The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

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Last-Modified: 1999/05/27

Deportation from the Warthe District, etc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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