Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Judgment/Judgment-015 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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