, or Chinaman, nor can we call a Jew who happens to live amongst us and who is therefore forced to use the German language, a German.
Neither does the Mosaic faith, however great its importance for the preservation of that race, be the sole criterion for deciding who is a Jew and who is not. There is hardly a race in the world whose members all belong to a single religion.
Through inbreeding for thousands of years, often in very small circles, the Jew has been able to preserve his race and his racial characteristics much more successfully than most of the numerous people among whom he has lived.
As a result, there lives amongst us a non-German, alien race, unwilling and indeed unable to shed its racial characteristics, its particular feelings, thoughts and ambitions and nevertheless enjoying the same political rights as we ourselves do. And since even the Jew’s feelings are limited to the purely material realm, his thoughts and ambitions are bound to be so even more strongly.
Their dance around the golden calf becomes a ruthless struggle for all the possessions that we feel deep down are not the highest and not the only ones worth striving for on this earth.
The value of an individual is no longer determined by his character or by the significance of his achievements for the community, but solely by the size of his fortune, his wealth. The greatness of a nation is no longer measured by the sun of its moral and spiritual resources, but only by the wealth of its material possessions.
All this results in that mental attitude and that quest for money and the power to protect it which allow the Jew to become so unscrupulous in his choice of means, so merciless in their use of his own ends. In autocratic states he cringes before the ‘majesty’ of the princes and misuses their favors to become a leech on their people.
In democracies he vies for the favor of the masses, cringes before ‘the majesty of the people’, but only recognizes the majesty of money.
He saps the prince’s character with Byzantine flattery; national pride and the strength of the nation with ridicule and shameless seduction to vice. His method of battle is that public opinion which is never expressed in the press but which is nonetheless manages and falsified by it.
His power is the power of the money, which multiplies in his hands effortlessly and endlessly through interest, and with which he imposes a yoke upon the nation that is the more pernicious in that its glitter disguises its ultimately tragic consequences. Everything that makes the people strive for higher goals, be it religion, socialism, or democracy, is to the Jew merely a means to an end, the way to satisfy his greed and thirst for power.
The results of his works is racial tuberculosis of the nation.
And this has the following consequences: purely emotional antisemitism finds its final expression in the form of pogroms. Rational antisemitism, by contrast, must lead to a systematic and legal struggle against, and eradication of, the privileges the Jews enjoy over the other foreigners living among us (Alien Laws).
Its final objective, however, must be the total removal of all Jews from our midst. Both objectives can only be achieved by a government of national strength and not one of national impotence.
The German Republic owes its birth not the united national will of our people, but to the underhand exploitation of a series of circumstances that, taken together, express themselves in a deep, universal dissatisfaction.
These circumstances, however, arose independently of the political structure and are at work even today. Indeed, more so than ever before. Hence, a large part of our people recognizes that changing the structure of the state cannot in itself improve our position, but that this can only be achieved by the rebirth of the nation’s moral and spiritual forces.
And this rebirth cannot be prepared by the leadership of an irresponsibly majority influence by party dogmas or by the internationalist catch-phrases and slogans of an irresponsible press, but only by determined acts on the part of nationally minded leadership with an inner sense of responsibility.
This very fact serves to deprive the Republic of the inner support of the spiritual forces any nation needs very badly. Hence the present leaders of the nation are forced to seek support from those who alone have benefited and continue to benefit from changing the form of the German state, and who for that very reason become the driving force of the Revolution — the Jews.
Disregarding the Jewish threat, which is undoubtedly recognized even by today’s leaders (as various statement from prominent personalities reveal), these men are forced to accept Jewish favors to their private advantage and to repay these favors. And the repayment does not merely involve satisfying every possible Jewish demand, but above all preventing the struggle of the betrayed people against its defrauders, by sabotaging the antisemitic movement.
Yours truly, Adolf Hitler
Scribo, ergo sum
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RolandVT
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Göring Letter to Heydrich on Final Solution
Berlin: July 31, 1941
To: Chief of the Security Police and the SD, SS Major General Heydrich
As a supplement to the task which was entrusted to you in the decree dated January 24, 1939, to solve the Jewish question by emigration and evacuation in the most favourable way possible, given present conditions, I herewith commission you to carry out all necessary preparations with regard to organizational, substantive, and financial viewpoints for a total solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe.
Insofar as other competencies of other central organizations are affected, these are to be involved. I further commission you to submit to me promptly an overall plan showing the preliminary organizational, substantive, and financial measures for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.
To: Chief of the Security Police and the SD, SS Major General Heydrich
As a supplement to the task which was entrusted to you in the decree dated January 24, 1939, to solve the Jewish question by emigration and evacuation in the most favourable way possible, given present conditions, I herewith commission you to carry out all necessary preparations with regard to organizational, substantive, and financial viewpoints for a total solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe.
Insofar as other competencies of other central organizations are affected, these are to be involved. I further commission you to submit to me promptly an overall plan showing the preliminary organizational, substantive, and financial measures for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.
Scribo, ergo sum
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RolandVT
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Executive Summary
1. From the legal perspective, Wannsee Conference was a criminal conspiracy to commit mass murder – cut and dry, plain and simple, loud and clear
2. Hence, it is a great shame – and a grave injustice – that there was no “Wannsee Conference trial” and that most attendees got away with their horrific, colossal crime (only Eichmann was executed for genocide of Jews)
3. Wannsee Conference was the centerpiece of “Holocaust by gas” – and thus the centerpiece of the whole genocide of the Jews – the “Holocaust Project”
4. Wannsee Conference was this centerpiece because it was convened specifically to create the infrastructure for “Holocaust by gas” (which accounted for about 70% of Holocaust victims) – and it was done
5. Well before they came to power (possibly as early as in 1919) Adolf Hitler and other National-Socialists intended to make territories under German control Judenfrei (“free of Jews”) or even Judenrein (“cleansed of Jews”)
6. Up until the outbreak of World War II in September of 1939, Hitler and his henchmen intended to achieve this objective by forced emigration only
7. After the outbreak of war, they decided to do it by forced deportation to giant Nisko camp and then to Southeastern Africa (Madagascar Plan)
8. To simplify deportations of Jews and make them more efficient, the Nazis re-created the system of Jewish ghettos which existed in Europe from mid-1500s to 1870 (they later became a key part of Holocaust infrastructure)
9. After both plans were abandoned (for obvious reasons), Hitler and his associates began to seriously consider the “final solution to the Jewish question” by murdering all Jews on all territories under German control
10. The idea of committing mass murder became acceptable to them after Night of Long Knives (murder of political enemies of Hitler in 1934), mass murder of Polish civilians in 1939-40 and especially after commencement of forced euthanasia program in 1939 (Aktion T4)
11. The latter subsequently became the model for “Holocaust by gas” (and the mass murder of Polish civilians – for “Holocaust by bullets”)
12. The major driving force for genocide of Jews was the inevitable (true) and existential (also true) war with the Bolshevist Soviet Union
13. One of the key (and incorrect) dogmas of National-Socialist ideology (which became the driving force of the Holocaust) was the dogma of the inevitable existential war between the “Aryan race” and the “Jewish race”
14. Another key (and also) incorrect dogma was that Bolshevist Soviet Union was created by the Jews to conquer and destroy the world (and the Aryan race); consequently, they were fighting the “Jewish-Bolshevist” enemy
15. This dogma was reinforced by sincere (and incorrect) belief in the authenticity of infamous “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (by that time it was long ago proven to be a forgery created by agents of Russian political police in 1901 for purposes unknown)
16. The foundation of the (incorrect) dogma of “Jewish-Bolshevist Soviet Union” (which, indeed, planned to conquer and destroy the human civilization AS IS at that time) was a long list of Jews in the leadership of Russian (Soviet) Communist Party, Soviet government, armed forces, secret police, etc.
17. Founder of Marxism (and thus of Bolshevism) Karl Marx was an ethnic Jew and an alleged devil-worshipper
18. The decision to murder all Jewish men of military age (the first stage of “Holocaust by Bullets”) was made (most likely, by Himmler and Heydrich) in early April of 1941 – right after Adolf Hitler signed the Barbarossa Decree where he authorized legally sanctioned the mass murder of all Communist political leaders and intellectual elites in the Soviet Union
19. Although Hitler never gave an explicit (let alone written) order to kill all Jewish men of military age, he approved the abovementioned decision. Which made him equally responsible (and guilty) of genocide of Jews.
20. To implement this murderous decision, in April of 1941 Hitler and Heydrich re-created (under RSHA and thus Heydrich) Einsatzgruppen – death squads
21. The Holocaust commenced on the very next day after German invasion of the Soviet Union: six Jews were killed by SD squad near Liepāja (Latvia)
22. The first full-scale massacre of Jews took place in Kaunas, Lithuania, on June 25-26, 1941 (on the third day of the invasion)
23. On July 31, 1941, the second-in-command in the Third Reich, Hermann Göring (acting on Hitler’s orders) commanded (in writing) Reinhard Heydrich (head of RSHA – German security service) to design and implement the “final solution to the Jewish question” in all territories under German control (Greater Germany and occupied territories)
24. In August of 1941, SS-Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler (head of security on German-occupied Soviet territories) ordered to extend the “Holocaust by Bullets” to all Jews, including women, children and the elderly
25. On 24 August 1941, Hitler ordered the suspension of the Aktion T4 involuntary euthanasia program – which made its highly competent and experience personnel available for another “grand project”
26. Thus, the decision to commence “Holocaust by Gas” was most likely made at the end of August – or at the very beginning of September - of 1941 by Himmler and Heydrich (and subsequently approved by Göring and Hitler making them equally guilty of the Holocaust)
27. To implement “Holocaust by gas”, it was decided to build a scaled-up reincarnation of Aktion T4 infrastructure: four (later expanded to six) killing centers which will use either stationary or mobile (gas vans) gas chambers – both successfully used in the forced euthanasia program
28. The cruel irony of Fate was that gas van was invented in 1937 by a Jew - NKVD officer Isaj Berg (later executed by his employers) and extensively used during the infamous Great Purge of 1937-38
29. Sometime in September of 1941, Himmler or (more likely) Heydrich found the way to silence Pope Pius XII thus removing a major obstacle to implementing the chosen method of “final solution of the Jewish question”
30. The four killing centers were to be built in Poland – in Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka and Sobibor
31. Killing centers were to be built in Poland because Poland was home to over half of Jews earmarked for the “Holocaust by Gas” (the ones in the Soviet Union and Romania were to be shot)
32. Initially, Wannsee Conference was scheduled to take place on December 9, 1941 – the very next day after the first killing center (Chelmno) became operational
33. To implement the “Holocaust by Gas” (and thus the whole “Holocaust project”), the killing centers had to be supported by a comprehensive operational and logistical infrastructure
34. The security branch of the SS (RSHA, WVHA, Order Police, etc.) was the primary agency in charge of the “Holocaust by Gas”; however, they needed support from all other key government entities of the Third Reich
35. More specifically, the SS needed the support from one of its own agencies outside the security branch (RuSHA); from the Nazi Party and from key government agencies: Reich Chancellery, Foreign Office, Interior, Justice, Four Year Plan, and the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
36. Thus, Wannsee Conference was convened to (a) secure cooperation of all these entities that the SS had no “official” control over; (b) assign specific tasks to each of these agencies; and (c) coordinate their activities through assigned SS liaison officers
37. Shorthand notes for the minutes (conference protocol) were taken by Eichmann's secretary, and the minutes were written by Eichmann in consultation with Heydrich
38. At the conclusion of the meeting, Heydrich gave Eichmann firm instructions about what was to appear in the minutes. They were not to be verbatim: Eichmann ensured that nothing too explicit appeared in them
39. Consequently, we will never know for sure what was said by whom during the Wannsee Conference
40. Copies of the minutes (known as the "Wannsee Protocol") were sent by Eichmann to all the participants after the conference
41. It was not until 1947 that one copy was found in files that had been seized from the German Foreign Office – all other 29 copies have been destroyed
42. Every attendee knew perfectly well that he was supposed (by Adolf Hitler, no less) to make a valuable contribution to the murderous “final solution to the Jewish question”; consequently, it was, indeed, a genuine conspiracy to commit serial mass murder – genocide of Jews under German control
43. Consequently, after the war every attendee who remained alive (five died) should have been found, tried, convicted, sentenced to death and executed
44. It did not happen because the victorious Allies did not care much about the Jews – and neither did the Soviet Union
45. Everyone who was directly involved in the Holocaust (including the attendees of Wannsee Conference), sincerely (and incorrectly) believed (sorry, Hannah Arendt, there was no such thing as “banality of evil”) that to win the existential war with the “Jewish-Bolshevist Soviet Union” – and thus to save Germany and the whole human civilization from total destruction – they had to kill all Jewish men, women and children
46. On 20 January 1992, on the fiftieth anniversary of the conference, the building where it was held (contrary to some misconceptions, it was never owned by a Jew) was finally opened as a Holocaust memorial and museum known as the House of the Wannsee Conference
2. Hence, it is a great shame – and a grave injustice – that there was no “Wannsee Conference trial” and that most attendees got away with their horrific, colossal crime (only Eichmann was executed for genocide of Jews)
3. Wannsee Conference was the centerpiece of “Holocaust by gas” – and thus the centerpiece of the whole genocide of the Jews – the “Holocaust Project”
4. Wannsee Conference was this centerpiece because it was convened specifically to create the infrastructure for “Holocaust by gas” (which accounted for about 70% of Holocaust victims) – and it was done
5. Well before they came to power (possibly as early as in 1919) Adolf Hitler and other National-Socialists intended to make territories under German control Judenfrei (“free of Jews”) or even Judenrein (“cleansed of Jews”)
6. Up until the outbreak of World War II in September of 1939, Hitler and his henchmen intended to achieve this objective by forced emigration only
7. After the outbreak of war, they decided to do it by forced deportation to giant Nisko camp and then to Southeastern Africa (Madagascar Plan)
8. To simplify deportations of Jews and make them more efficient, the Nazis re-created the system of Jewish ghettos which existed in Europe from mid-1500s to 1870 (they later became a key part of Holocaust infrastructure)
9. After both plans were abandoned (for obvious reasons), Hitler and his associates began to seriously consider the “final solution to the Jewish question” by murdering all Jews on all territories under German control
10. The idea of committing mass murder became acceptable to them after Night of Long Knives (murder of political enemies of Hitler in 1934), mass murder of Polish civilians in 1939-40 and especially after commencement of forced euthanasia program in 1939 (Aktion T4)
11. The latter subsequently became the model for “Holocaust by gas” (and the mass murder of Polish civilians – for “Holocaust by bullets”)
12. The major driving force for genocide of Jews was the inevitable (true) and existential (also true) war with the Bolshevist Soviet Union
13. One of the key (and incorrect) dogmas of National-Socialist ideology (which became the driving force of the Holocaust) was the dogma of the inevitable existential war between the “Aryan race” and the “Jewish race”
14. Another key (and also) incorrect dogma was that Bolshevist Soviet Union was created by the Jews to conquer and destroy the world (and the Aryan race); consequently, they were fighting the “Jewish-Bolshevist” enemy
15. This dogma was reinforced by sincere (and incorrect) belief in the authenticity of infamous “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (by that time it was long ago proven to be a forgery created by agents of Russian political police in 1901 for purposes unknown)
16. The foundation of the (incorrect) dogma of “Jewish-Bolshevist Soviet Union” (which, indeed, planned to conquer and destroy the human civilization AS IS at that time) was a long list of Jews in the leadership of Russian (Soviet) Communist Party, Soviet government, armed forces, secret police, etc.
17. Founder of Marxism (and thus of Bolshevism) Karl Marx was an ethnic Jew and an alleged devil-worshipper
18. The decision to murder all Jewish men of military age (the first stage of “Holocaust by Bullets”) was made (most likely, by Himmler and Heydrich) in early April of 1941 – right after Adolf Hitler signed the Barbarossa Decree where he authorized legally sanctioned the mass murder of all Communist political leaders and intellectual elites in the Soviet Union
19. Although Hitler never gave an explicit (let alone written) order to kill all Jewish men of military age, he approved the abovementioned decision. Which made him equally responsible (and guilty) of genocide of Jews.
20. To implement this murderous decision, in April of 1941 Hitler and Heydrich re-created (under RSHA and thus Heydrich) Einsatzgruppen – death squads
21. The Holocaust commenced on the very next day after German invasion of the Soviet Union: six Jews were killed by SD squad near Liepāja (Latvia)
22. The first full-scale massacre of Jews took place in Kaunas, Lithuania, on June 25-26, 1941 (on the third day of the invasion)
23. On July 31, 1941, the second-in-command in the Third Reich, Hermann Göring (acting on Hitler’s orders) commanded (in writing) Reinhard Heydrich (head of RSHA – German security service) to design and implement the “final solution to the Jewish question” in all territories under German control (Greater Germany and occupied territories)
24. In August of 1941, SS-Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler (head of security on German-occupied Soviet territories) ordered to extend the “Holocaust by Bullets” to all Jews, including women, children and the elderly
25. On 24 August 1941, Hitler ordered the suspension of the Aktion T4 involuntary euthanasia program – which made its highly competent and experience personnel available for another “grand project”
26. Thus, the decision to commence “Holocaust by Gas” was most likely made at the end of August – or at the very beginning of September - of 1941 by Himmler and Heydrich (and subsequently approved by Göring and Hitler making them equally guilty of the Holocaust)
27. To implement “Holocaust by gas”, it was decided to build a scaled-up reincarnation of Aktion T4 infrastructure: four (later expanded to six) killing centers which will use either stationary or mobile (gas vans) gas chambers – both successfully used in the forced euthanasia program
28. The cruel irony of Fate was that gas van was invented in 1937 by a Jew - NKVD officer Isaj Berg (later executed by his employers) and extensively used during the infamous Great Purge of 1937-38
29. Sometime in September of 1941, Himmler or (more likely) Heydrich found the way to silence Pope Pius XII thus removing a major obstacle to implementing the chosen method of “final solution of the Jewish question”
30. The four killing centers were to be built in Poland – in Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka and Sobibor
31. Killing centers were to be built in Poland because Poland was home to over half of Jews earmarked for the “Holocaust by Gas” (the ones in the Soviet Union and Romania were to be shot)
32. Initially, Wannsee Conference was scheduled to take place on December 9, 1941 – the very next day after the first killing center (Chelmno) became operational
33. To implement the “Holocaust by Gas” (and thus the whole “Holocaust project”), the killing centers had to be supported by a comprehensive operational and logistical infrastructure
34. The security branch of the SS (RSHA, WVHA, Order Police, etc.) was the primary agency in charge of the “Holocaust by Gas”; however, they needed support from all other key government entities of the Third Reich
35. More specifically, the SS needed the support from one of its own agencies outside the security branch (RuSHA); from the Nazi Party and from key government agencies: Reich Chancellery, Foreign Office, Interior, Justice, Four Year Plan, and the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
36. Thus, Wannsee Conference was convened to (a) secure cooperation of all these entities that the SS had no “official” control over; (b) assign specific tasks to each of these agencies; and (c) coordinate their activities through assigned SS liaison officers
37. Shorthand notes for the minutes (conference protocol) were taken by Eichmann's secretary, and the minutes were written by Eichmann in consultation with Heydrich
38. At the conclusion of the meeting, Heydrich gave Eichmann firm instructions about what was to appear in the minutes. They were not to be verbatim: Eichmann ensured that nothing too explicit appeared in them
39. Consequently, we will never know for sure what was said by whom during the Wannsee Conference
40. Copies of the minutes (known as the "Wannsee Protocol") were sent by Eichmann to all the participants after the conference
41. It was not until 1947 that one copy was found in files that had been seized from the German Foreign Office – all other 29 copies have been destroyed
42. Every attendee knew perfectly well that he was supposed (by Adolf Hitler, no less) to make a valuable contribution to the murderous “final solution to the Jewish question”; consequently, it was, indeed, a genuine conspiracy to commit serial mass murder – genocide of Jews under German control
43. Consequently, after the war every attendee who remained alive (five died) should have been found, tried, convicted, sentenced to death and executed
44. It did not happen because the victorious Allies did not care much about the Jews – and neither did the Soviet Union
45. Everyone who was directly involved in the Holocaust (including the attendees of Wannsee Conference), sincerely (and incorrectly) believed (sorry, Hannah Arendt, there was no such thing as “banality of evil”) that to win the existential war with the “Jewish-Bolshevist Soviet Union” – and thus to save Germany and the whole human civilization from total destruction – they had to kill all Jewish men, women and children
46. On 20 January 1992, on the fiftieth anniversary of the conference, the building where it was held (contrary to some misconceptions, it was never owned by a Jew) was finally opened as a Holocaust memorial and museum known as the House of the Wannsee Conference
Scribo, ergo sum
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RolandVT
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Wannsee Conference Was a Criminal Conspiracy
The ultimate objective of Wannsee Conference was to facilitate the second stage of the Holocaust Project (“Holocaust by Gas”). The objective of the latter was to commit a serial mass murder of ultimately up to 4,500,000 Jews under German control (further 3 million or so were supposed to be shot).
Consequently, it was, indeed, the criminal conspiracy to commit a serial mass murder. Every attendee knew that he was conspiring with the others to commit genocide; everyone agreed to take part in this criminal enterprise (no one refused, let alone resigned in protest).
Everyone knew that he was supposed to (and did) make a not insignificant contribution to a serial mass murder of ultimately up to 4.5 million men, women, children and the elderly.
Hence, everyone was guilty of a criminal conspiracy to commit murder (serial mass murder, to be more precise). It is a capital crime punishable by death (where death penalty is on the books) or life in prison without the possibility of parole – LWOP – where it is not.
In 1947 one of the copies of Wannsee Protocol (minutes of the conference) was found by Robert Kempner, a U.S. prosecutor in the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, in files that had been seized from the German Foreign Office.
Content of these minutes (coupled with what was known about the Holocaust by then) left no doubt that it was, indeed, a conspiracy to commit genocide. Consequently, all attendees should have been found, arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced to death and unceremoniously hanged. It did not happen.
It is a colossal shame and a grave injustice that there was no “Wannsee Conference trial” (actually, there was no separate “Holocaust trial”). Only one attendee (Adolf Eichmann) was executed for his contribution to the Holocaust; two others – Josef Bühler and Karl Eberhard Schöngarth were executed for unrelated crimes.
Why there was no “Wannsee Conference Trial” (let alone the separate “Holocaust Trial”)? Because the Evian Conference of 1938 and subsequent actions (and inaction) of world powers proved the reasonable doubt that just about no one in the world cared a damn thing about the Jews… except the Jews themselves.
In reality, the Allies were only marginally less anti-Semitic than the others. One high ranking British politician even stated that “Hitler is doing our job for us…”
Consequently, it was, indeed, the criminal conspiracy to commit a serial mass murder. Every attendee knew that he was conspiring with the others to commit genocide; everyone agreed to take part in this criminal enterprise (no one refused, let alone resigned in protest).
Everyone knew that he was supposed to (and did) make a not insignificant contribution to a serial mass murder of ultimately up to 4.5 million men, women, children and the elderly.
Hence, everyone was guilty of a criminal conspiracy to commit murder (serial mass murder, to be more precise). It is a capital crime punishable by death (where death penalty is on the books) or life in prison without the possibility of parole – LWOP – where it is not.
In 1947 one of the copies of Wannsee Protocol (minutes of the conference) was found by Robert Kempner, a U.S. prosecutor in the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, in files that had been seized from the German Foreign Office.
Content of these minutes (coupled with what was known about the Holocaust by then) left no doubt that it was, indeed, a conspiracy to commit genocide. Consequently, all attendees should have been found, arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced to death and unceremoniously hanged. It did not happen.
It is a colossal shame and a grave injustice that there was no “Wannsee Conference trial” (actually, there was no separate “Holocaust trial”). Only one attendee (Adolf Eichmann) was executed for his contribution to the Holocaust; two others – Josef Bühler and Karl Eberhard Schöngarth were executed for unrelated crimes.
Why there was no “Wannsee Conference Trial” (let alone the separate “Holocaust Trial”)? Because the Evian Conference of 1938 and subsequent actions (and inaction) of world powers proved the reasonable doubt that just about no one in the world cared a damn thing about the Jews… except the Jews themselves.
In reality, the Allies were only marginally less anti-Semitic than the others. One high ranking British politician even stated that “Hitler is doing our job for us…”
Scribo, ergo sum