Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Judgment/Judgment-032 Last-Modified: 1999/05/27 It transpired that it was not a matter of 8,000 male Jews, but only of 4,000, and it was decided that 500 of them were needed by the German State Police to maintain health services and order in the Belgrade Ghetto. The rest "would be shot by the end of this week, thus solving the problem raised by the Embassy" (T/883). Already in April 1941, a Special Operations Group of the Security Police, headed by a man by the name of Fuchs, was sent to operate in this country. In Belgrade, Krauss and Helm were in command of one of the sub-units of this Group. On 16 May 194l, heads of departments of the RSHA were informed accordingly (T/887). We have before us declarations about the murderous activities of this Group (T/893-896). It set up the Sajmiste concentration camp, where Jews were killed in gas vans. Some of the camp prisoners were taken off to the East. The official Yugoslav report (T/892) also describes the death of the Jews in the Sajmiste camp by disease, evacuation and gassing. This report states that of the 47,000 Serbian Jews, there were only slightly more than 5,000 survivors. The ordinary lines of command in dealing with the Jews of Serbia did not become quite clear to us, in contrast to the situation in other countries dealt with in this chapter. Fuchs, who commanded the Special Operations Group there, says in his affidavit (T/894) that it was known to him that "a Standartenfuhrer, named Eichmann, specially appointed by the Head Office for Reich Security," used to transmit instructions to them in connection with the handling of the Jews. There is, however, no clear evidence that the Accused used to issue or transmit directives to this Operations Group right from the commencement of its activities in April 1941 (except for the proposal he put forward in connection with the 8,000 detainees, about whom we have already spoken at length.) On the other hand, it appears from the affidavit of Meisner, Senior Commander of Police in Serbia from 1942, that a special Department for Jewish Affairs was attached to one Schefer, Senior Commander of the Security Police (BdS), who was active in Serbia in Meisner's days, and that this department received its orders from the RSHA. It has not been proved that in Serbia there was an Adviser on Jewish Affairs who belonged directly to the Accused's Section, but it is to be assumed - and thus we find - that the instructions to the Jewish Department attached to the BdS in Belgrade were transmitted to them through the Accused's Section, in accordance with the usual RSHA routine. 107. The northern part of Greece was a German military- occupied territory, named "Salonika-Aegaeis." In July 1942, the Accused's Section already shows interest in the marking of Greek Jews (T/955, signed by Suhr). Wisliceny was sent to Greece in January 1943 "to prepare and carry out the deportation of the Jews from the Salonika region as planned within the framework of the Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe" (T/959, dated 25.1.43, a letter from IVB4 signed by Guenther). Actual operations begin in 1943 with the carrying out of the marking. Basic "legislative" action is taken by Merten (who testified in this case for the Defence) in the name of the German Military Governor (T/960, dated 6.2.43), and Wisliceny publishes regulations for executive measures (T/961 and T/962). In accordance with the well-tried method, Merten appoints the Jewish community as trustee for all Jewish property in March 1943 (Order No. VII, dated 13.3.43, attached to Merten's second testimony of 7.6.61), and Wisliceny on 15 March 1943 completes the robbery by giving further instructions (T/965). Already in February 1943, the Jews of Salonika are concentrated in a ghetto (report of 26 February 1943 sent through the German Foreign Ministry to the Accused, T/970), and the expulsion of 56,000 Jews from this area to the Generalgouvernement area (T/971) began on 15 March 1943 and was completed at the end of May 1943 (Wisliceny's declaration, T/992, p. 4). Already in March 1943, the Accused also interested himself in the deportation of the Jews who lived in Italian-occupied territory, especially those in Athens (T/991), but for the time being without results. After the coup in Italy, action did begin in Athens as well, but in the meantime most of the Jews of Athens had succeeded in hiding or escaping, so that only 1,200 Jews remained there. But the 1,200 Jews of the Island of Rhodes still fell into the hands of the murderers in June 1944 (declaration by Lentz, T/999). As a result of the deportation, the Jewish population of Greece decreased from 77,000 to 10,000 (T/953). 108. As far as we know, the RSHA and the German Foreign Ministry both began to show keen interest in the Jews of Bulgaria in November 1942. A letter, signed by the Accused, dated 17 January 1942, to the Foreign Ministry (T/928) deserves special mention. It says: "I must add once again that sufficient possibilities exist for the reception of Jews from Bulgaria. I therefore consider it appropriate to approach the Bulgarian Government once again, with the aim of transferring all the Jews from Bulgaria to the Reich now, as part of the process of the general solution of the European Jewish problem. The Police Attache in Sophia will take care of the technical implementation of the deportation." Dannecker is sent to Sophia in December 1942 as "Assistant to the Police Attache, to handle Jewish Affairs" (letter from the Accused's Section, signed by Mueller, dated 10.12.42, T/931). Dannecker reaches an agreement with Belev, the Bulgarian Commissioner for Jewish Affairs, on 22 February 1942 for the deportation of 20,000 Jews "to the Eastern areas of Germany" (T/938), and 15 March 1943 is set as the date for the beginning of the deportation (T/936, letter signed by Guenther from the Accused's office, dated 9.3.43). On 5 April 1943, the RSHA receives a report that until then over 4,000 Jews had been evacuated from Thrace and over 7,000 from Macedonia. On the other hand, the Bulgarians objected to the evacuation of Jews from the old part of Bulgaria (T/941), and they themselves mobilized 6,000 Jews from this area for work in Bulgaria. The Accused's office, in a letter dated 17 May 1943 (T/942, signed by Guenther), objects to this change of policy on the part of the Bulgarian Government and demands intervention by the German Foreign Ministry to ensure the renewal of deportations to the East; but later, the Bulgarian authorities are content with transferring the Jews from Sophia to the provinces (report dated 7.6.43, T/943). We know of no further deportations across the borders of Bulgaria. 109. In Italy, the position of the Jews in the national economy was impaired under the Fascist regime, but until the Badoglio coup in September 1943, they were not physically hurt (Mrs. Campagnano's evidence, Session 36, Vol. II, p. 656). During this period, the efforts of the RSHA and the Accused's Section were chiefly directed to removing obstacles put in their way by the Italians in the territories occupied by the latter, namely Southern France, Dalmatia, and Southern Greece. The road towards execution of the Final Solution against the Jews of Italy was cleared in September 1943, when the Germans established their domination over the greater part of Italy. SS men began carrying out arrests (Mrs. Campagnano's evidence, supra, pp. 656, 657). The detainees were concentrated in camps in Northern Italy and were deported across the Italian border (Vitale's declaration, T/633). An order was given by Himmler in October 1943 to arrest the 8,000 Jews of Rome and transfer them to Northern Italy for extermination (T/615). This task was given to the witness for the Defence, Kappler, who headed the local unit of the Security Police and the SD, and the Accused's assistant, Dannecker, who had already shown particular energy in other countries, was sent to Rome to assist him. Arrests were carried out on 17 October 1943, but the results disappointed the Germans, for only 1,259 Jews were caught, and after the release of the children of mixed marriages and foreign nationals, only 1,007 remained for deportation. Further arrests followed (evidence of Kappler, p. 38), and the detainees were sent to Northern Italy. Kappler contends in his testimony, given in this trial, that not he, but Dannecker alone, carried out the operation in Rome. He does not deny the truth of the report on the action, signed by himself, but claims that he did not draft it (supra, p. 33). We do not need to decide exactly which part was played by each of these two men. It is clear to us that both Kappler and Dannecker took part in the action in Rome on 17 October 1943, that both of them acted in accordance with RSHA directives, and that Dannecker received his instructions from the Accused's Section. After Mussolini's release, the Italian Government, which was under Hitler's orders, decided to concentrate all the Jews in Italian concentration camps. In all, 7,500 Jews were deported from Italy, and only just above 600 of them returned (Vitale's declaration, T/633). 110. Romania Dr. Loewenstein Lavi gave evidence about mass extermination actions taken against the Jews of Romania in the year 1941 (Session 48, Vol. 11, p. 870): "During the conquest of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, an almost complete extermination took place... from the beginning of June 1941 to September 1941, 160,000 were killed in Bessarabia. Then this was followed by a second wave in Bukovina...the survivors were transported to Transnistria." The RSHA Operation Group D was active in this area. On 9 July 1941, one of the Operation Units belonging to this Group reports from Czernowitz that 100 "Jewish Communists" were killed (T/1000). The Operation Group sends information in August 1941 about the killing of 3,106 more Jews in Czernowitz and the Dniester area (T/319, p. 11).
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