Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume 03 (of 11)

United States. Office of Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality

Title: Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume III (of 11)

Author: Various

Language: English

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NAZI CONSPIRACY
AND AGGRESSION

VOLUME III

Office of United States
Chief of Counsel For Prosecution
of Axis Criminality

United States Government Printing Office
Washington · 1946

Sold in complete sets
by the
Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D.C.

CONTENTS

Document number 001-PS through document number 1406-PS, arranged numerically 1-1003

(A descriptive list of documents appears at the end of the last volume.)

A Collection of Documentary Evidence and Guide Materials Prepared by the American and British Prosecuting Staffs for Presentation before the International Military Tribunal at Nurnberg, Germany, in the case of

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, and THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

—against—

HERMANN WILHELM GOERING, RUDOLF HESS, JOACHIM von RIBBENTROP, ROBERT LEY, WILHELM KEITEL, ERNST KALTENBRUNNER, ALFRED ROSENBERG, HANS FRANK, WILHELM FRICK, JULIUS STREICHER, WALTER FUNK, HJALMAR SCHACHT, GUSTAV KRUPP von BOHLEN und HALBACH, KARL DOENITZ, ERICH RAEDER, BALDUR von SCHIRACH, FRITZ SAUCKEL, ALFRED JODL, MARTIN BORMANN, FRANZ von PAPEN, ARTUR SEYSS-INQUART, ALBERT SPEER, CONSTANTIN von NEURATH, and HANS FRITZSCHE, Individually and as Members of Any of the Following Groups or Organizations to which They Respectively Belonged, Namely: DIE REICHSREGIERUNG (REICH CABINET); DAS KORPS DER POLITISCHEN LEITER DER NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHEN DEUTSCHEN ARBEITERPARTEI (LEADERSHIP CORPS OF THE NAZI PARTY); DIE SCHUTZSTAFFELN DER NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHEN DEUTSCHEN ARBEITERPARTEI (commonly know as the "SS") and including DIE SICHERHEITSDIENST (commonly known as the "SD"); DIE GEHEIME STAATSPOLIZEI (SECRET STATE POLICE, commonly known as the "GESTAPO"); DIE STURMABTEILUNGEN DER N.S.D.A.P. (commonly known as the "SA") and the GENERAL STAFF and HIGH COMMAND of the GERMAN ARMED FORCES all as defined in Appendix B of the Indictment,

Defendants.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 001-PS

Copy to Regional Leader of the NSDAP
Extract of par. 1 to DEGENHARD 15 April

SECRET

Documentary Memorandum for the Fuehrer

Concerning: Jewish Possessions in France

In compliance with the order of the Fuehrer for protection of Jewish, cultural possessions, a great number of Jewish dwellings remained unguarded. Consequently, many furnishings have disappeared, because a guard could, naturally, not be posted. In the whole East, the administration has found terrible conditions of living quarters, and the chances of procurement are so limited that it is not practical to procure any more. Therefore, I beg the Fuehrer to permit the seizure of all Jewish home furnishings of Jews in Paris, who have fled, or will leave shortly, and that of Jews living in all parts of the occupied West, to relieve the shortage of furnishings in the administration in the East.

2. A great number of leading Jews were, after a short examination in Paris, again released. The attempts on the lives of members of the armed forces have not stopped, on the contrary they continue. This reveals an unmistakable plan to disrupt the German-French cooperation, to force Germany to retaliate, and, with this, evoke a new defense on the part of the French against Germany. I suggest to the Fuehrer that, instead of executing 100 Frenchmen, we substitute 100 Jewish bankers, lawyers, etc. It is the Jews in London and New York who incite the French communists to commit acts of violence, and it seems only fair that the members of this race should pay for this. It is not the little Jews, but the leading Jews in France, who should be held responsible. That would tend to awaken the Anti-Jewish sentiment.

BERLIN 18 Dec 1941
R/H

signed: A. ROSENBERG

COPY OF DOCUMENT 001-A-PS

19 November 1945

I, Major William H. Coogan, 0-455814, Q.M.C., a commissioned officer of the Army of the United States of America, do hereby certify as follows:

1. The United States Chief of Counsel in July 1945 charged the Field Branch of the Documentation Division with the responsibility of collecting, evaluating and assembling documentary evidence in the European Theater for use in the prosecution of the major Axis war criminals before the International Military Tribunal. I was appointed Chief of the Field Branch on 20 July 1945. I am now the Chief of the Documentation Division, Office of United States Chief of Counsel.

2. I have served in the United States Army for more than four years and am a practicing attorney by profession. Based upon my experience as an attorney and as a United States Army officer, I am familiar with the operation of the United States Army in connection with seizing and processing captured enemy documents. In my capacity as Chief of the Documentation Division, Office of the United States Chief of Counsel, I am familiar with and have supervised the processing, filing, translation and photostating of all documentary evidence for the United States Chief of Counsel.

3. As the Army overran German occupied territory and then Germany itself, certain specialized personnel seized enemy documents, books, and records for information of strategic and tactical value. During the early stages such documents were handled in bulk, and assembled at temporary centers. However, after the surrender of Germany, they were transported to the various document centers established by Army Headquarters in the United States Zone of Occupation. In addition to the documents actually assembled at such document centers, Army personnel maintained and secured considerable documents "in situ" at or near the place of discovery. When such documents were located and assembled they were catalogued by Army personnel into collections and records were maintained which disclosed the source and such other information available concerning the place and general circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the documents.

4. The Field Branch of the Documentation Division was staffed by personnel thoroughly conversant with the German language. Their task was to search for and select captured enemy documents in the European Theater which disclosed information relating to the prosecution of the major Axis war criminals. Officers under my command were placed on duty at various document centers and also dispatched on individual missions to obtain original documents. When documents were located, my representatives made a record of the circumstances under which they were found and all information available concerning their authenticity was recorded. Such documents were further identified by Field Branch pre-trial serial numbers, assigned by my representatives who would then periodically dispatch the original documents by courier to the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel.

5. Upon receipt of these documents they were duly recorded and indexed. After this operation, they were delivered to the Screening and Analysis Branch of the Documentation Division of the Office of United States Chief of Counsel, which Branch re-examined such documents in order to finally determine whether or not they should be retained as evidence for the prosecutors. This final screening was done by German-speaking analysts on the staff of the United States Chief of Counsel. When the document passed the screeners, it was then transmitted to the Document Room of the Office of United States Chief of Counsel, with a covering sheet prepared by the screeners showing the title or nature of the document, the personalities involved, and its importance. In the Document Room, a trial identification number was given to each document or to each group of documents, in cases where it was desirable for the sake of clarity to file several documents together.

6. United States documents were given trial identification numbers in one of five series designated by the letters: "PS", "L", "R", "C", and "EC", indicating the means of acquisition of the documents. Within each series documents were listed numerically.

7. After a document was so numbered, it was then sent to a German-speaking analyst who prepared a summary of the document with appropriate references to personalities involved, index headings, information as to the source of the document as indicated by the Field Branch, and the importance of the document to a particular phase of the case. Next, the original document was returned to the Document Room and then checked out to the photostating department, where photostatic copies were made. Upon return from photostating, it was placed in an envelope in one of several fireproof safes in the rear of the Document Room. One of the photostatic copies of the document was sent to the translators, thereafter leaving the original itself in the safe. A commissioned officer has been, and is, responsible for the security of the documents in the safe. At all times when he is not present the safe is locked and a military guard is on duty outside the only door. If the officers preparing the certified translation, or one of the officers working on the briefs, found it necessary to examine the original document, this was done within the Document Room in the section set aside for that purpose. The only exception to this strict rule has been where it has been occasionally necessary to present the original document to the defendants for examination. In this case, the document was entrusted to a responsible officer of the prosecution staff.

8. All original documents are now located in safes in the Document Room, where they will be secured until they are presented by the prosecution to the court during the progress of the trial.

9. Some of the documents which will be offered in evidence by the United States Chief of Counsel were seized and processed by the British Army. Also, personnel from the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel and the British War Crimes Executive have acted jointly in locating, seizing and processing such documents.

10. Substantially the same system of acquiring documentary evidence was utilized by the British Army and the British War Crimes Executive as that hereinabove set forth with respect to the United States Army and the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel.

11. Therefore, I certify in my official capacity as hereinabove stated, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that the documents captured in the British Zone of Operations and Occupation, which will be offered in evidence by the United States Chief of Counsel, have been authenticated, translated, and processed in substantially the same manner as hereinabove set forth with respect to the operations of the United States Chief of Counsel.

12. Finally, I certify, that all Documentary evidence offered by the United States Chief of Counsel, including those documents from British Army sources, are in the same condition as captured by the United States and British Armies; that they have been translated by competent and qualified translators; that all photostatic copies are true and correct copies of the originals and that they have been correctly filed, numbered and processed as above outlined.

[Signed] WILLIAM H. COOGAN
Major, QMC, O-455814

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 002-PS

SECRET

25 March 1943

President of Reich Research Dept.
Head of Executive Council
To the Reichsminister of Finance

Berlin W 8
Wilhelmplatz 1-2

Ref 503/43 G SR/GE

In regard to your correspondence of the 19th Dec (J 4761-174 I g III. Ang) to which I gave you a preliminary communication on the 19th Feb, I finally take the following position:

The Surgeon General-SS and Police, in a personal discussion, told me that the budget which he administers concerns primarily the purely military sector of the Waffen SS. As for the small part used for the enlarging of scientific research possibilities, it pertains exclusively to such affairs that can be carried out only with the material (prisoners), which is accessible to the Waffen SS and can therefore not be undertaken by any other experimental agency.

I cannot object therefore on the part of the Reich Experimental Counsel against the budget of the Surgeon General-SS and Police.

Signed: Mentzel
Ministerialdirektor

SECRET

Reich Leader SS
Reich Surgeon SS and Police
File: 135/ Secret / 43 TG, NR 24/43 geh.

Berlin 26 Feb 43

Subj.: Scientific Institutes
Ref to: Correspondence of 19 Feb. 43 Rf. 234/43 SR.—
To the Head of the Executive Counsel of the Reich Research
Counsel Ministerialdirektor Mentzel

Berlin-Steglitz
Grunewaldstrasse 35

My dear Ministerialdirektor:

In acknowledgment of your letter of the 19th Feb 1943, I am able to reply the following to it today:

The appropriation for the 53 key positions for my office which you made the basis of your memorandum was planned for peace times.

The special institutes of the SS which are to be partly staffed through this appropriation are to serve the purpose to establish and make accessible for the entire realm of scientific research, the particular possibilities of research only possessed by the SS.

In view of the further developments of this war, I have already shelved this plan for the time being as the result of negotiations with the Reich Finance Minister in the past year, so that my authorized personnel amounts to 25 key positions only. Of these positions, only 5 are filled at present.

Under these circumstances your objections with regard to an unreasonable overlapping of work of scientific institutes for the war's duration are void.

I will gladly be at your disposal at any time, however, to discuss the particular research aims in connection with the SS, which I would like to start after the war according to the direction of the Reich leader SS.

Furthermore, it is important that these researches—once their realization appears possible, will be tied in with the related research aims of the state.

Hoping to have served you with my preliminary summary, I remain with best greetings and

Heil Hitler
GRAWITZ

25 March 1943

Pres. of Reich Research Counsel
Head of Executive Counsel
To the Surgeon General SS and Police SS Lt. Gen. Prof. Dr.
Grawitz

Berlin W 15
Knesebeckstr. 51

Rf. 504/43 g SR/Ge.
Pertaining to: Letter of 26 Feb. 43
File: 135/geh. 43-Tgb.—Nr. 24/43 g.

I am sending the enclosed carbon copy of my letter to the Reichsminister of Finance in regard to the conversation of 11 March, this year, for your information.

Heil Hitler!

[rubber stamp] Signed: Mentzel
Ministerialdirektor SS Major General

Berlin-Steglitz
Grunewaldstr. 35

19 Feb 43

Pres. Reich Research Counsel
Head of Executive Counsel

To the Surgeon General SS and Police SS Lt. Gen. Prof. Dr.
Grawitz

W 15 Knesebeckstr. 51

RECEIPT
Letter Nr.	Date	Nr. of Pieces
Rf. 234/43 Sr.	19 Feb 43	1

Sent on: 20 Feb 43
Received on: 22 Feb 43

[Seal] [Signature illegible]
SS Lt. Col.

Signature of person receiving and opened registered letter

SECRET

19 Feb 43

Reich Research Counsel
Rf. 234/43 Sr.

The Head of Executive Counsel of the Reich Research Counsel
To the Surgeon General SS and Police SS Lt. Gen. Prof. Dr.
Grawitz

Berlin W. 15
Knesebeckstr. 51

The Reich minister of finance told me that you requested 53 leading positions (BES. GR C3-C8) for your office, partly for a new research institute.

After the Reichsmarshall of the Great-German Reich had, as President of the Reich Research Counsel, taken over all German research, he issued directives, among other things, that in the execution of militarily important scientific tasks, the available institutions, including equipment and personnel, should be utilized to the utmost for reasons of necessary economy of effort.

The founding of new institutes is therefore only possible in as far as there are no institutes available for the furtherance of important war research tasks.

As I don't know your personal purpose and have insufficient information from the explanation the Reich finance minister gave me about the planned institute, I would be thankful if you would further explain your plans and purposes.

I will gladly be at the disposal of one of your co-workers for an interview or would be ready to call upon you personally.

I wish you would inform me as to when and where these discussions may take place.

Heil Hitler!

[rubber stamp] Signed: Mentzel
Ministerialdirektor SS Major General

SECRET

19 Feb. 1943

REICH RESEARCH COUNSEL
Rf. 232/43 Sr.
To the Reich Minister of Finance
Head of Executive Counsel of the Reich Research Counsel

Berlin W. 8
Wilhelmplatz 1-2

You notified me on the 19th Dec. (J4761-174 I g III, Ang) concerning the research work by the Surgeon General SS and Police, and asked me what stand I take. Since the work of the state chief of research started originally in the armament department, I was unable to clear up any questions pertaining to the medical department, which came up in the last weeks. But I shall do so in the near future, and I believe I can already say that the new institutes requested by the surgeon general of SS and police will be unnecessary since other institutes can cover these planned missions.

I shall have a conference with the surgeon general SS and police pertaining to details of this planned work and, at that time, I shall let you know what my final stand will be. I would like to suggest, therefore, to defer the decisions at this time.

In this connection I state that the health officer, State Secretary Conti approached the president of the research counsel requesting funds to establish an institute for virus research in Frankfurt on Main.

Investigations to date have shown that the institute is not necessary since the planned work can, without doubt, be done * * *

Pres. Reich Research Counsel
Head of Executive Counsel

Berlin-Steglitz 19 Feb. 43
Grunewaldstr. 35

To the Reichsminister of Finance
W. 8, Wilhelmplatz 1-2

RECEIPT
Letter Nr.	Date	Nr. of Pieces
Rf. 232/43 Sr.	19 Feb 43	1

Sent on: 2 Feb. 43
Received on:

Received 22 Feb. 43 Reich Finance Minister
[Seal] [Signature illegible]
Signature of person receiving and opening

SECRET

The Reich Minister of Finance
J4761-174 I g III, Ang

Berlin 19 Dec. 1942

Wilhelmplatz 1/2 Tel. 120015 Postal Check Acct. Berlin Nr. 25955

Assumption of Research Mission By the Surgeon General SS and
Police

The surgeon general SS and police has requested 53 key positions for the new organization of his office (Bes. Gr. C3-38). The organization plan shows that the surgeon general SS and police plans not only special experts for "Research" in pharmaceutical chemistry, in dental and clinical services and a special section of scientific service, but also that plans are desired for a string of institutes which likewise deal mainly with research work:

1. Central Institute for Medical Scientific Exploitation
2. Institute for the History of Medicine
3. Pharmaceutical Chemistry Research Institute
4. Pharmacy for Military Requirements
5. Special Institute Sachenhausen
6. Pathological Institute
7. Hygienic Research Institute

In the informal discussions it was referred to the fact that the plans for the research arrangements for the Waffen-SS can only be granted if the research missions which the Surgeon General SS embarked upon are not already undertaken by other independent institutes, resp. by the universities, or belong to their sphere.

The Hygienic Institute, according to the proposed plan, includes the following seven divisions:

1. Division for combating epidemics with bacteriological and serological laboratories

2. Division for hygiene with corresponding laboratories

3. Division for chemistry with chemical laboratories

4. Division for geology and hydrology

[Reich Research Counsel
In care of Ministerialdirektor, Prof. Dr. Mentzel]

5. Division for climatology and geography, especially in preparation for cultural waging of war in sub tropical and tropical lands in Africa

6. Division for statistics and epidemic forecast which will, with new developments, work against the spreading of epidemics for the coming years

7. Division for the elimination of epidemics which will chiefly concern itself with new installation of apparatus for delousing and sterilization of drinking water for the fighting troops

I lack accurate data for other institutes. I have set aside the decision on this budget.

Regarding the decree of the Fuehrer of the 9th June 42, (RGBL. I, 389), and the emphasized necessity of coordinated scientific research, I ask for your immediate opinion on the matter.

By order of

Signed: Dr. Bender
Certified Cunsich Chief Tax Secretary

(RGBL I 389)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 003-PS

A Short Report of the Activity of the Foreign Policy Office (APA)

The mission of the Foreign Policy Office (APA) of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) could not from its founding be considered a replica of the development of the Foreign Office, but is restricted in a very definite manner. From the entire foreign policy complex the following concrete problems have been selected:

The German-English Relationship, the North Eastern Region, the South Eastern Region (Danube Region) along with boundary peoples holding interests in these regions, and Soviet Russia.

With the realization that the entire present day foreign policy is tied together in the closest manner with the question of foreign trade, a definite division was established to deal with this subject. Thus the following divisions were set up in the APA.:

England, the North, the South-East Region, the Near East, Foreign Trade, and the Press.

1. England: The attempts to find persons in England who had the desire to understand the German movement date back to 1929. Our English agent R. in Berlin made possible my first trip to London in 1931. There a number of connections were made which worked out well in a practical fashion to bring about a German-English understanding. Above all was Group Leader W., member of the Air General Staff, who was firmly of the belief that Germany and England must stand together in the defense against the Bolshevist danger. These different voicings of opinions had the result that the circle in the English Air General Staff enlarged and the Flying Club became a center of German-English understanding. In 1934 Group Leader W. came to Germany where he was received by the Fuehrer (Hitler). The utterances of the Fuehrer had the result to further strengthen these already favorably inclined policies, and since this time this cordiality has not been broken. The Air General Staff always inquired of us what they could state to refute the anti-German elements in London in a manner favorable to us. The German arguments were then applied in a corresponding manner. In contrast to certain English persons who would speak out very fervently for Germany, only to speak the contrary some months later, this staunch group, namely, the Air General Staff which was run by the younger officers, had proven itself to be a solid and conscious support in all changing situations. Not least in this influence was the great speech of Baldwin of the previous year in which he promised Germany the right to air protection. The English periodical "The Airplane" which is printed under the guidance of the Air General Staff, began to express against Bolshevism in an always increasing sharper tone, and always declared, when there was agitation against German militarism, that one could today feel well pleased if Germany had a strong air force to combat the Asiatic barbarism. The English ministers who did not wish to adopt this point of view were sharply criticized. In the change of foreign ministers the pro-French candidate for foreign office was not selected, but rather the ex-Minister of Air, Samuel Hoare, who till this day still keeps up his personal contacts with the Air Ministry. Upon his request a memorandum on the spiritual foundation of national socialism, inspired by us, was translated to him; it being his desire to understand our movement more fully.

During the reign of MacDonald this feeling of cordiality was supported through the private secretary of MacDonald, Mr. Badlow whom I also met in 1933 and with whom I had extensive discussions. Since this time he has constantly been informed through us, and has had more than one heated difference of opinion with MacDonald over this subject.

A resulting activity of this connection with the British Air General Staff was the establishment of a liaison between our Air Ministry and the British fliers. However, before it was possible for us to reveal our armament, W. revealed to me on official stationery of the British Air Ministry, a representative of the airplane motor factory which was engaged in producing motors for the British Air Force, and which said representative I later met here in Berlin. Since the German industry itself had attained production capacity by now, this almost official British offer for German air arming could not be fully accepted. However, the Chief of our England Division (Kapitaenleutnant Obermueller, reserve) took two representatives of the German Air Ministry to London and himself undertook several trips to London. He was the first German to receive an invitation from the vice-Air Marshal to view the British Air Force and British air strength. The APA had placed an automobile at the disposal of this same Air Marshal in which to tour Germany when he was in Germany last year. A firmer bond has also been accomplished between our English Division and Henry Deterding and his associates. Misunderstandings in matter of taxes pertaining to the German possessions of Deterding could be removed, thus preventing a change of management in respect to Deterding and the Shell Works whereby Germany would have lost some large contracts.

At the close of last year we received the message that the King of England has expressed himself to be very dissatisfied over the official press agency. The visit of the Duke of Kent to Munich had made matters still worse pertaining to the King's views on the press agency. Consequently we one day received the request from London to make possible that our English agent take a trip to London in order to orient the Duke of Kent in every detail pertaining to national socialism in order to convey this information to the King. R. went with me to London exactly as requested and there had an over three hour long unobserved conference with the Duke of Kent, who then conveyed this to the King of England. One can assume that this instruction has served its purpose and exerted a definite strengthening pressure for change of cabinet and head it in a direction of closer cordiality for Germany.

A number of Englishmen were invited to the Party Day of 1934, of which some at least portrayed a favorable attitude towards Germany. Above all was Captain McCaw, semi-official counsel of the English Ministry of War and liaison man between other ministries. McCaw was previously adjutant to Lord Kitchener, and as we ascertained, has worked for a German-British understanding in official quarters. Besides, there was also the truly enthusiastic adjutant of the Duke of Connaught (uncle of the English King), Archibald Boyle, who was called upon all matters of foreign policy by the Air Transport Ministry, and who worked for the same purpose. To these important contacts may be added a great number of other connections with British politicians, officers, and members of Parliament.

It naturally is to be understood that other personalities of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) had important connections in England and have utilized them. In conclusion I believe I can say that the England Division of the Foreign Policy Office (APA), in spite of many difficulties and counter-currents upon which I will not enter any further, has done its duty in the special purpose of helping to create a German-English understanding.

2. Northern Division: The winning over of the Scandinavian countries to the side of Germany appears as a foregone necessity for future German foreign policy, but the necessity is also as great to prevent the Scandinavian countries from making a clean entry into the circle of anti-German countries. The political possibilities towards these Marxist governments were extremely difficult. Trade policies, according to my belief, have suffered most through sins of omissions, hence the APA restricted itself more to the cultural political field. For this purpose it expanded the Nordic (Scandinavian) Society. This formerly small society has grown to be a decisive bond in the German-Scandinavian relationship since its support by the APA two years ago. The society's leader, Lohse, is selected by the APA. The offices in all sections [Gau] are headed by corresponding section chiefs [Gauleiter]. Trade groups and other organizations and branches of the party which have dealings with Scandinavia have come to agreement so that almost all of the traffic between Germany and Scandinavia today passes through the hands of the Nordic Society. The society has to date celebrated in Germany all memorial days of great Nordic scientists and artists (Hamsun, Holberg, Heidenstam) and has brought a number of Nordic conductors to Germany, as well as having furthered Nordic literature. Through its periodical "The North" [Der Norden] thoughts have been exchanged. Finally, personal relations were increasingly favored through conventions. Especially was the Convention of 1935 a complete success. This convention met under the sanctity of the Scandinavian ministers in Germany and the German ministers in Scandinavia, as far as it applied to the Nordic Music Conclave as the main purpose of the convention. The committee was composed of the authoritative Nordic Music Society. Fourteen sold out concerts and over 200 Scandinavian visitors attest to the success of the convention.

Thereupon the First National Finnish Art Exhibition came to Germany, followed by the request of the Finnish Government to the APA to hold a German exposition in Helsinki in March of 1936. These psychologically valuable affiliations have undoubtedly loosened the tension in many circles and it would do well for a clever trade policy to make use of this loosened tension, as for example, the trade treaties between England and Finland expire in 1936. The Chief of the Northern Division is my private secretary, Thilo von Trotha.

3. Southeast (Danube-Region): Since the Fuehrer (Hitler) has reserved Austria for his own, the APA has relayed on to the responsible places any reports from Austria, and has not dealt in Austrian politics. Relations with Hungary were immediately established. The APA invited Premier Gombos to Berlin in 1933 for a private visit where he was presented to the Fuehrer. The Fuehrer took him along to Erfurt to observe a review of the SA. Specific discussions were undertaken with Hungary to convince her of the futility of her demands for 100 percent revision of boundaries. Finally in August of 1935 I spoke with his excellence von Angian and made clear to him that although we well understood her own interests, the necessity that Hungary must decline its revision demands upon Yugoslavia and Rumania and address its demands to Czechoslovakia. One can assume that the Hungarians are now ready to realize the necessity of the boundary revisions as proposed.

Exceptionally long and drawn out discussions were in process with Rumania because definite measures were necessary, not because we did not wish to be intervening in Rumanian affairs without being called, but because we had to await the attitude of the Party as a result of the King of Rumania sending a friend to Berlin. Here on Rumanian soil a bitter battle was going on between the pro-French Titulesco and Jewish elements on one side against the anti-Jewish elements on the other side. The King is well aware of the fact that in the end his support of Bolshevism may cost him his throne. However, he is so intimidated by the threats of France, so as not to call for an election, and hopes only that the powers of the people, which are mounting against Titulesco, are so strong that he can support himself upon the will of the people. In order to create unity of expression the APA suggested formation of a large German-Rumanian Chamber of Commerce in Berlin. The profits of this business were not to benefit any private associates, but were to go to those groups that worked for a German-Rumanian understanding. Because of a false report of Herr von Neurath to the Fuehrer (Hitler) in which it was stated as though the action were taken in the name of the Fuehrer, the work was delayed and hindered and finally stopped, even though all of the ministers concerned had agreed to the plan. Through this many costly months were lost and the APA was forced to try other means. Since it was not possible to work with money, many conferences were arranged between the coming Premier Goga. Finally, an agreement which had been considered impossible, was concluded between Goga and the anti-Semitic leader Cuza. Cuza, upon my wish, deleted several points from his program, after which he informed us that it was necessary in the interest of his fatherland (Rumania) and a German-Rumanian understanding that he comply with my wish, as he had recognized in me an unyielding anti-Semite. I have informed the Fuehrer of the complicated later relationships in numerous reports. Germany is fighting France and Bolshevism in Rumania, and when affairs have progressed so as to warrant further discussion, the King of Rumania will invite me to a visit to discuss the matter further.

Feelers have been sent out to Belgrade through Rumania. Here also exists the possibility of splitting the "lesser entente," but as far as I can ascertain, Yugoslavia is not considering withdrawal from this alliance singly under certain guarantees, but will withdraw together with Rumania. The work in Rumania has to a part been undertaken by Herr Duckwitz, but especially by Party-Member Schickedanz.

The Near East: Next it was necessary that the position of the national socialistic movement be secured not only within the confines of the Party but also in public life. This was the more so necessary since the old Rapallo Treaty was constantly being discussed in the universities in numerous lectures. In relation with this was the Near East Ideology of Moeller van dem Brock which exerted its influence deep within the Party. The APA proceeded in the most tenacious fashion to prevent the proponents of the Rapallo school from coming to the universities, although this was not always possible. The APA prevented that instructional lectures of the School of Rapallo and Moeller van dem Brock were held within the Party and other societies. Through the Reich Ministry for the Furtherance of German Literature were issued many sharp criticisms over the eastern ideology of Moeller van dem Brock to all government and party offices. Furthermore, Dr. Leibrandt, the Chief of the Near East Division delivered several speeches on this matter to Party Conventions, student societies, and so forth. It was this activity which caused the APA to make enemies with many governmental offices until the Fuehrer in his speech of May 21 set forth the authenticity of this work and forced a withdrawal of those who opposed this activity of the APA. From there on the Near East Division has pursued the entire current Russian political activity, collected and examined current Russian reports, made an exact study of the minority feelings in Russia, and contacted anti-Soviet circles, although only for purposes of study. The Near East Division has supplied other divisions, namely the English Division with necessary material about Russia, as well as making available to the Press Division material for "Dem Voelkischen Beobachter" [official Nazi Party newspaper].

Foreign Trade: In all these political connections the question of foreign trade played an important part. Reluctantly one must say that it was just in this field, according to my view, that much opportunity has been lost. First of all, the Manchuko Incident, which came to the attention of the Fuehrer, was without question sabotaged in the worst fashion by the Foreign Offices in Berlin and Tokio. Still, it is of significance that the form of the reciprocal trade treaties which were written up by the Foreign Trade Division serve as models for many other governmental treaties. In many instances the division was able to establish order when things had been greatly neglected, as the German-Finnish Discussions (for which the chief of the Foreign Trade Division received the Finnish decoration), the German-Norwegian Wal Agreement, and a great number of other questions. Problems dealing with the foreign trade of Germany and the middle east (Turkey and Iran) were also attacked. One may say today that a very cheerful cooperation has been established in this field between the representatives of the Foreign Office and our Foreign Trade Division. The German-Rumanian question was tackled by our Foreign Trade Division during all this time, but unfortunately did not produce the desired results. The Foreign Trade Division produced a stimulus for German industry on the question of German-Russian credit. As things stood, greedy circles in heavy industry threatened the interests of the medium and small industries whom they were willing to sacrifice for the tempting Soviet business. Seventy million marks would have been lost in this deal because Russia would not accept the decisions of the Board of Arbitration, while heavy industry was willing to forego this sum. Through the intervention of the APA the situation was changed. Shortly thereafter the Board of Arbitration again met and acknowledged the claims of little and medium business, and divided among the several categories, thus saving the German Reich 70 million marks.

The Foreign Trade Division worked under the theory, that the question of foreign trade would be a rapid development, and therefore formulated exact recommendations in the discussions. The recommended foreign trade drafts, as were recommended in these discussions, were not refuted by Wagemann nor Josias Stamp in London. Opposition, however, has arisen in the Reich Ministry of Commerce, which apparently, however, has not given the matter a very exact examination. Thus the matter rests. German foreign trade has not progressed, and the forced taxation by means of export duties of over 700 million marks for German industry in 1935 can only be considered an emergency measure and not a fundamental policy. Here again the APA recommends to the Fuehrer to give these proposals a trial.

Party Member Daitz has worked with initiative on questions of foreign trade. Party Member Malletke, who has proven himself to be a far-seeing associate, has conducted the daily administration and the examination of all problems.

The Press: The Press Division of the APA is comprised of persons who together master all the languages that are in use. Daily they examine approximately 300 newspapers and deliver to the Fuehrer, the deputy Fuehrer, and all other interested offices the condensations of the important trends of the entire world press. I know that these press reports are highly praised by all who constantly follow them. The Press Division furthermore conducts an exact archives on the attitudes of the most important papers of the world and an exact archives on the most important journalists of the world. Many embarrassments during conferences in Germany could have been avoided had one consulted these archives (case of Leumas, Nurnberg, 1934; case of Dorothy Thompson; and others). Further, the Press Division was able to arrange a host of interviews as well as conducting a great number of friendly foreign journalists to the various official representatives of Germany. Hearst then personally asked me to often write about the position of German foreign policy in his papers. This year five continuous articles under my name have appeared in Hearst papers all over the world. Since these articles, as Hearst personally informed me, presented well founded arguments, he begged me to write further articles for his papers.

The Press Division of the APA was able to step into a position of arbitration in the conflict which arose between the representatives of the foreign press in Germany and the Office of Propaganda because of the general attack that the Minister of Propaganda, Dr. Goebbels had made upon the combined world press in July of 1934. Thus from the combined press representatives it was able to select and take care of those who were of a pro-German opinion, or at least conducted themselves in a neutral manner. Because of the willingness to cooperate that the Press Division under the skillful guidance of Dr. Bomer showed the foreigners, the Press Division has won a position of honor, and can today claim to have a truly personal and factual knowledge of world journalism.

In general the APA has attempted in the last 1-1/2 years to establish contact between diplomacy and the world press in Germany. For this purpose the APA held a Beer Party [Bierabend] each month. On each of these evenings a prominent representative of the party or government spoke about the work of his division. The most prominent national socialists spoke at these gatherings (Goering, Rust, Todt, Schirach, Hierl, Dr. Gross, Frau Scholtz-Klinck, Frank, Ley, and others). These evenings were constantly attended by the majority of the diplomatic representatives. We could always count on having at least 350 to 400 visitors. Since we invited a great number of representatives of the German ministries and party offices in the last year, a hefty traffic has developed. Many items which later appeared in the papers can be accredited to the personal clarification of a national socialistic party member who attended these evenings. The APA furthermore conducted a great number of foreigners to the labor battalions [Arbeitsdienst] or acquainted them with other establishments. That has been a bit of work that has constantly been going on so that the APA here too has experience to answer all questions which may arise.

The School of Instruction [Das Schulungshaus]: The 2-1/2 year work of all those active in the APA has given them a very exact picture of the practical workings of foreign policy and foreign trade. It has also enabled them every bit of knowledge which can be obtained from a national socialistic point of view in order to accurately judge the questions of foreign policy at all. In order to also develop potential and interested capable powers arising from the people and develop them as successors in the movement of national socialism the Foreign Policy School of Instruction [Aussenpolitisches Schulungshaus] was founded in Dahlem in 1935. Students from all over Germany who displayed an interest in foreign policy were assembled at this school. They were here instructed and schooled through lectures and cooperative work similar to seminars. Into this school were drawn the Hitler youths, SS, and the plan exists to have persons who will later travel abroad as representatives of large German concerns undergo an extensive course of instruction. Furthermore, the foreign Policy School of Instruction should also examine those students which the Academic Student Exchange is sending abroad. Lectures at the school were given by a number of German economists, as well as the Japanese and Chinese military attaches. The Chief of the APA himself lectured there.

The administration of the APA as well as the School of Instruction rest in the hands of Party Member Knauer, who in his youth was party to the March on Coburg.

In conclusion I may well say that these 2-1/2 years were rich in experiences and have tested people in their capacity to perform work. These 2-1/2 years have led to the elimination of one or another incompetents, but at least a dozen people have become so enriched through experience that they can be a great help to the Fuehrer in the field of their enterprise.

The lack of necessary and sufficient means naturally prevents a complete exploitation of the entire activity, which surely would be desired. But in spite of this one can say that the most humanly possible was accomplished here with sacrifice, sense of duty, and energy.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 004-PS

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The Political Preparation of the Norway Action

(The enclosures mentioned in the report have been omitted from this paper since they are only relative to specific matters. The complete report including appendices has been submitted to the Deputy of the Fuehrer by Reichsleiter Rosenberg on 17 June 1940)

The Office of Foreign Relations [Aussenpolitisches Amt] of the National Socialist Party (NSDAP) has had contact with Vidkun Quisling, leader of the Nasjonal Samling in Norway, for years. The director of the "Office North" [Amt Norden] of the office of Foreign Relations—later victim of a fatal accident—paid him (Quisling) a personal visit on one of his trips to Scandinavia.

When in 1939 the general political situation was beginning to grow critical Quisling gave the Office of Foreign Relations an estimate of the situation and his opinion about the possible intentions of Great Britain with relation to Scandinavia in case of conflict (Great Britain's) with the German Reich. Prior to the convention of the Nordic Association [Nordische Gesellschaft] in Luebeck, Quisling was received by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in Berlin. He (Quisling) pointed out the decisive geopolitical importance of Norway in the Scandinavian region and the advantages gained by the Power in control of the Norwegian coast in case of conflict between the German Reich and Great Britain. He further explained the extraordinarily clever, democratic and particularly anglo-saxon propaganda which had been accepted favourably by almost the entire nation, also because of Norway's economic dependence on the seas and therefore on England. Since he did not believe that the small nations would remain neutral in case of conflict—as had been the case in the World War of 1914—but was convinced that they would become involved in one way or the other he requested support for his party and press in Norway, basing his request on the "pangermanic" ideology. Reichsleiter Rosenberg also requested Director [Amtsleiter] Scheidt to arrange a meeting between Quisling and his Deputy Hagelin with State Secretary [Staatssekretaer] Koerner, bearing in mind that this matter might be of particular interest to General Field Marshall Goering with regard to air strategy. This meeting with the State Secretary Koerner did take place. At the same time Staff Director [Stabsleiter] Schickedanz, directed by Reichsleiter Rosenberg, submitted the attached memorandum to Reich Minister and Chief of the Chancellery [Reichsminister und Chef der Reichskanzlei] Lammers for the information of the Fuehrer by the end of June 1939 (Enclosure No. 1).

After the Luebeck convention Director [Amtsleiter] Scheidt took a vacation trip to Norway to further pursue this matter. His observations are found in the attached report (Enclosure No. 2). Even during his presence in Germany Quisling had requested a short, pertinent training program for reliable party functionaries especially selected by him. This request was granted by Reichsleiter Rosenberg. In August 1939 a 14 day course was held at the School of the Office for Foreign Relations of the NSDAP [Aussenpolitisches Schulungshaus der NSDAP] in Berlin for 25 followers of the Nasjonal Samling who had been selected by Quisling.

In September Burgermeister Dr. Winkler revealed that he had been charged with the financial aspects of Quisling's request by General Field Marshal Goering through State Secretary Koerner. The outbreak of war and the beginning of the Polish campaign delayed the decisions (Enclosure No. 3). A further reminder of Reichsleiter Rosenberg to General Field Marshal Goering in the course of a talk about the importance of Norway in connection with the matters set forth originally by Quisling had no practical results.

At the same time political tension increased in Norway as Russian activity made itself felt in the Baltic regions. Of this Quisling kept the office (APA) informed through his deputies in Germany. The outbreak of the Russo-Finnish war at the end of November helped to further increase the anti-German currents in all Scandinavia and played into the hands of the anglo-saxon propaganda which was now building up to full strength. Greater Germany was represented as a secret ally of Soviet Russia and as the real culprit in Finland's misfortune. At the same time the Western Powers promised Finland military support which could only be supplied via Norway and Sweden. The possibility of a plan by Great Britain to occupy Norway and possibly Sweden to effectively close the blockade against Greater Germany and further to gain convenient air bases against Germany began to take shape under the pretence of altruistic help to Finland. Its aim was to involve also the Nordic Nations in a conflict against Greater Germany. Quisling informed the office (APA) about these new possibilities shaping on the political scene, acting through his deputy in Germany.

As the activities of the Allies became more and more noticeable in Norway Quisling again came to Germany to voice his fears. He was received by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in the early part of December and he again presented his ideas. Firmly convinced that in the long run a genuinely neutral position in the great conflict would become impossible for the small nations and in his firm faith in the victory of Greater Germany in this conflict which also was an ideological one, Quisling considered it his duty—supported as he was by a small but determined minority—to tie Norway's fate to that of Greater Germany as the new centre of strength of a nordic-germanic life community. We knew that his courageous group was the only pro-German Party. His deputy in Germany, Hagelin, had also arranged for a talk between Quisling and Grand Admiral Raeder which took place about this time. During a report to the Fuehrer Reichsleiter Rosenberg again mentioned Norway. He particularly pointed out her importance in the case of England deciding to occupy Norway with the tacit consent of the Norwegian Government, for the purpose of strengthening the blockade and under the pretence of help for Finland. Grand Admiral Raeder, too, upon his request, was called to the Fuehrer in connection with his talks with Quisling. As a result of these steps Quisling was received by the Fuehrer for personal instructions on the 16th of December and again on the 18th of December. During this interview the Fuehrer emphasized repeatedly that the most preferable attitude of Norway as well as all of Scandinavia would be one of complete neutrality. He had no intentions to enlarge the theatres of war to draw other nations into the conflict. If, however, the enemy were preparing an enlargement of the zones of war with the aim to further throttle and threaten the Greater German Reich then, of course, he would be obliged to arm against such steps. Then the Fuehrer promised Quisling financial support for his movement based on the pan-germanic ideology and for the purpose of combatting the increasing enemy propaganda. The military matters of the questions were now transferred to a special military staff which assigned special missions to Quisling and heard his opinions (Encl. No. 29). The political treatment was to be handled by Reichsleiter Rosenberg, expenses were to be carried by the Foreign Office [Auswaertiges Amt] and Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs [Reichsminister vom Aussenpolitischen Amt] was to be kept informed at all times. Maintenance of liaison with Quisling was assigned to Director [Amtsleiter] Scheidt who, as matters developed further, was attached to the Naval Attache in Oslo, Commander [Korvettenkapitaen] Schreiber. Strictest secrecy was ordered for the entire matter.

Then, in January, during a conference between Reichsleiter Rosenberg and Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop it was decided to appropriate to Quisling an initial sum of 200,000 Goldmark. This money was to be taken to Oslo, in two instalments, by the liaison agent Scheidt where it was to be handed to Quisling. In the Foreign Office [Auswaertiges Amt] Privy Councillor [Geheimrat] Von Grundherr was the only one to be told of this arrangement (Encl. No. 3).

As shown in the attached documentary memoranda Quisling's reports transmitted by his deputy in Germany Hagelin concerning the possibility of active intervention of the Western Powers in Norway with consent of the Norwegian Government became more and more alarming. These reports continuously supplemented with more and more accurate confirmations by Quisling's confidants were in certain contrast with the opinions of the German Legation in Oslo. The Legation believed in the neutral intentions of the Norwegian Government of that time, the Nygardsvold, and was further convinced that the Government would take arms in defence of its neutrality policy. The Foreign Office [Auswaertiges Amt] held the same opinion as is shown in the attached documentary memorandum dated January 8 which is the result of a talk between Director [Amtsleiter] Scheidt and Privy Councillor [Geheimrat] Von Grundherr (Encl. 8). It is of special interest that Hagelin, Quisling's Deputy in Germany, whose intimate connection with Quisling was not known in Norway succeeded in getting a foothold in the circles of the Nygardsvold Government. Thus he heard the uncolored opinions of the members of the Government who conducted themselves like a secret Norwegian-Anglophile society.

In the documentary memorandum of January 13 he relates the opinions expressed to him by two Norwegian Ministers. The gist of the opinions was that Germany had already lost the war and that Norway—if only because of its large Merchant Marine—could not do other than favour England in her politics, in war even more so than in peace. And further that the entire nations agreed with this policy (Encl. 9). During the night of February 16 to 17 the English raided the "Altmark" in the Joessingsfjord. The reaction of the Norwegian Government to the Altmark-affair seemed to indicate that certain secret arrangements had been made between the Norwegian Government and the Allies. This was further emphasized in Director Scheidt's consolidated report covering January 20th to February 20th (Encl. No. 11) after he had received Hagelin's report. Hagelin had overheard the conversation between two members of the Storting during which one member said to the other that the actions of the two commanders of the Norwegian torpedo boats had been a "prearranged affair." The same report also refers to the English demands for air bases in Norway and for freedom of trade in the Norwegian waters. It goes on to say that although the Norwegian Government refused those demands it was agreed that violations by the English would be answered with paper protests only. Such reports, and confirmations thereto were time and again supplied through Quisling. In complete contrast to those opinions the German Legation, even after the Altmark Affair, relied fully upon the good will of the Norwegians. The Ambassador cited the signing of the Norwegian-German trade agreement as weighing heavily in favour of his point of view. He already considered the Norwegian Government Nygardsvold somewhat dependent on the Greater German Reich (Encl. Nos. 11 and 12). All these reports were currently submitted to the Fuehrer by Reichsleiter Rosenberg. Quisling always emphasised that more than 90% of the country was behind England and that he only represented a minority which, however, was chosen by virtue of its intuition to take charge later on as representatives of a new Norwegian nation.

Apart from financial support which was forthcoming from the Reich in currency, Quisling had also been promised a shipment of material for immediate use in Norway such as coal and sugar. Additional help was promised. The shipments were to be conducted under cover of a new Trade Company to be established in Germany or through especially selected existing firms while Hagelin was to act as consignee in Norway. Hagelin had already conferred with the respective Ministers of the Nygardsvold Government as for instance the Minister of Supply and Commerce [Versorgungs-und Handelsminister] and had been assured permission for the import of coal. At the same time the coal transports were to serve possibly to supply the technical means necessary to launch Quisling's political action in Oslo with German help. It was Quisling's plan to send a number of selected, particularly reliable men to Germany for a brief military training course in a completely isolated camp. They were then to be detailed as area and language specialists to German Special Troops who were to be taken to Oslo on the coal barges to accomplish a political action. Thus Quisling planned to get hold of his leading opponents in Norway including the King, to prevent all military resistance from the very beginning. Immediately following this political action and upon an official request of Quisling to the Government of the German Reich the military occupation of Norway was to take place. All military preparations were to be completed previously. Though this plan contained the great advantage of surprise it also contained a great number of dangers which could possibly cause its failure. For this reason it received a quite dilatory treatment while, at the same time, it was not disapproved as far as the Norwegians were concerned.

In February, after a conference with General Field Marshal Goering, Reichsleiter Rosenberg informed the Secretary in the Office of the Four Year Plan [Ministerialdirektor im Vierjahresplan] Wohlthat only of the intention to prepare coal shipments to Norway to the named confidant Hagelin. Further details were discussed in a conference between Secretary Wohlthat, Staff Director Schickedanz and Hagelin. Since Wohlthat received no further instructions from the General Field Marshal, Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop—after a consultation with Reichsleiter Rosenberg—consented to expedite these shipments through his office. Based on a report of Reichsleiter Rosenberg to the Fuehrer it was also arranged to pay Quisling ten thousand English pounds per month for three months commencing on the 15th of March, to support his work. This money was to be paid through liaison agent Scheidt.

Meanwhile Hagelin, through his connection in Norway as trusted agent of the Norwegian Navy, had been commissioned with the purchase of German AA-guns (Flaks) through the German Navy Ministry. Through this connection he gained more and more insight into the actual ideas and intentions of the Norwegian Nygardsvold Government and into the Allied preparations which had already started in Norway. While in Germany on the 20th of March to attend conferences regarding the delivery of the German AA guns, he made a detailed report about the increasing activities of the Allies in Norway, tolerated by the Nygardsvold Government. According to his reports the Allies were already checking the Norwegian coastal towns for landing and transport possibilities. He also stated that the French Commandant Kermarrec who was charged with this reconnaissance had a confidential talk with Colonel Sunolo, Commandant of Narvik, who is a follower of Quisling; during the course of the talk he told him of the Allied intentions to land motorized troops in Stavanger, Dronthoim and possibly also at Kirkenes and to occupy the airport at Sola (Encl. no. 14).

At the same time Hagelin increased his oral and written warnings regarding the confidential agreements between the Allied and the Norwegian Governments stipulating that in case of an Allied occupation of coastal towns the Norwegian Government would not go beyond paper protest, as was the case in the Altmark Affair. And again, in his report of March 26 (Encl. Nos. 15 and 16) he pointed out that the speech of the Norwegian Foreign Minister Koht dealing with Norwegian neutrality and containing some protests was not being taken seriously either in London by the English nor in Norway by the Norwegians. It was well known that the Government had no intentions to take a stand against England. However, to keep up appearances towards Germany up to the last minute the Norwegian Government intended to issue an order to fire. This was to demonstrate that everything within their power had been done. There was a continuous series of conferences between the King, the Commanding Admiral, the Crown Prince and the newly appointed Minister of War Ljundberg who had been placed in office at the special request of England as early as January. A person close to the King as well as the commanding Admiral explained to Hagelin that the above mentioned actions by England were quite unavoidable since she knew that she could only win the war if she were in control of the Norwegian ports. Furthermore England feared a German counterblow which was not to be allowed to materialize. The Norwegian Government was also notified by London that Germany intended to mine the waters between Jutland and the Norwegian coast. Based on a message from England this plan was revealed on or about March 15 during a secret session of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Storting by Foreign Minister Koht. As a matter of fact, during the course of the military preparations for the occupation of Norway this plan had been adopted by the German military authorities and to this day it is a mystery how this plan got to London. In view of all this news Quisling could no longer back his earlier advice to continue watching the development of the situation in Norway. He now had to point out that any further delay would mean a grave risk. The above was probably the most decisive report ever to be submitted here by Hagelin. Reichsleiter Rosenberg immediately transmitted it to the Fuehrer (Encl. No. 15).

While still in Berlin Hagelin was requested by Colonel Schmundt to make speedy arrangements for a conference between Quisling and a Colonel of the General Staff, at some neutral location. This conference was held in Copenhagen in the beginning of April.

In confirmation of all this information coming from Quisling and his confidants and in contrast to the opinion held up to the end by German Legation in Oslo and by the Foreign Office, the Allies, on April 8th. initiated their first major blow as an introduction to their intended occupation of Norway. During the night from the 7th. to the 8th. of April they mined the Norwegian coast and made public announcement of this act. Norway's reaction, consistent with the reports always received by the Office of Foreign Relations [Aussenpolitisches Amt] of the NSDAP, was nothing more than protests on paper growing weaker by the hour. Then, after proper preparations and by command of the Fuehrer Greater Germany undertook the counterblow in the morning of April 9th. and occupied the most important Norwegian airfields and seaports.

Reports about the further political developments in Norway proper are found in the appended documentary memorandum (Encl. Nos. 18 to 30).

After the success of the occupational operations in Norway seemed assured the Fuehrer called for Reichsleiter Rosenberg for a short talk before lunch, on April 25th. He oriented him (Rosenberg) about the developments of the military action in Norway where the English Auxiliary Corps had just suffered a decisive defeat combined with the capture of important documents and plans. He further revealed to Reichsleiter Rosenberg that he had based this most daring decision which was now approaching successful completion on the continuous warnings of Quisling as reported to him by Reichsleiter Rosenberg. And that it actually happened in the Drontheimfjord that behind the stern of the last German Troop Transport there appeared the bow of the first English destroyer which convoyed the Allied Troop Transport fleet. This destroyer was wiped out by the German Navy.

Berlin, June 15th. 1940

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 007-PS

Brief Report on Activities of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Party from 1933 to 1943

When the Foreign Affairs Bureau [Aussenpolitisches Amt] was established 1 April 1933 the Fuehrer directed that it should not be expanded to a large bureaucratic agency, but should rather develop its effectiveness through initiative and suggestions.

Corresponding to the extra ordinarily hostile attitude adopted by the Soviet Government in Moscow from the beginning the newly-established bureau devoted particular attention to internal conditions in the Soviet Union, as well as to the effects of World Bolshevism primarily in other European countries. It entered into contact with the most variegated groups inclining towards National Socialism and combatting Bolshevism, focussing its main attention on Nations and States bordering on the Soviet Union. On the one end those nations and states constituted an Insulating Ring encircling the Bolshevist neighbor; on the other hand they were the lateral of German living space [Fluegelstellung zum deutschen Lebensraum] and took up a flanking position towards the Western Powers [Flankenstellung Gegenueber Den Westmaechten] especially Great Britain. In order to wield the desired influence by one means or another, the Bureau was compelled to use the most varying methods, taking into consideration the completely different living conditions, the ties of blood, intellect and history of the movements observed by the Bureau in those countries.

In Scandinavia an outspoken pro-Anglo-Saxon attitude, based on economic considerations, had become progressively more dominant after the World War of 1914/1918. There the Bureau put entire emphasis on influencing general cultural relations with the Nordic peoples. For this purpose it took the Nordic Society [Nordische Gesellschaft] in Luebeck under its protection. The Reich conventions of this society were attended by many outstanding personalities, especially from Finland. While there were no openings for purely political cooperation in Sweden and Denmark, an association based on Greater Germanic ideology was found in Norway. Very close relations were established with its founder, which led to further consequences. (See annex I for more detailed exposition).

South-Eastern Europe was dominated by the French post-war system of alliances. The countries united in the Little Entente were aiming at a more favorable defence of the booty accumulated during the war. In addition each one of these countries sought to gain through this mutual-assistance pact safety against a superior opponent: Czechoslovakia against Germany; Yugoslavia against Italy; Rumania against the Soviet Union. In Czechoslovakia a common hatred against everything German united the still remaining, partly pan-Slavic, Masonic and pro-Jewish tendencies. In Rumania the feeling of insecurity and fear of the superior neighbor, from whom she had taken Bessarabia was growing. In Rumania a primitive anti-Semitic group still existed. Its academically doctrinaire attitude precluded large scale political effectiveness, but nevertheless offered points of mutual interest. The Foreign Affairs Bureau picked these up, developed them, instigated the formation of a new party and thereby forced a decisive change in the whole political situation in Rumania, which is still having its effect today. (See Annex II for more detailed exposition).

Hungary and Bulgaria alone, Allied nations of the World War which had formerly been completely deprived of their rights, were attracted by the newly-formed center of gravity in the north. This attraction was nourished by the hope of obtaining an expansion of their own power through the increasing strength of Germany. However, National Socialism met a certain reserve or antipathy in Bulgaria because of widespread contagion of the Communistic blight. In Hungary it met similar reserve due to the still-fashionable feudal leading circles, who are bolstered by Jewish capital. At any rate it may be mentioned here that the first foreign state visit after the seizure of power took place through the mediation of the Foreign Affairs Bureau. Julius Gombos, who in former years had himself pursued anti-Semitic and racial tendencies, had reached the Hungarian Premier's chair. The Bureau maintained a personal connection with him. In September 1933 he paid a visit to Germany and was received by the Fuehrer in Erfurt. With this visit the official cordon of isolation surrounding National Socialism was pierced for the first time. This visit had been preceded by the Fuehrer's reception of the Rumanian poet and former minister Octavian Goga through the Bureau's mediation. Goga later became the decisive exponent of a political reproachment with Germany.

In Yugoslavia other German Reich agencies had become active in the same direction, so that the Foreign Affairs Bureau remained in the background and shifted its efforts to the purely commercial sphere. It initiated the first contracts with Croation and Serbian cooperatives.

Motivated by reasons of War Economy, the Bureau advocated the transfer of raw material purchases from overseas to the areas accessible by overland traffic routes, i.e. primarily in the Balkans, naturally insofar as practicable. At first little heed was paid to the Bureau in these endeavors, but it later secured the active support especially of the Food Estate; through its cooperation, e.g., on the subject of fruit and vegetable imports, a very substantial shift in the source of imports was attained, particularly through the currently initiated cooperation with Croatian and Hungarian cooperatives as well as with commercial associations all over the Balkans.

From the beginning, work in Italy was out of the question because ever since the days of our struggle for power ties of a personal nature have existed, which were taken over by official institutions or cultivated by individual personalities. Work in Austria was also excluded, since a special "Provincial Directorate for Austria" existed within the Nazi Party.

The Bureau declined to concern itself with questions of Racial Germans [Volksdeutsche] abroad. For this phase of the problem the "Racial Germans" Central Agency [Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle] was later created.

Towards Western European States the Bureau limited its activities to simple observation of existing conditions, or to the establishment of relations, especially of a commercial nature, primarily in Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg.

In accordance with the attitude on foreign policy laid down by the Fuehrer, the Bureau endeavored to establish far-reaching connections with England through continuous personal contacts with influential personalities of English political life. Eminent Englishmen were invited to the annual Party Rallies.

Pursuant to its self chosen task the Bureau devoted its attention to the Near East. Turkey, newly consolidated by Mustapha Kemal, adopted a hesitating attitude of watchful waiting. This position was probably due to military impotence against Soviet Russia, clearly recognized, on the one hand, and also to hostility to Fascist Italy, already previously manifested, on the other hand. In Iran, however, the Bureau's initiative in the economic field to stimulate the mutual exchange of goods encountered greatest understanding and the greatest readiness in carrying it through. The Bureau's initiative in developing with the head of commercial circles, entirely new methods for the economic penetration of Iran found expression, in an extraordinarily favorable way, in reciprocal trade relations. Naturally in Germany, too, this initiative at first encountered a completely negative attitude and resistance on the part of the competent state authorities, an attitude that had first to be overcome. In the course of a few years the volume of trade with Iran was multiplied five-fold, and in 1939 Iran's trade turnover with Germany had attained first place. Even Soviet Russia, the competitor who had been biggest and most dreaded previously, had been eliminated from the running. Concurrently with the activation of commercial relations the Bureau had also intensified cultural relations and had, in conjunction with growing commercial influence and in closest collaboration with the Iranian Government, created a series of cultural institutions headed and directed by Germans. In consequence the dominant French cultural influence in Iran has already been broken since the year 1936.

The Bureau simultaneously attempted to also draw Afghanistan into its orbit. Relations established with leading individual personalities led to the willing opening of this country, which had formerly been rather neglected by Germany. All the leading personalities of Afghanistan were guests of the Bureau. The Bureau favored the taking part of German economy in the industrial upbuilding of the country; German experts in all fields were called to Afghanistan in increasing numbers through the Bureau's mediation. The German Colony became the dominant one in Afghanistan. The preparation for expansion of the Afghan army was in German hands; carrying it through was prevented by the outbreak of war. Even though the German Colony had to leave Afghanistan later on, Afghanistan's neutral position today is largely due to the Bureau's activity.

The Arab question, too, became part of the work of the Bureau. In spite of England's tutelage of Iraq the Bureau established a series of connections to a number of leading personalities of the Arab world, smoothing the way for strong bonds to Germany. In this connection, the growing influence of the Reich in Iran and Afghanistan did not fail to have repercussions in Arabia. All these relations took place on a purely economic basis and fostered the systematically directed advancement of German influence and prestige in the domains reserved by the Western Powers for themselves. In this connection it may be mentioned in general that the internal peril to England's preponderance in those areas would have been considerably more pronounced, if the Bureau's foresighted initiative, which took Oriental conditions very well into account, had not been forever ignored by official authorities.

The Bureau foresaw the necessity of technical improvement of the Danube water route to facilitate traffic, because of the shift in the increase of the exchange in goods, especially in the Balkans and in the Orient. On its own initiative it attempted to influence competent authorities (especially of the Bavarian Government), together with particularly interested private commercial circles, to enlarge our Danube shipping facilities (primarily the port of Regensburg). Although the Bureau throughout the years, asserted this necessity, which was becoming more and more urgent, and although the Bureau relentlessly maintained its initiative, its endeavors in this matter were unfortunately not crowned by any success. Presumably all responsible authorities regret it bitterly to-day.

Among other projects due to the Foreign Affairs Bureau's initiative, endeavors to grow the rubber-fibered Kok Sagys plant in Germany deserve to be emphasized. This plant is being cultivated in the Soviet Union. In spite of efforts during many years, no success was attained in planting sizeable experimental crops, because of latent disunity among competent authority. The Bureau was compelled to resort to experimental fields in Greece through its own connections in the Balkans.

Somewhat off the beaten path was the Bureau's undertaking in Brazil, which grew out of personal connections, large quantities of cotton (60,000 tons) were successfully brought to Germany under a clearing agreement at a time when imports of this raw material had become very critically short, already necessitating work outs. A Bureau representative was twice the Brazilian Government's guest. Brazil and Iran were the only nations from whom Germany could purchase this indispensable raw material for Reichsmark. The Brazilian Minister expressed his thanks for this initial step to the Head of the Bureau in an address delivered at the occasion of an exposition.

About 40 lecture evenings for diplomats and the foreign press should also be listed. They dealt with the construction of the new Germany, and speakers included many leading personalities of the Reich.

The Bureau has carried out the initiating of all politically feasible projects. With the outbreak of war it was entitled to consider its task as terminated. The exploitation of the many personal connections in many lands can be resumed under a different guise.

Signed: ROSENBERG

2 Inclosures
I Norway
II Rumania

Annex I to Brief Report on Activities of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Nazi Party from 1933 to 1943.

The Political Preparation of the Military Occupation of Norway During the War Years 1939/1940.

As previously mentioned, of all political groupings in Scandinavia only "Nasjonal Samling", led in Norway by the Former Minister of War and Major of the Reserve Vidkun Quisling, deserved serious political attention. This was a fighting political group, possessed by the idea of a Greater Germanic Community. Naturally all ruling powers were hostile and attempted to prevent, by any means, its success among the population. The Bureau maintained constant liaison with Quisling and attentively observed the attacks he conducted with tenacious energy on the middle class which had been taken in tow by the English. From the beginning it appeared probable that without revolutionary events, which would stir the population from their former attitude, no successful progress of Nasjonal Samling was to be expected. During the winter 1938/1939, Quisling was privately visited by a member of the Bureau. When the political situation in Europe came to a head in 1939, Quisling made an appearance at the convention of the Nordic Society [Nordische Gesellschaft] in Luebeck in June. He expounded his conception of the situation, and his apprehensions concerning Norway. He emphatically drew attention to the geopolitically decisive importance of Norway in the Scandinavian area, and to the advantages that would accrue to the power dominating the Norwegian coast in case of a conflict between the Greater German Reich and Great Britain. Assuming that his statements would be of special interest to the Marshal of the Reich Goering for aero-strategical reasons, Quisling was referred to State Secretary [Staatssekretaer] Koerner by the Bureau. The Staff Director [Stabsleiter] of the Bureau handed the Chief of the Reich Chancellery a memorandum for transmission to the Fuehrer. It dealt with the same subject, still taking into account the then doubtful attitude of Soviet Russia. After the outbreak of German-Polish hostilities and of the Soviet-Finnish war, tensions in Scandinavia became more strained and facilitated the work of Anglo-Saxon propaganda. It began to appear possible that, under the pretext of altruistic aid to Finland, Great Britain might intend to occupy Norway, and perhaps Sweden, to complete the anti-German blockade in the North Sea for all practical purposes, and to gain comfortable airplane bases against Germany. The aim would have been to drag the Northern countries, too, into a military conflict with Germany. Apprehensive about this development, Quisling again appeared in Berlin in December 1939. He visited Reichsleiter Rosenberg and Grand Admiral Raeder. In the course of a report to the Fuehrer, Reichsleiter Rosenberg turned the conversation once more to Norway. He especially pointed to Norway's importance should England, to tighten her blockade and under the pretext of aid to Finland, take steps to occupy the country, with the Norwegians' tacit consent. On the basis of his conversation with Quisling and at his own request, Grand Admiral Raeder, too, had been asked to see the Fuehrer. In consequence of these steps, Quisling was granted a personal audience with the Fuehrer on 16 December, and once more on 18 December. In the course of this audience the Fuehrer emphasized repeatedly that he personally would prefer a completely neutral attitude of Norway as well as of the whole of Scandinavia. He did not intend to enlarge the theaters of war and to draw still other nations into the conflict. Should the enemy attempt to spend the war, however, with the aim of achieving further throttling and intimidation of the Greater German Reich, he would be compelled to gird himself against such an undertaking. In order to counterbalance increasing enemy propaganda activity, he promised Quisling financial support of his movement, which is based on Greater Germanic ideology. Military exploitation of the question now raised was assigned to the Special Military Staff, which transmitted special missions to Quisling. Reichsleiter Rosenberg was to take over political exploitation. Financial expenses were to be defrayed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs [Auswaertiges Amt], the Minister for Foreign Affairs being kept continuously by the Foreign Affairs Bureau. Chief of Section [Amtsleiter] Scheidt was charged with maintaining liaison with Quisling. In the course of further developments he was assigned to the Naval Attache in Oslo, Lt. Commander [Korvettenkapitaen] Screiber. Orders were given that the whole matter be handled with strictest secrecy.

Quisling's reports, transmitted through his representative in Germany, Hagelin, and dealing with the possibility of intervention by the Western Powers in Norway with tacit consent of the Norwegian government, became more urgent by January already. These increasingly better substantiated communications were in sharpest contrast to the view of the German Legation in Oslo, which relied on the desire for neutrality of the then Norwegian Nygardsvold cabinet and was convinced of that government's intention and readiness to defend Norway's neutrality. No one in Norway knew that Quisling's representative for Germany maintained closest relations to him; he therefore succeeded in gaining a foothold within governmental circles of the Nygardsvold cabinet, and in listening to cabinet members' true views. Hagelin transmitted what he had heard to the Bureau, which conveyed the news to the Fuehrer through Reichsleiter Rosenberg. During the night of 16 to 17 February English destroyers attacked the German steamer "Altmark" in Jossing fjord. The Norwegian government's reaction to this question permitted the conclusion that certain agreements had been covertly arrived at between the Norwegian government and the Allies. Such assumption was confirmed by reports of Section [Amtsleiter] Scheidt who in turn derived his information from Hagelin and Quisling. But even after this incident the German Legation in Oslo championed the opposite view, and went on record as believing in the good intentions of the Norwegians.

Thanks to his connections in Norway as agent of the Norwegian Navy, Hagelin had succeeded, in the meantime, in being entrusted with the purchase of German AA guns through the German Navy Ministry. Through these connections he gained more and more insight into the real views and intentions of the Norwegian Nygardsvold cabinet, and into the preparations already initiated by the Allies in Norway. At the occasion of his presence in Berlin on 20 March to negotiate about delivery of German AA guns he mentioned that the Allies were now even examining Norwegian ports for loading and transportation facilities. The French Kommandant entrusted with this mission was said to have revealed Allied intentions in confidential conversations with the commander of Narwik, an adherent of Quisling. These intentions were to land motorized troops at Stavanger, Drontheim and perhaps Kirkenes, and to occupy Sola airdrome near Stavanger. Hagelin also re-emphasized his warnings about agreements secretly concluded between the Allies and the Norwegian government according to which the Norwegian government would content itself solely with paper protests in case of a possible occupation of port cities by the Allies. He pointed out that the Norwegian government had never intended to seriously oppose England, and that it was playing a two-faced game with Germany solely to gain time for faits accomplis. He also mentioned that the Norwegian government had been informed by England that Germany intended to lay a minefield from Jutland to the Norwegian coast. In view of all the information that had reached him, Quisling could no longer stand by his advice to await developments in Norway for a little while longer; he was compelled to point out that any delay of the German counter-thrust would entail extraordinary risks. These reports were immediately transmitted to the Fuehrer by Reichsleiter Rosenberg. On 8 April the Allies struck the first blow in preparation for their intended occupation of Norway, thus confirming these reports made by Quisling and his agents, and in contrast to the views held to the end by the German Legation in Oslo and by the expert of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs [Auswaertiges Amt]. During the night from 7 to 8 April minefields were laid alongside the Norwegian coast by the Allied fleet, and the Allied governments informed the world of the steps they had taken. In accordance with indications given by the Bureau, only progressively more tepid protests were made by Norway. By order of the Fuehrer Greater Germany counter-attacked, after corresponding preparation, in the morning of 9 April and occupied the most important Norwegian sea ports and airdromes.

Annex II: Rumania (From the overthrow of Titolescu to Marshal Antonescu)

In spite of almost complete occupation by the Central Powers in the last World War, Rumania was indebted to Versailles for her re-creation, which was effected partially even at the expense of her one-time Eastern ally. A basically sound anti-Semitic tendency existed in this post-war country, which was torn asunder by dynastic squabbles and innumerable party fights. But in spite of repeated efforts this tendency had never risen above the limitations of a club, because of solely scientific doctrinaire leadership. What was lacking was the guiding leadership of a political personality. After manifold grouping trials the Bureau believed to have found such a personality—the former Minister, and poet, Octavian Goga. It was not difficult to convince this poet, pervaded by instinctive inspiration, that a Greater Rumania, though it had to be created in opposition to Vienna, could be maintained only together with Berlin. Nor was it difficult to create in him the desire to link the fate of Rumania with the future of the National Socialist German Reich in good time. By bringing continuing influence to bear, the Bureau succeeded in inducing Octavian Goga as well as Professor Cuza to amalgamate the parties under their leadership on an Anti-Semitic basis. Thus they could carry on with united strength the struggle for Rumania's renascence internally, and her affiliation [Anschluss] with Germany externally. Through the Bureau's initiative both parties, which had heretofore been known by distinct names, were merged as the National-Christian Party, under Goga's leadership and with Cuza as Honorary President. The attempts concurrently undertaken by the Bureau to amalgamate this Party with the much more youthful, but energetic Iron Guard movement were initially frustrated by the apparently insurmountable personal incompatibility of Cuza and Codreanu. At any rate these attempts led to the secret establishment of good personal relations between Goga and the mystic-fanciful Codreanu.

In the course of the years after his return, the king had succeeded in becoming the country's decisive factor through crafty tactics in dealing with the dominant political parties. Had the Bureau also succeeded in merging the National-Christian Party with Codreanu, Rumania would have obtained sharply anti-Semitic leadership based on strong mass support. Such leadership could have attained its aims even against the will of the king. However, surviving rivalries between the country's anti-Semitic trends later enabled the king to use them separately for his plan, in order to destroy them as far as possible.

The struggle for re-orientation of Rumania's foreign policy was taken up by Goga with bold elan. He had earlier succeeded in upsetting the position of Foreign Minister Titulescu, the agent of Franco, of the Geneva League of Nations and of the Little Entente. Titulescu was later overthrown. Among the numerous, not very significant splinter parties, the "Young Liberals", founded by George Bratianu, supported Goga's campaign, without joining the anti-Semitic trend. The Rumanian front of Vaida Voevod, wobbling to and fro among all camps, adopted a similar position for some time.

Through intermediaries, the Bureau maintained constant contact with both tendencies, just like it constantly consulted with Goga, through Staff Director [Stabsleiter] Schickedanz, about tactics to be followed. The whole struggle was accelerated by Soviet Russia's increasing pressure in the Bessarabian question, and by the process of political rapprochement with Moscow, which was supported by Paris and Prague. Following a long period of recurring political trials involving scandal and graft, Rumania's internal struggle for the future make-up of the country had been aggravated by the coming to the front of the Christian-Nationalist Party and of the Iron Guard. This struggle was being fought with increasing bitterness. The king's attitude towards the national movement was procrastinating and underhanded. The movement was agreeable to him for eliminating the two parties which, by tradition, took turns in the government. But he intended to prevent the unequivocal victory of anti-Semitic and racial [Voelkisch] principles, influenced by growing Nationalism, in the country. That is why the Nationalists' foreign policy, secretly projected by Germany, did not fit into his plans. Because he was in possession of the police and of the army, he remained the decisive factor in the country. After repeated postponement of the elections, which were legally due, the king decided to hold an election. The decision was based on a very reliable report of his then Prime Minister Taterescu. Taterescu was convinced that the Liberal Party would again receive 40% of all votes, through the machinations customary in Fomia. However, after a bitter election campaign the Liberal Party suffered painful defeat. The opposition National Movement had achieved indisputable victory in spite of all chicanery and machinations by their opponents. The Iron Guard received about 16% of the total vote, the National-Christian Party Goga-Cuza about 11%, the government party about 35%. The rest of the votes were scattered. After some vacillation and hesitancy, the king appointed Goga Prime Minister on 27 December 1937 with a binding promise that Parliament would be dismissed and new elections held within the legally prescribed time limit. In spite of warnings by the Bureau Goga believed the promise given by the king. But the king was only attempting to gain time.

Thus a second government on racial and anti-Semitic foundations had appeared in Europe, in a country in which such an event had been considered completely impossible. The government immediately made known its intention to proceed against Jewish predominance in the country and declared repeatedly that it would have to subject Rumania's previous foreign policy to re-examination and reform. In the meantime the Judaic-Masonic and liberal opposition did not lose time. Passions were inflamed and became increasingly more envenomed. It looked like a hot and bloody election campaign. The prospects of Goga's Christian-Nationalist Party pointed to a big victory with sure certainty, especially since, with the Bureau's cooperation he had on the sly made a secret agreement with Codreanu. To be sure, Goga did not act on the Bureau's advice to immediately develop his party cadres, to expand his party machine all over the country and to permeate the police and gendarmerie. Goga postponed the execution of organizational reform, which he also intended, until after the election. He considered himself to be under obligation to the king not to undertake anything until the electoral decisions had been rendered, but to take steps all the more incisively after legally attaining the majority.

In innumerable interviews the opposition must have succeeded in convincing the king that an electoral victory of Goga would react most acutely against the king himself. In that case he would no longer be able to get rid of the ghosts he had called in; if Goga attained a two-thirds majority, he, the king, would be Goga's captive. These expostulations, and the uncontrollable Judaic influences of the Jewish clique at the Rumanian court, plus the pressure of the French and British Ministers led to a change in the king's attitude, assuming that this change had not already been anticipated by him at the time of Goga's appointment. The king decided to prevent the elections. Goga resisted. Thereupon the king offered Goga the formation of an authoritarian government, i.e., a government created solely by virtue of royal sovereignty. That meant a coup d'etat. Goga declined. Thereupon the king informed Goga that he would accept the cabinet's resignation, which, however, had not even been offered to him. Goga realized too late that the strength at his disposal was entirely inadequate to thwart the king's plans. He resigned.

But the course once embarked upon forced even the king to pay heed to the mood that had been created in the country. Also, a return to the disrupted foreign-policy ties was no longer possible. Although an authoritarian system had been built up, Rumania found herself without her former backing. The French security system had been ruptured and could not be re-established, if only in view of Yugoslavia's attitude in the South-East, where relations established by other German agencies had simultaneously loosened the cohesiveness of the Little Entente. That, at any rate, was the Goga government's success.

In his last great speech to the Rumania Academy, shortly before his death, Goga welcomed Austria's affiliation with Germany, and affirmed for the last time his belief in adherence to new Greater German Reich and to Fascist Italy, a belief he had struggled for.

Now the king's war of extermination against the Iron Guard began. Codreanu was arrested with his closest collaborators, to face a specially convoked court-martial. Sole basis for the prosecution was an alleged communication from Codreanu to the Fuehrer, which was proved to be a forgery, and a telegram addressed to the Fuehrer. On the basis of these "records" he was sentenced to ten years' hard labor. In vain did the Bureau attempt to bring about an intervention of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in this episode, which diminished the whole prestige of the German Reich. It did not prevail against the official agencies, which condemned the entire project of the Bureau in Rumania, because the official German delegation expected their sole salvation from the attitude of the king and his creatures. Logically, the acceptance without dissent of this challenge was interpreted in Bucharest as granting carte blanche and Codreanu was shot with his closest collaborators for establishment of the first personal contact between the King and the Fuehrer.

This appeared to doom the Iron Guard, too, Goga's party, deprived of his leadership, was submerged into insignificance. But Goga left behind a personal heir, who is now Marshal Antonescu. Against the king's wish, Goga had appointed this politically insignificant provincial general, with whom the king was on bad terms, as his Minister of War. At first, completely pro French in outlook, Antonescu gradually adopted a different view under Goga's influence. After Goga's resignation, Antonescu still remained in the king's cabinet at Goga's wish. He also maintained continued relations with the Iron Guard. Thereby the possibility of eliminating the king was at hand—and was exploited. Antonescu's to-day appears in practice as executor of the heritage bequeathed to him by Goga, who had led him from political insignificance into the political arena. Thereby a change to Germany's liking had become possible in Rumania.

[signed] ROSENBERG

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 014-PS

Report to the Fuehrer

I report the arrival of the principal shipment of ownerless Jewish "cultural property" [Kulturgut] in the salvage location Neuschwanstein by special train on Saturday the 15th of this month. It was secured by my staff for Special Purposes [Einsatzstab] in Paris. The especial train, arranged for by Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, comprised 25 express baggage cars filled with the most valuable paintings, furniture, Gobelins, works of artistic craftsmanship and ornaments. The shipment consisted chiefly of the most important parts of the collections Rothschild, Seligmann, Bernheim-Jeune, Halphen, Kann, Weil-Picard, Wildenstein, David-Weill, Levy-Benzion.

My Staff for Special Purposes started the confiscatory action in Paris during October 1940 on the basis of your order, my Fuehrer. With the help of the Security Service (SD) and the Secret Field Police [Geheime Feldpolizei] all storage—and hiding-places of art possessions belonging to the fugitive Jewish emigrants were systematically ascertained. These possessions were then collected in the locations provided for by the Louvre in Paris. The art historians of my staff have itemized scientifically the complete art-material and have photographed all works of value. Thus, after completion, I shall be able to submit to you shortly a conclusive catalogue of all confiscated works with exact data about origin plus scientific evaluation and description. At this time the inventory includes more than 4000 individual pieces of art, partly of the highest artistic value. Besides this special train the masterpieces selected by the Reichsmarschall—mainly from the Rothschild collection—have been forwarded in two special cars to Munich already some time ago. They have been deposited there in the air raid shelters of the Fuehrer-building.

According to instruction the chief special train has been unloaded in Fussen. The cases containing pictures, furniture etc. have been stored in the castle Neuschwanstein. My deputies accompanied the special train and took care of the unloading in Neuschwanstein too.

First of all the paintings have to be unpacked to determine any possible damage suffered during the transport. Furthermore, the observation of climatic influences upon the paintings and their future careful maintenance necessitate their unpacking as well as their skillful setting-up. Due to lack of time a part of the shipment has not yet been fully inventoried in Paris. This has to be taken care of by my co-workers on the spot in Neuschwanstein to supplement the inventory in full. I have detached for Neuschwanstein the necessary technical and scientific personnel of my staff for the execution of this work. The required time for the unpacking and arranging in Neuschwanstein as well as the preparing of the exhibition rooms will take approximately 4 weeks. I shall report the completion of the work to you then, and request you, my Fuehrer, to let me show you the salvaged works of art at the spot. This will give you a survey over the work accomplished by my staff for Special Purposes.

Over and above the chief shipment there are secured in Paris a mass of additional abandoned Jewish art possessions. These are being processed in the same sense and prepared for shipment to Germany. Exact accounts about the extent of this remaining shipment are at the moment not available. However, it is estimated that the work in the Western areas will be finished entirely within two to three months. Then a second transport can be brought to Germany.

Berlin, 20 March 1941

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 015-PS

[Rosenberg Letter and Report to Hitler]

16 April 1943
673/R/Ma

Mr Fuehrer:

In my desire to give you, my Fuehrer, some joy for your birthday I take the liberty to present to you a folder containing photos of some of the most valuable paintings which my special purpose staff [Einsatzstab], in compliance with your order, secured from ownerless Jewish art collections in the occupied western territories. These photos represent an addition to the collection of 53 of the most valuable objects of art delivered some time ago to your collection. This folder also shows only a small percentage of the exceptional value and extent of these objects of art, seized by my service command [Dienststelle] in France, and put into a safe place on the Reich.

I beg of you, my Fuehrer, to give me a chance during my next audience to report to you orally on the whole extent and scope of this art seizure action. I beg you to accept a short written intermediate report of the progress and extent of the art seizure action which will be used as a basis for this later oral report, and also accept 3 copies of the temporary picture catalogues which, too, only show part of the collection you own. I shall deliver further catalogues which are now being compiled, when they are finished. I shall take the liberty during the requested audience to give you, my Fuehrer, another 20 folders of pictures, with the hope that this short occupation with the beautiful things of art which are nearest to your heart will send a ray of beauty and joy into your revered life.

Heil, my Fuehrer

Intermediate Report of the Seizure of Ownerless Jewish Art Possessions, by the Special Purpose Staff [Einsatzstab] of Reichsleiter Rosenberg in the Occupied Western Territories.

The seizure action began in compliance with the Fuehrer order of 17 Sept 1940. At first those art collections were seized which the Jews, fleeing from occupied territories, left behind in Paris. The seizure action was extended to all remaining cities and villages of the occupied French territory where it was thought that Jewish art collections might be hidden. By using all possible ways and means we discovered and seized all Jewish art collections which were hidden either in Jewish homes in Paris, in castles in the provinces or in warehouses and other storage places. The seizure action was in part very difficult and tedious and, up to now, not all completed. The escaped Jews knew how to camouflage the hiding places of these objects of art, and to find them was made more difficult by the Frenchmen originally charged with the administration of the hiding places. The special purpose staff [Einsatzstab] in connection with the security police [Sicherheitsdienst-SD], the squad for the protection of the foreign currency market [Devisenschutzkommando] and by using their own ingenuity succeeded in securing the main part of art collections, left behind by the escaped Jews, and bringing it safely to the Reich. The most important part of the action was the securing of 79 collections of well-known Jewish art collectors in France. The list of collections is attached hereto. Top place on the list is taken by the famous collections of the Jewish family of Rothschild. The difficulty of the seizure action is shown by the fact that the Rothschild collections were distributed over various places in Paris, in Bordeaux and in the Loire castles of the Rothschilds, and could only be found after a long and tedious search. Although the action covered the past 2 years, we discovered and secured, through the use of trusted agents, quite a large part of the Rothschild collection in 1942.

Besides the seizure of these complete Jewish art collections, we also searched all vacant Jewish apartments in Paris and other places for single art objects which might have been left behind. The main job in this action was to ascertain all addresses of Jews, escaped from the occupied territories, since we had to overcome quite a few difficulties on the part of the French police force which naturally tried their best to retard our progress. During this search through hundreds of single Jewish apartments a large amount of art objects were secured.

These in this manner secured collections and single pieces of art were transferred to central collecting points in Paris, located in the so-called Jeu de Paume and rooms of the Louvre. The art expert of the special purpose staff inventoried, photographed and packed all secured objects of art. Taking the inventory was made more difficult by the fact that all data pertaining to the collection were suppressed by the former owners. For this reason each art object had to be examined separately for origin, place where found, and period. The work is so designed that at its conclusion the finished inventory will represent an unimpeachable document, as far as the historical background of the art collection is concerned. It will show, on one side, the monetary, and on the other, the historical value. The Jewish owners and collectors only judged these collections by their material value. Consequently they did not recognize the historical value and therefore showed no inclination to make these collections available for research. However, this research has now been accomplished by the sorely understaffed special purpose staff. All their findings were incorporated into 3 temporary books which will serve as basis for one catalogue, soon to be compiled.

During the time from 17 Sept 1940 to 7 April 1943, 10 transports of 92 cars or a total of 2775 crates were sent to Germany. The contents of the crates were: paintings, antique furniture, Gobelins, objects of art, etc. Besides all this another special transport of 53 art objects was shipped to the Fuehrerbau in Muenchen, and 594 pieces (paintings, plastics, furniture, textiles) delivered to Reichs Marshal [Goering].

Castle Neuschanstein was designated as the first shelter. After this castle was filled, the Bavarian administration for state-owned castles and parks saw fit to relinquish several rooms in the castle Herrenchiemsee for further shipments.

Since these 2 shelters were not enough and since the Bavarian administration could not supply any more we rented 2 more in the neighborhood; it was made possible through the intervention of the State Treasurer [Reichsschatzmeister]. We rented several rooms in the former Salesianer monastery at Buxheim near Memmingen in Schwaben and the privately owned castle Kogl near Voecklabruck at Upper Austria [Oberdonau]. The location and condition of these 2 shelters is such that they are perfect in regards to safety against air attack and fire, and can easily be guarded. All art objects are so divided between the 4 shelters that it is possible to continue the inventory and care, and that no large collections of valuable art objects will be concentrated in any one place. All measures for safety are taken care of by the combined efforts of: 1. the Bavarian administration for castles and parks, 2. the central control of the fire prevention police, and 3. the local representatives of State and Party. In this way the highest degree of safety has been achieved.

9455 articles in the aforementioned shelters have been completely inventoried, as of 1 April 1943. The inventory is as follows:

5255 Paintings
297 Sculptures
1372 Pieces antique furniture
307 Textiles
2224 Small objects of art, including East-Asiatic art

The inventory in addition to records of seizure and lists of seizure and transport, follows the pattern of the enclosed file card [Karteikarte]. On this file card is noted all information necessary to characterize all objects as to origin, master, technique, time, etc. These file cards together with the extended explanations of the men charged with taking the inventory constitute the basis for the editing of the master catalogue. Besides this there is in preparation a photo-library in one of the central offices in Berlin, as well as in Neuschwanstein. Since the number of technicians was small, the time short, and the necessity of a quick expert from Paris was paramount, only the most valuable objects were inventoried in Paris. Therefore the inventory has to be continued in the shelters. According to the latest count there are approximately 10,000 more objects to be inventoried.

At present there are 400 crates in Paris, ready for shipment which will be sent to the Reich as soon as necessary preliminary work in Paris is completed. Should the present 4 shelters not prove sufficient for consequent shipments, 2 more places, namely the castle Bruck near Linz and the camp Seisenegg near Amstetten on the lower Danube have been prepared.

For reasons of fire prevention all art objects in the shelters had to be unpacked skillfully. These measures were also necessary to accomplish the inventory and to continue with the care of the valuable art objects. Restoration has begun since many needed it when we acquired them. At present a repair shop with all necessary tools is being outfitted in Fuessen in which all paintings, pieces of furniture and other objects will be restored, to safeguard preservation. The unpacking, the continuation of the inventory, and the establishment of the photo-library, and too, the editing of the master catalogue, will take considerable time.

The action of seizure [Fassungaktion] in Paris and occupied Western territories will be continued, although on a reduced scale, since there are still new art objects of great value to be found. The administration of the East not only will seize furniture, but also the art objects which might yet be found there. Here too valuable art objects were found in the last months. These art objects, found during the collection of furniture, were also sent to the shelters and will receive the same treatment as the others. Besides these objects, whose art value is established, hundreds of modern French paintings were seized which from the German standpoint are without value as far as the national-socialist art conception is concerned. These works of modern French painters will be listed separately, for a later decision as to their disposition.

On orders from the Reichs Marshal some of the works of modern and degenerate French art were exchanged in Paris for paintings of known value. The exchange was of great advantage to us, since we received 87 works by Italian, Dutch and German masters who are known to be of great value. We shall continue to trade whenever a chance presents itself. At the completion of the action a proposal as to the disposition of the modern and degenerate French paintings will be presented.

Berlin, 16 April 1943

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 016-PS

The Deputy for the 4 Year Plan
The General Plenipotentiary for Labor Mobilization
GBA

Berlin W 8, 24 April 1942
Mohrenstrasse 65 (Thuringia/House)
Phone: 126571

Bureau of Ministry [Ministerburo] received 27. April 1942, No.
0887 Min. 28/v

Dr. K.P. has been informed

Very esteemed and dear Party-member Rosenberg!

Inclosed please find my program for the mobilization of labor. Please excuse the fact that this copy still contains a few corrections.

Heil Hitler!
Yours
[signed]: Fritz Sauckel

5 copies

copy for Mr. Wittenbacher
[signed]: WACHS
70x

[Stamp]

Chancellory 1 May 1942 (Kanzlei) Mischke
read: ILFL/KS 45.42
filed: I-5, 5/5 42 Pg

To The "Reichsminister" for the Occupied Territories of the
East, Party-Member Rosenberg

Berlin

The Deputy for the Four Year Plan
The Plenipotentiary for Labor-Mobilization

20 April 1942

Sckl./We.

The Labor-Mobilization Program

On the occasion of the Hero/Memorial Day, in 1942, the hardest and most gigantic commitment of German soldiery in all history was announced to the German people by the Fuehrer. Besides the heroic and victorious conduct against an enemy of an unheard of superiority in number and material, and fighting with the courage of utter despair and beastly brutality, stands the endurance of hardships unparalleled in history of severest winter of cold, ice, snow and story since 140 years. The conquest of the unbelievable difficulties arising from such a climate and terrible weather conditions elevates our soldiers of the East Front, by comparison with the human and soldierly efforts of all times up to now, without exaggeration, to supermen.

It is now the duty of the Home Front towards those soldiers to summon all its strength for an equally gigantic effort to enable them to win complete, final and most rapid victory.

All the burdens and further necessary restrictions, even in the field of nutrition, must be endured with proud determination in consideration of the shining example of the soldiers.

Our Armed Forces of Greater Germany surpassed themselves in heroism, resistance and endurance at the Front of the East, in Africa, in the air and on the sea. To insure their victory in any case, it is necessary now to produce more and better weapons, materiel and ammunition through another increased effort and endeavor of the entire German people, that is, all the producing workers, intellectual and manual, the women and the entire German Youth.

In this manner will the German Home Front contribute decisively to the frustration of the hopes of our enemies to again escape their complete and final defeat.

The aim of this new, gigantic labor mobilization is to use all the rich and tremendous sources, conquered and secured for us by our fighting Armed Forces under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, for the armament of the Armed Forces and also for the nutrition of the Homeland. The raw-materials as well as the fertility of the conquered territories and their human labor power are to be used completely and conscientiously to the profit of Germany and their allies.

In spite of the fact that most of the German people capable of doing so have already made a most commendable effort for the war economy, more considerable reserves must be found and made available under any circumstances.

The decisive measure to realize this is in the uniformly regulated and directed Labor-mobilization of the nation in the war.

To reach this goal, the following principles must be worked out and executed:

A. All important Production Programs, actually in progress, must under no circumstances be disturbed by the new measures. On the contrary, they should even be increased.

B. All orders of the Fuehrer, Reichs-Fieldmarshal of the Greater German Reich and the "Minister" for ammunition and armament are to be carried out as quickly as possible. Labor supply necessary for that purpose must be freed and made available either in Germany or in the occupied territories.

C. The task concerning the seed and harvest of German peasantry and all the territories under German control with the view to secure the largest production is just as urgent. The lacking laborers must be made available as quickly as possible.

D. A supply system for the vitally necessary materials for the German people will be assured.

The realization of these principles for labor-mobilization requires:

1. The cooperation of all the forces of the party, economy and the state under coordinated leadership.

2. The best will of all the German people.

3. The most far-reaching measures to imbue all the employed German workmen and women with the highest confidence in the justice of the consideration of their own personal welfare and their salaries as well as the best possible care for their health and shelter under the actual war circumstances.

4. The quickest and best solution of the question of the use of women and youth labor.

To reach the goal determined by the Fuehrer the simultaneous and quickest use of numerous different measures of unified purpose are absolutely necessary. As any one of those must not interfere with the others, but rather complement them, it is also absolutely necessary that all the offices [Dienststellen] in the Reich, its territories and communities, in party, state and economy, participating in this decisive task act according to coordinated, synchronized directives.

Thus, the labor-mobilization of the nation contributes extraordinarily to the quickest and victorious termination of the war. It requires every effort of the German people on the Home front. It is for that German people, for their preservation, their freedom, happiness and amelioration of their nutrition and standards of living that this war is being fought.

Basic Principles

I. In the districts [Gau], it is the task of the district-chief [Gauleiter] to take in his hands the propaganda and orientation of the German people concerning the necessity of labor-mobilization and to carry out important measures for the care of the employed youth and women as well as to supervise the condition of camps and shelters.

They also assure themselves of the closest and friendliest cooperation of all the participating institutions.

II. It is not only the most distinguished duty of the General Plenipotentiary, but a condition sine qua non for the success of his task, to assure himself of the utmost cooperation and understanding of all the highest Reichs-Bureaus [Reichs-stellen], especially those offices [Dienststellen] of the Armed Forces whose departments are concerned with his task.

III. Equally necessary is the mutual understanding of all the Reichs-leaders [Reichsleiter] of the party, especially the cooperation of the German Labor Front [Deutsche Arbeitsfront] and the institutions of economy.

IV. The General Plenipotentiary for labor mobilization will therefore use with the help of the smallest, personal staff of assistants the existing party, state and economic institutions and assure the quickest success of his measure with the good will and the cooperation of all concerned.

V. The General Plenipotentiary for labor mobilization has therefore, with the consent of the Fuehrer and the knowledge of the Reichsmarshal of Greater Germany and the director [Leiter] of the Party Chancellory [Reichskanzlei] appointed all the district chiefs [Gauleiters] as his plenipotentiaries in the German Districts of the National Socialist Party.

VI. The plenipotentiaries for labor mobilization are using all the offices of the Party in their district. The chiefs of the highest offices of the State and economy of their districts will assist and advise the District chiefs in all matters concerning the labor mobilization.

The most important for that purpose would be the following:

The President of the Land Labor Office [Praesident des Landesarbeitsamtes],

The Trustee for Labor, [Treuhaender der Arbeit],

The leader of the Peasants [Landesbauernfuehrer],

The economic adviser of the district [Gauwirtschaftsberator],

The District Superintendant of the German Labor Front [Gauobmann der Deutschen Arbeitsfront],

The leader of the womanhood of the district [Gaufrauenschaftsleiterin],

The leader of the Hitler Youth of the region [Gebietsfuehrer der Hitler-Jugend],

The highest representative of the interior and general administration, and of the office for Agriculture [der hoechste Vertreter der Inneren und Allgemeinen Verwaltung bzw. des Landeswirtschaftsamtes].

Should the confines [Bezirk] of a Land-Labor Office comprise several Districts, it seems advisable that the President of the Land-Labor Office in question should make available to the District Chief, in whose district capital there is no Land-Labor Office, his closest and most capable assistants in such a way that also in those offices the continuous information and instruction of the district-chiefs about all the measures concerning the labor-mobilization remains assured.

VII. The most distinguished and important task of the district-chiefs of the National Socialist Party in their capacity as plenipotentiaries in their districts consists in assuring the best understanding and cooperation of all the offices of their districts participating in the labor-mobilization.

Nevertheless, it must be strictly observed that the dignitaries of the party and the offices of the National Socialist Party, its organizations, sub-divisions and attached institutions do not assume functions coming under the jurisdiction of the State, the Armed Forces or economic institutions and for which only those authorities are responsible; they are not to interfere with official business not coming under their jurisdiction, according to the wish of the Fuehrer.

Should we succeed with the help of the Party in convincing all the German intellectual and manual workers of the great importance of the labor-mobilization for the outcome of the war, and succeed in taking good care and keeping up the morale of all the men, women, and the German youths who work within the labor-mobilization program under extraordinarily strenuous circumstances, as far as their physical and mental capabilities of endurance are concerned, and should we furthermore be able, also with the help of the party, to use prisoners of war as well as civilian workmen and women of foreign blood not only without harm to our own people but to the greatest advantage to our war and nutrition industries, then we will have accomplished the most difficult part of the labor mobilization program.

The Task and its Solution

(No figures are mentioned because of security reasons. I can assure you, nevertheless, that we are concerned with the greatest labor-problem of all times, especially with regard to figures.)

A. The Task:

1. The conscription of new soldiers to a gigantic extent for all branches and services of the Armed Forces has been rendered necessary by the present war-situation.

This means:

a. The removal of workers from all professional enterprises, especially of a great number of trained personnel from armament producing war industries.

b. Also the removal of especially non-essential personnel from the war nutrition industry.

2. The war situation also necessitates the continuation of the tremendously increased and improved armament programs as ordered by the Fuehrer.

3. The most essential commodities for the German people must continue to be produced for minimum requirements.

4. The German housewife's health, particularly the health of those on the farms, must not be endangered in their quality as mothers by the war. On the contrary, they must be relieved in every possible way.

B. The Solution:

1. All skilled workers removed from defense plants through induction into the Armed Forces must absolutely and immediately be replaced in such a way that no bottleneck or decrease in the production of the war product results. It is the responsibility of all the authorities for the labor mobilization to make sure that this directive is considered in each case.

The most capable workers must, therefore, be removed from the reserves of discontinued, lesser defense installations, and the discontinued construction industry and be made available to the enterprises from which specialists are being called into the Armed Forces, 8 weeks before their actual induction, in order to enable them to instruct and familiarize their replacement with their work.

2. Workmen or women available because of destruction or damage of their installations must just as quickly be made available and incorporated again in the war industry.

3. The Armament and Nutrition tasks make it vitally necessary, not only to include the entire German labor power but also to call on foreign labor.

Consequently, I immediately tripled the transport program which I found when I took charge of my mission.

The main effort of that transport has been advanced into the months of May-June in order to assure in time and under any circumstances the availability of foreign labor power from the occupied territories for an increased production, in view of coming operations of the army, as well as agricultural labor in the sector of the German Nutrition Industry.

All prisoners of war, from the territories of the West as well of the East, actually in Germany, must be completely incorporated into the German armament and nutrition industries. Their production must be brought to the highest possible level.

It must be emphasized, however, that an additional tremendous quantity of foreign labor has to be found for the Reich. The greatest pool for that purpose are the occupied territories of the East.

Consequently, it is an immediate necessity to use the human reserves of the conquered Soviet territory to the fullest extent. Should we not succeed in obtaining the necessary amount of labor on a voluntary basis, we must immediately institute conscription or forced labor.

Apart from the prisoners of war still in the occupied territories, we must, therefore, requisition skilled or unskilled male and female labor from the Soviet territory from the age of 15 up for the labor-mobilization.

On the other hand, one quarter of the total need of foreign labor can be procured in Europe's occupied territories West of Germany, according to existing possibilities.

The procurement of labor from friendly and also neutral countries can only cover a small part of the total need. Practically only skilled workers and specialists can be considered in this case.

4. In order to relieve considerably the German housewife, especially the mother with many children and the extremely busy farm-woman and in order to avoid any further danger to their health, the Fuehrer also charged me with the procurement of 400,000-500,000 selected, healthy and strong girls from the territories of the East for Germany.

5. The spring cultivation of the fields [Fruehjahrsbestellung] will be assured by the use of the German youth in class-formation, together with their teachers according to an agreement with Reichs-Youth-Leader [Reichsjugendfuehrer] and the responsible, highest Reichs-Authorities.

6. The labor mobilization of the German women is of very great importance.

Examining this very difficult problem and after getting thoroughly acquainted with the fundamental opinion of the Fuehrer as well as of the Reichsmarshal of the Greater German Reich and my own most careful inquiries and their results, I must absolutely reject the possibility of having an obligatory service decreed by the State for all German women and girls for the German War and Nutrition industry.

Although, at the beginning, I myself, and probably the majority of the leading personalities of the party and of the womanhood with me, believed that for certain reasons an obligatory service for women should be decreed, I am of the opinion that all responsible men and women in party, state and economy should accept with the greatest veneration and gratitude the judgment of our Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, whose greatest concern has always been the health of the German women and girls; in other words, the present and future mothers of our nation.

I cannot enumerate all the reasons which made me come to that decision. I only ask for confidence in me as an old fanatical district chief of the National Socialist party and to believe that this could be the only possible decision.

We all agree that this decision might appear unjust towards millions of women who are engaged in defense and nutrition industries under the most strenuous conditions but we also realize that an evil cannot be remedied by spreading it to the utmost.

The only possible way to eliminate the existing injustices and hardships consists in winning the war in order to enable us to remove all women and girls engaged from jobs unsuitable for women, namely endangering their health, the birth-rate of our nation, and family and national life.

We must also consider the difference, whether a woman or girl has been used to work in the field or in a factory because of her young age, and whether already she has proved to be able to stand this kind of work.

Aside from physical harm, the German women and girls under any circumstances must be protected from moral and mental harm according to the wish of the Fuehrer.

It is doubtful that these conditions could be fulfilled in the case of mass-conscription and employment. It is impossible to compare the German Woman with the German soldier in this case, because of the existing fundamental natural and racial differences between man and woman.

We cannot accept the responsibility for the dangers threatening the life of the nation resulting from such a measure in the field of women labor mobilization, in view of the countless men on the fighting front—our dead soldiers.

The many millions of women, however, faithfully and industriously engaged in the German economy, and especially now, in war time, rendering valuable services, deserve the best possible care and consideration. They, as well as the soldiers and workmen, deserve the greatest gratitude of our nation. They must be treated in the best possible way by the labor offices and labor authorities and their economic and health necessities must be generously considered. The Fuehrer as well as the Reichsmarshal of the Greater German Reich attach the greatest value to those measures. For instance, it would be completely wrong to threaten pregnant women with punishment and court procedures, as has happened already, if they miss a day of work because of troubles resulting from their condition during the usual period of precaution [Schonungsperiode]. Nevertheless, it must and will be possible to maintain the necessary work discipline.

7. A last, but also important reserve consists in the possibility of the personal increased production of each German worker. It will be the most distinguished task of the party and the German labor front to achieve that increased production. There is no doubt that the German intellectual and mental worker will accomplish it, no matter where he works and in spite of the difficult conditions of our present nutrition.

This will be the best way for the German worker on the home front to express his gratitude towards the soldier on the fighting front who bears the most gigantic and terrible hardships in this severe winter, thus remaining victorious over our enemies.

It is also the task of the party, State and economy in cooperation to improve the sick rate by 1 percent through the adequate cooperation of health insurance institutions [Krankenkasse] and approved doctors [Vertrauensarzt]. This was accomplished in the district of Thuringia. Such an improvement of the sick rate throughout the Reich would mean the gain of 200,000 new workers.

The severest measures must be used against loafers, as we can not allow those parasites to shunt their duties in this decisive struggle of our people at the cost of the others.

I tried to determine the exterior solution of the task concerning the labor mobilization, as conditioned by the present war situation, under paragraph B, 1-7.

It is only natural that all the possibilities contained in that paragraph will be completely exhausted. The rejection of a general conscription of all the women and girls does not mean that I condemn absolutely the use of women and girls who are in a position to make themselves available for a suitable job wherever they can be useful to the war industry without violating the principles of the Fuehrer. This will be done in closest cooperation with the competent offices of the party, state, the Armed Forces and the economy.

The labor mobilization program as laid down in paragraph 1-7 constitutes not only the greatest labor mobilization of a people but also in history.

Adolf Hitler, however, made it clear through his idea of National Socialism that figures are not the decisive factor in the life of nations. Besides the tremendous figure of the employed labor forces stands their productive capacity. This productive capacity depends not only on the amount of calories, which I put at their disposal in the form of nourishment, but also on their moral and mental condition.

This makes it necessary to consider besides the gigantic, organizational question, the questions of nutrition, shelter, orientation, propaganda, and spiritual guidance.

Measures to be Taken to Assure the Well-Being of German Workmen and Women

There must be no doubt for the German producing people that they out-do by far all the other workers of the world through their conscientious work and their readiness to accept the most strenuous tasks under proper political and philosophical guidance.

The district Chiefs will at this decisive stage of the war assure with the help of all the institutions and organizations of the party the best political and ideological care ever known in the history of labor and humanity in wartime, for the German producing people in their districts.

I am convinced in my capacity as general plenipotentiary for labor mobilization that everything will be done by the party to maintain within or without the plants the attitude and morale of the German workers on a high level through the use of all means of propaganda and orientation, meetings and appeals, as the only way to make the home front worthy of the fighting front, and the only means of accomplishing this gigantic task and winning the war.

I will constantly see to it, that the authorities for labor mobilization as well as the managers of the plants assist the party and primarily the German labor front in its decisive and great task in this field.

Even workmen and women employed in war plants in their home towns and living and eating with their families must be properly looked after. I mention only: Provisions of coal and potatoes, consideration of their possibility to get to their place of work. The lack of spring vegetables and other troubles caused by war conditions and affecting the nerves and health of our people must be offset by the strength and satisfaction gathered by the realization of the National Socialist principles of folks community [Volksgemeinschaft] social justice and the necessity to hold out together and the belief and the confidence in our Fuehrer.

This task becomes much more complicated in the case of those millions of workmen and women who have been conscripted for labor far from their homes in jobs they are not used to. This is a necessity of war.

Such utilization of labor power can neither be restricted nor can the hardships connected with it be reduced.

The aim is to make life for our folks comrades [Volkskameraden] as agreeable as possible and to facilitate the conditions of their utilization. All these German people must be assisted by billeting them, if possible, in decently furnished rooms under as decent conditions, by encouraging companionship during their free time through the party and to assure prompt issue of ration tickets and other such things.

In this connection the Politeness-Drive [Aktion "Hoeflichkeit"] introduced by Reichs-Director party member Dr. Goebbels will be binding to the utmost for all labor offices and all offices of economy and nutrition.

All camps where German producing people, men or women, are to be quartered, must be perfect examples of German cleanliness, order and hygiene.

The German plants and the German economy must not hesitate to do everything in their power to make life far from their own homes and families tolerable for conscripted folks comrades men or women quartered in those camps. As there is a complete order guaranteed in a way for the German soldier of the Armed Forces in his company for his external requirements as well as for his character, which elevates him far above the soldiers of other nations, so should this also be made possible in adequately applied form for the producing men within the labor mobilization program.

The necessary measures for the care of the producing German people within the labor mobilization program should therefore be carried out to the fullest extent by the German labor front.

In case of more extensive commitment of women and girls away from their home towns and families, the rules for shelter and care as applied by the women's labor service [Weiblichen Arbeitsdienstes] must fundamentally be respected.

Prisoners of War and Foreign Workers.

The complete employment of all prisoners of war as well as the use of a gigantic number of new foreign civilian workers, men and women, has become an indisputable necessity for the solution of the mobilization of labor program in this war.

All the men must be fed, sheltered and treated in such a way as to exploit them to the highest possible extent at the lowest conceivable degree of expenditure.

It has always been natural for us Germans to refrain from cruelty and mean chicaneries towards the beaten enemy, even if he had proven himself the most bestial and most implacable adversary, and to treat him correctly and humanly, even when we expect useful work of him.

As long as the German defense industry did not make it absolutely necessary, we refrained under any circumstances from the use of Soviet prisoners of war as well as of civilian workers, men or women, from the Soviet territories. This has now become impossible and the labor power of these people must now be exploited to the greatest extent.

Consequently, I arranged my first measures concerning the food, shelter and treatment of these foreign laborers with the highest competent Reichs-authorities and with the consent of the Fuehrer and the Reichsmarshal of the Greater German Reich in such a way that a top performance will be demanded and will be obtained.

It must be remembered, though, that even the effort of a machine is conditioned by the amount of fuel, skill and care given to it. How many more conditions must be considered in the case of men, even of low kind and race, than in the case of a machine!

I could not accept the responsibility towards the German people, if after having brought such a tremendous number of men to Germany these men would one day become a burden for the German people or even endanger their health, instead of doing very necessary and useful work, because of mistakes made in their nutrition, shelter and treatment.

The principles of German cleanliness, order and hygiene must therefore also be carefully applied to Russian camps.

Only in such a way will it be possible to exploit that labor to the highest benefit of arms production for the fighting front and for the war nutrition program, without any trace of false sentimentalism.

The necessary instructions concerning the food, shelter and treatment of the people from the East have been communicated to the competent authorities of the police, defense and nutrition bureaus; beyond that, I turn to the district-chiefs of the National Socialist Party with the request to assist me also in this field to the best of their abilities, in order to avoid any harm that might result from the use of that kind of labor to the German people.

The subjects of blood-related, allied and friendly nations are to be treated with particular care and consideration.

All action making the stay and work in Germany more difficult and unnecessarily unbearable for the foreign workers and exceeding the restrictions and hardships imposed by the war must be avoided. We depend to a large extent on their good will and their production.

It is therefore only logical to make their stay and work in Germany as bearable as possible—without denying anything to ourselves.

This can be realized, for instance, by facilitating their national and folk [volkstuemlich] habits concerning food, shelter, and organization of their evenings after work, etc., as far as conditions and the consideration of our own people permit.

It is very possible that, if the authorities for the labor mobilization, the general and interior administration, party and labor front cooperate in close harmony in this mobilization of foreign workmen and women, the tremendous advantage resulting from this mass commitment of millions of prisoners of war and foreign, civilian working men and women for the German defense and nutrition industries may be supplemented by an equal success for the propaganda of the national socialist Great German Reich and for its prestige throughout the world.

On the other hand the greatest harm for our war industry may result if the cooperation of all forces involved is not assured and all those problems are not solved by all competent offices.

Therefore in closing I would ask you to observe the following principles carefully:

1. All technical and administrative matters for the labor mobilization come exclusively under the authority and responsibility of the General Plenipotentiary for Labor Mobilization, the National Labor Offices [Landesarbeitsaemter] and the Labor Offices [Arbeitsaemter].

2. All questions and tasks concerning propaganda orientation, observation of political consequences and care (of people engaged in this labor-mobilization program) come under the jurisdiction of:

a. The party, if outside of the plant

b. The German Labor Front for manufacturing plants, the Bureau for farm politics [Amt fuer Agrarpolitik] for agricultural enterprises.

3. The issue of food and clothing ration cards, financial indemnities and relief come exclusively under the jurisdiction of the competent authorities or institutions of economy.

Ask the district chiefs of the National Socialist Party, as my plenipotentiaries, to assure a smooth cooperation between those various bureaus as well as the best possible harmony and mutual complete exchange of information.

4. The solution of the task concerning the war mobilization of labor is of such decisive importance that even the most important local or regional interests concerning most vital peace tasks must not interfere with it. Whoever violates that rule must be made responsible if the German soldier in his decisive struggle for the fate of our nation lacks arms and ammunition, synthetic gasoline or rubber, vehicles or airplanes.

Therefore, I want to deeply impress upon all the men and women who participate decisively in this war in the labor mobilization program with insistence to comply with all those necessities, decisions and measures, according to the old National Socialist principle:

Nothing for us, everything for the Fuehrer and his work, that is, for the future of our Nation!

[signed]: Fritz Sauckel

[Stamp]

(The Deputy for the 4 year plan
The General Plenipotentiary for labor mobilization)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 017-PS

Copy /T

The Deputy for the Four Year Plan
The General Deputy for the Mobilization of Labor
Va. Nr. 5780,28/4265

Berlin SW 11, 3 Oct 1942
Saarlandstrasse 96 (Reich Labor Ministry)
Phone of the Ministry 11 00 28
Postal Check account Pay Master Berlin 10019
Urgent Mail

To the Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories
c/o Gauleiter Meyer
Berlin W. 35

B—StV
5 Oct. 1942
Nr. 904 A/42

Dear Party Fellow member Meyer!

The Fuehrer has worked out new and most urgent plans for the armament which require the quick mobilization of two more million foreign labor forces. The Fuehrer therefore has granted me, for the execution of my decree of 21 March 1942, new powers for my new duties, and has especially authorized me to take whatever measures I think are necessary in the Reich, the Protectorate, the General Gouvernement, as well as in the occupied territories, in order to assure at all costs an orderly mobilization of labor for the German armament industry. The additional required labor forces will have to be drafted for the majority from the recently occupied eastern territories especially from the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Therefore the Reichskommissariat Ukraine must furnish 225,000 labor forces by 31 December 1942 and 225,000 more by 1 May 1943. I ask you to inform Reichskommissar Gauleiter party fellow member Koch about the new situation and requirements and especially to see to it that he will support personally in any possible way the execution of this new requirement.

I have the intention to visit Party member Koch shortly, and I would be grateful to you if you could inform me as to where and when I could meet him for a personal discussion.

Right now though, I ask that the procurement be taken up at once with every possible pressure and the commitment of all powers especially also of the experts of the labor offices. All the directives which had limited temporarily the procurement of Eastern laborers are annulled. The Reichs procurement for the next months must be given priority over all other measures.

I do not ignore the difficulties which exist for the execution of this new requirement, but I am convinced that with the ruthless commitment of all resources, and with the full cooperation of all those interested, the execution of the new demands can be accomplished for the fixed date. I have already communicated the new demands to the Reichskommissar Ukraine via mail.

In reference to our long distance phone call of today, I will send you the text of the Fuehrer's decree at the beginning of next week.

Heil Hitler!
Your devoted
[signed] FRITZ SAUCKEL
[stamp] Certified conform to the original
[signed] ACKERMANN clerk

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 018-PS

The Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories

21 December 1942
Nr. 02926/42

To Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel
General deputy for labor deployment
Berlin W 8
Mohrenstrasse 65

Dear party member Sauckel:

I thank you very much for your report on the execution of the great task given to you, and I am glad to hear that in carrying out your mission you have always found the necessary support, even on the part of the civilian authorities in the occupied Eastern territories. For myself and the officials under my command this collaboration was and is self-evident, especially since both you and I have, with regard to the solution of the labor problem in the East, represented the same viewpoints from the beginning. For political as well as efficiency reasons, you have devoted your attention, above all, to the care of the Eastern workers, employed in the Reich, and in the same sense I also have striven toward an overall satisfactory solution, by the establishment of special posts, collaborating with the welfare organizations [Betreuungsorganisationen].

If there is now complete agreement between your and my conception of the matter, I nevertheless find it necessary on the grounds of several occurrences during the last months, to point out with reference to the enclosure, the methods applied by your agencies and collaborators. I thereby do not disregard the fact that considering the scope and urgency of the task to be accomplished, difficulties and hardships, yes even false measures by the executing branches, can in the long run not be avoided. But it seems necessary to me, to follow up these occurrences insofar as they touch the conduct of war and the interests of the Reich. This would always be the case, where the acquisition of new laborers is undertaken in a way which intimidates the population. The reports I have received show, that the increase of the guerilla bands in the occupied Eastern regions is largely due to the fact that the methods used for procuring laborers in these regions are felt to be forced measures of mass-deportation, so that the endangered persons prefer to escape their fate by withdrawing into the woods or going over to the guerilla bands. Add to the occasionally unfavorable news regarding the treatment of the Eastern laborers in the Reich, about experiences with the labor procurement authorities, then the result can only be a strengthening of the number and fighting spirit of the hostile troops. This development is further aided by the return of tens of thousands of useless Eastern workers from the Reich (sick, cripples, etc.).

To this point I should like to add that my repeated plea to establish sick-camps in the regional labor office districts, instead of the mass deportation of the Easterners who are incapable of work, has so far not been answered. Hence I found it necessary to contact the Reichskommissar [Commissioner] for health and sanitation on this matter. In the session of the propaganda department called by State Counselor, Professor Boerger on the 17th of this month, the negative repercussions which will be caused in the native provinces by the recently planned return transports were referred to not only by the representatives of my agency, but particularly by the representative of the economic staff East, since such events interfere with the demands for labor and production in the rear military zones. Measures such as conscription, return of the sick or similar things not only impair the procurement and the legal validity of the executive orders of the compulsory-labor order released by me on Dec 19.41, but moreover endanger all the important war work in the occupied Eastern territories. This goes as well for the urban as for the rural procurement districts, where so far, thanks to the self-sacrificing activity of the leaders of the economic land bases, an atmosphere permitting productive work was created between the German administration and the native population, which now threatens to become lost. Even if I do not close my eyes to the necessity that the numbers demanded by the Reichs minister for weapons and ammunition as well as by the agricultural economy justify unusual and hard measures, I have to ask, due to the responsibility for the occupied Eastern territories which lies upon me, that in the accomplishment of ordered tasks such measures be excluded, the toleration and prosecution of which will some day be held against me, and my collaborators. In order to achieve this, and to bring into agreement the requirements given by the peculiar political situation of the Eastern territories with the measures of the commissions and the staffs of your agencies, I have empowered the Reichs commissioner for the Ukraine insofar as necessary to make use of his right, and to see to it that methods which run contrary to the interest of the conduct of the war and war economy in the occupied East be abolished.

It appears strange to me, that in numerous cases which should have been discussed with the civil authorities, we only receive information through the police and other agencies. I am referring in this connection to the note of my standing representative of Nov. 11.42.—III wi 5—1231-3587—in which I asked for a discussion concerning the mutual cooperation, and especially on the position of your delegates, to which I have unfortunately never received an answer from you. With consultation of our mutual wishes, which you personally will certainly understand, it is unfortunately impossible for me to accept a co-responsibility for the consequences, which result from the recounted state of affairs.

I should not like to have informed you of this, without expressing my hope that in the interests of both of us, this condition will be terminated with the coming of the new year. I am personally convinced that you, dear Party member Sauckel, have the same desire. I assume that there will be an opportunity for discussion of this in the conference prompted by me on Jan. 11.43.

I am gratefully looking forward to your reports in this connection.

Yours,
signed: A. ROSENBERG

Extracts from the Secret Report on Morale by the Foreign Mail Censorship Post Berlin.

(Reg. No. 7328/42 secret Group VIII)

Selected letters from the occupied Eastern regions regarding the period from Sept. 11 to Nov. 10, 1942.

In the letters from the Ukraine a further sharp decline in the morale is pictured, and under the impact of an increased requisition of labor forces for the Reich, the Ukrainian population has been seized by a terrible fear.

Horrifying picturizations of compulsory measures by the administrative authorities for the seizure of Eastern laborers, form a major part of the news from home to their relatives working in Germany. The disinclination to answer the call to work in the Reich has evidently grown steadily, not only due to the reports of Eastern workers, which fled home and their workshops or have been dismissed. In order to secure the required number for the labor transport, men and women including youngsters from 15 years on up, are allegedly taken from the street, from the market places and village festivals, and carried off. The inhabitants therefore hide themselves in fear and avoid any appearance in public. After public beatings during the month of October, so available letters state, came the burning down of homesteads, and of whole villages as retribution for failure to comply with the demand for the appropriation of labor forces directed to the communities. The execution of the latter measures is being reported from various villages.

Parts from Two Letters

"At our place, new things have happened. People are being taken to Germany. On Dec. 5, some people from the Kowkuski district were scheduled to go, but they didn't want to and the village was set afire. They threatened to do the same thing in Borowytschi, as not all who were scheduled to depart wanted to go. Thereupon 3 truck-loads of Germans arrived and set fire to their houses. In Wrasnytschi 12 houses and in Borowytschi 3 houses were burned.

"On Oct. 1 a new conscription of labor forces took place. From what has happened, I will describe the most important to you. You can not imagine the bestiality. You probably remember what we were told about the Soviets during the rule of the Poles. At that time we did not believe it and now it seems just as incredible. The order came to supply 25 workers, but no one reported. All had fled. Then the German militia came and began to ignite the houses of those who had fled. The fire became very violent, since it had not rained for 2 months. In addition the grain stacks were in the farm yards. You can imagine what took place. The people who had hurried to the scene were forbidden to extinguish the flames, beaten and arrested, so that 7 homesteads burned down. The policemen meanwhile ignited other houses. The people fall on their knees and kiss their hands, but the policemen beat them with rubber trunchions and threaten to burn down the whole village. I don't know how this would have ended if I Sapurkany had not intervened. He promised that there would be laborers by morning. During the fire the militia went through the adjoining villages, seized the laborers, and placed them under arrest. Wherever they did not find any laborers, they detained the parents, until the children appeared. That is how they raged throughout the night in Bielosirka. The workers which had not yet appeared till then, were to be shot. All schools were closed and the married teachers were sent to work here, while the unmarried ones go to work in Germany. They are now catching humans like the dog-catchers used to catch dogs. They are already hunting for one week and have not yet enough. The imprisoned workers are locked in at the schoolhouse. They cannot even go out to perform their natural functions, but have to do it like pigs in the same room. People from many villages went on a certain day to a pilgrimage to the monastery Potschaew. They were all arrested, locked in, and will be sent to work. Among them there are lame, blind and aged people."

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 019-PS

The Commissioner for the Four Year Plan
The Deputy General for Labor Supply
No. IVa 5780.28/1138

Berlin, SW 11, 17 March 1943
Saarlandstr. 96 (Reich's Ministry for Labor)
Tel. of the RAM: 11 00 28

Postal Checking Account of the RAM, Branch: Berlin 100.19

Copies:

1. Gauleiter
2. III W 5
3. Special Deputy for the Eastern Labor Supply

Receipt stamp 03487 dated 18 March 1943

Personal!

To: The Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
Att. Mr. Reichsminister ROSENBERG, Berlin
Subject: Draft of workers from the East

Dear Party Member Rosenberg:

After a protracted illness my Deputy for Labor Supply in the occupied Eastern Territories, State Councillor Peukert, is going there to regulate the labor supply both for Germany and the territories themselves.

I ask you sincerely, dear party member Rosenberg, to assist him to your utmost on account of the pressing urgency of Peukert's mission. Already now I may thank you for the hitherto good reception accorded to Peukert. He himself has been charged by me with the absolute and completely unreserved cooperation with all bureaus of the Eastern Territories.

Especially the labor supply for the German agriculture, and likewise for the most urgent armament production programs ordered by the Fuehrer make the fastest importation of approximately 1 million women and men from the Eastern Territories within the next 4 months a must. Starting 15 March the daily shipment must have reached 5000 female and male workers respectively, while beginning of April this number has to be stepped up to 10,000. This is a requisite of the most urgent programs, and the spring tillage, and other agricultural tasks are not to suffer to the detriment of the nutrition and of the armed forces.

I have foreseen the allotment of the draft quotas for the individual territories in agreement with your experts for the labor supply as follows:

Daily quota starting 15 March 1943:

From General Commissariat White Ruthenia	500 people
Economic Inspection Center	500 people
Reich's Commissariat Ukraine	3 000 people
Economic Inspection South	1 000 people
——————
Total	5 000 people

Starting 1 April 1943 the daily quota is to be doubled corresponding to the doubling of the entire quota.

I hope to visit personally the Eastern Territories towards the end of the month, and ask you once more for your kind support.

HEIL HITLER!
Signed: SAUCKEL

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 025-PS

Copy

I H (ZO) 1/752/42

for the files on hand I 3 [handwritten]

SECRET!

Berlin NW 7, 4 Sept. 42

Subject: The importation of domestic workers from the East into the Reich.

Here: Conference with the General Deputy for Labor mobilization on 3 Sept. 1942.

1. Notice

On 3 September 1942 a conference, under the presidency of the General Deputy for Labor Mobilization, of the representatives of the highest Reich authorities, the Party Chancellory, as well as of the German Labor front (DAF) was held at the Thuringenhaus, Berlin W. S, for the discussion of the pending importation of domestic workers from the East from the Ukraine into the Reich. To this Gauleiter Sauckel declared the following:

It is the definite wish of the Fuehrer that the law over the duty year [Pflichtjahr] for women be not over extended, that all German girls must work one additional year in housekeeping. This position of the Fuehrer is motivated by the positive experiences which have been made so far with the women's Reich's labor service; this service has proved itself to be an instrument of political breeding through which the German girls are made politically more reliable than through one additional year of private housekeeping. Therefore, and this is also the opinion of the Reichsmarshall and of Reichsleiter Bormann, the housekeeping problem must be solved through a different way than the above-mentioned one.

Therefore, the Fuehrer has ordered the immediate importation of 400,000 to 500,000 female domestic Eastern workers from the Ukraine between the ages of 15 and 35, and has charged the General Deputy for labor mobilization with the execution of this action which is to end in about 3 months. In connection with this—this is also approved by Reichsleiter Bormann, the illegal bringing of female housekeepers into the Reich by members of the Armed Forces, or various other agencies, is to be allowed subsequently, and furthermore, irrespective of the official recruiting, is not to be prevented. The determining factor for the recruiting of Ukrainian female domestic workers is this: according to the specific wish of the Fuehrer only such girls are to be recruited against whose permanent stay in Germany, to be determined by their conduct and their physical appearance, there will be no scruples; it is in accordance with a specific desire of the Fuehrer that the greatest number of these girls be germanized through the recruitment. To this, the Fuehrer declared that we have to review our school knowledge about people migrations, to the extent that the Lebensraum of the Germanic peoples is not only to be considered from a point of view of the newly gained territories at that time, but also from the point of view of the region of origin of those peoples. The Germans have spread "like beer". Only the young people have left whereas the old ones remained at home. This is the reason why there are, especially in the Ukraine and in the northerly part of the Black Sea, such a great number of blond haired and blue eyed people who have neither Tartar nor Caucasian appearances. This can only be the case of peasants, descendants of settled Germanic tribes; to re-germanize them can only be a question of time. It is the Fuehrer's desire that in 100 years from now 250 million German speaking people will live in Europe.

If, therefore, the recruitment of Ukrainian domestic workers is not only under a labor mobilization consideration but also a racial one, it ensues forcibly that a special treatment of this labor mobilization measure is necessary, which does not exclude the fact that the domestic Ukrainian workers are to be considered in the first place as workers from the East and are to be provided with the sign "OST". They are to be employed in city households as well as in country households, preferably in families with many children and essential constructive families (Aufbau Familien) so that 200,000 of them will be furnished to city households and 200,000 to country households. In order to prevent a better position of the Eastern domestic workers employed in country households as compared to the ones employed in cities, the domestic workers from the Ukraine are to receive basically the same food as the German civilian population. Because these regulations necessitate a revision of the feeding precepts of Prisoners of War and soviet civilian laborers as stated in a communication of the Reich's nutrition ministry of April 4, 1942, the Reich's minister for nutrition and agriculture has asked the General Deputy for labor mobilization to refrain from the execution of the measures at least until the food situation of the German people permits the importation of more foreign labor forces and a better food situation for the workers from the East can be assured. Gauleiter Sauckel spoke in harshest terms against the stand of the Reich's minister for nutrition stating that he refuses to discuss an order of the Fuehrer. He added furthermore that irrespective of the importation of domestic workers, the mobilization of one more million workers from the East is being planned, this being the only way to realize in the years to come the Fuehrer's Armament and Steel production program for the execution of the great plans in the West and for the annihilation of the greatest war economy of the world, the North American one. For the feeding of this million men labor force which number furthermore is equilibrated by the fact that approximately 7 million German soldiers are in greater part supplied with food from the foreign countries, party member Backe has only to solve the organizational problem in order to take advantage of the first rate harvest throughout Europe. Never before did a minister for nutrition start his function under such favorable conditions as State Secretary Backe. The reference to the difficult transportation conditions to bring the foreign harvests into the Reich does not impress Gauleiter Sauckel in the least; he would find ways and means to utilize the harvest and the cattle from the Ukraine even if he has to draft the whole Jewry of Europe to use them as a human road for the handling of boxes to the Ukraine. "If the food rations both for the Germans and the foreign workers are not increased shortly, then a scandal of the greatest proportion will take place". The decreased resistance of the bodies—especially with the shortage of doctors—will give rise to great epidemics (see Diphtheria Epidemy). It is to be requested from Party member Backe that the proposed increase of bread and meat ration be not done with the start of the winter time only but at the end of the present allotment period, so that the weakened bodies can build up a reserve of strength which will get them well through the winter. The Fuehrer cannot understand the fact that it has to be in the country which carries the greatest weight in the fight for the future of Europe that most people go hungry while this is not the case with France, Holland, Hungary, and the Ukraine and everywhere else; he desires that this be the contrary in the future. As far as the foreign workers in Germany are concerned (with the exception of the workers from the East) a slow reduction of food according to renderment has to be applied to them; it cannot be tolerated that lazy Dutchmen or Italians receive better food than a diligent worker from the East. As far as the nutrition is concerned, here too the principle of renderment has to be applied. Since the new nutrition regulation is seen as being feasible by Gauleiter Sauckel in the above mentioned way of thinking, therefore, the special action of the General Deputy for labor mobilization (GBA) for the importation of domestic workers from the East must be coupled with the current recruiting commission in the Ukraine. The delegation from October to April of 200,000 to 300,000 male and female workers from the East already employed in the German agriculture to industry factories is not affected by this; these forces (incl. the female ones) will be returned in the spring to their original peasant organizations, and there just as before, they will not be employed at home but for agricultural work. A lawful ground for special domestic action, a decree is being prepared, the text of which was read at the conference by Councellor in the Ministry Dr. Letsch. The recruiting which in the case of the female domestic workers will be based especially on voluntariness will be executed in connection with the office of the Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German police who intend to step in for the pre-examination with regard to a possible worthiness of becoming a German. Those female workers from the East found to be apt for housekeeping will be marked in a special way by the labor and social officers so that they can be recognized as such on the transport lists of the collective shipments. Independent of these, special shipments of domestic female workers are to be considered since Gauleiter Sauckel plans on having brought into the Reich 6,000 persons a day. With reference to the treatment of the female domestic workers from the East in the Reich, this question has been talked over with the Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German Police, the Reichswomen office, the Party Chancellory, the General Deputy for labor mobilization, the result being a plan for a notice for the German housewomen. The wages of the female domestic workers are to be paid according to a remuneration table for workers from the East; however, this has to be deviated through the fixation of special tariffs by the labor trustees. In reference to the Eastern worker's tax for management directors, it was decided to ask the Reich's finance minister to higher the Eastern worker's tax by half for the families of up to three children and to cut it out completely for families of 4 children and more.

At the end of the conference, the Councellor to the Ministry Letsch—as he had done previously with new notices—tried to get the proposed notice for the German housewomen ratified by those who took part; however, the undersigned protested against that by demanding a copy to determine his position. The representatives of the party chancellery, the nutrition ministry and other offices joined in this demand so that Gauleiter Sauckel promised to make available the draft of the text for September 4, 1942 with the request that final positions be taken by 1400 o'clock.

Generally one gathered from this conference that the questions concerning the recruitment and mobilization as well as the treatment of the female domestic workers from the East are being handled by the General Deputy for labor mobilization, the Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German police and the party chancellory and that the Reich's ministry for the occupied territories of the East is not considered as competent or only as half competent. In reference to this the undersigned established specifically that the Reich's ministry for the occupied territories for the East has not until now participated in the drafting of the notice. He declared furthermore that the Reich's ministry for the occupied territories of the East is greatly interested in the Propaganda for the mobilization of domestic workers, and that it be carried out in a favored way considering the necessity to have only volunteer forces at the disposition for housekeeping.

Gauleiter Sauckel took knowledge of this with satisfaction.

(signed) Gutkelch

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 031-PS

Chief of the Political Directing Staff, personal referee

Berlin, 12 June 1944

TOP SECRET

Copy No. 1 of 2 copies

Re: Evacuation of youths from the territory of Army Group "Center" (Heu-Aktion).

1. Memorandum:

The Army Group "Center" has the intention to apprehend 40-50,000 youths at the ages of 10 to 14 who are in the Army Territories, and to transport them to the Reich. This measure was originally proposed by the 9th Army. These youths cause considerable inconvenience in the Theatre of Operations. To the greater part these youths are without supervision of their parents since men and women in the theatres of operations have been and will be conscripted into labor battalions to be used in the construction of fortifications. Therefore Children's Villages are to be established behind the front, for the younger age groups, and under native supervision. To collect adequate experiences the 9th Army has already established such a Children's Village and has achieved good results also from the political viewpoint. Army Group further emphasizes that these youths must not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks in case of a withdrawal since that would amount to reinforcing the enemy's potential war strength. This measure is to be strongly fortified by propaganda under the slogan: Care of the Reich for White-Ruthenian Children, Protection against Brigandry. The action has already started in the 5 kilometer zone. The Youth Bureau has already had preliminary talks with the Organization Todt and with the Junkers works. It is intended to allot these juveniles primarily to the German trades as apprentices to be used as skilled workers after 2 years' training. This is to be arranged through the Organization Todt which is especially equipped for such a task through its technical and other set-ups. This action is being greatly welcomed by the German trade since it represents a decisive measure for the alleviation of the shortage of apprentices.

The Chief of the Political Directing Staff, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Berger, submitted the action to the Minister on the 10th of the month. The Minister feared that the action would have most unfavorable political consequences, that it would be regarded as abduction of children, and that the juveniles did not represent a real asset to the enemy's military strength anyhow. The Minister would like to see the action confined to the 15-17 year olds.

Following are the arguments against this decision of the Minister:

1. This action is not only aimed at preventing a direct reinforcement of the enemy's military strength but also at a reduction of his biological potentialities as viewed from the perspective of the future. These ideas have been voiced not only by the Reichsfuehrer of the SS but also by the Fuehrer. Corresponding orders were given during last year's withdrawals in the southern sector.

2. A similar action is being conducted at the present time in the territory of the Army Group Ukraine-North (General Field Marshal Model). Even in this politically especially preferred Galizian territory recruiting measures were being taken with the aim to collect 135,000 laborers to be organized in battalions for the construction of fortifications. The youths over 17 were to be detailed to the SS Division and those under 17 to the SS Auxiliary. This action which has been going on for several weeks has not led to any political disturbances. While it is true that the population has to be recruited by force, they do show a certain understanding, later on, for this measure of purely military necessity. Provided, of course, that they receive correct treatment, good food and lodgings, etc.

The unified organization of parents in labor battalions makes it possible to extract this group as a whole in the case of withdrawals which are quite conceivable in the case of Army Groups "Center" and South. The children already transported into the Reich would serve as a suitable incentive.

3. As to Army Group "Center" this measure is to be initiated in Army Territories, that is to say in those territories not under a civil administration. During a conference with the Chief of Staff of the 9th Army I gained the impression that the action will be executed, if necessary, even without the consent of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Territories of the East.

4. If the Ministry for the East should not support or execute this action, it is expected that the procurement will be undertaken by the GBA [Generalbevollmaschtiger fuer den Arbeitseinsatz—General Deputy for the Mobilization of Labor]. Army Group "Center" and especially 9th Army thought it of greatest importance not to let the children be put to work in the Reich through the General Deputy for the Mobilization of Labor. They preferred the offices of the Reichs-minister for the Occupied Territories of the East [RMfdbO]. Only through these offices did they believe to have a guarantee for correct and proper treatment. This desire of the Army Group is a particular expression of confidence towards the Ministry for the East. Army Group desires that the action be accomplished under the most loyal conditions, as had been done previously in the case of recruiting for the SS Auxiliary. They further desired special arrangements regarding care mail exchange with parents etc. As far as possible the children are to remain in groups according to their village communities, then be collected in small camps in the Reich where they would be at the disposal of trade establishments. These technical matters have already been discussed. They can be accomplished with the help of the offices of the Hitler Youth through the Youth Bureau of the Ministry. Thus the Ministry is also able to exercise political guidance over the juveniles and has them at its disposal at all times. If I should re-occupy the territory the Ministry of the East could return the juveniles in the proper manner. Together with their parents they would then most likely represent a positive political element during the reconstruction of the territory.

The Chief of the Political Directing Staw, personal referee, p 612 a/44g

Berlin, 14 June 1944

SECRET

Re: "Heu-Aktion"

1. Annotation

The Obergruppenfuehrer has given his consent to again submit the matter "Heu-Aktion" to the Minister, with the aim to bring about a reversal of his decision. This was done on this day. The Minister has approved the execution of the "Heu-Aktion" in the Army Territories, under the conditions and provisions arrived at in talks with Army Group Center [Heeresgruppe Mitte].

Urgent!

2. Write via radio to:

Army Group "Center"

Att: Councillor in the Ministry Tesmer

[Marginal note] Radio station 2 complied. 14 June 44 [signed]

Re: "Heu-Aktion"

"Heu-Aktion" approved under conditions and provision arrived at in conference.

By order of

The Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories

Signed: BRANDENBERG

3. Copies to:

[Marginal note] complied 15 June 44 signed: Sg

a. SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Berger, Chief of the Political Directing Staff, respectfully submitted for information

b. Chief Labor Bureau, for information

4. Matter p5 for information. Please return.

5. File

[Marginal notes]

returned from P5 without acknowledgement
August 25, 44
signed: Bz 24 Aug

June 14, 44
[Initials]

P OK by Dr. Streube (?)

To the Chief of the Political Directing Staff, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Berger, respectfully submitted with the request to resubmit the contents of this memorandum to the minister with view to reconsideration of the Minister's decision.

Signed: BRANDENBERG

[Note in ink] regarding the above-Obergruppenfuehrer Berger received the memorandum on June 14. Consequently the Reichsminister has approved the Action.

Signed: Str. June 16

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 035-PS

SECRET

Berlin, 26 October 1943

Short report regarding security measures by Main Division Ukraine [Hauptarbeitsgruppe Ukraine] during the withdrawal of the Armed Forces.

On 24 Sep 1943 a prohibited zone was created by a decree of the War Commander in the city of Kiev—, which runs some 3 km west of the Dnjepr. The whole civil population in this area, including non-military officials, had to abandon this zone as of 2100, 26 Sep 1943. The office of the Special Purposes Staff [Einsatzstabes] on Rowno Street #8 lies in the prohibited zone. The apartment house on Theaterstrasse #9 was evacuated and troops quartered within.

The removal of the materials on hand encountered extraordinary difficulties due to lack of loading space. However the transporting of the following was carried out:

24 Sep 43: Materials of the Museum of Art at Charkow.

Taken over by party member Pfeiffer from General Commissioner, Shitomir for shipping by trucks to Reichs Commissioner Ukraine [RKU] in Rowno.

96 Ukrainian paintings.
185 Western European paintings.
12 wood carvings and etchings.
25 carpets and tapestries.

The inventory and files of those objects are in the hand of the staff leaders. The Reich Commissioner kept a copy of the inventory.

26 Sep 43: Materials of HAG [Hauptarbeitsgruppe—Main Division]

The document-house library, utensils, office supplies and the administration were loaded in a freight car by 13 native workers for Truskawiec under the supervision of Special Purpose Staff Director FUCHS.

27 Sep 43: Materials of the Department of Seizure [Abteilung Erfassung]

This shipment went to Ratibor and contained

42 cases—10,186 books
7 cases—total catalog of the East Library
21 cases—selected publications
12 cases—art folios
11 packages of samples of magazines
9 crates and}
7 rolls } Bolshevist pictures
22 crates Bolshevist films

Several cases of negatives and positives from the photoarchive, dispositives and slides, materials of Special Purpose Commandant Dr. Huettig of the Special Purpose Staff "Science" 1 case of Bolshevist data in German and others.

1 Oct. 43: Materials of the Ukrainian Museum in Kiev.

On the basis of the General evacuation orders of the city commissioner the following were sorted out by us and loaded for shipment to Krakow.

Textiles of all sorts
Collections of valuable embroidery patterns
Collections of brocades
Numerous items of wood, etc.

Moreover an essential part of the prehistoric museum was transported away.

Since already on the 20 Sep the head of the provincial administration of libraries, museums and archives, Dr. Winters, had requested his assignment to the Special Purposes Staff. Because of the evacuation of the civil administration, he left the city on 25 Sep on the basis of the general evacuation order. Dr. Winter turned over to the leader of the main division (HAG) a list of the articles under his protection in case the Special Purpose Staff remained longer in Kiev and would also take charge of these materials. Dr. Winter could only send 2 freight cars of material into the interior. Shortly before his departure Dr. Winter had turned over by a transfer document to the city commissioner the administration of the materials entrusted to him. The latter had charged Prof. Dr. Mansfeld with as complete an evacuation of these articles as possible. Since Prof. Dr. Mansfeld knew little about the articles, he requested support from the Special Purpose Staff of Reichsleiter Rosenberg. On 1 Oct. it was possible to load 2 freight cars with museum goods, but under great difficulty. Since labor was unobtainable all the members still in Kiev on the Special Purpose Staff of Reichsleiter Rosenberg undertook the loading themselves.

The activity in Kiev became more difficult since the German artillery stands in the center of the city and from there fires its salvoes toward the East bank.

Through the military measures the salvage work was carried out, under ever-increasing difficulties. At the request of Prof. Dr. Mansfeld 2-3 collaborators were assigned to him for the evacuation of the articles and institutes which up to now had been under the civil administration.

Since the remaining in Kiev of all members of the Chief Labor Group Ukraine was impossible the leader of the Chief Labor Group HAG had come to an agreement by the 2 Oct. with G-2 (Ic) on the following points concerning the division in that area.

1. The Special Purposes Staff of Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Chief Labor Group Ukraine will leave behind a detachment of 5 men for security and safety of the cultural articles in the off-limits zone of the city of Kiev.

2. The remaining detachment will at the request of the infantry division (ID) and at the command of the 7th Army Corps (7 AK) work in close cooperation with the G-2 (Ic) of the infantry division (ID).

3. The infantry division (ID) is prepared to take care of the detachment and provide each member with corresponding identification papers and thereby guarantee the utmost protection possible in the prohibited zone.

4. At the request of G-2 (Ic) of the Infantry Division (ID) the particular detachments were to take over tasks which lay in the competence of the Armed Forces.

5. The Infantry Division (ID) places great value on further evacuation of precious articles, since this battle zone can in no case be protected sufficiently by the army. One may even count on artillery shells falling at any time. Army installations, means of transportation, etc., should be provided by the Infantry Division, if possible.

Of course it was the duty of the Chief Labor Group Ukraine (HAG) to hold out in Kiev as long as possible, until it was rendered impossible by the military situation.

All members of the Chief Labor Group [HAG] have worked in harmony and with strong interest to insure the safety and evacuation of the most precious cultural goods. At the loading they lent a hand in order to complete the loading work in the few hours remaining.

The remaining of the Chief Labor Group [HAG] and its work has greatly impressed G-2 and the Division. The intention that the remaining detachment would leave Kiev at the last possible moment met with strong approval. This last movement was defined by the Army as the one on which the remaining detachment would be "bombed out of office."

On 5 Oct 1943 the leader of the Chief Labor Group departed from Kiev with his staff except those selected for the remaining detachment in order to continue leading the work of the Chief Labor Group of Ukraine [HAG] from Truskavice.

Signed: UTIKAL

The Staff Directorate
[Stabsfuehrung]
Referee East

Berlin 21 Oct. 1943
II b/Dr. Z./Z/

[handwritten notation]

Miss Girschberg for final copy to Reich Directorate, Staff Director, Subordinate Leaders, etc.

Memorandum for the Reichs Leader

Subject: Evacuation of the Office at Kiev.

As you all know the Chief Labor Office Group Ukraine (HAG) of the Special Purposes Staff had to, for the time being shift its offices [Dienstsitz] to Truskaviec near Drobobycz 90 km South of Lomberg. This shifting was accomplished without any friction. A remaining detachment was left behind in the prohibited zone in Kiev. This remaining detachment still protects the cultural goods which lie in the battle zone insofar as their salvage has not been carried out. Numerous cultural goods were saved in the last hour by the Special Purposes Staff before the destruction through enemy action, aided by the strenuous work of the staff members as a whole. The following items were shipped:

1. 24 Sept. 43: Materials from the Charkow Art Museum.

Taken over by party member (Pg.) Pfeiffer from General Commissioner Shitomir to be transported by trucks (LKW) to Reich Commissioner Ukraine in Rowno.

96 Ukrainian paintings
183 Western European paintings
12 wood carvings and etchings
25 carpets and tapestry

The files and inventory of these objects are in the hands of the staff leaders [Stabsfuehrung]. The Reich Commissioner kept a copy of the inventory.

2. 26 Sept. 43: Materials of the Main Divisions [HAG]

The documents, house library, utensils, office supplies, private luggage, and the supplies of the administration were loaded in a freight car by 13 native workers for Truskaviec under the supervision of Special Purposes Staff Director FUCHS.

3. 27 Sept. 43: Materials of the Department of Seizure [Abt. Erfassung.]

This shipment went to Ratibor and contained:

42 chests—10,186 books, East library (OBR)
7 chests—Total catalog of the East library (OBR)
1 chest—books for the higher school
21 chests—selected publications
12 [?] chests—art folios
11 packages of model samples of magazines
9 crates
7 rolls (Bolshevist pictures)
22 frames [Vorschlaege] Bolshevist films

Several chests of negatives and positives from the photo-archives, dispositives and slides, material of Special Purpose Commandant, Dr. Huettig of the Special Purpose Staff "Science."
1 chest of Bolshevist data in Germany and others.

4. 27 Sept 43: Material of the Prehistoric Museum.

Independently from the work of the Special Purposes, Staff of Prehistoric History had packed and shipped to Krakau the most important items of the Prehistoric Museum.

5. 1 Oct 43: Materials of the Ukrainian Museum in Kiev.

On the basis of the general evacuation orders of the city commissioner the following were sorted out by us and loaded for shipment to Krakau:

Textiles of all kinds (clothes, blouses, shirts, coats, over-coats, etc.)
Collection of valuable embroidery patterns
Collections of brocades
Collection of Ukrainian easter eggs
Numerous items of wood, etc.

6. 1 Oct 43: Materials of the Prehistoric Museum.

In a second inspection party member (Pg.) Prof. Dr. Stampfuss with the help of several collaborators gathered another collection of prehistoric articles and also shipped it to Krakau.

When the civil administration left Kiev the head of the provincial administration for archives, libraries, and museums, Dr. Winter and his helper Dr. Benzing, again joined the Special Purposes Staff on 20 Sep. However these two gentlemen also left Kiev on 25 Sep. The Special Purpose Staff did then undertake again its original task of protecting the cultural articles and goods. Though the personnel has been decreased materially in the course of the development of the situation, it was then arranged that right up to the last minute one group of workers capable of action remained in Kiev for the carrying out of the final tasks. The Special Purpose Staff is the last German office which remains in the dead zone of Kiev. Its remaining and its assistance to the G-2 (Ic) of the combat division involved has made a strong impression on the army. We were permitted to remain in the fighting zone up until the point when we would be bombed out of the office.

This successful work was in the main due to the devotion to duty and to personal inspiration of the Chief of the Special Purposes Staff Anton, but also due to the unselfish performance of duty of his other co-workers.

Signed: Dr. ZEISS
Chief of the Special Purposes Staff.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 041-PS

Memorandum for the Fuehrer

By a decision of the Fuehrer the Reichsminister for the occupied Eastern territories has received the authority to put to use for the support of government arrangements in the Eastern territories the available household goods of refugees, absent or deported Jews in the occupied Western areas. This is the so-called Action "M". For the execution of Action "M" the service office West [Dienststelle Westen] has been set up in Paris with directive authority in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Up to the present time about 40,000 tons of household goods have been loaded on free transportation space (ship and railway) bound for the Reich.

In recognition of the fact that the requirements of bomb damaged persons in the Reich must take precedence over the demands of the East, the Reich Ministry has placed a major portion (over 19,500 tons) of the household goods at the disposal of the bomb damaged persons in the Reich. The goods have then been transported by the appropriate service office west in the occupied territory. Likewise, the Reich Ministry will place at the disposition of bomb damaged persons the greatest portion, at least 80%, of the goods accruing from Action "N" [sic]. For its own purposes only these goods which are urgently needed in the East will be reserved.

The execution of Action "M" has resulted in two categories of difficulties up to the present time:

a. Transportation Question. The goods have been transported up to this point as Armed Forces goods by means of railway cars and ships. The transportation authorities [Kommandanturen] now wish to treat the transport requirements of Action "M" as the transport of the civilian sector. This would lead to unbearable delays and among other difficulties would require the export-approval of the French State. Because of this the following decree is required: Goods which the Reich Minister for the East-Service Office West [Dienststelle Westen] Paris or their directive authorities in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, declare as goods accruing from Action "M", are to be transported as Armed Forces goods.

b. Distribution of furniture among bombed-out persons. The giving up of the furniture to bomb-damaged persons is being delayed in order that it may be submitted upon import into the Reich territory to handling by the customs. After time-losing determination of the value, the furniture in many cases is auctioned to the bomb-damaged persons by Chief Financial Commissioners [Oberfinanzpraesidenten]; to avoid these red-tape procedures the following decree is proposed:

1. Goods accruing from Action "M" are exempt from all customs handling. For such goods there are no obligations or duties to pay.

2. Bomb damaged districts announce their needs in household furnishing under the auspices of the competent Reich defense commissar to Reich Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories—Central Section. The Reich Ministry instigates the immediate removal of the objects placed at its disposal by its service office West [Dienststelle Westen] and in accordance with the indication of the Reich defense commissar ships directly to the competent regional directorates [Gauleitungen]. These give the furniture to the persons suffering the bomb damage on a loan basis. The determination of the value of the furniture and the definitive acquisition by the person suffering the bomb damage remains in abeyance till a later accounting. Up to the time of reckoning the goods are Reich property, and are subject to the evaluation right of the Reich Minister for the occupied Eastern territory.

By these proposals a type of management would be achieved whereby persons who have suffered bomb damage would have furniture and household goods at their disposal in the shortest possible time. And thereby also a portion of their most immediate difficulties would be eliminated.

Berlin, 3 October 1942

Signed: A ROSENBERG

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 047-PS

HOTEL KAISERHOF
Berlin W 8

Berlin 24 August 1931

My dear Mr. Rosenberg:

I am just reading in the Voelkischer Beobachter, edition 235/236, page 1, an article entitled "Does Wirth intend to come over?". The tendency of the article is to prevent on our part a crumbling away from the present form of government. I myself am travelling all over Germany to achieve exactly the opposite. May I therefore ask that my own paper will not stab me in the back with tactically unwise articles.

Persons, who are known to seek connection or are even prepared to break from the present constellation, are to be spared under all circumstances. Our fight is to be directed in the first line against the stubborn defenders of the present course and against persons who reject us.

I ask therefore the Voelkischer Beobachter as well as the Party Press Office to pay punctilious attention to this in the interest of our work.

With German greetings,
signed: ADOLF HITLER

An identical information went to Mr. Dr. Dietrich, Party Press Office

signed: WILHELM BRUECKNER, Adj.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 053-PS

The Deputy of the Reichs Ministry [Reichsministerium] for the Occupied Eastern Provinces with the Army Group South.—Captain Dr. Koch

REPORT 10
(Concluded on 5th October 1941)
SECRET

(See also the morale report which will be ready in a short time
"Legacy of the Soviets in the Ukrainian Areas"—concluded at
the end of September 1941)

A. The Ukraine on the Right of the Dnieper can, for all purposes, be considered as inactive.

a. The German Wehrmacht was regarded by the populace now, as ever, as emancipator and liberator from physical and mental pressure; the political points of view at present are not as important as the physical.

A temporary administration was almost put in everywhere by the troops, especially by officers of Defense II, who were reserved for this, and will be enlarged upon by the field commanders under the direction of Section VII (military) with the commander-in-chief of the rear communication zone; the proportional far-reaching net of the field and Army post command will be support and condensed through the organization of the office of the inspector of economy (especially the chief group of agriculture) which is of the same opinion. Occasional or regular conferences lead to unification of the points of view. Upon my trip through the land (so far about 6000 km), I have tried through personal contacts, to work for clearness and unification as much as possible; through speeches, conferences, participation in informal discussions, etc., I have reached, so far, some 600 native village burgermeisters, 12 larger city governments with their burgermeisters, about 500 professors or students, 30 ministers with their church councils and 20 leaders of rayons or their assistants. I was asked by 4 commanders-in-chief, several garrison leaders [Standortaelteste], and a few division commanders of various German garrisons, to lecture. I was heard by almost all Ic officers of the armies and other higher command posts, also some 100 agriculture leaders, 30 communications officers and 3 propaganda companies. The present Defense II officers gladly procured such connections for me and guaranteed continued execution of probable decisions.

b. Where friction arises between German-(Retinue) sections and the native populations, they are not of political, but economical or personal nature.

Economy. The populace is aware and understands that a very large part of their total harvest has to be given to the Wehrmacht (and economical command); but they resist against "unjust" and "individual" requisitions, that means against continued confiscation in the villages along the same large routes of march, without uniformly requisitioning in the country; and also against unrationalized or wild demands (the confiscation of pregnant cows, requisition without proper receipts, disregarding of letters of safe conduct issued by higher German echelons, etc.).

Individual German economical commands made complaints, and rightly so, over delayed terms and quantities; in most cases it was found that technical hindrances were the reasons (delayed or curtailed orders, lack of transportation) and not malice or sabotage. The farmers reply to the oft heard remarks of their laziness and lack of working effort, was that they brought in the large harvest on their own free will without having many machines, manpower and the time.

Personal. The Bolshevists, using brutal measures (such as prison, deportation, etc.) in general nevertheless refrained from punishing individuals (by whipping). Now that it occasionally is done by German troops, well meaning people blame it on the misunderstanding or ignorance of the language; but should it be done too often, antipathy and distrust will be created.

Furthermore the population emphasizes the difference which exists between the occasional mistakes of the Germans and the systematic oppressions by our allies. Here especially the Rumanians and Hungarians caused much gossip. The German Army Command, which operated for the safeguarding of German property in the newly acquired Rumanian special (partly drastic) countermeasures. [sic]

c. A complete report on these so-called Partisan-movements was made on 14 Sept 1941.

The Army High Command decided, therefore, in favor of centralizing the work on the problem, and requested Captain Lazarek for this, who until now was assigned to me (Koch).

Examples from Czernigow, Poltawa and other Army groups (for example, Staraja Russa near Orscha) prove that the enemy in the future will employ partisans using explosives and mines.

d. The inner political interest of the population is limited at present to questions of administration and meritorious service in offices or semi-military associations.

Of all the old, strong political parties in Kiev, only a subordinate ("Kultur") section of the "Sojus Wyzwolennia Ukrainy" (organisation for the liberation of the Ukraine) could be found; other trails led to Shitomir, Uman, and Lemberg, but were lost there in some remnants of local organizations.

Up till now, the Bandera people could not fulfill their original plan, the establishment of a self-supporting government in Kiev, since the "Command Kiew" which was to perform this, was removed by the security service [SD] in Fastow and Wassilkow; in the first days after the occupation of the city, they pasted small propaganda placards right next to the German governmental publications, however without much result. Also handbills, in which it was tried to justify the attentat of Shitomir, remain ineffective. The burning of Kiev and the strict screening of the population following thereafter [Sichtungen] have caused, it seems, a (passing) standstill in the organizational construction of the Bandera group.

From the Melnyk organization it was possible to obtain a secret directive called "in Matters of Propaganda"; aside from the old and well-known requests (self-rule demands of totalitarianism, national socialistic philosophy of life) the following is noticeable in regards to the Reich's relative points (Par. 18): "The special aim is to obtain a clarification of the relations to the German factors. It is to be pointed out that Germany is at war with Moscow and therefore is our ally which one must support in battle. At the same time it is emphasized that the opportunity of the construction of a Ukrainian political system does not only depend alone on the Germans but also on our own combined organization and on our ability to produce. Our motto here is: "Our strength lies in ourselves." (This settlement of a German policy differentiates itself, despite their careful composure and stipulation, fundamentally from the rules laid down by Banderas, in which—to my knowledge—it was, up until now, referred to as "allies", often set in quotation marks but never used in connection with the specific references to the Reich.)"

e. A permanent security police force (military) is in every town. It draws its replacements from newly captured Ukrainians, is entirely under German command and wears the blue-yellow brassard; weapons are only issued them for guard duty or patrols. At the beginning of September a (melnyk-friendly) group of 300-500 Ukrainian fugitives out of Bukawia was used in the district Winnica-Gaisin. They are mainly serious men with some knowledge of German and up till now we received no complaints about their services.

f. The fire of Kiev (24-29 September 1941) destroyed the very center, that is the most beautiful and most representative part of the city with its two large hotels, the central Post Office, the radio station, the telegraph office and several department stores. An area of about 2 square kilometers was affected, some 50,000 people are homeless; they were scantily housed in abandoned quarters. As reconciliation for the obvious sabotage, the Jews of the city, approximately (according to figures from the SS-Commands for commitment) 3,500 [sic] people, half women, were liquidated on the 29th and 30th September. The population took the execution—as much as they found out about it—calmly, many with satisfaction; the newly vacated homes of the Jews were turned over for the relief of the housing shortage. Even if certain relief was created in a social respect, the care of the city of half a million is still in danger and one can already foresee food shortages and eventual epidemics.

Up to date the danger of mines has not been eliminated—according to official reports of the engineer officers—at least 10,000 (ten thousand!) mines were deactivated, among them, of course, a great number in the outskirts of the city (railroad station, civilian airport, etc.) and in the tactical forward areas; in individual buildings (also in museums) there were found 3-1/2 tons of explosives in prepared, technically correct mine chambers; captured detonator apparatus leads to the belief that other arrangements of similar nature were built for wireless detonation. With consideration to possible electrical mine detonation, the power supply has not yet been switched on and therefore most staffs and commands are functioning only with candle or poor petroleum lighting. The explosion and the burning of the city caused several losses on officers, men and materials.

The inhabitants of the city remain quiet and disciplined as before; German regulations are enforced to the best ability and without resistance.

I reported over the evacuation measures of the Bolshevists in Kiev in my telephone conversation of the 24-29 September; the picture has not changed noticeably as a whole.

g. I safe-guarded as much of the local art treasures from libraries, academies, institutes and museums with my special detail (2 officers, 2 drivers) as I could. Around 20, partly large, objects could be safe-guarded in this manner and are at the disposal of the Reich.

B. A uniform and supervised administration has not become possible in the Ukraine on the left of the Dnieper River; the streets to the few Dnieper bridges are swarming with prisoners and fugitives, the active troop counter-traffic eastward still hasn't stopped. The Bolshevists were able to trash and carry away undetermined quantities of the harvest, according to the populace. On the other hand, several evacuees, formerly of Soviet authority, managed to stay back in the "Kessel of Kiev" and to save themselves from further deportation; the whole Kiev fire department with its equipment, which was evacuated by the Russians, came back again in a like manner on the day before the fire. In some cases it was possible to salvage several herds of cattle and machinery.

The economical commands concerned and 1st Lt. Dr. Dittloff report through channels about the special economical situation of the occupied Ukrainian provinces.

III

With the continuation of the peace, the people are again concerned with cultural and religious questions:

a. Where it was technically possible, the lower classes of schools were opened. The initiative (and the cost) lie with the inhabitants themselves. The administrative court will be held responsible for the political attitude of the teachers, the supervision ties with the Germans. The Soviet school texts are destroyed, all communistic emblems removed from the buildings and institutes.

Request by Russian (and occasionally Polish) minorities to establish Russian (or Polish)—especially private—schools will be denied in all cases.

Junior high schools, business schools, or even colleges, will not even be subject to discussion.

b. A permanent press can be assumed to be existing (in a technical sense).

There are Ukrainian newspapers in Kamienec Podolsk, Rowne, Berditschew, Winnica, Shitomir, Uman, Kirowograd, Nowo-Ukrainka, Kriwoirog, Cherson, Nikolajew and Kiev (perhaps in a few other places); the papers are published from once to six times weekly and are mostly, fairly pure newspapers; some (naturally censored) articles deal with the anti-bolshevistics and in the field of German-Ukrainian cooperation (thankfulness for the emancipation, similar parallels, etc.). The following ground rules pertain to the technique of foreign propaganda: The term "Ukraine" can only be used in a territorial (not pertaining to state) sense; the Reich is not an "ally", but a "protector" of the Ukraine; the German Wehrmacht is not "garrisoned" (or even "occupationally army" as was formulated by several Bandera men) but instead "saviors"; the title "Fuehrer-Emancipator" is to be used when talking of Adolf Hitler, etc.; as far as these directives went, they were looked upon as natural and obeyed without a trace of objection.

c. Six different groups were found in the religious circles in the Ukrainian Province right of the Dnieper:

1. The old Orthodox-Eastern Church (also named "Tychon" or "Slavian"); it is the closest successor of the pre-bolshevistic religious organization and includes the greater part of the church-going populace, Ukrainians and Russians alike; amongst the priests are several pro-Russians; the rest lean toward a final re-establishment of the Ukraine. The strength of the group cannot yet be given in figures. Alone in the Shitomir province for example, there are 100 priests; in the city of Kiev there remained two small churches during the time of the Russians. Bishops are not present. The 83 year old Archbishop Antonij Abaschidse, who was found in Kiev, is crippled and not capable of any conceivable service. A published appeal by the metropolite and so-called patriarch Sergius from Moscow to resist against "Fascism and the German bandits" (dated 22 June 1941) aroused no interest among the populace.

2. The Ukrainian "Autokephal" Church, a (from an orthodox standpoint) uncanonic group, consisting of a Ukrainian, home-conscious people, without lawful bishops; it constitutes a religious minority, but suffered especially severe persecutions from the Bolshevists and is composed exclusively of radical enemies of Moscow and Bolshevism. It has congregations and churches in almost all Ukrainian cities and openly pledges ties to the national-Ukrainian bishops in Wolhynien and to the general government.

Its union with the first mentioned group for a permanent, anti-Moscow and pro-German organization is probable. The German authorities [Behoerde], remembering the decree of the Fuehrer, did not hinder the religious participation of both groups, however instructed them, in the main intersession prayer—to first remember a prayer for the Fuehrer, the Reich and the German Wehrmacht; the instructions were carried out everywhere where they had been given. Larger religious services (in open places, etc.) were often requested, but have so far been rejected.

3. The Synodale (also "Erneuerungs Synodale" or "Lebende") church. It is justified by laws of the church; however it stands at present near an agreement with the Soviet government. Their services where requested—for example in Berditschow—were not permitted.

4. The Roman-Catholic Church. Within the framework of the German military administration, only one religious service was permitted at the old cathedral in Shitomir (16 Sept 41), but was stopped because of the following "misuse of the trust placed in the (Polish) local priests." The Roman-Catholic cathedral of Shitomir was closed again for Latin and Polish services and might be taken over by the Ukrainian-Orthodox congregation.

5. The Sect of the Altglaeubigen (Russian and Ukrainian "Raskolniki").

6. Sects converted to Protestantism (Adventists, Baptists, Evangelical Christians, Stundists, etc.).

Both sect groups did not request religious services and did not openly come into appearance and can be regarded as harmless.

Special director Dr. Stumpp, who was especially appointed for this, reported on the situation of the Evangelical Congregations in the German Settling Space; he is at present with Lt. Vohrer in the German settlement on the Black Sea.

Next Intentions for the Future:

As soon (around the end of October) as the civilian administration occupies the whole territory right of the Dnieper and their Headquarters are established in Kiev, I will follow—providing no other commands are given—the high command of the Army Group South and report at that place.

For the time, after the conclusion of the Eastern campaign, I request permission for special proposals.

signed: GIRUS KOCH
Captain

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 054-PS

The Reichminister
For The Occupied Eastern Territories C.P., 7 October 1942
The Representative at the Army Sector B. L 14/10
To the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories,
Chief Section I,
BERLIN, Unter den Linden 63.
Reprint to Captain Lorenz Hq. of the High Command of the
Army

Subject: Treatment of Ukrainian Specialists.

Enclosures:—2—

Attached I send you the copy of a report made by the Commandant of the Collecting Center for Specialists at Charkow, (report submitted at the end of September 1942) as well as the copy of a letter from April 1942.

Relative to the treatment of Ukrainian specialists in the Reich, I was asked by the Chief of Staff of the Commander in Chief to attend to the matter most emphatically since the complaints here never cease. I have discussed it thoroughly with the chief of section VII at the Commander in Chief's. I went to see Captain Schmid and visited the camp. As synopsis of the discussions with the gentlemen and reading of reports the following can be established in general:

a. With some few exceptions the Ukrainians employed individually in the Reich e.g. at small trade plants, as agricultural laborers, as domestic helps, etc., are very satisfied with their conditions.

b. The Ukrainians sheltered in the community camps, however, complain very much.

The enclosed report of Captain Schmid reports these matters in detail.

The question of treatment of the Ukrainians, transported to the Reich as workers of the East worries the bureaus of the Army concerned a great deal. The Commander in Chief urged me to visit some of the camps in the Reich myself as soon as possible and to report to the proper authorities in order to bring about immediate relief. The Army zone is by no means satisfied. All the circumstances of discontent contribute more and more to more people joining the bands or wandering away to the camp of the Bandera esp. other groups hostile to us.

The best propaganda of all would be to treat the workers of the East well; great demands are not made by the Ukrainians anyhow. If their treatment will only be somewhat better and humanely decent these people, who make in part a good impression, will be more than satisfied; these people after all came to the Greater German Reich—at least at the beginning of the employment of workers of the East in the Reich—of their own free will and full of hope. The unsuitable treatment described in the reports is hardly propaganda and is not profitable for us. After all, we are not at war with the Ukrainian population and certainly not with people who by their voluntary enlistment for labor, help us to win the war.

It also would serve our purposes definitely better to utilize the specialist in his specialty.

[signed] THEURER
(Theurer)
1st Lieutenant

Copy of Copy

Collecting Center for Skilled Workers at Charkow.
Captain Schmid, Commandant.
To the Commander of the Army Sector B., Section VII
CHARKOW
Subject: Abuses in the treatment of Ukrainian skilled workers.

By reason of my capacity as commandant of the Collecting Center for skilled workers and the transport of skilled workers to the Reich connected with it and thereby being in touch with the various groups of the Ukrainian population, I am informed of the morale of the Ukrainians in the extended surroundings of the Eastern Ukraine. Resulting from this knowledge I have to state that an atmosphere of animosity has taken the place of the original attitude toward the Reich. This sudden change of mood is connected partly with the scarcity of food for the civilian population caused by the war and intensified by the measures for centralization. The more important motive—the extreme abuses which have taken place at various times in the treatment of skilled workers shipped to Germany.

Since a prosperous economic cooperation with the 35 million people of the Ukraine lies within the interest of our coming generations and since the Ukrainians themselves are organically healthy, very capable of development and rich in valuable and willing constructive forces, it is necessary to prevent in time an estrangement starting at the roots and to recognize the beginnings of the disastrous development before it is too late, and to take effective countermeasures.

I. Abuses in recruiting

At the beginning of the action the recruiting worked on the basis of voluntary enlistment. Later on a certain pressure had to be put on to reach certain minimum quotas. This however did not give a license to the starosts and to their militia, entrusted with the drafting, to the brutalities mentioned in the following.

The starosts esp. village elders are frequently corruptible, they continue to have the skilled workers, whom they drafted, dragged from their beds at night to be locked up in cellars until they are shipped. Since the male and female workers often are not given any time to pack their luggage, etc., many skilled workers arrive at the Collecting Center for Skilled Workers with equipment entirely insufficient (without shoes, only two dresses, no eating and drinking utensils, no blankets, etc.). In particularly extreme cases new arrivals therefore have to be sent back again immediately to get the things most necessary for them. If people do not come along at once, the threatening and beating of skilled workers by the above mentioned militia is a daily occurrence and is reported from most of the communities. In some cases women were beaten until they could no longer march. One bad case in particular was reported by me to the commander of the civil police here (colonel Samek) for severe punishment (place Sozolinkow, district Dergatschi). The encroachments of the starosts and the militia are of a particularly grave nature because they usually justify themselves by claiming that all that is done in the name of the German Armed Forces. In reality the latter have conducted themselves almost throughout in a highly understanding manner toward the skilled workers and the Ukrainian population. The same, however, can not be said of some of the administrative agencies. To illustrate this be it mentioned, that a woman once arrived being dressed with barely more than a shirt.

Particularly distressing is the fact that, on account of issued ordnances to prevent smuggling, all food acquired by the skilled workers and the rest of the population by buying or bartering household utensils, etc., is being taken away by the militia on the way. This is not rarely accompanied by beatings (without regard to objections or given circumstances).

It happened that skilled workers who came to Germany had sold or bartered their own belongings partly or completely in that way, thus they owned neither household furniture, etc., nor any other goods or food. By combatting smuggling in that manner, unfortunately only too often very poor people are being affected and robbed of their last property, while the real smugglers are hard to catch. Furthermore food has disappeared from the market due to a freezing of prices.

Family members left behind and formerly supported by those who went to Germany get social care. This, however, is only the case in the city of Charkow, not in the case of people on the country (note: used to be the case, now all get special food distribution, the hardship thus is removed). The taking away of food esp. the sale of goods mentioned above often results in considerable hardships for those left behind and has sometimes strong effects, since neither communal nor reciprocal assistance exist here.

Very depressing for the morale of the skilled workers and the population is the effect of those persons shipped back from Germany for having become disabled or not having been fit for labor commitment from the very beginning. Several times already transports of skilled workers on their way to Germany have crossed returning transports of such disabled persons and have stood on the tracks alongside of each other for a long period of time. These returning transports are insufficiently cared for. Nothing but sick, injured and weak people, mostly 50-60 to a car, are usually escorted by 3-4 men. There is neither sufficient care or food. The returnees made frequently unfavorable—but surely exaggerated—statements relative to their treatment in Germany and on the way. As a result of all this and of what the people could see with their own eyes, a psychosis of fear was evoked among the specialist workers esp. the whole transport to Germany. Several transport leaders—of the 62nd and the 63rd in particular-reported thereto in detail. In one case the leader of the transport of skilled workers observed with his own eyes how a person who died of hunger was unloaded from a returning transport on the side track [1st Lt. Hoffmann of the 63rd transport, Station Darniza]. Another time it was reported that 3 dead had to be deposited by the side of the tracks on the way and had to be left behind unburied by the escort. It is also regrettable that these disabled persons arrive here without any identification. According to the reports of the transport commanders one gets the impression that these persons unable to work are assembled, penned into the wagons and are sent off provided only by a few men escort, and without special care for food and medical or other attendance. The Labor Office at the place of arrival as well as the transport commanders confirm this impression.

II. Deficiencies on Transport

During the transport to Germany provisions should be made for food, water and drink, answering the call of nature, medical care, orderly transportation, avoidance of maltreatment, delousing according to regulation, and supervision. To take care of all this a military escort is detailed consisting of 1 car commander for each car, 1 train guard for every 6 cars, 1 supply man for every 5 cars, and 1 control staff for every 3 cars. This is the minimum strength required according to corresponding reports of all transport commanders. With less than that orderly care and transportation of specialists is no longer secured. It has been often confirmed that insufficient and uninstructed escorts caused fatal accidents, insufficient food and care, escape of hundreds of workers, most brutal maltreatment with consequent disorder and confusion. Unfortunately the escorts were depleted on the way in various manners by Army details esp. by commanders for the supervision of furloughs or after the transports were taken over by the police. This always affected the transports unfavorably. The transports commanders are instructed to secure the interests of the transports by all possible means against encroachments of all kind. They are of vital importance for the Great German Reich.

Recently the practice started of handing the transports over to new escorts in Przemysl. These escorts are under the command of a delegate of the German Labor Front or the Ministry of Labor. This practice is clearly against the regulations and rules of the Reich Marshal and the Deputy General for Labor Supply. Taking a good management of the transport by the delegates for granted, incoming reports here list the following deficiencies: The escorts are understaffed which causes in part lack of care and food and rough treatment, doctors and released female domestic helpers are detained in camps without authority for want of supplementary identification papers, social care is lacking. A verbal report at hand relates in detail and with the witnesses the irresponsibility and indecent conduct of delegate Albert Nuessen who took over the 62nd transport. The transfer to the camp is made as fast as possible and not perfect. The railroad offices are of course directed to support the transport commanders. Unfortunately, however, some of the office chiefs of the railroad treat the transports of specialists often as very immaterial. The chief of transportation in Romodan e.g. stated to a transport commander that these transports are not important. Yet the Fuehrer himself ordered these transports, and the problem of work power was declared to be the most important and urgent in order to increase the potential of armament!

The food situation of the transports is now somewhat improved after giving right notice ahead of time. Previously some of the food stations failed grossly. However, it happens again and again that in spite of giving advance notice of the transports strength in time, no warm or cold food is ready or available. Sometimes this is due to military or hospital transports which passed through before. This can be easily understood. Sometimes, however, the notice was not passed on or simply nothing at all was done. In the Reich it is generally better. Of course it happens when trains are detoured a great deal of the specialists go hungry for days. The iron ration is always taken along and also used. It mostly depends on the transport commander and the office chief for social care how unforeseen food difficulties are overcome. The Army offices show always greatest understanding for supplying these transports, the deputies of the labor front most of the time fulfill their appointments well, however some of the deputies of the attendance service have completely failed in their duties. The transport commanders are instructed to give exact names and conditions in the future. The red cross which at times is overburdened helps with the supplying; unfortunately, however, the attitude and behavior of many female red cross workers toward the specialists is based often on uncomprehension of the Fuehrer's great action in regard to Eastern workers, and they treat especially the female workers in an outrageous manner. Food also has been refused at times with the reference that these were "Russian swine." Nobody pays attention to the fact that these are Ukrainians, because there is a lack of information to that effect. In reference to this, attention is called to the fact that it has happened on several occasions that people have broken out of the cars after several days of hungering, hurried into the nearby villages, sold their goods and acquired food. In such cases of course, it is not to be expected that they all come back. Such gross incidents of the transports of the first months have not, to our knowledge been repeated in the summer. However, it has been reported that about 500 workers escaped along the route out of a transport which started from Kiev, accompanied by only a few policemen, supposedly 5 in all, (and without medical personnel) and which convoy was badly supplied and taken care of.

To understand the supply problem, it is important to know that often only a short time is being allotted for the feeding of the many hundred people by the train commander or the railway station officer. Therefore all the workers can only be fed before the departure of the train if there is a sufficient amount of accompanying and attendance personnel and if the food is handed out quickly at several distributing points; in addition close co-operation of the workers is needed. Because the transports must often stop 1-3 Km outside of the stations it still happens frequently that a small part of the workers remains without rations because the engineers, in spite of agreements and the stationmaster let the trains take off without warning. On the basis of reported incidents, attention must be called to the fact that it is irresponsible to keep the workers locked in the cars for many hours so that they cannot even take care of the calls of nature. It is evident that the people of a transport must be given an opportunity from time to time to get drinking water, to wash, and in order to relieve themselves. Cars have been showed in which people had made holes so they could take care of the calls of nature. When nearing bigger stations persons should, if possible relieve themselves far from these stations.

The following abuses were reported from the delousing stations: In the women's and girls' shower rooms, services was partly performed by men or men would mingle around or even helped with the soaping!; and vice versa, there was female personnel in the men's shower rooms; men also for some time were taking photographs in the women's shower rooms. Since mainly Ukrainian peasants were transported in the last months, as far as the female portion of these are concerned they are mostly of a high moral standard and used to strict decency, they must have considered such a treatment as a national degradation. The above mentioned abuses have been, according to our knowledge, settled by the intervention of the transport commanders. The reports of the photographing were made from Halle; the reports about the former were made from Kiewerce. Such incidents in complete disregard of the honor and respect of the Greater German Reich may still occur again here or there.

III. Abuses inside Germany

Undoubtedly the higher authorities in the Reich do everything to attend, in the best manner, to the workers from the East, especially from the Ukraine, who have been called to Germany. In most of the enterprises, too, in the countries and in households, one is not only satisfied most of the time with the Ukrainian women and girls as help, but they are also treated with a happy solicitude and with understanding for their position and for our relations to the Ukraine.

Here too, unfortunately voices are heard that tell of bad treatment in the collecting as well as other camps. All the time people tell about beatings and thrashings and constantly also they write about them. It seems that especially these men who have functions pertaining to order and security violate sometimes very much the limits of admissibility and identify the Ukrainians as Bolsheviks while they have actually for decades opposed themselves to Bolshevism as its natural enemies. The camp commanders also, usually show no understanding for the Ukrainians. The treatment in the camps is described as being bad and very brutal.

With regard to food, it is being felt in Germany that in a war for life and death, it is but natural to impose harsh restrictions in the first place on foreigners who have been up to the present in the enemy's camps. No doubt the Reich and the businesses make efforts to keep the workers who were brought in, in good health and working condition. If abuses take place here, it is harmful to ourselves and should be remedied in each single case.

Disadvantageous also is the fact that a great portion of the German population considers the Ukrainian labor forces as their worst enemies and as Russian Bolshevists and treat them accordingly. A definite clarification is urgently needed here. In the face of such an attitude of the Ukraine it will be completely impossible to have for decades and centuries a successful and durable solution for the great economical and political problem of the East especially of the Southern part.

Until recently the postal communication problem of the specialists with their country was not fully solved and gave cause to ill rumor and depression. At present an improvement is being planned.

Here in the Ukraine thousands of recruiting notices and placards have been put out to get cooperation from the people and urging them to report to the Reich with the assurance of best treatment. Therefore, considering this and also the above mentioned abuses, it would seem to be of interest to the Reich, and necessary for the security of our future race and to prevent a later evil, to prevent by all means an alienation of the Ukraine with its precious territories and population by settling vicious abuses and by a clarification of the situation.

Certified True Copy C.P. 5 Oct 1942.
[illegible signature]
Envelope
At the V.O. of the Reichs Ministry for the occupied territories of
the East.
Deputy with Army, Territory B.
Official seal.

Copy of Copy

Copy of a letter of graduate engineer given to the Specialist Collecting Camp. (Translated from the original in the Specialist Collecting Camp.)

27 April 42
Camp Dabendorf, Berlin
Reich Railway direction.

Mister Franz H. Ergard and H. Nester!
Good Day!

As I have told you in my letter of 20 Apr. 42, we have been transported to the Grunewald Railroad car repair factories. In the first week I have worked as a manual laborer in the main warehouse of the works. I have unloaded coal, have dug the ground and have stacked lumber. This is supposed to be the "employment of Specialists" in their own line of work. The question constantly arises, why did I go to Germany, maybe that I who volunteered as a specialist (graduate engineer) for Germany, am to be transformed into a banned prisoner? I wonder why? What misdeeds have I committed against Germany? On the contrary, I have believed all those who spoke in Charkow about the worker's life in Germany. My attitude toward Germany has remained kind and friendly, I want to work, but I do not want to be led astray, to be treated as a civilian prisoner and without any care, or as a forgotten man who can find nowhere and receives from nobody, care and moral backing. I had hoped that we would be treated humanely and quite differently. It should be clear that I did not come to Germany to beg for charity. I had a job in Charkow and a decent working place; this I have renounced for the good of Germany and sacrificed for the improvement of the condition of my family. It was clear to me that I had to help that state that delivered me from the Bolshevist yoke, from this yoke under which I had to live for 24 years. Now I had expected a better future for myself. Our food ration consists of: at 4 o'clock in the morning 3/4 of a liter of tea, in the evening at 6 o'clock 3/4 of a liter of soup and 250 grams of bread a day. That is all. With such food we have to dig the ground and great requirements are made from us just like from manual laborers. On account of the under-nourishment and the heavy work I am weak and exhausted today and I don't know if I can endure and survive this much longer. To what conditions thoughtlessness can drive a man! Into a condition which will probably not be pleasant to anybody.

I beg you all, deliver me, help that I can go back to my family! If this is impossible, ease my condition otherwise I may commit a stupidity, escape or suicide.

There is no possibility to continue to live like this.

Your,
Grigori.

P.S.: Expect with impatience to hear from you. What is the possibility of sending me a work suit which in my stupidity I have not taken along.

Certified copy of Original 5 Oct. 42

Mamperl, employee

(At the V.O. of the Reich Ministry of the occupied territories of the East. Deputy with Army, Territory B.)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 055-PS

SECRET
[rubber stamp]

German Reichs Ministry for the Occupied Regions of the East, Director of Group P4.

P 4/894 a/44g Department: Goepel

Berlin, 12 Sept. 1944
Prinz Louis Ferdinand Str.
Received. Bau 9/12

DECREE

1. To the Chief of the Political Directorate Staff, In the Building

Subject: Presentation of a list of works of art which have been shipped back from the Ukraine.

The Reichs Commissar for the Ukraine has stored the works of art and paintings shipped in from Kiev and Charkow, in the following storage places in East Prussia:

1. Domain Bichau bei Wehlau.

2. Manor House Wildenhoff (Owner Count Schwerin).

Concerned are 65 chests whose contents will be given completely in the enclosure. There is as yet no inventory of some further 20 chests, 57 folios and one role of engravings. There are a great many of the oldest icons, works of famous masters of the German, Dutch and Italian schools of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, as well as works of the best Russian artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. On the whole, the contents include the most valuable works of the known Ukrainian art possession, which in themselves represent a value of many millions after a cursory appraisal. Beyond that they have a high ethical and cultural-political meaning as the only collections of this sort in the German orbit with international repute with which the Reich wishes to carry out a collaboration at present or in the future.

In accordance with the ordinance of the Reichs Chancellery of 18 Nov. 1940—Rk. 15 666 B (enclosure 2) it appears necessary to submit a list of the contents to the Fuehrer. I request your signature on the proposed list which is enclosed.

2. Disseminate immediately.

(Copies for signature were presented in pencil to Ministry and Chancellery of party on 15 Sept. 1944.)

Sv. 9/15

German Reichs Ministry for the Occupied Regions of the East
Director of Group P 4
P 894a/44

Berlin, 14 Sept. 1944
Prinz Louis Ferdinand-str. 2
Phone: 16 45 61
Received: Bau 14.9.44

DECREE

[Rubber stamp] SECRET

1. To the Reichs Minister

Via Chief of the Political Directorate Staff, in the Building

Subject: Works of art shipped back from Ukraine.

The Reichs Commissar for the Ukraine has stored the works of art and paintings shipped in from Kiev and Charkow in the following storage places in East Prussia:

1. Domain Richau bei Wehlau.

2. Manor House Wildenhoff (Owner Count Schwerin).

Concerned are 65 chests whose contents will be given completely in the enclosure. There is as yet no inventory of some further 20 chests, 57 folios and one role of engravings. There are great many of the oldest icons, works of famous masters of the German, Dutch and Italian schools of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, as well as works of the best Russian artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. On the whole the contents include the most valuable works of the known Ukrainian art possession, which in themselves represent a value of many millions after a cursory appraisal. Beyond that they have a high ethic and cultural-political meaning as the only collections of this sort in the German orbit with international repute with which the Reich wishes to carry out a collaboration at present or in the future.

I request an acknowledgement.

In accordance with the decree of the Reichs Chancellory of 18 Nov. 1940—RK. 15 666 B—a list of the contents was presented to the Fuehrer.

2. Disseminate.

[initialed] US 14/9

September 1944
16 43 61
received Bau 14.9.44

The Chief of the Political Directorate Staff

DECREE

[rubber stamp] SECRET

P 894a/44g
1. To the Reichs Chancellory
(1) Berlin W 8
Wilhelmstr.

Re: Reservation for the Fuehrer [Fuehrervorbehalt] of works of art from the occupied territories of the East.

According to an expression of the Fuehrer's will (communication to the Director of the Gallery of Paintings in Dresden—File number: RK 10 811 B) it is required to report all treasures of art which have been shipped back from the occupied territories of the East. I submit, therefore, in the enclosure a list of the items from the museums of Kiev and Charkow which are at present stored in East Prussia with a request for acknowledgement.

2. Disseminate.

By direction.

US 9/14

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 057-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALISTIC GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

Party-Chancellory

The Head of the Party-Chancellory
Fuehrer headquarters, the 30.5.1944
[Fuehrerhauptquartier]

SECRET

[Receipt Stamp]
CHANCELLORY ROSENBERG
Dated 7 June 1944 Nr. 041 K
(Marked) Shown to RL 7/6

Circular Letter 125/44 Secret

(not for publication)

Concerns: Justice exercised by the people against Anglo-American murderers.

In the last few weeks low-flying English and American flyers have repeatedly shot children playing in squares, women and children at work in the fields, peasants plowing, vehicles on the highways, trains, etc. from a low altitude with their aircraft guns [Bordwaffen], and have thus murdered defenseless civilians—particularly women and children—in the vilest manner.

Several instances have occurred where members of the crews of such aircraft who have bailed out or have made forced landings were lynched on the spot immediately after capture by the populace which was incensed to the highest degree.

No police measures or criminal proceedings were invoked against the German civilians who participated in these incidents.

signed M. BORMANN.

Distributed List:

Members of the Executive Board of the NSDAP [Reichsleiter]

Regional leaders [Gauleiter]

Leaders of the incorporated and affiliated organizations of the
Party [Verbandefuehrer]

District leaders [Kreisleiter]

[STAMPED]

For Cognizance to

1) Staff Leader

[Stableiter]

2) Central Office

Authenticated:

Friedrichs

30.5.1944

To all Province and District Leaders:

Concerns: Circular letter 125/44 Secret.

The leader of the Party-Chancellory requests that the local group leaders [Ortagruppenleiter] be instructed concerning the content of this circular letter orally only.

signed: FRIEDRICHS

Authenticated:
Karms

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 058-PS

[Letterhead of the NSDAP Party Chancellery]

The Director of the Party Chancellery
Fuehrer Headquarters

30 Sept 1944

Circular letter 288/44g
SECRET

[Rubber stamped]
Chancellery Rosenberg
Received 3 Oct 1944 Nr 09640
Shown to Reichsleiter 3/10
Filed circular letter secret

Subject: Reorganization of the concerns of prisoners of war.

1. The Fuehrer has ordered under the date 25 Sept 1944:

The custody of all prisoners of war and interned persons, as well as prisoner of war camps, and institutions with guards are transferred to the commander of the reserve army from October 1, 1944.

For all questions which have to do with the fulfilling of the agreement of 1939, as well as affairs of the police and aid societies, and for the affairs of the German prisoners of war in the enemies hands, the high command of the military forces will give particulars of the transfer and the delineation of the twofold duties in direct consultation with the commander of the reserve army and the divisions of the military forces.

2. The Reichsfuehrer SS has commanded:

a. In my capacity as commander of the reserve army, I transfer the affairs of prisoners of war to Gottlob Berger, SS-lieut. general and [SS-Obergruppenfuehrer und General der Waffen-SS] chief of staff of the Volksturm.

b. The commanders of prisoners of war with the individual military commands are subject to the command of the senior SS officer effective as of 1 October 1944.

[Rubber stamp] For cognizance to

1) Chief of Staff

2) Central Office

Back to chancellery

c. The mobilization of labor of the prisoners of war will be organized with the present labor mobilization office in joint action between SS-Lieut. General Berger [SS-Obergruppenfuehrer] and SS-Lieut. General Pohl.

The strengthening of security in the field of prisoner of war affairs is to be accomplished between SS-Lieut. General Berger and the Chief of the Security Police, SS-Lieut. Gen. Dr. Kaltenbrunner.

d. Particulars of the transfer will be determined in joint action between SS-Lieut. Gen. Berger and the Chief of the General Office of the Military Forces, General Reineck.

3. The Reichsfuehrer SS has also commanded:

All camp and labor commands are immediately to investigate with respect to security and suppression of any attempt at uprising, and to take all the proper measures. In this connection I order that from now on, all canned goods which the prisoners receive in packages are to be cut open and must be given to the prisoners opened because of the notes and tools which are often hidden in the cans. This treatment is to be accorded to any canned goods of prisoners which have been saved unopened up to now.

4. I am passing this new order on for information. As soon as further details of the transfer, future treatment of the affairs of prisoners of war, and the exact delineation of the tasks of the Reichsfuehrer SS and of the High Command are established, I shall forward them.

I request you work in closest collaboration with the offices to whom the responsibility of the affairs of the prisoners of war was transferred.

signed: M. BORMANN

Distribution:
Reich Directorate
Gauleiter
Chiefs of the organizations affiliated with NSDAP.
[Verbaendefuehrer]
Authenticated: Suergart [?]
File word: Prisoners of War
Order number 8810

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 061-PS

NSDAP

Party Chancellory

11 January 1944

Leader of Party Chancellory
Fuehrer's Headquarters
Announcement 9/44 secret

SECRET

Re: Supply of Bombed Districts

Since the supply of textiles and household goods for the bombed populations is becoming increasingly difficult, the proposition was made repeatedly to effect purchases in the occupied territories in greater proportions. Various district leaders proposed to let these purchases be handled by suitable private merchants who know these districts and have corresponding connections.

I have brought these proposals to the attention of the National Economic Minister and am quoting his reply of 16 December 1943 on account of its fundamental importance: I consider it a specially important task to make use of the economic power of the occupied territories for the Nation. You are aware of the fact that since the occupation of the Western territories the buying out of these countries has been affected in the greatest proportion. Raw materials, semi-finished products and stocks of finished goods have been rolling to Germany for months, valuable machines were sent to our armaments industry. Everything was done at that time to increase our armament potentialities. Later on the shipments of these important economic goods were replaced by the so-called distribution of orders from industry to industry. These measures are running smoothly and with good success for a long time. They were again strengthened these last few months because we were more than ever before forced by the shutting-down of the consumer goods industry in favor of armament to use the economic powers of the Western occupied territories for these German needs.

With the growing volume of the distribution of orders the black-market also lost more ground and the termination of products as to kind, quality and price was taken into our hands much more effectively. In the spring of this year, therefore, the Reichsmarschal was able to decide to prohibit all black-market purchases through German agencies. Since, besides the industrial fabrication from old stocks and from uncontrollable production in the Western occupied territories, certain supplies always exist which are not covered by the industrial displacement, the proper German agencies have received the order from me to get also these free stocks of finished goods besides securing production for the displacement. In doing so, one must not form a wrong idea of the amount of these stocks. They usually are not as big as they might appear to be in the display window of some cities of the Western territories. These purchases are being made under the control of central purchase agencies and according to the regulations of the national agencies. Moreover, these purchases have already been in the hands of German companies proven in foreign business. Since, in addition to these firms, buyers have recently acted who used to be active in the black-market and are not sufficiently competent nor always reliable, I have formed recently for France and Belgium each a common buying office for the companies permitted for certain businesses. It is the task of these offices to purchase the finished goods without disturbing the distribution of orders specially for the supply for air attack losses. These offices represent a coordination of the especially experienced German companies in Belgium and France. Among them are, for instance, also a number of respectable Hamburg firms. The offices are getting general directions from the Reich offices as to which goods are urgently needed for the provision for bombed out people. Besides, it is up to their private economical initiative to develop fully these possibilities, on which I am also putting the greatest importance.

Accordingly, I may assume that your proposals have already been carried out. Difficulties in the delivery of the goods to the Reich are solely due to the present specially strained transport situation. Frequently during the last few weeks it was not possible to bring in even the most important goods destined for the bombed out civilians from the Western occupied territories. Upon an improvement of the transport situation, the provision with these goods will also improve. Special actions, therefore, can also not change this situation. They would only disturb the order of the practice established after many troubles.

Signed M. Bormann

Distribution:
Reichsleiter
Gauleiter
Verbaendefuehrer
Correct [signed] Goerz

Subject index: Household goods—Airwar measures—Textiles—Supplies

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 062-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer
[Receipt Stamp:
Chancellery Rosenberg
No. 941, dated 1 April 1940]

Munich 33, 13 March 1940
Brown House

TOP SECRET

(Initialled): R

DIRECTIVE A 5/40 g-

Subject: Instructions to the civilian population regarding appropriate behavior in case of landings of enemy planes or parachutists in German territory [Reichsgebiet]

The French civilian population was directed officially and by radio how to behave in case of landings by German planes.

On account of this fact the Commander in Chief of the Air Force has requested me to instruct the civilian population correspondingly by means of party channels.

The attached directions as to procedure are to be disseminated only orally via district leaders [Kreisleiter], local municipal leaders [Ortsgruppenleiter], cell leaders [Zellenleiter], block leaders [Blockleiter], leaders of the incorporated and affiliated organizations of the party. Transmittal by official orders, posters, press or radio is prohibited.

1 enclosure
Authenticated:
(F.d.R.)
FRIEDRICHS

signed: R. HESS

OFFICIAL STAMP: TOP SECRET

(gives the exact routine instructions how to handle state secrets)

1. This is a state secret in the sense of par. 88 Reich Criminal Code in the wording of the law of 24 April 1934. German laws of 1934 Vol. 1 p. 341 ff.

2. To be passed on only personally or upon personal written request in two envelopes against receipt certificate.

3. Transmission if possible through courier or trusted personality; in case of postal transmission as money-letter (value 1050 marks).

4. Multiplication of any kind as well as making of excerpts is prohibited.

5. Recipient responsible for safe keeping. Violation of this results in severest punishment.

DISTRIBUTION
Members of the Executive Board of the NSDAP
Regional Leaders
Adjutant's Office of the Fuehrer
Liaison Staff of the NSDAP
Reich Organization Directorate
Reich Propaganda Directorate
Reich Student Leadership
SS Gruppenfuehrer HEYDRICH.

INCLOSURE TO DIRECTIVE—A 5/40 g

Direction about behavior in case of landings of enemy planes or parachutists

1. Each enemy plane landing on German soil is to be put under effective protection immediately.

2. The airmen are to be arrested at once, and, first of all, a restarting as well as the destruction or burning of the plane or its contents are to be prevented.

3. It is to be kept especially in mind that each part of the plane, even the smallest, or of the equipment of the airmen is important and of the utmost significance to the competent service office. The retaining of any objects—possibly as souvenirs—is detrimental to the country's defense, and will be punished as looting according to law. This category includes also, i.e. notebooks, letters, postal cards, either in the plane or in the clothing of killed or wounded airmen. Any attempt by enemy airmen to destroy such objects is to be prevented by all means.

4. Likewise, enemy parachutists are immediately to be arrested or liquidated [Unschadlich Gemacht].

5. The nearest military or constabulary post is to be informed at once.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 064-PS

[Letterhead—NSDAP]

The Deputy of the Fuehrer
Chief of Staff

at present in Berlin, 27 Sept 40
Bo-An
[Rubber stamp]
Chancellery Rosenberg
Received No. 2565. 1 Oct 1940

To
Reichsleiter A. Rosenberg
Berlin W 35
Margaretenstr. 17

Dear party member Rosenberg:

I am sending you a photostatic copy of a letter from Gauleiter Florian dated 23 Sept 1940 and I request you to take action on it.

Heil Hitler!
Yours very respectfully
signed: M. BORMANN

Enclosure

[Letterhead of the NSDAP]

Duesseldorf
Duesseldorf 23 Sept 1940

Gauleitung
Subject: Lecture of Major General von RABENAU
Our file: Fl./V.
Department: The Gauleiter
Personal
[Receipt stamp]
Deputy of the Fuehrer
27 Sept 1940

To the Deputy of the Fuehrer
Party member
Rudolf HESS
Munich

Photocopy
[penciled]
Dear Party Member Hess:

A pamphlet entitled "The Spirit and Soul of the Soldiers" written by Major General Dr. h. c. (doctor, honorus causa) von Rabenau has appeared in the publications section of the NSDAP. Group I: German Military Might, published by the Central Publishing Co. of the NSDAP, Successors to Franz Eher Inc. Ltd. (GmbH) Berlin.

I cannot but point out this spiritual outpouring as a digression, at least as inadequate. It is on the same order as the many lectures which General von Rabenau gave to officers before the present war and its tendencies are directed against the concept of the German soldier which was born with the national-socialistic revolution, even if this tendency is cleverly kept to a minimum in this case. Just as in his lectures, Rabenau uses the method of arbitrary juggling with philosophic learning, which on one hand displays a widespread knowledge, and on the other consciously holds back from the clarity for which we strive with the national-socialistic world philosophy [Weltanschauung].

As I have reported before in conversation with you, General von Rabenau gave a lecture in Aachen some time before this war to a group of some 60 to 70 younger officers and about 15 leaders of the party who were invited, and among whom I chanced to be, about the development of the people's army. According to Rabenau, the present people's army began about 1813 during the wars of Liberation (Napoleonic) and developed in the decades which followed to its present size, thanks to the great German qualities of soldiery which reached their zenith in the army of one hundred thousand men. The national-socialistic revolution which created the popular will for soldiery, and with it the developments for the establishment of the first German people's army is not mentioned in any way, much less, in the role of being the dynamic creative force. Rabenau contented himself with presenting only a few quotations from the Fuehrer's "Mein Kampf". The politically ignorant officers got the impression, as Rabenau knew how to talk vividly and convincingly, that the size of the present day people's army was an accomplishment of the old military forces, and in their later thinking they will ask themselves: "Why is there so much emphasis on the Party? Why invite the Party fuehrers? This is an affair for soldiers."

When I asked a question after the lecture, which unfortunately did not offer a discussion period, and explained to him that he was in no wise justified by history, that he had denied the mother of the people's army, the Revolution, the Party, he overbore me in the arrogant manner which is peculiar to him with references to Indian, Chinese, French, English and German philosophies in order to prove to me in front of several listeners that his lecture presentation was correct. I replied with the philosophic ideas which I have won in the practical struggle of life, and insisted on the correctness of my concept. He professes not to be able to allow my contentions because they were not scientifically based. According to all appearances only those philosophic ideas are scientifically based, for him, which were developed before the national-socialistic revolution.

The inadequacy of Rabenau made itself clear at the close of this conversation, when the church came into the debate as the educational factor [Erziehungsfaktor]. After he had affirmed the necessity of the churches, Rabenau said with emphasized self-assurance something like the following, "Dear Gauleiter, the Party is making mistake after mistake in the business with the churches. Obtain for me the necessary powers from the Fuehrer, and I guarantee that I shall succeed in a few months in establishing peace with the churches for all times." After this catastrophic ignorance I gave up the conversation about the importance of philosophic ideas for our ordinary life [Volksleben].

Dear Party Member Hess: The reading of General von Rabenau's pamphlet "Spirit and Soul of the Soldier" has reminded me again of this. In this brochure, just as at that time, Rabenau affirms the necessity of the church, straightforward and clearly, even if it is prudently careful. He writes on page 28:

There could be more examples, they would suffice to show that soldiers in this world can scarcely get along without thoughts about the next one.

Because General von Rabenau is falsely based spiritually, I consider his activities as an educator in spiritual affairs as dangerous and I am of the opinion that his educational writings are to be dispensed with absolutely, and that the publications section of the NSDAP can and must renounce these writings.

If such spiritual educational work should be done, in the interests of the German armed forces, then the Publications Section of the NSDAP can be permitted to accept for publication only brochures about "Spirit and Soul of the Soldier" which point out most strongly the permanent danger for "Spirit and Soul of the Soldier." The churches with their Christianity are this danger against which the struggle must always be carried on.

I considered it my duty to tell you again of my concept of General von Rabenau, as well as to convey my criticism of the Publications Section of the NSDAP.

Heil Hitler

signed: FLORIAN
Gauleiter

official seal of
Gauleiter
Gau Duesseldorf
enclosure.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 066-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer
Chief of Staff

Reichsleiter
Alfred Rosenberg
Berlin W 35
Margaretenstr 17

Munich 24 June 1940
The Brown House
III/Dr Kl—Eg
Chancellory Rosenberg
Receipt Nr 1799 M.
1 July 40

H

Copy to III for comment—2 July

Enclosed please find the draft of a decree about the judicial status of religious organizations and congregations in the Reich district Danzig-West Prussia, with a request for your comment.

The draft in its present form has been approved by District Leader Forster.

Heil Hitler!
Signed: M. BORMANN

1 enclosure

Copy
DECREE

About the Juridical Status of Religious Organizations and Congregations in the Reich district Danzig-West Prussia.

The following decree is issued under authority of par. 3 of the decree of the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor regarding the organization and administration of the Eastern territories, dated October 8, 1939—Reich Law Publication (Reichsgesetzblatt) 1 page 2042—and of par. 4 of law of April 14, 1939—Reich Law Publ. I, page 780—with the approval of the Reich Minister of the Interior and the competent Reich Ministers. This shall not be binding for a subsequent general Reich decree.

Par. 1

Because of the peculiar folkloristic conditions in the Reich District Danzig-West Prussia, all religious organizations and congregations need the approval of the Reich Deputy, to assure legal competence.

Par. 2

The Reich Deputy may, with the consent of the Reich Minister of the Treasury, grant subsidies to certain religious organizations and congregations within his own judgement. The subsidies are subject to cancellation at any time.

Par. 3

All claims of the existing religious organizations and congregations to a state of municipal subsidy are suspended. The religious organizations and congregations have no claim to Church dues.

Religious organization and congregations may not exercise their rights of collecting dues without approval of the Reich Deputy. This also relates to the issuance of regulations concerning dues.

The organization of collections as well as the acceptance of voluntary contributions by the religious organizations and congregations is subject to the approval of the Reich Deputy.

Par. 4

Yearly, and prior to each fiscal year, the religious organizations and congregations will submit a budget plan about the intended expenditures of their receipts, to the government inspector. Further, and upon demand, they must substantiate their expenditures at the end of the fiscal year.

The Government inspector is entitled to inspect the property administration of the Church and to demand any explanations deemed necessary about items in the budget. He may object to certain items in the budget in which case such items are to be eliminated.

Par. 5

Acquisition of property, in particular of real estate by religious organizations and congregations is subject to the approval of the Reich Deputy. This regulation applies to acquisitions through deeds of living persons as well as to testamentary dispositions.

Obligations of money, work or material contributions to religious organizations or congregations, their institutions and affiliations, must be ratified by the Reich Deputy to become lawful, insofar as these obligations have been contracted prior to January 1, 1940.

Par. 6

With view to the peculiar conditions existing in the Eastern territories organized under the Reich District [Reichsgau] Danzig-West Prussia, the public administration of real estate which was owned or possessed by the religious organizations and congregations prior to 1 Sept. 1939, will remain in effect in this territory until further notice. This does not apply to tracts with no buildings other than those intended for worship.

Par. 7

Unless otherwise indicated this decree is effective for the entire Reich District of Danzig-West Prussia.

Par. 8

All regulations conflicting with this decree are void.

The Reich Deputy issues the necessary decrees for the execution and amplification of this law. He designates the agency which will execute the powers invested in the State by this law.

Par. 9

This decree is effective as of * * *

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 068-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

Berlin—Wilhelmstrasse 64
The Deputy of the Fuehrer

Munich—Brown House
5 April 1940
III/Dr Kl.-Pu

[Stamped]
Office Rosenberg
Rec'd Nr 1028 M April 9, 1940
Submitted to R April 9
Copy AR and Urban H Personal!
To
Reichsleiter
Alfred Rosenberg
Berlin W 35
Margaretenstr. 17

Subject: "Church Services"

Enclosed please find a copy of the letter of the High Command of the Navy as well as a copy of my reply of this date, for your personal information.

Heil Hitler!
by [illegible]
signed: M BORMANN

2 enclosures

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

Berlin—Wilhelmstrasse 64
The Deputy of the Fuehrer

Munich—Brown House
April 5, 1940
III/Dr. Kl-Pu

To the High Command of the Navy
Berlin W 35, Tirpitzufer 72/76

Subject: "Church Services" Your letter of 9 Feb 1940—AMA/M Wehr IIb B. Nr 896

In the opinion of the party the term "Church Service" cannot be objected to. I consider it fitting since it properly implies meetings arranged and organized by the churches.

Those Germans who are not members of a Christian Church may be offended by an announcement in a daily newspaper that only the members of the Christian confession are holding a "divine service". After the National Socialist State has created the conception "God-believing" [Gottglaubig] especially for those Germans who confess the belief in God and who have placed their lives in the "Service of God"—without being members of a Christian confession—it can no longer be justified to refer exclusively to the Services arranged by the Christian confessions as "Divine Services", even in the National Socialist dailies.

Heil Hitler!
signed: M BORMANN (acting)

Copy

The High Command of the Navy, AMA/M Wehr IIb B Nr 896
Berlin W 35, Tirpitzufer 72/76 Feb 9, 1940

To the office of the Deputy of the Fuehrer.

With reference to the letter of the Supreme Commander of the Navy dated Oct 24, 1939 and the reply of the Deputy of the Fuehrer dated Nov 3, 1939 I inform you that in the Wilhelmshaven newspapers the expression "Church Services" is still being changed to "Divine Services".

The High Command requests that this regulation, apparently issued erroneously to all principal newspapers by the Chief Press Agency in Bremen, be revoked.

Heil Hitler!
by [illegible]

signed: [signature illegible]

Rear Admiral and Headquarters Commandant in the Supreme Headquarters of the Navy.

certified a true copy: signed: PAFF

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 069-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer, Staff Director

Munich 33, Brown House, January 17, 1939

SECRET
Regulation No 1/39 g

Subject: Jews

After a report of General Field Marshal Goering the Fuehrer has made some basic decisions regarding the Jewish question. The decisions are brought to your attention in the enclosure. Strict compliance with these directives is requested.

signed: M BORMANN

1 enclosure
Distribution: III b
Official:
[signed: signature illegible]
Office Rosenberg, Rec'd Nr 5827 Jan 19, 39; filed Feb 2
Submitted to
RL Jan 19
Urban Jan 20
Schickedanz Feb 13

Copy

Berlin, Dec 28, 1938

Minister President General Field Marshal Goering, Commissioner for the Four Year Plan

SECRET

Pursuant to my report the Fuehrer has made the following decisions on the Jewish question.

A.
I: Housing of Jews

1. a. Protective regulations for tenants will not be generally revoked in the case of Jews. It is desirable, however, to proceed in individual cases in such a way that Jews will live together in one house, as much as feasible under rental conditions.

b. For this reason the arianization of real estate will be the last step of the total arianization, that means that at present real estate is only to be arianized in individual cases where there are compelling reasons. An immediate concern is the arianization of plants and business enterprises, farm property, forests, etc.

2. The use of sleepers and dining cars is to be prohibited for Jews. Apart from that no separate Jew-compartments must be arranged for. Neither should any bans be pronounced regarding the use of railways, streetcars, subways, buses and ships.

3. The ban for Jews is to be pronounced only for certain public establishments etc. This includes such hotels and restaurants which are mainly visited by Party members (for instance: Hotel Kaiserhof, Berlin; Hotel Vierjahreszeiten, Munich; Hotel Deutscher Hof, Nurnberg; Hotel Drei Mohren, Augsburg, etc.). The ban can further be pronounced for swimming pools, certain public squares, resort towns, etc. Mineral baths may, in individual cases and if prescribed by a doctor, be used by Jews, but only in a manner not causing offense.

II. Pensions are not to be denied to Jews who have been civil servants and who have been pensioned. It is to be investigated, however, whether those Jews can manage on a smaller pension.

III. Jewish social care is not to be arianized or to be abolished, so that Jews will not become a public burden but can be cared for by Jewish institutions.

IV. Jewish patents are property values and therefore to be arianized too. (A similar procedure was used during the World War by America and other states pertaining to German citizens.)

B.
Mixed Marriages:

I. 1. with children (half-Aryans 1 class)

a. If the father is German and the mother Jewish the family is permitted to remain in their present apartment. No ban for Jews regarding housing is to be pronounced against these families.

The property of the Jewish mother may be transferred in such cases to the German husband respectively the half-Aryan children.

b. If the father is Jewish and the mother German these families are neither to be housed in Jewish quarters for the time being. This because the children (half-Aryan 1st class) are not to be exposed to the Jewish agitation as they will have to serve later in the labor service and the armed forces.

The property may for the time being be transferred partly or entirely to the children.

2. without children

a. If the husband is German and the wife Jewish par. 1 a holds true accordingly.

b. If the husband is Jewish and the wife German these childless couples are to be treated as pure Jews.

Property values of the husband cannot be transferred to the wife. Both can be lodged in Jewish houses or quarters. Especially in the case of emigration both spouses are to be treated like Jews as soon as the augmented emigration has been set into motion.

II. If the German wife divorces the Jewish husband she returns to the German blood-kinship. All disadvantages for her are dropped in this case.

signed: GOERING

Authenticated copy:
signed: JAHN

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 070-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer Staff

Munich 33, The Brown House, April 25, 1941

III D—Schw, 1180/0
Chancellery Rosenberg
Receipt No. 4746 Urg 5 May 41
Submitted to the RL on
May 6
H

To the Fuehrer's Commissioner for the Supervision of the entire mental and world-philosophical training and education of the NSDAP

Berlin W 35, Margaretenstrasse 17

Subject: National Socialist School Services

We are inducing schools more and more to reduce and abolish religious morning services. Similarly, the confessional and general prayers in several parts of the Reich have already been replaced by national socialist mottos. I would be grateful to know your opinion on a future national socialist morning service instead of the present confessional morning services which are usually conducted once per week.

Should those services be held at designated times, that is once per week or once every other week, or should they only be held at special occasions? I would further appreciate your advice on whether you have prepared concrete suggestions for the arrangement of such national socialist school services. If so I would be grateful to receive them.

Copy to Party member Scheller 5 April 41 complied
Dr. Stellbrechtstang complied 6 April

Heil Hitler!
signed: KRUEGER [?]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 071-PS

23 April 1941
4609/R/MA

To Reich Director Bormann at present at Fuehrer's Headquarters

Dear party member Bormann:

I cannot agree with your letter of the 19th inst., since some misunderstandings occurred therein.

1. The clause concerning confiscations to be undertaken in Reich territory is doubtless a regulation which has not yet been introduced, and directly because of this I have asked you to propose such a regulation to the Fuehrer. The proposal originated in a decree of the Fuehrer relative to the work of the higher institutes of learning whereby the question of research institutes and library were given priority and the official bureaus of the Party and the state were instructed to support me in this work. Now it is clear that the philosophical opponents of the regime (this is especially true in the case of the recently confiscated religious archives) are concealing a quantity of the things which are of priceless, perhaps of irreplaceable, value for the later research of the higher institutes of learning. Because an actual necessity seems to be present, I wish to make the already cited proposal. It is understood that the confiscations are not executed by the regional authorities [Gauleitungen] but that this is conducted by the Security Service [SD] as well as by the police. Scientific work can only be done of course after the confiscation by the police, but here—and this is decisive—all must decide what is necessary for police compilations (actual correspondence with philosophical opponents and other material) and what does not fall under the competency of the police, but under the research work done by seminary, that is the Reich direction [Reichsleiter] of the Nazi Party. The taking of an office by Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich is only to be considered as much, not as a binding engagement. I therefore have decided on this proposal because it has been communicated to me in writing by a Gauleiter, that the Chief Office of the Reich Security [Reichssicherheitshauptamt] of the SS has claimed the following from the library of a monastery: The Catholic Handbook, Albertus Magnus; Edition of the Church Fathers; History of the Papacy by L.V. Pastor and other works. That means that already historical sources and works are being claimed for the Police from the monastery libraries of the districts [Gaue] which must remain reserved uniquely for the work of the Reich direction [Reichsleitung] of the Nazi Party respectively the state research places. These aspects have already been discussed thoroughly in the question of confiscated property in occupied areas. I have transmitted to you a photocopy of my convention with the Security Service [SD] which was reached with the express approval of Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich. I would like also to mention that this work has been executed in accordance with the agreement and always in a loyal fashion (with the exception of a case in Holland which I hope will be likewise solved in the same way). Photocopies and written copies should be made available to me of all material which the police has rightly confiscated for their political police purposes, but which according to its nature, must also be appropriated for a later research value. In my view there exists in itself no fundamental difficulty if both sides adopt the viewpoint of being loyal on their own and to the missions of the Partner. I request once more special efforts to prevent that valuable writings are arbitrarily extracted from the libraries in various districts by the Chief Office of Reich Security [Reichssicherheitshauptamt] or other police service offices. On this account I propose the regulation that all confiscations remain under the full powers [Oberhoheit] of the district leader and be examined by my deputies in case later research value in the respective district itself appears possible.

2. There is a great misunderstanding with respect to what is involved in the question of the south-east and the employment of my administrative staff; art objects have always been treated as a second line problem. In the first line an order of the chief of the high command of the Armed Forces [OKW] on the instance of the Fuehrer has gone twice to the occupied territories of the west to place all scientific and archive materials of ideological opponents of the regime [Weltanschaulicher Gegner] at my disposal for research purposes. That has resulted also in close cooperation on the widest scale with the Security Service [SD] and the military commanders, and I believe that I have secured priceless research pieces for the Reich directorate [Reichsleitung] of the Nazi party and its higher institutes of learning. I wish to inform you especially that as many as 7000 crates have been brought to Germany up to the present moment. In the course of these confiscations we have found according to the nature of the case other valuable cultural objects including very valuable works of art. And in order that these things should not be dispersed and that they be secured for the Fuehrer, the Chief of the high command of the armed forces (OKW) on my request and on the instance of the Fuehrer has ordered that these art objects should be catalogued by me. I ask you that if necessary it should be established for the benefit of the Reich Marshal that my working staff has executed these tasks in a correct fashion and in an objective blameless form. Art objects generally do not come into question as far as the Balkans are concerned although there are Free-Masonry archives and Jewish libraries and other relevant research objects. In my opinion only the same attitude as that prevailing in occupied French territory can be taken and what I requested, was really only an expansion of an already existing regulation. For General Field Marshal List, and likewise for the General Quartermaster of the Army the work has already begun and my men are at work with these circles in Belgrade. By command of General Field Marshal List as well as of his deputy general, these men will also be employed in closest relationship with the Security Service in Salonika. As you know, Salonika is one of the largest Jewish centers.

I should like to remark in this connection that this affair has already been executed on our side with the Security Service in the most loyal fashion. One of our collaborators who also belongs to the Security Service, had his duty-obligation countermanded by the Security Service, whereupon it was impressed upon him that the Security Service cooperates with my administrative staff in a most loyal fashion. The position is thus clarified in a practical fashion and the work has taken its course. What I asked was only a confirmation that the already pronounced decisions for the West should also have validity under the given circumstances for other occupied or to be occupied areas. Finally the representative of the Fuehrer has expressly ordered that the appropriate party members in this question should be placed, so as not to permit this unique opportunity for an inquiry in the Jewish and Masonic lodge question to be lost. The agreement on this matter is thus general.

I trust that this letter has cleared up the resulting misunderstandings.

Heil Hitler!

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 072-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer, Staff Commander

Fuehrer Headquarters 19 April 1941
Fuehrer Bureau (Bo/Fu)
Chancellory Rosenberg
No 4609 H, 21 April 41
Shown to the Reichsleiter on the 22. 4
[rubber stamp]

To Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg
Berlin W 35, Margaretenstr. 17
Copy to Utikal

Dear party member Rosenberg!

In connection with the received draft of the decree I attended, as ordered, a speech made by SS Brig. Gen. Heydrich. The latter called attention to the fact that the sentence, "In the confiscations undertaken, or to be undertaken in the Reich area, of the property of ideological opponents, the same rules apply", anticipates a regulation which has so far not been introduced and would for the first time set a precedent through this decree-draft. Moreover, the regional governments [Gauleitungen] are never allowed to carry out confiscations.

Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich further pointed out that he could under no circumstances recognize the attempted regulation in the final sentence of your decree-draft, since there existed some objections to it. The scientific treatment of the ideological opposition could only be done in conjunction with the political police work. Only the material should be handed over to you, and the seminar respectively. If a speedier treatment through your office is necessary, duplicates and photocopies should be put at your disposal.

The Fuehrer emphasized that in the Balkans the use of your experts would not be necessary, since there were no art-objects to be confiscated. In Belgrade only the collection of Prince Paul existed, which would be returned to him completely. The remaining material of the lodges, etc. would be seized by the agencies of Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich.

The libraries and art objects of the monasteries, confiscated in the Reich, were to remain for the time being in these monasteries, insofar as the Gauleiters had not determined otherwise. After the war, a careful examination of the stock could be undertaken. Under no circumstances, however, should a centralization of all the libraries be undertaken, the Fuehrer has repeatedly rejected this suggestion.

signed: M. BORMANN

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 078-PS

COPY

OFFICE IV

Berlin 28 June 1941

SECRET STATE MATTER!

Directives for the Chiefs of Security Police and Secret Service Teams Assigned to PW Camps

These teams are assigned after agreement has been reached between the chiefs of the Security Police, secret service and the Supreme Command of the Army and * * * (see annex). The Commands work upon the special authorization and according to the general directives in the Camp regulations which was given to them and is independently in close harmony with the AO.

The duty of the Commands is the political screening of prisoners and the segregation and further handling of undesirable elements among them with regard to political, criminal or similar respects.

Resources cannot be placed at the disposal of the Commands for the fulfillment of their missions. The "German penal code" [Fahndungsbuch], the "Temporary permit of Leave List" [Aufenthaltsermittlungsliste], and "Special Penal Code USSR" will prove to be of little value; the Special Penal Code USSR therefore does not suffice as only a small part therein is dangerous to the designated Soviet Russians.

The Commands will therefore have to rely on their own specialty and ingenuity upon establishment and self-producing knowledge. Therefore they will only then be able to begin with the fulfillment of their mission when they have gathered an appropriate amount of material.

For their work, the Commands are to make as much use of the experiences of the Camp Commanders as possible, who in the meantime have profited by the observation and examination of prisoners.

Further, the Commands will have to take pains from the beginning to search among the prisoners for seemingly trustworthy elements, may they be communists or not, in order to make them useful for their intelligence purposes.

Through the establishment of such trusted personnel [V-Personen] and through the use of all other present possibilities among the prisoners, it must succeed to screen all elements.

In every case the Commands are to provide themselves with definite clarity over the encountered measures through the examination and eventual questioning of prisoners.

Above all it is important to find out:

1. all outstanding functionaries of the State and of the Party, especially

2. professional revolutionists,

3. the functionaries of the Comintern,

4. all leading Party functionaries of the Russian Secret Police [KPdSU] and their associated organizations in the Central, district, and county Committees,

5. all the Peoples' Commissars and their Assistants,

6. all the former Polit-Commissars in the Red Army,

7. all leading personalities of the Central and Middle Offices among the State authorities,

8. the leading economic personalities,

9. the Soviet Russian Intelligence agents,

10. all Jews,

11. all persons who are established as being instigators or fanatical communists.

Just as important is the finding of persons who are devoted to the reconstruction, the administration, and management of the conquered Russian provinces.

Finally, such persons must be secured who can be used to transact further discoveries, whether of the Police or similar work, and for the clarification of universal interesting questions. In this category fall all the higher State and Party functionaries who are in the camp on the basis of their position and knowledge and who can give information on the measures and working methods of the Soviet State, the Communistic Party or the Cominterns.

In view of the pending decisions, considerations must also be given to the peoples' membership. At the end of the screening, measures, to be decided later, as to the transfer of prisoners from one command to another, will follow.

The Camp Commanders are directed by the Supreme Command of the Army to report such proposals.

Executions will not be carried out in the camps or immediate vicinity. Should the camps in the General Government be situated in the immediate vicinity of the border, then the prisoners for special handling are to be taken care of in former Soviet Russian Provinces.

The Commands are to keep records of the fulfillment of special handlings; which must include:

Serial number
Family and Surname
Date of birth and place
Military rank
Profession
Last residence
Reason for special handling
Day and place of special handling

Office IV

SECRET STATE MATTER

Supplement to the Directives for the Commands of the Security Police and Security Service assigned to P.W. camps

1. In the directives of the 17th July 1941, I have repeatedly pointed to the fact that it is the duty of the Special Purpose Command of the Security Police and Security Service to find not only the untrustworthy but also those trustworthy elements in general which can come into consideration for the reconstruction of the Eastern provinces.

I reemphasize that one duty is as important as the other.

In order to obtain a most extensive view of the co-activity of the Special Purpose Command, I order that the numeral 4 (number of those persons found to be trustworthy) will be especially heeded in the weekly reports.

The war prisoners who are found to be trustworthy and who were formerly in leading positions in the Soviet Russian economic circles, are to be listed, if possible, according to branch their last employment, and by name.

2. I reemphasize again the fact that in view of the pending decisions, consideration must especially be given to the peoples' citizenship.

Ukrainians, White Russians, Aserbeidschanians, Armenians, North Caucasians, Georgians, Turks are only to be designated as definitely untrustworthy and dealt with according to the directive when they are definitely proven to be Bolshevists, Polit-Commissars, or other dangerous functionaries.

One must be careful, in as much as the Turkish people frequently have a Jewish appearance and the circumcision alone does not denote a Jewish descent (for example, Mohammedans).

3. The conception "highbrow" [Intelligenzler] should not be interpreted along European viewpoints.

The simplest, most primitive Soviet-Russian illiterate can, in his political fanaticism, be more dangerous than, for instance, the Soviet-Russian engineer, who due to his ability, went to High School, even though, he only outwardly appeared to be in accord with the Bolshevistic system.

In this respect the highbrow are mainly the professional revolutionists, writers, editors, and persons in the Comintern.

4. Those Soviet Russians who are definitely found to be untrustworthy are to be forthwith reported—as designated in the directives of the 17th July 1941. Following the introduction of the execution authorization, further fulfillment of the designated measures are to begin without further delay.

A further custody in the camps in question are to be avoided for various reasons.

Finally I reemphasize that under no circumstances are the executions to be carried out either in the Camp or in the near vicinity.

It is self-understood that these executions are not public. It is a matter of principle not to admit spectators.

5. I again charge the leaders and members of the Special Service Staff with the following: exemplary behavior during and after duty hours, top cooperation with camp commanders and careful checking of work.

signed: Heydrich
(S)

Verified:
signed: Wolfert, Member of the Chancellory

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 081-PS

[TOP SECRET]

28 February 1942

1/1 /41 g.Ks

To the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces [OKW]

Berlin W 35, Tirpitzufer 72-76

Subject: Prisoners of war.

Since the beginning of its existence, the Reich Ministry for the occupied Eastern territories has taken the viewpoint, that the large number of Soviet prisoners of war constitute a highly valuable material for propaganda. The treatment of Soviet prisoners of war must be considered differently than the treatment of prisoners of war of other nations, for various reasons:

1. The war in the East has not been concluded, and the treatment of the prisoners of war must have far-reaching results on the will-to-desert of the Red Army man who is still fighting.

2. Germany intends to keep a large part of the former Soviet Union occupied, even after the end of the war, and to develop it industrially for her purposes. Therefore she depends on a far-reaching cooperation of the population.

3. Germany is conducting the fight against the Soviet Union because of ideological viewpoints. Bolshevism must be overthrown and something better must be put in its place. Even the prisoners of war themselves must realize that national socialism is willing and in the position to bring them a better future. They must return later to their homes from Germany with a feeling of admiration and esteem for Germany and German institutions; and thus become propagandists for the cause of Germany and national socialism.

This attempted goal has not been attained so far. The fate of the Soviet prisoners of war in Germany is on the contrary a tragedy of the greatest extent. Of 3.6 millions of prisoners of war, only several hundred thousand are still able to work fully. A large part of them has starved, or died, because of the hazards of the weather. Thousands also died from spotted fever. It is understood, of course, that there are difficulties encountered in the feeding of such a large number of prisoners of war. Anyhow, with a certain amount of understanding for goals aimed at by German politics, dying and deterioration could have been avoided in the extent described. For instance, according to information on hand, the native population within the Soviet Union are absolutely willing to put food at the disposal of the prisoners of war. Several understanding camp commanders have successfully chosen this course. However in the majority of the cases, the camp commanders have forbidden the civilian population to put food at the disposal of the prisoners, and they have rather let them starve to death. Even on the march to the camps, the civilian population was not allowed to give the prisoners of war food. In many cases, when prisoners of war could no longer keep up on the march because of hunger and exhaustion, they were shot before the eyes of the horrified civilian population, and the corpses were left. In numerous camps, no shelter for the prisoners of war was provided at all. They lay under the open sky during rain or snow. Even tools were not made available to dig holes or caves. A systematic delousing of the prisoners of war in the camps and of the camps themselves has apparently been missed. Utterances such as these have been heard: "The more of these prisoners die, the better it is for us". The consequence of this treatment is now this, that spotted fever is spreading due to the escape and discharge of prisoners and has claimed its victims among the armed forces as well as among the civilian population, even in the old part of Germany. Finally, the shooting of prisoners of war must be mentioned; these were partly carried out according to viewpoints which ignore all political understanding. For instance, in various camps, all the "Asiatics" were shot, although the inhabitants of the areas, considered belonging to Asia, of Transcaucasia and Turkestan especially, are among those people in the Soviet Union who are most strongly opposed to Russian subjugation and to Bolshevism. The Reich ministry of the occupied Eastern territories has repeatedly emphasized these abuses. However, in November for instance, a detail [Kommando] appeared in a prisoner of war camp in Nikolajew, which wanted to liquidate all Asiatics.

The treatment of prisoners of war appears to be founded for a great part on serious misconceptions about the people of the Soviet Union. One finds the opinion that the people become more inferior the further one goes East. If the Poles already were given harsh treatment, one argues, it should therefore be done to a much greater extent to the Ukrainians, White Ruthenians, Russians, and finally the "Asiatics".

It was apparently completely ignored, in the treatment of prisoners of war, that Germany found, in contrast to the West (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway), a people who went through all the terror of Bolshevism, and who now, happy about their liberation, put themselves willingly at the disposal of Germany. A better gift could not come to Germany in this war, which requires every last man. But instead of accepting this gift, the people of the East are being treated more contemptibly and worse than the people of the West, who do not hide their enmity towards Germany.

It was a basic mistake that no difference was made between real prisoners of war and deserters. It is known that German propaganda deposited millions of leaflets beyond the lines, and encouraged the Red soldiers to desert, whereby good treatment and sufficient food was specifically assured to them. These promises were not kept. The deserters were beaten and left to starve the same as so many prisoners of war. A natural consequence of this politically and militarily unwise treatment was not only a paralyzing of the will to desert, but a plain deadly fear to get into German captivity. It would be naive to assume that the occurences in the prisoner of war camps could be kept hidden from the Soviet government. As can be seen in Molotov's circular, the Soviets have in fact an excellent knowledge of the conditions described above, and naturally they have done everything in their power to influence the Soviet population and Red soldiers accordingly. It can be said without exaggeration that the mistakes in the treatment of prisoners of war are to a great extent the cause for the stiffening power of resistance of the Red Army, and therefore also cause for the death of thousands of German soldiers.

After the Reich ministry for occupied Eastern territories was finally successful in overcoming the prejudice against Soviet prisoners of war partially, and when the prisoners of war were to come to Germany to a great extent for work, it was found that of 3.6 million only several hundred thousand were still able to work. Thus, German economy and armament industry also must suffer for the treatment of prisoners of war.

The above explanations are not intended to be a belated, fruitless criticism, nor are they directed against any official agency, especially since very many objective situations came into play, as has been mentioned, and the responsibility is shared. They should only become the basis for a new policy toward the prisoners of war which corresponds more to our military and civilian interests. The Reich ministry for the occupied Eastern territories is endeavoring with all its powers to assist the fighting troops by effective propaganda for the deterioration of the enemy's military forces. All propaganda will be useless, however, if there is more fear of captivity than of death and wounds on the battlefield.

The primary demand is that the treatment of the prisoners of war ensues according to the laws of humanity and according to the dignity of the German nation. It is understandable that inhuman treatment, proven many times, of German prisoners of war, by members of the Red Army has embittered the German troops so much that they retaliate with the same treatment. However, such retaliatory measures do not improve the situation of German prisoners of war by any means, but must have as their last consequence the fact that neither side will take any more prisoners, thus that they conduct the war in a most inhuman manner. At any rate, as much as is known, such retaliatory measures have not been able up to now to cause the enemy to change. They were therefore without purpose.

Furthermore, sufficient food, and at least primitive shelter, are to be provided for the prisoners within the framework of possibility. In the camps for prisoners, scheduled for work projects, as well as in those for the others, skillful propaganda is necessary, which must be carried out by camp newspapers, movies, lectures, simple musical events, games, etc.

Every camp commandant must be made responsible that every prisoner of war, guarded by him, will return to his home later on as a propagandist for Germany. Of course, on the other side, action must be taken with utmost severity against possible agitators. In any case, in the future a difference must be made between real prisoners of war and deserters. The deserters are to be provided with identification certificates, and in any case are to be treated better than the prisoners of war. Especially this measure should have far-reaching success in reference to the deterioration of the Red Army.

I would appreciate an expression of opinion soon, and information of appropriate action.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 084-PS

Berlin NW 7, The 30 Sept.
Hegelplatz 2

Central Office [Zentralstelle] for Members of Eastern Nationals. In (ZO)

Concerning: Present Status of the question of Eastern Laborers.

The commitment and treatment of foreign laborers, who have been brought into the Reich from occupied Eastern territories, depicts a proceeding which will not only be of significant importance to the German war production and the securing of food, but also for the carrying out of German administrative interests in a former Soviet area. Two large fields of action are affected by the way in which the problems connected with the inclusion of millions of Eastern nationals in the Reich are solved: 1. Development of the war situation. 2. The enforcement of the German claim to leadership in the East after the war.

When the call for labor in Germany was increased in January, 1942 among the occupied Eastern territories, this set up a situation among those classes of Russian and Ukrainian civilians concerned which had by all means the appearance of a risk. Even if one group (the volunteers) set excessive hopes on the journey into the Reich under the impression of irresponsible promises while the other (forced laborers) left their homes reluctantly or at least with misgivings because of memories of former Bolshevist deportations as well as planted anti-German rumors, the fact remains that the trip to Germany had to be felt as journey into the unknown not only by the two concerned but also by those relatives who remained behind because of the isolation of the USSR from Europe for decades. The public judgment of the Reich and its leadership would be dependent upon the outcome of this measure taken by the German military and civilian authorities in the occupied Eastern territories. The employment in Germany offered an unusual opportunity to learn to know by personal experience, which no propaganda could replace. The greater German Reich was much slandered by the Soviet press, and the National Socialistic position to the working class and thus to gain a basis of comparison to the corresponding Communistic doctrines and methods. This meant no more nor less, than that the draft of Eastern laborers would be of importance in the development of political opinions among the Eastern nationals towards the power which was presently occupying the region which would aid measures taken to accomplish the recruitment, the housing etc., in the Reich, which should have been taken into consideration from the start, since in view of the necessity to keep the aid of the native inhabitants in the huge areas behind the front, factors which cannot be controlled by regulations or orders, namely the frame of mind, which is of war potential value, must be considered.

Instead of taking consideration of this, the drafting and the employment as well as the housing, treatment etc. of the so-called Eastern laborers has so far been taken care of exclusively according to labor, technical and the security police points of view, with the result that the headquarters responsible for this were able to report the due numerical fulfilment of the program as well as the security of the German nationality and of the businesses. At the time, however, facts had to be hushed which could have been avoided not only in the interests of German prestige and to the satisfaction of the occupied Eastern territories but which even today cost the lives of thousands of German soldiers by their efforts. The facts which up to the fall of 1942, have undergone only part or incomplete changes, among others, the following.

1. The concept of the workers from the occupied territories of the USSR was narrowed down to the labor- and social-legal term "Eastern Laborers". A labor condition among "Foreigners" was hereby created in a segregated "Employment under Special Conditions" which had to be looked upon by those affected, as degrading.

2. The drafting of Eastern workers and women workers often occurred without the necessary examination of the capabilities of those concerned, so that 5-10 out of a hundred, sick and children, were transported along. On the other hand, in those places where no volunteers were obtained, instead of using the lawful employment obligations, coercive measures were used by the police (imprisonment, penal expedition, and similar measures.)

3. The employment in businesses was not undertaken by considering the occupation and previous training but according to the chance assignment of the individual to the respective transports or transient camps.

4. The billeting did not follow the policies according to which the other foreigners are governed, but just as for civilian prisoners in camps which were fenced in with barbed wire and were heavily guarded, from which no exit was permitted.

5. The treatment by the guards was on the average without intelligence and cruel so that the Russian and Ukrainian workers, in enterprises with foreign laborers of different nationalities, were exposed to the scorn of the Poles and the Czechs among other things.

6. The food and care was so bad and insufficient in the camps for the Eastern Laborers being employed in the industry and in the mines that the good average capability of the camp members dropped down shortly and many sicknesses and deaths took place.

7. Payment was carried out in the form of a ruling in which the industrial worker would keep on the average 2 or 3 RM each week and the farm laborers even less, so that the transfer of pay to their homes became illusory, not to mention the fact there had been no satisfactory procedure developed for this.

8. The postal service with their families was not feasible for months because of the lack of a precautionary ruling; so that instead of factual reports, wild rumors arrived in their countries,—among other means by means of emigration.

9. The promises which had been made time and time again in the areas of enlistment stood in contradiction with those facts mentioned under 3-8.

Apart from the natural impairment of the frame of mind and capabilities which these measures, as well as conditions, brought with them, the result was that the Soviet propaganda took over the matter and evaluated it carefully. Not only the actual conditions and the letters which reached the country, in spite of the initial blockade, as well as the stories of fugitives and such, but also the clumsy publications in the German press of the legal rulings relative to the matter gave them enough to manipulate with. Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov in his note to the enemy powers referred already in April 1942 to this, especially in para. III of this document in which among others it is stated:

"The German administration is treading under its feet the long recognized laws and customs governing war, in that it has given the orders to the troops to take into captivity all male civilians and in many places even the women, and to use against them those measures which the Hitlerites have introduced towards prisoners of war. This does not only mean slave labor for the captured peaceful inhabitants but in most cases it also means inescapable starvation or death through sickness, corporal punishments, and organized mass murders.

"The deportation of peaceful inhabitants to the rear, which has been widely practiced by the German-Fascist army, begins to take on a mass character. It is carried out under direct rulings of the German High Command (OKW) and its effects are especially cruel in the immediate rear areas during a retreat of the German army. In a series of documents, which have been found with the staffs of destroyed German units, there is a directive to the order of the High-Command under Nlr. 2974/41 of 6 Dec. 1942 which directs that all grown men are to be deported from occupied populated points into prisoner of war camps. From the order to the 37th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Division of 2 Dec. 1941 under the heading "About the deportation of the Civilian Population" it can be deduced that for the period from the 4 to the 12 Dec the capture and forceful deportation of the total population of 7 villages to the German rear areas was planned, for which a carefully worked out plan was proposed.

Sometimes all the inhabitants were deported, sometimes the men were torn away from their families or mothers were separated from their children. Only the smallest number of these deported people have been able to return to their home village. These returnees report terrible degradations, heaviest forced labor, abundant deaths among inhabitants because of starvation and tortures, and murder by the Fascists of all the weak, wounded, and sick."

Further, there are even today announcements in the Soviet newspapers as well as radio about the treatment of Eastern laborers which might have as an effect a strengthening of the moral power to resist in the Red Army. Further, there is mentioned the text of a letter which arrived in Ordshonikidsegrad from a Russian girl and which was published in a "Proclamation" of the police administration of the North-Western Front of the Red army under the heading of "A Russian Girl in Cologne", attaching in connection with it an effective propaganda viewpoint about the "Fascist Forced Laborers" in Germany.

"Do you know"—, it goes on at the end of the proclamation,—"that every one of us who goes to Germany will meet the same fate as Olga Selesnewa! Do not forget that the German monster will make each and every one of you, who has remained behind, a slave on your own soil or drag you to eternal forced labor in Germany! Dear brothers and sisters ... Go to the partisan detachments! Injure the German occupants at every step. Hit the Hitler thieves everywhere and continuously. The Russian soil shall become their graves!"

The effects of this large scale documentary proven radio-press-and leaflet propaganda, operating even into German administered territories, must be considered as one of the main reasons for this year's stiffening of the Soviet resistance as well as the threatening increase of guerilla bands up to the borders of the General Government.

In the meantime, after a betterment of the condition of the Eastern laborers had been insisted upon, not only by the main office for politics in the Reichs ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, which has been able to find support in the repeated requests by the High Command of the Armed Forces, but also by the gentleman charged with the responsibility for all labor employment as well as the Department of Labor Employment in the German Labor Movement, which has the supervision of the Eastern Laborers—those previously existing legal and police rulings have been mitigated and the conditions in the 8-10,000 camps in the Reich have, on the whole, been improved. Thus those fixed wages, which have been determined by the tables of compensation in a ruling of the Council of Ministers, upon which deductions were made up to 75%, have been replaced by new tariffs. The Eastern Laborers were left free of duty according to it, and the taxes were paid in a form of an Eastern Laborer Tax by the owner of the enterprise (Ruling of Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich of 30/6/42). Thus after many months of negotiations, with the cooperation of the Central Economic Bank in Rowno, a salary transfer, in the form of a savings stamp procedure, was regulated. Thus, the ruling of the Reichs Chief of the SS of 20/2/42 prescribing barbed wire has been dropped by a supplementary ruling of 9/4/42 and at the same time, in exceptional cases, groups were permitted to go out under German guards, of late, it has even been permitted under their own supervision. The food supply was adjusted by a special delivery letter of the Reichs Food minister dated 17/4/42, to a degree where the "Soviet Civilian Laborer", as well as the prisoners of war received a uniform ration. This was still not enough compared to the normal amount of food given to those employed in the industry and in the mines, besides it was still much less and worse than that for the Poles, but it was an improvement compared to former conditions. Furthermore the postal communication has been adjusted for those Eastern Laborers who come from the civilian administered as well as those who are from the regions directly to the rear of the army,—at least theoretically—. On account of the burden placed on the censorship office for foreign countries the High Command of the Armed Forces has recently asked again for a reduction of this measure.

In spite of the improvements mentioned as well as others, which in many cases can be traced back to the personal intervention of the Deputy General of Labor Employment, the total situation of the Eastern Laborer (sampling date: 1 October 1942) must still be considered unsatisfactory, namely, not only in respect to the differences in the treatment of industrial workers and farm laborers but in the differences found in the different States and enterprises. On the average there are still about 40% of the lodgings for Eastern laborers which would not meet the requirements even if all the wartime restrictions were considered. Among these are a frightening number of camps whose conditions are such as to destroy the success of the attempt of improving relationship and the corresponding radiating uplift of the morale within the Eastern territories. Not even to mention the fact that the marking OST (East), an identification ordered by the police, is being felt as degrading there remains such a quantity of grievances and problems that it would be impossible to relate them now. Only the following points are to be mentioned:

1. The Enlisting and Employing of persons of German Parentage, as Eastern laborers. Several observations made by the commission from the central office to inspect camps, as well as petitions which have reached them, show that persons of German parentage were enlisted,—against regulations,—as Eastern Laborers. Even if they are not recognized people of German parentage according to the "RKFestigung", they are, however persons of German descent and with German names, as Mr. Middelhauve could establish in a camp near Berlin. It is to be doubted that the branch offices of the sub-office for Germans living in foreign countries had enough qualified help who could separate these persons capable of becoming Germans again.

2. Enlisting and Employing as Eastern Laborers of Tartars from the Crimea. To increase the fighting numbers of the Tartar legions it would be indispensable to return all those Tartars, who have been employed in the Reich as Eastern Laborers, to their homes before the coming of winter; a similar report to the "GBA" is being prepared. Besides climatic reasons, the necessity for this return is to intensify the wine and tobacco growths in the Crimea by experienced help and at the same time, to prevent the invasion of Greek and Bulgarian planters and traders. To prepare this return as well as to deal with other Tartan problems a commissioner, namely a Crimean Tartar, has been installed by the "ZO". In the meantime, difficulties have arisen because of the effect of the furloughing of Tartan Eastern Laborers for participation in the Mohammedan festival during the 4th and 5/10/42 as well as the procurement of the meat and millet supply needed for this occasion. The authority in these and similar matters will have to be voiced, at the time of their return, by those White Ruthanian Tartars who have been selected for resettlement.

3. Enlisting and Employing as Eastern Laborers of Ukrainians from Transnistrian. During an inspection of the camps for munition workers at Topchin (Kreteltow) into which the Central Office was induced because of an escape which became known to them, it was found that the Eastern Laborers employed there were enlisted January 1942 in Odessa. They do not come according to para. I of the Rulings of the Council of Ministers dated 30/6/42, under the category of Eastern Laborers. But will have to be termed, because of the fact that the State of "Transnistrian" was placed in the Fall of 1941 under Rumanian sovereignty, as stateless members of the Kingdom of Rumania. To clarify this point for all times, negotiations have been made with the GBA and the Foreign Office as well as the Feldzeuginspektion of the Office for General Affairs in the High-Command of the Army.

4. Employment of Skilled Laborers in Occupations foreign to their skills. Up until recently petitions have continually come to the publishers of camp newspapers to the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territories, to the German Workers Front and in error also to the bureau for foreign nationals in the Reich from Eastern laborers, men and women who are in occupations foreign to their skills or inferior to their skills, without the transfer proposals, which were approved by the central office as well as by other offices, having led to success—except in rare cases. Gauleiter Sauckel, who has repeatedly disclosed—the last time at the conference in Weimar on the 10 and 11/9/42—that the "inner arrangement" of the occupational employment would be his next point on the program, does not seem to be informed about the real conditions in which doctors, engineers, teachers, qualified skilled laborers and such are employed as unskilled workers, mechanics as farmers, and farmers as industrial workers. In any case, one of his close associates, the Gauamtsleiter Orr Escher received the information about this which was given him by Dr. Thiell, in accordance with instructions of the Central Office, with unusual interest.

5. Separation in employment of members of one Family. The repeated separation of family members who have come to the Reich as Eastern Laborers and Eastern Women Workers (married couples, parents, brothers and sisters, and children) seems utterly contrary to the usual customs governing other employments of foreigners. The bringing together of those relatives who have been mistakenly separated during the transport is principally desired just as much as is the employment of family members in the same location. It does however, in practice, encounter some difficulties. In order to make possible at least the transfer of information from both parties, the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territories in August 1942, in conjunction with the Reich Main office and Reich Security Service has allowed the limited publication of encoded advertisements seeking information. Besides this an agreement has been made in September 1942 between the Central Office and the German Red Cross in accordance with which this organization will take over the communication between these Eastern Laborers separated in the Reich, keeping the place of employment secret however.

6. Disregarding the Nationality in Employment and Billeting. The plan of the Herr Reichsmarshall to create special "Enterprises for the Russians" could not be accomplished as yet on account of reasons of wartime economy. The demands for a joint employment by the members of Eastern nationalities, according to their racial background could not be carried out in practice to any great degree. In addition to the reasons of business, the usual variegated composition of the transports coming from the great realms of the Reichs Commissariate Ukraine opposed it. Basically, a regrouping to racial membership might be possible after completion of an examination of this membership which would have to be made in conjunction with the issuance of employment permits for Eastern Laborers, especially when a group of foremen has been found among the Eastern Laborers based on partial pre-training independently of the solution to this question, the commissions from the Central Office will be striving to effect a rough sifting of the camps according to racial membership, and to house them accordingly in special barracks. The supplying of experienced interpreters for this job and then systematic instruction has been begun.

7. Distinctive, Mostly Insufficient Food Rations. The inadequate food ration for Eastern Laborers is important not only in the matter of performance but also politically, since the majority of the help coming from the occupied Eastern territories were previously accustomed to better rations. After using up all the food supplies which had been brought along, a general lowering of the ability to work and of the morale was noticeable. The written request to the Herr Reichs Food-Minister on the matter, to examine the food quotas in respect to the fact that the Eastern Laborer was in a worse position in the matter of nourishment than the Poles, was answered by a telephone communication from the respective Chief of Section, that to his knowledge the Russians were better off than the Poles. With this ignorance of the condition decisive measures could hardly be expected on the part of the Reichs Food Ministry. Nevertheless Gauleiter Sauckel has declared, in Weimar as a part of his program, that the feeding of the German as well as the foreign laborer inside of Germany would be shortly adapted to the requirements in accordance with their performance—here he supported his program on an utterance of the Fuehrer—. In connection with this a conference took place in the Reichs Food Ministry on 29/9/42 in which an improved food quota of the Eastern Laborer was decided upon. The decree which is being co-signed by the High Command of the Armed Forces and the GBA, [?] upon which the "Special Delivery Letter" of the 17/4/42 will be nullified, provides for laborers of all types an additional 1750 grams of potatoes, for workers in heavy industry and additional 200 grams, and for the group, to be newly instituted, of "overtime" and "night" workers a weekly 2600 grams of bread, 300 of meat, and 150 of fat. Besides this, instead of the tasteless bread made of turnips the usual kind will be delivered in the future. Even though a complete equality of food rationing with the other foreigners should be aspired to, this new measure, whose enforcement is imminent, will counteract the intestinal diseases and swelling of the stomach, as well as the sending of bread from relatives in the Ukraine, which can not be hindered on political grounds.

8. Partly insufficient, and Unjust Payment of Wages. The wage adjustments for Eastern laborers and Eastern women workers must still be considered unsatisfactory even after the new wage scales, by the ruling of the Council of Ministers dated 30/6/42, as well as the lower evaluation of those agricultural workers who are quartered and fed free. The determining factor in keeping the net salary down is the necessity even today of maintaining the natural lower social level as compared to the German laborer, and to protect the German produce market as well as—in the case of transfer accounts—the enterprises in the domain of the Reichs Commissariat from an accumulation of surplus purchasing power. The Central Office took the viewpoint, in the conferences concerned with this matter, that it is far better to keep the wage level, as such, down than later to lower a nominally higher net salary to about half by means of the forced savings plan, reportedly proposed by the Reichs Finance Minister. The change of the hourly pay scale, as well as pay on contracts and pay by means of premiums is therefore closely connected with the success of the voluntary stamp savings plan, which was installed in September 1942. This on the other hand will depend upon the fact that the saved amount, which has been sent to the respective home banks of the relatives in the form of savings books—a system which has finally been introduced by the Herr Reichs Commissar for the Ukraine—will at least be redeemable in cash to half of the amount shown, even if no interest is paid on it at the time. A change in the question of wages, considering that this is the first time in bank technological procedure that savings and transfer accounts have been joined together, would have prospects only if an eventual rearrangement does not materially raise the total wage increase of Eastern Laborers. A throttling measure would otherwise be necessary eventually which would shatter the trust in the honesty of the German social methods and would give irresponsible material to the Soviet propaganda. A way to correctness in the matter of pay within the limitations determined by this viewpoint, could be seen in the proposal of the Reichs Trustee Dr. Kimmich, who expounded it in a short report in Weimar on 11/9/42. In accordance with this a plan for arranging salaries should be carried out by the industries by inserting increasing measures for part time, apprenticeship, and instructional work, to bring into prominence the principle of pay according to performance even in the occupied territories. The foundation for the pay scale based on this will be the evaluation according to eight categories of difficulty in the performance of work, the use of which would exclude the evaluation of previous preparatory training (in the judging of differences) in favor of the success in performance. The complete stoppage of wages would thereby be abolished with finality and the offering of work premiums be made possible to foreign laborers. This,—as Dr. Kimmich characterizes it,—"Re-establishment of a just salary and contract" will have as an effect a general increase in performance which will be advertised as "The thanks of the German laborer to the combat soldier." Should these principles shortly be made obligatory in all the states, this would also bring, in connection with the measures of the project of occupational instruction, an improvement to the former Soviet specialist without having impaired the pre-eminence of the German specialist. The safeguarding of the superiority of the latter is in spite of the wartime needs among other things thereby guaranteed by the fact that the Herr Reichs Minister for armament and ammunition has been able to carry out through the High Command of the Armed Forces on September 1942, that these 500,000 German war industrial workers, who are going to be inducted during the winter half year, will only receive an eight week training, after that they will, however, be returned to their key-positions in the plants. How far the coming change of wage structure will affect not only the leading position of the German specialist as opposed to the Eastern Laborer but also the relationship between these and the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian workers is not to be seen in advance without further information. First of all, the Herr Reichs Minister of Finance will examine at the instigation of the Reichs Minister for the occupied Eastern Territories, if and in how far the increase of the so-called "Salary Equalizing Tax" as an addition to the Income Tax on the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian in the Reich in spite of the low rate of 15% will in many cases place them worse off than comparable Eastern Laborers. This would be all the less tolerable as the employment of Eastern Laborers in the General Territory of Estonia leads up to the opposite problems.

9. Insufficient Equipping of clothes and shoes. The clothing of almost all Eastern Laborers, men and women, must be considered as insufficient. Transports were arriving even in the last days of the month of September whose occupants did not carry any winter clothing with them. The recruiting agents seem to leave the workers in the opinion that there is no winter in Germany and moreover, that the Eastern Laborers would receive everything they need. In view of the coming cold months and of the inadequacy of many quarters a catastrophe must arise on account of the existing lack of clothing and shoes, if a successful remedy is not found immediately. The main difficulties in the supplying of missing equipment, which has already led in our large industrial plant to the loss of 10% of its employees,—lies in the fact that the clothing set aside from the collection of textile goods, does not even come close to covering the demand and that the available booty as well as confiscated goods in occupied territories will not be handed out by the competent management without the delivery of the existing ration cards. Since the Eastern Laborer does not possess the latter this could then only be carried out if the enterprises would requisition the needed clothing for the German workers and would offer those to the Eastern Laborers,—unfortunately however, deducting it from their wages from time to time. The sending of clothing, coats and shoes by the families of Eastern laborers by means of individual shipment can not be carried out without further directives on account of the necessity of delousing the garments at the border, wherefore a measure was proposed after previous negotiations of the Central office with the deputy of the Generalarbeitsfuehrer Kretschman at the GBA under the direction of the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territories; in accordance with this measure collective addresses will be sent to the occupied territories by the enterprises in collaboration with the censorship office and special collection offices set up there. The success of this action must remain in doubt at present. During the meeting in Weimar it was then announced that from January 1943 on, uniform work clothes will be made of cellulose material which, however, will not be of very good quality and would look baggy after a short wear. Independently of this creation of work clothes, which naturally can not be considered a costume or uniform, the Central Office has made it one of its tasks to help with the action to provide clothes to help decrease to a minimum the expected lowering of performance, loss of morale, increased escapes, and cases of freezing.

10. Insufficient Supervision of the Eastern Laborers Employed in Agriculture. According to ruling No. 4 of the Deputy General for Labor of 7 May 1942, the supervision of those Eastern workers and women workers employed in agriculture is delegated to the Reichs Food Administration. Practical supervision in the rural areas by the state, regional and local authorities of the Reichs Peasant Leader must be considered as illusory with respect to the lack of knowledge and to the insufficient knowledge of these people as well as to the fact that the seizing of Eastern Laborers in the midst of all the foreign workers in the rural areas can only be carried out with difficulty. To inform at least the rural superintendent of the principles which govern the treatment of the Eastern laborers, the publication department of the Reichs Food Administration has, in accord with the Reichs Minister for occupied Eastern territories sent out guiding instructions for the present enlightenment campaign during the fall quarter. No objections can so far be made against a strict observance of these guiding instructions since, on account of the shortage of labor in the rural areas during the past months, a pampering of the Eastern workers and women workers was noticed, which was not only a threat towards the temporary transfer of 200,000 agricultural workers into industry but also in respect to the damage of a lack of migration into other areas. To intensify the supervision in the rural enterprises, a policy forming meeting took place in August 1942 with the representatives of the Reichs Food Administration during which among other things the sending of interpreters by the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern Territory to the Reichs Peasant leader was taken into consideration. Since the Reichs Food Administration was only willing to approve in the latter part of September, the taking over of the payment of special supervision with a knowledge of the language, in spite of exemption from payment of contributions on the part of Eastern laborers, and since there is still at the present time no clear settlement of the number and conditions for this it will be necessary to balance the lack of activity of the Reichs Food Administration with an appropriate initiative action on the part of the Central Office of the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territories.

11. Insufficient Recreation. In spite of repeated efforts for a satisfactory and meaningful organization of the recreation period for the Eastern laborer the German Arbeitsfront has still not been able to create and carry out a satisfactory recreational program. While the enterprises have organized excursions in groups because of necessity, the recreational program in the camps have so far lacked a uniform outline. The showing of moving pictures often runs into difficulties since the theaters, which have been created for this purpose, are only accessible to German workers and the Eastern laborer could not enter because of the danger of contamination of lice. The daily radio program in Russian and Ukrainian language which in the beginning was proposed by the Reichsminister of Enlightenment and Propaganda has still not been carried out because of several reasons. The performance of several artists is only possible in exceptional cases among the Eastern races because of the existing travel difficulties. What drawbacks and difficulties are connected with this can be shown in the circumstances under which a Ukrainian group of artists, who are now stationed in the Reich after an agreement was made between Gauleiter Sauckel and the Commissioner General of Kiew, are performing. After this group was barely sufficiently housed in an Eastern Labor Camp near Halle for a period of two weeks, a meeting took place in the RAM in which it was decided upon a suggestion by the representative of the Reichs Ministry, for the occupied Eastern territories, that the National Socialistic Organization should send three organizational trustees, the Reichs Ministry for Enlightenment and Propaganda three propaganda trustees, and the Reichs Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories three political trustees, to Halle. By the combined efforts of these trustees it was finally possible to employ the group of artists, who were made up of three separate groups, in several of the central German States [Gaue], during which the management, even in organizational matters, soon went to the member of the Eastern office who was sent by the Central Office of the Reichs Minister for the Occupied Eastern territory. Until 30/9/42, on which day the Central office in Berlin sponsored an afternoon reception for the 38 Ukrainian artists, the Reichs Minister for Enlightenment and Propaganda had still not decided upon the amount of wages, which had accrued because of the performances, still less who was to pay for it, so that a temporary solution by using an agent who would carry out the bare essential down payment had to be found. Because of this lack of clarity, the wish of the Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz to retain the group in the Reich during the winter months can not be supported.

12. Return under Unworthy Conditions of Eastern laborers and women laborers who are not fit for work. The carelessness during the enlistment and reception of millions of Eastern laborers and women laborers has resulted in the fact that,—according to a careful estimate,—about five percent of the persons transported into the Reich have proved not to be capable of work. That means nothing less than that about 80 to 100,000 returnees will stream into the occupied Eastern territories in the coming days. The dangers included in this returning process can be seen in the fact that this deals with sick, crippled, mothers-to-be, as well as such persons whom the enterprises are glad to reject and who because of that are not being taken care of. The mood of these returnees is temporarily forced to be anti-German, and nothing has been done, in spite of repeated suggestions in the Reichs Labor Ministry to reconcile the returnees with at least a few favorable impressions of Germany. During the latter part of September 1942, a collecting camp in Berlin-Blankenfelde, which was quartered with Eastern laborers who were destined for return, was inspected upon the instigation of the Central Office by a commission consisting of different authorities, at which time revolting conditions were met. Among other things a shot was fired by the guard at an Eastern laborer who was caring for his natural needs, without the President of the States Employment Office who was present making any protest against it. All of the camp inmates gave an impression of neglect. Since the returning of these 1600 persons as well as a further 4400 returnees from other camps, could not be reconciled politically with respect to the danger of contaminating their native districts with reports of horror, and since the postponement of a necessary re-quartering of the collecting camps could no longer be provided (in the meantime) the chief of the branch offices of the Central Police-Vice-counsel in retirement Miller—Dr. of Law Boywidt and Mrs. Miller were sent at the same time to Brest-Litowsk, to stop the transport at least at this point and to carry out according to the situation a quarantining of the people or, belatedly to take care of them. How necessary this interference was is shown by the fact that this train with returning laborers had stopped at the same place where a train with newly recruited Eastern laborers had stopped. Because of the corpses in the trainload of returning laborers, a catastrophe might have been precipitated had it not been for the mediation of Mrs. Miller. In this train women gave birth to babies who were thrown out of the windows during the journey, people having tuberculosis and venereal diseases rode in the same car, dying people lay in freight cars without straw, and one of the dead was thrown on the railway embankment. The same must have occurred in other returning transports. To end these terrible conditions, it is intended to create special transient camps in the Reich area for returning workers where those who contracted diseases in the Reich will be separated from the chronically sick. They will be sent to an organization caring for the sick. Those finally chosen to return would receive medical and psychological treatment for at least a week. The chief of the Reich health program and his chief of liaison with the GBA, resp., have approved this central office plan of giving aid to returning workers, which aid should also be extended during transport. The directorate of the German Red Cross wants to share in the execution of this plan by making available trained personnel, among other things. The first of these transient camps for returnees could be established at Bad Frankenhausen in Thuringia where, according to the statement of the local mayor, suitable area is available.

To solve these and numerous other problems, as well as the removal of the described difficulties and abuses, two things are advised.

I. Consultation of the Reich minister with the Fuehrer with the purpose of asking him for personal energetic intervention; this conference will have to include among others the following requests as laid down in the note 1 f 5 of 6/7/42:

1. Treatment by the police. The Fuehrer should beseech the Reichs Leader of the SS in a personal consultation, to repeal the General Regulations of 20/2/42 including the supplementary Decree of 9/4/42. that is Section A of the General Regulations.

Laborers from the former Soviet Russian territory and to replace them and among other things with new regulations which are to be voted upon in conjunction with the GBA (2) and the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territory.

2. Direction of people. The Fuehrer should direct the Chancellor of the party as well as the Reich propaganda office of NSDAP to adjust suitable urgent measures in agreement with the Reich Ministry M.G.A.B. and respectively with the Z.O. to enlighten those party members who are handling the supervision of the relations between Germans and foreigners about the scope of the employment of the Eastern laborers and furthermore to inform the entire German population of the political mission which history has bestowed upon them by the taking in of millions of former Soviet citizens.

3. The competences of the R.M.fdBO. The Fuehrer should inform the supreme authorities of the Reich, if possible through the Reich Minister and the chief of the Reichs chancellory that not only those measures of theirs, which concern themselves with occupied Eastern territories but also those that affect the labor from these territories employed in the Reich may only be decided in every action with the Reich ministry for the occupied Eastern territories.

II. Further expansion of the General Office for member Races, so that an extended arm of the R.M.fdBO in the Reich and as a representative of the foreign people from the occupied Eastern territories living here it can quickly perceive its instructed interests. The following would be essential for this.

(1) Commitment of a special Commissioner. The appointment of a special commissioner for the Reich ministries provided with specific authority to take care of the interests of the central office, should serve especially two purposes; to take an active influence upon the handling of enlistments inside the occupied eastern territories.

(2) To carry out definite aims of the central Office by cultivating a personal contact with Gauleiter Sauckel.

(3) Reinforcing of the Branch Officers. The commissions which serve under the chief of the branch officer and which are employed to inspect the camps, urgently need reinforcements; to be able to work successfully in thousands of camps for this purpose about 50 interpreters are needed besides liaison agents to the country employment offices and those trustees of the Gau who worked in an honorary capacity, the chief of the commissions need a uniform.

(4) Reinforcing the Sections. The four sections of the Central Office, (Matters of organization, legal and information service, supervision aid, and psychological training) need to be immediately filled by at least six representatives. On account of the avalanche of problems brought to the Central Office, urgent questions remain otherwise unsolved and hundreds of transactions unsettled in spite of the twelve hour day and sometimes several hours of night work, as well. Of what far reaching importance it is to see to it that a political use is made of the stay of several million Eastern laborers in the Reich. That on 8/9/42 their members already amounted to 1,737,000 is lower as from many other reasons by a glance at the present condition of the German censored figures. In spite of all measures to Germanize and re-Germanize people who are unfortunately confronted by increased war casualties the future of the German people when measured against the breadth of age levels placed on top of each other as characterized by a population pyramid whose outlines deviate from the biologically normal picture of a bell, if one compares the present curve of the future professionals with the similar curves of the Eastern peoples it will be frighteningly apparent that especially during the decisive decades after this war the number of German people of the Harz areas in the East which will be required for a normal administrative development will not be on hand, the willingness and cooperation of members of the Eastern peoples is herewith an unavoidable necessity, wherefore the years commiting an army of millions of Eastern laborers in the Reich are not only seen from the view-point of overcoming the problems concerned but actively must be used to create a reliable propaganda army which after its return home will perhaps one day will be just as decisive for the German fate in the East as the victory of our weapons.

signed: DR. GUTKELCH.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 089-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer Chief of Staff
Munich 33, Brown House, at present Berlin w8
Wilhelmstr. 64, March 8, 1940
III-DR Kl/Gf

Personal

Chancellory Rosenberg
Receipt Nr 705. 14 Mar 40
To Mr. Reichsleiter Rosenberg
Berlin w 35, Margaretenstr. 17

Concerns: Confessional writing

In the enclosure I am sending you a carbon copy of my letter of today to Reichsleiter Amann for recognition.

signed: M BORMANN

Enclosure

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer Chief of Staff
Munich 33, Brown House, at present Berlin w8
Wilhelmstr. 64, March 8, 1940
III-DR Kl/Gf

Personal

To Mr. Reichsleiter Amann
Munich, Thierschstr. 11

Concerns: Confessional writing.

I am referring to the discussion of my expert, party member Dr. Klopfer, with party member Dr. Rienhardt, and inform you once more of the fact that according to a report I have received, only 10% of the over 3000 Protestant periodicals in Germany, such as Sunday papers etc. have ceased publication for reason of paper saving. Party member Dr. Rienhardt has already informed my expert that at present the distribution of any paper whatsoever for such periodicals was barred.

I urge you to see to it in any redistribution of paper to be considered later that the confessional writing, which according to experiences so far gathered, possesses very doubtful value for strengthening the power of resistance of the people toward the external foe, receives still sharper restrictions in favor of literature, politically and ideologically more valuable.

Without doubt the draft of an order "for fulfillment of the organizational duty by the production of writings", presented upon your request, will be a suitable means for this purpose.

signed: M BORMANN

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 090-PS

18 September 1940
2474-R/Dt.

SECRET

To the Reich Treasurer of the NSDAP
Reich Director F.X. Schwarz,
Munich 33.

Dear Party Member Schwarz,

Thanks for your helpfulness in regard to the safeguarding of scientific materials in the occupied territories. I deduce from this that you are interested in this work and would therefore like to inform you about several matters.

It took some time until we found by and by the several treasures, and until we could ascertain that a lot had been abducted from Paris into other towns. Thus the treasures of the Rothschilds, robbed together from all parts of the world, are being secured by us not only in Paris but also in the various castles of the Rothschilds (Bordeaux, Deauville and so on). Legal doubts arose and I have discussed them with the Fuehrer. Subsequently he caused a new order to be issued by the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces which I enclose in duplicate. Thus the Seminary (Hohe Schule) will still receive a Polish library of 130,000 volumes. This will include the complete history of the East, probably a large Slavic library and many other items. Together with a lot of scientific material many extremely valuable objects of art have been found in cases at the residence of the Rothschilds. This has been secured and the Fuehrer will decide at a later date as to the final disposal.

In Brussels and Amsterdam we are on the track of valuable objects too. I believe that we shall be able to bring quite some material from there to Germany.

You see that we are industrially endeavoring to exploit the present moment. Such an opportunity will hardly present itself again. I am trying to keep the Staff for Special Purposes down to a minimum. Nevertheless it is unavoidable that a number of experts have to work at various places. And the work takes longer than was anticipated in the beginning.

Once more many thanks. If I should come to Munich in the near future I hope to meet you.

Heil Hitler!

28 January 1941

3581/R/dt
[initials] Sch

To: The Reich Treasurer of the NSDAP
Reich Director F.X. Schwarz

Munich 33

Subject: Staff for Special Purposes in Paris

Dear Party Member Schwarz,

About the work of my Staff for Special Purposes in France, Holland and Belgium I can inform you that the major part of the work in France will be finished by the end of February. Then only a few men have to remain in Paris.—However, in Belgium and Holland extensive research work has still to be carried out. I hope nevertheless to wind up the main part of the work there within a measurable space of time. The arrangement and registration of the large art treasures claimed a lot of special work. I had these treasures confiscated simultaneously with the scientific material. The Fuehrer is going to decide what to do with them shortly. As I informed you previously the values involved will come close to a billion dollars according to expert estimates.

I told you already verbally that the largest Jewish library of the world, consisting of 350,000 volumes, will be placed in the institution which is going to be opened at Frankfurt on the Main within a short time. Another 200,000 volumes will be added from Holland.

The library of the IInd International about the history of the social movements cannot be transferred for the moment to Germany due to lack of space. Two will have to take charge of it in Amsterdam where scientific work can start immediately. This library consists of 130,000 volumes.

The account of the expenditures up till now will be submitted to your deputy by the administrative branch of my office. However, I have to request that you put another amount of 100,000 Reichsmark at my disposal so that I can complete the work satisfactorily. At the same time I propose once more that you have parts of those sums reimbursed—be it from the Reich Marshal or from the Fuehrer's funds for cultural purposes. There is no doubt that I also have collected treasures which will not benefit the Seminary directly.

Once more I want to express my deepest thanks for letting us have the Schrenck-Notzing-Palais in Munich for our institution. Prof. Harder, the future director of this institution, is extremely pleased with it and will soon get in touch with your deputy.

A depiction of the situation regarding the branch offices of the Seminary in the various cities is just being completed and will be submitted to you within a short time.

Once more many thanks for your generous support.

Heil Hitler
Yours
[in pencil] Sch

[SYNOPSIS]
Letter of 22 May 1941, 4592/4863/R/Ma
To the Reich Treasurer of the NSDAP, Reich Director Schwarz,
Munich 33.
Written by Rosenberg

Letter of 9 May 1941, K IV/te. 4363 H. [Initialed] Sch

To the Deputy of the Fuehrer for the supervision of the complete mental and doctrinal [Weltanschaulich] education of the NSDAP Mr. Reich Director Alfred Rosenberg, Berlin W 35, 17 Margareten Str.

Written and signed by the Reich Treasurer of the Party Schwarz.

Letter 19 April 1941 from the Office for Jewish and Masonic Problems.

Frankfurt on the Main, 1 Schwindstrasse; Schi/Fl.

To the Deputy of the Fuehrer for the supervision of the complete mental and doctrinal training and education of the NSDAP, attention Adjutant, Berlin W 35, 17 Margaretenstr., Party member Koeppin.

Written by Chief Reich Director (Oberreichsleiter) Schimner and signed by him.

Letter of 3 April 1941, K IV/kr.

To the Deputy of the Fuehrer for the supervision of the complete mental and doctrinal education of the NSDAP,

Reich Director Alfred Rosenberg, Berlin W 35, 17 Margareten Str. Written and signed by the Reich Treasurer of the Party Schwarz.

Copy of a letter of 28 March 1941, from the Reich Commissar for the occupied territories of the Netherlands, General Commissar for Special Purposes, Section ro. international organizations, Den Haag, Fluweelen Burgwal 22; SCH/R.

To F.J.M. Rehse, Munich 2 M, 1 Residenzstrasse (residence)

Written by Schwier, authenticated by Kretzer.

Copy of a letter from NSDAP, Collection FJM. Rehse, 2 April 1941, Munich, 1 Residenzstr.

To the Reich Treasurer Schwarz, Munich, Administration Building

Written by F.J.M. Rehse, Authenticated by Reigl

[The five previously enumerated letters all deal with the request of party member Rehse to obtain the furnishings, paraphernalia and books of a masonic lodge for the party collection Rehse. This was finally granted in the letter of 22 May 1941 by Rosenberg.]

11 June 1942
R./K. 1035/42

To the Reich Treasurer of the NSDAP,
Reich Director Franz Xavier Schwarz
Munich 33

Dear Party Member Schwarz,

The work of my staff for special purposes has been hampered through lack of personnel. Nevertheless, the tabulating of the cultural objects secured from France has progressed so far that an exhibition of selected paintings can be arranged in the castle Neuschwanstein. The overall catalogue will be ready for type-setting in a few weeks. I would enjoy it tremendously if the two of us could be the first ones to visit this exhibition. We could then decide which objects and tapestries to suggest to the Fuehrer to be used for the furnishing of the Seminary [Hohe Schule] respectively of my office. The Fuehrer will hardly be able to visit the exhibition due to the fact that he is presently overburdened with work. However I shall ask him to visit it later and shall inform you when the Fuehrer will be able to come.

Once more I thank you for your generous support extended to my staff for special purposes. I am convinced that a large number of most valuable cultural objects have been secured for the German people.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 091-PS

11 Sept 1944 R/U/K 2500/44

To the Reich's commissar for the Netherlands
Reich's minister Dr. Seyss-Inquart

Subject: Removal of the library of the social institute of Amsterdam

Dear esteemed Party Member Dr. Seyss-Inquart!

The development of the military situation in the West has caused me to instruct my special purpose staff in Amsterdam, to remove the library of the social institute there, to the Reich by the quickest way. However, great difficulties have arisen to that effect due to the proximity of the front lines. I have therefore put at the disposal of the Chief of my main work division Netherlands, SS Major Schmidt-Staehler, the special purpose chief Gummert with full powers for the execution of this task. Since this library is mainly composed of a unique collection of the writings of the European Marxism, it is therefore irreplaceable for our ideological-political struggles.

I request therefore sincerely from you to be of assistance to my deputies Schmidt-Staehler and Gummert, with your authority as Reich's commissar for the Netherlands, in case the difficulties arising by the removal of the library cannot be surmounted by them.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 098-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN LABOR PARTY

Munich, 33, Brown house
at present Berlin, 22 Feb 40

Deputy of the Fuehrer
Staff Leader

Mr. Reich leader Alfred Rosenberg
Berlin W 35
Margareten Str. 17

Chancellery Rosenbery, 24 Feb 40
rec. No. 555 copy AR and Urban St

Subject: Directions for the administration of classes in religion

Dear Party Member Rosenberg:

The deputy of the Fuehrer has heard from different sources, that Reich Bishop Mueller tells everywhere, that he received a commission from you to work out directions for formulating the teaching of religion for the schools.

I have not been able to examine the statements of Reich Bishop Mueller as to their correctness. The question, having come up for discussion again by the statements of Reich Bishop Mueller, is however in my mind of such fundamental importance for the future ideological position of the party, that I find it necessary, already now to point out to you the serious objections I have in regard to such a commission.

The ministry for education of the Reich has repeatedly indicated its desire in the course of the past few years for new directions for formulating the teaching of religion, which would also be acceptable to the NSDAP.

With your agreement, this request has repeatedly been refused by the Fuehrer's deputy. Just as your ministry did, so the deputy of the Fuehrer took the position based on the assumption, that it could not be the task of the party to give directions for the instruction of the teachings of Christian religions.

Christianity and National Socialism are phenomena which originated from entirely different basic causes. Both differ fundamentally so strongly, that it will not be possible to construct a Christian teaching which would be completely compatible with the point of view of the national socialist ideology; just as the communities of Christian faith would never be able to stand by the ideology of national socialism in its entirety. The issuing of national socialist directions for the teaching of religious classes would however be based on a synthesis of national socialism and Christianity which I find impossible.

If the directions should really be permeated by the spirit of national socialism, some very fundamental articles of faith of the Christian teachings could not be recognized. I am referring here only to the position of the Christian churches to the race question, to the question of hindrance or destruction of life not valuable, its position to marriage, which speaks for the celibacy of priests and the toleration and furtherance of orders for monks and nuns, the teaching, contradictory to German feeling, of the immaculate conception of Mary, etc.

No matter how these directions may be formulated, in no case will they ever simultaneously find the approval of the church and the party.

In addition to this, the religions themselves cannot agree on the contents of the Christian teachings; as far as the Protestants themselves are concerned, there are not only the followers of the confessional church in the Reich and the German Christians, but also the adherents of a teaching, which is endeavoring to create a new Lutheran Christendom of a particular kind approximately in the shape which seems desirable to the Reich Minister of churches, party member Kerrl. The party thus would have to decide first which of these directions of faith it would give preference, or if it should even decide for a fourth. I do not think it entirely impossible that the Reich Bishop may take this latter road, since according to his last publication he himself has already turned sharply away from conceptions which up to now have been part of the faith of the German Christians.

But if directions for the instruction of religion should ever be worked out, it will not be enough, to my mind, to make them for Protestants only; respective directions should also be worked out for Catholics. To work out directions for instructions of Catholic faith, the Reich Bishop is hardly the suitable person, and one would probably have to choose a Catholic. Of course the directions for both faiths would differ in fundamental questions, each, however would lay claim to the fact that it really contained the truly authentic interpretation of article 24 of the party program.

By issuing directions nothing would therefore be improved in the present situation in the field of the churches. The fight between the faiths would be carried on in the old form and spread into the lines of the party. Yes, all faiths and Christian groups would attack state and party, because they had assumed to encroach upon their own territory, that of teaching the Christian faith and to try to reform it.

The churches cannot be conquered by a compromise between national socialism and Christian teachings, but only through a new ideology, whose coming you yourself have announced in your writings. Because of this conviction we have always been careful, not to exert a reforming influence on the Christian dogma in any shape nor to exert any influence on the church directives for religious teachings. In complete mutual agreement we have rejected the intention of the Reich Minister for churches who, against the objection of the party, always tried anew to renew the church life in the frame of national socialist spirit, in searching for a compromise between Christian teachings and the ideology of national socialism.

Should, however, any one personality emanating from the life of the church, be charged now to work out directions for the teaching of the Christian religion, the party would thereby basically approve and accept for itself the position of the Reich Minister for the churches previously opposed by it as there is no basic difference between a position which wants to reform and reorganize the church life in its entirety, and one which aims at this goal solely in the realm of the education of youth.

So far we have always been in accord, that by taking such a step the party would leave the soil on which it is firmly planted and would step on the swaying ground of the controversial Christian doctrines. It would enter into the domain of the interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, and there would doubtless be subordinate to those who for centuries have done nothing but interpret and rewrite the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth as written in the old books about the actual wording of which the scientists fight even today. When in later decades and centuries the German people's soul liberated by national socialism should once again be choked and crippled by Christian doctrines, it could be possible that it may have been caused by today's attempt to effect a synthesis between national socialism and Christianity.

On the other hand, of course I am also of the opinion that it is not possible to eliminate the religious instruction in schools without replacing it with something better for the moral education of youth.

Religious instruction as given in schools today does not only comprise the instruction in the Christian doctrines of faith, the teachings of the creation of the world and of the life thereafter; besides, the children receive also instructions in the ten commandments, which for most comrades of the people to this day still are the only directives for their moral behavior and for an orderly collective life in the people's community. If this instruction is taken from the children without replacing it with something better, the objection can be made—in my estimation not without reason, that, as many contend, the present degradation of youth is in part caused by the lack of religious instruction in schools.

What, in my opinion, is therefore necessary is the preparation of a short directive about a national socialist life formulation. We need for the work of education in the party, especially also in the Hitler Youth a short resume in which the ethical principles are documented, to respect which each German boy and girl, who at one time will be representatives of the national socialistic Germany, must be educated. In such a directive for instance belongs the law of bravery, the law against cowardness, the commandment of love for the soulful nature in which God makes himself apparent also in the animal and the plant, a commandment to keep the blood pure; many principles also belong here which are for instance also contained in the decalogue of the Old Testament, as far as they can be regarded as moral principles of all people's life.

The publication of such a directive can and must only come out of our national socialist conduct of life. Its commandments of customs need to be explained by reference to any doctrines of faith about the creation of life and about life of the soul after death.

They can and must originate beyond any confessional discussions.

I take the publication of such a directive to be of utmost importance, because the German boys and girls must once be told what they can and must do, and what is forbidden for them to do. I don't even think it necessary to introduce this directive immediately into the schools as a text; it would be sufficient if for the time being it would be introduced into the party and its affiliations. Later it could also be taken over by the schools just as the little Catechism also was not created by the school boards, but first taught by the Church and later taken over by the schools.

As far as the religious instructions in the schools is concerned, I do not think that anything has to be changed in the present situation. No fault can be found with any national socialist teacher, who after the unmistakenly clear instructions of the Fuehrer's deputy, is ready to give school instructions in the Christian religion. For the contents of this instruction, however, the directives should still be binding which have in former years been made by the churches themselves. In the circular of the Fuehrer's deputy No. 3/39 of 4 Jan 1939 it is stated explicitly that the teachers charged with religious instruction are not to choose from the material on biblical history at their own discretion, but have the obligation to teach the entire biblical instruction material. Interpretations, explanations and separations in the sense of several attempts of particular church directions have to be omitted. The pupils must be given the entire picture of the biblical instruction material.

However, the teachers have the right to present this material as property of biblical thought and not as that of Germany or national socialism. If thus in some cases comparison will be drawn, this, according to the circular, corresponds only to the duties of the educator. Against such instruction of religion the churches cannot have any objections.

When, sometime later, the proposed directive for a new German conduct of life first to be used in the educational work of the party, will have found entry into the schools, it shall in no way supplant classes in religion. It may perhaps be used as a foundation for some classes in German and must have validity for all pupils, without consideration of their religious affiliations. Against such educational procedure the churches could not object, either because it would really be a matter of additional education, which would take place next to the religious instruction and without any connection with it. On the contrary, the churches would have reason to be thankful to the state because it is not satisfied with the religious instruction according to the very insufficient moral education based on the ten commandments, but that it is giving youth an additional Education, which makes much higher demands on its moral conduct.

Parallel to that the desire of the parents for the instruction in the doctrines of faith may thus well go on. The stronger and more fertile our positive educational work in the schools will be formulated, however the more certain it is that instruction of religions will be losing in importance.

If the youth which is now being educated according to our moral laws will later have to decide if it is still willing to have its children brought up in the far inferior Christian doctrines, the decision will in most cases be negative.

I would think that today, seven years after taking over the power, it should be possible to set up principles for a national socialist conduct of life. They have long been apparent to the people from the numerous early fighters for the national socialist idea.

As long as we do not master this task, however, it will always be pointed out from various sides, and rightly so, that children, not taking part in religious instruction, are no longer taught even the most simple moral laws which are a standard for the communal life of all nations.

The Fuehrer's deputy finds it necessary that all these questions should be thoroughly discussed in the near future in the presence of the Reich leaders, who are especially affected by them. I would appreciate it very much if you would let me know your position in this matter before the discussion.

Heil Hitler!

/s/ M. Bormann

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 099-PS

National Socialist German Workers Party.
The Fuehrer's Deputy
Staff leader

Munich 33, Brown House,
at present Berlin W 8, 9 Jan., 1940. Wilhelmstr. 64 III
Dr. Kl/Gf.

To Reichsleiter Party Comrade Alfred Rosenberg
Berlin W 35
Margareten Strasse 17

Subject: Raising of a War Fund from the Churches.

Enclosed, I forward to you the copy of a letter, sent today to the Reichsminister for Finance, for cognizance.

Heil Hitler

/s/ M. Bormann
(M. Bormann)

Enclosure.

Berlin 19 Jan 1940
Dr. Kl/Gf.

To the Reichsminister for Finance
Berlin W 8
Wilhelmplatz 1-2

Subject: Raising of a War Fund from the Churches.

As it has been reported to me, the war fund of the churches has been specified from the 1 November 1939 on, at first for the duration of three months at RM 1,800,000.—per month, of which Rm 1,000,000.—are to be paid by the Protestant church and RM 800,000.—by the Catholic church per month.

The establishment of such a low amount has surprised me. I construe from numerous reports, that the political communities have to raise such a large war fund, that the execution of their tasks, partially very important for example in the field of public welfare, is endangered. In consideration of that, a larger quota from the churches appears to be absolutely appropriate.

In my opinion, the determination of the amount cannot be affected by the argument that the fund could only have as a consequence a decrease of the material expenses, but not of the personnel expenses of the churches. I consider it absolutely bearable, to decrease also the personnel expenses, especially for the Catholic clergymen. In contrast to all other German men, obliged to serve, not one Catholic clergyman is in the field as the soldier; also none of the Catholic clergymen takes obligations unto himself voluntarily, like the ones which must be borne by every German family head.

As far as the technical handling of the war fund to be determined for the Catholic Church is concerned, in my opinion, the state does not have to bother to figure out the individual partial contributions, which must be raised by the various Orders and religious associations. I would rather consider it correct if the amount is determined in one for the entire Catholic Church, and if one then leaves it to the Church to divide up this amount according to its own best knowledge. However, the state must be free to call upon the property and funds of the various individual parts and groups of the church arbitrarily to make its demands valid.

As far as the Evangelical Church is concerned, for years the efforts of the Reichminister for Church Affairs have been in the direction to organize all the State Churches [Landeskirchen] of the Evangelical Church into one unified organization with a unified leadership for the spiritual as well as for the financial affairs. Despite the objections, raised by the party, these plans were more and more elaborated upon; even during the war, they were followed up without interruption. Therefore it is not unjust, to determine in one for the Evangelical Church the war fund to be raised according to the same principles, which have been developed for the Catholic Church.

It should be left up to the State Churches [Landeskirchen] and religious associations, who consider such treatment unjust, to demonstrate in an easily perceptible manner, that they are not in any dependent relationship to the leadership of the German Evangelical Church, and do not desire to come under the latter's dominion.

I would be thankful to you, if you could inform us very soon, how high the amount of the war fund of the churches has been set at. The sum, calculated for the duration of the first three months, of which, as I understand, the churches have not paid one penny, may not correspond in any way to the capability, as figured from the entire fortune and from the contribution and/or tax income of the Churches.

Heil Hitler

By order

M B (M. Bormann)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 100-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

Munich 33 Brown House
at present Berlin, 18 Jan 40 Bo/Si

The Deputy of the Fuehrer, Chief of Staff

Mr. Rosenberg, member of the executive board of the Party [Reichsleiter]

Berlin W 35
Margaretenstr. 17

Office Rosenberg No of entry 196. 20 Jan 40
submitted to RL Rosbg 1/20 Copies AR and Urban

Dear Party Member Rosenberg:

A few days ago you expressed to the Fuehrer at the Reich Chancellory that Reich Bishop Mueller had written an excellent book for the German soldier. I am of different opinion. This book familiarizes a new soldier who has already given up Christianity with partly camouflaged trains of thought.

As I have written to you already, I consider it the most essential demand of the hour that NS publications worth reading for the German soldier should be written immediately by your Office and other qualified National Socialists. This opinion has been confirmed by many regional Party leaders. Thus we set against the sale of Christian pamphlets the highly increased sale of national socialist publications which are popular.

Heil Hitler:

Yours
Signed: BORMANN
(M. Bormann)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 101-PS

National Socialist German Workers' Party

Munich 33, the Brown House
At Present, Berlin W 8,
17 Jan. 1940

Wilhelmstrasse 64 III—Dr. Kl/Gf
Rosenberg Chancellory

Entry No. 187—[? ?] 18 Jan. 40
Reich Director Rosenberg

—Shown 189
—Copy [? ?]

The Deputy of the Fuehrer Staff Director
To Reich Director Party Member Rosenberg
Berlin W 35 Margaretenstr. 17

Nearly all the districts report to me regularly, that the Churches of both confessions are administering spiritually to members of the Armed Forces. This administering finds its expression especially in the fact that soldiers are being sent religious publications by the spiritual leaders of the home congregations. These publications are in part very cleverly composed. I have repeated reports that these publications are being read by the troops and thereby exercise a certain influence on the morale.

I have in the past sought by sounding out the General Field Marshall, the High Command of the Armed Forces and Party Member Reich Director Amann, to restrict considerably the production and shipment of publications of this type. The result of these efforts remain unsatisfactory. As Reich Director [Reichsleiter] Amann has repeatedly informed me, the restriction of these pamphlets by means of the printing paper rationing has not been achieved because the paper used for the production of these writings is being purchased on the open market. Publications can only be confiscated by special police measures because they are designed to weaken the morale of the troops. Such police measures are really unsatisfactory and in their final execution very much disputed.

Likewise, the prior censorship of all writings by the High Command of the Armed Forces which takes place at the distribution points of the Armed Forces service bureau, is not sufficient in my opinion, to guarantee that the soldiers are not given an undesired influence by the Churches. A publication, the contents of which are clearly tied to the Christian dogma and which do not contain attacks against Party, State or the Armed Forces, can not in general be refused permission by this examining commission.

If the influencing of the soldiers by the Church is to be effectively combatted, this will only be accomplished, in my opinion, by producing many good publications in the shortest time possible under the supervision of the Party. These publications should be so composed that the soldiers will really prefer to read them, and at the same time, indoctrinate the soldiers with a National Socialist World philosophy, not the Christian viewpoint.

Thus at the last meeting of the deputy Gauleiters complaints were uttered on this matter to the effect that a considerable quantity of such publications are not available. This is the reason I believe, that the publication by your expert, Office Director [Amtsleiter] Party Member Ziegler, "Soldier Belief—Soldier Honor" [Soldatenglaube—Soldatenehre] has had so great a sale in a short time.

I maintain that it is necessary that in the near future we transmit to the Party Service Offices down to local group directors [Ortsgruppenleitern] a list of additional publications of this sort which should be sent to our soldiers by the local groups, Party military units [Sturme] or their adherents and friends in the field. I should not regard it as necessary or even good if the majority of these publications should have a spiritual or philosophical character. Rather I should regard it as much preferable if these publications in their finished form were styled in as varied a manner as possible, thus having an appeal to all members of the Armed Forces, regardless of their occupational or professional achievements, regardless of their interests and their background.

I should be very appreciative if you would devote your very special attention to this task, in the near future. My expert, Party Member Dr. Klopfer, is available to you for consultation about the material on hand here which is at your disposal at any time upon your call.

As the production of these publications (which at the moment are not in existence) will take a certain amount of time, and as, on the other hand, I believe that the supplying of the troops with good publications ought not to be delayed a day, I should be indebted to you if you would transmit to me a list of the already existing publications which the deputy of the Fuehrer can recommend to the Party Service Offices as suitable for dispatch to the Armed Forces.

Heil Hitler!
[Signed] M. BORMANN

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 107-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

Munich 17 June 1938 The Brown House

Deputy of the Fuehrer Staff Leader

CIRCULAR LETTER NR. 72/38

To all Reichsleiter and Regional Directors [Gauleiter]

Enclosed please find, for your information, a copy directions for participation of the Reichsarbeitsdienstes in religious celebrations.

Signed: M. BORMANN

Rosenberg Chancellory In Nr. 226601 on 21 June 38
Certified true copy
M
1 inclosure

Copy

Directions for the participation of the Reichsarbeitsdienstes in religious celebrations.

The Reichsarbeitsdienst is a training school in which the German youth should be educated to national unity in the spirit of National Socialism.

This problem can only be solved, if all the ideas which at one time were directed to the breaking up of national unity, are subdued in Reichsarbeitsdienst. Therefore it is forbidden to have any class, professional and religious barriers in the Reichsarbeitsdienst.

What religious beliefs a person has is not a decisive factor, but it is decisive that he first of all feels himself a German.

Every religious practice is forbidden in the Reichsarbeitsdienst because it disturbs the comrade-like harmony of all working men and women.

On this basis every participation of the Reichsarbeitsdienst in churchly, that is religious, arrangements and celebrations is not possible.

A religious creed will strive within the German people for predominance. The Reichsarbeitsdienst in all its male and female leaders, working men and women strive for the indissoluble binding of the whole people.

Therefore not only allowing the members of the Reichsarbeitsdienst to attend church in a body, but also participation by the members of the Reichsarbeitsdienst in religious celebrations for example, weddings or funerals, violates the educational task which is facing the organization.

As little as it is the affair of the Reichsarbeitsdienst to forbid its individual members to have a church wedding or funeral, so definitely must the Reichsarbeitsdienst avoid taking part as an organization in a festival which is strictly religious, that is, which excludes Germans of other beliefs.

It is therefore, in any case, necessary to execute a clear temporal separation between the churchly celebration and the debut of the Reichsarbeitsdienst.

The Reichsarbeitsdienst does not participate in religious celebrations, but rather turns her support to the marriage or burial of a member before or after the churchly celebration.

The participation of the musical band of the Reichsarbeitsdienst in classical churchly concerts (for example, production of the "Schoepfung" by Haydn) is not to be regarded as a partaking in a religious celebration, and is always to be decided according to the local conditions.

Signed: HIERL

Authenticated:
REISMEIR

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 113-PS

Rosenberg
[in pencil]

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer Chief of Staff
Munich, Brown House, 27 July 1938

III Entered 11 Aug 38 6691
[Stamped]

Rosenberg Chancellery
[Stamped] Entry No. 2896k 3 Aug 38

REGULATION NR 104/38

(Not to be published)

Requested to be returned from III, Returned 22 Aug

[in pencil]

With regard to the constantly emphasized neutrality of the party with the churches, it is pertinent to eliminate, as far as possible, the existing frictions. Since pastors, as political and subordinate leaders have shown in the past that they were not able to make decisions when the job of trusteeship was added to the danger of having them drawn into church conflicts, the Deputy of the Fuehrer has decreed the following:

1. Pastors are to be released immediately from their party function as standard bearers [Hoheitstraeger].

2. Pastors are to be interchanged little by little according to replacements at hand as political or subordinate leaders of the congregations.

3. As of now, it is forbidden to continue appointments of pastors to positions in the Party, to their congregations, and to groups associated with church activities.

Signed: M. BORMANN

Certified true copy:
Friedrichs
Distributor: II b

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 116-PS

SECRET

Copy Dt.

National Socialist German Workers Party

The deputy of the Fuehrer Staff Director.

Munich, 24 January 1939.

III D—Es 3230/0/15—4278 g.
Rosenberg Chancellery
Receipt Nr. 6007-31 Jan 3

To the Delegate of the Fuehrer for the surveillance of the whole spiritual and world political philosophy schooling and education of the Nazi Party.

Reich Director [Reichsleiter] Party Member Alfred Rosenberg,—or representative.—

Berlin W. 35. Margarethenstr. 17

Concerning: Theological Faculties.

My dear Party Member Rosenberg:

I am transmitting to you by the attached enclosure a copy of a letter I have written today to the Reich Minister for Knowledge, Education and Popular Education. I request that you take cognizance of the same.

Heil Hitler.

Your very devoted,
(signed) M. BORMANN.

I Attachment.

SECRET

Copy Dt.

National Socialist German Workers Party
The Deputy of the Fuehrer

Munich, 24 January 1939
III D-Fs 3230/0/15-4278 g

To the Reich Minister for Knowledge, Education and Popular Education.

To the Attention of Government Counsel Jahnert—or representative in the Office.

Berlin W. 8 Unter den Linden 69.

Concerning: Theological Faculties.

In regard to your letter of 28 Nov 38—(Office Chief W)—and the conference between Mr. State Minister Dr. Wacker and my expert party member Wemmer, I would like to again inform you of the stand the Party is taking.

Fundamentally, theological inquiry cannot be placed on the same footing as the general fields of knowledge in the Universities as it represents less a free field of knowledge than a confessional (i.e. religious) aim of research. No doubts exist on this ground if the theological faculties in the German High schools are appreciably restricted.

In this case, as you have likewise pointed out in your letter, the clause of the Concordat and the Church Treaties are to be taken into consideration. In the case of certain faculties, which are not mentioned by a specific clause in the Concordat and Church Treaties, as for example Munich and a few others, a suppression can be begun without further to do. This is equally true of the theological faculties in Austria, Vienna and Graz.

But also, in the case of the faculties which are specifically mentioned in the Concordat or Church Treaties, there now exists a special legal situation which has been created by the general change in circumstances. Particularly, the introduction of military service and the execution of the Four Year Plan must be considered. By virtue of these measures, and in addition by virtue of the fact of an extraordinary lack of replacement men in contrast to the earlier numerous replacement men available, it will be necessary to execute a certain reorganization of the German High Schools. Thus economics and simplifications are necessary. I should like to refer particularly once more to these questions on the basis of the oral discussion between Mr. State Minister Dr. Wacker and my expert. Because of this I would appreciate it very much if you would restrict the theological faculties insofar as they cannot be wholly suppressed in accordance with the above statement. In this event the matter concerns not only the theological faculties in the universities, but also the various state establishments which still exist in many places as institutes of high learning exclusively devoted to theology and without connection with a university.

I request in this instance the omission of any express declaration to the churches or to other places as well as the avoiding of a public announcement of these measures. Complaints and the like must be answered (if they are to be replied to) in the fashion that these measures are being executed in the course of the economic plan of reorganization and that similar things are happening to other faculties.

I would appreciate it very much if professorial chairs, thus vacated, can be then turned over to the newly created fields of inquiry of these last years, such as racial research, archaeology studies, etc.

Heil Hitler!

as representative
Signed: M. BORMANN

Certified true copy
Signed: Engel

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 117-PS

National Socialist German Workers' Party
The delegate of the Fuehrer Chief of Staff

Munich 28 Jan. 1939
III D—Es 2240/0/21 3400 g.

Personal

Secret

To: The Fuehrer's delegate for the supervision of the entire mental and doctrinal teaching and education of the National Socialist German Worker's Party

Reichsleiter Rosenberg.
Berlin W 35 Margarethenstr. 17.

Chancellery Rosenberg
In: Nr. 6231—10 Feb. 39.

Subject: Armed Forces and Church

Dear Esteemed Party Member Rosenberg,

I sent to you in the annex for your reference a copy of my letter of to-day to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.

Heil Hitler

Your very devoted,
Signed: BORMANN.

1 Enclosure.

SECRET

National Socialist German Workers' Party

Carbon copy

28 January 1939
III D Es 2240/0/21—34 g.

The Fuehrer's Deputy.
To: The Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.
To: Captain Thomee or his representative.
Berlin W 35 Tirpitzufer 72-76

Subject: Armed Forces and Church

In reference to the conference between Brigadier General Reinecke and my expert party member, Chief Councillor to the Government Wemmer, of Wednesday the 11th of this month, I want to explain to you once more in order to confirm the arrangements made by my expert, the attitude of the party with regard to these questions.

In the last years, the party had to announce its position, time and time again, to the plan of establishing a State Church, or of a closer connection between the State and the Church. The party has repudiated these plans with all its force and for the following reasons. In the first place it would not be compatible for the doctrinal demands of National Socialism to unite the State with the churches as the outer organization of the religious communions which do not have as aim in all their fields the carrying out of the National Socialist principles. In the second place, considerations of a political nature oppose such an outer unity. At present, the churches, the Protestant as well as the Catholic one, are disunited internally, and partly externally too, seen from an organizational point of view, they do not form a unity any longer. A union of these churches with a State built on a strong close leadership and on any National Socialist principles is bound to fail. Such a union, furthermore, would result in constant arguing between Church and State. Furthermore, competence quarrels would arise constantly there, where measures have to be taken concerning either the State or the Church; in this case also one must always count with the difficulty that the Churches would refuse such decisions out of dogmatic reasons. Numerous examples of such an attitude can be found there, where out of historical reasons, there still is a union between State and Church, such as for instance in the case of the School. But even there where the State has recently tried to bring order in the affairs of the Church by making decisions such as for instance the setting up of a State's finance committee for the Church administration, experience has been made that one portion of the churches thought these decisions were necessary, but another portion thought, for dogmatic reasons, that this was an intolerable meddling with the church life. With such unfortunate circumstances, there is always a danger for the State that it has to execute its decisions forcibly if these are not being carried out; this particular condition must be prevented for several reasons.

For these reasons of doctrinal and political nature, the deputy of the Fuehrer has opposed the setting up of a State Church; he has also rejected the attempts to make use of the authority of the State for a different kind of union between the State and Church and to settle outer organizational matters which should be the task of the Church. The party, therefore, would regret very much if contrary to this attitude, the Armed Forces would continue with their plans to set up a private consistory for the Armed Forces, that is to say to create a private church for the Armed Forces. The Armed Forces Church would indeed be nothing else but a State Church within the Armed Forces. To supplement this I would like to bring out the following points:

1. A great portion of the ministers of both churches stand, in accordance with the attitude of the churches, in concealed and also open opposition to National Socialism and the State led by it. In these questions a different judgment of the case is presented as it would have been before or during the World War when the churches were in a more positive relationship to the State. Today, however, the churches and the ministers, should a crisis arise for this National Socialist State, would pass from concealed to open opposition. They will not in times of crisis support or help this state but at best leave it to its own fate. That they will even fight this State in these times in order to regain lost fields is clearly demonstrated by the Protestant beseeching prayer in reference to the Sudetenland crisis; I want to bring this incident to your attention once more. This high treasonlike beseeching prayer proves that the churches have only been waiting till the National Socialist State found itself, at least in their opinion, in a moment of uneasiness, to take up the fight against the State with their whole psychological influential means. In my opinion this fact deserves special attention, because this beseeching prayer clearly demonstrates in which spiritually extraordinary successful way these churches try to influence the individuals. I do not think that the ministers of these churches will be a support to the fighting troops, but that on the contrary, they will be to a great extent dangerous destroyers of the spiritual fighting strength in the decisive moment.

I want to emphasize that at that time this beseeching prayer was approved by most of the country's churches and that it was only later on, once these trying days were put to a good end, and often drawn out negotiations from the part of the Reich's church ministry had been ended, that some of the country's churches announced their disapproval; this disapproval, however, in the meantime was in part repudiated. A separate church from the Armed Forces even though it might free itself, as to its organization, from the other country's churches, will not be spared from this danger. The Armed Forces church would have to get its recruits from the other churches. Even if one would go as far, and this in my opinion is practically impossible, as to how the Armed Forces form their own ministery from youth on, this separation of an Armed Forces church from the rest of the churches will not be possible because their church faith ideas will remain the same because they are all based on dogmatic principles.

2. It is known to me that certain disputes arose when the Armed Forces tried to bring about a union between the Protestant and Catholic churches; furthermore, that certain organizational measures such as for instance the combining of the Church song book, the creation of a unified Church service etc. would be appropriate. But according to experiences which the party and the State encountered in these questions, the difficulties, instead of decreasing, on the contrary increase when these matters are taken in hand by authorities other than the church. But the party, by its logical attitude towards these matters, wanted to spare the State from these difficulties and arguments within the churches, that are always led back on dogmatic principles. It should remain up to the church if they can, want or do not, to accomplish these desirable organizational measures and unifications. The State or the party would furthermore oppose an inevitable development in this field by meddling in church matters; namely a development which would lead to leaving these affairs to forces which still want to be in connection with the Church.

The Fuehrer's Deputy has therefore considered it as his duty, after the basic decision to reject a union between State and Church had been made, to see to it that the basic ideological freedom of faith and conscience be also practically realized in all the State's decrees, decisions etc. Everywhere the church matters have been left up to the church, but also every religious constraint, wherever present, was removed. At the same time, those who wanted to busy themselves, with Church and religious matters in a correct carrying out of the basic faith and conscience freedom were given the possibility to do so.

The Fuehrer's Deputy would welcome it if the Armed Forces would act in these essential ideological decisions, after the same principles as the party and also now the State have laid out for themselves, instead of pursuing the plans for a creation of an Armed Forces Church or any other closer union between the Armed Forces and the church. I am convinced that in a short time there will be no more difficulties for the Armed Forces either, which difficulties had been brought about by the plan to create a separate Armed Forces Church. In fact the Armed Forces have already taken a position to these questions and basically also in the sense of accomplishing freedom of faith and conscience. It should be decisive, however, in this respect to note that these instructions are in many cases not always completely carried out. To assure a right execution of this principle of freedom of faith and conscience it would be in my opinion necessary to observe the following points:

(1) The orders stating that no constraint can be exercised in the attendance of church services during the free evening hours in army camps would really have to be complied with. The carrying out of these orders should not, as in reality it sometimes is, be left up to the discretion of some higher or lower ranking superiors. In most cases, no direct constraint is exercised but in some cases the non-assistance of church services is punished by extra duty etc. Such incidents should lead in the future to disciplinary action.

(2) The duty of Army Chaplains, if they are available in the Armed Forces, should be to give an opportunity to those members of the Armed Forces who have a need to talk things over with them. They could hold religious services if there is a need for it and if the members of the Armed Forces cannot attend the regular services. But the attendance would have to be on a voluntary basis for everybody.

It is evident that in the Armed Forces which grasp all German men, there will be a need to a certain extent for attendance of Church services. These members of the Armed Forces should be given an opportunity, provided it does not interfere with the service, to visit churches and ministers on their own. But further than that, Army chaplains should not be used to hold church services, to arrange evening hours etc. and to exercise any constraint to that effect. They should only be available in order to be present there where a need arises for them.

(3) Special officer ranks of the church service and similar institutions should be abolished.

(4) The building of own Armed Forces Churches should also be discontinued. I hardly think that there will be many cases where the members of the Armed Forces will not have the possibility to visit a church, outside of the Army, just like everybody else.

(5) No formation Church attendance should take place.

(6) Church organizations should have nothing to do with the Armed Forces. Everything should be left up to the individual in his field.

In conclusion, I think I can say that with these and other measures, namely with the complete and exact accomplishment of the principle of freedom of faith and conscience, in a short time the technical difficulties which might have arisen here and there could be overcome. I want to point once more to the order dated 13.12.1938, issued by the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. According to this order, military celebrations are not to be connected any more with a religious benediction at the time the recruits are being sworn in. The attendance of Church services of the soldiers, which takes place possibly right after they are sworn in, is voluntary. The church services are to be held separately from the swearing in ceremonies.

It would, in my opinion be very necessary, it would also be in accordance with the basic attitude of the Fuehrer's deputy that these principles contained in this order would be applied wherever the question of the relationship between the Armed Forces and the church arises. Such a correct and exact accomplishment of the principle of freedom of faith and conscience would present the proof that the Armed Forces cannot be accused of being anti-Church or anti-Christian; on the other hand, it would also prove that the Armed Forces are not based on different ideological principles than the ones represented and executed by the State, the National Socialist Workers' Party and its affiliation. In this way it would be made certain that the same educational principles exist in all the organizations as well as the teaching institutions of our German people, namely the Armed Forces, the Hitler Youth, School labor service and affiliations of the party. I think that this fact would do much more for the spiritual integrity of the German soldier than if the young German would find himself confronted, during the various stages of his education, with various attitudes toward these questions.

Heil Hitler

1 Enclosure. Signed: M. BORMANN

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 122-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

Deputy of the Fuehrer Chief of Staff

Munich, 17 April 1939 Brown House
[Rubber stamp]:
Receipt Rosenberg Chancellory 24 Apr 39

III/16—Tho 3230/0/15 270 g

To the Official appointed by the Fuehrer for the Supervision of spiritual and philosophical schooling and education of the NSDAP.

Attention of office director Kerksiek or his deputy in the office.

Berlin W 35 Margaretenstrasse 17.

[Rubber stamp]

SECRET

[handwritten note: submitted to Pg Bradmann for comment—R]

Subject: Theological faculties.

I send you the enclosed photostatic copy of a plan suggested by the Reichs Minister for Science, Education and training, for the combining of theological faculties with a request for your cognizance and prompt action.

Heil Hitler!
Signed: M. BORMANN

1 enclosure

[SYNOPSIS OF DOCUMENT]

Berlin W 8, 6 April 1939

Letterhead of Reichs Minister of Science, Education and Training

The plan which I expect to put into operation at the beginning of the winter semester 1939/40 presents the following picture.

In the East the following faculties will be maintained: Koenigsberg (Evangelic), Braunsberg (Catholic), Breslau (Evangelic and Catholic), Vienna (Evangelic and Catholic). I have already ordered the combination of the Catholic faculty in Graz with the one in Vienna which will remain the only place in Austria with both faculties.

In Bavaria after closing the Munich faculty there will remain the Catholic faculty at Wurzburg and the Evangelic faculty at Erlangen. The continuation of these is important but the five state theological institutes of Bavaria should be reduced to three. I ask you to suggest the two to be closed.

In the Southwest regions I suggest the removal of the Evangelical faculty in Heidelberg to Tubingen and of the Catholic faculty in Tubingen to Freiberg. That will provide an exchange between Wurttemberg and Baden based on the Catholic predominance in Baden and Evangelic predominance in Wurttemberg.

In West Germany a similar exchange between Bonn and Munster is proposed but which shall be designated Catholic or Evangelic is a difficult question. A decision I should like to postpone a little time.

A similar question arises with the proposed transfer of the faculty from Giessen to Marburg. Since the closing of the forestry faculty at Giessen this university has not many students. The reversal of transfer is perhaps the solution but that is not feasible at this time because of the newly organized Institute for Religious Science. Professor Frick who is to head this institute has pointed out that his transfer from religious to philosophical endeavors may be viewed as a tendency against religion. I have suggested a gradual transfer of activity and consider the final time of transfer to be the propitious moment for such a transfer of the Evangelic faculty of the University of Marburg to that of the University of Bonn. Until that time it will be best to maintain the faculty at Gottingen since its influence in the Anglican world is great.

In the central German regions I propose a transfer of the Leipzig faculty to the University of Halle. The small faculty at Jena I should like to maintain because of its German-Christian stand.

In north German regions a combination of the Evangelic faculties of Rostock and Kiel at Kiel is planned.

Finally I should like to combine the faculties of Berlin and Greifswald in Greifswald. A double purpose would be achieved. Greifswald's weak enrollment would be improved and the Berlin faculty would not have to be included in the new university city of Berlin. I am sure this proposal will rouse the Berlin faculty but believe I can handle that problem.

To recapitulate this plan would include the complete closing of theological faculties at Innsbruck, Salzburg and Munich, the transfer of the faculty of Graz to Vienna and the vanishing of four Catholic faculties.

a. Closing of three Catholic theological faculties or Higher Schools and of four Evangelic faculties in the winter semester 1939/40.

b. Closing of one further Catholic and of three further Evangelic faculties in the near future.

I ask your comments at your earliest opportunity. I propose then to give the Ministry of Churches this information.

By direction:
ZSCHINTZSCH
(Authenticated).

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 123-PS

Copy

NSDAP
The Deputy Fuehrer, Chief of Staff

Munich, 23 June 1939, Brown House
III D-ES 3230/0/15 2131 g.A.E 50/39

SECRET

To the Fuehrer's Commissioner for the supervision of all spiritual and political instruction and education of the NSDAP.

Attention: Verwaltungsleiter Kerksiek or deputy

Berlin W. 35, Margarethen St. 17

Chancery Rosenberg Receipt No. 29 June 39 8487

Subject: Theological Faculties

With regard to the Conference of Specialists on the Liaison Staff of the NSDAP please find enclosed a copy of my letter of today to the Reich Minister for Science, Education and National Education for your information.

I would like to request you to inform me in due time as to your further wishes regarding the point of view cited in my letter. I will also arrange that conferences on this subject take place in an inter-party form in order to put the wishes of the party offices before the Reichs Ministry of Education as soon as possible.

Heil Hitler!
Signed: M. Bormann

1. Enclosure

Copy

NSDAP
The Deputy Fuehrer

Transcript
Munich 23 June 1939
III D-ES 3230/0/15 2131 g.A.

CONFIDENTIAL

TO: The Reich Minister for Science, Education and National Education

Attention: Regierungsrat Jaehnert or Deputy

Berlin Unter den Linden 69

Subject: Theological Faculties.

I have noted statements regarding the combining of the theological faculties at the German Universities, in your letter of the 6 April 1939—W.A. No. 76/39g. Concerning this subject a conference has taken place between all the party offices concerned, in which the principal points of view for the party as well as your statement were discussed. I would therefore like to inform you in detail of the Party's decisions as a result of this comprehensive discussion:

1. The Evangelical faculty of the Koenigsberg University must remain for the time being as it is, since it is the only one of this type for East Prussia as well as for the whole northeast area.

2. In future there will no longer exist any necessity for the preservation of the state Catholic educational institution in Braunsberg. I request you, therefore, to combine this institution with the Catholic faculty of the University of Breslau.

3. Regarding Breslau, the Protestant as well as the Catholic faculties must be retained for the time being.

4. Similarly both faculties of the University of Prag must remain for the present as at this time it would not be advisable to reduce the University of Prag in any manner. Although in regard to a dispersal of the theological faculty in Prag there would be no difficulties with the Concordat, I do not deem it advisable at the moment to initiate measures of this sort there. Action regarding the University of Prag must still be retarded for a time.

5. The situation at the University of Vienna is very similar. Vienna is the only university of the Ostmark, at which the theological faculty is still in existence. I request, therefore, that you reserve any decisions in this matter a little longer, until the situation in regard to the University of Prag has been further cleared up. Nevertheless I would like to emphasize now that at a later date the dissolution of the theological faculties of the Universities of Wien and Prag will also be necessary in my opinion.

6. I request you to combine the Protestant theological faculty in Rostock with the Protestant theological faculty in Kiel, in conformance with both the arrangements described in your message and the proposal that I have already put forward.

7. In regard to the theological faculty in Berlin I am in complete agreement with you in that under no circumstances should this faculty be included in the new University Town [Hochschulstadt]. The theological faculty of Berlin must disappear in the near future. I do not deem it advisable, as you suggest should next be done to transfer this faculty to Greifswald. Fundamentally it is inadvisable to shift the theological faculty of a large city to a small town. The possibility must not be allowed to arise of such a large number of theological students, as would come to a small university city as a result of such a transfer, giving this character to this city, and even perhaps to the whole region. Since this danger does not exist in a large city, I request you to leave the theological faculty in Berlin for the time being. I do not deem it necessary to determine the future of this faculty today, since the new university town will presumably not be completed for several years.

8. Since three theological faculties in the German Baltic area are not necessary, I request you to transfer the theological faculty of the University of Greifswald as well as that of Rostock to Kiel. The theological faculties in Koenigsberg and Kiel should be quite sufficient. I do not believe special consideration for Greifswald in regard to the northern states to be necessary since the university of Kiel has made the furthering of ties with the north its particular mission.

9. For Bavaria I request that more extensive measures be carried out than were provided for in your communication of the 6.4.1939. In the future the preservation of the five state philosophic-theological universities in Bavaria will no longer be necessary. In so far as these are to be theological faculties in the future, the training of theologians is to be carried out by them and not by any state universities serving the church exclusively. I would ask you therefore not only to reduce these institutions to three, but also to break them up completely in the shortest possible time, if it is not possible to do so immediately. Above all, I request you to dissolve the universities in Passau, Regensburg and Bamberg in the aforementioned order, because they are the cores of extremely strong confessional activity against National Socialism.

10. In addition there is also in Bavaria the Church's own Institution in Eichstadt for training bishops which receives considerable state subsidies. Even though there is no question of dissolving this church institution, nevertheless, I would like you to ensure that the State subsidies to this institution cease immediately.

11. I request that the Catholic faculty of the university of Wuerzburg be retained until further notice.

12. In the same manner the Protestant faculty of the University of Erlangen will have to be retained.

13. Regarding the south German area, I do not agree with your plan to transfer the Protestant faculty in Heidelberg to Tuebingen. Tuebingen has already become a confirmed Protestant-theological center. It is feared that the transferring of the Heidelberg Protestant faculty to Tuebingen would only still further emphasize this characteristic of the university town. I wish, therefore, that the Protestant faculty of Tuebingen be combined with that in Heidelberg.

14. May I give you my decision later regarding your plan to transfer the Catholic faculty from Tuebingen to Freiburg, since the necessity has arisen to reconsider this matter.

15. In western Germany, I do not deem your projected exchange between Bonn and Muenster expedient. I wish you to combine both theological faculties in Bonn.

16. Furthermore, I would request you to transfer the Protestant faculty of the University of Marburg to Giessen. I do not consider that the ideas which you asserted regarding working with foreign Forscher (odd sects) at the institute for Religious Science which will be established in Marburg, solve the problem.

17. In addition, I wish you to transfer the theological faculty of Goettingen to Giessen.

18. The theological faculty of Jena would probably have to be retained until further notice.

19. Also the theological faculty in Leipzig should be combined with that in Halle.

In the above I have informed you of the Party's wishes after thorough investigation of the matter with all party offices. I would be grateful if you would initiate the necessary measures as quickly as possible, in regard to the great political significance for the Gau concerned, which will be the result in every single case of such a combination.

I would like you to always keep in contact with me when instituting these measures, in particular with regard to the arranging of the actual time, since I am in touch with the competent Gau administrations. Furthermore, I would like you to take into consideration the following in connection with the mergers which we have planned:

1. As a result of these mergers a rather large number of professional chairs will become vacant. I believe it of the utmost importance that these positions should not remain unfilled, but that they should be occupied again or at least the greater portion of them. When doing this, those branches of science must be primarily considered which have been able to prove that they formerly had too few professional chairs. I would like to reserve the opportunity of getting in touch with you again regarding details.

2. Furthermore, as a result of these mergers a large number of institutes, libraries, buildings, etc. will be vacated. I do not deem it wise to place all these accommodations at the disposal of the new theological faculties connected with these mergers. The necessity will probably arise of dealing specially with each separate case according to the circumstances. Here I would also like to request that you consult me when making decisions.

3. Above all, I request that you keep me continually informed regarding the individual arrangements to be carried out by you in order that I be able to inform the party offices interested and especially the appropriate Gau administration, which is mainly concerned, in time.

Heil Hitler!

I.V. Signed: M. Bormann

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 129-PS

Reich Minister Kerrl

Berlin W 8, 6 September 1939

CONFIDENTIAL

Dear Mr. Stapel!

I have received your letter of 31 August and in no wise neglected your memorandum on the situation of the Evangelical Church in Germany, but read it through immediately. I must tell you that I agree with the portrayal of the situation down to the last word, although I must assume that the "inflation of principles" is also aimed at me. However that did not annoy me, I understand your idea rather completely. So that you understand me too, I want to continue your memorandum with my reasons. You close with the absolutely correct conclusion:

The State should neither combat existing religion nor introduce a new religion. It should allow Christianity to prove by itself that it still has vital force. It should confine itself to spiritual affairs and only exercise compulsion in the production of a legal and administrative unity of the Evangelical Church.

Correct!

My action is determined however by the following situation:

As you know from the speech of the Fuehrer in the Reichstag on 30 January 1939, every power in exercising compulsion in the production of a legal and administrative unity of the Evangelical Church was completely withdrawn from me. The Fuehrer considers his efforts to bring the Evangelical Church to reason, unsuccessful and the Evangelical Church with respect to its condition rightfully a useless pile of sects. As you emphasize the Party has previously carried on not only a fight against the political element of the Christianity of the Church, but also a fight against membership of Party Members in a Christian confession.

I am of the opinion that in this situation it can very easily eventuate that the "Organization of German Understanding of the Christian Religion Through Luther" will collapse of its own accord, if, as in Austria and in the Sudetan Gau, the privileges, namely of collecting taxes and state subsidies are entirely removed from the Evangelical Church. If it comes to that then from the collapse of the organization of the Evangelical Church the advantage will redound not to the State but to the Catholic Church which cannot receive a mortal blow through such measures in its well-aimed unified, basically political organization.

The Catholic Church will and must, according to the law under which it is set up, remain a thorn in the flesh of a Racial State. An effective combatting of it cannot ensue from a State which thanks to its secure ideological basis desires and must refrain from every intervention into religious things. The National Socialistic State can therefore put nothing positive or new in the place of that which it must perhaps destroy and from the collapsing Evangelical Church the people somewhat deceived about their religion would in large numbers stream into the Catholic Church, and this Church would then divide the people into two mutually hostile groups in a much more regrettable manner than has happened through the confessions.

In addition every negative struggle, which cannot in a positive manner replace that which has been destroyed, is anyhow condemned to failure.

In this factual situation I see an unheard of danger for the religious peace of the German people approaching and, all my efforts—you will understand that—have previously been only directed at eliminating this danger. But that is only possible if the Party learns to distinguish in the clearest manner between religion and ideology and thus, as Luther established and Kant scientifically proved, realizes, that ideology must limit itself to the area of experience, where alone reason can become knowledge. It must further realize that knowledge based on reason alone cannot satisfy the human being here on earth, but, that he (the human being) according to the structure of the "world of freedom within himself", or let us say, according to "the Kingdom of God within himself" cannot overcome the compelling moral necessity to attain certainty concerning the essence of God. The human being is now no "purely moral being", but the torture and the happiness of his earthly life consists in moving about in flesh and blood. Therefore however we have power over the inevitable weakness of not always being able to harmonize moral thought and deed. To be sure we do not need to be ashamed of original sin or to find our body despicable, for it, and thereby original sin is from God and we are no gods, but human beings. But how could we, who must believe in the moral importance of our life and the world, get along, because we without being sure of our immortality would not be able to yield our bodily life in fulfillment of our duty itself, without a religion going beyond the boundaries of reason? How could we who ourselves are righteous, doubt the fact that God must be just, and how could we demand of him the all-knowing, who knows our thoughts, that he confer on us immortality, if our righteousness condemns the one whom it recognizes as acting against his better moral conviction. Our life here on earth would be senseless, if we could find out nothing about the true essence of God, if we were not in some way certain that it is not righteousness but divine love. But we cannot find it out through knowledge based on reason, but only by the power of faith which we can get for ourselves through the personality of Christ, therefore from the true Christian religion, for which in no wise is the presentation of the priests standard, but only Christ himself.

The "Foundation of the Religion of Christ" rests in our own inner being. The Evangelical Church of today has not been able to lead us to this real "Religion of Christ". This Religion of Christ is only to be grasped if not only the genius of a Luther, but everybody has learned to distinguish the domains of reason and faith. It depends neither on sacred orders nor on sacraments, but one finds the way to it only if one has learned to doubt reason, as this reason has most accurately become acquainted with its magnitude and its narrow boundaries, and only Priests who have grasped that with reason and heart, can penetrate from pseudo-priesthood to the true priesthood and thus fill the hearts of the people with true faith.

Therefore for 15 years I have been working on a book which explains to everybody the scientific basis of National Socialism in such a way that one learns to recognize the extent and the boundaries of reason as well as of ideology and the necessity of the religion of Christ, and comprehends, that in this area Party and State can do only one thing: to completely take one's own position and to renounce any claim to a decision.

I believe I can finish this work at this time; its publication however will not be possible until the return of peace.

However, in order that meanwhile these conclusions mentioned above which would lead to the destruction of the organization of the Evangelical Church, might not occur, it was my most important job to see to it that today's pile of sects in the Evangelical Church would consolidate of their own accord into an organ at least filled with a desire for unity.

Therefore, as I was no longer allowed to issue orders under the State I tried again and again to exercise influence on the district church leaders even though they seemed to be powerless according to your statements approved by me in your memorandum, at least to create this condition for the possibility of preserving the organization of the Lutheran Church. These efforts have at least reached a certain conclusion and become fruitful to such an extent that it was possible to aim at a unity among them over three men, who as a confidential council of the church chancellery now possess the possibility of finding by positive work confidence of the people who feel united in the Evangelical Church.

If these men, Bishop Mardahrens, Bishop Schultz of Mecklenburg and Oberkonsistorialrat Hymmen apprehend the commandment of the hour, then by positive work they can line up the direction of the Evangelical Church with the goals desired by me into a complete legal and administrative unity. If they do not understand how to direct this positive work correctly, then both of us will have to bury the hope of a preservation of the organization of the Lutheran Church, because only the success of such a work can give the Fuehrer the justification of giving us full power in the direction desired by us.

You can imagine that I would much prefer to see you among these three men, because I would then know that the work was being actively and successfully lined up with the goal jointly desired by both of us. However I shall pursue this aim with all the energy in my power as long as I am in my job and the decision of the Fuehrer gives me approval or disapproval.

These are difficult times into which our people are now entering, but I believe that Providence even here has correctly guided everything. It has through the Fuehrer created for conditions for the inevitable battle, as they cannot be found more favorable. If the German people maintain themselves—and what justifies us in doubting it—everything must come to a good and victorious end, and thereby would be created just the proper condition for the extension of the Third Reich externally in tranquil safety and in well-aimed work at home, but then would be created just the right soil for the possibility of nationalistic church work in the congregations, which you rightfully consider the most important thing.

Please be convinced that I am always happy to think of you and rejoice at every communication from you.

I know that you are a man who has already accomplished extraordinary things for the spiritual enlightenment of the German people and I am convinced that you will still accomplish in the future fruitful things in this work.

I need not emphasize to you that this letter is confidential. However, I shall make accessible to the Confidential Council copies of your splendid memorandum as well as copies of this letter for confidential cognizance. I would be especially glad if in the near future I found the opportunity to discuss orally with Reich Minister Hess your memorandum and my answer.

With hearty greetings and with

Heil Hitler!
Yours
[Signed] Kerrl

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 131-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKER'S PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer Chief of Staff

Munich, 12 December 1939 Brown House
III—So./Eis. 3230/0

To: The Deputy of the Fuehrer for the supervision of the complete mental and doctrinal training and education of the NSDAP Reich Leader A. ROSENBERG

Berlin W 35 Margareten Strasse 17

Ministerial-Director Mentzel has recently informed us verbally that you intend to take over the seven existing professorships of the former catholic-theological faculty at the University of Munich. These are to serve as a fundament for the Seminary (Hohe Schule) for National-Socialism. Gauleiter Adolf Wagner is supposed to have agreed to this.

I would appreciate it if you would confirm the correctness of the information given by Ministerial-Director Mentzel.

Heil Hitler!

Signed: M. BORMANN
(M. Bormann)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 136-PS

Copy

Information to all Sections of Party and State.

The "Hohe Schule" is supposed to become the center for national socialistic ideological and educational research. It will be established after the conclusion of the war. I order that the already initiated preparations be continued by Reichsleiter Rosenberg, especially in the way of research and the setting up of the library.

All sections of party and State are requested to cooperate with him in this task.

(Signed) ADOLF HITLER

Berlin, 29 January 1940
Certified a true copy
Berlin 15 Dec 1943
Dr. Zeiss
Stabseinsatzfuehrer

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 137-PS

The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, No. 2850/40 secret Adj. Chief OKW

(Please indicate above file number, the date and short contents in the answer)

Berlin W 35, Tirpitzufer 72-76 5 July 1940

Telephone: Local 218191
Long distance 218091

To the Supreme Commander of the Army, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces in Holland.

Reichsleiter Rosenberg has requested from the Fuehrer to have:

1. The State libraries and archives searched for documents which are valuable for Germany.

2. The chanceries of the high church authorities and lodges searched for political activities which are directed against us, and to have the material in question confiscated.

The Fuehrer has ordered that this plan should be complied with and that the Secret State police—supported by the keepers of the archives of Reichsleiter Rosenberg—should be entrusted with the search. The Chief of the Security Police, SS Lt. General Heydrich, has been notified; he will get in touch with the responsible military commanders to carry out this order.

This measure should be carried out in all the territories of Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France which are occupied by us.

It is requested that the subordinate agencies should be notified.

The Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces.

(Signed) KEITEL

To Reich leader Rosenberg
Copy for information
(Signed) [Illegible]
Captain [Rittmeister] and executive officer.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 138-PS

Copy

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces

Berlin W 35, Tirpitzufer 72-76, 17 Sept 1940
Tel: 21 81 91

2 f 28.14 W.Z. No. 3812/40 g

To the Chief of Army High Command for the Military Administration in Occupied France.

In supplement to the order of the Fuehrer transmitted at the time to Reichsleiter Rosenberg to search lodges, libraries and archives in the occupied territories of the west for material valuable to Germany, and to safeguard the latter through the Gestapo, the Fuehrer has decided:

The ownership status before the war in France, prior to the declaration of war on 1 September 1939, shall be the criterion.

Ownership transfers to the French state or similar transfers completed after this date are irrelevant and legally invalid (for example, Polish and Slovak libraries in Paris, possessions of the Palais Rothschild or other ownerless Jewish possessions). Reservations regarding search, seizure and transportation to Germany on the basis of the above reasons will not be recognized.

Reichsleiter Rosenberg and/or his deputy Reichshauptsellenleiter Ebert has received clear instructions from the Fuehrer personally governing the right of seizure; he is entitled to transport to Germany cultural goods which appear valuable to him and to safeguard them there. The Fuehrer has reserved for himself the decision as to their use.

It is requested that the services in question be informed correspondingly.

Signed: KEITEL

For information:
Attention: Reichsleiter Rosenberg

certified true copy
Berlin 15 December 43
(Dr. Zeiss)

[Rosenberg special purpose staff seal]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 139-PS

Copy

SUPREME COMMAND OF THE ARMED FORCES

Berlin W 35 Tirpitzufer 72-75 10 October 1940.

Tel: Local Service 21 81 91
Long Distance 21 80 91

Az 2 f 28 J (Ia).
No. 1838/40 g.
Reference: Chief Supreme Command Armed Forces
No. 3812/40 g WZ of 17 September 1940.

To: Supreme Army High Commander.

As supplement to the above-mentioned letter, addressed to the Military Administration of Occupied France, it is requested that corresponding directions be given also to the Military Administration in Belgium.

Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

By Order

Signed: REINECKE

For Information:
Attention Reichsleiter ROSENBERG's Adjutant.
Reference: 2606/ a.

Rosenberg's special purpose staff seal.

Certified true copy
Berlin 15 December 1943
(Dr. Zeiss)
Chief special purpose Staff.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 140-PS

SECRET

Copy

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
Az.Zf.285 (G-3) Nr. 1838/40

Berlin W 35, Tirpitzufer 72-76 30 Oct. 1940
Tel. local 218191, long distance 218091

To: The Armed Forces Commander in the Netherlands

In supplement to the order of the Fuehrer transmitted, under Nr 2850/40 secret Adj. Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, of 5.7.1940, to Reichsleiter Rosenberg, to search lodges, libraries and archives of the occupied territories of the West, for material valuable to Germany, and to safeguard the latter through the Gestapo, the Fuehrer has decided:

The ownership status before the war in France, prior to the declaration of war on 1 Sept. 1939, shall be the criterion.

Reichsleiter Rosenberg and/or his deputy Reichshauptstellenleiter Ebert has received clear instructions from the Fuehrer personally governing the right of seizure, he is entitled to transport to Germany cultural goods which appear valuable to him and to safeguard them there. The Fuehrer has reserved for himself the decision as to their use.

It is requested that the services in question be informed correspondingly.

The Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

By order

Signed: REINECKE

Certified a true copy
Berlin 15 Dec 1943
(Dr. Zeiss)
Chief of special purpose staff

For information:

Attention Adj. of Reichleiter Rosenberg
Re Nr 2606/Ma

signed Reinecke

[Rosenberg's Special Purpose Staff SEAL]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 141-PS

In conveying the measures taken until now, for the securing of Jewish art property by the Chief of the Military administration Paris and the special service staff Rosenberg (The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces 2 f 28.14.W.Z.Nr 3812/40 g), the art objects brought to the Louvre will be disposed of in the following way:

1. Those art objects about which the Fuehrer has reserved for himself the decision as to their use.

2. Those art objects which serve to the completion of the Reichs Marshal's collection.

3. Those art objects and library stocks the use of which seem useful to the establishing of the higher institutes of learning and which come within the jurisdiction of Reichsleiter Rosenberg.

4. Those art objects that are suited to be sent to German museums, of all these art objects, a systematic inventory will be made by the special purpose staff Rosenberg; they will then be packed and shipped to Germany with the assistance of the Luftwaffe.

5. Those art objects that are suited to be given to French museums or might be of use for the German-French art trade, will be auctioned off at a date yet to be fixed; the profit of this auction will be given to the French State for the benefit of those bereaved by the war.

6. The further securing of Jewish art property in France will be continued by the special purpose staff Rosenberg in the same way as heretofore in connection with the Chief of the military administration Paris.

Paris, 5 November 1940

I will submit this proposal to the Fuehrer. Those instructions are in effect until he has reached a decision.

Signed: GOERING

Certified true copy:
Berlin 15 Dec. 1943
(Dr. Zeiss)
Chief of special purpose staff

[Rosenberg's special purpose staff seal]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 145-PS

The Reichs Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories

Berlin W 35, Rauch Street 17/18, 20 Aug 1941
Tel: 21 95 15 and 39 50 46
Cable address: Reichminister East

Na 369/R/H

Director of the Reichs Main Office UTIKAL [Reichshauptstellenleiter]

Berlin

Subject: Safeguarding the cultural goods in the occupied Eastern Territories

I have instructed the Reichs Commissioner for the Eastland and his subordinate general and district commissioners to secure all cultural goods in the Reichs Commissariat of the East which are appropriate in general for national-socialistic research as well as research of the activities of the opponents of National-Socialism. I delegate you to carry out with an "Einsatzstab" to be formed for this purpose this work of the Reichs Commissioner, the General, Main and Regional Commissioners, for their support. During the execution of this mission you will remain directly subordinate to Main Division II of my ministry whose directors will provide you with additional instructions. The orders issued by the Fuehrer for the "Einsatzstab" in the West remain also the same for the East.

The execution of your job will be financed, as in the occupied western territories, through the Reichs treasurer of the NSDAP. A later accounting between him and the ministry for the occupied eastern territories, respectively with the Reichs Commissariats is held in reserve.

I am including a letter of mine to the Reich Commissioner of the Eastland.

Heil Hitler!

Signed: ROSENBERG

1 inclosure

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 149-PS

FUEHRER DECREE

Jews, freemasons and the ideological enemies of National Socialism who are allied with them are the originators of the present war against the Reich. Spiritual struggle according to plan against these powers is a measure necessitated by war.

I have therefore ordered Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg to accomplish this task in cooperation with the chief of the High Command of the armed forces. To accomplish this task, his Einsatzstab for the right occupation territories has the right to explore libraries, archives, lodges, and other ideological and cultural establishments of all kinds for suitable material and to confiscate such material and for the ideological tasks of the NSDAP and for scientific research work by the university [Hoch Schule]. The same rule applies to cultural goods which are in the possession or are the property of Jews, which are abandoned or whose origin cannot be clearly established. The regulations for the execution of this task with the cooperation will be issued by the Chief of the High Command of the armed forces in agreement with Reichsleiter Rosenberg.

In necessary measures for the eastern territories under German administration will be taken by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reich Minister for occupied eastern territories.

(Signed) A. HITLER

Fuehrers Headquarters, March 1942
To all Bureaus of the Armed Forces, the Party and the State.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 151-PS

The Reichsminister for the occupied Eastern territory

Berlin W 35, Kurfuerstenstrasse 134 7 April 1942
Tel. 21 99 51

N. I/1/13/42

To: Reich Commissioner for the Ostland, Riga
Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine, Rowno

SUBJECT: Safeguarding of Cultural Goods, Research Material and Scientific Institutions in the Occupied Eastern Territories.

I have assigned Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab for the Occupied Territories with the seizure and uniform handling of cultural goods, research material and scientific apparatus from libraries, archives, scientific institutions, museums, etc., which are found in public, religious or private buildings. The Einsatzstab begins its work, as newly directed by the Fuehrer's decree of 1 March 1942, immediately after occupation of the territories by the combat troops, in agreement with the Quartermaster General of the Army, and completes it in agreement with the competent Reich Commissioners after civil administration has been established. I request all authorities of my administration to support as far as possible the members of the Einsatzstab in carrying out all measures and in giving all necessary information, especially in regard to objects which may have been already seized from the occupied Eastern territories and removed from their previous location, and information as to where this material is located at the present time.

Any activity for the purpose of safeguarding cultural goods can be permitted only if it is carried out in agreement with Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab. The Einsatzstab will be constantly informed concerning the method and extent of investigations, work projects and measures.

All authorities of my administration are hereby instructed that objects of the afore-mentioned type will be seized only by Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab, and to abstain from arbitrary handling as a matter of principle.

Insofar as seizures or transports have already taken place contrary to these provisions, Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab, Berlin-Charlottenburg 2, Bismarckstrasse 1, telephone: 34 00 18, will be informed without delay, with an exact list of the objects as well as indication of the current storage place and persons entitled to dispose of them.

In exceptional cases immediate measures may be taken to safeguard or transport objects to a safe place in order to avoid threatened danger (for example, danger of collapse of buildings, enemy action, damage by weather, etc.). In all cases a written report will be submitted immediately to my Einsatzstab.

Decision regarding exceptions lies with the Reich or General Commissioners in agreement with the commissioners of the staff.

III

I have sent copies of this order directly to the General Commissioners.

By order

Signed/t/ Dr. LEIBBRANDT

OFFICIAL:
/s/ [Illegible]
Office Employee

Authenticated copy
Berlin Dec 15, 1943
signed: ZEISS
(Dr. Zeiss)
Leader of Stabseinsatz

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 153-PS

Copy /B

Reich Ministry for the Occupied Territories of the East

Enclosure 1
Berlin 27 April 1942

To—

a. Commissar of the Reich for the East Riga
b. Commissar of the Reich for the Ukraine Rowno

Subject: Formation of a control unit for the seizure and securing of objects of cultural value in the occupied eastern territories.

There has been established in the Reich Ministry for the occupied eastern territories a "central bureau for the seizure and securing of objects of cultural value in the occupied eastern territories" to last for a limited period as a special reference department within department I (Political). As head of the central bureau I designate the chief of staff of the "Einsatzstab of Reichsleiter Rosenberg for occupied territories", Party member Utikal. He is directly under the authority of Department I and will carry on this task in addition to his other duties.

On the central bureau devolves the general planning of all projects connected with the seizure and securing of objects of cultural value in the occupied eastern territories and also the supervision of the measures already taken.

Apart from exceptional cases in which the securing of objects of cultural value is exceptionally urgent, the bureau does not concern itself primarily with the securing of objects of cultural value, but rather makes use for the execution of measures of seizure and securing of the "Einsatzstab" of Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the occupied territories; the Einsatzstab will carry on its activities as before in close contact with the competent authorities of the civil administration that come under my jurisdiction.

With the commissars of the Reich a special department within Department II (political) has been set up for a limited time for the seizure and securing of objects of cultural value. This office is under the control of the head of the main work group [Hauptarbeitgruppe] of "Einsatzstab" of Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the occupied territories. The head of this special department is directly responsible to the chief of Department II.

Signed: ROSENBERG

Certified true copy
Berlin 13 Dec. 1943
(Dr. Zeiss)
Chief of Staff

[Seal of "Einsatzstab" of RL Rosenberg]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 154-PS

The Reichminister and Chief of Chancellery.

Berlin W 8, Voss-strasse 6, 5 July 1942
Present Headquarters of the Fuehrer

To: The Highest Reich Authorities and
The Services directly subordinate to the Fuehrer.

The Fuehrer has delegated Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity of commissioner of the Fuehrer to supervise the total spiritual and philosophical indoctrination and education of the NSDAP in the spiritual battle against Jews and Free-Masons as well as against the affiliated philosophical opponents of National Socialism, who are the cause of the present war. For this purpose, the Fuehrer has ordered that Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Staff should be authorized, in the occupied territories under military administration and in the occupied Eastern territories under civil administration (exclusive of the General Gouvernement), to search libraries, archives, lodges and other philosophical and cultural institutions of all types for relevant material for the execution of his task and to request the competent Wehrmacht and police services to seize the material found in order to support the NSDAP in fulfillment of its spiritual task and for the later scientific research work of the "Hohe Schule", whereby police files concerning political activities will remain with the police, and all others be transferred to Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Staff. The staff is authorized to make the same request with regard to cultural goods that are ownerless goods or the ownership of which cannot be readily determined. The Chief of the Army High Command, in agreement with Reichsleiter Rosenberg, will issue regulations governing the cooperation with the Wehrmacht. The necessary measures within the Eastern territories under German administration will be taken by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reichsminister for the occupied Eastern territories.

I inform you of this order of the Fuehrer and request you to support Reichsleiter Rosenberg in the fulfillment of his task.

/s/ Dr. Lammers

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 155-PS

Army High Command, General Staff of the General Headquarters
Headquarters Army High Command 30/9/1942.

Az. Dept. War Administration
No. II/11564/42

SUBJECT: Deployment of Special Units of the Special Service Staff of Reischleiter Rosenberg, for the occupied Eastern areas.

I. Tasks:

The Fuehrer, in his decree of 1/3/1942, has delegated Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as "Commissioner for the supervision of the entire spiritual and philosophical indoctrination and education of that NSDAP", with the spiritual battle against Jews, Free-Masons and the affiliated philosophical opponents of National Socialism, who are the cause of the present war. The planned spiritual battle against these powers was declared essential to the war effort by the Fuehrer. For this purpose, the Fuehrer has ordered, among other things, that the "Special Purpose Staff of Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the occupied areas" should be authorized in the occupied areas under military administration and in the occupied Eastern territories under civil administration—exclusive of the General Government—to

a. Search libraries, archives, lodges, and other philosophical and cultural institutions of all kinds, for material suitable to the accomplishment of his task, and to have this material seized.

b. To cause the seizure of cultural goods which are owned by Jews, or without ownership, or the owner of which cannot readily be determined.

c. The Reich minister of the occupied Eastern territories has established on 12/6/1942 a "Central Office for the seizure and safe-keeping of cultural goods in the occupied Eastern Territories." Disregarding exceptional cases, in which the safeguarding of endangered cultural goods is urgent, it is desired to keep these goods in place for the present. This has been agreed upon, according to the agreement reached between Armed Forces High Command General Staff of the General Headquarters, and the Special Purpose Staff of Reichsleiter Rosenberg.

d. In the Eastern Theatre of operations, also such cultural goods as do not fall under §b—especially museum pieces—are to be concealed, respectively safeguarded, to save them from damage or destruction.

For the accomplishment of the missions named in Ia, b and c, the "Special Purpose Staff Reichsleiter Rosenberg" employs special units. With the consent of Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the deployment of these special units is regulated as follows:

1. For the central steering of the Special Units, according to need, a delegate of the Special Purpose Staff of Reichsleiter is employed, who is director of the Special Units in the Army Group area, respectively the Army area. This man is obligated to inform the Supreme Commander of the Army Group respectively Army in time, of the directives he has received from Reichsleiter Rosenberg or from the staff leader. The Supreme Commander is authorized to give the delegate directives which are necessary to avoid disturbing the operations. These directives supersede all others. The delegates depend upon steady and close co-operation with the G-2 (Intelligence Officer). The Special Unit authorities can demand the furnishing of a liaison man by the delegate to the G-2. The G-2 has to coordinate, the missions of the Special Purpose Units with the military intelligence [Abwehr] and the secret field police. For the cooperation with the defense officers, respectively defense offices, the decisions reached in the talks between Special Purpose Staff Rosenberg and Armed Forces High Command/Foreign intelligence, will apply.

2. The Special Units of Reichsleiter Rosenberg carry out their work in their own responsibility and according to the directives given by Reichsleiter Rosenberg.

3. For the accomplishment of the missions described in Ia, b, c, the Special Units Reichsleiter Rosenberg have the right to search buildings in the theater of operations for relevant material and confiscate it. The secret field police is to be informed of the confiscations. The secret field police furnishes official aid to the Special Units if necessary.

4. The demarcation line between the working territory of the Special Units Reichsleiter Rosenberg and the Special Units of the Chief of the Security Police and the security service is regulated by direct agreement between both service offices.

5. a. The Special Units belong to the Armed Forces. They wear brown uniforms with the swastika insignia.

b. The Special Units have a strength of 20-25 men, their clothes and equipment, together with a corresponding number of vehicles, is secured by the Special Purpose Staff, Reichsleiter Rosenberg.

c. The Special Units are always subordinated, to the service branches to which they are attached for the execution of their mission, with respect to care, march, accommodation and rations.

d. The members of the Special Units are identified by a "service-book" of the Special Purpose Staff Reichsleiter Rosenberg, which corresponds to the pay-book. This service-book is to contain always the rank of the owner. It is further noted there, how the owner is to be treated in comparison (E.M., NCO, Officer). The service branch, which receives a Special Purpose Unit, has to certify on a special sheet, provided for this purpose by the service office, the fact and duration of the deployment with this branch as members of the Armed Forces. The service-book counts as identity card.

e. The Special Units are eligible for medical care. They are to be vaccinated according to the orders given to the Army.

f. Distribution of a fuel contingent is always to be arranged with the chief quartermaster of the Army with which a special unit is placed. Vehicles are to be cared for by the H.K.P.

g. Field postal service of the Special Units during movement, is carried by way of the field post number of the service branch which has a Special Unit attached. By transformation to long, permanent work, application for their own field post number can be made with the army field postmaster concerned.

h. Under priority of military necessity the Special Units have the right to use Armed Forces telephone and telegraph lines forward, and, when possible also to the rear. Within the area of the military administrations, connection with the Armed Forces telephone net is to be made possible.

i. With regard to the use of means of transportation, the rules decreed for the army also apply to the Special Units. Armed Forces driving licenses are to be furnished by the service branch, to which a Special Unit is attached.

It is to be made certain, that the above regulations are always made known to the commanding authorities, which receive Special Units for deployment.

The Special Units Reichsleiter Rosenberg are to be supported in every way in the execution of their mission. Particularly, insofar as operations permit, deployment directly with the fighting troops is to be made possible.

IV. Independent of the missions of the Special Units Reichsleiter Rosenberg, in accordance with paragraph Ia, b, c, the troops and all military service offices employed in the theater of operations, are directed to save valuable art monuments whenever possible, and safeguard them from destructions or damages.

The preliminary safeguarding of cultural goods, museums etc. by the troops and military service units under subsequent agreement, respectively yield to Special Units Reichsleiter Rosenberg, wins particular significance in the occupied Eastern territories where, in contrast to the West and South East no organizations for the protection of art have been designated by Armed Forces High Command/General Staff of the Army/Generals' Quarters.

By direction

/s/ Wagner

Distribution

All High Commands of the Army Groups with signal co's [Nachrichtenabteilung] 5; each for all field commanders of the Army territory.

All Army High Commands and Panzer Army High Commands with signal co's [Nachrichtenabteilung] each, Staff Don with 3 signal co's [Nachrichtenabteilungen].

Military Commander in France,	}
Paris	}
Military Commander in Belgium	}	(with each 6 Signal co's [Nachrichtenabteilung])
and Northern France, Brussels	}	(with each 6 Signal co's [Nachrichtenabteilung])
Army Territory (W.B.) South East	}

With each 2 signal co's for Commander, General and Military Governor of Serbia
Military Governor of Soloniki-Agnis
Military Governor Southern Greece

With each 1 Signal Co's for the Commander of the Fortress Crete, Foreign branch Armed Forces High Command/General headquarters South, Armed Forces High Command/ Armed Forces Command Staff.

With each 2 Signal Battalions for Military Governor Eastland, Military Governor Ukraine.

Reichsminister for the occupied Eastern territories Berlin, with each 2 Signal Co's [Nachrichtenabteilungen].

Special Purpose Staff Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the occupied territories, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Bismarckstr. 1. Center—Force—East.

8/10/1942

Special Purpose Staff Rosenberg for the occupied territories.
Berlin-Charlottenburg 2, Bismarckstr. 1.

To all Chief Labor Groups, Labor Groups, Special Units and Liaison Agencies in the Special Purpose Staff Reichsleiter Rosenberg

High Command of the Armed Forces
3 a 54 Armed Forces Command Staff/Org. (III)

Reference: No. 0655/42 Secret Armed Forces Command Staff/ Quarter (II) of 28/2/42.

SUBJECT: Special Purpose Staff Rosenberg.

In carrying out the relevant order, it has been determined:

The material from libraries, archives, lodges and similar things, safeguarded by the Special Purpose Staff Rosenberg in the execution of its mission, is to be treated like Armed Forces goods.

All other goods are expressly excluded from this.

The Chief of the High Command
of the Armed Forces

By direction,

/s/ MUENCH

Distribution:

General Staff of the Army—General Quartermaster Navy High Command

High Command of the Air Force—General Staff—Gen. Qu.

Armed Forces High Command—A Foreign Intelligence

OGW II—Intelligence III.

Chief of the Army Transport System.

Armed Forces Command Staff/Quartermaster Org. (III) Draft Ktb.

Informatory: Special Purpose Staff Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the occupied territories.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 158-PS

Berlin W 35, Margaretenstr. 17, 1 June 1944
22 95 51 St—U/Sz

MESSAGE

The Einsatzstab of Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the occupied territories has dispatched a Sonderkommando under the direction of Stabseinsatzfuehrer Dr. Zeiss, who is identified by means of his Service Book Number 187, for the accomplishment of the missions of the Einsatzstab in Hungary described in the Fuehrer's Decree of 1 March 1942.

According to the Fuehrer's Decree of 1 March 1942 (transmitted to the Supreme Reichs authorities by means of a letter of the Reichs Minister and Chief of the Reichs Chancellory RK 9495 B) in connection with the Army High Command Order #II 11564/42 General Army Staff (Gen d H)/General Quartermaster-Az (Gen Qu-Az) Section K Administration (Administration) of 30 Sept 42, all offices are requested to support and help the Sonderkommando.

initial: U [Utikal]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 159-PS

Berlin 6 June 1944

Movement Order

Colonel-Einsatzfuehrer H.W. Ebeling is traveling to Denmark and Norway in order to carry out a special mission of Reichsleiter Rosenberg in harmony with the person authorized by the Reich in Denmark and the Reichs Commissar in Norway in conjunction with the Fuehrer's decree of 1 March 1942 (distributed to the highest Reich authorities through correspondence of the Reichs Minister and the Chief of the Reich Chancellery RK 9495 B) and the Supreme Army Command order Nr. II/11564/42, General Staff of the Army/General Quartermaster Az. Section K Administration of the 30th Sept. 42.

As long as it is necessary for him to stay, all the offices of the State and the Army are directed to support the activities of the person mentioned on the basis of the Fuehrer decree of the 1 March 1942, the Supreme Army Command order of the 30 September 1942, and the Einsatz directive of the Head of the Security Police and Security Service of the 1st July 1942.

initialled: U [Utikal]
Chief of the Einsatzstab

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 171-PS

Library for Exploration of the Jewish Question "Hohe Schule", District Office, Frankfurt/Main.

Institute for Exploration of the Jewish question

On 26 March 1941 Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg inaugurated as the first district office of the "Hohe Schule" in Frankfurt/Main the Institute for Exploration of the Jewish Question (Frankfurt/Main Bockenheimer Landstrasse 68).

According to the order of the Fuehrer from 29 Jan 1940 the "Hohe Schule" is supposed to represent "the center of the national-socialist doctrine and education." At the same time Reichsleiter Rosenberg was authorized to make all necessary preparations for the foundation of the "Hohe Schule" in the realm of research and organization of libraries.

The district office in Frankfurt/Main, activated under those preparatory measures, competent for the domain of the Jewish question, contains besides a research-department and archives, a voluminous library whose stock shall be the subject of this article.

The basis for the library for exploration of the Jewish question is made up of the libraries from occupied territories, confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, in accordance with the orders of the Fuehrer from 5 July 1940, 17 Sept 1940 and 1 March 1942. This material is derived from Jewish property, now centrally collected to serve the research, doctrine and education of the German people.

The most significant book-collections today belonging to the stock of the "Library for exploration of the Jewish question", are the following:

1. The library of the Alliance Israelite Universelle. Among the approximately 40,000 volumes of this library from Paris (mainly Judaica and Hebraica) are numerous volumes of magazines, voluminous pamphlet material, a very detailed literature and collection of clippings from newspapers regarding the affair Dreyfus, about 200 Hebrew manuscripts and 30 manuscripts in other languages, about 20 incunabula.

2. The stock of the Ecole Rabbinique consists mostly of Judaica and Hebraica, altogether about 10,000 volumes. The Jewish texts of this Rabbi-school in Paris offers valuable Talmud-material and complete magazine series.

3. The library of the Federation de Societe des Juifs de France (about 4000 volumes) contains besides general literature about Jewry mostly Russian literature about the Jewish question.

4. The stock of the Jewish bookstore in Paris Lipschuetz (about 20,000 volumes) contains in its most valuable part bibliographical works, Hebraica and so on.

5. The various collections from former property of the Rothschilds of Paris generally are of no more than common interest, but they also show that the various members of the Rothschild family collected Jewish literature for their own orientation. The collections in question are the following:

a. Collection Edouard Rothschild (about 6,000 volumes)

b. Collection Edouard and Guy Rothschild (about 3,000 volumes)

c. Collection Maurice Rothschild (about 6,000 volumes)

d. Collection Robert Rothschild (about 10,000 volumes)

e. Collection of the Rothschild family from hunting lodge Armainvilliers (about 3,000 volumes)

These Rothschild collections contain, besides the valuable book stock, important archive material which gives information on connections between Jews and non-Jews in France and abroad. In this connection it should be mentioned that the district office Frankfurt/Main also is in possession of the archives of the last 100 years of the Parisian bank of Rothchild (760 boxes).

6. The Rosenthaliana from Amsterdam with 20,000 volumes (mostly German language literature on the Jewish question).

7. The library of the Sefardic Jewish community in Amsterdam with about 25,000 volumes (mostly Hebraica).

8. The large amount of books secured in the occupied eastern territories (prevalent Soviet-Jewish and Polish-Jewish literature, voluminous Talmud literature) are from collecting points in Riga, Kauen, Wilna, Minsk and Kiev (about 280,000 volumes).

9. Book collections from Jewish communities in Greece (about 10,000 volumes).

10. Book material from a "Sonderaktion" in the Rhineland (collecting point Neuwied) with about 5,000 volumes.

11. The book collections mentioned under 1-10 were turned over to the Library for Exploration of the Jewish Question by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg and are constantly being filled up by new shipments from the Einsatzstab. Besides that, some 100,000 volumes which were obtained from other sources (finance offices and so on) by the district office, belong to the library for exploration of the Jewish question. Therefore, the library for exploration of the Jewish questions contains as of 1 April 1943:

Approximately 550,000 volumes (about 3,300 book boxes) including 325 boxes (approx. 24,000 volumes) earmarked for the district office but still kept in Berlin with the Staff, and including approx. 220,000 volumes (about 650 boxes) prepared for shipment to Frankfurt/Main at the various collecting points of the Einsatzstab and partly packed.

In detail, these stocks deposited in Berlin cover the material of the above under Nos. 3, 5b, d and e mentioned libraries (about 17,000 volumes), furthermore parts of the collections mentioned under Nos. 5a and c (about 7,000 volumes); all the books at the collecting points ready for shipment to Frankfurt/Main cover the whole stock as the collections mentioned under Nos. 6 and 7 (about 50,000 volumes), part of that material secured in the East (compare No. 8 above; there are in Minsk about 20,000 volumes, in Wilno about 50,000 volumes and in Kiev about 100,000 volumes). The stocks mentioned here which are still in Berlin or at the collecting points, make up approximately another 240,000 volumes. The district office in Frankfurt/Main has received so far approximately 300,000 volumes (about 2,325 boxes).

Of these, approximately 2,325 book boxes which arrived at the library for exploration of the Jewish question, were so far unpacked and put on bookshelves:

567 boxes of the Alliance Israelite Universelle (out of 656 boxes)

165 boxes of the Ecole Rabbinique (out of 243 boxes)

50 boxes of the book store Lipschuetz (out of 197 boxes)

84 boxes of the collection Edouard Rothschild (the remaining 75 boxes are still in Berlin)

23 boxes of the collection Maurice Rothschild (the remaining 39 boxes are still in Berlin)

159 boxes of the collection point Riga (the whole stock)

Thus 1,048 book boxes (about 150,000 volumes) were unpacked that is half of the book boxes, so far received in Frankfurt Main.

27,848 volumes were catalogued in Frankfurt Main from 1 May 1941 (beginning of cataloguing) to 31 March 1943 (catalogued according to authors and subjects). According to the same principle the new publication which were put into the library for the exploration of the Jewish question since 1941, were catalogued—9,325 volumes.

Apart from the actual importance of the Jewish question, the library for the research of the Jewish question assumes a high position in the realm of German libraries with its present collection of about 550,000 volumes because this Frankfurt library could be brought to such a degree of completeness as regards the literature on the Jewish question as never before in Europe or elsewhere. In the New Order of Europe Organization the library for the Jewish question not only for Europe but for the world will arise in Frankfurt am Main.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 176-PS

REPORT

On the activities of the Einsatzstab of the Bureau of the Reichsleiter Rosenberg in the occupied Western Territories and The Netherlands. Working Group Netherland

The Working Group Netherland of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg began its work in agreement with the competent representative of the Reichskommissar during the first days of September, 1940. The execution of the past, conforming with the Fuehrer's orders, coordinated itself with the liquidation, that is confiscation, according to civil law, of the various subversive institutions—as set forth in the circulars of the OKW (A2 Nr. 2850/40g Adj. Chief OKW), dated 5 July 1940, and of the Chief of the OKW to the Commander in Chief of the Wehrmacht in France (2 f 28.14WZ Nr. 3812/40g) dated 17 September 1940, as well as to the Commander in Chief of the OKW in the Netherlands. (Az 2 f 28 J (IA) Nr. 1338 40g) dated 30 October 1940. The screening of the material of the various Masonic lodges was taken care of primarily, and the library and the archives of the following lodges were sifted and all useful material was packed.

Droit Humain:

Lodge "v. Volmaking", Amsterdam
Lodge "George Martin II", Amsterdam
Lodge "Nr. 4", Amsterdam
Lodge "Washington Nr. 53", Amsterdam
Lodge "Hiram Abif", Amsterdam
Lodge "Eenheid", Amsterdam
Lodge "De drie zuilen", Amsterdam
Lodge "George Martin I", Den Haag
Lodge "St. Germain", Den Haag
Lodge "v. Volmaking", Den Haag

Groot Oosten der Nederlande

Lodge "Jacob vanCampen", Amersfoort
Lodge "La Bien Aimee", Amsterdam
Lodge "La Charite", Amsterdam
Lodge "La Paix", Amsterdam
Lodge "Concordia V.A.", Amsterdam
Lodge "Willem Frederik", Amsterdam
Lodge "Post Nobila Lux", Amsterdam
Lodge "Nes Vincit Libertas", Amsterdam
Lodge "Eendracht", Amsterdam
Lodge "De Geldersche Broederschap", Arnhem
Lodge "In Vrijheid Een", Bussum
Lodge "Silentium", Delft
Lodge "L'Union Royale", Den Haag
Lodge "Hiram Abiff", Den Haag
Lodge "L'Union Frederic", Den Haag
Lodge "Groot Nederland", Den Haag
Lodge "De Oude Plichten", Den Haag
Lodge "L'Union Provinciale", Groningen
Lodge "Vincit Vim Virtus", Haarlem
Lodge "Kennermerland", Haarlem
Lodge "Ad Lucem et Pacem", Haarlem
Lodge "Willem Frederic Karel", Den Helder
Lodge "De Gooische Broederschap", Hilversum
Lodge "La Vertu", Leiden
Lodge "Sint Lodewijk", Nijmegen
Lodge "De drie Kolommen", Rotterdam
Lodge "Frederic Royal", Rotterdam
Lodge "Acacia", Rotterdam
Lodge "Concordia", Rotterdam
Lodge "Ultrajectina", Utrecht
Lodge "Anna Paulowna", Zaandam

I.O.O.F.

Victorie—Lodge No. 50, Alkmaar
Paradijs—Lodge No. 1, Amsterdam
Mount Sinai—Lodge No. 2, Amsterdam
Ware Bataven—Lodge No. 4, Amsterdam
Concordia—Lodge No. 5, Amsterdam
Amstel—Lodge No. 12, Amsterdam
Spinoza—Lodge No. 13, Amsterdam
Eensgezindheids—Lodge No. 17, Amsterdam
Patria—Lodge No. 26, Amsterdam
Excelsior—Lodge No. 32, Amsterdam
Broederschaps—Lodge No. 47, Amsterdam
Wilson—Lodge No. 51, Amsterdam
Mozart—Lodge No. 55, Amsterdam
Rebekkah—Lodge "Hollandia" No. 1, Amsterdam
Gooische—Lodge No. 28, Bussum
Humanitas—Lodge No. 23, Den Haag
Charitas—Lodge No. 24, Den Haag
Fidelitas—Lodge No. 53, Den Haag
Rebekkah—Lodge "Acacia" No. 3, Den Haag
Rebekkah—Lodge "Vrede", No. 4, Den Haag
Drie Schakels—Lodge No. 7, Groningen
St. Maarten—Lodge No. 15, Groningen
Kennemer—Lodge No. 27, Haarlem
Eem—Lodge No. 36, Hilversum
Sleutel—Lodge No. 57, Leiden
Maas—Lodge No. 16, Rotterdam
Luctor et Emerge—Lodge No. 48, Rotterdam
Rebekkah—Lodge, "Omhoog," Nor. 2, Rotterdam
Sic Semper—Lodge No. 43, Utrecht
Amicitia—Lodge No. 54, Utrecht
Rebekkah—Lodge, "Tolerantia," Utrecht
Zaan—Lodge No. 20, Zaandam
Harmonie—Lodge No. 38, Zaandam
Czaar Peter Club, Zaandam
Rebekkah—Lodge, "Humanite" No. 5, Zaandam

Rotary Club

Rotary Club No. 3521, Alkmaar
Rotary Club No. 3533, Amersfoort
Rotary Club No. 1336, Amsterdam
Rotary Club No. 3233, Arnhem
Rotary Club No. 5180, Bussum
Rotary Club No. 4079, Delfo
Rotary Club No. 1919, Den Haag
Rotary Club No. 3013, Groningen
Rotary Club No. 2299, Haarlem
Rotary Club No. 2943, Hilversum
Rotary Club No. 2386, Leiden
Rotary Club No. 3467, Nijmegen
Rotary Club No. 1879, Rotterdam
Rotary Club No. 1481, Utrecht
Rotary Club No. 4721, Zaandam

All together 470 cases combining material from the here mentioned lodges and from organizations of a similar status were packed and transported to Germany. Furthermore, everything the temple of the lodge in Nijmegen and the temple of the I.O. O.F. in Haarlem contained, was sent to Germany. Also, steel-shelves for about 30,000 books were taken from the building belonging to the Grooten Oosten in Den Haag where they have so far been used for the Bibliotheka Klossiana, containing parts of one library of the Grooten Oosten, and the library of the Vrijmetselar-Stichting, Amsterdam, are of great value. And so are the archives of the Grooten Oosten in Den Haag, containing all the historical documents of the lodges affiliated with the Grooten Oosten.

To estimate the value of the Bibliotheka Klossiana, containing many rare pieces, it is to be remembered that in 1930 the Grooten Oosten der Nederlande was offered $5,000,000 for the Bibliotheka Klossiana by Freemasons in the U.S.

A particularly valuable discovery was made by the working group searching the altars in the building of the Grooten Oosten in Den Haag. The Master-Hammer of the Grooten Oosten, made of pure gold, with which some of its members had presented to the Grooten Oosten on its 60th Anniversary, fell into our hands. It is a piece of high quality whose money-value alone is estimated to be 3,000 Reichsmark.

The Working Group took over the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam with its library and archives, boxes of extraordinary value. It seems that this institute was founded in 1934 with the intention of creating a center of intellectual resistance against National Socialism. Its employees were mainly Jewish refugees from Germany. The contents of its library and its archives with many very valuable items were brought together from all over the world. In the library, there are about 160,000 volumes, though most of them will have to be catalogued. Of particular interest is the German, French and Russian Department. According to the decision made by Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the Institute was taken over in its entirety. A member of the Dienstelle was nominated as director of the Institute—he, together with his collaborators will arrange the books, catalogue the scientific material and get the Institute ready for the work of the Party. What may be said already is that the scientific value of the library and the archives is that they contain a complete collection of material on the social and socialist movements in certain countries.

The libraries of the Societas Spinozana in Den Haag and of the Spinoza-House in Rijnsburg also were packed. Packed in 18 cases, they, too, contain extremely valuable early works of great importance for the exploration of the Spinoza problem. Not without reason did the Director of the Societas Spinozana try, under false pretenses which we uncovered, to withhold the library from us.

Then the library of the Alliance Francaise, Den Haag, was packed (6 cases) as well as the German publication of the refugee-publishers Aller de Lange, Querido, Fischer-Beerman, Forum-Zeek, of the Kultura Bookshop and the publications of the Pegasus-Verlag, all in Amsterdam, a total of 17 cases. After that, the Working Group concentrated on packing the newspaper and magazine stocks of the International Institute for Social History. The very exclusive racks which had been brought together from all over the world were kept at the Institute in complete disorder and left to self-destruction; they were properly packed into 776 cases and stored, for the time being, in the Working Group's store-houses. It is very strongly suggested that these newspapers and magazines be bound and the volumes be put up in proper libraries as fast as possible; otherwise, an irreparable loss will be the result since these newspapers and magazines are from all over the world.

A large unknown amount of material classified as "Enemy Goods" and coming from the so-called "Overseas-Gifts", that is, household goods of Jewish refugees, is falling into our hands daily. These gifts are being kept at the so-called "House in Holland", and so far 43 cases were packed there, including the private library of the former Minister of the Eisner-Government, Neurath.

In agreement with the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in the Netherlands, all libraries in houses of Jewish refugees and confiscated by the Wehrmacht, are being turned over to the Working Group. So far, the library of the Jew De Cat in Haarlem was packed into 4 cases.

An extremely valuable library, containing inestimable works in Sanskrit, was confiscated when the Theosophic Society in Amsterdam was dissolved, and packed into 96 cases.

A number of smaller libraries belonging to the Spiritists, Esperanto Movement, the Bellamy Movement, the International Biblical Research and various other minor international organizations were packed into 7 cases; texts belonging to various minor Jewish organizations were packed into 4 cases, and a library of the Anthroposophic Society in Amsterdam into three.

It is safe to say that the racks of books confiscated, packed and so far sent to Germany by the Working Group are of extraordinary scientific value and shall contribute an integral part of the library of the "Hohe Schule." The money-value of these libraries, as shown in the case of the "Klossiana", can only be estimated, but surely amount to 30-40,000,000 Reichsmark.

For the coming months, action is planned on the following, enumerated here in chronological order:

1. The libraries of the Theosophic Society and similar organizations in Den Haag, Rotterdam and several other places.

2. Continuous sifting of objects confiscated in the "House in Holland" and other buildings.

3. Screening of several archives with Press-photos, consisting altogether of 2.6 million pictures which shall be turned over to us by the Reichskommissariat.

4. The Jewish private libraries in Amsterdam, particularly:

A. The Israelite Library Beth-Hamidrasch Etz Chaim, Amsterdam, Rapenburgerstraat 109. This library, founded in 1740, contains about 4,000 volumes, particularly Jewish theology.

B. Library of the Netherland Israelite Seminar, Amsterdam, Rapenburgerstraat 177. It contains 4,300 volumes of Hebraica and 2,000 volumes Judaica. At the time, it took over the library of the Jewish Society for Literature, Thoelet (1830-1837) and valuable Jewish private collections. Amongst other things, it contains precious old prints from the years 1480 to 1560 and some manuscripts.

C. The Portuguese-Israelite Seminar, Amsterdam, Jonas Daniel Meyerplein 5. There are 25,000 volumes, 450 manuscripts, 600 prints [Inkunablen] and numerous Exlibris, coins and the like and the famous material on Talmud Literature.

D. The so-called Rosentaliana, primarily a foundation by the Jew Rosenthal from Hannover. From there, it was at the time transferred and affiliated with the local university library. In the meantime, it has on account of donations, grown considerably. Technically, it belongs to the Municipality of Amsterdam, but in the Catalogue of Libraries in the Netherlands of 1931, it is designated as "Private". According to the catalogue, it contains 25,000 volumes and 300 manuscripts. However, the amount of volumes reaches 100,000 indeed.

The libraries mentioned under 4. ought to be of particular interest for the history of Western Europe. It is very likely that hitherto unknown facts may be brought into the open, on the era of Cromwell and that of the glorious Revolution of 1688 and the resulting personal union between England and the Netherlands. In particular, light may be thrown on Cromwell's attitude towards the Jews, possibly even on the Jewish influence on the development of the Secret Service.

The temple and the museum of the Grooten Oosten der Nederlande. At present, both are needed for exhibitions on behalf of the Dienststelle of the Reichskommissar. With the end of the exhibition temple furnishings and museum shall be turned over to us.

A very conservative estimate of the value of the objects enumerated in 1. to 5. may be about three times as much as that of the libraries already packed. Therefore, it is safe to say that the library of the Hohe Schule shall, with very little effort, receive an extraordinary amount of treasures which shall give it a unique position in the realm of questions regarding Judaism and Free-Masonism.

The Working Group, in executing the afore-mentioned tasks is bound strictly to the pace set by the Reichskommissar for the handling of the Jewish questions and that of the international organizations. This pace again is determined by the political evolution which is taking shape according to decisions made on a higher level, and which must not be hampered by individual acts. Work that has been authorized to be done by the Working Group, but has not yet been accomplished should now, with twice as much personnel as before, be finished within 2 to 3 months. It may be mentioned that the Working Group has been working overtime for weeks now, and also is working, as is done on the battlefield, on Sundays.

The leader of the Working Group Netherland.

Schimmer
Oberbereichsleiter.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 197-PS

Berlin, 27 August 1941.

Notes

Concerning the conference that has taken place on the OKH concerning the transfer of a part of the Ukraine to the civil administration.

On 25.8.1941, a conference took place in headquarters OKH/ Quartermaster General regarding preparation for the transfer of the Reich Commissary of the Ukraine to the civil administration scheduled to take place on 1.9.41.

Besides myself and the expert of the Q.M. General, the following took part in the conference:

Major i. G. Altenstadt Chairman

Ministerialdirigent Dr. Chief of the Administrative
Danckwarts Branch within the Army Administrative
Group.

Colonel i. G. von Krosigk Chief of the General Staff of
the commander of the southern
Army Zone Rear.

Chief of Staff of the
Commander of the Office
of the Armed Forces.

Regierungspraesident
Dargs Representative of Reich Commissar
Koch.

Oberregierungsrat Dr.
Labs

Captain Dr. Braeutigam.... Representative of the Ministry
for the East.

Major Wagner.

The letter first explained the boundaries of the Reich Commissariat Ukraine as of the 1.9.41. In Bessarabia and Bukovinia Rumania is in accord with the O.K.W. and has already set up the civil administration, although until now there has been no official surrender of the area to Rumania. The official assignment to the Rumanian administration is expected in the next few days. The area around Brest is still at present, under the military commander of the General Government; the remainder of the Reich Commissariat Ukraine is under the commander of the Southern Army Zone Rear. At the time that a civil administration was inaugurated on the 1.9.1941, these areas (which apply to the military sector) were transferred to the jurisdiction of the commander of the Wehrmacht in the Ukraine.

The area to be transferred is for the most part pacified. Only in the region of the Pripet Marshes is there still unrest produced by Partisan groups. The rather strong forces there at present of the Southern Army Zone Rear have been concentrated and recently destroyed 8 out of 10 Partisan battalions (strength of each battalion approximately 100 men). Should the Partisans not be wholly liquidated by the 1.9.1941, forces of the above mentioned commander will remain in the area for this purpose.

The security of the part of the Reich Commissary Ukraine to be set up on the 1.9.1941, will be carried out in the south by a Hungarian Division (2 brigades), connected in the north with a Slovakian security division besides 4 battalions of militia. All units, including the Hungarian and Slovakians are under the command of the commander of the Wehrmacht. In the area are two district commands and five town commands, and the district commands are in Luck and Kamenez-Podolsk. The units of the transport and intelligence services remain directly under the command of the O.K.W. Furthermore the economic inspection of the south remains with the commander of the Army Zone Rear. The economic command in Kiev placed under this inspection has its seat for the time being in Shitomir. This command is responsible for the civil administration in the whole area to be transferred.

Near Kamenez-Podolsk, the Hungarians have pushed about 11,000 Jews over the border. In the negotiations up to the present it has not been possible to arrive at any measures for the return of these Jews. The higher SS and Police leader (SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Jeckeln) hopes, however, to have completed the liquidation of these Jews by the 1.9.1941.

Ministerialdirigent Dr. Danckwarts asserts that both district commands have confined themselves to the fulfilment of all the most necessary projects in the administrative field. In the communities for the most part Volksdeutsche or Ukrainians have been placed in office as Burgermeister. According to experiences up to date these people are scarcely in a position to administer to their communities independently, but require in every single case instruction and guidance from the German units.

Colonel von Krosigk states that the military units in many towns of the region have set up a Ukrainian militia, which it is agreed would now be taken over by the higher SS and Police leader as auxiliary police.

In this militia strong efforts for independence have been noticed since this militia is in part composed of active elements (members of the Bandera National independentist movement). The populace is in general obliging but wholly intimidated and uneasy. They have made themselves deserving by their searching for Russian paratroopers who were dropped almost every night by the Russians, especially around the main railroad lines. These paratroops are harmless, since they are badly armed and instructed. They are for the most part in civilian clothes. From the directive for the treatment of the collective question great success in the field of propaganda is promised in military circles.

In many Ukrainian districts the Ukrainians themselves have put their burgermeisters in office. These men had with them quantities of written messages and statements from national Ukrainian parties. The Wehrmacht has not recognized such people, but took the statements from them and sent them home again.

The administrative officials of the two district commands remains until the 15.9.1941 at the district commands in order to assist the units by their familiarity with the civil administration, without their being engaged in the actual work of administration themselves. Particularly, Kriegsverwaltungsrat Schwarz, one of the two administrative officials of the commander of the southern Army Zone Rear still remained in the area and would go to Rowno in case the civil administration should desire it. The 454th division becomes the security division in the area of the Reich Commissariat insofar as the security was not taken over by the Rumanians.

In a private conference between (Ministerialdirigent) Dr. Danckwarts, (Regierungspraesident) Darge, Captain Dr. Braeutigam and the undersigned, a few more administrative questions were briefly discussed. On this occasion (Ministerialdirigent) Dr. Danckwarts stated that the Rumanians in the southern part of the Ukraine would take over as far as civil administration was concerned, the old borders of Bessarabia, forming a zone as far as the Bug, including Odessa, without being promised the eventual possession of this zone.

Furthermore, with 15 divisions they would take over the security of a larger portion of the Ukraine, which in this zone would be under the control of the German civil administration.

Captain Dr. Braeutigam was requested by telephone by Dr. Koeppen at the Fuehrer's Headquarters to be careful that the Rumanians should not form a Ukrainian group under a former military attache in Berlin in the zone taken over by their civil administration. This question was discussed with Major Altenstadt in my presence. He explained that the Wehrmacht has no administrative control in influencing the Rumanians in the zone under their civil administration; this could only be done through the Foreign Office.

In discussion with several officers who had recently been in the Ukraine, I learned that the prohibiting of army chaplains from conducting religious services for the civilian population and also the Ethnic Germans [Volksdeutsche] has led to depression and disturbance among the Volksdeutsche. One should not fail to realize that the church has been the common connecting-link of the Volksdeutsche in the Ukraine. Although not many Ukrainian clergy are present a few still hold religious services for the Ukrainians. The Volksdeutsche fail to understand why the only possibility of their caring for their souls, namely through the agency of Army Chaplains, is denied to them.

LABS
Oberregierungsrat
[illegible]
Ministerialdirektor.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 199-PS

COPY

Reichs Ministry for the Occupied East

Berlin 11 July 1944

Correspondence

To the General Deputy for the Labor Employment, Gauleiter Sauckel

Berlin SW 11

I just learned that refugee camps for the White Russians in Bialystok, Krajewo and Olitai were closed for the recruiting for the war Einsatz Command middle. I call your attention to the following:

1. That the war employment command [Kriegseinsatzkommando] formerly stationed in Minsk must continue under all circumstances the calling in of young white Ruthenian and Russian manpower for military employment in the Reich. In addition, the command has the mission to bring young boys of 10-14 years of age to the Reich.

2. It deals here with a military employment approved by the Fuehrer, the measures of which will be increased in a newly released directive by the Fuehrer. Such military missions must forego all others.

3. Nothing changes these relative missions by the evacuation of these provinces in which the recruiting originally took place. The recruiting order does not pertain to certain territories but to the people living in these territories.

4. I must reject every responsibility for the consequences arising from the closing of the Refugee Camp and am compelled, upon further closing of camps, to request immediately a Fuehrer decision.

The same principle must prevail in the recruiting of Air Corps helpers in Estonia and Lithuania. I carefully point to this fact should similar situations occur there.

For.
Signed: Alfred MEYER

Copies to:

Gauleiter bureau
Chief group leader Berger
Dr. Braeutigam
Chief bannfuehrer Nickel
Ministry director Beil.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 200-PS

Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
P 719a/44g [ink note]

Special Train, Gotenland 8.7.1944

CONFIDENTIAL

TELEGRAM

1. Chief of the Civil Administration, Bialystok

2. Offices of the SS and Police Chiefs concerned, Bialystok

3. SD Unit concerned, Bialystok

Subject: HJ—Kriegseinsatzkommando Center.

The HJ Kriegseinsatzkommando center, which until now has been stationed in Minsk, must under all circumstances continue its duties, as regards the enrollment of young White Ruthenians and Russians for a military reserve in the Reich. The Command is further charged with the transferring of worth-while Russian youth between 10-14 years of age, to the Reich. The authority is not affected by the changes connected with the evacuation and transportation to the reception camps of Bialystok, Krajewo, and Olitei. The Fuehrer wishes that this activity be increased even more.

I request that the Command of Bialystok be assisted in the execution of its duties in every possible way. Should difficulties arise contrary to expectations, I request that I be informed immediately by wire.

Ministry for the East
[signed] Berger
Chief of the Command Staff for Politics

4. Copies to:

Office of the Gauleiter
Ministerialdirigent Dr. Braeutigam
Hauptbannfuehrer Nickel

initialled B 11/7

PARTIAL SYNOPSIS AND TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 204-PS

The City Commissioner in Kauen

Kauen, 18 February 1944

Release of Indigenous Labor for Purposes of the Reich

[Translator's Synopsis]

After entry into Lithuania thousands of workers were recruited to work for a period of 6 months in Gau Ost Prussen. Contrary to all promises these laborers were not released even after twelve months, and their various connections at home received no compensations. They did not even get a short furlough home for a long time. Now it is intended to put them in the munitions industry against their will.

In the early part of 1942 another recruiting was made by the Wehrmacht for 7000 male transport-aides. They forced the Lithuanians to register at an office and then locked them up in barracks as they came in. Naturally they dislike the Germans almost as much as the Russians.

Recently the recruiting drives for new volunteers for the army, police and labor service, and for laborers in the munitions industry within the Reich have been started. However the Russians removed 40,000 professional personnel in 1941, and more than 100,000 were removed from work, so many positions cannot be filled now.

After the recruiting campaigns the populace did not trust any further proclamations or measures as far as working within Germany was concerned. Furthermore the Lithuanians do not feel that they have in their state a political unit. Because of previous unsettled political conditions, the Lithuanian does not think much about politics. Since he pays little attention to his own laws, he heeds ours even less. They do not attend the musterings and must be brought by the police.

Although the civilian administration promised to produce the labor, they were not too successful, as the following will show:

1. Seizure of the age classes of 1919/24

This was ordered by the Reichs Commissar for the East, but due to the inefficiency of the officials, it was only partially successful.

The actual seizure was done by members of the Wehrmacht, police, local administration and the labor office. Energetic propaganda campaigns were initiated to induce the male members of the age groups to register at the designated offices.

Soon however opposition arose on the part of the Lithuanian intelligentia. To counteract this the following measures were taken.

[Translation]

Renunciation of the formation of a Lithuanian legion, closing of the native universities, and arresting of a number of members of the Lithuanian intelligentia.

[Translator's Synopsis]

These measures were not practicable; consequently the General Commissar ordered another registering, with severe penalties for non-appearance. Although every effort was made, the results were still unsatisfactory. From an expected total enrolment of 5800 men, only 47% appeared, and among this percentage were many of no use to us for various reasons.

[Translation]

2. The completely unsatisfactory experience of the previous action made a further seizure of the age group 1912/18 and also of the female age group 1914/22 necessary. These two further actions also brought no satisfactory result. In a lecture which the Plenipotentiary for the Arbeitseinsatz Gauleiter Sauckel made on 18 July 1943 in Kauen, and in an official conference following it, between Gauleiter Sauckel and the General Commissar, the pool of labor in the Reich was again brought up urgently; Gauleiter Sauckel again demanded that Lithuanian labor be furnished in greater volume for the purposes of the Reich. As the minutes of this conference show, the General Commissar described very forcibly the very great difficulties opposing the preparation of indigenous labor forces, and asked urgently for the preparation of a larger number of German police forces. SS-Obergruppenfuehrer von dem Bach promised explicitly at that time "a real strengthening of the police force in Lithuania". This real strengthening of the police force in Lithuania meanwhile was not carried out in the course of further actions.

[Translator's Synopsis]

3. Sauckel wanted 30,000 workers. Although the civilian administration did their best, conditions were in confusion and only 8200 of the 30,000 were on hand.

4. Then Sauckel made a new requisition, this time for 100,000 workers. Although fulfillment of this requisition would vacate many positions in the country, the General Commissar promised to fill the order. However, many difficulties will arise. In the country it is easier to recruit labor because it is possible to study the labor situation in more detail than in a large city like Kauen. In the country the administration has a closer tie with the populace for one thing.

To fulfill the requisition of labor made on Lithuania, assistance from the German Civil Administration is a necessity. The police force will have to be increased temporarily, severe treatment in case of sabotage, a temporary increase in the allotment of motor fuel, and the use of the quartermaster facilities of the Wehrmacht; all these measures will be necessary if the required amount of labor is to be supplied.

This new action of Sauckel's will probably not work. The only way of gaining any successes in this matter is to have at our disposal large numbers of German police.

[signature illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 205-PS

National Socialist Labor Party

Party Chancellory

Fuehrer's Headquarters 5 May 1943

The Chief of the Party Chancellory
Chancery Rosenberg
Admit. No. 931 K
24 May 1943.
Circular No. 70/43

Subject: Memorandum concerning the general principles for the treatment of foreign laborers employed within the Reich.

The Reich Propaganda Ministry and the RSHA have together issued a memorandum concerning the treatment of foreign laborers employees within the Reich.

I request in the attached copy that the necessity for a firm but just treatment of the foreign workers be made clear to members of the Party and the People.

A publication of this memorandum is not to be made.

Signed: M. Bormann.

Distribution:

Reichsleiter
Gauleiter
Verbaendefuehrer
Kreisleiter
Ortsgruppenleiter

Index File Card: Foreign Laborers—Treatment—Behavior

Memorandum concerning the general principles for the treatment of foreign workers employed within the Reich.

The struggle of the Reich against the destructive forces of Bolshevism becomes more and more a European affair. There is an apparent practical result in the employment within the Reich of millions of foreign workers from almost all the European countries on the continent, in addition to a large number of members of the conquered forces of hostile nations. From this fact arise special obligations for the German people, which are submitted first of all in the following principles:

1. Of primary importance is the security of the Reich. The Reichsfuehrer of the SS and his units settle all questions on measures of the security police for the protection of the Reich and the German people.

2. The humane, production-increasing treatment of the foreign workers and the facilities granted them can obviously lead to the effacement of the clear lines of demarcation between the workers of foreign peoples and members of the German race. It is demanded of members of the German race that they observe the difference between themselves and foreign nationals as a patriotic duty. By disregarding the fundamental principles of the National Socialist conception of blood [Blutauffassung] a member of the German race must be aware of being liable to the severest penalties. The knowledge, that the outcome will be either victory or a Bolshevist chaos, must cause every German to draw the necessary conclusions in dealings with workers of foreign nationalities.

Everything is subordinated to the mission of ending the war victoriously. The foreign workers employed within the Reich are to be treated in such a manner that their reliability is retained and expedited; that consequences unfavorable to the Reich be limited to a minimum in their home countries and that full labor be retained at a future date for the German war economy, yes, so that even a rise in production ensues. The following is to be regarded here as decided:

1. Everyone even the primitive man, has a fine perception for justice! Consequently every unjust treatment must have a very bad effect. Injustices, insults, trickery, mistreatment etc. must be discontinued. Punishment by beating is forbidden. The workers of foreign nationality are to be correspondingly informed concerning the severe measures for insubordinate and seditious elements.

2. Winning someone to active cooperation for a new idea is impossible, if his innate consciousness of value is insulted at the same time. From people who are described as beasts, barbarians and sub-humans, no great accomplishment can be demanded: In contrast to all opportunities that arise, positive characteristics such as the will to fight against Bolshevism, security of their own existence and of their country, readiness to enlist and the willingness to work, all are to be spurred on and expedited.

3. Moreover everything must be done in order to further the necessary cooperation of the European peoples in the struggle against Bolshevism. The foreign worker is not to be convinced by words alone that a German victory is also favorable for him and his people. Supposition is a suitable treatment.

Digressing from these view-points, the responsible plenipotentiaries for Arbeitseinsatz responsible for the recruiting and the working conditions of the foreign laborers as well as the other bureaus concerned, have issued the necessary directives for the employment of foreign laborers within the Reich. From these instructions the following are especially to be stressed:

a. If possible every foreign worker will receive a position for which he has the greatest ability according to his training and former employment.

b. The quartering of foreign labor personnel is to be, as a rule, in camps. The accommodations must be provided with all the necessities in respect to orderliness, cleanliness and sanitation. Measures of imprisonment such as confinement and barbwire are forbidden. It is especially emphasized that in this quartering, the national customs of the foreign workers, (male and female) are to be given the utmost consideration in conformation with the possibilities conditioned by war. The foreigners are as much as possible divided into national groups, and are to be quartered together. The assistance of the foreign workers in the administration of the camp and the maintenance of order within the camp is to be secured. For all camps there are camp directives which outline in particular the duties and right of the camp and the leaders.

c. At the time of enlistment the foreign workers are to be urged to bring clothing and foot gear with them to Germany. So far as this is not possible and so far as it has become necessary to replace articles of clothing that have become unusable, they are to be provided with clothing and footgear, considering limitations imposed by war, so that the necessary protection for the preservation of health against weather is guaranteed.

d. The foreign workers are to receive, in reference to diet, the same ration allowance as the German workers from the Reich Minister for nutrition and agriculture. In this matter the usual cost will be considered. Care will be taken that supplies are issued to the foreign workers in accordance with the numbers placed at their disposal. Embezzlements, usurious prices etc. by supervisory bureaus or administrative officers will be punished as if the act were committed against Germans.

e. Every foreign worker has claim to efficient sanitation measures. The regulations for prevention of epidemics and contagious diseases are not to be deviated from. Medical attention according to local conditions is to be assured by the doctors of the camp district or insurance [Kasse]. For permanent treatment in districts or hospitals the number of beds necessary are to be kept ready in a suitable manner. For nursing and maintenance nursing personnel of the same nationality are if possible to be called up, and if circumstances permit doctors and army-surgeons of the same nationality. For pregnant workers obstetrical necessities are to be provided; also peaceful accommodations and nurseries of suitable size are to be supplied. Female members of the nationality concerned are to be used for care of patients. The return home [Rueckbefoerderungen] of pregnant workers is to take place only in extremely exceptional cases on the request of the party concerned.

f. Recreation for the foreign workers is of the greatest importance for the conservation of working power and morale. Entertaining organizations, periods of free time, sports, etc. are of prime importance in the camp itself and are to be carried on by camp personnel. In addition, special performers and national groups of the various nationalities are to be used for the further development of this recreation. In addition insofar as possible their own moving picture films will be presented. Furthermore books, periodicals and newspapers translated into the various foreign languages are to be available in every camp. Language courses are to promote understanding in the place of work. For the various nationalities special dictionaries are to be published.

In addition the workers from the East have at least the possibility of going out on their free day.

g. For all foreign workers recreation is possible, insofar as it is desired. For members of the Occupied Eastern Territories care only from lay-priests is considered. Care from Russian and Ukrainian emigrants is forbidden.

In case of death all foreigners will be buried in the public cemeteries.

h. The political influence is directed mainly against Bolshevism and ought to be molded accordingly.

The above-mentioned principles are considered binding as policies of conduct for all organizations, bureaus and personnel, since they have been published as directives by the respective bureaus. All units which are concerned with the employment and care of foreign workers and particularly factory and camp leaders, are responsible for these principles being put into practice and being adhered to. They must understand quite clearly that violations of the forgiving fundamentals damage the German war economy and indirectly, the Front. Therefore they are not only punishable from the point of view of the non-political crime (for example, assault, embezzlement, usury) but also can be punished for treasonable crimes. Not only the author of such an act can be held responsible but also the responsible office chief. Also defective instruction or supervision of subordinate offices can lead to an official punishment.

All existing directives and instructions for the treatment of foreign workers will be tested by the bureaus concerned as to whether they conform to the principles set forth here. Where this is not the case, they will be immediately revised by suitable measures.

Berlin, 16 April 1943

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 212-PS

COPY

Directions for the handling of the Jewish question

1. In General. The competency of the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service, who is charged with the mission of solving the European Jewish question, extends even to the occupied eastern provinces. Accordingly, the offices under the Security Police for the purpose of handling the Jewish question in the occupied eastern provinces are qualified for their present sphere of activity.

In the individual Reichs commissariats, and within these, in the General commissariats, Jewry represents a portion of the population which is very varied in strength. For example, millions of Jews live in White Russia and in the Ukraine who have lived here for generations. In the central province of the USSR however, the Jews have moved in, for by far the greatest part, during Bolshevistic times. Those Russian Jews who followed in the wake of the invading Red Army of 1939 and 1940 to East Poland, West Ukraine, West White Russia, the Baltic lands, Bessarabia, and Buchenland are one particular group.

All measures for the Jewish question in the occupied eastern provinces must be met with the point of view that the whole Jewish question will be solved in general for all of Europe after the war at the latest. They are therefore to be instituted as preparatory partial measures and must be in agreement with those decisions which may otherwise be met in this field. This is especially true for the preparation of at least temporary reception centers for Jews from the Reich province.

An eventual act by the civilian population against the Jews is not to be prevented as long as this is compatible with the maintenance of order and security in the rear of the fighting troops. Namely retaliatory measures are to be allowed against the Jews who come into the provinces which were newly occupied by the Red Army in the last few years. However, strict measures are to be taken against street mobs and other evil elements for whom it concerns only plunder of Jewish stores and stealing Jewish property for their own personal gain.

2. Definition of the term "Jew". The peaceful settlement of the Jewish question requires the previous determining as to who is to be considered a Jew in the occupied Eastern provinces. In reference to the solving of the European Jewish question and to the strong influence which Jewry had upon the remaining Russian population until the invasion of German troops, and which it still exercises at present, it appears necessary from a political, as well as from a popular point of view, for the purpose of avoiding a later regaining of strength of the Jews, to grasp the term "Jew" in the most far-reaching sense.

Therefore, he is a Jew, who belongs to the Jewish religion, or has been recognized as Jewish by other circumstances; he who has a parent who is a Jew in accordance with the above sentence is also a Jew.

3. Comprehension, mark of recognition, suspension of the rights of freedom and segregation. The first main goal of the German measures must be strict segregation of Jewry from the rest of the population. In the execution of this, first of all is the seizing of the Jewish populace by the introduction of a registration order and similar appropriate measures. Soviet Jewry has, constantly, attempted, since the Bolshevistic Revolution, to disguise itself in order to unobtrusively move into leading positions, especially in the grain regions of the USSR. For this purpose many Jews have dropped their Jewish names and have taken Russian family names and Russian surnames. It is to be decreed, that the person who must register must report all changes of name by Jews during his lifetime, or as far as he knows during the time of his forefathers, to his superior and to make them retrogressive. The same goes for previous departure from the religious congregation and acceptance of other faiths (other manifold). The erasure of the Jewish deception will be easier in the Reich commissariat Eastland and Ukraine, where the larger part of the Jews have been living for generations than in the other Reichs commissariats. The Soviet archive material, in so far as it is preserved, is to be brought to use for this.

Then immediately, the wearing of the recognition sign consisting of a yellow Jewish star is to be brought about and all rights of freedom for Jews are to be withdrawn. They are to be placed in Ghettos and at the same time are to be separated according to sexes. The presence of many more or less closed Jewish settlements in White Ruthenia and in the Ukraine makes this mission easier. Moreover, places are to be chosen which make possible the full use of the Jewish manpower in case labor needs are present. These Ghettos can be placed under the supervision of a Jewish self-government with Jewish officials. The guarding of the boundaries between the Ghettos and the outer world is, however, the duty of the police.

Also in the cases in which a Ghetto could not yet be established, care is to be taken through strict prohibitions and similar suitable measures that a further intermingling of blood of the Jews and the rest of the populace does not continue.

4. Removal of the Jewish influence in political, economical, cultural and social fields. Relative with the measures to segregate the Jews physically from the rest of the populace, everything necessary is to be used in order to eliminate every influence of the Jewry upon the Russian people. This is to happen immediately in political and cultural fields, whereas in all other cases consideration is to be taken that the common interests are not impaired. This is especially true for the economic missions which are important due to the demands of the war and those which concern the national economy.

An entire reconversion of Jewish professional life must be brought about insofar as it does not deal with manual laborers. The group of State employees in the Russian government along with the strongest Jewish professional groups shall vanish entirely. Likewise, similar professional groups are to be divorced from the public life, whereby, however, the tempo of these measures must correspond with the general economical and social need.

The entire Jewish property is to be seized and confiscated with exception of that which is necessary for a bare existence. As far as the economical situation permits, the power of disposal of their property is to be taken from the Jews as soon as possible through orders and other measures given by the commissariat, so that the moving of property will quickly cease.

Any cultural activity will be completely forbidden to the Jew. This includes the outlawing of the Jewish press, the Jewish theatres and schools.

The slaughtering of animals according to Jewish rites is also to be prohibited.

5. Forced Labor. The present manpower shortage in the occupied eastern territories as well as ideological-political considerations make the demand appear of basic significance to introduce forced labor commitment in the strictest form. This will have to take place move by move by the elimination of the Jews from their professional life although they are to be permitted to work in their own occupations if they fall within the scope of the labor commitment. Moreover, the Jewish manpower is to be used for heavy manual labor.

The standing rule for the Jewish labor employment is the complete and unyielding use of Jewish manpower regardless of age in the reconstruction of the occupied eastern territories. The missions, which are to be given to the Jews in their labor employment, are especially the highway, railroad and canal construction, as far as the ameliorations, etc. are considered. Also, it seems that agricultural employment above all, will be brought about under strict supervision. Nothing is to be done against the employment of the Jews in cutting of wood, production of straw shoes, brooms and brushes within the Ghettos.

In the employment of the Jews, care is to be taken that Jewish labor is only so used in those productions which will later suffer no noticeable interruption in case of a rapid withdrawal of these labor forces, and which excludes a specialization of Jewish workers. It is to be avoided in every case that Jewish workers become indispensable in essential production.

6. Violations. Violations against German measures, especially against the forced labor regulations, are to be punishable by death to the Jews. All violations are to be dealt with by courts-martial.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 228-PS

Circular No. 163/43

(Not for Publication)

Subject: Treatment of PWs

Individual Gau-administrations often refer in reports to a too indulgent treatment of PWs on the part of the guard personnel. In many places, according to these reports, the guarding authorities have even developed into protectors and caretakers of the PWs.

I informed the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of these reports with the comment that the productive German population absolutely cannot understand it, if, in a time in which the German people is fighting for existence or non-existence, PWs—hence our enemies—are leading a better life than the German working-man, and that it is an urgent duty of every German who has to do with PWs, to bring about a complete utilization of their manpower.

The Chief of PW affairs in the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces has now given out the unequivocal order, attached hereto in copy form, to the commanders of PWs in the military districts. I request that this order be brought orally to the attention of all party office holders in an appropriate manner.

In case that in the future complaints about unsuitable treatment of PWs still come to light, they are to be immediately communicated to the commanders of the PWs with a reference to the attached order.

Fuehrer—HQ, 25 November 1943

(Signed): M. Bormann

Distribution: Distribution A and B
File reference: Treatment—PWs—Guard personnel.

Chief of PW affairs in the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
Az. 2f24, 74f Kriegsgef. Allg. (Ia) No. 11082143

Berlin, Badenschestr. 51, 26 October 1943

To: the Commanders of PWs in the Military Districts I to XIII, XVII, XVIII, XX, XXI, Government-General with the commanders of the Armed Forces in the Ukraine and the East; the PW District Commandant with the Commander of the Armed Forces in Norway.

For information: to the Commanders of PWs in the Operational Areas I to IV

to the PW District Commandants in Italy and Serbia

Subject: Treatment of PWs.

I. The intention of treating non-Soviet PWs strictly according to the Convention of 29 and the Soviet PWs according to the special directions of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, has in many cases led to forms, which are not in harmony with the total war forced upon us.

The PW must according to the convention "be treated humanely and especially be protected against acts of violence, insults, and public curiosity". This does not mean, however, that a similar care must be granted him, as is required for German soldiers.

In the case of the Soviet PWs, insofar as their diet is brought into harmony with the work output expected of them and they have recovered from the unavoidable rigors of the Eastern war, the sharp health supervision originally necessary, in part consisting of continuous weight check-ups is as a rule no longer required. Weight check-ups may only have the aim of determining undernourishment; they are only to be utilized in individual cases.

The aerial terrorism of the enemy forces great parts of the German people into a way of life similar to that prevailing in the operational area. As a result of this, the treatment and conduct of PWs, who enjoy the protection of the convention of 29 and who are, moreover, through the receipt of packages, in many ways better nourished than their countrymen on the enemy side, are regarded critically. Especially, a too mild treatment of Soviet PWs will not be understood anywhere, as it is known what frightful sufferings German soldiers must endure, who have fallen into Soviet hands.

The leaders of the labor detachments and the guard personnel must, moreover, receive unequivocal orders and it must continually be pointed out to them through teaching and instruction that their primary duty consists in keeping the PWs to the full output of their working energy, and in insuring that the lazy be apprehended most rapidly through such measures as are permitted to the entrepreneurs or by the punishments reserved to the military superiors and that intractable elements be recognized and segregated.

Leaders of labor detachments and guard personnel must be conscious of the fact that, in a time when unconditional and extreme effort is demanded from every member of the German nation, inferior production on the part of the PWs, which are traceable to malevolence or carelessness can in no case be tolerated. The great labor battle of the homeland depends upon the work output of every individual and thereby also of every PW.

The thought that PWs through their work primarily fill the wallet of the entrepreneur, and hence must be protected from him is erroneous. Entrepreneurs are now agents of the German people. They have exclusively to deliver things of importance to the war effort usually in a very limited time and for this to utilize completely all manpower at their disposal according to its best occupational suitability. The entrepreneurs know that manpower cannot be replaced and must therefore for this reason too, have the greatest interest in the preservation of this power.

Labor detachment leaders, guard personnel, entrepreneurs and German workers form one front and have a common goal: the attainment of victory! To this end they must, by putting aside all personal wishes, and in closest and most unified cooperation make use of the manpower of the PWs put at their disposal by the Reich. Whoever does not work for this goal or interferes with its attainment is harmful to the nation and injures our comrades at the front.

Hence, the treatment of the PWs employed at labor is to be arranged solely to raise the labor output to the highest possible degree and immediately to take sharp action if the PWs are careless, lazy, or recalcitrant. The PWs are not to be "cared for" but are to be handled in such a manner that the required highest degree of work output be attained. With this, needless to say, goes, besides just treatment of the PWs, the supplying of the PWs with the rations, clothing, etc., due them according to existing directives.

II. The development of the situation and the increasing requirements for PW labor power force us to bring more and more PWs into the Reich. Despite this it cannot be counted upon that the guard forces will be correspondingly increased, also the quality of the guard personnel will not on the average be able to be improved.

In addition the problem becomes more difficult because the PWs erroneously believe that they can discern an advantage to themselves in the situation. Hence they become arrogant in many cases and attempt to escape to a greater extent. These symptoms can only be countered by immediately taking sharp measures against the PWs in case of recalcitrance or escape.

Weaklings, who should express themselves to the effect that in the present situation one must assure oneself of "friends" among the PWs by means of mild treatment, are defeatists and are to be prosecuted on the charge of subversion of national defense.

The PWs must not be in doubt for an instant that weapons will be ruthlessly employed against them, if they give any sort of passive resistance or should try to mutiny.

The commanding officers must take care that this policy concerning the treatment of PWs becomes the common property of all officers, officials, non-commissioned officers and enlisted men subordinated to them. This is not to be attained through written directives and pamphlets alone, but primarily by the spoken word and by a persistent and conscientious education of subordinates in the spirit of these statements.

I request that the local agencies of the National Socialist Party be, in a suitable manner, orally informed of this policy and that it be reported to the Commanders.

I request that no reproduction of this document be made.

[signed] v. Graevenitz

Reprinting, even in part, forbidden.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 232-PS

National Socialist German Workers Party

Party Chancellery

The Chief of the Party Chancellery

Fuehrer Headquarters, 13 Sep 1944

Proclamation

Chancellery Rosenberg, Rec'd No. 2594 K/ 19 Sep 44
Presented to the Reichsleiter on the 20 Sept. Rdsdir.
For the Information of:

1. Staff leader [Init.] 2. Central Office 27 Sep 44 [Init.] 3. Administration 27 Sep 44 [Init.] Returned to the Chancellery

Subject: Treatment of Prisoners of War—Tasks of the guard units.

The regulations, valid until now, on the treatment of Prisoners of War, and the tasks of the guard units are no longer justified in view of the demands of the total war effort. Therefore, the Supreme Command (OKW) of the Armed Forces, on my suggestion, issued the regulation, a copy of which is enclosed.

The following is cited for its contents:

1. The understanding exists between the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (OKW) and myself, that the cooperation of the party in the commitment of prisoners of war is inevitable. Therefore, the officers, assigned to the prisoner of war system, have been instructed, to cooperate most closely with the bearers of sovereignty [Hoheitstraeger]; the commandants of the prisoner of war camps have to detail immediately liaison officers to the Kreisleiters.

Thus the opportunity will be afforded the Hoheitstraeger, to alleviate existing difficulties locally, to exercise influence on the behavior of the guard units and to better assimilate the commitment of the prisoners of war to the political and economic demands.

2. The increase of performance [Leistungssteigerung] of the prisoners of war depends decisively on how the guard and auxiliary units understand their task, and what position they take toward the prisoners of war. From this knowledge the necessity is derived, to orient them again and again politically and ideologically, to put the meaning of their mission constantly before their eyes. For that, in all base camps [Stalags] National Socialist leaders from headquarters [hauptamtliche NS-Fuehrungsoffiziere] are being assigned.

I request the Hoheitstraeger to support the commandants of the prisoners of war in the selection of capable officers. Above that, the Hoheitstraeger are to furnish the commandants of the prisoner of war camps with capable speakers for the orientation of the guard and auxiliary units. Collaborators of the offices for national questions [Volkstumfragen] are to be called upon especially for that.

Furthermore, a constant political orientation of the plant owner, who is invested now with special rights toward the prisoners of war and toward the guard units, must take place in cooperation with the German Labor Front (DAF).

/s/ M. Bormann.

1 Enclosure!
Distribution:

Reichsleiter
Gauleiter
Verbaendefuehrer
Kreisleiter,

Authenticated: [illegible] Cross index file: Prisoners of war—Treatment—Guard units File No. 8810.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 254-PS

Reichsminister for the occupied Eastern territories.
II Pers c—1—Raab Berlin, June 29th 1944.

SECRET

To the Fuehrungsgruppe Pl, Special Unit—"Gotenland"

Concerning: Burning of houses in the Wassilkow district.

Reference: Your letter from May 24th 1944—P 26 a/44 geh—.

Enclosed I am sending you a copy of the point of view of Nachwuchsfuehrer Paul Raab.

I don't see any reasons for taking measures of any kind against Raab.

By order:

Signed: Jennes
Certified Schrader
Adm employee.

SECRET

Grambusch 7.6.44

Paul Raab, Nachwuchsfuehrer

Copy

To the Reichsminister for the occupied Eastern territories. Berlin W 35, Kurfuerstendamm 134

Concerning: Letter from June 2nd 1944—II—Pers c 1—Raab Diary # 81/44 g

According to a charge by the supreme command of the armed forces I burned down a few houses in the territory of Wassilkow/Ukr. belonging to insubordinate people ordered for work-duty [Arbeitseinsatzpflichtigen]. This accusation is true.

I was committed as district commissioner in the information service in the territory of Wassilkow from May 5th 1942 up to December 28th 1944. Besides many work districts, I was made fully responsible by district commissioner Doehrer to completely fill the district quota of workers to be delivered to Germany. Although the task wasn't agreeable to me, I carried it out conscientiously, with skill, and where it was necessary with sternness. Up until the penetration of the Soviet Armies, this territory delivered more than 31,000 workers to Germany.

During the year of 1942 the conscription of workers was accomplished by way of propaganda. Only very rarely was force necessary. Only in August 1942, measures had to be taken against 2 families in the villages Glewenka and Salisny-Chutter, each of which were to supply one person for labor. Both were requested in June for the first time, but didn't obey although requested repeatedly. They had to be brought up by force, but succeeded twice to escape from the collecting camp, or when being on transport. Before the second arrest, the fathers of both of the men were taken into custody, to be kept as hostages and to be released only when their sons would show up. When, after the second escape, rearrest of both the fathers and boys was ordered, the police patrols ordered to do so, found the houses to be empty.

That time I decided to take measures to show the increasingly rebellious Ukrainian youth that our orders have to be followed. I ordered the burning down of the houses of the fugitives. The result was, that in the future people obeyed willingly, orders concerning labor obligations. However, the measure of burning houses has not become known, for the first time by my actions, but was suggested in a secret letter from the commissioner for the commitment of labor as a forced measure, in case other measures should fail. This hard punishment was accepted by the population with satisfaction, previous to the measures, because both families ridiculed all the other duty anxious families, which sent their children partly voluntarily to the labor commitment.

The year 1943 brought about a new regulation concerning the commitment of labor, by way of regular yearly conscription. Previous to the coming of the conscription, I trained the staff for this task. I had the collecting camp in the territory of Wassilkow fixed to the best of possibilities with clean, light bedrooms, clean sanitary installations, good food, and entertainment. First of all, everything was done away with, which could have caused the Ukrainian to feel that he is being departed by force. A well meaning propaganda was put to work on all workers, right after their arrival into the camp and didn't allow a low feeling to arise. I had reserved for myself the right of exemption on the basis of labor, political, and social reasons; it was handled as big heartedly as the task permitted. Mostly after the start of the first conscription period, the districts of Wassilkow received a local commander in the person of Count Griese. This officer, who caused already great quarrels in the district of Lodwiza and Gadjatsch on account of his arrogant behaviour, also created difficulties in Wassilkow between the armed forces and the civil administration, up to then unknown. First of all he took care of the labor commitment and not only criticized measures taken by me, but received also at any time every complaining Ukrainian, and promised them help against the office of the district commissioner. Up to then I didn't have to take serious measures, because the population was fairly willing. Only a few fugitives had to pay families, and until the money came in, I had secured more or less of their property according to the security of the case. The punished paid their penalties without exception and had their property returned to them. But before they got around to do so, one part complained to the local commander, who didn't by any chance reproach these people, but on the contrary, took care of all the interests of those people, in front of me, and sometimes ordered me with a commanding voice, to nullify my measures. I didn't let it scare me, but carried out the task, for which I was responsible, according to my judgment. But the job was unbearably hard now, since it became known to the population, that the local commander accepts complaints against the district commissioner. After the initial successes, a passive resistance of the population started, which finally forced me to start again on making arrests, confiscations, and transfers to labor camps. After a while a transport of people, obliged to work, overran the police in the railroad station in Wassilkow and escaped. I saw again the necessity for strict measures. A few ring leaders, which of course escaped before they were found in Plissezkoje and in Mitnitza. After repeated attempts to get a hold of them, their houses were burned down. Thereupon, military police were sent to the villages by the local commander and extensive interrogations concerning this affair were made by him. Besides that he hired young Ukrainians as voluntary helpers, which were fugitives from the transient camp. Therefore, every work was made impossible for me, in this sector.

It is not possible for me to give the exact dates of the mentioned happenings above, because after I was last committed in the district of Gaissin, I got into a Soviet ambush in March 1944 near Stanislau. I could only hide my weapons and had to burn my whole baggage including my diary.

In conclusion, I want to point out the following:

1. I had the responsibility within the territory of Wassilkow for the conscripting of the local workers for the Reich. The choice of means, which were used to execute my task, was to be left to me.

2. I worked with the utmost patience and only reverted to stricter punishments, when the success accomplished was in no comparison to the time used.

3. Strict measures, like the burning down of houses, were only used in a few cases. By this means, it was accomplished—at least in 1942—that the recruiting of workers didn't tie down too many police forces, who because of other functions, couldn't be used for that purpose all the time.

4. I was entitled to use such measures by the secret labor-directive for labor commitment staff in the district of Kiew. They, therefor, don't display by any means, any individual actions.

5. The delivery of 31,000 workers to the Reich is definitely important to the war effort. Stern measures are definitely justified in order to prevent a failure of this action.

6. My measures were thought to be just by the biggest part of the population. They only caused displeasure with the Germans, who had only small tasks to perform in the Ukraine, and therefore had too much time for philosophy.

7. My actions against fugitive people obliged to work [Arbeitseinsatz-pflichtige], were always reported to district commissioner Doehrer, in office in Wassilkow, and to the general-commissioner [General kommissar] in Kiew. Both of them know the circumstances and agreed with my measures, because of their success.

Heil Hitler!

Signed: Paul Raab.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 265-PS

SECRET

Shitomir, 30 June 1943

The Commissioner General

Oral report on the situation in the general district Shitomir, by Commissioner General Leyser, delivered at an official conference, with Reichs Minister Rosenberg, in Winniza on 17 June 1943.

Mr. Reichs Minister

The employees of the civil administration in the General District of Shitomir have, aside from their administrative work, been charged with the following special tasks:

Agricultural production and collection

Recruiting of workers for Germany and management of forests and timber.

The above-mentioned tasks became virtually a problem due to the fact that the general district of Shitomir is particularly "blessed" with bands. Regarding the agriculture, it should be primarily interesting to note that, in the year of 1942, altogether 289 establishments were declared as agricultural cooperatives. In 1943 altogether 501 establishments were, respectively will be, proclaimed agricultural cooperatives. The allotment of farm-land amounted in 1942 to 18%, in 1943, so far, to 10.4% and an additional 10% are expected in the fall.

As a consequence of the strong activity of bands, only about 40% of the acreage of the general district remain, at present, for the regular production and collection; approximately 60% are under the control of the bands. These actually supply the population, in part, with seed and have the fields cultivated by their order and naturally have the intention to take possession of the crop in the fall.

In consequence of the activity of the bands we have access to only 36% of the cattle, 41% of the pigs and 28% of the sheep out of the total stock. As we have to supply particularly the front with meat, we are therefore forced to a certain waste of our cattle stocks. Due to the strong drainage on the substance, there can be no more regular breeding. And too, only 42% of the milk total and 51% of the eggs could be salvaged. The spring cultivation has been performed thoroughly. It was amazing, nonetheless, that in spite of the strong drainage of labor forces into the Reich the tilling was executed with a rapidity which could not have been taken for granted. To judge by the present condition and the weather, an average crop can be expected. However, the securing and salvage of the crop gives much reason to worry. It must be avoided under all circumstances, that the bands get hold of considerable parts of the crop, respectively destroy the farm products which have been brought to collecting points. Sufficient protection for the various collecting points is not provided, the previous experiences do not promise favorable results.

The leaders of agriculture deserve particular praise for their self-sacrificing and dangerous work. In many cases they are only able to fulfill their duties by risking their lives daily. They made numerous sacrifices in blood, in particular lately. Nonetheless, they refuse to be prevented from fulfilling their duty. The present situation is best illuminated by the fact that at this time the agricultural leaders can only work at full, or approximately full, capacity in 5 out of 18 local areas. In all the other areas, we have been forced to withdraw the leaders of the strong points, and rally them at the local or district farmers. From there, they are in most cases only able to perform their work under strong protection of the police or army.

The symptoms created by the recruiting of workers are, no doubt, well known to the Reichs Minister through reports and his own observations. Therefore, I shall not report them. It is certain that a recruitment of labor, in the sense of the word, can hardly be spoken of. In most cases, it is nowadays a matter of actual conscription by force. The population has been stirred up to a large extent and views the transports to the Reich as a measure which does in no way differ from the former exile to Siberia, during the Czarist and Bolshevist systems.

In the foreground stands, at the moment, the mobilization of the young classes of 1923 and 1925. To accomplish this, the active propaganda on our part was used to an extent previously unknown. Therefore, it can be stated that the action had been particularly well prepared and consolidated. In spite of that it did not lead to the desired success. It has to be added that, in the course of the action, the desired contingents had been raised by the Chief Plenipotentiary for the mobilization of labor. I could not confine myself therefore to the classes of 1923 and 1925 alone, but also called up the class of 1922. Beyond that, even other sections of the population which originally should have been spared had to be included. With this our propaganda became for the greater part illusory. But as the Chief Plenipotentiary for the mobilization of labor explained to us the gravity of the situation, we had no other device. I consequently have authorized the commissioners of the areas to apply the severest measures in order to achieve the imposed quota. The deterioration of morale in conjunction with this does not necessitate any further proof. It is nevertheless essential, to win the war on this front too! The problem of labor mobilization cannot be handled with gloves.

Up-to-date, almost 170,000 male and female workers have been sent to the Reich from the general district Shitomir. It can be taken for granted that, during the month of June, this number is going to rise to approximately 200,000.

Management of forests and timber is also one of the principal worries. The general district of Shitomir is very rich in woods. As an average, the wooded area amounts to 26% of the total acreage. In the north, large sections of the country are covered 100% with woods. But this great abundance in woods is also the cause of the many bands. About 1,400,000 hectare of wood, that is 80% of the total, are controlled by bands. Like in the agricultural sector, only a relatively small part of the wood remains for use. Our yearly production potential in timber amounts to 1,300,000 cubic meter. Presumably 1,000,000 cubic meter can be cut. The yearly potential in firewood amounts to 900,000 cubic meter. We hope to achieve this. I may point out that the supply of wood for mines, RR ties, construction and heating purposes is especially important. The activity of the bands permits us at present to cut, on a larger scale, only in the more southern scantily wooded regions. Consequently, the old stock of wood there is being consumed rapidly. The final result, if no change in the condition occurs, will be the careless cutting down of woods, which is going to result in extensive waste land. The fact that we are cutting down wood on a larger scale only in the south, brought strong impetus to the timber industry in the region of Winniza. The time can be foreseen when this period of prosperity will end, and the timber industry in the south will succumb. Whether then a removal of the timber industry into the northern part will be possible depends on the circumstances which at present cannot completely be foreseen.

Regarding the activity of the bands I would like to refer to the numerous reports laid before the Reichs Minister. There can be said hardly anything else on this subject except that the situation is becoming more unfavorable day by day. The situation can be judged best by the fact that at present only one of the larger roads in the general district, the one leading from Shitomir to Winniza, can be used without convoy. Because the activity of the bands is now also growing daily in the south, it is not sure that we shall not be obliged to introduce, sooner or later, the convoy system here too. All other roads of the country are at present passable in convoy only when rifles or machine pistols are held ready to shoot. The sacrifices brought to date in battle with bandits are very great. In about one year's time, the losses through fighting with them in the general district of Shitomir on the German and allied side, including the natives in German service, amount up to now to 2,568 persons. The number of missing could not be ascertained exactly, because among them are also people who have joined the bands voluntarily or have been recruited forcibly. Their number amounts to an estimated 2,000 persons. Experience shows that these missing persons all die miserably, so the total number of deaths in battle with the bands in the course of the year can be given as about 4,500. Opposing this is the following two demands: (1) Constant transfer of army units into those areas threatened respectively occupied by the bands; (2) Unity of command. The demand to transfer units of the armed forces into the areas controlled by the bands, is supported by special instructions of the OKW [High Command of the Armed Forces] in order to fight the bands. It is regrettable that too frequently the opinion from the respective branches of the armed forces is that this demand cannot be executed on account of technical reasons concerning training. That this objection is always and everywhere true, does not seem credible to me. Frequent violations against the unity of command have been committed. The need for prestige, the quest for power, vanity, etc. have not become extinct as yet. I have to say with regret that so far I found the least understanding for the necessity of our common struggle in the armed forces. At any rate, I have the impression that under the pressure of conditions they arrived at the conclusion, that one cannot take the responsibility anymore to lead an existence alone, but that the collection of all forces alone could only bring us victory.

The struggle which has to be carried on, is hard and full of sacrifices. But it will and must be carried through. Vast psychic forces have been awakened in the members of the civil administration anew daily. The successes, which they were able to achieve so far are impressive particularly with regard to the resistance. May I therefore be permitted at the conclusion of this report to thank all my co-workers for their excellent work. They know that they are practically on the front. I can promise your excellency, that we all shall do our duty now, and in the future, as our Fuehrer has ordered—.

Signed: LEYSER

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 285-PS

The Reichs Commissar for the Sudetenland

Stamped: Rosenberg Chancellory

In Nr 4459 3 Nov 38 Shown to RL 3/11

Reichenberg 31 Oct 1938

Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg

Berlin W 35 Margaretenstrasse 17

[Handwritten note]: Copy to Himmler

Dear party member Rosenberg!

Unfortunately it was not possible for me to thank you for your friendly letter of the 15th of this month, because your news was forwarded to Asch. The technical transportation difficulties under which we had to suffer in the first days of the liberation of the Sudetenland have caused the late deliveries.

I thank you very much for your invitation to visit you in Berlin at the next occasion. Thanking you, I accept your invitation. The important tasks before the elections and the supervision of the reconstruction work keep me very busy. As soon as possible I will give you the date of my arrival in Berlin.

For securing the Marxist, Jewish and confessional literature for your educational and instructional work, my co-worker Dr. Suchy is instructed. He will report to your competent deputy.

Heil Hitler!

Signed: KONRAD HENLEIN

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 286-PS

15 October 1938
4149/R
1b

To Konrad Henlein Commissioner [Reichskommissar] for the Sudeten-German territory,

Asch, Egerland.

Dear Party Comrade Henlein,

Since the incorporation of Sudeten Germany into the Greater German Reich has finally been executed, I would like to heartily congratulate you on this success in your work.

It is my wish that, in my capacity as Deputy of the Fuehrer for the supervision of the entire education and schooling of the NSDAP, both mentally and ideologically, I shall be able to establish contact between your department and mine as soon as possible. I assume that you will be in Berlin in the not too distant future and would appreciate your information about the date of your visit in order to ask you for the pleasure to be my guest; then we could discuss personally some elementary questions.

However, the following matter has to be taken care of primarily:

It can be assumed that, as a consequence of the retrocession, a larger amount of marxist, Jewish and also of religious literature is due to be confiscated. Such material offers invaluable resources to the library and the scientific research work of the "Hohe Schule" which is in the process of coming into being. Therefore, I am interested particularly in the decisive participation of my department in the screening of material, with the purpose to take over the material particularly of use to my work.

I ask of you to appoint one of your co-workers with whom my representative can get in touch immediately about this particular question.

Heil Hitler.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 290-PS

II Pers. c—Journal No. 322

To Leadership Staff Politics

Unter den Linden 63

Berlin 12 Nov 1943

Secret
[pencilled note illegible]

SECRET

Chief of Leadership staff politics
Journal No. P1755/43 g Rel. 15. II 1943
Inclosure

Subject: Encroachment by District Commissioner Government Councillor Fritz Mueller in connection with the national campaign for the utilization of labor.

Reference: Your letter of 22 July 1943—I 1006/43 g.

In connection with my letter of 27 Sep. 1943—II Pers, Journal No. 322—I am sending you enclosed a copy of the teletype of RKU of 29 Oct. 1943—I 7252 Journal No. 637/43 geh, for your information.

According to the explanations of RKU, the conduct of government Councillor Mueller is no cause for disciplinary action against him, I therefore consider the case as closed.

Your files are herewith returned.

By order

1. RKU wants to transfer district Commissioner Mueller for reasons which he will bring later.

Await report.

Signed: Jonnes
[Rubber stamp]
Ministry for occupied eastern territories

2. Suspend until 10 Jan.

Official Kreis Employees

Copy

SECRET

RKU Rowno 13-929 29 Oct. 1943—1700—
Ministry of Eastern affairs Berlin

Subject: Alleged encroachment of district commissioner government councillor Mueller in Kremiancz in connection with the national campaign for the utilization of labor.

Reference: Decree of 27 Sep 1943-II Pers. c Journal No. 322—

For various reasons which I will report later, it is contemplated to replace government councillor Mueller as district commissioner in Kremianez in the near future.

The case on hand is by no means fit to be used for official actions against District Commissioner Mueller. First of all, in my opinion Mueller is not to be considered guilty in this case. It cannot be established, either by the letter from the village Biloserka, which letter caused this investigation, nor by the conduct of district commissioner Mueller, himself, that he was present at the happenings in Biloserka. He therefore cannot be held personally responsible. But even if Mueller had been present at the burning of houses in connection with the national conscription in Biloserka, this should by no means lend to the relief of Mueller from office. It is mentioned specifically in a directive of the Commissioner General in Lusk of 21 Sep 1942, referring to the extreme urgency of the national conscription.

"Estates of those who refuse to work are to be burned, their relatives are to be arrested as hostages and to be brought to forced labor camps." It is obvious that this decree was merely directive in nature and was not a binding order of the individual commissioner to decide according to his own discretion, when the interest of the conscription, such severe measures were to be applied.

I request therefore to consider the case closed.

Reich Commissioner Rowno I 7252 Journal No. 637/43 geh.

My order signed: Paltzo
to P i 755/439 [in pencil]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 294-PS

Copy

TOP SECRET

Handwritten:
II 1 1161/44/ g

Memorandum

In the East, Germany is carrying on a threefold war: a war for the destruction of Bolshevism, a war for the destruction of the greater Russian Empire, and finally a war for the acquisition of colonial territory for colonizing purposes and economic exploitation.

This threefold mission of the Eastern campaign has brought about the enormous resistance of the Eastern peoples. Were the war being conducted only for the smashing of Bolshevism, then it would have been decided long ago in our favor, for, as all experiences of this war have confirmed, Bolshevism is hated to the utmost by the Eastern peoples, above all by the great mass of peasants. Also the dissolution of the greater Russian Empire into its national components would not have provoked the resistance which we meet now. As the numerous prisoner interrogations and other experiences show the shrewd Russians have a complete understanding that this war will end in territorial losses for them and the non-Russian peoples will break out from the confinement within which Russia has forced them. The reduction of the power of resistance of the Red Army is the major portion of the third goal of our campaign. With the inherent instinct of the Eastern peoples the primitive man soon found out also that for Germany the slogan: "Liberation from Bolshevism" was only a pretext to enslave the Eastern peoples according to her own methods. In order that there exist no doubt at all on the German war aim, however, German publicity refers openly to this intention in increasing measure. The conquered territory is claimed publicly not only for Germany as a colonization area, but even for Germany's embittered enemies, the Dutch, Norwegians, and others. The economic exploitation is proclaimed verbally and in print, and carried out with almost elimination of the demands of the indigenous population, even with the greatest lack of consideration.

The populace has more of an understanding of the measures and duties necessitated by war than the conquered peoples of the West. But the laborer and peasant, who were educated to the highest degree of self-consciousness by Bolshevism, soon perceived that Germany did not regard them as partners of equal rights, but considered them only as the objective of her political and economic aims. That disillusioned them unspeakably, all the more since they had placed colossal hopes on Germany.

The main department for politics of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories claims that it has been quite aware of this situation from the beginning. It was soon apparent that the war could not be decided in a short time by arms alone, because of the vast areas and the enemy's inexhaustible reserves of manpower and material, but that as in all great wars of recent times a spiritual disintegration would have to come and the war would have to be changed at the final conclusion to a civil war, all the more since the German Wehrmacht does not intend to occupy completely the territory of the Soviet Union. The Russian collapse of 1917 and the German break-down of 1918 were actually not brought about by weapons alone, but primarily by political disintegration. What Lenin achieved in Russia, the 14 points of Wilson and the undermining effect of Marxism accomplished in Germany. In the Soviet Union we found on our arrival a population weary of Bolshevism, which waited longingly for new slogans, holding out the prospect of a better future to them. It was Germany's duty to find such slogans, but they remained unuttered. The population greeted us with joy as liberators, and placed themselves at our disposal willingly and freely with body and life. Wherever Ukrainians, Russians, White Ruthenians and members of the Baltic peoples were enlisted in the German Wehrmacht or in the police they have proved themselves and fought excellently almost without exception. The Main Department for Politics tried every means of keeping this vast capital that had fallen into our lap, and of utilizing it for our purposes. To this purpose it was necessary that National Socialism separate itself from Bolshevism with a sharp line of distinction and open to the populace prospects of a new better life. All measures which the Main Department for Politics suggested were directed toward this one goal of preserving this capital. They have been many times attacked as the expression of a weak sentimental humanitarian attitude, of a form of German sentimentalism, and they were in reality only the expression of completely coarse material politics. For nothing else was contemplated than to preserve the mass millions of the Eastern area in the adjustment to us which was encountered with, in order to draw from it the greatest possible use for Germany both militaristically, politically and economically. Should this political policy succeed, the greatest reactions on the enemy troops were to be expected. For years the masses of the S.U. (Soviet Union) were stirred up against the surrounding world by the most efficient propaganda machine that has ever existed. Until 1939 National Socialism had been the target of the most spiteful attacks. Day after day it was hammered into the laborers and peasants that the active masses in Germany were a sacrifice to the most terrible exploitation. With extreme tension workers and peasants looked forward to the German administration. To be sure they had not completely trusted the Bolshevist propaganda, but in spite of that they met the new masters with a certain feeling of doubt.

As we all know, the peoples of the S.U. (Soviet Union) have gone through the hardest times. Consequently, they are of a simplicity inconceivable to us, even in the political sphere. A form of government which was not intent only on plundering and exploitation and which put aside the Bolshevist methods would have kindled the greatest enthusiasm and put at our disposal a mass of millions. And the enthusiasm in the occupied Eastern territories would have had its reaction on the force of resistance of the Red Army. It would have been easily attainable to have the Red Army man say to himself: "I fight for a system that is throughout worse than that which awaits me in the case of a defeat. I will be better off in every respect among the Germans than I have been until now". If the Red Army man had become convinced of his general well-being, the war would have been at an end very soon.

Knowing this the Main Department for Politics believed it to be its primary duty to assist our combat troops with all their power by a propaganda campaign aimed at crippling the power of resistance of the Red Army and to shorten the war in this way. For the attainment of this goal there are, among the measures proposed, two of the utmost importance: The Agrarian Law and Religious Freedom, which is essentially distinct from that of the Bolshevists.

Considering the exceptionally great significance which approaches the agrarian question in the Soviet Union, the Main Department for Politics was demanding even before the beginning of the Eastern campaign, that the Kolchos be dissolved and an individual agrarian economy be introduced again. This proposal was turned down by the Four Year Plan with the remark that organic changes were not to be considered during the war. Not until August of 1st year was an increase of the farmland successfully put through.

Before the realization could be carried out, however, the Four Year Plan had recognized that the impetuous pressure of the whole peasant population for the dissolution of the collective would have to be reckoned with in some way in the interest of production itself. The proposal of the Main Department for Politics for the dissolution of the collective found its defeat in the new agrarian decree. A few months had been sufficient to make clear, not only to all Wehrmacht units down to the youngest lieutenant in the line farthest forward, but also to the units in the home country and the civil administration in the occupied Eastern territories, the need of reform in the Kolchos constitution. The only exceptions in this knowledge were the two Reich Commissars, whose disagreement unfortunately caused a delay of several weeks. The new Agrarian Decree came out shortly before the spring planting and was greatly played up in the territories by the Press and Propaganda Dept. of Main Department I. Its direct success was a hitherto inconceivable piece of work of the populace in the spring planting, which was able to be carried out in spite of unfavorable preliminary conditions. In spite of this no lasting effect on the enemy has appeared so far. Naturally, the enemy propaganda countered our Agrarian Decree with every means. Their main argument was that in this it was only a matter of a promise which had as its purpose a momentary tactical success, that moreover Germany intended to make use of the land later for her own purposes. This argument found support in the very slow execution of the Agrarian Decree, which is to be attributed in part to objective reasons (lack of surveyors, land registration, surveying instruments and so forth).

It has been foreseen that in 1942 in the Ukraine 20% of the general economy was to be changed to agriculture cooperatives. The increasing of the farmland, which forms the main criterion of the general economy and is carried through everywhere immediately, has still not been achieved to the extent of 10% of the general economy, although it was decreed, as has been mentioned, in August 1941. The transformation to agricultural cooperatives has generally begun only a short time ago, and according to the directives of the farmer's leader Koerner is not to reach more than 10% by the end of August of this year. In this state of affairs it is understandable that great sections of the Ukrainian peasantry are under the control of enemy propaganda and have lost belief in the earnestness of our intentions.

The religious freedom was likewise to call forth a great propaganda effect. After months long negotiations, it was eventually decided not to announce the freedom of religion ceremoniously, but to let it come into existence as quietly as possible. The propaganda effect consequently slipped from the picture.

When the Main Department for Politics noticed the hesitation of decision in the church question, it searched for a substitute in another means of propaganda, in the question of returning property rights of the individual. In this the whole world could be clearly shown that National Socialism contrasts distinctly with the Bolshevist expropriation measures and a new property law would be ushered in. The first display of this slogan for propaganda use would have been the immediate raising of the expropriation measures in the Baltic states, which Bolshevism had not yet controlled for a year, and consequently it would have been possible to resume the former property situation without further ado. To the unbounded astonishment of the populace, however, the German administration marched forward to play the role of receiver of the goods stolen by the Bolshevists. The necessity for the restoration of private ownership for the psychological treatment of the populace was referred to by all the General Commissioners in the Baltic states; this population, as everybody knows, ought to be won for German patriotism. Even after the Four Year Plan gave up its old ideas in recognition that a further protraction of the restoration of private ownership would damage even the German economic interests. The fundamental profession of the reinstallation of the pre-Bolshevist property law did not follow, though it was against every political judgment and based only on the unfounded opposition of the Reichs Commissar.

Again a real weapon for the disintegration of the enemy front had been twisted out of our hand, a weapon whose effect may not be undervalued. For the unrecompensed expropriation of private property by the Bolshevists had aroused at the time not only the terror of Russian bourgeois circles including the more prosperous peasants, but also of the entire civilized world. The world, including the laborers and peasants in the Soviet Union who were disillusioned by Bolshevism, awaited now a clear policy in this question on the part of Germany. This silence on the part of Germany obviously made itself of use to the enemy propaganda, which could reliably persuade the Soviet masses that Germany plans no restoration of individual ownership.

The Main Department for Politics furthermore has always emphasized that the Eastern peoples must be told something concrete about their future. The Department refers to the fact that in case we should not oppose the propaganda of Stalin, the peoples would have to succumb to this propaganda, that is to say, they would believe in their own enslavement by Germany. The Main Department for Politics has accordingly often directed the attention of Wehrmacht units to the expediency of having the Slavic Eastern peoples receive calming assurances regarding their future from the authoritative German quarters. As the best means, the establishment of a sort of counter-regime to Stalin with a captured Red general was indicated; or, if the word government should be avoided, then just a rebellious general somewhat after the model of de Gaulle, who should become the point of crystallization for all the Red soldiers who are dissatisfied with Stalin. The correctness of this conception has been confirmed in the time following its inception by countless statements of prisoners of war, who have all stated independently that the silence of Germany regarding the future of Russia allows the worst to be feared. Many would like to desert, but they did not know to whom they should go. Under the banner of a recognized counter-revolutionary leader they would gladly and bravely fight against the Bolshevist regime.

All the suggestions concerning this were rejected in their essentials. Permission for front-line duty was effected only for groups of Turkish and Caucasian peoples and finally after several refusals also for the Estonians. Because of the difficulty of recruiting troops, the unit generally came to the point of impressing civilians and prisoners of war into their ranks, in the first line of rear-echelon services. But even in the foremost line they found employment and fought well. Only in the last few weeks under the pressure of danger from the partisans was the formation of native units allowed and that only for combat with the bandits. But even this measure will remain ineffective as far as propaganda is concerned if a combat unit is not activated and a personality with a resounding name is not put at its head.

The Main Department for Politics was compelled, for the sake of attaining the above-outlined goal, to rescind or at least greatly change measures from German quarters which would strengthen the enemy's power of resistance.

Of primary importance, the treatment of prisoners of war should be named. It is no longer a secret from friend or foe that hundreds of thousands of them literally have died of hunger or cold in our camps. Allegedly there were not enough food supplies on hand for them. It is especially peculiar that the food supplies are deficient only for prisoners of war from the Soviet Unions, while complaints about the treatment of other prisoners of war, Polish, Serbian, French and English, have not become loud. It is obvious that nothing is so suitable for strengthening the power of resistance of the Red Army as the knowledge that in German captivity a slow miserable death is to be met. To be sure the Main Department for Politics has succeeded here by unceasing efforts in bringing about a material improvement of the fate of the prisoners of war. However this improvement is not to be ascribed to political acumen, but to the sudden realization that our labor market must be supplied with laborers at once. We now experienced the grotesque picture of having to recruit millions of laborers from the occupied Eastern territories, after prisoners of war have died of hunger like flies, in order to fill the gaps that have formed within Germany. Now the food question no longer existed. In the prevailing limitless abuse of the Slavic humanity, "recruiting" methods were used which probably have their origin only in the blackest periods of the slave trade. A regular manhunt was inaugurated. Without consideration of health or age the people were shipped to Germany, where it turned out immediately that far more than 100,000 had to be sent back because of serious illnesses and other incapabilities for work. This system in no way considered that these methods would of necessity have their effect on the power of resistance of the Red Army, since these methods were used only in the Soviet Union of course, and in no way remotely resembling this form in enemy countries like Holland or Norway. Actually we have made it quite easy for Soviet propaganda to augment the hate for Germany and the National Socialist system. The Soviet soldier fights more and more bravely in spite of the efforts of our politicians to find another name for this bravery. Valuable German blood must flow more and more, in order to break the resistance of the Red Army. Obviously the Main Department for Politics has struggled unceasingly to place the methods of acquiring workers and their treatment within Germany on a rational foundation. Originally it was thought in all earnestness to demand the utmost efforts at a minimum cost of the biological knowledge has led to an improvement. Now 400,000 female household workers from the Ukraine are to come to Germany, and already the German press announces publicly that these people have no right to free time and may not visit theaters, movies, restaurants, etc. and may leave the house at the most three hours a week apart from exception concerning duty.

In addition there is the treatment of the Ukrainians in the Reichs Commissariat itself. With a presumption unequalled we put aside all political knowledge and to the glad surprise of all the colored world treat the peoples of the occupied Eastern territories as whites of Class 2, who apparently have only the task of serving as slaves for Germany and Europe. Only the most limited education is suitable for them, no solicitude can be given them. Their sustenance interests us only insofar as they are still capable of labor, and in every respect they are given to understand that we regard them as of the most minute value.

In these circumstances the following can be determined:

1. The resistance power of the Red Army and the strength of the partisan movement has mounted in the same degree as the population realized our true enlistment for them. The feats of arms of our noble army have been neutralized exactly as in 1918 by an inadequate political policy. Our political policy has forced both Bolshevists and Russian nationals into a common front against us. The Russian fights today with exceptional bravery and self-sacrifice for nothing more or less than recognition of his human dignity.

2. Our political policy of utilizing the Ukraine as a counter-weight against mighty Russia, against Poland and the Balkans, and as a bridge to the Caucasus, has suffered complete ship-wreck. The 40 million Ukrainians who joyfully greeted us as liberators, are today indifferent to us and already begin to swing into the enemy camp. Should we not succeed in checking this situation in the last moment, then we run the danger from day to day of having a partisan movement in the Ukraine, which not only eliminates the Ukraine as a furnisher of food, but also ties up the reinforcements of the German army, endangers its existence and accordingly involves the danger of a German defeat.

If this danger which threatens the German people is to be prevented in the last moment, then the following is necessary.

1. For the Ukraine an absolutely positive political policy must be carried out in every respect. The Ukraine must not be merely an objective of exploitation to us, but the populace must sincerely feel that Germany is its friend and liberator. The German economic agencies must be responsible for assuring the populace a minimum on which they can exist. A compulsory conscription of labor in the occupied Eastern territories must be restrained immediately. The treatment of Ukrainians and other Eastern peoples within the Reich must be fair and human. In publicity, both oral and written, everything must be avoided that is in any way cognizant of the fact that we regard this territory as an objective of exploitation. The Russian people must be told something concrete about their future, particularly because Germany does not have the intention nor the power to occupy the whole Russian area.

2. The policy of the officials of the Reichs Commissar for the Ukraine is in general the exponent for the above described policy, which has not recognized the role of the Ukraine in world politics, and has succeeded in throwing away the friendship of 40 million people; and which is guilty in this way of strengthening the power of resistance of the Red Army and prolonging the war with all its consequences. These officials see their only mission as the economic exploitation of the country. The longer the war lasts, however, the more political forces must be interposed. Therefore it would be opportune to place at the head of the Reich Commissariat a personality who also possesses sufficient political ability.

If we do not accomplish this change of course at once, then one can say with certainty that the power of resistance of the Red Army and of the whole Russian people will mount still more, and Germany must continue to sacrifice her best blood. Yes, it must be openly stated that the possibility of a German defeat approaches in a tangible proximity, all the more so if the partisan movement for which Stalin is striving with every means, should spread over a greater part of the Ukraine. One should protest that in the South Ukraine such a danger does not exist because of the lack of swamps and forests. The bandit leader Machino needs to be remembered, he who for about 2 years terrorized the Ukraine and knew how to avoid all persecutions. One should also not place his hopes on the economic collapse of the Soviet Union. Certainly the losses in fertile land, raw materials and industrial projects are very significant. On the other hand the Soviet Union still has the Ural territory, fabulously rich in raw materials of all kinds, which for fourteen years has been industrially developed with all power, as well as rich Siberia. Finally we know that the Soviets have systematically carried on an economic policy of hoarding reserves, and we cannot completely tie up the English-American reserves.

However, if we accomplish the proposed change in policy, then it can be believed certain that the decomposition of the Red Army will also succeed. For the power of resistance of the Red Army man is broken the moment that he becomes convinced that Germany brings him a better life than he has led under the Soviets, and that Germany has a small bit of consideration for his national qualities, in other words does not intend to rob him of his soul.

The problem is too serious to be allowed to remain undecided. Here it is a question of the future of the German race, under circumstances concerning even its existence or non-existence. The permanent thesis of the Main Department for Politics has proved itself true, that a quick victory cannot be attained entirely by the aid of arms, but only in conjunction with the application of a great political offensive. That the administration of the occupied Eastern territories is composed almost entirely of personnel not acquainted with Russia is probably one of the reasons why this thesis has not been carried out. The gentlemen slowly grope their way into the problem, for which the majority still require interpreters. Nevertheless it is today already confirmed that wide circles of the lower administrative chiefs in the Ukraine are plainly frightened of the policy commanded by the higher echelon. However, they are not in a position to have their way. So much the more reason one should trust the interpretation of the Main Department for Politics based on the best technical and social knowledge; the Department is even today convinced of a speedy victorious conclusion of the war, insofar as its political directives are followed.

Berlin, 25 October 1942
Signed: BRAEUTIGAM

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 315-PS

Copy

Berlin W 8, Wilhelmstr. 72, 12 March 1943
Reich Ministry for Food and Agriculture
Current No... IV/1a - 907

Note

on a meeting held in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda on 10 March 1943

Presiding: State Secretary Gutterer

For the participating agencies see invitation list of 5 March, among others

Oberregierungsrat Hucho (GBA)
Reich Council for Agriculture Dr. Hatesaul
Referent Schwarz RNSI

Oberregierungsrat Dr. Brendler (Ministry for Food)

Subject: Directives for treatment of foreign workers employed in the Reich.

In his introductory remarks, State Secretary Gutterer said that at the suggestion of Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels the Fuehrer has decided that out of political considerations a uniform treatment of the problems concerning foreigners will have to be secured immediately in all agencies and a corresponding education of the German people will have to be instituted.

The consolidation of the new Europe and the increased anti-communist trend which have been played up by the foreign propaganda office demand that in the treatment of foreign workers in the Reich immediately every material which would be an incentive for a hostile attitude on the part of the foreign workers should be eliminated. This is particularly necessary in the treatment of the workers from the East. In this instance the hitherto prevailing treatment of the Eastern workers has led not only to a diminished production, but has most disadvantageously influenced the political orientation of the people in the conquered Eastern territories and has resulted in the well-known difficulties for our troops. In order to facilitate military operations the morale has to be improved by a better treatment of the Eastern workers in the Reich.

In a decree issued 15 February to all district leaders [Gauleiter] and Reich directors [Reichsleiter], Reich Ministry Dr. Goebbels has given corresponding directives to party agencies. In order to instruct all other agencies, managers and trade union members who are concerned with Arbeitseinsatz, the Reich Minister for Enlightenment and Propaganda has planned directives; these directives, issued in a draft (see enclosure), served as a working basis for discussion.

In general the following is to be said about these directives:

The treatment of foreigners which until now was markedly different for subjects of Western and Eastern countries will be put on a uniform basis as much as possible, particularly the living standards of the Eastern workers will be raised. The change introduced herewith in the treatment of the foreigners will mainly affect the hitherto prevailing Security Police measures of the Reichsfuehrer SS and of the Main Security Office. The measures introduced by the management will be less influenced. In general, the decrees which have been issued by the GBA already and which, among others, are dealt with in the note for the managers will be less affected. However, an increased repudiation of mistreatment and beatings will come into effect. Accordingly, a more severe punishment is planned for those supervisors and under officials who commit such offenses. During the meeting considerable doubts were voiced by the representatives of the Main Security Office of the Reich and of the Party Chancellery. The former expounded the necessity for the strict security police measures for the protection of the German population and for the security of the Reich. The representative of the party chancellery particularly pointed out the controversies which already are appearing and which would result for the German population if more freedom were granted to the foreigners.

The Reich Food Ministry is particularly interested in the following points of the directives:

Under Point 5 it is declared that it is desired to accommodate the various nationalities separately in factories and camps. It was pointed out by representatives of the GBA and Reichsnaehrstand that in the future this cannot be carried out fully in agriculture too, because of reasons of the Arbeitseinsatz. However, with the warning that this measure is to be "striven for" in the future, permission has been given to avoid changes in personnel beyond those hitherto exercised and that this principle will be considered by the GBA in cases of new draftees, just as it was done before.

Point 7: In principle, the foreign workers should receive the same food rations. To this, the undersigned remarks that the rations are varied according to nationalities (Eastern workers, Poles, other foreigners) in order to account for the home customs. Also the rations are varied according to the types of work performed (camp rations, agricultural workers who provide their own food and special rations for individual employees of the factory). The rations of the foreign agricultural migrant labor differ insofar that on the basis of state contracts various allowances in kind are given to them for a part of their pay. A uniformity is being striven for. For the above mentioned reasons, however, a complete uniformity on the basis of the German allowances is impossible. The validity of these arguments was recognized and the passage was deleted. Instead, clauses were added to the effect that "full rations, as laid down in the regulations, should be distributed" and that "the rations for those performing heavy and extremely heavy work should be handed out only if the production is accordingly great". Against these additional clauses no opposition was voiced, final decision however was withheld.

Point 8: The demanded new basis for wages of the Eastern workers has been discussed already by the departments. A corresponding draft of the GBA, equalizing the wages of Eastern and Polish workers, will reach the departments in the near future. This new regulation would fulfill an old wish of the Reich Food Ministry to equalize the wages of the Polish and Eastern workers in order to increase production and simplify the pay procedure.

Point 9: Sick and pregnant female workers will not be returned anymore since they usually spread negative propaganda in their country. Erection of dispensaries will meet with less difficulty in the industry than in agriculture. However, they will be required in agriculture too in order to free the farms from the care of foreign workers. For the same reason, collective accommodations are necessary for foreign children who were born in the Reich. Appropriate negotiations are now in progress in the GBA.

On page 7 of the draft, all the above directives for all organizations, agencies and individuals are declared as binding; the agencies will be held responsible for the execution of these directives in an orderly fashion. The latter seems to be an extremely far-reaching demand, since the execution of a great part of these directives does not depend on the wish of the agencies but on the limited possibilities during the 4th year of the war, such as providing adequate clothing, erection of barracks for the sick and for the foreign children born in the Reich.

Also the suggested stricter punishment of infringements against these directives seems to be objectionable. The arrogant and recalcitrant attitude of some of the foreigners frequently forces the managers and their representatives to use sharp measures in order to keep up the production of the foreign workers. Insofar as certain abuses will emerge in this process and these are punished not only as unpolitical criminal actions but as acts of sabotage and in some cases as high treason, the positions of the managers and their representatives will be considerably weakened before the foreigners, and uncertainties will result in regard to the treatment of the foreigners. These will lead to a marked lack of discipline on the part of the foreigners. It would be desirable that the final decision should be against this clause.

State Secretary Gutterer asked for comments on the draft by 16 March at the latest. The Reich peasant leader [Dr. Hatesaul] agreed to deliver to us the comments of the Reichsnaehrstand immediately.

Dead line matter, 15 March 1943!

To the Referat II B 2, II B 3, IV 9 in this building

Herewith I forward above copy of notes on a meeting held 10 March and a copy of the draft with the request for comment. I ask for a prompt reply in view of the deadline set by the Ministry for Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Referat IV I a
Signed: DR. BRENDLER
certified
Signed: ROTZOW

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 318-PS

Main Bureau for Science
Chief of the Main Bureau
Ha/Sch. 2370
Berlin, the 5th December 1941
To Record Office for Cultural Policy
Attention Party Member Dr. Killer!
Inter-office Communication

Concerns: National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers

Most Honored Party Member Dr. Killer!

After long negotiations we succeeded in reorganizing and fixing the relations of the National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers to one bureau. All details are in the enclosed photostatic copy.

Heil Hitler!
Haertle
1 Enclosure Entrusted with the leadership

Principles concerning relations of the National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers to the Fuehrer's Commissioner for the supervision of the whole intellectual and ideological training and education of the NSDAP as well as to the Chief of the Seminary [Hohe Schule].

1. The Chief of the National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers is bound by orders and directives of Reichsleiter Rosenberg in all questions concerning intellectual and ideological training, research and education.

2. The main task of the National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers is to present the university lecturers a picture of the history, the formation and the tasks of the National Socialist movement, and to coordinate them in accordance with our ideology with the great political aims of the Reich. The training has to correspond with the requirements of the body of university lecturers.

3. Insofar as beyond this general education a supplementary training, through working communities, university camps, etc. is required—these training measures may be carried out with the provision that the tasks mentioned in Art. 6 are not encroached upon.

4. The National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers is obliged to submit to the Reichsleiter all plans for working communities, conferences, camps, etc., with designation of topics and names of the participants, always in time enough that the possibility of his changing them in accordance with his duty as a leader is assured. His objections and directives resulting from this are binding and authoritative for the National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers. This applies accordingly to the work of the Association done abroad also.

5. Publications will be limited to the above mentioned tasks and are to be submitted to the Main Bureau for Science 14 days before publication. All publications have to bear a remark that the scientific responsibility for the individual contributions lies exclusively upon the author,—in order to avoid the impression of an official party opinion. Reichsleiter Rosenberg will make the decision as to whether the publications of the National Socialist German University Lecturers Association are to be published by the Hoheneichen press.

6. When Reichsleiter Rosenberg plans for his mission, especially for the seminary [Hohe Schule], the collection of professional groups in the different fields of science, or the organization of scientific meetings of university lecturers—the organizational measures will be carried out by the National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers.

7. Judgments and opinions of the National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers concerning the appointments, assignments and transfers of university lecturers are to be submitted to the Main Bureau for Science and, at the same time, to the party chancery.

8. The appointment of the educational director of the National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers will take place with the approval of Reichsleiter Rosenberg. He will be called into the Reich working community as a member for the education of the whole NS movement.

Munich, the 2nd December 1941

Rosenberg

Fuehrer's Commissioner for the supervising
of the whole intellectual and ideological
training and education of the NSDAP and
Chief of the Seminary [Hohe Schule]
[Signature illegible]
Chief of the Party Chancellery

[Signature illegible] Chief of the National Socialist German Association of University Lecturers.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 327-PS

DRMfdbO.
II 1 c 1183/44g.

Copies for the Political Main Staff Str. 19/10
Q 19/x: 20/10 Dr. Wetzelz.k W 21/10
P₁ P₂
with request for acknowledgment, Dr. Kinkelein n.r.
Z.d. A. Str. 31/10
Pencilled Notes
Berlin, 17 October 1944

Copy

SECRET

To: The Chief of the Party Chancellery Reich Leader Martin Bormann

Berlin W 8 Wilhelmstr. 63/64

[Stamp]
Political Main Staff
Journal No. P1011 a/44g
Received 18 Oct. 1944
encl.

Subject: Actions against civilians in rear echelons.

Your circular No. 309/44 of 9 Oct. 1944.

Dear Party comrade Bormann:—

In order to prevent difficulties and delay—which is of course not desired by you—in the liquidation of the companies under my supervision, I have today dispatched the following telegram to the Gau Leaders because of the particular urgency:

In order not to delay the liquidation of companies under my supervision, I beg to point out that the companies concerned are not private firms but business enterprises of the Reich so that also actions with regard to them just as with regard to government offices are reserved to the highest authorities of the Reich. I supervise the following companies:

(a) Zentralhandelsgesselschaft Ost fuer landwirtschaftlichen Absatz und Bedarf m.b.H. (ZO). (Central Trading Company East for Agricultural Marketing and Requirements Limited)

(b) Landbewirtschaftungsgessellschaft Ostlund und Ukraine (Agricultural Development Company Eastern Territories and Ukraine)

(d) Pharm.—Ost G.m.b.H. (Pharmaceutics—East Company Limited)

The following banks under my supervision are also not private firms:

(e) Zentralnotenbank Ukraine (Central Exchange Bank Ukraine)

(f) Notenbank Ostland (Exchange Bank Eastern Territories)

(g) Zentralwirtschaftsbank Ukraine (Central Commercial Bank Ukraine)

(h) Verband der Wirtschaftsbanken in der Ukraine. (Association of Commercial Banks in the Ukraine)

(i) Gemeinschaftsbank Ostland und Weissruthenien. (Cooperative Bank Eastern Territories and White Ruthenia)

The liquidation of these companies and banks has been discussed with the Reich Plenipotentiary for total war effort and will be brought to a close not later than by the end of this year. Assets suitable for restitution of the companies have already been earmarked for the armed forces and war economy. Therefore, any intervention with regard to stocks and personnel does not only impede the liquidation of business which is inevitably necessary but also delays the supply of goods to the armed forces and war industry. For this reason I beg, to refrain from any intervention.

The Chief of the Party Chancellory has a copy hereof.

Enclosed I am sending you a copy of my letter of today to the Reich Plenipotentiary for total war effort from which you will note that the liquidation of the companies under my supervision has been agreed upon with the Reich Plenipotentiary and will be concluded at a relatively close date considering the vast operations which are indispensable for the liquidation in the interest of an orderly war economy. Restored property not yet surrendered has already been earmarked for the armed forces and war economy, so that any delay of the liquidation or perhaps even independent confiscation of the property by the Gau Leaders would impair or destroy an organized plan, something that should not be done without a compelling reason in the interest of war economy. In order to give you an idea of the past and present problems of these companies, I am attaching enclosed a corresponding survey.

I beg you to acknowledge receipt of the telegram to the Gau Leaders.

Finally, I want to point out also that in my mind it is not correct to simply order the Gau Leaders under the heading "actions against civilians in rear echelons" to press the speeding up of the liquidation of offices and establishments which have been brought back from the occupied territories. Without doubt cases have occurred where such pressure was warranted by all means. On the other hand, it has been proven that, for instance, thousands of decent men and women as well as firms, who have done their duty under the most difficult conditions there, have been brought back from the occupied territories and have recognized the need of the hour immediately, but can simply not complete their work still necessary for the liquidation at present from one day to the other. As far as the Eastern territories are concerned, the above applies to the majority of the people assigned, so that I am obliged to regret that you also associate these people with the most ill-reputed term of rear-echelon.

Heil Hitler
Yours
Signed: A Rosenberg

SECRET

(1). Zentralhandelsgessellschaft Ost fuer landwirtschaftlichen Absatz und Bodarf m.b.H. (Z.O.). (Central Trading Company East for Agricultural Marketing and Requirements Limited).

The following has been the mission of the Z.O. as a monopoly company for the Eastern Territories:

(a) Collection of all agricultural products as well as commercial marketing and transportation thereof. (Delivery to armed forces and the Reich),

(b) Trusteeship of enterprises dealing with food supplies,

(c) Providing enterprises dealing with food supplies with special equipment, supplying the agriculture with means of production and the rural population with commodities (premium goods).

The following is the present mission of the Z.O.:

(aa) Winding up of transactions relative to commodities and finances, particularly utilization of evacuated goods brought back from the Eastern Territories and goods which did not come into use there any more,

(bb) Collection of goods brought back from the agriculture and food industry of other occupied territories (General Government West),

(cc) Remaining current business,

(a) Fulfillment of the original assignments in the remainder of the Eastern Territories,

(b) Inter-territorial exchange of machines for the agriculture as well as for the dairy industry and inter-territorial exchange of seeds according to directives of the Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan—business section food.

The actual significance of the Z.O. and the volume of its transactions can be seen from the following:

(1) 30 offices with 200 agencies were subordinated to each main office for the Eastern Territories, the Central District and the Ukraine.

(2) 11 subsidiary companies of the food industry with 130 branches were founded in the Ukraine.

(3) The Z.O. including its subsidiary companies employed at the peak of its business during the summer of 1943 about 7,000 German party members of the Reich and in addition has set up about 250 German firms of the Reich.

(4) The total turn-over of the Z.O. amounted to about 5.6 milliard Reichsmark, from its foundation until the 31st of March 1944.

(5) During this period, the Z.O. together with its subsidiaries has collected:

Grain 9,200,000 tons
Meat and meat products 622,000 tons
Linseed 950,000 tons
Butter 208,000 tons
Sugar 400,000 tons
Fodder 2,500,000 tons
Potatoes 3,200,000 tons
Seeds 141,000 tons
Other agricultural products 1,200,000 tons
Eggs 1,075 million eggs

The following was required for transportation:

1,418,000 railroad box cars and 472,000 tons of boat shipping space.

(6) A total of 32,900 box cars of evacuated goods has been brought back by the Z.O. of which

22,400 are grain, linseed and other seeds, etc.,
9,000 are agricultural machines, other machines, etc., and
1,500 are goods for supply and consumption.

While the utilization of the evacuated agricultural products has been completed in the main part in spite of all difficulties by means of transfer to the Reich Agencies, it has not been possible to effect the utilization of the remaining goods (machines, furniture, supply goods etc.) in the same time and with as little friction. The utilization of these goods is being effected with the cooperation of the Commissioner for utilization of goods, Dr. Kemna, for the Reich Minister of Economy and the Reich Minister for Armament and War Production. Moreover, part of these goods which are composed of thousands of types of different goods must first be overhauled and repaired.

The number of personnel of the Z.O. and its subsidiary companies has already been reduced from 7,000 to 681 employees, exclusive of 50 workers who are still working in the Eastern Territories.

(2). Landbewirtschaftungsgessellschaft Ukraine. (Agricultural Development Company, Ukraine)

The Landbewirtschaftungsgessellschaft Ukraine (LBGU) had the following missions (Figures according to status of 1st July 1943):

(a) Supervisory management of almost 31,000 collective farms and agricultural cooperatives [former Kolhoze] with 1.7 million farms, of almost 540,000 individual farms with an area used for cultivation of maximum 38 million hektars (93.9 million acres)—24.5 million hectars (60.5 million acres) during summer 1943—,

(b) Managing trusteeship of 1875 state-owned estates with an area used for agriculture of 2.8 million hectars (6.9 million acres),

(c) Managing trusteeship of 72 breeding stations with an area of 124,000 hectars (306,400 acres), seed reproducing areas of 424,000 hectars (1,047,700 acres),

Trustee management of 17 offices for distribution of seeds of 270 seed distribution points and of 619 seed depots with a seed capacity of 192,000 tons.

(d) Managing trusteeship of 900 machine and tractor stations (MTS) with 49,600 tractors.

The LBGU maintained 1 central business office, 6 district offices (with 5 branch offices), 114 regional offices, 431 county offices, 2,870 base offices and 400 supervisory bodies.

The LBGU has already completed the liquidation of the following affairs:

(1) Management of the general enterprises (see above under a),

(2) Management of the state-owned estates (see above under b),

(3) Sheep-breeders association Ukraine,

(4) Financial liquidation (balance-sheet of liquidation as of 1st July 1944 will be completed on 20th Oct. 1944).

At present the LBGU still attends to the following matters:

(aa) Utilization of still remaining 5,400 tons of highly valuable, evacuated seeds (a total of 98,000 tons have been brought back), most of which will be transferred to the Landbau-Gesellschaft m.b.H. (Land Development Company Limited) founded recently by the Commissioner for the Four Year Plan,—termination by the end of this year—,

(bb) Utilization of the rolling stock, parts of equipment and similar matters confiscated by the armed forces.

(cc) Realization of the MTS evacuation depots and work shops. The personnel used in connection with this (90 civilians, 34 military personnel) occupied mainly with new problems regarding the employment of agricultural machines and the repair thereof. The transfer of these machines to the above mentioned Landbau-Gesellschaft has been projected in the near future.

The number of personnel employed by the LBGU has been reduced from 4,500 German and Dutch workers as of 30 June 1943 to 410 as of 1st Oct. 1944.

Of these latter 248 were made available for other important war jobs, especially in the general government, by way of orders and leaves from present jobs. 28 employees are assigned to supervise 50,000 Ukrainian workers in key-positions and skilled laborers of the LBGU. Another 90, as mentioned, are employed for the problems of utilizing agricultural machines and for the repair thereof (see above cc). Consequently, only 44 persons are employed to wind up the remaining affairs.

(3). Beschaffungsgesellschaft Ost m.b.H. (BGO). (Supply Company East Limited)

The BGO has been founded with the purpose to procure machines and other investment goods for the economy of the Eastern Territories as well as to perform special assignments.

Today, it has the following assignments:

(a) Winding-up of concluded business-contracts (50 mill. Reichsmark of a total procurement in the value of 115 mill. Reichsmark), according to which deliveries will be made within the next 9 months;

(b) Procurement of machine tools and wood-working machines by order of the Reich Minister for Armament and War production.

(c) Collection and utilization of economic assets evacuated from the Eastern Territories and the General Government whereby the BGO acts as an executive company for Dr. Kemna, the Commissioner for the utilization of goods for the Reich Minister for Economy and the Reich Minister for Armament and War-production (see Annex (1) and (2)).

(d) Liquidation of the Steine und Erden Ost G.m.b.H. (Stone and Soil East Company Limited).

To (a): According to orders by the Reich Minister for Armament and War production the machines which are being delivered in agreement with current business contracts are being transferred particularly to German industries damaged by bombing. The other deliveries are being disposed of in accordance with orders of the OKH/Chief H Ruest u.BdH. (Supreme Command Army) as well as of the economic administrative agencies and of the Planning Commissioners.

To (b): This procurement is also done for the German industry.

To (c): The execution of these assignments is in full swing, and the work connected with it is steadily increasing. So far the BGO has collected about 1,000 carloads of evacuated goods. One part of these is directed by the B.G.O. to agencies charged with their utilization which operate under its management. Another part—particularly machines and investment goods—are stored in own depots, repaired, catalogued and catalogue submitted to the Office of Armament Supplies as well as to Special Agencies [Sonderringe—Committees set up by Speer to organize the production of component parts of the armament industry] and apportioned according to their directions to the Armament Industry.

The number of personnel employed at present by the BGO is 118 employees of whom 55 are male employees.

(4). Pharm-Ost G.m.b.H. (Pharmaceutics—East Company Limited).

The company had the assignment to supply the Eastern Territories with medicines and other drugs within the range of human and veterinary medicines as well as with all equipment for medical and veterinary requirements, hospital requirements, etc.

Apart from supplying the remainder of the Eastern Territories, the company's main assignment at present is essentially to direct the evacuated goods to other consumers, the armed forces in particular, its stocks and those goods which are to be delivered according to business contracts already concluded, while observing the necessary financial liquidation procedure.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 342-PS

Reichs Commissioner for the East [Ostland] Sect. II h

Directions concerning the Treatment of Jewish Property in the Reich Commissariat Ostland of 13 October 1941

Par. 1

The total, movable and immovable properties of the Jewish population in the territories governed by the Reich's Commissioner for Eastern areas are placed under confiscation by the administration for the commission and the seizure according to the following regulations.

Par. 2

Property is defined as movable and immovable objects along with all accessories, claims, commissions, rights and interests of all types.

Par. 3

1. The confiscation will be carried out by the Reich's commissioner for the East or those officers who have been authorized by him. It can be carried out by directives to individual persons or in general by a proclamation and can be limited to individual objects of wealth.

2. The following shall be excluded from confiscation:

a. That part of the household furniture which will take care of the base essentials of life.

b. Cash, bank and savings credit, as well as bonds, up to a total value of one hundred Reichsmarks.

Par. 4

1. With the confiscation the previous owner loses all rights to dispose of the confiscated property.

2. Whoever has confiscated property in possession or custody, will administer it until further notice. The changing or disposal of the property or of its profits will only be allowed inside the bounds of orderly management. All other measures taken beyond this will need the approval of the Reichs commissioner for the East or those agencies authorized by him.

Par. 5

1. The property that is placed under confiscation can be brought under the administration of the commission, so far as it is necessary for orderly management.

2. The assuming of control by the administrative commission will at the same time be looked upon as confiscation.

3. The Reichs commission for the East will issue directives about the arrangement and management of this administration.

Par. 6

1. Confiscated property can be called in by the Reichs commissioner for the East or by the agencies authorized by him.

2. The disposal of the confiscated property will be left to the authorized agencies.

3. These agencies will decide with finality, using administrative means, on the debts which belong to the confiscated property. The responsibility will be limited to the sales value of the confiscated property.

Par. 7

Bids for the purchase of the property which comes under confiscation can be publicly advertised.

Par. 8

The responsible authorities can demand information from everyone to carry out their task.

Par. 9

1. The following will be punished with a prison sentence and monetary fine or one of those punishments.

a. Those who will undertake to withdraw an object of value from the offices of the civil authorities or those installed with the authority for disposal, or in any other manner to thwart, to evade, or to impair the action of confiscation.

b. Those who intentionally or carelessly do not fulfill in due time or completely one of those directives imposed upon him such as an order of execution or other directive of execution, and the report and information obligations concerning it.

2. In severe cases the punishment is penal servitude. If the accused is charged with willful disobedience or should it be any other especially severe case the death sentence is authorized.

Par. 10

The Reichs commissioner for the East will issue the necessary measures to carry out those directives.

Par. 11

The directive will go into effect on the day of its publication.

Riga, the 13 October 1941
The Reichs Commissioner for the East
Signed: LOHSE

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 343-PS

Field Marshal Milch

Berlin,—W 8, Leipzigerstrasse 7, 31 Aug 1942

Dear Mr. Himmler!

I thank you very much for your letter of the 25 Aug. I have read with great interest the reports of Dr. Rascher and Dr. Romberg. I am informed about the current experiments. I shall ask the two gentlemen to give a lecture combined with the showing of motion pictures to my men in the near future.

Hoping that it will be possible for me to see you at the occasion of my next visit to Headquarters I remain with best regards and

Heil Hitler!
yours
[signed] E. Milch

Mr. Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police Himmler Berlin SW 11.

SECRET

Field Marshal Milch

Berlin W 8, Leipzigerstrasse 7, 20 May 1942

Dear Wolffy!

In reference to your telegram of 12 May our sanitary inspector reports to me that the altitude experiments carried out by the SS and Air Force at Dachau have been finished. Any continuation of these experiments seems essentially unreasonable. However the carrying out of experiments of some other kind, in regard to perils at high seas, would be important. These have been prepared in immediate agreement with the proper offices; Major (M.C.) Weltz will be charged with the execution and Capt (M.C.) Rascher will be made available until further orders in addition to his duties within the Medical Corps of the Air Corps. A change of these measures does not appear necessary, and an enlargement of the task is not considered pressing at this time.

The low-pressure chamber would not be needed for these low-temperature experiments. It is urgently needed at another place and therefore can no longer remain in Dachau.

I convey the special thanks from the supreme commander of the Air Corps to the SS for their extensive cooperation.

I remain with best wishes for you in good comradeship and with

Heil Hitler!
Always yours
[Signed] E. Milch

Mr. SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Wolff
Berlin SW 11

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 347-PS

Copy of a Copy

I Ju 3 D 9 Tgb No 783/449

18 April 44 [in pencil]

To the Reich Youth Leader Artur Axmann
Berlin-Charlottenburg 9
Kaiserdamm 45/46

Dear Party Member Axmann:

My chief of the department youth, Obergebietsfuehrer Lueer has proposed to me the plan to let the youth of the Latvian and Estonian peoples participate in complete age groups in the military education camps of the Hitler Youth.

I thank you, party member Axmann, for the generous invitation of the Hitler Youth to the Youth organization of the Baltic districts [General Bezirken]. I agree with you in the expectations, which we connect with the enlargements of the camps, begun with such success in East-Prussia.

The experience of Germany is best able to liberate the youth from thinking about small states and to explain to them the understanding for the European obligation. Furthermore, I expect especially through the conscription of entire age groups, that the military education will make itself felt in the military aspect. Only the education of an entire age group has influence on the reserve situation. The reserve situation of the Estonian and Latvian Legion is marked especially by the lack of noncommissioned officers and instructors. If we can eliminate this lack by the universal military education of the growing age groups, that will mean for the future a considerable inner strengthening of not small parts of our Northern front.

The first General directors as well as state directors in Estonia and Latvia in the meantime have been instructed, to create the legal basis, which are necessary for the execution of required military education. Obergebietsfuehrer Lueer could assure me that the inner readiness exists on the part of the youth. Also the organization and leaders of the youth will never close their ears to this commitment. However, I must draw your attention to the doubts, which are in the way of the military education of the Latvian and Estonian youth on German soil; I have consciously refrained from issuing the necessary orders on my own competence, but have asked Commissioner General to cause the countries own administration to publish the appropriate orders. Because of their own orders, these agencies will also have to issue the specific orders for the individual commitments. This is according to our policy, to relieve the German authorities from all the more technical and administrative problems, which touch little on our leadership and educational mission, and to leave to the countries own administration freedom of action.

However, according to the conferences which have taken place so far, it cannot be expected that General Dankers or Dr. Mae will order their youth organizations on their own, to conduct the military education not in Latvia or Estonia, but in East-Prussia or in Warthegau. This viewpoint is partly caused by the more or less expressed fear, to be suspected by reactionary circles to favor a so called Germanization. General Dankers and Dr. Mae can also point out, that the transfer of the Latvian and Estonian pre-military education of the youth contradicts the above-mentioned principles, which we customarily observe in the realm of the remaining administration. I cannot include a camp education, which primarily is to alleviate the most dire needs of an inadequate recruit training as a matter of our basic German educational mission. In the military education camps, the young Latvians are trained under Latvian leaders in the Latvian language,—not because this is our ideal, but because absolute military necessity demands this. If General Dankers or Dr. Mae express the wish, and they have done so, to conduct such camps on Latvian or Estonian soil, I am not able to oppose them with any serious reasons.

I consider the arrangement of the most necessary suppositions for the future military service an immediate and simply practical mission of the countries own youth activity. The permission, that the countries own youth organizations, even if only in part and under German leadership, can carry out the military education in the country, gives them a considerable power toward those circles, still opposing, and is also able to increase the enthusiasm, especially of the youth. Our policy must adapt itself in the necessary extent toward this immediate goal, to rouse the Baltic peoples to the highest war effort of all forces. I am sure that the adaptability and educational capacity of the youth demand other measures from us, than those which can be advocated by us in our policies toward the adult parts of the population. However, politics and the education of the youth must perform in common according to the necessities of war, which gives us the problem to mobilize all available forces for victory. Even under these conditions, there are enough possibilities for Germany to exercise influence. The universal execution of the military education based on compulsory service with regard to the location of the camp gives us the possibility to increase the share of the German camps. Two or three camps in Estonia and Latvia therefore act as advertising for the camps within Germany; for in contrast to the Germanic peoples of the West, the military education is no longer to be carried out through voluntary enlistments, but through legal conscription. The camps in Estonia and Latvia as well, will have to be under German leadership, and as military education camps of the Hitler youth, they must be a symbol of our educational mission beyond Germany's borders.

I consider the execution of the military education of the Estonian and Latvian youth not only a military necessity, but also a war mission of the Hitler youth especially. I would be thankful to you, party member Axmann, if the Hitler youth would put itself at our disposal with the same readiness, with which they have so far supported our work in the Baltic Area.

Heil Hitler!
[signed] Lohse

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 351-PS

LIST OF THE MEMBERS OF THE REICH CABINET SINCE 30 JANUARY 1933

Reichs Chancellor Adolf Hitler, appointed 30 January 1933

Fuehrer and Reichs Chancellor since 2 August 1934

Name	Appointed	Reappointed	Resigned
The Deputy of the Reichs Chancellor von Papen	30.1.1933		30.7.1934
1.The Deputy of the Fuehrer Hess, Reichsminister without portfolio	1.12.33
2. Reichs Minister of Foreign Affairs—Freiherr von Neurath	2.6.32	30.1.33
3. Reichs and Prussian Minister of the Interior—Dr. Frick	30.1.33
4. Reichs War Minister and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces—von Blomberg	30.1.33
5. Reichs Minister for Finance—Graf Schwerin von Krosigk	2.6.32	30.1.33
6. Reichs and Prussian Minister of Economy—Dr. Hugenberg—	30.1.33		29.6.33
Dr. Schmitt	29.6.33	[1]	30.7.34
		[2]	30.1.35
Commissioned:
President of the Reichs Bank Directorate—Dr. Schacht	30.7.34	Temporary or 6 months
	30.1.35	Until further notice
7. Reichs and Prussian Minister for Labor—Seldte	30.1.33
8. Reichs Minister of Justice—Dr. H.C. Guertner	2.6.32	1.2.33
9. Reichs Postmaster General and Reichs and Prussian Minister of Transportation—Freiherr von Eltz-Ruebenach	1.6.32	30.1.33
10. Reichs and Prussian Minister for Food and Agriculture— Dr. Hugenberg	30.1.33		29.6.33
—Darre	29.6.33
11. Reichs Minister for Enlightenment and Propaganda—Dr. Goebbels	13.3.33
12. Reichs Minister for Aviation—Goering Reichs Minister without portfolio	30.1.33
Reichs Minister for Aviation	5.5.33
13. Reichs and Prussian Minister for Science and Education— Rust	1.5.34
14. Reichs and Prussian Minister for Church Affairs—Kerrl Reichs Minister without portfolio	16.6.34
Reichs and Prussian Minister for Church Affairs	16.7.35
15. Reichs Minister without portfolio	19.12.34
—	—	—	—
State Secretary of the Reichs Cabinet:
Dr. Lammers, State Secretary and Chief of the Reichs Chancellory	30.1.33
Press Chief of the Reichs Cabinet— Funk	30.1.33
Director of the Ministry
State Secretary in the Reichs Ministry for Enlightenment and Propaganda	13.3.33

[1] 30.7.34 Relieved from the Office of the Reichs Minister for Economy for 6 mos.

[2] 30.1.35 Relieved of his offices.

Present at the First Session of the Cabinet of Adolf Hitler on 30 January 1933 at 5:00 p.m.

Present:
Reichs Chancellor	Hitler
Deputy of the Reichs Chancellor and Reichs Commissar for the State of Prussia	von Papen
Reichs Minister of Foreign Affairs	Freiherr von Neurath
Reichs Minister of the Interior	Dr. Frick
Reichs Minister of Finance	Graf Schwerin von Krosigk
Reichs Minister of Economy	Dr. Hugenberg
Reichs Minister of Labor	Seldte
Reichs Minister of Justice
Reichs Defense Minister	von Blomberg
Reichs Postmaster General and Reichs Minister for Transportation	Freiherr von Eltz-Ruebenach
Reichs Minister and Reichs Commissar for Aviation	Goering
Reichs Commissar for Procurement of Labor	Dr. Gercke
State Secretary in the Reichs Chancellory	Dr. Lammers
State Secretary in the Office of the Reichs President	Dr. Meissner
Reichs Press Chief, Director in the Ministry	Funk
Responsible for the Protocol Counsellor in the Ministry	Wienstein
Reichs Minister for Food and Agriculture	Dr. Hugenberg

Subject: The Political Situation.

The Reichs Chancellor opens the session and explains that millions of people within Germany would joyfully greet this day on which a Reich Cabinet under his leadership had been appointed by the Reich President. He asked the members of the Cabinet to give him their confidence as he himself had confidence in each member of the Cabinet.

Then the Chancellor stated that he intended to suggest to the Reich President the appointment of the Counsellor in the Ministry, Dr. Lammers, to the post of State Secretary in the Reich Chancellor in place of the retired State Secretary Planck, and the appointment of the member of the Reichstag, Walter Funk, to the post of Director in the Ministry and Director of the Press Office in place of the retired Director in the Ministry, Marcks.

The Reich Cabinet took note of this. There were no objections against his proposal.

The Reich Chancellor then opened a discussion about the political situation.

Reich Minister Goering stated that he had contacted the Center Party. The Center Party felt offended because they had not been informed about the development of the situation. As he had been informed Reich Chancellor von Papen had not contacted the representatives of the Center Party. He, Reich Minister Goering, was under the impression that the Center Party expected certain concessions from the present Reich Cabinet.

The Reich Minister for Economy and Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture stated that it would be wise to avoid any brusque actions toward the Center Party. However, the representation of the Center Party in the Reich Cabinet was to be avoided since, in his opinion, it would endanger the unity of decisions of that body.

The Reich Chancellor pointed out that adjournment of the Reichstag would be impossible without the collaboration of the Center Party. One might, however, consider suppressing the Communist Party to eliminate its votes in the Reichstag and by this measure achieve a majority in the Reichstag. Based on his experiences, however, such suppressions of parties were of no avail. He was afraid that heavy political fights and possibly a general strike might be the result of this contemplated suppression of the Communist Party of Germany. Surely the economy of the count needed settled conditions. If, however, one discussed the question of the greater danger for the national economy, the uncertainty and unrest connected with new elections or a general strike, then one had to arrive at the conclusion that a general strike would be far more dangerous for the national economy.

It appeared flatly impossible to suppress the 6,000,000 people who stood behind the Communist Party of Germany. It might be possible, however, to achieve a majority for the new Reich Cabinet after dissolving the Reichstag and the new elections which had to fall soon. The best thing, however, would be if the Reichstag should adjourn itself voluntarily.

The Reich Minister for Economy and the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture explained that he certainly has no longing for a general strike. In his opinion, however, it was impossible to avoid the suppression of the Communist Party of Germany. If that were not done one could not achieve a majority in the Reichstag, certainly not a majority of two-thirds.

After the suppression of the KPD the passage of an enabling law through the Reichstag would be possible. He doubted that there would be a general strike after the suppression of the KPD. He preferred the suppression of the KPD to new elections.

Reich Minister Goering stated that the Communists had planned a demonstration for this evening (30 January), which he had prohibited. On the basis of his investigations the KPD would not be prepared for a general strike at the present. The social democrats were pressing for a discussion in Reichstag.

In his opinion it would be best to dissolve the Reichstag as soon as possible and to hold new elections. The Reich Chancellor had given his word that the present constellation of the Reich Cabinet would not be altered even after new elections.

The Reich Chancellor confirmed the correctness of this statement.

The Reich Minister for Labor declared that there was great joy in the ranks of the Steel Helmet [Stahlhelm] about the forming of the present Reich Cabinet. There was no more friction between the Steel Helmet and the SA.

In his opinion it would not be wise to let the first act of the present Reich Cabinet consist in the suppression of the KPD which might result in a general strike.

The Deputy of the Reich Chancellor and the Reich Commissar for Prussia pointed out that the German nation needed a rest. In his opinion it would be best initially to request an Enabling Law from the Reichstag. If such a law would not be passed the situation could be tackled anew. The Reich Chancellor declared that the general strike was not to be taken lightly. To suppress a possible general strike the Reichswehr should not be committed, if possible.

The Reich Minister for Defense thanked the Reich Chancellor for this attitude and emphasized that the soldier is only used to thinking of his opponent as an enemy from outside.

The Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs discussed the question of whether a suppression of the KPD with the possible consequence of a general strike were to be preferred to new elections for the Reichstag under foreign political consideration. He came to the conclusion that a suppression of the KPD with the possible consequence of a general strike would be, by far, the more serious outlook.

The Reich Minister for Finance pointed out that the financial status of the Reich, the States, and the Counties could only be adjusted through a slow improvement of the economic situation. He regarded the suppression of the KPD as a last political means. State Secretary Dr. Meissner proposed for the discussion whether an Enabling Law was to be proposed which would contain provisions for measures to be taken by the Reich Cabinet in the interest of combating unemployment. Such an Enabling Law would only require a simple majority in the Reichstag.

Reich Commissar Dr. Gereke stated that the Center Party would not tolerate the Cabinet. Speedy new elections to the Reichstag would become necessary. The Deputy of the Reich Chancellor and the Reich Commissar for the State of Prussia suggested that the Reich Chancellor, in an interview, would state at the earliest opportunity that the rumors about the danger of inflation and the rumors about the danger of the rights of civil servants are untrue. The Reich Chancellor agreed to this. He further informed the meeting that he would contact representatives of the Center Party in the morning of 31 January.

A new meeting of the Ministers is to take place on 31 January at 4:00 p.m.

The Reich Cabinet took note of this.

Signed: Wienstein 31.1.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 352-PS

Copy

THE REICH MINISTER AND CHIEF OF THE REICH CHANCELLERY

Rk. 8008D

Berlin, 14 June 1942
Fuehrer's Headquarters

To the Plenipotentiary for the Reich Administration [General bevollmaechtigter die Reichs Norwaltung]

Subject: The Jurisdiction of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich [Ministerats fuer die Reichsverteidigung]

Your letter of 3 June 1942—CBV Nr. 493/42/2882—. Recently the Fuehrer announced in accord with the opinions of the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich as shown in my letter of 20 Feb. 1940-RK. 624B- that he believes it practical to reserve certain legislative missions for the Reich Cabinet. With this he has not limited the competency of the Council of Ministers for the defense of the Reich but given a directive as to how legislation should be handled under the point of view of practicability. I have no doubt that the Fuehrer, as well as the Reich Marshal, have not changed their point of view, in particular regarding the fact that at the present there should be only legislation important in the cause of war, and that they will stress the fact that the Fuehrer himself and the Reich Cabinet should not be eliminated from the powers of legislation. It will have to be tested from time to time what measures will be reserved for the Reich Cabinet. My letter of 20 February 1940, and the opinions of the Fuehrer therein expressed may serve as a directive even if the limitations indicated by me are no longer applicable in their full meaning. I would therefore suggest not basing the discussions with the Reich Minister of Finance on the question of competency of the Reich Cabinet or the Council of Ministers for the defense of the Reich, but on the question of whether it would be practical to achieve settlement through either Reich law or a Decree from the Council of Ministers for the defense of the Reich in the sense of the opinions voiced by the Fuehrer.

Signed: Dr. Lammers

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 374-PS

Berlin Nr 234404 9.11.2355

To all state police offices and state police administrative offices. —To director or his deputy.

This teletype message is to be transmitted immediately in the most rapid way.

1. Actions against the Jews and in particular against their synagogues will occur in a short time, in all of Germany. They are not to be hindered. However, it is to be made certain, in agreement with the ordinary police, that plundering and similar law breaking will be held to a minimum.

2. Insofar as important archive material is present in the synagogues, it is to be secured by immediate measures.

3. The seizure of some 20 to 30 thousand Jews in the Reich is to be prepared. Wealthy Jews above all are to be chosen. More detailed directives will appear in the course of this night.

4. If, in the course of this action, Jews are found in possession of arms then the sharpest measures are to be employed. Special troops of the SS as well as the general SS can be drawn into the total action. In any case the direction of the actions through the State police is to be assured by proper measures.

Addenda for State Police Cologne:

In the synagogue of Cologne there is especially important material. This is to be made safe, immediately, by the quickest measures in agreement with the Security Services.

Gestapo I Mueller

This teletype is secret

SECRET

Blitz Munich 47767 10,11.38 0120

To all State police administrative offices and State police offices.

To all Security Service O.A. and W.S.

Subject: Tonight's measures against Jews.

On the basis of the attack upon Legation Secretary v. Rath in Paris demonstrations against the Jews are to be expected in the entire Reich tonight 9 to 10 November 38. The following orders are issued for the treatment of these incidents.

1. The directors of the administrative offices of the State police or their deputies have to take up, by long-distance phone, negotiations with the proper political directorates of their regions —Gauleitung or Kreisleitung—immediately upon the receipt of this telegram and to unify a discussion of the carrying out of the demonstrations to which the proper inspector or commander of the regular police is to be drawn. In this conference the political direction is to be informed that the German police has received from the Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the Police the following orders to which the measures of the political directorate should comply.

2. Only such measures are to be taken, which do not entail a danger to German life and property (for example: burning of synagogues only if no fire hazard is present in the neighborhood).

3. As soon as the course of events tonight permits the use of the appointed officials for this purpose, as many Jews are to be seized, especially wealthy ones, in all regions as can be accommodated in the prisons at hand. Moreover, only healthy, male Jews of not too great an age are to be seized. After carrying out the seizure, negotiations are to be taken up at once with the proper concentration camps for the quickest accommodation of the Jews.

Signed: HEYDRICH
SS Gruppenfuehrer

Police radio service—Radio Hannover
Urgent—Secret
SSD Berlin 133 10; 11 2110
To all political authorities

As soon as notices of the ending of the action arrive from the Gau administration take action that destroyed shops are so shut up with boards, etc., that the destruction is as little visible as possible. Have owners directed in certain cases to work under police orders to carry this out. Have the ruins of synagogues, etc., removed as quickly as possible.

Chief of the regular police
Special command staff of the High Command g. a. Nr 224/38

Appendix

National Socialist German Workers Party

Gau Coblenz—Trier

Coblenz June 7, 1933

Propaganda Department

To all Kreis directorates
Subject: List M. 18, Jew baiting Nr 2

You will receive in the next few days a list of the communities of your districts in which you will find the Jewish firms and businesses of your district. You will immediately check in your whole district whether the addresses given are correct or whether some have been forgotten. The highest importance is to be placed on accuracy since the list is to be printed.

Subject: Jew baiting

The district directorate will set up a committee which has the task of directing and supervising the communities in the whole district. The strength of this committee will be determined by the district directed. You are to inform the Gau-propaganda directorate at once of the committees named. The Gau propaganda directorate will then set itself in coordinating with these committees through you.

Present tasks of the committees.

The committee will form in all the local groups and support localities such committees whose names shall be known only to the district committee. The members of the sub-committees shall report to the district committee the names of those Party members and other Germans who buy from Jews. The district committee will publish articles whose content is such that it will point out to the miscreant members of the nation the shamefulness of their deed, and will make them aware of the shame to which they would be subjected if they were proceeded against publicly. This article must be arranged so that only the addresses of those involved, the business and the time in which he made the purchase will be given. The article should bear no signature and will be posted on various posting spots. Further the committees have to secure female clerks from Jewish stores, who can then very easily name those who purchase in Jewish shops. This demands some caution and has to be done with the greatest secrecy. The names of these clerks shall in no case be mentioned. Negotiations are to be undertaken with the association for the employed middle class so that it will prepare the means for this action and will assume the responsibility of finding a new job in another shop of equal importance in case the clerk loses her job. Her name must not be given, only the number.

The district directorate will point out in all gatherings of members or in all public gatherings that the Jew in all countries is again carrying on a low attack which is greatly harmful to Germany. It must be made clear to the masses that no German may buy from a Jew. It is also to be demanded of the Party membership that it constantly bring this to the attention of its friends and acquaintances. The Party membership must go so far in the interest of the nation that it cease friendship with best acquaintances if the latter continue to purchase from Jews. It must go so far that no German will speak to a Jew if it is not absolutely necessary, and this must be particularly pointed out.

German girls who go with Jews are to be made cognizant of the shamefulness of their actions. A member of our party must, in no way, have anything to do with such a person.

Heil Hitler
Signed: Bang
Gau-Propagandaleiter

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 375-PS

TOP SECRET

Berlin, 25 August 1938
General Staff of the 5th Section (German Air Force)
(Genstb. 5. Abteilung)
No. 28/38. TOP SECRET (G-2)
For Commanders only [CHEF-SACHE]
THROUGH OFFICER COURIER ONLY

Subject: Extended Case Green [GRUEN—code for Czechoslovakia.] Estimate of the Situation with Special Consideration of the Enemy.

A. Initial Political Situation:

1. The basic assumption is that France will declare war during the Case Green.

It is presumed that France will only decide upon war if active military assistance by Great Britain is definitely assured.

2. The Soviet Union will probably side immediately with the Western Powers.

3. It is not expected for the moment that other states will intervene against Germany.

The Dutch-Belgian area assumes in this connection much more importance for the prevention of the war in Western Europe than during the World War. This mainly as an advanced base for the air war.

4. The United States of America will immediately support the fight of the Western Powers with strong ideological and economic means.

5. Italy, Nationalistic-Spain, Hungary and Japan are regarded as benevolent neutrals.

B. Initial Military Situation:

1. The French-Czechoslovakian treaty provides for military assistance only in the case of an unprovoked attack. At least an agreement of the French and British views as to the legal aspect has to be achieved. If only for political reasons we have to consider the 2nd day as the earliest possible day of war on a European scale. In cast of a 24 hour ultimatum it would be the 3rd day.

2. It is further assumed that the actual commencement of hostilities will only take place after the French armed forces have been tactically deployed. That means within the fourth to eighteenth day. This to

a. use the deployment as a means of political pressure,

b. and to be able to deploy the troops undisturbed.

3. The war aim of the Entente Powers is to be considered as the overcoming of Germany through attacking its war economy. With other words through a long war.

4. The following are possible methods of operation for the French army:

a. to man and hold the Maginot-line,

b. to march into Belgium and the Netherlands at the beginning of the war with the aim of occupying the Ruhr-territory.

All suppositions support the first alternative.

5. The French Air Force will probably attack both economic and German Air Force targets as well as military and communication objectives. Thus no concentrated effect will be achieved at any one place.

6. The French Navy will probably cooperate through operations with the British sea power to supplant the North Sea blockade. The aim will be the maintenance of naval predominance in the Atlantic and the Western Mediterranean.

7. The British Air Force is assumed to be committed from English bases against the Rhine-Westphalia industrial area and the North Sea ports. Sooner or later the Belgium-Dutch neutrality will be violated.

A camouflaged aircraft reporting network in Belgium and the Netherlands has to be taken into account from the first day of the war. No transfer to France on the part of the British Air Force need be expected at the beginning of the war. Equally it is held to be out of the question for any large parts of the British armed forces to be transferred to France.

8. Provision seems to have been made for the use of North French ground organizations during the course of the war at least by part of the attacking British Air Forces.

The existence of a relatively large number of civilian airfields in Belgium and the Netherlands seem to indicate the intention of moving advanced elements of the air defenses of London (light fighters and reconnaissance aircraft) into this area after a while.

9. Thanks to the expected neutrality of Poland, the active participation of Soviet Russia will be largely restricted to the prosecution of the war in the Baltic.

Furthermore, air attacks against East Prussia and the Baltic coast are to be anticipated and occasional raids on Berlin are regarded as possible.

10. The basic assumption in respect to our own prosecution of the war is that two war plane air forces will be available in the West at the beginning of hostilities. There will be five war plane air forces in all after three to four weeks. The aim will be to bring about a decision by the defeat of the Western powers.

C. Task of the German Air Force:

The German Air Force has at present not all the forces necessary to seek a decision by attacking the enemy's war economy with the aid of the navy. The prime responsibility of the German Air Force in the present situation must be to help the armed forces immobilized opposite a fortified front to achieve operational freedom.

D. Enemy War Plane Forces:

1. The French Air Force will have on the 1st October some 640 war planes in the front line units on French home territory of which not more than 120 to 150 attain a modern standard of performance. Available reserves total about 320 obsolete war planes.

There are another 150 obsolete war planes in North Africa for use in colonial war or against Southern Italy.

It is assumed that the French home war plane units will be deployed for the most part in the known areas of Eastern France at the beginning of the war. They will be employed against various targets (air force targets, industrial and communications targets, military installations, Army targets) in the operational area as well as in depth according to the capabilities of their personnel and equipment.

Any transfer of more than insignificant forces to Czechoslovakia is regarded as outside the range of practical possibilities, as is the concentrated commitment of large formations against the armies fighting in Czechoslovakia.

2. The British war plane force will consist of some 850 war planes on October 1st of which 300 to 350 can be regarded as modern. The majority of the front line aircraft as well as some 200 to 300 reserve aircraft can be described as only conditionally serviceable in the face of modern defences.

Due to their inadequate range the present British war plane formations are not in a position to carry on a vigorous air war from their home bases only without violating sovereign Dutch or Belgian territory.

Even if Dutch and Belgian neutrality is ignored only the modern war planes need to be taken into account as a serious threat to the Ruhr.

A transfer of British Air Forces to Northern France is to be expected at the earliest, after several weeks of war.

If the French Army Command decides to march through Belgium and the Netherlands the immediate influx of British fighters into this area becomes probable.

Heavy attacks against the North Sea ports by carrier based aircraft need not be reckoned with:

a. because the equipment and training of these aircraft is designed to fit them for specific naval tasks;

b. because aircraft carriers, due to their vulnerability, will be committed in the North Sea only for very pressing reasons, which do not exist in this instance.

On the other hand occasional attacks by coastal aircraft forces against targets on the North Sea coast are feasible and probable.

E. Enemy Aircraft Industries:

1. The first aircraft put into mass production as a result of the expansion of French military aircraft industry during the years 1934 to 1938 are at present rolling off the assembly lines. At the moment the aero-engine factories are lagging behind with deliveries.

In August 1938 forty single-engined and thirty twin-engined military aircraft were delivered to the French Air Forces. It must be assumed that these figures will be increased during the coming months to 100 aircraft a month, 50 single-engined and 50 twin-engined.

A further moderate increase in production is possible and to be expected from spring 1939 on.

2. In Great Britain existing plants have been extended since 1936 with the aid of State funds and the effect on the armament situation will begin to make itself felt increasingly from 1939 on. If the present plans will be observed the program will be completely carried out by 1941.

Present production (August 1938) is estimated at some 200 aircraft of all types (commercial and military aircraft) a month. It must be noted that the import of training aircraft and long-range reconnaissance aircraft from the United States and Canada is intended.

3. North American aircraft industry (United States and Canada) is at the moment fully occupied. No notable expansion has yet taken place but is possible. A possible expansion would have no practical effects in 1939.

250 aircraft of all types (commercial and military) a month for the home and foreign market may be stated as the present production rate. Appreciably more aircraft engines are manufactured.

F. Position with regard to preparation of target data:

1. It is proposed to supply units on or before 5th October with the following target data for France:

a. Air Force (airfields, air parks and equipment depots, air force fuel dumps). About 90% of existing installations are included.

b. Fuel Supply.

100% of the refineries are included and 60% of the total storage capacity (including the above-mentioned Air Force fuel dumps).

c. Ammunition Supply.

An estimated 70% to 80% of the total productive capacity of explosive and gunpowder factories and 17 large supply dumps (main ammunition depots and ammunition depots, Army and Air Force) are included.

d. Power Supply.

All the large power plants are included.

e. Key Industries.

In particular the Paris aero-engine industry has been included.

f. Targets in the Paris area.

Further target data, particularly for essential industrial targets, are accumulating currently.

In addition, command authorities will receive maps of the tactical situation and of target groups on or before the above-mentioned date.

2. Basic target maps of British ground organization (airfields) are approximately 90% ready. They have been passed on to Air Force Group 2 for printing and for the adding of sectional excerpts of maps. They have been ordered to be ready by 15 September.

As far as essential industrial targets are concerned, work has been carried out on the food and crude oil supply systems and docks in the London and Hull areas (basic target maps, sector maps, partially covered also by aerial and ground panoramas).

These will be reproduced after the ground organization targets have been printed. They cannot be expected to be ready before 20 October.

Tactical maps and target maps of London and Hull will be issued to the command authorities prior to the end of September.

3. The basic target maps of the Air Force objectives for Belgium and the Netherlands are ready for printing. Reproduction and distribution (including sector maps) will probably be possible only during October.

4. In general it must be emphasized that, unlike Czechoslovakia, there are relatively very few aerial photographs of Western European targets available.

G. Recommendations for our own Prosecution of the Air War.

1. A negative answer must be given to the question as to whether it is appropriate to postpone the massed commitment of our striking power until the spring. The balance of force would probably have altered by that time to our disadvantage due to further progress of French and British aircraft industry and imports from North America.

2. From a climatological point of view the autumn offers our forces greater prospect of success than the enemy, due to our relatively good training in instrument flying.

3. As our forces must be regarded as small, even if we accept the figure of 5 air forces as a basis, the task can only be fulfilled by concentrated blows directed against the enemy's weakest points.

For this purpose choice of targets must be made with the greatest care and must be restricted to the decisive points.

4. As long as only 2 air forces are available prosecution of the war on the basis of gaining time is advisable. This is seen in attacks against the enemy air forces in the airfields where they are deployed in Eastern France, with a view to prevent complete aerial predominance by the enemy.

Attacks on Paris should only be carried out as a reprisal, especially as the air defences in and around Paris are strong. Such attacks must however be possible at all times.

Direct cooperation with the Army is only considered desirable if the enemy deploys or advances in such strength as to endanger the Western German fortifications by a break through or out-flanking.

Support for the Army will be supplied in this case by attacks:

a. against transports, troop concentrations and movements,

b. against enemy war planes, should these cooperate with his armed forces in great numbers.

Should there be danger of a penetration of the Western fortifications, a further measure would be to concentrate fighter forces scattered in the West on the decisive ground front.

Attacks against objectives in the British Isles are to be regarded as unjustifiable in view of the small numbers of our combat forces.

Should the enemy remain on the defensive in the ground war and withdraw with his war plane forces to the West there will be no urgent reason for us to commit our own forces. In this case it would seem better to save our forces until reinforcements arrive.

5. As soon as strong forces are freed for the prosecution of the war in the West, operations in the air must be directed without delay at reaching a decision.

It would seem possible to achieve this end by attacking:

a. fuel refineries and dumps;

b. gunpowder and high explosive factories, main ammunition depots and ammunition depots;

c. the most important parks handling imports which are also centers for the transfer and reshipment of fuel and ammunition.

Thus the enemy's fuel and ammunition supply system for his ground and air forces would be paralyzed or at least curtailed to an intolerable degree.

Assuming that the individual groups of targets are one after the other successively attacked until eliminated it would appear that by the use of 5 air forces a sufficient measure of success could be achieved to enable the Army to break through the enemy's fortified front.

No large-scale operations against targets in the British Isles could be carried out in addition to this task.

Everything should however be prepared to make reprisal attacks against London possible at any time.

Considering the strength of the air defences in and around London success in such attacks is only likely if strong forces are committed.

In addition occasional harassing attacks against targets in South and Southeast England may be worthy of consideration, particularly if the weather enforces a lull in France. A secondary aim of such attacks would be to pin down strong defence forces in Great Britain.

6. Should still stronger war plane forces—at least 3 air forces—be available after the French targets had been successfully attacked, they might be committed to advantage in attacks against the food supply of Great Britain, notably of London. It must however be emphasized that it is only regarded as possible to achieve decisive successes if considerably stronger forces are committed and if the western ports are also subjected to air attacks.

H. Requests to Armed Forces Supreme Command, Army and Navy:

1. The use of the Condor Legion against the refineries in Bordeaux and possibly against those in Marseilles would valuably supplement our attacks of the French fuel supply system.

2. The ammunition situation has to be rendered precarious for the enemy as soon as possible. Therefore the armed forces should accompany the air attacks against the ammunition supplies with synchronized offensive thrusts. Special attention should be directed towards the ammunition supplies stored in the Maginot Line itself and accessible to air attack.

3. The Navy should hamper imports through the French Atlantic ports to as great an extent as is compatible with its other tasks and the forces available. Especially for some 2-3 months at the beginning of the attack against the fuel supply of France.

4. Belgium and the Netherlands would, in German hands, represent an extraordinary advantage in the prosecution of the air war against Great Britain as well as against France. Therefore it is held to be essential to obtain the opinion of the Army as to the conditions under which an occupation of this area could be carried out and how long it would take. In this case it would be necessary to reassess the commitment against Great Britain.

Signed: For: WOLTER

1 inclosure
Distribution:
Chief of German Air Force Operations Staff
General Staff/5th Section (Draft)
1. copy with 1 inclosure
2. copy with 1 inclosure

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 376-PS

SECRET

FUEHRER'S H.Q.
29/10/40

Major (General Staff) Freiherr von Falkenstein
[Addressed to an unspecified General] "Chefsache"

In order to supplement today's telephone conversation of 10:00 A.M. I take the liberty of submitting to you a brief resume of the military questions current here for your personal information before I go on leave. Major Queisner, my deputy, is informed of the questions touched on here and can supply further information if necessary.

The exception is Gibraltar, General Warlimont having requested that all inquiries be made to him, as this territory is regarded as a particularly ticklish business.

1. At the moment no intervention in Greece is intended. Nor for the moment is anything to be undertaken with regard to Crete.

2. The question of beginning preparation in Libya in conjunction with Italy is to be examined in the light of a report by General Ritter von Thoma, which will be received during the next few days.

In the light of this report a proposal is to be submitted to the Fuehrer by Field Marshal Keitel with regard to strength required, date of offensive, etc. Field Marshal Keitel and Marshal Badoglio will then meet in mid-November and will settle details. Large-scale preparations should not be expected before then.

The Quartermaster-General (Colonel Langemeyer) has been informed by us of the necessity for timely disposal of special war material, equipment and clothing.

3. No orders respecting Case East [Fall Ost] have been given and no orders are to be expected at the moment.

At the moment the Russian action against Rumania is dismissed as a trifling matter.

Transports to Rumania are proceeding according to plan as ordered by the Fuehrer and are not to be speeded up.

4. No activity should be expected at present on the part of Spain. The conversation between the Fuehrer and Franco therefore covered only economic collaboration and long-term developments.

The Gibraltar affair should not however be lost to mind though it will have to be treated with extreme care.

The Army will shortly send a small reconnaissance staff [Erkundungsstab] to Spain where it will cooperate with Admiral Canaris: this has been authorized by the Fuehrer. The GAF will request permission to participate on its own account.

There will be further orders from the Armed Forces Supreme Command; the details requested in tele-printer message 00 926/40 are required for this purpose.

5. The Fuehrer is at present occupied with the question of the occupation of the Atlantic Islands with a view to the prosecution of war against America at a later date. Deliberations on this subject are being embarked upon here. Essential conditions are at the present:—

a. No other operational commitment,

b. Portuguese neutrality,

c. Support of France and Spain.

A brief assessment of the possibility of seizing and holding air bases and of the question of supply is needed from the GAF.

Major Queisner will fetch the documents for himself from Ic Kurferst (C. in C. GAF Rear Hq.). I would like to ask Colonel Schmidt to arrange that he be supplied with the information he desires.

6. C. in C. Armed Forces Norway has expressed fears that as a result of the Order: Armed Forces Supreme Command, Armed Forces Operations Staff/Abteilung L. No. 35 331/40 top secret and Chefsache dated 22/10/40 greater activity on the part of the British will develop against Norway, and has requested naval and air force reinforcements. The question of moving Stuka Staffeln was touched upon. I expressed my opinion that Stuka units had at present to prepare for other tasks, but would however request that the matter be further examined.

7. General von Boetticher has made repeated reference, especially in his telegram 2314 dated 26/10, to the fact that in his opinion too many details of our knowledge of American aircraft industry are being published in the German press. The matter has been discussed at Armed Forces Supreme Command. I pointed out that the matter was a specifically GAF one, but have taken the liberty of referring the matter to you on its own merits.

[Signed] Falkenstein.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 382-PS

WRITTEN STATEMENT BY
KORVETTENKAPITAN MOEHLE
DATED 19th JULY, 1945

A. Order of September, 1942

In September 1942 (I can no longer recollect the exact date), the following W/T message was given to all U-boats and operational flotillas by the Commander in Chief U-boats in officers' cypher, i.e. Top Secret:—

1. "All rescue measures such as righting of capsized life-boats, going alongside, provisioning, towing to land, etc., are absolutely forbidden and must cease.

2. Previous orders concerning the rescue and taking prisoner of masters and chief engineers remain in force since their interrogation is of the highest importance to the High Command. Boats should rescue as many as they can carry.

3. All rescue measures contradict the most primitive demands of warfare that ships and crews should be destroyed.

4. You must be hard and remember that the enemy in his bombing attacks on German towns has no consideration for women and children."

This W/T message was without any doubt sent out at the instigation of the Commander in Chief U-boats himself, i.e. Grand Admiral Doenitz. In view of my knowledge of the way in which the Staff of the Chief Command U-boats worked, I consider it quite impossible that an order of such importance could have been given without his knowledge.

I do not know whether the order was given with the concurrence or at the instigation of the Supreme Command, i.e. the Fuehrer's headquarters, or at the instigation of the Fuehrer himself after one of his many conferences with Grand Admiral Doenitz.

As Senior Officer of the 5th U-boat Flotilla, it was my duty to pass on these instructions of Commander in Chief U-boats to Commanding Officers of U-boats which were leaving on their war patrols.

So far as concerns the order itself, it undoubtedly states, and in particular for those who know the manner in which Commander in Chief U-boats is wont to give his orders, that the High Command regard it as desirable that not only ships but also their crews should be regarded as objects of attack, i.e. that they should be destroyed; at that time German propaganda was continually stressing the shortage of crews for enemy merchant ships and the consequent difficulties. I too understood this order in that way.

Had the point of view of the High Command been otherwise the order would undoubtedly have been expressed in different words. It would then only have stated that for reasons of security rescue measures were to cease and this order would have been passed as a normal secret W/T message. It was perhaps even the intention that this order could be interpreted in two ways and the reason may be that in the first place, it contravenes international laws of warfare and secondly, that it was an order which must give rise to serious conflicts of conscience in commanding officers.

It was very difficult for me as senior officer of the Flotilla to ask for clarification of this order from the Commander in Chief U-boats since while I was senior officer (15.6.41-5.5.45) I could only, owing to lack of time, visit the Commander in Chief U-boats four or five times. I could not discuss this order with officers on my staff as all messages in officers' cypher might only be received by me. I was moreover of the opinion that commanding officers who were uncertain as to the meaning of this particular point always had the opportunity (an opportunity which they often took on other points) to obtain a clear understanding of this point when they went for their instructions to the staff of Commander in Chief U-boats itself; these instructions by the staff of the Commander in Chief U-boats were for the great part given by very young officers with much more recent operational experience than I had—the officers on Commander in Chief U-boats' staff changed frequently. Generally speaking, with very few exceptions, commanding officers received their instruction from the staff of Commander in Chief U-boats after I myself had given them their instructions. Commanding officers were generally speaking in much closer personal contact with these young staff officers than they were with myself as senior officer of a purely transit flotilla. There were many commanding officers whom I only saw and got to know for a few days in Kiel while they were fitting their boats out for operations.

Having given considerable thought to the whole of this matter I now remember that during one of my visits to Commander in Chief U-boats' staff in the winter of 1942/3 or the summer '43, one of the staff officers, Korvettenkapitaen Hessler or perhaps more likely Korvettenkapitaen Kuppisch, with whom because of very close ties of friendship I used to converse intimately as long as he was Commander in Chief U-boats' staff, told me of the following occurrence (whether I broached the subject or how the matter came up I can no longer remember).

A type VII boat (500-tonner) reported in her war log that when outward bound from a base in France, she met far out in the Bay of Biscay a raft with five enemy airmen, but was not able to take them on board owing to shortage of room (she had a complement of 54 and carried full provisions for 14 weeks). The boat therefore proceeded without taking any notice of the survivors.

This action of the U-boat was vehemently denounced by the Commander in Chief U-boats' staff. It was stated that she would have acted more correctly in destroying this raft since it was highly probable that the enemy air crew would be rescued by the enemy and in the meantime might once more have destroyed a German U-boat.

This occurrence made the views of the Commander in Chief U-boats clear to me.

As concerns making the order known to commanding officers: the order was always passed on during a commanding officers' conference while their boats were having their final overhaul or while they were being fitted out in Kiel for operational patrols; during these conferences I passed on to commanding officers once again all important orders about the equipping of their boats, procedure on departure, in home waters and while in convoy to Norway. Operational orders were not given by the flotilla; they were always given by the Commander in Chief U-boats himself or by Captain U-boats West on his behalf.

I was wont to pass on this controversial and serious order with more or less the following words:—"I have now to inform you of a High Command order concerning conduct towards survivors. It is a very ticklish matter. Commander in Chief U-boats in September 1942 gave the following order in an 'officers only' signal ( ... the exact words of the order were then read out)."

Since I am myself in my innermost conscience in disagreement with this order, I was very glad that in most cases commanding officers raised no queries and I was therefore relieved of any further discussion on this point.

Sometimes however queries were raised and I was wont to answer somewhat as follows:—

"I will explain the viewpoint of the High Command, which gave this order, by reference to the following event": I then mentioned the example of the Type VII boat in the Bay of Biscay together with the explanation and viewpoint expressed to me by Commander in Chief U-boats' staff. I then went on to say, "Gentlemen, you must yourselves decide what is compatible with own consciences. The safety of your own boat must always remain your prime consideration."

Since the introduction of total underwater war ("Schnorchel"), I have in this connection in various ways further stated that commanding officers were in a much easier position in this respect since they had no occasion to surface and that the order was therefore illusory for them. They had to keep clear of everything which was not worth the firing of a torpedo.

I also remember that many commanding officers after the order of September 1942 had been read said, "That is quite clear and unequivocal however hard it may be". Had this order been given to me as a commanding officer I would have taken note of it in silence but in practice would always have been able with a clear conscience not to carry it out since I consider I would endanger my own boat by acting in this way, (i.e., by shooting at life-boats).

If therefore U-boat commanding officers state that they had received from me the order to destroy life-boats, this does not correspond with the facts, but they received from me quite insufficiently clearly expressed instructions from the High Command together with my personal views thereon.

Before the order of September 1942 was issued I never discussed this difficult question at a commanding officers' conference and the subject of conduct towards survivors was never broached.

B. Conduct Towards Neutral and Hospital Ships

On this matter, which I treated together with what has gone before, I gave commanding officers the following directions:

There was an express order of the High Command, and Commander in Chief U-boats was adamant on this point and would relentlessly pursue the breach of it by court martial (i.e., he insisted on the order being strictly obeyed), that no neutral or Red Cross ship might be molested even if the enemy misused neutral flags or the Red Cross.

The political results of sinking a neutral were much more serious than would have been the usefulness of the tonnage sunk.

I told commanding officers for their guidance in doubtful cases—in bad visibility, when neutral markings were not distinct, etc.—that it was better to allow five enemy vessels to go free than to sink one neutral.

So far as concerns the stopping and examination of neutrals, an order was made in January 1944 that in particular Spanish and Portuguese steamers in the North and Central Atlantic were to be stopped and examined for contraband and members of enemy nations of military age. I told commanding officers "Don't touch them. Stay underwater. You are endangering yourselves too much by that because you will certainly be reported by wireless and we know from experience that when such examinations are made watchfulness is liable to suffer. You are only exposing yourself to the danger of being surprised. If a ship carries neutral markings let it go by unscathed."

Objection was often made that German hospital ships had often been destroyed by the enemy, as German propaganda had stressed for years. My answer was: That does not matter, however unpleasant it may be. The order of the High Command is decisive and binding. Politics come before warfare.

C. Rendering of Reports

There was an order—I do not remember whether it was in the form of a written or verbal instruction—that no events during a war patrol which contravened established international agreements should be entered in the war log. I believe that the reason for this order was that eight copies were made of war logs and were available to many authorities; there was always the danger therefore that events of this nature would become known and it was undoubtedly undesirable for reasons of propaganda that this should be so.

Events of this nature were only to be reported if asked for when commanding officers made their personal reports; these were invariably made after every patrol to Commander in Chief U-boats or later in certain instances to Captain U-boats.

I also gave the commanding officers instructions on this point.

To conclude, I can only stress that the order of September 1942 appeared to me personally to go too far and I am in total disagreement with it at heart. As a serving officer I had however to carry out the command to pass on this order to commanding officers for their instruction.

During the long time that I was senior officer of the Flotilla no single commanding officer mentioned to me that he could not reconcile obedience to this order with his conscience and that he was therefore unable to carry it out.

An order of this nature was never given by me, i.e. on my own initiative, and could not be given by me since, had I exceeded my authority in so serious a way, I would immediately and without question have been relieved.

[signed] MOEHLE
Korvettenkapitaen

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 386-PS

Berlin, 10 Nov 1937

NOTES on the Conference in the Reichskanzlei
on 5 Nov 37 from 1615-2030 hours

Present: The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor

The Reichsminister for War, Generalfeldmarschall v. BLOMBERG

The C-in-C Army, Generaloberst Freiherr von FRITSCH

The C-in-C Navy, Generaladmiral Dr. h. c. RAEDER

The C-in-C Luftwaffe, Generaloberst GOERING

The Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs Freiherr v. NEURATH

Oberst HOSSBACH

The Fuehrer stated initially that the subject matter of today's conference was of such high importance, that its further detailed discussion would probably take place in Cabinet sessions. However, he, the Fuehrer, had decided NOT to discuss this matter in the larger circle of the Reich Cabinet, because of its importance. His subsequent statements were the result of detailed deliberations and of the experiences of his 4-1/2 years in Government; he desired to explain to those present his fundamental ideas on the possibilities and necessities of expanding our foreign policy and in the interests of a far-sighted policy he requested that his statements be looked upon in the case of his death as his last will and testament.

The Fuehrer then stated:

The aim of German policy is the security and the preservation of the nation, and its propagation. This is, consequently, a problem of space.

The German nation is composed of 85 million people, which, because of the number of individuals and the compactness of habitation, form a homogeneous European racial body which cannot be found in any other country. On the other hand, it justifies the demand for larger living space more than for any other nation. If no political body exists in space, corresponding to the German racial body, then that is the consequence of several centuries of historical development, and should this political condition continue to exist, it will represent the greatest danger to the preservation of the German nation [Volkstum] at its present high level. An arrest of the deterioration of the German element in Austria and Czechoslovakia is just as little possible as the preservation of the present state in Germany itself. Instead of growth, sterility will be introduced, and as a consequence, tensions of a social nature will appear after a number of years, because political and philosophical ideas are of a permanent nature only as long as they are able to produce the basis for the realization of the actual claim of existence of a nation. The German future is therefore dependent exclusively on the solution of the need for living space. Such a solution can be sought naturally only for a limited period, about 1-3 generations.

Before touching upon the question of solving the need for living space, it must be decided whether a solution of the German position with a good future can be attained, either by way of an autarchy or by way of an increased share in universal commerce and industry.

Autarchy: Execution will be possible only with strict National-Socialist State policy, which is the basis; assuming this can be achieved the results are as follows:

A. In the sphere of raw materials, only limited, but NOT total autarchy can be attained:

1. Wherever coal can be used for the extraction of raw materials autarchy is feasible.

2. In the case of ores the position is much more difficult. Requirements in iron and light metals can be covered by ourselves. Copper and tin, however, can NOT.

3. Cellular materials can be covered by ourselves as long as sufficient wood supplies exist. A permanent solution is not possible.

4. Edible fats—possible.

B. In the case of foods, the question of an autarchy must be answered with a definite "NO".

The general increase of living standards, compared with 30-40 years ago, brought about a simultaneous increase of the demand for an increase of personal consumption even among the producers, the farmers, themselves. The proceeds from the production increase in agriculture have been used for covering the increase in demands, therefore they represent no absolute increase in production. A further increase in production by making greater demands on the soil is not possible because it already shows signs of deterioration due to the use of artificial fertilizers, and it is therefore certain that, even with the greatest possible increase in production, participation in the world market could NOT be avoided.

The considerable expenditure of foreign currency to secure food by import, even in periods when harvests are good, increases catastrophically when the harvest is really poor. The possibility of this catastrophe increases correspondingly to the increase in population, and the annual 560,000 excess in births would bring about an increased consumption in bread, because the child is a greater bread eater than the adult.

Permanently to counter the difficulties of food supplies by lowering the standard of living and by rationalization is impossible in a continent which had developed an approximately equivalent standard of living. As the solving of the unemployment problem has brought into effect the complete power of consumption, some small corrections in our agricultural home production will be possible, but NOT a wholesale alteration of the standard of food consumption. Consequently autarchy becomes impossible, specifically in the sphere of food supplies as well as generally.

Participation in World Economy. There are limits to this which we are unable to transgress. The market fluctuations would be an obstacle to a secure foundation of the German position; international commercial agreements do NOT offer any guarantee for practical execution. It must be considered on principle that since the World War (1914-18) an industrialization has taken place in countries which formerly exported food. We live in a period of economic empires, in which the tendency to colonize again approaches the condition which originally motivated colonization; in Japan and Italy economic motives are the basis of their will to expand, the economic need will also drive Germany to it. Countries outside the great economic empires have special difficulties in expanding economically.

The upward tendency, which has been caused in world economy, due to armament competition, can never form a permanent basis for an economic settlement, and this latter is also hampered by the economic disruption caused by Bolshevism. It is a pronounced military weakness of those States who base their existence on export. As our exports and imports are carried out over those sea lanes which are ruled by Britain, it is more a question of security of transport rather than one of foreign currency, and this explains the great weakness in our food situation in wartime. The only way out, and one which may appear imaginary, is the securing of greater living space, an endeavor which at all times has been the cause of the formation of states and of movements of nations. It is explicable that this tendency finds no interest in Geneva and in satisfied States. Should the security of our food position be our foremost thought, then the space required for this can only be sought in Europe, but we will not copy liberal capitalist policies which rely on exploiting colonies. It is NOT a case of conquering people, but of conquering agriculturally useful space. It would also be more to the purpose to seek raw material producing territory in Europe directly adjoining the Reich and not overseas, and this solution would have to be brought into effect in one or two generations. What would be required at a later date over and above this must be left to subsequent generations. The development of great world-wide national bodies is naturally a slow process and the German people, with its strong racial root, has for this purpose the most favorable foundations in the heart of the European Continent. The history of all times—Roman Empire, British Empire—has proved that every space expansion can only be effected by breaking resistance and taking risks. Even setbacks are unavoidable; neither formerly nor today has space been found without an owner; the attacker always comes up against the proprietor.

The question for Germany is where the greatest possible conquest could be made at lowest cost.

German politics must reckon with its two hateful enemies, England and France, to whom a strong German colossus in the center of Europe would be intolerable. Both these states would oppose a further reinforcement of Germany, both in Europe and overseas, and in this opposition they would have the support of all parties. Both countries would view the building of German military strongpoints overseas as a threat to their overseas communications, as a security measure for German commerce, and retrospectively a strengthening of the German position in Europe.

England is NOT in a position to cede any of her colonial possessions to us owing to the resistance which she experiences in the Dominions. After the loss of prestige which England has suffered owing to the transfer of Abyssinia to Italian ownership, a return of East Africa can no longer be expected. Any resistance on England's part would at best consist in the readiness to satisfy our colonial claims by taking away colonies which at the present moment are NOT in British hands, e.g. Angola. French favors would probably be of the same nature.

A serious discussion regarding the return of colonies to us could be considered only at a time when England is in a state of emergency and the German Reich is strong and well-armed. The Fuehrer does not share the opinion that the Empire is unshakable. Resistance against the Empire is to be found less in conquered territories than amongst its competitors. The British Empire and the Roman Empire cannot be compared with one another in regard to durability; since the Punic Wars the latter did not have a serious political enemy. Only the dissolving effects which originated in Christendom, and the signs of age which creep into all states, made it possible for the Ancient Germans to subjugate Ancient Rome.

Alongside the British Empire today a number of States exist which are stronger than it. The British Mother Country is able to defend its colonial possessions only allied with other States and NOT by its own power. How could England alone, for example, defend Canada against an attack by America or its Far Eastern interests against an attack by Japan.

The singling out of the British Crown as the bearer of Empire unity is in itself an admission that the universal empire cannot be maintained permanently by power politics. The following are significant pointers in this respect.

a. Ireland's tendency for independence.

b. Constitutional disputes in India where England, by her half-measures, left the door open for Indians at a later date to utilize the nonfulfillment of constitutional promises as a weapon against Britain.

c. The weakening of the British position in the Far East by Japan.

d. The opposition in the Mediterranean to Italy which—by virtue of its history, driven by necessity and led by a genius—expands its power position and must consequently infringe British interests to an increasing extent. The outcome of the Abyssinian War is a loss of prestige for Britain which Italy is endeavoring to increase by stirring up discontent in the Mohammedan world.

It must be established in conclusion that the Empire cannot be held permanently by power politics by 45 million Britons, in spite of all the solidity of her ideals. The proportion of the populations in the Empire, compared with that of the Motherland is 9:1, and it should act as a warning to us that if we expand in space, we must NOT allow the level of our population to become too low.

France's position is more favorable than that of England. The French Empire is better placed geographically, the population of its colonial possessions represents a potential military increase. But France is faced with difficulties of internal politics. At the present time only 10 per cent approximately of the nations have parliamentary governments whereas 90 per cent of them have totalitarian governments. Nevertheless we have to take the following into our political considerations as power factors:

Britain, France, Russia and the adjoining smaller States.

The German question can be solved only by way of force, and this is never without risk. The battles of Frederick the Great for Silesia, and Bismarck's wars against Austria and France had been a tremendous risk and the speed of Prussian action in 1870 had prevented Austria from participating in the war. If we place the decision to apply force with risk at the head of the following expositions, then we are left to reply to the questions "when" and "how". In this regard we have to decide upon three different cases.

Case 1. Period 1943-45. After this we can only expect a change for the worse. The re-arming of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, as well as the formation of the Officers' Corps, are practically concluded. Our material equipment and armaments are modern, with further delay the danger of their becoming out-of-date will increase. In particular the secrecy of "special weapons" cannot always be safeguarded. Enlistment of reserves would be limited to the current recruiting age groups and an addition from older untrained groups would be no longer available.

In comparison with the re-armament, which will have been carried out at that time by the other nations, we shall decrease in relative power. Should we not act until 1943/45, then, dependent on the absence of reserves, any year could bring about the food crisis, for the countering of which we do NOT possess the necessary foreign currency. This must be considered as a "point of weakness in the regime". Over and above that, the world will anticipate our action and will increase counter-measures yearly. Whilst other nations isolate themselves we should be forced on the offensive.

What the actual position would be in the years 1943-1945 no one knows today. It is certain, however, that we can wait no longer.

On the one side the large armed forces, with the necessity for securing their upkeep, the aging of the Nazi movement and of its leaders, and on the other side the prospect of a lowering of the standard of living and a drop in the birth rate, leaves us no other choice than to act. If the Fuehrer is still living, then it will be his irrevocable decision to solve the German space problem no later than 1943-45. The necessity for action before 1943-45 will come under consideration in cases 2 and 3.

Case 2. Should the social tensions in France lead to an internal political crisis of such dimensions that it absorbs the French Army and thus renders it incapable for employment in war against Germany, then the time for action against Czechoslovakia has come.

Case 3. It would be equally possible to act against Czechoslovakia if France should be so tied up by a war against another State, that it cannot "proceed" against Germany.

For the improvement of our military political position it must be our first aim, in every case of entanglement by war, to conquer Czechoslovakia and Austria simultaneously, in order to remove any threat from the flanks in case of a possible advance Westwards. In the case of a conflict with France it would hardly be necessary to assume that Czechoslovakia would declare war on the same day as France. However, Czechoslovakia's desire to participate in the war will increase proportionally to the degree to which we are being weakened. Its actual participation could make itself felt by an attack on Silesia, either towards the North or the West.

Once Czechoslovakia is conquered—and a mutual frontier, Germany-Hungary is obtained—then a neutral attitude by Poland in a German-French conflict could more easily be relied upon. Our agreements with Poland remain valid only as long as Germany's strength remains unshakeable; should Germany have any setbacks then an attack by Poland against East Prussia, perhaps also against Pomerania, and Silesia, must be taken into account.

Assuming a development of the situation, which would lead to a planned attack on our part in the years 1943-45, then the behavior of France, Poland and Russia would probably have to be judged in the following manner:

The Fuehrer believes personally that in all probability England and perhaps also France have already silently written off Czechoslovakia, and that they have got used to the idea that this question would one day be cleaned up by Germany. The difficulties in the British Empire and the prospect of being entangled in another long-drawn-out European War, were decisive factors in the non-participation of England in a war against Germany. The British attitude would certainly NOT remain without influence on France's attitude. An attack by France without British support is hardly probable assuming that its offensive would stagnate along our Western fortifications. Without England's support, it would also NOT be necessary to take into consideration a march by France through Belgium and Holland, and this would also not have to be reckoned with by us in case of a conflict with France, as in every case it would have as consequence the enmity of Great Britain. Naturally, we should in every case have to bar our frontier during the operation of our attacks against Czechoslovakia and Austria. It must be taken into consideration here that Czechoslovakia's defence measures will increase in strength from year to year, and that a consolidation of the inside values of the Austrian army will also be effected in the course of years. Although the population of Czechoslovakia in the first place is not a thin one, the embodiment of Czechoslovakia and Austria would nevertheless constitute the conquest of food for 5-6 million people, on the basis that a compulsory emigration of 2 million from Czechoslovakia and of 1 million from Austria could be carried out. The annexation of the two States to Germany militarily and politically would constitute a considerable relief, owing to shorter and better frontiers, the freeing of fighting personnel for other purposes and the possibility of re-constituting new armies up to a strength of about 12 Divisions, representing a new division per 1 million population.

No opposition to the removal of Czechoslovakia is expected on the part of Italy; however, it cannot be judged today what would be her attitude in the Austrian question since it would depend largely on whether the Duce were alive at the time or not.

The measure and speed of our action would decide Poland's attitude. Poland will have little inclination to enter the war against a victorious Germany, with Russia in its rear.

Military participation by Russia must be countered by the speed of our operations; it is a question whether this need be taken into consideration at all in view of Japan's attitude.

Should Case 2 occur—paralyzation of France by a Civil War—then the situation should be utilized at any time for operations against Czechoslovakia, as Germany's most dangerous enemy would be eliminated.

The Fuehrer sees Case 3 looming nearer; it could develop from the existing tensions in the Mediterranean, and should it occur he has firmly decided to make use of it any time, perhaps even as early as 1938.

Following recent experiences in the course of the events of the war in Spain, the Fuehrer does NOT see an early end to hostilities there. Taking into consideration the time required for past offensives by Franco, a further three years duration of war is within the bounds of possibility. On the other hand, from the German point of view a 100 per cent victory by Franco is not desirable; we are more interested in a continuation of the war and preservation of the tensions in the Mediterranean. Should Franco be in sole possession of the Spanish Peninsula it would mean the end of Italian intervention and the presence of Italy on the Balearic Isles. As our interests are directed towards continuing the war in Spain, it must be the task of our future policy to strengthen Italy in her fight to hold on to the Balearic Isles. However, a solidification of Italian positions on the Balearic Isles can NOT be tolerated either by France or by England and could lead to a war by France and England against Italy, in which case Spain, if entirely in white (i.e. Franco's) hands, could participate on the side of Italy's enemies. A subjugation of Italy in such a war appears very unlikely. Additional raw materials could be brought to Italy via Germany. The Fuehrer believes that Italy's military strategy would be to remain on the defensive against France on the Western frontier and carry out operations against France from Libya against North African French colonial possessions.

As a landing of French-British troops on the Italian coast can be discounted, and as a French offensive via the Alps to Upper Italy would be extremely difficult and would probably stagnate before the strong Italian fortifications, French lines of communication by the Italian fleet will to a great extent paralyze the transport of fighting personnel from North Africa to France, so that at its frontiers with Italy and Germany France will have at its disposal solely the metropolitan fighting forces.

If Germany profits from this war by disposing of the Czechoslovakian and the Austrian questions, the probability must be assumed that England—being at war with Italy—would not decide to commence operations against Germany. Without British support a warlike action by France against Germany is not to be anticipated.

The date of our attack on Czechoslovakia and Austria must be made dependent on the course of the Italian-English-French war and would not be simultaneous with the commencement of military agreements with Italy, but of full independence and, by exploiting this unique favorable opportunity he wishes to begin to carry out operations against Czechoslovakia. The attack on Czechoslovakia would have to take place with the "speed of lightning" [blitzartig schnell].

Feldmarschall von Blomberg and Generaloberst von Fritsch in giving their estimate on the situation, repeatedly pointed out that England and France must not appear as our enemies, and they stated that the war with Italy would NOT bind the French army to such an extent that it would NOT be in a position to commence operations on our Western frontier with superior forces. Generaloberst von Fritsch estimated the French forces which would presumably be employed on the Alpine frontier against Italy to be in the region of 20 divisions, so that a strong French superiority would still remain on our Western frontier. The French would, according to German reasoning, attempt to advance into the Rhineland. We should consider the lead which France has got in mobilization, and quite apart from the very small value of our then existing fortifications—which was pointed out particularly by Generalfeldmarschall von Blomberg—the four motorized divisions which had been laid down for the West would be more or less incapable of movement. With regard to our offensive in a South-Easterly direction, Feldmarschall von Blomberg draws special attention to the strength of the Czechoslovakian fortifications, the building of which had assumed the character of a Maginot line and which would present extreme difficulties to our attack.

Generaloberst von Fritsch mentioned that it was the purpose of a study which he had laid on for this winter to investigate the possibilities of carrying out operations against Czechoslovakia with special consideration of the conquest of the Czechoslovakian system of fortifications; the Generaloberst also stated that owing to the prevailing conditions he would have to relinquish his leave abroad, which was to begin on 10 November. This intention was countermanded by the Fuehrer who gave as a reason that the possibility of the conflict was not to be regarded as being so imminent. In reply to the remark by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, that an Italian-English-French conflict be not as near as the Fuehrer appeared to assume, the Fuehrer stated that the date which appeared to him to be a possibility was summer 1938. In reply to statements by Generalfeldmarschall von Blomberg and Generaloberst von Fritsch regarding England and France's attitude, the Fuehrer repeated his previous statements and said that he was convinced of Britain's non-participation and that consequently he did not believe in military action by France against Germany. Should the Mediterranean conflict already mentioned lead to a general mobilization in Europe, then we should have to commence operations against Czechoslovakia immediately. If, however, the powers who are not participating in the war should declare their disinterestedness, then Germany would, for the time being, have to side with this attitude.

In view of the information given by the Fuehrer, Generaloberst Goering considered it imperative to think of a reduction or abandonment of our military undertaking in Spain. The Fuehrer agreed to this in so far as he believed this decision should be postponed for a suitable date.

The second part of the discussion concerned material armament questions.

(Signed) HOSSBACH

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 388-PS

APPERTAINING TO WAR HISTORY

[pencil note]

S.O. Only

"FALL GRUEN"

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

[ITEM 1] [Handwritten notes]
* * * of the Fuehrer: [semi-illegible]

1. Does Mussolini regard his work as completed or not.

a. if so, close future boundary of Czechoslovakia, West; then wait and see. "Return with the bag empty."

b. if not, then the "Empire" of Africa. Impossible without German help. Czechoslovakia is a preliminary condition. "Return with Czechoslovakia in the bag."

2. Mussolini, who is no illusionist, can definitely assess Germany's military potentialities. Therefore he will suit timing of his aims with that.

3. Against France and England problem of Czechoslovakia can be settled only if still allied with Italy. France and England will not intervene. (Only to overcome the four-week re-grouping period.)

4. Living under a common fate. (Example, 1805 and 1806)

5. State of Armament: comparisons relative but in our favor:

a. Deliveries of ores: France—600,000 tons; Germany—2 million tons.

b. Britain has been arming for 9 months. Launchings not for 2 years.

c. Out of date air force equipment.

6. No general staff conferences of the various branches of the Armed Forces. Would have to retract permission to the Army. Only through Supreme Command. Very important that actual intentions be kept secret.

7. Arming progressing too slowly: Guns not only for constituted units, but also in reserve for replacement. Fortifications. Range of guns.

8. Replacement of officers doubtful.

Schm
[Major Schmundt's writing and initialled by him]

[ITEM 2] [Typed notes]
S.O. Only
Berlin, 22 April 1938

BASES OF THE DISSERTATION ON "GRUEN"

Summary of discussion between Fuehrer and General Keitel of 21 April:

A. Political Aspect

1. Strategic surprise attack out of a clear sky without any cause or possibility of justification has been turned down. As result would be: hostile world opinion which can lead to a critical situation. Such a measure is justified only for the elimination of the last opponent on the mainland.

2. Action after a time of diplomatic clashes, which gradually come to a crisis and lead to war.

3. Lightning-swift action as the result of an incident (e.g. assassination of German ambassador in connection with an anti-German demonstration).

B. Military Conclusions

1. The preparations are to be made for the political possibilities 2 and 3. Case 2 is the undesired one since "Gruen" will have taken security measures.

2. The loss of time caused by transporting the bulk of the divisions by rail—which is unavoidable but should be cut down as far as possible—must not impede a lightning-swift blow at the time of the action.

3. "Separate thrusts" are to be carried out immediately with a view to penetrating the enemy fortification lines at numerous points and in a strategically favorable direction. The thrusts are to be worked out to the smallest detail (knowledge of roads, of targets, composition of the columns according to their individual tasks). Simultaneous attacks by the Army and Air Force.

The Air Force is to support the individual columns, (e.g. dive-bombers: sealing off installations at penetration points, hampering the bringing up of reserves, destroying signal communications traffic, thereby isolating the garrisons.)

4. Politically, the first 4 days of military action are the decisive ones. If there are no effective military successes, a European crisis will certainly arise. Accomplished facts must prove the senselessness of foreign military intervention, draw Allies into the scheme (division of spoils!) and demoralize "Gruen".

Therefore: bridging the time gap between first penetration and employment of the forces to be brought up, by a determined and ruthless thrust by a motorized army. (e.g. via Pi past Pr) [Pilsen, Prague],

5. If possible, separation of transport movement "Rot" from "Gruen". A simultaneous strategic concentration "Rot" can lead "Rot" to undesired measures. On the other hand it must be possible to put "Fall Rot" into operation at any time.

C. Propaganda

1. Leaflets on the conduct of Germans in Czechoslovakia (Gruenland).

2. Leaflets with threats for intimidation of the Czechs (Gruenen).

Schm
[initialled by Schmundt]

Written by an officer
[The following are handwritten notes]

22 April

A. POLITICAL POSSIBILITIES

1. Sudden surprise attack out of clear sky not possible. World opinion can produce critical situation. Would be thinkable only for ultimate conflict without the threat of other opponents.

2. Action after a period of tension and constant aggravation of the situation.

3. Action as the result of an incident. (example)

B. MILITARY NECESSITIES

Cases 2 and 3 can be considered. In case 2 "security measures" will be taken. Duration of transporting by rail to be looked into.

1. Invasion by columns ready to march at points which lie in a direction, strategically important. (Permanent fortifications must be known, columns assembled to suit particular situations, roads reconnoitred.) Simultaneous attack by Luftwaffe, cooperation with Luftwaffe, isolation of garrisons of the fortifications, cutting of communications.

2. "Dead Space" in first 4 days prior to actual operation must be avoided under all circumstances. Must be bridged through motorized army. Penetrating via Pilsen. Hamper mobilization.

3. Separation of transport movement "Rot" and "Gruen",

a. in order not to aggravate "Rot",

b. but also so as not to arrive late, if necessary.

Basic Principle: Create Accomplished Facts so that

a. help comes too late—other powers do not intervene

b. Allies take part (like wolves also want something out of it)

c. State collapse from within.

Propaganda: Directions to Germans. Threats to others.

Submit:

1. Fortifications (strength in detail)

2. Distribution of nationalities within Wehrmacht.

[ITEM 3] [Four Telegrams]

MOS 1 16/5 0925— Supreme Command of the Armed Forces ZEITZLER Most Secret—1. Which divisions on the "Gruen" frontiers ready to march within 12 hours, in the case of mobilization? 2. What is the final day of mobilization?

SCHMUNDT
MOS 1 1930 MELDAU MBZ

[the same also in Schmundt's handwriting]

MOS No. 2 1115—
MBZ 02 16/5 1114—
Major Schmundt, Armed Forces Adjutant to the Fuehrer—
Most Secret to Question 1, 12 of them—in garrisons
to Question 2, Third day—Please state time of
receipt. Teleprint left my room at 1110—NN.
ZEITZLER Oberstleutnant on the General Staff

MOS 03 16/5 1155
OKW for Oberstleutnant Zeitzler—Most Secret
1. Teleprint received 1115
2. Please send the numbers of the divisions.
Schmundt
1159 MOS 03 Wagner (?)
[the same also in Schmundt's handwriting]

MBZ 04 16/5 1302—

Major Schmundt Armed Forces Adjutant to the Fuehrer—

Most Secret to message 1155 7, 17, 10, 24, 4, 14, 3, 18, 28, 8, armored and mountain.

Zeitzler Oberstleutnant on the General Staff.

[ITEM 4] [Telegram]
MBZ 05 17/5 1505

TO MAJOR SCHMUNDT, ARMED FORCES ADJUTANT TO THE FUEHRER—MOST SECRET

IN ANSWER TO OBERST LEUTNANT ZEITZLER AND WITH REGARD TO MAP OF FORTIFICATIONS:

FORTIFIED CONSTRUCTION CONSISTS OF FAIRLY LARGE NUMBER OF STEEL AND CONCRETE FORTIFICATIONS AS WELL AS LIGHT, MEDIUM AND HEAVY MG EMPLACEMENTS TO CLOSE GAPS BETWEEN FORTIFICATIONS. NUMBER OF STEEL AND CONCRETE FORTIFICATIONS VARIES FROM ONE TO NINE PER KILOMETER. POSITIONS CONSTRUCTED CONSIST OF LIGHT, MEDIUM AND HEAVY MG EMPLACEMENTS AND AN OCCASIONAL STEEL AND CONCRETE FORTIFICATION IN BETWEEN. NUMBER OF MG EMPLACEMENTS VARIES FROM TWO TO NINE PER KILOMETER. BLOCK CONSTRUCTION CONSISTS OF LIGHT, SOMETIMES MEDIUM AND HEAVY MG EMPLACEMENTS AT MAIN ROADS AND THOROUGHFARES. DEFENSIVE POTENTIALITIES: STEEL AND CONCRETE FORTIFICATIONS BULLET PROOF AGAINST ALL KNOWN CALIBRES. LIGHT MG EMPLACEMENTS BULLET PROOF AGAINST ALL CALIBRES UP TO 10.5 CM., MEDIUM MG EMPLACEMENTS BULLET PROOF AGAINST CALIBRES UP TO 10.5 CM., HEAVY MG EMPLACEMENT BULLET PROOF AGAINST CALIBRES UP TO 21.00 CM., SOMETIMES AGAINST THE LARGEST CALIBRES.

ZEITZLER OBERSTLEUTNANT ON THE GENERAL STAFF

[ITEM 5] [Covering letter, with draft for Gruen attached]

MOST SECRET

Berlin, 20 May 1938
Tirpitzufer 72.76

Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
L Ia No. 38/38 S.O. Only

S.O. Only
access only through Officer

Schm [initialled by Schmundt]

My Fuehrer!

Effective 1 October 1938 (beginning of the new mobilization year for the army) new strategic directives must be issued, whose political bases and stipulations you, my Fuehrer, yourself intend to make.

For the meantime, however, it is necessary that the "Gruen" section of the strategic directives be replaced by a new version that takes into account the situation which has arisen as a result of the incorporation of Austria into the Reich and the newly-suspected intentions of the Czech General Staff.

A draft of this kind is attached. It has not yet been discussed with the Commanders in Chief. I intend to do this only after this draft in its fundamental ideas has been approved by you my Fuehrer, so that it can then be resubmitted to be signed.

Heil, my Fuehrer
[signed] Keitel

L Ia to No. 38/38 S.O. Only

written by an officer
MOST SECRET
S.O. Only
access only through officer

Berlin, 20 May 1938

DRAFT for THE NEW DIRECTIVE "GRUEN"

3 Copies
1st Copy
(Provisional)-[pencil note]

1. Political Prerequisites: It is not my intention to smash Czechoslovakia without provocation, in the near future through military action. Therefore inevitable political developments within Czechoslovakia must force the issue, or political events in Europe create an especially favorable opportunity and one which may never come again.

2. Political Possibilities for the Commencement of the Action: An invasion without suitable obvious cause and without sufficient political justification cannot be considered with reference to the possible consequences of such an action in the present situation.

Rather will the action be initiated either:

a. after a period of increasing diplomatic clashes and tension, which is coupled with military preparations and is made use of to push the war-guilt onto the enemy. Even such a period of tension preceding the war however will terminate in sudden military action on our part, which must come with all possible surprise as to time and extent, or

b. by lightning-swift action as a result of a serious incident, through which Germany is provoked in an unbearable way and for which at least part of the world opinion will grant the moral justification of military action.

"b" is militarily and politically the more favorable.

3. Conclusions for the Preparations of "Fall Gruen"; which must take into account the possibilities mentioned in 2 a and 2 b.

a. For Armed War it is essential to create—already in the first 4 days—a military situation which plainly proves to hostile nations eager to intervene, the hopelessness of the Czechoslovakian military situation, and gives the nations with territorial claims on Czechoslovakia an incentive to immediate intervention against Czechoslovakia. In such a case the intervention of Poland and Hungary against Czechoslovakia can be expected, especially if France, due to Italy's clearly pro-German attitude fears, or at least hesitates, to unleash a European war by her intervention against Germany.

It is very probable that attempts by Russia to give military support to Czechoslovakia are to be expected. If concrete successes are not achieved as a result of the ground operations during the first few days, a European crisis will certainly arise.

b. The Propaganda War must, on one hand, intimidate Czechoslovakia by threats and reduce her power of resistance, on the other hand, give instructions to the national minorities for supporting the Armed War and influence the neutrals into our way of thinking.

c. The Economic War has the task of employing all means at the disposal of economy to hasten the final collapse of Czechoslovakia.

The opening of the Economic and Propaganda war can precede the Armed war. I myself will determine the date.

Z
[initialled at end by Zeitzler]

[Paragraphs 4, 5, and 6 of this draft are set forth with minor changes under ITEM 11.]

[ITEM 6] [Typescript]

Questions on "Gruen"

1. Peace-time strength of divisions prepared for march readiness.

2. Strength of mobile divisions.

3. Composition of 2nd Armored Division in the case of mobilization.

4. Strength, possibilities and composition of a motorized unit (motorized divisions) to be used for independent thrust.

5. When can the field units be equipped with 15 cm. mortars?

6. What calibres and how large a number of artillery pieces are available for combating fortifications such as fortresses?

MOST SECRET

L Ia

Berlin, 23 May

Questionnaire of 23 May

1. Peace-time strength of divisions prepared for march readiness.

Strength of a peacetime division 14,000 men
Strength of a division made ready to march 14,000 men

(but composition is different from that of a peacetime division, i.e. some men are left out and others included).

2. Strength of mobile divisions.

Strength of a mobile division 17,000 men

3. Composition of the 2nd Armored Division in the case of Mobilization. In the case of mobilization the 2nd Armored Division is composed of 1 rifle brigade, one tank brigade and divisional troops.

The rifle brigade has one Infantry regiment motorized of 2 battalions and one motorcycle rifle battalion.

The tank brigade has two tank regiments of two battalions.

The Divisional Troops will include 1 Artillery Regiment motorized of 2 light Battalions, 1 Reconnaissance Battalion motorized, 1 Anti-Tank Battalion, 1 Engineer Battalion motorized, and 1 Signal Battalion motorized.

Altogether the 2nd Armored Division (mobile) has 807 light Machine guns, 250 heavy Machine guns, 18 light mortars, 12 heavy mortars, 8 light Infantry howitzers, 48 Anti-Tank guns, 122 2 cm. guns, 16 37 cm. guns, 16 7.5 cm. guns and 24 light field howitzers.

4. Strength, possibilities and composition of a motorized unit (motorized divisions) for independent thrust. In the case of mobilization, C-in-C Army is in command of the motorized units. C-in-C Army must therefore be questioned as regards any new employment.

Altogether the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions (rapid march readiness is intended) 4 motorized divisions and the light division (for the moment not yet intended for rapid march readiness; presumably from 1 October).

5. When can the field units be equipped with 15 cm. mortars? Mobilization of the infantry guns (= 15 cm. mortars) planned only for the fall, as ammunition for them will only then be available. For training purposes nearly all corps except the 3 corps have the heavy infantry guns at the moment without live ammunition, however.

6. What calibres and how large a number of artillery pieces are available for combatting fortifications such as fortresses? Only 21 cm. howitzers. Altogether 23 (of which 8 are in East Prussia) with 16,000 rounds (of which 4,000 in East Prussia).

[In Schmundt writing]: In general, single experimental artillery piece (guns).

Z
[Initialled by Zeitzler]

[On next page the questions are put again, plus the following additional questions:]

7. What do the individual types of Czechoslovakian permanent frontier fortifications look like? Profile?

8. Is cooperation between infantry and bombers assured for attacks against enemy strong points etc.?

9. Can the construction of fortifications in the West, in the form of MG strong points and road blocks, be hastened by the employment of work columns of the Inspector of Road Construction?

10. What progress has been made in the howitzer (Moerser) programme? What progress has been made in the conversion of heavy naval guns?

[Next three pages contain the first 6 questions above and answers to them in a teleprint message, beginning: "I am answering several questions which the Fuehrer put to me during conferences. I request that you report the answers to the Fuehrer."]

[ITEM 8] [Telegram]

1. INFORM GENERAL KEITEL: THE FUEHRER IS GOING INTO "GRUEN" IN DETAIL. BASIC IDEAS NOT CHANGED. SURPRISE ELEMENT TO BE EMPHASIZED MORE. CONFERENCE WITH PARTICIPANTS WILL TAKE PLACE AFTER RETURN, AT THE LATEST. CONFERENCE HERE NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION. RETURN PROBABLY BEGINNING NEXT WEEK.

2. INFORM COLONEL GENERAL VON BRAUCHITSCH AND GENERAL KEITEL:

A. THE FUEHRER, IN CONNECTION WITH HIS CONSIDERATIONS ON 1, HIMSELF SUGGESTED THE HOLDING OF MANEUVERS TO PRACTISE TAKING FORTIFICATIONS BY SURPRISE ATTACK. I THEN REPORTED THAT C-IN-C ARMY WAS PLANNING A CORRESPONDING TRAINING EXERCISE FOR SEPTEMBER. THE FUEHRER THINKS THAT MOMENT TOO LATE. HE HIMSELF WILL DISCUSS THIS WITH C-IN-C ARMY.

B. THE FUEHRER REPEATEDLY EMPHASIZED THE NECESSITY OF PRESSING FORWARD GREATLY THE FORTIFICATION WORK IN THE WEST.

(NOTE FOR K. KPT. V PUTTKAMER: PLEASE DESTROY TEXT OF 1 AND 2 AFTER USE)

[ITEM 9] [Telegram]
REICH WAR MINISTRY/NAVAL SIGNAL SERVICE

MOST SECRET

CANARIS REPORTS ON EVENTS OF THE NIGHT: NO SPECIAL OCCURRENCES. THE MOBILIZATION MEASURES ORDERED IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA CONTINUE. THE FOLLOWING HAVE BEEN DRAFTED: CLASSES 1913 AND 1914 COMPLETE AND SPECIALISTS ONLY FROM CLASSES 1894 TO 1911 LEAVING OUT CLASSES 04, 06, 09. I SHALL KEEP YOU FURTHER CONTINUALLY INFORMED. I CONSIDER IT NECESSARY THAT THE FUEHRER INFORM HIS C'S-IN-C OF HIS INTENTIONS SOON. HAVE YOU ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS?

[ITEM 10] [Handwritten notes]

[ILLEGIBLE]

[ITEM 11] [Covering letter, with directive for Gruen attached]
Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
OKW No. 42/38 Most Secret S.O. Only L I
Berlin, 30 May 1938

Copy of the 4th Copy
S.O. Only
Access only through Officer

3 Copies, 1st Copy
Written by an Officer

By order of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Part 2, Section II of the directive on the unified preparations for war of the Armed Forces dated 24 June 1937 (Ob.d.W. No. 55/37 g.kdos Chefsache L Ia) ("Two-Front-War with main effort in the South-East—strategic concentration 'Gruen'") is to be replaced by the attached version. Its execution must be assured as from 1 October 38 at the latest.

Alterations in the other parts of the directive must be expected during the next few weeks.

By order

Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
1 Appendix

sgd. Keitel

To: C-in-C Army—Copy 1
C-in-C Navy—Copy 2
C-in-C Air Force—Copy 3
OWK Section L—Copy 4-5

Certified a true copy
Zeitzler
Oberstleutnant on the General Staff

MOST SECRET

Appendix to: Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces OKW No. 42/38 Most Secret S.O. Only L Ia dated 30.5.38.

Copy of the 4th Copy

S.O. Only

Access only through Officer

Written by an Officer 3 Copies, 1st Copy

II. Two front war with main effort in the South East
(strategic concentration "Gruen")

1. Political Prerequisites. It is my unalterable decision to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future. It is the job of the political leaders to await or bring about the politically and militarily suitable moment.

An inevitable development of conditions inside Czechoslovakia or other political events in Europe creating a surprisingly favorable opportunity and one which may never come again may cause me to take early action.

The proper choice and determined and full utilization of a favorable moment is the surest guarantee of success. Accordingly the preparations are to be made at once.

2. Political Possibilities for the Commencement of the Action. The following are necessary prerequisites for the intended invasion:

a. suitable obvious cause and, with it

b. sufficient political justification,

c. action unexpected by the enemy, which will find him prepared to the least possible degree.

From a military as well as a political standpoint the most favorable course is a lightning-swift action as the result of an incident through which Germany is provoked in an unbearable way for which at least part of world opinion will grant the moral justification of military action.

But even a period of tension, more or less preceding a war, must terminate in sudden action on our part—which must have the elements of surprise as regards time and extent—before the enemy is so advanced in military preparedness that he cannot be surpassed.

3. Conclusions for the Preparation of "Fall Gruen".

a. For the Armed War it is essential that the surprise element as the most important factor contributing to success be made full use of by appropriate preparatory measures, already in peacetime and by an unexpectedly rapid course of the action. Thus it is essential to create a situation within the first four days which plainly demonstrates, to hostile nations eager to intervene, the hopelessness of the Czechoslovakian military situation and which at the same time will give nations with territorial claims on Czechoslovakia an incentive to intervene immediately against Czechoslovakia. In such a case, intervention by Poland and Hungary against Czechoslovakia may be expected, especially if France—due to the obvious pro-German attitude of Italy—fears, or at least hesitates, to unleash a European war by intervening against Germany. Attempts by Russia to give military support to Czechoslovakia mainly by the Air Force are to be expected. If concrete successes are not achieved by the land operations within the first few days, a European crisis will certainly result. This knowledge must give commanders of all ranks the impetus to decided and bold action.

b. The Propaganda War must on the one hand intimidate Czechoslovakia by threats and soften her power of resistance, on the other hand issue directions to national groups for support in the Armed War and influence the neutrals into our way of thinking. I reserve further directions and determination of the date.

4. Tasks of the Armed Forces. Armed Forces Preparations are to be made on the following basis:

a. The mass of all forces must be employed against Czechoslovakia.

b. For the West, a minimum of forces are to be provided as rear cover which may be required, the other frontiers in the East against Poland and Lithuania are merely to be protected, the Southern frontiers to be watched.

c. The sections of the army which can be rapidly employed must force the frontier fortifications with speed and decision and must break into Czechoslovakia with the greatest daring in the certainty that the bulk of the mobile army will follow them with the utmost speed. Preparations for this are to be made and timed in such a way that the sections of the army which can be rapidly employed cross the frontier at the appointed time at the same time as the penetration by the Air Force *before the enemy can become aware of our mobilization.*

* For this, a timetable between Army and Air Force is to be worked out in conjunction with the OKW and submitted to me for approval.*

5. Missions for the branches of the Armed Forces.

a. Army. The basic principle of the surprise attack against Czechoslovakia must not be endangered by the inevitable time required for transporting the bulk of the field forces by rail nor the initiative of the Air Force be wasted. Therefore it is first of all essential to the army that as many assault columns as possible be employed at the same time as the surprise attack by the Air Force. These assault columns—the composition of each, according to their tasks at that time—must be formed with troops which can be employed rapidly owing to their proximity to the frontier or to motorization and to special measures of readiness. It must be the purpose of these thrusts to break into the Czechoslovakian fortification lines at numerous points and in a strategically favorable direction, to achieve a breakthrough or to break them down from the rear. For the success of this operation, cooperation with the Sudeten German frontier population, with deserters from the Czechoslovakian army, with parachutists or airborne troops and with units of the sabotage service will be of importance. The bulk of the army has the task of * frustrating the Czechoslovakian plan of defense, of preventing the Czechoslovakian army from escaping into Slovakia, of forcing a battle,* of beating the Czechoslovakian army and of occupying Bohemia and Moravia speedily. To this end a thrust into the heart of Czechoslovakia must be made with the strongest possible motorized and armored units using to the full the first successes of the Assault columns and the effects of the Air Force operations. The rear cover provided for the West must be limited in numbers and quality to the extent which suits the present state of fortifications. Whether the units assigned this will be transported to the Western frontier immediately or held back for the time being will be decided in my special order. Preparations must however, be made to enable security detachments to be brought up to the Western frontier even during the strategic concentration "Gruen". Independent of this, a first security garrison must be improvized from the engineers at present employed in constructing fortifications and from formations of the Labor Corps. The remaining frontiers, as well as East Prussia, are to be weakly protected. But, always depending on the political situation, the transfers by sea, of a part or even the bulk of the active forces of East Prussia, into the Reich must be taken into account.

[*—* Passages between asterisks represent additions to the version in Item 5]

b. Air Force. While leaving a minimum of defensive forces in the West, the Air Force is to be employed in bulk in a surprise attack against Czechoslovakia. The frontier is to be flown over at the same time as it is crossed by the first section of the army. (see 5a) The most important task of the Air Force is the destruction of the Czechoslovakian Air Force and their supply bases within the shortest possible time, in order to eliminate the possibility of its employment as well as that of Russian and French air forces, should the occasion arise, against the strategic concentration and penetration of the German army and against the German "Lebensraum." Next to this the crippling of enemy mobilization, of the direction of the government and Armed Forces, as well as the delaying of the strategic concentration of the Czech Army by attacks on communication installations, mobilization and government centers can be of considerable importance to the initial success of the army. At points in the frontier area where stronger sections of the Czechoslovakian Army *or the depth of the defensive system* might make the success of the sudden breakthrough of the German Land-attack questionable, the employment of adequate bomber forces must be assured. Czechoslovakian industrial installations are to be spared as far as the course of operations permits. Retaliatory attacks against the population will be carried out only with my permission. Centers of air defense are to be created throughout Berlin, the central German industrial area and the Ruhr area *and gradually prepared even now in an inconspicuous fashion.*

c. Navy. The Navy will assist the army operations by employing the Danube-flotilla. For this purpose the flotilla will be under the orders of C-in-C Army. As regards the conduct of naval warfare at first only those measures are to be taken which appear to be necessary for the careful protection of the North Sea and the Baltic against a sudden intervention in the conflict by other states. These measures must be confined to the absolutely necessary extent. Their inconspicuousness must be guaranteed. It is of decisive importance that all actions, which might influence the political attitude of the European Great Powers unfavorably, be avoided.

6. Tasks of the War Economy. In the war economy it is essential that in the field of the armament industry a maximum deployment of forces is made possible through increased supplies. In the course of operations, it is of value to contribute to the reinforcement of the total war—economic strength—by rapidly reconnoitring and restarting important factories. For this reason the sparing of Czechoslovakian industrial and works installations—insofar as military operations permit—can be of decisive importance to us.

7. *All preparations for sabotage and insurrection will be made by OKW. They will be made, in agreement with and according to the requirement of the branches of the Armed Forces, so that their effects accord with the operations of the Army and Air Force.*

signed ADOLF HITLER
Certified copy
signed Zeitzler
Oberstleutnant on the General Staff

[*—* Passages between asterisks represent additions to the version in Item 5]

[ITEM 12] [Typescript] Berlin, 9 June 1938
L I a H

SHORT SURVEY OF ARMAMENT OF THE CZECH ARMY

1. SMALL ARMS

Armed uniformly with Mauser Rifle, Model 24, calibre 7.92 mm (similar to German Rifle 98). Also grenade launcher for rifle grenades is attached to the rifle.

2. MACHINE GUNS

Light MG Z.B. 26, weight 9 Kg, 20 round magazine.

Heavy MG, temporarily the MG "Schwarzlose" which has been improved in range. Super-heavy MG, 20 mm MG, Oerlikon system has been introduced (especially for active air defence), other models are being tested.

3. MORTARS

8.1 cm Stokes-Brandt, range 3000 m.

9cm light Skoda mortar, model 17, range 1200 m.

14cm medium mortar, model 18, range 2500 m.

26cm heavy mortar, model 17, range 2700 m.

4. INFANTRY GUNS FOR ANTI-AIRCRAFT AND ANTI-TANK DEFENSE

Several models are being tested, some of them twin barrel guns.

Calibre 37—40 mm and/or 66—70 mm.

5. ARTILLERY PIECES

a. Light and Mountain Artillery:

8cm field gun, model 17, range 10 km

8cm field gun, model 30, range 13.5 km (can also be used as an AA gun)

10cm light field howitzer, model 14/19, range 10 km.

7.5 Mountain gun, model 15, range 7 km.

10cm Mountain howitzer, model 16/19, range 10 km.

b. Heavy Artillery:

10.5cm gun, model 35, range 18 km.

15cm howitzer, model 14/16, range 8 km.

15cm howitzer, model 25, range 12 km.

15cm gun, model 15/16, range 20 km.

24cm gun, model 16, range 36 km.

21cm howitzer (Moerser) gun, model 18, range 10 km.

30.5cm howitzer (Moerser) gun, model 16, range 12.4 km.

Also in use are French 15.5cm howitzers.

c. A A Artillery:

9cm AA-gun, model 12/20 (stationary), range 12 km.

8.35cm AA-gun, model 22/24 horizontal range 18 km, vertical range 12 km.

7.65cm AA-gun, model 35, horizontal range 16 km, vertical range 11 km.

6.6cm AA-gun, model is being tested.

Z [Initialled by Zeitzler]

[ITEM 13] [Typescript]
L I a

Berlin, 9 June 1938

MOST SECRET

FUEHRER'S QUESTIONS ON 9 JUNE 1938

Berlin, 9 June 1938
2 copies
1st copy

MOST SECRET

Question 1: Armament of the Czech Army?

Answer:

Arming and equipping of the Army with new means of war is progressing, thanks to the excellent production capacity of the Czech armament industry.

The armament was built up from the weapons of the old Austrian Army. It is slowly and steadily being modernized.

In Detail:

Artillery: Light field artillery. At present the old armament from the Austrian Army predominates. Mountain Artillery: the same. Medium artillery. New armament predominates. Heavy artillery, old armament predominates.

Infantry Weapons: The following are available: a uniform new infantry rifle; a uniform new light MG; a uniform old improved heavy MG.

Equipment of heavy infantry weapons (AT-guns, Infantry Howitzers, Mortars) and tanks is modern, but still incomplete.

A new modern AA-gun has been introduced, but is not yet available in sufficient numbers.

Reserves of weapons and ammunition seem to be guaranteed.

Summary: The Czech Army must be considered up to date as far as armament and equipment are concerned.

Z [Initialled by Zeitzler]

L I a

Berlin, 9 June 1938

MOST SECRET

2 copies
1st copy

Question 2: How many battalions, etc., are employed in the West for the construction of emplacements?

Answer:

Up to now the following have been employed on fortifications:

The 36th Infantry Battalion

The 10th Infantry Howitzer Company

The 12th Anti-Tank Company

The 10th Battery

The 30th 1/3 Engineer Battalions

In addition:

The 78th German Labor Service Battalion, and later the 190th German Labor Corps Battalion.

In addition, the Commander of Army Group 2 (General Adam) has the authority to draw still further troops from his 4th Corps for the construction of emplacements if he deems it necessary.

Z [Initialled by Zeitzler]

[Pencilled notes by Schmundt:]
Number of troops
Production possibilities

L I a

Berlin, 9 June 1938

MOST SECRET

2 copies
1st copy

Question 3: Are the fortifications of Czechoslovakia still occupied in unreduced strength?

Answer:

The troops have been withdrawn to some extent from the fortifications and are housed in local billets. The fortifications themselves are guarded. The barriers at the frontiers are opened.

Z [Initialled by Zeitzler]

L I a

Berlin, 9 June 1938

MOST SECRET

2 copies
1st copy

Question 4: Frontier protection in the West?

Answer:

In the West as at the other frontiers, the first frontier protection is undertaken by the VGAD, then the Frontier Guard.

This protection by the Frontier Guard is directly at the frontier. At the same time as the Frontier Guard at the frontier, the fortification installations, which lie further back, receive security garrisons (reserve personnel).

Strength of the Frontier Guard on the Western Frontier:

15,200 men with 1,250 light MG's.

For further details on the frontier guard see appendix.

Z [Initialled by Zeitzler]

[ITEM 14] [Typescript]
L I a

Berlin, 18 June 1938

S.O. Only

Access only through Officer

1. DRAFT FOR THE NEW DIRECTIVE

(1st copy)

In three parts.

MOST SECRET

4 copies
1st copy

Written by an officer.

S.O. Only

Access only through Officer

Part 1

GENERAL GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1. There is no danger of a preventive war by foreign states against Germany.

Germany has not committed herself to any military alliances which would automatically force Germany into a warlike conflict of foreign powers.

The immediate aim is a solution of the Czech problem by my own, free decision; this stands in the foreground of my political intentions. I am determined to use to the full every favorable political opportunity to realize this aim.

Thereby, friends, interested parties and enemies can be called upon to take part in this scheme and other powers can remain indifferent even though they could not be previously placed with absolute certainty in one of these categories.

However, I will decide to take action against Czechoslovakia only if I am firmly convinced as in the case of the occupation of the demilitarized zone and the entry into Austria that France will not march and therefore England will not intervene.

2. The preparations of the Armed Forces must cover:

a. thorough preparation of the action against Czechoslovakia ("Fall Gruen"). See Part 2.

b. Maintenance of the previous "Fall Rot" (strategic concentration with the main effort against the West.) See Part 2.

c. Special preparations, mainly in the form of studies and deliberations within the Supreme Commands. See Part 3.

d. Preparatory measures, in case German territory is suddenly and abruptly violated with hostile intent by a foreign power. See number 3.

3. If in the midst of peace, German territory is suddenly and abruptly violated with hostile intent by a foreign power, armed resistance will be offered without any special order.

Therefore, the branches of the Armed Forces must empower their competent Commanders on the frontier or on the coast to take on their own authority, all measures necessary to repulse the enemy attack should such a case occur. (See Reich Defense Law (RVG) para. 2).

In no event, however, may the German Reich frontier be crossed by troops or aircraft, nor any foreign territory violated, without my order.

It will not be considered a violation of German territory (see 1st sentence of this number) if single sentries or patrols cross the frontier unintentionally and accidentally or through the over-eagerness of a subordinate commander, or if aircraft fly over the frontier due to faulty navigation, or warships sail in our German territorial waters with obviously no hostile intentions.

4. This directive concerns the uniform preparation for war and the general strategic considerations applying to the outbreak of the war. It will be augmented as necessitated by the various strategic concentrations by regulations dealing with matters of Special Administration and War Economy.

The directives necessary for the prosecution of the war itself will be issued by me from time to time.

K [Initialled by Keitel]
Z [Initialled by Zeitzler]

MOST SECRET

4 copies
1st copy

Written by an officer

S.O. Only

Access only through officer

Part 2

STRATEGIC CONCENTRATIONS

1. Action against Czecho-Slovakia ("Fall Gruen")

The directive, issued as OKW Nr 42/38 Most Secret S.O. only L I dated 30 May 1938, remains in force. Regulations dealing with special matters, Administration and War Economy relative to "Fall Gruen" are still to be issued.

2. Two Front War with the main effort in the West ("Fall Rot")

Since even a war against us started by the Western Nations must, in view of the situation today, begin with the destruction of Czecho-Slovakia, the preparation of strategic concentration for a war with the main effort by the Army and Air Force against the West, is no longer of primary importance.

The preparations made to date for the event ("Rot"), however, remain in effect. They contribute, as far as the Army is concerned, towards camouflaging and screening the other strategic concentration and serve, in the case of the Luftwaffe, as a preparation for the shifting of the main effort from the East to the West, which may, under certain circumstances, suddenly become necessary. They also serve as preliminary work for future possibilities of war in the West.

It is left to C in C Army to decide how far the Army strategic concentration "Rot", prepared by OKH for the beginning of the new mobilization year 38/39, will be issued to subordinates.

The tasks which arise for the Navy in "Fall Rot" will be the same as those should "Fall Gruen" be extended to include the Western European nations. The naval preparations are therefore to be continued with the previous objective.

J
K [Initialled by Keitel and Jodl]

Written by an officer

2. DRAFT

MOST SECRET

Berlin, 7 July 38
2 copies
1st copy

S.O. Only

Access only through officer

Part 3

CONSIDERATIONS

I. In connection with "Gruen".

How the political situation will develop during the execution or after the conclusion of "Gruen" cannot be predicted. Therefore the Armed Forces will confine themselves to the preparation of the measures given in Part I, Number 3, to "Fall Gruen" and "Fall Rot". However, it seems expedient to make at least theoretical considerations and calculations for several possible eventualities, to avoid being mentally unprepared. These considerations would have to cover:

a. What would have to be done if other nations intervened against us during the execution of "Gruen"—contrary to our expectations.

b. What should be done after the conclusion of "Gruen".

To a. If, during the execution of "Gruen", France intervenes against us, the measures provided in "Fall Gruen" come into force. The primary essential in this connection is to hold the Western fortifications, until the execution of the action "Gruen" permits forces to be freed. Should France be supported by England, in this it will have small effect at first on the land-war. It is the duty of the Air Force, the Navy, and the OKW (War Economy Staff, Defense, Armed Forces Communications), however, to carry out far-sighted deliberations in their sphere.

Among the Eastern powers, Russia is the most likely to intervene. This, in the beginning at any rate, will probably consist of reinforcement of the Czech Air Force and Armament. However, the decision must not be neglected concerning what measures are to be taken if Russia were to come to the point of starting a Naval and Air war against us or even wish to penetrate into East Prussia, through the border states.

In the case of a penetration by Poland, we must hold the Eastern fortifications and East Prussia, using the Frontier Guard and other formations, until the conclusion of the action "Gruen" once more gives us freedom of movement.

To b. If the action "Gruen" takes place still during this Mobilization year, we must be in the position after the conclusion of "Gruen" to put a provisional strategic concentration quickly into force.

In connection with the latter, further to what was said in part 1, number 3, it is of primary importance to safeguard the German frontiers, including the new addition by the Armed Forces, and still have the bulk of the Field Forces and the Air Force at our disposal. It would have to be possible to put such a future strategic concentration, "Frontier Protection," into force separately for the various frontiers.

II. Independent of "Fall Gruen"

Germany will not refrain from occupying the Memel-territory by a lightning blow in the case of a Polish-Lithuanian conflict occurring. The deliberations on this eventuality must cancel the directive issued 18 March 1938 (OKW Nr 472/38 g. Kdos L Ia).

III. General

The branches of the Armed Forces are still allowed to deliberate further on the matter contained in Section I) and II). These however, may be carried out only as theoretical studies within the Supreme Commands without the participation of subordinate authorities.

Z
K [Initialled by Keitel and Zeitzler]

[Item 15]

[Six pages of mobilization schedules, not translated]

[ITEM 16] [Covering memorandum, with report attached]
Berlin, 22 July 1938

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
No. 1233/38 Most Secret L Ia

2 Copies
1st Copy

MOST SECRET

To: Major Schmundt or deputy

I enclose a conference report. Your attention is requested (e.g. the remark of Chief OKW).

Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

By order

[Signed] Zeitzler

Submitted to the Fuehrer on 1.8.
Schm [pencil note by Schmundt]

[Stamp]

Adjutants' Office of the Armed Forces to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor

Recd. 26 July 1938 App. 1
No. 82/38 Most Secret

[pencil note:] Maj. Schmundt
1 copy 3rd report to Fuehrer
Berlin, 12 July 1938

L Ia
to L No. 1233/38 Most Secret

2 copies 1st Copy

Conference Notes
K [Initialled by Keitel]
MOST SECRET

OKH issues new manoeuvre intentions for 1938. Reason for alteration: development of the western fortifications and spreading of the foot-and-mouth-disease.

Details:

1. Of the previously intended training manoeuvres, the following remain:

Fall exercise for the I Army Corps

Training exercise for the XI Army Corps

Fortress warfare exercise for the 1st Army Group Command

2. New training manoeuvres:

a. Fighting for fortifications

b. Coordination with the Air Force

c. Cooperation between ground attack, airplanes and field units commencing 1 August in the exercise area.

d. Mobilization exercises for the Staffs

e. Supply and communications control

f. Chemical defense and cleansing of contaminated areas

3. Training Manoeuvres for armored divisions:

1st Armored Division up to 24 October at GRAFENWOHR, Corps HQ of the XVI Army Corps will also be there

2nd Armored Division remains in Austria

3rd Armored Division up to 24 September in KOENIGS-BRUEK, from 25 September near BRESLAU West of the ODER

4. Training Manoeuvres for motorized divisions ready to march:

2nd motorized Division in exercise area A, from 28 September, in NEUHAMMER

29th motorized Division in exercise area B

20th motorized Division in exercise area C

13th motorized Division in exercise area D

1st light Division in exercise area E

Commencement of the exercises not before 12 September, the end 24 November.

5. Terrain exercises for units ready to march:

These take place in the following Wehrkreise:

II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XIII, XVII,

Commencement of terrain exercises: 20 September

6. Training Manoeuvres for the mountain divisions composed as on mobilization:

2nd Mountain Division in area STEYR-PICHL-WEGER

3rd Mountain Division in area SEMMERING-BRUCK

Commencement of exercises: 26 September, End: 24 November

7. Training Manoeuvres for Training Divisions (Reserve Divisions):

a. 15 August to 13 September:

Training Division VII Army Corps (69th Division) Field units Exercise Area NEUHAMMER,

Training Division IX Army Corps (52nd Division) Field units Exercise Area GROSSBORN,

Training Division III Army Corps (68th Division) Field units Exercise Area JUETERBOG.

b. 9 September to 24 November:

Training Division IV Army Corps (56th Division) Field units Exercise Area OHRDRUF

Training Division VIII Army Corps (62nd Division) Field units Exercise Area SENNE

Training Division XIII Army Corps (73rd Division) Field units Exercise Area MUENDINGEN

Training Division XII Army Corps (79th Division) Field units Exercise Area WAHN

From about 24 September these 4 divisions will train West of the RHINE.

8. New dispositions:

a. Truck Regiment 616, 20 September to 24 October disposition by III Army Corps.

b. Army Artillery:

6 battalions: 15 August to 3 September disposition and training

11 battalions: 9 September to 24 October disposition and training.

Of these, beginning 24 September:

5 battalions, to Reserve divisions West of the RHINE

6 battalions to Terrain exercises of troops "ready to march"

c. Engineer Battalions:

3 Engineer Battalions, 9 September to 24 October, disposition and training.

of these 2 battalions, 20 September, to terrain training of troops "ready to march"

1 battalion, from 20 September to Reserve Division West of the Rhine.

d. Artillery Intelligence Regiments:

4 battalions and 2 Telephone communications companies (motorized) 9 September to 24 November.

Disposition and training; from 28 September, the battalions will be situated in the neighborhood of BRESLAU, GRAFENWOEHR, NEWHAMMER, INGOLSTADT.

9. Employment of Engineer Battalions on the Western fortifications:

Employment of Engineer Battalions extended for no longer than 3 weeks, also 7 engineer battalions will be added.

10. Reich Party Rally and Harvest Festival:

Participation remains as intended.

11. Foreign Military Delegations:

The foreign military delegations as well as foreign military attaches will be invited to attend the fall exercises of the I Army Corps.

Z [Initialled by ZEITZLER]

[Item 17] [Typescript]
Chief Section L

Written by General Staff Officer
MOST SECRET

Berlin, 24 August 1938

S.O. Only
Access only through Officer

1 Copy

TIMING OF THE X-ORDER AND THE QUESTION OF ADVANCE MEASURES

The Luftwaffe's endeavor to take the enemy air forces by surprise at their peace-time airports justifiably leads them to oppose measures taken in advance of the X-order and to the demand that the X-order itself be given sufficiently late on X minus 1 to prevent the fact of Germany's mobilization becoming known to Czechoslovakia on that day.

The Army's efforts are tending in the opposite direction. It intends to let OKW initiate all advance measures between X minus 3 and X minus 1 which will contribute to the smooth and rapid working of the mobilization. With this in mind OKH also demands that the X order be given not later than 1400 on X minus 1.

To this the following must be said:

Operation (Aktion) Gruen will be set in motion by means of an "incident" in Czechoslovakia which will give Germany provocation for military intervention. The fixing of the exact time for this incident is of the utmost importance.

It must come at a time when weather conditions are favorable for our superior air forces to go into action and at an hour which will enable authentic news of it to reach us on the afternoon of X minus 1.

It can then be spontaneously answered by the giving of the X order at 1400 on X minus 1.

On X minus 2 the Navy, Army and Air Force will merely receive an advance warning.

If the Fuehrer intends to follow this plan of action, all further discussion is superfluous.

For then no advance measures may be taken before X minus 1 for which there is not an innocent explanation as we shall otherwise appear to have manufactured the incident. Orders for absolutely essential advance measures must be given in good time and camouflaged with the help of the numerous manoeuvres and exercises.

Also, the question raised by the Foreign Office as to whether all Germans should be called back in time from prospective enemy territories must in no way lead to the conspicuous departure from Czechoslovakia of any German subjects before the incident.

Even a warning of the diplomatic representatives in Prague is impossible before the first air attack, although the consequences could be very grave in the event of their becoming victims of such an attack (e.g. death of representatives of friendly or confirmed neutral powers).

If, for technical reasons, the evening hours should be considered desirable for the incident, then the following day cannot be X day, but it must be the day after that.

In any case we must act on the principle that nothing must be done before the incident which might point to mobilization, and that the swiftest possible action must be taken after the incident. (X-Fall).

It is the purpose of these notes to point out what a great interest the Wehrmacht has in the incident and that it must be informed of the Fuehrer's intentions in good time—insofar as the Abwehr Section is not also charged with the organization of the incident.

I request that the Fuehrer's decision be obtained on these points.

J 26/8
[Initialled by Jodl]

Notes: [in Schmundt's handwriting]
Submitted on 30.8
The Fuehrer will act on these lines.
On 31.8 Col. v. S. Jodl notified. Schm 31.8

[ITEM 18] [In Schmundt's handwriting]

CONFERENCE
on 3 September 38 at the BERGHOF

Present: The Fuehrer
Generaloberst v. Brauchitsch
General of Artillery Keitel
Major Schmundt

Gen. Ob. v. Brauchitsch

Reports on the exact time of the transfer of the troops to "exercise areas" for "Gruen". Field units to be transferred on 28 Sept. From here will then be ready for action. When X Day becomes known, field units carry out exercises in opposite directions.

Fuehrer

Has objection. Troops assemble; field units a 2-day march away. Carry out camouflage exercises everywhere.

OKH must know when X-day is by 1200 noon, 27 September.

II.

The Fuehrer

Expresses different opinion on employment of troops for "Gruen". Aspects for the 2nd Army (OS) are smallest. Strongest Cz. fortifications there. Waste of troops; thrust in the 10th Army area, however, is promising. Roadblocks prepared everywhere in addition also in 2nd Army area. No reason for hindrance. The Czechs will stop opposite 2nd army and keep assault army ready east of Prague. A thrust against it into the heart of Cz. is to be made. Thrust in the 14th army area will fail because of means of transport. Therefore assemble all mot. and arm'd divisions with 10th army and employ in the thrust. Once we are through there, the South front, which is built up opposite our 12th army in 3 defense lines, will collapse. An army in the heart of Bohemia will bring about the decision. Possible repetition of Verdun in case of 2nd army. An attack there would mean bleeding to death for a task which cannot be accomplished.

v. Brauchitsch

Has objections because of the state of the mot. divisions, supply and untrained leaders.

The Fuehrer:

The course now planned corresponds to Cz. expectations.

Opposite the 10th Army the enemy is not always in concrete emplacements. Possibility here of drawing in the Henlein people (uniforms). The line here is very far back. Cooperation between 10th and 12th armies. We must add motorized units to army. As formerly the "Prussian Cavalry." How else can we gather experiences? Decisive is the coordination of equal speeds. Breakthrough in sector of 2nd army not so rapid, so that a tactical success can be turned into a strategic one. The Fuehrer gives orders for the development of the western fortifications; improvement of advance positions around Aachen and Saarbrucken. Construction of 300 to 400 battery positions (1600 artillery pieces). He emphasizes flanking action.

Certified.
SCHMUNDT, Major on the General Staff
BERGHOF, 4 Sept 1938

[In Schmundt's writing]
[ITEM 19] [In Schmundt's handwriting]

S.O. Only
MOST SECRET
DISCUSSION

Nurnberg, 9 Sept to 10 Sept, 2200 to 0330.

Present: Fuehrer
Generaloberst v. Brauchitsch
General Halder
General Keitel
Major Schmundt
Hauptmann Engel
Hauptmann v. Below [?]

General Halder states reasons for operational plan "Gruen". Mission: to prevent retreat of Cz. Army from Moravia-Bohemia area. To beat army. To bring about rapid decision. Mission can be accomplished by pincer attack in the direction of Olmutz and Brunn to be undertaken by 2nd and 14th Armies. Difficult transport situation in Austria. Therefore main effort in 2nd Army area. Cz. frontier can only be lightly held. Withdrawal certain on part of Cz. forces. Several defensive lines favorable but terrain will delay second thrusts and allow time to be gained for a Cz. retreat, and so retain a rear position. This is to be avoided. The Bohemian Moravian heights which will confront the attacker in the last phase will favor probable Cz. line of action. The pincer attack makes a "rear attack" from behind these heights possible. This operation will definitely succeed. Reserves at first mainly local. Further reserves near and south of Prague. Opponent won't have time to form further reserves. Opponent does not possess closed armoured forces. They are distributed and consist of light units.

2nd Army. Weaknesses opposite its sector recognized. Installations only partly completed. Mostly lack armd cupolas. There are great gaps. Olmutz will be reached on the second day. Oppa is no obstacle, can be crossed by tanks as well as Inf. No armd forces opposing. Freudenthal only 35 men garrison. So-called light motorized forces on right flank are no danger. Consist partly of mounted units and will be engaged by adjoining Army. Were the attack, against expectations, to fail, then under no circumstances "bleed to death" before the position. Strategic concentration to be flexible. Rear sections will then be brought up to the points where success has been achieved. Cz fears the Glaz mountain area. Only demonstrations to be staged in this area; there will be a tie up of Cz forces. To provide cover eastwards tanks will be valuable.

On the rest of the mountain front: 4th (9?) Corps, and in the frontier sector demonstrations must be staged to tie up forces.

12th and 14th Armies will work together. Their columns must necessarily support one another during the thrust and cause the front to collapse. Bohemia only weakly occupied at frontier: 1 Division to 120 kms. Operation therefore promising. After the thrust in a northerly direction 12 Army forces east and "races" for Brunn. The enemy will not be able to employ reserves according to plan.

10th Army faces Pilsen Riegel which is strongly fortified. Bad roads. Tanks must break through here and establish bridge-heads for following up forces. Forces of the next wave will be brought up by truck units. After the 3rd and 4th Mobilization day 6 further divisions will be brought up to the 2nd and 3rd line and can be employed where success is in the balance.

The Fuehrer: We should not plan the action on the operations as we desire them, but take into consideration the probable course of action pursued by the enemy. With regard to his course of action two factors are decisive: 1. At the time of our rearmament between 1934 and 1938 our opponent must have endeavoured to secure himself against a tearing of the East-West Communication, in his case probably between Trappau and Nikolsburg. Against us this would imply the building of fortifications on the Upper Silesian frontier. In the South an agreement with Austria would achieve a defense north of the Danube, or an advance to the Danube to protect the Southern flank.

2. The latter is no longer possible. Therefore, as a result of the situation created in March 1938, it is all the more probable that they have increased their fortifications opposite our 2nd army. The enemy must hold there—otherwise there is no sense in holding the remaining front. Hence here the best regiments and fortifications are to be expected. Holding of the front facing the 2nd Army will decide the "To be or Not to be" of Cz. There is no doubt that the planned pincer movement is the most desirable solution and should take place. But its success is nevertheless too uncertain for it to be depended on. Especially as a rapid success is necessary from a political point of view. The first 8 days are politically decisive; within that week a far-reaching territorial gain must be achieved. Our artillery (210cm Howitzers) not adequate against fortifications. Where an attack is expected the element of surprise is ruled out. Besides from experience it is difficult to refrain from an action that achieves only part-success. More and more units are thrown into breaks, and bleeding-to-death which one wanted to avoid sets in (Verdun!!). Tanks are used up and are not available for the subsequent territory-gaining operation. The consequence is that motorized divisions have to advance without tanks. ("Tables Turned")

Also the objectives of the motorized units are not too far-removed and can be gained without fighting, so that they could be equally well gained by infantry troops. The motorized divisions will not be able to influence a decision to any extent. It is the task of motorized forces to bridge areas free of the enemy. Where an attack opens up a large free space, the commitment of motorized forces is justified. Compare with the use of army cavalry at the beginning of the 1914 war. It is catastrophic for tanks to have to stop and wait for infantry. This contradicts all laws of logic. In the 14th army sector fortifications can only have been begun since March. Hence, thrust toward Brunn will be easier. 2nd Pz Div can therefore be left there. However, this division should operate with the 29th motorized division. Therefore the 29th must not arrive on the evening of the 2nd day. The 2nd Pz must constitute the advance column of the 29th Div (Mot.). Are the road conditions suitable for the 29th? The 13th Division, which has no prospects of success as a Mot. division with the 12th Army, is to be transferred to the Reichenau Army together with 2nd Motorized Div. Thus 2 chances for victory will be created.

If pincer movement has no success, 10th Army will open way for 12th Army, bringing strong forces into the heart of the country. If both operations are successful, this means the end of Cz. In place of the two motorized divisions it is preferable to mobilize two further divisions which are to be brought up in trucks and buses. For the 10th Army the turn Northeast toward Prague may become necessary.

General Oberst v. Brauchitsch: Employment of motorized divisions was based on the difficult rail situation in Austria and the difficulties in getting other divs. (ready to march) into the area at the right time. In the West vehicles will have to leave on the 20th of Sept., if X-Day remains as planned. Workers leave on the 23rd, by relays. Specialist workers remain according to decision by Army Command 2.

The Fuehrer: Doesn't see why workers have to return home as early as X-11. Other workers and people are also on the way on mobilization day. Also the RR cars, they will stand around unnecessarily later on.

General Keitel: Workers are not under the jurisdiction of district commands (Bezirks Kdos.) in the West. Trains must be assembled.

v. Brauchitsch: 235,000 men RAD [Labour Service] will be drafted. 96 Construction Bns will be distributed (also in the east). 40,000 trained laborers stay in the West.

Fuehrer: Trained men should be distributed among newly formed divisions on 2nd line.

Brauchitsch: Will be investigated. Implies change of mobilization orders if war orders already in the hands of the people.

General Construction Inspector Dr. Todt (late brought into the conference): Delays in unloading of material through slow changeover in timetable of RRs only from 15 September. Transports must be in their appointed positions by X minus 11. Air zone to take 2nd place to the Infantry zone. Build battery positions.

Certified
/s/ SCHMUNDT
Major on Gen. Staff

[ITEM 20] [Typescript]
Schm [initialled by Schmundt]
Nurnberg, 10 September 1938
[Stamp]

Office of the Armed Forces Adjutant attached to the
Fuehrer Reich Chancellor

Received 19 September 1938
The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces

TOP SECRET

1. The whole RAD organization comes under the command of the Supreme Command of the Army effective 15 September.

2. The Chief of OKW decides on the first commitments of this organization in conjunction with the Reichs Labor Leader (Reichsarbeitsfuehrer) and on assignments from time to time to the Supreme Commands of the Navy, Army and Air Force. Where questions arise with regard to competency he will make a final decision in accordance with my instructions.

3. For the time being this order is to be made known only to the departments and personnel immediately concerned.

[signed] ADOLF HITLER

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
No. 2038/38 Most Secret WFA/L IIc
T 9.9

Distribution:

C-in-C of the Army
Reich Minister for Air and C-in-C of the Air Force
C-in-C of the Navy
Reichsminister of the Interior
for the attention of Ministerial Director Dr. Danckwerts
Head of Reich Labor Service through Admin Office (VOA)

Distribution:

Adjutant to the Fuehrer—1st Copy
WZ, WH, WR—2nd to 4th Copies
Armed Forces Ops. Dept.—5th Copy
LIa, Ib, Ic, IV, VOA—6th to 10th Copies
WNV—11th Copy
Office for Ausl/Abwehr—12th to 14th Copies
General Armed Forces Office—15th to 17th Copies
Armed Forces Staff—18th to 20th Copies
Spare—21st to 25th Copies

25 Copies 1st Copy
A true copy:
Hofmann
Oberst (Reserve)

[ITEM 21] [Typescript]

Berlin, 14 September 1938
12 Copies

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
No. 2044/38 Most Secret WFA/L IIc

[Stamp]

Office of the Adjutant of the Armed Forces attached
to the Fuehrer and Reichs Chancellor

Received 19 Sept. 1938
Reg. No. 198/35
Despatched Schm
Clerk [initialled by Schmundt]

Subject: Employment of Reich Labor Service for Manoeuvres with Wehrmacht.

I. Effective 15 September the following units will be under command of the C-in-C of the Army

1. The RAD forces of the light road construction battalions.

2. Those parent units of construction troops which are to be formed from personnel from 2 Gau Commands, 21 RAD Group Commands, and 91 RAD Battalions of Wehrkreis HQs VII, IX and XIII, and set up at Army Group HQ 2 (Heeresgruppenkommando) for the purpose of carrying out exercises within the areas of Wehrkreis HQs V and XII.

3. a. The staff of Labor Gau W (Arbeitsgaustab) and the section and group staffs of the RAD employed on the construction of the Western fortifications and also RAD Battalions with the exception of those branches of the RAD attached to the Reich Minister for Air and the C-in-C of the Air Force (compare Section 8).

b. Labor Gaus XXI, XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, and XXXII come under the Supreme Command of the Army only in matters affecting the defence of the country. Those RAD units from these Labor Gaus employed at the moment for purposes of the country's Kultur, etc., will retain these tasks for the time being, Labor Service for Girls [AWJ] is excepted from coming under the control of the Supreme Command of the Army.

c. It must be borne in mind, when allotting military tasks to those sections of the RAD named in a and b above, that in accordance with Appendix 7 to the Army Mobilization Plan for Deputy Gau Commands, Deputy Group Commands and Guard Units will remain with the RAD if and when mobilization takes place.

4. The C-in-C of the Army and Reichs Labor Leader are requested to discuss all details under 1 and 3 direct.

II. 5. Light road construction battalions are training-units of the Army. Their members are regarded as having been drafted into the Armed Forces for manoeuvre purposes and are soldiers.

6. The members of remaining formations as per 2 and 3 who have been taken exclusively from the RAD will remain RAD leaders or men until mobilization.

But it is possible that they will have to be attached to the Army for administration or that the army must furnish money if difficulties are encountered in prompt payment of the men.

The C-in-C of the Army and the Reich Labor Leader are requested to settle details by direct agreement.

7. In case of mobilization the regulations laid down in Appendix 7 of the plan for the mobilization of the army come into effect automatically and apply also to those exercise formations for which there have up to now been restrictive regulations with regard to their coming fully under the command of the Army.

III. 8. Those RAD staffs and Battalions made over to the Luftwaffe in the Limes area will be under command of the Reich Minister for Air and the C-in-C of the Air Force beginning September 15. The same regulations apply in essence to them.

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces

By Order

Signed Keitel

Distribution:

C-in-C of the Army—1st to 3rd Copy
Reich Minister for Air and C-in-C of the Air Forces—4th to 6th Copy
Head of Reich Labor Service—7th to 8th Copy
L Ia, II, IV—9th to 11th Copy
Draft (VOA)—12th Copy

Distribution 2: 25 Copies

Adjutant to the Fuehrer—1st Copy
WZ, WH, WR—2nd to 4th Copy
Armed Forces Ops Dept—5th Copy
Armed Forces Ops Dept/L Ib, Ic—6th Copy
Armed Forces Communications (WNV)—7th Copy
Office of Ausl/Abwehr—8th to 10th Copy
General Armed Forces Office—11th to 13th Copy
Armed Forces Staff—14th to 16th Copy
Draft—17th Copy
Spare—18th to 25th Copy

A true Copy:
HOFMANN
Oberst (Reserve)

[ITEM 22] [Typescript]

MOST SECRET

Berlin, 16 September 1938

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
WFA No. 194/38 Most Secret S.O. Only L Ia

S.O. Only
Access only through Officer

7 Copies 5th Copy
19.9.38
Schm

Subject: Preparations on part of Reichsbahn etc.

The Reichsbahn must provide trains of empty trucks in great numbers by September 28 for the carrying out of mobilization exercises. This task now takes precedence over all others.

Therefore the train-loads for the Limes-job will have to be cut down after September 17 and those goods loaded previous to this date unloaded by September 20.

The Supreme Command of the Army (5th Division of the Army General Staff) must issue further orders after consultation with the authorities concerned.

However, in accordance with the Fuehrer's directive, every effort should be made to continue to supply the materials in as large quantities as feasible even after 20th September 1938, and this for reasons of camouflage as well as in order to continue the important work on the Limes.

Reports should be submitted on what can be done in this direction.

Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
Signed Keitel

Distribution:

Supreme Command of the Army—1 (Copy 1)
C-in-C of the Air Force (Ketzinger's staff)—1 (Copy 2)
General Inspector for Roads—1 (Copy 3)

Certified
Zeitzler
Oberst on the General Staff

Major Schmundt
[There is no ITEM 23 in the file]

[ITEM 24] [Typescript]

MOST SECRET

Berlin, September 16, 1939
30 Copies 4th Copy
T 9.9

[Stamp]

Schm
[initialled by Schmundt]

Office of the Armed Forces
Adjutant attached to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor

Rec. 19th Sept. 1938,
Enclosures
Reg. No. 199138
Despatched
Clerk

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
No. 2120/38 Most Secret WFA/L IIc

Subject: Employment of the Reich Labor Service (RAD)

1. The following RAD forces will receive military training; in accordance with the instructions of the C-in-C of the Army:

From the area of the—

IInd Army Korps (AKs) 7 Battalions
IIIrd 2 Battalions
IVth 31 Battalions
Vth 1 Battalion
VIth 78 Battalions
VIIth 1 Battalion
IXth 65 Battalions
Xth 84 Battalions
XIth 33 Battalions

For the time being these battalions are still part of the RAD in matters regarding personnel, administration, and discipline.

2. The C-in-C of the Army and Reich Labor Leader are requested to settle all details by direct agreement.

For the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces

By Order

Jodl

Distribution:

Supreme Command of the Army—1st Copy
Reich Minister for Air and C-in-C of the Air Forces—2nd Copy
Head of Reich Labor Service—3rd Copy
WZ, WH, WR—5th-7th Copies
Armed Forces Ops Division—8th Copy
L Ia, Ib, Ic, IV, VOA—9th-13th Copies
Armed Forces Communications Dept.—14th Copy
Office of Ausl/Abwehr—15th-17th Copies
General Armed Force Office—18th-20th Copies
Armed Forces Staff—21st-23rd Copies
Spare—24th-30th Copies

[ITEM 25] [Telegram]
[Handwritten note]

MOST SECRET

S.O. ONLY

LAST NIGHT CONFERENCE TOOK PLACE BETWEEN FUEHRER AND OBERSTLEUTNANT KOECHLING. DURATION OF CONFERENCE 7 MINUTES. LT. COL. KOECHLING REMAINS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE TO OKW. HE WILL BE ASSIGNED TO KONRAD HENLEIN IN AN ADVISORY CAPACITY. HE RECEIVED FAR-REACHING MILITARY PLENARY POWERS FROM THE FUEHRER. THE SUDETEN GERMAN FREE CORPS REMAINS RESPONSIBLE TO KONRAD HENLEIN ALONE. PURPOSE: PROTECTION OF THE SUDETEN GERMANS AND MAINTENANCE OF DISTURBANCES AND CLASHES. THE FREE CORPS WILL BE ESTABLISHED IN GERMANY. ARMAMENT ONLY WITH AUSTRIAN WEAPONS. ACTIVITIES OF FREE CORPS TO BEGIN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

[Pencil Note] 1045, 18 Sept 38
RADIOED to Capt.
Engel, Berlin.

[ITEM 26] [Telegram]
[Handwritten note]

MOST SECRET
S.O. ONLY

[In Ink]
18.9
38
1030
vb

GERMAN 2nd ARMY—COSEL—7 Inf. Div's, 1 Armd Div, 1 Inf Div on trucks, 1 Light Div, of these the following arrive on 1st X day: Two-thirds of one Inf Div, 1 Armd Div, and 1 Inf Div on trucks.

On 2nd X Day: one-third of one Inf Div.

On 3rd X Day: 1 Inf Div

On 4th X Day: 1 Inf Div

On 5th X Day: 2 Inf Divs from 7th day on 1 Inf Div and one light Div.

8th Army:—FREIBURG—4 Inf Divs. The following is the timetable for arrival:

On 2nd X Day: two-thirds of one Inf Div

On 3rd X Day: one-third of one Inf Div

On 4th and 5th X Day: One Inf Div each day.

4th Army Corps—Herrenhut, 2 Inf Divs of which one will arrive on the 1st day, the other on the 3rd day.

10th Army:—SCHWANDORF—3 Inf Div's, 1 Armd Div, 1 Light Div, 3 Mot Inf Divs. They will arrive as follows:

On 1st X Day: 1 Inf Div and 1 Armd Div. 1 Light Div, 2 Mot Inf Divs.

On 2nd X Day: 1 Inf Div., 1 Mot Inf Div.

On 4th X Day: 1 Inf Div.

12th Army:—PASSAU—7 Inf Div's, 1 Mountain Div, 1 Inf Div on trucks, Regt. They arrive as follows:

On 1st X Day: 1 Inf Div, 1 Mountain Div.

On 2nd X Day: 2 Inf Div, 1 Inf Div on trucks

On 4th X Day: 2 Inf Div's.

On 7th X Day: 1 Inf Div.

On 8th X Day: 1 Inf Div.

14th Army:—VIENNA—1 Inf Div, 2 Mountain Div's, 1 Armd Div, 1 Light Div, 1 Mot Inf Div. N N Mot [?] They will arrive as follows:

On 1st X Day: one-third of one Inf Div, 1 Armd Div, 1 Mot. Div.

On 2nd X Day: 2/3 of one Inf Div, 1 Light Div.

On 3rd X Day: 2 Mountain Divs.

END

Reich War Ministry/Naval Communication Service

MOST SECRET 18.9

Renewed attention is called to strictest observance of secrecy regarding following message. Noted. Message begins—

[There follows a repetition of the above telegram in its exact form.]

Any questions?

[ITEM 27] [Typescript]

Army Appointments Held

Army Group Command: C-in-C: Gen. of Inf. Adam
CofS : Gen. of Inf. Wietersheim
G-3 : Lt. Col. Muller

1st Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. of Arty Beck
CofS : Maj. Gen. v. Apell
G-3 : Col. v. Greiffenberg

2nd Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. v. Rundstedt
CofS : Brig Gen v. Salmuth
G-3 : Lt. Col. Hasse

3rd Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. of Arty v. Kuechler
CofS : Brig. Gen. Hollidt
G-3 : Lt. Col. Wagner

4th Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. (for special duties)
v. Hamerstein
CofS : Maj. Gen. Viebahn
G-3 : Lieut. Col. Metz

5th Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. of Inf Liebmann
CofS : Brig. Gen. v. Sodenstern
G-3 : Col. Duvert

7th Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. of Inf. (for special
duties) Baron Zeutter
v. Lotzen
CofS : Brig. Gen. Modl
G-3 : Col. v. Witzleben

8th Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. v. Bock
CofS : Brig. Gen. Felber
G-3 : Col. Hauffe

10th Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. of Arty v. Reichenau
CofS : Brig. Gen. Bernard
G-3 : Col. Dostler

12th Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. Ritter (for special
duties) v. Leeb
CofS : Maj. Gen. v. Lewinsky,
known as v. Manstein
G-3 : Lt. Col. Blumentritt

14th Army HQ: C-in-C: Gen. of Inf List
CofS : Maj. Gen. Ruoff
G-3 : Col. Wohler

[ITEM 28: One Page Mobilization Schedule, not translated]

Berlin, 21 Sept 1938

[ITEM 29] [Typescript]

Chief, OKW

If the Czech Government accepts terms:

a. Cession of Sudeten German territory

b. Plebiscite in Czech-German territories,

The following military measures are to be considered:

1. The withdrawal by the Czechs from this territory of troops, police and Gendarmerie and other military units.

2. The immediate surrender of arms in these territories.

3. The immediate surrender of all fortifications in the areas with all arms and equipment.

4. The immediate evacuation of fortifications by the military outside the above territories.

5. The withdrawal of all military power behind a security line, which will include the fortifications under (4).

6. The right of the German Wehrmacht to use all public transportation and communications, especially the railroads, for military purposes.

7. The right to fly over the above territories and to maintain Air security up to the security line.

8. The occupation of territories to be ceded including the adjoining railroad junctions, communications installations, towns, airfields, etc. inland beyond the last fortification line.

9. Pacification and security of the Plebiscite Areas by:

a. German Police (originally)

b. International Police (later for plebiscite)

10. Demobilization of the entire Czech armed forces in the remaining area of the country, discharge of all reserves, etc.

11. Immediate discharge of all Sudeten-Germans in the armed forces from the whole of Czechoslovakia to be sent home into Sudeten-Germany.

12. Closing down of entire armament industry until after the end of all negotiations.

13. a. Prohibition of any new fortifications and field fortifications opposite the security line.

b. Destruction of all existing fortifications which are situated beyond the future German borders.

14. Demand further cession of territory on military grounds, namely the Pressburg bridgehead, the area northwest of Pilsen, the Eger sector west of the Elbe to Laun.

15. Security line must be 25 km from the territory being ceded to Germany or the territory being put to the vote. (See number 5.)

16. Cessation, immediately, of all military Intelligence work against Germany. Violation will be considered breach of neutrality.

17. Immediate pardon and release of all Germans and Sudeten-Germans, convicted of espionage.

18. Transfer of all Czech Air Force personnel to their peace time garrisons and prohibiting of all military flying operations.

19. Prohibition of destruction or sabotage of any military installations, including ground installations of the Air Force, in the territories to be ceded.

20. The closing down and handing over to the German armed forces of all radio transmitters of a military, official or private nature in the areas to be ceded.

21. The handing over of all Railroad networks including rolling stock, undamaged.

22. The handing over of all Public Utilities (power houses, gas works, etc.) undamaged.

23. No materials of any kind to be transferred (such as raw materials, provisions, livestock, etc.).

24. Prohibition of import of war equipment of any kind.

25. Demobilization of Danube patrol and security vessels.

[ITEM 30] [Typescript]

Bayreuth 134
[Pencil note written by Schmundt:] Not sent off. Schm

26 September 1938

HEADQUARTERS OF THE SUDETEN-GERMAN FREE CORPS

Herr Benesch has dissolved the Sudeten-German Party and believes that he will thus be able to destroy the unity of the Sudeten-German radical group and to deal the death blow to the Sudeten-Germans. Konrad Henlein knew the answer to this. He issued a call on 17.9.38 for the formation of a Sudeten-German Free Corps. Within a few hours, thousands of Sudeten-Germans had already rallied to the colors all along the border. Thousands who were burning to fight for their tortured homeland were forced, to their great disappointment, to remain at their places of work, because it was impossible, in such a short period of time, to induct, equip and arm the masses of enthusiastic volunteers. For even in the first few hours after the appeal (probably the first instance in the history of the Free Corps) shock troops of the Free Corps began, in extremely daring operations, to secure the escape of their countrymen who had been hounded out of their homeland by their torturers.

Since 19 Sept.—in more than 300 missions—the Free Corps has executed its task with an amazing spirit of attack (defense)* and with a willingness often reaching a degree of unqualified self-sacrifice. The result of the first phase of its activities: more than 1500 prisoners, 25 MG's and a large amount of other weapons and equipment, aside from serious losses in dead and wounded suffered by the enemy (The Czech Terrorists).*

Thousands of members of the Sudeten-German Free Corps stand shoulder to shoulder on the frontiers of Germany. They are inspired by but one desire: The freedom of the homeland within Adolf Hitler's Greater Germany.

For Konrad Henlein
The Chief of Staff

[*The superimposed corrections represent actual ink corrections on the original manuscript.]

[ITEM 31] [Typescript]

Adj to the Fuehrer
[Note in pencil]
28/7
Schm.
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces Berlin 27.9.1938

MOST SECRET 1920 hours.
WFA/L No. 2305/38 Most Secret II 45 copies, 16th copy

The Fuehrer has approved the mobilization without warning of the five regular west divisions (26th, 34th, 36th, 32, and 35th). The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces has expressly reserved the right to issue the order for employment in the fortification zone and the evacuation of this zone by workers of the Todt organization.

It is left to the OHK—to assemble as far as possible first of all the sections ready to march and subsequently the remaining sections of the divisions in marshalling areas behind the western fortifications.

CHIEF OF THE SUPREME COMMAND OF
THE ARMED FORCES.
Signed: Keitel

Distribution: II.

[ITEM 32] [Typescript]
[Stamp]
Office of the Armed Forces
Adjutant attached
To the Fuehrer and
Reich Chancellor
Recd. 3 Oct 1938
Reg. No. 259/38 Most Secret

[pencil note] Adjutant to the Fuehrer

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
No. 2288/38 Most Secret WFA/L II

MOST SECRET

Berlin, 27 Sept. 1938

Subject: Mobilization Measures

To: The Deputy Fuehrer, via Administrative Offices (J)

The Reischsfuehrer SS and Chief of German Police attn: S.S. Oberfuehrer Petri.

Express
47 copies, 18th copy

As a result of the political situation the Fuehrer and Chancellor has ordered mobilization measures for the Armed Forces, without the political situation being aggravated by issuing the mobilization (X) order or corresponding code-words.

Within the framework of these mobilization measures it is necessary for the Armed Forces authorities to issue demands to the various Party authorities and their organizations, which are connected with the previous issuing of the Mobilization order, the advance measures or special code names.

The special situation makes it necessary that these demands be met (even if the code word has not been previously issued) immediately and without being referred to higher authorities.

OKW requests that subordinate offices be given immediate instructions to this effect so that the mobilization of the Armed Forces can be carried out according to plan.

Following are several examples of cases where previous mobilization measures were delayed and a recurrence of which might seriously endanger the mobilization of the Armed Forces:

1. The SA in Wehrkreis XI refused to give up equipment requisitioned by the Armed Forces in accordance with mobilization regulations, because mobilization has not yet taken place.

2. Billets which were prepared for troops under mobilization regulations were not evacuated because mobilization has not taken place. (NSKK-School Kreischwitzsilesia).

3. Police authorities refused to give up Police Radio Stations for the A/C reporting network, although the A/C reporting service had already been called up.

The Supreme Command of the Armed Forces further requests that all measures not provided for in the plans which are undertaken by Party Organizations or Police units as a result of the political situation, be reported in every case and in plenty of time to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. Only then can it be guaranteed that these measures can be carried out in practice.

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the
Armed Forces.
KEITEL

Further:
Distribution II

[ITEM 33] [Typescript]

28.9.38

MOST SECRET
MEMORANDUM

At 1300 September 27 the Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces ordered the movement of the assault units from their exercise areas to their jumping-off points.

The assault units (about 21 reinforced regiments, or 7 divisions,) must be ready to begin the action against "Gruen" on September 30, the decision having been made one day previously by 1200 noon.

This order was conveyed to General Keitel at 1320 through Major Schmundt.

[pencil note by Schmundt]

[ITEM 34] [Typescript]

[Stamp:] Office of the Armed Forces Adjutant Attached to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor

[initialled] Schm.

Recd: 3 October 1938
Req. No.: 261/38 Most Secret

Adj. to the Fuehrer
Berlin, 28 Sept 38

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces,
No. 2310/38 Most Secret L I a 45 copies, 16th copy

MOST SECRET

To define spheres of responsibility on the Cz-German frontier, the following orders are issued:

Through mobilization of the frontier guard (Grenzwacht) responsibility has shifted entirely on to the army, that is on to the competent general staff corps. All the units operating on the frontier are subordinate to them.

No new units of police, customs or party may be shifted into the immediate frontier area without the knowledge of the army headquarters concerned, nor may units already in the area be reinforced without such knowledge. In addition no one may cross the frontier without the knowledge of the army headquarters.

For the Henlein Free Corps and units subordinate to this the principle remains valid, that they receive instructions direct from the Fuehrer and that they carry out their operations only in conjunction with the competent general staff corps. The advance units of the Free Corps will have to report to the local commander of the frontier guard immediately before crossing the frontier.

Those units remaining forward of the frontier should—in their own interests—get into communication with the frontier guard as often as possible.

As soon as the army crosses the Cz border the Henlein Free Corps will be subordinate to the OKH. Thus it will be expedient to assign a sector to the Free Corps even now which can be fitted into the scheme of army boundaries later.

The frontier guard has orders only to protect the German frontier, and not to take part in operations on the other side of the border. Any support to the Free Corps by the frontier guards anywhere over the frontier is prohibited.

Chief of the Supreme Command of the
Armed Forces
Keitel

Distribution II
plus:
Reich Minister of the Interior.
Reich Finance Minister
Deputy of the Fuehrer
S.A. Hqs.
Reichsfuehrer SS
Reich Labour Service
Free Corps Henlein (Oberstlt Koechling)

[The following 2 pages are an exact duplicate: Copy 33]

[ITEM 35] [Typescript]

[Stamp:] Office of the Armed Forces Adjutant
Attached to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor
(pencil noted: Adjutant to the Fuehrer)

Recd: 3 October 1938
Req. No: 262/39 Most Secret

Berlin, Sept. 28, 1938

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
No. 2315/38 Most Secret WFA/L II

MOST SECRET.

Re: Advance Measures Pertaining to Mobilization Plan (Army) Special Appendix 5

Following advance measures may be carried out:

On the Franco-German border (WEHRKREIS V and XII)

1. Special Group Siegfried, Kz9148—preparation of organization for the reception of refugees.

2. Special Group Siegfried, Kz9145—Preparation of employment of district offices and staffs of collecting areas for the discharging of reservists.

Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

(Signed) Keitel

Distribution II

[ITEM 36] [Typescript]

[Stamp:] Office of the Armed Forces Adjutant

Attached to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor

[pencil note:] Adjutant to the Fuehrer
Schm.

Recd: 3 Oct. 1938
Req. No: 260/38 SECRET

Berlin, Sept. 28, 1938

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.
No. 2335/38 Most Secret WFA/L II

MOST SECRET

45 copies, 16th copy

Subject: 4 SS-Totenkopf Battalions subordinate to the C in C Army.

To: Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police. (SS Central Office) (36 copies)

By order of the Supreme Command of the armed forces the following battalions of the SS Deaths Head organization will be under the command of the C in C Army with immediate effect.

II and III Bn. of the 2nd SS-Totenkopf Regiment Brandenburg, at present in Brieg (Upper Silesia)

I and II Bn. of the 3rd SS-Totenkopf Regiment Thuringia, at present in Radebeul and Kotzenbroda near Dresden.

C in C Army is requested to deploy these Bn's for the West (Upper Rhine), according to the Fuehrer's instructions.

These SS-Totenkopf units now operating in the Asch promontory (I and II Bn of Oberbayern Regiment) will come under the C in C Army only when they return to German Reich territory, or when the Army crosses the German-Cz. frontier.

It is requested that all further arrangements be made between C in C Army and Reichsfuehrer-SS. (SS Central Office)

For the Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces.

Jodl

Further:
Distribution II

[ITEM 37] [Typescript]
L II b

28.9.38

MEMORANDUM

SA-General Herzog answers question of Adjutant's Office, Chief of Staff of the SA, 1600:

Reichsfuehrer SS, on the 26th of Sept., issued order to Chief of Staff of Sudeten German Free Corps, Ref. Diary 38/Most Secret, according to which the Volunteer Corps would come under the command of the Reichsfuehrer SS in case of German invasion of the Sudeten German territory.

The order was signed by Berger, SS-Colonel.

J. [initialled by Jodl]

[ITEM 38] [Typescript]
[Stamp—as usual]
Recd 3 Oct 1938
Req No. 263/38 MOST SECRET
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
No. 2385/38. Most Secret. L I a

Adjutant to the Fuehrer
Berlin 30.9.38
1600 hrs
120 Copies, 16th copy

MOST SECRET

Subject: Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces No. 2371/38 Most Secret. OKW/WFA L I a dated 30.9.38

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS NUMBER 2 TO DIRECTIVE NO I.

1. Attachment of Henlein Free Corps:

The Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces has just ordered that the Henlein Free Corps in its present composition be placed under command of Reichsfuehrer-SS and Chief of German Police.

It is, therefore, not at the immediate disposal of OKH as field unit for the invasion, but is to be later drawn in like the rest of the police forces for police duties in agreement with the Reichsfuehrer SS.

The instructions OKW No. 2310/38 Most Secret of the 28th Sept (last paragraph but one) and OKW No. 2371/38 Most Secret of Sept 30 are amended accordingly.

2. Rate of Exchange for the Cz. Krone:

The following rate of exchange will apply for all transactions and payments: 100 Cz. Kronen—10.00 Marks (1 Cz. Krone—10 Rpfg)

The Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

Keitel

Distribution III

and Special Distribution
(including Henlein Free Corps and
Reichsfuehrer SS through OKW/L II)

[ITEM 39] [Typescript]
[Stamp:]
Recd 3 Oct 1938
Req No 265/38 Most Secret

Adj. to the Fuehrer
Berlin, 30 Sept 1938

The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
OKW No. 2367/38 Most Secret
WFA/L I A

MOST SECRET

60 copies, 16th copy

DIRECTIVE #1

Subject: Occupation of territory separated from Czechoslovakia.

1. The sectors separated from Czechoslovakia will be occupied by the Armed Forces as follows:

The sector marked I to be occupied on the 1st and 2nd of Oct, the sector marked II on Oct 2 and 3rd, the sector marked III on Oct. 3, 4 and 5, the sector marked IV on Oct. 6 and 7th. The remaining area up to Oct 10.

The extent of the area I-IV is shown on the attached map. The extent of the remaining areas will be announced later.

2. The Armed Forces will have the following tasks:

The present degree of mobilized preparedness is to be maintained completely, for the present also in the West. Order for the rescinding of measures taken is held over.

The entry is to be planned in such a way that it can easily be converted into operation "Gruen".

The depth of the territories to be occupied daily depends on the details of the evacuation, which are being settled by the international committee.

a. Army: First of all the following units are available for the invasion:
Training Bns.
Motorized and Armoured Units
Adolf Hitler SS Bodyguard Regiment
I and II Bns of SS Deaths Head Regiment (Oberbayern)
Henlein Free Corps
All combat action on the part of the Free Corps must cease
as from 1st October.

b. Air Force: Those ground installations (including supply and signal installations) situated in the separated areas are to be occupied immediately and prepared for the use of our own units. Flying units can be transferred if this becomes necessary for the air defense of the territory yielded or for the possible switch to "Fall Gruen" in accordance with fig. 2. Flights over territory not yet cleared for occupation by German troops must be avoided at all costs. Flak must be assigned to those objectives which cannot be protected by Flak under the command of the Army.

3. Those units of the Armed Forces intended for the occupation of sector I must cross the former Czech-German frontier by 1200 noon Oct 1st.

4. Armed resistance in the area cleared for occupation must be broken. Czech soldiers and other armed personnel found within the sector are to be disarmed and taken prisoner. The boundary of the sector against the Czechs is not to be crossed under any circumstances. Hostile action against the Czechs on or beyond this boundary is to be avoided.

5. The conduct of the field units must be based on the realization that they are occupying a territory whose population, after being harassed for years, looks upon the German Armed Forces as Liberators.

6. The German frontier guard will remain on the former German-Czech frontier, as before.

7. The securing of the boundaries of the sectors against the area still in Czech hands is sole responsibility of the army.

For the Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

KEITEL

Distribution: III

[Attached map is not reproduced].

[ITEM 40] [Typescript]
[Stamp:]
Recd 3 Oct 1938
Req No. 264/38 Most Secret

Adj. to the Fuehrer
Berlin, 30 Sept 1938

The Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
OKW No. 2371/38, Most Secret, WFA/L I a

MOST SECRET
Special Orders No. 1 to Directive No. 1

Subject: Occupation of territory ceded by Cz.

1. Operational Area of the Army:

The area to be newly occupied will be at first an operational area of the Army. In it the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces will have full powers and authority to delegate these powers to the C-in-C's of the armies.

The Commanders exercising these full powers can publish laws, institute special courts and issue directives to offices valid for the operational area with the exception of the highest Reich authorities, the highest offices of the State of Prussia, and the executive board of the NSDAP. This authority to issue regulations has priority over regulations issued by other Superior authorities.

2. Units under Command of Army:

a. The units of the military SS (V.T.) and SS Totenkopf Regiments intended for the occupation of the sector remain under OKH control.

b. The Sudeten German Free Corps comes under the control of OKH. The Bn's of the Free Corps are to be employed in the direction of their native territory wherever possible. They retain their present armament. Provisioning to be guaranteed through the army Hqs. Members of the Free Corps do not come under the military penal code. The Hqs of the Free Corps, after occupation of territory III, is to be transferred from Bayreuth to Eger.

c. The Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, in cooperation with Reichsfuehrer SS and at the request of Army Hqs will direct Police Forces and Gestapo forces for the support of Secret Field Police forces in the occupied areas. As required for Military Police duties, the Special Police (SdP) will be drawn in as much as possible.

3. Taking over of Military Accommodation and RR Installations:

a. All military installations, barracks and property will be turned over in the occupied Sudeten German territories by OKH in so far as they were up to now the property of the Cz. army. By OKL if they were property of the Cz. Air Force (including civil aviation.)

b. The Chief of Transport System will make arrangements with the Reich RR's regarding the taking over of rail installations.

4. Signal Communications:

a. The Army will be at liberty to use the postal communication facilities within the area to be occupied. Requirements of the Luftwaffe are to be assured through the Field Signal Units under the command of the OKH attached to the Army Hqs. Depending on the situation, the most important communication installations are to be put into operation as soon as possible, secured and screened against Cz.

Special emphasis must be laid on the effective silencing and confiscation of all transmitting installations. Official, private and permanent radio installations of the Cz army are to be secured through OKH, those of the Cz Air Force through OKL.

5. Customs Frontier Guard

After the crossing of the Reich frontier by the troops, the securing of the old frontier is the responsibility of the Customs Frontier Guard (Zollgrenzschutz); the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces will put the necessary personnel from the Frontier Guard at their disposal.

The customs regulation of the forward line of the area to be occupied, will be determined by the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces in conjunction with the Inspector General of Customs. Liaison officials are still at the disposal of Corps Headquarters acc. to #16 of the regulations governing the VGAD. Shipments to Wehrmacht offices as well as members of the Wehrmacht are not subject to customs regulations.

6. Application of Laws:

a. Compensation laws are to be employed on both sides of the border. Public buildings are to be used mainly for billets. Requisitioned articles do not become the property of the armed forces. Compensation for services rendered in cash (German currency).

b. Special regulations will be issued with regard to the introduction of the German Penal Code in the occupied areas.

7. Mobilization Measures among Civilian Population:

Mobilization measures will not be taken among civilian personnel. But all authorities have been asked to carry out quickly demands made by armed force authorities.

The following measures are especially requested in order to guarantee the tasks of the armed forces.

a. Reichs Postal Ministry

Securing of direct tele-communications in the areas Breslau, Dresden, Wuerzburg, Nurnberg, Munchen, Vienna, Berlin. Establishing of Special Emergency networks. Furnishing of items to the armed forces to whatever degree they may be required. (Compare, Mobilization Book (Z) Section IX No. 3501, 3503, 3532). Fulfilling staff requirements as regards the restoring of signal networks in occupied areas.

b. Ministry of Propaganda:

Dispatch of commissioners to the chiefs of civil administration in the operational area. Prohibition of publication of military news of any kind in the press (compare Mobilization Book (Z) Part V No. 1758 and 1600).

8. Organizations of the Party:

The Fuehrer's Deputy has been asked to inform the party organizations that OKH must furnish permission if party units are to be brought into the Sudeten area.

9. Economic Directives:

Any confiscation of values or balances at credit institutions (Kredit instituten) in the Sudeten German area is prohibited. Requisitioning is also prohibited. Supplying of the armed forces with food, forage and fuel is to be carried out from the Reich. The following rate of exchange applies for all transactions and payments: 100 Cz. kronen = 9.00 RM (1 Cz. Kr = 9 Rpfg)[the underlined crossed out.]

[pencil note: will be published this afternoon]

10. Payment of the armed forces

For the parts of the armed forces operating, pay as applicable in accordance with the peacetime regulations for large-scale maneuvers will go into effect after leaving garrisons or assembly areas. All additional costs arising through the operation are to be deleted under chapter VIII E 20 (OKW Treasury).

11. Administrative Directives:

The army hqs will administer the occupied areas on their own responsibility. The C D Z with their special staffs are at their disposal in an advisory capacity (compare H. Dv. 90. No. 20 etc.)

12. Supply Installations:

For the maintenance and putting into operation of supply installations OKW Admin. Staff will attach the following to the Army/H.Q.'s

Army H.Q.	Tech Hq	To	App Time of Arrival
12	13	LANDAU/ISAR	10.1	2000
10	4	PLAUEN	10.2	2000
8	3	GORLITZ	10.1	2000
2	8	LAMSDORF (SW/OPPELN)	10.5	2000

13. Propaganda Companies:

Propaganda companies are to be used. Amendments as regards attachment made necessary through the peaceful entry will be conveyed verbally.

Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

KEITEL

DISTRIBUTION: III and Special Distribution

[ITEM 41] [Typescript]

[Stamp:] Office of the Armed Forces Adjutant attached to the Fuehrer and Reichs Chancellor

[pencil note] Adjutant to the Fuehrer

Recd: 3 Oct. 1938
Req. No: 266/38 Most Secret

Berlin 30.9.38
200 copies, 153rd copy

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
WFA/L No. 2150/38 Most Secret IV a.

MOST SECRET

Subject: OCCUPATION OF SUDETEN-GERMAN TERRITORY

1. The Fuehrer and Reichs Chancellor has ordered that Sections of the Armed Forces march into the Sudeten-German territory, beginning 1 October, 1938. There will be no general mobilization of the Armed Forces (or case "X"). Units already mobilized, will, for the time being, remain at their present posts.

2. Coincident with the crossing of the Reich frontier, the Commander in Chief of the Army will assume full powers in the territory to be occupied, together with authority to transfer this power to the C's in C of the Armies.

The Commander in Chief can exercise these powers, and pass laws, install special courts, and give directives to the appropriate departments and offices functioning in the area of operations, valid for the operational area with the exception of the highest Reich authorities or officers of the State of Prussia and the Executive Board of the NSDAP. In all other cases, the right of issuing directives has priority over directives from higher superior authorities. The area of operations will be extended forward according to the area to be occupied. The shifting of the rear frontier of the operational area will be ordered separately.

3. Mobilization measures will not be enforced in the civil sphere. However, all authorities are requested to carry out immediately the demands of the armed force authorities. To guarantee completion of the tasks of the armed forces the following measures are especially desired:

a. Reich Postal Ministry:

Securing of direct tele-communications in the districts of the Communications Hqs, Breslau, Dresden, Wuerzburg, Nurnberg, Muenchen, Vienna and Berlin.

Establishing of Special Communications networks. Furnishing of equipment to armed forces in whatever degree may be required (see Mob. Book (Z) Part IX, No. 3501-03-32).

Furthermore it is requested that staff requirements as regards restoring communication networks in the occupied area, be met.

b. Propaganda Ministry:

Dispatch of commissioners to the Chiefs of Civil on the administration operational area. Prohibition of the publication of military news of any kind in the press. (Compare Mob Book (Z) part V, 1758 & 1600)

c. Reichsbank:

Issue of Mobilization money supplies without fiduciary monetary tender is authorized. (Compare Mob Book (Z) Part XVIII, Nr 8031)

4. Application of Laws:

a. There will be a special directive as to the introduction of the German Criminal Code into the occupied territory.

b. The Army Compensation Law [Wehrleistungsgesetz] will be in force on both sides of the frontier. Public buildings will be used as billets primarily. Requisitioned articles will not become property of the armed forces. Payment for services rendered will be made in cash (German currency).

5. Economic Directives:

Any confiscation of valuables or balances at Credit Institutions [Kredit Instituten] is prohibited in the Sudeten-German area. Requisitioning is also prohibited. Supplies of food, forage and fuel for the armed forces will be drawn from the Reich. The following rate of exchange is effective for all transactions and payments:

100 Czech kronen—10.00 RM (1 Czech krone—10 Pfg)

6. Payment of the Armed Forces:

For parts of the armed forces operating, pay as applicable in accordance with the peace-time regulations for large-scale maneuvers, effective from time of departure from areas or garrisons.

7. Customs Frontier Guard:

After the crossing of the Reich Frontier by the troops, the security of the old frontier will be taken over by the Customs-Frontier Guard at whose disposal the supreme commander of the armed forces will put the necessary personnel.

The supreme command of the armed forces will arrange the guarding of the front lines of the area to be occupied (as to collection of duties) with the Inspector General of Customs. The Liaison officials according to Nr 15 of the regulations pertaining to the VGAD will continue to be at the disposal of the Corps Hqs.

Shipments to armed forces authorities as well as members of the armed forces are not subject to customs inspection.

8. Administrative Directives:

The armed Hqs will administer the occupied areas on their own responsibilities. The CdZ with their staff of experts are at their disposal in an advisory capacity (see H. Dv 90, Nr 20 etc.). In all matters of a police nature, the Reichsfuehrer SS is to be consulted.

The Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

(signed) Keitel

Distribution: Overleaf

DISTRIBUTION

The Fuehrer's deputy for the attention of SS-Oberfuehrer Knoblauch—1st copy

Reichminister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery for the attention of Reichminister Dr. Lammers—2nd copy

Foreign Office for the attention of Leg. Rat. Freiherr v. d. Heyden-Rynsch—3rd copy

Reichminister of the Interior for the attention of Min. Div. Dr. Danckwerts—4th copy

Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police—Reich Defence (RV) Section—for the attention of SS-Brigadefuehrer Petri—5th copy

Reich Minister for Enlightenment and Propaganda for the attention of Major (Reserve) Wentscher—6th copy

Reich Minister of Justice for the attention of Min. Rat. Haastert—7th copy

Reich Finance Minister for the attention of Min. Rat. Geh. Rat. Dr. Bender—8th copy

Reich Finance Minister for the attention of Min. Rat. Dr. Mitze—9th copy

Reich Minister of Communications—Motor Transport Service, Shipping Hydraulic Structures—for the attention of Min. Rat. Pigge—10th copy

Reich Minister of Transport—Railroad Dept.—for the attention of Div. Dr. Ebeling—11th copy

Reich Minister for Science, Education—National Culture for the attention of Min. Div. Prof. Dr. Krummel—12th copy

Reich Postal Minister for the attention of Min. Rat. Honold—13th copy

General Inspector for German Roadways for the attention of Reg. Baurat Schaeffler—14th copy

Minister President General Fieldmarshall Goering, Director of the Four Year Plan and the Prussian State Ministry for the attention of Min. Rat. Bergbohm—15th & 16th copy

Operational Staff G B for the attention of Ministerial Director Sarnow—17th & 18th copies

Reich Minister of Economies for the attention of Ob. Reg. Rat. Dr. Burandt—19th copy

Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture for the attention of Min. Rat. Dr. Dietrich—20th copy

Reich Labour Minister for the attention of Min. Rat. Schroeder—21st copy

Directorate of the Reichsbank for the attention of the Reichsbank dir. Dr. Mueller—22nd copy

Reich Conservator of Forests for the attention of Oberlandforstmeister Hausmann—23rd copy

Reich Office for long range regional planning (Raunoreburg) for the attention of Reg. Rat. Dr. Schepers—24th copy

President of the Secret Cabinet Council Reich Minister Freiherr von Neurath—25th copy

Reich Minister Frank for the attention of Oberstaatsanwalt Dr. Buhler—26th copy

Head of Reich Labour Service for the attention of Oberarbeitsfuehrer Richter—27th copy

OKH (2nd Div. Army General Staff) (80X)—28th-107th copy

Reich Minister for Air and C-in-C Air Force (2nd Div. Air Force General Staff) (30X)—108th-137th copy

OKM (A II) (15 x)—138th-152nd copy

Adjutant to the Fuehrer—153rd copy

OKW: Chief of OKW—154th copy

WZ—155th copy

Ausl/Abwehr (with NA for Foreign Abwehr I, II & III) (5 X)—156th-160th copy

General Armed Forces Office (with NA for J. Pressegr. Vers.) (4X)—161st-164th copy

Armed Forces Staff (with NA for WWi, WRo, WRue) (4X)—165th-168th copy

Armed Forces Communications (WNV) (2X)—169th-170th copy

L (Chief, Ia, Ib, Ic, II, IVa, IVb, IVc, IVd, K)—171st-180th copy

WH—181st copy

WR—182nd copy

Special Staff W—183rd copy

Stock kept at L IV—184th-200th copy

[ITEM 42] [Typescript]
200 copies, 153rd copy
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
L. No. 2385/38 Most Secret IV A

Subject: Occupation of the Sudeten-German area.

Berlin, 30.9.38
[STAMP]
Office of the Armed Forces Adjutant
attached to the Fuehrer & Reich Chancellor
Rec. 3 Oct 1938
Enclosures: Reg. No. 267138
Dispatched—
Clerk

1. By order of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the occupation of the Sudeten-German areas by the Armed Forces will be executed in a manner which will allow a changeover to military operations at any time.

For the advance of the troops to coincide with the withdrawal of the Czechs, particularly in the fortified zones, and on account of the possibility of local resistance, it is necessary for the march in to be arranged in a way suited to the conduct of military operations.

2. The military occupation also necessitates the settling of economic conditions in the Sudeten-German area. Assimilation can only be brought about gradually. For this transition period the rate of exchange has been fixed at 100 Czech crowns to 10.00 Reichmarks so as to enable the retail trade to function. It is a pre-condition of this temporary settlement, however, that, until a final settlement is made with regard to economics and currency, and in order to avoid placing the Sudeten-German population at a disadvantage, only those things are bought in the open market which come in the category of goods which fill the immediate needs of life. Any exploitation of the present economic situation is a serious offense.

3. For the above stated reasons, travel into the Sudetenland from the old Reich will be confined to those officials and authorities who have been given specific tasks in the Sudeten-German area. It is requested that all civil authorities and all organizations of the Party be instructed without delay that it is essential to obtain the previous approval of the military authorities charged with the exercise of executive power (C-in-C of the Army, Army HQ) for the transfer of departments and units of any kind into the Sudeten-German area which is under military authorities.

The Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

Keitel

[Distribution for Item 42 identical to that of Item 41]

[ITEM 43 is seven pages of handwritten notes too illegible to translate.]

[ITEM 44] [Typescript]

MOST SECRET

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
No. 2400/38 Most Secret LIa
Top Secret

Berlin, 1st October 1938
150 copies, 18th copy
[Stamp]

Office of the Armed Forces Adjutant attached to the
Fuehrer & Reich Chancellor.

Rec. Oct. 3rd 1938, Encl. 2-30
Reg. No. 268338 Secret
Dispatched—
Check—

SPECIAL ORDERS NO. 3 to DIRECTIVE No. 1

Parts of the Army Employed.

In addition to the Sections of the Army whose employment has been approved (See Directive 1, Section 2a), the following units will also be used for the occupation:

Command (Generalkommando) III
10th Inf Regiment (4th Inf. Div)

The Chief of Supreme Command of the Army
By direction

Jodl

Distribution: III and special distribution

[ITEM 45] [Telegram]

Army Teleprint Network
Teleprint Office Notes
Received from

HDZG Pass to Date Time Re. No. by
9.10 Dept 9.10 Schm. [?]
Klimnisch [?]

Telegram HBZG 12 9110 1304

TO LT. COL. SCHMUNDT FUEHRER'S TRAIN (FUHRERZUG)

1. IF THE OCCUPATION OF ZONE 5 IS CARRIED OUT TODAY ACCORDING TO PLAN AND WITHOUT INCIDENT OKW INTENDS TO DISSOLVE V.G.A.D. IN THE WEST AS FROM 10.10 AND TO BRING THE 5 SERVING DIVISIONS BACK TO THEIR HOME STATIONS * * *

2. ACCORDING TO TELEGRAM RECEIVED HERE POPULATION OF IGLAU VERY WORRIED AND EXCITED. COMMUNISTS THERE ARE ARMED. FOREIGN OFFICE HAS BEEN INFORMED. OKW SUGGESTS EMPLOYMENT OF ENGLISH LEGION, IF IT IS BROUGHT UP IN THIS AREA, FOR PROTECTION OF THE GERMANS. FUEHRER'S CONSENT REQUESTED FOR 1 AND 2 * * *

signed KEITEL

[Ink Notes:—] Telephoned this from Opera House in Saarbrucken at 2100 10.9 to Capt. Deyle. Fuehrer agreed to points 1 and 2. In connection with 2: if the lives of Germans threatened, troops to march in after short warning.

SCHMUNDT, Lt. Col.

[ITEM 46] [Typewritten letter]
The C-in-C of the Army

Berlin, W 35, Tirpitzufer 72-76, 10 October 1938
[Pencil notes]
11.10.38
1800 hours Schm.

My Fuehrer!

I have to report that the troops will reach the demarcation line as ordered, by this evening. In so far as further military operations are not required, the order for the occupation of the country which was given to me will thus have been fulfilled. The guarding of the new frontier line will be taken over by the reinforced frontier supervision service [Grenzaufsichtsdienst] in the next few days.

It is thus no longer a military necessity to combine the administration of the Sudetenland with the command of the troops of the army under the control of one person.

I therefore ask you, my Fuehrer, to relieve me with effect from October 15, 1938, of the charge assigned to me—that of exercising executive powers in Sudeten German territory.

Heil my Fuehrer,

VON BRAUCHITSCH

[Handwritten Note:] Submitted to Fuehrer 11 October. Agreed. Schm.

[ITEM 47] [Telegram]

Remarks of teleprint office
Army Telegraph Network

Pass to Date Time R. No. by
Schmundt's 10.10 1940 Schm.
Dept.

Received from HOZ6, 10.10, 1930

Telegram SECRET
HBZG No. 17 1915 Schm.

TELEGRAM TO FUEHRER'S TRAIN, LT. COL. SCHMUNDT IF EVENING REPORT SHOWS THAT OCCUPATION OF ZONE FIVE HAS BEEN COMPLETED WITHOUT INCIDENT OKW INTENDS TO ORDER FURTHER DEMOBILIZATION

PRINCIPLE: 1 TO SUSPEND OPERATION "GRUEN" BUT MAINTAIN A SUFFICIENT STATE OF PREPAREDNESS ON PART OF ARMY AND LUFTWAFFE TO MAKE INTERVENTION POSSIBLE IF NECESSARY.

2 ALL UNITS NOT NEEDED TO BE WITHDRAWN FROM THE OCCUPIED AREA AND REDUCED TO PEACETIME STATUS, AS POPULATION OF OCCUPIED AREA IS HEAVILY BURDENED BY THE MASSING OF TROOPS.

3 TO DISSOLVE TRUCK REGIMENTS AS A MATTER OF URGENCY, IN THE INTERESTS OF ECONOMY.

4 IN THE WEST—GRADUAL REVERSAL OF ALL MOBILIZATION MEASURES WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO THE WORK ON THE LIMES.

5 INTENTION OF THE C-IN-C OF THE ARMY TO RELINQUISH HIS EXECUTIVE POWERS ON 10.15

FUEHRER'S CONSENT REQUESTED
OKW

[Handwritten notes]
Fuehrer's decision:

1—Agreed

2—Suggestion to be made on the 13th Oct in Essen by Gen. Keitel. Decision will then be reached.

3—Agreed

4—Agreed

5—Agreed

NB. Notice of 5 to be sent by 6th Division
Relayed to Lt. Colonel Zeitzler at 2300, 10.11

SCHMUNDT, Lt. Col.

[in Schmundt's writing]

[Next page contains illegible notes]
[Handwritten notes]

	10.10.38
	What is in the Zone?
5 1 (motorized)	For special duties	1 mountain
1 (light)		3 div
1 armoured		1 Truck Transport Regt.
1 mountain
1 div.
4 3 motorized div		3 4 div
1 light		Germania
1 armoured
2 div
Liebstandarte
1 armoured		13 div
3 div		4 div (motorized)
		3 armoured
		2 mountain
		2 light
		———
		24 divisions

[notes in Schmundt's writing]

[Telegram]

Army Telegraph Network

Notes of Telegraph Office
Received from HOZG 11.10.10.45

Pass to Date Time R. No. by
Lt. Col. 11.10 Schm.
Schmundt

HBZG 008 1040

TO THE ARMED FORCES ADJUTANT ATTACHED TO THE FUEHRER AND SUPREME COMMANDER OF ARMED FORCES. THE C-IN-C THE ARMY REGARDS HIS DUTIES AS POSSESSOR OF EXECUTIVE POWERS IN THE SUDETEN GERMAN AREA AS FINISHED AS FROM 10.15 AND SUGGESTS THAT THE ADMINISTRATION BE TAKEN OVER ON THAT DATE BY REICH COMMISSAR HENLEIN, PROVIDING THAT FURTHER MILITARY OPERATIONS ARE NO LONGER NECESSARY. PERSONAL LETTER OF THE C-IN-C TO THE FUEHRER HAS BEEN DISPATCHED.

OKH 6th Div. (Five)
General Staff of the German Army
11.37/38

[ITEM 48]
[Ink note]

1. If advance orders, times can be shortened. Regrouping of armies.

2. If Hungary, small degree of preparedness. 2 brigades between Pressburg and Budapest. 1 brigade east of Friedl.

[Rest of note impossible to decipher completely]

[Telegram]

Army Telegraph Network

Notes of the telegraph office
Received from HBZC 11.10.1955.

Pass to Date Time R. No. by 1)4 Mot.
Lt. Col. 11.10 2030 Joe Div.
Schmundt 1 B'n
ready
to
March
[?] 1 Arm'd
Brig.
24
+5
—
29 [Undecipherable
note]

TOP SECRET

HBZG 13 1930.11.10
Lt. Col. Schmundt

Question 1: WHAT REINFORCEMENTS ARE NECESSARY IN THE PRESENT SITUATION TO BREAK ALL CZECH RESISTANCE IN BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA?

Answer: ARMY SUGGESTS:

ARMY GROUP 5: Nothing

ARMY GROUP FOR SPECIAL DUTIES: 1 Arm'd Brig., 2 Mob. Div.

ARMY GROUP 4: Nothing

ARMY GROUP 3: 1 Mobile Division

ARMY GROUP 1: 1 Division ready to march and 1 Mobile Division

B LUFTWAFFE: EMPLOYMENT NECESSARY OF ALL FORCES PROVIDED TO DATE OKW BELIEVES THAT IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO COMMENCE OPERATIONS WITHOUT THESE REINFORCEMENTS IN VIEW OF THE PRESENT SIGNS OF WEAKNESS IN CZECH RESISTANCE.

Question 2: HOW MUCH TIME IS REQUIRED FOR THE REGROUPING OR MOVING UP OF NEW FORCES?

Answer: A Army: FOR REGROUPING: 2 days. FOR MOVING UP OF NEW FORCES FROM THE REICH 4 to 5 DAYS (INCLUDING MOBILIZATION)

B Luftwaffe: OPERATIONAL DUTY POSSIBLE ANY TIME

Question 3: HOW MUCH TIME WILL BE REQUIRED FOR THE SAME PURPOSE IF IT IS EXECUTED AFTER THE INTENDED DEMOBILIZATION AND RETURN MEASURES?

Answer: A Army: IN THE SOUTHEAST ABOUT 10 to 11 DAYS.—IN THE EAST 9 to 10 DAYS.

B Luftwaffe: AFTER RETURN OF FLYING UNITS TO PEACE TIME AIRFIELDS AND THEIR DEMOBILIZATION—THE AA GUNS WHICH ARE READY FOR ACTION AND THE GROUND ORGANIZATION BEING LEFT AS THEY ARE—LENGTH OF TIME IN SOUTHEASTERN AREA 12 HOURS IF WEATHER FAVORABLE. AFTER DEMOBILIZATION IS COMPLETE SEVERAL DAYS, IN ANY CASE LESS THAN IN THE CASE OF THE ARMY.

Question 4: HOW MUCH TIME WOULD BE REQUIRED TO ACHIEVE THE STATE OF READINESS OF OCT. 1st?

Answer: Army: 6 days. If the reserves are called up by radio, 3 days at least.

Luftwaffe: AIR DEFENSE WEST, BEFORE COMMENCEMENT OF REORGANIZATION, WILL BE READY FOR OPERATIONS IN 24 HOURS.

(signed) KEITEL

[ITEM 49] [Typewritten table]
LI a

Berlin, 12 October 1938
3 copies, 1st copy

REFLECTIONS

Of the Supreme Command of the Army on the withdrawal of Forces from the Sudeten-German Area

	Present Strength
Army Group	No. of Divs.	Div. Nos. Earmarked for Withdrawal	No. of Divs. To be Withdrawn	Strength After Withdrawal
Army Group Command 5	5 1/3	1/3 44, 2 Mtn, 3 Mtn, 29th Mot, 4 light, 2nd Armoured	3	2 1/3 1 1/3
Army Group Command for Special Duties	4 1/3 plus 1 SS Regt	1/3 5th, 7th, 9th, 45th, 1st Mtn.	1 1/3	3 1
Army Group Command 4	7 (plus 1 SS Regt)	10th, 24th, 2nd (Mot), 13th (Mot), 20th (Mot), 1st Light, 1st Armd.	2	4 2
Army Group Command 3	3 (plus 1 SS Regt)	4th, 3rd, 18th	2	2 1
Army Group Command	4	8th, 28th, 30th, 3rd Arm'd.	1	3 2
TOTAL	22 2/3 (Plus 3 SS Regts)		8 1/3	14 2/3 (Plus 3 SS Regts)
	Namely: 11 2/3 Inf. Div 3 Mtn Divs 3 Mot Divs 3 Light Divs 3 Armd Divs		Namely: 3 1/3 Inf Divs 2 Mtn Divs 1 Mot Div 1 Light Div 1 Arm'd Div	Namely: 8 2/3 Inf Div 1 Mtn Div 2 Mot Divs 1 Light Div 2 Arm'd Divs
				7 1/3

[ITEM 50] [Telegram]
REICH WAR MINISTRY/NAVAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE
MOST SECRET
Received on 17.10 from kg at 1535 by [Indecipherable]
MBZ O 61
Telegram from MBZ 045 17/10 1525
Lt. Colonel Schmundt

OKW suggests that by 20 October about half of the Army forces still remaining in Sudeten-German Territory (14-1/3 Divs and 3 SS Regiments) should be moved out, as otherwise the orderly discharging of the old age group at the end of October—this is necessary for the building up of the Army—and the reassignment of the recruits will not be possible by 10/11. (Involved are the: 2nd Arm'd Div, 1st Mountain Div, 7th Div, 13th Motorized Div, 20th Motorized Div, 18th Div and 3rd Arm'd Div). Fuehrer's decision requested today.

Signed Keitel

[Note at bottom in Schmundt's handwriting:] The Fuehrer has given his consent 17 Oct. By telephone, 1905 hours, 17 Oct. to Capt. Vogel, Section L, OKW.

Schmundt, Lt. Col.

[ITEM 51] [Typescript]

The Fuehrer and Supreme Comdr of the Armed Forces
Berchtesgaden, 18 Oct. 1938
Despatched 19 X 39 M

TO THE C-IN-C OF THE ARMY GENERAL VON BRAUCHITSCH, BERLIN

The occupation of the Sudeten-German territory has been completed, the operation being carried out by sections of the Army, the Air Forces, the Police, the military SS (SS Verfugungstruppe), the SS and SA.

Placed under protection of the armed forces, 3-1/2 millions of German compatriots have returned to the Reich once and for all.

The Civil Administration is taking over charge of them on 21 Oct 1938. Simultaneously I relieve you of your right to exercise executive power, while acknowledging the understanding cooperation of all departments.

Along with our Sudeten German compatriots, the entire German people express their gratitude to those who participated in the liberation of the Sudeten-Land.

(signed) Adolf Hitler
Berchtesgaden, 18 Oct 1938
(signed) Schmundt,
Lieutenant Colonel, G.S.C.

The Armed Forces Adjutant attached to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor.

After Delivery:

To the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
I request that publication in the press be initiated from there.

1st Draft.

To The C-in-C of the Army

The occupation of the Sudeten-German territory had been completed according to plan, the operation being carried out by sections of the Army, Air Force, and police. Thus 3-1/2 million German compatriots have returned to the Reich once and for all, and have been placed under the protection of the Armed Forces.

You have borne the responsibility for the occupation of the country and the care of the population from the day when the army marched in, and now I approve your proposal to release you from your authority to exercise executive power in the Sudeten-German area, date of expiry being October 20th 1938.

My thanks to all those who participated in the liberation of the Sudetenland, for the order and discipline, the social understanding and devoted readiness to help with which they have done their duty.

[Handwritten note]
The military SS (SS Verfuegungstruppe), the SS and SA

[ITEM 52] [Typescript]

Berlin, 18 October 1938

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
No. 2560/38 MOST SECRET L I a 1300 hours
[Stamp] 60 copies
Copy

Office of the Armed Forces Adjutant attached to the Fuehrer & Reich Chancellor

Recd. 20 Oct. 1938
Req. No. 297/38 Most Secret
Despatch Clerk W

MOST SECRET Directive No. 4

The Fuehrer has ordered:

1. That about half of the forces of the Army still remaining in Sudeten-German territory be shipped back to their peace time bases.

2. That those parts of the Luftwaffe which are under the command of the Army be shipped back and returned to the C-in-C of the Air Force. The withdrawal of other parts of the Luftwaffe operating in Sudeten Germany will be effected by the C-in-C of the Air Force.

Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces

Keitel

Distribution: III

[ITEM 53] [Telegram]

REICH WAR MINISTRY/NAVAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE
MOST SECRET

Received at 1040 by [Indecipherable] Initials
MBZ 066
Telegram from MBZ 050 21/10 1030
LIEUTENANT COLONEL SCHMUNDT:

(SECRET)—OKW REQUESTS THE FUEHRER'S APPROVAL TO THE FOLLOWING DECREE: ON THE 20TH OF OCTOBER THE REICH LABOUR SERVICE CEASES TO BE UNDER THE COMMAND OF THE SUPREME COMMAND OF THE ARMED FORCES, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE RAD FORCES OPERATING IN THE AREA OF THE WESTERN FORTIFICATIONS. THE CHIEF OF THE SUPREME COMMAND OF THE ARMED FORCES REGULATES THE CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT FOR THESE SECTIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH MY DIRECTIVES, & AGREEMENT WITH THE REICHS LABOR LEADER. OKW NR 2690/38

Secret WFA/L two of 20 Oct 38 JODL
[Handwritten:] Consent given, 21 Oct 38.
Passed to Colonel Jodl's Ante-Room at 1400
Sch 22/10

[ITEM 54] [Typescript]

MOST SECRET
TOP SECRET
Only through officer
Conference Notes

L I a Berlin, 27.9.38
4 copies, 1st copy

[Pencil note]
Time of Attack "Gruen".
(Z. v. A. Gruen)

COORDINATED TIME OF ATTACK BY ARMY AND AIR FORCES ON X DAY

As a matter of principle, every effort should be made for a coordinated attack by Army and Air Forces on X Day.

The Army wishes to attack at dawn, i.e., about 0615; it also wishes to conduct some limited operations in the previous night, which, however, would not alarm the entire Czech front.

Air Force's time of attack depends on weather conditions. These could change the time of attack and also limit the area of operations. The weather of the last few days, for instance, would have delayed the start until between 0800 and 1100 due to low ceiling in Bavaria.

If the Luftwaffe were to attack at the time desired by the Army no tactical surprise of the enemy's air force would be achieved and it would necessitate certain changes in the method of attack (height of flight level). Consequently, from the outset the Luftwaffe has desired a later hour of attack on the part of the Army. Even so, there would be no definite guarantee of a well-timed coordinated attack of both Forces, as bad weather conditions on the day of attack might postpone the commitment of the Air Force on X Day in part or altogether.

If an early hour of attack on the part of the Army is regarded as indispensable, a simultaneous attack by the Air Force,—desirable as it may be,—may possibly have to be dispensed with.

Thus it is Proposed:

Attack by the Army—independent of the attack by the air force—at the time desired by the Army (0615) and permission for limited operations to take place before them, however, only to an extent that will not alarm the entire Czech front.

The Luftwaffe will attack at a time most suitable to them.

J.
[Initialled by Jodl.]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 392-PS

The Social Life of New Germany with Special Consideration of the German Labor Front [Das Sociale Leben in neuen Deutschland unter besonderer Beruecksichtigung der Deutschen Arbeitsfront] (Berlin, 1938) by Prof. Willy Mueller. Pages 51-54. [Prof. Mueller was Reich Indoctrination Administrator in the German Labor Front].

"The Supreme Directorate of the Political Organization—The Staff Director"

Munich, 21 April 1933

Circular Letter Nr. 6/33

On Tuesday, 2 May 1933, the coordination action [Gleichschaltungsaktion] of the free trade unions begins.

The direction of the entire action lies in the hands of the Action Committee.

The Action Committee is composed as follows:

Dr. Robert Ley, Chairman.

Rudolf Schmeer, Deputy.

Schuhmann, Commissar of the General German Trade Union Federation [ADGB].

Peppler, Commissar for the General Independent Employees Federation [AFA].

Muchow Organization.

Bank Director Muller, Commissar, Director of the Bank for Workers, Employees and Officials.

Brinckmann, Commissar Chief Cashier.

Biallas, Propaganda and Press.

All the commissar directors of the unions belong to the broader Action Committee.

The essential part of the action is to be directed against the General German Trade Union Federation [ADGB] and the General Independent Employees Federation [AFA]. Anything beyond that which is dependent upon the free trade unions is left to the discretion of the Gauleiter's judgment.

The Gauleiters are responsible for the execution of the coordination action in the individual areas. Supporters of the action should be members of the National Socialist Factory Cell Organizations [NSBO or National-Sozialistische Betriebszellen-Organisation].

SA as well as SS are to be employed for the occupation of trade union properties and for taking into protective custody personalities concerned.

The Gauleiter is to proceed with his measures on a basis of the closest understanding with competent regional factory cells directors [Gaubetriebszellenleiter].

The action in Berlin will be conducted by the Action Committee itself.

In the Reich the following will be occupied:

The directing offices of the unions;

The trade union houses and offices of the free trade unions, The Party houses of the Socialist Democratic Party of Germany insofar as trade unions are involved there;

The branches and pay offices of the Bank for Workers, Employees and officials, Inc.

The district committees of the General German Trade Union Federation and of the General Independent Employees Federation.

The local committees of the General German Trade Union Federation and of the General Independent Employees Federation.

The following are to be taken into protective custody:

All trade union chairmen [Verbandsvorsitzende];

The district Secretaries and the branch directors of the "Bank for Workers, Employees and Officials, Inc."

The Chairmen of local committees as well as the employees of unions are not to be taken into protective custody but are to be urged to continue their work.

Exceptions are granted only with the permission of the Gauleiter.

The taking over of the independent trade unions must proceed in such a fashion that the workers and employees will not be given the feeling that this action is against them, but on the contrary, an action against a superannuated system which is not directed in conformity with the interests of the German nation.

The Provisional local direction of the General German Trade Union and of the General Independent Employees' Federations is to be taken over by a commissar of the National Socialist Factory Cells Organization [NSBO].

The dealings with the authorities and other organizations are to be handed over immediately to the newly installed commissars.

All funds and accounts of the independent trade unions are to be blocked immediately and remain thus until Thursday afternoon 1800 hours. Insofar as incumbent cashiers are permitted to remain in office they will be subject to the authority of the commissar. All payment receipts must be countersigned by a commissar.

After raising the blocking of funds the usual payments for the support of persons, etc. must be unconditionally assured in order not to create a feeling of uneasiness among the members of the trade unions.

As soon as possible mass assemblies are to be arranged for the free attendance by all trade union members. In these meetings the meaning of the action is to be set forth and it is to be explained that the rights of the workers and employees are being unequivocally guaranteed.

The following unions belong to the General German Trade Union Federation [Here follows an enumeration of 28 unions].

The following unions belong to the General Independent Employees Federation [Here follows an enumeration of 13 unions].

Up to the present time the following have been proposed for commissars: [Here follows an enumeration of 17 names as commissars for the most important arrangements of the General German Trade Union Federation].

For the rest, the newly installed commissars will be nominated by the Gauleiters in close cooperation with the Regional Factory Cells Office. [Gaubetriebszellenamt].

It is to be understood that this action is to proceed in a strongly disciplined fashion. The Gauleiters are responsible in this respect; they are to hold the direction of the action firmly in hand.

Heil Hitler!
/s/ Dr. Robert Ley

The NSBO (National Socialist Factory Cells Organization) took over not only the administrative apparatus but the entire press of the "Free Trade Unions." The papers and magazines which had a pronounced party political [parteipolitisch] tendency had to stop their publication, while the other special publications continued. By all these measures Marxism was to be hit exclusively, but not the idea of trade unions as such, in which the right and defense of the German workers were embodied.

On 5 May 1933, the leader of the action committee reported to Hitler the success of the ordered action. Then, in a public mass demonstration, he reported about the events of 2 May to the workers of Berlin; at the same time, he unfolded before them his future plans which were to secure the maintenance of the financial efficiency of the trade unions in the interest of the worker.

Following the crushing of the free trade unions, the danger came, of course, that former functionaries would try to acquire money and other property items for themselves in an illegal manner. This, however, would have entailed damage to the members. To avoid these dangers on 12 May 1933, the Attorney General of the State confiscated the property of the free trade unions and of all of their affiliated unions and administrative agencies in order to secure an orderly disposition of the property of the German workers. Dr. Robert Ley was assigned as the attorney with the right to dispose of the confiscated property [vefuegungsberechtigter Pfleger der beschlagnahmten Vermoegen].

While the free trade unions were smashed [zertruemmert] in the action of 2 May, Dr. Ley granted the entire Union of the Christian Trade Unions with further full liberty of movement. For this purpose, he told it on the 6th of May 1933 that "nothing will be changed in the present situation until the return of the Saar to the Reich and that they (the Christian Trade Unions) should continue as before to represent and carry on the idea of the Christian Trade Unions and of Germandom as they see it". Therefore the Christian Trade Unions put on temporary constraint in their attitude toward the social political events of 2 May and participated in the Saar in forming the "German Trade Union Front" in order to help to secure the result of the Saar voting by achieving a unity of the people.

The former free trade union leaders behaved differently. These, with the assistance of their colleagues abroad and of the international union of the trade unions, tried to oppose the measures of the German government; this induced Dr. Ley to introduce the defense against sabotage by the legal authorities.

The hostile activities reached their peak at the International Workers Conference of Geneva which began on 8 June 1933. From the German side, Dr. Ley also took part in it; representatives of the Reich Cabinet and of the Christian Trade Unions were with him. The subjects for the meeting were labor mediation, work conditions in certain branches of industry, social insurance, provision for unemployed, and shortening of the working time. The participating states were to enter the basic rules, which were to be set up in an international agreement, into their social legislations. The Germans represented voiced the opinion that the situation of the working people could not be improved by international agreement but by providing work and bread for the workers. In spite of this opposite opinion, Germany took part at the conference; in this way the German government wanted to prove that it had no purpose whatever to smash the social achievements of the German labor but that, on the contrary, she endeavored to retain them and lead them further. However, she was not willing to approve of an international agreement by which the further development of the German social legislation could be hampered.

During the conference, a few foreign personalities opposed the German representatives in such a way that Dr. Ley was induced to reject the further participation of the German Delegation in the discussions.

The atmosphere of Geneva did not remain without influence upon the representatives of the Christian Trade Unions. As already mentioned, the Christian Trade Unions were first given opportunity to continue their social work without interference. They began to exploit this favor. Also formally they have asserted that they were subject to all governmental measures which have been already taken or were to be taken; but that they could not refrain in the course of time from striving for a special position, which was to protect them from being ideologically converted to the world of national socialistic ideas. This attitude, which was contrary to the general interests and was prone to bring again dissension in the ranks of labor, induced Dr. Ley on 24 June 1933 to order the complete incorporation of the Christian Trade Unions into the German Labor Front which had been founded in the meantime. It was again the NSBO to which this task was assigned. At the same time the leaders of the Christian Trade Unions lost their honorary positions which were granted to them by Dr. Ley in the new social order. Concerning this, Dr. Ley submitted the following statement:

I. With the formation of the German Labor Front the majority of workers' and capitalists' organizations should have an opposite orientation. Not only should the last refuge of Marxism be liquidated by this means, but also it should be possible to remove the unfortunate schism of the German laboring men. Petty and selfish persons do not wish to recognize this great and revolutionary fact and seek to weaken this work by imitations and self-help organizations. It is the will of the Fuehrer that outside of the German Labor Front no other organization (whether of worker or of employers) is to exist***

II. National Socialism is exercising the power in its strength most generously, however this proceeding is being interpreted here and there by its small opponents as weakness. This National Socialism believed that it could be generous in dealing with the Christian Trade Unions and other middle-class groups. This fact was answered by ingratitude and disloyalty. It turns out that the afore-mentioned unions have shown the greatest corruption in treasury matters and in economic affairs. Because of this knowledge I offer the following: All offices of the Christian Trade Unions and of employee unions are to be occupied by National Socialists * * *

(Signed) Dr. Robert LEY

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 404-PS

MEIN KAMPF
Adolf Hitler
German Edition, 1935

[Pages 456 to 457]

It is precisely our German people, that today, broken down, lies defenseless against the kicks of the rest of the world who need that suggestive force that lies in self-confidence. But this self-confidence has to be instilled into the young fellow-citizen from childhood on. His entire education and development has to be directed at giving him the conviction of being absolutely superior to others. With this physical force and skill he has again to win the belief in the invincibility of his entire nationality. For what once led the German army to victory was the sum of the confidence which the individual and all in common had in their leaders. The confidence in the possibility of regaining its freedom is what will restore the German people. But this conviction must be the final product of the same feeling of millions of individuals.

[Page 475]

The racial State will have to see to it that there will be a generation which, by a suitable education, will be ready for the final and ultimate decision on this globe. The nation which enters first on this course will be the victorious one.

MEIN KAMPF
Adolf Hitler
41st Edition, 1933
Verlag Franz Eher Nachfolger, GMm. b.H. Muenchen.

[Page 607, line 37 to page 608, complete]

For this reason alone, The SA of the NSDAP could have nothing in common with a military organization. It was an instrument for defense and education of the National Socialist movement and its tasks lay in an entirely different province from that of the so-called combat leagues [Wehrverbaende]. But it could also constitute no secret organization. The aim of secret organizations can only be illegal. In this way, the scope of such an organization is automatically limited. It is not possible, especially in view of the talkativeness of the German people, to build up an organization of any size and at the same time to keep it outwardly secret or even to veil its aims. Any such intention would be thwarted a thousand times. Not only that our police authorities today have a staff of pimps and similar rabble at their disposal, who will betray anything they can find for the Juda's payment of thirty pieces of silver, and even invent things to betray, but the supporters themselves can never be brought to the silence, that is necessary in such a case. Only very small groups, by years of sifting, can assume the character of real secret organizations. But the very smallness of such organizations would remove their value for the National Socialist movement. What we needed and still need were and are not a hundred or two hundred reckless conspirators, but hundreds of thousands of fanatical fighters for our philosophy of life [Weltanschauung]. We should not work in secret conventicles, but in mighty mass demonstrations, and it is not by dagger and poison or by pistol that the road can be cleared for the movement, but by the conquest of the streets. We must teach the Marxists that the future master of the streets is National Socialism, just as it will some day be the master of the state.

MEIN KAMPF
Adolf Hitler
Munich, 1933, 39th Edition.

[Page 675]

The trade union in national-socialist interpretation, has not the mission to gradually transform into one class, through condensation, all the various individuals among the people, thereby to take up the fight against other similarly organized structures within the nation. On the whole we cannot assign this mission to the trade union, rather it was first conferred on it at the moment in which it became the weapon of Marxism. It is not that the trade union is imbued with the spirit of the class struggle, directly, on the contrary, Marxism has made of it an instrument for its class war. It created the economic weapon which the international world Jew uses for the ruination of the economic basis of free, independent national states, for the annihilation of their national industry and of their national commerce, and thereby for the enslavement of free peoples in the service of international world finance Jewry.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 405-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 285

Law concerning Trustees of Labor of 19 May 1933

The Reich Government has decided on the following law, which is hereby promulgated.

Section 1

1. The Reich Chancellor appoints trustees of labor for the larger economic areas upon the proposal of the competent provincial governments and in agreement with them.

2. The Reich Labor Minister will assign the trustees either to the participating provincial governments, if they agree, or to the provincial authorities.

Section 2

1. Until a new revision of the social constitution, the trustees are to regulate the conditions for the conclusion of labor contracts. This practice is to be legally binding for all persons and replaces the system founded on combinations of workers, of individual employers or of combinations of employers. The regulations concerning the general application (par 2 ff of the tariff accord decree in the publication of 1 March 1928, Reichsgesetzblatt I, p 47) remain unaffected.

2. Moreover, the trustees are also to look after the maintenance of the labor peace.

3. Furthermore, they are to be convoked for their cooperation in the preparation of a new social constitution.

Section 3

The trustees are empowered to request aid of the competent Reich and provincial authorities for the execution of their regulations. They should contact the provincial government or one of their designated authorities before executing their measures, even though the danger of delay exists.

Section 4

The trustees of labor are bound by the directives and decrees of the Reich Government.

Section 5

The Reich Minister of Labor in agreement with the Reich Minister of Economics issues the necessary regulations for the implementation.

Berlin 19 May 1933.

The Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler

The Reich Labor Minister
Franz Seldte

The Reich Economics Minister and Agriculture
Hugenberg

The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick

The Reich Minister of Finance
Count Schwerin von Krosigk

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 406-PS

Contents
Memorandum
by Gauleiter

Party Member Julius Streicher

Enclosure 1: First memorandum by Gauleiter Deputy, Party Member Karl Holz, with postscriptum.

Enclosure 2: Second memorandum by Gauleiter Deputy, Party Member Karl Holz, with postscriptum.

Appendix 1: Case Sandreuter

Appendix 2: Case Ritter

Appendix 3: Case J.M. Lang

MEMORANDUM
BY GAULEITER
PARTY MEMBER JULIUS STREICHER

Action against the Jews on 9/10 November 1938.

I was no longer present at the traditional fellowship congregation in the old town-hall in Munich on the evening of 9 November 1938 when a speaker, who claimed to have higher authority, made it known that the party was launching an action against the Jews during the night of 9/10 November 1938. I was informed of this fact by the party members Obergruppenfuehrer von Obernitz and Obergruppenfuehrer Litzmann around midnight of 9 November 1938. I declared to both these party members that I myself did not approve of an action involving arson of synagogues and destruction of goods but that I would raise no objections, of course, if this action had been sanctioned by the party. Therefore, what was done to the Jews during the night of 9/10 November 1938 happened without my direct or indirect assistance.

The consequences arising from the action against the Jews.

The action against the Jews of November 1938 was not a spontaneous one emanating from the population, and therefore was incomprehensible to many party members also as to its effects. Units of the components of the Party had been ordered to carry out the action against the Jews. If there is evidence now that in isolated cases party members with immaculate police records have appropriated goods during this action it should not be over-looked in judging such incidents that the appropriation was committed in an instant, where all goods were being destroyed in accordance with the orders given.

April 14, 1939

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 407-II-PS

Telegram
GBA 760/43 [in ink crossed out in red]

10 March 3.

To the Fuehrer
Fuehrer headquarters

With the urgent request for immediate presentation to the Fuehrer in person and decision.

Subject: Difficulties in recruiting of workers [Arbeitsdienstverpflichtung] in the former Soviet territories.

My Fuehrer:

You can be assured that the Arbeitseinsatz is being carried out by me with fanatical determination, but also with care and consideration for the economical and technical, as well as human, necessities and occurrences.

The replacement for soldiers who are to be freed and the reinforcement of the armament program with newly needed workers can and will be supplied, in spite of great difficulties, which had to be overcome in the last two winter months. 258,000 foreign workers could be supplied during January and February to war industry, although the transports in the East were almost completely lacking. The commitment of German men and women is in full force.

Now that the difficulties of the winter months are disappearing more and more the transports from the East can be put into full operation again on account of preparations arranged by me. Although the report and commitment-results of German men and women is outstanding, in the heavy industrial labor the commitment of productive foreigners who are used to labor cannot be neglected.

Unfortunately, a few commanders in chief [Oberbefehlshaber] in the East mobilized the recruiting of men and women in the conquered Soviet territories, as I was told by Gauleiter Koch—for political reasons.

My Fuehrer! To fulfill my task I ask you to abolish these orders. I think it impossible that the former Soviet people should experience a better consideration than our own German people, on whom I was forced to levy drastic measures. If the obligation for labor and the forced recruiting of workers in the East is not possible anymore, then the German war industry and agriculture cannot fulfill their tasks to the full extent.

I myself have the opinion that our army leaders should not give credence under any circumstances to the atrocity and propaganda campaign of the Partisans. The generals themselves are greatly interested that the support for the troops is made possible in time.

I should like to point out that hundreds of thousands of excellent workers going into the field as soldiers now, cannot possibly be substituted by German women, not used to work even if they are trying to do their best. Therefore I have to use the people of the eastern territories.

I myself report to you, that the workers belonging to all foreign nations are treated humanely, correctly and cleanly, are fed and housed well, and are even clothed. On the basis of my own services with foreign nations, I go as far as to state, that never before in the world were foreign workers treated as correctly as is now happening in the hardest of all wars by the German people.

Therefore, my Fuehrer, I ask you to abolish all orders which oppose the obligation of foreign workers for labor and to report to me kindly, whether the concept of the mission presented here is still right.

I would ask to talk to you personally about different important points of the Arbeitseinsatz at the beginning of next week, possibly Tuesday.

Yours, always thankful, sincere and obedient

Signed: Fritz Sauckel

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 407-V AND VI-PS

District Administration Thueringen of NSDAP
The Plenipotentiary for The Direction of Labour.

Weimar 15 April 1943
Nr. 435/43 10:25 o'clock

To the Fuehrer, Obersalzberg.

23 June 1943
[stamped]

My Fuehrer,

As Gruppenfuehrer Bormann has already informed you, I am going to the eastern areas on the 15th April in order to secure 1 million workers from the East for the German war economy in the coming months.

The result of my last trip to France is that, after exact fulfillment of the last program, another 450,000 workers from the western areas too, will come into the Reich by the beginning of the summer.

Counting the manpower which comes into question from Poland and the remaining areas, and which is in the neighborhood of about 150,000, it will become possible again to place 5- to 600,000 workers at the disposal of German agriculture and 1 million workers at the disposal of the armaments industry and the rest of the war industries by the coming summer months.

I beg you to agree that the new French labor forces can also come into the Reich under conditions similar to those which applied to the last group. I have kept in touch with the High Command of the Armed Forces.

Since the largest part of the Belgian civil workers and prisoners of war perform very satisfactorily, I ask you to agree that a similar statute to that which was granted to the French be made for some 20,000 Belgian prisoners of war. This very great concession by you has made a very deep impression upon Laval and the French Ministers. Laval has repeatedly asked me to transmit his sincerest thanks for this to you, my Fuehrer.

1. After one year's activity as plenipotentiary for the direction of labor, I can report that 3,638,056 new foreign workers were given to the German war economy from 1 April of last year to 31 March this year.

As a whole, these forces have produced satisfactory performances. Their feeding and housing is secured, their treatment so indisputably regulated that, in this respect too, our National Socialist Reich presents a shining example to the methods of the capitalist and bolshevist world. However, it is naturally inevitable that mistakes and blunders occur here and there. I will continue to endeavor with the greatest energy to reduce them to a minimum.

Besides the foreign civil workers, 1,622,829 prisoners of war will be employed in the German economy.

2. The 3,638,056 workers are distributed amongst the following branches of the German war economy:

Armament	1,568,801
Mining industry	163,632
Building	218,707
Communications	199,074
Agriculture and forestry	1,007,544
Other economic branches	480,298

Besides the employment of foreign workers, 5 million German men and women workers were transferred, inside the German economic structure, to the German war economy proper by being switched from businesses unimportant to the war effort to important ones, or by retraining.

All of these efforts were necessary in order to smooth out the natural fluctuations, for example, through death, sickness, expirations or breaches of contract, but especially through drafting into the Armed Forces and the shifting of industries into other regions and to facilitate the enlargement of the armament works, the establishment of new factories and the fulfillment of new programs.

3. The result of the registration action for men and women up to the 7 April is as follows:

On the basis of the order of 27 January 1943, 3,249,743 men and women have registered. The results are not yet final.

The number of men amounts to	553,415
that of women to	2,696,328

Up till now about 52% of these registrations (that is 1,851,771) have been definitely fixed up by the Labor Bureaux.

Up till now only 32.5% of the men come into question for the direction of labor as the majority do not fit in with the requirements as a result of old age or sickness.

Employed up to the present moment are 66,008 men. Up to 7 April 732,489 women were put to work.

This result must be designated as outstanding. 44% of these women, however, work less than 48 hours per week because of their domestic circumstances. The basic armament industry has received from the women and men employed

20,670 men
341,100 women

It was possible to make some 130,000 available to agriculture and the rest to the Armed forces, postal service, railroads, etc.

4. The result of the shutting-down measures taken by the Reich Minister for Economic Affairs includes 74,644 persons, of this group, mostly over-age and consisting of 27,218 men, 47,426 women, only a third could be directed to industry, 10,108 men, 17,929 women, of these the armament industry received 5,258 men, 8,621 women.

The rest were distributed to the remaining industries of war importance and to the Armed Forces.

5. The demands of the armaments industry for men and women workers and the allocations of these from December 1942 until the end of March 1943 give the following result:

Demand			Allocation
December 1942	}		250,000
January 1943	}	total 335,000	172,000
February 1943	}		235,000
			———
			total—657,000
March 1943		225,000	450,000
replacements for those drafted from the armaments industry.			240,000
		———	———
		800,000	1,107,000

In the March figures 320,000 men and women are brought into account by the registration-action.

Since I, my Fuehrer, shall be staying in the eastern provinces on the 20 April, I beg, already today, to be allowed to extend my most fervent good wishes to you, along with those of my district and my family.

You can be assured that the district of Thueringen and I will serve you and our dear people with the employment of all strength.

The warmest desire is that you, my Fuehrer, may always enjoy the best of health and that we ourselves can serve you to your complete satisfaction.

Your faithful and obedient,
[signed] Fritz Sauckel

Passed on: Puttig.

Received: Weismann Oberg.

Officially received: 1130 o'clock Heinstein pkz Munich for Section Roem. 3.

The above telegram was also sent in letter form. [in ink]
WE 15 Apl.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 407-VIII-PS

The Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan
The Plenipotentiary for Arbeitseinsatz
Berlin W8, Mohrenstr 65 (Thuringenhaus) 17 May 1943
Tel: 12 65 71

To the Telegraph Office of the Party Chancellery
Berlin W8

Gauleiter Sauckel requests that the following telegram be transmitted to the Fuehrer and to the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich.

By direction

Heil Hitler!
[signature illegible]

a. To the Fuehrer, Fuehrer Headquarters

b. To the Reich Marshal for the Greater German Reich, Headquarters

to a. My Fuehrer!

to b. Most respected Reich Marshal!

In regard to the Arbeitseinsatz in connection with the Organization Todt, I request that I be permitted to submit the following figures:

In addition to the labor allotted to the total German economy by the Arbeitseinsatz since I took office, the Organization Todt was supplied with new labor continually. The total number of laborers employed by the OT amounted to 270,969 at the end of March 1942 and 696,003 at the end of March 1943.

In this it is noteworthy that the Arbeitseinsatz has accelerated the OT in the West for the purpose of completing the work on the Atlantic Wall and has furnished laborers with utmost energy. This is all the more remarkable because:

1. In France, Belgium and Holland the industries work for the German war economy exclusively, and must always be supplied with labor in any case;

2. Great numbers of workers must be placed at the disposal of the German economy within the Reich itself.

In spite of the attendant difficulties the supply of the OT in the west was raised from 66,701 at the end of March 1942 to 248,200 at the end of March 1943.

Thus the Arbeitseinsatz has done everything to help make possible the completion of the Atlantic Wall.

to a Heil Hitler!
Your obedient and faithful
Fritz Sauckel
to b Your continually obliged
Fritz Saukel

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 407-IX-PS

The Commissioner for the Four Year Plan
The Plenipotentiary for the Arbeitseinsatz
Berlin W8, 3 June 1943

1751/43 [pencilled] ab 6/4/43
To the Fuehrer of Greater Germany
The Fuehrer's Hq
My Fuehrer!

I beg to be permitted to report to you on the situation of the Arbeitseinsatz for the first 5 months of 1943.

For the first time the following number of new foreign laborers and Prisoners of War were employed in the German war industry:

January 1943	—120,085
February 1943	—138,354
March 1943	—257,382
April 1943	—160,535
May 1943	—170,155
	————
Total	—846,511

I may remark that this number of 850,000 was reached only after greatest difficulties were overcome which had not existed during the previous year; all those who have worked for the Arbeitseinsatz, particularly in the occupied territories, did so with the greatest fanaticism and devotion.

Unfortunately quite a number of our officials and employees were victims of murders and attacks by partisans.

Besides those labor forces recruited for work within the Reich, several hundred thousand laborers were recruited in the occupied territories through the agencies for the Arbeitseinsatz as well as through the OT and the factories working in the East and the West for the German war industry. Furthermore the Wehrmacht received a large number of laborers as well as labor volunteers.

Moreover, because of the order dated 27 January 1943 requiring everybody to register, the following numbers of men and women were made available:

	Men	Women	Total
February	14,594	163,012	177,606
March	45,606	494,931	540,537
April	19,315	269,374	288,689
May	11,405	186,683	198,168
	———	————	————
Total	91,000	1,114,000	1,205,000

Of these approximately 800,000 are available only for less than 48 hours of work per week.

Altogether, German war industry during the first 5 months of 1943 recruited more than 2,000,000 laborers.

Furthermore, negotiations resulted in agreements and regulations on the following points: Wage control and increased production in the various European territories especially in France, which enabled us to keep wages in the occupied European territories on a reasonable level, to stabilize living conditions of foreign laborers working for Germany in spite of the difficult conditions of war, to increase production by means of wage control in these territories. These measures were carried out in agreement with industrial and farming authorities as well as with the Commissioner of the Reich for the control of prices.

Heil!
Your obedient and faithful
Signed: Sauckel

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 437-PS

[Extract from report of Hans Frank to Hitler re situation in Poland, dated 19 June 1943—Pages 10 and 11.]

In the course of time, a series of measures or of consequences of the German rule have led to a substantial deterioration of the attitude of the entire Polish people in the General Gouvernment. These measures have affected either individual professions or the entire population and frequently also—often with crushing severity—the fate of individuals.

Among these are in particular:

1. The entirely insufficient nourishment of the population, mainly of the working classes in the cities, whose majority is working for German interests.

Until the war in 1939, its food supplies, though not varied, were sufficient and generally secure, due to the agrarian surplus of the former Polish state and in spite of the negligence on the part of their former political leadership.

2. The confiscation of a great part of the Polish estates and the expropriation without compensation and resettlement of Polish peasants from manoeuvre areas and from German settlements.

3. Encroachments and confiscations in the industries, in commerce and trade and in the field of private property.

4. Mass arrests and mass shootings by the German police who applied the system of collective responsibility.

5. The rigorous methods of recruiting workers.

6. The extensive paralyzation of cultural life.

7. The closing of high schools, junior colleges and universities.

8. The limitation, indeed the complete elimination of Polish influence from all spheres of State administration.

9. Curtailment of the influence of the Catholic Church, limiting its extensive influence—an undoubtedly necessary move—and, in addition, until quite recently, the closing and confiscation of monasteries, schools and charitable institutions.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 440-PS

Berlin, 20 Nov. 1939
The Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
OKW/WFA No. 213/39 g.k. Chefs. (Top Secret, Chief Matter)
Department L (I)

8 Copies, Copy

Chief matter
By officers only

TOP SECRET

Directive No. 8, for the conduct of the war.

1. The state of alert, to make the continuation of the initiated concentration of troops possible at any moment, must be maintained, for the time being. Only this will make it possible to exploit favorable weather conditions immediately.

The various components of the Armed Forces will make arrangements enabling them to stop the attack even if the order for such action is received by the High Command as late as D-1 at 2300 hours. The keyword

"Rhein" (—start attack)
or
"Elbe" (—withhold attack)

will be passed on to the High Commands at the latest by this time.

The High Commands of the Army and the Air Forces are requested after having determined the day for attack, to notify Department L of the High Command of the Armed Forces immediately with regard to the mutually agreed hour of the commencement of the attack.

2. Contrary to previous orders, all measures intended against the Netherlands are to be carried out without special orders at the start of the general attack.

The reaction of the Dutch Armed Forces cannot be foreseen. The entering of our troops will take the character of a friendly occupation wherever no opposition is encountered.

3. The Land-operations are to be carried out on the basis of the assemble directive of 29 October. The following is added to complete this directive:

a. All measures have to be taken to move the emphasis of the operation quickly from Army Group B to Army Group A if greater and quicker successes than at Army Group B should be obtained there as the present disposition of enemy's forces that would indicate.

b. The Dutch area, including the coastal West-Frisian Islands, without Texel for the time being, is to be seized as far as the Grebbe-Haas Line, until further notice.

4. The Navy is authorized to take blockage measures for submarines against the Belgian and, contrary to previous orders, also against Dutch harbors and waterways, in the night before the attack and from the time of the start of the blockade activities and the time of the land attack must also be kept as short as possible in the case of the use of submarines.

Combat actions against Dutch naval forces are only authorized, if they adopt a hostile attitude.

The Navy is charged with the coastal artillery defense of the coastal regions to be occupied, against attacks from the sea. Preparations have to be made accordingly.

5. The tasks of the Air Force remain unchanged. They have been supplemented by special orders, issued orally by the Fuehrer, concerning the landing from the air and the support of the army by the seizure of the bridges west of Maastricht.

The 7th Air-borne Division will only be committed for landing activities from the air after the seizure of bridges across the Albert Canal has been secured. The fastest means of transmission of this message between the High Command of the Army and the High Command of the Air Force must be guaranteed.

Localities, especially great open town, and the industries are not to be attacked either in the Dutch or the Belgian-Luxembourg area, without (urgent) military reasons.

6. The closing of the frontiers. a. The border and news traffic across the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg frontiers is to be kept at its present volume until the beginning of the attack in the orders to that effect to the military and civilian authorities are not to participate in the preparations for the closing of the border until the start of the attack.

b. The Reich-Border is to be closed towards the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg for all non-military border and news traffic at the start of the attack. The Commander-in-Chief issues the orders to that effect to the military and civilian authorities concerned. The Highest Reich Authorities concerned, will be informed by the OKW (High Command of the Armed Forces) at the beginning of the attack that the measures for the closing of the borders will be issued immediately by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, even for the Dutch Border outside of the operational territory.

c. At first, restrictions in the border and news traffic will not be ordered after the start of the attack on the other Reich-Borders towards the neutral countries. Further prepared measures for the surveillance of personal and news traffic will be taken, if necessary.

By order
Distribution: Signed: Keitel

High Command of the Army—1st Copy.

High Command of the Navy—2nd Copy.

R. d. L. [Reichs-Ministry of the Air] and the High Command of the Air Force—3rd Copy.

attested: von Trotha [?]
Captain

High Command of the Armed Forces:
Chief WFA—4th Copy.
L—5-8th Copy.
Distribution:
Copies
K 1st Copy
IV 2nd Copy
II 2nd Copy for information
[in handwriting] Acknowledged 21 October [initials illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 442-PS

The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
OKW/WFA/L No. 33 160/40 Top Secret
The Fuehrer's hq. 16 July 1940
7 copies, 4th copy

TOP SECRET

Transmit by officer courier only

General Order No. 16 on the preparation of a landing operation
against England.

Since England, despite her militarily hopeless situation still shows no sign of willingness to come to terms, I have decided to prepare a landing operation against England, and if necessary to carry it out.

The aim of this operation is to eliminate the English homeland as a basis for the carrying on of the war against Germany, and if it should become necessary to occupy it completely;

To this end I order the following:

1. The Landing must be carried out in the form of a surprise crossing on a broad front approximately from Ramsgate to the area west of the Isle of Wight, in which air force units will take the roll of artillery, and units of the navy the roll of the engineers. Whether it is practical to undertake subordinate actions, such as the occupation of the Isle of Wight or of County Cornwall, before the general landing is to be determined from the standpoint of every branch of the armed forces and the result is to be reported to me. I reserve the decision for myself. The preparations for the entire operation must be completed by mid-August.

2. To these preparations also belong the creation of those conditions which make a landing in England possible.

a. The English air-force must morally and actually be so far overcome, that it does not any longer show any considerable aggressive force against the German attack.

b. Mine-free channels must be created.

c. By means of a closely concentrated mine-barrier the straight of Dover on both Flanks as well as the western entrance to the channel in the approximate line Aldemey-Portland must be sealed off.

d. The area in front of the coast must be dominated and given artillery protection by strong coastal artillery.

e. Tying down of the English naval forces in the North Sea as well as in the Mediterranean (by the Italians) is desired, whereby it must now be attempted that the English naval forces which are in the homeland be damaged by air and torpedo attack in strength.

3. Organization of the leadership and of the preparations;

Under my command and according to my general directions the supreme commanders will lead the forces to be used from their branches of service. The command-staffs of the supreme commander of the army, the supreme commander of the Navy, and the supreme commander of the air-force must from 1 August on be located within a radius of at least 50 km. from my headquarters (Ziegenberg). Lodging the command staffs of the supreme commanders of the army and navy together at Giessen appears practical to me.

Hence for the leadership of the landing armies the supreme commander of the army will have to employ an army group hq.

The project bears the code-name "Seeloewe" [Sea-lion].

In the preparation and carrying out of the undertaking the following tasks fall to the various branches:

a. Army: will draw up the operational plan and the transport plan for all units of the 1st wave to embark. The AA artillery to be transported with the 1st wave will at the same time be attached to the army (to the individual crossing groups) until such a time as a division of tasks in support and protection of ground troops protection of the ports of debarkation and protection of the aerial strong points to be occupied can be carried out. The Army furthermore distributes the means of transport to the individual crossing groups and establishes the embarkation and landing points in agreement with the Navy.

b. Navy: will secure the means of transport and will bring them corresponding to the desires of the Army and according to the requirements of seamanship into the individual embarkation areas. Insofar as possible ships of the defeated enemy states are to be procured. For every ferrying point it will provide the necessary naval staff for advice on matters of seamanship with escort vessels and security forces. It will protect, along with the air forces employed to guard the movement, the entire crossing of the channel on both flanks. An order will follow on the regulation of the command relationship during the crossing. It is further the task of the navy to regulate, in a uniform manner, the building up of the coastal artillery, that is, all batteries which can be used for firing against sea targets of the Army as well as of the Navy, and to organize the fire control of the whole. As great an amount of very heavy artillery as possible is to be employed as quickly as possible to secure the crossing and to protect the flanks from enemy operations from the sea. For this purpose, railway artillery (supplemented by all available captured pieces) without the batteries (Ks and K12) provided for firing on targets on the English mainland, is to be brought up and emplaced by use of railway turntables.

Independent of this, the heaviest available platform batteries are to be opposite the Straits of Dover, so emplaced under concrete that they can withstand even the heaviest aerial attacks and thereby dominate the Straits of Dover under any circumstances in the long run, within their effective range.

The technical work is the responsibility of the Todt Organization.

c. Mission of the Air Force is: To hinder interference from the enemy air force. To overcome coastal defenses which could do damage to the landing positions, to break the first resistance of enemy troops and to smash reserves which may be coming up. For this mission closest cooperation of individual units of the air force with the crossing units is necessary. Furthermore, to destroy important transportation routes for the bringing up of enemy reserves, and to attack enemy naval forces, which are coming up, while they are still far away from the crossing points. I request proposals on the use of parachute and glider troops. In this regard it is to be determined if it is worth-while here to hold parachute and glider troops in readiness as a reserve to be quickly committed in case of emergency.

4. The armed forces chief of signals will carry out the necessary preparations for signal connections from France to the English mainland. The installation of the remaining 80km East Prussian cables is to be provided for in conjunction with the Navy.

5. I request the supreme commanders to submit to me as soon as possible:

a. The intentions of the Navy and Air Force for achieving the necessary conditions for the crossing of the channel (see figure 2).

b. The construction of the coastal batteries in detail (Navy).

c. A survey of the tonnage to be employed and the methods of getting it ready and fitting it out. Participation of civilian agencies? (Navy).

d. The organization of aerial protection in the assembly areas for troops about to cross and the means of crossing (Air Force).

e. The crossing and operations plan of the army, composition and equipment of the first crossing wave.

f. Organization and measures of the Navy and the Air Force for carrying out of the crossing itself, security of the crossing, and support of the landing.

g. Proposals for the committment of parachute and glider troops, as well as for the attachment and command of anti-aircraft, after an extensive gain of territory on English soil has been made (Air Force).

h. Proposal for the location of the command staffs of the supreme commanders of the Army and of the Navy.

i. The position of army, navy, and air force on the question whether and what subsidiary actions before the general landing are considered practical.

k. Proposal of army and navy on the overall command during the crossing.

A. Hitler
[Initialled]
J [Jodl]
K [Keitel]

Distribution:
Supreme Cmdr of the Army—1st copy.
Supreme Cmdr of the Navy—2nd copy.
Supreme Cmdr of the Air Force—3rd copy.
Armed Forces Command Section [?]—4th copy.
(WFA)
Section L—5th and 7th copy.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 444-PS

TOP SECRET

The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
WFSt/Abt.L(I) No 33 356/40 g.K.Chefs
Only by officer

Directive No. 18

Fuehrer's Headquarters
12 November 40
2F/408
10 copies, 4th copy
55

The preparatory measures of Supreme Hq for the prosecution of the war in the near future are to be made along the following lines:—

1. Relations with France. The aim of my policy towards France is to cooperate with this country in the most effective way for the future prosecution of the war against England. For the time being France will have the role of a "non-belligerent power"—she will have to tolerate German military measures on her territory, especially in the African colonies, and to give support, as far as possible, even by using her own means of defense. The most pressing task of the French is the defensive and offensive protection of their French possessions (West and Equatorial Africa) against England and the deGaulle movement. From this initial task France's participation in the war against England can develop fully.

For the time being, the conversations with France resulting from my meeting with Marshal Petain are being carried on—apart from the current work of the armistice commission—entirely by the foreign office [Auswartiges Amt] in cooperation with the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces [OKW].

More detailed directives will follow at the close of these talks.

2. Spain and Portugal. Political steps to bring about an early Spanish entry into the war have been taken. The aim of German intervention in the Iberian peninsula (code name Felix) will be to drive the English out of the Western Mediterranean. For this purpose:

a. Gibraltar will be taken and the Straits closed.

b. The British will be prevented from gaining a foothold at another point of the Iberian peninsula, or the Atlantic Islands.

The preparation and execution of this operation is intended as follows:

Section I

a. Reconnaissance troops (officers in civilian clothes) make the necessary preparations for the action against Gibraltar and for taking over aerodromes. As regards disguise and cooperation with the Spaniards they will comply with the security measures of the Chief of Foreign Intelligence.

b. Special units of the Foreign Intelligence Bureau are to take over the protection of the Gibraltar area, in secret cooperation with the Spaniards, against English attempts to widen the terrain in front and against premature discovery and frustration of our preparations.

c. The units intended for this operation will be kept in readiness away from the French-Spanish border and information will be withheld from the troops, at this early stage. In order to start operations, a warning order will be given three weeks before the troops cross the Spanish-French border (but only after conclusion of the preparations regarding the Atlantic Islands).

With regard to the low capacity of the Spanish railways, the army will detail mainly motorized units for this operation, so that the railways are available for reinforcements.

Section II

a. Units of the Air Force, directed by observation at Algeciras, will, at a favorable moment, carry out an air attack from French soil on the units of the British fleet lying in the port of Gibraltar, and will force a landing on Spanish aerodromes after the attack.

b. Shortly after this the units intended for use in Spain will cross the Franco-Spanish frontier on land or in the air.

Section III

a. Attack for the seizure of Gibraltar by German troops.

b. Mobilization of troops to march into Portugal should the British gain a foothold there. The units intended for this will march into Spain immediately after the units intended for Gibraltar.

Section IV

Support by the Spanish in closing the Straits after the seizure of the Rock from the Spanish-Moroccan side as well, if required.

As for the strength of the units to be used for operation "Felix" the following will apply:

Army. The units intended for Gibraltar must be in sufficient strength to seize the Rock even without Spanish assistance.

Apart from this, a smaller group must be available to aid the Spaniards in the unlikely event of the British attempting to land at a different point on the coast. The units to be kept in readiness for a possible invasion of Portugal are to be predominately of a mobile nature.

Air Force. Sufficient forces will be detailed for the air attack on Gibraltar to guarantee substantial success.

For the subsequent operations against naval objectives and for the support of the attack on the Rock mainly dive-bomber units are to be transferred to Spain.

Sufficient anti-aircraft artillery is to be supplied to the army units, and is also to be used to engage ground targets.

Navy. Provision is to be made for U-boats to attack the British-Gibraltar-Squadron, particularly when they leave harbor, which they are expected to do after the air raid.

To support the Spaniards in the closing of the Straits, preparations are to be made in cooperation with the army for the transfer of single coastal batteries.

An Italian participation is not envisaged.

As a result of operation "Gibraltar", the Atlantic Islands (in particular the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands) will gain increased importance for the British conduct of the war at sea, as well as for our own. The commanders in chief of the Navy and Air Force are examining how the Spanish defense of the Canaries can be supported and how the Cape Verde Islands can be occupied.

I also request that the question of an occupation of Madeira and the Azores be examined and also the advantages and disadvantages that would arise from this for the conduct of the war at sea and in the air. The results of this examination are to be given to me as soon as possible.

3. Italian Offensive against Egypt. If at all, the use of German forces only comes into consideration after the Italians have reached Morsa Metruh. Even then the use of German air forces will be considered mainly if the Italians put at our disposal the air bases necessary for this.

The preparations of the branches of the armed forces for use in this or any other North African theatre of war are to be carried on as follows:

Army. Holding an armored division ready for use in North Africa (composition as previously provided for).

Navy. Fitting out of such German ships lying in Italian ports as are suitable as transports for the transfer of the strongest possible forces either to Libya or to North West Africa.

Air Force. Preparations for attacks on Alexandria and on the Suez Canal, so as to deny the British Command the use of the latter.

4. Balkans. The commanders-in-chief of the Army will make preparations for occupying the Greek mainland north of the Aegean Sea in case of need, entering through Bulgaria, and thus make possible the use of German air force units against targets in the Eastern Mediterranean, in particular against those English air bases which are threatening the Roumanian oil area.

In order to be able to face all eventualities and to keep Turkey in check, the use of an army group of an approximate strength of ten divisions is to be the basis for the planning and the calculations of deployment. It will not be possible to count on the railway, leading through Yugoslavia, for moving these forces into position.

So as to shorten the time needed for the deployment, preparations will be made for an early increase in the German Army mission in Roumania, the extent of which must be submitted to me.

The Commander-in-chief of the Air Force will make preparations for the use of German Air Force units in the South East Balkans and for aerial reconnaissance on the southern border of Bulgaria, in accordance with the intended ground operations.

The German Air Force mission in Roumania will be increased to the extent proposed to me.

Bulgarian requests to equip their army (supply of weapons, ammunition) are to be given favorable treatment.

5. Russia. Political discussions have been initiated with the aim of clarifying Russia's attitude for the time being. Irrespective of the results of these discussions, all preparations for the East which have already been verbally ordered will be continued.

Instructions on this will follow, as soon as the general outline of the army's operational plans has been submitted to, and approved by, me.

6. Landing in England. Due to a change in the general situation it may yet be possible or necessary to start operation "Seeloewe" in the spring of 1941. The three services of the armed forces must therefore earnestly endeavor to improve conditions for such an operation in every respect.

7. I shall expect the commanders-in-chief to express their opinions of the measures anticipated in this directive. I shall then give orders regarding the methods of execution and synchronization of the individual actions. In order to assure secrecy, only a restricted staff will work on these plans. This applies particularly to the operations in Spain and for the plans concerning the Atlantic Isles.

Signed: Adolf Hitler
J [initialled: Jodl]

Distribution:
Ob.d.H (Op.Abt.)—1st Copy.
Ob.d.M (l.Skl.)—2nd Copy.
Ob.d.L. (LwFueSt.Ia)—3rd Copy.
O.K.W.
SFSt—4th Copy.
Abt. L.—5th-10th Copy.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 446-PS

The Fuehrer and Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces

OKW/WFSt/Abt.L(I) Nr. 33 408/40 gK Chefs.
SECRET
The Fuehrer's Headquarters
18 December 40
(only through officer)
9 copies, 4th copy

Directive Nr. 21

Case Barbarossa

The German Armed Forces must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign before the end of the war against England (case Barbarossa).

For this purpose the Army will have to employ all available units with the reservation that the occupied territories will have to be safeguarded against surprise attacks.

For the Eastern campaign the Airforce will have to free such strong forces for the support of the Army that a quick completion of the ground operations may be expected and that damage of the eastern German territories will be avoided as much as possible. This concentration of the main effort in the East is limited by the following reservation: That the entire battle and armament area dominated by us must remain sufficiently protected against enemy air attacks and that the attacks on England and especially the supply for them must not be permitted to break down.

Concentration of the main effort of the Navy remains unequivocally against England also during an Eastern campaign.

If occasion arises I will order the concentration of troops for action against Soviet Russia eight weeks before the intended beginning of operations.

Preparations requiring more time to start are—if this has not yet been done—to begin presently and are to be completed by 15 May 1941.

Great caution has to be exercised that the intention of an attack will not be recognized.

The preparations of the High Command are to be made on the following basis:

I. General Purpose:

The mass of the Russian Army in Western Russia is to be destroyed in daring operations by driving forward deep wedges with tanks and the retreat of intact battle-ready troops into the wide spaces of Russia is to be prevented.

In quick pursuit a (given) line is to be reached from where the Russian Airforce will no longer be able to attack German Reich territory. The first goal of operations is the protection from Asiatic Russia from the general line Volga-Archangelsk. In case of necessity, the last industrial area in the Urals left to Russia could be eliminated by the Luftwaffe.

In the course of these operations the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet will quickly erase its bases and will no longer be ready to fight.

Effective intervention by the Russian Airforce is to be prevented through forceful blows at the beginning of the operations.

II. Probable Allies and their tasks.

[Page 4, par. II]

2. It will be the task of Rumania, together with the forces concentrating there, to pin down the opponent on the other side and, in addition, to render auxiliary services in the rear area.

[Page 8, par. IV]

IV. It must be clearly understood that all orders to be given by the commanders-in-chief on the basis of this letter of instructions are precautionary measures, in case Russia should change her present attitude toward us. The number of officers to be drafted for the preparations at an early time is to be kept as small as possible. Further co-workers are to be detailed as late as possible and only as far as each individual is needed for a specific task. Otherwise, the danger exists that our preparations (the time of their execution has not been fixed) will become known and thereby grave political and military disadvantages would result.

V. I am expecting the reports of the commanders-in-chief on their further plans based on this letter of instructions.

The preparation planned by all branches of the Armed Forces are to be reported to me through the High Command, also in regard to their time.

[signed] Hitler
[initialed by: Jodl, Keitel, Warlimont and one illegible.]

Distribution:
Ob. d. H. (Op. Abt.)—1. copy
Ob. d. M. (Skl.)—2. copy
Ob. d. L. (Lw.Fue.St.)—3. copy
OKW:
WFSt.—4. copy
Abt.—5-9. copy

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 447-PS

TOP SECRET

Top Secret
Only thru officer

OKW
Armed Forces Operational Staff
Section L (IV/Qu)
44125/41 Top Secret

Fuehrer Hq, 13 March 1941
5 copies, 4th copy

Subject: Armed Forces Operational Staff/Section L(I)
#33408/40. Top Secret. 18 December 1940
Directives for Special Areas to Order #21
(Case Barbarossa)

I. Area of operations and executive power

1. The authorization to issue orders and the regulations regarding supply for an area of operations within the armed forces shall be set up by the High Command of the Armed Forces in East Prussia and in the General Gouvernement at the latest four weeks before operations are started. The proposal by the High Command of the Army (OKH) is being made in time, after an agreement with the Commander of the Luftwaffe (Ob.d.L.) has been reached.

It is not contemplated to declare East Prussia and the General Gouvernement an area of operations. However, in accordance with the unpublished Fuehrer orders from 19 and 21 October 1939, the Supreme Commander of the Army shall be authorized to take all measures necessary for the execution of his military aim and for the safeguarding of the troops. He may transfer his authority onto the Supreme Commander of the Army Groups and Armies. Orders of that kind have priority over all orders issued by civilian agencies.

2. The Russian territory which is to be occupied shall be divided up into individual states with governments of their own, according to special orders, as soon as military operations are concluded. From this the following is inferred:

a. The area of operations, created through the advance of the Army beyond the frontiers of the Reich and the neighboring countries is to be limited in depth as far as possible. The Supreme Commander of the Army has the right to exercise the executive power in this area, and may transfer his authority onto the Supreme Commanders of the Army Groups and Armies.

b. In the area of operations, the Reichsfuehrer SS is, on behalf of the Fuehrer, entrusted with special tasks for the preparation of the political administration, tasks which result from the struggle which has to be carried out between two opposing political systems. Within the realm of these tasks, the Reichsfuehrer SS shall act independently and under his own responsibility. The executive power invested in the Supreme Commander of the Army (OKH) and in agencies determined by him shall not be affected by this. It is the responsibility of the Reichsfuehrer SS that through the execution of his tasks military operations shall not be disturbed. Details shall be arranged directly through the OKH with the Reichsfuehrer SS.

c. As soon as the area of operations has reached sufficient depth, it is to be limited in the rear. The newly occupied territory in the rear of the area of operations is to be given its own political administration. For the present, it is to be divided, according to its genealogic basis and to the positions of the Army Groups, into North (Baltic countries), Center (White Russia) and South (Ukraine). In these territories the political administration is taken care of by Commissioners of the Reich who receive their orders from the Fuehrer.

3. For the execution of all military tasks within the areas under the political administration in the rear of the area of operations, commanding officers who are responsible to the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces (OKW) shall be in command.

The commanding officer is the supreme representative of the Armed Forces in the respective areas and the bearer of the military sovereign rights. He has the tasks of a Territorial Commander and the rights of a supreme Army Commander or a Commanding General. In this capacity he is responsible primarily for the following tasks:

a. Close cooperation with the Commissioner of the Reich in order to support him in his political task.

b. Exploitation of the country and securing its economic values for use by German industry (see par. 4).

c. Exploitation of the country for the supply of the troops according to the needs of the OKH.

d. Military security of the whole area, mainly airports, routes of supply and supply-dumps against revolt, sabotage and enemy paratroops.

e. Traffic regulations.

f. Billeting for armed forces, police and organizations, and for PW's inasmuch as they remain in the administrative areas.

The commanding officer has the right, as opposed to the civilian agencies, to issue orders which are necessary for the execution of the military tasks. His orders supersede all others, also those of the commissioners of the Reich.

Service directives, mobilization orders and directives on the distribution of the necessary forces shall be issued separately.

The time for the assumption of command by the commanding officers will be ordered as soon as the military situation shall allow a change in the command without disrupting military operations. Until such time, the agencies set up by the OKH remain in office, operating according to the principles valid for the commanding officers.

4. The Fuehrer has entrusted the uniform direction of the administration of economy in the area of operations and in the territories of political administration to the Reich Marshal who has delegated the Chief of the "Wi Rue Amt" with the execution of the task. Special orders on that will come from the OKW/Wi Rue Amt.

5. The majority of the Police Forces shall be under the jurisdiction of the Commissioners of the Reich. Requests for the employment of police forces in the area of operations on the part of the OKH are to be made as early as possible to the OKW/Armed Forces Operational Staff/Section Defense.

6. The behavior of the troops towards the population and the tasks of the military courts shall be separately regulated, and commanded.

II. Personnel, Supply and Communication Traffic:

7. Special orders shall be issued by the OKW Armed Forces Operational Staff for the measures necessary before the beginning of operations for the restriction of travel, delivery of goods and communications to Russia.

8. As soon as operations begin, the German-Soviet Russian frontier and at a later stage the border at the rear of the area of operations will be closed by the OKH for any and all non-military traffic with the exception of the police organizations to be deployed by the Reichsfuehrer SS on the Fuehrer's orders. Billeting and feeding of these organizations will be taken care of by the OKH-Gen. Qu. who may for this purpose request from the Reichsfuehrer SS the assignment of liaison officers.

The border shall remain closed also for leading personalities of the highest government agencies and agencies of the Party. The OKW/Armed Forces Operational Staff shall inform the highest government and Party agencies of this fact. The Supreme Commander of the Army and the agencies under him shall decide on exceptions.

Except for the special regulations applying to the police organizations of the Reichsfuehrer SS, applications for entrance-permits must be submitted to the Supreme Commander of the Army exclusively.

III. Regulations regarding Rumania, Slovakia, Hungary and Finland.

9. The necessary arrangements with these countries shall be made by the OKW, together with the Foreign Office, and according to the wishes of the respective high commands. In case it should become necessary during the course of the operations to grant special rights, applications for this purpose are to be submitted to the OKW.

10. Police measures for the protection of the troops are permitted, independently from the granting of special rights. Further orders in this shall be issued later.

11. Special orders shall be issued at a later date for the territories of these countries, on the following subjects:

Procurement of food and feed.
Housing and machinery.
Purchase and the shipment of merchandise.
Procurement of funds and wage-control.
Salaries.
Request for indemnity-payments.
Postal and telegraph services.
Traffic.
Jurisdiction.

Requests of units of the Armed Forces and agencies of the OKW from the respective governments regarding these subjects, are to be submitted to the OKW/Armed Forces Operational Staff/ Section Defense not later than 27 March 1941.

IV. Directives regarding Sweden.

12. Since Sweden can only become a transient-area for troops, no special authority is to be granted the commander of the German troops. However, he is entitled and compelled to secure the immediate protection of RR-transports against sabotage and attacks.

The Chief of the High Command of the
Armed Forces
Signed: KEITEL

Distribution:
OKH—1st copy.
OKM—2nd copy.
R.d.L.u.O.K.L.—3rd copy.
Armed Forces Operational Staff—4th copy.
Section L—5th copy.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 448-PS

Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
OKW/WFST/Abt. L Nr. 44018/41 g. K. Chiefs
F.H.Q. 11th Jan 44
TOP SECRET
13 copies, 4th copy.

Order No. 22

Participation of German Forces in the Fighting in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations.

The situation in the Mediterranean Theater of Operation demands for strategical, political and psychological reasons German assistance, due to employment of superior forces by England against our allies.

Tripolitania must be held and the danger of a collapse of the Albanian front must be removed. Beyond that, the Army group Cavallero, in connection with later operations of the 12th Army, shall be enabled to start an attack also from Albania.

I order therefore, the following:

1. A blocking unit is to be recruited by the High Command of the Army which will be in a position to render valuable services to our Allies in the defense of Tripolitania especially against the English armored divisions. The principles for its composition will be given separately. The preparations for the transfer of the unit will be made in time to follow immediately the present transport of an Italian armored division and a motorized division to Tripoli (starting approximately 20 February).

2. The X Air Corps will retain Sicily as basis for operations. Its most important assignment will be the fight against the English Naval forces and their communications between the western and eastern Mediterranean. Besides that, provisions are also to be made, with the help of temporary landing fields, to attack the English unloading harbors and supply bases on the coast of Western Egypt and Cryenaica and thus give immediate support to the Army group of Graziani.

The Italian Government has been asked to declare the territory between Sicily and the North African coast a "restricted area" [Sperrgebiet] in order to facilitate the operations of the X Air corps and to avoid incidents against neutral ships.

3. For transfer to Albania, German units in the approximate strength of one corps, among them the 1st Mountain Division and Armored forces, are to be provided and held in readiness. The transport of the 1st Mountain Division is to commence, as soon as the approval of the Italians is received by the High Command of the Armed forces. In the meantime, it must be examined and determined with the Italian High Command in Albania whether and how many more forces for operational attacks could be employed to good advantage and could also be supplied besides the Italian Divisions.

The duty of the German forces will be:

a. To serve in Albania for the time being as a reserve for an emergency case, should new crises arise there;

b. To ease the burden of the Italian Army group when later attacking with the aim:

To tear open the Greek defense front on a decisive point for a far-reaching operation,

To open up the straits west of Saloniki from the back in order to support thereby the frontal attack of List's Army.

4. The directives for the questions of authority over the German troops to be employed in North Africa and Albania and the restrictions which are to be made with reference to their employment, will be settled by the High Command of the Armed Forces and the Italian Armed Forces staff.

5. The suitable transports available in the Mediterranean only as far as they are not already used for transportations to Tripoli, to be provided for the transfer of the Albania-bound troops. For transports of personnel, the transportation group Ju 52 stationed in Foggia is to be utilized.

Every effort should be made to complete the transfer of the bulk of the German forces to Albania before the transfer of the blocking unit to Lybia starts, (See 1) and the use of all German boats becomes necessary for this purpose.

[signed] Adolf Hitler

Distribution:

OKH/Gen Staff of Army, operating—1st cy.
OKM/Skl—2nd cy.
Ob.d.L./Lw.F.St.I a—3rd cy.
OKW WFST—4th cy.
————L—5th to 9th cy.
WNV—10th cy.
Foreign/Intelligence—11th cy.
Armed Forces, Transport Chief—12th cy.
German General with the Italian high command—13th cy.

F.H.Q. 29th Jan 41

High Command of the Armed Forces
WFST/Abt. L(I) Nr. 44018/41 g.K. Chefs II. Anz.

13 copies, 4th copy.

Ref: The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. OKW /WFST/Abt. L(L) Nr. 44018/41 gk Chefs. V. 11th Jan. 41

The measures ordered in Order 22 are to be given the following code names:

Operation Tripoli: "Sonnenblume"
Operation Albania: "Alpenveilchen"

The Chief of the High Command
of the Armed Forces.

By order

(Signed) Warlimont

Distribution:

OKH/general staff of Army, operations—1st cy.
OKM/SKL—2nd cy.
Ob. d. M./Lw Fuest—3rd cy.

OKW:
WFST—4th cy.
Section L—5th to 9th cy.
WNV—10th cy.
Foreign/Intelligence—11th cy.
Armed Forces, Transportation Ch.—12th cy.
German General with the Italian high command—13th cy.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 498-PS

TOP SECRET

The Fuehrer

No. 003830/42 g. Kdos. OKW/WFSt

Fuehrer HQ, 18 Oct. 1942
12 copies, 12th copy.

1. For some time our enemies have been using in their warfare methods which are outside the international Geneva Conventions. Especially brutal and treacherous is the behavior of the so-called commandos, who, as is established, are partially recruited even from freed criminals in enemy countries. From captured orders it is divulged, that they are directed not only to shackle prisoners, but also to kill defenseless prisoners on the spot at the moment in which they believe that the latter as prisoners represent a burden in the further pursuit of their purposes or could otherwise be a hindrance. Finally, orders have been found in which the killing of prisoners has been demanded in principle.

2. For this reason it was already announced in an addendum to the Armed Forces report of 7 October 1942, that in the future, Germany, in the face of these sabotage troops of the British and their accomplices, will resort to the same procedure, i.e., that they will be ruthlessly mowed down by the German troops in combat, wherever they may appear.

3. I therefore order:

From now on all enemies on so-called Commando missions in Europe or Africa challenged by German troops, even if they are to all appearances soldiers in uniform or demolition troops, whether armed or unarmed, in battle or in flight, are to be slaughtered to the last man. It does not make any difference whether they are landed from ships and aeroplanes for their actions, or whether they are dropped by parachute. Even if these individuals, when found, should apparently be prepared to give themselves up, no pardon is to be granted them on principle. In each individual case full information is to be sent to the O.K.W. for publication in the Report of the Military Forces.

4. If individual members of such commandos, such as agents, saboteurs, etc. fall into the hands of the military forces by some other means, through the police in occupied territories for instance, they are to be handed over immediately to the SD. Any imprisonment under military guard, in PW stockades for instance, etc., is strictly prohibited, even if this is only intended for a short time.

5. This order does not apply to the treatment of any enemy soldiers who, in the course of normal hostilities (large-scale offensive actions, landing operations and airborne operations), are captured in open battle or give themselves up. Nor does this order apply to enemy soldiers falling into our hands after battles at sea, or enemy soldiers trying to save their lives by parachute after battles.

6. I will hold responsible under Military Law, for failing to carry out this order, all commanders and officers who either have neglected their duty of instructing the troops about this order, or acted against this order where it was to be executed.

[signed] Adolf Hitler

Distribution:	Copy No.
O.K.H. / Genst.d.H (High Command of the Army / General Staff of the Army).	1
O.K.M. / Skl. (High Command of the Navy / Naval War Staff).	2
Ob.d.L. / Lw.Fue.St. (C in C Air Force / Air Force Operational Staff).	3
W.B. Norwegen (Armed Forces Commander, Norway)	4
W.B.Sudeost (Armed Forces Commander, Southeast)	5
Ob. West (C in C, West)	6
Geb.A.O.K. 20 (20th Mountain Army)	7
Ob. Sued (C in C, South)	8
Pz.Armee Afrika (Panzer Army Africa)	9
Rf.SS u. Chef d.Dtsch.Polizei (Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police).	10
OKW /WFSt (High Command of the Armed Forces / Armed Forces Operational Staff).	11-12

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 501-PS

Field Post Office Kiev, 16 May 1942
No 32704
B Nr 40/42

TOP SECRET

To: SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Rauff [Handwritten:]
Berlin, Prinz-Albrecht-Str. 8 pers.
R/29/5 Pradel n.R
b/R

[Handwritten:] Sinkkel [?] b.R, p 16/6

The overhauling of vans by groups D and C is finished. While the vans of the first series can also be put into action if the weather is not too bad, the vans of the second series (Saurer) stop completely in rainy weather. If it has rained for instance for only one half hour, the van cannot be used because it simply skids away. It can only be used in absolutely dry weather. It is only a question now whether the van can only be used standing at the place of execution. First the van has to be brought to that place, which is possible only in good weather. The place of execution is usually 10-15 km away from the highways and is difficult to access because of its location; in damp or wet weather it is not accessible at all. If the persons to be executed are driven or led to that place, then they realize immediately what is going on and get restless, which is to be avoided as far as possible. There is only one way left; to load them at the collecting point and to drive them to the spot.

I ordered the vans of group D to be camouflaged as house-trailers by putting one set of window shutters on each side of the small van and two on each side of the larger vans, such as one often sees on farm-houses in the country. The vans became so well-known, that not only the authorities, but also the civilian population called the van "death van", as soon as one of these vehicles appeared. It is my opinion, the van cannot be kept secret for any length of time, not even camouflaged.

The Saurer-van which I transported from Simferopol to Taganrog suffered damage to the brakes on the way. The Security Command [SK] in Mariupol found the cuff of the combined oil-air brake broken at several points. By persuading and bribing the H.K.P. [?] we managed to have a form machined, on which the cuffs were cast. When I came to Stalino and Gorlowka a few days later, the drivers of the vans complained about the same faults. After having talked to the commandants of those commands I went once more to Mariupol to have some more cuffs made for those cars too. As agreed two cuffs will be made for each car, six cuffs will stay in Mariupol as replacements for group D and six cuffs will be sent to SS-Untersturmfuehrer Ernst in Kiev for the cars of group C. The cuffs for the groups B and A could be made available from Berlin, because transport from Mariupol to the north would be too complicated and would take too long. Smaller damages on the cars will be repaired by experts of the commands, that is of the groups in their own shops.

Because of the rough terrain and the indescribable road and highway conditions the caulkings and rivets loosen in the course of time. I was asked if in such cases the vans should be brought to Berlin for repair. Transportation to Berlin would be much too expensive and would demand too much fuel. In order to save those expenses I ordered them to have smaller leaks soldered and if that should no longer be possible, to notify Berlin immediately by radio, that Pol. Nr.——— is out of order. Besides that I ordered that during application of gas all the men were to be kept as far away from the vans as possible, so they should not suffer damage to their health by the gas which eventually would escape. I should like to take this opportunity to bring the following to your attention: several commands have had the unloading after the application of gas done by their own men. I brought to the attention of the commanders of those S.K. concerned the immense psychological injuries and damages to their health which that work can have for those men, even if not immediately, at least later on. The men complained to me about head-aches which appeared after each unloading. Nevertheless they don't want to change the orders, because they are afraid prisoners called for that work, could use an opportune moment to flee. To protect the men from these damages, I request orders be issued accordingly.

The application of gas usually is not undertaken correctly. In order to come to an end as fast as possible, the driver presses the accelerator to the fullest extent. By doing that the persons to be executed suffer death from suffocation and not death by dozing off as was planned. My directions now have proved that by correct adjustment of the levers death comes faster and the prisoners fall asleep peacefully. Distorted faces and excretions, such as could be seen before, are no longer noticed.

Today I shall continue my journey to group B, where I can be reached with further news.

Signed: Dr. Becker
SS Untersturmfuehrer

Reichs Security Main Office
Message Center

1900, 15 June 1942 [Handwritten:]
Riga E 2 II D 3a Maj Pradel
Message No 152452 R 16/6
Wiederhausen

Riga 7082—15-6-42—1855—BE
To Reichs Security Main Office—Roem. 2D3A—Berlin

TOP SECRET

Subject: S-Vans

A transport of Jews, which has to be treated in a special way, arrives weekly at the office of the commandant of the Security Police and the Security Service of White Ruthenia.

The three S-vans, which are there, are not sufficient for that purpose. I request assignment of another S-van (5-tons). At the same time I request the shipment of 20 gas-hoses for the three S-vans on hand (2 Daimond, 1 Saurer), since the ones on hand are leaky already.

The commandant of the Security Police and
the Security Service
"Ostland"
Roem IT-126/42 GRS
Stamp: Signed: Truehe, SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer
No 240/42
II D 3a 16 June 42
Procedure: [handwritten]
1. When can we count on having another S-van ready?
2. Are gas-hoses on hand, ordered or when to be delivered?
3. Request answer.

R 16/6

Reichs Security Main Office

II D 3a B Nr 240/42 Berlin, 22 June 1945

TOP SECRET

Stamped:
Message Nr 107903
Sent by message center
2016, 22 June 42

1. FS [?]
To the Commandant of the Security Police and
Security Service Ostland
Riga

Subject: S-Van

The delivery of a 5-ton Saurer can be expected in the middle of next month. The vehicle has been at the Reichs Security Main Office for repairs and minor alterations up to this time. 100 meters of hose will be supplied.

By order of

[signature as in heading]

2. Dissemination at once by II D 3a (9)
By direction

Rauff

Handwritten note:

Berlin, 13 July 1942

II D 3a (9)

Nr I.Z. Widderhausen [?] for further action and attention to the note of 13 July 1942 on back page of telegram from Belgrad. For the reasons mentioned 5 sections of hose, each of 10 meters, can be supplied me.

By direction

[signature illegible]

Reichs Security Main Office

Stamps: 1003 9 Jun 1942

handwritten:
After return
immediate repair

II D 3a No 964/42

10 June 1942

R 10/6
Notify about repair
ND. Nr 144702
Belgrad No. 3116 9.6.42 0950—SOM

To: Reichs Security Office, Amt Roem 2 D 3 KL. A—Z. HD. V. Major Pradel—Berlin.

Subject: Special-van-Saurer
Preceding messages: None

The Drivers SS-Scharfuehrer Goetz and Meyer have fulfilled their special mission and could be ordered back with the van mentioned above. In consequence of a broken rear-axle-half, transportation cannot be made by car.

Therefore I have ordered the vehicle loaded and shipped back to Berlin by railroad.

Estimated arrival between 11th and 12th June 1942. The drivers Goetz and Meyer will escort the vehicle.

The commandant of Security Police and Security Service
Belgrad—Roem I—BNR 3985/42.
Signed: Dr. Schaefer, SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer

[Handwritten note back page]

II D 3a (2)
T.O.S. a Dr. SUKKEL

Berlin, 11 June 1942

For further action and immediate start of repairs. I request to be informed about arrival of vans.

By direction:

signed: Just
Berlin, 16 June 1942.

II D 3a (9)

Note

The vehicle arrived 16 June 1942 about 1300 h. After thorough cleaning the repairs will start immediately.

By direction

signed: [?]
Berlin, 13 July 1942.

II D 3a 9

1. Note: The S-truck Pol 71463 is ready.

2. Sent to the motor-pool management T.F. Niederhausen for its information and further action.

By direction

signed: [?]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 502-PS

TOP SECRET

B 101
Enclosures 2
Berlin, 17 July 1941

Office IV

Regulations (directives) for the commandos of the Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service, which are to be activated in Stalags.

The activation of commandos will take place in accordance with the agreement of the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service and the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces as of 16 July 1941 (see enclosure I). The commandos will work independently according to special authorization and in consequence of the general regulations given to them, in the limits of the camp organizations. Naturally, the commandos will keep close contact with the camp commander and the defense officers assigned to him.

The mission of the commandos is the political investigating of all camp-inmates, the elimination and further "treatment"

a. of all political, criminal or in some other way undesirable elements among them.

b. of those persons who could be used for the reconstruction of the occupied territories.

For the execution of their mission, no auxiliary means can be put at the disposal of the commandos. The "Deutsche Fahndungsbuch", the "Aufenthaltsermittlungsliste" and the "Sonderfahndungsbuch UdSSR" will prove to be useful in only a small number of cases; the "Sonderfahndungsbuch UdSSR" is not sufficient, because it contains only a small part of Soviet-Russians considered to be dangerous.

Therefore, the commandos must use their special knowledge and ability and rely on their own findings and self-acquired knowledge. Therefore, they will be able to start carrying out their mission only when they have gathered together appropriate material.

The commandos must use for their work as far as possible, at present and even later, the experiences of the camp commanders which the latter have collected meanwhile from observation of the prisoners and examinations of camp inmates.

Further, the commandos must make efforts from the beginning to seek out among the prisoners elements which appear reliable, regardless if there are communists concerned or not, in order to use them for intelligence purposes inside of the camp and, if advisable, later in the occupied territories also.

By use of such informers and by use of all other existing possibilities, the discovery of all elements to be eliminated among the prisoners, must succeed step by step at once. The commandos must learn for themselves, in every case by means of short questioning of the informers and eventual questioning of other prisoners.

The information of one informer is not sufficient to designate a camp inmate to be a suspect, without further proof; it must be confirmed in some way if possible.

Above all, the following must be discovered:

All important functionaries of state and party, especially

Professional revolutionaries.

Functionaries of the Komintern.

All policy-forming party functionaries of the KPdSU and its fellow organizations in the central committees, in the regional and district committees.

All Peoples-Commissars and their deputies.

All former Political commissars in the Red Army.

Leading personalities of the state authorities of central and middle regions.

The leading personalities of the business world.

Members of the Soviet-Russian intelligence.

All Jews.

All persons, who are found to be agitators or fanatical communists.

It is not less important, as mentioned already, to discover all those persons who could be used for the reconstruction, administration and management of the conquered Russian territories.

Finally, all such persons must be secured who are still needed for the completion of further investigation, regardless if they are police investigations or other investigations, and for explanations of questions of general interest. Among them are all those especially, who because of their position and their knowledge are able to give information about measures and working methods of the Soviet-Russian State, of the communist party or of the Komintern.

In the final analysis, consideration must be given to the nativity in all decisions to be made. The leader of the Einsatz Kommando will give every week a short report by telephone or an express-letter to the Reichs-Security-Main-Office, containing:

1. Short description of their activities in the past week.

2. Number of all definitely suspicious persons. (report of number sufficient)

3. Individual names of all persons found to be functionaries of the Komintern, leading functionaries of the party, Peoples-Commissars, leading personalities and Political commissars.

4. Number of all persons found not to be suspicious informers, with a short description of their position.

A. Prisoners-of-war.

B. Civilians.

On the basis of those activity reports the Reichs-Security-Main-Office will issue immediately the further measures to be applied. For the measures to be applied on the basis of this successive directive the commandos are to demand the surrender of the prisoners involved from the camp command.

The camp commandants have received orders from the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, to approve such requests (see enclosure I).

Executions are not to be held in the camp or in the immediate vicinity of the camp. If the camps in the General-Government are in the immediate vicinity of the border, then the prisoners are to be taken for special treatment, if possible, into the former Soviet-Russian territory.

Should execution be necessary for reasons of camp discipline, then the leader of the Einsatz Kommando must apply to the camp commander for it.

The commandos have to keep lists about the special treatments carried out and must contain:

Current number.
Family name and first name.
Time and place of birth.
Military rank.
Profession.
Last residence.
Reason for special treatment.
Day and place of special treatment
(card file).

In regard to executions to be carried out and to the possible removal of reliable civilians and the removal of informers for the Einsatz-group in the occupied territories, the leader of the Einsatz-Kommando must make an agreement with the nearest State-Police-Office, as well as with the commandant of the Security Police Unit and Security Service and beyond these with the Chief of the Einsatz-group concerned in the occupied territories.

Reports of that kind are to be transmitted for information to the Reichs-Security-Main-Office, IV. A 1. Excellent behavior during and after duty, the best cooperation with the camp-commanders, and careful examinations are the duty of all leaders and members of the Einsatz-Kommando.

The members of the Einsatz-Kommando must be constantly impressed with the special importance of the missions entrusted to them.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 503-PS

Top Secret

High Command of the Armed Forces.
No 55 1781/42 g. K Chefs. W F St/Qu
F.H. Qu., 19 October 1942

Top Secret
By officer only 22 copies, 21st copy

Added to the decree concerning the destruction of terror and sabotage troops (OKW/WFst No. 003830/42 top secret of 18 October 1942) a supplementary order of the Fuehrer is enclosed.

This order is intended for commanders only and must not under any circumstances fall into enemy hands.

The further distribution is to be limited accordingly by the receiving bureaus.

The bureaus named in the distribution list are held responsible, for the return and destruction of all distributed pieces of the order and copies made thereof.

The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces

By order of

Jodl

1 enclosure
(distribution list—over)
Distribution list:

General Staff of the Army—1st copy.

Chief of Ordnance and Commander of Replacement Army—2nd copy.

High Command of the Navy Sea Warfare Diary—3rd copy.

High Command of the Air Force command staff—4th copy.

Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in Norway—5th copy.

Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in The Netherlands—6th copy.

Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in the South-east—7th copy.

Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in The Eastern Territory (Ostland)—8th copy.

Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in the Ukraine—9th copy.

High Command West—10th copy.

High Command 20th Mountain army—11th copy.
(GEB.) AOH 20)

Commanding Officer of German troops in Denmark—12th copy.
(Bfh. d. dt. Tr. in Denmark)

High Command South—13th copy.

Tank Army—Africa—14th copy.

German General in Headquarters of Italian Armed Forces—15th copy.

Reich Fuehrer SS and Chief of German Police and Main Bureau for Security Police—16th and 17th copies.

High Command of the Armed Forces:

Foreign Counter Intelligence—18th copy.

Armed Forces legal section (WR)—19th copy.

Armed Forces propaganda section (PR)—20th copy.

Armed Forces Command Staff, Quartermaster inclusive file copy—21st copy.

War Diary (KtC)—22nd copy.

Top Secret

By officer only

The Fuehrer and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces

18 K

I have been compelled to issue strict orders for the destruction of enemy sabotage troops and to declare non-compliance with these orders severely punishable. I deem it necessary to announce to the competent commanding officers and commanders the reasons for this decree.

As in no previous war, a method of destruction of communications behind the front, intimidation of the populace working for Germany, as well as the destruction of war-important industrial plants in territories occupied by us has been developed in this war.

In the east, this type of combat in the form of partisan warfare as early as last winter led to severe encroachment upon our fighting strength and cost the lives of numerous German soldiers, railroad workers, members of the labor corps [Organization Todt], the labor service, etc. It severely interfered with and sometimes delayed for days, the performance of transportation necessary for the maintenance of the fighting strength of the troops. By a successful continuation or perhaps even intensification of this form of war, a grave crisis in one or another place at the front might develop. Many measures against these horrible, as well as wily, sabotage activities have failed, simply because the German officer and his soldiers were not aware of the great danger confronting them and therefore in individual cases did not act against these enemy groups as would have been necessary in order to help the forward echelons of the front thereby the entire conduct of the war.

It was therefore in part necessary in the East to organize special units who mastered this danger or to assign this task to special SS formations.

Only where the fight against this partisan disgrace was begun and executed with ruthless brutality were results achieved which eased the position of the fighting front.

In all eastern territories the war against the partisans is therefore a struggle of absolute annihilation of one or the other part.

As soon as the realization of this fact becomes the common knowledge of troops, they will regularly be able to cope with these occurrences in short order; otherwise their efforts achieve no decisive results and become purposeless.

Even though under a different name, England and America have decided upon a similar kind of warfare, while the Russian attempts to put partisan troops behind our front by land and only in exceptional cases uses air transportation to land men and to drop supplies, England and America use this method of warfare primarily by landing sabotage troops from submarines or pneumatic boats or by means of parachute agents. Essentially, however, this form of warfare does not differ from the activities of the Russian partisans. For it is the task of these troops:

1. to build up a general espionage service with the assistance of willing natives,

2. to organize troops of terrorists and supply them with the necessary weapons and explosives,

3. to undertake sabotage activities which by destruction of traffic installations, not only continuously disrupt our communications, but also, when things become serious, make troop movements absolutely impossible and eliminate our communications system.

Finally, these troops are to make attacks on war-important installations, in which, according to a scientifically worked out program, they destroy key works by dynamiting, thereby forcing whole industries into idleness.

The consequences of these activities are of extraordinary weight. I do not know whether each commander and officer is cognizant of the fact that the destruction of one single electric power plant, for instance, can deprive the Luftwaffe of many thousand tons of aluminum, thereby eliminating the construction of countless aircraft that will be missed in the fight at the front and so contribute to serious damage of the Homeland as well as bloody losses of the fighting soldiers.

Yet this form of war is completely without danger for the adversary. Since he lands his sabotage troops in uniform but at the same time supplies them with civilian clothes, they can, according to need, appear as soldiers or civilians. While they themselves have orders to ruthlessly remove any German soldiers or even natives who get in their way, they run no danger of suffering really serious losses in their operations, since at the worst, if they are caught, they can immediately surrender and thus believe that they will theoretically fall under the provisions of the Geneva Convention. There is no doubt, however, that this is a misuse in the worst form of the Geneva agreements, especially since part of these elements are even criminals, liberated from prisons, who can rehabilitate themselves through these activities.

England and America will therefore always be able to find volunteers for this kind of warfare, as long as they can truthfully assure them that there is no danger of loss of life for them. At worst, all they have to do is to successfully commit their attack on people, traffic installations, or other installations, and upon being encountered by the enemy, to capitulate.

If the German conduct of war is not to suffer grievous damage through these incidents, it must be made clear to the adversary that all sabotage troops will be exterminated, without exception, to the last man.

This means that their chance of escaping with their lives is nil. Under no circumstances can it be permitted, therefore, that a dynamite, sabotage, or terrorist unit simply allows itself to be captured, expecting to be treated according to rules of the Geneva Convention. It must under all circumstances be ruthlessly exterminated.

The report on this subject appearing in the Armed Forces communique will briefly and laconically state that a sabotage, terror, or destruction unit has been encountered and exterminated to the last man.

I therefore expect the commanding officers of armies subordinated to them as well as individual commanders not only to realize the necessity of taking such measures, but to carry out this order with all energy. Officers and noncommissioned officers who fail through some weakness are to be reported without fail, or under circumstances—when there is danger in delay—to be at once made strictly accountable. The Homeland as well as the fighting soldier at the front has the right to expect that behind their back the essentials of nourishment as well as the supply of war-important weapons and ammunition remains secure.

These are the reason for the issuance of this decree.

If it should become necessary, for reasons of interrogation, to initially spare one man or two, then they are to be shot immediately after interrogation.

(signed) A. Hitler

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 506-PS

Draft

WFSt/Qu (Verw. 1)
Nr 006580/44 g.Kdos

Fuehrer Headquarters, 22 June 1944

TOP SECRET

2 copies—1st copy

Reference: WR 2 f 10.34 (III/10) Nr 158/44 g.Kdos.-119/44 V—of

17 June 1944

Subject: Enemy agents—Fuehrer order 003830/42 g.Kdos/OKW /WFSt of 18 October 42

To: W R

WFSt agrees with the view taken in the letter of the Judge Advocate of the Army group with the Supreme Commander South-west of 20 May 44 (Br. B Nr 68/44 g.K.). The Fuehrer order is to be applied even if the enemy employs only one person for a task. Therefore, it does not make any difference if several persons or a single person take part in a commando operation. The reason for the special treatment of participants in a commando operation is that such operations do not correspond to the German concept of usage and customs of (land) warfare.

By direction

initialled: W
3 inclosures [Warlimont]

[Following is an attached handwritten note]

Qu 2 W

All questions connected to the commando order (18 Oct 42) are to be handled according to a previous directive of Chef Qu at Qu 2 (W) page 2140, not at administration.

[initial illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 508-PS

TOP SECRET

WFSt/Op (L)

Fuehrer's Headquarters November 21, 1942
5 copies, 5th copy

Subject: Landing of British Freight Gliders in Norway. [Illegible signature] 2/40/43

Note

Supplement to situation report OKW/WFSt/Op. 21 Nov. 42.

Air Force 5, G-2 Capt. S. Lilienskjold reports 21 Nov. by telephone to inquiry:

1. Following supplementary report is made about landing of a British freight glider at Hegers in the night of November 11:

a. No firing on the part of German defense.

b. The towing plane (Wellington) has crashed after touching the ground, 7 man crew dead. The attached freight glider also crashed, of the 17-man crew 14 alive. Indisputably a sabotage force. Fuehrer order has been carried out.

2. In the same night a second freight glider landed East of Stavanger. 3 men of the crew were captured by the Norwegian police on November 21. They state that after it was detached the freight glider made a crash-landing at the Lyse Fjord in the night of Nov. 20; it had a crew of 16. Supposedly several dead and wounded. The landing occurred on the North shore of the Fjord, opposite the electric plant of Floerly (supplies Stavanger).

The plane has not yet been found. Each and every possible measure to find it and also to seize the other members of the crew has been initiated by the service district.

The towing plane has apparently returned to England. The radio communication was monitored by Air Fleet #5.

[signed] W
Went out Nov. 11, 42

Distribution:
Chief of Operational Staff of the Armed Forces (previous telephone report).
Asst. Chief (Ktb).
Operations (Army).
Operations (Navy).
Operations (Air Force).

TOP SECRET

F. Amt. Ausl./Abw
Ag Ausl. Nr. 1951/42 gKdos Ausl. Chef
F XVI, E 1/e

Berlin, 4 December, 1942
3 copies, 1st copy

To: WFSt
For: Information
From: Abw III.

Subject: Fuehrer order of 18 Oct. 42, about treatment of enemy sabotage troops.

Attached copies of two teletype messages of the Norway counter intelligence are hereby forwarded, referring to the order contained in the last paragraph of the 2nd teletype order of the Military commander of Norway.

It is asked that it should be examined how far this order is compatible with the above discussed Fuehrer order.

By direction

[Illegible signature]
[Warlimont's initials] 8/12

Copy

TOP SECRET

1. Teletype to: O K W/Abw III F
Subject: Commando Raid.

On November 20, 1942, at 5:50 an enemy plane was found 15 km NE of Egersund. It is a British aircraft (towed glider) made of wood without engine. Of the 17 member crew 3 are dead, 6 are severely the others slightly wounded.

All wore English khaki uniforms without sleeve-insignia. Furthermore following items were found: 8 knapsacks, tents, skiis and radio, exact number is unknown. The glider carried rifles, light machine guns, and machine pistols, number unknown. At present the prisoners are with the battalion in Egersund.

A second plane has crashed 5 km East of Helleland. It had a 6-man crew and is supposed to have towed the above glider.

The artillery officer of Stavanger is still at the scene of the incident. Further exact report follows; new annexes attached. The competent commander's staff (KDS) was immediately notified on the basis of the Fuehrer order. Foreign agency Norway, Nov. 20, 42, No. 34304/42

TOP SECRET III F

2. Teletype to: OKW/Amt Ausl./Abw III F
Reference: Our No 3/304/42 g.Kdos III F of 20 Nov 42.
Subject: Commando Raid.

Foreign service (AST) reports to above teletype:

Besides the 17 member crew, extensive sabotage material and work equipment were found. Therefore the sabotage purpose was absolutely proved. The 280th inf. div. ordered the execution of the action according to the Fuehrer's order. The execution was carried out toward the evening of Nov. 20. Some of the prisoners wore blue ski-suits under their khaki uniforms which had no insignia on the sleeves. During a short interrogation the survivors have revealed nothing but their names, ranks, and serial numbers.

The salvage of the sabotage material was performed by the commander's staff (Kds) of Stavanger. The 2nd aircraft mentioned in the above report is a two-engine plane and was probably the towing plane. It will be inspected. In the same night of the 19th to 20th Nov. a second glider plane was landed at the Lysefjord, 20 km East of Stavanger, 8 km East of the electric plant of Floerly. Until now 3 men, presumably English, were captured by the Norwegian police. The police are on the way to conduct a search for the plane. Supposedly dead and wounded lie around it. According to the statements of the prisoners, this freight gilder is supposed to have a 16-man crew. It is possible that this freight glider was towed by the same enemy plane which towed the glider found 15 km North East of Egersund. The armed forces commander of Norway was notified. Refer. at III Wi and Ag WNV/Fu, Oslo.

In connection with the shooting of the 17 members of the crew, the armed forces commander of Norway (WBN) has issued an order to the district commanders, according to which the interrogations by G-2 and by BDS are important before the execution of the Fuehrer order; in case of no. 4 of the Fuehrer order the prisoners are to be handed out to the BDS.

Foreign agency (Ast) Norway, No. 3/304/42 III F. g.Kdos

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 509-PS

TOP SECRET

Telegraph Office: GWNOL

Date: 7 Nov. 1943

SSD WAQC 0183 7/11 1112 DGZ

To Supreme Command of the Armed Forces/Wehrmacht Fuehrungsstab/Roem I c GKDOS (TOP SECRET).

Subject: British Commando—Operation in Northwest.
Pescara, 2 Nov. 43.

3 commandos—special treatment—remaining 9 men wounded, in hospital.

OB SUED F.A. ROEM Ic Nr 7595/43 TOP SECRET

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 512-PS

TOP SECRET

SSD HOSX 4041 13/12 1400—OKW/WFSt

According to the last sentence of the Fuehrer order of 18th October (CHEFS), individual saboteurs can be spared for the time being in order to keep them for interrogation. The importance of this measure was proven in the cases of Glomfjord, Two man torpedo Drontheim, and glider plane stavanger, where interrogations resulted in valuable knowledge of enemy intentions. Since in the case of Egersund the saboteur was liquidated immediately and no clues were won; therefore, armed forces commander referred to above mentioned last sentence of the Fuehrer order (liquidation only after short interrogation).

The Red Cross and the BDS protested after the immediate carrying out of the Fuehrer order in the case of Egersund and intend for their part to bring up the whole question as a matter of principle.

WBN ROEM One A number 5409/42 GKDOS

TOP SECRET

14 December 1942
SSD—Telegram
[illegible pencil remarks]

To: Supreme Command Armed Forces Foreign Department.

For information: Commander Armed Forces Norway Supreme Command Armed Forces Counter Intelligence Service.

Reference: AG Ausl. number 1951/42 Top Secret of 4 December 1942. (Commander Armed Forces Norway I a number 5409/42 Top Secret of 13 December 1942).

Subject: Commando Operations.

It is reported that the armed forces commander Norway intends to spare individual saboteurs for the time being in order to have them interrogated. This intention corresponds to the last paragraph of the order OKW/WFSt/QU. number 551781/42 top secret CHEFS of 19th October 1942.

OKW/WFSt/Qu (III)
Number 004872/42 Top Secret
W [Initialled Warlimont]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 526-PS

WFSt/Qu (III)
Subject: Saboteurs, Toftefjord.

10. 5. 1943

TOP SECRET

Notice

On the 30. 3. 1943 in Toftefjord (70° Lat.) an enemy cutter was sighted, cutter was blown up by the enemy. Crew: 2 dead men, 10 prisoners.

Cutter was sent from Scalloway (Shetland Is.) by the Norwegian Navy.

Armament: 2 Colt—MG's, 2 mounted MG's, a small transmitter. In addition there were supposed to have been 4 MG's, 6 sub-machine guns and 1,000 kg of explosives on board.

Captain of the Cutter: Norwegian, Lt. Eskeland.

Purpose: Construction of an organization for sabotaging of strongpoints, battery positions, staff and troop billets and bridges.

Assigner of Mission in London: Norwegian, Maj. Munthe.

Fuehrer order executed by S.D. [Security Service].

Wehrmacht Report of 6.4 announces the following about it:

In Northern Norway an enemy sabotage-unit was engaged and destroyed on approaching the coast.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 531-PS

Armed Forces Operational Staff
Qm (Adm. 1)
No. 006688/44 Top Secret

Fuehrer's Hq, 23 June 1944

TOP SECRET

3 copies—1st copy

Reference: Fuehrer Order No. 003832/42/OKW/WFSt of 18 Oct 42.

Subject: Treatment of Commando Men.

Conference memorandum

Supreme Command West reports by teletype message No 1750/44 Top Secret of 23 June 44:

The treatment of enemy commando groups has so far been carried out according to the order referred to. With the large-scale landing achieved, a new situation has arisen. The order referred to directs in number 5 that enemy soldiers who are taken prisoner in open combat or surrender within the limits of normal combat operations (large-scale landing operations and undertakings) are not to be treated according to numbers 3 and 4. It must be established in a form easily understood by the troops how far the concept "within the limits of normal combat operations, etc." is to be extended. The view of the Supreme Command West is as follows:

A. The commitment of air-borne troops and commandos effected in Normandy falls clearly under number 5.

B. It is likewise not to be contested that paratroop units or groups set down further to the rear are connected with the large-scale landing operation effected, if they have the mission of breaking supply lines or carrying out deceptive maneuvers etc. The German combat soldier will not always be able, during battle, to decide whether it is a question of sabotage groups parachuted down or larger air-borne operations in closer or more distant connection with a landing from the sea already carried out or still being carried out.

C. As a result of the large turn-over of troops in the area of the Supreme Command West, especially recently, it is possible that a considerable number of soldiers are ignorant of the order referred to, which dates from more than 1-1/2 years ago. For Germans from foreign countries (Volksdeutsche) and foreign nationalities the differentiation in the treatment of prisoners will hardly be able to be made clear due to language difficulties. A further reproduction of the order in the present situation, where cases of losses must be considered, is held by Supreme Command West to be a false course of action. Considerable reprisals against our own prisoners must be expected if its contents become known.

D. The application of number 5 for all enemy soldiers in uniform penetrating from the outside into the occupied western areas is held by Supreme Command West to be the most correct and clearest solution. On the other hand an order of the chief office for Reich security to the commander of the SIPO (Security Police) and the SD (Security Service) in Paris has decided that numbers 3 and 4 of the order referred to are to be applied in the future the same as before in the case of uniformed parachutists committed in groups. A conversation with representatives of the higher SS and police fuehrers in France and of the commander of the SIPO and SD in Paris gave the result that according to the opinion of all concerned the difficulty lies in the determination of the "limits of normal combat operations". As a solution it was agreed to set a line (e.g. Seine from the mouth to Rouen-Argentan-Avranches) North of which number 5, inland of which numbers 3 and 4 apply. This solution also must be called incomplete, since the combat situation can at any time bring the necessity of extending this line to other coastal areas as well. In case of a large-scale aerial landing in the interior such boundaries cannot be drawn anymore at all. Supreme Command West requests, therefore, that, in agreement with the Reichsfuehrer SS, the decision be made, that, in view of the new situation, number 5 is to be applied in the whole occupied Western area.

Position taken by Armed Forces Operational Staff:

1. The Commando order remains basically in effect even after the enemy landing in the west.

2. Number 5 of the order is to be clarified to the effect, that the order is not valid for those enemy soldiers in uniform, who are captured in open combat in the immediate combat area of the beachhead by our troops committed there, or who surrender. Our troops committed in the immediate combat area means the divisions fighting on the front line as well as reserves up to and including corps headquarters.

3. Furthermore, in doubtful cases enemy personnel who have fallen into our hands alive are to be turned over to the SD, upon whom it is encumbent to determine whether the commando order is to be applied or not.

4. Supreme Command West is to see to it that all units committed in its zone are orally acquainted in a suitable manner with the order concerning the treatment of members of commando undertakings of 18 Oct 42 along with the above explanation.

Proposal:
Attached teletype message.
signed: WARLIMONT

Distribution:

Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces—1 copy through Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces Operational Staff.

Ktb, 2 copies.

Qu—Draft, 3 copies.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 532-PS

WFSt/Qu (Verw. 1)

24 June 1944

TOP SECRET

5 copies, 1st copy

SSD—Telegram.

To 1. Supreme Command West.

By mail to 2. Chief of General Staff, Army.

By mail to 3. Supreme Command of the Air Force/Air Force Staff Headquarters.

By mail to 4. Supreme Command Navy/1 Skl.
By mail to 5. Reichsfuehrer SS Command Staff.
By mail to 6. Military Commander, France.
By mail to 7. Supreme Command of Armed Forces/WR.

Authority: 1. Order of the Fuehrer no. 003830/42 Top Secret of 18 Oct 42/OKW/WFSt.

2. Telegram Supreme Command West no. 1750/44 Top Secret of 23 June 44.

Subject: Treatment of Commandos.

1. Standard operating procedure to (1) will be fully maintained.

2. Numeral (5) refers to enemy soldiers in uniform who are captured in open combat by own troops stationed in the immediate combat zone of the beachhead or who surrender. "Own troops stationed in the immediate combat zone" applies in this sense to those of combat divisions on line as well as reserves up to and including general staffs.

3. In cases of doubt enemy personnel falling into our hands alive will be turned over to the SD, which will be responsible for the examination as to whether the order concerning commandos is applicable or not.

4. Accordingly, the paratroop saboteurs dropped by the enemy over Britanny will be treated as commando personnel, since this area is not at present an immediate combat zone. It is immaterial in this case whether the paratroopers dropped wear uniform or civilian clothes. The number of paratroopers captured in Britanny will be included in the daily report currently. In this respect an annex to the armed forces report of 7 October 1942 has already been published to the effect that such criminal elements should be massacred in combat.

(Remark: Enclosures of the order of the Fuehrer of 18 October 1942 as well as the further order regarding the treatment of Commando personnel of 25 June 1944 are attached. The latter mentions also paratroopers under number (2).)

Distribution: [signature illegible]

Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces through Chief of the WFSt Qu (Entw.).

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 537-PS

Draft

The Fuehrer's Headquarters, 30 July 1944

The High Command of the Wehrmacht
009074/44 g.k./WFSt/Qu.(Verw.1)

TOP SECRET

re: Treatment of members of foreign "Military Missions", captured together with partisans.

In the areas of the High Command Southeast and Southwest members of foreign so-called "Military Missions" (anglo-American as well as Soviet-Russian) captured in the course of the struggle against partisans shall not receive the treatment as stipulated in the special orders regarding the treatment of captured partisans. Therefore they are not to be treated as PWs but in conformity with the Fuehrer's order the elimination of terror and sabotage troops of 18 October 1942 (OKW/WFSt. 003830/42 g.Kdos).

This order shall not be transmitted to other units of the armed forces via the High Commands and equivalent staffs and is to be destroyed after being read.

The Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht

KEITEL

Distribution:

High Comd S/E—1st copy.
High Comd S/W—2nd copy.
General Staff of the Army—3rd copy.
OKM/SKl.—4th copy.
OKL/Lw.Fu.Stb.—5th copy.

Reichsfuehrer—and Chief of the German Police—Staff RF—Attention Major General and Major General of the Waffen SS Rhode, also for RSH—6th copy.

OKW/AWA—7th copy.
/Chief PWs—8th copy.
WR—9th copy.
WFSt/W.Pr.—10th copy.

Op. (H-L-M)—11th copy.
Org.—12th copy.
Ktb.—13th copy.
Qu. (Draft)—14th copy.
Reserve—15-25 copies.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 551-PS

WFSt/Qu! (Verw. 1)

Chef OKW—[in pencil]

of

[initial] J

26 June 1944

TOP SECRET [Rubber Stamp]

5 copies—1st copy
Checked before Release }
Chef WFSt } [in pencil]
Remark 1 }
OB. WFSt } [in pencil]

KR—Teletype
To 1. Supreme Commander West.
2. Chief of Army General Staff.
3. OKL/Lw Fu Stab.
4. OKM/1.Skl.
5. Reichsfuehrer SS—Command Staff.
6. Military Commander, France.
7. Military Commander, Belgium/Northern France.
8. Armed forces Commander, Netherlands.
9. OKW/WR.
10. Supreme Commander Southwest [in pencil].

Reference: 1. Fuehrer Order No. 003830/42 Top Secret of 18 Oct 1942 OKW/WFSt.

2. Teletype Supreme Commander West No. 1750/44 Top Secret of 23 June 1944 (only to OKW/WFSt).

Subject: Treatment of Kommando Participants.

1. Even after the landing of Anglo-Americans in France, the order of the Fuehrer on the destruction of terror and sabotage units of 18 Oct 1942 remains fully in force.

Enemy soldiers in uniform in the immediate combat area of the bridgehead, that is, in the area of the divisions fighting in the most forward lines as well as of the reserves up to the corps commands, according to #5 of the basic order of 18 Oct 1942, remain exempted.

2. All members of terror and sabotage units, found outside the immediate combat area, who include fundamentally all parachutists, are to be killed in combat. In special cases, they are to be turned over to the SD.

3. All troops committed outside the combat area of Normandy are to be informed about the duty to destroy enemy terror and sabotage units briefly and succinctly according to the directives issued for it.

4. Supreme Commander West will report immediately daily how many saboteurs have been liquidated in this manner. This applies especially also to undertakings by the military commanders. The number is to be published daily in the armed forces communique to exercise a frightening effect, as has already been done toward previous Kommando undertakings in the same manner.

[Initial] W [Warlimont]
[signature] Keitel
OKW/WFSt/Qu. (Verw. 1)
Nr. 006688/44 Top Secret

Addition for Supreme Commander Southwest — [Written by hand]
Similar action is to be taken in the Italian theater of war.

[initial] J [Jodl]

After forwarding:
Qu (Verw. 1) Simultaneously teletype—1st copy.
Op (H)—2nd copy.
Op (M)/(L)/Ktb.—3rd copy.
VO Foreign—4th copy.
VO W Pr—5th copy.

Copy was sent on 18 Aug to the Chief of the Security Police and the SD.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 553-PS

Memo secret 7/4
(Annex 2 to H.Dr.g.l
Page 7 current 1910.4)
High Command of the armed forces
WFSt. (Org.1) amt. AUSL.ABW/ABT ABW.III
Nr. 8725/7. 42 g. (IIIb 2) Berlin, 4 August 1942

SECRET

Combatting of single parachutists, 4 Aug. 1942.
Unaltered reprint 1943
Reference: OKW/WFSt/ABt.L (II) Nr. 1858 geh.v. 10.8.40

I. In case of enemy landings by air, a difference has to be made between:

A. Parachute troops and airborne landing troops committed to fighting activities.

B. Single parachutists and small groups of parachutists who are dropped in order to execute missions of sabotage, espionage, terror or disruption.

to a The combatting of enemy airborne forces is the exclusive mission of the armed forces according to the reference orders.

to b For combatting single parachutists. In alteration of fig. 7 v.a. the following is decreed:

1. In territories (Reich territories and occupied territories) the combatting of single parachutists is the mission of those agencies of the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service [SD] designated as executive; in this matter it is immaterial whether the parachutists are in uniform or civilian clothes.

2. To what extent armed forces and agencies of the armed forces should be committed for these missions is to be decided directly by the district commanders [Wehrkreisbefehslhaber] or by territorial commanders [territorialen Befehlshaber] endowed with the powers of district commander with the competent agencies of security police and SD.

3. So far as single parachutists are captured by members of the armed forces, they are to be delivered to the nearest agency of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, without delay; simultaneously reports must be made to the competent intelligence agency. The same procedure is also valid for combat action directed against parachute troops or airborne-landing troops, in case the troops realize that they have to do with saboteurs or spies. If it should be discovered that the parachutists brought to security police by armed forces, or captured directly by members of the police are soldiers, the SS Reich leader and Chief of the German Police will take care that they will be transferred to the competent air forces agencies after the completion of the necessary inquiry.

4. Reports concerning confirmed single parachutists are to be submitted without delay to the nearest agency of the Chief of Security Police and of the SD, simultaneously informing the counter intelligence agency in charge which immediately has to forward the report to district command headquarters commander as well as the airforces command. Moreover, in principle fig. 4 of the reference order is applicable.

5. In territories not mentioned in fig. 1, present regulations remain valid (transfer to secret field police).

II. With regard to the use of objects captured or discarded, in the case of parachutists, as far as these items are sabotage materials, or radio equipment, a supplementary order to fig. 9 v. a. is decreed:

1. Captured sabotage material to be delivered to the nearest security police agency and SD.

The army will dispose of sabotage material captured by troops in the Eastern theater. With regard to further utilization of sabotage material delivered or reverting to the Security Police, agreements made between the Chief of Security Police and SD and foreign section of counter intelligence remain valid.

2. Captured radio equipment, including the directions for operations, code-material, voice material (Sprach-Material) in plain and in code text, are to be delivered immediately via local counter intelligence agencies to OKW (Ag WNV Fu III) for use. The agencies concerned will be informed of results. After a completion of investigations the captured radio equipment will again be at disposal, if needed. If further use of captured radio equipment is considered by either counter intelligence or Security Police, then the delivery of the equipment might be omitted, upon agreement each time with Ag. WNV/Fu III, however, in this case photostatic copies of the directions for use, the code keys, etc., as well as technical descriptions of the equipment are to be forwarded quickly to Ag-WNV/Fu III.

The Chief of High Command of the Armed Forces
KEITEL

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 556-2-PS

The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht
Fuehrer Hq September 8, 1942

The extensive coastal fortifications which I have ordered to be erected in the area of Army Group West make it necessary that in the occupied territory all available workers should be committed and should give the fullest extent of their productive capacities. The previous allotment of domestic workers is insufficient. In order to increase it, I order the introduction of compulsory labor and the prohibition of changing the place of employment without permission of the authorities in the occupied territories. Furthermore the distribution of food and clothing ration cards to those subject to labor draft should in the future depend on the possession of a certificate of employment. Refusal to accept an assigned job, as well as abandoning the place of work without the consent of the authorities in charge, will result in the withdrawal of the food and clothing ration cards. The GBA [Deputy General for Arbeitseinsatz] in agreement with the military commander as well as the Reich Commissar, will issue the corresponding decrees for execution.

A Hitler
[initialled] K [Keitel]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 556-13-PS

Note for the files

1. On 4 January 1943 at 8 P.M. Minister Speer telephones from the Fuehrer Headquarters and communicates that on the basis of the Fuehrer's decision, it is no longer necessary to give special consideration to Frenchmen in the further recruiting of specialists and helpers in France. The recruiting can proceed with emphasis and sharpened measures.

2. Commissar-General Schmidt with the Reich Commissar in Holland just telephones on 5 January 1943 at 5:20 P.M. and explains that on the basis of Armament Action 1943 he must achieve more recruiting in Holland.

3. He has been criticized by the armament Commissions regarding the endangering of German contracts in Holland proper due to labor shortage.

I told him that no attention would be paid these criticisms.

He has already taken the same attitude and in the future will take the appropriate action.

For Information

(signed) SAUCKEL

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 579-PS

Weimar, 5 January 1943
The District Commissar in Riga—Employment Office
Section [Fachgebiet] 2 (Commitment of work)
Riga, 6 July 1942

File note

Subject: Commitment of Jews.

here: cooperation with the administration offices of the armed forces.

For the last 10 days Jews have been picked up almost daily for commitment in the peat industry by units of the armed forces. While doing so, very considerable difficulties arose because the members of the armed forces who get the Jews from the ghetto daily do not want to comply with the regulations which are issued by the man responsible for work commitment.

It is agreed that the soldiers take over the Jews in columns at the exit of the ghetto. Actually, however, several soldiers enter the fenced-in ghetto and pick up the Jews in question without any permission. During the last week, government inspector Rottenberger and the undersigned were present, at an early hour, during the dispatching of the Jews. Some soldiers also did not follow the instructions of the Reich German workers, entered the ghetto, and themselves got the men who had worked so far for the units in question. It was pointed out to them that manpower had to be committed for specially urgent measures. These instructions were not followed by the soldiers, but they shouted around in the presence of more than 1000 Jews, and simply took the men away in spite of the order forbidding it. In one instance a soldier arrived the next morning in a steel helmet and again did not follow the instructions of the Reich-German manpower. A German police sergeant was charged with banishing the soldiers from the ghetto. The sergeant had hardly turned around when the soldier entered the ghetto again and again got Jews whom he was not supposed to get, and took them away. In another case, the undersigned was just in time to prevent a pfc. of the air force from beating a Jewish policeman. The Jewish policeman beat a Jew who did not want to report for a certain work. The Jewish police is doing well with the daily commitment of about 4000 Jews. Therefore it must be prevented that Germans attack Jewish policemen in the presence of thousands of Jews.

As soon as German soldiers who pick up the Jewish manpower daily from the ghetto, follow the instructions of the Reich-German manpower and, above all, keep discipline, it will be possible to get the Jewish manpower ready for work considerably faster every day. According to my opinion it is at least necessary that one German policeman who can prevent the illegal seizures by the German soldiers, be placed at the entrance of the ghetto daily from 0530 to 0800 hours.

For information:

signed Lippmann.

The District Commissar in Riga
The Chief of The Employment Office
Riga Azsargu Iela 29/31

Riga, 10 February 1942

Department
File No.

To the Reich Commissar for the Baltic states

Work policies and social administration

Riga, through the Commissar general in Riga.

Subject: Transport of Jews from Kauen.
Ref.: Your letter of 6 February 1942.

The transport of Jews from Kauen arrived here on 8 February 1942. However, instead of the requested 500 males only,
222 males and
137 females
were sent.

Due to the fact that there exists a considerable need of Jewish manpower for transport and construction work, I am requesting an additional 1000 Jewish males from Kauen.

I was informed by the transport leader that the Jews in Kauen, as far as their commitment for work is concerned, are not under the jurisdiction of the employment office, but that the Jewish manpower is distributed by the German police.

For:

[signature illegible]
(Oberregierungsrat)

[ink note:]
To the Commissar General
[Initials illegible]

Command of Economic Affairs [Wirtschaftskommando] for the Territory of the former Latvia Department of Work

Riga, 21 July 1941

Subject: Work commitment of Jews.

File note

According to the Group Agriculture there is a considerable shortage of workers for farming in Latvia, which endangers especially the beet harvest. According to my findings and also those of the economy office North (Wi.-In. Nord) no prisoners of war are at present available for farming. It should be examined, therefore, to which extent and under which conditions other possibilities of commitment are available.

To clarify the possibility of committing Jews, a conference took place today between the economy office North and the chief war administration advisor (O.K.V.R.) Ellroth, from the department of work. Together with Mr. Ellroth we went to the SS and conferred with the leader of the SD, Sturmbannfuehrer Batz, as well as his deputy, Hauptsturmfuehrer Kirsten. Our proposal to earmark the Jews, to put them together in a ghetto, then to establish a council for Jews, and to effect with it the extensive commitment of Jews for work, was favorably accepted. It was also agreed upon that the commitment of Jews for work should be effected only through the special offices for commitment to be created by the employment office resp. offices, in order to make sure of leadership according to the necessities for war and state policies. The SS reserves only the right of the decision of political problems and the execution of political tasks. The ear-marking of the Jews and their collection in a ghetto is being done. It was furthermore announced that conferences had already taken place between the SS-SD on the one hand and the military administration headquarters (Feldkommandatur) on the other hand, with the result that a registration of the Jews at the police precincts, a daily report of the Jews there, and the establishment of a special office should be instituted for the execution of the commitment of Jews for work through the military administration headquarters.

After that a conference with the war administration council [Kriegsverwaltungsrat] Nachtigall took also place at the military administration headquarters, which had the same result. The military administration headquarters (Fk.) agrees also that the commitment of Jews for work is done by the employment office after the registration of the Jews. While registering, a special index card can be put aside for this commitment of work.

The discussions at the Fk. resulted furthermore in the issuing by the commander of the rear army district of a decree on ceiling prices and wages, already last Wednesday, because it is his opinion that he alone can issue official decrees with effective penalties. Furthermore, the locally customary prices and wages are already established.

[signature illegible]
O.K.V.R.

Distribution:
Wi.-In. Nord, Dept. for work Commandant
SS.-SD.
Fk.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 614-PS

"DIE NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHE REVOLUTION 1933", compiled by Dr. Axel Friedrichs (Berlin 1935, pages 151-3), [which is Volume I of the documentary collection entitled "DOKUMENTE DER DEUTSCHEN POLITIK", published by the Director of the Hochschule fuer Politik.]

Proclamation of the Action Committee for the Protection of the German Labor 2 May 1933

German workers and employees! Working people in the town and country! The bells have tolled to honor work. The entire German people have sung the high psalm about the working man with a strength and enthusiasm which never before existed and thus has honored itself and the creative spirit. The wheels stopped, the anvil did not more resound, the miner came out of his mine: everywhere a holiday.

What trade unions of all shades, red and black, Christian and "free", have not even come close to accomplishing, what has been only a shadow even in the best years of Marxism, a puny miserable copy compared to the gigantic thing of yesterday, NATIONAL SOCIALISM achieves in its first effort.

It puts the worker and the peasant, the artisan and the employee, briefly all working people, into the center of the State and renders the grabbing and despotic ones harmless. Who was that servant of capitalism, who was the reactionary who intended to oppress you and bereave you of all rights? Those red criminals who have abused you, well meaning, honest and decent German workers for decades, in order to deprive you and thus the entire people of its rights and heritage, or we, who amidst unutterable sacrifices and suffering, fought against these insane and distorted ideas of devilish Jews and the associates of the Jews? Already three months of National Socialistic government prove to you: Adolf Hitler is your friend! Adolf Hitler struggles for your liberty! Adolf Hitter gives you bread!

Today we are entering into the second chapter of the National Socialistic Revolution. You may say, what else do you want, you have the absolute power. True, we have the power, but we do not have the whole people, we do not have you workers a hundred percent, and it is you whom we want; we will not let you be until you stand with us in complete, genuine acknowledgment. You shall also be freed of the last Marxian manacles, so that you may find your way to your people.

For we know that without the German worker there is no German nation! And before everything else we must protect you, so that your enemy Marxism and its satellites cannot attack you from the back again.

Even though the Marxist Party such as the K.P.D. has been completely destroyed, or find themselves in complete dissolution as the S.P.D., even if the party leaders have fled in miserable cowardice or have deserted everything and everyone; and have forsaken you, workers, cowardly and miserably as never before, we know that it is all pretense. Marxism pretends to be dead in order to resurrect itself anew with favorable opportunity and again to plunge the Judas dagger into your back. Just as in 1914! Even at that time it sponsored the war debts and spread itself internationally in order to betray you to the imperialism of our enemies in 1918, and to sell you thereby to world capital.

The sly fox doesn't deceive us. Rather we will give him one last fatal shot so that we shall never again suffer with his resurrection. The Leiperts and Grossmaenner may pretend ever so much fidelity to Hitler, but it is better that they should be in protective custody. Therefore we shall strike the main weapon out of the hands of the Marxist group and thereby take from it its last possibility of renewed strengthening. The devilish teaching of the Jew Mardochai shall be destroyed wretchedly on the battlefield of the National Socialistic Revolution.

It is not as if we wanted to disrupt and destroy the unions. On the contrary, we have never disturbed anything which has, in any way, value for our people and we shall never do so in the future; that is a National Socialistic rule. This certainly goes for the unions which serve with hard work and were built up by the pennies taken from the mouths of the worker. No workers—your institutions are sacred and unimpeachable to us National Socialists. I myself am a poor peasant's son and understand poverty. I myself was 7 years in one of the biggest industries of Germany and I know the exploitation of anonymous capital, and I know, above everything else, of its stingy commercial methods, for, on account of my opinion I was fired from my occupation in 1928.

Workers, I swear to you we will not only keep everything which exists, we will build up the protection and rights of the worker even further, so that he can enter into the new National Socialistic State as a completely worthwhile and respected member of the nation.

Workers and peasants on a broad front together with the free occupations and skilled labor,—thus we shall build a new Reich of well being, honor and freedom. Forward with Hitler for Germany.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 615-PS

The Bishop of Limburg Limburg/Lahn, Aug 13, 1941
To the Reich Minister of Justice Berlin

[Various stamps and pencilled remarks appear on original]

Regarding the report submitted on July 16 (Sub IV, pp 6-7) by the Chairman of the Fulda Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Dr. Bertram, I consider it my duty to present the following as a concrete illustration of destruction of so-called "useless life."

About 8 kilometers from Limburg, in the little town of Hadamar, on a hill overlooking the town, there is an institution which had formerly served various purposes and of late had been used as a nursing home; this institution was renovated and furnished as a place in which, by consensus of opinion, the above mentioned euthanasia has been systematically practiced for months—approximately since February 1941. The fact has become known beyond the administrative district of Wiesbaden, because death certificates from a Registry Hadamar-Moenchberg are sent to the home communities. (Moenchberg is the name of this institution because it was a Franciscan monastery prior to its secularization in 1803.)

Several times a week buses arrive in Hadamar with a considerable number of such victims. School children of the vicinity know this vehicle and say: "There comes the murder-box again." After the arrival of the vehicle, the citizens of Hadamar watch the smoke rise out of the chimney and are tortured with the ever-present thought of the miserable victims, especially when repulsive odors annoy them, depending on the direction of the wind.

The effect of the principles at work here are: Children call each other names and say, "You're crazy; you'll be sent to the baking oven in Hadamar." Those who do not want to marry, or find no opportunity, say, "Marry, never! Bring children into the world so they can be put into the bottling machine!" You hear old folks say, "Don't send me to a state hospital! After the feeble-minded have been finished off, the next useless eaters whose turn will come are the old people."

All God-fearing men consider this destruction of helpless beings as crass injustice. And if anybody says that Germany cannot win the war, if there is yet a just God, these expressions are not the result of a lack of love of fatherland but of a deep concern for our people. The population cannot grasp that systematic actions are carried out which in accordance with Par. 211 of the German criminal code are punishable with death! High authority as a moral concept has suffered a severe shock as a result of these happenings. The official notice that N.N. had died of a contagious disease and that for that reason his body has to be burned, no longer finds credence, and such official notices which are no longer believed have further undermined the ethical value of the concept of authority.

Officials of the Secret State Police, it is said, are trying to suppress discussion of the Hadamar occurrences by means of severe threats. In the interest of public peace, this may be well intended. But the knowledge and the conviction and the indignation of the population cannot be changed by it; the conviction will be increased with the bitter realization that discussion is prohibited with threats but that the actions themselves are not prosecuted under penal law.

Facta loquuntur.

I beg you most humbly, Herr Reich Minister, in the sense of the report of the Episcopate of July 16 of this year, to prevent further transgressions of the Fifth Commandment of God.

[Signed] Dr. Hilfrich

I am submitting copies of this letter to the Reich Minister of the Interior and the Reich Minister for Church Affairs.

[initialled by the above]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 621-PS

The Reichsminister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery

Berlin, W.8, 2 October 1940
Voss Street 6

SECRET REICH MATTER

Rk. 665 B gRs
To the Reichsminister of Justice, Dr. Guertner

Dear Dr. Guertner:

I herewith acknowledge your letters of 26 August and 25 September forwarding to me further material about the death of inmates of nursing homes. I forwarded the enclosed reports of the Chief Prosecutors to Stuttgart and Naumburg to the Reichsminister of the Interior—Reichs Health Leader—for further action.

Heil Hitler!
Sincerely yours
[signed] Dr. Lammers

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 630-PS

[On letterhead A. Hitler]
Berlin 1 Sept 1939
Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt, M.D.
are charged with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death.

signed: A. HITLER
[Handwritten note]
Given to me by Bouhler on 27 August 1940
signed: Dr. Guertner
III a 3/41 g Rs /

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 638-PS

Copy

M 5/42 SECRET

From the Reich Marshall's Plans of 24.9.42.

I. The Reich Marshall is looking for daring fellows, who will be employed in the East as Sonderkommandos [Special Purpose] and who will be able to carry out the task of creating confusion behind the lines. They are to be formed into bands under leadership and with interpreters allotted to them. For this purpose, the Reich Marshall is considering convicts who are first offenders, who have committed not particularly heinous offenses, for which there is human understanding.

The Reich Marshall first of all mentioned persons convicted of poaching. He knew, of course, that the Reichsfuehrer SS had picked out the so-called poachers and they were already in his hands. He requests, however, that the question be reexamined. The only suitable men are those with a passion for hunting, who have poached for love of the trophy, not men who have laid snares and traps. The Reich Marshall also mentioned fanatical members of smuggling gangs, who take part in gun-battles on the frontiers and whose passion it is to outwit the customs at the risk of their own lives, but not men who attempt to bring articles over the frontier in an express train or by similar means.

The Reich Marshall leaves it to us to consider whether still other categories of convicts can be assigned to these bands or pursuit commandos.

In the regions assigned for their operations, these bands, whose first task should be to destroy the communications of the partisan groups, could murder, burn and ravish; in Germany they would once again come under strict supervision. * * *

(signed) Dr. Joel, 24.9.42

Berlin, 6 October 1942

Staff of MD IV, V

The attached extract from the minutes of Cabinet Councillor Dr. Joel are submitted for the preparation of the report on Friday 9.10.

Copy to State Secretary Dr. Rothenberger for his attention.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 641-PS

File No. 927/33 Munich, 1 June 1933
District Attorney at the District Court Munich II
(Tel: Local 5791, Long Distance 57801)

to the

Public Prosecutor "Generalstaatsanwalt"

at the

State Supreme Court MUNICH

Subject: Death of the prisoner in protective custody Dr. Alfred Strauss in the concentration camp Dachau

N-12432 in one copy submitted to the State Ministry of Justice Munich, 2 June 1933

The Public Prosecutor at the State Supreme Court

On May 24, 1933 the 30 year old, single attorney at law Dr. Alfred Strauss from Munich who was in the concentration camp Dachau as a prisoner under protective custody was killed by 2 pistol shots by SS man Johann Kantschuster who escorted him on a walk prescribed to him by the camp doctor, outside of the fenced part of the camp.

Kantschuster gives the following report: He himself had to urinate; Strauss proceeded on his way. Suddenly Strauss broke away towards the shrub located at a distance of about 6 m from the line. When he noticed it, he fired 2 shots at the fugitive from a distance of about 8 m, whereupon Strauss collapsed dead.

On the same day, May 24, 1933, a judicial inspection of the locality took place. The corpse of Strauss was lying at the edge of the wood. Leather slippers were on his feet. He wore a sock on one foot, while the other foot was bare, obviously because of an injury to this foot. Subsequently an autopsy was performed. Two bullets had entered the back of the head. Besides the body showed several black and blue spots and also open wounds. Coroner's inquest was ordered; it took place on 26 May 1933. According to the expert's opinion death was caused by cerebral paralysis due to one bullet penetrating and one bullet lodging in the right portion of the cerebrum. Older scars were found at the right hip and seat, as well as hemorrhages of the left abdominal wall. The direction of the firing channels further revealed that the bullets had been fired from low behind and upwards to the right. The distance from which they were fired could not be established by the autopsy; for this purpose chemical and microscopical examinations are necessary.

I have charged Kantschuster today with murder and have made application for opening and execution of the judicial preliminary investigation as well as for a warrant of arrest against him.

The District Court Public Prosecutor Attorney
WINTERSBERGER

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 642-PS

File No: G 866/33 Munich, 1 June 1933
State Prosecution at the
State Court [Landgericht] Munich
Local Telephone: 5791 Long Distance: 57801.

To the Prosecutor General at The Supreme State Court [Oberlandesgericht] Munich.

Subject: Decease of the arrestee in protective custody, Leonhard Hausmann in the Dachau concentration camp.

No. 12431 with one copy submitted to the State Minister for Justice, Munich, 2 June 1933

The Prosecutor General at the Supreme State Court.

[signature illegible]

On 17 May 1933, Leonhard Hausmann from Augsburg, 31 years old, married, relief worker, who was kept in protective custody in the Dachau concentration camp, was shot by SS staff sergeant Karl Ehmann. According to the account of the latter, Hausmann was to dig out young fir trees in the woods in the vicinity of the camp and pile them up on a certain spot. He was supervised by Ehmann. Suddenly the latter did not see him anymore. Therefore Ehmann looked after the prisoners and saw him running away in a stooped position, Ehmann ran after him, called "Halt" several times, once also "Stop", but in vain. Whereupon Ehmann raised his pistol at the prisoner and fired without aiming; Hausmann dropped dead. Ehmann asserts that he fired from a distance of 10 to 12 meters.

The corpse was inspected already on 17 May 33 with the assistance of the state court physician. It was found that death was due to a shot through the left side of the chest. According to the autopsy protocol, the shot was fired from a distance less than 1 meter. Meanwhile the legal-medical institute ascertained that the distance was less than 30 cm.

Today I have preferred public charges against Ehmann and have requested to begin and to carry out a preliminary court investigation and to issue an arrest warrant against him for danger of escape and of prejudicing the course of justice.

I shall report about the course of the process.

The Supreme State Prosecutor
[signed] Wintersberger

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 644-PS

File No. G 851/33 Munich, 22 May 1933
(Postoffice 35)
Prosecution at the State Court Munich II
(Telephone: Local 5791
long distance 57801)

To the Prosecutor General of the State Court
[Oberlandesgericht]

Munich,

Subject: Decease of the arrestee in protective custody Louis Schloss in the Dachau concentration camp.

Annexes:

1 copy of an autopsy protocol,
3 photos.
W.V. 28923/33

In the afternoon of 16 May 1933 the police station Dachau informed the state prosecution that an inmate of the concentration camp Dachau, the merchant Louis Schloss, from Nurnberg, widowed, born on 21 June 1880, has hanged himself in solitary confinement. At the request of the state prosecution, on the same day the legal inspection was performed with the assistance of the state court physician with the state court Munich II. As it was proven that the corpse exhibited numerous whip marks and as the cause of death appeared doubtful, an autopsy was carried out on 17 May 33. According to a preliminary certificate of the participating physicians, the autopsy did not prove death by hanging. The extensive destruction of the adipose tissue found in the corpse was considered to be adequate to cause death through autointoxication and fat embolism. We refer to the attached copy of the autopsy protocol. 3 photographic pictures of the corpse were taken before autopsy, of which prints are enclosed.

The investigation has not yet been concluded.

No. 11374

Supreme State prosecution: 22 May 33
[Signed]: Wintersberger

Submitted with 1 annex and 3 photos
to the State Ministry for Justice
Munich, 22 May 1933

The Prosecutor General of the Supreme State Court

File No. G 851, 924 ff/33 Munich, 1 June 1933
(Post office 35)
Prosecution at the State Court Munich II
(Telephone: Local 5791
Long distance: 57801)

To the prosecutor general
with the Supreme State Court
Munich.

No. 12430 with 1 extra copy.

[Stamp]
Submitted to the State Ministry for Justice
Munich, 2 June 1933
The prosecutor general with the Supreme State Court

Subject: Decease of the arrestee in protective custody Louis Schloss in the Dachau concentration camp.

To my report of 22 May 1933.

In the above case I have today publicly indicted unknown culprits for injuries leading to death and the commandant of the camp, Waeckerle, the camp physician, Dr. Neurnbergk, as well as the first secretary of the chancellery, Mutzbauer, as accessories after the facts, and I requested that a preliminary court investigation should be started and carried out, furthermore that a warrant of arrest should be issued against above accused for danger of prejudicing the course of justice.

I shall report about the progress of the proceedings.

The State prosecutor
[Signed]: Wintersberger

Copy

Dachau, 17 May 1933

Protocol

Subject: Investigation and autopsy of Schloss, Louis, merchant from Nurnberg, deceased here by hanging.

Present: Court Counsellor [Amtsgerichtsrat] Dr. Guntz,
State court physician [Landgerichtsarzt] Dr. Flamm,
Instructor [Privatdozent] Dr. Mueller,
Secretary of Justice Bruecklmeier.

Above court committee went today at 3 P.M. to the autopsy room in the cemetery of the village of Dachau. There was the corpse of the widowed merchant Louis Schloss, who was found hanged in the concentration camp Dachau, Prittlbach community, on 16 May 1933 and whose corpse is known to the state court physician [Landgerichtsarzt] Dr. Flamm from the cadaver inspection which has taken place on 16 May 1933 in the concentration camp.

The participating police sergeant Frey of the police station Pasing took three photographs of the deceased and these will be explained as part of this copy. The photographs will be sent directly from the photographic office Pasing to the state prosecutor Munich II.

Preliminary opinion

I. The death through hanging could not be proven by autopsy.

II. Extensive blood suffusions and whipmarks were found, particularly on the back, on the buttocks and on both arms, as well as on both legs, abdomen and thorax to a minor extent. In the region of the buttocks and the shoulders extensive destruction of adipose tissue was found together with the blood suffusions. This is adequate to explain death through autointoxication and fat embolism.

III. The proof has to be brought forth by microscopic examination of the parts of organs.

IV. Following were preserved: the organs of the neck and thorax, parts of the brain, the spleen, liver and kidneys, as well as the strangulation mark on the neck and blood for bacteriological examination.

Finished at 18.10 hours.
Signed Dr. Flamm Signed: Dr. P. Mueller.
The Court Commission of the Court Dachau
Signed: Dr. Guntz, Court Counsellor
Signed: Bruecklmeier, Secretary of Justice.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 645-PS

Reference Nr. G 928 ff/33 Munich, June 1, 1933
Office of the State Attorney of the Superior Court Munich II
(tel. local 5791
long distance 57801).
To: Attorney General of the Main Superior Court Munich.

SUBJECT: Death of prisoner Sebastian Nefzger in the Concentration Camp Dachau.

[written in ink]

No. 12434 with 1 part and 6 photos
Presented to the State Ministry of Justice Munich, }
June 2, 1933 } [Stamps]
The Attorney General of the Main Superior Court }
Sotier [? signature]

On May 27, 1933, the following report was received by the lower court Dachau:

"Concentration Camp Dachau, Political Division, May 27, 1933 to the Lower Court Dachau. An inquest on the dead body of the prisoner Nefzger, Sebastian, merchant in Munich, Schommerstrasse 17/0, born: 1/10/1900 in Munich, religion Catholic, marital status: married—showed that death through the action of third persons must be excluded. Death was indubitably caused by excessive bleeding resulting from an opened artery of the left hand. Signed Dr. Nuernbergk, Camp Physician."

Neither the lower court Dachau nor the state attorney Munich II had up to that time been informed of Nefzger's death reported in the letter in spite of the fact that Nefzger had already died in the night of the 25 to the 26th of May 1933. The lower court Dachau informed the state attorney, Munich II of this letter. A coroner's inquest was ordered, which took place as late as May 27, 1933. Since the physician appointed by the superior court doubted that death had occurred due to excessive bleeding and identified marks of strings on the victim's neck, a judicial autopsy was arranged by the State Attorney on May 29, 1933. The resulting opinion of the expert is so far: I. the autopsy discloses that excessive bleeding due to a cut on the left arm must be excluded as a cause of death; II. the cut on the left wrist reveals three incisions of the bone. Trial cuts are lacking. These findings are contrary to the assumption that the wound has been self-inflicted; III. It must be assumed that the cause of death was suffocation. As a cause for suffocation, strangulation and throttling must be considered. The characteristics of the marks left by the strings do not agree with those otherwise observed in cases of death caused by hanging.

6 photos were made of the corpse before the autopsy; one print is enclosed of each.

I have issued a public indictment, on the basis of murder, of the unknown perpetrators, and of camp commander Waeckerly, camp physician Dr. Nuernbergk, and chief secretary of the office Mutzbauer for having aided in the crime; and I have ordered the opening and execution of preliminary court proceedings, as well as the issuance of an arrest warrant for the said accused.

I shall make reports about the developments of the process.

The Chief State Attorney
Wintersberger

Deaths of the prisoners in protective custody:

Schloss, Louis, merchant from Nurnberg (found hung on 5/16/1933).

Hausmann, Leonhard, unskilled worker from Augsburg, (shot by Scharfuehrer Karl Ehmann on 5/17/33).

Dr. Strauss, Alfred, lawyer from Munich, (shot on 5/24/33).

Kantschuster, Johann, SS man for murder.

Nefzger, Sebastian, merchant from Munich, (died 5/25 to 5/26/33).

Indictment of unknown perpetrators for murder and of Waeckerle, camp commander; Dr. Nuernbergk, camp physician; Mutzbauer, chief secretary of the office, for aiding in the crime.

Lehrburger, Karl, merchant from Nurnberg, (shot on 5/25/33) by SS man Hans Steinbrenner.

Z.d.A.: "Important Occurrences in the Concentration Camp Dachau."

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 647-PS

(100 [crossed out, on top of it] "ten" [in pencil] photo copies copy [in ink])

Control number
Enclosure to number 1164/38 top secret WFA/L II

Draft of June 3rd with changes Reichsfuehrer SS of June 10, 1938 and additions concerning signal corps unit.

[in ink] 1st Copy 3 copies 1st copy

TOP SECRET

The Fuehrer and Reich's Chancellor. Berlin, 17 August 1938

[in ink]

10

[Signature illegible]

By means of the nomination of the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police in the ministry of the interior on June 17th 1936 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, page 487), I have created the basis for the unification and reorganization of the German police.

With this step, the Schutzstaffeln of the NSDAP which were under the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police even up to now, have entered into close connection with the duties of the German police.

In order to regulate these tasks and in order to delineate the common tasks of the SS and of the Wehrmacht, I hereby order the following inclusively and basically:

[the above written in pencil]

I. General

1. Being a political organization of the NSDAP, the SS as such does not need any military set-up and training for its political obligations. It carries no weapons.

2. For special inner-political tasks for the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police, tasks which I might have to assign to him from time to time, or for the mobile use within the wartime army (SS-Verfuegungstruppe). The following SS units which either already exist, or will be set up in case of mobilization, are exempted from the regulations of number 1:

The SS-Verfuegungstruppe.
The SS-Junkerschulen.
The SS-Totenkopfverbaende.
The SS-reinforcement Totenkopfverbaende (police reinforcement).

In peacetime they are under the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police, who, with the exception mentioned in paragraph II, alone has the responsibility for the organization, training, arming, and full use in regard to inner-political tasks given him from me.

In peacetime, no organizational connection with the Wehrmacht exists in this regard. (See orders in II and III for the case of mobilization.)

Arms, ammunition, tools, equipment, and military handbooks for the armed SS units will be procured through the Wehrmacht, upon payment.

II. The armed units of the SS

A. The SS-Verfuegungstruppe

1. The SS Verfuegungstruppe is neither a part of the Wehrmacht nor a part of the police. It is a standing armed unit, exclusively at my disposal. As such, and as a unit of the NSDAP its members are to be selected by the Reichsfuehrer SS according to the ideological and political standards which I have ordered for the NSDAP and for the Schutzstaffeln. Its members are to be trained and its ranks filled with volunteers from those who are subject to serve in the army who have finished their duties in the obligatory labor service. The service period for volunteers is 4 years. It may be prolonged for SS-Unterfuehrer. Special regulations are in force for SS leaders. The regular compulsory military service (par. 8 of the law relating to military service) is fulfilled by service of the same amount of time in the SS Verfuegungstruppe.

The SS Verfuegungstruppe receives its financial resources through the Ministry of the Interior. Its budget requires a check-up by the high command of the Wehrmacht.

2. The SS Verfuegungstruppe falls into the following parts:

1 headquarters staff.
(Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler) motorized [in ink].
3 regiments
2 motorcycle battalions under a Standarte Staff.
1 engineer battalion motorized [in ink].
1 signal battalion motorized [in ink].
1 medical unit.

The complete strength, the organization, the arming, and the equipment of the SS Verfuegungstruppe depend on the task allocated in peace time and in case of mobilization.

In case of mobilization, the Standarten and independent Sturmbanne are organized like the corresponding units of an infantry division respectively of a motorized infantry division of the army [illegible remark in ink].

The engineer unit is fully motorized.

The signal unit (motorized) is organized like an infantry division signal unit (motorized).

The peacetime strength and equipment of the army are the pattern for the strength and equipment of the staffs and units of the SS Verfuegungstruppe. Personnel and material necessary above the peacetime strength and the table of equipment will be determined in cooperation with the high command of the Wehrmacht and the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police.

For use in the interior, the Standarten are reinforced by the following special formation:

(Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler)

reinforced by:

1 armored reconnaissance platoon.
[Panzerspaehzug; the word "zug" is added in ink].
1 motorcycle platoon.
1 motorized engineer platoon.

the other Standarten

by:
each
1 armored reconnaissance platoon.
1 light infantry motorcycle platoon.
and by additional telephone and radio units for the signal platoons.

the non-motorized units

by:
1 trucking platoon each.

The signal unit (motorized) with additional means of communication in order to safeguard the communication system of the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police. The necessary personnel and material will be determined in cooperation with the high command of the Wehrmacht and the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police.

The final aim is the complete mobilization of all Standarten and independent units; in the case of mobilization, the skeleton corps of the reinforcement units of the SS Totenkopfverbaende, to whom in peacetime the short training of replacements for the SS Totenkopfverbaende was entrusted, are to be devoted to the task of insuring replacements for the SS Verfuegungstruppe (see C 2).

The supreme commander of the army prepares the SS Verfuegungstruppe for their use within the wartime army. He issues the necessary orders, regulates their working with reserve army authorities, supports the training and makes inspections. He is authorized to transfer these powers to lower echelon offices and to report to me about the state of combat training, after prior consultation with the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police.

A timely exchange of officers, respectively leaders between the army and the SS Verfuegungstruppe is to be carried out in mutual agreement as soon as the officer situation permits it.

Any changes in the organization, the strength and the arming of the SS Verfuegungstruppe have to be approved by me.

3. Orders for the case of mobilization.

A. The employment of the SS Verfuegungstruppe in case of mobilization is a double one:

1. By the supreme commander of the army within the wartime army. In that case, it comes completely under military laws and regulation, but remains a unit of the NSDAP politically.

2. In case of necessity in the interior according to my orders. In that case, it is under the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police.

In case of mobilization, I myself will make the decision about the time, strength and manner of the incorporation of the SS Verfuegungstruppe into the wartime army; these things will depend on the inner political situation at that time.

During the war, the skeleton corps of the reinforcement units of the SS Totenkopfverbaende, to whom in peacetime the short training of replacements for the SS Totenkopfverbaende was entrusted, are to be devoted to the task of insuring a reserve which should meet the ideologic and political spirit of the Verfuegungstruppe.

In case of mobilization, all members of the SS who did their compulsory military duty in the SS Verfuegungstruppe are generally to be used to reinforce the SS Verfuegungstruppe. Older classes of the SS Verfuengungstruppe also may be used to fill up the ranks of the reinforcement of the SS Totenkopfverbaende police reinforcement which will be set-up in case of mobilization in so far as they are not needed as replacements for the SS Verfuengungstruppe.

In case of mobilization, the replacements for the SS Verfuegungstruppe also may be used to fill up the ranks of young, untrained draftees.

B. The SS Junker Schools.

1. The SS Junker schools including the SS medical Junker school educate the officer replacements for the armed parts of the SS and for the German police.

2. The Junkers who have served at least one year of front line duty in the SS Verfuegungstruppe and have completed the SS Junker schools and subsequently the non-commissioned officer school successfully, and who have accordingly served more than two years under arms (see par. 8 of the military law), have fulfilled their compulsory military duty.

Leaders and leader aspirants who have successfully finished the non-commissioned officer school in service that is incorporated into the Wehrmacht, will be given a rank which corresponds to their rank, in the armed parts of the SS, or in the police.

3. The budgets of the SS Verfuegungstruppe, the SS Totenkopfverbaende, and the German police will bear the partial costs of the schools for that number of Junkers which corresponds to their calculated need for leaders.

4. These orders about the SS Junker schools are in force retroactive to March 15, 1935.

C. The SS Totenkopfverbaende.

1. The SS Totenkopfverbaende are neither a part of the army nor of the police. They are a standing armed unit of the SS to clear up special tasks of police nature. I reserve the right to assign duties from time to time.

As such, as a unit of the NSDAP, they are to be selected and trained according to the ideological and political directives which I have issued for the NSDAP and for the Schutzstaffeln; they are to be replaced by the use of volunteers capable of serving the SS, who as a rule have served their compulsory military duty in the army. The army must give its agreement for special cases of exception. These units are under the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police who is responsible to me for their organization, training, arming, and full readiness for action.

The Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police is entitled to recruit suitable volunteers of the army before their discharge in cooperation with the supreme command of the army.

The service period for non-commissioned officers and men is 12 years. Service time in the army is to be counted. The necessary question of the pension will be taken up at a later date.

The SS Totenkopfverbaende receive their financial means through the ministry of the Interior.

Starting April 1st, 1938, the SS Totenkopfverbaende are organized as follows:

Directorate staff with signal unit,

4 Standarten with 3 Sturmbanne each with 3 infantry companies (each 148 men strong).

1 machine gun company (150 men strong).

1 medical unit.

1 medical group necessary for the medical care of those camp prisoners who work outside.

Besides, each Standarte:

1 motorcycle group (crossed out).

1 group with weapons suited for street fights to be set up in 1939 (crossed out).

1 trucking unit.

1 Signal platoon.

Besides 1 signal platoon for each Sturmbann to be set up in 1939 (crossed out).

2. Replacement units for the short time training for the reinforcement of the SS Totenkopfverbaende (police reinforcement). Strength corresponding to the reinforcement battalion of the army. All units of the SS Totenkopferbaende are to be motorized temporarily with 3-ton Opel-Blitz cars.

3. The strength and organization of the units will be determined by the extent of their special tasks of police nature (see fig. 1) and will be determined by me according to requirements upon suggestions of the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police.

4. The armament and equipment of the SS Totenkopfverbaende depends on their special tasks (see fig. 1); both are to be suggested to me by the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police, after he has discussed them with the supreme command of the army.

5. Regulations for the case of the mobilization.

The SS Totenkopfverbaende form the skeleton corps for the reinforcement of the SS Totenkopfverbaende (police reinforcement) and will be replaced in the guarding of the concentration camps by members of the General SS who are over 45 years of age and had military training.

The skeleton corps which, up to now, were units of the two replacement units for the short time training of the reinforcement of the SS Totenkopfverbaende will be transferred to the SS Verfuegungstruppe as skeleton crews of the replacement units for that unit.

D. Reinforcement of the SS Totenkopfverbaende (police reinforcement).

1. The reinforcement of the SS Totenkopfverbaende is a police unit which will be set up and armed automatically in the case of mobilization, in an emergency, at my command.

2. The Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police will decide its strength within the total strength of all police units which I shall determine for the territory of the Reich.

3. The organization, distribution of units, armament, and training of the reinforcement of the SS Totenkopfverbaende depend entirely on the police tasks they will have to handle.

The responsibility for the full readiness for action in that respect rests with the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police who will have to make suitable suggestions to me concerning armament and equipment, after prior consultation with the supreme command of the army.

4. The training of the reinforcements of the SS Totenkopfverbaende who are provided for the use of war and are between 25 and 35 years of age will be undertaken in peacetime by the replacement units of the SS Totenkopfverbaende (compare with C 2).

5. The ministry of the interior will request the financial resources for the training of the reinforcement of the SS Totenkopfverbaende from the supreme command of the army, as R.V. special resources.

III. The General SS (Allgemeine SS)

All other members, not mentioned in I or II of the general SS (Allgemeine SS) which is unarmed, are at the disposal of the army in case of war (according to the regulations of the military law).

However, considering the special inner-political tasks which the SS has to solve in close connection with the German police in case of mobilization, I hereby order the following:

1. The staff of the Reichsfuehrer SS, the staffs of the three main offices (SS, Sd, and RuS main officer, the SS Oberabschnittsstaebe and SS Abschnittstaebe) remain in case of war for tasks of police nature. The Reichsfuehrer SS regulates their strength which will be cut down to a minimum size for that purpose, SS members provided for those staffs are to be deferred from service in the army in case of war.

2. All clothing and equipment, motor cars, arms, ammunition and other equipment owned by the SS are regulated by the legal orders in case of mobilization; this, provided they are not necessary for the setting up of the armed SS units and staffs mentioned under I and II.

IV. Decrees of execution

The supreme command of the army issues the decrees of execution necessary to paragraph II in all questions concerning the army and the case of mobilization in cooperation with the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police.

The Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police issues the decrees of execution concerning the police and inner political measures in cooperation with the supreme command of the army.

/s/ Hitler

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 651-PS

Reich Minister of Justice

Berlin W 8, Wilhelmstrasse 65 31 January 1938

Telephone: 110044

4611—I a 7 194/38
To the Presidents of the High Courts.

Subject: Representation by Counsel of Inmates of Concentration Camps.

VERY CONFIDENTIAL

In preparing a decision of Reich Fuehrer SS and Chief of German Police whether individual attorneys can be allowed in general to take over the representation of inmates in Concentration Camps, I ask you to scrutinize at once if and what attorneys in your district could be considered for this purpose. Representation of inmates of Concentration Camps requires a special measure of suitability and dependability. Severe scrutiny is to be exercised in making the selection. Membership in the NSDAP, in so far as it was not acquired until after January 30, 1933, will not of itself warrant the necessary dependability as a rule; on the other hand this prerequisite is not to be denied because the attorney is not a member of the Party. Consideration can only be given attorneys whose attitude leaves no doubt that their views coincide wholly with the political aspirations of the State and the ideology aims of the movement. Moreover, it can be assumed that attorneys whose field of activity does not extend to taking over the defense in criminal affairs, will as a rule not accept representation of inmates of Concentration Camps.

Attorneys suitable for representation of inmates of Concentration Camps who should, if possible, reside in different localities of your district, should be listed in sufficient number according to Offices of the State Police. With reference to the necessity of very confidential treatment, I beg therefore to consult as an expert the president of the Chamber of Counsel about their qualifications. A consultation of offices not within the Administration of Justice is to be avoided. I ask that two copies of the list be presented after receiving the advice of the President of the Chamber of Counsel. With regard to the attorneys names, proof of personal and professional qualification is to be submitted. Besides stating the attorney's characteristic and political attitude and especially his manner of practicing his profession as defense counsel in penal matters, it is also to be investigated, if possible, if reason exists to assume that the attorney has the confidence of the Office of State Police.

An eventual notice of non-compliance is required.

Deputy,
sig. Schlegelberger
[stamped:]
Reich Ministry of Justice
Office of the Ministry
Certified
sig. Schlichting
Secretary of the Office of the Ministry

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 654-PS

U I b

Discussion with Reich Fuehrer of SS Himmler on 18.9.42 in his Field Headquarters in the presence of State Secretary Dr. Rothenberger, SS Gruppenfuehrer Streckenbach and SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Bender.

1. Correction [2 illegible pencilled words] by special treatment at the hands of the police in cases where judicial sentences are not severe enough. On the suggestion of Reichsleiter Bormann, the following agreement was reached between the Reich Fuehrer of SS and myself:

a. In principle the Fuehrer's time is no longer to be burdened with these matters.

b. The Reich Minister for Justice will decide whether and when special treatment at the hands of the police is to be applied.

c. The Reich Fuehrer of SS will send the reports, which he sent hitherto to Reichsleiter Bormann, to the Reich Minister for Justice.

d. If the views of the Reich Fuehrer of SS and those of the Reich Minister for Justice agree, the final decision on the case will rest with them.

e. If their views are not in agreement, the opinion of Reichsleiter Bormann will be brought to bear on the case, and he will possibly inform the Fuehrer.

f. In cases where the Fuehrer's decision on a mild sentence is sought through other channels (such as by a letter from a Gauleiter) Reichsleiter Bormann will forward the report to the Reich Minister for Justice. The case will then be decided as already described by the Reich Fuehrer of SS and the Reich Minister for Justice.

2. The delivery of anti-social elements from the execution of their sentence to the Reich Fuehrer of SS to be worked to death. Persons under protective arrest, Jews, Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians, Poles with more than 3-year sentences, Czechs and Germans with more than 8-year sentences, according to the decision of the Reich Minister for Justice. First of all the worst anti-social elements amongst those just mentioned are to be handed over. I shall inform the Fuehrer of this through Reichsleiter Bormann.

3. Administration of justice by the people. This is to be carried out step by step as soon as possible, first of all in the villages and the small towns of up to about 20,000 inhabitants. It is difficult to carry it out in large towns. I shall rouse the Party particularly to cooperate in this scheme by an article in the Hoheitstrager (NSDAP publication). It is evident that jurisdiction may not lie in the hands of the Party. [Marginal note in pencil: according to the permanency of the courts (?)]

4. Orders regarding the police and justice are, in future, to be tempered, for example, not prosecuting unmarried mothers if they attempt to procure abortion.

5. The Reich Fuehrer of SS is agreed that the cancellation of sentence, even for members of the police, will rest, as in Article 8 of the law relating to the cancellation of sentence, with the Reich Minister for Justice.

6. The Reich Fuehrer of SS has given full consent to the ruling I have planned on the corporal punishment ordered by the Fuehrer.

7. I shall refer to the Common Law relating to Aliens and will give notification of the claims of Justice, e.g. in the identification of young people as anti-social elements and their arrest. Also, it seems to me that the actual circumstances which serve to stamp a person as anti-social are not laid down in the law with sufficient clarity. The Reich Fuehrer of SS is waiting for our opinion, and until then will not carry out the text of the law.

8. The Reich Fuehrer of SS has agreed to a clause for the Juvenile Court Law, whereby the age of discretion can be reduced to 12 years and the reduced age of discretion can be extended to over 18 years. [Marginal note in pencil: "by which he has made clear that a reduction in the age limit of full age of discretion is meant."]

9. SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Bender, of the Staff of the Reich Fuehrer of SS, is appointed by the Reich Fuehrer of SS as liaison officer for matters which appear to necessitate direct liaison with the Reich Fuehrer of SS. He can be contacted any time by tele-printer in the Field Headquarters of the Reich Fuehrer of SS, and will come once every month to Berlin to report to me here. Hauptsturmfuehrer Wanniger is appointed as liaison officer for other matters, and he will be at Security Headquarters (Sicherheitsharuptamt).

10. The Reich Fuehrer of SS declared that, in the infliction of punishment, special establishments should be set up, on the principle that confirmed criminals should be confined separately and that those capable of improvement should be separated according to the nature of their crimes (e.g. impostors, thieves and those who have committed acts of violence). This was recognized as correct.

11. The Reich Fuehrer of SS demands that the penal register should be kept by the police. Arguments against this are to be examined (cancellation and tightening up of the Penal Register Bill and additions made to it). The question is to be further discussed with Gruppenfuehrer Streckenbach.

12. The Reich Fuehrer of SS pointed out as reliable SS—Obersturmfuehrer Reichsgerichtsrat Altstetter, at present on active service as a Major, and also Landgerichtspraesident Stepp; he designated as unreliable Generalstaatstanwalt Jung in Dresden.

13. Finally, the Reich Fuehrer of SS broached the subject of the Office of the Public Prosecutor and its transfer to the police. I rejected it flatly. There was no further discussion of this subject.

14. It is agreed that, in consideration of the intended aims of the Government for the clearing up of the Eastern problems, in future Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians are no longer to be judged by the ordinary courts, so far as punishable offenses are concerned, but are to be dealt with by the Reich Fuehrer of SS. This does not apply to civil lawsuits, nor to Poles whose names are announced or entered in the German Racial Lists.

Signed Th.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 656-PS

National Socialist German Workers' Party Party Chancellory

The Chief of the Party Chancellory

Fuehrer's Headquarters
SECRET

[Stamp]

Circular No. 12/43g.

SECRET

Subject: Law of Self-Defense against P.O.W.'s

I acknowledge the copy of the annexed order of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht.

(s) M. BORMANN

F.d.R.
Hilegardt
1 copy
Distrb. Reichsleiter,
Gauleiter,
Verbaendefuehrer.

index cards: Prisoners of War/Guard Personnel/Self-Defense/ Physical Punishment.

Copy

Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht Berlin 29.1.1943
Az 2f 24.74 AWA/Prisoners of War. General (IA)
No. 3868 142g

SECRET

Subject: Self Defense against Prisoners of War.
Reference: None.

The question of the treatment of Prisoners of War is continually being brought up and discussed by Wehrmacht and Party bureaus, namely that the possibilities of punishment provided in the agreement of 1929 (M. Dr.-38/2) are not sufficient. Primarily neither the military punishment law nor the discipline law, which has been eliminated for German military personnel, offers a punishment which can be used with satisfactory success in case of an insubordinate and provoking attitude of Prisoners of War. The following is hereby fundamentally affirmed:

1. The M.Dr. 38/2 (Agreement 1929) article 46, states that Prisoners of War cannot receive any other punishments than those meted out to German military personnel. That applies to all Prisoners of War with the exception of Soviet Prisoners of War. For Soviet Prisoners of War the order of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht 2 f 24.73 AWA/Prisoners of War, General (IA) No. 389/42g of the 24.3.1942 Article A, fourth paragraph is applicable.

2. Improper and provoking attitude of Prisoners of War toward German guard personnel as well as toward German contractors and workers forces and justifies this being enacted for the preservation of their own dignity and of national esteem. German law has an application for this; in the case of self-defense ST GB Art 53 is applicable. According to the existing law, self-defense occurs not only in the case of present actual attacks but also present attacks on one's honor, on one's property, etc. The law of self-defense concerns not only the party attacked, it applies also to the protection of a third party from attack. Third, in the sense of the N Art 53 a.a. G, are not only persons, but also the persons of the public and private law, as for instance the State, the municipality, society etc. The party attacked can use for protection any means that the situation requires and the use of which does not contradict healthy national interest [Gesunden Volksempfinden]. A subsequent punishment of a prisoner of war for an improper and provoking attitude of physical chastisement is not permissible since self-defense is no longer present.

3. In case of the diminishing of the effort to work only the guard and the assistant guard (for example among the farmers there is very often a personal union between assistant-guard and contractor) can interfere as the military superior of the Prisoners of War. In this he is not only authorized but also obliged by duty (see Order of the OKW A2 2f 2417a Chief of Prisoners of War/General (I)/Org (IIIb) No. 2916/42 of the 26.6.1942). Should the prisoners of war not fulfill his order, then he has in the case of the most pressing need and danger,—the right to force obedience with the weapon if he has no other means. He can use the weapon as much as is necessary to attain his goal. If the assistant guard is not armed, then, he is authorized in forcing obedience by other applicable means.

4. The military personnel, officials, and assisting guard personnel who are charged with the duty of guarding prisoners of war are to be instructed accordingly. It is to be made clear to them what means the law puts at their disposal, in order that they may be able to combat insubordinations, provocative attitudes and abatement of the will to work on the part of the prisoners of war, and what also the limits are to which they can go.

Distribution:
* * *
D.d.R.d.A.:
Weber
Chief of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht
/s/ Reinecke
F.d.R.
/s/ v. Graevenitz
Majorgeneral.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 661-PS

[Secret Thesis from the Academy of German Law on Resettlement, January 1940]

Resettlement, mixed settlement, emigration, national biological power [biologische Volkstumskraft]

Short consideration of the prerequisites for a political legal system of the peoples. [Volkspolitische Rechtsgestaltung]

1 a. Resettlement (pages 6-8).

For the carrying out of costly and long-term measures for the increase of agricultural production, the Governmental-General can at the most absorb 1 to 1.5 million resettlers, as it is already over-populated. * * * By further absorption of 1.6 million resettlers, the 1925 Reich census figure of 133 inhabitants per square kilometer would be reached, which practically because of already existing rural over-population and lack of industry would result in a double over-population.

This figure of 1.6 million will barely suffice to transfer from the Reich:

The Jews from the liberated East (over 600,000), parts of the remaining Jews, preferably the younger age groups from Germany proper, Austria, Sudetengau and the Protectorate (altogether over 1 million).

The Polish intelligentsia who have been politically active in the past, and potential political leaders.

The leading economic personalities, comprising owners of large estates, industrialists and businessmen, etc.

The peasant population, so far as it has to be removed in order to carry out by strips of German settlements the encirclement of Polish territories in the East.

6 to 7 million Poles (not including the majority of the Wasserpolen, Schlonsaken, Kaschuben) would therefore remain for an extended period of time in the liberated East, and it will be possible to accept only a small fraction of them into German folksdom. * * * A resettlement of many millions can only be undertaken after victory and only in connection with an overwhelming reorganization of the East, which would create space for the surplus Poles, be it in Siberia, or be it in the bordering territories, for example after the resettlement eastwards of the White Russians. A resettlement of several million Jews, perhaps in Madagascar, could also create space.

c. In regard to internal colonization of the East of the Reich, it might be expedient to envisage the carrying out of a planned encirclement of the districts with a Polish majority by wide strips of German settlements. Also, a concentration of the remaining Poles in order to create space can be considered.

d. In order to relieve the living space of the Poles in the Government-General as well as in the liberated East, one should remove cheap labor temporarily by the hundreds of thousands, employ them for a few years in the old Reich, and thereby hamper their native biological propagation. (Their assimilation into the old Reich must be prevented.)

If 1.5 million people are to be transferred in short order (in about 4 years, i.e., 1000 daily) from the East of the Reich and are to be absorbed by the Government-General, if among them there are barely 1 million Poles and the rest Jews, then 7 million Poles would remain in the Reich, including Poles in Germany proper and Austria, but not including prisoners of war, seasonal workers from the Government-General and for the time being also Kaschuben, and of course Masurians and other Slavic Germanic tribes. There would be 1 Pole for every 12 Germans in the Reich excluding the Government-General.

The figure of 7 million comprises for example the following peoples: Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians; it is double the number of Sudeten-Germans in former Czechoslovakia.

It is terrifyingly high and cannot be decreased considerably by emigration assimilation, or additional future transfer to the Government-General.

This mass of Poles is a great inconvenience, an obstacle to the Germanization of the country, and under certain circumstances a danger. It can be reduced by enlarging the Government-General.

In renouncing an area with a population of 1 million, it would be possible not only to get rid of this number of Poles but about 1.2 million, since the areas in question are sufficiently fertile to absorb 15 to 20% additional resettlers. For example, the territory of the former district of Lodz (19,000 square kilometers) had a population of 2.86 million (1938). One could take 150,000 Germans from their area and put over 3 million Poles into it. Or by giving up the Cracow Ural district (Olkusz) and the Zickenau district one could get rid of about 1.5 million Poles, including additional settlers from the Reich. The further deliberations presuppose that no areas of the Eastern districts (Ostgaue) will be renounced in favor of the Government-General. Therefore a major part of this Polish mass, which is much too large, could emigrate only to areas East of the Government-General. A prerequisite would be a thorough reorganization of the entire East and many of its numerous peoples, under the determining influence of the Reich (a memorandum is necessary). The total emigration of over 3 million Jews (possibly to Madagascar) would also create space for Polish resettlement.

About 1 million Poles could be taken out of their settlements, but not from the Reich, and used as agricultural and industrial itinerant labor. This would doubtless result in considerable relief, particularly from the biological viewpoint.

Strictest care is to be taken that secret circulars, memoranda and official correspondence which contains instructions detrimental to the Poles are kept steadily under lock and key so that they will not some day fill the White Books printed in Paris or the USA.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 666-PS

SECRET

The Fuehrer and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

DIRECTIVES

for the prosecution of offences against the Reich or against the occupation authorities in the occupied territories.

7 December 1941

With the beginning of the Russian campaign, communist elements and other anti-German circles increased their attacks on the Reich and the occupation authorities in the occupied territories. The extent and the danger of these activities compel to most severe measures against the guilty for the purpose of intimidation.

For the time being the following directions shall be observed:

In regard to offences committed by non-German civilians in the occupied territories against the Reich or the occupation authorities which endanger their security or efficiency, the death sentence is adequate as a matter of principle.

The offences referred to in section I are to be tried in the occupied territories only if it is likely that the guilty persons, at least the main offenders, will be sentenced to death and if the proceedings and the execution of the death sentences can be carried out quickly. Otherwise the offenders, at least the main offenders, are to be brought to Germany.

III

Guilty persons who are brought to Germany are to be subject to court-martial proceedings there only if specific military interests make it necessary. German or foreign authorities making inquiries are to be told that the guilty persons had been arrested and that the state of the proceedings did not permit to give further information.

The commanders in the occupied territories and the legal representatives are personally responsible for the execution of this decree within the framework of their competence.

The chief of the high command of the armed forces determines in which occupied territories this decree is to be applied. He is authorized to explain, to make provisions for the execution of the decree and to supplement it. The Reich minister of justice issues the provisions for the execution of the law for his district.

The Chief of the High Command
of the Armed Forces
By order (I.A.) (signed) KEITEL

DISTRIBUTION:

Foreign Office

Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery

Reich leader SS and Chief of the German police in the Reich Ministry of Interior.

High Command of the Army (Chef H. Ruest u. BDE—HR) with 7 N.A.

High Command of the Navy (MR) with 1 N.A.

Reich Minister of Aviation and Commander-in-Chief of the Air force (ZAR) with 1 N.A.

President of the Reich Court-Martial

Commander Southeast with 4 N.A.

Commander Norway

Commander Netherlands

Commander Eastland

Commander Ukraine

Plenipotentiary of the armed forces with the Reich Protector Bohemia and Moravia

Armistice Commission Wiesbaden

High Command of the Armed Forces:

Chief West
Abt. L with 8 N.A.
W Pr
Amt Aus 1/Abw. (ZR)
Abt. Ausl.
Abw. III

AWA

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 668-PS

Copy

Chief of the Security Police and the SD—IV D 4—103/42 g—Berlin SW 11, Prinz-Albrecht Street 8, 24 June 1942

SECRET

To the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces for the attention of the Oberregierungsrat DOWALDT or his acting deputy.

Berlin W 35, at Tirpitzufer 72—76

Subject: Prosecution of punishable offences against the Reich or the occupation forces in occupied territories.

Reference: Circular dated 16 April 1942—14 n 16.18 WR (I 3/4) Nr 242/42 g.

By virtue of the above-named edict a considerable number of persons who were arrested in the occupied district of France have been transferred to camp Hinzert at Trier, pending commencement of the main proceedings before the competent special court in Cologne.

The 67-year old Frenchman, Louis Adolf Rousseau, died here recently of a stroke.

Thus the question has arisen—which has not been settled until now—as to what steps are to be taken in such cases of death.

It is the intent of the general directions of the Fuehrer and supreme commander of the Wehrmacht concerning prosecution of punishable offences against the Reich or the occupation forces in occupied territories, dated 7 December 1941, to create, for deterrent purposes, uncertainty about the fate of prisoners among their relatives and acquaintances, through the deportation into Reich territory of persons arrested in occupied areas on account of anti-German activity. This goal would be forfeited if the relatives were to be notified in cases of death. Surrender of the body for burial at home is inadvisable for the same reason, and also because the place of burial could be misused for demonstration purposes.

I therefore propose that the following general rule be decided upon for cases of death:

a. Notification of relatives is not to take place.

b. The body is buried at the place of death, in the Reich.

c. The place of burial is not made known for the time being.

In the case of the deceased Frenchman Rousseau, I have given orders which accord with the above proposal and I will do likewise in the future pending a decision by you.

pp.
[signature illegible]

SECRET

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces

Berlin W 35, Tirpitzufer 72—76, July 13, 1942
14 m 16.18 WR (I 3/4), No. 562/42 g
To the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service
Berlin SW11, Prinz Albrecht Str. 8
[Pencil alteration]

[Pencil note—]
E46 E8/46 38/42
Reich Ministry of Justice 16th July 1942
Section

By way of information to:

Supreme Command of the Army

Supreme Command of the Navy

Reich Minister of Air Transportation and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Forces

President of the Reich Court Martial

Reich Minister of Justice

Armed Forces Operations Staff/Headquarters

Subject: Prosecution of punishable offences against the Reich or the occupation forces in the occupied territories.

Reference:—IV D 4—103/42 g—of June 24, 1942. 1 enclosure.

The supreme command of the armed forces agrees to the suggested treatment of cases of death. The decree of April 16, 1942, will in due course be supplemented accordingly.

The Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces
Per: Dr. Lehmann

[Handwritten note—largely undecipherable]

(Stamp of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces)
Checked: Bachmann,
Justizoberinspektor d.Lw.
IV a 863/42 g
[Handwritten note]

1. Note: Procedure in cases of death has already been laid down by IX para. 5 of the draft of a second order for the carrying out of the general directions * * * of decree of the OKW dated 16.4.42.—

In my opinion the case of death quoted in the letter of the Reichfuehrer-SS dated 24.6.42 precludes the necessity of a supplement to the draft, mentioned.

2. Submit to me 3.8.

RM 29.7.

Submitted to OBGK (?) Dr. V. Ammon 3.8.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 674-PS

1st copy

President of the High District Court and Chief Public Prosecutor

Kattowitz, 3 December 1941

Nikolai Str. 1, Entrance Wilhemsplatz Tel.: 34608 and 34610

VS 4 E-1. 51 secret
file nr. 229

[illegible notations]

"SECRET" only

To the Reich Minister of Justice, Attention: Chief Councillor to the Government Stadermann or Representative in Office.

Berlin

Re: Executions by the Police and Expediting of Penal Procedure Without Order.

Inclosure: 1 copy of report

About 3 weeks ago 6 chief agents (partially German) were hanged by the police in connection with the destruction of a treasonable organization of 350 members in Tarnowitz without notification of the ministry of justice. Such execution of criminal agents in the Bielitz district have already been made before also without the knowledge of the proper authority for criminal persecution. On 2 December 1941 the head of the state police at Kattowitz, chief councillor to the government Mildner, reported orally to the undersigned that he had ordered as necessary immediate action, with authority from the Reich-leader of the SS these executions by public hanging at the place of the crime; and that deterring measures would also have to be continued in the future until the criminal and actively anti-German powers in the occupied Eastern territories have been destroyed, or until other immediate actions, perhaps also by the courts, would guarantee equal frightening effect. Accordingly, 6 leaders of another Polish organization guilty of high treason in the district in and around Sosnowitz were to be hanged publicly today as an example.

About this procedure the undersigned expressed considerable doubts.

Besides the fact that such measures have been withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts and are contradictory to the laws not put out of effect, a justified emergency for the exceptional proceedings by the police alone cannot, in our opinion, be lawfully recognized.

The penal justice in our district within the limits of our jurisdiction is quite capable of fulfilling its duty of immediate penal retribution by means of a special form of special judicial activity (establishment of a so-called rapid special court). Indictment and proceeding could be speeded up in such a way that between turning the case over to the public prosecutor and execution no more than 3 days would elapse if the practice of pardoning is simplified and if the decision, if necessary, can be obtained by long distance call. This was expressed yesterday to the head of the state police at Kattowitz by the undersigned.

We cannot believe that execution by the police of criminals, especially German criminals, can be considered more effective through shattering the sense of justice of many German countrymen. In the long run they might, in spite of public terrorizing, lead even more to further brutality of minds, which is contrary to the intended purpose of pacifying. These deliberations, however, do not apply to future lawful competence of a drumhead court-martial for Poles and Jews.

According to a recent report of the head of the Kattowitz state police to the district leader [Gauleiter] Bracht, the cases of 540 persons accused of high treason from the Kattowitz district have already been forwarded in December 1940 by the police to the board of arraignment of the people's court in Berlin without any sentences having been passed there as yet. This situation, which became known in the various branches of interested party circles and administration departments, injures the reputation of justice in general as well as the concept of the effectiveness of justice in the occupied Eastern territories especially because, with the exception of the court, the exclusive competence of the people's court for the sentencing of matters of high treason is not sufficiently known.

We are not informed as to how far the described situation of non-settlement is true.

As far as the proceedings of treasonable cases by the chief Reich prosecutor at the people's court in Berlin are concerned which were forwarded for prosecution to the co-undersigned public prosecutor (proceedings per par. 5 section 2 of the law about the competence of criminal courts dated 21 Feb. 40—RGBl I, p. 405—in connection with the AV of Reich justice ministry dated 7 June 45—German law, page 683) we should like to point out the following:

From July 1941 until today, the cases of 235 accused were forwarded by the chief Reich prosecutor; 122 of the accused have already been sentenced, indicted, or proceedings were suspended or transferred.

The co-undersigned president of the supreme country court has taken steps to expedite prosecution further by personally supplementing the criminal court for high treason. If it should become necessary in the future, a second court could be appointed for the prosecution of matters of high treason by putting aside less important work. All organizations charged with prosecuting and sentencing of high treason and also with other severe crimes have been impressed by the undersigned that a speedy treatment is essential for war and nation.

With these organizational measures intended and already partially introduced by us of creating a "Rapid Special Court" which should also be technically equipped with everything necessary, and with the likely establishment at any time of a second court for matters of high treason in Kattowitz, the executions by the police still remain necessary as immediate actions against traitors, according to the chief councillor to the government Mildner, for the anti-German treasonal activity is supposed to have increased to such an extent that comparisons with the situation in 1917 and 1918 are already permissible, and that the criminals draw courage and power from the drawn-out legal trials of the traitors. The situation in the Kattowitz district is supposed to be especially difficult because there are 1-1/2 million Poles, 150,000 Czechs, and 7,000 Jews among the 3 million population whose anti-German attitude is being joined in a remarkable way by more and more Germans in the last months. A further worsening of the situation is to be counted on if the war should last longer; for the Poles are said to be fanatically convinced of the victory of the Western countries and of a resurrection of their country, and, without inhibition, risk everything which does not seem to be punishable by death. The terrorist activity of the last few months does not appear to leave the Reich Germans in the Eastern occupied districts unimperilled. The slightest military set-back could result in immediate danger due to the growing and immediate terrorist readiness of the anti-German organizations. These are the reasons why the head of the state police considers as necessary immediate measures also in the field of high treason. If such steps could be taken by judicial means, this would seem also to him the best solution since the state police is already overburdened and suffering from considerable personnel shortage.

After this discourse we cannot help but have the impression that the situation, especially with respect to high treason (terrorist) activity has grown serious since the spring of 1941 and that special measures have to be taken to subdue same effectively. We pointed out to the head of the state police our insufficient competence in this field, but have informed him that we would report this matter to the Reich minister of justice.

In view of the great judicial importance of the mentioned problems for the district of the Kattowitz high county court, we deem an early personal discussion at Kattowitz necessary, and that the chief councillor to the government Mildner and perhaps a representative of the people's court and of the chief Reich prosecutor at the people's court should be taken into consultation.

(signed) Dr. Heimer

[illegible notes showing that the conference had taken place]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 675-PS

SECRET

Nationalsocialist German Workers Party
Berlin—Wilhelm Str. 64
Munich, Brown House
The Deputy of the Fuehrer

To the Reichminister for Justice, Attn: Ministerial office director Stadermann or his deputy

[Rubber stamp]
Reichministry for Justice
25 August 1938,

Dept V Gst a,
16 Aug 1938, III D—Es, 3315/0/31—3604 Secret
Berlin W 8 Wilhelmstrasse 65

Subject: Austrian Concordat
Your letter of 23 May 1938—Va 146/38 Secret

I have purposely not taken a hand in the letters, which I have received from various Reichministers as well as from the Reichfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German Police, since the Fuehrer's decision on that was known to me already in connection with a lecture by the Reichcommissioner for the incorporation of Austria into the Reich. I therefore have refrained to take a standpoint again to the questions, mentioned in your letter, and have requested the Reichminister and Chief of the Reich Chancellory in a letter of 29 June 1938, to inform you about the Fuehrer's decision. Therefore, the questions, as far as they concern the validity of the Austrian Concordat, are taken care of by the letter of the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellory of 12 July 1938—Rk 276 B Secret.

However, in order to be able to take into account the general political considerations in the measures, probably planned for Austria for the execution of this decision of the Fuehrer, and to keep to the church-political line of the Fuehrer, I request from you, to get into contact at the proper time before taking action in these measures besides with the Reich Commissioner for the incorporation of Austria into the Reich, also with the Reich Minister for church affairs and with the Fuehrer's deputy.

Heil Hitler!
By order
/s/ BORMANN
(M. BORMANN)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 680-PS

SECRET

The Reich- and Prussian Minister of the Interior

Berlin, 5 May 1938
NW 40, Koenigsplatz 6

Phone: Dept Z, I, II, V, VIII 11 00 27, IV, VI, VII (Unter den Linden 70—72) 12 00 34

Cable address: Reichsinnenminister
Nr I 176/38, 1014 g

Urgent

To:

a. The Reich- and Prussian Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, attention: Government Councillor [Regierungsrat] URLAUCH or his deputy in office.

b. The Foreign Office, attention: Councillor [AMTS- and HOFRAT] SCHIMPKE or his deputy in office.

c. The Reich Minister of Justice, attention: Ministerial Office Director STADERMANN or his deputy in office.

d. The Reich Minister for Education, attention: Government Councillor [Regierungsrat] JAEHNERT or his deputy in office.

e. The Deputy of the Fuehrer, attention: SS-Inspector KNOBLAUCH or his deputy in office.

f. The Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German Police attention: SS 2nd Lt, Government Councillor Dr. TANZMANN or his deputy in office.

SUBJECT: Concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Austria.

The question of further validity of the Austrian Concordat (Konkordat) which has already been brought up by the Reich- and Prussian Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs in his letters to the Foreign Office of 22 March 1938—II 1563/38—and of 26 March 1938—G II 1596/38—, is one of fundamental importance for a number of matters to be worked out by the central office for the execution of the reunion of Austria with the German Reich as well as other offices of the Reich and Austria concerned with it. This question has to be brought to a conclusive clarification immediately.

I deem the following conceptions possible:

The Concordat will not be considered as binding already for the reason that it has not at all been reached within the framework of the constitution.

The more detailed reasons for that are evident from the following:

1. The negotiations for conclusion of the Concordat had come to an end already on 5 June 1933, on which day the Concordat had been initialed in Vatican City.

Regardless of that, the Concordat was not submitted for further constitutional processing by the federal government of Austria for almost a whole year, because the National Council of Austria was considered suspended in accordance with the so-called "self-elimination" thesis represented by the federal government due to the resignation of all its three presidents, and beyond that, the acceptance of the Concordat could not be expected because of the majority relationships as they existed at that time within the National Council.

The constitutional processing, in accordance with article 50 of the federal constitutional law as provided for in the version of 1929 (RGBl Nr 1/1930), would have had to consist of the fact that the Concordat, being a political and law-changing treaty of the State, would have to be presented to the National Council for approval in order to attain its validity, in which connection the respective decision regarding the character of this State treaty, which simultaneously changes the constitution, can only be made in the presence of at least half of the members of the National Council with a majority of two thirds of the votes cast; besides, the decision of the National Council would have had to be submitted to further prescribed procedure (presentation to the Federal Council).

The Concordat was processed further only in conjunction with the development which led to the constitution of 1934, and that in the following manner:

While, up to that date, the repeatedly uttered request for another session of the National Council had always been opposed on the ground that it was impossible to convoke it because of the so-called "self-elimination program" and whilst, on the basis of this claim, one had governed by means of the enabling act for war economy which had originally been passed for certain exclusively economic purposes (RGBl. No. 307/1917), now all of a sudden, also based on this act, by a decree dated 24 April 1934 (RGBl. I No. 238/1934), the federal act concerning the rules of procedure of the National Council was amended to the effect that, although a president did not exist, the National Council was in a position to reassemble.

This procedure was absolutely unconstitutional. The Federal Government prevented through police power the attempt of the last-retired president of the National Council to revive this body by summoning the National Council anew in his capacity as the last president. On the other hand, the Federal Government had also constantly refused to use the possibility given by article 18, paragraph 3-5 of the Federal constitutional Law of 1929, to set the National Council going again through an emergency decree of the Federal president. Instead of this, in the meantime, all possible legal measures were based upon the enabling act for war economy, which was entirely contrary to the realm of authorization of this law and entirely against the constitution. An especially notorious abuse of the enabling act for war economy was the employment of the enabling act for war economy for the issuance of the aforementioned decree with which the rules of procedure of the National Council were changed.

As it turned out, the National Council summoned on this basis no longer had the composition with which it had emerged from the last elections; on the contrary it was only a rump-parliament, because all mandates of the Social Democratic Labor Party in the meantime were also declared void by a decree of February 16, 1934 (RGBl. I Nr 100/1934) also based upon the before-mentioned enabling act for war economy.

This rump-parliament assembled on 30 April 1934 for a conference in which solemn declarations were made by the Gross Deutsche Volkspartei and the Landbund—the two parties with outspoken National character—in which the constitutional legality of the whole procedure was expressly disputed, after which all delegates of the two named parties left the conference, with the exception of one delegate of the Landbund who at the same time was holding a public office, so that for the further discussions and resolutions only the before-mentioned one delegate of the Landbund and the delegates of the Christian-Social-Party and the Heimatschutz remained who together comprised only 76 delegates.

These 76 delegates now passed the so called Federal Constitutional Law concerning extraordinary measures within the jurisdiction of the constitution (RGBl. I Nr. 255/1934). Through Art. I of which the above mentioned decrees of Art. 50 of the Federal Constitutional Law of 1929 concerning the co-operation of the National Council in National treaties were cancelled. This constituted, in addition to the unconstitutional manner of the summons, a further very substantial violation of the constitution, in that—as has been mentioned already in the beginning—according to Art. 44, section 1, of the Federal Constitutional Law in the version of 1929, constitutional laws could only be passed in the presence of at least one half of the members of the National Council with a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, but the National Council consisted, in accordance with paragraph 1 of the election rules of 165 delegates and therefore the presence of at least 83 delegates would have been required in order to pass upon a resolution changing the constitution.

After the federal constitutional law of 30 April 1934 had also been presented to the Federal Council which for the same reasons as the National Council, held sessions as a rump body, and it had issued no protest, it was announced yet on 30 April 1934, causing the day of its taking effect to be 1 May 1934.

Already during the night of 30 April to 1 May 1934, the exchange of ratifications prepared with the Papal Nuntio took place and already on the 1 May 1934 the concordat was made public in the federal gazette.

From the preceding explanation it is evident, that the Concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Austria has been concluded under circumstances which offer the possibility to represent, with reasons which cannot be contradicted, the point of view that the conclusion of the Concordat was completely in violation of the constitution and therefore no legal validity can be attributed to the Concordat. In this respect it has to be noted that the fact that the Concordat was concluded in violation of the constitution was regarded as a fact already at that time in all serious judicial circles in Austria. (Compare in this respect particularly also the remarks referring to the Concordat made in the work of Guerke on "The Austrian Constitution of 1934" in the archive of public law, new edition, volume 25, page 178 pp.).

This point of view would open up the following additional path:

The Reich government declares to the Holy See on the basis of these facts that, after examining the legal angle, it had come to the conclusion that for the reason stated it could not recognize the Concordat any longer and is combining with that also with the effect "ex nunc" and with simultaneous legal settlement of the questions remaining unclarified through the abrogation of the Concordat, the abolition of the Austrian legal regulations referring to the Concordat (Federal law RGBl II, Nr. 8/1934 in the version of RGBl Nr. 134/1935 and decree RGBl II Nr. 13/1934).

2. The Concordat has expired automatically, through the reunion of Austria with the German Reich, because Austria has vanished as independent state, has obtained the constitutional position of a German state and therefore lost the position as a subject of international law. This point of view which by reason of logic can surely only be taken retroactive to 13 March 1938, would be based more exactly on the following:

Within the international legal sphere there is no general legal succession of the territorial successor into the rights and duties of the territorial predecessor. It rather has to be scrutinized in each case separately, whether a legal succession in accordance with international law occurs. With the fall of the territorial predecessor, the bilateral state treaties concluded by him are as a rule void. However some exceptions to this principle are recognized: National practice has shown that state treaties will be renewed tacitly by the territorial successor simply by administering them further. But a new state may also be forced, in order to obtain desired recognition, to take over certain state treaties. A general duty in accordance with international law for the fulfillment of obligations resulting from treaties made by the territorial predecessor, exists, however, only in the following cases: As a rule, state treaties which concern the territory of the state taken over as such, that is, so-called "ratifizierte" treaties (border treaties, treaties on rivers and roads of communication), will also fall to the territorial successor. Furthermore, those Concordats which have in accordance with customary law found recognition beyond the sphere of the partners of the treaty, will also be valid for the territorial successor. Lastly, rules can be established through a collective treaty which determines a certain order for a group of states. Those norms also remain in effect in case of territorial changes within that group and therefore also fall to the territorial successor. (Compare Verdross, international law 1937, Page 71.)

The following additional consequences would be combined with the conceptions mentioned above:

To 1: The establishment of the unconstitutional conclusion of the Concordat would first of all represent a strong moral verdict against the whole past system connected with the names Dollfuss and Schuschnigg in Austria, which could be politically very desirable for various reasons.

The attitude of the Reich government toward the other bilateral State treaties signed by Austria would not be prejudiced as no other state treaty of more importance was signed under the same circumstances as the Concordat. One would prefer this procedure in the expected discussions with other countries, some of which (Jugoslavia, Poland, England) have already referred to their stipulated rights in Austria.

The declaration that the Concordat will not be acknowledged on the grounds of unconstitutionality and the repeal of the connected Austrian legal provisions with "ex nunc" effect would not influence the validity of the legal acts based on the Concordat (especially on the field of matrimonial law as to states rights). An express legalization of the past is therefore not required.

Furthermore one could arrive at the point where the conception could be maintained that former Austrian territory, in contrast to remaining Reich territory, had become entirely free of the Concordat, an interpretation which would be especially unwelcome to the Holy See for various reasons, and would force open the entire question of the future relationship between the Reich and the Holy See with all the resulting consequences in favor of the Reich in eventual further conferences with the Holy See.

To 2: On a former occasion the church adopted this point of view, as the Reich- and Prussian Minister for church affairs has already pointed out in his letter to the Foreign Office of 22 March 1938.

Thus in a statement to the secret consistory of 21 November 1921 Pope Benedict XV discussed the question of the validity and tenure of the Concordats, since retroactive effects had arisen from the changes in state territories and organizations produced by the world war. Therein the Pope distinguished between countries which were newly created, countries with considerable territorial expansion, and countries which have changed so completely that they could not be considered the same "moral person". According to Pope Benedict XV opinion all these three classes of countries have "lost their privileges granted in former Concordats". It is quite evident, that Austria, after it became a part of the German Reich since March 13, 1938, cannot be considered the "same moral person" as before.

It has not yet been decided how the bilateral Austrian state Treaties of noneconomical nature which have been listed in the letter of the Foreign Office of April 6, 1938—R VII. 38 will be handled. One cannot yet perceive whether the Reich will take over one or the other of these treaties. This would no doubt be made use of by the Holy See to insist on the succession of the Reich as to the Austrian Concordat. On the other hand application of the theory of international law relating to succession of states as discussed above may lead to unnecessary suspicions in other cases, in which the Reich intends to bring about a peaceful solution with the other partner to the agreement.

If one is of the opinion that the Austrian Concordat is abolished by the actual reunion of Austria with the Reich then the question comes up whether, on account of the same fact of territorial expansion, the Concordat of the Reich logically would have to be regarded as applying to Austria too.

The Reich Concordat was, as far as I know, not expressly extended to the Saar-District, after the reembodiment of the latter into Germany; there can be no doubt, however, that the Reich Concordat has formal validity in the Saar-District today. Even though the Saar-District unlike the Federal State of Austria—had not concluded a Concordat of its own with the Holy See prior to its reembodiment, there can be no doubt as to the former independent legal competence in accordance with international law of the Saar-District. In view of a comparison with the Saar-District and the possible conclusion to be drawn with regard to Austria it seems advisable not to claim the expiration of the Concordat on the grounds that the Austrian independent state has ceased to exist.

The Austrian Concordat however, has established very incisive regulations in the sphere of matrimonial law as pointed out by the Reich Minister for Church Affairs, according to which the Canon Law alone is competent for marriages of Catholics; this law has the validity of a civil law; the publishing of bans and the laying down of obstacles to matrimony are stipulated according to Canon Law; Catholic Church authorities and law courts are competent for matrimonial affairs; the parson is a registrar at the same time. Should the Concordat therefore be considered as having expired as of March 13, 1938 a number of most complicated legal questions would arise; in particular the question as to what legal validity should be given to catholic matrimonies concluded in Austria after March 13, 1938 and which other legal consequences are to be considered as connected with such matrimonies. It would be regrettable should one have to draw the conclusion that legal acts based on the expired Concordat had subsequently to be sanctioned by the state.

On weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the two conceptions both of which can be supported by good legal arguments I should like to speak in favour of the conception explained under 1.

I shall be glad if you will inform me of your opinion about the question raised by May 15, 1938. I am quite aware of the fact that in view of its great political importance the decision can only be made by the Fuehrer and Reich chancellor.

After receipt of your communication I reserve the right to summon a conference.

Signed: Frick

SECRET

D. RM.d.J. Berlin, May 13, 1938
Special Delivery

To The REICH AND PRUSSIAN MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR
c/o Ministerialrat Dr. Hoche

Subject: Concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Austria.

Re: Communication of the 5th of this month
TO THE OFFICE May 14, 1938
signed: Templev(?)5/14/

Nr. 1-176/38 1014 g;
Despatched May 14, 1938
signed: Templev [?]
Not later than today

Your communication, as per description on the margin was received here on the 9th of May. Considering the importance a proper handling of this matter carries for the official business under my jurisdiction I shall be unable to announce a final statement before the 15th of this month.

I therefore request that the time allotted me for a reply to the communication be tacitly extended to May 25.

for the office 5/14/38, 10 o'clock I.V.

EK.

(S) [Illegible]
Final regulation of 5/23/38 with V a 146/38 g page 13
V a 138/38 g

V a 138/38 g

1. Note: Of the 4 spare copies which were procured I have given one to Ministerialrat Ficker and at the same time one to KGR Kaulbach because of the question of canonical law and at the same time for the minister.

Ministerialrat Ruppert, who has already offered a preliminary opinion, wants to express his conclusive opinion at a later date, since, he will presumably not be present by the end of the week, because of his vacation.

The report on the matter will probably be made to Secretary of State, Dr. Schlegelberger's, on Saturday the 21st, the report to the minister's on the 23rd of May. The matter should be fully prepared by that time.

2. The office is requested to refer on Monday May 16 the occurrences, including any opinions of the Ministries concerned to Min-Rat Dr. Kriege who is handling the matter.

Berlin, May 14, 1938

Presented upon arrival from the Reich and Prussian Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs on May 11, 1938.

The 4 duplicates have been placed in the file of papers to be destroyed.

To: Mr. Kriege, Counsellor of the Ministry of Interior, respectfully submitted:

Mr. Thees has asked me to give my opinion on the letter of the Ministry of Interior, dated 5.5, regarding the Austrian Concordat, insofar as the letter pertains to my sphere.

With regard to the reform work in the field of matrimonial law and, in close connection with it, the creation of a uniform matrimonial law for Greater Germany, two points are of decisive importance:

a. The Concordat must not offer any impediment as soon as this matrimonial law comes into force.

b. The legislation for the execution of the Concordat, namely the law of 4.5.1934, has to remain in force until this time.

This result, decisive for any further action, cannot be achieved, in my opinion, on the basis of the first proposal of the Ministry of Interior. If the Concordat were null and void on account of unconstitutionality, then the same would apply to the legislation for its execution; the marriages based on the law of 4.5.1934 would be void and would have to be sanctioned with retroactive force. It is not clear to me how, on the basis of this reasoning, the Ministry of Interior can achieve a non-retroactive result in the nullification (p. 5).

There remains, therefore, the second solution proposed by the Ministry of Interior. If the Concordat excludes state succession, it seems to me, nevertheless, that the expiration of the law of 4.5.1934 does not result with effective date of 13.3.38. Even if an international pact expires, it seems to me that the legislation for the execution would bind the subjects until it was abrogated by an act of the state. The statements on page 9 of the letter are inaccurate insofar as the marriages which were contracted after 13.3 were not contracted by virtue of the expired Concordat, but by virtue of the law of 4.5.1934. Accordingly, it seems to me that continuing effect of the law of 4.5.1934 can be achieved in this way.

/S/ Ficker 18/5

SECRET

Reich and Prussian Ministry for Church Affairs
Berlin W.8., 3, Leipzigerstrasse, 11th May 1938
[stamp]
Reich Ministry of Justice, 13th May 1938.
Sect. V.
Re: Austrian Concordat.
Communication of the Reich Minister of the Interior, May 5, 1938
I 176/38 1014 g
Va 138/38g (Contents noted for the Minister)

The question whether the Austrian Concordat should be considered by the Reich Government as having been illegal and invalid from the very start, or as having been abolished by the revolution or whether it should be expressly cancelled can not be decided from a legal point of view but has to be decided from a political point of view.

This political decision can only be taken by the Fuehrer. Suggestions to this effect will be made to him by the Ministers competent in questions of foreign policy and of church affairs, i.e., by the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs and by the Minister for Church Affairs, who have already contacted each other for this purpose.

Also the question of the Reich Concordats to Austria (which, by the way, is utterly unbearable) is not a legal but a political matter. The question of the continuation of the Reich Concordat and of the "state"—Concordats is connected with this problem. Here, too, the decision rests with the Fuehrer.

With regard to the execution of the necessary laws in Austria, resp. to the introduction of Reich laws in Austria the only decisive factor is the political interest of the Reich, whereby the Austrian Concordat will be considered as non-existent.

Signed: KERRL.

To:

a. The Reich Minister of the Interior

b. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

c. The Reich Minister of Justice

d. The Reich Minister of Education

e. The Deputy of the Fuehrer

f. The Reich Leader of SS troops and Chief of the German Police

g. The Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancery

(In connection with a 146/38g) Va- 139/38g

SECRET

The Reich and Prussian Minister of Education, etc.
Berlin W8, May 17, 1938
Z II a Nr. 10074 Geh/38 Reich Ministry of Justice
May 18, 1938
Dept. V Off. a

In reference to the communication of May 5, 1938—I 176/38, 1014 g, V a 138/38 g, re: Concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Austria.

I agree with your conception in the final analyses.

The Austrian concordat did not—according to your arguments—enter into a due constitutional existence and is therefore without legal effect. However, in contradistinction to your arguments, I believe it correct to assume that the treaty was void from the beginning (ab initio) and not from now on. Therefore all legal acts which have taken place up to the day of establishment of invalidity of the Austrian concordat would have to be sanctioned retroactively.

Looking at both possibilities, as presented by you, the Austrian concordat is void ab initio, in the first case as represented by you and also by me from the very beginning, in the second case from March 13, 1938 on. For legal considerations, in both cases, the subsequent sanctioning of any legal acts, carried out meanwhile, is absolutely required.

By registered mail.

1. Reich Minister and Prussian Minister of the Interior, Attention: Min. Buerodirektor Stoppel or acting deputy.

2a. Reich Minister and Prussian Minister for Church Affairs, Attention Regierungsrat Urlacher or acting deputy.

b. The Foreign Deputy Office, Attention Amts- and Hofrat Schimpke or acting deputy.

c. Reich Minister of Justice, Attention Min. Buerodirektor Stadermann or acting deputy.

d. Deputy of the Fuehrer, Attention SS-Oberfuehrer Knoblauch or acting deputy.

e. Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police, Attention SS-Untersturmfuehrer Reg.Rat Dr. Tanzmann or acting deputy.

to 2 Duplicate for taking note of.
[In long hand:] Dr. Kriege
V a 146/38/1 Encl. (2 dupl) Duplicate to file
E 26

The first possibility, the establishment of the legal invalidity of the Austrian Concordat, has in its favor, as ably shown by you, that a moral condemnation of the past system in Austria is brought about. This system seized the power without a mandate of the Austrian people and concluded the concordat without authorization on the part of the Austrian people. Further, I don't think, that we have to fear the effects upon the Saarland, which you indicated. However, it seems to me of the utmost importance, that the treaties, concluded by Austria with other states, have not been concluded under similar circumstances; therefore these states do not have to fear similar consequences, a fact, which should be pointed out at the time of the declaration of the invalidity of the Austrian concordat.

However, I think it advisable, to refer while dealing with the Curia, especially since this point of view was also advocated by Pope Benedict XV in his statement of November 21, 1921, before the Secret Consistory (Geheimkonsistorium).

I also take the position that Austria is without any concordat after the establishment of the invalidity of the Austrian concordat. I do not consider an extension of the Reich-concordat to Austria appropriate from the point of view of my office.

By authority of the State Secretary.

Signed KUNISCH
Certified:
[signature illegible]
Verwaltungssekretaer

19 May 1938

1. Minister of Education, signed Kunisch, May 17, secret, sends copy of his letter of May 17th to the Minister of the Interior, concerning the Concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Austria.

I agree with your concept as far as results are concerned.

The Austrian Concordat is devoid of legal validity, since it was not concluded in an orderly fashion and in accordance with the constitution, as apparent from your explanations. However, I shall have to differ with you on the point that the contract is not merely invalid "ex nunc" (from now on) but "ex tunc", i.e., from the very beginning. The necessity arises therewith to sanction retroactively all legal acts executed by reason of the Concordat till the date when invalidity of the Austrian Concordat was proven.

Entering upon the two possibilities explained by you, the Austrian Concordat would therefore be invalid "ex tunc", as far as your first case and also mine is concerned from the very beginning, and in the second case as of 13 March 1938. In both cases the need arises on the basis of judicial-political considerations for retroactive sanction of legal acts executed in the meantime.

The first possibility, the proof of the constitutional invalidity of the Austrian Concordat, carries a moral condemnation of the former system in Austria, as you have explained so fittingly: a system that without the mandate of the Austrian people had usurped the power of state and concluded a Concordat without the official approval (legitimation) of the Austrian people. I should add, that I have no fear of possible conclusions a posteriori concerning the Saar-District, which you have mentioned. I consider it of highest importance that other treaties concluded with other States by Austria were not made under similar circumstances, thus those States had no reason to fear similar repercussions for themselves, a fact which should be emphasized immediately upon presentation of proof of the invalidity of the Austrian Concordat.

However, I consider it correct procedure, that we should assist the Curia (Kurie) by showing them the second possibility, specially that this conception was advocated by Pope Benedictus XV in his declaration of 21 November 1921 before the Secret Consistorium.

I also support the viewpoint that after proof has been presented of the invalidity of the Austrian Concordat, Austria will be free of concordats. An extension of the Reich Concordat to include Austria I would not consider advisable or within the interest of my sphere of competence.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 682-PS

DISCUSSION OF THIERACK WITH DR. GOEBBELS ON SEPT. 14, 1942 IN BERLIN

1—2.15 p.m.

2. With regard to the destruction of asocial life, Dr. Goebbels is of the opinion that the following groups should be exterminated: Jews and gypsies unconditionally, Poles who have to serve 3-4 years of penal servitude, and Czechs and Germans who are sentenced to death or penal servitude for life or to security custody [Sicherungsvorwahrung] for life. The idea of exterminating them by labor is the best. For the rest however, except in the aforementioned cases, every case has to be dealt with individually. In this case, of course, Czechs and Germans have to be differently judged. There may be cases where a German sentenced to 15 years of penal servitude is not to be considered asocial, but in contrast to this a person sentenced to penal servitude up to 8 years may be.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 686-PS

Copy to RK 26272 B

Decree of the Fuehrer and Reichs Chancellor to strengthen German folkdom

Oct 7th 1939.

The consequences of the Versailles Treaty have been removed in Europe. Now the Greater German Reich has the possibility of admitting into its territory, Germans who had to live abroad, and to resettle them, and to arrange the settlement of the groups of people, within her sphere of interest, in a way that there will be better distinction between them. I entrust the Reichsfuehrer SS with the execution of this task according to the following regulations:

The Reichsfuehrer SS has the obligation in accordance with my directives:

1. to bring back for final return into the Reich all German nationals and racial Germans in the foreign countries;

2. to eliminate the harmful influence of such alien parts of the population, which represent a danger to the Reich and German folk community;

3. the forming of new German settlements by resettling and in particular by settling of the returning German citizens and racial Germans from abroad.

The Reichsfuehrer SS is authorized to take all necessary general and administrative measures for the execution of this obligation.

The Reichsfuehrer SS can assign certain living areas to the parts of the population in question in order to execute the tasks given to him in Article I, No. 2.

In the occupied former Polish territories the Administration Chief of the East [Verwaltungschef Ober-Ost] carries out the tasks assigned to the Reichsfuehrer SS according to the latter's general orders. The Verwaltungschef Ober-Ost and the subordinated chiefs of administration of the military districts are responsible for the execution. Then measures have to be adjusted to the requirements of the military leadership.

Persons who are furnished special orders in execution of this task, are not subject to military jurisdiction in that respect.

III

The tasks assigned to the Reichsfuehrer SS, so far as the reorganization of German farmers is concerned will be executed by the Reich Minister for Nutrition and Agriculture following the general directives of the Reichsfuehrer SS.

Otherwise the Reichsfuehrer SS will make use, within the territory of the German Reich, for the execution of his task of the existing authorities and institutions of the Reich, the states and the communities as well as all other public institutions and the existing settlement societies.

In case an agreement required by law and administrative organization cannot be reached about a measure to be taken, between the Reichsfuehrer SS and the competent higher Reichs-authority in the operational territory of the Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres, my decision has to be sought through the Reich Minister and the Chief of the Reich Chancellory.

Negotiations with foreign governments and other authorities as well as with racial Germans, as long as they are still abroad, will be conducted in cooperation with the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs [Reichsminister des Auswaertigen].

If land is required for the settlement within Germany of returning German citizens and racial Germans the law on providing land for purposes of the army of March 29th, 1935 (Reichsgesetzblatt I page 467) and its executive regulations will be applied to provide the necessary land. The tasks of the Reich agency for providing land [Reichsstelle fuer Landbeschaffung] will be taken over by the agency designated by the Reichsfuehrer SS.

The Reichsminister for Finance will provide the Reichsfuehrer SS with the necessary means for the execution of the measures.

Berlin 7 October 1939
The Fuehrer and Reichschancellor
signed: Adolf Hitler.
The Chairman of the Council of Ministers
for all Defenses of the Reich
signed: Goering
General Field Marshal
The Reich Minister and the Chief of the
Reich Chancellery
signed: Dr. Lammers
The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces
signed: Keitel.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 695-PS

SECRET

Copy

Berlin—Schoeneberg
Badensche Strasse 51, March 24, 1942
Armed forces high command
z 2f 24. 73 AWA/prisoners of war [general?] (Ia),
p. 389/428
Reference:

a. armed forces high command/prisoners of war No. 3058/41 g of September 1941.

b. armed forces high command/prisoners of war No. 3624/41 g of November 2, 1941.

1. Treatment of Soviet prisoners of war.

The necessity of increased use of the labor of Soviet prisoners of war necessitates a new regulation of their treatment. The statutes in reference to this matter are repealed, and the following regulation is in effect in the future for the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war:

A. Treatment of Soviet Prisoners of War in General

Bolshevism is the mortal enemy of National Socialist Germany. The Soviet soldier must on principle be considered a carrier of Bolshevism. Therefore it answers political necessity and the authority and dignity of the German armed forces, for every German soldier to keep his distance from the Soviet prisoners of war.

With cool and correct treatment, avoidance of violence and insults, and protection from public curiosity, the work done by the Soviet prisoners of war can be increased. It is forbidden to carry out retaliatory measures against them.

On the other hand, any attempted fraternization is to be rejected. Even the public must at all times be aware of the feeling of pride and superiority of the German soldier detailed to guard Soviet prisoners of war.

Ruthless and energetic action in cases of uncooperativeness, refusal to work, and negligence in work, especially toward Bolshevist agitators, is to be ordered; insubordination or active resistance must be completely removed immediately with a weapon (bayonet, gun-butt, or firearm, no sticks). The decree concerning use of arms by the armed forces is to be interpreted strictly. Whoever does not use his weapon or does not use it energetically enough in seeing that an order is carried out is liable to punishment (see [volume?] VI, 12). Notation: also page 8).

2. All traffic between the Soviet prisoners of war and the civilian population is to be prevented. Special attention is to be given to the separation of the captured officers, which has in general already been carried out by the field army, in the territory of the armed forces commanders and in the Reich territory; especially since Soviet officers for understandable reasons frequently pass themselves off as enlisted men. Any communication between the Soviet officers and men, even by signs, must be made impossible. (see [volume?] V).

3. A camp police corps is to be formed within the camps and the larger labor details of suitable Soviet prisoners of war. This police corps will be appointed and supervised by commandants to keep order and maintain discipline.

B. Individual Instructions

I. Food and clothing:

4. According to principle all prisoners of war receive equal treatment. In regard to the feeding of Soviet prisoners of war, however, the rates established in the armed forces high command statute Az. 62 f Va/AG V III/V 3 (V d) of February 27, 1942, is in effect in the home war area.

If the food is prepared without loss of food value and if the distribution times are sensibly spaced throughout the day, these food rations are adequate to feed the prisoners of war. Points to be especially considered in preparing food are contained in the "Collection of orders No. 11".

Especially in winter, the food is to be served warm if possible and is to be distributed as often as possible during the day. The contractors should distribute warm food not only after work but also in pauses in the work. The suitable feeding of the Soviet prisoners of war is especially important, since their physical efficiency is low, partly as a result of years of undernourishment, partly as a result of food difficulties in the Soviet army and as a result of war events.

Since the prisoners of war recover more easily on individual fare outside the camps than on mass feeding in the camps, it is recommended that Soviet prisoners be put to work even if they are not yet completely fit for work. Full achievement cannot, of course, be expected in that case (compare army high command of 19 February 1942, Az. 2f 24. 17 b prisoners of war Org. (III b) No. 678/42).

As far as possible, foreign tobacco goods will be made available for Soviet prisoners of war in the camps. German tobacco is not to be given to Soviet prisoners of war.

The matter of clothing was settled by decree army high command Az. 2f 24. 23a prisoners of war (II, 2) No. 5632/41 of 22 August 1941. According to this, the clothing debit of the Soviets corresponds to that of the other prisoners of war.

II. Work:

5. As a result of the general labor situation, the employment of the Soviet prisoners of war, including officers, derives decisive significance. In principle it is permitted everywhere, unless there are objections for reasons of defense in individual cases. (Compare enclosed statute Az. 2f 24. 17 b, chief of prisoners of war [organization?] III b No. 1474/42 of 1 April 1942, and No. 1396/42 of 9 April 1942)

In general labor columns of at least 20 men are to be provided for. In industrial economy, however, it is permissible in cases of urgent business necessity to use smaller labor details down to 5 men in various departments of the * * * concern, even in "protected" concerns. However, in such cases the employment of smaller groups requires the special approval of the competent defense post and of the armament command. A prerequisite is the presence of an adequate number of reliable foremen who have been investigated in regard to defense as "auxiliary guards".

The employment of officers requires the special approval of the army high command in each case.

The responsibility for the orderly employment of the Soviet prisoners of war in the Reich rests exclusively on the bureaus ordering their employment:

a. Armed forces high command, chief of prisoners of war affairs;

b. Reich minister for armament and munitions;

c. General plenipotentiary for the labor supply in the four-year plan.

The borrowing of Soviet prisoners of war is regulated for the Reich by statute Az. 2f 24. 27a prisoners of war (II, 2) No. 6999/41 of 29 September 1941, and supplementary statutes:

Az. 2f 24. 27a prisoners of war (II,2) No. 7645/41 of 23 October 1941

Az. 2f 24. 27a prisoners of war (II,2) No. 8218/41 of 14 November 1941

Az. 2f 24. 27a prisoners of war (II,2) No. 9170/41 of 22 December 1941

Az. 2f 24. 17s prisoners of war (I,5) No. 8102/41 of 22 December 1941

Az. 2f 24. 17s prisoners of war [org.?] (III b) No. 512/42 of 18 February 1942

and for the territories of Ostland (Baltic countries and White Russia) and the Ukraine by statute armed forces high command Az. 2f 24. 17s prisoners of war [organization?]

(III b) No. 463/42 of 29 January 1942. For the rest of the eastern territories and the Gouvernement General the following decrees are in effect:

Army high command/general staff of the army/ general quarters/ IVa (III,2) Az. 961/42 No. I/ 5784/42 of 12 January 1942

Army high command/ general staff of the army general quarters/ IVa (III,2) Az. 961/42 No. I/ 5784/42 of 4 February 1942.

The employment and work of the Soviet prisoners of war are to be under the strictest control. Strong measures are to be taken in any case of refusal to work.

Poor or mediocre work not due to weak constitution, exhaustion, physical condition, or a similar cause must immediately incur appropriate punishment.

III. Free time:

6. Musical instruments can be obtained and distributed. Arts and crafts in the sense of statute AZ. 2f 24. 72g prisoners of war Ch 2 No. 5671/41 of 9 August 1941 are to be encouraged.

They are not forbidden to organize religious services among themselves, whether by captured priests of the camp or by laymen. Spiritual consolation for the dying as well as the presence of a captured priest or lay-priest at burials are permitted. (see VIII).

It is forbidden to bring in members of the clergy who are not prisoners of war. No religious writings may be distributed.

IV. Treatment of minorities:

7. Special orders are issued according to need regarding the majority of the peoples among the Soviet prisoners of war; as far as such orders have been issued, they remain fully in effect.

For all members of the most important Soviet minorities

a. The delivery of musical instruments (balalaika, etc.)

b. The supplying of well-heated rooms during the winter months;

c. The supplying of appropriate literature chosen in agreement with armed forces high command/WFST/A Pr and armed forces high command/A Qusl Abw/Abw are permitted. The camp funds which have been accumulated by Soviet prisoners of war are available for necessary procurement.

The extent to which special food and a better tobacco supply are to be granted is determined in special orders.

d. An available barracks room is if possible to be placed at the disposal of the Mohammedan prisoners of war, where half-hour prayer sessions may be held several times a day.

e. In addition they are to be permitted to select a Mullah or Iman (priest).

V. Separation of prisoners of war and civilians of the Eastern campaign:

8. Deserters: The peculiar circumstances of the Eastern campaign in many cases made it impossible to guarantee the special consideration in captivity promised to deserters. The result of this fact on the Soviet front has made itself felt in a most undesirable way, through Soviet prisoners of war who have escaped and managed to reach their homes. The German troops on the Eastern front have now been instructed, therefore, to give every deserter a certificate that he has surrendered voluntarily and that special treatment in captivity was promised him.

For the most part, the deserters will be employed with the troops. When they are sent to the armed forces commanders and to the Reich, however, they are to retain their deserter certificates.

They are to be given preferential treatment in billeting in the camp, in feeding, and in the assignment of work places. It is urgently desired that they be kept together, segregated from the other Soviet prisoners of war, in labor commands.

9. For the segregation of Soviet prisoners of war and the civilians present in the camps, the following is in effect, besides the division by nationalities in the prisoners of war camps, according to figure IV:

To be segregated:

a. Politically undesirable persons,

b. Officers,

c. Politically harmless persons,

d. Politically especially reliable persons (who can be used in the reconstruction of the occupied territories).

10. While the first separation according to figure 9 is undertaken, as far as possible, by the camp organs themselves, the Reichsfuehrer SS makes special details of the security police and the security service available to segregate the Soviet prisoners of war by their political attitude. They are directly under the chief of the security police and of the security service and have been especially trained for their special task. They take their measures and make their inquiries before the Soviet prisoners of war are put to work within the framework of the camp order, according to directives which they have received from the chief of the security police and the security service.

The special details are instructed to work in the closest cooperation with the commandants, and especially with their defense officers. If the Soviet prisoners of war are put to work without previous examination in exceptional cases because of the necessity for hastened commitment of labor the special details of the security police and the security service will undertake the segregation at the place of the labor detail. The head of the labor detail and, if the occasion arises, the contractor will be consulted before the segregation in doubtful cases. The special details will then request of the prisoner of war camps the surrender of those Soviet prisoners of war who are then claimed. The approval of the chiefs of the security police and the security service in Berlin is to be submitted to the camp commandants. The request for surrender of the prisoners is then to be met.

Prisoners of war who are put to work after investigation are to be constantly watched by the guards in regard to their sentiments. If in time a Soviet prisoner of war proves himself to be unreliable, he is first to be turned over to the prisoner of war camp which will take care of turning him in to the security service if the occasion arises.

If on the basis of the decree armed forces high command Az. 2f 24. 17b prisoners of war [organisation?] (II b) No. 678/42 of 19 February 1942, Soviet prisoners of war who are not fully capable of working are given special fare in order that they may gradually be made fully capable of working, the contractor is to receive full compensation if for political reasons it becomes necessary to turn them over to the security service.

11. Further treatment of the groups segregated under figure 9:

a. Military personnel: Military personnel includes those soldiers who were captured in civilian clothes. Concerning those segregated as "politically undesirable elements" (see figure 9).

Officers will not always but sometimes be subject to segregation as "politically undesirable persons".

Should individuals first considered undesirable later prove to be trustworthy, they will, as far as they had already been turned over, be transferred to the labor details assigned to the Reichsfuehrer SS or to the nearest prisoner of war camp or officers camp.

b. Civilians: Concerning undesirable persons see figure 10. As far as they are not politically dangerous, their prompt return to the occupied territory is to be desired, except insofar as they do not volunteer for further work in Germany as civilian workers. The competent armed forces commander (or the commander of the army rear area) with the approval of the competent bureau of the chiefs of the security police and the security service, determines the time for possible return. A prerequisite for return is a guarantee of work at home in labor formations which are to be specially set up. The armed forces commander (or the commander of the army rear area) is responsible for guarding during the return journey. If possible the command posts are to supply escort details.

c. Politically especially reliable persons (see 9d) are to be used for the segregation of politically undesirables and for work in the camp administration. (Racial Germans are especially pointed out; however, one must figure, that even among them there are elements, who must be considered "politically undesirable".)

Since the Reichsfuehrer SS for his own purposes must rely in the occupied territories on the conscription of natives, the conscription command will request from the ranks of the Soviet prisoners of war especially trustworthy persons for use and reconstruction in the occupied territory. Such requests for release by the conscription command of the security police and the SD are to be reported to the supreme command armed forces.

VI. Procedure in case of escapes or punishable acts:

12. Escaping Soviet prisoners of war are to be shot immediately without previous warning. Proclamation on the bulletin board and during roll call is necessary. Contrary directives of H Dv 38/11, Page 13, etc., are rescinded thus far.

No warning shots are to be fired. On the other hand, arbitrary use of firearms is forbidden. If a Soviet prisoner of war is shot by a guard, for the purpose of keeping up discipline and to prevent unjustified shooting, in every case a short description of the happening is to be presented to the camp commandant with the following details:

a. Whether anything is to be done.

b. Whether action appears necessary for disciplinary reasons.

c. Whether a report of the facts will be submitted.

13. The following order, published in the armed forces regulation, remains in force:

It is the duty of all soldiers to watch for every unguarded Soviet prisoner of war, to arrest him, and to deliver him to the nearest police station. If a prisoner of war camp is in the immediate vicinity, the prisoner of war is to be delivered there.

OKW Az 2f 24. 19m AWA/prisoner of war (I, 6) of 29 Oct 1941.

Civilians, as well as prisoners of war of other nations, who return escaping Soviet prisoners of war may be rewarded.

Compare:

OKW AZ 2f 24.20 PWs (II) No 4493/40 of 11 Dec. 40
OKW Az 2f 24.20a PWs (112) No 3572/41 of 26 May 41
OKW Az 2f 24.20a PWs (112) No. 8162/41 of 12 Nov 41

14. The recaptured Soviet prisoners of war, even if they were delivered to police stations, must be turned over by them to the nearest prisoner of war camp. Considering the danger of spotted fever, isolation is necessary.

The camp commandant must find out in every individual case the cause for escape. If the reason for the escape is only the longing for his family or hunger, and if the PW has not committed any crimes during his flight, then he is to be disciplined by the camp commandant and to be returned to work.

15. If a Soviet prisoner of war commits in camp on another prisoner of war murder, manslaughter or another crime, for which there is no punitive regulation in the German criminal code, which however demands the most severe punishment (for instance cannibalism, to bring about incapability to work by self-mutilation), then the criminal is to be turned over to the secret state police [Gestapo]. Also in the case of other crimes by a Soviet prisoner of war (for instance during flight), the camp commandant must turn over the criminal to the secret state police unless he is convinced a disciplinary measure or the judicial punishment which is to be expected after interview with the judge of the competent army court is sufficient to retain the discipline of the camp. Punishment for disobedience is only possible if the prisoner of war disobeys a distinct order, given to him and understood by him.

16. In the case of every transfer to the secret state police the prisoner of war is to be discharged from captivity, and the transfer is to be reported to the armed forces information bureau if a registration has already taken place.

VII. Funerals:

The following shall apply to funerals of deceased prisoners of war:

1. Funerals are to take place unobtrusively and in a simple manner. Treatment in the press radio or motion pictures is prohibited.

2. A German military delegation will not be provided. Participation by comrades of the deceased, who belong to the same prisoner of war enclosure is permitted. Civilians may not participate.

3. Gun salute will not be given.

4. Wreaths of Soviet prisoners, may, if allowed, only carry black or white ribbons; no wreath may be deposited by Germans.

5. Clergymen or their helpers may participate if they belong to the camp itself; in the case of Mohammedans, religious servants may be brought in if it is possible without special effort.

6. Coffins are prescribed; however each corpse (without clothes, if those are still in any way usable) is to be wrapped in strong paper or otherwise appropriate material.

In the mass graves, the corpses are to be placed next to each other at a depth of the grave, usual at the locality, and they are to be equipped with an identification tag as always, so that it can be determined later on, with the aid of a card file, which corpses are concerned.

7. In cemeteries, the graves are to be kept separate or at a proper distance from other graves; in camp cemeteries, the sequence of graves of other prisoners of war may not be disturbed.

8. If it is possible with special effort, cremation is permitted. In this case also, the camp must keep lists. However, corpses of Mohammedans must be interred in any case, and with the head facing East, the face South.

9. On the "Interment of corpses of Soviet prisoners of war by the communities", the decree IV e 10363/41, 3991 of 27 Oct 41 has been forwarded to them by the Reichsminister of the Interior.

10. The regulation, OKW Az. 29k AWA/W Allg. (II) No. 4470/41 of 29 July 41 on "Funerals for enemy military personnel, deceased or killed in action," will be synchronized in section D with the above regulation.

Distribution:

Armed Forces Command: I (21), II (21), III (22), IV (40), V (23), VI (26), VII (16), VIII (31), IX (25), X (17), XI (13), XIII (15), XII (18), XVII (13), XX (12), XXI (19),

with additional copies for:
officer prisoner of war camps
Base prisoner of war camps
Interment camps
Prisoner of war construction and work battalions
Reserve hospitals (Prisoner of War)
A S T E N (Branches?)
Service command doctors
Service command chaplains	345
Service Command administration with additional copies for the finance officers	34
Reichsminister for air and Airforce Supreme Commander/ LWEHR E with additional copies	40
Naval Supreme Command/N WEHR I with additional copies. For camp navy stations and finance officers	4
Armed forces commander OSTLAND, RIGA	1
Commander of prisoner of war with the armed forces commander Ukraine, ROWNO	1
Military commander of the Government General with 1 additional copy for each the chief quartermaster and the administration	4
Commander of prisoners of war in the Government General, Lublin	1
Armed forces commander, Norway Headquarters OSLO	1
Armed Forces Commander Norway Headquarters Finland	1
By communications:
Foreign office	1
Reichsminister for occupied Eastern territories	1
Inspector General for German roads	1
Inspector General for the Reich Capital	1
Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of German police	1
SS Regulations administration in the SS High Command Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Kaiserallee 188	1
Plenipotentiary general for labor allocation in the Four Year Plan	1
Reichsminister for labor	1
Reichsminister for nutrition and agriculture	1
Reichsministry for Economy	1
Reichsministry for Interior	1
Reichsminister for church affairs, Berlin W 8, Leipziger Str. 3	1
The German General with the High Command of the Rumanian armed forces	3
Army high Command/ General Staff of the army/ Quartermaster General	1
Army administrator	1
Chief of the Army armament and Commander of the replacement army/VA
(V I, V 9)	3
(V II, V 6)	1
(V, II, V 2)	1
For Army:
officers (VII, V 10)	5
forestry (VII, V 3)	1
(V IV, V 4)	1
(V IV, V 7)	1
AHA/Staff	1
/AgEH/ Gr S	1
/Clothing	1
/S In	1
OKW/WFST/ Deputy Chief WFST	1
/Foreign	1
/C I II	1
/C I III	1
OKW/WR	1
/AWA/20 V Chief OKW	1
/Inspect of Prisoners of war	1
/T	1
/W Allg.	1
V A. OKW/Prisoners of War Major von Rosenberg, Paris	1
AWA/Prisoner of War Organisation	1
Ing. course Base camps II D Stargar	1
Reserve	68
	———
	= 550
New Reserve (copies)	300
	———
	850

By order of the Chief,
Supreme Command Armed Forces (OKW)
/s/ REINECKE
[Rubber stamp]: Certified v. Graevenitz Generalmajor

[in ink]

Certifying above copy
Koerner (?)
Captain

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 699-PS

Berlin W 8, August 25 39
Unter den Linden 13

Reich Minister Walter Funk

MY FUEHRER!

Let me thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart for the good wishes you sent me for my birthday in such a friendly and kind manner. How happy and thankful we have to be to you that we are allowed to see these overwhelmingly great and world-shaking times and be able to cooperate in the mighty events of these days.

The information transmitted to me by Field Marshal Goering that you, my Fuehrer, have in principal approved last night the measures prepared by me for the financing of the war and for the shaping of wage and price conditions, and of the carrying out of an emergency sacrifice has made me extremely happy. Herewith I report most obediently that by the careful forethought of the last few months I succeeded in making the German Reichsbank so strong internally, so unassailable from the outside, that even the heaviest shocks of the international finance and credit system cannot touch us in any way. Meanwhile, I have quite inconspicuously transferred into gold all assets in any way available of the Reich Bank and the whole Germany economy abroad. Through the suggestions I have worked out to keep down ruthlessly any non-vital consumption and any public expenses and tasks of no importance to the war. We will be in a position to satisfy all demands to be made on the finances and economy without any serious shocks.

As the plenipotentiary general for economical affairs, called upon by you, my Fuehrer, I thought it my duty in this hour to submit this report and this vow.

Heil my Fuehrer
WALTHER FUNK

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 701-PS

The Reich Minister of Justice 4410 b-Vs 1 379/43 g
Berlin W 8, Wilhelmstrasse 65 1 April 1943
Telephone 11 00 44
Long Distance 11 65 16

To The Public Prosecutors of the Courts of Appeal,

To the Commissioner of the Reich Minister of Justice for the penal camps in Emsland.

PAPENBURG (Ems)

Regarding: Poles and Jews who are released from the penal institutions of the Department of Justice.

Instructions for the independent penal institutions.

1. With reference to the new guiding principles for the application of Article 1, Section 2 of the decree of 11 June 1940 (Reich Legal Gazette I S. 877)—attachment I of the decree (RV) of 27 January 1943—9133/2 enclosure I-III a2 2629—the Reich Chief Security Office has directed by the decree of 11 March 1943—II A 2 number 100/43—176:

a. Jews, who in accordance with number VI of the guiding principles, are released from a penal institution, are to be taken by the State Police (Chief) Office competent for the district in which the penal institution is located, for the rest of their lives to the concentration camps Auschwitz or Lublin in accordance with the regulations for protective custody that have been issued.

The same applies to Jews who in the future are released from a penal institution after serving a sentence of confinement.

b. Poles, who in accordance with number VI of the guiding principles are released from a penal institution, are to be taken by the State Police (Chief) Office competent for the district in which the penal institution is located, for the duration of the war to a concentration camp in accordance with the regulations on protective custody that have been issued.

The same applies in the future to Poles who, after serving a term of imprisonment of more than 6 months, are to be discharged by a penal institution.

Conforming to the request of the Chief Office for Reich Security, I ask that in the future,

a. All Jews to be discharged,

b. All Poles to be discharged,

Who have served a sentence of more than 6 months be designated for further confinement to the State Police (Chief) Office competent for the district and are to be placed promptly at its disposal, before the end of sentence for conveyance.

2. This ruling replaces the hitherto ordered return of all Polish prisoners undergoing imprisonment in the Old Reich condemned in annexed Eastern territories. The decree (RV) of 28 July 1942—4410 b Vs 1 1731—has lost its meaning. Imprisonment up to 6 months imposed within the incorporated Eastern territories, excluding exceptions, is to be carried out in these territories, and not in the Old Reich.

By order of

Dr. Eichler
[Stamp: Reichministry of Justice, Office of the Ministry]
Certified:
[signed] Freyer
Clerk of Justice

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 705-PS

The Reichsfuehrer SS Berlin-Grunewald 1. Feb 1943
SS Hauptamt, Office VI Hagenstrasse 45
VI/1—Ni—
VS—Tagbuch No 704/43 geh.
VI-Tagbuch No 214/43 geh.

SECRET

[Stamped:]
000579 * 5 Feb 1943
Akt Z . . . G/S/23

To SS-Standartenfuehrer Sievers
Ahnenerbe Office
Berlin—Dahlem
Puecklerstr 16

By order of SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr Riedweg, Office VI—German Leitstelle—sends in the enclosed the minutes of the conference on the 12 Jan 1943 of the SS-Committee for General Labor in the German zone, with a request for acknowledgement.

By direction

BERGER [?]
(SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer)

The Reichsfuehrer-SS Bln-Wilmersdorf 1, 20 Jan 1943
SS-Hauptamt, Office VI Hohenzollerndamm 31
VI/1—Dr. Schm/Ni.—
VS—Tgb Nr 704/43 geh.
VI—Tgb Nr 214/43 geh.

SECRET

Minutes of the conference on the 12 Jan 1943 at 1200 of the SS-Committee for General Labor in the German zone, took place at the SS-Hauptamt

The following participated in the conference:

1.	SS-Brigadefuehrer Bauer	SS-Fuehrungshauptamt, Kommando Allgemeine-SS.
2.	SS-Oberfuehrer Ellersieck	Kommandeur der SS-Mannschaftshaeuser
3.	SS-Standartenfuehrer Loerner	SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungs-hauptamt
4.	SS-Standartenfuehrer Schmidt	Fuersorge- u. Versorgungsamt Ausland
5.	SS-Standartenfuehrer Sievers	Amt Ahnenerbe
6.	SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr Riedweg	SS-Hauptamt, Amt VI
7.	SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Dr Stier	Stabshauptamt of the Reich Commissioner for the consolidation of the German nationality
8.	SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Paulus	SS-Personal-Hauptamt
9.	SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr Tesch	Amt Lebensborn
10.	SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr Sichelschmidt	Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
11.	SS-Obersturmfuehrer Harderer	Race and Settlement Hauptamt
12.	SS-Obersturmfuehrer Dr Schneider	Amt Ahnenerbe
13.	SS-Obersturmfuehrer Dr Schmidt	SS-Hauptamt, Amt VI
14.	SS-Obersturmfuehrer Ulrich	SS-Hauptamt, Amt VI

As introduction SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr Riedweg delivered a report on conditions in the German territories.

During the period covered by the report, hostile circles in the German territories have made themselves more actively noticeable. Various measures have had an aggravating effect on the political developments, primarily the compulsory labor and service conscription in Flanders and the Netherlands.

The development of the conscription situation makes it necessary to have larger procurement programs organized even in Germanic regions. All Germans—with the exception of the Flemish—are collected in one German association. The Flemish remain in the "Langemarck" regiment.

Meanwhile, the "Prinz Eugen" division has been transferred to Croatia. Furthermore a Croatian legion is to be activated here, which is to be under the command of SS-Gruppenfuehrer Phleps.

Of great importance is the fact that the Fuehrer has assented to the activation of an SS-Standart of French volunteers, which is to be called the "Karl der Grosse" standart.

Norway: Meanwhile in Norway Minister Fuglesang has succeeded the late Minister Lunde after the latter's unfortunate demise. In spite of promises made by the Quisling Party, one cannot count on Norway supplying a contingent of appreciable size.

Denmark: In Denmark the situation is especially favorable since SS-Gruppenfuehrer Dr Best has taken over the control. One can be sure that here SS-Gruppenfuehrer Dr Best will offer a good example of national Reich politics.

The situation in regard to Parteifuehrer Clausen has had unfavorable developments recently. Clausen agreed to the plan of activating a combat corps as introduction to the German Schutzstaffel in Denmark only on the supposition that membership in this corps would exclude membership in the Party. Negotiations for this very necessary collecting organization of the combat corps go on apace. The monopolistic position of the Party is not tenable; all recruits must be brought in, even if Clausen himself—however without his clique—is to stand in the foreground.

Netherlands: Meanwhile Reich Commissioner Dr. Seyss-Inquart has proclaimed Mussert leader of the Netherland people. This measure has had an extremely disturbing effect on the other Germanic countries, especially in Flanders. The decisive role devolves again on the General Commissariat, whose principle of using Mussert too much, in order to disregard him, must be rejected on the part of German Reich policy in the sense of the Schutzstaffel.

Flanders: In Flanders the recent developments of the VNV have become even more unfavorable. Even the very clever policy of the new VNV-leader, Dr Elias, has been a disappointment; Dr Elias, moreover, once stated the opinion that Germany was ready for concessions in the natural political sphere, only when matters were going very badly for her.

Recently the Walloon question has been particularly accentuated. Leon Degrelle, who was a lieutenant in the Walloon Legion and earned there the Iron Cross First Class, is at present in Belgium and uses this time in testing the political barometer in all quarters. Degrelle's intention of founding a Wallonian Allgemeine SS has been rejected. Judging by the connection between religion and politics, it appears in Degrelle's case that he is a Frenchman in his thinking.

A favorable development has occurred in the case of the Flemish Arbeitsdienst. The negotiations carried out by the Reichsarbeitsfuehrer and especially by Oberstarbeitsfuehrer Mueller-Brandenburg with the assent of the Reichsfuehrer SS have had as a result that on the 1 April 1943 labor duty becomes obligatory in Belgium, both in the Flemish and Wallonian sectors. To bridge the gap students and apprentice officials were inducted into the Labor Service on the 15 Jan 43.

Finland: In Finland Field Marshal Mannerheim has been proposed as successor to the national presidency.

In correspondence with General Talvela particular discretion is suggested.

Just now wounded Finns (Officers, NCO's, men and Lottas) are in Germany as guests of the Reichsfuehrer-SS. This caring for the wounded has proved itself quite essential.

Southeast: Meanwhile in the southwest all volunteers from the Germans residing outside the Reich have been assigned to the SS.

In Hungary, as has been previously stated, there are difficulties in regard to the procuring of the necessary bills of exchange for the maintenance of the families of inducted volunteers. The suggestions of the Hungarian government are always only patch-work.

In general a strong violence manifests itself in the southeast as a consequence of the general military situation, and doubtless one must count on the existence of a certain sympathy with hostile powers through the Vatican.

After the order of the 12 August 42 by Reichsleiter Bormann regarding the competence of the Reichsfuehrer-SS in all German matters and the strict supervision of all Party units had been issued, a similar decree was prepared by Reich Minister Dr Lammers for the sphere of the State, which is soon to be issued. The new formulation demands even in sectors of the state the right of the Reichsfuehrer SS to a joint stipulation in fundamental national questions, that is to say, the Reich commissioners are to consult with the Reichsfuehrer SS in all actually fundamental questions regarding the nation.

SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr Riedweg reports again on questions of terminology which had been mentioned in the internal labor conference of the German Leitstelle in Copenhagen. Principally this terminology concerns the conceptions "Reich", "Nation", "Volk" and "Stamm", as well as "nordisch" and "germanisch".

In agreement with the Ahnenerbe office it was determined that the concept "Reich" is to remain reserved for the whole Reich of all German races and people. For Germany the official expression "Deutsches Reich" is to be used.

"Nation", being a concept stamped predominantly by liberalism, is no longer to be applied to the German peoples.

Difficulties arise also in differentiating between the concept "Stamm" and "Volk". The expression "Volk" is whenever possible to include the whole German area.

The word "Stamm", where it applies, is to be used for countries.

In regard to the definition of the term "nordisch" and "germanisch", the first expression must be used less and less. With the expression "nordisch", too high a position has been granted Norway, Sweden and Denmark at the expense of the west Germans.

SS-Standartenfuehrer Sievers of the Ahnenerbe office states again the importance of the December conference of Office VI and reports on the conference of the scientific committee, which has been concluded there. A conference on the German historical work took place in the RSHA.

SS-Standartenfuehrer Loerner reports on an inventory of finances and affirms that a new agreement has been reached between the Reichs Treasurer and the Economic Administrative Office.

SS-Standartenfuehrer Schmidt still wishes a condensation of the bureaus on Flanders for the simplification of the work, in particular shifting the Antwerp bureau to Brussels. In addition he reports on the continuous difficulties in the work of family maintenance especially in Hungary.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 707-PS

SECRET!

The Fuehrer of the Reich
Head of the main office
VS-diary, number 507/44 secret
CdSSHA/Be/We. Adjtr-diary, number 253/44 secret
Please by way of reply give reference and date indicated above
Berlin—Wilmersdorf 1, Hohenzollerndamm 31
Post office box 58

now: Berlin-Grunewald, 8 February 1944

Douglasstrasse, 7/11
001518 Feb. 14, 1944
Document Z G. IR 131
To the "Ancestral Heritage" leader of the SS Sievers
Waischenfeld, Oberfranken

Dear comrade Sievers!

Enclosed herewith I transmit to you the attitude of the main leader of the SS group Jankuhn in regard to the evacuation of the museum of Charkow.

I have looked over the report hurriedly, I have not read it. It is superfluous to discuss it.

Heil Hitler
W.G. Buegel
SS leader

[Pencil note:]

It is a cheap method to do away with my report, which is supported by facts, by referring to matters that are not dealt with in the report because these matters do not pertain to the functions of the Sonderkommando Jahnkuhn, and were not within Jahnkuhn's jurisdiction. Transport space and transport facilities were not supplied by the Waffen SS but by the German Reich-Railroad. This opportunity was available to the opposing side, but was not utilized by them.

SECRET

The Ancestor's Heritage
The Secretary for the Reich Organization
[Der Reichsgeschaeftsfuehrer]

Berlin-Dahlem, 30 Oct 42
Diary # G/h/7 Wo/Bg

To Dozent Dr. Franz Hancar!
Wien III/40, Hiessgasse 4

Subject: Commitment in Russia [Russland-Einsatz]

Dear Dr Hancar!

In order to secure the possessions of important museums and discoveries in the combat zone in the East, the Reichsfuehrer SS has ordered the creation of a special unit under Captain of the SS, Professor Dr. Herbert Jankuhn which has been operating together with an SS division very successfully for quite some time.

In the course of the execution of the order, the collections from Maikop, Pjatigorsk and Woroschilowsk have already been secured, besides other important scientific collections from the four important museums in Northern Caucasia. Work may already be done in these museums, and Professor Dr. Jankuhn proposes to set up a complete registration, by way of drawings and photography, of all prehistoric findings.

I am following a suggestion of Professor Dr. Herbert Jankuhn in asking you whether you would be willing to take over this job, mainly regarding Eastern European prehistoric problems, which ought to be of particular interest to you. In case you would accept, I would like you to let me know when you could start working, and what should have to be done in order to secure your leave.

SS-Captain Professor Dr. Herbert Jankuhn shall return to Germany by the beginning of December. Therefore it will be possible without difficulties to discuss then all pertinent questions during a personal meeting.

Heil Hitler!
signed: Sievers
Lt Col of the SS

Leader of the Staff

Entered Jan. 20, 1944/185
Berlin, Jan. 14, 1944
H.A. II-Dr. Z/Do.

File note for the Leader of the Staff.

Subject: Reply with regard to the letters of the captain in the SS Jankuhn to the Personal Staff of the Reich Fuehrer of SS Office for the Ancestral Heritage, dates August 12, 13, and 22, 1943, respecting the evacuation and destruction of the Charkow Museum.

The criticism, which the captain in the SS delivers against the Special Purpose Staff for very evident reasons, can readily be answered, because he states things without any closer investigation, that should disparage the work of the Special Purpose Staff and the Office devoted to pre- and early historic research, because this latter work is apparently inconvenient to him.

In his letter of 13 August 1943, J. had forgotten to mention that the captain who had rebuilt the museum for prehistoric art was in fact a deputy of the Special Purpose Staff, namely, First Lieutenant Mueller, who by means of truly untiring and objective work during his free time had set up the museum to such an extent that it could again be opened to the public. The museum was visited by numerous officers and men, also by units of the Armed SS and the police. A thorough inventory had been taken, also many photographic copies were on hand. Thus First Lieutenant Mueller had performed a gratifying task in time of war which was generally recognized by the leaders of the units stationed in Charkow. The report of Jankuhn does not make any reference at all to this work of the Special Purpose Staff.

On 6 February 1943, the command was given for the first evacuation of the city. The Special Purpose Staff had then through untiring effort brought out the most valuable prizes of the museum; on 9 February it was necessary for the last members of the office to leave the city, which already had been almost abandoned by German troops. It was impossible at that time to bring out all the material, because the transportation situation did not permit this. It was not really necessary for SS leader Jahnkuhn to point out that these objects were important and worthy of being brought to safety. On the other hand, however, one must also consider the transportation problems that arise at the time of the evacuation of a city. It is evident that at such a time military transports receive unqualified priority, that even the most valuable possessions of culture cannot take precedence over them. Yet the Special Purpose Staff was able to salvage the most important articles of the museum. The remainder was entrusted to the care of the former curator of the museum, Professor Rudenski. Of this balance, again the most valuable was walled up within the enclosures of a bomb-proof cellar. For several days Professor Rudenski succeeded in saving the building from being blown up as intended. Finally, however, on the evening of February 14, 1943, as related by Professor Rudenski, by an oversight of a command of the Waffen SS, a fire broke out in the building and it burned down to the ground. Yet, later on, a large portion of the valuables from the cellar was salvaged again. However, a Gothic sword was missing. Now, as alleged by Jankuhn, it turns out that this sword was preserved by a unit of the Waffen SS.

Captain of the SS J. could have easily learned of these facts, if he had taken the trouble to contact the competent labor group Ukraine of the Special Purpose Staff and not Prof. Hornung, who had been installed in an entirely different district and who knew nothing about the developments in Charkow. At least he would not have exposed himself to the charge that he frivolously and without closer examination of the circumstances had claimed "that the Special Purpose Staff had not done the least for the preservation of the things that were found." The contrary is true.

After the recapture of the city, the valuables were reclaimed from the wreckage and the museum was opened again to the public on July 19, 1943. Thus it was proved anew that the Special Purpose Staff had done everything in the way of securing possessions of great cultural value and preserving them in the interests of the German administration.

Unfortunately, the second loss of Charkow in August 1943 rendered the work of restoration null and void. On August 6 the working staff received an evacuation summons with the order to leave Charkow immediately and without delay. Conditions affecting transportation were the same as in spring. If, indeed, valuable military installations had to remain behind, it is clear that, above all, objects from a museum had to remain behind. If the SS command had trucks at its disposal and could use the transportation facilities without consideration of military needs for the objects of the museum, then this is certainly a matter of very great appreciation. On the other hand, however, it cannot be charged to the Special Purpose Staff that it did not possess adequate transportation facilities. Nevertheless, the co-workers of the working staff have done what they could in order to preserve the most important part of the picture collection. In two days, already under hostile action, a large portion of museum collections was examined for the purpose of qualifying for transportation and then the selected assortment of 300 pictures of Western-European masters and Ukrainian painters and twenty-five costly Ukrainian carpets was packed and shipped. As already at an earlier date the most important collections of the museum, dealing with prehistoric art, had been carried off, the special command Jankuhn could only preserve third and fourth grade pieces of which several could be found in Kiev and other places.

The Special Purpose Staff under these circumstances sees no occasion for making any reproaches against the Special Command Jankuhn. If one was able to have at one's disposal transportation facilities and manpower in a more liberal manner, then it was easy to carry off larger collections. That the Special Command J. had done this is gratefully acknowledged by the Special Purpose Command; since it is being taken for granted that the collection was saved for the owner, namely, the Reichminister of the occupied Eastern districts and that correspondingly it is handed over to the Special Purpose Staff as the deputy of civil affairs. The Special Purpose Staff asks for the necessary action.

The staff command cannot rid itself of the impression that the Captain in the SS Jankuhn submitted his report frivolously on the basis of one-sided information. If he had made inquiries at the proper places without doubt he would have arrived at a different conclusion. At this juncture it is necessary to take a firm stand for the protection of the co-workers of the Special Purpose Staff and to ward off strongly every attack of a bureau that does not clearly understand the conditions.

Moreover, it could have been expected that Captain in the SS J. would have used the opportunity to get acquainted with the bureaus of the Special Purpose Staff and effected some cooperation. With the cooperation of both certainly more material could have been salvaged than had been done regardless (of the handicaps).

signed: Utikal

SS "Ancestral Heritage"
Research Organization
Waischenfeld/Oberfranken, October 6, 1943
To the Chief of the SS Central Bureau
SS Leader Berger, Berlin

Dear SS Leader!

Already on July * * * of this year the need arose to inform you about frictions that developed between co-workers of the SS "Ancestral Heritage" Research Organization and the Special Purpose Staff R.R. in Dnjepropetrowsk. In this connection I did not neglect to mention that Reichminister Rosenberg complained that we had removed prehistoric discoveries from the Caukasus.

In order to complete the picture, I am turning over to you as supplement two reports from Captain in the SS (F) Jankuhn. They refer to the Museum in Charkow and they reveal with full clarity that the men of the Special Purpose Staff R.R.—insofar as we have met them heretofore—lack the simple prerequisites for the work in the East, namely, an unobjectionable, manly behavior.

I am summarizing the two reports and, briefly, I am able to conclude: 1. When the evacuation of Charkow became necessary in the winter of 1942, the Special Purpose Staff R.R. left the city without having done anything for the salvage of the museum.

2. On August 8, 1943 it became known that the possibility of a surrender of Charkow existed. On August 11 at nine in the morning the last man of the Special Purpose Staff R.R. left Charkow. Before August 15 no one considered any evacuation possible. In reality, Charkow was not evacuated until August 24. Not the least had been done for the salvaging of the collections of the museum, even though the care for the museum is in the hands of the Special Purpose Staff R.R. There were even documents on the desks, which leads one to believe that the men concerned abandoned their work as quickly as possible. Captain in the SS Jankuhn thereupon packed up the treasures and ordered them to be shipped.

This behavior of the men of the Special Service Staff R.R. could obviously be described by the most appropriate terms, and we are not at all surprised, if just these people "take a shot at" the men of the SS Reichsfuehrer, who really do nothing but fulfill the duties neglected by the former.

Heil Hitler!
SS Leader

Copy

To the personal staff of the Reich Fuehrer of SS

Office of the SS "Ancestral Heritage" Research Organization, Berlin

Command Post Division
Std., September 25, 1943

Concerning the evacuation of the museum of Poltawa

When it became known that the evacuation of the city of Poltawa by September 21, 1943, was anticipated, I intended to examine personally the condition of the museum there and to order the necessary measures for preserving them, should the need arise.

Since the 03 of the division, SS Leader Daltweiler, had learned during a stay in P. that the salvaging of the museum through a specialist officer of the armed forces on the basis of a command from the O.B., already had begun, a trip to Poltawa was abandoned.

Heil Hitler!
Signed: H. Jankuhn
Captain in the SS (F)

For the correctness of this copy:
SS Leader

Copy III
Special Command, Fp. 16284
Command Post Division, Std., August 22, 1943
To the personal Staff of the Reich Fuehrer of SS

Office of the SS "Ancestral Heritage" Research Organization, Berlin

Regarding the destruction of the museum in Charkow.

On August 21, upon my suggestion, Sergeant in the SS, Dr. Zarp, from KB unit 5, visited the museum in Charkow. He found that the museum building had been burned down completely.

Since the more valuable pieces had been salvaged—as was pointed out in the report of December 8, 1943—no loss of more important objects of culture was sustained through the destruction of the museum.

Signed: H. Jankuhn
Captain in the SS
For the correctness of this copy
SS Leader

Copy I
Special Command Jankuhn, 16284
Command Post Division, Std., August 13, 1943
To the personal Staff of the Reich Fuehrer of SS

Office of the SS "Ancestral Heritage" Research Organization, Berlin

Regarding the destruction of the museum in Charkow in the spring of 1943.

Through the interrogation of Prof. Hornung, the curator of the museum in Dnjipropetrowsk, chosen by the Special Purpose Staff and on the basis of information that was supplied by the commander of the F.K.V. of the secret police and of the security service, the following could be brought to light concerning the fate of the museum of prehistoric art in Charkow in the spring of 1943.

In 1941/42 the museum of prehistoric art in Charkow was re-established anew in the main street of the city, the Sumskaja, by a captain, who for this purpose had been given a furlough. The exhibition is said to have been good and well arranged. Besides collections of prehistoric character there were to be found in the museum articles referring to folklore. When, during the winter campaigns of the months of February and March, the Special Service Staff R.R. left the city without having done the least for the saving of the collections. Merely a Gothic sword and a gold-plated handle are said to have been taken along by one SS unit. Since the salvaging of the piece was not effected through the Security Service Command in Charkow, it must be assumed that a unit of the II SS armored corps took this gorgeous weapon along.

After the retreat of the German troops, the museum was destroyed, apparently by explosion of fire. The Ukrainian collections stored there were destroyed almost completely.

Recent excavations undertaken in the ruins of the building have yielded only insignificant pieces of the material formerly stored there.

Thus one of the most important museums of Russia with collections of great cultural value was given over to destruction through the agencies of the German civil administration.

Signed: Jankuhn
Captain in the SS
For the correctness of this copy
SS Leader

IIa

Exhibit i

To the report of 12 August 1943

This Institute of Culture is confiscated by the Charkow garrison!

It is secured for the Special Command R.R. and is placed under its professional supervision.

Outside of the rules for visit and use, it is forbidden to enter the institute, the taking of material is considered looting and will be punished as such.

Special permits through the Special Command R.R. Charkow, Sumskaja 48.

In the field, June 20, 1943
For the Commander of the garrison
O.K.V.Rat

[Handwritten draft]

Copy 5 times

Special Command Jankuhn 16284 II

Command Post Division, August 12, 1943

SS "Ancestral Heritage" Research Organization, Berlin
034482 x-Oct. 9, 1943, Copy Z B/4r/r22
To the personal Staff of the Reich Fuehrer of SS

Office of the SS "Ancestral Heritage" Research Organization, Berlin

Subject: Evacuation of the museum in Charkow.

On August 8, '43 in the evening it became known that the possibility of an evacuation of Charkow until August 14 existed. On August 10, 1943, I went in the company of an interpreter, SS Sergeant Jacobsen to Charkow. In the afternoon I reported to the commander of the D.K.V. of the SIPO and the SD, Major Krauebitter, and informed him that I was entrusted by the Reichfuehrer SS with the salvage of the museum in the field of operations of the Waffen SS on the Southern front. In this connection I learned of the fate of the museum in Charkow during the evacuation of Charkow in the beginning of 1943; a separate report on that subject is being prepared. At the same time Major Krauebitter informed me that the KVR with the garrison of Charkow, who was responsible for the museums had already left the city days ago. A further inquiry in the buildings of the bureau of the Special Purpose Staff R.R. revealed that this bureau already had left Charkow on the morning of August 10. A survey of the museum in the company of Major Krauebitter revealed the following picture:

The Museum contains a small prehistoric department after the really prehistoric museum had been destroyed in the winter after failure of evacuation. Moreover, it contained a good collection of Ukrainian art of folklore character, small objects of ecclesiastical art, particularly, however, mostly paintings of Ukrainian painters, as the pictures of central- and west-European masters had been transported to Germany by the SD in 1942. The storehouse of the museum contains still numerous pictures. The key to the museum was given to the Ukrainian lady superintendent by the Special Purpose Staff R.R., who also related that at eight o'clock in the morning on October 8 a gentleman of the Special Purpose Staff R.R. had been in the museum and with several pictures had quickly departed at 8:30 o'clock. As a matter of fact, some pictures of the collection were missing, approximately 1%.

After no one had taken steps toward any real preservation of the museum, neither among the garrison nor among the Special Purpose Staff R.R., which according to the poster, referred to as Exhibit I, was responsible for the care of the collection, the packing was begun.

The prehistoric findings—almost exclusively ceramics of the bronze age—were packed in two wooden boxes and shipped by a truck of the EKV; they were to be sent from Kiev to Berlin.

The exhibit of Ukrainian popular art contained textiles, ceramics, glass, costumes, and objects of wood. The greater part is packed in two large wooden boxes and was shipped with the evacuation material of the EKV by rail to Dnjepropetrowsk. Among it was a large tapestry, which on account of its size could not be packed.

From the collection of paintings the most valuable pictures were selected and shipped by rail in the direction of Dnjepropetrowsk.

The documents that remained lying on the desk of the Special Purpose Staff R.R.—a work plan of the Special Purpose Staff R.R. signed by a section chief Schmidt and a report on Ukrainian art—were saved and turned over to the EKV of the SIPO and the SD.

Signed: Jankuhn
Captain in the SS
For the correctness of this copy
SS Leader

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 710-PS

The Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich
Commissioner for the Four Year Plan
Chairman of the Ministerial Council for National Defense
Berlin, 31 July 1941

To: The Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service; SS-Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich

Complementing the task that was assigned to you on 24 January 1939, which dealt with the carrying out of emigration and evacuation, a solution of the Jewish problem, as advantageous as possible, I hereby charge you with making all necessary preparations in regard to organizational and financial matters for bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe.

Wherever other governmental agencies are involved, these are to cooperate with you.

I charge you furthermore to send me, before long, an overall plan concerning the organizational, factual and material measures necessary for the accomplishment of the desired solution of the Jewish question.

signed: GOERING

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 728-PS

Copy

SECRET

DRAFT
Ambassador RITTER No. 444, SALZBURG, 20 June 1944

1. To Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces With reference to your correspondence of 15 June 1944, Nr.

WFSt/Qu. (Verw.) Nr. 771793/44 gKChefs. II. Ang., concerning the treatment of enemy terror-aviators.

In spite of the obvious objections, founded on international law and foreign politics, the Foreign Office is basically in agreement with the proposed measures.

In the examination of the individual cases a distinction must be made between the cases of lynching and the cases of special treatment by the S.D. [Security Service].

I. In the cases of lynching, the precise establishment of the circumstances deserving punishment, according to points 1-4 of the communication of 15 June, is not very essential. First, the German authorities are not directly responsible, since death had occurred, before a German official became concerned with the case. Furthermore, the accompanying circumstances will be such, that it will not be difficult to depict the case in an appropriate manner upon publication. Hence, in cases of lynching, it will be of primary importance correctly to handle the individual case upon publication.

II. The suggested procedure for special treatment by the S.D. including subsequent publication, would be tenable, only if Germany, on this occasion simultaneously would openly repudiate the commitment of International Law, presently in force and still recognized by Germany. When an enemy aviator is seized by the Army or by the Police, and is delivered to the Air Forces (P.W.) Reception Camp Oberursel, he has received, by this very fact, the legal status of a prisoner of war. The Prisoner of War Treaty of 27 July 1929 establishes definite rules on the prosecution and sentencing of the Prisoner of War, and the execution of the death penalty, as for example in Article 66: Death sentences may be carried out only three months after the protective power has been notified of the sentence; in Article 63: a prisoner of war will be tried only by the same courts and under the same procedure as members of the German Armed Forces. These rules are so specific, that it would be futile to try to cover up any violation of them by clever wording of the publication of an individual incident. On the other hand, the Foreign Office cannot recommend on this occasion a formal repudiation of the Prisoner of War Treaty.

An emergency solution would be to prevent suspected fliers from ever attaining a legal Prisoner of War status, that is, that immediately upon seizure they be told that they are not considered Prisoners of War but criminals, that they would not be turned over to the agencies having jurisdiction over Prisoners of War; hence not to go to a Prisoner of War Camp; but that they would be delivered to the authorities in charge of the prosecution of criminal acts and that they would be tried in a summary proceeding. If the evidence at the trial should reveal that the special procedure is not applicable to a particular case, the fliers concerned may subsequently be given the status of Prisoner of War by transfer to the Air Forces (P.W.) Reception Camp Oberursel. Naturally, not even this expedient will prevent the possibility that Germany will be accused of the violation of existing treaties and maybe not even the adoption of reprisals upon German prisoners of war. At any rate this solution would enable us clearly to define our attitude, thus relieving us of the necessity of openly having to renounce the present agreements or of the need of having to use excuses, which no one would believe, upon the publication of each individual case.

Of the acts deemed crimes listed under 1-4 by the letter of 15 June, we note that those listed under 1 and 4 are legally unobjectionable. Those under 2 and 3 are not. The Foreign Office, however, would be willing to disregard this. Perhaps it would be preferable to combine Nos. 1, 3, and 4 to the effect that all strafing attacks on the civilian population by an aviator will be dealt with as crimes. The various facts under 1, 3 and 4 would then be significant only as especially outstanding examples. The Foreign Office sees no reason why such attacks should not be expiated, when they are directed against the civilian population in ordinary dwelling houses, in automobiles, on riverboats, etc.

The Foreign Office bases its opinion on the fact that it is altogether forbidden to German fliers to strafe the civilian population during their attacks in England. According to information received by the Foreign Office, such an order was issued some time ago by the Supreme Commander of the Air Forces. In case of general publication, the existence of such an order could be pointed out.

III. It follows from the above, that the main weight of the action will have to be placed on lynchings. Should the campaign be carried out to such an extent that the purpose, to wit: "the deterrence of enemy aviators" is actually achieved, which goal is favored by the Foreign Office, then the strafing attacks by enemy fliers upon the civilian populations must be stressed in a completely different propagandist manner than heretofore; if not in the publicity for home consumption, then certainly in the propaganda directed to foreign countries. The pertinent German local departments, most likely the police, would have to be informed immediately to submit a short, truthful report to a central depository in Berlin giving particulars as to place, time, number of dead and wounded.

This central depository would at once forward these reports to the Foreign Office for exploitation. Since similar strafing attacks upon civilian populations have occurred in other countries, for example, in France, Belgium, Croatia and Rumania, the pertinent German departments or the governments in these countries are to be directed to collect the instances of such strafing attacks against the civilian population in the same manner and to exploit them propagandistically in foreign countries, in collaboration with German offices.

IV. In the letter of 15 June the intention was communicated that until further notice, an understanding with the Foreign Office would have to be reached prior to any publication. The Foreign Office attaches particular value to this point and also to the fact that this understanding be reached, not only until further notice, but for the entire duration of the campaign.

By order

(signed) RITTER [crossed out]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 729-PS

[Handwritten note:]
20 June
Chief of Supreme Command of Armed Forces (Chef/OKW)
K [Keitel]
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
Nr.771793/44 gKChefs.II.Ang., WFSt/Qu. (Verw.1)

Fuehrer's Headquarters, 14 June 1944

Secret
2 Copies, Copy No. 2
Top Secret
By Officer Courier only

Subject: Treatment of enemy terror aviators [hand written note: mailed 17 June]

To the Supreme Commander of the Air Force, Attention: Col. of the General Staff von Brauchitsch

1. On the basis of preliminary discussions and after consultation with the Foreign Minister and with the Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service, the following activities are to be considered the acts of terror, which are to be taken into consideration upon the publication of an instance of lynching and which will justify the transfer of enemy aviators from the Air Forces (P.W.) Reception Camp Oberursel to the S.D. [Security Service] for special treatment:

1. Low-level aerial attacks upon the civilian population—upon individuals as well as upon groups.

2. The shooting of our own downed (German) air crews, while parachuting to earth.

3. Low-level aerial attacks upon passenger trains engaged in public (civilian) transportation.

4. Low-level aerial attacks upon Army and Civilian Hospitals and upon hospital trains, which are clearly marked with the Red Cross:

It is requested to secure the approval of the Reichsmarshall for this draft of prohibited acts, and if he does approve, orally to instruct the commandant of the Air Force (P.W.) Reception Camp Oberursel to proceed accordingly.

It is further requested that the approval of the Reichsmarshall be obtained, for the method intended to be used in the procedure of publication as expressed in the enclosed communication to the Foreign Secretary.

A written confirmation is requested, if feasible, by the 18th of this month.

Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
[initialed] K [Keitel] 16 June
1 Enclosure

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 730-PS

MOST SECRET

Draft

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
Fuehrer Hq, 15/6/1944
WFSt/Qu. (Verw.1) No. 77193/44 Most Secret S.O. only II.Ang.
3 Copies, 2nd Copy
Subject: Treatment of enemy terror aviators
S.O. only
access only through officer
Pencil note: dispatched 17/6 =1030.

To Foreign Office, for the attention of Ambassador Ritter, Salzburg.

For the announcement of such cases as have led to lynch justice being taken by the population or—in the case of capture by the armed forces or the police—to special treatment by the SD, it is necessary to determine clearly what facts should be regarded as evidence of a criminal action in this sense.

In agreement with the Commander in Chief of the air force, I intend to establish the following formula. It may also serve as instruction to the commandants of the reception Camp for Aviators at Oberursel in these cases, where investigation in that camp shows that it would be appropriate to segregate the offender owing to confirmation of the suspicion or to hand turnover to the SD.

1. Attacks with aircraft armament on the civilian population, whether on individuals or crowds;

2. Firing on our own (German) air crews while suspended by parachute after having been shot down;

3. Attacks with aircraft armament on passenger trains, if the public service.

4. Attacks with aircraft armament on military hospitals, hospitals and hospital trains which are clearly marked with the Red Cross.

Prior to any announcement of a case in the press, over the wireless, etc., it must be assured that name, unit, place of occurrence and other relevant particulars form a convincing picture, by whose publication the intended deterrent effect to further acts of murder could be achieved. In drafting the publications, it will have to be borne in mind that protests on the part of the enemy are to be expected from all quarters. It is therefore intended, in agreement with the Chief of the Security Police and the SD, and with the Commander in Chief of the Air Force, that, prior to each publication, until further notice, agreement should be reached between the Supreme Command of the air force, the armed forces Ops Staff, the Foreign Office and the SD., to determine the facts, time and form of the announcement.

I would ask you to confirm, if possible by the 18th of this month, that you are in agreement with the above formula and with the intended procedure for the announcements.

3/96 K [initialled by Keitel]
16/6

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 731-PS

Chief of the Command Staff of the Armed Forces
Chef WFSt
Please direct drafting of order
W [Warlimont-?] K [Keitel] 21 May
Deputy Chief of Command Staff of the Armed Forces.
[note apparently written by Keitel]
Must * * * go to the Reichsfuehrer SS

After a report of the Reichsmarshall [Goering] General Korten makes the following statement:

[Note: All the above remarks are handwritten.]

Memorandum

The Fuehrer has rendered the following decision in regard to measures to be taken against Anglo-American air crews, in special instances; downed enemy airmen are to be shot without court martial proceedings in the following instances:

1. In the event of the shooting of our own (German) downed air crews while they are parachuting to earth;

2. In the event of aerial attacks upon German planes, which have made emergency landings, and whose crews are in the immediate vicinity;

3. In the event of attacks upon railway trains engaged in public (civilian) transportation;

4. In the event of low-level aerial attacks upon individual civilians (farmers, workers, single vehicles, etc.). [Note—this paragraph was amended to read: In the event of low-level aerial attacks upon civilian population, single civilian vehicles, etc. The words "civilian population" are in Jodl's handwriting.]

[Note on bottom of page referring to item 2: "I consider this point dangerous. For, to attack an airplane which has made an emergency landing, can not be classified as Gangster Method but is in complete agreement with the strictest standards of civilized warfare."]

J. [Jodl]

[Note on left margin: The order should be preceded by a preamble in which the disregard of the most primitive laws—civilization—(balance unintelligible).]

J. [Jodl] 22 May

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 732-PS

The Reichsmarshall of Germany Adjutant's Office

Berlin W8 the Leipziger Str. 3

Teleph 120044 Headquarters June 19, 1944

Adj. Nr. 1605/44 secret

Concerns: Treatment of the Enemy Terror Aviators.

Reference: Letter Nr. 771793/44 top secret II Ang. WFST/Qu. Command Staff of the Armed Forces/Supply. (Verw. 1) June 15, 1944.

2 copies, Copy No. 1

To The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, Generalfieldmarshall Keitel.

Mr. Reichsmarshall remarked to the above letter: "We cannot control the reaction of the population any way. Adequate precaution has to be taken that the populace does not react in the same manner against other enemy aviators not belonging to the category mentioned above. In my opinion facts of the above cases can be handled any time by a court, the acts being murder, forbidden by the enemy to its aviators."

Feske
Lieutenant Colonel in the General Staff
3/91

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 733-PS

WFSt/Qu. (Verw. 1)
Supreme Command Staff of the Armed Forces; Supply Section
26 June 1944

Subject: Treatment of Terror-aviators

Telephone Memorandum

Telephone call by Captain Breuer from the Adjutant's Office of the Reichsmarshall:

The Reichsmarshall agrees with the communicated wording of the definition of terror-aviators and with the proposed procedure. He asks that he be instructed today about the measures taken.

[signature illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 735-PS

TOP SECRET

Access only through officer
Fuehrer Headquarters 6.6.1944
Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces Ops Staff
No. 771793/44 Top Secret, S.O. only

Subject: Treatment of enemy terror aviators

Minutes of a meeting

1. Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner informed the deputy Chief of WFSt in Klessheim on the afternoon of 6.6, that a conference on this question had been held shortly before between the Reich Marshall, the Reich Foreign Minister and the Reichsfuehrer SS. Contrary to the original suggestion made by the Reich Foreign Minister who wished to include every type of terror attack on the German civilian population, that is, also bombing attacks on cities, it was agreed in the above conference that merely those attacks carried out with A/C armament, aimed directly at the civilian population and their property, should be taken as the standard for the evidence of a criminal action in this sense. Lynch law would have to be the rule. On the contrary, there has been no question of court martial sentence or handing over to the police.

2. Deputy Chief of WFSt stated the following:

a. First and foremost, following the lines of the generally distributed declaration made by Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels and numerous press notices written in the same vein, it is essential to announce any definitely established incident of this kind giving the names and units of the aviators, the place the incident occurred and any other relevant facts. The purpose of this would be to make clear the serious intentions of the Germans in the face of disbelieving enemy propaganda and especially to discourage effectively any further murderous action against our civilian population. Therefore the question is whether the SD knows of such a case or whether the necessary proof is available from which to construct a case like this with the required statements. Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner replied to both in the negative.

b. Deputy Chief of the WFSt mentioned that, apart from Lynch law, a procedure must be worked out for segregating those enemy aviators, who are suspected of criminal action of this kind, until they are received into the Reception Camp for aviators at Oberursel; if the suspicion was confirmed, they would be handed over to the SD for special treatment.

For this purpose the WFSt would cooperate with the Supreme Command of the Air Force to set out the necessary regulations for the use of the head of the camp at Oberursel.

Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner expressed his complete agreement with this view and that the SD take charge of those aviators segregated.

c. On the question of making announcements, it is settled that, for the present, agreement should be reached in every case between OKW/WFSt, OKL, and the Reichsfuehrer SS to decide the form that the announcement should take.

The participation of the Foreign office is to be assured by the WFSt.

3. At a conference with Colonel von Brauchitsch (C-in-C Air Force) on 6.6, it was settled that the following actions were to be regarded as terror-action, justifying Lynch law.

a. Low level attacks with aircraft armament on the civilian population, single persons as well as crowds.

b. Shooting on our own (German) air crews in the air who have bailed out.

c. Attacks with aircraft armament on passenger trains in the public service.

d. Attacks with aircraft armament on military hospitals, hospitals and hospital-trains which are clearly marked with the Red Cross.

The head of the Reception camp for aviators at Oberursel will be informed of these facts given in Section 3 above. If the facts of any case of this kind are established on examination, the prisoners are to be handed over to the SD. Colonel von Brauchitsch declared, at the end, that another report to the Reich Marshall on this subject would be superfluous.

sgd. Warlimont

Distribution:
Chief OKW via Chief WFSt—1st copy
Deputy Chief WFSt/Ktb.—2nd copy
Qu (rough copy)—3rd copy

Remarks by the Chief of OKW on the agenda dated 6.6.44 No. 771793/44

Top Secret S.O. only.

If one allows the people to carry out Lynch law, it is difficult to enforce rules!

Min. Dir. Berndt got out and then shot the enemy aviators on the road.

I am against legal procedure! It doesn't work out!

[sgd.] K. [Keitel]

Remarks by Chief of WFSt:

To 3. This conference is insufficient. The following points must be decided quite definitely in conjunction with the Foreign Office:

1. What do we consider as murder?

Is RR in agreement with point 3b?

2. How should the procedure be carried out?

a. by the people?

b. by the authorities?

3. How can we guarantee that the procedure be not also carried out against other enemy aviators?

4. Should some legal procedure be arranged or not?

[sgd.] J. [Jodl]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 737-PS

WFst/ Qu. (Verw. 1)
No. 771761/44 Top Secret [initial] W. [Warlimont] 4 June
4 June 1944
Top Secret
2 Copies, Copy No. 1
Top Secret
Only by Officer

Subject: Treatment of the enemy terror aviators

Conference Notes

I. Pursuant to the order of the Chief of the Staff of the Armed Forces and Deputy Chief of the Command Staff of the Armed Forces the following is decreed:

1. It is to be ascertained from the Reichfuehrer SS through SS Major Grothmann whether and in what form the information given by the Fuehrer to the Reichfuehrer SS, that in one or more instances fliers, who had been shot down during strafing attacks on the population, had been lynched by the latter, has meanwhile gone out. If the answer should be "no", in what manner does the Reichfuehrer intend to proceed in the near future.

2. From the Commander in Chief of the Air Forces (Colonel von Brauchitsch) it is to be ascertained what specific acts of enemy fliers are to be considered and handled as deserving death according to the opinion of the Reichsmarshall. Reference to this: The 4 points of the memorandum [731-PS] by the Chief of the Command Staff of the Armed Forces (Chef, WFst.) of 20-22 May based on the information of General Korten after report of the Reichsmarshall. [L-166, par. 20] * * *

3. After the clarification of point 2, the preparation of a directive to the Commandant of the camp at Oberursel stating in what cases the prisoners are to be turned over to the SD, specifying in a more detailed manner the cases which are to be treated as deserving of death, and the points of view which are to be followed in the subsequent procedure. Reference relative to this: Statement of Colonel von Brauchitsch according to the notes of 26 May.

This directive is to be prepared only in two copies and, after consultation with Colonel von Brauchitsch, it is to be forwarded to the Commander in Chief of the Air Forces with the instructions to communicate it to the commandant of the camp at Oberursel orally only.

4. It is to be ascertained from the Chief of the Armed Forces Propaganda whether he has any information concerning any new steps taken in this matter by the Reichfuehrer SS.

5. In accordance with the instructions issued in the evening of 3 June, by the Chief of the Command Staff of the Armed Forces, the Foreign Office is to be informed of the situation in the evening with the following purposes in view:

a. That the formulation of the notices of the Reich Fuehrer SS and the other measures should be undertaken in an appropriate manner and in accord with the Foreign Office; and

b. To be prepared in advance against protests by the enemy powers, so as to be in a position to answer them immediately, and thus to prevent occurrences such as those which took place in connection with the escape of the Anglo-American aviators from camp Sagan.

Ambassador Ritter has been already notified accordingly by the Chief of the Command Staff of the Armed Forces.

II. It was impossible to clarify points 1 and 2 (in this connection point 3 as well) until 23 hours since neither Colonel von Brauchitsch nor an SS officer on the Command Staff Bergwald could be contacted. A telephone conference with Major Grothmann has been agreed upon for 4 June at 10:00 o'clock.

Distribution:
Deputy Chief of the
Command Staff of
the Armed Forces Copy No. 1 [pencilled notation]
Qu. (Draft) Copy No. 2 destroyed according to—
[initials] 18 August [illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 740-PS

Ops. Staff of the Armed Forces (Verw.1)
No. 006988/44 Secret

30 June 1944
Secret
3 Copies, Copy No. 1

Subject: Treatment of enemy terror-aviators

[Marginal note: "We must really do something about this now. What is still necessary?"]

[initialed] W.
[Warlimont]
[Initialed] K [Keitel] 30/6

Agenda

I. Enclosed I submit the draft of a reply of the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, which has been passed to the Armed Forces Ops Staff (WFSt) through Ambassador Ritter.

Ambassador Ritter has advised us by telephone on 29 June that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has approved this draft, but that he has ordered Envoy Sonnleitner to present the attitude of the Foreign Office to the Fuehrer, before the letter is sent to the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. The letter is to be forwarded to the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces only after the approval by the Fuehrer of the principles established by the Foreign Office.

II. The Reichsmarshall agrees with the precise wording of the definition of the term "terror-aviators" as given by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces and with the proposed procedure.

/s/ WARLIMONT
Distribution:
Chief of Supreme Command of Armed Forces via
Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces Ops. Staff Copy #1
KTB (War Diary) Copy #2
Qu (Verw.1) Copy #3
[pencil note illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 741-PS

Supreme Command Staff of the Armed Forces/G-4
5 July 1944

SECRET

Memorandum with reference to Terror-Aviators

In his midday report of 4 July the Fuehrer has issued the following directive:

According to press reports the Anglo-Americans intend to subject to air attack small localities without any war-economic or military value, as a reprisal against V-1. In the event this report proves true, the Fuehrer orders that notice be served via radio and the press that every enemy aviator who is shot down while participating in such an attack is not entitled to treatment as a prisoner of war but that he will be treated as a murderer as soon as he falls into German hands. This rule shall apply to all attacks on small localities which constitute neither military targets, nor communication targets nor armament targets, etc., and are therefore of no military significance.

Nothing is to be done at the moment; on the contrary, measures of this sort are only to be discussed with the Armed Forces Legal Section (WR) and with the Foreign Office.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 743-PS

WFSt/Qu. 2 (Ost)
SSD [stamped]
SSD—teletype
[illegible pencil marks]
September 8th, 1944.
[illegible pencil marks]
Secret [stamped]
To
1. Gen. St.d.H./Gen.Qu./Chefgr. (Anna)
2. Gen. St.d.H./Gen.Qu./K.Verw. (Anna-Bu)
3. Ob. Heeresgruppe Nord HM1X [in pencil]
4. Ob. Heeresgruppe Mitte
5. Wi Stab Ost
6. Wehrkreiskommando I.
With addresses

Subject: Utilization of the soil in parts of the Reichskommissariat Ostland.

1. The Fuehrer has ordered the district leader (Gauleiter) Koch to carry out the utilization of the soil in the parts of the Reichskommissariat Ostland which are occupied by the Army Group Middle. Further, the Fuehrer has ordered that all German and local administrative authorities are bound by the directives of Gauleiter Koch. Concerning the exploitation of natural resources and other products, Gauleiter Koch has to keep in touch with the competent supreme authorities of the Reich.

2. All quarters of the Armed Forces are to give Gauleiter Koch their utmost support in the execution of this order.

3. The order of September 5th, 1944, concerning the full powers given by the Fuehrer to Gauleiter Koch is hereby cancelled.

[illegible pencil remark]
(signed) Keitel.
OKW/WFSt/Qu.2 (East) number 0 6891/44 secret [in pencil]
5031 [in pencil] [illegible pencil remarks]

BOC—OKW—1620 [in pencil]

Further Distribution:
Head of the Party Chancellery
Minister of the Reich and Head of the Reich Chancellery
Gauleiter Koch, Koenigsberg
General Staff of the Army Gen.St.d.H./Gen.Qu./K. Verw.
(Anna)
[pencil note on the right side]; ab 9/9.44 [initials]
(2 stamps)

SECRET [stamped]

Teletype

SSD [in red pencil]
Fuehrer Headquarters, 5.9.44.
Secret [in red pencil]
12F [in pencil]
To:
1. Gen. St. d. H./Gen. Qu.
2. Ob. Heeresgruppe Nord
3. O.B. Heeresgruppe Mitte [in pencil]
4. Wi Stab Ost
5. Wehrkreiskommando I.

The Fuehrer will intrust Gauleiter Koch, East Russia, with the economic evacuation of the Ostland occupied by us and will give him all full powers necessary for that purpose. Apart from bringing food-stuffs back we mean to seize useful products, machines etc.

All quarters of the armed forces have to support Gauleiter Koch as far as possible.

The Chef OKW
Certified copy [signed] Keitel [in pencil]
Schlossmann
Army Major.
[stamped]
SSD FS WNOF Number 4563 arrived September 5th, 1944
2240 o'clock forwarded on......o'clock to.....
by................

[illegible pencil remarks]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 744-PS

[Illegible pencil notes]

8 July 1943

SECRET

Chief of the Supreme Command Armed Forces (OKW)
Armed Forces General Staff (WFST)
Organization (II) No. 02938/43 Secret 2235
Ref. 2105
Subject: Manpower for Coal Mining

For the execution of the enlarged iron and steel program, the Fuehrer has ordered on 7 July the absolute guarantee of the necessary coal production, and for that purpose he has ordered to cover the requirements for manpower with prisoners of war.

The Fuehrer demands that the measures described below will be used to add 300,000 additional workers to the coal mining industry finally.

1. Of the Soviet prisoners of war in our hands—with the exception of those of Finland, Norway and those who are employed in T/O positions by the troops, 200,000 prisoners of war fit for coal mining are to be transferred immediately as the first installment by 1 Sept 43 by the plenipotentiary general for labor allocation with the consent of the chief, supreme command armed forces (AWA/chief prisoner of war affairs) trainload by trainload. As far as necessary the GBA (plenipotentiary for manpower) will provide substitutes.

2. In case of the receipt of new Soviet prisoners of war, the requirements of the coal mining industry have absolute priority over all other demands until further notice.

All prisoners of war, captured since 5 July 43 in the East, are to be sent to camps of the supreme command armed forces, and from there they are to be made available immediately or by exchange with other consumers to the plenipotentiary for labor allocation for use in the coal mining industry; the chairman of the national coal association has the immediate right of choice already in the prisoner of war camps of the supreme command armed forces area with the aid of his agencies.

3. Soviet professional coal miners are to be sent without exception from all prisoners of war allocation points according to their vocational training to the plenipotentiary for labor allocation against replacements for use in mining.

4. All male prisoners, from 16 to 55 years age, captured in guerilla fighting in the operational area, the army area, the Eastern commissariats, the Government General and the Balkans, will in the future be considered prisoners of war. The same applies to those males in the newly conquered territories of the East. They are to be sent to prisoner of war camps, and are to be brought from there for labor allocation in the Reich.

The chief of the army general staff and the Reichsfuehrer SS after consultation will issue within their jurisdiction the necessary directives on the conscription and further treatment of family members.

For presentation to the Fuehrer, the chief of the affairs of prisoners of war reports to me every ten days on the development of the action, T. for the first time of 25 July 43 as of 20 July 43.

Keitel [signed in ink]

Distribution:

Army General Staff

Supreme Commander Airforce

Airforce General Staff

Chief of army armament and Commander of the replacement army

General armed forces operation office (AWA) chief of prisoner of war affairs

Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of German Police

Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, attention State Secretary Koerner

Reichminister for armament and nutritions

Chairman of the Reich coal association [Reichsvereinigung Kohle] State councillor Pleiger.

The necessary information of further agencies, who are also concerned will be given by AWA with the consent of the plenipotentiary for labor allocation (GBA).

The Reichsfuehrer SS Field Headquarters
5 Aug 1943
Adjutant Journal No. 891/43 secret

Subject: Manpower for coal mining industry.

Reference: Letter of the command staff of the Reichsfuehrer SS—journal No. Ia/1909/43 secret.

Secret

1. Chief of the personal staff of Reichsfuehrer SS

2. SS main office

3. Reich security main office [RSHA]

4. Race and resettlement main office—SS

5. Main office, ordinary police

6. SS economic administrative main office

7. SS personal main office

8. Main office SS court

9. SS Supreme command—Headquarters of the Waffen SS

10. Staff Headquarters of the Reich commissar for the consolidation of Germanism

11. Main office center for Racial Germans [Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle]

12. Office of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Heissmeyer

13. Chief of the guerilla-fighting units

14. Higher SS and Police Leader Ostland

15. Higher SS and Police Leader Russia-Center

16. Higher SS and Police Leader Russia-South

17. Higher SS and Police Leader Northeast

18. Higher SS and Police Leader East

19. Higher SS and Police Leader Alpine territory

20. Higher SS and Police Leader Serbia

21. Commissioner of the Reichsfuehrer SS for Croatia.

To figure 4. of the above mentioned order, I order that all young female prisoners, capable of work, are to be sent to Germany for work through the agency of Reich Commissioner Sauckel.

Children, old women and men are to be collected and employed in the women's and children's camps, established by me, on estates as well as on the border of the evacuated area.

/s/ H. Himmler
For the Reichfuehrer
Grothmann [in ink]
SS Sturmbannfuehrer [Major]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 745-PS

Security Service of the Reich Fuehrer of SS

(SS) Security Service, Section Koblenz

111 .4 B No. 11/44 gKs-S/fd
Koblenz, June 12, 1944
3 copies
3rd copy Top Secret

To the Inspector of Security Police and of SD SS-Colonel Bomann

Wiesbaden.

For information:

To the Director of the State Police Office Koblenz SS Major Dr. Christiann

Koblenz.

Concerns: Enemy aviators who have been shot down
Reference: Your letter—IV 2a (new) 43/44 gKs—of 21.4.1944

With reference to your letter and to the preceding oral consultations, it is announced that the OKW issued a similarly worded decree which was read to the company leaders. The appropriate wording of the decree was that German soldiers cannot be expected to give their protection to murderers of German people. Further confidential information was that the company commanders informed their companies accordingly and gave them to understand that value is no longer placed on imprisoned enemy aviators.

The decree of the OKW which was read as a top secret military document, was presented on 3.6.1944.

Acknowledgement is requested.
The head of the SD Section Koblenz
(SS) Lieutenant-Colonel
[sig. illegible]
Wiesbaden, 21 April 1944
Top Secret
9 copies
9th copy

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 754-PS

WFSt/Op (Army Command Staff) [Wehrmachts Fuehrungstab]

TOP SECRET

[pencilled notes illegible]
28 Oct 1944
6 copies
5th Copy

KR—Teletype

1. Geb [?] AOK (Army Supreme Command) 20 2. For information: (WB) Armed Forces Commander in Chief, Norway 3. For information: Reich Commissioner for the Occupied Norwegian Territories 4. OKM (Supreme Command, Navy) /1. Skl. (Koralle)

Because of the unwillingness of the north Norwegian population to voluntarily evacuate, the Fuehrer has agreed to the proposals of the commissioner for the occupied Norwegian territories, and has ordered, that the entire Norwegian population east of fjord of Lyngen be evacuated by force in the interest of their own security, and that all homes are to be burned down or destroyed.

The supreme commander, Northern Finland, is responsible, that the Fuehrer's order is carried out without consideration. Only by this method can it be prevented, that the Russians with strong forces, aided by these homes and the people, familiar with the terrain, follow our withdrawal operations during this winter and shortly appear in front of our position in Lyngen. This is not the place for sympathy for the civilian population.

[Pencilled note bottom page 1: BDC—OKW 1612.]

[Stamped:] 13/184

It must be made clear to the troops, engaged in this action, that the Norwegians will be thankful in a few months that they were saved from Bolshevism, and that the barbarian methods of the air war against our German country and her cultural shrines have brought a thousand times more misery to our people if compared with the humane evacuation and destruction of homes in Northern Norway, which is necessary for our war effort, and which, if it is not done, must be paid for with blood of German soldiers.

The population—whose livelihood is fishing—in Northern Norway, furthermore has enough shipping space at its disposal to be able to get out of the way en mass across the water. A large part of the small Norwegian ships which are kept hidden at present can be used for this and can later also be used for our own transportation needs.

The danger of the formation of guerilla bands on the part of the Norwegians appears to be negligible since they can no longer use the houses during the winter.

I.A. [By order]
signed: JODL
Supreme Command Armed Forces/Armed Forces Command St/
Army Operations/North/No 0012887/44 top secret
Distribution:

Chief Armed Forces Command St (1st copy)

Deputy Chief/Ktb (2nd copy)

Operations (Army) operations (Navy) (1 each 3rd & 4th copies)

Quartermaster and G-2 (1 each 5th & 6th copies)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 765-PS

Copy

Teletype Message Munich 47 767 10 November 1938—0120—
To all State Police Main Offices and Field Offices
To all SD—Main Sectors and to SD—Sub-Sectors

SECRET

Flash Urgent to be submitted at once. Urgent—to be submitted immediately to the Chief or his deputy.

Regards: Measures against Jews to-night.

Because of the attempt on the life of von Rath, Legation Secretary in Paris, demonstrations against the Jews are to be expected in the entire Reich in the course of this night—from the 9th to the 10th of November 1938. For the handling of these actions the following directions are issued:

1. The chiefs of the State Police Offices or their deputies will immediately after receipt of this teletype message establish telephone contact with the political leadership offices—Gau Directorate or Kreis Directorate—within their region and arrange a conference about the handling of the demonstrations. The respective inspectors and commanders of the Order Police are to participate in the conference. In this conference the political leadership offices are to be informed that the German police have received the following directives from the Reichsfuehrer of the SS and Chief of the German Police, which directives are to be conformed to by the political leadership offices in an appropriate manner:

a. Only such measures may be taken which do not jeopardize German life or property (for instance, burning of synagogues only if there is no danger of fires for the neighborhood).

b. Business establishments and homes of Jews may be destroyed but not looted. The police have been instructed to supervise the execution of these directives and to arrest looters.

c. In business streets special case is to be taken that non-Jewish establishments will be safeguarded at all cost against damage.

d. Subjects of foreign countries may not be molested even if they are Jews.

2. Under the provision that the directives given under No. 1 are being complied with, the demonstrations are not to be prevented but merely supervised regarding compliance with the directives.

3. Immediately after receipt of this teletype the archives of the Jewish communities are to be confiscated by the police, so that they will not be destroyed in the course of the demonstrations. Important in this respect is historically valuable material, not recent tax lists, etc. The archives are to be delivered to the respective SD Office.

4. The direction of the measures of the Safety Police regarding the demonstrations against Jews is in the hands of the State Police Offices, in as much as the inspectors of the Safety Police do not issue different directives. For the performance of the measures of the Safety Police, officers of the criminal police as well as members of the SD, the special troops and the SS, may be used.

5. As soon as the events of this night permit the use of the designated officers, as many Jews, particularly wealthy ones, as the local jails will hold, are to be arrested in all districts. Initially only healthy male Jews, not too old, are to be arrested. After the arrests have been carried out the appropriate concentration camp is to be contacted immediately with a view to a quick transfer of the Jews to the camps. Special care is to be taken that Jews arrested on the basis of this directive will not be mistreated.

6. The content of this order is to be communicated to the respective inspectors and commanders of the Order Police and to the SD Chief Sectors and the SD Sub-Sectors with the notification that these police measures have been issued by the Reichsfuehrer of the SS and the Chief of the German Police. The Chief of the Order Police issues appropriate orders to the Fire Department Police. The Safety Police and the Order Police are to work in closest coordination in the execution of these measures.

The receipt of this teletype is to be confirmed by the State Police Director or a deputy via teletype to the Secret State Police Office into the hands of SS Colonel [Standartenfuehrer] Muller.

Signed: HEYDRICH
SS General [Gruppenfuehrer]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 775-PS

[Memorandum of Minister of Interior concerning
the Clarification of Police Matters, 1935]

As chief of the department of police in the Reich and Prussian ministry of the interior, I have noticed lately an ever increasing internal political tension which makes a clarification of authority both as regards the general police and more especially the political police, evidently urgently necessary.

1. Fight against the Church

The Reich minister of the interior is the competent authority for general rules on confessional policy. Therefore, the leaders of the diverse confessional groups address their petitions to our office. Lately, half of the political police reports concerned clerical matters. We have untold petitions from all kinds of cardinals, bishops, and dignitaries of the church. Most of these complaints concern matters under the jurisdiction of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, although the respective rules were not decreed by it. It happens very often that we have in our capacity as a court of appeal to settle incidents, about which sometimes we know nothing at all until we receive the complaint. There does not seem to be any unity any longer between our principles as regards political, ecclesiastical matters and the executives thereof in the states. It is an inexcusable state of affairs to give directions to complainants and make promises to ecclesiastical leaders, if there is no reliability of their being carried out in the states. Therefore, I deem it an absolute necessity that full clarification be given on this controversial philosophical matter not only as regards the principles but also the execution thereof.

I would like to point out that, in my opinion, these principles should be both considered and executed not only from an internal political, but also from the foreign political viewpoint. I enclose an encyclical of the Pope that was submitted to me today. The question arises for instance as to whether the manner of treatment of returning Catholic young people in front of Swiss customs guards has something to do with the unfavorable foreign political commentaries which have been evoked by this action by the political police.

This concerns not only the political police; the whole police force as such will be implicated by the consequences resulting from the religious struggle. Instances of gross disturbance of congregations are mounting terribly fast lately, often necessitating intervention of the emergency squad. In the long run I cannot carry the responsibility, for officials will become involved and be forced to support one party or the other. The struggle [Kampfzeit] is so recent that we know from our own experience that in the end the police official will be blamed quite often for everything by both warring parties. After discarding the rubber truncheon, the idea of exposing executive officials to situations in which, during gross interruption of meetings, they may be forced to use cold steel, is unbearable.

It is my opinion that everything must be done to prevent the wearing out of the police force as well as the state authority in general with an untimely religious struggle. Should this philosophical conflict continue I would be forced,—incidentally this was proposed to me in a letter from the chief of the Gestapo, to give lectures to the police officials on Christian religions or the particular importance of the religious movement and the attitude of the party to these.

Neither do I believe that it is desirable if the lower grade police authorities carry out the handling and reporting of these religious matters in a certain one-sided manner.

2. Lately, there has been a marked increase of cases of protective custody. I demand urgently that in this matter also, final directives be given concerning methods, proof, length of time and manner of execution. The decree on protective custody by the Reich Ministry of the Interior has been made invalid long ago by the actions of the political police. It is almost impossible to receive an adequate report on a case of protective custody. The petitions, addressed to us in this matter, all stress the same point which I also regard as important. The parties concerned and their relatives accept protective custody as a matter of fact, but not the complete uncertainty as regards the manner and principles by which it may or may not be imposed. This unquestionable lawlessness fosters unrest and antagonism. It is intolerable for the Reich Ministry of the Interior, when there is a different interpretation and application of the law in the respective states, thereby obstructing a uniform execution of the law. The question must also be settled whether as approved by the judicial association N.S., in agreement with the Reichminister of Justice, in cases of protective custody a person is allowed a lawyer, or as is actually practised by the secret state police this is refused. I refer in this connection to the case of lawyer Puender. He was confined to protective custody with his colleagues for bringing an action, being forced to do this by a Reich law, after duly informing the Reich Ministry of Justice and our ministry. This complaint could not involve any complications, as it could immediately be legally restrained by us.

3. For official political reasons I must object on principle to the fact that lately once more and without previous knowledge of the superior authorities, officials have been taken into protective custody or what is sometimes even more, they have been subjected to state police investigations. I cite here only the case of my teacher and Kreisleiter at Esterwegen, who was kept in protective custody for 8 days, because he had sent a correct report, as proved afterwards, to his district councillor on abuses by the SS. I remember the investigations by criminal assistants of the Gestapo in Kottbus, lasting two weeks, on the chief of police in that phase, by the way an SS Brigadefuehrer. Likewise I have already presented today a complaint by the Oberpraesident Lohse, concerning the order to an official of the gendarmerie for espionage on superior officials by officers of the political police.

It is intolerable from the point of view of the national socialist authoritarian form of state leadership that subordinate offices procure information on officials in this manner over the heads of their superior office. This will create a great deal of trouble quite apart from the fact that information obtained in this manner must be prejudiced and very often even actually false.

4. Abductions by officers of the political police on foreign sovereign territory have lately created severe disturbances in the field of foreign politics. I cite the cases of Berthold Jakob (Switzerland), Gutzeit (Holland) and the latest incident at the Czech frontier. It is my opinion that in consideration of the foreign political complications, the police office should receive orders for such measures from the responsible Reich officer only, and not from subordinate offices.

5. Several times the Reich ministry of economics has pointed out to me the disturbing effect on the economic organization which must result from the various political incidents caused by the police, the atmosphere of insecurity caused by cases of protective custody (particularly in the case of economic leaders) and also in the latest cases of boycott of the Jews (Cologne, Duesseldorf).

6. I can only undertake the creation of the Fuehrer protection in my police department if I am completely responsible for the officials working there, their service, capabilities and their co-operation with the other departments of the criminal police.

7. I propose that it be settled once and for all, not only who is to bear the responsibilities for the directives but also who shall bear the responsibility for the carrying out of these directives in all matters appertaining to the political police.

Either: This responsibility rests with the Reichminister of the interior. Then he has to be vested with altogether different powers to give orders in political matters concerning the police.

Or: This responsibility with all its consequences is borne by the Reichfuehrer SS, who is already actually claiming the management of the political police in the Reich. In this case, I would propose that the law, laid down for Prussia by SS, Himmler, becomes Reich law immediately, elevating the office of the secret state police to the status of a ministry and the chief of the office of the secret state police undertakes the tasks which he—as is already stated in the draft of the law, "determines".

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 778-PS

Copy.

Concentration Camp Dachau 1.10.1933.
Commander's Office

Disciplinary and Punitive Regulations
for the Internment Camp.

Introduction.

The following regulations, concerning punishment, for the maintenance of discipline and order within the limits of the Concentration Camp Dachau are released as part of the existing camp regulations.

Subject to these regulations are all internees of the Concentration Camp Dachau from the time of their imprisonment to the hour of their release.

Authority for ordering punishments lies in the hands of the camp commander, who is personally responsible to the political police commander for the execution of the issued camp regulations.

Tolerance means weakness. In the light of this conception, punishment will be mercilessly handed out whenever the interests of the fatherland warrant it. The fellow countryman who is decent but misled will never be affected by these regulations. But let it be a warning to the agitating politicians and intellectual provocators—regardless of which kind—: be on guard not to be caught, for otherwise it will be your neck and you will be shut up according to your own methods.

Article 6

The following are punishable with 8 days of close confinement, and 25 thrashings to be administered before and after the serving of the sentence:

1. anyone making depreciatory or ironical remarks to a member of the SS, deliberately omitting the prescribed marks of respect, or in any other way demonstrating unwillingness to submit himself to measures of disciplinary order.

2. prisoner-sergeants and prisoner squad leaders or foremen who exceed their authority as orderlies, assume the privileges of a superior over other prisoners, accord likeminded prisoners special privileges in work or in any other way, tyrannize fellow prisoners who have political views different from their own, make false reports on them, or prejudice them in any other way.

Article 7

The following are punishable with two weeks' close confinement:

1. anyone exchanging by his own will the quarters to which he is assigned without being authorized by the company commander or instigating or inducing his fellow prisoners to do so;

2. anyone enclosing or hiding forbidden articles or articles produced in the camp in outgoing laundry bundles, or sewing them into pieces of laundry, etc.;

3. anyone entering or leaving barracks, shelters, or other buildings by other than authorized entrances, or creeping through window or other openings;

4. anyone smoking in shelters, toilets and places which are fire hazards, or keeping or depositing inflammable objects on such places. Should a fire result from neglect of this prohibition, then it will be considered as an act of sabotage.

Article 8

The following are punishable with 2 weeks of close confinement and 25 thrashings to be administered before and after the serving of the sentence:

1. anyone leaving or entering the internment camp without an escort or who joins an outgoing work detail without proper authority;

2. anyone making depreciatory remarks in letters or other documents about national socialistic leaders, the State and Government, authorities and institutions, glorifying marxist or liberal leaders or November Parties (November Parteien), or reporting on occurrences in the concentration camp;

3. anyone safe-keeping forbidden articles, tools, slashing and thrusting weapons in his quarters or in paillasses.

Article 9

The following are punishable with 3 weeks close confinement: Anyone removing government property regardless of what kind, from its assigned place; deliberately damaging, destroying, wasting, transforming, or using same for purposes other than prescribed. Aside from the punishment the individual or the entire company of prisoners, depending on the circumstances, will be held responsible for the damage caused.

Article 10

The following are punishable with 6 weeks close confinement or an indefinite term of solitary confinement:

1. anyone making money collections inside of the camps, financing illegal activities, within or outside of the limits of the camp, or bribing fellow-prisoners into submission or putting them under obligation to keep quiet;

2. anyone receiving financial aid derived from illegal collections of the red aid funds, or distributing such money among fellow prisoners;

3. anyone making communications to a clergyman other than of problems pertaining to the soul, giving him secretly letters or communications for delivery, or attempting to win the clergyman's cooperation for illegal purpose;

4. anyone disparaging, slandering or slighting in any other way the symbols of the national socialistic state or its representatives.

Article 11

By virtue of the law on revolutionaries, the following offenders, considered as agitators, will be hung.

Anyone who, for the purpose of agitating, does the following in the camp, at work, in the quarters, in the kitchens and workshops, toilets and places of rest: politicizes, holds inciting speeches and meetings, forms cliques, loiters around with others; who for the purpose of supplying the propaganda of the opposition with atrocity stories, collects true or false information about the concentration camp and its institution; receives such information, buries it, talks about it to others, smuggles it out of the camp into the hands of foreign visitors or others by means of clandestine or other methods, passes it on in writing or orally to released prisoners or prisoners who are placed above them, conceals it in clothing or other articles, throws stones and other objects over the camp wall containing such informations; or produces secret documents; who, for the purpose of agitating, climbs on barracks' roofs and trees, seeks contact with the outside by giving light or other signals, or induces others to escape or commit a crime, gives them advices to that effect or supports such undertakings in any way whatsoever.

Article 12

The following offenders, considered as mutineers, will be shot on the spot or later hung:

Anyone attacking physically a guard or an SS man, refusing to obey or to work while on detail, asking or inducing others to join him in such acts of mutiny, leaving a marching column or a place of work as a mutineer or asking others to do likewise, or bowling, shouting, inciting or holding speeches while marching or at work.

Article 13

The following offenders, considered as saboteurs, will be punished by death:

Anyone deliberately causing a fire, an explosion, or any kind of damage such as by water in the camp, in the quarters, in the workshops, in the places of work, in the kitchens, store rooms, etc; also anyone manipulating contrary to given instructions with barbed wire installations, high voltage circuits, switch boards, telegraph or water lines, the camp wall or other security installations, heating and boiler installations, machines or motor vehicles. Should the act have occurred because of negligence, then the guilty person will be kept in solitary confinement. In cases of doubt, however, it will be considered as an act of sabotage.

Article 19

Confinement will be executed in a cell, with a hard rest, with water and bread. The prisoner receives warm food every four days. Punitive work consists of severe physical or particularly dirty work, performed under close supervision. Incidental punishments are: drilling, thrashings, foreclosure of mail and food, hard rest, tying to stakes, reprimands and warnings.

All punishments are being recorded in files.

Confinement and punitive labor prolong the term of internment by at least 8 weeks, an imposed incidental punishment by 4 weeks. Prisoners in solitary confinement will not be released within a measurable space of time.

The Commander of the Concentration Camp (L.S.)

[signed] EICKE
SS-Oberfuehrer

Concentration Camp Dachau 10.1.1933
Commanders Office

Service Regulations for Prisoner
Escorts and Guards

Guard Deputy.

Anyone letting a prisoner escape will be arrested and handed over to the Bavarian Political Police for liberating prisoners out of negligence.

If a prisoner attempts to escape, he is to be shot without warning. The guard who has shot an escaping prisoner in the line of his duty will not be punished.

In case of attack on a guard by a prisoner, the former is to resist the attack not by physical force but by the use of his weapons. A guard disregarding this regulation must expect his immediate discharge. Anyone keeping his back covered, will anyway seldom have to expect an attack.

If a prisoner unit mutinizes or revolts, it is to be shot at by all supervising guards. Warning shots are principally prohibited.

The time of work is determined by the camp commander. A prisoner escort who brings his prisoners back too early, is guilty of having badly failed to do his duty and can be discharged.

In case a work detachment must stop its work prematurely for some reason or other, then the work detachment leader must have the reason certified on the back of the work service slip [Arbeitsdienst Zettel] by either the construction division or the requisitioning office.

The Commander of the Concentration Camp
L.S. EICKE
SS-Oberfuehrer

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 779-PS

[Directive by Wilhelm Frick Regulating "Protective Custody," 12 April 1934]

[Pencilled noted on top of page:]

(1) 3F 4 487

To reduce the abuses in connection with the infliction of protective custody, the Reichminister of the Interior has decided in his directive on the infliction and execution of protective custody of 12 April 1934, directed to the state governments and the Reichsstatthalter, that orders for protective custody can only be issued. a) for the personal protection of the arrestee b) if the arrestee immediately endangers public safety and order by his behaviour, especially by activity, inimical to the state.

If therefore, as far as these prerequisites do not prevail a sentence of protective custody is not permitted especially a) against persons who only insist on the use of their civic or public rights (for instance report, complaint, grievance); b) against lawyers because of representation of their client's interests; c) because of personal affair (for instance libel); d) because of any economic measures (question of salaries, dismissal of employees and similar cases).

Protective custody furthermore is not permitted for the punishment of criminal acts, for the courts are competent for that. It cannot be applied only for the reason, that a person behaves asocially or otherwise in an obnoxious manner, unless the People has become aggravated by that, and this protective custody becomes necessary for the arrestee's own protection.

(2)

Regulations of Official Agencies—Regulations on Measures of Protective Custody in Prussia (taken for the administrative gazette of the Reich [Reichsverwaltungsblatt] No. 9 of 2 March 1935.) The Prussian Prime Minister. Secret State Police Insp. 946/11 March 1934 Berlin, 11 March.

Subject: Order for measures of protective custody.

1. The previous executory regulations, applying to measures of protective custody are rescinded. In the future, limitations of personal freedom, according to article 1 of the decree for the protection of people and state of 28 Feb. 1933, may be ordered by the Secret State Police office, effective in the whole state, and by the governors and cabinet presidents in Berlin and by the state police offices for their local jurisdiction.

The present competency of the district police authorities [Kreispolizeibehoerden], namely the state counsellors [Land-rate], is no longer applicable for such measures. The measures previously ordered by them, become void after 31 March unless a prolongation has been ordered before then by the State [Landes] police authorities.

2. If protective custody has been ordered as a provisional measure because of suspicion of a criminal act, the decision of the court must be obtained immediately for infliction of legal detention for investigation, and in the case of a refusal of a legal warrant for arrest, the police measure is also to be rescinded, unless their continuation in exceptional cases appears justified for other reasons.

3. Limitations of personal freedom, which are ordered by the Ober—and Regierungspraesidenten, by the president of the police in Berlin and by the state police offices, become automatically void on the 8th day after the end of the day, on which the order for protective custody has been executed, unless the continuation of the protective custody has been ordered specifically by me upon appropriate request.

4. Every case of protective custody, ordered by the Ober and Regierungspraesidenten, by the president of police in Berlin and by the state police offices, is to be reported to me personally (address Berlin W 9, Leipziger Platz 11a) by Telegram within 24 hours, mentioning exactly: name, age, occupation, political standpoint: of the one affected, as well as the cause of the measure; also if necessary, the necessity for apparently appropriate limitation of freedom beyond 7 days must be justified.

5. Arrests, which do not fall under the designation "protective custody", may only be made by the authorities, legally appointed for them. But in this case, a legal warrant for arrest must be obtained under all conditions within 24 hours. If such a warrant for arrest is refused by the competent judge, or if it cannot be obtained within 24 hours, the affected one is to be released immediately or, if the arrest is to remain in effect, action has to be taken according to #3 and 4 (report by telegram within 24 hours to the prime minister).

6. In the future, I will punish the abusive use of the arrest mercilessly.

Agencies of the party and the associations may not make arrests. In case of disregard of this order, the competent authorities must take actions against it immediately, and must report to me at once.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 781-PS

1. From a letter to Brigadefuehrer (Maj Gen) WOLFF (Secret State Police).

RJM Berlin, 23 March 1936.

OBERREGIERUNGSRAT von DOHNANYI

To: BRIGADEFUEHRER (Maj Gen) WOLFF
BERLIN S W 11
Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8

Dear Mr Wolff,

As you doubtless know, the Reichsfuehrer, using the Hoppe case (shooting) in the concentration camp Columbia as an illustration, discussed on the 2 March the question of the use of arms by guard personnel of concentration camps with my minister. The Reichsfuehrer, according to the notes on the conversation made by the minister, on this occasion considered the idea of issuing a decree on use of arms by officials under his jurisdiction favorably. Could you possibly inform me at your convenience how far this matter has progressed with you?

With many regards and Heil Hitler
your very obedient
[signed] Dr. von Dohnanyi

2. After 2 weeks.

1. Notation:

On the 2nd of this month using the Hoppe case as an illustration, I discussed the question of use of arms by the guard personnel of the concentration camp with the Reichsfuehrer SS. I suggested to Himmler that he issue an order on the use of arms for the officials subordinated to him. * * * Himmler has promised me that such a decree will be issued and will grant us participation in the preliminary work. Initiative with Himmler.

2. To Secretary of state Dr. Freisler for acknowledgement.

3. After 2 weeks.

Berlin, 9 March 1936.
seen 9/3 illegible. [signature illegible]

To Mr. von Donanyi with the request to remind the secret state police (Wolf) at his convenience.

17/3
[signed illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 783-PS

Copy For The Minister

Reich and Prussian Minister of Justice
2 F.g10 1696/34 Berlin, W.8, 18 January
Wilhelmstrasse 65

Subject: Charges against members of camp personnel of Protective custody Camp Hohnstein.

To the communication of 19 December 1934.
—ST. S.I.2593/34—

Most honored Reich Deputy [Reichstatthalter]!

In regard to your courteous communication of 19 December 1934, I inform you respectfully that, on the basis of the decree of the Reich president relative to exercise of the right of nolle prosse of 21 March 1934 (RGBl, I, page 211) in connection with Article 2, paragraph 1 of the first law for transfer of administration of justice to the Reich of 10 February 1934 (RGB1, I, page 91) the right to nolle prosse pending criminal cases wherein the deed was committed after 20 March 1934, belongs no longer to the Reich Deputy but exclusively to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor. Under the circumstances I consider myself not in a position to go to the extent of proposing a nolle prosse of the case to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor.

TO the Reich Deputy in Saxony in Dresden A1.

Insofar as the deeds were committed before 2 March 1934 and therefore the right of nolle prosse in the case belongs to you, most honored Reich Deputy, I allow myself to express the greatest scruples against the intended nolle prosse. The nature of the mistreatments, particularly the use of the drip-apparatus, is evidence of a coarseness and brutality in the perpetrators which is completely alien to German sensibility and feeling. Such atrocities, reminders of oriental sadism, can find no explanation or excuse even in the greatest bitterness of combat. Crimes of this sort must find their lawful expiation for the very sake of the cleanness and respect of the movement. In view of experiences in other cases, of similar aspect in a certain sense, I am also unable to share the fear that execution of the legal proceedings would be detrimental to the movement. This is all the more true since the main proceedings can take place with complete exclusion of the public.

Heil Hitler!

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 784-PS

Copy

The Reichminister of Justice
Z.F.g 10 1696.34

Berlin, June 5, 1935

1. A message to the deputy of the Fuehrer Reichminister Hess.

Confidential

Personal

Regarding: penal proceedings against the merchant and SA leader Lt. Colonel [Obersturmbannfuehrer] Jaehnichen and 22 companions on account of inflicting bodily injury on duty (protective custody Camp Hohenstein in Saxony).

Dear colleague!

With inference to the bill of indictment sent by me under my communication of March 20, 1935 regarding the penal proceedings mentioned above, I beg to inform you of the following:

After a main trial, lasting about six weeks, the assistant prosecutor Staatsanwalt Dr. Walther, proposed the following sentences on May 3, 1935:

Against Jaehnichen
(Camp Commandant) 5 years penetentiary
Against Zikera—1 year, 6 months prison
Against Heinz Meier—3 years prison
Against Herbert Meier—3 years, 2 months prison
Against Tuerke—3 years prison
Against Volkmar—2 years, 3 months penetentiary
Against Leuschner—2 years, 3 months prison
Against Romkopf—2 years, 6 months prison
Against Karche—1 year, 8 months prison
Against Hausch—1 year, 4 months prison
Against Lehmann—3 years, 3 months prison
Against Kuehnel—1 year prison
Against Stachowski—1 year prison
Against Ude—1 year prison
Against Friedrich—1 year, 3 months prison
Against Schmeling (Police)—1 year prison
Against Konitz—1 year prison
Against Uhlmann—1 year prison
Against Sturzkober—10 months prison
Against Schupp—1 year, 6 months prison
Against Hensel—2 years, 3 months prison
Against Heinicker—1 year, 6 months prison
Against Putzler—3 years, 9 months penetentiary
Against Liebscher—7 months prison
Against Heger—Suspension on account of amnesty.

On May 15, 1935 the Criminal division number 12 of the Supreme Court in Dresden pronounced the verdict, by which on account of offences against Art. 340 of the Penal Code the following were sentenced:

Jaehnichen—to 6 years prison
Zikera—to 1 year, 6 months prison
Heinz Meier—to 3 years prison
Herbert Meier—to 3 years prison
Tuerke—to 3 years prison
Volkmar—to 2 years, 3 months prison
Leuschner—to 2 years, 6 months prison
Romkopf—to 2 years, 6 months prison
Karche—to 1 year, 8 months prison
Hausch—to 1 year, 4 months prison
Lehmann—to 3 years prison
Kuehnel—to 1 year prison
Stachowski—to 1 year, 6 months prison
Ude—to 1 year prison
Friedrich—to 1 year, 3 months prison
Schmeling—to 1 year prison
Konitz—to 1 year prison
Uhlmann—to 1 year prison
Sturzkober—to 10 months prison
Schupp—to 1 year, 6 months prison
Hensel—to 2 years prison
Heinicker—to 1 year, 6 months prison
Putzler—to 3 years, 9 months prison
Against Liebscher and Heger suspension was authorized
on the basis of the law governing amnesty.

After the proposal of the sentence, however, still before the announcement of the verdict, the chairman of the Criminal division number 12 received the following letter from the Reich governor [Reichsstatthalter] of Saxony:

"Official Seal

The Reich Governor [Reichsstatthalter] of Saxony II 84/35
Dresden-A.1, May 8, 1935
Mailbox 78 Telephone 24 371.

To the president of the Supreme Court Dr. Roth
[Landgerichtsdirektor]

Dresden
Pillnitzer Street 41

The President of the Supreme Court:
Sir:

As I was informed, it is proposed to impose a punishment of 3-1/2 years of penal servitude upon the accused Standartenfuehrer Jaehnichen. Without wanting to interfere in the proceedings or intending to influence you as Judge in any way before the verdict is announced, I should nevertheless like to once more call your attention to the fact that the circumstances, as they had been brought about by the revolution of 1933 and as they, without doubt were still taking effect up to the beginning of 1934, cannot be overlooked, when pronouncing sentence.

A further point appears to me to be worth taking into consideration, namely, the fact that one cannot accuse Jaehnichen of having a low character and that, above all, in Hohenstein the scum of humanity had to be attended to. In consideration of this fact I should like to leave it to you to consider whether the lapses call for such a severe degree of punishment or rather whether a pardon could not be considered.

As Gauleiter of NSDAP I regard it as my duty to call attention again to the unusual circumstances.

Heil Hitler
Signed: Martin Mutschmann."

Moreover the information has come to hand that the two magistrates (Schoeffen), who functioned as judges in the principal trial, namely, Regierungsamtmann Helbig and the merchant Pesler, had been expelled from the NSDAP after the announcement of the verdict. I do not know by whom this expulsion was ordered.

Finally it has been put to the assistant prosecutor, Staatsanwalt Dr. Walther, who is a storm trooper, after the pronouncing of the verdict on his Obersturmbannfuehrer, that he should resign from the SA.

The fact that these measures were taken at the same time as the verdict referred to above was pronounced, gives rise to the assumption that here also there is something below the surface. However, this would represent an extremely serious and highly undesirable conclusion to the legal and fully binding penal proceedings. If the letter from the Reich governor reproduced here gave the impression that his judicial decisions should be influenced from higher up, then this would certainly influence to an even greater extent any later measures instituted against the 2 magistrates. That kind of procedure against lay judges after the verdict had been pronounced would naturally and necessarily arouse the feeling that, when they are functioning as judges, they are responsible to a certain office for their work. Hereby the judicial unpartiality, which is the foundation of every orderly administration of criminal law becomes null and void. Moreover, the lay judge, who upon entering service, must swear an oath, that he will discharge his duties conscientiously and to the best of his ability, would find himself forced to battle with his conscience. No less serious would be the consequences of such measures for the assistant public prosecutor. This official would also have to battle with his conscience, while carrying out his duties. Thereby the orderly official work of the authorities for the administration of criminal law would be so seriously endangered that I would find myself obliged to consider the question whether in the face of such a state of affairs public prosecutors and judges could still be functionaries of the party or members of the SA at all.

Hence it appears to be necessary——

1. in the case in question to remove the confusion, resulting from the measures indicated above, by suitable countermeasures

2. to take steps that such occurrences altogether incompatible with the administration of criminal law and the public security guaranteed by the state are avoided.

I would respectfully request your comments and information with regard to any action in this direction. Considering the importance of this case, I would be obliged if you would reply as early as possible.

Heil Hitler!
Signed: Dr. Guertner.

2. A letter to the Chief of Staff of the SA of the NSDAP with a copy of the following accusation enclosed.

In regard to:
—to enter on page 1— Confidential
Enclosed 1 loose leaf Personal
Chief of Staff:

Sir:

In the penal case, indicated above, which involved serious maltreatment of prisoners in the protective custody camp at Hohenstein in Saxony, the main trial was held in Dresden from 20th March to the middle of May 1935 before the 12th Criminal Division of the Supreme Court. In regard to the details of the incidents, may I refer to the enclosed copy of the Bill of indictment of October 1934 and particularly may I call attention to page 21 of the results of the inquiry. On May 3, 1935 the assistant prosecutor Staatsanwalt Dr. Walther imposed the following punishment:

Here has been received that it has been put to the assistant prosecutor Staatsanwalt Dr. Walther, who is a storm trooper, after pronouncing of the verdict on his Obersturmbannfuehrer, that he should resign from the SA. The fact that this measure was undertaken at the same time as the verdict referred to above was pronounced, gives rise to the assumption that here also then is something below the surface. However this would represent an extremely serious and highly undesirable conclusion to the legal & fully binding penal proceedings. The officials would have to battle with their conscience when carrying out their duties, if such procedure was in force. In this way the orderly official work of the authorities for the administration of criminal law would be so seriously endangered, that I would find myself obliged to consider the question whether in the face of such a state of affairs Staatsanwaelte could still be members of the SA at all.

Hence it appears to be necessary:

1. In the case in question to remove the confusion resulting from the measures indicated above, by suitable counter-measures.

2. To take steps that such occurrences altogether incompatible with the administration of criminal law and the public security guaranteed by the State, are avoided.

I would respectfully request your comments and information with regard to my action in this direction. Considering the importance of this case, I would be obliged if you would reply as early as possible.

3. to the Minister, confidential

4. 2 weeks.

Heil Hitler!
Signed: Dr. Guertner.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 785-PS

Z Stg. 10-9-35

Subject: Suit against Rudolf Jaehnichen and others for Mistreatment of Inmates of the Hohnstein Concentration Camp.

A further investigation which was ordered as well as a new verification of already known facts showed that the mistreatment of inmates which has led to the conviction of the accused were not carried out for any political purposes (to obtain a confession, to punish disciplinary infractions, etc.) or in response to previously suffered wrongs inflicted by Communists but were merely malicious torture or expressions of sadistic brutality.

A few cases of mistreatment occurred, however, where enemies of the State were involved. The Court in its sentence, however, considered that mistreatments in such cases to a certain extent were justified or at least understandable. But it expressly stated further that the mistreatments which occurred during interrogations had taken on proportions which were in no accord with the desired objective and that the defendants not only attempted to wring confessions from the inmates but that they acted in sheer lust for torture. (Compare Page 100 of the Sentence Document.)

The overwhelming majority of Cases, however, over which sentences were pronounced, represent mistreatments which occurred when the inmates first entered the institution, when they received their prison clothing, or during drill hours. These mistreatments were carried out without rhyme or reason. The fact that the defendants in these cases were motivated neither by political purposes nor by personal revenge against outrages suffered formerly can be learned from the following circumstances.

1. Amongst the mistreated persons there were quite a number that never belonged to any parties of the left. Some of them were even old members of the movement. The following cases are proof of that:

2. Case Prueger

On 6.3.1934 the Kreisleiter of the German Labor Front for the food industry, member of the Nazi Party, was brought in for offending the Kreisleiter and two other persons. When being brought in, Turke beat his face with his fist and subsequently, in a small room, he was heavily beaten with sticks, whips and other instruments. * * *

* * * 2. The methods as well as the detailed circumstances of mistreatment show that lust for torture was the only motivation in a great number of cases. The following case illustrates that fact especially well.

The defendant Schupp frequently had to supervise the drill of inmates. On 5 or 6 March 1935 he called the inmate Lindner out of formation without any apparent reason and asked him for his name and domicile. Then he pressed, without any cause, his burning cigarette upon the end of Lindner's nose with the result that the latter received a burn for which he later required medical treatment. The court in this case, as in several others, expressly maintains that Schupp only acted out of sheer lust of torture. * * *

* * * Furthermore, may I state as far as the question of further mitigation of sentences are concerned that the court in pronouncing sentence has already weighed to the fullest extent all possible mitigating circumstances, the awful consequences of cruel mistreatment of human beings should otherwise result in a far more severe judicial expiation. Also it must not be over-looked that altogether only those members of the concentration camp staff were brought into court who took an especially active and cruel part in the mistreatments. Furthermore, the sentence was not aggravated by the fact that the Court affirmed, for purely judicial reasons, that the defendants were officials and sentenced them for committing bodily harm while carrying out a public office. The sentence expressly states that the court did not stress the fact that the accused SA men were officials in determining the punishment because they had not received proper training as officials and they probably do not wish to be referred to as such. (Compare page 144 of the Sentence). In these circumstances the mitigation of sentences already granted in the decree of 31 October 1935 seem an extensive favor. If, nevertheless, I suggest subsequently a further reduction of sentence, based upon new evidence of some of the defendants, I can only justify my action because I believe that, according to circumstances, the defendants in one or the other case of mistreatment may have partly acted out of revolutionary motives.

As to what parts the individual defendants played in these criminal acts I refer to the last two columns in the table handed over with the report of 28 August 1935. The following statements as to the individual defendants may be made.

1. Jaehnichen:

Sentence: 6 years imprisonment.

Reduction of Sentence: to be released on probation after 4 years 6 months.

Jaehnichen is an old member of the S.A. who through his bad example has fostered the increase of excesses, but at first he was motivated undoubtedly by a certain revolutionary anger and by the fact that he wanted to maintain exemplary discipline amongst the inmates. A further mitigating fact is that his participation in the unusually serious mistreatment of the Jew Ambross, who later committed suicide, was inspired by the belief that he was dealing in this case with a despoiler of German girls. With these facts, being what they are, a further reduction in sentence, amounting to one year, seems justifiable.

2. Putzler:

Sentence: 3 years 9 months imprisonment.

Reduction of Sentence: to be released on probation after 2 years 6 months.

His sentence is based essentially on the especially cruel mistreatments during questionings of inmates. Even though his acts in this connection seem to be pure vindictive torture, as for example the use of the dripping device, one may, nevertheless, say that at least at first he was motivated by the desire to obtain truthful statements. On the other hand, Putzler participated in serious excesses also during times other than the questioning periods and played a leading part in them. To give an example, he tore out inmate Ricke's beard. A further reduction of the sentence by 6 months seems under these circumstances a far going favor * * *

* * * I want to remark, in conclusion, that the defendants as well as the defense, believe since 29.11.1935 that all defendants had been finally pardoned by the decision of the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor. It is further to be learned from remarks by defendants not in custody that in case of a complete pardon those still in custody would leave prison under the accompaniment of a band or would be solemnly received by a band on return to their home town.

Appendix

Upon application of the Reich Minister of Justice I hereby grant in the case against Rudolp Jaehnichen and others, for mistreatment of persons committed to protective custody in Hohnstein Concentration Camp (16. St. A. 3431 34 Dresden prosecutor) the following mitigation of sentences as enumerated in Column 6:

		Sentence Prison Term		Mitigation of Sentence granted thus far. To be released conditionally after		New Suggestion of the Reichs Minister of Justice. To be Released Conditionally after		Decision of The Fuehrer & Chancellor
#	Name	Yrs.	Mos.	Yrs.	Mos.	Yrs.	Mos.	Decision of The Fuehrer & Chancellor
1	Jaehnichen	6	--	4	6	3	6
2	Putzler	3	9	3	--	2	6
3	Hanz Meier	3	--	2	6	2	--
4	Herbert Meier	3	3	2	6	No further reduct.
5	Tuerke	3	--	2	6	No further reduct.
6	Lehman	3	--	2	6	No further reduct.
7	Leuschner	2	6	2	--	1	3
8	Rohmkopf	2	6	2	--	No further reduct.
10	Haensel	2	6	1	6	No further reduct.
11	Karge	1	8	1	4	1	--
12	Sikora	1	6	1	2	1	28 days
13	Stachowski	1	6	No reduction		No reduction
14	Schupp	1	6	1	2	No further reduct.
15	Heinicker	1	6	1	2	--	9
16	Hausch	1	4	--	8	--	6
17	Kuehnel	1	--	--	9	--	6
20	Schmeling	1	--	--	9	No further reduct.
21	Kahnis	1	--	--	9	No further reduct.
22	Uhleman	1	--	--	6	No further reduct.
23	Stuerzkober	--	10	--	6	No further reduct.

Berlin December 1935
THE FUEHRER AND CHANCELLOR

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 786-PS

Note

1. Just now, at 1030, State Secretary Dr. Meissner telephoned and asked me to deliver the following message to the Minister, whom he had been unable to contact:

Concerning the pardon of those sentenced in connection with the maltreatment in the Hohnstein Concentration Camp, Herr Bouhler informed him yesterday that he had reported to the Fuehrer on the result of the fresh inquiries, which he and Reich Governor Mutschmann had instituted. The Fuehrer has now decided to remit all other sentences remaining. State Secretary Meissner wished to inform the Ministry of Justice of this, so that it might be made the subject of corresponding decrees. He, State Secretary Meissner, mentioned that the Minister of Justice had likewise been commissioned by the Fuehrer to carry out special inquiries, to determine in which cases the motives for maltreatment had been sadistic and therefore a pardon would be out of place. The Minister of Justice would have to be given the opportunity of reporting to the Fuehrer his ideas, based on his still inconclusive investigations. Herr Bouhler also stated that the Minister of Justice was still at liberty to do so. The Fuehrer merely desired that his inquiries be hastened as much as possible so that the statement could be made within the next few weeks and that, in any case, he submit a decree granting full pardon.

State Secretary Meissner, when finally summing up, therefore requested that, should the Minister not approve of a total pardon, a double decree be submitted.

2. The Minister for his favourable consideration.

Berlin, 29th November 1935
[Signature illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 787-PS

Berlin, 18 June, 1935

The Reich Ministry of Justice
Z.F. g 10 390/35

1. Communication to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor with addition of a certified copy of B1. 9-10 d.A., thus far

Subject: Motion of the Reich deputy in Saxony concerning the nolle-prossing of the criminal procedure against Oberregierungsrat Vogel in Dresden on account of bodily injury while in office.

16 St.A 107/34 (StA.Dresden)
Inclosure: 1 loose sheet.

The prosecuting authority in Dresden has indicated Oberregierungsrat Erich Vogel in Dresden (case designation 16 STA. 4 107/34) on account of bodily injury while in office. The following subject matter is the basis of the case:

Vogel belongs to the Gestapo office of the province of Saxony since its foundation and is chief of Main section II, which formerly bore the title Zub [Zentralstelle fuer Umsturzbekaempfung] (Central office for combatting revolt). In the process of combatting efforts inimical to the State Vogel carried out several so called borderland actions in the year 1933 in which a large number of politically unreliable persons and persons who had become political prisoners in the border territories were taken into protective custody [Schutzhaft] and brought to the Hohnstein protective custody camp. In the camp serious mistreatment of the prisoners has been going on at least since summer of 1933. The prisoners were not only, as in protective custody camp Bredow near Stettin, beaten into a state of unconsciousness for no reason, with whips and other tools but were also tortured in other ways, as for instance with a drip-apparatus especially constructed for the purpose, under which the prisoners had to stand so long that they came away with serious purulent wounds of the scalp. The guilty SA-leaders and SA-men were sentenced to punishments of 6 years to 9 months of imprisonment by the main criminal court of the provincial court in Dresden of 15 May 1935 (16 StA. 3431.34). Vogel, whose duties frequently brought him to the camp, took part in this mistreatment, insofar as it happened in the reception room of the camp during completion of the reception formalities, and in the supply room, during issuing of the blankets. In this respect it should be pointed out that Vogel was generally known to the personnel of the camp—exactly because of his function as head of the Zub—and his conduct became at least partly a standard for the above-named conduct of the SA-leaders and men.

One of the border actions took place on 3 August 1935. Vogel had ordered the arrest of the persons who were brought to the camp at that time, and therefore also had responsibilities relative to their proper treatment. On account of the large number of those who were brought in, a pay office of the administration building in the lower castle yard was adapted as a makeshift reception room to help dispose of the formalities. The reception was being taken care of by Truppfuehrer [T/Sgt] Felix Sikora. He hit every incoming person without cause violently across the face with a steel ruler, so that it resounded loudly. In addition the prisoners, when brought in, were spoken to roughly and at the same time beaten, partly even literally pushed into the room. Vogel stayed in the reception room a long time and watched these proceedings without doing anything about them. In his presence, for instance, the SA-man Mutze dealt such blows to one man, without provocation, that he turned around on himself. As already stated, Vogel not only took no steps against this treatment of the prisoners, but he even made jokes about it and stated that it amused him the way things were popping here.

In the supply room Vogel himself took a hand in the beating amid the general severe mistreatment. The SA-man there employed whips and other articles and beat the prisoners in such a manner that serious injuries were produced, the prisoners partly became unconscious and had to lie in the dispensary a long time. Vogel was often present in the supply room during the mistreatment. At least in the following cases he personally laid violent hands upon prisoners.

a. On the occasion of the borderland action of 3 August 1933 Vogel was in the chamber in the rear portion of the area, where the prisoners as a rule do not enter. At first Vogel observed from there the severe mistreatment which was administered to the prisoners at the counter where the blankets were issued. Then he had a prisoner brought to the rear chamber and swung several blows of his fist at his head.

b. On 12 November 1933 Vogel arrived at the camp together with Regierungsrat Dr. Wolf from Leipzig and again entered the chamber. On this day several prisoners were brought in. Vogel pointed out one of the prisoners to the SA-men present in the room, among whom were Sturmmann Walter Rohmkopf, Truppfuehrer Herbert Meier, and Truppfuehrer Georg Lehmann, and declared, in effect, that this man "should get his ass particularly full". He also stated that the prisoner had offended or threatened one of his people. Upon this invitation the prisoner was laid across the counter in the usual manner, held fast by the head and arms, and then beaten for a considerable time by the SA men with whips and other articles. Along with this Vogel himself took part in the beating for a time, and after this mistreatment slapped him again, so that the prisoner appeared green and blue in the face. The prisoner is the tinsmith Hans Kuehitz, who bore the nickname Johnny. Upon his departure Vogel gave the head of the supply room, Truppenfuehrer Meier from 5 to 6 reichsmarks with the stated reason that the SA men "had sweated so". The money was then distributed by Meier to those SA-comrades who had taken part in the mistreatment.

Under the date of 20 May 1935 the Reich Deputy in Saxony forwarded to me with a recommendation Vogel's petition for nolle prossing dated 10 May, 1935, which was addressed to him, and a copy of which is attached.

I do not wish to approve this petition. The mistreatments which took place in the camp of Hohnstein are more numerous and in their fashion more serious than the cases of mistreatment in the well-known protective custody camp Bredow, near Stettin. As in the case of Bredow an authoritative official of the State Secret Police, in like manner as SS-Sturmfuehrer Dr. Hoffmann, shot on 30 June, 1934, knowing of the mistreatment and for the most part instigating it himself, Oberregierungsrat Vogel, as an authoritative member of the supervisory agency of the camp for the State Secret Police of Saxony, knew of the mistreatment and to an extent even took part in it. By his actions he supported the convicted SA-leaders and men in their deeds and thereby bears the largest part of responsibility for the criminal acts committed there. It would not be right to let this participant, who in view of his training, his position of leadership, and his office, must have recognized the objectionability of the proceedings in the camp with particular clarity, go unpunished while the SA-leaders and men received considerable sentences—even if not very severe in comparison with their deeds. A nolle prossing of the case against Vogel would represent unearned granting of favors to a more highly placed participant, and therefore one endowed with more responsibility, and would be considered as such by all persons involved. It would stand in starkest irreconcilable contradiction to the treatment of the Stettin cases.

Signed: Dr. Guertner

2. To the Minister, respectfully

3. 1 month.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 788-PS

The Secretary of the State and Chief of the Office of the President.

Berlin W8, 25 June 1935
Voss-Strasse 1

RP 3/52/35
Your Nr. Z.F. g 10 398/35 of 18 June 1935

Subject: Nolle-Prosse of Criminal Proceeding against Oberregierungsrat Vogel for committing bodily injury while in Office.

Before making a decision, the Fuehrer and Reich-Chancellor wants to discuss personally with the Reich-Governor of Saxony the complaints brought forward against Oberregierungsrat Vogel and the events connected with them. Therefore I shall withhold further information and request that until then further action on this procedure be also withheld.—

/s/ Dr. Meissner.

To the Reich Minister of Justice, Berlin W 8.

The Secretary of the State and Chief of the Office of the President

Berlin W8, 9 Sept 1935
Voss-Strasse 1

RP 3125/35 Your Nr. Z.F. g 10 398/35 of 18 June 1935

Subject: Nolle-prosse of Criminal Proceedings against Oberregierungsrat Vogel for committing bodily injury while in Office.

With reference to my letter of 25 June 1935—RP 3152/35—I am able to inform you that the Fuehrer and Reichs-Chancellor has decided for annulment of the criminal proceedings against Oberregierungsrat Vogel for his having committed bodily injury.

On the Fuehrer's behalf I request presentation of the draft of the decree for annulment.—

/s/ Dr. Meissner

To the Reich Minister of Justice, Berlin.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 789-PS

[Penciled note:] Duplicate

Nov. 23, 1939, 1200 hours. Conference with the Fuehrer, to which all Supreme Commanders are ordered. The Fuehrer gives the following speech:

The purpose of this conference is to give you an idea of the world of my thoughts, which governs me in the face of future events, and to tell you my decisions. The building up of our armed forces was only possible in connection with the ideological [weltanschaulich] education of the German people by the Party. When I started my political task in 1919, my strong belief in final success was based on a thorough observation of the events of the day and the study of the reasons for their occurrence. Therefore, I never lost my belief in the midst of set-backs which were not spared me during my period of struggle. Providence has had the last word and brought me success. On top of that, I had a clear recognition of the probable course of historical events, and the firm will to make brutal decisions. The first decision was in 1919 when I after long internal conflict became a politician and took up the struggle against my enemies. That was the hardest of all decisions. I had, however, the firm belief that I would arrive at my goal. First of all, I desired a new system of selection. I wanted to educate a minority which would take over the leadership. After 15 years, I arrived at my goal, after strenuous struggles and many set-backs. When I came to power in 1933, a period of the most difficult struggle lay behind me. Everything existing before that had collapsed. I had to reorganize everything beginning with the mass of the people and extending it to the armed forces. First reorganization of the interior, abolishment of appearances of decay and defeatist ideas, education to heroism. While reorganizing the interior, I undertook the second task: to release Germany from its international ties. Two particular characteristics are to be pointed out: secession from the League of Nations and denunciation of the disarmament conference. It was a hard decision. The number of prophets who predicted that it would lead to the occupation of the Rhineland was large, the number of believers was very small. I was supported by the nation, which stood firmly behind me, when I carried out my intentions. After that the order for rearmament. Here again there were numerous prophets who predicted misfortunes, and only a few believers. In 1935 the introduction of compulsory armed service. After that militarization of the Rhineland, again a process believed to be impossible at that time. The number of people who put trust in me, was very small. Then the beginning of the fortification of the whole country especially in the west.

One year later, Austria came, this step also was considered doubtful. It brought about a considerable reinforcement of the Reich. The next step was Bohemia, Moravia and Poland. This step also was not possible to accomplish in one campaign. First of all, the western fortification had to be finished. It was not possible to reach the goal in one effort. It was clear to me from the first moment that I could not be satisfied with the Sudeten-German territory. That was only a partial solution. The decision to march into Bohemia was made. Then followed the erection of the Protectorate and with that the basis for the action against Poland was laid, but I wasn't quite clear at that time whether I should start first against the east and then in the west or vice-versa. Moltke often made the same calculations in his time. Under pressure the decision came to fight with Poland first. One might accuse me of wanting to fight and fight again. In struggle I see the fate of all beings. Nobody can avoid a struggle if he does not want to lose out. The increasing number of people requires a larger living space [Lebensraum]. My goal was to create a logical relation between the number of people and the space for them to live in. The struggle must start here. No people can get away from the solution of this task or else it must yield and gradually die out. That is taught by history. First migration of peoples to the southwest, then adaptation of the number of people to the small space by emigration. In the last years, adaptation of the people to insufficient space, by reducing the number of births. This would lead to the death and weakening of the blood of the people. If a people chooses that course all their weaknesses are mobilized. One yields to the force of the outside and uses this force against one's self by killing of the child. This means the greatest cowardice, decimation of the number, and loss of value. I decided a different way: adaptation of the living space to the number of people. One acknowledgement is important. The state has a meaning only if it supports the maintenance of its population potential. In our case 82 millions of people were concerned. That means the greatest responsibility. He who does not want to assume this responsibility is not worthy of belonging to the mass of the people. That gave me the strength to fight. It is one eternal problem to bring the number of Germans to a proper relationship to the available space. Security of the needed space. No calculated cleverness is of any help, solution only with the sword. A people unable to produce the strength to fight must withdraw. Struggles are different than those of 100 years ago. Today we can speak of a racial fight. Today we fight for oilfields, rubber, treasures of the earth, etc. After the peace of Westphalia Germany disintegrated. Disintegration, impotence of the German Reich was determined by decree. This German impotence was removed by the creation of the Reich when Prussia realized her task. Then the opposition between France and England began. Since 1870 England has been against us. Bismarck and Moltke were certain that there would have to be one more action. The danger at that time was of a two-front war. Moltke was at times in favor of a preventive war. To take advantage of the slow progress of the Russian mobilization. German armed might was not fully employed. Insufficient sternness of the leading personalities. The basic thought of Moltke was the offensive. He never thought of the defense. Many opportunities were missed after Moltke's death. The solution was only possible by attacking a country at a favorable moment. Political and military leadership always declared that it was not yet ready. In 1914 there came the war on several fronts. It did not bring the solution of these problems. Today the second act of this drama is being written. For the first time in 67 years it must be made clear that we do not have a two-front war to wage. That which has been desired since 1870 and considered as impossible of achievement has come to pass. For the first time in history we have to fight on only one front, the other front is at present free. But no one can know how long that will remain so. I have doubted for a long time whether I should strike in the east and then in the west. Basically I did not organize the armed forces in order not to strike. The decision to strike was always in me. Earlier or later I wanted to solve the problem. Under pressure it was decided that the east was to be attacked first. If the Polish war was won so quickly, it was due to the superiority of our armed forces. The most glorious appearance in history. Unexpectedly small expenditures of men and material. Now the eastern front is held by only a few divisions. It is a situation which we viewed previously as unachievable. Now the situation is as follows: The opponent in the west lies behind his fortifications. There is no possibility of coming to grips with him. The decisive question is: how long can we endure this situation? Russia is at present not dangerous. It is weakened by many incidents today. Moreover, we have a pact with Russia. Pacts, however, are only held as long as they serve the purpose. Russia will hold herself to it only so long as Russia considers it to be to her benefit. Even Bismarck thought so. Let one think of the pact to assure our back. Now Russia has far-reaching goals, above all the strengthening of her position in the Baltic. We can oppose Russia only when we are free in the West. Further Russia is striving to increase her influence on the Balkans and is striving toward the Persian Gulf. That is also the goal of our foreign policy. Russia will do that which she considers to benefit her. At the present moment it has retired from internationalism. In case she renounces this, she will proceed to Pan-Slavism. It is difficult to see into the future. It is a fact that at the present time the Russian army is of little worth. For the next one or two years the present situation will remain.

Much depends on Italy, above all on Mussolini, whose death could alter everything. Italy has a great goal for the consolidation of her empire. Those who carry this idea are fascism and the Duce, personally. The court is opposed to that. As long as the Duce lives, then it can be calculated that Italy will seize every opportunity to reach her imperialistic goal. However, it is too much to ask of Italy, that it should join in the battle before Germany has seized the offensive in the west: Just so Russia did not attack until we had marched into Poland. Otherwise Italy will think that France has only to deal with Italy, since Germany is sitting behind its West Wall. Italy will not attack until Germany has taken the offensive against France. Just as the death of Stalin, so the death of the Duce can bring danger to us. Just how easily the death of a statesman can come I myself have experienced recently. The time must be used to the full, otherwise one will suddenly find himself faced with a new situation. As long as Italy maintains this position then no danger from Jugoslavia is to be feared. Just so is the neutrality of Rumania achieved by the position of Russia. Scandinavia is hostile to us because of Marxistic influences, but is neutral now. America is still not dangerous to us because of its neutrality laws. The strengthening of our opponents by America is still not important. The position of Japan is still uncertain, it is not yet certain whether she will join against England.

Everything is determined by the fact that the moment is favorable now; in 6 months it might not be so anymore.

As the last factor I must name my own person in all modesty: irreplaceable. Neither a military nor a civil person could replace me. Assassination attempts may be repeated. I am convinced of the powers of my intellect and of decision. Wars are always ended only by the destruction of the opponent. Everyone who believes differently is irresponsible. Time is working for our adversary. Now there is a relationship of forces which can never be more propitious, but can only deteriorate for us. The enemy will not make peace when the relationship of forces is unfavorable for us. No compromise. Sterness against ourselves. I shall strike and not capitulate. The fate of the Reich depends only on me. I shall deal accordingly. Today we have a superiority such as we have never had before. After 1914 our opponents disarmed themselves of their own accord. England disregarded the construction of her fleet. The fleet is no longer sufficiently large to safeguard the shipping lanes. Only two modern new constructions: Rodney and Nelson. New construction activity only in the cruisers of the Washington class, which were, however, an unsatisfactory type. The new measures can become effective only in 1941. In the Abyssinian war England did not have enough strength to occupy the Tana Sea. At Malta, Gibraltar and London little anti-aircraft protection. Since 1937 a renewal of rearmament. At present however, only a small number of divisions, which must form the nucleus of new divisions. Material for the army being gathered together from all over the world. Not before next summer is a positive action to be expected. The British army has only a symbolic meaning. Rearmament in the air is proceeding. The first phase will end in the spring of 1940. Anti-aircraft has only guns from the last war. A German flyer is safe from English anti-aircraft fire at 6000 meters altitude. The navy will not be fully rearmed before one to two years [1-2 Jahren], I have the greatest experience in rearmament and I know the difficulties which must be overcome therein.

After 1914 France reduced the length of service. After 1914 decrease of military might. Only in some special branches are we inferior. Only the French Navy was modernized. In the time after the war the French army deteriorated. There were no changes until Germany rearmed and announced her demands.

In summary:

1. The number of active organizations in Germany is greatest.
2. Superiority of the Luftwaffe.
3. Anti-aircraft beyond all competition.
4. Tank corps.
5. Large number of anti-tank guns, five times as many as 1914 machine guns.
6. German artillery has great superiority because of the 10.5 gun.
7. French superiority in howitzers and mortars does not exist.

Numerical superiority, but also the value of the individual soldier is greater than for the others. I am most deeply pained when I hear the opinion that the German army is not individually as valuable as it should be. The infantry in Poland did not accomplish what one should have expected from it. Lax discipline. I believe that the soldiers must be judged in their relative value in comparison with the opponent. There is no doubt that our armed forces are the best. Every German infantryman is better than the French. Not the exhilaration of patriotism but tough determination. I am told that the troops will only advance if the officers lead the way. In 1914 that was also the case. I am told that we were better trained then. In reality we were only better trained on the drill field, but not for the war. I must pay the present leadership the compliment that it is better than it was in 1914. Mention of the collapse while storming Liege. There was nothing like this in the campaign in Poland.

Five million Germans have been called to the colors. Of what importance if a few of them collapse. Daring in the army, navy and Luftwaffe. I can not bear it when one says the army is not in good shape. Everything lies in the hands of the military leader. I can do anything with the German soldier if he is well led. We have succeeded with our small navy in clearing the North Sea of the British. Recognition of the small navy, especially the High Command of the Navy.

We have a Luftwaffe which has succeeded in safeguarding the entire living space of the Germans.

The land army achieved outstanding things in Poland. Even in the West it was not shown that the German soldier is inferior to the French.

Revolution from within is impossible. We are superior to the enemy numerically in the West. Behind the Army stands the strongest armament industry of the world.

I am disturbed by the stronger and stronger appearance of the English. The English are a tough enemy. Above all on defence. There is no doubt that England will be very much represented in France at the latest in six to eight months.

We have an Achilles heel: The Ruhr. The progress of the war depends on the possession of the Ruhr. If England and France push through Belgium and Holland into the Ruhr, we shall be in the greatest danger. That could lead to the paralyzing of the German power of resistance. Every hope of compromise is childish: Victory or defeat! The question is not the fate of a national-socialistic Germany, but who is to dominate Europe in the future. The question is worthy of the greatest efforts. Certainly England and France will assume the offensive against Germany when they are armed. England and France have means of pressure to bring Belgium and Holland to request English and French help. In Belgium and Holland the sympathies are all for France and England. Mention of the incident at Venlo: The man who was shot was not an Englishman, but a Dutch General Staff officer. This was kept silent in the press. The Dutch government asked that the body of the Dutch officer be given up. This is one of their greatest stupidities. The Dutch press does not even mention the incident anymore. At a given time I shall use that to motivate my action. If the French army marches into Belgium in order to attack us, it will be too late for us. We must anticipate them. One more thing. U-boats, mines, and Luftwaffe (also for mines) can strike England effectively, if we have a better starting point. Now a flight to England demands so much fuel that sufficient bomb loads cannot be carried. The invention of a new type mine is of greatest importance for the Navy. Aircraft will be the chief mine layers now. We shall sow the English coast with mines which cannot be cleared. This mine warfare with the Luftwaffe demands a different starting point. England cannot live without its imports. We can feed ourselves. The permanent sowing of mines on the English coasts will bring England to her knees. However, this can only occur if we have occupied Belgium and Holland. It is a difficult decision for me. None has ever achieved what I have achieved. My life is of no importance in all this. I have led the German people to a great height, even if the world does hate us now. I am setting this work on a gamble. I have to choose between victory or destruction. I choose victory. Greatest historical choice, to be compared with the decision of Frederick the Great before the first Silesian war. Prussia owes its rise to the heroism of one man. Even there the closest advisers were disposed to capitulation. Everything depended on Frederick the Great. Even the decisions of Bismarck in 1866 and 1870 were no less great. My decision is unchangeable. I shall attack France and England at the most favorable and quickest moment. Breach of the neutrality of Belgium and Holland is meaningless. No one will question that when we have won. We shall not bring about the breach of neutrality as idiotically as it was in 1914. If we do not break the neutrality, then England and France will. Without attack the war is not to be ended victoriously. I consider it as possible to end the war only by means of an attack. The question as to whether the attack will be successful no one can answer. Everything depends upon the favorable instant. The military conditions are favorable. A prerequisite however, is that the leadership must give an example of fanatical unity from above. There would not be any failures if the leaders always had the courage a rifleman must have.

Individual acknowledgments: The enemy must be beaten only by attack. Chances are different today than during the offensive of 1918. Numerically we can use more than 100 divisions. With respect to men, reserves can be supplied. The material situation is good. Moreover that which is not ready today must be ready tomorrow. The whole thing means the end of the World War, not just of a single action. It concerns not just a single question but the existence or non-existence of the nation.

I ask you to pass on the spirit of determination to the lower echelons.

1. The decision is irrevocable.

2. The only prospect for success, if the whole armed forces are determined.

The spirit of the great men of our history must hearten us all. Fate demands from us no more than from the great men of German history. As long as I live I shall think only of the victory of my people. I shall shrink from nothing and shall destroy everyone who is opposed to me. I have decided to live my life so that I can stand unshamed if I have to die. I want to destroy the enemy. Behind me stands the German people, whose morale can only grow worse. Only he who struggles with destiny can have a good intuition. In the last years I have experienced many examples of intuition. Even in the present development I see the prophecy.

If we come through this struggle victoriously—and we shall come through victoriously—our time will enter into the history of our people. I shall stand or fall in this struggle. I shall never survive the defeat of my people. No capitulation to the outside forces, no revolution from the interior forces.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 795-PS

CONVERSATION WITH GENERAL KEITEL

on 17 August 1939

[Identified by General Keitel as a memorandum of Admiral Canaris]

I reported my conference with Jost to Keitel. He said that he would not pay any attention to this action, as the Fuehrer had not informed him and had only let him know that we were to furnish Heydrich with Polish uniforms. He agreed that I instruct the General Staff. He says that he does not think much of actions of this kind. However, there is nothing else to be done if they have been ordered by the Fuehrer, that he could not ask the Fuehrer how he had planned the execution of this special action. In regard to Dirschau he has decided that this action would be executed only by the army.

I then reported my conference with Roatta. He told me that he thought it very good if Mussolini would tell the Fuehrer in definite terms that he would not enter the war. He personally is of the opinion that Mussolini would join anyhow. I answered him that I believed this improbable by reason of the conference between Ciano and Ribbentrop which I reported to him once more in detail. He says that the Fuehrer had told him contrarywise. Based on my reports he had to conclude that the Fuehrer does not tell him—Keitel—everything. Furthermore, I told him that I had learned from Count Marogna that the King of Italy had told King Alfonse a few days ago that he would not sign under any circumstances if Mussolini should present the order for mobilization.

In connection with this Keitel expresses the opinion that it is quite interesting to note that even a country like Italy which is governed by a dictatorship does not think much of war. How much more so must it be in the democratic countries? He is confident that the English would not interfere. I tried to contradict his views and say that the English would certainly at once institute a blockade and would destroy our merchant shipping. Keitel believes this to be of no great importance as we would receive oil from Rumania. I answered that this is not the deciding factor and that we could not resist a blockade for a long time and that England would fight against this with all their means if we should use force against the Poles and if it were to come to bloodshed. I told him that the English would have acted in precisely the same manner, had any bloodshed occurred when we marched into Czechoslovakia. I tried to explain to Keitel the consequences of economic warfare for Germany and tell him that we have only very few means to counteract it. Just a short while ago I had heard that we could only send 10 submarines into the Atlantic Ocean. Keitel thinks that it should be easy to force Rumania to surrender her oil after the conquest of Poland. I called his attention to the actions of the English in the Balkans and tried to explain to him that the English would certainly have everything prepared in the Balkans for such an eventuality. Bulgaria would not be useful to us as an ally as it would be attacked at once by Rumania and Turkey.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 798-PS

The Fuehrer's speech to the Commanders in Chief on 22 August 1939

I have called you together to give you a picture of the political situation, in order that you may have insight into the individual elements on which I have based my decision to act and in order to strengthen your confidence.

After this we will discuss military details.

It was clear to me that a conflict with Poland had to come sooner or later. I had already made this decision in spring, but I thought that I would first turn against the West in a few years, and only afterwards against the East. But the sequence cannot be fixed. One cannot close one's eyes even before a threatening situation. I wanted to establish an acceptable relationship with Poland in order to fight first against the West. But this plan, which was agreeable to me, could not be executed, since essential points have changed. It became clear to me, that Poland would attack us in case of a conflict with the West. Poland wants access to the sea. The further development became obvious after the occupation of the Memel region, and it became clear to me that under circumstances a conflict with Poland could arise at an inopportune moment. I enumerate as reasons for this reflection:

1. First of all two personal constitutions:

My own personality and that of Mussolini.

Essentially it depends on me, my existence, because of my political activities. Furthermore the fact that probably no one will ever again have the confidence of the whole German people as I do. There will probably never again be a man in the future with more authority than I have. My existence is therefore a factor of great value. But I can be eliminated at any time by a criminal or an idiot.

The second personal factor is the Duce. His existence is also decisive. If something happens to him, Italy's loyalty to the alliance will no longer be certain. The basic attitude of the Italian court is against the Duce. Above all, the court sees in the expansion of the empire a burden. The Duce is the man with the strongest nerves in Italy.

The third factor favorable for us is Franco. We can ask only benevolent neutrality from Spain. But this depends on Franco's personality. He guarantees a certain uniformity and steadiness of the present system in Spain. We must take into account the fact that Spain does not as yet have a Fascist party of our internal unity.

On the other side a negative picture as far as decisive personalities are concerned. There is no outstanding personality in England or France.

For us it is easy to make decision. We have nothing to lose; we can only gain. Our economic situation is such, because of our restrictions, that we cannot hold out more than a few years. Goering can confirm this. We have no other choice, we must act. Our opponents risk much and can gain only a little. England's stake in a war is unimaginably great. Our enemies have men who are below average. No personalities. No masters, no men of action.

Besides the personal factor, the political situation is favorable for us; in the Mediterranean rivalry among Italy, France, and England, in the Orient tension, which leads to the alarming of the Mohammedan world.

The English empire did not emerge from the last war strengthened. From a maritime point of view, nothing was achieved. Conflict between England and Ireland. The South African Union became more independent. Concessions had to be made to India. England is in great danger. Unhealthy industries. A British statesman can look into the future only with concern.

France's position has also deteriorated particularly in the Mediterranean.

Further favorable factors for us are these:

Since Albania there is an equilibrium of power in the Balkans. Yugoslavia carries the germ of collapse because of her internal situation.

Rumania did not grow stronger. She is liable to attack and vulnerable. She is threatened by Hungary and Bulgaria. Since Kemal's death, Turkey has been ruled by small minds, unsteady, weak men.

All these fortunate circumstances will no longer prevail in 2 to 3 years. No one knows how long I shall live. Therefore conflict better now.

The creation of Greater Germany was a great achievement politically, but militarily it was questionable, since it was achieved through a bluff of the political leaders. It is necessary to test the military. If at all possible, not by general settlement, but by solving individual tasks.

The relation to Poland has become unbearable. My Polish policy hitherto was in contrast to the ideas of the people. My propositions to Poland (Danzig corridor) were disturbed by England's intervention. Poland changed her tone toward us. The initiative cannot be allowed to pass to the others. This moment is more favorable than in 2 to 3 years. An attempt on my life or Mussolini's could change the situation to our disadvantage. One cannot eternally stand opposite one another with cocked rifle. A suggested compromise would have demanded that we change our convictions and make agreeable gestures. They talked to us again in the language of Versailles. There was danger of losing prestige. Now the probability is still great that the West will not interfere. We must accept the risk with reckless resolution. A politician must accept a risk as much as a military leader. We are facing the alternative to strike or to be destroyed with certainty sooner or later.

Reference to previous risks.

I would have been stoned if I had not carried my point. The most dangerous step was the invasion of the neutral zone. Only a week before, I got a warning through France. I have always accepted a great risk in the conviction that it may succeed.

Now it is also a great risk. Iron nerves, iron resolution.

The following special reasons strengthen my idea. England and France are obligated, neither is in a position for it. There is no actual rearmament in England, just propaganda. It has done much damage that many reluctant Germans said and wrote to Englishmen after the solution of the Czech question: The Fuehrer carried his point because you lost your nerve, because you capitulated too soon. This explains the present propaganda war. The English speak of a war of nerves. It is one element of this war of nerves to present the increase of armament. But how is British rearmament in actual fact? The construction program of the Navy for 1938 has not yet been filled. Only mobilization of the reserve fleet. Purchase of fishing steamers. Considerable strengthening of the Navy, not before 1941 or 1942.

Little has been done on land. England will be able to send a maximum of 3 divisions to the continent. A little has been done for the air force, but it is only a beginning. AA defense is in its beginning stages. At the moment England has only 150 AA guns. The new AA gun has been ordered. It will take a long time until enough have been produced. Fire directors are lacking. England is still vulnerable from the air. This can change in 2 to 3 years. At the moment the English air force has only 130,000 men, France 72,000 men, Poland 15,000 men. England does not want the conflict to break out for two or three years.

The following is characteristic for England. Poland wanted a loan from England for rearmament. England, however, only gave credit in order to make sure that Poland buys in England, although England cannot deliver. This means that England does not really want to support Poland. She does not risk 8 millions pounds in Poland, although she put half a billion into China. England's position in the world is very precarious. She will not accept any risks.

France lacks men (decline of the birth rate). Little has been done for rearmament. The artillery is antiquated. France did not want to enter on this adventure. The West has only two possibilities to fight against us:

1. Blockade: It will not be effective because of our autarchy and because we have sources of aid in the east.

2. Attack from the west from the Maginot line: I consider this impossible.

Another possibility is the violation of Dutch, Belgium, and Swiss neutrality. I have no doubts that all these states as well as Scandinavia will defend their neutrality by all available means. England and France will not violate the neutrality of those countries. Actually England cannot help Poland. There remains an attack on Italy. A military attack is out of the question. No one is counting on a longer war. If Mr. von Brauchitsch had told me that I would need 4 years to conquer Poland I would have replied: then it cannot be done. It is nonsense to say that England wants to wage a long war.

We will hold our position in the West until we have conquered Poland. We must be conscious of our great production. It is much bigger than in 1914-1918.

The enemy had another hope, that Russia would become our enemy after the conquest of Poland. The enemy did not count on my great power of resolution. Our enemies are little worms. I saw them in Munich.

I was convinced that Stalin would never accept the England offer. Russia has no interest in maintaining Poland and Stalin knows that it is the end of his regime no matter whether his soldiers come out of a war victoriously or beaten. Litvinow's replacement was decisive. I brought about the change toward Russia gradually. In connection with the commercial treaty we got into political conversation. Proposal of a non-aggression pact. Then came a general proposal from Russia. Four days ago I took a special step, which brought it about that Russia answered yesterday that she is ready to sign. The personal contract with Stalin is established. The day after tomorrow von Ribbentrop will conclude the treaty. Now Poland is in the position in which I wanted her.

We need not be afraid of a blockade. The East will supply us with grain, cattle, coal, lead and zinc. It is a big arm, which demands great efforts. I am only afraid that at the last minute some Schweinhund [literally, swineherd's dog; figuratively, filthy person] will make a proposal for mediation.

The political arm is set farther. A beginning has been made for the destruction of England's hegemony. The way is open for the soldier, after I have made the political preparations.

Today's publication of the non-aggression pact with Russia hit like a shell. The consequences cannot be overlooked. Stalin also said that this course will be of benefit to both countries. The effect on Poland will be tremendous.

Goering answers with thanks to the Fuehrer and the assurance that the armed forces will do their duty.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 812-PS

[Seal] Salzburg, 22 Aug. 1939
The Gauleiter Chiemsee
Personal!
Only direct delivery!
To the Reich Minister Dr. Arthur SEYSS-INQUART,
VIENNA I Ballhausplatz 2

Dear Dr. Seyss:

I have received your letter of 19 August 1939, in which you asked me to inform you what I know of those matters, which among others, are the subject of your correspondence with Buerckel.

I do not wish to discuss sundry talks and all that has been brought to my notice in the course of time by different people. I wish to clarify essentially my own attitude.

On the 5th of July 1939 I was asked by telephone by the Reich Commissioner Gauleader Buerckel if I was in possession of the memorandum of Globus regarding the events of March. I told him that I do not have this memorandum and that I never possessed a single part of it, that I furthermore did not then participate in the matter and do not know its content. Because of official requests by Buerckel I have entrusted him with a report accompanied by a letter written on the 6th July.

If Buerckel now writes to you that certain statements were confirmed by me, I feel obliged to entrust you with a copy each of my copies of those two documents, which were only written in single originals. I shall specially inform Buerckel of this. I connect this with the declaration, that I have given—apart from those written explanations—no confirmations, declarations, or criticisms whatsoever regarding you and your attitude and that I have authorized nobody to refer to any statements of mine.

Since the beginning of our collaboration I have always expressed and represented forcefully my ideas regarding yourself and my opinion of your personality. This conception of mine was the very basis of our collaboration. The events of February and March have not changed this, especially since I considered the political success of the 11th March merely as a confirmation of the intentions and convictions which have equally induced both of us to collaborate.

As far as Globus is concerned you are fully aware of his species which I judged always and in every situation only by its good side. I believe that you already talked to Globus about the occurrences between the 11th of March 1938 and today; and I am convinced that he will tell you everything that is bothering him, if you will speak to him about this matter, as is your intention.

With the best regards and
HEIL HITLER!
Yours
2 enclosures. [signed] Friedl Rainer

Copy.

Salzburg, 6 July 1939
To the Reich Commissar Gauleiter Josef Buerckel
Vienna I
Parliament

Dear Party Member Buerckel!

Soon after taking over in Austria, Klausner, Globocnik, and I flew to Berlin to report to Hitler's deputy, Hess, about the events which led to our taking over the government. We did this because we had the impression that the general opinion, perhaps also Hitler's own, was that the liberation depended more on Austrian matters of state rather than the party. To be more exact. Hitler especially mentioned Dr. Seyss-Inquart alone; and public opinion gave him alone credit for the change and thus believed him to have played the sole leading role.

This conception does not, however, correspond to the true proportions of powers and to the conditions of leadership which were completely clear until 12 March 1938. At that time I gave a short report in Klausner's behalf to the deputy of Hitler and also submitted a short summary of the developments since 1934. I made no single copy of this. I did not take part in further actions of this kind since they seemed to me to be too much connected with personal feelings. I think the main reason for the fact that the person of Dr. Seyss-Inquart seemed to Hitler and to public opinion to have stepped in the limelight in those March days, was that no position existed in the party from which one might have presented oneself to the public; and that there was no man who had the guts to let himself be presented. The actual reason was that the party leadership had to remain secret during the whole illegal fight, secret even from the Reich German public. He who wanted to direct correctly the political battle of the Austrian nazism had to forego public fame. Leopold did not want to forego that and made such decisive political mistakes that his recall became necessary. The person of Klausner never longed for fame and was therefore not suitable to appear gloriously after the taking over of power. The two powers behind Klausner—I consider the dynamic part of Globocnik and the political part of myself—were bound from the beginning, as collaborators of Klausner's, to put him to the fore.

We saw in March and April how a false picture about the actual leadership conditions developed from this fact which could not be corrected in spite of our attempts to that effect. This was an important factor for the varying moods of Globocnik who hoped especially from you that you would emphasize for Hitler and also for the public the role of the party during the events preceding 12 March 1938. I limited myself to address this verbal and written declaration to party member Hess, and furthermore to secure the documents from the March days. In addition, I spoke at every available opportunity about the fight of the party. I did not undertake steps to give just credit to other persons for the glory which was excessively ascribed to one person, Dr. Seyss-Inquart; and I would not do that, primarily because I appear as a beneficiary, and furthermore because I believe that I would not gladden Hitler by doing so. I am also convinced that Dr. Seyss-Inquart did not act crookedly, and furthermore that Hitler does not want to commit an act of historical justice by special preference of his person, but that he is attracted to him personally. It really is of no great account to Hitler if this or that person was more or less meritorious, in this sector of the great fight of the movement. Because, in the last analysis, by far the greatest part is to be ascribed only to him; he alone will be considered by history as the liberator of Austria. I, therefore, considered it best to accept existing conditions and look for new fertile fields of endeavor in the party.

If I should be asked to describe—without personal interest—the role of the party according to my best conviction, I am ready to do so at any time. For this reason I promised yesterday to submit to you again a short summary, and to make it available for your confidential use. Of this letter and of this abbreviated description I retain the sole copy.

Heil Hitler!
Rainer e.h.
1 Enclosure

COPY.

Report on the events in the NSDAP of Austria since the beginning of the last stage of battle until the seizure of power on the 11th March 1938.

In 1933 the Party fought a parliamentary battle. By the seizure of power in the Reich it gained considerably in numbers. It started to try to enforce new elections in order to gain admission into the government. By these means it should have taken over the government. The enemies recognized this fact, and the Government Dollfuss preceded, while tolerating the reds, to force the NSDAP from its legal plane in order to render it innocuous. In this the government used legal tricks, thereby practically doing away progressively with the democratic constitution. The first attempts of the government were answered by the Party with an increase of pressure; and the government's breaches of constitution were answered by arbitrary acts with the assumption that it might thus be able to overthrow the government. This assumption was wrong; at that time the government had the backing of all anti-German foreign countries, and it felt sufficiently strong to prohibit the NSDAP, and confession of adherence to the NSDAP, and subsequently to treat as high treason the confession in favor of the "Anschluss".

Thus the first stage of battle commenced which ended with the July rising of 1934. The decision for the July rising was right, and the execution of it was faulty. The result was a complete destruction of the organization; the loss of entire groups of fighters through imprisonment or flight into the "Alt-Reich"; and with regard to the political relationship of Germany to Austria, a formal acknowledgement of the existence of the Austrian State by the German Government. With the telegram to Papen, instructing him to reinstitute normal relationships between the two states, the Fuehrer had liquidated the first stage of the battle; and a new method of political penetration was to begin. By order of the Fuehrer the Landesleitung Munich was dissolved, and the party in Austria was left to its own resources.

There was no acknowledged leader for the entire party in Austria. New leaderships were forming in the mine Gaus. The process was again and again interrupted by the interference of the police; there was no liaison between the formations, and frequently there were two, three or more rival leaderships. The first evident, acknowledged speaker of almost all the Gaus in Autumn 1934 was engineer Reinthaller (already appointed Landesbauernfuehrer [leader of the country's farmers] by Hess). He endeavoured to bring about a political appeasement by negotiations with the government, with the purpose of giving the N.S.D.A.P. legal status again, thus permitting its political activities. Simultaneously Reinthaller started the reconstruction of the illegal political organization, at the head of which he had placed engineer Neubacher.

The first attempt to create a legal political organization which was to negotiate with the Government while a secret illegal organization existed, did not succeed; it brought about quarrels in almost all Gaus and ended with pressure of the illegal branch against the policy of appeasement of Reinthaller, and with the latter's retirement as Landesleiter [country leader]. The successor, Neubacher, head of the illegal organization, was not recognized by all the Gaus, because meanwhile the former Gauleader of Lower Austria, Captain Leopold, was released; and he claimed the country leadership because of his seniority in the party. In Carinthia at about that time, Klausner with his collaborators Globocnik, Rainer, Longhin and Pawlowski had reconstructed and readied the Gau Carinthia. The Gau Carinthia kept away from the quarrels of the leaders, and arbitrated the differences between Leopold and Neubacher, and finally effected a solution in such a way that Neubacher and his adherents recognized Leopold as the country leader; and Leopold appointed Neubacher to be his deputy. The points of friction between those two groups were not yet eliminated. Those differences did not remain concealed from the police; and the police got hold of a polemic by the group of Leopold against the group of Neubacher, on the strength of this material they arrested Leopold and Neubacher.

At that time the success of the calm attitude of the Gau Carinthia was crowned by the fact that after these arrests the representatives of all the Gaus came to Carinthia to offer Klausner the country leadership. By order of Klausner Dr. Rainer reported at these conferences the political referendum and developed the political conception as adopted by the Gau Carinthia on the basis of which, as a matter of fact, an agreement was reached. In July 1935 Klausner became the head of the movement without, however adopting the title of country leader because he considered it wrong as long as the country leader Leopold was imprisoned, but he looked upon himself as the speaker of the college of Gauleaders. With the consent of the representatives of all the Gaus, Klausner at that time appointed Globocnik as co-worker for the organizational part, and Rainer as co-worker for the political part of his task.

In August some further arrests took place, the victims of which were, apart from the Gauleaders, also Globocnik and Rainer. Schattenfroh then claimed, because of an instruction received from the imprisoned Leopold, to have been made deputy country leader. A group led by engineer Raffelsberger had at this time also established connections with departments of the Alt-Reich (Ministry of Propaganda, German Racial Agency, etc.) and made an attempt to formulate a political motto in the form of a program for the fighting movement of Austria. In Spring of 1936 Schattenfroh was arrested; he had named party member Hinterleitner of Linz as his successor as managerial country leader. In March Klausner was arrested in connection with the arrest of about 60 leading Nazis, whereas Dr. Rainer was released. Hinterleitner again followed those directives which were set down at the conferences at Carinthia in the Spring of 1935; and in May 1936 he appointed Rainer, Globocnik and engineer Hiedler to the country leadership in the following spheres of influence:

Rainer to be chief of the political staff; Hiedler as chief of the organization; and Globocnik as liaison officer with the Reich and as organizer of all the auxiliary bases outside of Austria.

The principles of the construction of the organization were: The organization is the bearer of the illegal fight and the trustee of the idea to create a secret organization, in a simple manner and without compromise, according to the principle of organizing an elite to be available to the illegal land-party council upon any emergency. Besides this, all political opportunities should be taken and all legal people and legal chances should be used without revealing any ties with the illegal organization. Therefore, co-operation between the illegal party organization and the legal political aides was anchored at the top of the party leadership. All connections with the party in Germany were kept secret in accordance with the orders of the Fuehrer. These said that the German state should officially be omitted from the creation of an Austrian NSDAP; and that auxiliary centers for propaganda, press, refugees, welfare, etc. should be established in the foreign countries bordering Austria.

Hinterleitner already contacted the lawyer Seyss-Inquart, who had connection with Dr. Wachter which originated from Seyss-Inquart's support of the July uprising. On the other side Seyss-Inquart had a good position in the legal field and especially well-established relations with Christian-Social politicians. Dr. Seyss-Inquart came from the ranks of the "Styrian Heimatschutz" and became a party member when the entire "Styrian Heimatschutz" was incorporated into the NSDAP. Another personality who had a good position in the legal field was Col. Glaise-Horstenau who had contacts with both sides. The agreement of 11 July 1936 was strongly influenced by the activities of these two persons. Papen mentioned Glaise-Horstenau to the Fuehrer as being a trusted person.

At that time the Fuehrer wished to see the leaders of the party in Austria in order to tell them his opinion on what Austrian National-Socialists should do. Meanwhile Hinterleiter was arrested, and Dr. Rainer became his successor and leader of the Austrian party. On 16 July 1936, Dr. Rainer and Globocnik visited the Fuehrer at the "Obersalzburg" where they received a clear explanation of the situation and the wishes of the Fuehrer. On 17 July 1936, all illegal Gauleiters met in Anif near Salzburg, where they received a complete report from Rainer on the statement of the Fuehrer and his political instructions for carrying out the fight. At the same conference the Gauleiters received organizational instructions from Globocnik and Hiedler.

Upon the proposal of Globocnik, the Fuehrer named Lt. Gen. [Gruppenfuehrer] Keppler as chief of the mixed commission which was appointed, in accordance with the state treaty of 11 July 1936, to supervise the correct execution of the agreement. At the same time Keppler was given full authority by the Fuehrer for the party in Austria. After Keppler was unsuccessful in his efforts to cooperate with Leopold, he worked together with Dr. Rainer, Globocnik, Reinthaller as leader of the peasants, Kaltenbrunner as leader of the SS, and Dr. Jury as deputy-leader of the Austrian party, as well as with Glaise-Horstenau and Seyss-Inquart.

Regarding internal conditions, it was clear that full recognition of the party leadership was given by Seyss-Inquart. He was also in permanent contact with Capt. Leopold, and there were never any serious conflicts between them. But he also acknowledged the correctness of Dr. Rainer's political interpretations, and the actual leadership of Dr. Rainer in all political actions. The situation was much the same with Glaise-Horstenau who was whole-heartedly for Rainer and Globocnik but always carefully guarded the legal party position of Leopold.

Due to the cooperation of the above-mentioned people with group leader Keppler and other officials of the Reich and due to the activities of other contact-men in Austria, it was possible to obtain the appointment of Seyss-Inquart as "Staatsrat" (councillor of state) in July 1937. Due to the same facts, the Chancellor Dr. Schuschnigg was forced to take a new so-called "satisfactory action". Through all this a new and stronger political position was won in the Austrian system. The National-Socialist Party became acceptable again in the political field and became a partner with whom one had to negotiate, even when it was not officially incorporated into internal Austrian political developments. This complicated political maneuver, accompanied by the steadily increasing pressure from the Reich, led to the talks between the Fuehrer and Schuschnigg at the Obersalzberg. Here Gruppenfuehrer Keppler presented the concrete political demands of the fighting underground movement, which he estimated according to his personal experiences and the information he received. The results of these talks were the right of a free acknowledgment of the National Socialist movement on the one hand and the recognition of an independent Austrian state on the other hand, as well as the appointment of Seyss-Inquart as Minister of Interior and Public Safety, as a person who will guarantee to both sides the proper carrying out of the agreements. In this way Seyss-Inquart occupied the key position and was in the center of all obvious political actions. A legal base in the government was won for the party. This resulted in a paralysis of the "system apparatus" (Schuschnigg government) at a time when a revolution needed to be carried out. Through this, the basis for a new attack on the Schuschnigg government was won.

Another result of the agreement was the appointment by the Fuehrer of Leopold as a member of the Staff of Hess. After a long, personal talk with Klausner, the Fuehrer appointed him as leader of the Austrian National Socialists, upon recommendation of Keppler. The relationship between Seyss-Inquart and Klausner was as follows: Seyss-Inquart acknowledged unconditionally the party leadership and actions taken by it; and he also acknowledged Klausner as the leader of the party. As a party member he was under the command of Klausner and received orders from him. But as a result of the agreement at Berchtesgaden and the statement the Fuehrer made to him during his state visit in Berlin, Seyss-Inquart was the personal trustee of the Fuehrer and directly responsible to him for the illegal NSDAP in Austria within the confines of his political sphere. Seyss-Inquart also acknowledged the free political initiative of the party leader of Austria.

The "Landesleitung" received word about the planned plebiscite through illegal information services, on 9 March 1938 at 10 a.m. At the session which was called immediately afterwards, Seyss-Inquart explained that he had known about this for only a few hours, but that he could not talk about it because he had given his word to keep silent on this subject. But during the talks he made us understand that the illegal information we received was based on truth, and that in view of the new situation, he had been cooperating with the "Landesleitung" from the very first moment. Klausner, Jury, Rainer, Globocnik and Seyss-Inquart were present at the first talks which were held at 10 a.m. There it was decided that first, the Fuehrer had to be informed immediately; secondly, the opportunity for the Fuehrer to intervene must be given to him by way of an official declaration made by Minister Seyss-Inquart to Schuschnigg; and thirdly, Seyss-Inquart must negotiate with the government until clear instructions and orders were received from the Fuehrer. Seyss-Inquart and Rainer together composed a letter to Schuschnigg, and only one copy of it was brought to the Fuehrer by Globocnik, who flew to him on the afternoon of 9 March 1938.

Negotiations with the government were not successful. Therefore they were stopped by Seyss-Inquart in accordance with the instructions he received from the Fuehrer. On the 10th March all preparations for future revolutionary actions had already been made, and the necessary orders given to all units leaders. During the night of the 10th to 11th, Globocnik returned from the Fuehrer with the announcement that the Fuehrer gave the party freedom of action and that he would back it in everything it did. Rainer then gave the final instruction for Friday, the 11th of March, and explained that three situations might develop within the following days:

1st Case: The plebiscite will not be held. In this case, a great demonstration must be held.

2nd Case: Schuschnigg will resign. In this case, a demonstration was ordered in taking over the government power.

3rd Case: Schuschnigg will take up the fight. In this case, all party leaders were ordered to act upon their own initiative, using all means to capture the position of power.

Dr. Seyss-Inquart took part in these talks with the Gauleiters.

On Friday, 11 March, the minister Glaise-Horstenau arrived in Vienna after a visit with the Fuehrer. After talks with Seyss-Inquart he went to see the chancellor. At 11:30 a.m. the "Landesleitung" had a meeting at which Klausner, Rainer, Globocnik, Jury, Seyss-Inquart, Glaise-Horstenau, Fishboeck and Muehlmann participated. Dr. Seyss-Inquart reported on his talks with Dr. Schuschnigg which had ended in a rejection of the proposal of the two ministers.

In regard to Rainer's proposal, von Klausner ordered that the government be presented with an ultimatum, expiring at 1400 hours, signed by legal political, "Front" men, including both ministers and also State Councillors Fishboeck and Jury, for the establishment of a voting date in three weeks and a free and secret ballot in accordance with the constitution.

On the basis of written evidence which Glaise-Horstenau had brought with him a leaflet, to be printed in millions of copies, and a telegram to the Fuehrer calling for help, were prepared.

Klausner placed the leadership of the final political actions in the hands of Rainer and Globocnik. Schuschnigg called a session of all ministers for 2:00 p.m. Rainer agreed with Seyss-Inquart that Rainer would send the telegram to the Fuehrer and the statement to the population at 3:00 p.m. and at the same time he would start all necessary actions to take over power unless he received news from the session of the ministers' council before that time. During this time all measures had been prepared. At 2:30, Seyss-Inquart 'phoned Rainer and informed him that Schuschnigg had been unable to take the pressure and had recalled the plebiscite but that he had refused to call a new plebiscite and had ordered the strongest police measures for maintaining order. Rainer asked whether the two ministers had resigned, and Seyss-Inquart answered "No." Rainer informed the "Reichskanzlei" through the German Embassy, and received an answer from Goering through the same channels that the Fuehrer will not consent to partial solutions and that Schuschnigg must resign. Seyss-Inquart was informed of this by Globocnik and Muehlmann; talks were had between Seyss-Inquart and Schuschnigg: Schuschnigg resigned. Seyss-Inquart asked Rainer what measures the party wished taken. Rainer's answer: Reestablishment of the government by Seyss-Inquart, legalization of the party, and calling up of the SS and SA as auxiliaries to the police force. Seyss-Inquart promised to have these measures carried out, but very soon the announcement followed that everything might be threatened by the resistance of Miklas. Meanwhile word arrived from the German Embassy that the Fuehrer expected the establishment of a government under Seyss-Inquart with a national majority, the legalization of the party, and permission for the legion to return, all within the specified time of 7:30 p.m.; otherwise, German troops would cross the border at 8:00 p.m. At 5:00 p.m., Rainer and Globocnik, accompanied by Muehlmann, went to the Chancellor's office to carry out this errand.

Situation: Miklas negotiated with Ender for the creation of a government which included, blacks, reds and National Socialists, and proposed the post of Vice-Chancellor to Seyss-Inquart. The latter rejected it and told Rainer that he was not able to negotiate by himself because he was personally involved, and therefore a weak and unpleasant political situation might result. Rainer negotiated with Zernette. Director of the cabinet Huber, Guide Schmidt, Glaise-Horstenau, Legation Councillor Stein, Military Attache General Muffe, and the "Gruppenfuehrer" Keppler, who had arrived in the meantime, were also negotiating. At 7:00 p.m. Seyss-Inquart entered the negotiations again. Situation at 7:30 p.m.: Stubborn refusal of Miklas to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor; appeal to the world in case of a German invasion.

Gruppenfuehrer Keppler explained that the Fuehrer did not yet have an urgent reason for the invasion. This reason must first be created. The situation in Vienna and in the country is most dangerous. It is feared that street fights will break out any moment because Rainer ordered the entire party to demonstrate at 3 o'clock. Rainer proposed storming and seizing the government palace in order to force the reconstruction of the government. The proposal was rejected by Keppler but was carried out by Rainer after he discussed it with Globocnik. After 8:00 p.m. the SA and SS marched in and occupied the government buildings and all important positions in the city of Vienna. At 8:30 p.m. Rainer, with the approval of Klausner, ordered all Gauleiters of Austria to take over power in all eight "gaus" of Austria, with the help of the SS and SA and with instructions that all government representatives who try to resist should be told that this action was taken on order of Chancellor Seyss-Inquart.

With this, the revolution broke out, and this resulted in the complete occupation of Austria within three hours and the taking over of all important posts by the party. * * *

The seizure of power was the work of the party supported by the Fuehrer's threat of invasion and the legal standing of Seyss-Inquart in the government. The national result in the form of the taking over of the government by Seyss-Inquart was due to the actual seizure of power by the party on one hand, and the political efficiency of Dr. Seyss-Inquart in his territory on the other; but both factors may be considered only in the relation to the Fuehrer's decision on 9 March 1938 to solve the Austrian problem under any circumstances and the orders consequently issued by the Fuehrer.

6.7.1939 Rainer e. h.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 829-PS

TOP SECRET

Copy

The Chief of the OKW
WFST. / Abt. L (IV/Qu)
Nr. 002060/41 g. Kdos.

F.H. Qu., 16 September 1941
40 copies, 32nd copy

Subject: Communist insurrection in the occupied territories.

1. Since the campaign against Soviet Russia started there have been communist insurrections everywhere in the territories occupied by Germany. The actions range from propaganda and assaults against single members of the armed forces to open revolt and spreading guerilla warfare.

It should be noted that this is a mass movement which is centrally directed from Moscow and to which also the single and seemingly trifling incidents are to be ascribed occurring in areas which have been quiet so far.

Due to the manifold political and economic tensions in the occupied territories we must also expect nationalistic and other groups to take advantage of the situation and to instigate difficulties for the German occupation troops by joining the communist insurrection.

This way an increasing danger for the German conduct of the war arises which becomes apparent first by generally unsafe conditions for the occupation troops and already has led to troops being detached to the main centers of the unrest.

2. Previous measures to counteract this general communist insurrection have proved inadequate.

The Fuehrer has now ordered that everywhere the most drastic means are to be employed in order to quench the movement within the shortest time possible.

Only in this manner which has always been employed successfully by great nations in the history of their conquests quiet can be restored.

3. The following directives are to be observed:

a. In each case of revolt against the German occupation force Communist sources are to be suspected regardless of what the individual circumstances are.

b. To nip the plots in the bud the most drastic means are to be employed immediately at the first provocation in order to make the authority of the occupation force prevail and to prevent further spreading. Attention should be paid to the fact that a human life in the countries concerned often means nothing and only by unusual severity can a deterrent effect be achieved. In these cases the life of one German soldier must be atoned for by the death sentence for 50 to 100 communists, as a rule. The manner of execution shall further increase the deterrent effect.

The opposite procedure to use relatively mild punishment first and to do with the threat of more severe action as a deterrent is not in accordance with these principles and therefore should not be employed.

c. The political relationships between Germany and the respective country in question are irrelevant for the attitude of the military occupation authorities.

To the contrary, it is to be considered and emphasized by propaganda that striking with energy will also liberate the native populations from communist criminals and result to their benefit.

Clever propaganda of this kind consequently will not cause undesirable reactions of the friendly parts of the population on account of the severe measures against the communists.

d. Native men will generally be a failure in the execution of such measures of force. Their strengthening brings an increased danger for our own troops and therefore must not be allowed.

However, prizes and rewards should be lavishly offered to the population in order to ensure its cooperation in a suitable way.

e. If as an exception court martial is to be opened in connection with communist revolts or other offenses against the German occupation force, the most drastic penalties are to be imposed.

In such cases the death penalty only can be an actual means having deterrent effect. Particularly acts of espionage and sabotage and attempts to join a foreign army are, as a rule, to be punished with death. Also in cases of bearing arms without permission the death sentence is to be imposed in general.

4. The commanders in the occupied territories see to it that these principles are made known to all military offices without delay which have to deal with communist acts of revolt.

Certified /s/ Keitel
[signature illegible]
M.V.J.

Distribution:

Commander of Armed Forces South-East [W. Bfh. Suedost]	1st copy
with additional copies for Commander Serbia	2nd copy
with additional copies for Commander Salonika-Aegean Sea	3rd copy
with additional copies for Commander Southern Greece	4th copy
with additional copies for Commander Crete	5th copy
Commander of Armed Forces Norway	6th copy
Commander of Armed Forces Netherlands	7th copy
Commander of Armed Forces Eastern Territory	8th copy
Commander of Armed Forces Ukraine	9th copy
Plenipotentiary for the Armed Force with the Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia	10th copy
High Command of the Army—OKH (operational sec.)	11th copy
[O.Qu.IV]	12th copy
(Gen. Qu.) with additional copy for	13th copy
Mil Cdr. France	14th copy
Mil. Cdr. Belgium and Northern France	15th copy
Mil. Cdr. in the Gouv. Gen.	16th copy
Chief of Armament and Cdr. of Reserve	17th copy
with add. copy for Cdr. German Troops in Denmark	18th copy
Chief of Air Force (General Staff)	19th copy
Chief of Navy [OKM] Chief of naval operations [SKL]	20th copy
Armistice Commission [W.St.K.] Wiesbaden	21st copy
Foreign Office, attention ambassador [?] Ritter	22nd copy
Verfuegungsstab Frankfurt/Oder via L II	23rd copy
Verfuegungsstab Breslau OKW	24th copy
Operational Staff of the Armed Forces [WFST]	25th copy
Abt.L	26-32nd copy
WPr.	33rd copy
Office Ausl./Abw.	34th copy
Counterintelligence Abw. III	35th copy
Foreign department Abt. Ausl.	36th copy
Economic Armament office	37th copy
AWA	38th copy
WR	39th copy
Liaison-office [V.O.] at Gen. Gouv. Cracow	40th copy

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 833-PS

SECRET

High Command of the Armed Forces Berlin, 2 February 1942.

Foreign office/Intelligence/Intell. Dept. III No. 570/1.42 g (ZR/ III C 2

Subject: Prosecution of crimes against the Reich or the occupying forces in the occupied territories

Wehrm. High Command
7 Feb. 1942
No. 221 / 42 g
further:
to: 149/10 10

Reference: None
Inclosures: 3

In the enclosure are transmitted

1. a decree of the Fuehrer and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of 7.12.41

2. an executory decree of the same day

3. a circular of the Chief of the Armed Forces High Command of 12.12.41

The decree carries a basic innovation. The Fuehrer and commander in chief of the armed forces commands that crimes of the specified sort committed by civilians of the occupied territories are to be punished by the pertinent courts martial in the occupied territories only when

(a) The sentence calls for the death penalty
and (b) the sentence is pronounced within 8 days after the arrest.

Only when both conditions are met does the Fuehrer and commander in chief of the armed forces hope for the desired deterrent effect from the conduct of punitive proceedings in the occupied territories.

In other cases in the future the accused are to be secretly brought to Germany and the further conduct of the trial carried on here. The deterrent effect of these measures lies

(a) in allowing the disappearance of the accused without a trace,

(b) therein, that no information whatsoever may be given about their whereabouts and their fate.

This decree brings only insignificant changes of their activity to the intelligence [Abwehr] agencies. Now as before the intelligence agencies determine the time for the arrest of the espionage and sabotage suspect. However, in conjunction with establishment of the time it must however be considered now that previous to the arrest evidence fully sufficient for the conviction of the perpetrator must if possible be on hand, for further investigation hardly comes into question after the seizure, since a sentence must take place within 8 days, or on the other hand further investigation on the spot by confrontation is made impossible by the evacuation of the prisoners to Germany. Therefore contact should be made with the pertinent military court previous to the arrest in order to check on the question as to whether or not the collected evidence suffices.

When in the opinion of the pertinent court martial and/or the military commander an immediate conviction on the spot is not possible, and the perpetrators are therefore to be evacuated to Germany, the intelligence agencies will inform Reich security headquarters [Reichssicherheitshauptamt] in Berlin SW 11, Prinz Albrecht-Str. 8, attention of Herr Kriminaldirektor Fischer, directly, with a statement of the exact number of prisoners and the groups that belong together according to the circumstances of the individual case. Insofar as in individual cases the superior commander has an urgent interest in the conviction by a Wehrmacht court, this will be brought to the attention of Reich security headquarters. A copy of the whole report to Reich security headquarters is to be sent to the Foreign Office/Intelligence, Intelligence Department III.

The Reich security headquarters will determine a state police office, depending on accommodation possibilities, which will take over the prisoners. This state police office makes contact with the proper intelligence office and arranges the details of the evacuation, particularly if it will be handled by the secret military police, military police, or by the Gestapo itself, as well as manner and place of transfer of subjects.

The decree of the Fuehrer is to be applied, to begin with, only in the occupied western territories (Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, and Northern France, France).

The intelligence agencies must make report to the chief of staff on the above regulations decreed by the foreign office intelligencer.

For the Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command
Signature: CANARIS
Distribution:

To (Intelligence III)	127
For information:
West (Armed Forces Operational staff.)	1
WR	15
Foreign Office Intelligence Z, ZR	2
Foreign Department	1
Intelligence III
W, H, M, Air FPdW, F, C, C1, C2, each 1	9
Wi	1
U	2
Reich Security Headquarters, Department IV E, attention of Kriminaldirektor Fischer	1
Original	1
Supply	40
	——
	200
	====

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 835-PS

SECRET

High Command of the Armed Forces
14 n 16.18 WR(1/3)

Berlin W 35, Tirpitzufer 72-76 2 September 1944
Telephone Local 218191
Long distance 218091

Refer to file number date and content.

To the German Armistice Commission re letter of 10.8.44 Az. 630/44.

For information to: OKW/WFSt/Qu/Verw.1, WFSt/Foreign Office Group.

Concerns: Status of Political Prisoners.

Reference: Fuehrer decree of 30.7.44 (OKW/WFSt/Qu 2/Verw.1 Nr. 009169 g.K.) and decree OKW of 18.2.44 (WFSt/Qu 2/Verw.1 Nr. 009169 g.K.) WR 1/3 Nr. 79/44 g.K.

Conforming to the decrees, all non-German civilians in occupied territory who have endangered the security and readiness for action of the occupying power by acts of terror and sabotage or in other ways are to be surrendered to the security police and to the security service (SD). Only those prisoners are excepted who were legally sentenced to death or were serving a sentence of confinement prior to the announcement of these decrees. Included in the punishable acts which endanger the security or readiness of action of the garrison power are also those of a political nature. The declaration of the senior office of the SS [Protection Corps] and Police with the Military Commander of France that he cannot answer questions about political prisoners during Anglo-American operations, includes therefore all political prisoners in the occupied French territories seized recently or to be seized in the near future.

The treatment of prisoners who are condemned according to the decree of the Fuehrer of December 7, 1941 OKW/WR (I/3/4 14 n 16 Nr. 165/41 g) and who have no communication with the outer world, will soon be discussed with all interested officers.

By order

Sig. Dr. Lehmann
For correctness
BDC—OKW—1643 [Signature illegible.]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 837-PS

SECRET

National Socialist German Labour Party

Fuehrer's Deputy.

The Brown House,
Munich-33, February 3rd 1939

SECRET

Order No. 5/39 g

(Not for Publication)

Subject: National league of Germans abroad [Volksbund fuer das Deutschtum in Ausland] and the German Eastern League [Bund Deutscher Osten]

The Director of the Agency for Racial Germans [Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle] SS-Gruppenfuehrer Lorenz, has instigated on my behalf the following new ruling for questions affecting racial work and work in the border country.

1. The National League of Germans abroad [VDA] is the association responsible for national work beyond the frontiers. At the head of the association, the new statutes of the VDA provide for a League Directorate consisting for the most part of leading party members in place of an independent League Director, whose office has been cancelled. Professor Karl Haushofer (Gen. ret.) has taken over the chairmanship of this Directorate. Party member Paul Meike is business manager of the League Directorate of the VDA and in this capacity he combines membership of the department of the Agency for Racial Germans with managing the VDA on lines which are in accordance with the instructions of the Director of the Agency for Racial Germans. Thus the VDA can no longer take action on its own which affects the whole association. The VDA is organized into State Associations [Landesverbaende], which correspond in area to the Gaue of the NSDAP.

2. The German Eastern League [BDO] is the association responsible for work on the border country. SS-Oberfuehrer Dr. Behrends, the deputy of the Director of the Agency for Racial Germans, is charged, until further notice, with its direction. Party Member Hoffmeyer is the responsible manager of the German Eastern League. He directs its business affairs according to the instructions of the Director of the Agency for Racial Germans, and is a member of the staff of the Agency for Racial Germans. The BDO is organized into State Groups, whose regional borders correspond to those of the "Gaue" of the NSDAP.

3. All other associations for racial work and work in the border country (Patriotic Associations) [Heimattreue Verdaende] etc., are alternately transferred, according to their activities, to the associations mentioned under 1 and 2. The managers of VDA and BDO are commissioned to take the necessary measures for the incorporating of these associations.

4. The VDA is solely responsible for racial work beyond the frontiers. I herewith forbid the Party, its organizations and affiliated associations from all racial work abroad. The only competent body for this task is the Agency for Racial Germans, and the VDA as its camouflaged tool. Within the Reich the VDA, generally speaking, is responsible only for providing the means for racial work beyond the frontiers. The VDA must be supported in this in every way by the Party offices. Any outward appearance of a connection with the Party is, however to be avoided.

5. The BDO is at the disposal of the Gauleiters of the frontier "Gaue" for political duties on the frontiers. In addition, the establishment of a frontier territory bureau [Granzlandamt] for the following "Gaue" has been agreed to, in cases where such a bureau is not already in existence:

East Prussia,
Pomerania,
Mark Brandenburg,
Silesia,
Sudetenland,
Bavarian Ostmark,
Upper Danube,
Lower Danube.

In all other "Gaue," special frontier territory bureaux or representatives would be superfluous and are therefore not to be established. Should they already exist, they are to be dissolved.

The activity of the BDO and the VDA is to be supported in every way by the Party offices. The National Socialist leadership of both associations will ensure energetic cooperation on their part in all tasks assigned to them by the NSDAP. Their nature is determined by considerations of foreign policy, and the associations must bear this in mind when representing them in public.

Signed: R. HESS

Certified
[signed] Witt
(WITT)

Distribution: II d

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 838-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS' PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer

The Brown House, Munich 33, 3 June 1939

Stabsleiter

Circular No. 122139

Subject: Adherents to Christian Science who are members of the Party

In decree No. 51/1939, dated 6 March 1939 the deputy of the Fuehrer has forbidden that members of the Party be followers of Christian Science due to the outspoken international connections of Christian Science and he decreed that wherever double-membership exists it will have to be annulled immediately.

I request that the leaders of the organizations of the Party issue the necessary decree within the realm of their jurisdiction and also make sure that no double-membership of Christian Science and of party organizations exist.

I also request of the leaders of the affiliated organizations to make sure by issuing decrees that within their realm of jurisdiction members of the Christian Science will not hold official positions. I have no objection for members of the affiliated organizations to be members of the Christian Science.

Signed: M. Bormann

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 840-PS

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS' PARTY

The Deputy of the Fuehrer
Brown House, Munich 33, 14 July 1939
Regulation No. 140/39

Subject: Admission of Clergymen and Students of Theology into the NSDAP

In my regulation No. 24/37 dated 9 February 1937 I have decreed that in order to avoid the penetration of contrasts of ecclesiastical-political nature into the movement and to avoid the suspicion of a one-sided attitude for or against an existing denomination, the admission of members of the clergy into the Party is to be avoided. It turned out that the nonadmission of members of the clergy into the Party is not sufficient for the purpose in question.

In his regulation No. 34/39 on the lifting of the restriction of memberships dated 10 May 1939 the Reich Treasurer of the NSDAP has done justice to this experience by decreeing that clergymen, as well as other fellow Germans who are also closely connected with the church, cannot be admitted into the Party.

In addition to this I decree that in the future Party members who enter the clergy or who turn to the study of Theology have to leave the Party. This decree does not affect those students who are matriculated mainly in other factors and, not intending to become clergymen later attend only some lectures of the theological faculties.

Signed: for
BORMANN

Attested:
[Signature illegible]
Distribution: IV b

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 841-PS

SECRET

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN LABOR PARTY

Fuehrer's Deputy Chief of the Staff
Brown House, MUNICH 33, the 17 Jan. 1939

ORDER NO 1/39 SECRET

Subject: Jews.

Upon proposal of Field-Marshal Goering, the Fuehrer has made some basic decisions concerning the Jewish problem. I make these decisions known to you in the enclosure and request that you observe to take these directives under all circumstances.

Signed: M. BORMANN

1 Enclosure
Distribution: III b
Certified
Signed: [illegible]

SECRET

PRIME MINISTER FIELD-MARSHALL
GOERING
Commissioner for four year plan
Berlin, 28. Dec. 1938

Upon my proposal, the Fuehrer made the following decisions concerning the Jewish problem:

I. Housing of Jews

1. a. The tenant protective law, as a rule, is not to be abrogated for the Jews. On the contrary, it is desired, if possible, to proceed in particular cases in such a way that the Jews are quartered together in separate houses insofar as the housing conditions allow that.

b. For this reason the aryanizing of the house ownership is to be postponed until the end of the total aryanization, that is to say, for the present the aryanizing of houses has to be carried out only where in individual cases urgent reasons exist. The aryanizing of industries, businesses, agricultural estates, forests, etc., is to be considered as urgent.

2. Use of sleeping and dining cars is to be forbidden to the Jews. At the same time, no special Jewish compartments to be established. As well, the use of trains, street cars, suburban railways, underground railways, busses, and ships can not be prohibited to the Jews.

3. Only the use of some public establishments, etc., is to be prohibited to the Jews. In this category belong the hotels and restaurants visited especially by party-members (for instance: Hotel Kaiserhof—Berlin; Hotel Vierjahreszeiten—Munich; Hotel Deutscher Hof—Nurnberg; Hotel Drei Mohren—Augsburg, etc.). The use of bathing establishments, some public places, bathing resorts, etc. can be prohibited to the Jews; also medicine baths, so far as they are prescribed in particular cases by physicians, may be used by Jews, but only in such ways that no offense is created.

II. Jews who were officials and have been pensioned are not to be denied their pensions. Investigations though have to be made as to whether these Jews can get along with a reduced allowance.

III. The Jewish welfare organizations are not to be aryanized or abolished so that the Jews do not become a public charge, but may be supported by Jewish welfare organizations.

IV. Jewish patents are property, and as such have to be aryanized. (A similar procedure toward Germany was carried out by U.S.A. and other countries during World War I).

Mixed Marriages.

I. 1. With children (part Jews 1st class)

a. If the father is a German and the mother a Jewess, this family may stay in the future in its present lodging. The regulations for exclusion of Jews are not to be applied to such families as far as their housing is concerned.

In these cases, the property of the Jewish mother can be transferred to the German husband, or to the mixed children.

b. If the father is a Jew and the mother a German, such families also, are not to be moved for the present into Jewish quarters, because the children (part Jews 1st class) in the future, must serve in the labor service and the armed forces, and must not be exposed to Jewish propaganda. Concerning the property, one must for the present proceed in such a way that it can be completely or partly transferred to the children.

2. Without children.

a. If the husband is a German and wife a Jewess, the provisions of 1a are valid accordingly.

b. If the husband is a Jew, and the wife a German, these childless couples are to be proceeded against as if they were full-blooded Jews. The husband's property can not be transferred to the wife. Both, husband and wife can be moved into the Jewish houses or Jewish quarters.

Especially in case of emigration such married couples are to be treated as Jews, as soon as an increased emigration is gotten under way.

II. If a German wife divorces a Jew, she reenters the German racial community and all disadvantages for her discontinue.

Signed: GOERING

Certified copy
[Signature illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 842-PS

THE KREISLEITER
To The Area Staff Leaders [Gaustabsamtsleiter]
Party member SELLMER, NURNBERG

LAUF (PEGNITZ), December 30, 1940

In addition to my last report on the situation, I report the following:

The district physician of Hersbruck, Dr. Loeffler, informs me that in Schupf near Kainsback (formerly Kreis Hersbruck) a young farmer, by the name of Koch, was turned over to an institution for sterilization, because of epileptic attacks.

A few weeks ago he wrote to his mother that he was feeling fine, and that she should send him some smoking tobacco. His mother wrote him in return that he should come back soon, as he is badly needed on the farm. It is remarked here that the young Koch was of great help to the mother Koch, a farmer's widow, as he managed the farm practically all by himself.

A week later the widow was informed that her son had suddenly died, and that she could obtain the urn containing the ashes.

As the young Koch had been known also in his neighborhood for his industry, it is natural that this "violent death" has caused great indignation.

When I proposed to district physician Loeffler to send a master mason from Osternohe for a few weeks to the institution in Ausbach for observation of his mental condition, he declared he could not take this responsibility as he did not know if same would return alive. The doctor informed me also that it was known that the commission consisted of an SS-physician with several subordinate physicians and that the "patients" were not even being examined, but judged solely by the patient's existing records. As far as he knew families refuse to send their sick members to the institutions as they do not know whether they would see them again alive.

The district physician in Nurnberg had informed him of two cases in the city of Nurnberg, where charges of murder have been preferred by relations of such patients.

The Party has up to now received neither such complaints nor accusations.

Heil Hitler!
Signed: Walz
Kreisleiter

Pencil and ink notes:

"investigate"

"Dr. Guesbert" [?]

"The staff reports: No case is known. The authorities have been instructed how to act. 1-7-41."

"Party member Walz has been informed; Party member Dr. Hummel has been informed; Party member Dr. Breilig [?] has been informed."

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 847-PS

The Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery

Vossstrasse 6, Berlin W8, July 5, 1942
at present Fuehrer's Headquarters

All postal communication must be sent to the
Berlin address without exception.

RK. 9495 B

Please use the above chiffre in further communications.

To the Highest Authorities in the Reich, and to all departments directly subordinate to the Fuehrer

The Fuehrer has charged Reichleader Rosenberg in his capacity as delegate of the Fuehrer with the supervision of the entire spiritual and political education and schooling of the NSDAP, with the spiritual fight against the Jews and Freemasons as well as against all allied with them in their doctrinal opposition to National Socialism, as the instigators of the present war. For this purpose the Fuehrer has ordered that the staff of the Reichsleader Rosenberg shall have the right, in occupied territories under Military Government and in occupied Eastern territories under civil administration (this does not include the General Government) to search libraries, archives, lodges, and other political and cultural institutions of all kinds for suitable material for the fulfillment of his task, and to ask the competent army and police offices to confiscate the material thus procured for the implementation of the world doctrinal tasks of the NSDAP, and for later scientific research work of the university, whereby the police political files will remain with the police, all other documents however to be turned over to the staff of the Reichleader Rosenberg. The same request to be made by this staff in regard to all cultural goods which are the property or in the possession of Jews which do not belong to anyone, or whose owners cannot be determined. The measures on procedure about the collaboration with the Wehrmacht will be issued by the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht in accordance with Reichleader Rosenberg. The necessary measures within the Eastern territories under German administration will be taken by Reichleader Rosenberg in his capacity as Reich Minister for the occupied Eastern territories.

I am giving notice of this, the Fuehrer's order, and request to support Reichleader Rosenberg in the fulfillment of his task.

Signed: Dr. Lammers

SECRET

Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery
Rk. 507 A g

Please use this chiffre in all further communications

Vossstrasse 6, Berlin W8, July 16, 1942
Present field quarters. All mail to be sent
to the Berlin address without exception.
II 1C

II 1 C 791/42g, rec. 20 July 42

encl 1

To the Reich Minister for the occupied Eastern territories

Berlin W35

Kurfuerstenstrasse 134

(Notes illegible)

Concerning: Fuehrer decree of March 1, 1942
To the letter of July 10, 1942-II 1 C 705/42g

The regulations of which you wish to be informed are contained in enclosed circular letter to the highest Reich authorities of July 5, 1942—Rk. 9495 B—which was also sent to you. A further copy of this circular is enclosed for your use.

Deputy

[signature illegible]

1. There is nothing to be done from here.
2. Mr. R.R. Guilleaume to be informed after his return (7 Aug).

[signature illegible]

[name illegible]
Please ask in the Registrar's Office
of the Reich Chancellery if the
Fuehrer's decree of 1 March 42 exists.
Apparently we have only been sent the
measures of procedure.

(initials illegible) 3 July

The Fuehrer's decree of 1 March is
enclosed. PR. 4 August.

The Reich Chancellery has received
the Fuehrer decree of 1 March 42,
as a copy from the Reichsleitung
Rosenberg. I asked for it there.

Pr. 31/7

Give first to Ministerialdirector
Dr. Runte with a request for his
acknowledgment.

LABS, 5 August
[illegible marks]

FUEHRER DECREE

Jews, Freemasons, and those allied with them in their world doctrinal conceptions are opponents of National Socialism and are the instigators of the present war directed against the Reich. The planned spiritual fight against these powers is a necessary war measure.

I have therefore, charged Reichsleader Alfred Rosenberg to carry out this task in accord with the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. His staff for the occupied territories has the right to search libraries, archives, lodges, and other world doctrinal and cultural institutions of all kinds for pertinent material and to have it confiscated for the world doctrinal task of the NSDAP and the later research work of the university cultural values which are the property or are in the possession of Jews, which do not belong to an owner, or whose owners cannot be determined, are subject to the same regulation. The measures on procedure about the collaboration with the Wehrmacht will be issued by the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht in accord with Reichleader Rosenberg.

The necessary measures within the Eastern territories under German administration will be taken care of by Reichleader Rosenberg in his capacity as Reich Minister for the occupied Eastern territories.

Fuehrer Headquarters, March 1, 1942

To all administrative departments of the Wehrmacht, the Party, and the State.

Signed: Adolf Hitler

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 848-PS

GESTAPO

NURNBERG-FUERTH OFFICE

TELETYPE SECTION

Teletype No. 12309

Received 24 July 1938, 1515 hours from WF via GM
Dr. Berlin Nue 167 262 24 July 1938 1500 to Stapo Nurnberg—
Urgent—Transmit at once.

Subject: Bishop Dr. Sproll in Rottenburg
Reference: None

I request that the following text of a teletype just received here from Stuttgart be transmitted at once by special messenger to Bayreuth, Villa Wahnfried, to SS Brigadefuehrer Schaub, attention of SS Untersturmfuehrer Wuensche:

In connection with my report (special delivery of 23 July 1938) subject: Bishop Dr. Sproll of Rottenburg, I further communicate that the following teletype from the Gestapo office in Stuttgart just came in here:

"The Party on 23 July 1939 from 2100 on carried out the third demonstration against Bishop Sproll. Participants about 2,500-3,000 were brought in from outside by bus, etc. The Rottenburg populace again did not participate in the demonstration. This town took rather a hostile attitude to the demonstrations. The action got completely out of hand of the Party Member responsible for it. The demonstrators stormed the palace, beat in the gates and doors. About 150 to 200 people forced their way into the palace, searched the rooms, threw files out of the windows, and rummaged through the beds in the rooms of the palace. One bed was ignited. Before the fire got to the other objects of equipment in the rooms and the palace, the flaming bed could be thrown from the window and the fire extinguished. The Bishop was with Archbishop Groeber of Freiburg and the ladies and gentleman of his menage in the chapel at prayer. About 25 to 30 people pressed into this chapel and molested those present. Bishop Groeber was taken for Bishop Sproll. He was grabbed by the robe and dragged back and forth. Finally the intruders realized that Bishop Groeber is not the one they are seeking. They could then be persuaded to leave the building. After the evacuation of the palace by the demonstrators I had an interview with Archbishop Groeber who left Rottenburg in the night. Groeber wants to turn to the Fuehrer and Reich Minister of the Interior Dr. Frick anew. On the course of the action, the damage done as well as the homage of the Rottenburg populace beginning today for the Bishop I shall immediately hand in a full report, after I am in the act of suppressing counter mass meetings.

Gestapo Office Stuttgart."

In case the Fuehrer has instructions to give in this matter, I request that these be transmitted most quickly, best by telephone to Gestapo Office, telephone Berlin 12 00 40, attention of Regierung Assistant Freytag, so that corresponding instructions can be forwarded to Stuttgart.

Gestapo Office Berlin,

By direction,

Signed: DR. BEST

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 849-PS

Reich Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs
GII 3990/38

Berlin W 8, Leipziger Strasse 3, 23 July 1938
Tel. 11 66 51
[Stamp]

Praesidium Chancellery
Entered 24 July 1938

RP 6575/38

Subject: Catholic Bishop Sproll in Rottenburg (wttbg.)
Ref: Letter of 22 July 1938
No. Er 41/38 III
3 enclosures

To the Minister of State and Chief of the Praesidium Chancellery in Berlin

The Catholic Bishop Dr. Sproll, as the only citizen of the city of Rottenburg and, as far as is known, as the only German bishop, did not take part in the plebiscite of 10 April. The absence from the plebiscite has evoked great and justified anger among the population. Apparently the bishop himself had a bad conscience and left town on the evening before the plebiscite for an unknown destination. Even on 10 and 11 April there were demonstrations at the bishop's residence in Rottenburg against the absent bishop. On 21 April Sproll returned to Rottenburg and on the same day there were renewed demonstrations in front of the bishop's palace. On 22 April Dr. Sproll again left Rottenburg in order to go to a Bavarian monastery.

As the bishop, since Hitler's rise to power, became prominent through a series of damaging sermons, the Governor of Wuerttemberg now came to the conclusion that Dr. Sproll, in the interest of preserving the state's authority and in the interest of quiet and order, could no longer remain in office. The Reich Governor had explained to the ecclesiastical board,

that he would no longer regard Bishop Sproll as Head of the Diocese of Rottenburg on account of his refraining from the election in the office;
that he desired Bishop Sproll to leave the Gau area Wuerttemberg-Hohenzollern, because he could assume no guarantee for his personal safety; that in the case of the return of the bishop to Rottenburg he would see to it that all personal and official intercourse with him on the part of state offices as well as Party offices and the Armed Forces would be denied.

Moved by the reports from Wuerttemberg my Deputy, in my absence, directed the letter attached in copy G II 2277/38 2030 dated 5 May to the Foreign Office. In accordance with that the Foreign Office on 18 May turned to the German Embassy at the Vatican with the instruction that it should be urged on the Holy See to persuade Bishop Sproll that he should resign his Bishopric.

The bishop sojourning outside of his diocese had already received the instruction to return to his diocese. On 18 May Sproll quietly returned to Wuerttemberg and retired to St. Mary's Hospital in Stuttgart.

Since no answer to the instruction of 18 May had been received from the Embassy at the Holy See, on 1 July the settlement of the affair was again brought up in Rome. On 18 July the letter of the Foreign Office attached in copy—Pol III 1886 of 11 July—was received. Whether the affair has again been discussed with the Cardinal Secretary of State, as planned, is unknown to me.

In the intervening two months Bishop Sproll quietly resided in Stuttgart. On 15 July he returned to the Episcopal residence and on 16 July conducted a ceremonial divine service. On the evening of the same day there occurred among the population, aroused over the return of the bishop, great demonstrations before the ecclesiastical buildings of Rottenburg. On 18 July there were more even greater demonstrations. A report of the Reich Governor of 20 July is attached in copy. It is to be expected that on Saturday, 23 July, even greater mass meetings against continued remaining of the Bishop will be put on, so that Cardinal Bertram was impelled to send his telegram of 21 July to the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor.

The content and tenor of this telegram are such that I cannot recommend a favorable consideration of it. Not the demonstrating people aroused over the subversive attitude of the Bishop are turning against the State, but the Bishop by his incredible behavior against the State and folk-community has turned against the State. In my estimation measures are not sufficient here, which merely produce the condition prior to 10 April. I could only recommend a cessation of further demonstrations if the action of the German Embassy initiated at the Holy See is accompanied by success. If it is unsuccessful, the Bishop would have to be exiled from the land, or there would have to be a complete boycott of the Bishop by the authorities, as the Reich Governor in Wuerttemberg at that time announced to the ecclesiastical officials.

I would notify Cardinal Bertram correspondingly, in case the Fuehrer does not reserve the notification for himself.

signed: KERRL

Copy

Berlin W8, 5 May 1938
Reich and Prussian Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs
GII 2277/38

Subject: Catholic Bishop Sproll in Rottenburg, Wuerttemberg

The Catholic Bishop Sproll of Rottenburg (Wuerttemberg) on 10 April 1938, as the only non-voter of the Rottenburg District, aroused the greatest resentment of all racial Germans and especially gave to Catholic circles the worst example for their civic behavior. By his absence from the plebiscite, which is to be evaluated only as a demonstration, he moreover has violated the sense of the Episcopal oath of loyalty prescribed in Article 16 of the Reichconcordat.

The Bishop felt impelled to evade the just anger of the people and to leave his diocese. It is to be feared that upon his possible return and a possible appearance in public, even at church functions, renewed disorders and demonstrations would occur. It cannot be expected of the German police that they would protect a man who has not perceived his most primitive duties to people and Fuehrer, from the crowds of people who, in righteous wrath, are turning against this man. Also, it cannot be expected of the German authorities that they will carry on official business with a Bishop who in this manner has excluded himself from the folk-community. It is not to be expected that this Bishop can ever accomplish any more fruitful work in his diocese.

I therefore recommend that it be urged on the Holy See via the Apostolic Nuncio or via the German Embassy at the Vatican, to influence Bishop Sproll that he resign his Bishopric as soon as possible.

By direction

Signed: DR. MUHS
To the Foreign Office in Berlin

Copy

Copy (indicated)
Berlin, 11 July 1938
Foreign Office, Pol III 1886
a. Reference to the letter of 11 June—Pol III 1679
b. Reference to letter of 27 May 1938—II B 1— / 574/38

The German Ambassador at the Vatican has discussed the matter of recalling Bishop Sproll with the Cardinal-Secretary of State. The Cardinal, who acted in a very reserved manner according to all appearance, did not approve the procedure of the Bishop, but remarked that according to reports he had received the participation in the plebiscite would be a voluntary act, nevertheless an offense against legal duties did not exist. The German Embassy reports, in addition, that in spiritual circles the behavior of the Bishop is designated as very inapt.

The German Embassy at the Holy See has been instructed to discuss the matter again with the Cardinal-Secretary of State.

Further information is reserved for the present.

By direction

Signed: Bismarck

To: a. Reich Governor in Wuerttemberg Gauleiter Murr, Stuttgart

b. Chief of the Security Police Berlin SW 11, Prinz-Albrecht-Str. 8

Copy

Reich Governor in Wuerttemberg
Stuttgart, 20 July 1938
Subject: Bishop Dr. Sproll
Enclosures: None

As I am informed, Monday evening a demonstration again occurred in front of the Episcopal Ordinariat. Several thousand people gathered in front of the Episcopal Ordinariat and chanting in unison gave expression to their resentment about the absence of the Bishop. There were no further excesses of any sort.

I am reporting on this incident with the request that everything be attempted to get a recall or transfer of the Bishop, for it is not to be assumed that tranquility will return to the people—even in the more remote area around Rottenburg—as long as Dr. Sproll officiates as Bishop.

To the Reich Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, Berlin W 8, Leipziger Str. 3.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 862-PS

TOP SECRET

The Deputy General of the Armed Forces with the Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia.

No. 22/40 top secret; Prague, 15 October 1940.

TOP SECRET

(through officers only)

Re: Basic political principles in the Protectorate
4 copies, 1st copy

TOP SECRET

(through officers only)

1 Annex
[Pencil marks]:
K [Keitel] 21/X
J [Jodl] Chief OKW
through Chief WFSt
W [Warlimont] 18/10

On 9 October of this year the office of the Reich Protector held an official conference in which State Secretary SS Lt. General K.H. Frank spoke about the following:

Since creation of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, party agencies, industrial circles, as well as agencies of the central authorities of Berlin have had difficulties about the solution of the Czech problem.

After ample deliberation, the Reich Protector expressed his view about the various plans in a memorandum. In this, three ways of solution were indicated:

a. German infiltration of Moravia and reduction of the Czech nationality to a residual Bohemia.

This solution is considered as unsatisfactory, because the Czech problem, even if in a diminished form, will continue to exist.

b. Many arguments can be brought up against the most radical solution, namely the deportation of all the Czechs. Therefore the memorandum comes to the conclusion that it cannot be carried out within a reasonable space of time.

c. Assimilation of the Czechs, i.e. absorption of about half of the Czech nationality by the Germans, insofar as this is of importance by being valuable from a racial or other standpoint [blut-und sonst wertmaessig Bedentunghat]. This will take place among other things, also by increasing the Arbeitseinsatz of the Czechs in the Reich territory (with the exception of the Sudeten German border district), in other words by dispersing the closed Czech nationality.

The other half of the Czech nationality must be deprived of its power, eliminated, and shipped out of the country by all sorts of methods. This applies particularly to the racially mongoloid part and to the major part of the intellectual class. The latter can scarcely be converted ideologically and would represent a burden by constantly making claims for the leadership over the other Czech classes and thus interfering with a rapid assimilation.

Elements which counteract the planned Germanization are to be handled roughly and should be eliminated.

The above development naturally presupposes an increased influx of Germans from the Reich territory into the Protectorate.

After a discussion, the Fuehrer has chosen solution c (assimilation) as a directive for the solution of the Czech problem and decided that, while keeping up the autonomy of the Protectorate on the surface, the Germanization will have to be carried out in a centralized way by the office of the Reich Protectorate for years to come.

From the above no particular conclusions are drawn by the armed forces. This is the direction which has always been represented from here. In this connection, I refer to my memorandum which was sent to the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, dated 12 July 1939, file number 6/39, top secret, entitled: "The Czech Problem." (Attached as annex).

The Deputy General of the Armed Forces with the Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia.

Signed: FRIDERICI
Infantry Lt. General
Distribution:

OKW-L—1st Copy
OKH-O Qu V—2nd Copy
Chief H Ruest and Bd E-Ic.—3rd Copy
Draft—4th Copy

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 864-PS

TOP SECRET

L IV Berlin, 20 October 1939

Only copy
Written by officer 20 Oct.
[illegible initials]

Conference between the Fuehrer and Chief OKW

on the future shape of Polish relations

with Germany

(Evening of 17 October 1939)

1. The Armed Forces will welcome it if they can dispose of administrative questions in Poland.

On principle there cannot be 2 administrations.

2. Poland is to be made independent. She will neither be part of the German Reich nor a district administered by the Reich.

3. It is not the task of the Administration to make Poland into a model province or a model state of the German order or to put her economically or financially on a sound basis.

The Polish intelligensia must be prevented from forming a ruling class. The standard of living in the country is to remain low; we only want to draw labor forces from there. Poles are also to be used for the administration of the country. However, the forming of national political groups may not be allowed.

4. The administration has to work on its own responsibility and must not be dependent on Berlin. We don't want to do there what we do in the Reich. The responsibility does not rest with the Berlin Ministries since there is no German administrative unit concerned.

The accomplishment of this task will involve a hard racial struggle [Volkstumskampf] which will not allow any legal restrictions. The methods will be incompatible with the principles otherwise adhered to by us.

The Governor General is to give the Polish nation only bare living conditions and is to maintain the basis for military security.

5. In Cracow German officers have visited the Bishops. Prince Radziwill is owner of his huge estates [Latifundien].

These problems cannot be solved socially.

6. Our interests lie as follows: Precautions are to be taken that the territory is important to us from a military point of view as an advanced jumping-off point and can be used for strategic concentration of troops. To that end the railroads, roads, and the communications channels are to be kept in order and utilized for our purposes.

Any tendencies towards the consolidation of conditions in Poland are to be suppressed. The "Polish muddle" [polnische Wirtschaft] must be allowed to develop. The government of the territory must make it possible for us to purify the Reich territory from Jews and Polacks, too. Collaboration with new Reich provinces [Posen and West Prussia] only for resettlements (Compare Mission Himmler).

Purpose: Shrewdness and severity must be the maxims in this racial struggle in order to spare us from going to battle on account of this country again.

[illegible initials] 20 Oct.
W.
[initialed by General Warlimont]
20 Oct.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 865-PS

I name Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg as my Commissioner for the central control of questions connected with the East-European Region.

An office, which is to be established in accordance with his orders, is at the disposal of Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the carrying out of the duties thereby entrusted to him.

The necessary money for this office is to be taken out of the Reich Chancellery Treasury in a lump sum.

Fuehrer's Headquarters 20th April 1941.
The Fuehrer
Signed: Adolf Hitler
Reich Minister and Head of Reich Chancellery
Signed: Dr. Lammers

TOP SECRET

The Reich Minister and the Head of the Reich Chancellery
Vossstrasse 6, Berlin W8, 21st April 1941
At present Fuehrer Headquarters.
Mail, without exception, to be sent to the Berlin address.

To: the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, General Field Marshal Keitel

Personal. By courier.

My dear General Field Marshal.

Herewith I am sending you a copy of the Fuehrer's Decree by which the Fuehrer appointed Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg as his Commissioner for the central control connected with the East-European Region. In this capacity Reichsleiter Rosenberg is to make the necessary preparations for the probable emergency with all speed. The Fuehrer wishes that Rosenberg shall be authorized for this purpose to obtain the closest cooperation of the highest Reich authorities, receive information from them, and summon the representatives of the Highest Reich Authorities to conferences. In order to guarantee the necessary secrecy of the commission and the measures to be undertaken, for the time being only, those of the highest Reich Authorities should be informed, on whose cooperation Reichsleiter Rosenberg will primarily depend. They are: the Commissioner for the Four-year Plan, the Reich Minister of Economies, and you yourself.

Therefore may I ask you, in accordance with the Fuehrer's wishes, to place your cooperation at the disposal of Reichsleiter Rosenberg, in carrying out of the task imposed upon him.

It is recommended, in the interests of secrecy, that you name a representative in your office with whom the office of the Reichsleiter can communicate and who in addition to your usual deputy should be the only one to whom you should communicate the contents of this letter.

I should be obliged if you would acknowledge the receipt of this letter.

Heil Hitler
Yours very sincerely
Dr. Lammers

TOP SECRET

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces

25 April 1941
By courier.

To The Head of the Reich Chancellery, Reich Minister Dr. Lammers

Personal.

Dear Reich Minister,

I acknowledge receipt of the copy of the Fuehrer's Decree in which the Fuehrer appointed Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg as his Commissioner for the central control of questions connected with the East-European Region. I have named General of the Artillery Jodl, Head of the Armed Forces Operational Staff, as my permanent Deputy and Major General Warlimont as his Deputy.

Heil Hitler
Yours very sincerely
K.
25/4.

TOP SECRET

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
25th April 1941.
By courier

To Reichsleiter Rosenberg
Personal

Dear Reichsleiter,

The Head of the Reich Chancellery has sent me a copy of the Fuehrer's Decree, by which he has appointed you his Commissioner for the central control of questions connected with the East-European Region. I have charged General of the Artillery Jodl, Head of the Armed Forces Operational Staff and his Deputy, Major General Warlimont with solving these questions, as far as they concern the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. Now I ask you, as far as your Office is concerned, to deal with him only.

Heil Hitler
Yours very sincerely
K.
25/4.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 870-PS

[Stamp:]

TOP SECRET

Copy to Rk. 1952 German Secret Reich matter.

Information for the Fuehrer

I report the following, concerning the sabotage plot, through which at the two largest Oslo dockyards 23500 was sunk and 25800 tonnage was damaged:

I. Backgrounds.

1. The personnel of both dockyards had the reputation of being extremely radical marxistic before the war. Both dockyards strikes were declared in September 1941. At the second day of the strike I have taken measures so harsh and decisive that starting there and then, and until this plot happened, peace and order prevailed at both enterprises.

2. In connection with the withdrawal of the 20th (mountain) Army, England has given out the following order to the personnel of the dockyards: "Either you blow up the ships or we shall be forced to shell town and port." The efficiency of that order of the day is confirmed not only by the plot itself but also by statements. Therefore it is clear that the saboteurs do not only have active helpers or groups of helpers amongst the personnel, but that they also enjoy passive support respectively protection by the rest of the crowd.

II. Countermeasures.

1. My old method is entirely out of question. Countersabotage in Norway is useless on account of lack of objects. Counter terror in this instance would bypass its goal and in addition would lead to the most disadvantageous consequences, according to the opinion, shared by Reich Leader of SS Himmler and chief of the Security Police Kaltenbrunner.

2. A permanent and sufficient boarding of the ships by military guards must fail because, on account of lack of forces. Navy and army state that they cannot furnish additional units. Guarding by police is impossible, because only six under strength battalions of about 400 men are at my disposal in the entire country. [Pencilled note of Keitel: No, the Armed Forces can guard its ships itself?]

3. As much as a stronger and permanent military guarding of every ship is desirable, this measure would in no way exclude the possibility of further attacks, because such guards are not able to judge if the Norwegian specialists handle their jobs right or wrong. [Pencilled note of Keitel: But the Marines can do that.]

4. Just now I received a cable of Field Marshall General Keitel, in which the issue of a decree is demanded according to which members of the personnel and if the occasions arises their next of kin (liability of next of kin) are collectively kept responsible for cases of sabotage occurring in their departments.

This demand makes only sense and promises success only, if I am actually allowed to perform executions by firing squad. [Pencilled note of Keitel: Yes, that is the best.] If this is not possible, such a decree would cause exactly the opposite reaction.

a. The Norwegian expects German defeat within a very short time. An arrest therefore, does not only frighten him, but gives him security on the one hand, and on the other hand an alibi with the Emigrant Government.

b. This decree would only add fuel to the fire of the Swedish agitators and would not be crowned by success. But such shootings by firing squads are prohibited by the Fuehrer decree. On the other hand, if I could get renewal liberty of action in this regard, and if I could use my old methods again, without considering Sweden, then such a decree would gain the necessary weight and, with that doubtlessly lead to success.

III. Suggestion.

1. A military guard is ordered for every ship. The main dockyard committee has to submit specific suggestions regarding the respective strength and the methods of duty patroling.

2. So many workers, foremen, technicians, and engineers are to be taken from German dockyards that we are able to plant amongst personnel of the most important Norwegian dockyards at least 10 percent of German specialists. The dockyard main committee can also order the method of planting only if, on account of this—at the worst—the production capacity German dockyards decrease accordingly, one should consider that by such measures the tenfold of this waste will be secured on the Norwegian side, [Pencilled note of Keitel: I regard this measure as expedient, if decrees 3 and 4 should be declined. K.] For, only by employing these Norwegian Specialists forces it will be possible to keep the Norwegian experts under such constant control at their work, that it is made quite impossible for them to commit acts of sabotage.

3. Establishing of the three-shift system, in order that at any day or night time Norwegian personnel is on board and, in case, is also blown into the air. It is up to the dockyard main committee to decide if and to which extent this system is workable.

4. In this connection the dockyard main committee should be charged in principle with the central responsibility for the security in the dockyards: for the main committee in its competence has at its disposal the decisive prerogatives, which can warrant that security. Thereby it goes without saying, that it has at its disposal the Security Police with all its facilities and that the Armed Forces put at the disposal of the guards to the ordered extent.

5. While accomplishing these measures one has to take into account the possibility of a strike. As I possess only limited liberty of action, at present this would be more than unpleasant. In spite of this I am of the opinion that taking the danger into the bargain, the measures suggested should be ordered.

Signed: Terboven
Reich Commissioner

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 871-PS

Top Secret

WFSt/Qu.2 (North) 6 December 1944
2 copies, 1st copy

KR—Teletype to Reichminister and Head of Reich Chancellery, Reichminister Dr. Lammers.

Sir:

In the matter of checking sabotage in Norway, I agree with the view of the Reich Commissioner for Occupied Norwegian territory, to the extent that I expect results from reprisals only if they are carried out ruthlessly and if Reich Commissioner Terboven is authorized to carry out shootings.

Should the Fuehrer not grant this authorization, I consider the proposal of Reich Commissioner Terboven (No. III of his communication) as adequate to the purpose.

I note moreover that the mentioned 10% of German specialists [Fachraefte] would require from 800-1,000 persons. For guard duty it is possible to supply supplementary personnel from the Wehrmacht, to a limited extent.

In contrast to the view of Reich Commissioner Terboven, I anticipate a certain success from this procedure at least to the extent that Marines will be used.

For your information, there is going forward to you simultaneously a teletype addressed to the Wehrmacht Commandant (W. Bhf) Norway, through which the report of the Reich Commissioner, transmitted to me, evidently released.

Heil Hitler
yours
Signed: Keitel
OKW/WFST/Qu. 2 (North) Nr. 0014371/44g.K.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 872-PS

TOP SECRET

Armed Forces Ops Staff 3.2.41.
S.O. only 5 Copies, 5th Copy
Access only through officer
44089/41 Top Secret S.O. only

Conference of "Fall Barbarossa" and "Sonnenblume"

The following persons attended:

The Fuehrer
Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
Chief of the Armed Forces Ops Staff
C-in-C Army
Chief of the Army General Staff
Chief of Army Op. section
Colonel Schmundt
Major Christian
Major Engel

Chief of Army General Staff—1. Enemy strength approximately 100 Infantry divisions, 25 Cavalry divisions, approximately 30 mechanized divisions. Our own strength about the same, far superior in quality.

In estimating the leading personalities, Timoshenko is the only outstanding figure. The only one, that is, according to Gen. Koestring.

Details of the strength and organization of the Russian divisions are important only in that even the Infantry Divisions include a comparatively large number of tanks, though the material is bad and merely thrown together.

In the case of mechanized divisions, we have superiority with regard to tanks, weapons [Schuetzen] and artillery. The Russians are superior in numbers, we in quality.

The Russians are normally equipped in artillery. Materials likewise inferior. The Command of the Artillery is insufficient. The Russian operational intentions are unknown. Strong forces are at the frontier. Any retreat could be only on a small scale since the Baltic States and Ukraine are vital to the Russians for supply reasons. Fortification work is in progress especially on the North and Southern flanks.

There is no fresh information on the communications system.

Directives to Army Groups so given that the Russian front will be split into 2 sections and a Russian retreat on the Dnjeper-Duena Line prevented.

The Army Group North and Center ordered to press forward across the Duena in a north-easterly direction with concentrated armored forces in 3 armored groups (the strongest in the South).

The most northerly group is to press on up to the region of Lake Peipus, then advance further to the East in cooperation with other two armored groups, who will be attacking Smolensk.

The Army Group South is to advance across the Dnieper in a south-easterly direction. Army Group North and Center is to carry out operations North of the Pripet Marshes. Army Group South will be to the South, that is, separate and independent. The main sector lies in the North; army reserves are massed there.

6 armored divisions are required from the "Marita" operation; of these the 2 training divisions are for the 1st line, a further 2 from Roumania itself for the Southern Group, the last 2 divisions are reserves for the Northern Group. It all depends on the Balkan situation (Turkey's attitude).

Fuehrer—When the die has been cast, the Turks will not make any further moves. No special protection of the Balkans is therefore necessary. One dangerous moment will be if North Africa is cleared by the British, thus enabling the British to operate in Syria with unhampered forces.

Chief of Army General Staff—Northern Group 50}
divs, 13 armored divs, 9 motorized divs. Southern } Attack Forces
Group 30 divs, 5 armored divs, 3 motorized divs. }

In addition: Supreme Command of the Army Reserves.

Assignment of Pioneers is not entirely satisfactory. This is made good by additional bridge-building units [Brueckenmaterial].

Fuehrer—agreed with the large dispositions.

Chief of Army General Staff—It is proposed to isolate a large number of Russian troops in various places at the time the split is effected. The early use of reserves is necessary for this purpose.

Note: the Pripet Marshes are not definitely taboo.

Fuehrer—mentioned the Russians tactics of flank attacks.

Chief of Army General Staff—The cavalry divisions are particularly dangerous in this respect.

Orders issued to date:
Orders for Army Group are binding.
Orders for Armies set out the targets.
Orders for Units leave possibility for changes.

He expounded on the orders issued to Army groups, etc., up to the present.

Fuehrer—mentioned that the operational areas were enormous, that the enemy troops could be successfully encircled, only if the encirclement were complete (Cavalry divisions). (At the moment, there is a very biased play on in Moscow about Suwarow). The immediate surrender of the Baltic States, including Leningrad and the Ukraine, cannot be expected at once. It is, however, possible that after the initial defeat, the Russians, knowing our operational aims, will retreat on large scale and prepare for defense further East behind some barrier.

In this case, the North, regardless of the Russians in the East, will be cleared. From there (a favorable supply-base) a thrust in the rear of the Russians without a frontal attack. It is essential to wipe out large sections of the enemy and not to put them to flight. This will be accomplished if we occupy the flanking areas with the strongest possible forces. Then, with the enemy held in the center, he can be maneuvered out of it from the flanks.

Chief of Army General Staff—The Falkenhorst army can advance on Petsamo with 1-1/2 divisions, by using Swedish railways, with a further 1-1/2 divisions (including 1 SS Brigade). The aim is the protection of the Finnish northern industrial area, trapping and cutting off the Murmansk forces.

The Finns will probably make a strategic concentration in the South with 4 Army Corps [Aks] of which an attacking group of 5 divisions will advance in the direction of Leningrad, with 3 divisions against Lake Onegin, 2 divisions against Hango, they need strong support. There are 15 Russian divisions on the Finnish front, approximately 1 division in Murmansk.

Fuehrer—assumed that Sweden would join with us at a price. The price: the Aaland Islands (not our possessions). There is no question of a union between Finland and Sweden as this would not suit the European New Order.

Norway must be under protection; no repercussions are desired from that quarter. Artillery reinforcements are required.

In the South: The most important task is the protection of the oil fields, therefore speedy action from Roumania is necessary.

Chief of Army General Staff—Position of Hungary. If Hungary is not to participate, we must withdraw from Hungary. The destination of the march will be given as Roumania. At the last minute the direction will change towards the Russian frontier. Hungary will permit anything so long as she is given the corresponding political assurances. Agreements with all states taking part (with the exception of Roumania) can be made only at the eleventh hour. With Roumania it is a matter of life and death.

Chief of Army General Staff—Armored reconnaissance forces are still scarce.

Flak question is still unsettled, it depends on the conditions of the roads (to follow in writing).

The Air Force commands 30 Flak battalions, in addition 30 batteries set up by the Army.

The Navy must hasten the opening of supply routes to the Baltic.

Supply is a road transport problem as the gauge has to be changed on the railroads here. A system of long-distance trucks, which can bring supplies to supply bases.

Agreement with the Air Force that all transport is to be used to the full.

Supply areas, shifted to the region of East Poland, are at present being developed. (Possibilities in Roumania are still being explored).

In connection with Marita, the difficulties of transporting back those forces urgently needed for Barbarossa were stressed.

The intended time period was discussed with a plan. 1st Deployment Staffel [Aufmarschstaffel] transfer now, Front-Germany-East. 2nd Deployment Staffel [Aufmarschstaffel] from the middle of March will give up 3 divisions for reinforcement in the West. Army groups and Army High Commands are being withdrawn from the West. There are already considerable reinforcements though still in the rear area. From now on, Attila can be carried out only under difficulties. Industrial traffic is hampered by transport movements. From the middle of April, Hungary will be approached about the march through. 3 deployment staffels from the middle of April. Felix is now no longer possible as the main part of the artillery is being entrained.

In industry the full capacity time table is in force. No more camouflage.

From 25.IV-15.V, 4 staffels to withdraw considerable forces from the West. (Seeloewe can no longer be carried out). The strategic concentration in the East is quite recognizable.

The full capacity time table remains. 8 Marita divisions complete the picture of the disposition of forces on the plan.

C-in-C Army—requested that he no longer have to employ 5 control divisions for this, but might hold them ready as reserves for commanders in the West.

Fuehrer—When Barbarossa commences, the world will hold its breath and make no comment.

Chief of the Air Force General Staff—joined the conferences.

Fuehrer—discussed the Italian situation in the Mediterranean.

He stated that the loss of North Africa could be withstood in the military sense but must have a strong psychological effect on Italy.

Britain can hold a pistol to Italy's head and force her either to make peace and retain everything or after the loss of North Africa to be bombarded. This would be to our disadvantage. British forces in the Mediterranean area will not be tied down. We ourselves have a weak base there through Southern France. The British have the free use of a dozen divisions and can employ them most dangerously, i.e. in Syria.

We must make every effort to prevent this. Italy must be given support.

We are already doing this in Marita. We must, however, attempt to render effective assistance in North Africa.

The Italians are of the opinion that they can put up a defense now only at Tripoli. This is not feasible. The Air Force cannot operate there. Therefore the position cannot be held. There must be some larger protection zone. Our blocking units can also be effective only in larger protection zones.

He discussed the connection between successes, even defensive successes there and Balkan events, possibly a peaceful settlement in the Balkans.

What can be done?

Land units will arrive late even if not too late. Graziani must receive some kind of support. Therefore the Air Force must be employed, if possible with Stuka groups, with jumping-off bases and homefields in Lybia.

If this can bring the British advance to a standstill, the intended blocking unit is still insufficient and must be reinforced by a mobile unit (strong armored division).

The British personnel and material must have been exhausted during the advance. If the British encounter fresh and well-equipped German forces, the situation will soon alter.

Query from C-in-C Army. Can we spare an armored division for this?

C-in-C Army—unwillingly from Marita.

Fuehrer—out of the question.

C-in-C Army—If it comes to that, Barbarossa is also in need.

Fuehrer—

If we send help to North Africa, we must do so at once before the Italians. (We have made the offer to the Italians).

The primary consideration is: Can the Air Force intervene now.

The time required for the transport of Air Force supplies, blocking unit, and armored divisions must be established at once.

Then, what are the climatic conditions?

C-in-C Army—It is important that British supplies by land and sea are stopped. This can be done only by the German Air Force.

Fuehrer—The Italians must be asked how long they can allow for the transport of the above-mentioned German troops.

If necessary, transport groups must be employed.

Proposal: General Jeschonek III/KG for special duties, from Foggia.

C-in-C Army—proposed that the blocking unit should first be reinforced by 1 armored regiment. The rest to follow. The Fuehrer agreed.

Chief of Air Force General Staff—spoke of the position of the ground-organization in North Africa. Only in Benghazi are Stuka-Forces ready within range for operations.

Fighter forces will naturally be sent there also, or Italian fighters be placed under German orders.

It is most important that the air base of Malta be subdued.

Fuehrer—agreed. The Italians are to withdraw Italian fighters from the Channel coast. (He will speak to the Duce.)

The Air Force must test immediately, the possibilities of intervening in North Africa. The Army is to see to the transport for the blocking unit.

The transport must be speeded up. Reinforcement by an armored regiment, further reinforcement up to an armored division, will be withdrawn from Marita. Flak forces on ahead.

C-in-C Army—proposed a united command of all mobile forces under 1st General Headquarters. Cooperation with the Air Force which also commands the Italian naval air forces.

Conclusions:

1. Barbarossa.

a. The Fuehrer on the whole was in agreement with the operational plan. When it is being carried out, it must be remembered that the main aim is to gain possession of the Baltic States and Leningrad.

b. The Fuehrer desires that the operation map and the plan of the disposition of forces be sent to him as soon as possible.

c. Agreements with neighboring states, who are taking part, may not be concluded until there is no longer any necessity for camouflage. The exception is Roumania with regard to the reinforcing of the Moldau.

d. It must, at all costs, be possible to carry out Attila (auxiliary measure).

e. The strategic concentration for Barbarossa will be camouflaged as a feint for Seeloewe and the subsidiary measure Marita.

2. Sonnenblume.

a. The Air Force must intervene as soon as possible with Stuka and Fighter forces. Bases and jumping-off bases in accordance with decisions made in North Africa. It is desired that the Italian fighter forces be placed under German orders.

b. The 10th Flieger Korps is to take over the task of protecting the transports to East Africa, in the closest cooperation with the Italian Air Force and Naval Commander in Catania.

c. The 10th Flieger Korps is to strike a strong blow against the British troops in Cyrenaica as soon as possible (with the use of the heaviest bombs).

The main task is to disrupt British supplies by land and sea; next, to combat the British fleet.

First of all, attempts must be made to subdue the air base of Malta.

d. The Army is to continue the transport of the blocking unit. This is, however, to be reinforced at once with armor. Preparations for adding one Armored Division (II Staffel from Marita). Flank forces on ahead. 1st General Headquarters to be established immediately. United German Supreme Command over all mobile forces will be proposed to the Italians.

Certified
Distribution: [signature illegible]
Chef L Captain
I H
I K
I L
IV

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 873-PS

TOP SECRET

L IV/Qu

Fuehrer's Hq., 1 May 1941

For senior Officers only

Only by officer

1 original copy

Conference with Chief "L" on the 30 April 1941

1. Timetable Barbarossa:

The Fuehrer has decided: Action Barbarossa begin 22 June. From 23 May maximal troop movements performance schedule. At the beginning of operations the OKH reserves have not yet reached the appointed areas.

2. Proportion of actual strength in the plan Barbarossa:

Sector North: German and Russian forces approximately of the same strength.

Sector Middle: Great German superiority.

Sector South: Russian superiority.

3. Russian strategic concentration:

Continued movements of strong forces to the German-Russian boundary.

4. Estimate by the Supreme Commander of the Army of course Barbarossa will take.

Presumably violent battles of the frontiers, duration up to 4 weeks. In course of the following development weaker resistance may be expected.

Opinion of Russian soldiers: A Russian will fight, on appointed spot, up to the last breath.

5. Conversations with Finland are approved by the Fuehrer according to the OKW WFST part II Op. 44594/41 g.K. Chefs of the 28 April 1941.

6. Conversations with Hungary are only possible in the last third of May. The Fuehrer believes the Hungarians will be prepared to carry out defensive operations on the Russian border, but they will not allow any German attack from Hungary.

7. Conversations with Roumania will be possible only at a very advanced date.

8. Concealment of conversations with friendly countries: projected German assault in the West, hence Eastern Front must be covered. Participation of friendly countries only as a purely defensive measure.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 874-PS

TOP SECRET

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.

Hq. of the Fuehrer, 9 March 41
DRAFT

Honorable Reich Minister (TODT)

For the missions which the Fuehrer has assigned to the Armed Forces in the East, extensive measures for the diversion and deception of friend and foe are necessary prerequisites for the success of the operations.

The Supreme Command of the Armed Forces has issued guiding rules for the deception in accordance with more detailed directives of the Fuehrer. These rules aim essentially at continuing preparations for the attack against England in an increasing degree. Simultaneously the actual preparations for deployment in the East should be represented as a diversionary maneuver to divert from plans which are being pursued for an attack against England. In order to insure success for these measures, it is indispensable that these same principles are being also followed on the part of the organization Todt.

[initials] K. J. W. [Keitel, Jodl, and Warlimont.]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 876-PS

MOST SECRET

Fuehrer's Headquarters, 12 May 1941

Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
WFSt/Section L (I Op)
No. 44699/41 most secret, S.O. only
S.O. only; access only through officer 18 copies, 12th copy

Subject: Deception of the enemy Reference: OKW/WFSt/Section L (I Op.) No. 44277/41 most secret, S.O. only, dated 12,3,41

1. The second phase of the deception of the enemy commences with the introduction on 22.5. of the full capacity timetable. The efforts of the Supreme Commands and of any other authorities concerned must be aimed, more and more, at making the strategic concentration "Barbarossa" appear as a large-scale maneuver and also to continue the preparations for the attack on England with special energy. The following is the principle to be applied: the nearer the day of attack approaches, the more intensive methods can be employed (also in the communications service) for deception purposes.

2. All efforts will be in vain if our own units are aware of the approaching attack and spread news of it at home. On the contrary, the rumor of the "rear cover against Russia" and of the "feint assembly of forces in the East" must be circulated, and/or the troops on the Channel coast must believe in actual preparations. In this connection, dead-lines and the extent of army postal restrictions are important. They are to be regulated for the whole Armed Forces by the Supreme Command of the Army (in cooperation with the other branches of the Armed Forces and Ausl./Abw). It will be advantageous to issue orders for transport to the West to as many Eastern units as possible and thereby to give rise to a new wave of rumors.

3. If the occasion arise, Operation Merkur is to be utilized in the communications service by the preparation of the slogan: "Crete was the general try-out for the landing in Britain!"

4. OKW (WFSt/Section L) will shortly increase the deception by having several ministries concerned with preparations for Britain. This is to be utilized by Ausl./Abw. in the communications service (counterespionage).

5. Political steps for the deception of Soviet Russia have been taken and are further being considered.

Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
[signed] KEITEL.
Certified a true copy
[signature illegible]
Captain.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 878-PS

SECRET [Stamp]

Draft Copy

Fuehrer Headquarters, the 12th Sept. 1941.

Armed Forces High Command
Armed Forces Operational Staff/Dept L (IV/Gu)
Nr. 02041/41 geh.
Reference: Jews in the newly occupied Eastern territories.

Isolated incidents render it necessary to refer to the directives issued for the conduct of troops in the USSR (Armed Forces High Command/Armed Forces Operational Staff/Dept L (IV/Gu) Nr. 44560/41, top Secret of 19 March 1941).

The fight against Bolshevism necessitates indiscriminate and energetic accomplishment of this task, especially also against the Jews, the main carriers of Bolshevism.

For such reasons, any cooperation of the Armed Forces with the Jewish population, who are openly or secretly anti-German in their attitude, as well as the use of single Jew in any preferred auxiliary position, will have to cease. Legitimations, which certify the use of Jews for purpose of the Armed Forces, may under no circumstances be issued by military offices. Exceptions are solely the use of Jews in especially combined labor units [Arbeitskolonnen], who may be employed under German supervision only.

It is requested, to inform the troops of this order.

The Chief of The Armed Forces High Command.
[Signed] Keitel

Certified
[signature not legible]
Lt. Colonel d. G.
Distribution: * * *

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 886-PS

SECRET

The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
Enclosure to 32/41 g.Kdos. Chefs. WR.
1st Copy.
Fuehrer headquarters, 13 May 1941
[Initialed] "J 10/5"

TOP SECRET

Decree for the conduct of courts-martial in the district

"BARBAROSSA" and for special measures of the troop

[written in ink]

The armed forces court-martial serves primarily the purpose of maintaining discipline.

The great expanse of the Eastern theatre of operations, the kind of warfare necessitated on that account, and the peculiarity of the opponent present tasks to the armed forces courts-martial which they can accomplish during the course of the war and until the first pacification of the conquered territory—being short staffed—only if the court-martial is limited to its main task.

This is only possible if the troop itself defends itself ruthlessly against any threat by the enemy civil population.

Accordingly, the following is decreed for the territory "Barbarossa" (theater of operation, rear army area and area of the political administration):

Treatment of punishable offenses of enemy civilians

1. Punishable offenses committed by enemy civilians do not, until further notice, come any more under the jurisdiction of the courts-martial and the summary courts-martial.

2. Guerillas are to be killed ruthlessly by the troops in battle or during pursuit.

3. Also all other attacks of enemy civilians against the Wehrmacht, its members and employees are to be fought by the troops at the place of the attack with the most extreme means until annihilation of the attacker.

4. In cases where measures of this kind were neglected or not immediately possible, elements suspected of offense will be brought at once before an officer. He decides whether they are to be shot.

Against villages from which the Wehrmacht was insidiously and maliciously attacked, collective punitive measures by force will be carried out immediately under command of an officer with the rank of at least a battalion commander, if the circumstances do not permit an immediate identification of individual perpetrators.

5. It is expressly prohibited to hold suspected perpetrators in order to transfer them to the courts upon reinstitution of their jurisdiction over civilians.

6. The commanders in chief of the army groups can, in conjunction with the competent commanders of the air force and the navy, restore the Wehrmacht jurisdiction over civilians in districts which are sufficiently pacified.

For the area of the political administration this decree is issued through the chief of the high command of the Wehrmacht [marginal ink correction inked out: C-n-C of army in agreement with C-i-C of other branches.]

Treatment of punishable offenses of members of the Wehrmacht and its employees against the native population

1. For offenses committed by members of the Wehrmacht and its employees against enemy civilians, prosecution is not compulsory, not even if the offense is at the same time a military crime or violation.

2. While judging offenses of this kind, it should be considered in every case, that the break-down in 1918, the time of suffering of the German people after that, and the numerous blood sacrifices of the movement in the battle against national socialism were decidedly due to the Bolshevist influence, and that no German has forgotten this.

3. The judge examines therefore whether in such cases disciplinary action is justified or whether it is necessary to take legal steps. The judge orders the prosecution of offenses against civilians through court-martial only if it is considered necessary for the maintenance of discipline or the security of the troops. This applies, for instance, to cases of serious offenses which are based on sexual acts without restraint, which derive from a criminal tendency, or which are a sign that the troop threatens to mutiny. The punishable offenses of destroying senselessly quarters as well as supplies or other captured goods to the disadvantage of the own troop should, as a rule, be judged as more leniently.

The order of the inquiry proceedings requires in every individual case the signature of the judge.

Extreme care must be exercised when judging the authenticity of the statements of enemy civilians.

III

Responsibility of the troop commanders

The troop commanders are, within the sphere of their competence, personally responsible for the following:

1. that all officers of the units subordinated to them are very thoroughly and promptly instructed about the fundamentals of I,

2. that their legal advisors be promptly informed about these instructions and about the verbal statements with which the political intentions of the leadership had been explained to the commanders-in-chief,

3. that only such sentences will be confirmed which are in accord with the political intentions of the leadership.

Protection of secret

After end of camouflage the decree is to be considered only as secret.

For the chief of the high command of the Wehrmacht—
Signed: KEITEL

Note [in pencil]: This should, if possible, not be passed on before 1 June 41.

Certified

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 910-PS

SECRET

Government of the Governor General
Chief Department
Administration of the Interior

1. During his presence, the Reichsfuehrer SS explained his plans for the transplantation of the population of the East to the Governor General in my presence. He declared that he was very anxious

a. that the historic German town center of Lublin should be completely renovated as soon as possible and be placed at the disposal of the German functionaries.

b. that the same should be done to the market-place of Zamose. Here too, the residential buildings should be put into a state appropriate for the reception of German families and be placed at the disposal of German functionaries and other German families present.

c. soon German peasant families from Transnistria should be settled in Zamose County. In order not to alarm the domestic population, particularly the peasant population, and hereby to impair the result of the harvest, those German peasant families should be placed only on the country estates and the big holdings. Insofar as peasants from Transnistria do not come into consideration, the transplanting of small but suitable landowners from the German parts near Petrikan (Pietrikow) into Zamose County should also be considered. As in that county already some villages exist the inhabitants of which are doubtlessly of German origin, that way a German bulwark could be created in Zamose County.

If it is possible in some way these three measures Lublin, Zamose rural area and Zamose town district should be achieved even this year.

Cracow, 3.27.1942
Dr. S.H.
218,005

Government of the Governor General
Chief Department:
Administration of the Interior

CONFIDENTIAL

1. The Reichsfuehrer-SS spoke at the time of his presence on March 13 and 14 in Cracow in detail about the plans of settlement for the next few years and about the planned Germanization. Among other things, he took the view the Gorales, Lemkes and Hutzules whose Germanic origin, or at least Germanic mixture is indubitable, in his opinion should be Germanized in the course of time. To this purpose he recommended to begin in the schools of the territory in question by establishing the number of blond and blue-eyed pupils in proportion to the total number of pupils. Then, one should begin to grant them gradually more favorable living conditions, however on the condition that they have their children learn the German language and get acquainted with the German cultural values. Eventually, one can settle still other Germans in the territory of these three peoples later on.

In this connection it is thought that sometime the Germans from Zips in Slovakia should move over into the Government General. The Reichsfuehrer-SS developed further trains of ideas to the effect that in the first five-year plan for resettlement after the war, the new German Eastern territories should first be filled; afterwards it is intended to provide at this time the Crimea and the Baltic countries with a German upperclass at least. Into the Government General, perhaps further German island settlement should be newly transplanted from European nations. An exact decision in this regard, however, has not been issued. In any case it is wished that at first a heavy colonization along the San and the Brig be achieved so that the parts of Poland are encircled with alien populations. Hitherto, it has been always proved that this kind of encirclement leads most quickly to the desired nationalization.

Cracow, March 30, 1942
Dr. S/H

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 957-PS

Copy

24. 2. 1940
Reich-Minister von Ribbentrop,
Berlin.
Foreign Office.

Dear Party Comrade von Ribbentrop,

Party Comrade Scheidt has returned and has made a detailed report to Privy Councillor von Grundherr who will address you on this subject. We agreed the other day that 2-300,000 RM would be made immediately available for the said purpose. Now it turns out that Privy Councillor Grundherr states that the second installment [Rate] can be made available only after 8 days. But as it is necessary for Scheidt to go back immediately, I request you to make it possible that this second installment is given to him at once. With a longer absence of Reichsamtsleiter P.M. Scheidt also the connection with your representatives would be broken up, which just now, under certain circumstances, could be very unfavourable.

Therefore I trust that it is in everybody's interest, if P.M. Scheidt goes back immediately.

Heil Hitler
/s/ Rosenberg

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 997-PS

TOP SECRET

The Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery
RK 504B top secret
Berlin W 8 Voss-Strasse 6
2 August 1940
[stamp]
at present Headquarters of the Fuehrer
all mail is to be sent to the Berlin address
[stamp]
Rosenberg office Rec. No. 2133, 5 Aug 40

To Reichsleiter Rosenberg
Foreign political office of the NSDAP
Berlin W 35
Margarethenstrasse 17

Re: Report about Holland

Dear Party Member Rosenberg:

I have presented the report of July 19 of this year, given to me by Stabsleiter Schickedanz on July 23 of this year, to the Fuehrer, together with the report delivered by Reich Commissioner Dr. Seyss-Inquart about the period from May 29 to July 19, 1940.

I am enclosing a copy of this last-mentioned report for your confidential information and submit an opinion on it.

Heil Hitler
Yours very respectfully
Signed: Dr. Lammers

TOP SECRET

1. Report about the situation and developments in the
occupied territories of the Netherlands

Period covered by this report: 29 May to 19 July, 1940.

Commission and task.

With the nomination as Reich Commissioner the commission is given * * * in serving the interests of the Reich to secure public order and public life. * * * and the task is connected * * * to bind the Netherlands, which have to remain independent for the purpose of the preservation of Dutch Indies territory, as much as possible to the Reich economically, apart from military security measures.

This task is to be solved if we succeed in bringing about a political attitude which would make it possible for the economic ties of the Netherlands to the Reich to appear to be the emanation of the will of the Dutch people.

It will not be possible in every individual case to combine fulfillment of the given commission with the solution of the assigned task, for the interest of the occupation power demands the extensive suppression of all possible public activities, while in order to create and lead a formation of a political will it would be necessary to grant such freedoms as would for the Dutch, make the final result their own decision.

[Page 2]

Situation.

The situation at the time the decree of the Fuehrer went into effect (29 May 1940) is characterized by the position of the Commander in Chief of the Dutch Army and Navy (General Winkelmann). He exercised all power in the administration of the country, under the powers he had received in consideration of the state of siege and beyond that from the government and the queen who had fled, and he was considered by the people as a sort of viceroy. He issued orders, the Dutch Secretaries General (offices corresponding to our State Secretaries) executed their orders in the name of Winkelmann within administrative machinery unchanged in personnel and functioning perfectly.

Wherever Winkelmann appeared in public he received ovations.

The Dutch Army was in only slightly reduced mobilization strength under the command of their own officers (Winkelmann's Staff) in the barracks and camps. The occupation force was not seen often.

The behavior of the Dutch population—glad that the war is over, pleasantly surprised by the conduct of the German troops, though at first the circles hostile to the Germans kept themselves reserved—concealed the real attitude of the Dutch toward the Germans. The Dutch population for many years, especially since 1933, were stirred up by the emigrants, who were tolerated here as in no other country, against the Reich and National Socialism. The ability of forming their own political opinion is limited for the majority. Politics and administration are in the hands of a [page 3] small group (ruling families), whose ideas and attitude are liberal and influenced materially and ideologically by the west.

The real wages of the employed population are generally higher than in the Reich. About 500,000 unemployed from about 2,000,000 people capable of working in non-independent industry, trade, or business are being carried along with unemployment compensation up to 70% of simple wages, thanks to the riches of the Dutch Indies possessions, just as agriculture, struggling with sales and price difficulties, is supported almost entirely by state subsidies.

The Dutch people are caught in political stagnation as well as in economic immobility. In spite of a good external impression (racial appearance, cleanliness of the buildings and gardens, etc.) one can observe extensive biological and even moral damage, such as unexpected uncleanliness among the unemployed and the country population in the Calvinistic districts, poor physical constitution, exclusive interest in material matters, and so on. The people are widely split confessionally and within the confessional groups bound and influenced by all kinds of activities (from political organizations to chess clubs).

The Royal House of Orange lives on the prestige won in the battles for freedom and is considered by the group oriented materially as in the west [page 4] (big businessmen, financiers, industrialists, higher officials, and court nobility) as a guarantee for their political predominance and economic positions. Additional motives, based on national conviction, for bourgeois the devotion of the Dutch people to the royal family which is more a matter of habit, cannot be found, unless they think by clinging to the royal family to banish the fear of being overwhelmed by the Reich.

There was no real opposition against the system among the representative bodies of the parliament. In the second chamber there were 4 NSB men among 100 Deputies; Fascist and National Socialist ideas, especially the latter—are tabooed, are considered evidence of being uneducated, and are now branded as the sentiments of traitors. There are concrete indications that NSB were in the uniform of Dutch soldiers intervened in support of the invading troops of the Reich.

In Dutch political life there are almost no personalities of any importance. Somewhat outstanding from the average is the 71 year old Colijn—although his basic character is domineering and energetic, he is completely bound up with western-liberal views and as a decided Calvinist he cannot be won for any National Socialist ideas. Noteworthy is his desire for importance, which might induce him to make a political deal with the occupation power, in which he might be conceited enough to think that he could outwit us and keep a distance from the Reich with the help of the House of Orange.

[Page 5]

The system parties—that is, the Catholic State Party, the Christian People's Party (reformed), the Anti-Revolutionists (Calvinists, descendants of the revolutionary Gueux), the Social Democrats, the Democrats, etc., were entirely undisturbed as far as their party organizations, trade unions, press, etc., were concerned, and their activities were only partly restricted by the state of siege. Apart from a strong horror propaganda against the NSB people, the political factors and the greater part of the population were just biding their time.

The Rightist Parties, especially the NSB, were numerically an unimportant minority, against whom as a matter of course an arrogant rejection prevailed among the intellectuals, the capitalists, and also among the greater part of the officers' corps. This attitude, strengthened by the charge of treason, was carried over to the rest of the population. Of leading men among the Rightists the following are to be mentioned within the framework of the NSB:

Mussert: A liberal nationalist attempting to use Fascist methods, who is in the end afraid of the greater German Reich. His political qualities are not as great as those of an average Gauleiter in the Reich. In the Netherlands he plays a not inconsiderable role with them.

Rost van Tonningen: Ideologically perfectly adequate, adjusted to the Germanic idea and National Socialism, a temperamental and effective speaker yearning [page 6] for activity, does not find his strength in himself but tries to get support and steadiness from third persons.

Count Ansembourg: No outspoken personality, positively valuable in spite of his obligation of creed (Catholic), he is more a tactician and diplomatic mediator.

Geikerken: The representative of Mussert, with strong Walloon mixture, he is certainly a determined opponent of the system with reservations toward the Greater German Reich.

Woudenberg: Representing labor in the NSB, he is the type of a union man without special initiative but with common sense and confidence-inspiring simplicity.

Some younger men, such as Feldmeyer, Zondervan, and others, are—even according to the standards of the party within the Reich—types of absolutely good leaders of the rank and file. Special attention is due Arnold Meijer, the leader of the Black Front, a Catholic Fascist group, who has his followers in the southern parts, Brabant and Limburg, is without doubt bound to Catholism but strictly opposed to the liberal democratic course and is above all opposed to the political influence of the representatives of the Protestant North (Colijn, etc.).

The economic situation was nowhere threatening; supplies of all kinds available in abundance, only the traffic has been largely interrupted by the blowing up of bridges and the consequent shifting of the canals, which handle 70% of the total traffic; sea traffic has been stopped entirely. The [page 7] agricultural improvement economy, dependent on the import of disproportionately large quantities of fodder, possesses supplies sufficient until the gathering of the next harvest.

It is the almost unanimous opinion of the Dutch that they were unjustly attacked by the Germans. The charges of violation of neutrality as reported by the communique of the High Command of the Armed Forces are not known to the population or if known are rejected as justification. A certain impression is made by pointing out that on the soil of the Netherlands, with the cooperation of high Dutch officials, an attack on the life of the Fuehrer was prepared. It is also admitted that it was at least unwise and probably unjust, too, that the emigrants from the Reich in the Netherlands and the Dutch press were allowed to give news to their fury against the Reich and the National Socialist in such an unqualified form.

Measures.

In view of this state of affairs it was necessary first to remove Winkelmann's influence. This was done by expressly advising the Secretaries General that they now have to accept orders only from the Reich commissioner, which they accepted explicitly. The institution of the Secretaries General as well as the persons themselves were retained, since it had to be considered improbable in case of their resignation to find Dutchmen—among the Rightists there are almost no suitable persons at all—who would have taken over the administration. It seemed politically necessary, however, that some measures, especially economic ones [page 8] but indirectly also police ones, had to be taken, carrying the signatures of the Netherlands Secretaries General, for the Dutch people. The attempt of one of the Secretaries General to call on Winkelmann as authority—in the question of the continuation of the work in armament plants for the German Armed Forces—was answered with the immediate dismissal of that Secretary General. Winkelmann had to admit in a public declaration that he had only to execute the demobilization under the command of the Commander of the Armed Forces, but that otherwise he had nothing to say. This acknowledgment as well as the fact that he publicly dropped a Secretary General reduced Winkelmann's influence considerably. Finally he could be quietly made a prisoner of war in connection with the known events of June 29.

In order to execute the given commission, an administrative body as small as possible was set up, divided into four working fields of the commissioners-general. The individual specialists of these commissioners-general, as for instance the ones for finance, justice, etc., are sitting as liaison men in the respective Dutch ministries. Importance was attached to an immediate and clear distribution of competences and determination of the performance of the work, because of the Dutch people, being very formal and casuistic by nature, need such a determination. This distribution has proved its worth so far, as there has been no friction either within the administrative machinery or with the Dutch authorities for reasons of organization.

[Page 9]

Commissioners are provided for the provinces, which have extensive autonomy. We hesitated to create this office, as it was necessary first to investigate conditions. Now it is seen that for this office politically experienced men were needed rather than administration officials. Therefore, through Reich Office Director Schmidt we requested from Reichsleiter Bormann (Hess staff) some men who, almost entirely members of the party, are on their way here and can be put into office in the provinces in a few days.

It was clear that with the occupation of the Netherlands a large number of economic but also police measures had to be taken, the first ones of which had the purpose of reducing the consumption of the population in order to get supplies for the Reich, on the one hand, and to secure a just distribution of the remaining supplies, on the other hand. In consideration of the assigned task, we had to endeavor to see to it that all these measures carried the signature of Dutchmen. The Reich Commissioner therefore authorized the Secretaries-General to take all the necessary measures by means of ordinances.

As a matter of fact, up to today almost all orders concerning the seizure of supplies and their distribution to the population and decrees about restrictions in the formation of public opinion have been issued but also agreements concerning the transport of extraordinarily large supplies to the Reich have [page 10] been made, all of which bear the signatures of the Dutch Secretaries General or the competent economic leaders, so that all of these measures have the character of being voluntary. It should be mentioned in this connection that the Secretaries General were told in the first conversation that loyal cooperation was expected of them, but it would be their privilege to resign if something should be ordered which they felt they could not endorse. Up to date none of the Secretaries General has made use of this privilege, so that one may reasonably conclude that they have complied with all requests of their own free will.

Almost the entire seizure and distribution of food supplies and textiles have been executed, at least all the respective orders have been issued and are being executed.

A series of instructions concerning the reorientation of agriculture have been issued and are being executed; essentially it is a question of seeing to it that the available fodder is used in such a way that as large a stock as possible of horned cattle is carried over into the next farming period, about 80% at the expense of the over-dimensional stock of chickens and hogs. Rules and restrictions have been introduced in the organization of traffic and the principles for the regulation of gasoline as in the Reich were carried out here.

Restricting the right to quit jobs as well as to cancel leases have been issued in order to check the liberal-capitalistic customs of the Dutch employers [page 11] and to avoid unrest. In the same way, the period for repayment of debts have been extended under certain conditions.

Ordinances concerning news service, radio, etc., prohibit listening to foreign radio stations and introduce all other restrictions necessary in this field for defense reasons. The ordinance about registration and control of enemy property as well as about confiscation of the property of persons who act hostile to the Reich and to Germans were in this case issued in the name of the Reich commissioner. On the basis of this ordinance an administrator for the property of the royal family has already been appointed.

The supplies of raw materials have been seized and, with the consent of the General Field Marshal, distributed according to this system: the Dutch keep enough raw materials to maintain their economy for half a year, whereby they receive the same distribution quotas as in the Reich. The same principle of equal treatment is being used in the supply of food, etc. This enabled us to secure considerable supplies of raw materials for the Reich, as for instance 70,000 tons of industrial fats, which is about half of the amount which the Reich lacks.

The bank moratorium could be canceled, bank deposits are increasing, the stock exchange has been reopened to a limited extent. Bills concerning the control of foreign currencies have been introduced according to the standards in the Reich.

Finally it was achieved that the Dutch state makes available in sufficient quantities all means needed by the Reich, including the German administration so that these expenses do not burden the Reich budget in any way.

[Page 12]

A sum of guilders has been liquidated to redeem the fiduciary monetary tender to the amount of about 36 million, further 100 million for the purposes of the occupation army, especially the extension of the airports; further 50 million for raising the raw materials to be shipped to the Reich, insofar as they are not booty; further for unrestricted transfer to guarantee the remittance of the savings of the Dutch workers brought into the Reich to their families, etc. Finally the rate of exchange of the fiduciary monetary tender, set at first by the army high command in the proportion of 1 guilder to 1.50 Reichsmark, has been reduced to the correct proportion of 1 guilder to 1.33 RM.

Above all, however, it was possible to get the consent of the president of the bank of the Netherlands, Trip, to a measure suggested by Commissioner General Fischboeck and approved by the General Field Marshal, namely the unrestricted mutual obligation of accepting each other's currencies, that means that the Bank of the Netherlands is bound to take over any amount of Marks offered to it by the Reich Bank and in return to make available Dutch guilders at the rate of 1.33, that is, 1 RM is 75 cents. Only the Reich bank has control over this, not the Bank of the Netherlands, which will be notified only about the individual transactions. This ruling goes far beyond all pertinent rulings made hitherto with the political economies of neighboring countries, including the Protectorate, and actually represents the first step toward a currency union.

In consideration of this significance of the agreements, which already touches the independence of the Dutch State, it is of special weight that the [page 13] president of the Bank, Trip, who is unusually well-known in western banking and financial circles, signed this agreement of his own free will in the above sense.

Furthermore, military jurisdiction was introduced, and at present German criminal jurisdiction is being set up; for special cases not only the Special Court but also SS and Police jurisdiction have been provided for as substitutes for court-martial jurisdiction, which was not introduced. Subject to German criminal jurisdiction are: all citizens of the Reich or the Protectorate without restriction and all Dutch citizens and aliens in cases of crimes against the honor and security of the Reich, the Armed Forces, etc.

The experiences with the Dutch officials show that these people, like all Dutchmen, are basically difficult. One has to negotiate with them very much; if they say no, it does not mean definitely no, if they say yes they still think the matter over for a long time, but in the end they will do as one wants them to. Besides, they want someone else to carry the responsibility; since the Dutch still do not really believe that England, which for centuries was the overwhelming power in Europe, is finally eliminated from the continent, in many cases they want a direct order which they then obey, so that one day they will be able to refer to this pressure. In general, however, one cannot complain about the behavior of the officials in the execution of the administration. One cannot say that the officials are delaying any vital work. For instance, in restoring traffic routes, especially in clearing canals, the respective ministry worked extremely to the purpose and fast. In the fields, however, entirely liberal methods and principles prevail.

The Police itself is much split and is subordinated in the most important parts to the ministry of justice and not to the ministry of the Interior. The special troops, the motorized and mounted units, are relatively good, the Marechaussee, a sort of troop gendarmerie, is very good. Among the latter we have already won some agents in the higher ranks which makes probable a further extension in a sense favorable to us.

The Marechaussee will therefore be brought to a correspondingly high standard by selected non-commissioned officers of the army and will be the backbone of the executive.

The dismissal of two mayors (in the Hague and in the provincial capital of Zwolle) had an extraordinary effect. The moment will come when it will be possible to exchange some of the Secretaries General and possibly also other officials, but in any case mayors.

Concerning the right of assembly and association, we introduced the obligation of giving notice. The interdiction comes from the public prosecutors of the court of appeals (Subordination of the Police to the Justice) who are working almost without complaint under the Higher SS and Police Fuehrer. The states-general were eliminated from public representative bodies; the provincial states and the town councils were kept for the time being, but they are under the supervision of the provincial commissioner. Politics in these is not tolerated for the present. The reconstruction of the country—except in Rotterdam, Middelburg, and Rehnen the devastation is not very extensive—was placed in the foreground of a visit to Middelburg the importance of the preservation of historic monuments as an expression of the will for formation of a people has been emphasized, and the social side of such action stressed by raising a fund for reconstruction. In the handling of this reconstruction fund the reactionary spirit of the Dutch administration is especially evident.

It is necessary to give special attention to the reconstruction of Rotterdam. Rotterdam, thanks to its position at the mouth of the Rhine, the possibility for sea-going vessels to sail far inland, and the harbor conditions, which are in every respect favorable, is doubtless a place which disposes of the best natural port facilities in Central Europe, which can even be increased by the completion of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, as its sphere of action will reach from Rotterdam to Constanta. With regard to developments in the more distant future one must consider whether one should not exercise influence on the reconstruction of Rotterdam in such a way that the city with this unique opportunity for construction should receive the imprint of a big sea-port of the Germanic area. The demobilization of the Dutch Army, which has now finally been accomplished, was carried out without complaints. The officers and men not taken over into other occupations were transferred, with the exception of the higher ranks, to construction service. This is to be the basis for a future Labor Service. It is led by the Dutch Major Breunesse, who has long been in contact with the men of the Reich Labor Service in the Reich (Mueller-Brandenburg) and has always taken the part of the Reich. The impression this man makes is an excellent one, at present decidedly non-political, as is usual among officers, [page 16] ideologically all right. It is assumed that within three to six months the present construction service can be liquidated, that is, the men will be inducted into economic operations and there will be a basis for a real Labor Service. The organization is already being built up with the co-operation of the head of the Reich Labor Service, Hierl.

The extremely ramified and numerous Dutch press has not been submitted to a preliminary censorship, as that would have destroyed all press life immediately. By holding press conferences under the supervision of Schmidt the big press is managed well and successfully. The danger of some slips, becoming more and more rare, was accepted in view of the necessity of keeping the press alive. Circulation is falling off, however—a not unusual phenomenon, which has the advantage, though, that the newspapers get into difficulties and can therefore be folded up or taken out of the hands of the present owners. The NSB press is already completely available, there is a personal influence at the Telegraph and within the next few days the entire S.D.P. Press is going to be taken over in connection with a corresponding political action which is already underway. The German newspaper has reached a circulation of 30,000. About half of the subscribers are Dutch. A quite extensive press front is therefore available.

From the point of view of the occupation power the present development can be considered satisfactory. The supplies for the occupation army are being delivered, the work, etc., is being done in order, and there are almost no cases of sabotage. There is [page 17] no need at all to fear active resistance by the population. There are, however, signs of rather extensive espionage, at any rate there is contact with England, probably by short-wave radio. In this respect there is close cooperation between the Counter-Intelligence posts of the Armed Forces and the Security Police posts, since it seems necessary to ascertain such cases as soon as possible and to punish them exemplarily (death sentences).

Concerning the political developments in regard to the assigned task, I have the following to say: The Dutch have stepped out of their political reserve. Disregarding the continued or rather increased animosity among the circles which heretofore formed political interest for the Reich is increasing. It is noteworthy in this connection that the former opponents, insofar as they are beginning to change their opinion, want to establish contact not with the N.S.B. but rather directly with the N.S.D.A.P. and the Reich. A conversation with Colijn, who thereupon wrote a pamphlet, did much to help overcome the reserve. The main points of this pamphlet are summarized in the statement that in Continental Europe, England has doubtless been eliminated by the Reich and that the Reich will lead this continental Europe. The Netherlands must adjust itself to that fact if they hope, in closest economic cooperation with the Reich, to retain their independence in clinging to the House of Orange. This attitude of Colijn has had a very great effect, as it was the cue for Protestant and especially Calvinist circles to discuss the new situation, whereby Colijn's statement on the importance of the Reich was considered as an authoritative declaration, but his [page 18] conclusions were subjected to lively criticism. Colijn later in his newspaper (Standard) questioned the correctness of a document of the last White Book. The Standard was thereupon banned for 8 weeks and Colijn got a warning. At the moment he is designated not only by the N.S.B. but also by the group of Arnold Meijers as a worn-out politician who himself has to take the blame for developments, and he is holding back. His importance is not actual but potential.

At the moment many efforts toward concentration are to be noted, which make it their task to appear as partners in a contract with the Reich. The attempt of the system parties to regain influence through Colijn has been, at least for the moment, rejected by the public. His place was taken by a group of the commissioners of the province of Groningen Lindhorst-Homann and of the Catholic politician De Quai. They presented a proclamation to Reichsamtsleiter Schmidt. He refused to authorize it and pointed out that a profession of loyalty to the House of Orange could not be tolerated by the occupation power. This group was confused thereby and lost much of its prestige among the people, which had not been too great, anyway.

Right now a political action against the K.P. (Communist party) and the S.D.P. (Social Democrat Party) is in progress. The K.P. does not exercise any activity, the S.D.P. has its main support in the free trade unions. The heads of these free unions have now been dismissed and the above-mentioned Woudenberg has been appointed provisional head. This reorganization took place—as far as we can see—[page 19] without complaint and the former functionaries offered their cooperation willingly. In direct connection with this action the political organizations of the Communist and Social Democrat parties are being subordinated to Rost Van Tonningen as liquidation commissioner, who has orders to liquidate the K.P. entirely and to transfer its funds to the assets of the S.D.P., which are administered by him. By taking over the leadership of the free unions and the SDP organizations, especially its press, we gained a broad basis political influence on the Dutch people, for this party represented 20 to 22% of the Dutch population.

Arrangements have been made with the N.S.B., according to which the organizations corresponding to the SA and the SS, as well as the youth organization will be built up. It will be of special importance that through the disciplined marching of these organizations an appropriate impression is made, especially on the working classes but also on the rest of the Dutch population.

Aside from these arrangements in the political field we have now begun gathering together pro-German and obliging circles in the field of economy especially agriculture, culture, art, and science, first in a loose social form in order to create a circle of friends of the new Germany or the new Europe, who will gradually become the carriers of opinion and will in the corresponding fields. The first step has been taken successfully in the field of the press. Under the leadership of Prof. De Gudewagen a sort of press committee has been formed, to which the right-thinking press people belong. After initial reluctance, today all the journalists of the Netherlands are aspiring to this association, in which the press people hostile in the past [page 20] toward the Reich are not accepted even if they are considered especially leading.

The attempt is made to establish contact with the Dutch Indies. There are daily radio broadcasts on the regular wave length, bringing reports from the homeland, even news about individual persons and families, so that we can assume that in time the Dutch people in the Dutch Indies will tune their radios to this wave length.

It can already be said today with some confidence that it is only a question of time until the Dutch people can be won also in their political formation of will for a program of a close connection of the independent Netherlands and the Dutch Indies with the Reich (union of currency and economy). The decision boils down to the question of the monarchy. In that question it has gone so far that some leading people already realize that Queen Wilhelmina is opposed to this development and that Crown Princess Juliana is also rather out of the question on account of her marriage with Biesterfeld. The royalists therefore now speak only of holding to the house of Orange, and individual voices are already heard advocating the appointment of a regent to take care of affairs until the question of the monarchy is ripe for a final decision.

Any manifestations for the Queen or for the House of Orange, which is represented only by Crown Princess Juliana, who is married to Biesterfeld, will no longer be tolerated, with the explanation that the Queen persistently remains in the ranks of the enemy and does not oppose the British air-raids on the Netherlands. From the view point of the occupation power a manifestation for the Queen must be considered in the same light as a manifestation for Churchill, for example. [Page 21] This point of view will be enforced with increasing severity. Since the Queen apparently hopes to be supported by Dutch Indies circles, there is danger that this legitimistic attitude could lead to a break between the Netherlands and the Dutch Indies. The Dutch people show increasing understanding for these arguments, and there is really no longer any doubt that the Dutch, at least in Europe, are ready to renounce the Queen and probably also the crown princess, if the Reich could offer them a guarantee that the Dutch Indies will be kept by the Dutch even against possible endeavors of the United States or Japan.

In this connection the possibility should be discussed of transferring the province of Zeeland to a new territorial formation around Antwerp and the province of Limburg to a new Gau-division. In this regard it must be mentioned that such a transfer at this moment would probably destroy all prospects of a political solution. That is certainly true of Zeeland. The people living here are really of Frisian origin and have nothing in common with the population around Antwerp. In the post-war period of 1918-20 they were strongly opposed to an incorporation into Belgium. It could even be used as a pressure on the Netherlands to reach a currency and economy union if we demand the cession of Zeeland as the economic passage area for the port of Antwerp. The Dutch people will certainly be ready to agree to a far-reaching economic union if in return they can retain politically the province of Zeeland.

[Page 22]

Statements.

In conclusion it is stated that—

1. Order and security are perfectly secured.

2. The administration is at present sufficiently and for the future increasingly under the direction and control of the German authorities.

3. Economy and traffic have been set going and converted to war conditions, plans for a large-scale transformation to continental economy have been started, the preparation for it is almost universal, the supplies of the country have been conducted into the war economy of the Reich, the financial sources for it have been widely opened up and joined with the management of the Reich, all on the basis of extensive cooperation of the Dutch.

4. The necessity of deviating from the democratic party system is becoming more and more the general opinion. The endeavor to get into a close friendly relationship with the Reich is increasing. That the question of the House of Orange arises in this connection is becoming more and more evident. The fate of the Dutch Indies is more significant, however.

If we succeed in retaining the people belonging to the free trade unions and to the SDP organizations, and if the NSB makes a further progress, one-fourth to one-third of the Dutch people will in well-organized form be going the same road as the Reich, whereas the other groups will be split and undecided. Moreover, the workers and farmers—the latter, if the worst comes to the worst [Page 23] by the suggestion of the idea of agrarian reform, for almost half of the farmland is divided into small tenant farms—will only gain from a union with the Reich. The labor service is being used for ideological training, and the intellectual circles are being used in social form as needed. The question, in what way the political opinion which is being formed can be used, remains open. The answer depends partly on the conditions of the moment.

Signed: SEYSS-INQUART

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 998-PS

GERMAN CRIMES AGAINST CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Czechoslovak Official Report for the Prosecution and Trial of the German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal, established according to the Agreement of the Four Great Powers of August 8th, 1945. London, September, 1945. Excerpts from pages 9 to 18.

The Criminal Plan

(4) The Chief Instrument: The Sudeten-German Henlein Movement

(a) Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiter Partei (DNSAP).

Fundamental parts of the national socialist ideology derived from the Czechoslovak Germans Knirsch, Krebs and Jung who, in Bohemia in May 1918, had reconstituted the German National Socialist Workers' Party (Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiter Partei—DNSAP). Hitler's party to come was the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei NSDAP.

In permanent contact with the National Socialists of the Reich, the German National Socialists in Czechoslovakia founded an organization called "Volksport" (People's Sport) for youth over 21, modeled exactly on the Storm Troops (S.A.) of the Reich.

Headstrong youths of the "Volksport" sailed nearest the wind. In 1932, its student ringleaders were charged with planning armed rebellion on behalf of a foreign power and sentenced for conspiring against the Republic, for having openly endorsed the 21 points of Hitler's programme, the first of which demanded the union of all Germans in a Great German State.

This incident was greatly exploited against the so-called Activists (German parties cooperating with the Czechs), who were accused of complacence to the Czechs and failure to vindicate German rights. It coincided with Hitler's accession to power.

Late in 1933, the National Socialist Party in Czechoslovakia forestalled its dissolution by voluntary liquidation, and several of its chiefs escaped across the frontier. This caused in German press and radio an outburst of violent threats against Czechoslovakia.

For a year the Nazi activity in Czechoslovakia was continued but underground.

(b) Deutsche Heimatfront.

On October 1st, 1934, Konrad Henlein, the "unpolitical" gymnastic instructor of the German Gymnastic Federation [Turnverband] of the Republic, established the "German Home Front" [Deutsche Heimatfront]. He denied any relation to the late German National Socialist Party in Czechoslovakia and any connection of the "German Home Front" with the Nazi Party in Germany as well. He even refused to organize the German Home Front on party lines, although he built it up on the basis of the Nazi "Fuehrerprinzip" (principle of leadership), and himself became the "Fuehrer" of the "Heimatfront." But he attempted a camouflage: he rejected pan-Germanism, he insisted that Fascism and Nazism alike lost their natural "raison d'etre" at the Czechoslovak frontiers; he declared himself against the revision of the Versailles Treaty, he professed the unconditional respect for individual rights and liberties, he argued with great fervour that loyalty of the "Sudeten Germans" to the German nation and at the same time to the Czechoslovak State were not mutually exclusive.

The Czechoslovak election system is based on Party representation. Henlein, therefore, changed the German Home Front into the "Sudetendeutsche Partei" (Sudeten Germans' Party), for the purpose of participation in the General Elections of May 1935 for the National Assembly.

Economic distress owing to the trade crisis increased the susceptibility of the German population in Czechoslovakia for the new German Messiah and Henlein won a resounding victory over all other German parties.

When the election results were made known—the Henleinists won 44 seats in the Chamber of Deputies to the National Assembly—Henlein sent a loyalty telegram to President Masaryk.

(5) The Policy and Tactics of the "Sudetendeutsche Partei."

(a) 1935-1936: Still "for Democracy."

Henlein continued to present himself as a friend of democracy especially in London where he lectured in 1935 at Chatham House in the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He stated there that he refused the totalitarian principle and that he was in favor of "an honest democracy." "We want a democracy such as is recommended by Masaryk," he emphasized. He denied "Nazism" or "Hitlerism" to be a doctrine "suitable for exportation," he rejected anti-Semitism.

(b) 1937: For complete Autonomy of Sudeten Germans but still within the framework of the Czechoslovak Republic.

In 1937 Henlein struck a somewhat shriller note than before demanding, without defining "complete Sudeten autonomy." The "Sudetendeutsche Partei" laid draft proposals before Parliament amounting to little short of creating a state within a state. The whole document, though moderately worded, was already based on totalitarian principles.

After the occupation of Austria (March 1938) the Henleinists openly jubilated. Nearly all German "Activist parties" were now stampeded into the Henlein camp leaving the fight against the "Sudentendeutsche Partei" only to the German Social Democrats and Communists. The terrorism of the Henleinists increased. They intensified their campaign against "Bolshevism." Open anti-Semitic propaganda started in the Henlein press.

On April 24th, 1938, Henlein came into the open with his "Karlsbad Programme," set forth in his speech made to the Party Congress in Karlovy Vary. In every line of it could be heard not so much Herr Henlein himself as his master's voice. In the Karlsbad Programme among others the right of the Sudeten Germans to profess "German political philosophy" in other words, National Socialism, was claimed.

In May 1938, Henlein visited Hitler in Berlin and after obtaining his master's instructions was back in London at his old game of intriguing against the Czechoslovak Republic.

The Local Government elections in May 1938—well prepared by the Henleinists by vast propaganda, opened terrorism, unscrupulous using of money, bribery of electors, etc.,—showed 80-90% of votes for Henlein. So almost the whole German population stood behind Henlein.

The Czech Government continued to negotiate with Henlein, but on September 14th,—two days before Hitler fulminated in his Nurnberg speech against "this Benes" and accused him of "torturing" and planning the "extermination" of the Sudeten Germans—he threw off his mask, fled to the Reich declaring on the wireless: "We want to go home to the Reich," and denouncing "the Hussite Bolshevik criminals of Prague."

K.H. Frank, interrogated by Colonel Dr. B. Ecer on May 30th, 1945, at Wiesbaden, stated that the slogan "Heim ins Reich" (Homewards to the Reich) was backed by 90% of the Sudeten Germans.

Few people knew before that Henlein went on Hitler's pay roll already in 1933.

(d) "Sudetendeutsche Partei" changed into a Nazi Party.

After Munich the "Sudetendeutsche Partei," in the areas ceded to Germany, entered as a whole into the Reich's Nazi Party. In the not yet occupied parts of the Republic, the "Sudetendeutsche Partei" constituted itself as "Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiter-Partei in der Tschechoslovakei" (German Nazi Party in Czechoslovakia).

After the total occupation (March 15th, 1939) of Bohemia and Moravia this party too became part of the Reich Nazi Party. (About their activity after Munich see Section 7.)

(e) Henlein's Admission.

In a speech made on March 4th, 1941, in Vienna, published in official Nazi papers, Henlein stated: "In order to protect ourselves against Czech interference, we were compelled to lie and to deny our allegiance to the National Socialist cause. We should have preferred advocating National Socialism openly. However, it is doubtful whether in doing so, we would have been able to perform the task of destroying Czechoslovakia."

(6) System and Methods of Nazi Pre-War Infiltration.

(a) Seeds of Discord.

The Nazi Party's study and research groups had long been instructed not only to establish close cooperation with the German minority in the Czechoslovak Republic, but also to win over adherents from the Slovak autonomist opposition. Long before the Austrian Anschluss in March 1938, Nazi circles were not only in close contact with Slovak traitors living in exile (most of whom were directly employed by the Hungarian irredentists), but also tried to establish contacts in the organizational machinery of Hlinka's Slovak Peoples' Party (the Slovak Catholic Peoples' Party of the late Monsignor Andrew Hlinka). When the traitor Bela Tuka (later to become Prime Minister of "independent" Slovakia) was tried for espionage and treason in 1929, the evidence established the Nazi connections with him.

The Nazi Party had paid agents among the higher staff of the Hlinka Party. Their task was to render impossible any understanding between the Slovak autonomists and the slovak parties in the Government of Prague.

K.H. Frank, interrogated by Col. Dr. B. Ecer on May 30th, 1945, at Wiesbaden, confirmed the close cooperation between the "Sudetendeutsche Partei" (Sudeten German Party, headed by Konrad Henlein; details see Sections 4 and 5) with the Slovakian Peoples' Party.

(b) Espionage.

Military espionage was conducted by members of the German minority on behalf of Germany. The Republic had to amend in 1936 the "Act for Protection of the Republic" of 1923 to cope with the widespread treason activity of the Henleinists and of the Reich Germans from beyond the frontier.

Plans of Henleinists discovered by the police showed that the Henlein Nazis had, in every district, compiled lists of all German democrats, socialists and communists as well as of Czechs of all parties, and were planning to round up and arrest them on the anticipated arrival of the Reichswehr.

The Nazis from the Reich sent directly to Czechoslovakia their terrorists and murderers; thus the anti-Nazis, Professor Theodor Lessing and Ing. Formis who escaped after 1933 from Germany and were given refuge in Czechoslovakia, were murdered in Czechoslovakia by Nazi agents, Lessing in 1933 and Formis in 1935. The Nazis from the Reich sent their Gestapo into the border districts to drag Czechoslovak citizens across the border to Germany. They also sent money and arms to the Henleinists who time and again provoked incidents in order just to keep permanent unrest. They attacked gendarmes, customs officers and other State officials who time and again suffered casualties. The Henleinists terrorized the non-Henlein population and in several cases murdered political foes.

Anti-semitic propaganda was carried through in the Henlein press and boycott set in against Jewish lawyers, doctors, tradesmen, shops, etc.

(d) Propaganda.

Disruptive propaganda came from Germany especially through the German broadcasts. Dr. Goebbels launched "The-Nest-of-Bolshevism" campaign against Czechoslovakia and the lie of "Russian-troops-and-airplanes-in-Prague," etc. The Nazis from the Reich directed the whispering propaganda of the Henleinists, thus maintaining a permanent state of high tension in the war of nerves.

The Henleinists spread more or less openly the Nazi ideology among the German population through their press and publications and smuggled illegal Nazi literature into the border regions from Germany.

(e) Headquarters in Germany.

The Nazis entertained in Stuttgart the "Ausland-Organisation der NSDAP" for German propaganda in other countries in cooperation with the German population of those countries. This organization was headed by Gauleiter Bohle, who had the task of administering the "Gau Ausland" (district: foreign countries). A comprehensive system with scientific methods of penetration was worked out. In Czechoslovakia the tool of German infiltration through Fifth Columns was the "Sudetendeutsche Partei" (see Sections 4 and 5).

(f) Nazification of German Institutions in the Czechoslovak Republic.

The Henleinists penetrated systematically step by step into the whole life of the German population of Czechoslovakia.

All institutions underwent gradually "Gleichschaltung," i.e., the prevailing domination of all Associations, social and cultural centres, etc., by the Henleinists. Sport societies, football, light athletics, rowing clubs, etc., were "conquered," just as associations of ex-service men, choral societies or associations for diet reform.

Nearly all theatres in German parts of Czechoslovakia were "conquered" by the Nazis, and all German orchestras as well.

It goes without saying that the Henleinists were greatly interested in penetrating into as many economic institutions as possible and to bring over to their side the directors of banks, the owners or directors of factories, commercial firms, etc. In cases of Jewish owners or directors they tried to secure the cooperation of possibly the whole clerical and technical staff of the respective institutions.

(g) Orders from Berlin.

The Henleinists entertained permanent contact with their German masters.

Attendance of Sudeten Germans at Reich German celebrations, Saengerfeste (Choral Festivals), Gymnastic Shows and Assemblies, the Leipzig Fair, etc., were often the pretext for organized meetings to instruct the native Fifth Columnists and to inspire their activity.

Whenever Hitler, in his War of Nerves against Czechoslovakia, needed incidents, the Henleinists supplied them promptly.

As one instance of many we quote Sir Nevile Henderson who reports in his book "Failure of a Mission," London, April 1940, the meeting of Chamberlain and Hitler in Berchtesgaden on September 15th, 1938:

* * * there was a constant influx of German Press telegrams about incidents in the Sudeten lands. One, I remember, reported that forty Germans had been killed in a clash somewhere with Czech gendarmes. A British observer, of whom there were already a number in Czechoslovakia, and who was immediately sent to verify the facts of the case, subsequently ascertained that there had, in fact, been one death.

Henderson adds that it was a typical example of the method of exaggeration and actual falsification of news.

(7) Intensified Activity of the Henlein Nazis after Munich.

After Munich Henlein's deputy Kundt became the leader of the German minority still left inside the mutilated Republic and created unscrupulously as many artificial "focal points of German culture" as possible. Germans from the districts handed over to Germany were ordered from Berlin to continue their studies at the German University in Prague, and to make it a centre of aggressive Nazism. The post-Munich government had to allow the German minority in Prague and other Czech parts of the country "to develop freely in conformity with the Nazi theories and not to prohibit its political activity."

It goes without saying that that "political activity" pursued only the aim to undermine and to weaken the Czechs' resistance against the commands from Germany.

The Henleinists cooperated with the Gestapo from the Reich infiltrating into the Republic.

The press was, via facti, subjected to censorship exercised by Germans.

German civil servants who, before Munich, had become members of the SDP, attained dominating influence in their positions and assisted the Nazi infiltration into Czechoslovak public and private institutions.

(8) Conclusion.

The separation of "Sudetengebiet" was the death blow for the economic independence of Czechoslovakia. The frontiers imposed on her by the Agreement of Munich and Vienna cut her railway lines at many places, thus making impossible any strategic defence of the mutilated country, which soon fell a victim to the German aggression.

Henlein's Fifth Columns in Czechoslovakia as described above, had their big part in assisting Hitler to achieve his aim.

As Henlein put it (see Section 5, (e)): "We should have preferred advocating National Socialism openly. However, it is doubtful whether in doing so we would have been able to perform the task of destroying Czechoslovakia."

II. DESTRUCTION OF CZECH CULTURAL LIFE

Par. 5. Religious Persecution.

[Page 62]

Reference to Hus, Zizka, and the Hussites and their achievements as well as to Masaryk and his Legions were strictly prohibited, even the religious text books were changed. Church leaders were especially persecuted, scores of ministers were imprisoned in concentration camps, among them the General Secretary of the Students' Christian Movement in Czechoslovakia. One of the vice-Presidents was executed.

Protestant Institutions such as the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. were suppressed throughout the country.

Among the murdered Czech ministers was a pastor of the Czech Brethren Evangelical Church, who was killed with his wife among the hostages executed for the assassination of Heydrich.

The leading Theological School for all Evangelical denominations, Hus Faculty in Prague and all other Protestant training schools for the ministry were closed down in November 1939, with the other Czech universities and colleges.

(d) Czech Orthodox Church.

The hardest blow was directed against the Czech Orthodox Church. The Orthodox churches in Czechoslovakia were ordered by the Berlin Ministry of Church Affairs to leave the Pontificat of Belgrade and Constantinople respectively and to become subordinate to the Berlin Bishop. The Czech Bishop Gorazd was executed together with two other priests of the Orthodox Church. By a special order of the Protector Daluege, issued in September 1942, the Orthodox Church of Serbian Constantinople jurisdiction was completely dissolved in the Czech lands, its religious activity forbidden and its property confiscated.

All Evangelical education was handed over to the civil authorities and many Evangelical teachers lost their employment; moreover the State grant to salaries of many Evangelical priests was taken away.

(e) Jews.

The racial persecution of the Jews is dealt with separately (Section IV).

In connection with religious persecutions, we may mention the statement of K.H. Frank, made on June 11, 1945 when interrogated by Col. Dr. Ecer at Wiesbaden. Frank stated that in November 1938 the Jewish places of worship in the "Sudeten" province were torn down by express order of the Party, i.e. the Party Chancellery of Munich at the head of which at that time was Rudolf Hess, and in the autumn of 1941 it was Heydrich who ordered all synagogues to be closed, because "they had served as meeting places for aggressive Jewish elements." Many synagogues were demolished, others transformed into marketing halls or into auction halls for the sale of confiscated Jewish furniture and household goods.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1012-PS

Copy

SSD—TELEGRAM

Anna 4873 3 February 42 1650

SECRET

To the Military Commander of France
Attention of Infantry General Von Stuelpnagel, Paris.
Reference: Telegram of 1 Jan. 1942.

General Field Marshal Keitel, after a conference with the Fuehrer, refuses to consider the plan of sole judging and arbitrary final decision for measures in cases of assault and acts of violence with explosives which was proposed from there as long as the measures which are proposed from there do not take into consideration in their type and magnitude the fundamental attitude of the Fuehrer for assaults and violent acts with explosives which have been reported since Jan. 15, and which have not yet been clarified but are on the increase. Sharp and deterring punishment must be instituted by shooting a large number of arrested Communists and/or Jews and persons who have previously committed assault and by arresting at least one thousand Communists, and/or Jews for shipment. Field Marshal Keitel awaits corresponding instructions for submission to the Fuehrer.

OKW Gen QU (V) Nr. II 1887/42 SECRET
1830 1 B 0 M HRRXMV

France

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1014-PS

SECOND SPEECH BY THE FUEHRER ON 22 AUG 1939

It may also turn out differently regarding England and France. One cannot predict it with certainty. I figure on a trade-barrier not on blockade, and with severance of relations. Most iron determination on our side. Retreat before nothing. Everybody shall have to make a point of it that we were determined from the beginning to fight the Western powers. Struggle for life or death. Germany has won every war as long as she was united. Iron, unflinching attitude of all superiors, greatest confidence, faith in victory, overcoming of the past by getting used to heaviest strain. A long period of peace would not do us any good. Therefore it is necessary to expect everything. Manly bearing. It is not machines that fight each other. We have the better quality of men. Mental factors are decisive. The opposite camp has weaker people. In 1918, the Nation fell down because the mental prerequisites were not sufficient. Frederic the Great secured final success only through his mental power.

Destruction of Poland in the foreground. The aim is elimination of living forces, not the arrival at a certain line: Even if war should break out in the West, the destruction of Poland shall be the primary objective. Quick decision because of the season.

I shall give a propagandistic cause for starting the war—never mind whether it be plausible or not. The victor shall not be asked, later on, whether we told the truth or not. In starting and making a war, not the Right is what matters but Victory.

Have no pity. Brutal attitude. 80 million people shall get what is their right. Their existence has to be secured. The strongest has the Right. Greatest severity.

Quick decision necessary. Unshakable faith in the German soldier. A crisis may happen only if the nerves of the leaders give way.

First aim; advance to the Vistula and Narew. Our technical superiority will break the nerves of the Poles. Every newly created Polish force shall again be broken at once. Constant war of attrition.

New German frontier according to healthy principles. Possibly a protectorate as a buffer. Military operations shall not be influenced by these reflections. Complete destruction of Poland is the military aim. To be fast is the main thing. Pursuit until complete elimination.

Conviction that the German Wehrmacht is up to the requirements. The start shall be ordered, probably by Saturday morning.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1015-B-PS

SPECIAL STAFF FOR PICTORIAL ART

Report of work during the period from October 1940 to July 1944

On the basis of the decree of the Fuehrer of 17 September 1940 relative to the seizure of ownerless works of art formerly possessed by Jews in the occupied Western territories, the special staff for pictorial art commenced at the beginning of October 1940 in Paris with the seizure of the works of art abandoned by the internationally known Jewish Rothschild family, which was also famous as the possessor of great art collections. It was not possible for the various members of the Jewish Rothschild family, nor for many other rich French Jews, to take any considerable part of their part possessions to England and America in their precipitous flight before the German occupation. The staff has not only seized very great parts of the art treasures abandoned in the Paris City Palaces of the Rothschilds, but it also systematically searched the country-seats of the individual members of the Rothschild family, such as the famous Loire castle, for art treasures and thereby safeguarded for the Reich very important parts of the world famous Rothschild art collection. The art possessions of the Rothschild's were traced not only to cleverly hidden places in the individual castles but also to depots and warehouses, as for example in Bordeaux and other coastal cities, where these art treasures had already been packed for transport to America. In this same manner the art possessions of other French Jews famous as art collectors such as Kann, David-Wlil, Levy de Benzion and Seligmann were traced by the staff and seized in their entirety.

After the seizure of the most famous Jewish art collections in Paris, all abandoned dwellings of the wealthy Parisian Jews, as well as the warehouses of all shipping firms and many other art depots of emigrated Jews, which were very often camouflaged by French gentiles, were systematically searched by the special staff for pictorial art and very considerable art treasures found in this manner. These seizures were carried out on the basis of preliminary exhaustive investigations into the address lists of the French police authorities, on the basis of Jewish handbooks, warehouse inventories and order books for French shipping firms as well as on the basis of French art and collection catalogs. The clearly established Jewish origin of the individual owners was proved in each case in cooperation with the French police authorities and the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service), as well as on the basis of the political secure material of the staff itself.

According to the same system, the seizure of ownerless Jewish works of art was gradually extended over the whole French territory. The investigations of the special staff for pictorial art were often made extraordinarily difficult by proven sabotage by French authorities, as well as by camouflaging of Jewish possessions by trusteeship of French gentiles covering up for the Jews. In spite of this, Jewish art possessions in the occupied French territories was seized to such an extent as to justify the assumption that, in spite of all opposition and camouflaging, the most important part of the art possessions which had been in the hands of Jews in France, insofar as these had not already been removed before the occupation, was safeguarded by the staff. The wholesale removal of irreplaceable European art values was thereby prevented and the highest artistic products of all European nations assured for Europe.

In the course of this art seizure by the staff in the occupied Western territories, the following were seized from 203 locations (collections).

21903 art objects of all types, as counted and inventoried up to now.

A seizure record was made for each location, recording the origin of the objects with exact individual data. All seized art treasures were first taken to a collection warehouse at the former Jeau de Paume Museum and then to rooms of the Louvre which had been placed at their disposal. They were scientifically inventoried and photographed by scientific art workers of the special staff for pictorial art and carefully packed there by experts for transport to the Reich. These jobs were especially difficult, since the majority of the collections and individual art objects were taken over without any inventories or indications of origin, and the scientific cataloguing had to be carried out by the scientific art workers of the staff.

Since the beginning of 1943, art seizures of the staff have been extended to include also furniture seizures of the East Ministry, whereby a great number of individual valuable art works could be seized from individual dwellings and warehouses.

During the period from March 1941 to July 1944, the special staff for pictorial art brought into the Reich: 29 large shipments including 137 freight cars with 4174 cases of art works.

These shipments were taken to 6 shelters in the Reich, unpacked and stored with observation of all conservation, air raid and fire protection precautions. At the shelters the inventories, which had served in Paris only for indentification were supplemented according to scientific view-points, and the results of the scientific cataloguing were recorded on inventory lists and thoroughly indexed. With this scientific inventory of a material unique in its scope and importance and of a value hitherto unknown to art research, the special staff for pictorial art has conducted a work important to the entire field of art. This inventory work will form the basis of an all-inclusive scientific catalog, in which should be recorded history, scope and scientific and political significance of this historically unique art seizure.

A restoration work shop equipped with all technical aids was established by the special staff at one of the shelters, and has been occupied with the care and restoration of seized articles of artistic value as well as with their permanent observation at the shelters. Several hundreds of the works of art that had been neglected by their Jewish owners or had earlier been inexpertly restored were restored in this workshop and their preservation assured.

In addition, all seized articles of artistic value were photographed by the photography workshop of the special staff and included in a film library. Thereby not only the identity of each individual art work was recorded, but also material of permanent value for study and publication in the field of art was created.

Up to 15 July 1944 the following had been scientifically inventoried:

21,903 art works

5,281 paintings, pastels, water-colors, drawings.

684 miniatures, glass and enamel paintings, books and manuscripts.

583 plastics, terra-cottas, medallions and plaques.

2,477 articles of furniture of value to art history.

583 textiles (Gobelins, rugs, embroideries, Coptic materials).

5,825 hand-made art works (porcelains, bronze, faiences,
majolica, ceramics, jewelry, coins, art objects
made with precious stones).

1,286 East Asiatic art works (bronzes, plastics, porcelains,
paintings, folding screens, weapons).

259 art works of antiquity (sculptures, bronzes, vases,
jewelry, bowls, cut stones, terra-cottas).

These figures will be increased, since seizures in the West are not yet completed, and it has not been possible to make a scientific inventory of part of the seized objects because of the lack of experts.

The extraordinary artistic and material value of the seized art works cannot be expressed in figures. The paintings, period furniture of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Gobelins, the antiques and renaissance jewelry of the Rothschilds are objects of such a unique character that their evaluation is impossible, since no comparable values have so far appeared on the art market.

A short report, moreover, can only hint at the artistic worth of the collection. Among the seized paintings, pastels and drawings there are several hundred works of the first quality, masterpieces of European art, which could take first place in any museum. Included therein are absolutely authenticated signed works of Rembrandt van Rijn, Rubens, Frans Hals, Vermeer van Delft, Velasquez, Murilio, Goya, Sebastiano del Piombo, Palma Vecchio, etc.

Of first importance among the seized paintings are the works of the famous French painters of the 18th century, with masterpieces of Boucher, Watteau, Algaud, Largielliere, Kattier, Fragonard, Pater, D Nloux and de Trcy.

This collection can compare with those of the best European museums. It includes many works of the foremost French masters, who up to now have been only inadequately represented in the best German museums. Very important also is the representation of masterpieces of the Dutch painters of the 17th and 18th centuries. First of all should be mentioned the works of van Dyck, Salomon and Jacob Ruisdar Wouvermann, Terborch, jan Weenix, Gabriel Metsu, Adrian van Ostade, David Teniers, Pieter de Hooch, Willem van der Velde, etc.

Of foremost importance also are the represented works of English paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries, with masterpieces of Reynolds, Romney and Gainsborough. Cranach and Amberger, among the German masters, should be mentioned.

The collection of French furniture of the 17th and 18th centuries is perhaps even more highly to be evaluated. This contains hundreds of the best preserved and, for the most part, signed works of the best known cabinet-makers from the period between Louis XIV to Louis XVI. Since German cabinet-makers played an important part in this golden age of French cabinetry, now recognized for the first time in the field of art, this collection is of paramount importance.

The collection of Gobelins and Persian tapestries contains numerous world famous objects. The collection of handicraft works and the Rothschild collection of renaissance jewelry is valuable beyond comparison.

Very many works of art were seized by the staff from the luggage of Jewish emigrants in Holland as well as in the occupied territories of France and Belgium.

Work in the Eastern territories.

The activity of the special staff for pictorial art was limited in the occupied Eastern territories to a scientific and photographic recording of public collection and their safeguarding and care in cooperation with the military and civil services. In the course of the evacuation of the territory several hundred most valuable Russian Ikons, several hundred Russian paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries, individual articles of furniture and furniture from castles were saved in cooperation with the individual army groups, and brought to a shelter in the Reich.

A collection of degenerate Bolshevist art, as well as a collection of degenerate Western art, was also made for political study purposes. In addition, a rich collection of material concerning Soviet architecture was made.

25 portfolios of pictures with the most valuable works of the art collections seized in the West were presented to the Fuehrer on 20 April 1943, together with three volumes of a provisional catalog of paintings and an interim progress report. Additional portfolios of pictures are in preparation.

Robert SCHOLZ
Bereichsleiter
Chief of the Special Staff for Pictorial Art

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1015-I-PS

The Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich
Berlin W8, 30 May 1942
Leipziger Str. 3

Dear Party member Rosenberg:

Your Einsatzstab for the seizure of cultural goods in Paris, I believe, has been wrongly reported to you as if it were dealing in works of art itself. I know the task of the Einsatzstab very well and must assert that there is no agency to which I am able to express such unrestricted praise for its continued work and readiness as to this agency proper with all its collaborators. Presumably I have given cause for the reputation of dealing in works of art because I have asked some especially experienced gentlemen if anywhere during their stay in Paris or France they should hear of any pictures or other art objects to be sold by art dealers or private individuals to look at those objects and to inform me if there should be anything of interest for me. Since the latter was often the case, I have then again asked the gentlemen to do me the favor to acquire the objects for me for which purpose I have kept a depot ready for them. If thus some gentlemen got very busy to make contacts with art dealers it was exclusively a personal favor which was done for me for the benefit of building up my collection. Since very many prospective buyers endeavor to seize art objects in the occupied territory, I can well imagine that perhaps out of ignorance of the circumstances, but perhaps also out of envy they have caused the gentlemen of your Einsatzstab to be suspected wrongly.

I feel it my duty to give you this information and to ask you that it may remain this way. On the other hand I also support personally the work of your Einsatzstab wherever I can do so, and a great part of the seized cultural goods can be accounted for because I was able to assist the Einsatzstab by my organization.

With best regards and Heil Hitler!
Yours
Signed: Hermann Goering

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1015-GG-PS

Statement of art objects counted and inventoried
I. Paintings
Oil paintings	3,027
Water-colors	766
Drawings	1,332
Pastels	156
Engravings 1	4,525
Miniatures—portraits	442
Miniatures—parchments—initial letters	51
Persian miniatures	49
Glass paintings	19
Porcelain—enamels—paintings	455
Books and manuscripts	55
Reproductions	13
		———
		10,890
II. Plastics
Bronze and other metals including statuettes	129
Marble and other stones	110
Wood	65
Terra-cotta, clay and porcelain	74
Reliefs	52
Medallions and plaques	121
Ivory	3
Wax	3
Plaster	26
		———
		583
III. Furniture
Chests of drawers	241
Clothes-presses	33
Writing tables	86
Secretaries	69
Sewing tables	11
Tables	255
Sideboards	5
Kitchen tables	26
Cupboards	155
Chairs and sofas	979
Clocks of various types	115
Chandeliers, etc.	277
Miscellaneous	143
Mirrors	21
Consoles	61
		———
		2,477
IV. Textiles
Gobelins	66
Carpets	291
Cloths	104
Coptic cloths	36
Embroidery, weavings (Including fragments)	86
		———
		583
V. Hand-made art objects
Porcelain (cups, plates, vases)	335
Ceramics (cups, bowls)	252
Faeence, Majolika	324
Glass	140
Porcelain figures	92
Bronze and other metals	371
Objects of rare metals	189
Articles of daily use	308
Jewelry	243
Coins	844
Weapons	206
Orientalia and exotica	388
Objects of rare gems	74
Other art works 2)	2,059
		——
		5,825
VI. East-Asiatic
Plastics	48
Bronzes to 1500 and later	26
Porcelains and stone-ware before 1644	472
Porcelains and stone-ware after 1644	101
Clay-ware	19
Semi-precious gems and ivories	92
Netsuka (Japanese art objects)	68
Paintings	72
Wood-carvings	183
Lacquers	27
Folding screens	6
Weapons	31
Miscellaneous	141
		———
		1,286
VII. Antiquities
A. Greek
Sculptures, including reliefs	3
Bronzes, including statuettes	6
Terra-cottas and other clays	14
Vases, bowls, pitchers	6
Jewelry, about	40
Miscellaneous	6
B. Roman
Sculptures, including portraits	15
Bronzes, including statuettes	19
Clay	1
Jewelry, about	83
Miscellaneous	15
C. Egyptian
Sculptures, including reliefs	20
Bronzes, including statuettes	11
Cut stones	5
Miscellaneous	10
D. Asia-Minor
Reliefs	1
Clay	1
Cut stones	3
		———
		259
	Total	21,903

Remarks:

1. In enumerating engravings in portfolios, the sheets were counted individually. In bound volumes the engravings were considered as one number.

2. Among the other art works are also included antique and East-Asiatic miniatures from the Kann Collection, which up to now have received no exact classification.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1017-PS

Copy

[Found in Rosenberg's files.]

[Handwritten note] 1. Memorandum

2.4.41

Subject: The USSR.

Bolshevik Russia, just as the one-time Czarist Russia, is a conglomeration of peoples of very different types, which has come into being through the annexation of states of a related or even of an essentially alien character.

A military conflict with the USSR will result in an extraordinarily rapid occupation of an important and large section of the USSR. It is very probable that military action on our part will very soon be followed by the military collapse of the USSR. The occupation of these areas would then present not so many military as administrative and economic difficulties. Thus arises the first question:

Is the occupation to be determined by purely military and/or economic needs, or is the laying of political foundations for a future organization of the area also a factor in determining how far the occupation shall be extended? If so, it is a matter of urgency to fix the political goal which is to be obtained, for it will, without doubt, also have an effect on military operations.

If the political overthrow of the Eastern Empire, in the weak condition it would be at the time, is set as the goal of military operations, one may conclude that:

1. The occupation must comprise areas of vast proportions;

2. From the very beginning, the treatment of individual sections of territory should, as regards administration, as well as economics and ideology, be adapted to the political ends we are striving to attain;

3. Again, extraordinary questions concerning these vast areas, such as, in particular, the assurance of essential supplies for the continuation of the war against England, the maintenance of production which this necessitates and the general directives for the completely separate areas, had best be dealt with all in one.

It should again be stressed here that, in addition, all the arguments which follow of course only hold good once the supplies from the area to be occupied, which are essential to Greater Germany for the continuation of the war, has been assured.

Anyone who knows the East, sees on a map of Russia's population the following national or geographical units:

a. Greater Russia with Moscow as its centre.

b. White Russia with Minsk or Smolensk as its capital.

c. Esthonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

d. The Ukraine and the Crimea with Kiev as its centre.

e. The Don area with Rostov as its capital.

f. The area of the Caucasus.

g. Russian Central Asia or Russian Turkestan.

A. Greater Russia

After the rule of the Tartars, the Russian Empire, Czarist in character developed out of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. This nucleus area possesses even today the greatest driving power. The political aim of operations against the USSR, therefore, would be the permanent weakening of this area, in order to secure possibilities of expansion for the other areas. By means of a temporary occupation of this area, this weakening could be brought about in a way comprising the three following measures:

1. The total destruction of the Jewish Bolshevik state administration, without helping to set up a new and comprehensive state system;

2. very extensive utilization of economic resources such as the removal of all non-essential stocks, mechanical installations, and, in particular, of any available means of transport, small river craft, etc.;

3. the allocation of considerable sections of this Russian nucleus territory to the fresh administrative units which are to be formed, as, in particular, to White Russia, the Ukraine, and the Don territory.

In this way all other areas would be offered at the same time the possibility of making extensive use of that part of Russia controlled by Moscow as a dumping ground for undesirable elements of the population.

B. White Russia.

White Russia comprises a part of the USSR which is very backward culturally as well as economically. At the same time it contains the second largest Jewish community in the USSR, with towns which are completely Jewish, such as Bialystok, Minsk, Polodzk, Vitebsk, and others.

The awakening of an independent life, and the setting up of a living state system must be considered as an extremely tedious and difficult undertaking. White Russia is far more backward in culture than, for instance, Lithuania, and more exploited by the Jews than Poland. Nevertheless, having regard to the necessity of weakening the Russian nucleus area, such an attempt should be advocated.

The USSR has confined White Russia to the area between the Polish North-West frontier and approximately as far as the Pronja. But the real capital of the whole area would be Smolensk. The half administrative district of the same name and also a section of the administrative district of Kalinin (formerly Twer) could count, by population, as belonging to it, or could be added to it for administration purposes. In this way the frontier of White Russia would be moved forward to within about 250 kilometres of Moscow.

If the creation of independent political life is considered desirable, it would not be advisable to carve up this area to the benefit of the General-government of Poland.

C. Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

In the case of these areas the question arises, whether they should be allotted the special task of becoming a German settlement area of the future, the racially most suitable elements being assimilated.

If this is set up as an aim, the areas also require very special treatment in the general task.

The necessary removal of considerable sections of the intelligentsia particularly Latvian ones—to the Russian nucleus area would have to be organized. The settlement of a German rural population in considerable quantities would have to be started—possibly a large contingent of German settlers suitable for this purpose could be taken from among the Volga Germans, after the undesirable elements have been eliminated. There might also be the possibility of the settlements of Danes, Norwegians, Dutch and—after the war has been brought to a victorious end—of Englishmen too, so that, in the course of one or two generations, this area can be joined up with the German nucleus area as a new Germanised country.

In this case we should also not have to neglect to deport considerable groups of racially inferior sections of the population from Lithuania.

D. The Ukraine (Border territory).

Kiev became the main centre of the Varangian state with its superimposed Scandinavian character. But even after the rule of the Tartars Kiev was for a long time diametrically opposed to Moscow. Its independent national life is based, contrary to the assertions of Muscovite historians, whose ideas also dominated the whole of European learning, on a tradition which is really almost unbroken.

As far as this area is concerned, the political task would be the encouragement of independent national life until, possibly, an independent state could be created, with the object, alone or in conjunction with the Don area and the Caucasus as a Black Sea Union, of holding Moscow constantly in check and ensuring Lebensraum for Greater Germany to the East. In the economic field, however, this area would at the same time, have the task of forming a powerful base for raw materials and a supplementary nutrition centre for the Greater German Reich.

Strips of border territory from the Russian nucleus area, too, would have to be added to that part which is regarded by the USSR as purely Ukrainian—as has already been mentioned—in order to weaken this nucleus area and at the same time to keep alive constant opposition to it. In this matter, parts of the administrative districts of Kursk and Voronesch might be possibilities.

The administrative and economic handling of the whole area would then have to be directed towards the attainment of the political aim.

E. The Don Area.

It is inhabited by the Don Cossacks. As a nation they are far less independent than the Ukrainians, culturally they are saturated with Moscow ideology, and politically they tend chiefly towards Moscow, but are more developed than the White Russians. The task in this area would be similar to that in White Russia.

Similarly, it would be desirable to extend this area northwards up to the Administrative Districts of Szaratow in order to link up its administration with that of the territory of the Volga Germans.

F. The Caucasus.

The Caucasus is inhabited by sections of the population which are, racially, entirely different, and also by national units. The river plain of the Kuban and Terek, and the present Administrative Districts of Krasnodar and Ordschjonokidze are inhabited by Cossacks, the majority of whom consider themselves to be Ukrainians. The most advanced nation as regards culture is the Georgians, between the Great and Lesser Caucasus, who can point to a centuries old cultural tradition and independence of their own. Then comes Aserbeidschan, peopled by Mussulmen of Ugrotatarian origin, with its centre at Baku. The Armenians live in adjacent territory to the South, while the northern mountain slopes are inhabited by quite a number of mountain peoples of the most varied origins.

The area is Russia's oil centre. The material output, and indeed the existence of the other mainly agricultural areas of the USSR, such as the Ukraine, the Don-Kuban, and the Terek district, and also to a certain extent the Russian nucleus area, largely depend on keeping this area in production. Owing to the introduction of the Bolshevik system of running villages on communal lines without individual ownership, and of Kolchoses (collective farms), with mechanical cultivation of the soil, the production of grain and food depends on the regular supplying of the necessary fuel. As a result of the sharp drop in the number of draught cattle, and the fact that these are, numerically, very unevenly distributed, any strangulation of the oil supply—quite apart from the maintenance of the motor repair depots and the availability of the necessary servicing personnel for this—tends to famine.

G. Russian Central Asia or Russian Turkestan.

We can assume that, after the military collapse of the Soviets in Europe, very small forces would be needed to dispose of the Moscow tyranny in Central Asia. This area too, is inhabited by peoples of very different types, mainly Turano-Mongoloid, and who are followers of Mohammed. They feel themselves to be in long-standing racial and religious opposition to the Soviets, and at the same time to the Russian people too, without being able, for the time being, to throw off the Russian yoke by their own efforts. This should not be considered too difficult to carry out, however, with German help, and in view of the confusion which would arise among the Soviets.

The area is Russia's cotton store, with an annual production, according to Bolshevik figures, of 400,000-500,000 tons of cotton.

The entry of Germans into Central Asia would mean powerful rear support for Iran and Afghanistan. It is a matter for conjecture whether these states would not possibly be impelled by this means to undertake more active operations against India—if there is any such intention—in the event of Turkey too, having altered her attitude by that time. The threat to the British lines of communication to India thus acquires real significance, and will, without doubt, compel Britain to deploy greater forces in this area, which she would have to take from Europe or elsewhere.

General Questions of Economy from the Legal Angle.

The acquisition of oil, mainly in the Caucasus, immediately brings with it the question of its transport, in order to maintain agricultural production in the occupied areas. The question of transport, however, which is of decisive importance to the cultivation of the soil, is bound up again with settling the coal problem. At the same time, the question of finance in these areas appears of primary importance.

A question which likewise affects all areas is that of the almost complete abolition, under the Soviet system, of private property. It is not improbable that this question will have practical consequences immediately the area is occupied. Spontaneous action taken by a completely uneducated rural population, if and when they dissolve the Kolchoses by their own efforts, could result in untold material harm.

For this reason these problems require to be settled, not regionally, but as extraordinary matters for all areas, and local variations, and perhaps also differing tactical action could easily be combined with this.

Summary.

The following systematic constructional plan is evolved from the points briefly outlined here:

1. the creation of a central department for the occupied areas of the USSR, to be confined more or less to wartime.

Working in agreement with the higher and supreme Reich authorities, it would be the task of this department—

a. to issue binding political instructions to the separate administration areas, having in mind the situation existing at the time and the goal which is to be achieved.

b. to secure for the Reich supplies essential to the war from all the occupied areas.

c. to make preparations for, and to supervise the carrying out, in main outline, of the primarily important questions for all areas, as for instance, those of finance and funds, transport, and the production of oil, coal and food;

2. the carrying out of sharply defined decentralization in the separate administration areas, grouped together by race or by reason of political economy, for the carrying out of the totally dissimilar tasks assigned to them.

As against this, an administrative department, regulating matters in principle, and to be set up on a purely economic basis, as is at present envisaged, might very soon prove to be inadequate, and fail in its purpose. Such a central office would be compelled to carry out a common policy for all areas, dictated only by economic considerations, and this might impede the carrying out of the political task and, in view of its being run on purely bureaucratic lines, might possibly even prevent it.

The question therefore arises, whether the opinions which have been set forth should not, purely for reasons of expediency, be taken into consideration from the very beginning when organising the administration of the territory on a basis of war economy. In view of the vast spaces and the difficulties of administration which arise from that alone, and also in view of the living conditions created by Bolshevism, which are totally different from those of Western Europe, the whole question of the USSR would require different treatment from that which has been applied in the individual countries of Western Europe.

2.4.41

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1019-PS

Appendix to Memorandum No. 2

Recommendations as to the personnel for the Reich Commissariats in the East and for the Political Central Office in Berlin

[Found in Rosenberg's files.]

Surveying the requirements in regard to personnel as a whole, the following considerations must be taken into account. On psychological and historical grounds it would not appear politic to put the immediate political direction of the Baltic Provinces into the hands of the Balts. Although it must be admitted that they know the conditions best and also know the languages, so many historical memories and complexes are involved, that it would appear inexpedient if we are to attain our final political goal to allow people who formerly had dealings with the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians once more to appear politically in positions of authority. On the other hand, it is necessary to send people to these parts who are intimately acquainted with the problems of the East and North and are also able, from the point of view of temperament to bring a particular understanding to bear on the situation there. When, in addition, there are still interests in connection with Scandinavia and Finland, indeed altogether a Hanseatic trend, then in the opinion of the undersigned, such persons would be most suited for the political direction of the Eastern Provinces. On these grounds the undersigned suggests the following to the Fuehrer: As Reich Commissar for the Baltic Provinces and White Russia: Gauleiter Hinrich Lohse, Kiel. Headquarters: Riga.

Further positions to be filled: a Reich Commissariat for the Ukraine, a Reich Commissariat for the Caucasus and a Reich Commissariat for the Don and Volga Areas. Here also it would appear necessary to entrust this task to people who already have a previous knowledge of the Russian, Ukrainian and Caucasus problems, who have been in contact with the country and people, and if it is at all possible, who speak Russian, the language with which one can make oneself generally understood there. The undersigned suggests to the Fuehrer as Reich Commissar for the Ukraine and Caucasus, as they may be suitable: Secretary of State Backe and Stabsleiter Arno Schickedanz. Party member Backe himself comes from the Caucasus and will quickly be able to acquaint himself with the conditions, speaks fluent Russian and has never quite broken off his connections with the Caucasus. Pg. Schickedanz has been working in the Russian sphere for 20 years, formerly with Dr. Scheubner-Richter and then with the undersigned. He helped the latter with politically cautious advice, particularly in connection with Norway. He knows many of the people concerned with Russia, the Ukraine and the Caucasus so that he appears suitable for one of these posts, in order to survey the political situation correctly and serve the political aims for which we are to strive. If the undersigned could make a choice for this recommendation, he would name Backe for the Caucasus and Schickedanz for the Ukraine. As second in command to the Reich Commissar in the Caucasus, the Commissioner for the 4 year plan would have to name someone to lead an authoritative Oil Commission. For the Ukraine an agricultural department of particularly capable men would have to be established. Headquarters of the Reich Commissariats would be Kijew and Tiflis.

Prime Minister D. Klagges is recommended as Reich Commissar for the Don-Volga Area. As a result of his initiative in connection with the establishment of the Hermann-Goering Works in Salzgitter he knows the problems of mining and as Prime Minister of Brunswick he has collected all the administrative experience. At the moment the undersigned can call to mind no one else who speaks Russian. Headquarters of the Reich Commissar: Rostov on Don.

In addition, it will eventually become necessary to occupy with troops not only Petersburg, but also Moscow. This occupation will definitely differ considerably from that in the Baltic provinces, in the Ukraine and in the Caucasus. It will be accomplished by suppressing any Russian and Bolshevik resistance and will necessitate an absolutely ruthless person, both as regards the military representation and also the eventual political direction. The problems arising from this need not be detailed here. If it is not intended to maintain a permanent military administration, the undersigned would recommend the Gauleiter of East Prussia, Erich Koch as Reich Commissar in Moscow.

A consideration of the problems as a whole shows that in order to overcome them a Central Office to direct the work of the various Reich Commissariats is urgently necessary. First of all in order to relieve the Fuehrer, so that he does not have to deal continuously with four or five Administrative Offices in the East, and secondly since it is necessary, from an authoritative and political point of view, for all these areas to be surveyed and supervised by one office, and for the tasks allotted to be carried out in the manner desired by the Fuehrer by means of directives to the personalities in charge. The Fuehrer instructed the undersigned, on 2nd April 1941, to establish a central political office to deal with work in the East in anticipation of the eventuality mentioned in the introduction to this memorandum. Bearing in mind the political aims described above, the most important task of such a central political office, immediately subordinate to the Fuehrer, would be the adaptation or actual preparation of suitable leaflets, as the first proclamation of the Military Commander. It would then have to take care that all proclamations and decrees issued later by the political directors of the Occupied Territories conform to the varied aims, that measures resulting from this central attitude, both cultural and economic, are in agreement with these, that mistakes which do not correspond to the political intention are, if possible, avoided or, if they have already occurred, remedied in a sensible manner. Furthermore the office would have the task of writing and editing the necessary enlightening articles on the history and relations with Germany of the various territories, or of finding collaborators who can write them. It would also be a good thing to have translations made of those articles and speeches which can be shown to have expressed a German-Ukrainian solution in the course of the national-socialist struggle. Scientific literature on this subject has been in preparation by colleagues of the undersigned for a considerable time. A basic work has been published ("Um die Neugestalt Europas"—"The Changed Face of Europe," Central Party Publishers), a new book is in preparation and extensive research on the whole continental European question is well under way. In addition speeches must be composed in German, Ukrainian, Georgian etc., to be made into gramophone records. A large number of loudspeaker cars must be available in view of the widespread illiteracy still existing. In addition this Central Office would already have to have such authority, that the most efficient of the top-ranking Reich Authorities concerned, of the O.K.W. as well as the authorities controlling the 4 year Plan would be at the disposal of its chief, so that all future measures necessary for the realization of our political goals, political, economic, cultural, scientific and propaganda, may be instituted even now in such a way as to further these central ideas. Only by such a central direction of basic, decisive orders will it be possible to avoid confusion later on and will the enormous difficulties and misunderstandings unavoidably connected with the occupation of almost devastated areas be reduced to the minimum. The undersigned therefore makes the suggestion to the Fuehrer that when the eventuality arises this Central Office, which is fully empowered and is to be set up, should be changed into a component authority immediately subordinate to the Fuehrer, i.e.—in order to avoid a repetition of existing official designations—into a General Protectorate for the occupied Eastern territories with its seat in Berlin. The Head of this Protectorate could then obtain the official designation of "The Protector-General of the German Reich for the Occupied Eastern Territories." (The name Commissar-General is already in use, e.g. as the subordinate of the Reich Commissar in Holland.) The Fuehrer would then nominate and recall the Reich Commissar for the Baltic Provinces, the Ukraine, Caucasia and the Don-Volga area (eventually Moscow and Turkestan) on the recommendation of the Protector-General. The official communications of all top-ranking Reich Authorities to the Reich Commissariats in the occupied territories would go through the Protectorate-General, whereby all technical, economic, etc., directions would be issued entirely authoritatively by the top-ranking Reich officials in question. It is therefore not necessary to found a new large Reich Office, but rather a political centre for the East provided with all necessary powers, in combination with an Inspectorate and State Secretariat to control all questions concerning the connection between the Protector-General and the Reich Commissariats and top-ranking Reich Authorities. Should the Fuehrer agree to the proposal to alter the political central office, which is to be established shortly and with whose direction the undersigned is charged, when the eventuality arises into a General protectorate under the same direction, then the undersigned recommends Gauleiter Dr. Meyer of Munster as Secretary of State. Dr. Meyer is an old national-socialist fighter who sees the political problems clearly and from a national-socialist point of view. He has occupied himself so exhaustively in the last few years with State Law and administrative measures, that he can also carry out this work in addition to his burdensome work as Gauleiter. It is clear that from Dr. Meyer extraordinary service would be asked, but on the other hand he would certainly consider such an appointment a particular honour.

The Fuehrer has already granted to the undersigned the budget for a central office. If the Fuehrer approves the above trains of thought and proposals, as they are or in modified form, they could be set in motion immediately.

Berlin, the 7th April, 1941

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1024-PS

29 April 1941

General organization and tasks of our office for the general handling of problems in the Eastern territories

The Chief of this office under whom a personal expert plus the necessary office staff is to be placed, is to be assisted in all general problems of the office by his permanently assigned representative (Gauleiter Dr. Meyer). The permanent representative heads a main office which organizes the whole interior service as well as a number of departments which have to work on special problems.

1. Political department.

This department is charged with the task of further working out the staked-out political goals in the several projected five areas, and to sum up the historical reasons for the new partitioning of the whole east European area. It must result from this work, that the proposed district shall not be of a haphazard nature, but are due rather to the historical and national developments, and thus represent a political necessity for the future. The substantial treatment of those problems is closely connected with the history and nature of the several nationalities in the East, which also will have to be treated. To this is to be added the appraisal of the individualisms of these nationalities which live within or out of Europe for the purpose of a later outside commitment in the projected administrative districts.

A general treatment is required for the Jewish problem for which a temporary solution will have to be determined (forced labor for the Jews, creation of Ghettos, etc.) The church problems of the whole East are of a varying nature (character) and require an intensive treatment in relation to the past, to the now existing laws and to the interested future relationship.

While the work itself is being done, there will arise a great number of special problems out of the whole of the general problems. With the present state of the work, one should not anticipate the special problems.

Rank of the Chief and his representative: Ministerialdirector and Ministerialdirigent. Proposed as the Chief of this office: Reichsamtleiter Dr. Georg Leibbrandt. His representative: Consul general Dr. Brautigam.

2. Economic-Political Coordination.

Until further final decisions have been reached about the substantial treatment of economy, technics, traffic, postal service, highway dept., labor service, this dept. has no immediate pertinent tasks to solve, such as the political dept. The main task of the dept. of economic-political coordination will consist rather of coordinating the different above mentioned territories in their demands and their utilization so that the known political goal can be attained as quickly as possible in the five large districts by the use of the psychological possibilities.

The top priority of the demands of the occupational force is the assured supplying of the Germans with raw materials and food. In the long run in certain districts this goal may be attained with less force, through an understanding, special treatment of the individual nationalities rather than by this national and political situation, the solution of this problem is forced by means of the military or police strength.

The Chief of this dept. of economic-political coordination will have the task to coordinate the orders of the plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan with the wishes of the economical and financial resources by cooperation with the representatives of the highway dept. and labor dept. in order to assure the utmost safety and by using the existing files of the people who know Russia to secure the biggest possible assistance in all these economic-political necessities. Connected with this is the contingency of all the desired amounts of raw materials and food, namely in this respect that those districts, in which a political autonomy and a lasting cooperation is projected are to be considered more than other ones for which such a possibility does not seem indicated for the future. One must proceed in the same way to solve the currency question. After a certain period of transition, it must be decided where national currency issuing banks will have to be created in connection with the overall, political solution, and where this is not deemed necessary. The same holds true for postage stamps and other questions, which will arise in concrete forms, in connection with the course of this work.

According to the decisions of the Reichsmarshall, the economy is to be coordinated under the authority of one person. Consequently, the representatives of the brands for food, the currency and financial questions, the industrial economy and the question of utilization of labor are subordinated to the plenipotentiary for the whole economy. Therefore, the Deputy of the Four-year plan represents all of the economic branch in discussion about economic-political coordination, while the representatives of the other mentioned depts. will enter the conferences under his direction. In other words the head of the department of economic-political coordination has to bring about a combination [Gesamtheit] with the political goal of

1. Safeguarding of the German War Effort and supplies.

2. Attaining of political goals in the East.

The conferences will take place, if necessary, under the leadership of the permanent representative of the Chief, or in the form of a round table discussion of the participants under the presidency of the head of the economic-political coordination dept.

Position (Rank): Ministerialdirector. Representative: Ministerialdirigent.

Proposed as the head of the Dept. for economical-political coordination: Reichsamtleiter Walter Malletke. Representative Reichshamptstellenleiter Hermann Freiherr von Harder. In addition, a small number of permanent assistants and the necessary office are envisaged.

The supreme headquarters of the Armed Forces has appointed as representative to the director of this office the Chief of the Armed Forces operational staff [Wehrmachts fuehrungstab] General of the Artillery Jodl, and as his representative Brigadier General Warlimont. General Jodl or Brig. Gen. Warlimont are to be included in conferences of the political dept. and the dept. of economic-political coordination, held under the chairmanship of the director or his representative, during which military matters are being discussed.

3. Legal Dept.

It is the task of the Legal Dept. to prepare those drafts for laws which are deemed necessary for the governing of the Eastern territories, with due consideration to general directives of the director or his representative. If called for, a representative of the Legal Dept. is to sit in on the conferences of the Political Dept. and the dept. of economic-political-coordination in order to keep abreast with the problem arising from this subject matter and accordingly to make the draft for the necessary decrees or, otherwise, to formulate the presented drafts of the various depts. in accordance with the general goals and future constitutional demands. The ordinances for the execution of the decrees of the director of the office are to be agreed upon in advance with the head of the Legal Dept; these (decrees) are to be brought before the representative of the director in case no argument can be reached. Rank of the head of the dept: Ministerialdirector. Representative: Ministerialdirigent. Proposed for the job; proposal is asked of the Reichsminister and Chief of the Chancellory. Experts of the constitutional conditions in the East should be consulted as advisors, first of all Staatsrat Freiherr von Freitagh Lorringhoven (other proposal: Regierungspresident Dr. Runte from Brusberg.)

4. Dept. for Culture and Science.

The work of this dept. does not seem as pressing as the political, economic-political and legal-political problems. However, now is the time to project the installation of these cultural and educational institutions for those territories that are in need of special care on the part of Germany. The task would be to further those national sciences and history of literature and universities which conform with the political goal. Rank of the director: Ministerialdirector. Representative: Ministerialdirigent. The director has not been proposed as yet.

5. Enlightenment and Press.

It is the task of this dept. in an active manner, to publicize the substantially worked out decision of the several depts. for all of those circles for which these decisions are meant. Furthermore, to maintain the entire connections with the Reichs ministry for the Enlightenment of the People and Propaganda and to employ the facilities of this ministry in the fields of radio, public address systems, films, etc., in order to obtain the political goals in the Eastern European area. Furthermore, the enlightenment of the whole German people and the army is to be promoted in such a way as is deemed necessary by the hand of this office. During press conferences, the representative of the dept. for enlightenment and press has to acquaint Germany's newspapers and magazines with the necessary instructions, and to make statements for the foreign press, if deemed necessary. This task to be carried out in agreement with the Chief of the German press. It is furthermore the task of the head of this dept. to establish the fastest possible connection for communication between the main office and the future administrative offices of the Eastern European area. The additional influence upon the foreign nationalities should be the presentation of the aims of National Socialist Germany, given in the individual languages of the various people.

Rank of the head of the dept.: Ministerial-director. Representative: Ministerialdirigent. A number of necessary officials and expert and usual staff. Proposed; General commissioner Fritz Schmidt den Haag. Experts Dr. Karl Neuscheler, at the present in Meuskan, and Dr. Gamber, at present in Belgrad (DNB). At present further necessities cannot be foreseen and if necessary an enlargement upon the work will be contemplated with new demands.

The representative of the Fuehrer is to be contacted (asked) whether or not he desires to be represented at the director of the dept., or his representative. Furthermore, it is deemed necessary that the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German police appoints a permanent representative to this office with whom administrative decrees concerning safeguarding by police forces are to be discussed. The representative of the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police can be consulted in all conferences pertaining to the security of the Eastern territories.

The Reichs commissioner for the solidification of the Germanic National Characteristic will also appoint his representative, who, at the proper time, will take over the task on orders of the head of the administrative district, the tasks in those administrative districts where this employment is deemed necessary.

Communications to the Administrative districts in the East

Each administrative district in the Eastern European area will establish a representative in Berlin, which is to be immediately subordinated to the permanent representative of the director of the office. These representatives have the task to regulate all questions of entering and knowing their respective areas and to receive and work out all wishes of the various Reichs Offices of party and state, which pertain to the represented administrative areas.

The directives to the heads of the administrative districts will originate only from the head of the office. This representative will tend all the other pending negotiations.

The administrative districts in the East European areas will be organized according to the needs of the main office, so that in general, one section of the office in Berlin corresponds to an office in the administrative districts. This is a process through which will require a much higher specialization.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1028-PS

[Memorandum from Rosenberg file, 7 May 1941]

[Translation of Only Typewritten Material]

After the customary removal of Jews from all public offices, the Jewish question will have to have a decisive solution, through the institution of Ghettos. Insofar as the Jews have not been driven out by the Ukrainians themselves, the small communities must be lodged in large camps, in order to be kept busy by means of forced labor, in the same way as it has already been the practice in Letzmanorstadt (Lodz).

[Translation of paragraph, excluding all crossed out words.]

After the customary removal of Jews from all public offices, the Jewish question will have to undergo a decisive solution through the institution of ghettos or labor battalions. Forced labor is to be introduced.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1029-PS

Instruction for a Reich Commissar in the Baltic Countries and White Russia [Ostland]

[Found in Rosenberg's files.]

All the regions between Narwa and Tilsit have constantly been in close relationship with the German people. A 700-year-old history has moulded the inner sympathies of the majority of the races living there in a European direction, and has added this region to the living space of Greater Germany.

The aim of a Reich Commissar for Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania and White Russia [last two words added in pencil] must be to strive to achieve the form of a German Protectorate, and then transform the region into part of the Greater German Reich by germanising racially possible elements, colonising Germanic races and banishing undesirable elements. The Baltic Sea must become a Germanic inland sea under the guardianship of Greater Germany.

For certain cattle-raising products, the Baltic region was a land of surplus, and the Reich Commissar must endeavor to make this surplus once more available to the German people, and, if possible, to increase it. With regard to the process of germanising or resettling, the Esthonian people are strongly germanised to the extent of 50% by Danish, German and Swedish blood and can be considered as a kindred nation. In Latvia, the section capable of being assimilated is considerably smaller than in Esthonia. In this country, stronger resistance will have to be reckoned with, and banishment on a larger scale will have to be envisaged. A similar development may have to be reckoned with in Lithuania, for here too the emigration of racial Germans is called for in order to promote very intensive Germanisation (on the East Prussian border).

White Russia is directly joined to these three territories. For a long time, White Russia had a strong Separatist movement, but presumably Bolshevist has succeeded in suppressing it. In any case, White Russia will first of all have the difficult task of admitting some of those elements who are expelled from Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania and from the Polish section of the Warthe territory. It seems expedient not to accommodate the Poles in the General gouvernement but in the East of White Russia (Smolensk District) and to form there a buffer against Russianism. In addition, the Commissar-General in White Russia would have the task of rousing this country, which cannot be considered as a land of surplus, to productive activity by employment of labour on a vast scale. [Marginal note in pencil: Every autonomous White Russian awareness against Russia is to be encouraged.]

The task of a Reich Commissar with his seat of office in Riga will therefore largely be an extraordinarily positive one. A country which 700 years ago was captured by German Knights, built up by the Hanseatic League, and by reason of a constant influx of German blood, together with Swedish elements, was a predominantly Germanised land, is to be established as a mighty German borderland. The preliminary cultural conditions are available everywhere, and the German Reich will be able to guarantee the right to a later emigration to all those who have distinguished themselves in this war, to the descendants of those who gave their lives during the war, and also to all who fought in the Baltic campaign, never once lost courage, fought on in the hour of despair and delivered Baltic civilisation from Bolshevism.

For the rest, the solution of the colonisation problem is not a Baltic question, but one which concerns Greater Germany, and it must be settled on these lines.

The Reich Commissar, together with the other Reich Commissars, must strive to introduce the improvement of water-way communication between the Black Sea and the Baltic, i.e., start the construction of the Duena-Dnieper Canal. In this way the circulation of a great European economic system can be completed, which will guarantee the future exchange of goods, and render it independent of any overseas blockade. Thus the Reich Commissar in the Baltic lands will have great problems to solve in the realm of economics, and particularly in the domain of racial politics.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1030-PS

8th May 41

General Instructions for all Reichcommisars in the occupied Eastern Territories

[Found in Rosenberg's files.]

The contingency, that the German Reich may find herself confronted by Soviet Russian policy of aggression and of anti-German alliances, makes it obligatory to have a clear conception about the political aims of a German counterblow.

The only possible political goal of war can be the aim to free the German Reich from Pan-Slavic [Grossrussisch] pressure for centuries to come. This does not only correspond with German interests, but also with historical justice, for Russian Imperialism was in a position to accomplish its policy of conquest and oppression almost unopposed, whilst it threatened Germany again and again. Therefore, the German Reich has to beware of starting a campaign against Russia with a historical injustice, meaning the reconstruction of a Great Russian Empire, no matter of what kind. On the contrary, all historical struggles of the various nationalities against Moscow and Petersburg have to be scrutinized for their bearing on the situation today. This has been done on the part of the National Socialist movement to correspond to the Leader's political testament as laid down in his book, that now the military and political threat, from the East shall be eliminated forever.

Therefore this huge area must be divided according to its historical and racial conditions into Reichs-Commissariats, each of which bears within itself a different political aim. The Reich Commissariat Eastland including White-Ruthenia will have the task, to prepare, by way of development into a Germanized Protectorate, a progressively closer cohesion with Germany. The Ukraine shall become an independent state in alliance with Germany and Caucasia with the contiguous Northern Territories a Federal State with a German plenipotentiary. Russia proper must put her own house in order for the future. These general viewpoints are explained in the following instructions for each Reich Commissar. Beyond that there are still a few general considerations which possess validity for all Reich Commissars.

As far as currency policy is concerned, a transitional state similar to that in other occupied territories shall be provided for, but with an early beginning of a new orientation, which has to correspond to the political goal to be achieved. In the Reich Commissariat Eastland, we will have to introduce as currency German marks, in the Reich Commissariat Ukraine a national "Karbowanez" currency (Ukrainian National bank), in the Reich Commissariat Caucasia a national currency too for the future Federal State.

The German people have achieved, in course of centuries, tremendous accomplishments in the Eastern European area. Nearly its entire real estate property was confiscated without indemnification, hundreds of thousands (in the South, on the Volga) starved or were deported or, like in the Baltic territories, were cheated out of the fruits of their cultural work during the past 700 years. The German Reich will now have to proclaim the principle, that after the occupation of the Eastern Territories, the former German assets have become property of the people of Greater Germany, irrespective of the consent of the former individual proprietors where the German Reich may reserve the right (assuming that it has not already been done during resettlement) to arrange a just settlement. The manner of compensation and restitution of this national property, will be subject to different treatment by each Reich Commissariat.

The moment for declarations of this kind will be determined by the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories. [This sentence was added in pencil]

From the point of view of cultural policy, the German Reich is in a position to promote and direct national culture and science in many fields. It will be necessary, that in some territories an uprooting and resettlement of various racial stocks will have to be effected.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1034-PS

SECRET

Rosenberg Chancellery
Received 22nd June 1941 No. 059

Construction and Administration

Minutes of a discussion with Reichsleiter Rosenberg on Saturday 21st June 1941 from 1100-1200 hours.

Present: Reichsleiter Rosenberg
Gauleiter Dr. Meyer (at the beginning of the discussion)
Landeshauptmann Kolbow
Oberregierungsrat Dr. Albrecht
Brigadefuehrer Girgenson
Burgkommandant Gohdes
Reichsamtsleiter Dr. Leibbrandt
Landespraesident Dreier

Reichsleiter Rosenberg asked how many men in all had so far been made available for employment in the East—Brigadefuehrer Girgenson and Party Member Gohdes stated that the German Labour Front was willing to provide 261 Regional Commissioners and the Storm Troops 144. Oberregierungsrat Dr. Albrecht informed him that the Reich Minister of the Interior would provide about 450 officials as Regional Commissioners—that would still leave 200 positions as Regional Commissioners to be filled, and these should, as far as possible, be occupied by personnel from the Schubert staff.

Reichsleiter Rosenberg expressed his willingness to take over politically suitable individuals from the ranks of these specialists. Therefore immediate contact should be made with General Schubert and the Quartermaster General. An order to this effect was given to Oberregierungsrat Dr. Albrecht—Burgkommandant Gohdes wished to ensure that considerable reserves of men in a state of operational readiness should be held at our disposal in the Reich, to provide for unavoidable changes in the theatre of operations.

Gauleiter Dr. Meyer thereupon declared that most of the personnel just mentioned would only be made available gradually, since most of them would first have to be released from the Armed Forces. It was important that lists of the individuals actually available should be made immediately, and that these persons should be placed together in Special Purpose Staffs. Then the question was cleared up as to who was to be responsible to the Reichsleiter for the concentration of the Staffs. Decision: Burgkommandant Gohdes, S.A.—Brigadefuehrer Girgenson and Oberregierungsrat Dr. Albrecht, each of whom made personal suggestions for his own section, would have to deliberate together on the persons who were to form the different Staffs and submit the result of their deliberations to Landespraesident Dreier, who was responsible for this. The political section (Dr. Leibbrandt) would advise Landespraesident Dreier on the subject. It was clear, that Landespraesident Dreier was the Head of the Department in whose hands lay the sole and final responsibility for the composition of the Staffs.

Burgkommandant Gohdes undertook to arm the men to be appointed, and to give them the firing instruction which might be necessary.

With regard to the question of putting the commissioners to be employed into uniform, Dr. Rosenberg stated that the organizations did not wish to give up their own (field-grey) uniforms and badges. The general opinion was that it was impossible for German government officials to enter the Eastern territories in different uniforms; also, the field-grey colour, in which the Armed Forces in the East would have provoked awe and respect for the German people, was held to be indispensable for the successful carrying-out of their government functions. Party Member Gohdes said that Reichsorganisationsleiter Dr. Ley recommended the creation of a new unitary uniform for the Commissioners serving in the East. The Armed Forces were willing to set aside dark-brown cloth for 5,000 uniforms. Reichsleiter Rosenberg took it upon himself personally to submit the question of supplying uniform to the decision of the Fuehrer.

Arising from the question of supplying uniform, it was then discussed whether a special "Ostfuehrers Corps" as an organization of the National-Socialist Party should be created. An organization of this kind would then not only have the right to wear a unitary uniform, but it would imbue its members with the esprit de corps which was necessary for the fulfillment of the tasks which were to be carried out in the East. If the German was to enter the Eastern territory as master, he must be moulded as a unit both inwardly and outwardly. This inner regimental training could exert a certain positive counter-effect above all against the moral danger of "Space-Experience" and the depressing effect of foreign nationality. When this subject had been further discussed, it seemed more urgent than ever to achieve the purpose of creating an Ostfuehrer-Corps of this kind which would be a unit in itself.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1039-PS

Report on the Preparatory Work in Eastern European Questions

[Found in Rosenberg's files.]

Immediately after the notification of individual Supreme Reich offices regarding the Fuehrer's decree of 20.4. 1941 a conference with the chief of the OKW (armed forces high command) took place. After presentation of the various political aims in the proposed Reichskommissariats and presentation of personal requirements for the East, the chief of the OKW explained that a deferment [UK-stellung] would be too complicated in this case and that this matter could be carried out best by direct cancellation [Abkommandierung] by command of the chief of the OKW Generalfeldmarschall Keitel. Then issued an appropriate command which established the basis for the coming requirements. He named as deputy and liaison officer General Jodl and Maj. Gen. Warlimont. The negotiations which then commenced relative to all questions of the Eastern Territory were carried on by the gentlemen of the OKW in collaboration with officials of my office. A conference took place with Admiral Canaris to the effect that under the given confidential circumstances my office could in no way deal with any representatives of the people of the East-European area. I asked him to do this insofar as the military intelligence required it, and then to name persons to me who could count as political personalities over and above the military intelligence in order to arrange for their eventual commitment later. Admiral Canaris said that naturally also my wish not to recognize any political groups among the emigrants would be considered by him and that he was planning to proceed in accordance with my indications.

Later on I informed Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch and Grossadmiral Raeder about the historical and political conceptions of the Eastern problem. In further conferences we agreed to appoint a representative of my office to the Supreme commander of the Army, respectively to the chief quartermaster and to the army groups for questions relative to political configuration and requests of the OKW. In the meantime this has been done.

Already at the outset there was a discussion with Minister of Economy [Reichswirtschaftsminister] Funk, who appointed as his permanent deputy Ministerialdirektor Dr. Schlotterer. Almost daily conferences were then held with Dr. Schlotterer with reference to the war economic intentions of the Economic Operational Staff [Wirtschaftsfuehrungsstab] East. In this connection I had conferences with General Thomas, State Secretary [Staatssekretaer] Koerner, State Secretary Backe, Ministerial Director Riecke, General Schubert and others. Far-reaching agreement was reached in the Eastern questions as regards direct technical work now and in the future. A few problems regarding the relationship of the proposed Reich ministry toward the four-year plan are still open and will be subject, after submission, to a decision of the Fuehrer. In principle I declared that I in no way intended to found an economic department in my office, economics would rather be handled substantially and practically by the Reichsmarschall and the persons appointed by him, however the two responsible department heads, namely Ministerial Director Dr. Schlotterer for industrial economics and Ministerial Director Riecke for food economics, would be placed in my office as permanent liaison men, to coordinate here political aims with the economic necessities, in a department which would have to unite yet other persons for such coordinating work, depending on later and for work (political leadership of labor unions, construction etc.) After notification of the Reich foreign minister, the latter appointed Geheimrat Grosskopf as permanent liaison man to my office. For the requested representation in the political department of my office (headed by Reichsamtsleiter Dr. Leibbrandt) the foreign ministry released General Counsel Dr. Braeutigam, who is known to me for many years, speaks Russian, and worked for years in Russia. Negotiations which if necessary will be placed before the Fuehrer are under way with the foreign office regarding its wishes for the assignment of its representatives to the future Reich commissioners.

The propaganda ministry appointed State Secretary Gutterer as permanent liaison man, and a complete agreement was reached to the effect that the decisions on all political and other essays, speeches, proclamations, etc. would be made in my office; a great number of substantial works for propaganda would be delivered and the papers prepared by the propaganda ministry would be modified here if necessary. The whole practical employment of propaganda will undisputedly be subject to the Reich ministry of public enlightenment and propaganda. For the sake of closer cooperation the propaganda ministry assigns yet another person directly to my department "Enlightenment and Press" [Aufklaerung und Presse] and in addition appoints a permanent press liaison man. All these activities have been going on for some time, and without attracting attention to my office in any way, this agreement on contents and terminology takes place continually every day.

Thorough discussions took place with Reichsminister Ohnesorge concerning future transmission of communication and setting up of all technical necessities in future occupied territories; with Reichsminister Seldte on the supply of labor forces, with Reichsminister Frick (State Secretary Stuckart) in detailed form on the assignment of numerous necessary officials for the commissariats. According to the present estimate there will be four Reichs Kommisariats, as approved by the Fuehrer. I shall propose to the Fuehrer for political and other reasons to set up a suitable number of General Commissariats (24), Main Commissariats (about 80) and Regional [Gebiet] Commissariats (over 900). A General Commissariat would correspond to a former Generalgouvernment, a Main Commissariat to a Main-Government. A Regional Commissariat contains 3 or 4 Districts [Kreise]. In view of the huge spaces that is the minimum number which appears necessary for a future civil government and/or administration. A portion of the officials has already been requested on the basis of the above named command of the Chief of the OKW.

In the same manner conferences have taken place with the Reich Physicians Leader [Reichsaerztefuehrer] Dr. Conti, the Inspector of the Army Veterinary Service, and all specialists belonging thereto. The difficulties of medical and veterinary supply were thoroughly discussed and the measures were previewed, in order to insure well-prepared employment of the forces mentioned after the end of the operations. A conference with Reichsminister Dr. Todt resulted in the assignment first of all of 4 higher leaders of the Construction Service, whereupon Dr. Todt proposed to unite administratively under one leadership the whole Construction Service.

Discussions took place with Reich Leader Amann and his chief of staff Rienhardt regarding the publication of four German newspapers in the Reich Commissariats to start with. Furthermore a number of newspapers in the prospective native tongues were considered. According to the latest information the technical forces, for this work are already at the border and may be committed at any time to determine whether the prerequisites for printing shops are present.

Discussions are also under way with Corpsleader Huehnlein and with the Reich youth leadership to assure a necessary and suitable mobilization. Intensive talks also took place with the Chief of Staff [Stabschef] of the SA. He was asked to make available a number of the most reliable SA leaders for this gigantic territory, which he agreed to do. The personnel suggestions together with other suggestions will be submitted to the Fuehrer. The same agreement has been reached with the Reich organizational leader [Reichsorganisationsleiter], who has instructed the commander of Kroessinsee, Gohdes, to carry out the swelling channelling of requested persons, to admit them into Kroessinsee for schooling and instruction on the whole problem and prepare them in the best manner for commitment. On the orders of Dr. Ley party member Marrenbach was then employed in order to take over already now the leadership of Russian labor unions in conjunction with the Wehrmacht. That appeared as an eminently important problem, particularly also in connection with the economic leadership, because the labor unions undoubtedly have been a powerful support of the Soviets and especially have the commitment of the German Labor Front appeared necessary under certain conditions.

Lengthy discussions regarding the relationship of the Police to the new order in the East have taken place. Certain proposed changes thereto have been suggested by the Reichsfuehrer SS and on his order by Gruppenfuehrer (SS Lt Gen) Heydrich which do not appear supportable to me for the complete authority of the German Reich government in the East. Also the documents of this problem will have to be laid before the Fuehrer for decision.

Aside from these negotiations I received the responsible deputies of the entire propaganda, namely Ministerial Director Fritsche, Ambassador Schmidt, Reich Superintendent of Broadcasting Glasmeier, Dr. Grothe OKW, and others. Without going into details of political objectives I instructed the above-named persons in confidence about the necessary attitude, with the request to tone down the whole terminology of the press, without issuing any statements.

The works for substantial coverage of the Eastern question prepared long ago appeared in my office, which I turned over to the propaganda deputies. I enclose a few samples thereof. These pamphlets, which may later be turned over to the press for development, deal with the whole structure and organization of the USSR, the economic possibilities of the East, agriculture, the peoples of the Soviet Union, the work of the Komintern since 1889, the Jews in the Soviet Union since 1933, statistical results of the poll taken among the Germans in Russia, the history of the Ukraine, of the Caucasus, of Turkestan. Extensive works are in preparation for the foundation of legal administration: German law in the Ukraine, German art in the Ukraine, influence of the German language on the Ukrainian language, the Ukrainians from the viewpoint of the Germans. In addition a number of articles are being prepared in Russian language which have the purpose of enlightening the people of the Soviet Union about true conditions in Germany. These articles are also suitable as the basis for newspaper articles in the newly occupied territories. Finally, after extensive work, an ethnological map of the East based on the most recent statistical reports has been printed in great number and made available to all offices. This map can be used as the basis of eventual fixing of boundaries in the north as well as in the south, and offers points of departure for fixing the boundaries of the future Reich Commissariats.

As a result of these conferences, conducted for the most part by myself, continuous consultation and organizational preparation is under way through my office and through those of the liaison men delegated from the other offices of the Party and the State.

I may say that all the work, inasmuch as it is at all possible under present condition, is in full swing. Aside from the General and Chief commissariats more than 900 Regional Commissariats are planned, which must all be manned by political leaders, representatives of the department and officials of the Reich Ministry of the Interior. The work in the East differs basically from the conditions in the West. Whereas we can count on every technical installation and a cultured population here in the big cities, that is not the case in the East. There literally everything will have to be prepared and taken along, additionally for the gigantic spaces—not only an auto park but a great number of typewriters, office material, above all medical supplies and much more down to the bed sheets. It does not appear possible to accomplish such a project suddenly in 14 days, therefore all these arrangements had to be set in full motion already now on my responsibility on the basis of the Fuehrer's decree.

The structure of my office itself is temporarily organized as follows in carrying out the Fuehrer's order. I have requested Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter Dr. Meyer as my permanent representative. He has negotiated personally and thoroughly, through the whole time with all pertinent offices, in order to develop all aspects down to the details. A political department has been founded for the execution of the substantial work, under my co-worker of many years Dr. Leibbrandt (deputy General Consul Dr. Braeutigam), who prepares the various books and pamphlets for information. A great number of propaganda leaflets have been composed by him which will then have been scattered over the Russian front in huge numbers by the armed forces. Also for a specific time other leaflets are ready which are addressed directly to the individual races. I do not care to decide on this date for myself, and will lay these originals before the Fuehrer at the first opportunity with the request to check the contents and determine the time of the eventually approved appeals. The political department is also undertaking a thorough investigation of all these, with the exception of Russians, who eventually can be used as advisers for the administration of the various nationalities. Continuous discussions about this subject are under way with representatives of the OKW, the propaganda ministry, etc. Secondly a department of economic-political cooperation has been founded under direction of Oberbereichsleiter Malletke. Department of "Law, Finance, and Administration" has been taken over by Regierungspraesident Runte. A department for Culture and Science is as yet unoccupied since the development of this question does not appear urgent. Also the department "Enlightenment and Press." It is occupied by Major of the Air Force Carl Cranz, deputy Job Zimmermann. Integrated here are co-workers who command the Russian, Ukrainian, and other languages. The wishes of the Reich Press Chief [Reichspressechef] for setting up one press chief for each Reichskommissar are under discussion in order to decide them in that sense if possible.

Thus I hope that when, after preliminary conclusion of the military action the Fuehrer has the possibility for a report from me, I shall be able to report to the Fuehrer for reaching preparations, up to those points of special and personal nature which the Fuehrer alone can decide.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1056-PS

First Section: The Organization of the Administration of Occupied Eastern Territories

[Found in Rosenberg's files.]

A. Construction.

I. Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories.

The newly occupied Eastern Territories are subordinated to the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. By directions of the Fuehrer he establishes a civil administration there upon withdrawal of the military administration. He heads and supervises the entire administration of this area and represents the sovereignty of the Reich in the occupied Eastern Territories.

The Reich Ministry for the occupied Eastern Territories is organized into the following main departments and departments under the permanent and general deputy of the Reich Minister:

Main Department I: Central Administration.

Main Department II: Policies:

Department II a : Policies,
Department II b : Enlightenment and Press,
Department II c : Labor and Tax Policies.

Main Department III: Administration:

Department III a : General Administration,
Department III b : Health System,
Department III c : Veterinary System,
Department III d : Law,
Department III e : Finance,
Department III f : Science and Culture.

Main Department IV: Economic-political and Technical Cooperation:

Department IV a : Industrial Economy,
Department IV b : Food and Farming,
Department IV c : Forest and Lumber Economy,
Department IV d : Price-fixing and Price-control,
Department IV e : Labor,
Department IV f : Technology,
Department IV g : Transportation.

To the Reich Ministry is assigned a deputy of the Reich Leader SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior.

II. General Territorial Organization.

The Occupied Eastern Territories are organized into Reich Commissariats.

The Reich Commissariat "Ostland" is subdivided into General Districts [Generalbezirke] which are in turn subdivided into Main Districts [Hauptbezirke] and Circuit Districts [Kreisgebiete].

The boundaries of the Reich Commissariats will be established according to political, ethnic, economic and commercial-political aspects. The boundaries of the areas of command of the Wehrmacht commanders correspond to those of the Reich Commissariats.

III. Subordinate Offices.

1. Reich Commissars.

In the Reich Commissariats, Reich Commissars are responsible for the entire civil administration under the supreme authority of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. According to the instructions of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories the Reich Commissar, as a functionary of the Reich heads and supervises, within his precincts, the entire civil administration. Within the scope of these instructions he acts on his own responsibility.

Subordinate offices of the Reich Commissar are:

General Commissariats,
Main Commissariats,
District Commissariats.

The boundaries of the General Districts are established by the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories upon proposal by the Reich Commissar. The boundaries of the Circuit Territories are determined by the Reich Commissar upon proposal by the pertinent General Commissar, in as far as the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories has not reserved this right for himself in individual cases. Furthermore the Reich Commissar determines—with approval of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories—the sphere of the Main Commissars.

An administrative staff is subordinated to the Reich Commissar in his Administrative grade. It is organized into:

I. Main Department: Central Administration.

II. Main Department: Policies:

Department II a : Policies,
Department II b : Labor and Tax Policies,
Department II c : Administration,
Department II d : Health system,
Department II e : Law,
Department II f : Finance,
Department II g : Science and Culture.

III. Main Department: Economy:

Department III a : Industrial Economy,
Department III b : Food and Farming,
Department III c : Forestry and Hunting,
Department III d : Price-fixing and Price-control.

IV. Main Department: Technology, Transportation, Labor:

Department IV a : Technology,
Department IV b : Transportation,
Department IV c : Commitment of Labor.

The heads of the Main Departments have the rank of General Commissars.

Furthermore a Higher SS- and Police Leader is subordinated directly and personally to the Reich Commissar. In addition one official of the Reich Railways and one of the Reich Post Office are assigned to the Reich Commissar who are at the same time liaison officials with the transport and communications offices of the Wehrmacht commander.

Main Department Heads, Department Heads, and Consultants are appointed and dismissed by the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories upon proposal by the Reich Commissar. The Reich Commissar appoints one of the Main Department Heads to be his chief of staff. He has the task of assuring the smooth coordination of the individual departments and is responsible for the internal affairs of the office. For this purpose he is entitled to have himself constantly informed about their sphere of activity by the Main Department Heads.

The Higher SS- and Police Leader is directly subordinated to the Reich Commissar. However the chief of staff has the general right to secure information from him also. His official title is:

"The Reich Commissar for the Eastern Territory
The Higher SS- and Police Leader."

Great stress is to be placed on close cooperation between him, the Chief of Staff, and the other Main Department Heads of the office of the Reich Commissar, particularly with the one for Policies.

Insofar as the Reich Commissar is prevented from performing his duties for a prolonged period of time, a deputy will be provided by the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories upon his proposal. This deputy signs with the notation: "for the Reich Commissar." The Main Department Heads and Department Heads sign, insofar as the Reich Commissar has not reserved the final signature for himself, or in case it is not a matter of so much importance that it must be signed by the Reich Commissar, with the notation: "By order" [Im Auftrag]. The Main Department Heads regulate the manner of signing for their department and consultant heads. These must likewise always sign with "by order."

2. General Commissars.

The General Commissar forms the administrative office of intermediate appeal. Within his jurisdiction he heads the administration according to the general directives of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories and the prescriptions of the Reich Commissar.

His office is organized like that of the Reich Commissar, except that in the place of Main Departments, there are Departments whose spheres of work in turn are organized into Consulting Offices which are collected into Groups according to necessity. The General Commissar appoints one of the Department heads as Chief of Staff who has the corresponding position and corresponding rights of the Reich Chiefs of Staff of the Reich Commissars.

For purposes of representation of the General Commissar in cases of prolonged incapacity, the same provisions apply as for representation of the Reich Commissar.

The SS- and Police Leader assigned to the General Commissar is directly subordinated to him; however the Chief of Staff has the general right of requiring information from him. The SS- and Police Leader employs the following official designation:

"The General Commissar . . . .
The SS- and Police Leader."

Department Heads, Group Heads and Consultants sign with the remark: "By order." The Department Heads regulate the manner of signing for their consultants.

3. Regional Commissars.

The Regional Commissar heads the entire administration of the lower administration office in the Circuit District in accordance with the instructions of the General Commissar and the superior offices. With him therefore lies the main weight of the total administrative set-up. The officials to whom the Regional Commissar has granted the right of signing sign with the notation "By order." The leader of the police unit assigned to him is directly subordinated to him.

4. Main Commissars.

Upon recommendation by the Reich Commissar the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories appoints Main Commissars for Main Districts formed by the consolidation of several Circuit Districts. They are to take care of coordination of administration of the Circuit Districts placed under him by order of the General Commissar. They can have themselves informed concerning all matters by the District Commissars subordinated to them in all decisive points of view of the administration and in urgent cases provide them with instructions. Cautious use is to be made of this right to instruct, as the Main Commissars are not to interpose themselves as a special authority between the District and General Commissars. In every case of instruction to a District Commissar the General Commissar is to be notified in conjunction with an account of the reasons. The Main Commissars are to keep themselves informed of all important matters within the sphere of their authority, by means of numerous conferences, and to inform the General Commissars of important observations. Conduct of business between the General Commissar and the District Commissar takes place directly. General Commissars inform the Main Commissars involved in writing about their orders issued to District Commissars. The same is to take place with bulletins of the District Commissars. The affairs of the Main Commissars are to be elaborated in bulletins.

The responsible office of the Main Commissar requires an understanding of the political and economic-political needs of the region to be supervised, by an exact knowledge of the existing circumstances. The Main Commissar, as representative of the General Commissar, is called upon in his sphere of office to keep Regional and City Commissars spatially in touch with the General Commissar through constant and close liaison with them, and to contribute to the speeding up of necessary decisions, namely such as go beyond the boundaries of the territory. The activity of a Main Commissar, rightly conceived and purposefully conducted, shall and must contribute, to give District and City Commissars increased certainty in their decision, to give the latter a materially and spatially strengthened effect, and to relieve the General Commissar of part of the burden of supervising his subordinated administration. The office of the Main Commissar is politically of special significance. It includes the task of leadership in the official realm subordinated to it.

IV. Relationship of Superiors in the Service.

The Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories is the service superior of the Reich Commissar and the officials and the employees subordinate to them. The Reich Commissar is the superior of all officials and employees of his office and of the offices subordinate to him. The General Commissar is the superior of the officials and employees of his office and of the officials and employees of the offices of the Main and Regional Commissars. The Main Commissar and the Regional Commissar are superior of the officials and employees of their offices.

B. Jurisdictions.

The Reich Commissars, General Commissars, Main Commissars and Regional Commissars (City Commissars) are—aside from the military agencies—the only Reich authorities in the Occupied Eastern Territories. Other Reich authorities may not be established alongside them. They handle all questions of administration of the area which is subordinate to their sovereignty and all affairs which concern the organization and activity of the administration including those of the police in the supervision of the native agencies and organizations, and of the population.

The Reich Minister governs the occupied Eastern Territories by order of the Fuehrer. He can make the law for all the territories.

The Reich Commissar directs and supervises the entire German civil administration as well as the existing and reestablished native administration in his Reich Commissariat. He can decree law (ordinances) for his territory, insofar as the law has not been or will not be decreed by the Reich Minister.

The General Commissar directs the administration of his district and supervises the Main and Regional Commissars as well as the native administration.

The Regional Commissar directs the administration of his territory as a subordinate administrative office and supervises the native offices in the lowest and county echelons.

The following are particularly important administrative tasks:

a. Police measures,

b. Making the economic forces of the territory available for the maintenance of the occupation troops and the purposes of the German war economy,

c. Caring for the population,

d. Securing of supplies and installations of all kinds which are important for life and for war,

e. Collaboration with the maintenance as well as reestablishment of inland water communications of rail and postal communications,

f. Supervision of the civil population, collaboration with the counter intelligence [Abwehr], interesting the population in rendering service,

g. Dissolution of enemy organizations which might still exist.

The Armed Forces Commanders exercise the rights of military sovereignty and the territorial power of command in their areas of jurisdiction. Their demands will be carried out in the civilian sphere by the Reich Commissars and their subordinate agencies. The military agencies are neither superior nor subordinate to the agencies of the civilian administration. The Armed Forces Commanders can provide even civilian agencies with directives in urgent cases, however, in accordance with the Fuehrer's decree of 5 June 1941. All agencies of the civilian administration are obligated to inform the military agencies of all affairs which might affect the sphere of their assignments.

Considerable value is to be laid upon a frictionless collaboration. The Commissars are to have themselves thoroughly informed by the Armed Forces Commanders, respectively by the agencies subordinated to them about their observations, experiences, and the measures already taken after taking over the administration. The laws decreed by them and the administrative orders given by them remain in effect insofar as the decrees and ordinances are not abrogated.

The Fuehrer has entrusted Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, as Commissioner for the Four-year Plan, with the supervision of the tasks of the war economy in the Occupied Eastern Territories. The economic inspectorates and economic commands are active there as his representatives (see green folio). These economic inspectorates and economic commands will be substantially absorbed in the agencies of the civil administration after the establishment of the civil administration.

If basic differences of opinion should arise between the agencies of the civil administration and the military agencies or, insofar as they still exist, the economic inspectorates and economic commands, and these cannot be settled in direct conversations, then it is to be reported to the superior civil authority immediately so that the latter can, in cooperation with the superior military agency, bring about an amicable unification.

C. Business Communications.

After taking over the businesses, the current state of affairs is to be reported briefly to the next superior agency, in particular the taking over of the administration from the hands of the agencies of the military administration as well about the state of the population and the capacity for work of any existing native authorities. It is further to be reported which office buildings have been occupied and which lines of communication are available. The Reich and General Commissars will determine the periods at which the subordinate agencies are to report regularly about the general situation without prejudice to the duty to provide individual reports and special delivery reports (at first, at short intervals which can be later lengthened). At first the Reich Commissars will give the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories a comprehensive report on the situation in brief form twice a month, on the first and fifteenth of each month. The Reich Minister is to be given a report by the Reich Commissar immediately about incidents of an especially important nature. The General Commissars and Regional Commissars must report directly to the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories by the quickest means particularly important incidents, as, for example, widespread unrest, more important acts of sabotage and strikes, great natural catastrophes and the like, and at the same time report them to the next superior agency.

The Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories will publish an official gazette under the title
"Official Gazette of the Reich Minister for the
Occupied Eastern Territories" (VBldRM Ost),
in which all the decrees of the Reich Minister will be published. At first the official gazette will only appear when necessary. In addition there will appear the "Reich Ministerial Gazette of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMBl. dRM Ost)," in which all executive decrees and other administrative directives of general validity will be published.

The Reich Commissars will publish the decree of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, as well as their own decrees and decrees of general interest, in two or more languages according to need in official gazette (Gazette of the Reich Commissar for......).

The General Commissars will publish official papers, likewise in two or more languages, in which they will publish their ordinances and orders of general interest as also the police orders of the Regional Commissars without prejudice to other means of publishing in individual instances.

The title of these official papers will read:

"Official paper of the General Commissar in....."

In cases of doubt the German text of the ordinances, decrees, and orders is valid.

Moreover, all publications of German agencies are to be made known in otherwise usual form, e.g. by publishing in the press which has already been allowed, by placard, public reading, loudspeaker and the like.

The Official Gazette of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories is to be kept by all the agencies within the Occupied Eastern territories. The same applies for the gazettes of the Reich Commissars and the official papers of the General Commissars within their official spheres.

"The operation procedure for the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories" will be valid for the internal conduct of business of the agencies of the Reich Commissars; for communications with secret matters "The directives for secret matters for all administrative authorities."

The last is valid until suitable safes are obtained, with the provision that secret documents may be kept in strong and well locked wooden chests, which are to be kept in rooms which are to be kept locked.

All incoming documents are to be opened by an especially trustworthy official of the Central Administration and/or of the main office and then introduced into the prescribed order of business.

Further orders about the internal operating procedure are to be decreed by the director of the office.

Second Section: Working directives for the Civil Administration

I. General.

The first task of the Civil Administration in the occupied Eastern territories is to represent the interests of the Reich. This highest fundamental is to be considered first of all measures and deliberations. It is time the occupied Eastern territories are to be able to lead a certain life of their own in the more distant future in this or that not yet determined form. They remain however parts of the Greater German sphere and are always to be governed from the viewpoint of this main thought.

The regulations of the Hague Rules of Land Warfare which deal with the administration of a country occupied by a foreign armed power are not valid since the USSR is dissolved and the Reich, as a result, has the duty of exercising all the powers of government and the other usual powers of sovereignty in the interest of the inhabitants. All measures therefore, which the German administration deems necessary and suitable for the execution of this comprehensive task are permissible.

II. Political Directives.

(Are being worked on by the political department. See next page).

III. Administration, Law, Finances.

1. Administration.

a. The specially assigned administration of the country will already be broken up upon the beginning of the Civil Administration. Its representatives will have fled or have been removed by the Soviets. Village Soviets will exist only in individual cases. These are to be dissolved immediately as a rule.

b. The Reich Commissars are to make sparing use of the authority to decree laws above all at first, so that the administration is not choked by red tape. The exact knowledge of the territory and its inhabitants, which naturally is not available at present, is essential for an extensive legislation. Likewise the fewest possible binding ordinances are to be decreed. The higher authorities must rather take the path of work directives which will give the subordinate authorities sufficient leeway for the consideration of the local conditions.

c. As far as the boundaries of the Regional Commissariat are concerned, at first the boundaries of the corresponding Soviet administrative regions are to be the basis, since the population is accustomed to these and bases for any other determination of boundaries are lacking. As soon as another determination of boundaries appears more to the purpose, in the course of time, it can be done later.

d. The handling of cases of sabotage is the concern of the Senior SS- and police leader, of the SS- and Police leader and/or the police leaders of the lower echelon. Insofar, however, as collective measures against the population of a definite region appear appropriate, the decision about them rests with the competent Commissar on the proposal of the Police leader. The calling of the population for the tasks of guarding can be ordered by the Regional Commissar.

The assessment of fines of money or goods, as well as the ordering of the seizure of hostages and the shooting of inhabitants of the territory in which the acts of sabotage have taken place, can only be done by the General Commissar, insofar as the Reich Commissar himself does not intervene. The most sparing use of the seizing of hostages is to be made. Above all it is only to be ordered when the desired result can be forced by this measure and when the case is such that if necessary, in the case of negative results, the consequences of the seizure can be neutralized.

e. In cities, villages, worker settlements, city settlements, etc., the interest of reliable persons is to be acquired as soon as possible. From the ranks of these reliable persons a local commissioner (similar to our Buergermeister) and confidential councillors can later be appointed, so that in this way the local life will be set in motion again and the Regional Commissar will have organs under him who will carry out his orders. Insofar as such commissioners and confidential councillors have already been set up by the military administration, they are to be taken over by the Civil Administration at first. In case financial means are necessary for the fulfillment of urgent tasks within individual communities, they are to be supplied by means of credits. The credits are to be charged to the banking institutions of the country, or, in case this is not possible, to the Reich credit bank.

f. Where an urgent need of the population for provision goods exists, this is to be satisfied within the range of possibility so that famines can be avoided. It may be desired to grant assistance in money and in goods to urgently needy persons (unemployed and the like).

g. With the dissolution of the USSR which accompanied the defeat of this state there is no longer any state structure in the Eastern Regions and consequently no state citizenship for the inhabitants. However, for practical reasons with respect to citizenship the further existence of a common state must be assumed for the time being, so that the inhabitants should not be considered as stateless, which is undesirable for various reasons. The final question of state citizenship can only be decided later since it depends on the state development in the East. Since this problem can only be solved for the whole Eastern Territory, the subordinate authorities must refrain from every independent ruling. At a given time the Reich Minister for the Eastern territories will issue appropriate decrees.

The racial Germans present in the Eastern territories do not become German Reich citizens automatically with the dissolution of the USSR, but rather they are, for the present, placed on a par with the other inhabitants as regards citizenship. Petitions from racial Germans for naturalization are not to be accepted at first, since a general regulation will be executed. Independent of this is that racial Germans, confirmed as such without objection, should already enjoy privileges which are generally granted only to Reich citizens.

h. The prohibition of entering or leaving the occupied Eastern territories which was issued by the Supreme Commander of the Army remains effective even after the withdrawal of the military administration. Exceptions to this prohibition of entering and leaving will be granted by the Permit Office attached to the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories and Permit Offices attached to the Reich Commissars and if necessary to other authorities of the occupied Eastern territories. Entering and leaving may only be allowed on urgent political, economical or other service reasons.

The following are not affected by the prohibition of entering and leaving:

(1) Members of the Armed Forces and members of the Armed Forces personnel with proper identification and travel orders.

(2) Members of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories and of the authorities subordinated to it with valid official identification.

No application need be made to the Permit Office or Permit Branch Offices for minor frontier traffic. By "minor frontier traffic" is meant those journeys which have to be made on account of economic contacts over the frontier with the neighbouring countries on either side and are merely to some place lying not more than 50 km. from the frontier. Only the lower-ranking administrative authorities, that is the Regional Commissars, can give permission for frontier traffic.

Permits and frontier traffic passes can be issued for single or several journeys over the frontier. In every case, their validity is limited to a definite period.

The examination of claims, for the issue of permits, is made from political, security police and economic points of view. In cases of doubt, therefore, the Permit Branch Offices attached to the Reich Commissars must obtain the approval of the appropriate department of the Reich Commissars before the permit is issued.

The Permit Branch Offices issue permits merely for journeys from the former territory of the USSR. For journeys into the Occupied Eastern Territories, the Permit Office attached to the Reich Minister is, for the present, the only competent office.

The question, whether a ban on journeys from one Reich Commissariat to another is to be decreed, cannot yet be decided. Only the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories has the authority to make the decision.

i. The attitude of the German authorities to the native population is determined, on the one hand, by the political and economic aims, and, on the other, by the attitude of the inhabitants to the Germans. Unprovoked severe measures against the population of the country are not desired and must therefore not be taken.

For reasons of security, it may be necessary, especially in towns and cities, to establish a curfew-hour, which means that, after that hour the population may no longer walk the public thoroughfares and squares. As the time of the curfew can be decided only in accordance with local requirements, the Regional Commissar must be made responsible for imposing it on the instructions of the Reich Commissar and/or the General Commissar.

The same applies to the police closing-time, i.e. the time after which taverns may no longer be opened and no guests may remain in the tavern rooms. The establishing of the curfew and of the police closing-time is to be effected by Police Decree and/or Police Order with appropriate threat of punishment. Apart from this, breaking the curfew order is punishable under the Decree concerning the liability for registration and limitation of sojourn.

2. Health.

It is of great importance that the health and veterinary services be reestablished as quickly as possible. Doctors, veterinary surgeons or medical personnel on the spot are to be instructed to continue with their work or start it again. In times of emergency, especially in the case of epidemics, a request that doctors, veterinary surgeons and medical supplies be made available is to be sent to the Military Authorities, should it be impossible to overcome the emergency in any other way.

3. Law.

The Reich Commissars are responsible for controlling the Special Courts set up and attached to the Reich Commissars. These are also Senior Officials of the Prosecuting Authorities attached to these Courts. The SS Executive and Police Officers and Senior SS Executive and Police Officers are in charge of the Courts Martial.

It is desirable (in the Eastern regions first of all) that the country's own jurisdiction be reestablished, formed of reliable persons where they can be found. This is all the more necessary in that the German Courts, on account of the scarcity of personnel, can pass judgment only on offences which are punishable under German Laws and the punishment of which is of urgent German interest. The punishment of other criminals, however, can only remain in abeyance for a short period. The concerns of the civil administration of justice can remain in the background for the time being and some honorary Courts of Justice may suffice at first. Wherever the country's own jurisdiction is still intact, which may be the case in the East, it is to be instructed to continue its work immediately after unreliable elements have been removed.

Those arrested by the Soviet Legal Authorities on account of sentence which has been passed may only be released after each individual case has been examined.

This examination is to be carried out with the greatest speed in regard to convicted nationalists and other political prisoners. In cases of doubt the opinion of the Political Department attached to the Reich Commissar or the General Commissar or the Executive SS and Police Officer should be obtained.

The District Commissar is responsible for the supervision of all prisons, insofar as the Reich Commissar does not decree otherwise.

As it is impossible at the moment to produce a comprehensive new Penal Code, the Soviet Penal Law (in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania the pre-Soviet Laws) are for the time being still applicable to the country's own courts, nevertheless without those regulations which apply to political offences. This also applies with regard to the Civil Law, the right of voluntary jurisdiction and to the right of procedure.

4. Finance.

It is intended to draw up a unified General Budget for the complete Administration of the Eastern Territories, in other words from the Reich Minister downwards to the District Commissar. Whether there is any point in separating this plan into separate budgets for the various Reich Commissariats, or whether credit accounts will simply be established for the subordinate administrative bodies, can only be decided after the whole Administration has been set up. The basic principle of this General Budget must be that the cost of the whole administration shall be borne by the country itself. Until such a budget has been drawn up and further regulations have been issued regarding the use of the income derived from taxes and from balances from the State undertakings, the Reich will use credits to cover public expenditure. These credits which will be allotted to the Reich Commissars and from there on to the subordinate offices by the Reich Commissar for the Occupied Eastern Territories are to be administered in accordance with the directives as per printed Appendix.

Until further notice taxes are to continue to be paid by the inhabitants in accordance with the existing Soviet taxation system (in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in accordance with the taxation system of the pre-Soviet era) if nothing is decided to contrary. The taxation officials in question who are still capable of working are to take up their duties immediately and/or continue them. The same applies to the utilization of the balances from the State undertakings.

The country's own authorities are forbidden to dispose of the amounts collected without the permission of the German authorities (for the time being Reich Commissars).

5. Learning and Education.

Schooling will, in most parts of the country, have ceased due to the military events. There is in general no particular need for schooling to be put into operation again quickly, as long as there are other urgent tasks to carry out. In the East the resumption of schooling in the near future should be aimed at, insofar as there are suitable and reliable teachers to hand. For the time being further directives from the Reich Minister should be awaited with regard to Universities and other Academic Institutions and with regard to cultural establishments.

IV. Economic Administration.

As the Reich Marshall in his capacity as Plenipotentiary for the Four-year Plan has been charged by the Fuehrer with the supreme coordination of the Economy of the whole Eastern Region, his directives are applicable to the economic measures which are laid down in the printed collective folder attached. When carrying out these directives the general political aim as laid down in figure 2. of this section should be minutely observed. If in individual cases, the aims of economic policy conflict, in the opinion of the German department dealing with the matter, with this general political goal, the Reich Commissar should be informed, where a matter of principle is involved, and his decision requested.

V. Engineering and Communications.

With regard to urgent constructional measures, particularly the repairing and improving of highways, the necessary directives are likewise given in the "Green file," published by the Reichsmarschall. The departments of the Civil Administration should most emphatically support the carrying out of these directives.

The Reich Railways and the Reich Post Office are under the control of the military departments for the duration of the war. Thus the Reich Commissars and the authorities under their orders have no power to issue instructions to the Reich Railways and the Reich Post Office. Each Reich Commissar, however, is allotted a delegate of the Reich Railways and the Reich Post Office who will hear the wishes of the Civil Administration and submit them to his administration.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1058-PS

Extract from a speech of Reichsleiter Rosenberg before the closest participants in the problem of the East, on 20 June, 1941.

The job of feeding the German people stands, this year, without a doubt, at the top of the list of Germany's claims on the East; and here the southern territories and the northern Caucasus will have to serve as a balance for the feeding of the German people. We see absolutely no reason for any obligation on our part to feed also the Russian people with the products of that surplus-territory. We know that this is a harsh necessity, bare of any feelings. A very extensive evacuation will be necessary, without any doubt, and it is sure that the future will hold very hard years in store for the Russians. A later decision will have to determine to which extent industries can still be maintained there (wagon factories etc.). The consideration and execution of this policy in the Russian area proper is for the German Reich and its future a tremendous and by no means negative task, as might appear, if one takes only the harsh necessity of the evacuation in consideration. The conversion of Russian dynamics towards the East is a task which requires the strongest characters. Perhaps, this decision will also be approved by a coming Russian later, not in 30 but maybe in a 100 years. For the Russian soul has been torn in the struggle of the last 200 years. The original Russians are excellent artistic craftsmen, dancers and musicians. They have certain hereditary talents, but these talents are different from those of the Western people. The fight between Turgnjew and Dostejewsky was symbolic for the nation. The Russian soul found no outlet either way. If we now close the West to the Russians, they might become conscious of their own inborn, proper forces and of the area to which they belong. A historian will maybe see this decision in a different light, in hundreds of years than it might appear to a Russian today.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1060-PS

1938 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGES 249-250, of 16 March 1938

Supplementary Ordinance to the Law concerning the reunion of Austria with the German Reich, of 16 March 1938

On the basis of the law of 13 March 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I. p. 237) concerning the reunion of Austria with the German Reich, I order:

Paragraph 1

1. The Reichsminister of the Interior is the central office for the accomplishment of the Reunion of Austria with the German Reich.

2. He can delegate his authority to a deputy, whose office is in Vienna and who holds the official title of "Reichs deputy for Austria."

Paragraph 2

The deputy for the four-year plan can delegate authority to the Reichs deputy for Austria.

Paragraph 3

The Reichs deputy for Austria is therefore appointed jointly by the Reichs minister of the interior and the deputy for the four-year plan.

Munich, 16 March 1938

The Fuehrer and Reichs Chancellor
Adolf Hitler
The Reichs Minister of the Interior
Frick
The Deputy for the Four-year Plan
Goering
General Field Marshal

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1061-PS

THE WARSAW GHETTO IS NO MORE

For the Fuehrer and their country the following fell in the battle for the destruction of Jews and bandits in the former Ghetto of Warsaw:

[follow 15 names]

Furthermore, the Polish Police Sergeant Julian Zielinski, born 13 November 1891, 8th Commissariat * * * fell on 19 April 1943 while fulfilling his duty. * * * They gave their utmost, their life. We shall never forget them. The following were wounded:

[follow the names of—

60 Waffen SS personnel.
11 "Watchmen" from Training Camps, probably Lithuanians, to judge by their names.
12 Security Police Officers in SS Units.
5 men of the Polish Police
2 regular Army personnel engineers]

Units used in the action	Average number of personnel used per day
SS Staff & Police Leader	6/5
Waffen SS:
SS Panzer Grenadier Training and Reserve Battalion 3, Warsaw	4/440
SS Cav. Training and Res Bat. Warsaw	5/381
Police:
SS Police Regiment 22 I. Bat.	3/94
III. Bat.	3/134
Engineering Emergency Service	1/6
Polish Police	4/363
Polish Fire Brigade	166
Security Police:
Wehrmacht
Light AA Alarm Battery III 8 Warsaw	2/22
EngineersDet. of Railway Armored Trains Res. Bat. Rembertow	2/42
Res. Eng. 14 Gora-Kalwaria	1/34
Foreign Racial Watchmen:
1 Bat. "Trawniki" men	2/335
	————
	Total: 36/2054

[Translator's note: This obviously means, 36 officers, 2054 men]

The creation of special areas to be inhabited by Jews, and the restriction of the Jews with regard to residence and trading is nothing new in the history of the East. Such measures were first taken far back in the Middle Ages; they could be observed as recently as during the last few centuries. These restrictions were imposed with the intention of protecting the aryan population against the Jews.

Identical considerations led us as early as February, 1940 to conceive the project of creating a Jewish residential district in Warsaw. The initial intention was to establish as the Ghetto that part of the City of Warsaw which has the Vistula as its Eastern frontier. The particular situation on prevailing in Warsaw seemed at first to frustrate this plan. It was moreover opposed by several authorities particularly by the City Administration. They pointed in particular that disturbances in industry and trade would ensue if a Ghetto were founded in Warsaw, and that it would be impossible to provide the Jews with food if they were assembled in a closed area.

At a conference held in March 1940, it was decided to postpone the plan of creating a Ghetto for the time being, owing to the above objections. At the same time a plan was considered to declare the District of Lublin the collecting area for all Jews within the Government General, especially for the evacuated or fugitive Jews arriving from the Reich. But as early as April 1940, the Higher SS and Police Leader, East, Cracow, issued a declaration that there was no intention of assembling the Jews within the Lublin District. In the meantime, the Jews had increasingly taken to crossing the frontiers without permission and illegally. This noted especially at the limits of the Districts of Lowicz and Skierniewice. Conditions in the town of Lowicz became dangerous from the point of view of hygiene as well as from that of the Security Police, owing to these illegal migrations of Jews. The District President of Lowicz therefore, began to install Ghettos in his district in order to avoid these dangers.

The experiences in the district of Lowicz, after Ghettos had been installed, showed that this method is the only one suitable for dispelling the dangers which emanate repeatedly from the Jews.

The necessity of erecting a Ghetto in the City of Warsaw as well became more and more urgent in the summer of 1940, since more and more troops were being assembled in the district of Warsaw after termination of the French campaign. At that time the Department for Hygiene urged the speedy erection of a Ghetto in the interest of preserving the health of the German Forces and of the native population as well. The original plan of establishing the Ghetto in the suburb of Praga as intended in February 1940, would have taken at least 4 to 5 months, since almost 600,000 persons had to be moved. But since experience showed that greater outbreaks of epidemics might be expected in the winter months and since for this reason the District Medical Officer urged that the resettling action ought to be completed by 15 November 1940 at the latest, the plan of establishing a suburban ghetto in Praga was dropped; and instead, the area which hitherto had been used as a quarantine area for epidemics was selected for use as a Jewish residential area. In October 1940, the Governor ordered the Commissioner of the District, President for the City of Warsaw, to complete the resettlement necessary for establishing the Ghetto within the City of Warsaw by 15 November 1940.

The Ghetto thus established in Warsaw was inhabited by about 400,000 Jews. It contained 27,000 apartments with an average of 2-1/2 rooms each. It was separated from the rest of the city by partition and other walls and by walling-up of thoroughfares, windows, doors, open spaces, etc.

It was administered by the Jewish Board of Elders, who received their instructions from the Commissioner for the Ghetto, who was immediately subordinated to the Governor. The Jews were granted self-administration in which the German supervising authorities intervened only where German interests were touched. In order to enable the Jewish Board of Elders to execute its orders, a Jewish Police force was set up, identified by special armbands and a special beret and armed with rubber truncheons. This Jewish Police force was charged with maintaining order and security within the Ghetto and was subordinated to the German and Polish Police.

It soon became clear, however, that not all dangers had been removed by this confining the Jews to one place. Security considerations required removing the Jews from the city of Warsaw altogether. The first large resettlement action took place in the period from 22 July to 3 October 1942. In this action 310,322 Jews were removed. In January 1943 a second resettlement action was carried out by which altogether 6,500 Jews were affected.

When the Reichsfuehrer SS visited Warsaw in January 1943 he ordered the SS and Police Leader for the District of Warsaw to transfer to Lublin the armament factories and other enterprises of military importance which were installed within the Ghetto including their personnel and machines. The execution of this transfer order proved to be very difficult, since the managers as well as the Jews resisted in every possible way. The SS and Police Leader thereupon decided to enforce the transfer of the enterprises in a large-scale action which he intended to carry out in three days. The necessary preparations had been taken by my predecessor, who also had given the order to start the large-scale action. I myself arrived in Warsaw on 17 April 1943 and took over the command of the action on 19 April 1943, 0800 hours, the action itself having started the same day at 0600 hours.

Before the large-scale action began, the limits of the former Ghetto had been blocked by an external barricade in order to prevent the Jews from breaking out. This barricade was maintained from the start to the end of the action and was especially reinforced at night.

When we invaded the Ghetto for the first time, the Jews and the Polish bandits succeeded in repelling the participating units, including tanks and armored cars, by a well-prepared concentration of fire. When I ordered a second attack, about 0800 hours, I distributed the units, separated from each other by indicated lines, and charged them with combing out the whole of the Ghetto, each unit for a certain part. Although firing commenced again, we now succeeded in combing out the blocks according to plan. The enemy was forced to retire from the roofs and elevated bases to the basements, dug-outs, and sewers. In order to prevent their escaping into the sewers, the sewerage system was dammed up below the Ghetto and filled with water, but the Jews frustrated this plan to a great extent by blowing up the turning off valves. Late the first day we encountered rather heavy resistance, but it was quickly broken by a special raiding party. In the course of further operations we succeeded in expelling the Jews from their prepared resistance bases, sniper holes, and the like, and in occupying during the 20 and 21 April the greater part of the so-called remainder of the Ghetto to such a degree that the resistance continued within these blocks could no longer be called considerable.

The main Jewish battle group, mixed with Polish bandits, had already retired during the first and second day to the so-called Muranowski Square. There, it was reinforced by a considerable number of Polish bandits. Its plan was to hold the Ghetto by every means in order to prevent us from invading it. The Jewish and Polish standards were hoisted at the top of a concrete building as a challenge to us. These two standards, however, were captured on the second day of the action by a special raiding party. SS Untersturmfuehrer Dehmke fell in this skirmish with the bandits; he was holding in his hand a hand-grenade which was hit by the enemy and exploded, injuring him fatally. After only a few days I realized that the original plan had no prospect of success, unless the armament factories and other enterprises of military importance distributed throughout the Ghetto were dissolved. It was therefore necessary to approach these firms and to give them appropriate time for being evacuated and immediately transferred. Thus one of these firms after the other was dealt with, and we very soon deprived the Jews and bandits of their chance to take refuge time and again in these enterprises, which were under the supervision of the Armed Forces. In order to decide how much time was necessary to evacuate these enterprises thorough inspections were necessary. The conditions discovered there are indescribable. I cannot imagine a greater chaos than in the Ghetto of Warsaw. The Jews had control of everything, from the chemical substances used in manufacturing explosives to clothing and equipment for the Armed Forces. The managers knew so little of their own shops that the Jews were in a position to produce inside these shops arms of every kind, especially hand grenades, Molotov cocktails, and the like.

Moreover, the Jews had succeeded in fortifying some of these factories as centers of resistance. Such a center of resistance in an Army accommodation office had to be attacked as early as the second day of the action by an Engineer's Unit equipped with flame throwers and by artillery. The Jews were so firmly established in this shop that it proved to be impossible to induce them to leave it voluntarily; I therefore resolved to destroy this shop the next day by fire.

The managers of these enterprises, which were generally also supervised by an officer of the Armed Forces, could in most cases make no specified statements on their stocks and the whereabouts of these stocks. The statements which they made on the number of Jews employed by them were in every case incorrect. Over and over again we discovered that these labyrinths of edifices belonging to the armament concerns as residential blocks, contained rich Jews who had succeeded in finding accommodations for themselves and their families under the name of "armament workers" and were leading marvelous lives there. Despite all our orders to the managers to make the Jews leave those enterprises, we found out in several cases that managers simply concealed the Jews by shutting them in, because they expected that the action would be finished within a few days and that they then would be able to continue working with the remaining Jews. According to the statements of arrested Jews, women also seem to have played a prominent part. The Jews are said to have endeavored to keep up good relations with officers and men of the armed forces. Carousing is said to have been frequent, during the course of which business deals are said to have been concluded between Jews and Germans.

The number of Jews forcibly taken out of the buildings and arrested was relatively small during the first few days. It transpired that the Jews had taken to hiding in the sewers and in specially erected dug-outs. Whereas we had assumed during the first days that there were only scattered dug-outs, we learned in the course of the large-scale action that the whole Ghetto was systematically equipped with cellars, dug-outs, and passages. In every case these passages and dug-outs were connected with the sewer system. Thus, the Jews were able to maintain undisturbed subterranean traffic. They also used this sewer network for escaping subterraneously into the Aryan part of the city of Warsaw. Continuously, we received reports of attempts of Jews to escape through the sewer holes. While pretending to build air-raid shelters they had been erecting dug-outs within the former Ghetto ever since the autumn of 1942. These were intended to conceal every Jew during the new evacuation action, which they had expected for quite a time, and to enable them to resist the invaders in a concerted action. Through posters, handbills, and whisper propaganda, the communistic resistance movement actually brought it about that the Jews entered the dug-outs as soon as the new large-scale operation started. How far their precautions went can be seen from the fact that many of the dug-outs had been skilfully equipped with furnishings sufficient for entire families, washing and bathing facilities, toilets, arms and munition supplies, and food supplies sufficient for several months. There were differently equipped dug-outs for rich and for poor Jews. To discover the individual dug-outs was difficult for the units, as they had been efficiently camouflaged. In many cases, it was possible only through betrayal on the part of the Jews.

When only a few days had passed, it became apparent that the Jews no longer had any intention to resettle voluntarily, but were determined to resist evacuation with all their force and by using all the weapons at their disposal. So-called battle groups had been formed, led by Polish-Bolshevists; they were armed and paid any price asked for available arms.

During the large-scale action we succeeded in catching some Jews who had already been evacuated and resettled in Lublin or Troolinka, but had broken out from there and returned to the Ghetto, equipped with arms and ammunition. Time and again Polish bandits found refuge in the Ghetto and remained there undisturbed, since we had no forces at our disposal to comb out this maze. Whereas it had been possible during the first days to catch considerable numbers of Jews, who are cowards by nature, it became more and more difficult during the second half of the action to capture the bandits and Jews. Over and over again new battle groups consisting of 20 to 30 or more Jewish fellows, 18 to 25 years of age, accompanied by a corresponding number of women kindled new resistance. These battle groups were under orders to put up armed resistance to the last and if necessary to escape arrest by committing suicide. One such battle group succeeded in mounting a truck by ascending from a sewer in the so-called Prosta, and in escaping with it (about 30 to 35 bandits). One bandit who had arrived with this truck exploded 2 hand grenades, which was the agreed signal for the bandits waiting in the sewer to climb out of it. The bandits and Jews—there were Polish bandits among these gangs armed with carbines, small arms, and in one case a light machine gun, mounted the truck and drove away in an unknown direction. The last member of this gang, who was on guard in the sewer and was detailed to close the lid of the sewer hole, was captured. It was he who gave the above information. The search for the truck was unfortunately without result.

During this armed resistance the women belonging to the battle groups were equipped the same as the men; some were members of the Chaluzim movement. Not infrequently, these women fired pistols with both hands. It happened time and again that these women had pistols or hand grenades (Polish "pineapple" hand grenades) concealed in their bloomers up to the last moment to use against the men of the Waffen SS, Police, or Wehrmacht.

The resistance put up by the Jews and bandits could be broken only by relentlessly using all our force and energy by day and night. On 23 April 1943 the Reichs Fuehrer SS issued through the higher SS and Police Fuehrer East at Cracow his order to complete the combing out of the Warsaw Ghetto with the greatest severity and relentless tenacity. I therefore decided to destroy the entire Jewish residential area by setting every block on fire, including the blocks of residential buildings near the armament works. One concern after the other was systematically evacuated and subsequently destroyed by fire. The Jews then emerged from their hiding places and dug-outs in almost every case. Not infrequently, the Jews stayed in the burning buildings until, because of the heat and the fear of being burned alive they preferred to jump down from the upper stories after having thrown mattresses and other upholstered articles into the street from the burning buildings. With their bones broken, they still tried to crawl across the street into blocks of buildings which had not yet been set on fire or were only partly in flames. Often Jews changed their hiding places during the night, by moving into the ruins of burnt-out buildings, taking refuge there until they were found by our patrols. Their stay in the sewers also ceased to be pleasant after the first week. Frequently from the street, we could hear loud voices coming through the sewer shafts. Then the men of the Waffen SS, the Police or the Wehrmacht Engineers courageously climbed down the shafts to bring out the Jews and not infrequently they then stumbled over Jews already dead, or were shot at. It was always necessary to use smoke candles to drive out the Jews. Thus one day we opened 183 sewer entrance holes and at a fixed time lowered smoke candles into them, with the result that the bandits fled from what they believed to be gas to the center of the former Ghetto, where they could then be pulled out of the sewer holes there. A great number of Jews, who could not be counted, were exterminated by blowing up sewers and dug-outs.

The longer the resistance lasted, the tougher the men of the Waffen SS, Police, and Wehrmacht became; they fulfilled their duty indefatigably in faithful comradeship and stood together as models and examples of soldiers. Their duty hours often lasted from early morning until late at night. At night, search patrols with rags wound round their feet remained at the heels of the Jews and gave them no respite. Not infrequently they caught and killed Jews who used the night hours for supplementing their stores from abandoned dug-outs and for contacting neighboring groups or exchanging news with them.

Considering that the greater part of the men of the Waffen-SS had only been trained for three to four weeks before being assigned to this action, high credit should be given for the pluck, courage, and devotion to duty which they showed. It must be stated that the Wehrmacht Engineers, too, executed the blowing up of dug-outs, sewers, and concrete buildings with indefatigability and great devotion to duty. Officers and men of the Police, a large part of whom had already been at the front, again excelled by their dashing spirit.

Only through the continuous and untiring work of all involved did we succeed in catching a total of 56,065 Jews whose extermination can be proved. To this should be added the number of Jews who lost their lives in explosions or fires but whose numbers could not be ascertained.

During the large-scale operation the Aryan population was informed by posters that it was strictly forbidden to enter the former Jewish Ghetto and that anybody caught within the former Ghetto without valid pass would be shot. At the same time these posters informed the Aryan population again that the death penalty would be imposed on anybody who intentionally gave refuge to a Jew, especially lodged, supported, or concealed a Jew outside the Jewish residential area.

Permission was granted to the Polish police to pay to any Polish policeman who arrested a Jew within the Aryan part of Warsaw one third of the cash in the Jew's possession. This measure has already produced results.

The Polish population for the most part approved the measures taken against the Jews. Shortly before the end of the large-scale operation, the Governor issued a special proclamation which he submitted to the undersigned for approval before publication, to the Polish population; in it he informed them of the reasons for destroying the former Jewish Ghetto by mentioning the assassinations carried out lately in the Warsaw area and the mass graves found in Catyn; at the same time they were asked to assist us in our fight against Communist agents and Jews (see enclosed poster).

The large-scale action was terminated on 16 May 1943 with the blowing up of the Warsaw synagogue at 2015 hours.

Now, there are no more factories in the former Ghetto. All the goods, raw materials, and machines there have been moved and stored somewhere else. All buildings etc., have been destroyed. The only exception is the so-called Dzielna Prison of the Security Police, which was exempted from destruction.

III

Although the large-scale operation has been completed, we have to reckon with the possibility that a few Jews are still living in the ruins of the former Ghetto; therefore, this area must be firmly shut off from the Aryan residential area and be guarded. Police Battalion III/23 has been charged with this duty. This Police Battalion has instructions to watch the former Ghetto, particularly to prevent anybody from entering the former Ghetto, and to shoot immediately anybody found inside the Ghetto without authority. The Commander of the Police Battalion will continue to receive further direct orders from the SS and Police Fuehrer. In this way, it should be possible to keep the small remainder of Jews there, if any, under constant pressure and to exterminate them eventually. The remaining Jews and bandits must be deprived of any chance of survival by destroying all remaining buildings and refuges and cutting off the water supply.

It is proposed to change the Dzielna Prison into a concentration camp and to use the inmates to remove, collect and hand over for reuse the millions of bricks, the scrap-iron, and other materials.

Of the total of 56,065 Jews caught, about 7,000 were exterminated within the former Ghetto in the course of the large-scale action, and 6,929 by transporting them to T.II, which means 14,000 Jews were exterminated altogether. Beyond the number of 56,065 Jews an estimated number of 5,000 to 6,000 were killed by explosions or in fires.

The number of destroyed dug-outs amounts to 631.

Booty:

7 Polish rifles, 1 Russian rifle, 1 German rifle

59 pistols of various calibers

Several hundred hand grenades, including Polish and home-made ones

Several hundred incendiary bottles

Home-made explosives

Infernal machines with fuses

A large amount of explosives, ammunition for weapons of all calibers, including some machine-gun ammunition.

Regarding the booty of arms, it must be taken into consideration that the arms themselves could in most cases not be captured, as the bandits and Jews would, before being arrested, throw them into hiding places or holes which could not be ascertained or discovered. The smoking out of the dug-out by our men, also often made the search for arms impossible. As the dug-outs had to be blown up at once, a search later on was out of the question.

The captured hand grenades, ammunition, and incendiary bottles were at once reused by us against the bandits.

Further booty:

1,240 used military tunics (part of them with medal ribbons—Iron Cross and East Medal)

600 pairs of used trousers

Other equipment and German steel helmets

108 horses, 4 of them still in the former Ghetto (hearse)

Up to 23 May 1943 we had counted:

4.4 million Zloty; furthermore about 5 to 6 million Zloty not yet counted, a great amount of foreign currency, e.g. $14,300 in paper and $9,200 in gold, moreover valuables (rings, chains, watches, etc.) in great quantities.

State of the Ghetto at the termination of the large-scale operation:

Apart from 8 buildings (Police Barracks, hospital, and accommodations for housing working-parties) the former Ghetto is completely destroyed. Only the dividing walls are left standing where no explosions were carried out. But the ruins still contain a vast amount of stones and scrap material which could be used.

Warsaw, 16 May, 1943.
The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.
SS Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Copy

Warsaw, 20 April 1943.
Journal No. 516/43 secret.

(Daily reports)

SS Service Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Ref. No.: I ab/St/Gr—16 07
Re: Ghetto Operation.
To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, Cracow

Progress of Ghetto Operation on 19 April 1943:

Closing of Ghetto commenced 0300 hrs. At 0600 order to Waffen-SS (strength: 16/850) to comb out the remainder of the Ghetto. Hardly had the units fallen in, strong concerted fire-concentration by the Jews and bandits. The tank used in this action and the two heavy armored cars pelted with Molotov cocktails (incendiary bottles). Tank twice set on fire. Owing to this enemy counterattack, we had at first to take the units back. Losses in first attack: 12 men (6 SS-men, 6 Trawniki-men). About 800 hrs. second attack by the units, under the command of the undersigned. Although the counterattack was reported, this time we succeeded in combing out the blocks of buildings according to plan. We caused the enemy to retire from the roofs and elevated prepared positions into the cellars or dug-outs and sewers. During this combing-out we caught only about 200 Jews. Immediately afterwards raiding parties were directed to dug-outs known to us with the order to pull out the Jews and to destroy the dug-outs. About 380 Jews captured. We found out that the Jews had taken to the sewers. Sewers were completely inundated, to make staying there impossible. About 1730 hrs. we encountered very strong resistance from one block of buildings including machine-gun fire. A special raiding party invaded that block and defeated the enemy, but could not catch the resisters. The Jews and criminals resisted from base to base, and escaped at the last moment across lofts or through subterranean passages. About 2030 hrs. the external barricade was reinforced. All units were withdrawn from the Ghetto and dismissed to their barracks. Reinforcement of the barricade by 250 Waffen-SS men. Continuation of operation on 20 April 1943.

Units at my disposal:
SS-Panzer-Gren. Res. Batl.		6/400
SS-Cav. Res. Batl.		10/450
Police		6/165
Security Service		2/48
Trawniki-men		1/150
Wehrmacht:
1 10-cm-Howitzer		1/7
1 Flame thrower		1
Engineers		2/16
Medical detachments		1/1
3 2.28-cm A.A. Guns		2/24
1 French tank of the Waffen-SS
2 heavy armored cars of the Waffen-SS
		————
	Total:	31/1262

I put Major of Police Sternagel in command of today's operations subject to my further instructions if necessary.

At 0700 hrs. 9 raiding parties were formed, each 1/36 strong, consisting of mixed units, to comb out and to search the remainder of the Ghetto intensively. This search is still in progress; its first objective will be completed by 1100 hrs. In the meantime it has been ascertained that part of the Ghetto which is no longer inhabited but not yet released and which contains several armament factories and the like, there are several centers of resistance, which were so strong that the tank could not go through. 2 raiding parties defeated these centers of resistance and made a passage for the tank men. In this operation we already had two wounded (Waffen-SS).

Enemy is much more cautious than yesterday, since he has of course learned of the heavy arms at our disposal.

My intention is first to comb out completely the remainder of the Ghetto and then to clean out in the same manner the so-called uninhabited Ghetto, which so far has not been released. It had been ascertained in the meantime that the latter part of the Ghetto contains at least 10 to 12 dug-outs, some of which are even in armament factories. The whole operation is made more difficult because there are still factories in the Ghetto which must be protected against bombardment and fire, because they contain machines and tools.

A further report will follow tonight.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw.

/s/ Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.
Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From the SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 20 April 1943.

Ref. No. I ab St/Gr 16 07—Journal No. 517/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto Operation.

To the Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Supplementing my teletype message of 20 April 1943—Ref. St/Gr 16 07, re Ghetto Operation—I beg to report as follows:

The resistance centers ascertained with the uninhabited but not yet released part of the Ghetto were crushed by a battle group of the Wehrmacht—Engineers and flame throwers. The Wehrmacht had one wounded in this operation, shot through the lungs. Nine raiding parties broke through as far as the northern limit of the Ghetto. 9 dug-outs were found, their inmates crushed when they resisted, and the dug-outs blown up. What losses the enemy suffered cannot be ascertained accurately. Altogether the 9 raiding parties caught 505 Jews today; those among them who are able-bodied were kept ready for transport to Poniatowo. At about 1500 hrs. I managed to arrange that the block of buildings occupied by the Army Accommodation Office said to be occupied by 4,000 Jews is to be evacuated at once. The German manager was asked to call upon the Jewish workers to leave the block voluntarily. Only 28 Jews obeyed this order. Thereupon I resolved either to evacuate the block by force or to blow it up. The A.A. Artillery—3 2-cm. guns used for this operation had two men killed. The 10-cm howitzer, which also was used, expelled the gangs from their strong fortifications and also inflicted losses on them, as far as we were able to ascertain. This action had to be broken off owing to the fall of darkness. On 21 April 1943 we shall attack this resistance center again, as far as possible it will remain blocked off during the night.

In today's action we caught, apart from the Jews reported above, considerable stores of incendiary bottles, hand grenades, ammunition, military tunics, and equipment.

Losses:
2 dead (Wehrmacht)
7 wounded (6 Waffen SS, 1 Trawniki-man)

In one case the bandits had laid pressure mines. I have succeeded in causing the firms W.C. Toebens, Schultz and Co., and Hoffman to be ready for evacuation with their entire personnel on 21 April 1943 at 0600 hrs. In this way, I hope to get the way free at last for cleaning out the Ghetto. The Trustees Toebens has pledged himself to induce the Jews, numbering about 4,000 to 5,000, to follow him voluntarily to the assembling point for being resettled. In case this has as little success as was attained in the case of the Army Accommodation Office, I am going to clean out this part of the Ghetto as well by force. I beg to acknowledge receipt of the order which the Obergruppenfuehrer communicated to me by telephone today, and of the powers granted to me.

Next report on 21 April 1943 at noon.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 21 April 1943.

Ref. Nr. I ab/St/Gr—16 07 —Journal Nr. 527/43.

Re: Ghetto Operation.

To the Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East,

SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police, Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of Ghetto Operation on 21 April 1943.

Supplementing the report which I made today about 1400 hrs. by telephone, I beg to report:

Forces at my disposal as of 20 April 1943.

Start of operation: 0700 hrs. The whole of the Ghetto has continued to be cordoned off since the start of the operations on 19 April 1943.

Inasmuch as the special operation concerning the block of buildings occupied by the Army Accommodation Office had to be interrupted yesterday because of darkness, one battle group reinforced by Engineers and heavy artillery was again sent into the block of buildings, which was found to contain an enormous quantity of dug-outs and subterranean passages firing from time to time. I resolved therefore to blow up these passages which we had discovered and subsequently to set the entire block on fire. Not until the building was well aflame did screaming Jews make their appearance, and they were evacuated at once. We had no losses in this operation. Precautionary measures were taken in order to ensure that the conflagration remained localized.

The main body of our forces was detailed to cleanse the so-called uninhabited, but not yet released, part of the Ghetto by proceeding from South to North. Before we started this action, we caught 5,200 Jews who had been employed in enterprises under the supervision of the Commissioner for Armament [Ru Ko-Betrieben] and transported them under armed guard to the Railway Station which had been chosen for use in the resettlement. I formed 3 search-parties to which were attached special raiding parties who had the duty to attack or blow up the dug-outs which were known to us. This operation had to be interrupted when darkness set in, after one half of the area mentioned had been combed out.

Continued on 22 April 1943, 0700 hrs.

Apart from the Jews who were to be evacuated, 150 Jews or bandits were killed in battle and about 80 bandits were killed when their dug-outs were blown up. The enemy today used the same arms as on the previous day, particularly home-made explosives. Samples have been kept by the SS and Police Fuehrer. For the first time we observed the participation of members of the Jewish Women's Battle Association (Chaluzim Movement). We captured rifles, pistols, hand grenades, explosives, horses, and parts of SS uniforms.

Own losses: 2 policemen, 2 SS-men, 1 Trawniki-man.
(light wounds)

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From the SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 22 April 1943.

Ref. No. I ab St/Gr 16 07—Journal Nr. 530/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto Operation. (supplement to par. 1 of letter of 21 April 1943).

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Our setting the block on fire achieved the result in the course of the night that those Jews whom we had not been able to find despite all our search operations left their hideouts under the roofs, in the cellars, and elsewhere, and appeared at the outside of the buildings, trying to escape the flames. Masses of them—entire families—were already aflame and jumped from the windows or endeavored to let themselves down by means of sheets tied together or the like. Steps had been taken so that these Jews as well as the remaining ones were liquidated at once. During the whole night there were shots from buildings which were supposed to be evacuated. We had no losses in our cordoning forces. 5,300 Jews were caught for the evacuation and removed.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 22 April 1943.

Ref. Nr. I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal Nr. 531/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of the Ghetto Operation on 22 April 1943 up to 1200 hrs.

One raiding party was dispatched to invade once more the block of buildings which for the greater part had burned out or was still aflame, in order to catch those Jews who were still inside. When shooting again started from one block against the men of the Waffen-SS, this block also was set on fire, with the result that a considerable number of bandits were scared from their hideouts and shot while trying to escape. Apart for those, we caught about 180 Jews in the yards of the buildings. The main body of our units continued the cleansing action from the line where we terminated this action yesterday. This operation is still in progress. As on the preceding days local resistance was broken and the dug-outs we discovered were blown up. Unfortunately there is no way of preventing part of the Jews and bandits from taking refuge in the sewers below the Ghetto, where we can hardly catch them since they have stopped the flooding. The city administration is not in a position to frustrate this nuisance. Neither did the use of smoke candles or the introduction of creosote into the water have the desired result. Cooperation with the Wehrmacht splendid.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From the SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 22 April 1943.

Ref. Nr.: ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal Nr. 532/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto Operation.

The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of operation of 22 April 1943. Report on action up to 1200 hrs. has already been submitted by my message of today. Continuing, I beg to report:

When the special raiding party searched the remainder of the blocks as already reported, they met with resistance at some places; they had the following success: 1,100 Jews caught for evacuation, 203 bandits and Jews killed, 15 dug-outs blown up. They captured 80 incendiary bottles and other booty. Units at my disposal: as reported by teletype message on 20 April 1943. Journal No. 516/43 secret.

Our losses: SS-Untersturmfuehrer Dehmke (dead); enemy hit a hand grenade which he carried. (SS-Cav.Res. Batl.)

1 Sergeant of Police (shot through the lungs)

When the Engineers blew up the dug-outs, a considerable number of Jews and bandits were buried under the ruins. In a number of cases it was found necessary to start fires in order to smoke the gangs out.

I must add that since yesterday some of the units have been shot at time and again from outside the Ghetto, that is, from the Aryan part of Warsaw. Raiding parties at once entered the area in question and in one case succeeded in capturing 35 Polish bandits, Communists, who were liquidated at once. Today it happened repeatedly when we found it necessary to execute some bandits, that they collapsed shouting "Long live Poland," "Long live Moscow."

The operation will be continued on 23 April 1943, 0700 hrs.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Maj. Gen. of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From the SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 23 April 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 538/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of Ghetto Operation on 23 April 1943. Start: 0700 hours.

The whole of the former Ghetto had been divided for the purposes of today's combing-out operations into 24 districts. One reinforced searching party was detailed to each district with special orders. These assignments had to be carried out by 1600 hours.

Result of this action: 600 Jews and bandits ferreted out and captured, about 200 Jews and bandits killed, 48 dug-outs, some of them of a quite elaborate character, blown up. We captured apart from valuables and money—some gas masks.

The units had been informed that we intended to terminate the operation today. In the morning the Jews had already become aware of this instruction. This is why a renewed search by the searching parties was undertaken after an interval of 1 to 1-1/2 hours. The result was, as always, that again Jews and bandits were discovered to be in various blocks. From one block shots were even fired against the cordoning units. An attack by a special battle group was ordered and in order to smoke the bandits out, every building was now set on fire. The Jews and bandits held out, every building was now set on fire. The Jews and bandits held their fire up to the last moment and then concerted their fire against the units. They even used carbines. A number of bandits who were shooting from balconies were hit by our men and crashed down.

Furthermore, today we discovered a place said to have been the headquarters of the "P PR"; we found it unoccupied and destroyed it. It was on this 5th day of operations that obviously we found the worst of the terrorists and activists, who so far had always found ways and means to dodge every searching or evacuation action.

A racial German reported that again some Jews had escaped through the sewers into the Aryan part of the city. We learned from a traitor that there were some Jews in a certain house. A special motorized raiding party invaded the building and caught 3 Jews, 2 of them females. During this operation their motor-car was pelted with one incendiary bottle and one explosive; 2 policemen were wounded.

The whole operation is rendered more difficult by the cunning way in which the Jews and bandits act; for instance, we discover that the hearses which were used to collect the corpses lying around at the same time bring living Jews to the Jewish cemetery, and thus they are enabled to escape from the Ghetto. Now this way of escape also is barred by continuous control of the hearses.

At the termination of today's operation about 2200 hours, we discovered that again about 30 bandits had passed into a so-called armaments factory, where they had found refuge. Since the forces are storing goods of great value in this enterprise, this factory was requested to evacuate the building by noon on 24 April; this will enable us to cleanse that labyrinth of a building tomorrow.

Today 3,500 Jews were caught who are to be evacuated from the factories. A total of 19,450 Jews have been caught for resettlement or already evacuated up to today. Of these about 2,500 Jews are still to be loaded. The next train will start on 24 April 1943.

Strength as of 22 April 1943, without 150 Trawniki men; these have already been put at the disposal of the Eastern Command as reinforcement for another assignment.

Our losses:

2 Police corporals ("SB") wounded
1 Trawniki man wounded.

The operation will be continued on 24 April 1943, 1000 hours. This hour was chosen so that Jews who may still be in the Ghetto will believe that the operation was actually terminated today.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Major general of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw

Warsaw, 24 April 1943.

Ref. Nr.: I ab/St/Wdt—16 07—Journal No. 545/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto operation.

The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and general of the Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of operation on 24 April 1943, start 1000 hours.

Contrary to the preceding days, the 24 searching parties which had again been formed did not start at one end of the Ghetto, but proceeded from all sides at the same time. Apparently the Jews still in the Ghetto were deceived by the fact that the operation did not start until 1000 hours into believing that the action really had been terminated yesterday. The search action, therefore, had especially satisfactory results today. This success is furthermore due to the fact that the noncommissioned officers and men have meanwhile become accustomed to the cunning fighting, methods and tricks used by the Jews and bandits and that they have acquired great skill in tracking down the dug-outs which are found in such great number. The raiding parties having returned, we set about to clean a certain block of buildings, situated in the north-eastern part of the former Ghetto. In this labyrinth of buildings there was a so-called armaments firm which reportedly had goods worth millions for manufacture and storage. I had notified the Wehrmacht of my intentions on 23 April 1943 about 2100 hours, and had requested them to remove their goods by 1200 hours. Since the Wehrmacht did not start this evacuation until 1000 hours I felt obliged to extend the term until 1800 hours. At 1815 hours a search party entered the premises, the building having been cordoned off, and found that a great number of Jews were within the building. Since some of these Jews resisted, I ordered the building to be set on fire. Not until all the buildings along the street and the back premises on either side were well aflame did the Jews, some of them on fire, emerge from these blocks, some of them endeavored to save their life by jumping into the street from windows and balconies, after having thrown down beds, blankets, and the like. Over and over again we observed that Jews and bandits, despite the danger of being burned alive, preferred to return into the flames rather than risk being caught by us. Over and over again the Jews kept up their firing almost to the end of the action; thus the engineers had to be protected by a machine gun when toward nightfall they had to enter forcibly a concrete building which had been very strongly fortified. Termination of today's operation; on 25 April 1943 at 0145 hours. 1,660 Jews were caught for evacuation, 1,814 pulled out of dug-outs, about 330 shot. Innumerable Jews were destroyed by the flames or perished when the dug-outs were blown up. 26 dug-outs were blown up and an amount of paper money, especially dollars was captured; this money has not yet been counted.

Our forces: as on the preceding day, minus 50 men of the Waffen-SS.

Our losses: 2 SS men and 1 Trawniki man wounded.

Altogether there have now been caught in this action 25,500 Jews who lived in the former Ghetto. Since there are only vague estimates available of the actual number of inhabitants I assume that now only very small numbers of Jews and bandits still remain within the Ghetto.

Operation will be continued on 25 April 1943, 1300 hours.

I beg to acknowledge receipt of teletype messages Nos. 1222 and 1223 of 24 April 1943. As far as can be predicted, the present large-scale operation will last until Easter Monday inclusive.

Today large posters were affixed to the walls surrounding the Ghetto, announcing that everybody who enters the former Ghetto without being able to prove his identity will be shot.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Major General of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw

Warsaw, 25 April 1943

Ref. No. I ab/St/Wdt—16 07—Journal No. 549/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of operation on 25 April 1943, start 1300 hours.

For today 7 search parties were formed, strength 1/70 each, each allotted to a certain block of buildings.

Their order was: "Every building is to be combed out once more; dug-outs have to be discovered and blown up, and the Jews have to be caught. If any resistance is encountered or if dug-outs cannot be reached, the buildings are to be burnt down." Apart from the operations undertaken by these 7 search parties, a special operation was undertaken against a center of bandits, situated outside the wall surrounding the former Ghetto and inhabited exclusively by Poles.

Today's operations of the search parties ended almost everywhere in the starting of enormous conflagrations. In this manner the Jews were forced to leave their hideouts and refuges. A total of 1,960 Jews were caught alive. The Jews informed us that among them were certain parachutists who were dropped here and bandits who had been equipped with arms from some unknown source. 274 Jews were killed. As in the preceding days, uncounted Jews were buried in blown up dug-outs and, as can be observed time and again, burned with this bag of Jews today. We have, in my opinion, caught a very considerable part of the bandits and lowest elements of the Ghetto. Intervening darkness prevented immediate liquidation. I am going to try to obtain a train for T II tomorrow. Otherwise liquidation will be carried out tomorrow. Today also, some armed resistance was encountered; in a dug-out three pistols and some explosives were captured. Furthermore, considerable amounts of paper money, foreign currency, gold coins, and jewelry were seized today.

The Jews still have considerable property. While last night a glare of fire could be seen above the former Ghetto, today one can observe a giant sea of flames. Since we continue to discover great numbers of Jews whenever we search and comb out, the operation will be continued on 26 April 1943. Start: 1000 hours.

Including today, a total of 27,464 Jews of the former Warsaw Ghetto, have been captured.

Our forces: as on the previous day.

Our losses: 3 members of the Waffen-SS and one member of the Security Police wounded.

Total losses up to date:
Waffen SS	27 Wounded
Police	9 Wounded
Security Police	4 Wounded
Wehrmacht	1 Wounded
Trawniki men	9 Wounded
	————
	50 Wounded
and 5 dead:
Waffen SS	2 Dead
Wehrmacht	2 Dead
Trawniki men	1 Dead
	————
	5 Dead

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw

Warsaw, 26 April 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab/St/Wdt—16 07—Journal Nr. 550/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto operation—supplementary report.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

1. The operation on 25 April 1943, was terminated at 2200 hrs.

2. General effects of the execution of this operation.

The Poles resident in Warsaw are much impressed by the toughness of our operations in the former Ghetto. As can be seen from the daily reports, the general situation has greatly calmed down since the beginning of that operation within the city area of Warsaw. From this fact one may conclude that the bandits and saboteurs resided in the former Ghetto, and that now all of them have been destroyed.

In this connection the fact may be of some interest, that an illegal ammunition store was seen to explode when we burned down a certain building in the dwelling area on which we were working at the time.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified Copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw

Warsaw, 26 April 1943.

Ref. Nr.: I ab/St/Wdt—16 07 Journal Nr. 551/43 secret.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Start of operation: 1000 hrs.

The whole of the former Ghetto was once more combed through today by the same search parties, each of them allotted to the same district as before. In this way I tried to bring about that the leaders of these parties work in thoroughfares, blocks of buildings, and courtyards which they know already and that thus they are able to penetrate deeper and deeper into the maze of dug-outs and subterranean passages. Almost every search party reported resistance, which however they broke either by returning fire or by blowing up the dug-outs. It becomes clearer and clearer that it is now the turn of the toughest and strongest among the Jews and bandits. Several times dug-outs have been forcibly broken open, the inmates of which had not come to the surface during the whole of this operation. In a number of cases the inmates of the dug-outs were hardly in a condition, when the dug-out had been blown up, to crawl to the surface. The captured Jews report that many of the inmates of the dug-outs became insane from the heat, the smoke, and the explosions. Several Jews were arrested who had kept close liaison with the group of Polish terrorists and collaborated with it. Outside the former Ghetto we arrested 29 Jews. During today's operation several blocks of buildings were burned down. This is the only and final method which forces this trash and subhumanity to the surface. We again captured arms, incendiary bottles, explosive charges and considerable amounts of cash and foreign currency. Today I also arranged that several so-called armament and defense enterprises will evacuate their stores from the buildings at once, so that these buildings in which the Jews now have taken refuge, under the protection of the army of the German Wehrmacht and police, can be combed out. In one case we again discovered, as previously, that in a building which had been said to contain a giant enterprise there existed in fact almost no stores or goods. One factory was closed without further ado, and the Jews were evacuated.

Result of today's operation:

30 Jews evacuated, 1,330 Jews pulled out of dug-outs and immediately destroyed, 362 Jews killed in battle. Caught today altogether: 1,722 Jews. This brings the total of Jews caught to 29,186. Moreover, it is very probable that numerous Jews have perished in the 13 dug-outs blown up today and in the conflagrations.

At the time of writing not one of the Jews caught still remains within Warsaw. The scheduled transport to T. II had no success. [Note of translator: This probably means that no Jews were available for regular transport to the extermination camp.]

Strength: as on preceding day.

Our losses: none.

End of today's operation at 2145 hrs. Will be continued on 27 April 1943 at 0900 hrs.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in
the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw

Warsaw, 27 April 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 555/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto Operation

To: the Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of operation on 27 April 1943. Start: 0900 hrs.

For today's operation I formed 24 raiding parties with the same task as on several days of last week; they had to search the former Ghetto in smaller groups. These search parties pulled 780 Jews out of dug-outs and shot 115 Jews who resisted. This operation was terminated about 1500 hrs.; some of the parties had to continue to operate because they had found more dug-outs.

At 1600 hrs. a special battle group, 320 officers and men strong, started cleansing a large block of buildings situated on both sides of the so-called Niska Street in the Northeastern part of the former Ghetto. After the search the entire block was set on fire, after having been completely cordoned off. In this action a considerable number of Jews were caught. As before, they remained in the dug-outs, which were either below the ground or in the lofts of the buildings until the end. They fired their arms to the last moment, and then jumped down into the street, sometimes from as far up as the fourth floor, having previously thrown down beds, mattresses, etc., but not until the flames made any other escape impossible. A total of 2,560 Jews were caught today within the former Ghetto, of whom 547 were shot. Moreover, Jews in a not ascertainable number perished when dug-outs were blown up, or in the flames. The sum total of Jews, formerly residing in the Ghetto caught in this action, now amounts to 31,746.

We learned from an anonymous letter that there were a considerable number of Jews in a block of buildings adjoining the Northeastern part of the Ghetto, but outside of it. A special raiding party under the command of 1st. Lt. of Police Diehl was dispatched to attack these buildings. The raiding party discovered a gang of about 120 men, strongly armed with pistols, rifles, hand grenades, and light machine guns, who resisted. They succeeded in destroying 24 bandits in battle and arresting 52 bandits. The remainder could not be caught or destroyed, since darkness intervened. The buildings, however, were surrounded at once, so that an escape will hardly be possible. This cleansing action will be continued tomorrow. Moreover, we arrested 17 Poles, among whom 2 Polish Policemen, who should have been aware, among other things, of the existence of this gang. In this operation we captured 3 rifles, 12 pistols, partly of heavier caliber, 100 Polish "pineapple" hand grenades, 27 German steel helmets, quite a number of German uniforms, tunics and coats which were even furnished with ribbon of the East medal, some reserve magazines for machine guns, 300 rounds of ammunition, etc. The leader of the raiding party had a difficult task because the bandits were disguised in German uniform, but despite this fact, he did his duty with great efficiency. Among the bandits who were caught or killed, there were some Polish terrorists who were identified with certainty. Today we succeeded furthermore in discovering and liquidating one of the founders and leaders of the Jewish-Polish resistance movement. The external appearance of the Jews whom we are catching now shows that it is now the turn of those Jews who were the leaders of the entire resistance movement. They jumped from the burning windows and balconies, abusing Germany and the Fuehrer and cursing the German soldiers.

SS-men who descended into the sewers discovered that a great number of corpses of perished Jews are being washed away by the water.

Our strength:
	288 German Police	}
	200 Trawniki-men	}
From 0700 to 1900 hrs.	140 Polish Police	}	Cordoning
From 1900 to 0700 hrs.	288 German Police	}	forces.
	250 Waffen-SS	}
	140 Polish Police	}

Strength in the operation:

3/115 German Police
4/400 Waffen-SS
1/6 Engineering Serv.
2/30 Security Police
2/21 Engineers.

Our losses:

3 wounded:
2 Waffen-SS
1 Trawniki-man

Termination of operation: 2300 hrs. Will be continued on 28 April 1943 at 1000 hrs.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Maj. Gen. of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw

Warsaw, 28 April 1943.

Ref. Nr. I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal Nr. 562/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto operation

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of operation on 28 April 1943. Start 1000 hrs.

Today, 10 raiding parties were formed for combing out the whole of the Ghetto. These raiding parties again discovered proceeding step by step, a number of dug-outs, which were found to have been prepared as far ago as the middle of last year for use in the resistance of the Jews. A total of 335 Jews were forcibly pulled out of these dug-outs. Apart from these operations, we continued to cleanse the resistance center used by the Jewish military organization, situated at the borders of the Ghetto. We succeeded in shooting 10 more bandits, and in arresting 9, beyond those caught yesterday, and in capturing more arms, ammunition, and military equipment. In the afternoon a battle group again was directed against a block of buildings which had already been combed out; the block was set on fire during this operation. As on previous days, masses of Jews emerged, forced out by the flames and the enormous clouds of smoke. At another point an Engineer officer, attached by the Wehrmacht to the units with great trouble opened a dug-out situated about 3 meters below ground. From this dug-out, which had been ready since October of last year and was equipped with running water, toilet, and electric light, we pulled out 274 of the richest and most influential Jews. Today again we encountered very strong resistance in many places and broke it. It becomes clearer every day that we are now encountering the real terrorists and activists, because of the duration of the operation.

Result of today: 1,655 Jews caught for evacuation, of whom 110 were killed in battle.

Many more Jews were killed by the flames; moreover, Jews in an unascertainable number were destroyed by the dug-outs being blown up. By the results of today the number of Jews caught or destroyed rises to 33,401 altogether. This number does not include the Jews who were killed by fire or destroyed in the dug-outs.

Our strength: as on the previous day.
Our losses: 3 wounded (1 Police, 2 Waffen-SS)

Termination of operation: 2200 hrs. Will be continued on 29 April 1943. 1000 hrs.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 29 April 1943.

Ref. Nr. I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal Nr. 566/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation of 29 April 1943. Start 1000 hrs. As on the previous day I formed search parties, who had the special task of searching those blocks of buildings which had been recently separated. A larger raiding party was detailed to clean a certain block of buildings (formerly the Hallmann concern) and to burn this block down. 36 more dug-outs used for habitation were discovered altogether, and from them and other hideouts and from the burning buildings, 2,359 Jews were caught, of whom 106 were killed in battle.

Captured are 2 rifles, 10 pistols, 10 kilograms of explosives, and ammunition of various types.

When a large dug-out was blown up, the entire building collapsed and everyone of the bandits perished. In the ensuing conflagration loud detonations and darting flames showed that the building must have contained large stores of ammunition and explosives. Some sewer entrances were blown up. Two exits discovered outside the Ghetto were also made unusable by blowing them up or walling them up.

The depositions of some of the inmates of the dug-outs are to the effect that these Jews have been unable to leave the dug-outs for the last 10 days and that their food, etc., is now beginning to grow short because the large-scale operation has lasted so long. Furthermore, the Jews testify that bandits appeared at night who were Jews or sometimes Poles, wearing black masks, who walled the dug-outs up from the outside and admonished them not to give any signs of life, so that they could continue to live in the Ghetto when the action was finished. Some of the armaments factories are being evacuated very slowly. In several cases one gains the impression that this is done intentionally. Thus I discovered with regard to one firm, Schulz and Co., which I had visited on Easter Monday and then instructed to start evacuation at once and to have it completed within 3 days, that up till today, Thursday, nothing had been done.

Our strength: as on the previous day.
Our losses: none.

Termination of operation at 2100 hrs. Will be continued on 30 April 1943, 0900 hrs.

Total caught or destroyed: 35,760.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw

Warsaw, 30 April 1943.

Ref No.: I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 579/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 30 April 1943. Start 0900 hrs.

Combing out by search parties was continued. Although some giant blocks of buildings now are completely burned out, the Jews continue to stay in the dug-outs 2 to 3 meters below ground. In many cases we are not able to discover those dug-outs unless some Jew, whom we have already caught, gives us a hint as to their whereabouts. Repeatedly, during the last few days, Jews have testified that some armed Jews emerge at night from some hideouts or dug-outs and threaten the other Jews with shooting if they give any signs of life. We were able to ascertain beyond all doubt that several dug-outs had been closed from the outside by these bandits, who tried in this manner to prove that they meant business. Altogether, 30 dug-outs were discovered, evacuated, and blown up today. Again we caught a great number of bandits and subhumans. Apart from the bombing-out operations effected by small parties, two larger battle groups were occupied with bombing out and destroying by fire several inter-connected blocks of buildings.

A total of 1599 Jews were caught today, of whom 179 were killed in battle. The sum total of Jews caught up to date thereby rises to 37,359. 3,855 Jews were loaded today. The number of Jews in possession of arms was much higher than before among the Jews caught during the last few days. Today, we again captured arms and particularly parts of German uniforms from them. The operation against Fort Traugutta did not have any positive results. So far as we were able to discover subterranean exits, we either occupied them or blew them up. In attacking one of the blocks we had to use a gun today.

Our strength:

Used in the operation:
Police	5/133
Security Police	3/36
Waffen SS	6/432
Engineer	2/40
Staff	3/7
Cordoning forces:
Waffen SS	3/318
German Police	2/89
Trawniki men	200
moreover some Polish Police
Our losses: 1 wounded (Police)

Termination of today's large scale action: 2100 hours. Will be continued on 1 May 1943, 0900 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, May 1, 1943.

Ref: Nr.: I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 583/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large scale operation on 1 May 1943. Start 0900 hrs.

10 searching parties were detailed, moreover a larger battle group was detailed to comb out a certain block of buildings, with the added instruction to burn that block down. Within this block of buildings there existed a so-called armament factory which had not yet been entirely evacuated, although it had had enough time to do so. It was not exempted from the operation. Today's operation a total of 1,026 Jews were caught, of whom 245 were killed, either in battle or while resisting. Moreover, a considerable number of bandits and ringleaders were also caught. In one case a Jew who had already been made ready for transport fired three shots against a 1st Lieutenant of Police, but missed his mark. All the Jews caught today were forcibly pulled out of dug-outs. Not a single one gave himself up voluntarily, after his dug-out had been opened. A considerable part of the Jews caught were pulled out of the sewers. We continued systematically blowing up or blocking up the sewer entrances. In one case the Engineers laid a strong concentrated charge and had to proceed to an adjoining entrance where they had something to do. In the meantime a Jew emerged from the sewer, removed the fuse from the concentrated charge, and appropriated the charge. In the further course of this operation we succeeded in catching the Jew, still in possession of the concentrated charge.

In order to ascertain the movements of the Jews during the night, today I used for the first time 5 scouting parties, each 1/9 strong, at irregular intervals during the night. In general, it has to be stated that our men need extraordinary diligence and energy to discover the Jews who are still in so-called dug-outs, caves, and in the sewerage system. It can be expected that the remainder of the Jews who formerly inhabited the Ghetto will now be caught. The sum total of Jews caught so far has risen to 38,385. Not included in this figure are those who died in the flames or in the dug-outs. One patrol discovered an unascertainable number of corpses floating in a main sewer under the Ghetto. Outside of the Ghetto, in the immediate vicinity of Warsaw, the gendarmerie has shot a total of 150 Jews who could be proved to have escaped from Warsaw.

Again we captured pistols and explosives.

Our strength, used in the operation:
Police (German)	4/102
Security Police	2/1
Waffen SS	7/350
Engineers (Wehrmacht)	2/38
Engineering Emergency Service	1/6
Cordoning Units:
Waffen SS	300
German Police	1/71
Trawniki	250
Our losses: 1 Policeman—wounded yesterday died from wounds.

Termination of today's large-scale action: 2200 hours. Will be continued on 2 May 1943, 1000 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 2 May 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 584/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 2 May 1943, start 1000 hrs. 9 raiding parties combed out the whole area of the former Ghetto; moreover a larger detachment was detailed to clean out or destroy one block of buildings grouped around the two armament enterprises Transavia and Wischniewski. To find more dug-outs, the raiding parties took along with them some Jews caught on the previous day to act as guides. In these operations the raiding parties pulled out 944 Jews from dug-outs; 235 more Jews were shot on this occasion. When the block of buildings mentioned above was destroyed, 120 Jews were caught and numerous Jews were destroyed when they jumped from the attics to the inner courtyards, trying to escape the flames. Many more Jews perished in the flames or were destroyed when the dug-outs and sewer entrances were blown up. The Jews were removed from two armaments concerns and the managers were requested to evacuate within a short time.

Altogether we caught today: 1,852 Jews. The sum total of Jews caught thereby rises to 40,237 Jews. 27 dug-outs were discovered, forcibly opened and destroyed, arms and ammunition captured. When the external barricade was shot at and when some Jews who broke out from a sewer entrance outside the Ghetto made an attack, we suffered 7 losses, 4 Policemen and 3 Polish Policemen. The scouting parties used during the night encountered armed resistance from some Jews who under the protection of darkness ventured to emerge from their holes and dug-outs. We did not suffer losses thereby. On the other hand, a considerable number of Jews were killed or wounded in this operation.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police	3/98
Security Police	3/12
Engineering Em Service	1/6
Engineers (Wehrmacht)	2/37
SS-Gren	11/409
SS-Cav	3/7
Cordoning forces:
SS-Gren	1/300
German Police	2/9
Trawniki	200
Our losses:	4 Policemen wounded 3 Polish policemen wounded

Present at today's large-scale operation was the Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger.

Termination of operation: 2030 hours. Will be continued on 3 May 1943, 0900 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 3 May 1943.

Ref. Nr.: I ab-St/Gr—16 07—Journal Nr. 597/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 3 May 1943, start 0900 hrs. In the combing-out operation of the former Jewish Ghetto today 19 more dug-outs were discovered and the result was as follows:

Pulled out of dug-outs	1,392 Jews
Shot	95
Evacuated from former armament factories	177

The sum total of Jews caught thereby rises to 41,806 Jews. In most cases the Jews offered armed resistance before they left the dug-outs. We had two casualties (wounded). Some of the Jews and bandits fired pistols from both hands. Since we discovered several times today, that Jewesses had pistols concealed in their bloomers, every Jew and bandit will be ordered from today on, to strip completely for the search. We captured among other things, one German rifle, model 98, two 08 pistols and other calibers, also home-made hand grenades. The Jews cannot be induced to leave their dug-outs until several smoke candles have been burned. According to depositions made yesterday and today, the Jews were asked during the second half of 1942 to erect air-raid shelters. At that time under the camouflage of erecting air-raid shelters, they began to build the dug-outs which they are now inhabiting, in order to use them for an anti-Jewish operation. Some of the scouting parties used in the Ghetto were shot at last night. One casualty (wounded). These scouting parties reported that groups of armed bandits marched through the Ghetto.

Strength: as on the previous day.
Losses: 3 SS-men wounded.

Termination of today's operation: 2100 hrs. Will be continued on 4 May 1943. 0900 hrs.

3,019 Jews were loaded.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 4 May 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab-St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 603/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 4 May 1943, start 0900 hrs.

For mopping up the dug-outs a raiding party was used, 1/60 strong and reinforced by an Engineers' detachment provided by the Wehrmacht. This raiding party pulled 550 Jews out of dug-outs and killed in battle 188 Jews. Discovering the dug-outs becomes more and more difficult. Often they can only be discovered by betrayal through other Jews. If the Jews are requested to leave their dug-out voluntarily, they hardly ever obey; they can only be forced to do so by the use of smoke-candles.

The main forces were detailed about 1100 hours to comb out, mop up, and destroy two large blocks of buildings, containing the former firms Toebbens, Schulz and Co., and others. After these blocks had been completely cordoned off, we requested the Jews who were still within the buildings to come forward voluntarily. By this measure, we caught 456 Jews for evacuation. Not until the blocks of buildings were well aflame and were about to collapse did a further considerable number of Jews emerge, forced to do so by the flames and the smoke. Time and again the Jews try to escape even through burning buildings. Innumerable Jews whom we saw on the roofs during the conflagration perished in the flames. Others emerged from the upper stories in the last possible moment and were only able to escape death in the flames by jumping down. Today we caught a total of 2,283 Jews, of whom 204 were shot and innumerable Jews were destroyed in dug-outs and in the flames. The sum total of Jews caught rises to 44,089.

As is learned from depositions made by the Jews, today we caught part of the governing body of the so-called "Party." One member of the committee which leads the gang will be used tomorrow for mopping up some more fortified dug-outs with armed Jews inside. When the armament enterprises were evacuated, we again observed that the goods carted away were by no means valuable military equipment, as had been pretended, but trifles, like used furniture and other requisitioned items. We took appropriate measures against this at once.

The scouting parties who patrolled during the night in the former Ghetto again reported movements of the Jews in the burned out and destroyed streets and courtyards. In order to be better able to take the Jews by surprise, the scouting parties at night tie rags and other stuff round their shoes. In skirmishes between the scouting parties and Jews, 30 Jews were shot.

We captured 1 carbine, 3 pistols, and some ammunition. During the conflagration a considerable amount of stored ammunition exploded.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police		4/101
Security Police		2/14
Engineering Em Service		1/6
Engineers		2/41
Waffen SS		11/407
Cordoning forces:
	Day	Night
Waffen SS	25	1/300
German Police	2/87	1/11
Trawniki	200

Our losses: None.

Termination of operation: 2330 hours. Will be continued on 5 May 1943, 1000 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in
the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 5 May 1943.

Ref. Nr.: I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 607/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 5 May 1943. Start 1000 hrs. In the beginning of today's operations the raiding parties seemed to have less results than on the preceding days. When the operation terminated, however, quite a number of dug-outs had again been discovered, owing to the tracking ability of the men and to betrayal; 40 of these dug-outs were destroyed. As far as possible, the Jews in these dug-outs were caught (1,070 altogether). The combing out patrols shot about 126 Jews. Today again the Jews resisted in several places until they were captured. In several cases the entrances (hatches) of the dug-outs were forcibly held or bolted from the inside, so that only by using a strong explosive charge could we force them open and destroy the inmates. Today, we again captured arms and ammunition, including one pistol. From one enterprise still in existence (so-called Prosta) 2,850 Jews were caught for evacuation. This figure was included in the sum total reported earlier, so that only 1,070 have to be added; the present sum total therefore is 45,159.

Our strength: as on the preceding day.
Our losses: 1 SS man wounded, 1 Policeman wounded.
Sum total of losses to date: 8 dead, 55 wounded.

Termination of operation: 2200 hrs. Will be continued on 6 May 1943, 0900 hrs.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop.
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 6 May 1943.

Ref. Nov: ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 614/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto large-scale operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 6 May 1943, start 0930 hrs.

Today we combed especially those blocks of buildings which were destroyed by fire on 4 May 1943. Although it was hardly to be expected that any living person could still exist in those blocks, we discovered quite a number of dug-outs in which a burning heat had developed. From these dug-outs and from other dug-outs which we discovered in other parts of the Ghetto, we pulled out 1,553 Jews. While resisting, and in a skirmish, 356 Jews were shot. In this skirmish the Jews fired from 08 pistols and other calibers and threw Polish "pineapple" hand grenades. One SS Unterscharfuehrer was wounded and a total of 47 dug-outs were destroyed.

2 men of the external cordoning forces were wounded. The Jews who had broken out from the Ghetto seem to be returning now with the intention of assisting the Ghetto Jews by force or liberating them. One Jew who had escaped from Lublin was caught just outside of the Ghetto wall. He was armed as follows: 1 08 pistol, ample reserve ammunition, 2 Polish "pineapple" hand grenades. It could not be reliably ascertained so far whether the so-called "Party Directorate" of the Jews ("PPR") have been caught or destroyed. We are on their traces. It is to be hoped that tomorrow we shall succeed in tracing down this so-called Party Directorate. In order to enable us to intercept more effectively the Jews and bandits who approach the Ghetto, covering detachments of the external barricade were shifted farther inside the Aryan part. The former miniature Ghetto "Prosta" was searched by raiding parties today. We caught some Jews who had stayed behind. The firm Toebbens was requested to evacuate, this miniature Ghetto by noon on 10 May 1943. The so-called library, situated outside the Ghetto, was put at their disposal for temporary storage of their raw materials, etc.

The sum total of Jews caught so far rises to 47,068. The Polish Police take pains to deliver to my office every Jew who turns up within the city, because they are eager to win such premiums as have been paid in earlier cases. The undersigned received some anonymous letters in which he was notified of the fact that some Jews are staying in the Aryan part of the city. One anonymous letter draws a parallel between Katyn and the large-scale action within the Ghetto.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police		4/101
Security Police		2/14
Engineering Em Service		1/6
Engineers		3/72
Waffen SS		10/500
Cordoning forces:
	Day	Night
Waffen SS	25	1/300
German Police	2/87	1/11
Trawniki	200
Polish Police	1/180	1/180

Our losses:

1 Policeman dead
1 Policeman seriously wounded
1 SS Unterscharfuehrer less seriously wounded

Termination of operation: 2100 hours. Will be continued on 7 May 1943, 0930 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 7 May 1943.

Ref. Nr.: I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal Nr. 616/43 secret

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 7 May 1943, start 1000 hrs.

The combing-out parties today obtained the following results: 49 dug-outs discovered. Part of the Jews were caught. A considerable, not ascertainable, number of Jews who refused to leave the dug-outs and offered armed resistance were destroyed when the dug-outs were blown up. Altogether 1,019 Jews were caught alive today, 255 shot. The sum total of Jews caught so far rises to 48,342. Today we again encountered armed resistance in several cases, whereby we lost 1 SS man (wounded). We captured 4 pistols of various calibers and some stores of ammunition.

The location of the dug-out used by the so-called select "Party Directorate" is now known. It is to be forced open tomorrow. The Jews testify that they emerge at night to get fresh air, since it is unbearable to stay permanently within the dug-outs owing to the long duration of the operation. On the average the raiding parties shoot 30 to 50 Jews each night. From these statements it was to be inferred that a considerable number of Jews are still underground in the Ghetto. Today we blew up a concrete building which we had not been able to destroy by fire. In this operation we learned that the blowing up of a building is a very lengthy process and takes an enormous amount of explosives. The best and only method for destroying the Jews therefore still remains the setting of fires.

Our strength: as on the preceding day.
Our losses: 1 Waffen-SS man wounded.

Termination of operation: 2100 hours, will be continued on 8 May 1943 1000 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy;
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 8 May 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab/St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 624/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of operation on 8 May 1943, start 1000 hours.

The whole former Ghetto was searched today by raiding parties for the remaining dug-outs and Jews. As reported some days a number of subhumans, bandits, and terrorists still remain in the dug-outs, where heat has become intolerable by reason of the fires. These creatures know only too well that their only choice is between remaining in hiding as long as possible or coming to the surface and trying to wound or kill off the men of the Waffen-SS, Police, and Wehrmacht who keep up the pressure against them.

We continued today the operation against the dug-out of the so-called select "Party Directorate" which we had discovered yesterday, as reported in my teletype message yesterday. We succeeded in forcing open the dug-out of the Party Directorate and in catching about 60 heavily armed bandits. We succeeded in catching and liquidating Deputy Leader of the Jewish Military Organization "ZWZ" and his so-called Chief of Staff. There were about 200 Jews in this dug-out, of whom 60 were caught and 140 were destroyed, partly owing to the strong effect of smoke-candles, and partly owing to heavy explosive charges which were laid in several places. The Jews whom we caught had already reported that innumerable Jews had been killed by the effect of the smoke-candles. The fight of the first six days was hard, but now we are able to state that we are catching those Jews and Jewesses who were the ringleaders in those days. Every time a dug-out is forced open, the Jews in it offer resistance with the arms at their disposal, light machine guns, pistols, and hand grenades. Today we again caught quite a number of Jewesses who carried loaded pistols in their bloomers, with the safety catch released. Some depositions speak of 3 to 4,000 Jews who still remain in underground holes, sewers, and dug-outs. The undersigned is resolved not to terminate the large-scale operation until the last Jew has been destroyed.

A total of 1,091 Jews were caught today in dug-outs; about 280 Jews were shot in battle, innumerable Jews were destroyed in the 43 dug-outs which were blown up. The sum total of Jews caught has risen to 49,712. Those buildings which had not yet been destroyed by fire, were set on fire today and we discovered that a few Jews were still hiding somewhere within the walls or in the staircases.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police		4/101
Security Police		2/14
Engineering Em Service		1/6
Engineers		3/69
Waffen SS		13/527
Cordoning forces:
	Day	Night
Waffen SS		1/300
German Police	1/87	1/36
Trawniki	160
Polish Police	1/160	1/160

Our losses:

2 Waffen SS dead
2 Waffen SS wounded
1 Engineer wounded

A policeman wounded on 7 May 1943 died today from wounds. We captured about 15 to 20 pistols of various calibers, considerable stores of ammunition for pistols and rifles, moreover a number of hand grenades, made in the former armament factories.

Termination of action: 2130 hours, will be continued on 9 May 1943 1000 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 9 May 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab/St/Gr 1607 Journal No. 625/43.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 9 May 1943, start 1000 hours.

The operation carried out today had the following result: The raiding parties at work today discovered 42 dug-outs. From these dug-outs we pulled out alive 1,037 Jews and bandits. In battle 319 bandits and Jews were shot, moreover an uncertain number were destroyed when the dug-outs were blown up. The block of buildings which formerly contained the "Transavia" concern was destroyed by fire; in this operation we again caught a number of Jews, although this block had been combed through several times.

Again we captured some pistols and hand grenades.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police		4/103
Security Police		2/12
Engineers		3/69
Waffen SS		13/547
Cordoning forces:
	Day	Night
Waffen SS		1/300
German Police	1/87	1/36
Trawniki	160
Polish Police	1/160	1/160

Our losses: None.

The total of Jews caught up to date has risen to 51,313. Outside the former Ghetto 254 Jews and bandits were shot.

Termination of operation: 2100 hours, will be continued on 10 May 1943, 1000 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw,
Warsaw, 10 May, 1943.

Ref. Nr. I ab St/Gr 16 07 Journal No. 627/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale action on 10 May 1943 start 1000 hrs.

Today raiding parties again combed out the area of the former Ghetto. As on preceding days we again pulled out of the dug-outs, against all expectations, a considerable number of Jews. The resistance offered by the Jews had not weakened today. In contrast to the previous days, it seems that those members of the main body of the Jewish battle group who are still in existence and have not been destroyed have retired into the ruins still within their reach, with the intention of firing from there against our men and inflicting casualties.

Today we caught a total of 1,183 Jews alive, 187 bandits and Jews were shot. Again a not ascertainable number of Jews and bandits were destroyed in the blown-up dug-outs. The total of Jews caught up to date has risen to 52,693.

Today at 0900 hours a truck drove up to a certain sewer in the so-called Prosta. Someone in the truck exploded two hand grenades, which was the signal for the bandits who were standing ready in the sewer to climb out of it. The bandits and Jews—there are always some Polish bandits among them—armed with carbines, small arms, and one machine gun, climbed into the truck and drove away in an unknown direction. The last man of the gang, who stood sentry in the sewer and had the duty of closing the sewer lid, was captured. It is he who gave the above information. He testified that most of the members of the gang, which had been divided into several battle groups, had either been killed in battle or had committed suicide because they had realized the futility of continuing the fight. The search for the truck, which was ordered at once, had no results. The bandits testified further that the Prosta is now the refuge for the still existing Jews because the Ghetto has become too hot for them. For this reason, I resolved to deal with the Prosta in the same manner as with the Ghetto, and to destroy this miniature Ghetto.

Today, we again captured small arms and some ammunition. The Security Police yesterday succeeded in capturing a workshop outside the Ghetto which manufactured 10,000 to 11,000 explosive charges and other ammunition.

Our strength: as on the preceding day.
Our losses: 3 SS men wounded.

Owing to the excellent understanding between us and the Wehrmacht, the detachment of Engineers was reinforced. Moreover, a considerable amount of explosives was put at our disposal.

Termination of operation: 2200 hours. Will be continued on 11 May 1943, 0930 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 11 May 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab-St/Gr—16 07 Journal No. 629/43 secret.

Re: Ghetto large-scale Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 11 May 1943, start 0930 hours.

The scouting parties sent out last night again reported that there must still be some Jews within the dug-outs, since some Jews were seen in the ruined streets. The scouting parties shot 12 Jews. On the basis of these reports, today I again formed raiding parties who in combing-out operations discovered, captured, and destroyed a total of 47 dug-outs. Today again we caught some Jews who had taken refuge in ruins which were still protected by a roof. The Jews and bandits are still seeking this new refuge, because staying in the dug-outs has become unbearable. One dug-out was discovered which contained about 12 rooms equipped with plumbing, running water, and separate bathrooms for men and women. Considerable amounts of food were captured or secured, in order to make it more and more difficult for them to get necessary food.

A total of 931 Jews and bandits were caught. 53 bandits were shot. More of them perished when dug-outs were blown up and when a small block of buildings was destroyed by fire. The total of Jews caught up to date has risen to 53,667. We captured several pistols, hand grenades, and ammunition.

We have not been able to smoke out the sewers systematically once more, since we are short of smoke-candles. "OFK" is ready to provide new smoke-candles.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police		6/126
Engineering Em Service		1/6
Security Police		2/14
Engineers		4/76
Waffen SS		12/308
Cordoning forces:
	Day	Night
Waffen SS		1/130
German Police	1/112	1/86
Trawniki	160
Polish Police	1/160	1/160

Our losses: 1 SS man wounded.

Total of losses up to date: 71 wounded, 12 dead.

Termination of today's operation: 2145 hours, will be continued on 12 May 1943, 0930 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 12 May 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab-St/Gr—16 07—Journal No. 637/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 12 May 1943, start 0930 hours.

When the raiding parties combed out the area for remaining dug-outs in which Jews were hiding, they succeeded in discovering 30 dug-outs. 663 Jews were pulled out of them and 133 Jews were shot. The sum total of Jews caught has arisen to 54,463.

Furthermore today the units cordoning off the miniature Ghetto were reinforced and destroyed by fire. Probably a considerable number of Jews perished in the flames, no accurate information in this regard could be obtained since the fire was still burning when darkness set in. One concrete building in the Prosta, from which Jews had been removed, was heavily damaged by blowing-up operations in order to make it impossible for the bandits to use it as a base later.

It is noteworthy that the Poles, without having been warned, took appropriate measures for protecting their window-panes, etc., before the blowing-up started.

The transports of Jews leaving here will be directed to T.II beginning today.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police		5/126
Engineering Em Service		1/6
Security Police		2/14
Engineers		4/74
Waffen SS		12/508
Cordoning forces:
	Day	Night
Waffen SS		1/300
German Police	1/112	1/86
Trawniki	160
Polish Police	1/160	1/160

Our losses: 1 Waffen SS man wounded.

Termination of today's operation: 2100 hours, will be continued on 13 May 1943, 1000 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw

Warsaw, 13 May, 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab/ St/Gr 16 07 Journal No. 641/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 13 May 1943, start 1000 hours.

In combing out the Ghetto and the miniature Ghetto (Prosta) today we found 234 Jews. 155 Jews were shot in battle. Today it became clear that the Jews and bandits whom we are catching now belong to the so-called battle groups. All of them are young fellows and females between 18 and 25 years of age. When we captured one, a real skirmish took place, in which the Jews not only fired from 08 pistols and Polish Vis pistols, but also threw Polish "pineapple" hand grenades at the Waffen-SS men. After part of the inmates of the dug-out had been caught and were about to be searched, one of the females as quick as lightning put her hand under her shirt, as many others had done, and fetched from her bloomers a "pineapple" hand grenade, drew the safety-catch, threw the grenade among the men who were searching her, and jumped quickly to cover. It is only thanks to the presence of mind of the men that no casualties ensued.

The few Jews and criminals still staying in the Ghetto have for the last few days been using the hideouts they can still find among the ruins, retiring at night into the dug-outs whose location is known to them, to eat and get provisions for the next day. Lately we have been unable to extract information on the whereabouts of further dug-outs from the captured Jews. The remainder of the inmates of that dug-out where the skirmish took place were destroyed by using heavier explosive charges. From a Wehrmacht concern we evacuated 327 Jews today. The Jews we catch now are sent to T.II.

The total of Jews caught has risen to 55,179.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police		4/182
Engineering Em Service		1/6
Security Police		2/14
Engineers		4/74
Waffen SS		12/517
Cordoning forces:
	Day	Night
Waffen SS		1/300
German Police	2/137	1/87
Trawniki	270
Polish Police	1/160	1/160

Our losses: 2 Waffen SS dead
3 Waffen SS wounded
1 Policeman wounded.

The 2 Waffen SS men lost their lives in the air attack against the Ghetto.

33 dug-outs were discovered and destroyed. Booty: 6 pistols, 2 hand grenades, and some explosive charges.

Termination of today's operation: 2100 hours, will be continued on 14 May 1943, 1000 hours.

My intention is to terminate the large-scale operation on 16 May 1943 and to turn all further measures over to Police battalion III/23. Unless ordered otherwise, I am going to submit to the conference of SS and Policefuehrers a detailed report of the operation, including an appendix containing photos.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.
Signed: Stroop
SS Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.
Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 14 May 1943.

Ref. No. I ab/St/G 16 07 Journal No. 646/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 14 May 1943, start 1000 hours.

The raiding parties formed today went to work within the areas allotted to each of them under orders to force open further dwelling dug-outs and to catch the Jews. In this way a considerable number of bandits and Jews were caught, especially as some traces had been discovered during the night which were now followed up with good results. The night patrols clashed with armed bandits several times. These bandits fired a machine gun and small arms. In this operation we had four casualties—3 Waffen-SS men and 1 Policeman. Repeatedly, shots were fired from the Aryan part against the external barricade. In the skirmishes about 30 bandits were shot and 9 Jews and bandits, members of an armed gang, were captured. One dug-out was taken during the night, the Jews captured, and some pistols, among them one of 12-mm caliber, were captured. In one dug-out inhabited by 100 persons, we were able to capture 2 rifles, 16 pistols, some hand grenades and incendiary appliances. Of the bandits who resisted, some again wore German military uniform, German steel helmets and "knobeloecher." Apart from the carbines, we captured 60 rounds of German rifle ammunition. One raiding party had a skirmish with a gang, 10 to 14 strong, on the roofs of a block of buildings at the border of the Ghetto (Aryan part). The bandits were destroyed; we suffered no losses.

The captured bandits repeatedly testify that still not all persons in the Ghetto have been caught. They confidently expect that the action will soon be over, and that they will then be able to continue to live in the Ghetto. Several bandits stated that they had long been in a position to kill off the leader of the action, the "General," as they call him, but that they would not do so, since they had orders to that effect to avoid the risk of a further intensification of the anti-Jewish measures.

Today again some concrete buildings in which the bandits find refuge time and again were blown up by the engineers.

In order to force the bandits in the sewers to come to the surface, 183 sewer entrances were opened at 1500 hours, and smoke-candles were lowered into them at an ordered x-time, thereupon the bandits, seeking escape from what they supposed to be poison gas, crowded together in the center of the former Ghetto, and we were able to pull them out of the sewer entrances there.

I shall come to a decision after tomorrow's operations regarding termination of the action.

Today SS-Gruppenfuehrer and Lieutenant General of Waffen-SS von Horff was present during the operations.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police		4/184
Engineering Em Service		1/6
Security Police		2/16
Engineers		4/73
Waffen SS		12/510
Cordoning forces:
	Day	Night
Waffen SS		1/300
German Police	2/138	1/87
Trawniki	270
Polish Police	1/160	1/160

Our losses: 5 wounded, 4 Waffen SS, 1 Police

A total of 398 Jews were caught today, furthermore 154 Jews and bandits were shot in battle. The total of the Jews caught has risen to 55,731.

Booty: rifles, pistols, and ammunition. Further, a number of incendiary bottles (Molotov cocktails).

Termination of action: 2155 hours, will be continued on 15 May 1943 0900 hours.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.
Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.
Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, May 15th 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab/St/Gr 16 07 Journal No. 648/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 15 April 1943. Start 0900 hours.

The 5 scouting parties who patrolled the Ghetto last night reported that they encountered Jews only sporadically. In contrast to the preceding nights, they were able to shoot 6 or 7 Jews. The combing-out actions today also had little result. 29 more dug-outs were discovered, but part of them were no longer inhabited. A total of 87 Jews were caught today and 67 bandits and Jews were shot in battle. In a skirmish which developed around noon, and in which the bandits again resisted by using Molotov cocktails, pistols, and home-made hand grenades, the gang was destroyed; but subsequently a policeman was wounded by a shot through the right thigh. A special unit once more searched the last block of buildings which was still intact in the Ghetto, and subsequently destroyed it. In the evening the chapel, mortuary, and all other buildings on the Jewish cemetery were blown up or destroyed by fire.

The sum total of Jews caught has risen to 55,885.

Our strength, used in the operation:
German police		4/184
Engineering Em Service		1/6
Security Police		2/16
Engineers		4/74
Waffen SS		12/510
Cordoning forces:
	Day	Night
Waffen SS		1/300
German Police	2/138	1/87
Trawniki	270
Polish Police	1/160	1/160

Our losses: 1 Policeman wounded.

We captured 4 pistols of larger calibers, 1 infernal machine with fuse, 10 kilograms of explosives, and a considerable amount of ammunition. Termination of operation: 2130 hours. Will be continued on 16 May 1943, 1000 hours.

I will terminate the large-scale operation on 16 May 1943 at dusk, by blowing up the Synagogue, which we did not succeed in accomplishing today, and will subsequently charge Police Battalion III/23 with continuing and completing the measures which are still necessary.

The SS and Police Fuehrer
in the District of Warsaw.

Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.

Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, May 16th, 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab-St/Gr 16 07 Journal Nr. 652/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

Progress of large-scale operation on 16 May 1943, start 1000 hours.

180 Jews, bandits, and subhumans were destroyed. The former Jewish quarter of Warsaw is no longer in existence. The large-scale action was terminated at 2015 hours by blowing up the Warsaw Synagogue.

The measures to be taken with regard to the established banned areas were handed over to the commander of police battalion III/23, whom I instructed carefully.

Total number of Jews dealt with 56,065, including both Jews caught and Jews whose extermination can be proved.

No losses today.

I will submit a final report to the Conference of SS Police Fuehrer on 18 May 1943.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.
Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigade Fuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.
Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Copy

Teletype message

From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 24 May 1943.

Ref. No.: I ab-St/Gr 16 07 Journal Nr. 663/43 secret.

Re: Large-scale Ghetto Operation.

Ref: Your teletype message Nr. 946 of 21 May 1943.

To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of Police Krueger—or deputy.

Cracow

I beg to reply to the above teletype message:

No. 1:

Of the total of 56,065 caught, about 7,000 were destroyed in the former Ghetto during large-scale operation. 6,929 Jews were destroyed by transporting them to T.II; the sum total of Jews destroyed is therefore 13,929. Beyond the number of 56,065 an estimated number of 5 to 6,000 Jews were destroyed by being blown up or by perishing in the flames.

No. 2:

A total of 631 dug-outs were destroyed.

No. 3 (booty):

7 Polish rifles, 1 Russian rifle, 1 German rifle.

59 pistols of various calibers.

Several 100 hand grenades, including Polish and home-made ones.

A few 100 incendiary bottles.

Home-made explosive charges.

Infernal machines with fuses.

Large amounts of explosives, ammunition for all calibers, including machine-gun ammunition.

With regard to the bag of arms one must take into consideration that in most cases we were not able to capture the arms themselves, since the Jews and bandits before they were captured threw them away into hideouts and holes which we could not discover or find. The smoke which we had developed in the dug-outs also prevented our men from discovering and capturing the arms. Since we had to blow up the dug-outs at once we were not in a position to search for the arms later on.

The hand grenades, explosive charges, and incendiary bottles captured were used at once against the bandits.

Furthermore, we captured:

1,240 used uniform tunics (partly equipped with medal ribbons, Iron Cross, and East Medal).

600 pairs of used trousers.

Pieces of equipment, and German steel helmets.

103 horses, 4 of them in the former Ghetto (hearse).

We counted up to 23 May 1943:

4.4 million Zloty. We captured moreover about 5 to 6 million Zloty, not yet counted, a considerable amount of foreign currency, including—

$14,300 in paper.
$9,200 in gold.

Large amounts of valuables (rings, chains, watches etc.)

No. 4:

With the exception of 8 buildings (police barracks, hospital and accommodations for working parties) the former Ghetto has been completely destroyed. Where blowing-up was not carried out, only partition walls are still standing. But the ruins still contain enormous amounts of bricks and scrap material which could be used.

The SS and Police Fuehrer in the
District of Warsaw.
Signed: Stroop
SS-Brigadefuehrer and Majorgeneral of Police.
Certified copy:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer.

Pictorial report

[Translator's note: captions of photos follow in order]

1. The building of the former Jewish Council.

2. Out of the factories.

3. Discussion of the evacuation of a factory.

4. The Jewish section chiefs of the armament factory Brauer.

5. Brauer Company!

6. Column marching to the railway station.

7. On the way to the transhipping place.

8. Search and interrogation.

9. Jewish Rabbis.

10. Jewish Rabbis.

11. A patrol.

12. Dregs of humanity.

13. Forcibly pulled out of dug-outs.

14. Just pulled out of a dug-out.

15. Just pulled out of a dug-out.

16. These bandits resisted by force of arms.

17. Bandits destroyed in battle.

18. A dug-out is opened.

19. Jewish traitors.

20. Bandits!

21. Smoking-out of the Jews and bandits.

22. A place which had been prepared for escape and jumping down.

23. Destruction of a block of buildings [2 photos].

24. Destruction of a block of buildings.

25. [no caption]

26. On the way to the transhipping place.

27. Jews are marched away.

28. On the way to the transhipping place.

29. Photos showing parts of so-called dwelling dug-outs.

30-33. [no caption]

34. Measures for covering a street.

35. They were found in underground dug-outs.

36. (1) These bandits are avoiding arrest by jumping down.

(2) Bandits after having jumped down.

37. The radio car of the command post.

38. Ascaris who were used in the operation.

39. The C.O. of the large-scale action.

40. This is how the former Ghetto looks after having been destroyed.

41-48. [no caption]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1063-A-PS

SECRET

Berlin 2 Jan 1941
The Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service
State Police Headquarters, Duesseldorf

15 Jan 1941
IV C2 general Nr. 4685/40 g [rubber stamp]

To:

a. Reichs security headquarters (Distributor B).

b. All State police headquarters.

c. All commandants of the security police and security service.

For the information of:

d. All inspectors of the security police and security service.

e. The inspectors of the concentration camps (with 15 copies for the camp commandants).

f. The commanders of the security police and security service in Krakow and Prague.

Subject: Classification of the concentration camps.

The Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German police has given his approval to classify the concentration camps into various categories which take into account the personality of the prisoner as well as the degree of his danger to the State. Accordingly, the concentration camps will be classified into the following categories:

Category I: For all prisoners with only little accusation and definitely qualified for correction, also for special cases and solitary confinement, the camps:

Dachau

Sachsenhausen

Auschwitz I

(The latter also applies in part to category II)

Category Ia: For all old prisoners and conditionally qualified for work, who can still be used in the medicinal herb gardens, the camp:

Dachau

Category II: For prisoners with heavy accusations, but still qualified for reeducation and correction, the camps:

Buchenwald

Flossenbuerg

Auschwitz II

Category III: For the heavily accused prisoners, at the same time also for those who have been previously convicted for criminal offences, for social prisoners that is to say, those who can hardly be corrected, the camp: Mauthausen.

Not to be included in category Ia are old prisoners not qualified for work and in need of medical treatment. They are therefore to remain in the specifically provided sections for this purpose of the respective concentration camp. More serious cases are to be transferred to the hospital section of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen.

A regrouping of the prisoners within the camps according to the new classification cannot be undertaken right now in view of the current measures for the execution of the prisoner commitment. New dispositions will be made, however, in accordance with the classification.

I ask therefore, that in the future, with the arrest warrant and the transfer to a concentration camp, suggestions be made as to the category of the prisoner with regard to his personality as well as the degree of his danger to the State.

I therefore order that a complete record of the political life, previous convictions for criminal offences and conduct of the prisoner since the taking over of the power be established, and that request for assignment into category III be specifically and carefully motivated.

This decree does not apply to the district and local police authorities.

[seal of the secret state police]
/s/ HEYDRICH
certified correct
/s/ BLEECK

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1063-B-PS

Headquarters of the Reichs Security Service
II C 3 Nr 5028/43-273-2 (General)

Berlin 26 July 1943

To the higher SS and Police Chiefs

the commanders of the security police and the security service

the inspectors of the security police and the security service

the deputy of the chiefs of the secret police and the security service within the territory of the military commander in Belgium and northern France in Brussels

the chiefs of the Einsatzgruppe B and D

For the information of:

the state police headquarters

the commandants of the security police and the security service

Reich's security main office—office IV

[seal]
State Police Hq Duesseldorf
16 Aug 1943

Subject: Organization of labor reformatory camps

The Reichsfuehrer SS has given his consent that besides concentration camps, which come under the jurisdiction of the SS economical administration main office, further labor reformatory camps may be created for which the security police alone is competent. These labor reformatory camps are dependent on the authorization of the Reichs security main office, which can only be granted in case of emergency (great number of foreign workers, etc.).

At the same time, the Reichsfuehrer SS has forbidden that prison camps of all sorts (among others, enlarged police prisons, labor reformatory camps, transient camps) be placed under the immediate jurisdiction of the higher SS and police chiefs or the commanders and inspectors of the security police and of the security service. He has ordered that those camps come for administration and command under the jurisdiction of the state police headquarters, commandants of the security police and the security service or the immigration and transient agencies. Thus the general supervision of the superior offices remains undisturbed by this affiliation.

The decrees of 28.5.1941 and 12.12.1941 concerning the organization of labor reformatory camps remain also in effect. For the General Government and the occupied territories, reference is made to the decree from 29.3.1943 II c 3 Nr. 5028/43273-2.

[seal of the Reichsleiter]
SS and chief /s/ Dr KALTENBRUNNER
of the German police Certified correct
in the Reichministry /s/ Riemer
of the Interior

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1063-D-PS

SECRET

The Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service
B. Nr. IV* 656/42 SECRET

Berlin 17 Dec 1942

Secret To:

All commanders of the security police and the security service

All inspectors of the security police and the security service

All commandants of the security police and the security service

All chiefs of the State police headquarters

For the information of:

The chief of the SS economic and administration headquarters, SS Lt Gen Pohl

All higher SS and police chiefs

The inspectors of the concentration camps

For reasons of war necessity not to be discussed further here, the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police on 14 December 1942, has ordered that until the end of January 1943, at least 35,000 prisoners qualified for work, are to be sent to the concentration camps.

In order to reach this number, the following measures are required:

1. As of now (so far until 1 Feb. 1943) all eastern workers or such foreign workers who have been fugitives, or who have broken contracts, and who do not belong to allied, friendly or neutral States are to be brought by the quickest means to the nearest concentration camps. For this, the most necessary formalities, as listed under N. 3 must be observed.

In order to eliminate and to avoid complaints, each and every one of these measures in the individual cases must be presented to third authorities, by giving careful reasons, as being irremissible security police measures.

2. The commanders and the commandants of the security police and the security service, and the chiefs of the State police headquarters will check immediately on the basis of a close and strict ruling.

a. the prisons.

b. the labor reformatory camps.

All prisoners qualified for work, if it is essentially and humanly possible, will be committed at once to the nearest concentration camp, according to the following instructions, for instance also if penal procedures were to be established in the near future. Only such prisoners who in the interest of investigation procedures are to remain absolutely in solitary confinement can be left there.

Every single laborer counts!

The checking must be taken up at once. All withholding of prisoners qualified for work is prohibited. My approval is required for exceptions.

3. The prisoners who are committed to concentration camps till the 1 Feb 1943 will be seized under reference to this decree, solely according to a list (present number, first and second name, place of birth and date, residence, reason for arrest with short commentary). One list will be sent to the Reichs security headquarters as a collective request for both protective custody as well as for commitment to a concentration camp, for which the confirmation can be assumed.

In regards to eastern workers, that is to say for such workers who have to wear the insignia "EAST", it is sufficient to give the total number of the arrested.

One copy goes with the transport to the commander of the concentration camp, and another copy remains with the authorities who are making the commitment.

In order to facilitate the necessary exploitation, the lists are to be made up on single pages and in such a way that enough space be left between the data of the individual prisoners, so that the lists can be cut out.

The lists are to be sent to the Reichs security headquarters, Referat IV c 2.

By direction

signed: MUELLER
certified correct

[seal of the secret state police]

signed: HILLMUTH
Chief Secretary of Police

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1063-E-PS

The Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service (SD)
IV-C-2 General No. 656/42 g

[Initials] B.R.
[Stamp] Bureau of State Police, Duesseldorf
Berlin, 25 June 1943

TO:

a. All commanders of the security police and the security service

b. All inspectors

c. All commandants

d. All chiefs of the directing office of the state police

e. All groups and sub-divisions [Referate] of Bureau IV of the Reichs Central Office of Security

For information purposes to:

f. The chief of the SS central administrative office of economy, SS Obergruppenfuehrer (Lt Gen) POHL

g. All higher SS and police chiefs

h. SS central administrative office of economy, office group D—Concentration Camp—in Oraninburg (with 30 copies for the camps)

i. Referate II C3

Subject: Increased shipments to concentration camps.

Reference: My decrees of 17 Dec 1942—IV 656/42 g and of 23 March 1943—IV C 2, Gen No 656/42 g

The regulations for exceptions contained in the above mentioned decrees, which achieved their intended goal, are hereby revoked immediately.

The given directives have not been observed everywhere during the execution of those shipments to concentration camps. Subjects of allied, friendly or neutral states, as well as minors, have, for instance in several cases, been committed to concentration camps in spite of the strictest orders to the contrary. Their re-transfer will lead to difficulties and cause an unnecessary, supplemental effort.

In order to prevent justified complaints, especially of a diplomatic nature, I request to check the shipments which have been carried out immediately. Commitments contrary to the regulations must immediately be reported, since the cases have already been classified according to the general rules of protective custody, in every single case, and the release or other dispositions of such prisoners effectuated as quickly as possible.

This decree does not concern district and local police authorities.

By direction

signed: MUELLER

Stamp: Reichsfuehrer SS and
Chief of the German Police.

The Reichs Ministry of the
Interior

[Pencil note:] Duesseldorf
Certified:
signed: BLEECK [?]
Employee of the Chancellery

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1099-PS

The Commissar General for White Ruthenia
Minsk, 29 September 1941

To: The Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, Reichsleiter Rosenberg

Berlin W 35
Rauchstrasse 17/18

Personal

My dear Party Comrade Reichsleiter Rosenberg!

Only today, after extensive investigations, was I able to locate the rest of the art treasures in Minsk and store them away in a safe place. Minsk had a large, in part very valuable, collection of art treasures and paintings which were removed almost in their entirety. On an order of the Reichsfuehrer SS, Reichsleiter Heinrich Himmler, most of the paintings, some still during my term of office, were packed by the SS and shipped to the Reich. They are worth several millions of marks and were all taken from the general district of White Ruthenia. The paintings were supposedly sent to Linz and to Koenigsberg in East Prussia. I beg to have these valuable collections, insofar as they are not needed in the Reich, again placed at the disposal of the general district of White Ruthenia, in any case, however, to have the money value secured for the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories.

According to the report made by a Major of the 707th Division who today handed the remaining treasures over to me, the SS has left the rest of the paintings and works of art to the Wehrmacht for further pillaging, including very valuable paintings and furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries, vases, marble objects, clocks, etc. General Stubenrauch has taken a valuable part from Minsk with him up to the front. "Sonderfuehrer" whose names have not yet been reported to me, have carried away furniture, paintings and art objects * * * in 3 trucks, without giving a receipt. I shall ascertain which unit it was, in order to carry out the punishment of those who have made themselves guilty of looting. From the material that was left, local authorities of the Wehrmacht and of the SS took away more art treasures and paintings without my permission; those, however, may still be found in Minsk.

I request that the national socialist painter, Willi Springer, Berlin SW 29, Hasenheide 94, be sent here to restore those paintings which were in part thoughtlessly damaged by knife slashings, so that under his supervision whatever can still be salvaged, should be salvaged. Unfortunately, many valuable vases, china, cupboards, and period furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries were also badly damaged or destroyed. Altogether it is a question of irreplaceable valuables worth millions of marks. I request that for the future the Ministry for Eastern Affairs take action with the competent authorities of the Wehrmacht so that such vandalism be stopped and that those responsible to be threatened with the heaviest possible punishment and that such punishment be inflicted if necessary.

The prehistoric museum also is in a completely devastated state. Valuable precious and semiprecious stones were stolen from the geological section. At the university, instruments worth hundreds of thousands of marks were thoughtlessly destroyed or stolen. May I suggest, my dear Reichsleiter, that you report these events to the Fuehrer? White Ruthenia, already rather poor, has suffered a heavy loss through these actions. I hope that specialists will be employed in Leningrad, and in Moscow, as well as in the old cultural cities in the Ukraine, to prevent occurrences of this kind; otherwise the civilian administration shall find everywhere the same devastation as was found here.

Heil Hitler!

Yours faithfully,

(signed) Wilhelm KUBE
Commissar General for White Ruthenia

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1104-PS

The Personal Reviewer of the Permanent Deputy of the Minister of the Reich

Berlin, 21 November 1941
Bi/T Nr 58 A/41 Secret
To Dr. Marquart

Enclosed herewith I transmit to you the copy of an incident regarding the measures against the Jews in the general-district of Minsk, with the request to submit the same to the Minister of the Reich.

On order of the Gauleiter I have sent one copy to Lieutenant General of the SS, Heydrich, with the request for investigation of the incident.

signed: BIGENWALD
3 enclosures

Copy /T

The Commissioner General for White Ruthenia
Dept Gauleiter/Ka
Minsk, 1 November 1941

To the Reich Commissioner for the Eastern Territories, Gauleiter Hinrich Lohse, Riga

Today, money, valuables and other objects were deposited at the cashier of my office against receipt, in the presence of Government Councillor Dr. Idelberger of the Police Battalion 11. These matters were from Sluzk and other regions which the Police Battalion 11 had included in its action without my order and without my knowledge. All objects and the money have been safely deposited by officials of Commissariat General with the Reich Credit Institute [Reichskreditanstalt] and are held at the disposal of the Reich Commissioner. Reserve officer 1st Lieutenant of the Police Brodeck attempted in the course of this incident to purchase gold for private purposes in order to use it for a personal affair, as witnessed by Government Councillor Dr. Idelberger, my adjutant, SS-2nd Lt Wildenstein and myself.

I have immediately reported the case to the responsible field command post at Minsk and requested the arrest of the police officer. 1st Lt Brodeck was immediately set free by the investigating court martial officer as the court martial officer did not find any basis for charges in this incident. This is contrary to the legal conception of my office. Any private dealing in gold is prohibited in the German Reich. Aggravating in this case is furthermore the fact that an officer of the same unit is involved which has effected the liquidation of the former possessors of gold.

The Commissioner General for White Ruthenia
signed: KUBE

SECRET

Copy / T

The Commissioner General for White Ruthenia
Dept Gauleiter/Ka
Minsk, 1 November 1941
Personal

To the Reich Commissioner for the Eastern Territories Gauleiter Hinrich LOHSE Riga

Enclosed I submit a report of the Commissioner for the territory of Sluzk, party member Carl, with the request not to let this matter rest. Herewith I propose to prosecute the guilty officers commencing with the battalion commander of the security police to the last lieutenant.

For about the last three weeks, I have discussed the Sluzk action against the Jews with the responsible SS-Brigadier General and Brigadier-General of the Protection Police, Zenner, Member of the Reichstag, and I have pointed out that the tradesmen should be spared by all means and that the commissioner responsible for the territory should be contacted prior to the action. Above all, any act lowering the prestige of the German Reich and its organizations in the eyes of the White Ruthenian population should be avoided.

The police battalion No 11 from Kauen has as a unit, directly subordinate to the armed forces, taken independent action without informing me, the SS-Brigadier-General or any other office of the Commissariat General, thereby impairing most seriously the prestige of the German nation. I request to have the commissioner of the territory Carl and all his officials and collaborators from Riga questioned under oath and to record the hearing. Then, in order to set an example, I request to grant my motion to prosecute the entire staff of officers of the police battalion 11.

I am submitting this report in duplicate so that one copy may be forwarded to the Reich Minister. Peace and order cannot be maintained in White Ruthenia with methods of that sort. To bury seriously wounded people alive who worked their way out of their graves again, is such a base and filthy act that this incident as such should be reported to the Fuehrer and Reich Marshal. The civil administration of White Ruthenia makes very strenuous efforts to win the population over to Germany in accordance with the instructions of the Fuehrer. These efforts cannot be brought in harmony with the methods described herein.

The Commissioner General
for White Ruthenia
signed: KUBE

Enclosures

Riga 11 November 1941

Original with two enclosures to the Reich minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories Berlin with the request for consideration. It is deemed necessary that higher authority take immediate steps.

By order of

The Reich Commissioner for
the Eastern Territories
signed: WICHMANN

Copy/T of the copy

The Commissioner of the Territory of Sluzk
Sluzk, 30 October 1941

SECRET

To the Commissioner General Minsk
Subject: Action against Jews

Referring to the report made by phone on 27 October 1941 I now beg to inform you in writing of the following:

On 27 October in the morning at about 8 o'clock a first lieutenant of the police battalion No 11 from Kauen (Lithuania) appeared and introduced himself as the adjutant of the battalion commander of the security police. The first lieutenant explained that the police battalion had received the assignment to effect the liquidation of all Jews here in the town of Sluzk, within two days. The battalion commander with his battalion in strength of four companies, two of which were made up of Lithuanian partisans, was on the march here and the action would have to begin instantly. I replied to the first lieutenant that I had to discuss the action in any case first with the commander. About half an hour later the police battalion arrived in Sluzk. Immediately after the arrival the conference with the battalion commander took place according to my request. I first explained to the commander that it would not very well be possible to effect the action without previous preparation, because everybody had been sent to work and that it would lead to terrible confusion. At least it would have been his duty to inform me a day ahead of time. Then I requested him to postpone the action one day. However, he rejected this with the remark that he had to carry out this action everywhere and in all towns and that only two days were allotted for Sluzk. Within these two days, the town of Sluzk had to be cleared of Jews by all means. I immediately protested violently against it, pointing out that a liquidation of Jews must not be allowed to take place in an arbitrary manner. I explained that a large part of the Jews still living in the towns were tradesmen and families of tradesmen respectively. But these Jewish tradesmen were not simply expendable because they were indispensable for maintaining the economic life. Furthermore, I pointed out that White Ruthenian tradesmen are so to say non-existent, that therefore all vital plants had to be shut down all at once, if all Jews would be liquidated. At the end of our conference, I mentioned that all tradesmen and specialists, inasmuch as they were indispensable, had papers of identification and that these should not be pulled out of the factories. Furthermore, it was agreed that all Jews still living in the town should first be brought into the ghetto in order to segregate them, especially with regard to the families of tradesmen which I did not want to have liquidated either. Two of my officials should be assigned to segregate them. The commander did not in any way contradict my idea and I had therefore the firm belief that the action would be carried out accordingly. However, a few hours after the beginning of the action the greatest difficulties already developed. I noticed that the commander had not at all abided by our agreement. All Jews without exception were taken out of the factories and shops and deported in spite of our agreement. It is true that part of the Jews was moved by way of the ghetto where many of them were processed and still segregated by me, but a large part was loaded directly on trucks and liquidated without further delay outside of the town. Shortly after noon complaints came already from all sides that the factories could not function any more because all Jewish tradesmen had been removed. As the commander had proceeded on his way to Baranowitschi I got in touch with the deputy commander, a captain, after searching a long time, and demanded to stop the action immediately because my instructions had been disregarded and the damage done so far with respect to the economic life could not be repaired any more. The captain was greatly surprised at my idea and stated that he had received orders from the commander to clear the whole town of Jews without exception in the same manner as they had done in other towns. This mopping up had to be executed on political considerations and economic reasons had never played a role anywhere. However, due to my energetic intervention, he finally halted the action toward evening.

For the rest, as regards the execution of the action, I must point out to my deepest regret that the latter bordered already on sadism. The town itself offered a picture of horror during the action. With indescribable brutality on the part of both the German police officers and particularly the Lithuanian partisans, the Jewish people, but also among them White Ruthenians, were taken out of their dwellings and herded together. Everywhere in the town shots were to be heard and in different streets the corpses of shot Jews accumulated. The White Ruthenians were in greatest distress to free themselves from the encirclement. Regardless of the fact that the Jewish people, among whom were also tradesmen, were mistreated in a terribly barbarous way in the face of the White Ruthenian people, the White Ruthenians themselves were also worked over with rubber clubs and rifle butts. There was no question of an action against the Jews any more. It rather looked like a revolution. I myself with all my officials have been in it without interruption all day long in order to save what could yet be saved. In several instances I literally had to expel with drawn pistol the German police officials as well as the Lithuanian partisans from the shops. My own police was employed for the same mission but had often to leave the streets on account of the wild shooting in order to avoid being shot themselves. The whole picture was generally more than ghastly. In the afternoon a great number of abandoned Panje carriages with horses were standing in the streets so that I had to instruct the municipal administration to take care of the vehicles immediately. Afterwards it was ascertained that they were Jewish vehicles ordered by the armed forces to move ammunition. The drivers had simply been taken off the carriages and led away, and nobody had worried in the least about the vehicles.

I was not present at the shooting before the town. Therefore I cannot make a statement on its brutality. But it should suffice, if I point out that persons shot have worked themselves out of their graves some time after they had been covered. Regarding the economic damage I want to state that the tannery has been affected worst of all. 26 experts worked there. Of them, fifteen of the best specialists alone have been shot. Four more jumped from the truck during the transport and escaped, while seven others were not apprehended after they fled. The plant barely continues to operate today. Five wheelwrights worked in the wheelwright shop. Four of them have been shot and the shop has to keep going now with one wheelwright. Additional tradesmen such as carpenters, blacksmiths, etc. are still missing. Up till now it was impossible for me to obtain an exact survey. I have mentioned already in the beginning, that the families of tradesmen should be spared too. But now it seems that almost in all families some persons are missing. Reports come in from all over, making it clear that in one family the tradesman himself, in another family the wife and in the next one again the children are missing. In that way, almost all families have been broken up. It seems to be very doubtful whether under these circumstances the remaining tradesmen will show any interest in their work and produce accordingly, particularly as even today they are running around with bloody and bruised faces due to the brutality. The White Ruthenian people who had full confidence in us, are dumbfounded. Though they are intimidated and don't dare to utter their free opinion, one has already heard that they take the viewpoint that this day does not add to the glory of Germany and that it will not be forgotten. I am of the opinion that much has been destroyed through this action which we have achieved during the last months and that it will take a long time until we shall regain the confidence of the population which we have lost.

In conclusion I find myself obliged to point out that the police battalion has looted in an unheard of manner during the action, and that not only in Jewish houses but just the same in those of the White Ruthenians. Anything of use such as boots, leather, cloth, gold and other valuables, has been taken away. On the basis of statements of members of the armed forces, watches were torn off the arms of Jews in public, on the street, and rings were pulled off the fingers in the most brutal manner. A major of the finance department reported that a Jewish girl was asked by the police to obtain immediately 5,000 rubles to have her father released. This girl is said to have actually gone everywhere in order to obtain the money.

Also within the ghetto, the different barracks which had been nailed up by the civil administration and were furnished with Jewish furniture, have been broken open and robbed. Even from the barracks in which the unit was quartered, window frames and doors have been forcibly removed and used for campfires. Although I had a discussion with the adjutant of the commander on Tuesday morning concerning the looting and he promised in the course of the discussion that none of the policemen would enter the town any more, yet I was forced several hours later to arrest two fully armed Lithuanian partisans because they were apprehended looting. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday the battalion left the town in the direction of Baranowitschi. Evidently, the people were only too glad when this report circulated in the town.

So far the report. I shall come to Minsk in the immediate future, in order to discuss the affair personally once again. At the present time, I am not in a position to continue with the action against the Jews. First, order has to be established again. I hope that I shall be able to restore order as soon as possible and also to revive the economic life despite the difficulties. Only, I beg you to grant me one request: "In the future, keep this police battalion away from me by all means."

signed: CARL

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1107-PS

SECRET

The Leader of Directorate Group, Cultural Missions
P / 551a/44g
Expert: Goepel
Berlin, 17 May 1944.

To the Chief of Operational Staff Politic [Fuehrungestabes Politik] Inter-office Memorandum.

Subject: Bringing of Museum Objects and Works of Art from the Occupied Eastern Territories into the Reich.

Information received concerning the bringing back of museum objects and other works of art now public property in the occupied Eastern Territories into the Reich has shown that the interests of the ministry of the East, i.e., of the Reich in this matter are not being presented with sufficient stress. There is no reason for leaving these museum stocks, some of which are extremely valuable, in the hands of various offices and authorities without establishing unmistakably the claim of possession, i.e., the right of disposal of the Reich. The atrocity propaganda of the enemy side has taken up this question at large and has retained with it evident success in the incitement against Germany in this and foreign countries.

Besides the department of archives in the Reich Ministry, the following have brought back works of art from the occupied Eastern Districts (place of deposit Troppau):

Reich Commissioner for Ukraine.

(East and West European Museum—place of deposit Kiew in the district Reichau (Wehlau)).

(Museum Charkow—place of deposit Wildenhof near Zinten. Various museums of the Ukraine—place of deposit—Troppau)

Reich Commissioner for the East.

(Stock of Museum Minsk—place of deposit Koenigsberg and Castle Hochstedt/Donau)

Einsatzstab Rosenberg.

(Museum objects from the Ukraine—place of deposit Krakau)

Armed forces from various places.

(places of deposit unknown)

For political reasons I consider it important that the rights of possession of the evacuated museums be kept up fully, respectively in all cases where no owner is known, the right of possession of the Reich is to be clarified. I, therefore, ask for approval of the following measures:

1. A decree is to go to all offices involved according to which all works of art of public property which have been brought back should be put under direct control of the ministry of the East.

2. Action should be taken to inventory all returned objects of art and have their art and material values determined.

3. The places of deposit of these objects of art seized in this way are to be examined by experts and, if necessary the required measures taken to secure these objects from air damage or other destruction. A checking at regular intervals of the conditions and intactness of the stocks should be made as is done at the places of deposit of the German museums.

MS 18/5
[v.d. Milwe-Schroeden]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1109-PS

Draft Copy

Z.f.O.

Berlin, 17 June 1944.

SECRET

Note for the Director of Operational Group [Fuehrungsgruppe] P-4, Herrn v.d. Milwe-Schroeden, in the building

Concerning: Bolshevic Atrocity Propaganda. Case: Memoranda of the Special Staff RR dated 15 April 1944.

1. Evacuation of the Population. The undersigned was in Kiev during the whole of October 1943 until the beginning of November, shortly before the occupation of the city by Soviet Russia. At the beginning of October a part of the population had been evacuated especially in the parts of the town by the Dnieper and the areas in question were declared "battle zones". During October the population of the city was further evacuated quarter by quarter. This evacuation took place by order of the military authorities; it was, however, carried out by the civil administration [Stadtkommandantur]. The trolley line and the railway trains had already been put in readiness by the German civil administration. Nonetheless, the greater proportion of the inhabitants listened to the Soviet counter-propaganda, with the result that they did not wish to abandon the city; they sought accommodation in quarters still untouched by the evacuation or went off on foot to the neighboring areas of the city. There was an uninterrupted stream of homeless people wandering through the streets, with a few belongings. Hardship was unavoidable as a result of the evacuation, but it was still further increased by the passive resistance of the population. Protection could not be set up in the evacuated sections of the city, so there were very soon no locked doors. It was probably mainly members of the local bands dressed in field gray, who are to be held responsible for the plundering of empty dwellings, etc. At this time much property belonging to museums and institutions was destroyed.

2. The Removal of Cultural Property. A great deal of material from museums, archives, institutions and other cultural institutions was taken out of and away from Kiev in the autumn of 1943, in the proper way. These actions to safeguard the material were carried out by the Special Purpose Staff RR as well as by the individual institute directors etc. at the instigation of the Reich Commissar. At the beginning a great deal of the evacuated property was taken only to the rear areas; later on this material was forwarded to the Reich. When the undersigned, towards the end of September, received the mission from the cultural division of the Reich Commissar to take out of Kiev the remaining cultural effects, the most worthwhile materials from the cultural point of view had already been removed. During October some 40 carloads of cultural effects were sent to the Reich. In this case it was chiefly a question of valuables which belonged to the research institutions of the national Research Centre of the Ukraine. These institutions are continuing their work at the present time in the Reich and are being directed in such a manner that at a given moment they can be brought back into the Ukraine. The cultural valuables which could not be promptly safeguarded, were plundered. In this case, it was always a question, however, of less valuable material, as the principal valuables were taken away in accordance with orders.

In October 1943 factory, workshop etc. plants were taken out of Kiev by order of the Reich Commissar. To what place they were removed I do not know. At the time of the entry of Soviet Russia there was nothing valuable in this respect left in the city.

[Signature] Dr. Ulmann

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1113-PS

Higher SS- and Police Leader for the East
2000/42 g
11 Jacobstr, Riga, November 6, 1942

SECRET

Final Report "Marshfever"

9. Miciajewicze (p. 2479)

9 Feb—9 Mar 1942

By motorized Gendarmery—patrols and a company from the 15th Latvian Police Battalion. Seventy bandits shot. By carrying out these actions the following successes were obtained:

a.—49 bandit camps, pill-boxes and strong points, as well as several villages in the swamp-areas which were used as hideouts were smoked out and destroyed.

b.—389 armed bandits shot in combat.

1274 suspicious persons sentenced and shot.

8350 Jews executed.

c.—1217 persons evacuated.

d.—3 anti-tank guns,

2 heavy machine guns,

3 light machine guns,

1 radio set (sender and receiver),

some radio equipment, rifles and small arms,

large amount of explosives and ammunition, hand grenades, Teller mines, pieces of equipment and other material, as well as

1 truck, 1 passenger car,

80 panji-carts (peasant carts),

42 bicycles,

62 horses,

5 cows as well as food supplies have been captured.

Besides the above stated objects the enclosed 14 sketches were found during actions against bands in the territory of Smolewicze north-eastward of Minsk in a camp abandoned shortly before the two bandits whose portraits are enclosed were recognized by comparison with captured bandits and shot. One of them is the leader of the bandits, a Bolshevist commissar.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1117-PS

The Reichs Marshal of the Greater German Reich
Headquarters, 1, May 1941

The battle against Jews, Freemasons and other affiliated forces of opposite "Weltanschauung" is a foremost task of National Socialism during the war.

I therefore welcome the decision of Reichsleiter Rosenberg to form staffs in all occupied territories for the purpose of safeguarding all research material and cultural goods of the above-mentioned groups, and transporting them to Germany.

All party, State and Wehrmacht Services are therefore requested to give all possible support and assistance to the Chief of Staff of Reichsleiter Rosenberg's staffs, Reichshauptstellenleiter Party Comrade Utikal, and his deputy DRK-Feldfuehrer Party Comrade von Beer, in the discharge of their duties. The above-mentioned persons are requested to report to us on their work, particularly on any difficulties that might arise.

signed: GOERING.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1118-PS

To the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich
Berlin W 8, Leipziger Str. 3
18 June 1942
U/Sz 1073/42 i
Dear Reich Marshal:

From your letter of 30 May 1942, I see that Oberfeldfuehrer von Behr of the German Red Cross informed you of certain matters on which he has not been able to report to me yet. I am pleased by the appreciation which you express for my Einsatzstab for the occupied territories. It is, for me, self-evident that the members of my Einsatzstab will continue to be at your disposal as much as is at all possible.

Since the new M-action to secure Jewish house furnishings for the establishment of the administration in the East, which is purely a state measure, has been added to the former tasks of my Einsatzstab, it has been necessary to undertake an organizational separation of duty fields according to my party and state bureaus. In order that the interests of the Einsatzstab may be protected within the framework of the M-action, I have appointed Oberfeldfuehrer von Behr of the German Red Cross, head of the bureau West of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, while the party bureau of the Einsatzstab Paris will be restaffed.

In consideration of the importance of the work of the Einsatzstab in history and in order to relieve my fellow workers, I have directed that in the interest of a correct documentary grasp of the securing of art objects hitherto undertaken, all evidence on this subject will be checked. This work is at present in progress.

Since in certain circles, as you write, the conjecture was expressed that one of my bureaus would deal in art objects, I have ordered this check. I have entrusted it to the head of my office for plastic art, Bereichsleiter Scholz, and Abschnittsleiter von Ingram who wears the Knight's Cross. Furthermore some time ago I explicitly approved the measures of the chief of staff of my Einsatzstab, Stabsfuehrer party member Utikal, that party member Dr. Lohse of the office of formative art is at your disposal for your personal wishes. This will be managed in the same way in the future. I should like to emphasize explicitly that the new arrangement made in my bureaus in the West will in no way prejudice your wishes, but that the gentlemen of my Einsatzstab are at your disposal in the same way as before. I may ask you however, to continue to further the work of my Einsatzstab in the same way as you have done hitherto, which is so worthy of thanks. I ask you especially to continue to give the chief of staff of my Einsatzstab, Reich office leader [Reichsamtsleiter] Utikal, the opportunity to report to you in especially important cases on the total work of the Einsatzstab. I have instructed party member Utikal to give you a report on the difficulties which have arisen in connection with the Fuehrer edict of 1 March 1942. It is so grotesque that difficulties should arise for my Einsatzstab from this liberal Fuehrer edict, you should know about it for curiosity's sake alone. If you could intercede for my Einsatzstab in this connection, I would be very grateful to you in the interest of the cause.

Since you have already deposited sums in a special account for the art objects which you have acquired, I would be grateful for information as to what use you had intended for the funds of this account. Please do not take this question amiss or misinterpret it. I believe, however, that we agree that the tasks of my Einsatzstab could and can be carried out only on the basis of the fight of the NSDAP. Moreover, the Reich Treasurer has liberally made available the means for carrying out these tasks. Therefore I believe that we also agree that the art objects secured from Jewish possessions must be considered sequestered for the benefit of the NSDAP. In regard to the research material the Fuehrer has already decided that the supply secured by the Einsatzstab be dedicated to the Hohe Schule. It would be no more than right for the great values of the secured art treasures to be transferred to the NSDAP some day. Of course it remains up to the Fuehrer himself to dispose of this matter. Since the NSDAP has financed the 20 year battle against Jewry, however, such a settlement would no doubt be admissible.

I would be grateful to you if you could let me know your opinion on this question some time, so that the corresponding suggestions can be made to the Fuehrer at the proper time. Since the Reich Treasurer is continually making considerable means available for my Einsatzstab, you can understand that I am interested in clearing up this question.

As I have been informed there are good working connections with various offices of your jurisdiction, especially in the work of the Einsatzstab in the East. In the future I shall continue to see to it that everything of importance for your field of activity reaches you.

I am enclosing a document from the work of my Einsatzstab in the East, which may interest you, the personally written biography of the Russian parachutist K. Kaitanow.

Heil Hitler
[no signature]

The Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich
Berlin W8, Leipziger Str. 3, 30 May 1942
[stamped] Ministerial Office, received

4 June 1942, No 01141
[partly illegible notation] * * * 4 June * * *
GR (2?) Utikal * * *

Dear party member Rosenberg:

Your Einsatzstab for the seizure of cultural goods in Paris has, I believe, received the false repute of dealing in art goods itself. I know the work of the Einsatzstab very well and must say that there is no bureau which I can praise so unreservedly for its continued work and initiative as this bureau with all its staff. I presumably gave occasion for the repute of dealing in art goods, because I asked several gentlemen who are especially well versed in the field, if during their stay in Paris or France they should hear anywhere that pictures or other art objects are to be put on the market by art dealers or private individuals, to look at these things and let me know whether there is anything of interest for me among them. Since the latter has often been the case, I then asked the gentlemen to do me a favor and acquire the things for me, for which purpose I placed a warehouse at their disposal. Therefore, if some gentlemen were eager to establish contact with art dealers, it was exclusively a personal favor which was being done for me and which benefits the expansion of my collection. Since many would-be purchasers are looking for art objects in the occupied territory, I can imagine that they, perhaps in ignorance of the situation, or perhaps out of jealousy, falsely suspected the gentlemen of your Einsatzstab.

I feel obligated to offer you this explanation and to ask you that this procedure may continue. On the other hand, I do support the work of your Einsatzstab personally, wherever I can, and the fact that I was able to aid the Einsatzstab through my agencies is responsible for a large part of the seized cultural goods.

Greetings and Heil Hitler,
Your

[signed]: HERMANN GOERING

To the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich,
Prime Minister Hermann Goering
Berlin W9, Leipziger Platz 7

11 January 1943
Charlottenburg 2
Bismarckstrasse 1

Dear Party member Goering:

My most cordial congratulations on your 50th birthday.

On this occasion I think back to the first fighting years of our movement, when I met you as a German officer at Adolf Hitler's. I think of your unqualified efforts for the Fuehrer and the long years of battle, which finally led our movement to victory. Please be assured how well I believe I understand what you have accomplished for the people and the Fuehrer, and I wish you further determined, unbroken strength to hold on to the victorious conclusion of this decisive battle for the Reich for the coming years.

I take the liberty of giving you, as a friend of the plastic art, a Dutch painting as a little remembrance for your museum. It was painted by Jacob Adriaensz Bellevois, comes from the 17th century, and is called "Seascape".

Tomorrow I shall offer you my personal congratulations on your anniversary.

Heil Hitler,
Yours respectfully,
[No signature]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1130-PS

Col. i.G. v. Altenstadt
OKH/Gen Qu Department War Administration
II/2120/43 secret

11 April 1943
Main Department I

Tgb No. I 784/43 secret Received 6 May 1943 Encl. 1

Dear Mr. Braeutigam:

Enclosed I am sending you for your personal information a report of a speech which Gauleiter Reichkommissar Koch made in Kiev on 5 March 1943. May I ask you to regard this report as solely meant for yourself.

With best regards,

Heil Hitler!
Sincerely yours,
Altenstadt [signature]
N.R.
Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Kinkelein [initialed] 8 May
The speech is known, isn't it? Yes.
[initials illegible]
1 enclosure.
File Koch.

Copy

High Command Army, Group B
O.Qu./VII (Mil. Govt.) B.B.Nr.83/43 secret.
Headquarters, 1 April 1943

SECRET

To the OKH/Gen Staff Army/Gen Qu Dept. War Administration (Admin.)

Subject: Treatment of the civilian population in the Ukraine.

Reference: OKW/Gen St d H/Gen Qu Obt.Kr.Verw(Qu 4) Nr. II/1736/43 secret of 23 March 1943.

Oberkriegsverwaltungsrat Dr. Claassen participated in the meeting of the NSDAP in Kiev on March 5, 1943 and gave a verbal report on the contents of the Reich Commissar's speech. Other documents on the contents of the speech are not available here.

I. On the treatment of the population the Reich Commissar remarked in the course of his speech in several places as follows:

1. We are the master race and must govern hard but just * * *

2. I will draw the very last out of this country. I did not come to spread bliss, I have come to help the Fuehrer. The population must work, work, and work again * * * for some people are getting excited, that the population may not get enough to eat. The population cannot demand that. One has only to remember what our heroes were deprived of in Stalingrad * * * We definitely did not come here to give out manna, we have come here to create the basis for victory.

3. We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here * * *

II. Furthermore, the speech was primarily an appeal to all party members stationed in the Reich Commissariat of the Ukraine, to conduct themselves perfectly in every respect and in any situation. In this connection the Reich Commissar said the following among other things:

1. * * * In the days of the crisis, one could differentiate between three groups of people:

1. The group of those, that went about asking where one might be able to buy another suitcase;

2. The group of slogan manufacturers with the main slogan: "One has to wait and see."

3. The group of real National Socialists, who said: "Now of all times we will not move an inch from here!"

With this third group we say: Whoever wallows in defeatism, who gripes, will have trouble with this National Socialist community, gathered here; he will get a slap in the face * * * We owe such conduct to the front, which we would prefer to join if the Fuehrer would give us permission * * * There is not a single place at the front, at which the Russians could have forced us to retreat. The Russian has not been able to force his will upon us * * *

2. * * * Nowdays, one often hears: "Had we," or "Were we." I only tell these people one thing: Had one had more faith in Adolf Hitler and had one taken a firmer grip at the sword, everything would have been different * * *

3. * * * We have brought you, my fellow party members to the Ukraine as personalities but not for the purpose that you should write your papers as in a paper war. I have no objection if you want to get yourselves a rubber stamp, say "Not important for the war." This stamp you can then apply to those files which you consider superfluous or unnecessary for these times. If your superiors do not understand this, tell them so. It is not the question to build up staffs, but to decrease them. I have reduced mine in Rowno from 800 to 250 staff members.

For the High Command of the Army Group B

Chief Quartermaster

Faehndrich

For correctness of copy:
[signature illegible]
Lt.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1138-PS

SECRET

(II 1 d 3000)
THE REICH COMMISSAR FOR EASTLAND
RIGA Riga, 13 August 1941

TO: The Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories, Berlin W 35.

I beg to enclose an account of planned provisional directives for treatment of Jews in the Reichskommissariat Ostland. [Translator's note: Baltic States and White Russia.]

[Signed] BANSE [?]
To Department [Hauptabteilung] II with request for opinion.
(By order)
(Habs, 24 August)
(Gauleiter has taken cognizance)
(return to Dr. Runte)
(19 August 1941)
Enclosure:
(III a/13/ ei Grh)

[Translator's note: All lines enclosed in parentheses were added to the original typewritten document in pencil or ink. There is also a slip attached to the document, initialed by Dr. Runte, Gauleiter M. and R.]

Reich commissar for Eastland
Kommissariat Ostland, 13 Aug. 41
Habs 4 Sept.

SECRET!

Provisional directives on the treatment of Jews in the area of the Reichs-Kommissariat Ostland.

My instructions in my address of 27 July 1941 in Kowno determine the final settlement of the Jewish question in the area of the Reichskommissariat Ostland.

Insofar as further measures are taken, especially by the Security Police (SIPO), to carry out my oral instructions, they will not be affected by the following preliminary directives. It is merely the job of these preliminary directives to assure these, and for such length of time, minimum measures by the General or Regional Commissars, where and for as long as further measures are not possible in the direction of the final solution of the Jewish question.

I. a. For the time being only those Jews will be subject to these directives who are citizens of the German Reich, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, of the former Republics of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, of the USSR or of its component states, or stateless Jews.

b. Other Jews of foreign nationality, others of mixed blood and spouses of Jews who are not ready to share the fate of their Jewish spouses are to be denied permission to leave the area of the Reichskommissariat Ostland because it is a military area. They are to be watched. In addition they can be subjected to the following measures, among others: obligation to report daily, prohibition of moving, or assignment to specific dwelling, prohibition of leaving the municipal area limitations on circulation. In case of necessity they are to be taken into police custody until further decisions can be made.

II. A Jew is, whoever descends from at least 3 grandparents who were full Jews by race.

A Jew is also whoever descends from one or two grandparents who were full Jews by race, if he

a. belongs or belonged to the Jewish denomination, or

b. on 20 June 1941 or later was married to, or living in common-law marriage with, a person who is Jewish within the purview of these directives, or who now or in future enters into such a relationship.

III. In cases of doubt, the district (or municipal) Commissar decides, according to his best judgment, who is a Jew within the purview of these directives.

IV. General Commissars will immediately order the following measures, as soon as or insofar as civil administration has been introduced in their areas:

a. The Jews are to be listed, through imposition of the duty to report, by name, sex, age, and address. Furthermore the rosters of Jewish congregations, and the statements of trustworthy natives, will serve as bases for their listing.

b. It will be decreed that Jews distinctively mark themselves by prominently visible yellow hexagonal stars of at least 10 cm. in diameter worn on the left side of the breast and in the center of the back.

c. Jews are prohibited from:

1. Changing of their home town and their homes without permission of the area (municipal) Commissar.

2. Use of sidewalks, public means of transportation (i.e., railroad, streetcars, bus, steamer, horse-drawn taxis) and automobiles.

3. Use of public facilities and institutions serving the population (resorts and bathing facilities, parks, meadows, playgrounds, and athletic fields).

4. Attendance at theatres, movies, libraries, museums.

5. Attendance at schools of any type.

6. The possession of automobiles and radio sets.

7. Kosher slaughtering.

d. Jewish doctors and dentists may treat or advise only Jewish patients. If Ghettos or camps are erected, they are to be distributed among them for the care of their inmates. Jewish druggists are to be permitted practice of their profession according to need, but only in Ghettos or camps. Drug stores previously managed by Jews are to be transferred to trusteeship of Aryan druggists.

Practice of their profession is prohibited to Jewish veterinarians.

e. Jews are to be forbidden exercise of the professions and activities designated below:

1. Activity as attorney, notary-public or legal adviser.

2. Operation of banks, money-changing offices and pawn shops.

3. Activity as representative, agent, and intermediary.

4. Trade in real estate.

5. Migratory trade.

f. The following will be decreed for the handling of Jewish property:

1. General. The property of the Jewish population is to be confiscated and secured. The previous Jewish legal owner, from the moment of confiscation, is no longer authorized to dispose of his property. Legal transactions which violate this prohibition are null and void.

2. Duty to report. The entire property of the Jewish population is to be reported. The deadline for reporting is determined by the General or area Commissars. It is mandatory for anyone who owns or stores Jewish property and anyone who, without being owner, proprietor or custodian, legally or actually disposes of, or can dispose of, Jewish property, to report it.

The duty to report not only applies to the legal Jewish owner, but also to anyone who, for example, administers Jewish property, who has taken it into safe-keeping or obtained it in any other manner.

The reporting must be done on a form according to the attached model.

The General Commissars regulate reporting procedure with regard to local conditions and determine the officials to whom the reports are to be submitted. The reports should be submitted, if possible, to the area commissars. The area commissars are, however, empowered also to be in charge of the giving out and the receiving of forms; this applies also to government offices which are not supplied or equipped by the civil administration. These offices are to forward the forms handed in to the area Commissars.

3. The duty of delivery. Jewish property is to be delivered on special demand. The demand can take place by general proclamation or by order to definite individuals. The General Commissars order through proclamation immediate delivery of the following articles:

a. Domestic and foreign currency.

b. Securities and financial records of every sort, (i.e., stocks, promissory notes, exchange, debt records, bank and savings-bank books).

c. All articles of value (coined and uncoined gold and silver, other precious metals, jewelry, precious stones, etc.).

Articles turned in are to be entered in a serially numbered receipt book in two copies (carbon) according to the attached model. The entries are to be signed for by the person delivering the article and by the receiving office. The carbon copy of the entry is to be transmitted immediately by the receiving office to the area Commissar. The delivered articles are to be transmitted to the fund of the area Commissar and to be safeguarded by the latter. A special order will be issued on their utilization.

4. On the Question of Subsistence: The Jewish population is left with the following:

a. that portion of their household articles necessary for scanty subsistence (furniture, clothing and linen)

b. A daily amount of money 0.20 RM (2 Rubles) for each Jewish member of the household, the amount of money for a month to be released in advance.

V. The following further measures are to be emphatically striven for, with due consideration for local and especially economic conditions:

a. Jews are to be cleaned out from the countryside.

b. The Jews are to be removed from all trade, especially from trade with agricultural products and other food-stuffs.

c. The Jews are to be forbidden residence in resorts and spas, and in localities that are economically, militarily, or spiritually of importance.

d. Jews are to be concentrated, as much as feasible, in cities or in sections of large cities, whose population is already predominantly Jewish. Ghettos are to be established there, and the Jews are to be prohibited from leaving these Ghettos. In the Ghettos they are to be given only as much food as the rest of the population can do without, but no more than suffices for scanty nourishment of the Ghetto inmates. The same applies to supply with other consumer goods. The inmates of the Ghetto regulate their internal conditions by self-administration which is supervised respectively by the city, area Commissar or his deputy. Jews can be assigned as police for internal order. They are to be equipped with rubber truncheons or sticks at most and are to be distinguished by the wearing of the white arm bands, with the yellow Jewish Star on the right upper arm. For the external hermetic sealing of the Ghettos, auxiliary police from among the natives are to be used as much as is feasible. Permission from the area Commissar must be obtained before anyone may enter the Ghetto.

e. Jews, capable of working, are to be drafted for forced labor according to the need for work. The economic interests of natives worthy of assistance must not be interfered with by Jewish forced labor. Forced labor can be performed in working parties outside the Ghettos or in the Ghettos, or, where Ghettos are not yet established; also individually outside (i.e., in the work-shop of the Jew). Pay need not correspond to work done; it need only correspond to the need for scanty subsistance for the forced laborer and the non-employable members of his family, taking due consideration to his present cash holdings. (cf. IV f 4 b) Those private establishments and persons, for whose account the forced labor is done, pay an appropriate fee to the pay office of the area Commissar which, in turn, disburses pay to the forced laborers. A special order will be issued for the accounting on amounts of money received.

6. It is left up to the General Commissars to order measures mentioned in par. 5 uniformly for their area or to turn over their promulgation in detail to the Area Commissars. Likewise the General Commissars are authorized to issue more detailed orders within the framework of this policy or to authorize their area Commissars to do it.

DISTRIBUTION:
Reichskommissariat 12
Higher SS and Police leaders 20
General Commissar:
Estonia 10
Lithuania 10
Latvia 10
White Ruthenia 60
Surplus supply 28

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1141-PS

Copy

THE REICHMINISTER AND CHIEF OF THE REICH CHANCELLERY.

Rk 25018B BERLIN 17 September 1939.

TO: the President of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich [Ministerrat fuer die Reichsverteidigung] General Field Marshal Goering. Through the Director of the Ministry, Marotzke.

The Deputy of the Fuehrer, through the Director in the Ministry, Somler.

The Plenipotentiary for Reich Administration [Generalbevollmaechtigten fuer die Reichsverwaltung] through State Secretary Stukkart.

The Plenipotentiary for Economy [Generalbevollmaechtigten fuer die Wirtschaft] through the Director in the Ministry Sarnow.

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces [Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht] through Colonel Gause.

Subject: Handling of matters submitted to the Council of ministers for the Reich Defense.

Matters submitted to the Council of ministers for the Reich Defense have heretofore been distributed only to the members of the Council. I have been requested by some of the Reichministers who are not permanent members of the Council to inform them of the drafts of decrees which are being submitted to the Council, so as to enable them to check these drafts from the point of view of their respective offices. I shall follow this request so that all the Reichministers will in the future be informed of the drafts of decrees which are to be acted upon by the Council for the Reich Defense. I therefore request to add forty-five additional copies of the drafts, as well as of the letters which usually contain the arguments for the drafts, to the folders submitted to the Council.

DR. LAMMERS.

The Reichsminister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery.
Rk 25018B

BERLIN W 8, Voss St. 6, 17 September 1939
To the Reichsministers.

Following a request of the Reichsministers who are not permanent members of the Council for the Reich Defense, I shall in the future notify all Reichsministers of the drafts of decrees submitted here for the decision of the Council for the Reich Defense. I therefore request the Reichsministers who are not associated with the Plenipotentiary for Reich Administration, the Plenipotentiary for Economy, or the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, and who therefore submit their proposals directly to the Council for the Reich Defense, to add forty-five copies to all papers directed to the Council, drafts as well letters which usually contain arguments for the draft.

SIGNED: DR. LAMMERS.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1143-PS

VOELKISCHER BEOBACHTER
Editor: Adolf Hitler
Central Organ of the National-Socialistic
German Labor-Party
Berlin Editor
Berlin W.9, Linkstrasse.
20 Oct. 32
Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, M.d.R.
Munich 13.

Dear Alfred:

I am sending you enclosed a communication from the R.W.M. forwarded to me by our confidential man [Vertrauensmann] which indeed is very interesting. I believe we will have to take some steps so that the matter will not be procured secretly for the Stahlhelm.

This report is not known to anybody else. I intentionally did not inform even our own long friend. I am enclosing an additional copy for Hess, and ask you to transmit the letter to Hess, by messenger, as I do not want to write a letter to Hess for fear that it might be read somewhere.

With best regards.
Yours Amo.

AIR FORCE ORGANIZATION

Purpose: Preparation of material and training of personnel to provide for the case of the armament of the air force.

Entire management as a civilian organization will be transferred to Colonel von Willberg (at present Commander of Breslau) who, retaining his position in the Reichwehr, is going on leave of absence.

A. Organizing the pilots of civilian airlines in such a way as to enable their transfer to the air force organization.

B. Prospects to train crews for military flying. Training to be done within the organization for military flying of the Stahlhelm which is being turned over to Colonel Haenel, retired, all existing organizations for sport flying are to be used for military flying.

Directions on kinds and tasks of military flying will be issued by the Stahlhelm directorate.

The Stahlhelm organization will pay the military pilots MK 50 per hour flight. These are due to the owner of the plane in case he himself carries out the flight.

They are to be divided in case of non-owners of the plane between flight organization proprietor and crew in the proportion of 10 to 20 to 20.

Military flying is now paid better than flying for advertisement (40). We therefore have to expect that most proprietors of planes or flying associations will go over to the Stahlhelm organization. It must be achieved that equal conditions will be granted by the RWM, also the NSDAP organizations.

My own note: Hereby the entire organization of military flying is being turned over to the Stahlhelm.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1151-P-PS

TOP SECRET

Copy

SS Main Management and Administrative Office [WVHA]
Department D—Concentration Camp—
D I/1/ AZ: 14 f 13/Ot./U.
Secret Nr. 177/42
Oranienburg, 26 March 1942
[Stamp]
Concentration Camp Gross-Rosen
Entered 28 March 1942
Subject: Special Treatment 14 f 13
Reference: None
Annex: None

To the Camp Commandant of the Concentration Camps, Da., Sar., Bu., Mau., Flo., Neu., Aw., Gr.-Ro., Nie., Rav.,

It became known through a report of a Camp Commandant that 42 prisoners out of 51 which were mustered out for the special treatment 14 f 13 "again became capable of work" after a period of time and therefore do not have to be directed to the special treatment. From this it appears that the selection of the prisoners will not be handled according to given directives. Only those prisoners are allowed to be directed to the examination commission who fulfill the given stipulations and who, above all, are no longer capable of work.

In order to be able to fulfill the designated missions of the concentration camps, the working capabilities of every prisoner must be retained for the camp. The camp commandants of the concentration camps are requested to especially make this their aim.

The Chief of the Central Office
Liebehenschel
SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1156-PS

Appendix 6 21 March W
Chief of the Office for War Mobilization of Economy
[Wi Rue Amt]
Berlin, 20 March 1941

TOP SECRET

6 Copies 3rd Copy

Report

to Reich Marshall Goering on 19 March 1941

The following points were reported:

1. Organization Barbarossa. The Reich Marshall fully agrees to the proposed organization.

The following to join the Ops. Staff: Koerner, Backe, Hanneken, Alpers and Thomas.

Its management will be with the Office for War Mobilization of Economy.

The Reich Marshall attaches importance to the creation of a unified organization. He agrees to direction of offices by officers, in individual instances, particularly in the case of General Schubert. The Reich Marshall will talk personally to the Directors of the Economy Inspectorates. Hanneken is to name the best personnel in Economy.

2. The directives worked out by the Wi for destructive measures to be undertaken by the Luftwaffe in the "Fall Barbarossa" were agreed to by the Reich Marshall. One copy was handed to Captain von Brauchitsch to be forwarded to the General Staff of the Luftwaffe.

3. Report on the India-rubber situation. The Reich Marshall agrees that from now on transportation of India-rubber shall be carried out by ship using blockade runners, also utilizing the Japanese for these purposes.

4. Report on storage of fuels in Holland and security measures against bombing attacks.

[in pencil] BDC—GOTHA—Old I

5. Report on the demands of the Ministry for Economy re the securing of personnel for the main industry [Grundindustrie].

[Marginal notes in blue pencil: IV. Armament (Rue)]

The Reich Marshall is of the opinion that the most important people in the factories stay and less important people must go to the front.

6. Report on differences between the Navy [Kriegsmarine] and Ministry for Labor concerning the wage increase in Naval dockyards.

The Reich Marshall wishes that the measures proposed by Reichtrustee should be carried out, will however still call a meeting on the problem personally. [IV. Armament (Rue)]

7. The organizing of additional fire-guards because of increasing danger from the air to factories important to war economy [Wehrwirtschaftsbetriebe] is authorized. [Armament (Rue) III]

8. The Reich Marshall has already given his directives to the Luftwaffe in the exports sphere [Auslandslieferungen] concerning the Finnish deliveries. He wishes delivery of a number of anti-aircraft gun-batteries and some airplanes. [Armament (Rue) II]

The Hungarian demands for search lights and listening devices shall be negotiated once more with General [Generaloberst] Udet. [Economy (WI)]

9. The Reich Marshall is informed that a large number of foreigners are still working in the fuel-production [Treibstoffbetriebe]. [III Armament (Rue)]

He wishes that Poles, French and Russians disappear from the fuel and buna factories and be replaced by other people. The Reich Minister for Labor is to institute further action. [—enclosure—finished 21 March]

10. Report on the demands of Governor General Frank concerning Armed Forces Factories [Wehrmachtsbetriebe] in Poland.

The Reich Marshall decides that purely Armed Forces Factories are to belong to the Sections of the Armed Forces concerned, the factories for raw material to the Reichworks. Appropriate directive shall be submitted to him. [II Armament (Rue)]

11. Orientation of the Reich Marshall on the negotiations between France and America with regard to fuel supplies to North Africa.

He is of the opinion that it is important to get the fuel to Africa, it is unimportant which ships are used.

Colonel Spalcke informs the Reich Marshall of the orders which General Antonescu has given to Germany, of the capacities of Rumania and of the collaboration as regards fuel.

The Reich Marshall's opinion is that Rumania should supply at the most 20 divisions and that the point must be reached where supplies for the Rumanian Army in Rumania should eventually be provided by Rumania herself.

At the same time, Rumania must be fully utilized to provide means of transportation and for the establishing of repair shops on a large scale.

Concerning the collaboration as regards fuel with the Neubacher Office, agreement must be reached first of all between the Four Year Plan, the Ministry of Economy and the Office for War Mobilization of Economy.

The Reich Marshall was then further informed by me of the purchase of trucks from France and of the negotiations in regard to the India-rubber contract.

The Reichmarshall then demanded the following himself:

1. He wants to know if the dockyards in Rumania could be used for the building of submarines. [Armament II (Rue)]

2. He wishes a report on the negotiations of the Ministry for Communications [Verkehrsministerium] with regard to the transit-difficulties with Russia. [Economy (Wi)]

Who has been the negotiator?

3. He wishes a report on how the whale-oil transports are forwarded from Bordeaux and whose responsibility it is and furthermore, who is responsible for the forwarding of fuel-transports, which are being brought in as prizes by the Navy. [Food Ministry (Ern. Min.) Ro.]

1 Copy Office Chief
2 Copy Economy
3 Copy Armament
4 Copy Ro
5 Copy Colonel Jansen
6 Copy Draft

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1157-PS

TOP SECRET
Rue. I c. [Handwritten note:]
2nd Copy Kapitaen Zdd [?] has come back.
3rd destroyed 12 May [initials]
4th Copy to Maj. Gaedke. 16 May Ha.
4 Copies, 1st copy
[illegible notations]
Conference with the Branches of the Armed Forces
at 1000 hours on 29th April 1941
I.
Welcome

Purpose of meeting: introduction to the organizational structure of the economic sector of the action.

Barbarossa—Oldenburg.

As already known, the Fuehrer, contrary to previous procedure, has ordered for this drive the uniform concentration in one hand of all economic operations and has entrusted the Reich Marshal with the overall direction of the economic administration in the area of operations and in the areas under political administration.

The Reich Marshal has delegated this function to an economic general staff, working under the director of the industrial armament office [Chef Wi Rue Amt].

Under the Reich Marshal and the economic general staff, the supreme central authority in the area of the drive itself is the Economic Staff Oldenburg for special duties under the command of Major General [Generalleutnant] Schubert.

His subordinate authorities, geographically subdivided are:

5 economic inspectorates

23 economic commands and

12 sub-offices, which are distributed among important places within the area of the economic commands.

These offices are used in the military rear area; the idea is that in the territory of each Army Group, an economic inspectorate is to be established at the seat of the commander of the military rear area, and that this inspectorate will supervise the economic exploitation of the territory.

A distinction must be made between the military rear area on the one hand and the battle area proper and the rear area of the army on the other hand. In the last two, economic matters are dealt with by the IV Econ (IV Wi) of the Army Headquarters Commands, i.e. the liaison officer of the industrial armament office within the supreme command of the armed forces at the army headquarters commands. For the battle area, he has attached to him: technical battalions, reconnaissance and recovery troops for raw materials, mineral oil, agricultural machinery, in particular tractors and means of production.

In the territory between the battle and the military rear area, the rear area of the Army, group IV Econs at the various field commands are placed at the disposal of the liaison officer of the industrial armaments office in order to support the army headquarter commands specialists responsible for supplying the troops from the country's resources and for preparing the subsequent general economic exploitation.

While these units move with the troops, economic inspectorates, economic commands and their sub-offices remain established in the locality.

The new feature inherent in the organization under the command of the Economic Staff Oldenburg is that it does not only deal with military industry, but comprises the entire economic field. Consequently, all offices are no longer to be designated as offices of the military industries or armaments, but quite generally as economic inspectorates, economic commands etc.

This also corresponds with the internal organization of the individual offices which, from the Economic Staff Oldenburg down to the economic commands, requires a standard sub-division into three large groups, i.e.

Group M dealing with troop requirements, armaments, industrial transport organization

Group L which concerns itself with all questions of food and agriculture, and

Group W which is in charge of the entire field of trade and industry, including raw materials and suppliers, further questions of forestry, finance and banking, enemy property, commerce and exchange of commodities and manpower allocation.

Secretary of State Backe is appointed Commissioner for Food and Agriculture in the General Staff; the problems falling within the field of activities of Group W are dealt with by General v. Hanneken.

Before giving further details of the particulars of organization and staffing of Group M, of which we have to take charge, here is a short summary on the plans.

II.
Local Sub-Division

(Map already handed over) may entries explain code-names?

Of the 5 inspectorates, 4 have been established from the outset, while the 5th remains in reserve for an assignment temporarily undecided.

	{	Vilna
1. Leningrad (Holstein)	{	Riga
with economic commands at	{	Reval
	{	Leningrad
	{	Murmansk
and sub-offices at			{	Wologda
and sub-offices at			{	Archangel
	{	Minsk
2. Moscow (Saxony)	{	Moscow
with economic commands at	{	Tula
	{	Gorki
			{	Briansk
and sub-offices at			{	Jaroslawl
			{	Rybinsk
	{	Lddz
	{	Kiev
	{	Kishinev
3. Kiev (Baden)	{	Odessa
with economic commands at	{	Charkov
	{	Knjepropetrovsk
	{	Stalino
	{	Rostov
	{	Stalingrad
			{	Sevastopol
and sub-offices at			{	Kerch
			{	Voronesh
			{	Kursk
Finally
4. Baku (Westphalia)	{	Krasnodar
with economic commands at	{	Grozny
	{	Tiflis
	{	Baku
and a sub-office at				Batum.

Besides the 5th inspectorate, with the code-name of Hesse, an economic command (Borkum) and 2 sub-offices are held in reserve.

III.

The question is now how best to take into account local and technical requirements in staffing the individual offices.

In the Economic Staff Oldenburg and in the economic inspectorates, which in all essentials have the same organization, a differentiation according to geographical points of view appears unnecessary, as in each of the gigantic fields of activity every type of question arises and therefore all departments must be staffed.

The gentlemen will therefore find in the strength reports, which are in their hands, both in the Economic Staff Oldenburg and in all economic inspectorates, after each C.O. and his personal assistant a staff group, which in accordance with the scheme submitted to you contains:

the adjutants's office,
the office for the establishment of the authorities,
counter-intelligence,
signals and communications,
command of the staff quartermaster,
messing officer, and
interpreter.

In the same manner, Group M is to be staffed uniformly with all branches of the armed forces (army, navy, air, administration) and the transport, technical, general and military supplies divisions. It is impossible to effect any economics here.

Economic commands also start from the common denominator of a normal strength which is likewise submitted to you. It is however neither necessary, nor desirable to fill it in all economic commands to the full extent or in an equal measure; the decisive factors here are the individual peculiarities of the various regions.

In all economic commands, the posts in the staff group, transport, technical and general offices will have to be filled. But whether the individual branches of the armed forces wish to be represented in the respective economic command will depend essentially on whether the branch of the armed forces in question has any interests of any significance to look after in the territory.

It must be borne in mind that the whole organization requires a gigantic staff apparatus and that, in view of the general lack of qualified personnel, only such posts can be filled as are justified by practical necessity.

The branches of the armed forces will therefore have to decide in which of the 23 economic commands they wish to be represented. To fill all 4 offices of army, navy, air and administration will be necessary only in a few centrally situated spots. If on the other hand in some cases all branches of the armed forces require no representation, we would substitute for the planned division into 4 parts, a joint office for armament industry and staff it from the Office of Industrial Armament.

In the interests of speed—the establishment has to be completed by the 15th May—we have to request the branches of the armed forces to communicate their decision to the Office of Industrial Armament by Friday 2nd May.

In order to prepare to a large extent and to facilitate this decision, Captain (Cav.) Jonas, who has a profound knowledge in this field, has compiled a list, on which after the name of each economic command he has indicated by means of the initial of the branch of the armed forces in question which of these branches is in his opinion likely * * * represent * * * by an office.

The material has been submitted to you in the form of the lengthy treatise R., in particular in the form of the economic map and the list showing all firms which are important from the point of view of industrial armaments. In order, however, to assist the gentlemen to form their own opinion in the short time at our disposal, Captain (Cav) Jonas will now illustrate the peculiarities of the different areas in the field of industrial armament by means of a short lecture.

Lecture Captain (Cav.) Jonas.
Further Points to be discussed

a. In the interests of staff economy, we want to staff some of the above-mentioned authorities by enlisting personnel from authorities already existing in occupied territories, e.g. the Moscow Economic Inspectorate is to be staffed by the armament industry office (Rue In A) to be withdrawn from France.

Murmansk Economic Command is to be staffed from Norway
Moscow Economic Command by Troppau Armament Command
Lodz Economic Command by Radom Armament Command
Sevastopol Sub-Office by Aarhus Sub-Office.

Even though these units will have to be brought up to the required strength and supplemented, their employment at least creates a basis and thus effects a considerable economy in staff.

b. Which members of branches of the armed forces are already earmarked for Rue VI?

c. In which economic commands are the commander or for instance the head of the transport office to be appointed from the members of a branch of the armed forces which has an overriding interest?

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1161-PS

Defense Economics—and—Armament Office [Wehrwirtschafts—und Ruestungsamt]

Az. Stab I a Nr. 1134/40
Berlin, 31 May 1940

To Gen Qu (General Headquarters) through VO Major Dr. Just

I. In the enclosure is forwarded a map on which are marked the boundaries for the economic teams anticipated in France. The territorial distribution of economic teams has followed the same principles as were used in the creation of the teams for Belgium and Holland. The boundaries are established according to the economic structure of the districts. In them are located individual industrial concentrations which will be the main fields of work for the teams. Since the whole area without exception had to be divided up the working areas of the individual teams appear relatively large, however the working power of the teams will not be visibly influenced thereby, since only a few additions lie outside the industrial centers.

The boundaries are and must be established for the above named reasons without regard to later commitment of main field commands [Oberfeldkommandanturen] and/or sections of the AOK (Army High Command).

II. It is requested that the economic teams be instructed to send their reports directly to Gen Qu and at the same time to Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Wirtschaft Ruestungsamt. The purpose of the commitment of the economic teams is the most rapid instruction of the OKW/Wi Rue Amt concerning existing raw materials which must be brought—trainload after trainload—to finishing plants in the occupied territories and in the Reich, according to the requirements of manufacturing programs.

The experiences of the last three weeks have shown that the channels prescribed for this purpose have entirely failed. So far, except for a single message which reached the OKW directly, the OKW has received no report from the economic teams. This situation must be changed as quickly as possible by the forwards administrative posts, without consideration of possible questions of competence but from the purest material viewpoint, all the more as the life expectancy of the military government in Belgium, as also that of Holland, may be of short duration.

I.A.
signature

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1162-PS

ORDER

BY ORDER of the German Wehrmacht all men from 17 up to and including 40 years old must register for the Labour Service.

Immediately on receipt of this order ALL men within this age-group must appear in the street with the required equipment.

All other inhabitants, women and children included, must stay in their houses until the operation is completed. Men of the age mentioned above who are found in their houses when they are searched, will be punished, and their private possessions will be confiscated.

Identification cards from civilian or military authorities must be brought along for inspection.

Those, who are in possession of such identification cards must also appear in the street.

Warm clothing, strong shoes, blankets protection against rain, eating-utensils, knife, fork and drinking cup and bread for one day must be taken along. Persons who bring along their bicycles, which they take with them, will be allowed to keep them.

THE DAILY COMPENSATION CONSISTS OF GOOD FOOD, TOBACCO AND FIVE GUILDERS.

THE RELATIVES LEFT BEHIND WILL BE LOOKED AFTER.

ALL INHABITANTS OF THE MUNICIPALITY ARE FORBIDDEN TO LEAVE THEIR RESIDENCE.

THOSE WHO TRY TO ESCAPE OR TO RESIST WILL BE SHOT.

ANNOUNCEMENT

All male persons between the ages of 17 and 50, resident in the township of Apeldoorn, must report on the 2nd October, 1944 at 9 a.m. in the market place at Apeldoorn, in order to work for several days in the Province of Gelderland.

They must bring with them a shovel or spade, also eating utensils, spoon, fork, and a blanket.

Zutphen, 1st October, 1944.
The Plenipotentiary of the Reichs-Commissioner
for the Province of Gelderland.
Dr. SCHNEIDER.

OFFICIAL NOTICE

By order of the German Wehrmacht all men of the town of Amersfo between the ages of 17 and 50 years must report today at 9 o'clock at the Infantry Barracks for digging operations.

Release certificates from civil or military places of employment are to be brought for scrutiny. They are not a release from the duty to report.

Return after the period of employment can be definitely guaranteed.

Men must bring: warm clothing, strong footwear, blankets, covering against rain, eating utensils with spoon, knife and fork as well as spades or shovels. Bicycles brought remain in the possession of the owners.

Good food, smokes and 5 Gulden daily will be given!
Leaving the town is forbidden on principle.
The Delegate of the Reich Commissioner
for the Province of Utrecht:
MUELLER-REINERT.

NOTICE

By virtue of Section 1 of Order No. 42/1941 regarding conscription and regarding the limitation of change in places of work within the scope of Order No. 48/1942, and by virtue of special authorization, it is decreed:

All male Dutch nationals and those without nationality born within the years 1915 to 1928 inclusive, who have their domicile or permanent residence in the Provinces of North Holland, South Holland and Utrecht, are under labour obligation. The calling-up for labour duties will be effected by special proclamation.

Until the calling-up for labour duties the above-mentioned persons are obliged, without prejudice to the existing regulations regarding change of place of work, to remain at their present place of work and in their dwelling place or their present permanent domicile. All labour necessary for the maintenance of public administration, as well as for the continuance of installations and agricultural and industrial undertakings, in which vital tasks are to be accomplished or commissions of military importance are to be carried out, will be reserved and not called-up for conscripted labour elsewhere. All persons thus reserved will receive a generally valid reservation certificate. It will render invalid all other reservation certificates hitherto issued as such. When called-up for work, the maintenance of those called-up as well as of their dependents will be provided for in sufficient measure.

Whoever acts contrary to the stipulations of this Notice or of the regulations issued for its execution, or tries to circumvent them will be punished by imprisonment as per Section 4 of Order No. 42/ in as much as a heavier punishment is not incurred in accordance with other stipulations. Accessories before the fact, collaborators and assistants incur the same punishment as the perpetrators themselves. Security Police measures are held in reserve. Houses and places in which a called-up man hides, will be sequestrated, together with their contents.

The regulations of this Notice come into force immediately.

The Reich Commissioner for the
Occupied Dutch Territories.
The Plenipotentiary for total war effort.
LIESE.

The Hague, 14th December, 1944.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1163-PS

NOTICE!

I consider all inhabitants responsible for destruction or damage to railroad installations, waterways with their installations, telephone cables and Post Offices occurring within their districts.

The population of such communities may therefore expect reprisals in the form of seizure of property and destruction of houses or groups of houses.

I advise the communities to arrange for adequate protection of the means of transportation and of communication in their districts, by patrols or other effective means.

The Hague, 24 September 1944.
(Sd.) SEYSS-INQUART
The Reich Commissioner for the
Occupied Netherlands Territories.

NOTICE.

The Superior SS and Police Chief gives notice that on 20 Nov 1944 Schutzgruppenmann Janssen and on 13 Dec 1944 the Senior Officer Candidate Guse were shot in the back by criminal Netherlands elements.

Both were robbed of their pistols.

Independent of further investigation of the perpetrators, two houses were blasted and 12 Netherlanders were executed at the place of one of the crimes as reprisals.

The Hague, 16 Dec 1944

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1164-PS

SS Economic Administration Office
Official Group Chief D
Concentration Camp
DI/1/az.:14c9/Ot./U.
Secret Diary 63/1942
Oranienburg, 21 April 1942
[Stamp]
Concentration Camp Gross-Rosen Kommandantur
Entered: 22 April 1942

SECRET

Secret Diary No. 243/42
Subject: Labor mobilization of clergy.
Reference: SS Economic Administration Office Ch.Po/IIa.
Enclosures: None

To: Camp Commandants of Concentration Camps Da., Sah., Bn., Man., Flo., Neu., Au. Gr.-Ros., Natz., Nie., Stu., Arb., Rav., PW Camp Lublin.

Copy to: Chief of Office D II here.

The Reich Fuehrer-SS and Chief of the German Police has ordered, that the Polish and Lithuanian priests are to work fully, i.e., may be summoned for all work. The German, Dutch, Norwegian Clergymen, etc. are to be employed in future as previously only in the medicinal herb gardens.

The execution of this order is to be reported here.

By direction

(signed) Liebenhenschell
SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1165-PS

SECRET

Concentration Camp Gross Rosen
Office of the Commandant
Gro.Ro./Az.: KL.14f I/10.41/Su/Wa
Geh.Tgb.Nr. 117/41
Gross Rosen, 23 October 1941
Subject: Execution of Russian PWs

Reference: Oral conference with SS Major General Mueller, Gestapo, Berlin

Annexes:—1—

To: Major General Mueller Berlin, Prinz-Albrechtstrasse

The commandant's office of the concentration camp Gross Rosen submits in the annex a list of the Russian PWs who were executed on 22 October 1941 from 1700-1800 and who were subsequently cremated. The inspector of the concentration camp Oranienburg was separately notified from this station.

The Camp Commandant of the Concentration Camp Gross Rosen

[initials illegible]
SS Lt Colonel

LIST

Gross Rosen

List of the PWs who are to report on 22 October 1941 for transportation from the "S" Camp.

Current No.	Stalag No.
1	45860	Nikolai Troitzki	1/2/21
2	45861	Konstantin Marfenkow	6/5/22
3	45862	Wassili Mainko	23/3/20
4	45863	Wladimir Warnaschin	24/7/19
5	45864	Nikolai Pankratow	23/8/20
6	45865	Pietr Gorelow	8/6/21
7	45866	Jefgeni Pianitzki	18/3/19
8	45867	Georgi Koschuchowski	10/7/16
9	45868	Alexander Konowalow	3/9/20
10	45869	Alexander Ibriganow	1/4/07
11	45870	Michael Ignatow	20/9/09
12	45871	Jakow Jakolow	21/7/16
13	45872	Jakow Barsukow	22/11/05
14	45873	Georg Wirkejenke	19/4/13
15	45874	Nioklai Ibrielow	3/5/15
16	45875	Wladimir Aleschkow	19/4/20
17	45876	Iwan Korolow	14/6/11
18	45877	Apolon Dimentzow	18/3/18
19	45878	Wassili Kirisanow	14/1/10
20	45879	Alexi Merkulow	11/4/15

Neuhammer, 22 October 1941

True copy

signed: THIELE

The Chief of the SIPO and the SD B Nr 2009 B/41g - IV A I c
Berlin, 9 November 1941

SECRET
SPECIAL DELIVERY

Subject: Transportation of the Russian PWs, destined for execution, into the concentration camps

Previous correspondence: None

Annexes: * * * Annexes

The commandants of the concentration camps are complaining that 5 to 10% of the Soviet Russians destined for execution are arriving in the camps dead or half dead. Therefore the impression has arisen that the Stalags are getting rid of such prisoners in this way.

It was particularly noted that, when marching, for example from the railroad station to the camp, a rather large number of PWs collapsed on the way from exhaustion, either dead or half dead, and had to be picked up by a truck following the convoy.

It cannot be prevented that the German people take notice of these occurrences.

Even if the transportation to the camps is generally taken care of by the Wehrmacht, the population will still attribute this situation to the SS.

In order to prevent, if possible, similar occurrences in the future, I therefore order that, effective from today on, Soviet Russians, declared definitely suspect and obviously marked by death (for example with typhus) and who therefore would not be able to withstand the exertions of even a short march on foot, shall in the future, as a matter of basic principle, be excluded from the transport into the concentration camps for execution.

I request that the leaders of the Einsatzkommandos be correspondingly informed of this decision without delay.

Distribution:
All offices of the State Police
To the CO of the SIPO and the SD Metz
To the CO of the SIPO and the SD Strassburg
For the information of:
The Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German police
The Chief of the SIPO and the SD
The Chiefs of Departments I to VII
Gruppenleiter IVD SS Lt Col Dr Weinmann
The higher SS and Police Chiefs—except in the Hague
The Inspectors of the SIPO and the SD
The Commanders in Chief of the SIPO and the SD—except
in Metz and Strassburg
The Commanders of the SIPO and the SD

The Inspectors of the concentration camps

All commandants of the concentration camps

For:

signed: MUELLER

Certified:

signed: L. WOLFERT

Office Girl

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1166-PS

TOP SECRET

Oranienburg, 15 August 1944

SS—Economic—Administration Department
Section D—Concentration Camps—
DIV—189—8.44—Ru./Schm.

Diary No. 199/44 Secret

Subject: Report of the number of prisoners and Survey of prisoners clothing type "G" and "Z" and the supply of "G" available.

Reference: Telephone call by SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Waschkau on 15.8.44.

To: Chief of Section B, SS-Gruppenfuehrer and Lieutenant-General of the Waffen-SS Loerner

Berlin—Lichterfelde/West Unter den Eichen 126-135

With reference to the above-mentioned telephone call, I am sending herewith a report on the actual number of prisoners for 1.8.1944 and of the new arrivals already announced, as well as the clothing report for 15.8.44.

(1) The actual number on 1.8.44, consisted of:

a. male prisoners 379 167

b. female prisoners 145 119

In addition, there are the following new arrivals:

1. from the Hungary program (anti-Jewish action)	90 000
2. from Litzmannstadt (Police prison and Ghetto)	60 000
3. Poles from the General Government	15 000
4. Convicts from the Eastern Territories	10 000
5. former Polish officers	17 000
6. from Warsaw (Poles)	400 000
7. continued arrivals from France approx. 15000	20 000

Most of the prisoners are already on the way and will be received into the Concentration Camps within the next few days.

(2) Survey of clothing for male prisoners in the possession of the prisoners or the Concentration Camp.

	a. "G" clothing	b. "Z" clothing	Supply of clothing held by Section D in Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald
Cloth jackets	232 024	168 987	70 509
Cloth trousers	184 338	121 581	72 220
Cloth coats	162 809	102 657	19 990
Cloth caps	257 509	65 669	27 610
Drill jackets	229 840	--	2 930
Drill trousers	243 366	--	6 865
Shirts	358 871	331 467	5 500
Underpants	457 232	167 022	1 000
Woolen waistcoats	169 462	19 605	32 501
Material waistcoats	--	38 847	--
Socks	328 041	9 517	174 186
Foot-bandages	96 615	--	30 240
Short socks	82 739	--	2200
Ear protectors	97 567	9 640	440
Balaclava helmets (Teufelshauben)	47 845	12 000	206 220
Handkerchiefs	20 941	77 205	17 000
Mittens	74 570	--	145 400
Gloves	--	9 177	--
Knap-sacks—paper	48 386	--	--
Knap-sacks—material	89 396	--	--
Aprons	6 267	4 796	--
Working jackets	--	2 602	--
Working trousers	--	2 594	--
Working suits	--	4 998	--
Lace-shoes—leather	47 406	16 979	--
Lace-shoes with wooden soles	243 128	--	977
Lace-shoes with buckles and wooden soles	10 041	--	3 539
Wooden clogs	119 259	--	--
Boots, high (leather)	2 192	3 233	--
Hollaender	13 520	--	--
Body-belts	9 788	--	--
Woolen shawl	--	9 770	--
Boots with wooden soles	389	--	--
Half-shoes—leather	1 635	--	--
Bags for effects	21 992	--	--

(3) Survey of the clothing for female prisoners in the possession of the prisoners or the Concentration Camp.

	a. "G" clothing	b. "Z" clothing	Supply of clothing held by Section D in Ravensbrueck
Winter dresses	38 064	--	2 220
Summer dresses	55 638	--	--
Dresses "Z"	--	141 963	--
Skirts "Z"	--	34 796	--
Blouses "Z"	--	36 262	--
Winter jackets	42 183	--	4 840
Coats "Z"	--	32 802	--
Shirts	35 418	210 808	14 680
Night-dresses	9 194	4 940	--
Winter trousers	48 246	--	14 010
Summer trousers	35 781	--	6 690
Knickers	--	79 687	--
Petticoats	36 878	938	3 490
Women's jackets "Z"	--	8 041	--
Women's stockings	41 677	58 711	6 199
Suspender belts	13 676	3 322	2 622
Head scarves	32 270	60 643	--
Woolen waistcoats	2 066	74 808	13 290
Brassieres	--	7 620	--
Bandages—paper	33 400	--	186 798
Bandages—material	64 041	--	9 755
Bandage-belts	23 826	--	807
Handkerchiefs	38 553	14 562	152 100
Aprons	4 436	13 636	--
Women's caps	9 488	--	5 600

Mittens	9 294	--	--
Gloves "Z"	--	5 931	--
Lace-shoes—leather	2 392	14 348	--
Half-shoes—leather	20 442	--	--
Lace-shoes with wooden soles	33 967	--	--

Clogs	40 092	--	--
Hollaender	7 272	--	--
Bags for effects	19 963	--	--

(4) Owing to a total at the time of 524,286 prisoners and to the new batch of 612,000[3] prisoners already announced and on the way, it is impossible for me to undertake to clothe completely all the unexpected new arrivals, in spite of the latest assignment of special allotments of yarn and textiles for the Hungary program through the Reich Ministry of Economics.

I would also like to mention that the civilian clothing previously received from the Hungary program has all been distributed and precious little can be expected from other useful articles received from the Poland action (Warsaw).

The civilian clothing already distributed, particularly under-clothes and shoes, have to be replaced very soon owing to their inferior quality. Their durability, in comparison with new articles is very limited.

Further it must be kept in mind that the employment of prisoners in special measures [Sondermassnahmen] A and B is a great strain on clothes and footwear and the expected durability must be decreased.

For the above-mentioned reasons, I would ask you, Gruppenfuehrer, to be so kind as to request that Reich Ministry of Economics to take the necessary steps so that further special allotments of yarn and leather may be assigned to meet the exceedingly great need for prisoners' clothing. Mention might also be made to the Reich Ministry of Economics that, up to the present, enormous quantities of rags of unusable civilian clothes, from the various actions, have been sent for disposal from Auschwitz and other camps to the Reich Ministry of Economics, and more are to follow.

Head of Administration
[initial illegible]
SS Sturmbannfuehrer
[Burger]

[3] including approx. 387,000 men and 225,000 women.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1168-PS

Memorandum from SCHACHT to HITLER, [Identified by SCHACHT on 16 October 1945]

May 3, 1935

Financing of Armament

The following explanations are based upon the thought, that the accomplishment of the armament program with speed and in quantity is the problem of German politics, that everything else therefore should be subordinated to this purpose, as long as the main purpose is not imperilled by neglecting all other questions. Even after March 16, 1935 the difficulty remains, that one cannot undertake the open propagandistic treatment of the German people for support of armament without endangering our position internationally (without loss to our foreign trade). The already nearly impossible financing of the armament program is rendered hereby exceptionally difficult.

Another supposition must be also emphasized. The printing press can be used only for the financing of armament to such a degree, as permitted by maintaining of the money value. Every inflation increases the prices of foreign raw materials and increases the domestic prices, is therefore like a snail biting its own tail. The circumstance that our armament had to be camouflaged completely till March 16, 1935 and even since this date the camouflage had to be continued to a larger extent, making it necessary to use the printing press (bank note press) already at the beginning of the whole armament program, while it would have been natural, to start it (the printing press) at the final point of financing. In the portfolio of the Reichsbank are segregated notes (for this purpose: armament) of 3,775 millions and 866 millions, altogether 4,641 millions, out of which the armament notes amount to RM 2,374 millions (Status of April 30, 1935). The Reichsbank has invested the amount of marks under its jurisdiction, but belonging to foreigners in * * * notes of armament. Our armaments are also financed partly with the credits of our political opponents. Furthermore 500 million Reichsmarks were used for financing of armament, which originated out of Reichsanleihe [Federal loans] placed with savings banks. In the regular budget the following amounts were provided. For the budget period 1933/34 RM 750 millions, for the budget period 1934/35 RM 1,100 millions, and for the budget period 1935/36 RM 2,500 millions.

The amount of deficits of the budget since 1928 increases after the budget 1935/36 to 5-6 millions RM. This total deficit is already financed at the present time by short term credits of the money market. It therefore reduces in advance the possibilities of utilization of the public market for the armament. The Minister of Finance correctly points out at the defense of the budget: As a permanent yearly deficit * * * is an impossibility; as we cannot figure with security with increased tax revenues in amount balancing the deficit and any other previous debits, as on the other hand a balanced budget is the only secure basis for the impending great task of military policy, for all these reasons we have to put in motion a fundamental and conscious budget policy which solves the problem of armament financing by organic and planned reduction of other expenditures not only from the point of receipt, but also from the point of expenditure, e.g., by saving.

How urgent this question is, can be deducted from the following, that a large amount of task has been started by the state and party and which is now in process, all of which are not covered by the budget, but from contributions and credits, which have to be raised by industry in addition to the regular taxes. The existing of various budgets side by side, which serve more or less public tasks, is the greatest impediment for gaining a clear view over the possibilities of financing the armaments. A whole number of ministries and various branches of the party have their own budgets, and for this reason have possibilities of incomes and expenses, though based on the sovereignty of finance of the state, but not subject to the control of the Minister of Finance and therefore also not subject to the control of the cabinet. Just as on the sphere of politics the much too far reaching delegation of legislative powers to individuals brought about various states within the states, exactly in the same way the condition of various branches of state and party, working side by side and against each other, has a devastating effect on the possibility of financing. If on this territory concentration and unified control is not introduced very soon, the solution of the already impossible task of armament financing is endangered.

We have the following tasks:

(1) A deputy is entrusted finding all sources and revenues, which have its origin in contributions to the Federal government, to the state and party and in profits of public and party enterprises.

(2) Furthermore experts, entrusted by the Fuehrer, have to examine, how these amounts were used and which of these amounts can in the future be withdrawn from their previous purpose.

(3) The same experts have to examine the investments of all public and party organizations, to which extent this property can be used for the purpose of armament financing.

(4) The federal ministry of finances is to be entrusted to examine the possibilities of increased revenues by way of new taxes or increasing of existing taxes.

The up-to-date financing of armaments by the Reichsbank under existing political conditions was a necessity and the political success proved the correctness of this action. The other possibilities of armament financing have to be started now under any circumstances. For this purpose all absolutely non-essential expenditures for other purposes have not to take place and the total financial strength of Germany, limited as it is, has to be concentrated for the one purpose of armament financing. Whether the problem of financing, as outlined in program, succeeds, remains to be seen, but without such concentration it will fail with absolute certainty.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1183-PS

COPY
The Commissioner for the Four Year Plan
Department Arbeitseinsatz
Berlin SW 11, Saarlandstr. 96, 29 Jan 1942
V a 552/27
Express Letter!
To:—

The Government of the Government-General

Main Labor Division, Cracow:

The Reich Commissioner for the occupied Norwegian territories,

Labor and Social Division, Oslo

via the bureau of the Reich Commissioner for the occupied Norwegian territories.

The Reich Commissioner for the occupied Dutch territories, The Hague;

The Military Administrator for Belgium and Northern France,

Economic Division, Group VII (Arbeitseinsatz), Brussels.

The Military Administrator in France,

Administrative Staff, Economic Division, Paris;

The Plenipotentiary for Economics in Serbia

Command Officer, Semlin near Belgrade;

The Chief of the Civilian Administration in Luxemburg;

The Chief of the Civilian Administration in Lorraine, Metz;

and
The Chief of the Civilian Administration in Alsace, Straszburg.

Subject: Increased mobilization of man-power for the German Reich from the occupied territories and preparations for mobilization by force.

On the one hand, the labor shortage which was rendered more acute by the draft for the Wehrmacht, and on the other hand, the increased scope of the armament problem in the German Reich, render it necessary that man-power for service in the Reich be recruited from the occupied territories to a much greater extent than heretofore, in order to relieve the shortage of labor. Therefore, any and all methods must be adopted which make possible the transportation, without exception and delay, for employment in the German Reich, of man-power in the occupied territories which is unemployed or which can be released for use in Germany after most careful screening.

To the High Command of the Armed Forces
Wi Rue Amt Berlin W 35
[Page 2]

This mobilization shall first of all, as heretofore, be carried out on a voluntary basis. For this reason, the recruiting effort for employment in the German Reich must be strengthened considerably. But if satisfactory results are to be obtained, the German authorities, who are functioning in the occupied territories, must be able to exert any pressure necessary to support the voluntary recruiting of labor for employment in Germany. Accordingly, to the extent that may be necessary, the regulations in force in the occupied territories in regard to shift in employment and withdrawal of support upon refusal to work, must be tightened. Supplementary regulations concerning shift in employment must above all ensure that older personnel who are freed must be exchanged for younger personnel to make up for it, so that the latter may be made available for the Reich. A far-reaching decrease in the amount of relief granted by Public Welfare must also be effected in order to induce laborers to accept employment in the Reich. Unemployment relief must be set so low that the amount in comparison with the average wages in the Reich and the possibilities there for sending remittances home may serve as an inducement to accept employment in the Reich. When refusal to accept work in the Reich is not justified, the compensation must be reduced to an amount barely enough for subsistence, or even be cancelled. In this connection, partial withdrawal of ration cards and assignment to particularly heavy obligatory labor may be considered.

However, all misgivings must give way before the necessity of supplying the deficit in man-power caused by excessive draft calls into the Armed Forces, in order to avoid detriment to the armament industry. For this purpose the forcible mobilization of workers from the occupied territories cannot be disregarded, in case the voluntary recruiting is unsuccessful. The mere possibility of mobilization by force will, in many cases, make recruiting easier.

[Page 3]

Therefore, I ask you immediately to take any measures in your district which will promote the employment of workers in the German Reich on a voluntary basis. I herewith request you to prepare for publication regulations applying to forced mobilization of laborers from your territory for Germany, so that they may be decreed at once, in case recruiting on a voluntary basis will not have the desired result, that is relief of the man-power shortage in the Reich. I request you to inform me of the measures taken by you.

Copy for cognizance. Signed: Dr. Mansfeld
Attested by: [signature illegible]
employee

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1188-PS

20 May 1941

Decree of the Fuehrer

Concerning the Economy in the Newly Occupied
Eastern Territories

(1) In the newly occupied eastern territories Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering as the Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan shall issue all orders concerning matters within his jurisdiction which are essential to the highest utilization of existing stocks, to the highest increase of the industrial capacity, and to the further building up of all economic resources that can be utilized for the German war economy.

(2) In order to accomplish his task, he may also give orders to Wehrmacht agencies.

(3) This decree becomes effective to-day. It may only be published after special authorization.

Fuehrer's Headquarters
The Fuehrer,
The Chief of the German High Command
The Reichsminister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery

Remarks

Reichsleiter Rosenberg wants to see no limitations applied to the principle that civil agencies of the newly occupied eastern territories should get orders and directives from nobody else but him. He therefore desires that within these territories he should also be authorized to give orders concerning measures with regard to the Four Year Plan. He is willing, however, to follow those directives which the Reich Marshall, in his capacity as a delegate for the Four Year Plan, has given personally. Rosenberg, therefore, suggested that the delegate for the Four Year Plan should use the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories as his Plenipotentiary General for carrying out his tasks in the newly occupied eastern territories. The latter should then receive orders from him (Goering) for that purpose. The Reich Marshall turned down such an arrangement.

In the event that Reichsleiter Rosenberg's suggestion is disapproved by the Fuehrer, Rosenberg at least wants to be able to coordinate measures taken by him as the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories with those measures taken by the delegate of the Four Year Plan. In order to make sure of that he desires to insert after the word "jurisdiction" [Befugnisse] in Paragraph 1 the words "via the Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories".

Reichsleiter Rosenberg, furthermore, has misgivings relative to the publication of this decree, since it left no doubt that Germany was only interested in the occupied eastern territories for purposes of extreme economic exploitation. If that became known in these territories the political reaction there will be disastrous.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1189-PS

in the field 4/11/1941
Wi Stab Ost Fue/Ia, Az.B.NR. 6730/41

Special Instructions No. 44
Feeding of Civilian Population in the occupied Eastern Territories

Weekly Maximum in Grams

a. For population which does no work worth mentioning.

Meat and meat products	none
Fat	70
Bread	1500
Potatoes	2000

d. Children under 14 years old and Jews:
Half of the maximum according to a.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1193-PS

SECRET
The Reich Marshall of the Greater German Reich
Deputy for the Four Year Plan
The State Secretary
Berlin W 8, Leipziger Str. 3, 14 November 1941
V.P. 19008/2 Secret.

In the annexes I submit, in three copies, a note on the result of a conference which was held on 7 November 1941 by the Reich Marshall and which concerned the

Employment of Soviet Russians

Meanwhile the Reich Marshall has ordered (cf. V of the note) that the utilization of those Russians who are not under the armed forces (prisoners of war and free workers) should be centrally directed in the Reich, including the protectorate and the General Government, as well as in the Reich Commissariats by his agency Arbeitseinsatz. To perform its functions, it will avail itself of the general administration of the Arbeitseinsatz, and in the occupied Eastern territories of the organization for the Arbeitseinsatz which is at the disposal of the Economic Staff East, respectively the Reich commissar, general commissar, etc.

The Reich Marshall has made the agency Arbeitseinsatz responsible for a rapid and appropriate solution of all problems which are connected with the utilization of the Russians in the civilian domain. He requests that the responsible agencies should acknowledge the importance of this matter by fullest cooperation and should help in eliminating the existing difficulties to the best of their abilities.

The Reich Marshall expects to receive on 15 December 1941 the first report of the agency Arbeitseinsatz as to what extent the directives issued by him on 7 November have been set into practice.

Signed: Koerner
Authenticated: Schwingle
Ministry Registrar

Conference of 7 November 1941 about the
Employment of Soviet Russians

The Reich Marshall gave the following directives for the Arbeitseinsatz of the Soviet Russians:

I. The stronger labor reserves in the zone of the interior are also decisive for the war.

The Russian workers have proved their productive capacity during the development of the huge Russian industry. Therefore it must be made available to the Reich from now on. Objections against this order of the Fuehrer are of the secondary nature. The disadvantages which can be created by the Arbeitseinsatz have to be reduced to a minimum: the task especially of counter-intelligence and security police.

II. The Russian in the zone of operations.

He is to be employed particularly in building roads and railroads, in clearing work, clearing of mines, and in building airports. The German construction battalions have to be dissolved to a great extent (Example: Air Forces!); the German skilled workers belong to the war industry; it is not their task to shovel and to break stones, the Russian is there for that.

III. The Russian in the territories of the Reich Commissar and of the General Government.

The same principles apply as in II. Furthermore, stronger utilization in agriculture; if machines are lacking, human hands have to produce what the Reich has to request from the agricultural sector in the East. Furthermore, sufficient native labor has to be provided for the ruthless exploitation of Russian coal mines.

IV. The Russian in the Reich territory including the Protectorate.

The number of the employed depends on the requirement. By determining the requirement, it is to be considered that workers of other states who produce little and eat much are to be shipped out of the Reich and that in the future the German woman should come less into the foreground in the labor process. Beside the Russian prisoners of war, free Russian workers should also be used.

A. The Russian prisoner of war.

1. The selection has to take place already in the collecting camps, beyond the Reich border. The profession and physical condition are decisive. At the same time screening as to nationality and according to the requirements of the security police and counter-intelligence must take place.

2. The transportation has to be organized just as the selection and not improvised. The prisoners are to be forwarded rapidly. Their feeding should be orderly and their guarding unconditionally secured.

3. Officers are to be excluded from the work as much as possible, commissars as a matter of principle.

4. The Russian belongs in first line to the following work places (in order of priorities):

Mining.

Railroad maintenance (including repair shops and construction of vehicles).

War industry (tanks, artillery pieces, airplane parts).

Agriculture.

Building industry.

Large scale work shops (shoe shops!).

Special units for urgent, occasional and emergency work.

5. The following apply to the method of employment: Principally closed group employment (at least 20). Exceptions only with express permission. In the agriculture in first place the great enterprises come into consideration; besides rotating employment of closed units in small farms day after day. In industry including mining establishments of "Russian enterprises" as an ideal condition (exclusively Russian workers under German supervision) to be striven for.

6. Housing: In closed camps (barracks).

7. Guards: During work, members of the armed forces, but also German workers who have to perform auxiliary police functions. The strictest and fastest activity is decisive for security measures. In general, there are no further steps in the scale of punishment between restriction of food and execution according to martial law.

8. Clothing: Creating of a standardized work suit is to the point. The first clothing is secured according to the High Command of the Armed Forces. Wooden shoes are the rule. Underwear is scarcely known to or customary to the Russians.

9. Rations: The Russian is easily satisfied. Therefore he should be fed lightly and without serious infractions upon our food balance. He should not be spoiled or accustomed to the German food, but he should be satisfied and kept in the productive capacity which corresponds to his assignment.

B. The free Russian worker.

Employment and treatment will not be handled in practice differently than for Russian prisoners of war. In both categories, particularly good production can be acknowledged by a limited distribution of luxury items. Sufficient, adequate nourishment is also the main thing for the free workers.

As to the working conditions of the free Russian, the following is to be considered.

1. He can receive a small allowance.

2. His relatives should be provided for.

3. Since his productive power is placed at the disposal of the employer at a cheap price, a financial compensation with the employer is to be taken into consideration.

4. Subjects of the Baltic State who are old residents can receive privileges. At the most their cash allowance can be made equal to the wages which are provided for the Poles who are in the Reich. The general wage standard in the East has to be taken into consideration in this matter.

5. Ukrainians have no special privileges. The Fuehrer has ordered that in the future they should not be released from war captivity.

6. The Russian employment should under no conditions create a prejudice in the East as to the problem of salaries. Every financial measure taken in this field has to originate from the consideration that the lowest wages in the East, according to a directive of the Fuehrer, are prerequisites for the settlement of the cost of war and for the clearing of the war debts of the Reich after the end of the war.

Infractions will be punished with strictest measures.

This logically applies for every furthering of "social aspirations" in the Russian colonial territory.

7. The Russian free workers obtain a badge which makes them recognizable as such.

V. The Reich Marshall reserves for himself a special decree about the organization of the Russian Arbeitseinsatz, number and obligatory membership, obligatory registration. All recruiting and every shipment which are not conducted through the organization are prohibited. Recruiting and employment of prisoners of war are to be conducted in a unified way and are organizationally to be coupled with one another.

Signed: von Normann

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1195-PS

Copy
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
W.F.St./Abt.L (IV/Qu) Nr. 00630/41 Top Secret.
Fuehrer's H.Q., 12.4.1941

Reference: OKW/L (IV/Qu) Nr.4434/41 Top Secret of 3 April 1941.

I. Provisional Directions for the Partitioning of Yugoslavia

The Fuehrer has issued the following directions for the partition of Yugoslavia:

1. Former territory of Steiermark and Krain.

The territory of the former Steiermark enlarged towards the South by a strip of about 90 Kilometer breadth and 10-15 Kilometer depth will go to Gau Steiermark.

The Northern part of Krain, with a border line which runs in the south only as far as the river Sava but north of Laibach according to attached map OKH/GEN Qu, will belong to Kaernten.

The territory occupied by German troops will be handed over district by district by the Army High Command to the Gauleiters concerned as soon as the pacification of the country permits.

The handing over of the territory occupied by the Italians will be prepared by letter from the Fuehrer to the Duce and carried out according to a more detailed direction of the Foreign Office. Until that time no measures whatever are to be taken from the German end. (Telegram OKH-Gen Qu/Abt. Kr. Verw. A. Ob. Kdo. 2 I Nr.801/41 g. Kdos, is hereby dealt with).

2. The territory beyond the river Mur [Ubermur-Gebiet]:

The territory beyond the river Mur goes as a whole to Hungary conforming with the historic boundary. A later transfer of the German population in the north-eastern part of this territory has been taken into consideration. The handing over of this territory to the Hungarians will be regulated by the Army High Command.

3. Banat:

The territory from the point where the river Orava cuts the Hungarian national boundary to the entry of the river Tisa in the Danube goes to Hungary.

The territory east of the river Tisa will be at first under German protection as will the territory south of the Danube and east of the general line: mouth of the river Morava-Danube-Pozarevac-Petrovac-Boljavac-Kugarevac-Kalina. This territory comprises the Boz copper territory and the adjoining coal district in the south-east. The above line is to be considered as the basis [Anhalt] and provisional demarcation line. At first Military Government under the Army High Command is to be established.

4. Southern Serbia:

The territory inhabited by Bulgarian Macedonians, in conformity with the ethnographical boundary goes to Bulgaria.

Preliminary delimitation from the military view point will be carried out by the Army High Command which will prepare the handing over to Bulgaria.

5. Former Serbia [Alt-Serbien]:

The territory of former Serbia will be placed under German military administration of the Army High Command.

6. Croatia:

Croatia becomes an independent state within its ethnographical boundaries. There will be no interference on the part of Germany with its home policy.

7. Remaining territories including Bosnia and Montenegro:

The political shaping of these territories will be left to Italy. Here also the restoration of an independent state of Montenegro can be considered.

II. The drawing up of boundaries

1. If the drawing up of boundaries has not been laid down in the above part I it will be carried out by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces in agreement with the Foreign Office, the plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan and the Reich-Minister of the Interior.

The Operational Staff of the Armed Forces (L IV/Qu) is the authority which will prepare the drawing up of the boundaries for the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.

2. The Army High Command will forward as soon as possible to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces W.F. St., its military requirements in this regard—where not already laid down by the Fuehrer—and with the exception of the territory under protection south of the Danube.

3. The OKW/Branch Economy and Armament [OKW Wi Rue Amt] will forward as soon as possible to the Operational Staff (Section L) its demands regarding the boundaries of the territory under protection south of the Danube (Part I. para 3).

4. As far as the Italians are concerned, tactical boundaries between the armies are valid for the present.

The Chief of the Supreme Command
of the Armed Forces
/s/ Keitel

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1199-PS

Rue IV d 4 July, 1941

MEMORANDUM on discussion held at the Wi Rue Amt on 4 July 1941 on the subject of mobilization of labor [Arbeitseinsatz] and utilization of the Russian P.W.'s

Chairman of the discussion: Lt. Col. Dr. Krull.

Participants: (see enclosed record of attendance) Representatives of the Commissioner for the Four Year Plan, of the Reich Labor Ministry, of the Reich Food Ministry, of the Rosenberg Bureau, of the AWA/P.W. and of the WI Rue Amt, Arb. Amtsdir. Panse, Dr. Bergan and Reg. Rt. Dr. Kloeden.

After an introduction by Lt. Col. Dr. Krull, Lt. Col. Breyer of the P.W. department explained that actually there was in effect a prohibition by the Fuehrer against bringing Russian PWs into the Reich for mobilization of labor; but that one might count on this prohibition being relaxed a little. For the time being the prisoners are to be retained in camps in the occupied territories and in the Government-general; as soon as conditions become overcrowded, they are to be transported to large camps in the Reich. In case Arbeitseinsatz should be permitted in the Reich, certain racial groups would be exempted (White Russians, Ukrainians, Latvians, Esthonians, Finns, etc.). PWs of Asiatic origin (such as Mongolians) are by no means to be transported to the Reich for Arbeitseinsatz. Moreover, only Russian-speaking prisoners will be utilized for the Arbeitseinsatz, because of the possibility of Bolshevist propaganda. Only Arbeitseinsatz as units (Organization Todt, construction battalions), under guard will be permitted.

Representatives of the various departments (including the representatives of the Commissioner for the Four Year Plan and of the Reich Labor Ministry) unanimously agreed that Labor Mobilization of the Russians was unqualifiedly necessary. Approximately 500,000 prisoners are needed (also to make up for the 50,000-100,000 French who are to be released)—400,000 in agriculture, 80,000 in construction, 10,000 in mining (especially lignite). The need for an additional 70,000 prisoners in the munitions industry cannot be filled under existing stipulations and at most may be accomplished only by exchange. These figures, which were presented by the representative of the Reich Labor ministry, were mentioned only from the viewpoint of a possible slight increase in number of PWs. It must be taken into consideration, moreover, that 25% are absorbed by losses and by the camps themselves.

The chairman summarized the results of the discussion as indicating that all the interested bureaus unqualifiedly advocated and supported the demand for utilization of PWs because of manpower needs [Arbeitseinsatz] in the Reich. The Wi Rue Amt will approach the Commissioner for the Four Year Plan with a request for relaxation of the restrictive regulations and express to the WFS/I its point of view, accordingly.

[signature illegible]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1206-PS

TOP SECRET

Draft
Rue (IV) Berlin, November 11 1941
6 Copies, 6th Copy
NOTES

on outlines layed down by the Reichsmarschall in the meeting of 7 November 1941 in the Reich Ministry for Air (RLM)

SUBJECT: Employment of laborers in war industries.

The Fuehrer's point of view as to employment of prisoners of war in war industries has changed basically. So far a total of 5 million prisoners of war—employed so far 2 million.

Directives for employment:

Frenchmen: Individual employment, transposition into armament industry [Rue-wirtschaft]

Serbs: Preferably agriculture

Poles: If feasible no individual employment achievement of Russian armament industry surpasses the German one. Assembly line-work, a great many mechanical devices with relatively few skilled workers.

Readiness of Russians in the operational area to work is strong. In the Ukraine and other areas discharged prisoners of war already work as free labor. In Krivoy Rog, large numbers of workers are available due to the destruction of the factories.

EMPLOYMENT OF RUSSIAN PWs

As a rule, employment in groups [geschlossener Arbeitseinsatz] no individual employment, not even in agriculture. Guard personnel, not only soldiers but also foremen, at least during the working time proper. As a rule soldiers in the camp.

Employment in:

1. Operational area

2. Reich Commissariats (occupied territories in the east)

3. General Government

4. Interior and Protectorate is to be differentiated.

For 1: In the operational area take preferable into consideration:

a. Railroads.

b. Highway construction.

Very important that in the Ukraine some roads be built with increased speed, not by German skilled labor but by Russian PWs.

c. Clearing work.

d. Agriculture.

The Ukraine being conquered, we now finally have to secure the feeding of the German people. If feasible, also Frenchmen and Belgians are to be used for directing the Russian farm-workers in the eastern area. If farm machinery is lacking, employ masses of workers. Transplantation of German farmers only where actual success can be expected.

e. Railroad-repair-factories, etc.

Best supervision: "Field kitchen." Quick evacuation from operational area are necessary. Losses during transport very heavy (escaping and joining with partisan and robber bands).

Barbed wire hard to get. (Discarding of barbed wire fences in East Prussia desirable.)

Leave Asiatic people in operational area if possible.

From construction battalions 69,000 workers have been transferred to the armament industry: replacement by prisoner of war battalions.

Again and again skilled workers are being found in the construction battalions (fraisiers etc). Investigation by army desirable. Express will of the Fuehrer, that every skilled worker is used in the proper place. If necessary, repeated checking should be instituted.

For 2: The same applies to employment in Reich Commissariats.

For 3: The above is also applicable to the Government General.

Attention is to be paid to avoiding of unnecessary transport of machinery, as thereby often the available manpower in the Gouvernement is not fully utilized, and, on the other hand, the machinery cannot be made use of for a long time in other places.

For 4: In the Interior and the Protectorate. It would be ideal if entire factories could be manned by Russian PWs except the employees necessary for direction. For employment in the Interior and the Protectorate the following are to have priority:

a. At the top coal mining industry.

Order by the Fuehrer to investigate all mines as to suitability for employment of Russians. At times manning the entire plant with Russian laborers.

b. Transportation (construction of locomotives and cars, repair-shops)

Railroad-repair and industry workers are to be sought out from the PWs. Railroad is most important means of transportation in the East.

c. Armament industries.

Preferably factories of armor and guns. Possibly also construction of parts for airplane engines. Suitable complete sections of factories to be manned exclusively by Russians. For the remainder employment in columns. Use in factories of tool machinery, production of farm tractors, generators, etc.

In emergency, erect in individual places barracks for occasional workers which are used as unloading details and similar purposes. (Reich Minister of the Interior through communal authorities).

OKW/AWA is competent for transporting Russian PWs, employment through "Planning Board for Employment of all PWs." If necessary, offices of Reich Commissariats.

No employment where danger to men or their supply exists, i.e. factories exposed to explosives, waterworks, powerworks, etc. No contact with German population, especially no "solidarity." German worker as a rule is foreman of Russians.

Food is a matter of Four Years' Plan. Supply their own food (cats, horses, etc.)

Clothes, billeting, messing somewhat better than at home where part of the people live in caverns.

Supply of shoes for Russians as a rule wooden shoes, if necessary Russian shoe repair shops.

Examination of physical fitness, in order to avoid importation of diseases.

Clearing of mines as a rule by Russians if possible by selected Russian engineers.

Employment offices for civilian workers to be kept separate from those for PWs. In this respect the wage-problem is to be considered. Furthermore families in Russia have to share the support. As a rule employment in closed groups [geschlossener Einsatz].

Some points as to general Arbeitseinsatz

Rather employ PWs than unsuitable foreign workers. Seize Poles, Dutchmen, etc., if necessary as PWs and employ them as such, if work through free contract cannot be obtained. Strong action.

General employment of all German women repudiated by the Fuehrer.

Where Russians can be employed, labor service is not to be used. Labor service to be used where greatest effect is produced, even if the principle of education through labor service is curtailed thereby. War situation to be taken into consideration.

As a matter of principle central interests precede local interests, therefore no resistance from Reich commissaries and other local authorities against Arbeitseinsatz in the homeland.

Savings in wages are to be made up by compensatory contributions of the business.

Express order by the Fuehrer. Under no circumstances may the wage level in the East be raised or assimulated to the wages in western Germany. Strong action is imperative against solicitors who offer high wages.

It is intended to issue a basically new regulation of wages for foreign workers.

Foreigners not to be treated like German workers, on the other hand do not provoke inferiority complex in foreigners by posters.

The welfare installations of the Labor Front [DAF] are under no circumstance to be used for PWs or Eastern workers.

All agencies are to promote maximum utilization of Russian manpower.

Employment of Russians not to be improvised, but first to be thoroughly organized in the operational area. Speed is necessary, as the mass of manpower is decreasing daily by losses (lack of food and billets).

Make provisions to decrease the excessive number of escaping prisoners. Especially in and around Berlin strictest guard necessary.

[illegible initials]
Distribution:
Chief Rue—1st Copy
Sect. Ro—2nd Copy
Rue II—3rd Copy
Rue IIIa—4th Copy
Rue VI-IIIa—5th Copy
Draft (Rue IVd)—6th Copy

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1208-PS

SECRET
1938

Reich Justice Ministry
[various numbers and notes]

The Commissioner of the Four Year Plan
[various illegible notations]
Reich Justice Ministry, 14 Dec 1938

To:

The Highest Reich authorities,

The leaders and heads of branches of the party and the affiliated organizations,

The district leaders,

The Reich governors,

The state governments,

The Chief Presidents and Presidents of the governments,

The Reich commissars for the Saar territory

for the Reunion of Austria with the German Reich

for the Sudeten German districts.

To message: to the Reich leaders of the NSDAP.

In agreement with the representatives of the leader I hereby order the following:

1. The elimination of Jews from the German economic life is the task of the state and therefore is exclusively the duty of the authorities and agencies expressly designated for that.

2. As far as special installations have been created for this purpose, they require the approval of the Reich minister of economy or they are to be dissolved.

The taking over of Jewish businesses and other fortunes from Jewish possession has to be affected only on a strictly lawful basis according to the directives issued for this purpose. Transactions which were made since 1 Nov 1938 contradictory thereto, will be cancelled.

III

Only the Reich is entitled to the benefit from the elimination of the Jews from the German economic life.

Persons and agencies which have illegally benefited from the transfer of Jewish businesses or other fortunes from Jewish possession, may therefore be ordered to pay a compensation tax in favor of the Reich.

Berlin, 10 December 1938

The Commissar for the Four Year Plan
Signed: GOERING
General Fieldmarshall

To be circulated Dept. IV
Messrs:	Read	Messrs:	Read
DR. VOLKMAR		DR. PAETZOLD
ANZ	Initialed 10/1	DR. POHLE
DR. BECKER	Initialed 11/1	DR. PRITSCH
BRAUNS	Initialed 14/1	REINECK	Initialed 14/1
DR. BREITHAUPT	Initialed	REINECKE	Initialed 13/1
EPPING	Initialed 11/9	REXROTH	Initialed 11/1
FECHNER	Initialed 12/9	DR. SAAGE	Initialed 11/1
DR. FICKER	Initialed 14/1	SEBODE (since 9.1.39)	Initialed 16/1
DR. HESSE
HENSSLER Vacation	18/1	DR. VON SPRECKELSEN	Initialed 11/1
HOFFMANN	Initialed 11/1
HORNIG	Initialed 11/1	DR. SCHAEFFER, GAss.	Initialed 11/1
DR. JONAS
DR. KOEHLER	Initialed 13/1	DR. SCHULTZE	Initialed 11/1
DR. KRAMER, AGR	Initialed 11/1	STAUD	Initialed 12/1
KUEHNEMANN	Initialed 11/1	STEMMLER
LAUTERBACH		DR. VOGELS	Initialed 13/1
LENTZ	Initialed, date illegible	DR. WAITNAUER	Initialed 11/1
MASSFELLER	Initialed 13/1	ZIEGERT	Initialed 11/1
DR. MERTEN	Initialed 11/1

to V a 445/38 Secret

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1216-PS

Concentration Camp Dachau
special orders (Camporganization)—Service regulations
Notes on Death Penalty—Conference

Re: "Important Incidents in Concentration Camp Dachau"
Subject: Concentration Camp Dachau

Memorandum

On 29 May 1933 p.m., Dr. Wintersberger, the chief prosecutor [Oberstaatsanwalt] of the State Court [Landgericht] Munich II, has handed me his report of 29 May 1933 with two copies of the "special regulations" concerning inmates of the concentration-camp Dachau (Camp Organization) and stated orally that several deaths have been reported from the concentration camp Dachau during the last few days showing that the report of the camp commandant and the camp physician as to the causes of death is hardly in conformity with the findings of the coroner's inquest and autopsy, so that the evidence obtained by the inquiry so far would justify the suspicion of crimes committed. The essential contents of his oral report on the single cases is incorporated in the memorandum of 30 May 1933 drafted by the prosecuting authority [Staatsanwaltschaft] of the district Court [Landgericht] Munich II, which is referred to.

The same day, on 29 May 1933, I reported on this subject to the State Minister of Justice in the presence of Amtsgerichtsdirektor Sprick. The Minister of Justice called the Prime Minister by telephone and obtained his consent that the subject "Execution of protective custody" should be made an item on the agenda of the meeting of ministers on 31 May 1933; he commissioned me to submit the matter to the State Minister of the Interior together with Amtsgerichtsdirektor Sprick and to take all further steps which might become necessary.

Accordingly, on 30 May 1933 a.m., accompanied by AGDirektor Sprick, I made my report first to Ministerialdirektor Gareis, secretary for police matters [Polizeireferent] in the Ministry of the Interior and then in the presence of the latter to the State Minister Wagner himself stating the facts as they had been reported to me by Dr. Wintersberger, the chief prosecutor [OStA]. I restated the official findings in the cases of Schloss, Hausmann, Strauss and Nefzger, pointed out that in accordance with Article 346 of the Penal Code (StGB) it is mandatory to make an inquiry which, by the way, would also serve the true interests of the state; discussed the legal aspects of the camp regulations [Lagerordnung] and duly communicated that the Prime Minister, on request by the Minister of Justice, had put the subject on the agenda of the meeting of ministers of 31 May 1933.

State Minister Wagner declared that the pacts are not yet cleared sufficiently to allow the matter to become a subject of discussion in the meeting of ministers, and that the commandant of the Bavarian political police who was sick at the time, should be heard first as well as the camp commandant.

He asked the Prime Minister by telephone to delete this item from the agenda and gave orders to Ministerialdirektor Gareis to open a discussion of the matter without delay. From the sphere of the Ministry of the Interior the following are to participate in the discussion: Ministerialdirektor Gareis, the commandant of the political police, Himmler, as well as the camp commandant and the camp physician of the concentration camp Dachau; from the sphere of the State Minister of Justice: Amtsgerichtdirektor Sprick, Chief Prosecutor [OStA], Dr. Wintersberger, Dr. Flamm, physician of the District Court (Landgerichtsarzt) and the undersigned reporter in this matter.

I have reported the result of my audience with the State Minister Wagner to Ministerialdirektor Degen and Staatsrat Spangenberger on 30 May 1933 and in the presence of the latter to the State Minister of Justice on 31 May 1933. I was requested to emphasize at the proposed meeting that Article 346 of the Penal Code (StGB) makes an inquiry by prosecution and police mandatory.

On the afternoon of 31 May 1933 I was told by Min. Dir. Gareis over the telephone that in accordance with orders from State Minister Wagner the proposed discussion would not take place, because he wished to avoid any sign of intervention in a pending matter, that the chief prosecutor [OStA] of the District Court [LG] Munich II should contact Himmler, the commandant of the political police, as had been suggested in the case of Schloss by letter of the Ministry of Justice of 29 May 1933 No. II 28923, and that the State Ministry of the Interior would take the necessary steps as far as its own sphere was concerned in this matter.

A.G.Dir. Sprick was asked to make this known to the Minister of Justice who was just participating in a meeting of ministers [interlineary note in ink:—on 31 May—] (OStA) Dr. Wintersberger was orally requested to contact Himmler, commandant of the political police, as soon as possible, and to report on the result.

Munich, 1 June 1933
(s) DOEBIG

2 June 1933 (Friday)

At 5:15 parley on the matter with Reichsstatthalter von Epp.

The papers on Schloss, Hausmann, Strauss and Nefzger were available at this parley on informal request.

Result of the parley:

The files of the prosecution Munich II on these 4 cases are submitted to the State Minister of the Interior in order to get his view first. In the camp Dachau a change of personnel shall take place.

DOEBIG.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1229-PS

TOP SECRET
[Stamped] [illegible pencil mark]
Supreme command of the Armed Forces

Armed forces Fuehrer Staff (WFST) /department L number 33 264/4C top secret, for general officers only.

[stamped]
Fuehrer headquarters, September 6, 1940.
73 [in pencil] [illegible pencil mark]
7 copies
4th copy
[in pencil]

SUBJECT: Material for the intelligence service

SUBJECT: Counter intelligence (Abw.) III number 398/40 top secret of August 26 1940. OKH General Staff of the Army (Gen. St.d.H.) operational department Ia number 150231/40 top secret of September 2, 1940.

TO: Counter intelligence service abroad (Ausl./Abw.)

The Eastern territory will be manned stronger in the weeks to come. By the end of October the Status shown on the enclosed map is supposed to be reached.

These regroupings must not create the impression in Russia that we are preparing an offensive in the East. On the other hand, Russia will realise that strong and highly trained German troops are stationed in the Gouvernement, in the Eastern provinces, and in the Protektorat; she should draw the conclusion that we can at any time protect our interests—espec. on the Balkan—with strong forces against Russian seizure.

For the work of our own intelligence service as well as for the answer to questions of the Russian intelligence service, the following directives apply:

1. The respective total strength of the German troops in the East is to be veiled as far as possible by giving news about a frequent change of the army units there. This change is to be explained by movements into training camps, regroupings.

2. The impression is to be created that the center of the massing of troops is in the Southern part of the Gouvernement, in the Protektorat and in Austria, and that the massing in the North is relatively unimportant.

3. When it comes to the equipment situation of the units, espec. of the armored divisions, things are to be exaggerated, if necessary.

4. By suitable news the impression is to be created that the anti-aircraft protection in the East has been increased considerably after the end of the campaign in the West and that it continues to be increased with captured French material on all important targets.

5. Concerning improvements on railroads, roads, airdromes etc. it is to be stated that the work is kept within normal limits, is needed for the improvement of the newly won Eastern territories, and serves primarily economical traffic.

The supreme command of the Army [OKH] decides to what extent correct details, i.e., numbers of regiments, manning of garrisons etc. will be made available to the defense for purposes of counter espionage.

The chief of the supreme command
of the armed forces
by order of
Signed: JODL
A certified copy
F.M. [in pencil]
Captain

Distribution:

Counter intelligence service abroad 1st copy (with map)

Supreme command of the Army (Operational department) 2nd copy

Supreme command of the Airforce (Fuehrer department) 3rd copy

Supreme command of the armed forces

Armed forces Fuehrer staff [WFST] 4th copy

Department L, Ref, IH, IL 5th-7th copies

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1233-PS

Secured Objects of Art in the Government-General [Poland]

Introductory page:

By reason of the decree of 16 December 1939 by the Governor General of the occupied Polish territories, the special commissioner for securing objects of art and culture was able to seize within six months almost all the art objects of the country, with one exception: A series of Flemish Gobelins of the Castle of Cracow. According to the latest information these are now in France, so that subsequent seizure will be possible.

Scientific treatment of the objects of art took place simultaneously with the salvage activities. The result is shown in the catalog with pictorial supplement, which clearly proves the penetration of the East by the German will for culture.

It is superfluous to speak of an independent Polish development of art in the historic epochs of style. There are creations of German impressions and Dutch or Flemish works which according to their spirit and character, equally do not express anything but German spirit and German culture. French and Italian works are in the minority.

The state of preservation of the secured objects of art was generally poor. The Poles' hasty salvage efforts prior to the out-break of hostilities and neglect over a considerable time have caused damage of all sorts which required immediate remedy. For this reason, our own shops for restoring purposes, were established in Cracow and Warsaw, so that these works of art could receive care corresponding to their value.

The catalog contains a qualitative selection corresponding to the standards of leading German museums. German art and everything having a rank within the entire European development of art was given preference.

Art objects excluded by this qualitative selection were also scientifically treated, catalogued, and protected against loss or damage.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1249-PS

Copy
1 June 1942
The Chief President of the Province of Upper Silesia.
1. I b 2
Subject: Police Courts-martial.
Enclosure: Decree dated 1 June 1942.

In agreement with the Reichminister of the Interior and the Reichminister of Justice I am hereby establishing a police courts-martial at Kattowitz for the annexed Eastern territories of my province, effective immediately.

The administrative competence of the police courts-martial is seen from the enclosed decree.

In the sense of paragraph 1 of the decree, severe excesses of Poles and Jews as well as other criminal acts by Poles and Jews which endanger seriously the German reconstruction are:

1. High treason [Hochverrat].

2. High treason [Landesverrat].

3. Sedition.

4. Crime and Attacks against public order.

5. Forgery.

6. Sexual crimes against Germans.

7. Crimes against the life of Germans.

8. Assault and battery against Germans.

9. Crime and violation against the personal freedom of Germans.

10. Theft and embezzlement against Germans.

11. Robbery and extortion against Germans.

12. Receiving and concealing of stolen property of Germans.

13. Fraud and treachery against Germans.

14. Wilful destruction of property of Germans and the Reich.

15. Crimes and violations dangerous to the commonwealth of the Germans and the Reich.

16. Crimes and violations in the sense of the law against malice.

17. Crimes and violations in the sense of the decree of extraordinary radio measures of 1 September 1939.

18. Crimes against war economy.

19. Violations of the law for controlling venereal diseases dated 18 February 1927, as far as the violation is committed against Germans.

20. Crimes and violations in the sense of the law against criminal and publicly dangerous use of explosives.

21. Violations of the law against possession of arms.

The police courts-martial is competent for all punishable acts according to paragraph 1 of the decree dated 1 June 1942, which are committed by Poles and Jews in the annexed Eastern territories of the province of Upper Silesia. The courts-martial can also try punishable acts committed by Poles and Jews in the other Reich territory or in the occupied territories, if the perpetration live in the annexed Eastern territories of the province of Upper Silesia.

I request to instruct the county [Kreis] and local police authorities, competent for preliminary proceedings for punishable acts, and to submit those proceedings which come under the jurisdiction of the police court-martial immediately to the court-martial section of the state police administration, office Kattowitz, at Kattowitz, street of the SA No. 49.

Before submitting the case to the court-martial section, I request that the nationality of the accused be established beyond a doubt.

The report forms to the criminal police administration office at Kattowitz are not affected by this decree.

Distribution:

1. To the president of the district at Kattowitz.

2. To the president of the district at Oppeln.

3. To the secret state police—state police administration office at Kattowitz.

4. To the state police administration office at Oppeln.

5. To the criminal police administration office Kattowitz.

6. For information.

To the inspector of the security police and of the security service at Breslau.

2. I b 2 1 June 1942

To the Reich Minister of the Interior, in Berlin.

Subject: Administration of law in the annexed Eastern territories.

Ref.: My report of 30 January 1942—I b 2—and decree there Pol. S II A 2 No. 113/42—176 from 22 May 1942.

Enclosure: Decree dated 1 June 1942.

Enclosed I am forwarding to you the decree about the establishment of courts-martial in the annexed Eastern territories of the province of Upper Silesia.

The decree has been put into effect on 1 June 1942.

Forwarded for your information.

3. I b 2. 1 June 1942

To the District headquarters [Gauleitung] Upper-Silesia, at Kattowitz.

Subject: Establishment of a police courts-martial for the annexed Eastern territories at Kattowitz.

Enclosure: Decree dated 1 June 1942.

In agreement with the Reichminister of the Interior and the Reichminister of Justice, I have established, effective immediately, a courts-martial for the annexed Eastern territories of my province.

The local and administrative competence of the courts-martial is defined in the enclosed decree.

Forwarded for your information.

4. Copy of 3, with enclosure: to

a. The district leaders [Kreisleiter] of the districts Kattowitz, Jarnowitz, Warthenau, Beuthen, Bendsburg, Krenau, Pless, Rybnik, Teschen, Bielitz and Saybusch;

b. The general command VIII sector command Breslau, Gabitzstr.;

c. The public prosecutor at Kattowitz;

d. The president of the superior court at Kattowitz;

e. The leader of the security service administrative sector [SD-Leitabschnitt] Kattowitz, attention: SS battalion Podlich;

f. The Reich commissar for the strengthening of German nationalism attention: SS battalion leader Dr. Arlt, at Kattowitz.

5. To the files at I b 2.

Kattowitz, 1 June 1942
The Chief President of the Province of Upper Silesia
I b 2

Decree for the establishment of courts-martial in the annexed Eastern territories of the province of Upper Silesia dated 1 June 1942

On the basis of number 13 of the decree of the cabinet council for the Reich defense, for the administration of criminal jurisdiction against Poles and Jews in the annexed Eastern territories and the district of the previous Free City of Danzig, dated 4 December 1941 (RGBl. I, p. 759), the following is decreed in agreement with the Reichminister of the Interior and the Reichminister of Justice:

Par. 1.

1. Severe violations of Poles and Jews against Germans, as well as other criminal acts by Poles and Jews which seriously endanger the German reconstruction work, can be sentenced by courts-martial, until further notice.

I reserve for myself the decision as to whether or not the criminal act is a crime in the sense of paragraph 1.

Par. 2.

The courts-martial pass sentence of death, transfer to the secret state police acquittal.

Par. 3.

1. Courts-martial will be established for the district of a state police administration office. They consist of one president and two members.

2. President is the leader of the state police administrative office or his permanent deputy. The members will be appointed by the leader of the state police administration office.

Par. 4.

1. During the trial the court must do officially everything that is necessary to discover the truth. If necessary, the accused is to be tried with the assistance of an interpreter.

2. The names of the judges and of the accused, the evidences on which the sentence is based, furthermore the crime, the sentence including a brief justification, as well as the day of the sentencing are to be recorded.

3. Otherwise the courts-martial determines its proceeding according to its dutiful judgment.

Par. 5.

1. The decisions of the courts-martial are not legally contestable.

2. The sentences of the courts-martial are subject to a reexamination which leads to confirmation or voiding.

3. The confirmation makes the sentence lawful and executable.

Par. 6.

The right of confirmation or voiding of the courts-martial sentences is mine and, on my orders, that of the higher SS and police officer.

Par. 7.

The courts-martial can, for special reasons, forego a penalty or transfer the case to another court.

Par. 8.

This decree becomes effective on the day of its publication.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1276-PS

MOST SECRET
The Chief of the Security Police and the SD
IV A 2 a - Bk. No. 502/42 Most Secret

In written communications, please give this reference No., the date and subject.

Berlin SW 11, 17 June 1944
Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8
Local tel. no. 120040 Trunks 126421
Reichsbank Clearance Account: 1/146.
Post Office Transfer Account: Berlin
2336.
Express Letter Security Section III
Recd: 20 June 1944
No. 20/44 Most Secret
Annexes: Nil 94
To:
Supreme Command Armed Forces
Ops. Staff of the Armed Forces
I C III general security

For the attention of Colonel of the General Staff Martini not represented in the department

Berlin W 35,
Tirpitzufer 74/76.

Subject: Commando operations. Fuehrer's order of 18.10.1942

Reference: Communication of Counter Intelligence Bureau Defense Section III 527/2. 44g (C 2) of 21.3.1944.

The C-in-C of the Security Police and the SD in Paris reports the arrest of isolated parachutists of French nationality in English uniform near Plumelec/Morbihan. It is evident from interrogation that members of the De Gaulle Army, after reporting voluntarily to the "Service Air Special," were taking part in a 14-days special training camp, in which were 300 Frenchmen and 300 Englishmen. Apparently only Frenchmen are used for operations in France. The parachute-jump is made in groups of ten, each consisting of:

1 Lieutenant
2 wireless operators
7 sabotage experts.
Armament: each man
1 sub-machine gun
1 pistol
1 carbine
1 stabbing weapon.
Equipment: Sabotage and radio apparatus,
including Eureka gear i.e.
D/F beacons.
(therefore arrested by the SD? [marginal note in pencil])

The group which was arrested had orders to carry out railway sabotage in the district around Rennes. The acts of sabotage were obviously to be carried out by the group as a body. In addition, the group was to await further orders in some hiding-place.

Apparently they were not ordered to link up with the local resistance organisations. The arrested men had no civilian identity cards on them.

The employment of such groups is for the most part obviously planned for regions where, due to the action of the Security Police, there are no more local resistance or sabotage organisations in existence, or where the enemy knows that sabotage organisations were only counterfeited by tricks of the security police, which had meanwhile been disclosed.

* * * I consider it essential that the necessary orders should also be given from there, in order that the lesser units of the Armed Forces may not—as has often been the case recently—interpret them wrongly and turn the Commando troops over to the Security Police instead of slaughtering them in combat as they retreat. It is only a question of handing them over to the Security Police when members of Commandos of this kind are not captured in battle by the Armed Forces but by other means, e.g., by being handed over by the native police.

If a few isolated Commando troops are spared at first for interrogation purposes, I consider it necessary for the Security Police authorities to take part in the interrogation. The further treatment of members of Commandos, who are finally to be treated as killed in action [Gefallene], is, however, even in these cases, the responsibility of the Armed Forces.

I request that the measures taken from there be reported to me.

By Order

Signed: Mueller

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1279-PS

MOST SECRET

WFSt/Qu (Admin. 1)
No. 007893/44 Most Secret
[The number is changed, in pencil, to 009074/44]
One copy has been destroyed
[remainder of pencil note illegible] 27/7
22.7.1944
2 Copies
2nd Copy

Subject: Treatment of members of foreign "military missions" captured with partisan groups.

Minutes of a meeting

1. The Fuehrer has decided that members of Anglo-American and Soviet-Russian so-called "military missions", captured in the partisan fighting in the South-East, are to be treated in the same way as those taking part in a commando-operation and not as prisoners of war.

2. Independently of the above, the Ag. Ausl., following queries made by the RSHA—Military Section—has put forward for decision the question of how British and American soldiers, captured with the partisan groups are to be treated.

The following are the resulting opinions:

a. C-in-C, South-East

The members of allied military missions are to be handed over to the SD, should the opinion below (b) be inapplicable.

b. Supreme Command of the Armed Forces/Prisoners of war general in conjunction with Supreme Command of the Army/Army General Staff Alien Armies in the West and Armed Forces Ops. Staff/Op. (Army).

Treatment as prisoners of war in accordance with Order: Armed Forces Ops. Staff/Op (Army) No. 03408/43 Secret, dated 18.8.43.

c. Supreme Command of the Armed Forces/Chief of Prisoners of War Section in conjunction with Armed Forces Reserve (WR) and Armed Forces Ops Staff/Org I.

Treatment as prisoners of war in accordance with Order: Armed Forces Ops Staff/Org II No. 02958/43 Secret, dated 8.7.43, which disregards differences of nationality. The only exception made is in the case of commando operations. (then they are handed over to the Security Service [SD]).

d. RSHA/Section IV

Fundamentally treatment as prisoners of war under the directives mentioned in b and c, but a more definite ruling is required to decide whether and in what circumstances, they are to be handed over to the Security Service [SD].

e. RSHA/Military Section

Considers that the Commando Order cannot be applied to partisan fighting in the south East, that to do so would be dangerous in that it might imperil those taking part in our own operation (Brandenburg).

No opinion on the question of foreign missions.

f. Ag. Ausl.

Fundamentally, treatment as prisoners of war, that implies that members of missions were taking part in a commando-operation.

g. Armed Forces Ops Staff/Op. (Army)

Treatment as the members of partisan groups themselves, i.e., as prisoners of war if they are in uniform and are captured or surrender in open battle, or executed if they are in civilian clothes or are captured in a sabotage- or commando-operation.

[The whole of g is crossed out.]

3. Opinion and proposal of the Armed Forces Ops. Staff

According to the orders issued to date, even for example, the British captured in the "Rosselsprung" operation must be treated as prisoners of war. This is especially evident in the Op. (Army)-Order dated 18.8.43.

[This last sentence is put in parenthesis, underlined, Op (Army) crossed out and a large query inserted in the margin.]

The Commando Order has never yet been applied to such missions, its extended application to cover them has not yet been ordered. If the missions are to be treated otherwise than in accordance with the orders to date, it must first be decided whether a foreign mission acting with the partisan groups in the South-East is to be called a commando-operation and therefore treated as such. Such a decision seems to be indicated even if it does not correspond completely to the wording of the Commando-Order or to the previous definition of a commando operation (as an especially under-hand and still unusual form of warfare which must be combatted with the appropriate counter measures). The principle must be adopted from the start that all members of partisan groups, even in the South-East are fundamentally guerrillas. Indeed they are treated as prisoners of war for reasons of expediency, in order to obtain the largest possible number of deserters and workers. There is no reason for this with regard to the members of foreign missions who are not numerous. There is therefore no necessity to treat them, in every case, in the same way as the members of partisan groups themselves. Basically, it would be far more appropriate to consider Anglo-American as well as Soviet-Russian military missions as commando-operations and to treat their members accordingly.

The appended Order is therefore proposed.

W [Initialed by Warlimont]

MOST SECRET

WFSt/Qu (Admin. 1) 27.7.1944
No. 009074/44 Most Secret
2 Copies
1st Copy

Subject: Treatment of members of foreign "military missions" captured with partisan groups.

K [initialled in pencil by Keitel]

Minutes of a meeting

1. The Fuehrer has decided that members of Anglo-American and Soviet-Russian so-called "military missions", captured in the partisan fighting in the South East, are to be treated in the same way as those taking part in a commando-operation and not as prisoners of war.

2. Independently of the above, the Ag. Ausl. following queries made by the RSHA—Military section—, has put forward for decision the question of how British and American soldiers, captured with the partisan groups, are to be treated.

The following are the resulting opinions:

a. C-in-C, South East.

The members of allied military missions are to be handed over to the SD, should the opinion below (b) be inapplicable.

b. Supreme Command of the Armed Forces/Prisoners of War General in conjunction with Supreme Command of the Army/Army General Staff/Alien Armies in the West:

Treatment as prisoners of war in accordance with Order Supreme Command of the Armed Forces/Armed Forces Ops Staff/Op. (Army) No. 03408/43 Secret, dated 18.8.43.

c. Supreme Command of the Armed Forces/Chief of Prisoners of War Section in conjunction with Armed Forces Reserve (WR):

Treatment as prisoners of war in accordance with Order: Armed Forces Ops. Staff/Org II No. 02958/43 Secret, dated 8.7.43 which disregards differences of nationality. The only exception made is in the case of commando-operations (then they are handed over to the Security Service [SD]).

d. RSHA/Section IV

Fundamentally as prisoners of war under the directives mentioned in b and c, but a more definite ruling is required to decide whether, and in what circumstances, they are to be handed over to the Security Service [SD].

e. RSHA/Military Section:

Considers that the Commando-Order cannot be applied to partisan fighting in the South East that to do so would be dangerous in that it might imperil those taking part in our own operations (Brandenburg).

No opinion on the question of Foreign Missions.

f. Ag. Ausl.

Fundamentally, treatment as prisoners of war, that implies that members of missions were taking part in a commando-operation.

3. Opinion and proposal of the Armed Forces Ops Staff

According to the Orders issued to date, even, for example, the British captured in the "Ruesselsprung" operation must be treated as prisoners of war.

The Commando-Order has never yet been applied to such missions, its extended application to cover them has not yet been ordered. If the missions are to be treated otherwise than in accordance with the orders to date, it must first be decided whether a foreign mission acting with the partisan groups in the South East is to be called a commando operation and therefore treated as such. Such a decision seems to be indicated even if it does not correspond completely to the wording of the commando-order or to the previous definition of a commando-operation (as an especially under-hand and still unusual form of warfare which must be combatted with the appropriate counter measures). The principle must be adopted from the start that all members of partisan groups, even in the South East, are fundamentally guerillas. Indeed, they are treated as prisoners of war, for reasons of expediency, in order to obtain the largest possible number of deserters and workers. There is no reason for this with regard to the members of foreign missions who are not numerous. There is therefore no necessity to treat them in every case, in the same way as the members of partisan groups themselves. Basically, it would be far more appropriate to consider Anglo-American as well as Soviet-Russian military missions as commando-operations and to treat their members accordingly.

The appended Order is therefore proposed.

Sgd: Warlimont
Distribution:

Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces via the Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces Ops Staff.

1st Copy
Qu. (Draft) 2nd Copy

[The second copy of the above dated 27.7.1944 marked "Draft" is also contained in 1279-PS it is initialled at the end by Warlimont and has an illegible pencil note at the top. In the second copy the first words of 2 and 3 are underlined in pencil. The type-script of both copies is identical.]

MOST SECRET
Draft
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces

No. 007893/4 Most Secret/Armed Forces Ops. Staff/QU (Admin. 1)

[The number is changed to 009074/44]
Fuehrer Headquarters 22.7.1944
—Copies, —Copy

Subject: Treatment of members of foreign "military missions" captured with partisan groups.

The Special Orders for the treatment of captured members of partisan groups do not apply to members of foreign so-called "military mission" (Anglo-American or Soviet-Russian) captured in the fight against partisan groups in the areas under the command of the C-in-C South East and South West. They are therefore to be treated, not as prisoners of war, but in accordance with the Fuehrer's Order on the extermination of terrorist and sabotage troops, dated 18.10.1942 (OKW/WFSt No. 003830/42 Most Secret).

This order is not to be distributed beyond the divisional or equal-ranking staffs of the other branches of the Armed Forces. Any papers distributed to Army Headquarters and equal-ranking staffs, of the Armed Forces are to be recalled, when read, and destroyed.

[This last sentence is changed to "This order is not to be distributed beyond General Headquarters and equal-ranking staffs of other branches of the Armed Forces and is to be destroyed when read."]

Keitel

Distribution:
C-in-C South East	Copy 1
C-in-C South West	Copy 2
Army General Staff	Copy 3
OKM/Naval War Staff	Copy 4
OKL/Air Force Ops. Staff	Copy 5
Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police— Headquarters Staff of the Reichsfuehrer SS— for the attention of SS Brigadefuehrer and Major-General of the Waffen SS Rohde, also for RSHA	Copy 6
OKW/Gen. Armed Forces Dept.	Copy 7
/Chief of P.W. section	Copy 8
/Armed Forces Reserves (WR)	Copy 9
/WFSt/W Pr	Copy 10
/Op (Army-Air Force-Navy)	Copy 11
/Org	Copy 12
/War Diary	Copy 13
/Qu (Draft)	Copy 14
Reserve	Copy 15-25

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1285-PS

"The German Police"

[Extracts from handbook "Die Deutsche Polizei" 1943]
B. Use of weapons on command

1. Every policeman is compelled to make use of his weapon if a superior officer, in compliance with his duty, orders him to do so.

2. In such a case, the superior officer alone bears the responsibility.

Use of weapons on the part of the police in the case of fugitive PWs

3. Fugitive Russian prisoners of war shall be fired upon without previous challenge.

4. Under no circumstances will warning shots be fired.

To a: According to paragraph 1 of the law mentioned * * * the following become as of 1 April 1937 immediate Reichs officials [unmittelbare Reichsbeamte]:

1. Officials occupying TO positions [Planstellen] in the agency "Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of German Police in the Reichs Ministry of the Interior".

2. The officials of the Security Police [Secret State Police—Gestapo], and Criminal Police, however not the Police administrative officials working with the state police administrations for the criminal police.

3. The officials of the Protective Police [Schutzpolizei] and the Gendarmerie [Landjaegerei] and the police medical and police veterinary officials, police vocational school teachers and technical officials working with these organizations.

The personal salaries and welfare expenses of these officials and the operational expenses of the whole state police will be borne from 1 April 1937 on by the Reich, the same for the salaries, etc. of all employees and workers working at police agencies, who likewise on 1 April 1937 enter the Reichs service (paragraph 1(2) and paragraph 2). Hence from the fiscal year 1937 on there will be made up a Reichs budget for the police.

To b: For all police officials uniform official titles are introduced through the law cited * * * along with equal pay; only a few exceptions (retaining of some former official designations for the present incumbents) are permitted in the implementative regulations (transition lists).

To c: Through the German police official law [24 June 1937, RGBl I, 653] the same legal situation is created for all process servers without differentiation. Hence in Germany there is no longer a Prussian or a Bavarian process server, but now only a German process server, who is everywhere subject to the same legal regulations, wears the same uniform, and has the same official designation of rank.

The laws cited [relating to police officials] are valid since 1 October 1938 also for the former Austrian federal executive police, which including the police administrative officials by the decree of 27 October 1938 (RGBl. I, p. 1633) is at the same time taken over into the Reichs budget and thereby brought into the Reichs service.

More detailed regulations on this matter are to be found in the implementative regulations of 15 May 1939 [RGBl. I, p. 945]. According to these the valid functional police law in the former state of Austria is not affected.

To d: According to paragraph 1 of the law [28 March 1940, RGBl. I, p. 613] the police administrative officials of upper middle and simple civil service rank are transferred onto the Reichs budget. The officials of the higher police administrative service of a federal state can with the consent of the latter be transferred onto the Reichs budget.

[Pp. 81-82]
III. Security Police [Sicherheitspolizei]

At the head of the Security Police is the chief of the security police and of the Security Service [SD]. Provisionally the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reichs Ministry of the Interior has taken over leadership personally. He unites in his person the direction of the security police and of the "Security Service of the Reichsfuehrer SS".

The security police is composed of the secret state police (including frontier police) and criminal police which in the central instance together with the central offices of the security service are united in the Chief Office for Reichs Security [RSHA].

Thereby the governmental security police and the party's SS intelligence activity complement each other in the unified central agency both organizationally and in leadership.

With the Chief Office for Reichs Security rest the elaboration of all organizational, personnel, economic, and technical affairs of the security police and security service; besides this however, the central agencies of the state police and criminal executives and the central direction of the security service information nets are also included.

In the field of functional legislation the Chief Office for Reichs Security, insofar as its interests are touched upon, either controls the framing of the law or has a part therein.

The chief office for Reich security is composed at present of 7 offices, to these several special institutes are attached.

The following serve to train the members of the security police and the security service:

1. The leaders' school of the security police in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

2. The elementary school of the security police in Fuerstenberg/Mecklenburg.

The establishment of special sport and technical schools is planned.

The criminal-technical institute [KTI] is available for all chemical and physical experiments and research to the whole security police.

The chief of the security police and of the security service is president of the international criminal-police commission. Through this personal union an especially close exchange of findings and methods of the German criminal police with other nations which are also connected with the IKpK is assured.

IV. Higher SS and Police Leaders

Higher SS and police leaders are installed for the area of every military district [Wehrkreis] as well as in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, in the General Government, in Norway, the Netherlands and in parts of the occupied area of the Soviet Union, who are in their areas the representatives of the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police in regard to all duties for which the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of German Police is responsible.

Inspectors of the order and security police are subordinate to the higher SS and police leaders.

[P. 83]

Inspectors (Commanders) of the Security Police and Security Service

Inspectors of the Security Police and Security Service—without prejudice to their subordination to the higher SS and police leaders—are installed in the field of responsibility of the security police in corresponding manner for the exercise of inspectoral authority.

Outside of territory strictly a part of the Reich, commanders of the security police and security service are appointed whose duty it is to lead the security police forces employed there.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1292-PS

Fuehrer Headquarters, 4th Jan. 1944
To Rk. 13402 c Double
Ref.: Allocation of Labor 1944

1. A conference took place with the Fuehrer to-day which was attended by:

The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor, Gauleiter Sauckel,

The Secretary for Armament and War Production, Speer,

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Army, General Field Marshal Keitel,

General Field Marshal Milch,

The Acting Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, State Secretary Backe,

The Minister of the Interior, Reich Fuehrer of the SS, Himmler,

and myself.

(The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of National Economy had repeatedly asked to be permitted to participate prior to the Conference, but the Fuehrer did not wish their attendance).

The Fuehrer declared in his introductory remarks:

I want a clear picture:

(1) How many workers are required for the maintenance of German War Economy?

(a) For the maintenance of present output?

(b) To increase its output?

(2) How many workers can be obtained from Occupied Countries, or how many can still be gained in the Reich by suitable means (increased output)?

For one thing, it is this matter of making up for losses by death, infirmity, the constant fluctuation of workers, and so forth, and further it is a matter of procuring additional workers.

The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor, Sauckel, declared that, in order to maintain the present pool of workers, he would have to add at least 2-1/2 but probably 3 million new workers in 1944. Otherwise production would fall off. Reichminister Speer declared that he needs an additional 1.3 million laborers. However, this would depend on whether it will be possible to increase production of iron ore. Should this not be possible, he would need no additional workers. Procurement of additional workers from Occupied Territory would, however, be subject to the condition that these workers will not be withdrawn from armament and auxiliary industries already working there. For this would mean a decrease of production of these industries which he could not tolerate. Those, for instance, who are already working in France in industries mentioned above, must be protected against being sent to work in Germany by the Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor. The Fuehrer agreed with the opinions of Reichminister Speer and emphasized that the measures taken by the Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor should order no circumstances which would lead to the withdrawal of workers from Armament and auxiliary industries working in occupied territories, because such a shift of workers would only cause disturbance of production in occupied countries.

The Fuehrer further called attention to the fact that at least 250,000 laborers will be required for preparations against air attacks in the field of civilian air raid protection. For Vienna alone 2000-2500 are required immediately. The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor must add at least 4 million workers to the manpower pool, considering that he requires 2-1/2 million workers for maintenance of the present level, that Reich Minister Speer needs 1.3 million additional workers, and that the above-mentioned preparations for security measures against air attacks call for 0.25 million laborers.

The Plenipotentiary for Employment of Labor, Sauckel, declared that he will attempt with fanatical determination to obtain these workers. Until now, he has always kept his promise as to the number of workers to be furnished. With the best of intentions, however, he is unable to make a definite promise for 1944. He will do everything in his powers to furnish the requested manpower in 1944. Whether it will succeed depends primarily on what German enforcement agents will be made available. His project cannot be carried out with domestic enforcement agents.

The Reichfuehrer SS explained that the enforcement agents put at his disposal are extremely few, but that he would try helping the Sauckel project to succeed by increasing them and working them harder. The Reichfuehrer SS made immediately available 2000 to 2500 men from concentration camps for air raid preparations in Vienna.

Generally all participants in the conference agreed that it will be possible to treat additional manpower even at home by activation and intensification of available labor, especially the Prisoners of War, provided they are given awards in form of additional food, clothing, and so forth. State Secretary Backe will examine to which extent help can be given with additional food. Field Marshal Milch remarked that especially in agriculture, many women, who are really able to work, evade it because they receive family-allotments from their husbands who were inducted into the Armed Forces, and the wages for work done would be deducted from their family allotment. In their primitive way of thinking they therefore believe that they would have to work for nothing. Therefore on one hand, wages should not be deducted from the family allotment; on the other hand, it should be ruled that women who refuse work would, in consequence, receive no family allotment, or only a reduced family allotment.

The Fuehrer did not comment, declaring that he did not wish to go into details any longer.

Results of the Conference:

(1) The Plenipotentiary for Employment of Labor shall procure at least 4 million new workers from occupied territories.

(2) These workers may not be taken from armament and auxiliary industries in actual production in the occupied territories.

(3) It is to be examined by what means the output of workers now on hand can be increased and intensified, especially that of Prisoners of War.

(4) The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor shall get in touch with the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs before taking any action.

Signed: Dr. Lammers

II. Reichleiter Bormann has received a copy of paragraph I.

III. To the State Secretary for cognizance.

IV. Original to Mr. C. Please return. (Arrival at Fuehrer Headquarters, 6 January 1944.)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1301-PS

Financing of the armament

The following explanations take as their premise the fact that the execution of the armament program is by its speed and extent the mission of German policy, that everything else therefore must be subordinated to this purpose, unless the neglect of other questions would endanger the main goal. Even after 16 March 1935, the difficulty continues to exist, that one cannot attempt the influencing of the German people by propaganda for support of the armament, without endangering internationally our position. The financing of the armament program, already almost impossible, is being made especially difficult by that.

Further, another prerequisite must be presented. The printing press can only be used for the financing of armament to the extent which the maintenance of money value allows. Each inflation increases the prices of foreign raw materials, and increases the prices within the country; thus it is a snake, which bites its tail. The fact that our armament had to be camouflaged completely until 16 March 1935, and for the biggest part even afterwards, has led to that, that the printing press has already been made use of at the start of the armament program; whereas it would have been natural to put it at the final point of the financing. Of the 3775 millions in the portfolio of the Reichsbank plus 866 millions set aside in bills of exchange==total of 4641 millions, the bills of exchange to finance armament represent 2374 millions (status of 30 April 1935). The Reichsbank has invested most of the German mark sums, available to its administration and belonging to foreigners, in armament bills of exchange. Thus our armament was partly financed with the property of our political opponents. Also used for the financing of the armament program were the 500 millions RM, which came together through the Reich loan placed at the savings banks in Jan 1935. In the regular budget the following amounts were provided for the armed forces: fiscal year 1933/34 RM 750 millions, fiscal year 1934/35 RM 1100 millions, fiscal year 1935/36 RM 2500 millions.

The sum of the deficits of the budgets increase since 1928, according to the estimate 1935/36, up to 5 to 6 billions RM. At present this total deficit is already being financed by short-term credits from the money market. Thus it already burdens in this amount the possibilities of use of the public market for armament. The Reich Minister of Finance is justified in saying in his budget explanations: "Since an annual deficit ... is an impossibility permanently, since one cannot count with certainty on an increased tax income, covering the deficit and other previous debts; since on the other hand only a balanced budget offers a secure basis for our great future task in the armament policy, fundamentally and consciously—a budget policy must be followed, which will solve the problem of financing of armament by organic and planned decrease of other expenses, not only from the point of view of income, but also of expenses, that means saving."

How urgent this demand is can further be construed from the fact that an unending number of tasks were attacked and are in the process of execution by state and party, all of which cannot be covered by the budget but by subscriptions and credits, which must be raised besides the regular taxes by business. This simultaneous existence of various budgets, which however all serve a more or less public purpose, present the greatest obstacle to the gaining of a clear picture of the financing possibilities of armament. A whole series of ministries and numerous agencies of the party have their own budget in addition to their share of the Reich budget, and thus accordingly income and expense possibilities, which, although they are based on the financial sovereignty of the state, are not subordinated to the control of the Minister of Finance and thus also not to the control of the cabinet. Exactly as in the field of politics, the too far reaching delegation of legislative authority to individuals in Germany has led to the condition of many states within the state, thus the condition of parallelism and divergence [Nebeneinander und Gegeneinander] of numerous state and party agencies has absolutely a disastrous effect on the financing possibility of armament. If in this field, no concentration and no unified control is introduced finally, one must fear the worst for the solution of the almost impossible task of financing of armament.

Thus the following tasks result:

1. A commissioner must at first determine all sources and incomes, which are derived from Reich, State and Party funds, as well as from profits of public or party enterprises.

2. Then, a commission, appointed by the Fuehrer must investigate how these funds were used up to now, and how much can be taken from these funds in the future from their present purpose, and made available to the financing of armament.

3. The same commission has to examine the assets of all public and official party organizations, how the assets have been invested, and to what extent these assets can be utilized for the financing of armament.

4. The Reichministry of Finance is to be commissioned to investigate the possibilities of an increased tax income by the introduction of new taxes or the increase of existing tax rates.

The financing of armament previously by the Reich Bank was a necessity under the existing political conditions, and the political success has proved the correctness of this action. However, now other methods of financing of armament must be attempted under all conditions. With that, all not absolutely necessary expenses in other fields must be refrained from, and the entire, actually small, financial power of Germany must be concentrated on this one goal, the financing of armament. Whether the financial problem will succeed with this method of approach is as yet doubtful, but without such concentration it will fail with certainty.

Memorandum 9.III.1936 on the supply situation in the field of fuels and its effect on the Wehrmacht.

The simultaneous throttling and blocking of foreign sources of liquid fuel has caused an increasingly critical situation of supply of the German market since the beginning of the year 1936.

This situation calls for a description of the serious effects on the preparedness for action of the Wehrmacht and of the extraordinary measures which necessitate a decision in this matter.

The supply of the Wehrmacht is based on the home production, the reserves which can be made available in case of mobilization and the foreign imports which still for some time must fill the present gaps of supply.

I. The German production.

The anticipating measures taken during the last 2 years by the Reich Cabinet to increase the home production of fuel, will not bring about an essential improvement of the supply situation during the current year because of the time required for factory construction and the uninterrupted increase of demand, but cannot bring an appreciable relief until the year 1938. The list in enclosure 1 of the requirements in case of mobilization and of the supply of these requirements by production, as well as the graphs added to the other enclosures, show the influence to be expected from the German production on the entire supply.

The expanding German production favors mainly light fuels, especially fuel for airplanes, and in addition, oil for airplane engines. As to the other kinds required by the Wehrmacht in case of war, we cannot expect any improvement for the time being; as to heating oils it may be anticipated that the situation will deteriorate. The developments of new processes (Uhde and Pott), the extent of which will shortly permit an opinion, offers certain possibilities of auxiliary supply which do not appear on the graphs, because the extent of the production possible until 1938 cannot yet be foreseen.

The inadequacy of the supply on the basis of home production is a fact which cannot be eliminated during the next 2-3 years, even with the greatest efforts and in spite of the planning started for additional expansion of production.

II. Reserves.

To assure the requirements of the Wehrmacht it becomes necessary to bridge the supply gaps by reserves. For the first period of mobilization the Wehrmacht relies on the reserves of business, especially of great importing corporations, which also in peace time consider stored reserves for about 3 months as indispensable for smooth distribution. The Wehrmacht ought to be enabled to count on the amount of these reserves remaining constant.

Beyond that the Wehrmacht accumulates its own reserves in large storage houses so that considerable national reserves will be available as buffers in case of supply difficulties.

III. Dependency of the overall supply on imports.

The obstacle to importing encountered to a large extent during the last weeks, and which have been brought about by an accumulation of economic-political events in foreign trade, endanger not only the maintenance of industrial reserves but also the continuation of the storage policy of the Wehrmacht. They shake the very foundations of the motorization program of industry and consequently also of Wehrmacht mobilization of mechanized vehicles to the extent planned for in case of war.

In particular large gaps have been opened:

1. due to the Russian prohibition of exporting petroleum, by which the benzol-association supplying about 20% of the German market got into considerable difficulties.

2. due to suddenly considerably increased demands of the Rumanians, who offer fuel only in exchange for foreign bills proper [Bardevisen] and/or at greatly increased prices in marks. The contribution of Rumanian imports to the supply of German requirements was 40% during the last year. The firm Olex which contributes 11% to the German market has already been forced, due to the obstruction of Rumanian deliveries, to decrease its business considerably, and will face a close-down of its market supply if relief is not procured before June 1936. Due to this reduction of imports similar stoppages are to be expected by the other great organizations of distribution during the same period.

IV. Means to secure the supply.

In considering how to meet the situation the following devices are unbearable for the Wehrmacht:

1. Reduction of mechanized traffic because this would, in addition to precarious economic and psychological effects, bring about a throttling of German motorization, which in view of the requirements of the Wehrmacht in case of war, would be a shock to mobility and supply of replacements.

2. Just as undesirable is to be considered the diminishing of reserves. The industrial reserves constitute the basis for mobilization, which has to rely on firm figures which remain about constant. As a decrease of reserves has already started, the further development in this direction is to be counteracted immediately. Aid from the reserves of the Wehrmacht cannot be granted because these modest quantities being ultimate reserves cannot be diminished under any circumstances.

Consequently, only the following means are to be considered:

1. Conceding to the Rumanian demands of paying imports in marks on a considerably raised price-basis.

2. Additional payments in foreign bills proper [Bardevisen] of imports from Anglo-Saxon countries.

3. Investigation to what extent an improvement can be achieved by accelerating or expanding the facilities for German production.

The first course has been followed by the authorization to negotiate new contracts on the basis of the Rumanian demands. Adequate and punctual delivery to the market, however, is not yet assured hereby.

Re. 2. Foreign bills [Devisen] for the minimum of the indispensable import requirements can probably be obtained only by reduction of import of other necessities. The narrow limits of the presently assured raw materials for armament do not allow for a decrease of such imports which are indispensable for the Wehrmacht. In particular we cannot do without the necessary quantities of metals required by the Wehrmacht for current procurements.

Re. 3. As a result of investigations made, essential changes cannot be expected at a date within sight.

V. Uniform management of the petroleum industry.

During the last few months the Wehrmacht has repeatedly emphasized the unavoidable call for a uniform and planned steering of the entire German petroleum industry. The present dangerous situation of the German fuel industry puts this necessity again into the spotlight. The lack of stern guidance in the present moment must lead to severest damages to the public and the defense of the country. The duty of a management according to plans of the petroleum industry must be in the first line to avert the permanent threat to mechanized traffic and the preparedness of the Wehrmacht for action lying in the extensive dependency on forces outside of the German sphere of control.

Enclosure 1 to "memorandum on the supply situation in the field of fuels and its effect on the Wehrmacht" of 9 March 36.

	Mob. requirements		Supply of requirements by production
	1936 t/Jahr	1938 t/Jahr	1936 %	1938 %
Light fuels for car engines	900 000	1 530 000	43	60.5
Light fuels for airplane engines	460 000	600 000	39	61.5
(illegible), Fuel oil	650 000	1 280 000	11.6	22
Heating oil	800 000	1 200 000	22	30.6
Lubricating oil for car engines	80 000	150 000	22.5	23
Lubricating oil for airplane engines	35 000	55 000	--	22

IIa Needed raw materials 4/28/1936 with consideration of the program for the supply of ammunition, amounting to 200 million marks [Mil. RM.] (for the months of April 1936 to March 1937=12 months)

Supply needed, submitted to R.Wi.Min. (letter of 1/1336.)
Copper	5400 t/month (without plate VIII)
lead	2300 t/month (without plate VIII)
zinc	3100 t/month (without plate VIII)
Supply needed, considering the 200 Mill-plan.
Copper	5850 t/month (without plate VIII)
lead	3350 t/month (without plate VIII)
zinc	4020 t/month (without plate VIII)
Therefore the additional need amounts to
Copper	450 t/month
lead	1050 t/month
zinc	920 t/month

Raw materials needed by parts of the Armed Forces
(for the months of April 1936 to March 1937)
copper	4830	670	175	175	5850
lead	2750	280	300	20	3350
zinc	2420	160	260	1180	4020

SECRET

Raw materials needed by the armed forces during the years 1935 and 1936

Raw materials	need 1936	t/month 1935
Iron and steel
Iron ore Fe	130,000	80,000
Manganese ore Mn	7,000	4,000
Chromium 0,5 C	220	88
0,5 C	160	86
Wolfram	80	15
Molybdenum	40	8
Vanadium	3	1
Tantalum	2	0.5
Silicon	400	250
Non-iron metals
Copper	7,500¹)	4,670
Lead	6,500²)	3,520
Nickel	275	174
Tin	150	89
Zinc	3,100³)	1,830
Aluminum	2,720	1,900
Antimone	55	25
Cadmium	10	0.62
Mercury	20	12
Cobalt	10	3
Leather goods (economy)
skins and pelts	1 300	1 400
natural tanning matter	800	860
Wood
special foreign timber	170	150
Grain, fodder and further agricultural products
linseed	1 500	1 900
Coal and Salt
oil coke and Pitch coke—of these 1500 t/month to produce the aluminum needed by the armed forces.	1 700	1 300
Various goods
diamonds, amounting to a value of	RM. 15 000 /month	11 000RM
cane	200	160
mica	18	15
magnesite	1 200	1 000
Rubber and asbestos
rubber	280	150
asbestos [spinasbest]	100	70
Fat for industrial purposes
glycerine	165	120
Petroleum oils
gas for plane engines	7 000	4 000
light fuel f. motor vehicles	3 000	1 500
lubrication oil f. plane engines	700	200
lubrication oil f. motor vehicles	500	150
gas-oil, (diesel)	7 500	1 200
heating oil	15 000	6 000

Note: 1. for cables 2100 t/months; starting on 1 Apr. 36 possibly only 6000 t/month, including 2100 t/ for cables;

Note: 2. for cables 4200 t/months; starting 1 Apr. 36 7800 t/months which means 5500 t/month for cables;

Note: 3. from this amount: sheet-zinc in the limits of the quota of the association of zinc-rolling-mills 340 t/month; starting 1 Apr. 36 possibly only 2700 t/month including sheet-zinc.

Situation re fuel
	Fuel for motorized vehicles		Fuel for airplanes		Gas-Oil Diesel
	Peace 36	Case of mobil. 38	Peace 36	Case of mobil. 38	Peace 36	Case of mobil. 38
Total need of armed forces and economy t/year	1,000,000	1,650,000	80,000	600,000	800,000	1,300,000
Production in entire Reich-territory t/year	900,000		80,000		280,000
Missing quantity t/year	1,100,000	750,000	——	520,000	520,000	1,020,000
New planning	700,000		300,000		200,000
	Heating fuel		Oil for motor vehicles		Oil for airplane engines
	Peace 36	Case of mobil. 38	Peace 36	Case of mobil. 38	Peace 36	Case of mobil. 38
Total need of armed forces and economy t/year	500,000	1,200,000	75,000	150,000	5,000	55,000
Production in entire Reich-territory t/year	270,000		20,000		——
Missing quantity t/year	230,000	930,000	55,000	130,000	5,000	55,000
New planning	?		20,000		15,000

Copy
Berlin, 15 May 1936
Prime minister General Goering
Raw material and Foreign exchange staff
Top Secret
To the Reichminister of war Generaldfeldmarschall von Blomberg

Enclosed, a record of the conference of the council of ministers of 12 May 1936 in the afternoon is forwarded.

By order

/s/ Loeb
Lt. Col. in the General Staff

Top Secret

Record of the council of ministers on 12 May 1936 1700 hours

Chairman: Prime minister General Goering.

Reichminister of War Generalfeldmarschall von Blomberg.

Reichsbank President and acting Reich and Prussian minister for Economy Dr. Schacht

Reichminister of Finance Graf Schwerin von Krosigk

Prussian minister of Finance Prof. Dr. Popitz as the recording secretary Lt. Col. in the General Staff Loeb

Minister Schacht: shows the development up to now when two years ago, the decision for rearmament was made, it was decided to carry out the financing mainly outside the means of the Reichministry of Finance. This meant the commitment of the last reserve from the very beginning. A decision which did not seem without hazards. The memorandum of 3 May 1936 says the same thing.

In the course of the last two years, the program was increased more and more in its extent and speed. Thus the requirements to the Reichsbank were increased steadily.

It would be necessary to create, as basis for financing, a steady, prosperous economy, and therefore renounce the execution of other, partially irrational ideas and aims of the party. The psychological prerequisite was not disturbed by the party as such, but by many individual groups of the party, again and again; personal attacks against Dr. Schacht and thus against the economy followed. Dr. Schacht has emphasized again and again, that one must follow a cultural and legal policy, which will leave economy alone. However one must not describe it as greedy and selfish from the beginning.

Also money theories of the most variable kind have been published repeatedly, thus causing anxiety for the economy; to counteract this was practically impossible, as the propaganda machine of the party did not permit this.

Despite all this, Dr. Schacht continued to work, because he stands with unswerving loyalty to the Fuehrer, because he fully recognizes the basic idea of national socialism and because at the end, the disturbances, compared to the great task, can be considered irrelevant. Previously, approximately 11 billion marks besides the budget have been raised for rearmament and re-employment without shaking the rates of exchange and currency; the rate of interest could be lowered.

The Fuehrer has repeatedly emphasized in personal talks and cabinet meetings, that the speed of rearmament must be kept up until the spring of 1936. This was agreed to and carried out.

Prime Minister Goering: has never heard about this time limitation.

Minister Schacht: The main question for the further execution of the program is, how much money can be gotten out of business. Some 2 billion can be consolidated annually by long term loans, 8 to 9 billion cannot be asked for; the possibility of making available depends on the development of the money market. Full concentration of the money market through the Reichsbank is necessary.

If the Reichsbank should have to issue more notes than could be born by the currency, one must reach back to other factors.

Dr. Schacht will never be part to an inflation; the Fuehrer also has decided in this sense. The danger of such a development is imminent. If a road is to be taken, which contains this danger, Dr. Schacht would like to drop out on time, so that he does not disturb the new course.

Dr. Schacht considers it impossible, that prices can be fixed by the state, if the same money policy is continued.

Prime Minister Goering: What is the basis of currency with the Reichsbank?

Minister Schacht: This question has nothing to do with the gold standard. It is a question of something imponderable, to recognize the time of which must be left up to fine sensitivity. If by a surplus of money, the danger of devaluation of the mark exists, the state can and must take action from the financial side by taxes, etc. Considering the material factor, it must be determined, that we are dependent for numerous goods on foreign countries. Even small percentages as a whole have considerable effect. In many cases, the necessity for import is caused by trade political relations; therefore the raw-material situation may not only be viewed and attacked from the production within Germany. The foreign relations must be decreased all of a sudden. For instance the negotiations with Standard and Shell were carried out on this basis.

Prime Minister Goering: When substitutes [ersatzstoffe] are sufficient in quantity, we shall no longer need the import, which presents us such difficulties.

Minister Schacht: In a series of cases, to be able to carry out the import, work from within Germany was utilized for compensation, for instance tankers for oil import corporations.

However it is especially required that nothing be said about intentions and measures of this field in public, so as not to aggravate the importers.

Prime Minister Goering: If the Fuehrer has expressed himself in this direction, he did it to counteract the increasing pessimism in the country in respect to this field.

Minister Schacht: In any case, all anxiety must be prevented. Foreign exporters have already shown less readiness to deliver against certificate of foreign exchange, since they apparently have no confidence in the cashing of these certificates.

Prime Minister Goering: Our raw material situation is generally known to the world. The article published in the papers on 28 April 1936 did not contain anything secret. Actually the confidence abroad should have been increased by this publication, because generally the opinion was held abroad that Dr. Schacht was protected by the Prime Minister against the party.

Minister Schacht: The situation at present is thus:

Some 64 million marks are already claimed by reimbursement.

We must buy especially crude rubber and textiles; we have practically no crude rubber. Cellulose wool is not an adequate substitute, especially not for export goods.

The necessity for the closing down of manufacturing plants will soon result from this accordingly.

It must be decided whether the available gold should be all spent at the present speed or whether it should already be slowed down.

Swedish ores are still available for about 3 months. The export to Sweden becomes more difficult, and thus the import possibilities decrease.

Prime Minister Goering: is of the opinion that our export to Sweden continues, so that one can further count on import.

Minister Schacht: The raw material supply of Germany amounted at the beginning of the war to a value of about 7 to 8 billions; now it is less than 1 billion.

Prime Minister Goering: has heard repeatedly, that export business was refused by the Reichminister for Economy. In the future, the departments will be caused by him to re-examine such occurrences; perhaps then it will work differently than until now.

Minister Schacht: Increase of our export appears improbable in the near future. Further obligations arise through the Foreign Office, the Reichsbank, Post Office, Party and other agencies; soon the consular service cannot be paid any more.

The time will come, when we will have no longer any reserves of either raw materials or foreign exchange at our disposal.

Prime Minister Goering: If we have war to-morrow, we must help ourselves by substitutes. Then money will not play any role at all. If that is the case, then we must be ready to create the prerequisites for that in peace. The account just described could have also been presented, in his opinion, in the meeting this morning.

Minister Schacht: Publication is recommended for only the smallest circle.

Prime Minister Goering: It is necessary to inform the people required for the execution.

Minister Schacht: In his opinion only the ministers, not the state secretaries. In addition, each department must be called in individually.

Prime Minister Goering: The psychological prerequisites for the correct approach to the work must be created everywhere. The actual work is done by the state-secretaries and the experts. In the future one must go much more into detail; confidence in the persons employed in this is absolute necessity.

Prime Minister Goering: summarizes the explanation by Minister Schacht: In short, demands on the Reichsbank can no longer be covered; only 64 million marks are still available.

Minister Schacht: declares that besides these 64 million Reichsmarks in the private banks, there are another 72 million gold with the Reichsbank.

Prime Minister Goering: continues with the summary: The shortage of raw material is known in its extent. A considerable increase is no longer possible, in the opinion of Minister Schacht.

Minister Schacht: The production of raw materials within Germany finds its limitation there, when an increase of prices of export goods is created by it.

Prime Minister Goering: One can separate requirements within Germany and export. Even the smallest details are important. The following appears necessary.

1. Increase of export despite all difficulties.

2. The raw material coverage within Germany.

3. The possibly necessary resettlement of workers and food-fundamentals for the execution of all measures.

These problems all affect each other, so that the participation of all departments is necessary.

Appropriate example: Position of the farmer, who does not utilize the available possibility of intensifying of fertilizing, because the capital lost is not bearable for him in case of bad harvests. In such a case, the risk lying with the weather must be partially taken from the farmer by a special organization.

The Reichministry of Finance must also be consulted greatly in reference to the regular budget. Re-awakening of thriftiness in all fields belongs to this program.

Minister Popitz: The final conclusions made by Dr. Schacht are clear and convincing, under the condition that the bases for these conclusions are correct. That must be examined. It must be determined again, whether the principles, according to which the present raw material and foreign currency policy has been carried out with such a big success, are unalterable and correct.

The time when perhaps an inflation is feared is unclear; actually it is already here, even if it has a bearable extent.

An increase of export cannot be expected with the present system. However it is to be examined, whether there is not a better system. The basis of the present economic policy is deflationary. However it appears impossible to integrate the deflation into an actually existing inflation. It must be discussed, whether forced economy of export is to be continued.

It is to be examined further, whether the money for rearmament can be drawn out from the remaining economy. In no case may the condition arise, that the Reichminister for Finance and the Reichminister for Economy push the responsibility for the providing of funds to each other.

The difference between 2 billion Reichsmarks, which the Reichsbank believes to be able to raise on a long term basis, and the 8 to 9 billion Reichsmarks required for armament, cannot be covered by taxes. Therefore the following suggestion:

1. The raw material question, which can be solved comparatively simply, must be attended to at once by a special committee.

2. Illuminate critically the export question, so to say, in a scientific manner.

Minister von Krosigk: Economy of foreign exchange in detail is necessary. In that, small things also play a part. Equal saving is necessary in spending money within Germany. In contrast to Minister Popitz, he is of the opinion that expenses for armament must be taken over more and more by the regular budget. Expenses above this budget are to be covered

a. by long term consolidation of annually some 2 billion marks.

b. by short term bills of exchange and similarly.

The financing has succeeded up to now by these two means.

However the danger exists, the short-term bills of exchange can no longer be negotiated, so that flooding of the Reichsbank with MEFO bills would have an increased printing of banknotes as consequence.

Minister Popitz: In this case, printing of bank notes is only necessary if the money is absolutely necessary for payment of wages among other unavoidable things.

Minister von Krosigk: The decisive question for that is, whether inflation would actually happen by printing of banknotes to this extent. He does not believe so. The increase of prices observed so far was not caused by monetary reasons, but can be derived from increase of prices for raw materials and agricultural products. Thus one cannot speak of an inflation.

Prime Minister Goering: does not believe that an inflation would happen from the monetary angle.

Measures which in a state with a parliamentary government would probably bring about inflation, do not have to have the same results in a totalitarian state.

Important for this is the application of an appropriate propaganda, so that the co-operation of the propaganda ministry, promised by the Fuehrer, is of great importance.

Minister Schacht: gives a summary of the holdings of bills of exchange in the Reichsbank at present:

4,353,000,000.—RM bills of exchange

3,731,000,000.—RM of which are in MEFO bills of exchange

2,200,000.—MEFO bills of exchange are deposited in clearing accounts.

More than 5 billions in bills of exchange are deposited thus, that they can be presented immediately in case of disturbances of the money market, caused by any measure. Therefore any disturbance must be prevented under all conditions.

Prime Minister Goering: agrees to be the "shield" for the measure of financial nature, so that no disturbances would happen.

The regular budget is to take over the current upkeep of the armed forces, but not the costs of the reconstruction.

Minister Popitz: It is to be examined whether the regular budget cannot be relieved from interests and amortization quotas of advance drawings. Even the observing of the international bank law cannot prevent the using of these recognized necessary measures in this direction.

If the economy is started by increased export, naturally the circulation of money will increase and with that the possibility of further financing.

If the money, which had to be put into circulation, is only used for payment of wages, no inflation can take place.

Prime Minister Goering: orders:

1. Determination as rapidly as possible of the basis of payment.

2. Beginning of the execution work in the realm of raw material production within Germany.

3. Examination of the question of the export system.

In the next conference, contemplated for Friday afternoon, the examination of the export system is to take place.

First under his chairmanship (Goering's) the ministers Dr. Schacht, Graf Schwerin von Krosigk and Prof. Dr. Popitz will consult each other. Then, immediately thereafter, the suggestions voiced there are to be discussed by a board of experts. The following were named for this board:

By Minister Schacht:
Reichsbank Director Brinkman
Reichsbank Director Blessing
Ministerialdirektor Dr. Sarnow

By Minister von Blomberg:
Dr. Trendelenburg

By Minister Popitz:
Dr. Springorum
Dr. Sogemeier

Further
Reg. Burgermeister Kroogmann
Prof. Wayemann
and others, who will be appointed by the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Goering: states that he can expect and demand discipline from the party, so that the protection of the individual auditor, called, is guaranteed.

Close of the conference; 1910.

Summary of the raw material situation 2 May 1936

	Iron ores		Aluminum
Total requirement for the armed forces and the industry (estimated)	peace 1936	case of mobil. 1938	peace 1936	case of mobil. 1938
	9.5 million	11 million	105,000	160,000
Production entire Reich industry	1.8 million		96,000
Deficit	7.7 million	9.2 million	9,000	64,000
Excess	--	--	--	--
Tentative plans for expansion of own production	1.2 million proposal Keppler		--
	Crude Rubber		Cellulose Wool
Total requirement for the armed forces and the industry (estimated)	peace 1936	case of mobil. 1938	peace 1936	case of mobil. 1938
	75,000	85,000	12,000- 70,000	depending on import of natural fiber
Production entire Reich industry	1,000		12,000-70,000
Deficit	74,000	84,000	any increase in production would be taken up by the market
Excess	--	--
Tentative plans for expansion of own production	2,400		first increase until end of 1936 70,000 t

Berlin, 30 May 1936
Behrenstrasse 68-70
Telephone A 2 0048
Prime Minister General Goering
Raw Material and Foreign Exchange Staff
Journal No. * * * /36
[initial] BG th 2/6
[initial]
Rubber Stamp Top Secret

To the Reichminister of War Generalfeldmarschall von Blomberg

Berlin

Enclosed, a report of the conference of the council of ministers of 27 May 1936, is forwarded.

By Order

Loeb
Lt. Col. in the General Staff
1 Inclosure:

Top Secret

Copy of meeting of Minister on 27 May 36, at 1130 o'clock.

Chairman: Ministerpraesident Generaloberst Goering

Reichskriegsminister Generalfeldmarschall von Blomberg

Reischsbankpraesident und kommissarischer Reichs- und Preussischer Wirtschaftsminister Dr. Schacht

Reichsfinanzminister Graf Schwerin von Krosigk

Preussischer Finanzminister Prof. Dr. Popitz

Recording Secretary: Lt. Col in the General Staff Loeb

Prime Minister Goering: The two sessions of the board of experts held so far have brought forth interesting discussions. Naturally, opinions frequently disagree. The experts are invited to state their concepts in writing.

Today, discussion concerning the question of substitute-material. What objections are made to the production of war-raw materials within the Reich?

Minister Schacht: Principly there is nothing to object; a solution of the raw material problem by self-producing is absolutely necessary and agreed with, theoretically.

Difficulties are encountered with regard to:

1. serious monetary strain because of investments. Providing money by taxing capital is impossible. Circulation of money can not be increased beyond a certain amount. Previous measures executed correctly and without danger to monetary value. Further increase seems precarious; matter of confidence. This point of view alone, however, not determining; possible that funds could be drawn from industrial profits.

2. special scruples, regarding the cases where prices for substitute [Ersatz] material are far beyond world-market prices, and therefore the products cannot compete (for example: tires made from Buna). Adjustment would further increase the excise tax on exports. Inflation cannot be chosen, as this would immediately upset the state's budget.

It must be attempted to produce those raw materials within Germany which are economically favorable; for other raw materials ready reserves for the case of mobilization [Mobfall]. Especially clear is the situation of flax; the complete covering of the requirement is possible; however not with hemp.

Certain raw materials for war must be stocked.

These viewpoints are recognized and followed by the Reich ministry for Economy. The execution is mainly dependent on the question of funds. Therefore, necessity to save in all fields, to make saved funds available for investment.

Prime Minister Goering: All measures are to be considered from the standpoint of an assured waging of war.

Ready reserves must ordinarily be accumulated already in peace in certain amounts.

It is to be attempted to use cheap imported raw materials for export purposes, expensive raw materials from within Germany. In cases where the price differences are small, probably creation of a settlement is preferred.

Minister Schacht: This settlement can be carried out either by compulsory mixing or by a price settlement by the state of the expensive raw materials.

In any case, price supervision must be introduced again.

Minister Popitz: Placing of the burden of increased prices on the consumer is possible when the difference is only small.

The other possible method is sales monopoly or wholesale monopoly of certain goods.

Minister Schacht: It is recommendable not to influence individual, large fields, for instance textiles, by prices; but to concentrate funds for the monetary subsidation of other fields of raw materials.

Minister von Krosigk: The question cannot generally be judged theoretically, but only practically with the use of individual examples.

Prime Minister Goering: At first, the specially urgent petroleum question is to be treated.

General agreement to that.

Minister von Krosigk: Present experience is that the beginning of new methods of sale or price guarantee by the Reich results thus, that soon new and cheaper production methods are found. This recommends a not too sudden expansion of production.

Prime Minister Goering: Waiting for new methods is no longer appropriate. Plan of the Reich forestry office for the utilization of wood is ready. Import of timber must be cut down in any case; strongest demands on German forests to be preferred at present and can be advocated.

It is to be decided, whether at the beginning, a risk bonus over 6% profit is to be granted.

Minister Schacht: turns against higher profits than 6%. Guarantee of interest-bearing is to be preferred, and must be sufficient.

Minister von Krosigk: discusses the advantages of the amortization program.

Minister von Popitz: In contracts many times rapid cancellation is contemplated.

Minister Schacht: At the beginning more consideration is recommended, later stronger concentration, with profit sharing by the Reich.

Minister Popitz: requests that the cancellation periods be re-examined by a special committee.

Prime Minister Goering: The summary is to be prepared for the next committee meeting about:

1. Inventory of German Raw Material possibilities.

2. Form of the present decrease.

3. Mobilization requirement.

4. How shall raw materials be handled? Especially clarifications whether production within Germany is to start already in peace or whether the stocking or reserves is more important.

Subject of petroleum also can be considered concluded, therefore is to be handled immediately.

In the next council of Ministers, discussion of the agricultural question, then Minister DarrÉ and State secretary Backe present.

Minister von Blomberg: In the fuel industry it is to be decided whether conversion to solid fuels should already be carried out in peace, or whether, as in France, it is to be prepared for the mobilization case. If possible and recommendable, increased use of tar coke [Schwelkok], no diesel oil for railroads.

Prime Minister Goering: Economy also absolutely necessary and to be insisted on in other fields of raw materials.

Minister von Blomberg: Examine as an example substitution of heavy metal by light metal (for instance cans of aluminum): general increase of the use of glass, especially for aerial bombs, maybe also for grenades; use of plastics for wide fields, even as far as transmissions. Certain hopes can be set on China. Therefore prevent political estrangement. Careful advances in the approaching of Japan necessary, at present the recognition of Manchukuo would be disastrous for Mr. Klein's current plans in China.

Prime Minister Goering: Common front of China with Japan against Soviet Russia can probably be produced.

[in green pencil] I did not express myself so specifically BL/

Minister von Blomberg: Japan is doubtful as a factor of military power.

Prime Minister Goering: Furthermore, the danger of Japan's turnabout always exists.

Results of the China affair cannot be viewed clearly because of the unclear inner political situation.

Minister Schacht: always has supported the attempts of Mr. Klein, because he especially hopes for food, raw materials from China.

Minister von Blomberg: recommends further collaboration with the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft, with whom the Reichministry of War had very good experiences. At its head is the scientific authority; other imminent changes for solution proposed by the party unbearable.

Minister Popitz: Nomination of Geheimrat Bosch is possible for this post, when his resignation from the IG is possible.

Minister Schacht: General complaints about the deterioration of German science; this is also harmful for export, since the missing replacement limits the execution of German engineering missions abroad and thus German orders from abroad.

Minister Popitz: Seconds these complaints. Actions by the party which remove the most important people is unbearable. Explanation by examples.

In the liberal arts, the consequences are not being felt immediately, all the more so in the natural sciences. If service etc., should be limited to the first two semesters of study, then full time and freedom for scientific activity.

Prime Minister Goering: In Prussia then, difficulties are partially removed. Influence of the liaison staff not always fortunate. Role of Professor Wagner.

Puts to discussion a taking over of a Spanish tin source, which is being offered from the Swedish side.

Minister Schacht: Basically in agreement, particularly when in a partnership enterprise German achievements will result by deliveries of machines.

Prime Minister Goering: asks Minister Schacht to conduct negotiations in this spirit during his visit in Belgrade relative to Jugoslavia in the near future.

Minister Schacht: The copper mining in Jugoslavia must take place by excluding the French, who sell copper for foreign exchange only.

Prime Minister Goering: During the next ministerial session, the investigation of the problems in the agricultural sector has to be conducted in such a way that direct statements of Minister Schacht/Minister DarrÉ should be made about the single problematic issues.

End of the session 13 o'clock.

Fuel-supply situation (1st draft of a plan for solution) 27 May 1936

	Light vehicle fuel		Airplane fuel
	Peace 36	case of mobil. 38	Peace 36	case of mobil. 38
Total requirement Armed Forces and Industry tons/years	2,000,000	1,650,000	80,000	600,000
Production in the entire Reich industry tons/years	1,300,000
Deficit from requirements of mobilization tons/years	950,000
To be covered by conversion (substitute fuel)
Necessary new plans	950,000
Proposal for a solution	3 Fischer plants of 320,000 tons each by the end of 1937
Costs	380 million RM
	Gas Oil		Heating Oil
	Peace 36	case of mobil. 38	Peace 36	case of mobil. 38
Total requirement Armed Forces and Industry tons/years	800,000	1,300,000	500,000	1,200,000
Production in the entire Reich industry tons/years	220,000		270,000
Deficit from requirements of mobilization tons/years	1,080,000		930,000
To be covered by conversion (substitute fuel)	200,000
Necessary new plans	880,000		930,000
Proposal for a solution	4 IG-Pott plants of 220,000 tons/year each by end of 1937		3 Fischer whole-Pott or distilling plants of 310,000 tons/year each
Costs	400 million RM		370 million RM

Copy of draft
Top Secret
31 August 1936

The War Minister and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces No. 2001/36 Top Secret WH

4 copies—
1st copy—draft
2nd copy—Reich Air Ministry
3rd copy—Reich Ministry for Finances
4th copy—President of the Reichsbank

1. To the Reich Minister of Air and the Supreme Commander of the Air Forces General Goering

Berlin W 8
Dear General Goering!

The negotiations conducted until now in the commission for foreign exchange and raw materials which is under your leadership, have already shown the necessity of dealing also with the financing of the armed forces there also. I believe the time has now arrived that the commission should take up the treatment of this problem.

As a preparation of such a discussion I suggest the following:

I. Overstepping of the 1936 budget.

It has been proven, particularly from the decree issued 7 March 1936, that the sum of about 10 billions of RM which was provided for the Wehrmacht for 1936 is not sufficient.

1. Additional expenses in the army are needed in first place for

a. the remilitarizing of the Rhineland

b. the fortification of the Rhineland

c. the setting up of all the 36 divisions already by 1 Oct 1936

d. the speeding-up of motorization, particularly the establishment of 4 fully motorized Infantry divisions.

e. the necessity of markedly increasing the reserve ammunition because of the increased number of divisions.

f. industrial preparations in a great variety of fields.

2. In the navy the required faster increase of personnel, the building of a 4th entry to Wilhelmshaven and the refortification of Helgoland cause additional expenses.

3. Air Force

a. According to an order of the Fuehrer, the setting up of all air force units has to be completed on 1 April 1937. Therefore considerable expenditures have to be made in 1936 which at the time when the budget for 1936 was made, were planned for later years only. Special additional expenses are caused by the creation of sufficient ground force personnel.

b. In the air force the first introduction of new types has to take place in 1937. Therefore the required industrial preparations have to begin in 1936.

It follows that an additional sum of at least 3.6 billions of RM will be needed by the Wehrmacht for 1936.

Of this about 1 billion RM is allotted to Army and Navy together. In the case of the Army and Navy, the execution of the orders and, in consequence, the dead-lines for the payments of the deliveries lagged quite considerably behind the placing of the orders. Therefore it can be assumed that these 1 billion RM will not be needed in cash before 1 Apr 1937. However, the orders for these 1 billion RM have been placed and in the fiscal year 1937 these 1 billion RM will also be needed in cash.

In the air force the additional expenditures amount to 2600 millions RM. Here the execution of the orders from the budget funds of 1936 as well as of the orders for the additional requirements is in full progress. The 2600 millions RM for the air force have to be made available in the fiscal year 1936.

As yet it cannot be ultimately settled whether the introduction of the two years' service will lead to further additional expenses.

II. Requirements for 1937

The preparatory works for the budget of 1937 have not been concluded. At present the requirements for 1937 are estimated to be for:

1.	the army	6.5 billions RM
2.	the navy	1.2 billions RM
3.	the air force	6.0 billions RM
		————————
	Total	13.7 billions RM

Besides these 13.7 billions RM about 500 millions RM will be needed for the Reich defense requirements of the civilian departments.

III. Permanent requirements

According to a recently conducted survey, the component of the armed forces will have the following permanent requirement after the rearming is completed:

1. Army	3.6 billions RM
2. Navy	0.73 billions RM
3. Air Force	2.507 billions RM
	—————————
Total	6.837 billions RM

At present it is hardly possible to make an accurate estimate of the permanent requirements. In the case of the Army it is very likely that the amount for the permanent requirement will be considerably raised.

Later I will submit further material, particularly a statement about the requirements for the years until the completion of the rearming, as soon as the necessary inquiries are concluded.

I submitted copies of this letter to the Reich Minister for Finance, and to the President of the Reichsbank.

Heil Hitler!
Yours,
[unsigned]

2. To the Reich Minister for Finances Berlin W 8

3. To the President of the Reichsbank Dr. Schacht Berlin SW 111

Copy (of 1) for your kind information

4. WV

Chief WA Chief WH
signed P
Remark:

1. Major v. Wolff has given the letter addressed to General Goering to Lt. Col. Bodenschatz on 31 Aug.

2. I have personally handed the letters 2 and 3 to the President of the Reichsbank, Dr. Schacht, and to the Reich Minister of Finance, Count Schwerin von Krosigk, on Aug 31.

signed P
Copy authenticated Hollender Ministerial Councillor
30 Sept 36.

Note

[initialed] B [Blomberg?]
[initialed] K 2/9 [Keitel]

President Schacht called me to him today at 1300 and requested me to forward the following to the Minister of War:

Schacht returned from the Fuehrer with the greatest anxiety, since he could not agree to the economic program planned by the Fuehrer.

The Fuehrer wants to speak at the party convention [Parteitag] about economic policy, and wants to emphasize there that we now want to get free with all our energy from foreign countries by production in Germany.

Schacht requests urgently that the Reichminister of War warn the Fuehrer from this step.

If the Fuehrer emphasizes in front of the masses in Nurnberg, he will receive a great amount of applause from the audience, but with it he will bring failure to the entire commercial policy. There is only one thing in our needy position: the promotion of export. Every threat against foreign countries however, will show contrary results.

We have reverses in the field of fuels until the middle of next year, there will not be large amounts in the field of rubber. The Renn-process in the field of ores is having great difficulties.

If we now shout out our decision abroad to make ourselves economically independent, then we cut our own throats, because we can no longer survive the necessary transitory period.

Also, it must always be pointed out that German materials are at present much too expensive to be used for export, and export alone makes further armament possible.

If the food-basis of the people is not to be endangered, the Fuehrer must refrain from his plan.

President Schacht concluded that he again requests urgently to listen to this warning, and that he forwards it to the minister of war, as he will not participate in to-morrow's conference.

Thomas 2/9 [in blue pencil]

[Translator's note: the following is written in pencil in the
original:]

THOMAS in his memorandum:

The missing million in cash must be saved, since there is no more possibility to obtain it by increase of export.

English armament-ore! Our own procurement is a must.

4 Year Plan without antagonizing foreign countries.

Card file?
Speed of armament? Yes—

Extent of armament not sufficient. Backing by foreign exchange and raw materials is absolutely necessary.

Top Secret [rubber stamp]
1st copy 5 Sept 1936
Wi II
File No 66 b 9910 II z-a

Minutes on a Conference in the Reichministry for Economy on 3 Sept 1936

Chairman:Ministerialdirektor Sarnow

Present:
Ministerialdirektor Dr. Landwehr
Ministerialdirigent Dr. Spitta
Oberregierungsrat Dr. Michals
{Reichministry for Economy and the competent experts of the Reichministry for Economy and the supervisory agencies}

Major Czimatis
Commander Griebel
Regierungsbaurat Wissman
{Reichministry of War, W.A.}

Intendanturrat Nierhoff {Reichministry of War, V.A.}

Lt.Col. Ploch
Col. Witting
Dipl.ing. Bresser

{Reichministry for Air and Supreme Commander of the Air Force}

Gen.Direktor Schirner, combined alum. plants
Dr. Westrick, combined alum. plants
Dir. Byer, Alum. Sales

{Only during the conference on aluminum}

Subject:

I. Possibilities of allotment of foreign exchange to the armed forces and economy.

II. Aluminum supply.

I. After extensive study of the connected disadvantages, the Reichministry for economy has dropped the principle that one could desist from exporting all products with more than 40% foreign raw materials. Therefore an additional need for foreign exchange results for the upkeep of the export of 2 million marks with the supervisory board for base metals. Furthermore the allotment of cash foreign exchange to the supervisory board for bast fibres must be increased from 10 million marks to 17 million marks.

Intendanturrat Nierhoff made reports on the need of the Armed Forces of textiles and leather in the year 1937, which has increased considerably from the requirements of the year 1936 (see inclosure). To fulfill these Armed Forces requirements, cash foreign exchange is necessary in the following amounts:

	Group of goods	Additional Armed Forces requirements of cash foreign exchange in millions of marks
1.	Wool	24
	shredded wool [Reisswolle]	3
	mohair wool	0.75
2.	silk	0.55
3.	bast fibres	0.25
4.	cotton	4
5.	leather	22.50
		———
	Total	55.00

Accordingly, the following overall picture results:

Amount of cash foreign exchange necessary previously for the upkeep of economy and for the covering of requirements of the Armed Forces. 146.8 million marks

Amount of cash foreign necessary for the upkeep of export. 248 million marks

Additional requirement of cash foreign exchange necessary for the Armed Forces. 146.8 million marks

Available amount of cash foreign exchange 140 million marks.

II. Aluminum

Report on the requirements of aluminum for the Armed Forces are contained in the summary given to the Reichministry for Economy on 29 Aug.

Major Czimatis explained that the Reichministry of War did not renounce the limitations of the allotments of aluminum to the general industry, as it was said in the letter of the Reichministry for Economy of 21 Aug 1936, but that the demands for full delivery to the Armed forces for the programatic rearmament, especially for the Air Force, will be kept up.

The Reichministry for Economy considers the full delivery to industry urgently necessary also in the interest of the Armed Forces, since by a "strangulation" installations important to the Armed Forces (power issues) would also be affected immediately, and one could therefore count on an increased requirement of copper and thus of foreign exchange.

The administration of aluminum by the supervisory board for base metals is being absolutely refused by the Reichministry for Economy.

Generaldirektor Schirner reports that the negotiations for the import of 1000 tons of aluminum from Switzerland against delivery of German clay and pitch-coke are favorable. Also, the payment of processing wages is to be done with clay. However, the import of these 1000 tons is distributed over 6 to 7 months.

1000 tons more can be obtained in a comparatively short time from the Aluminum Ltd. from Canada. The negotiations for this are still in process.

Schirner reported that the stocks of aluminum in the plants is so high that he, in case the Reichministry for Air should agree to a temporary decrease of the stocks, could guarantee full delivery for both the Armed Forces and Industry until the opening of the new plants in Toging and Bitterfeld.

Lt. Col. Ploch consents that the stocks be decreased temporarily.

The Reichministry for Economy orders that the supervisory board for base metals first determine by revision the exact size of the stocks of aluminum for the Duren Metal works and the combined Light Metal works [Vereinigten leicht Metall Werke].

However, if difficulties should arise in the delivery to the Armed Forces with aluminum, then the Reichministry for Economy is ready to take up negotiations again.

MW [initials in pencil]

Inclosure

Textile and Leather Requirements of the Armed Forces

Raw materials	Requirement in the year 1936 in tons	Requirement in the year 1937 in tons	Required additional cash foreign exchange Requirements in millions of marks
Sheared wool	7 200	18 152	24
Wool scrap [Reisswolle]	1 040	4 900	3
Combings	11	42	--
Mohair wool	--	260	0.75
Wool from tanned hides [Gerberwolle]	761	1236	--
Silk	23	72	0.5
Cocoons[4]	72	72	--
Silk yarns[4]	48	48	--
Cotton of which quality cotton Portiers and shelter halves (Egypt)	8 600	16 200
		about 4 000	4
Cotton scraps	560	835	--
Artificial silk	310	670	--
Cellulose wool	1 080	3 130	--
Cleaned flax [Schwingflachs]	3 600	4 800	--
Flax scrap	7,070	10 500	--
Jute	2 100	2 100	--
Soft hemp and hard fibers	1 100	1 635	0.25[5]
of which hard fiber		about 200
Sleek leather	11 000	24 000	--
Skins for uppers	7 100	13 900	--
Tanned leather	4 100	--
Leather for soles		9 500	22.5[6]
			Total 55.00

[4] figures by Reichministry for air

[5] for 400 tons soft hemp and 200 tons Manila and Sisal

[6] for 22 500 tons hides corresponding to 11 200 tons leather

It must be considered in the calculation of the foreign exchange requirements for the upkeep of the export of woolen goods, that the wool industry cannot stand more than a 10% decrease of the present amount, if it is to retain its export capability. Instead of Australian wool, one must reach back to about 50% of the available South-African wool for exports. The wool available through the limitations of value of the clearing agreement is entirely used for export. The calculated amount of foreign exchange and the most urgent requirement within Germany of 12 million marks only applies under the condition that there are until the end of September still 2 million marks in cash foreign exchange available.

One can count for the requirement of the Armed Forces on an amount of 10,000 tons raw wool, based on existing agreement. 24 million marks in cash foreign exchange are required for the additional amount of 8,152 tons with the price basis of 3,000-marks per ton.

Intendanturrat Nierhoff explained: that a decrease of the demands for quality for the Armed Forces is no longer bearable. Already 20% cellulose wool is being earmarked for uniform cloths, and a mixing of 30% scrap wool for over-coats.

The amount of foreign exchange of 4 million marks for quality cotton is therefore necessary, because one cannot count any more on the hitherto existing compensating transactions—especially with Egypt after circular 237.

The amount of foreign exchange estimated for export of 17 million marks for the supervisory board for bast fibres is distributed as follows:

10 million marks for jute
6 million marks for Sisal
1 million marks for Manila

The production of hides in Germany is reported as 140,000 tons per year. Even with the basis that the consumption of leather within Germany is decreased to a minimum, the 22,500 ton hides, corresponding to 11,200 tons leather for the Armed Forces, can only be procured with cash foreign exchange (22.5 million marks).

The raw hide requirement has been determined individually with consideration for the time required to tan the individual types of leather.

[in pencil] Top Secret!

Conference at General Field Marshal Goering's at 1000, 14 Oct. 38, in the Reich Air Ministry

[in pencil] attention H.G.

General Field Marshal Goering opened the session by declaring that he intended to give directives about the work for the next months. Everybody knows from the press what the world situation looks like and therefore the Fuehrer has issued an order to him to carry out a gigantic program compared to which previous achievements are insignificant. There are difficulties in the way which he will overcome with utmost energy and ruthlessness.

The amount of foreign exchange has completely dwindled on account of the preparation for the Czech enterprise, and this makes it necessary that it should be strongly increased immediately. Furthermore, the foreign credits have been greatly over-drawn and thus the strongest export activity—stronger than up to now—is in the foreground. For the next weeks an increased export was first priority in order to improve the foreign exchange situation. The Reich Ministry for Economy should make a plan about raising the export activity by pushing aside the current difficulties which prevent export.

These gains made through the export are to be used for increased armament. The armament should not be curtailed by the export activity. He received the order from the Fuehrer to increase the armament to an abnormal extent, the air force having first priority. Within the shortest time the air force is to be increased five fold, also the navy should get armed more rapidly and the army should procure large amounts of offensive weapons at a faster rate, particularly heavy artillery pieces and heavy tanks. Along with this manufactured armaments must go; especially fuel, powder and explosives are moved into the foreground. It should be coupled with the accelerated construction of highways, canals, and particularly of the railroads.

To this comes the Four Years' Plan which is to be reorganized according to 2 points of view.

In the Four Years' Plan in 1st place all the constructions which are in the service of armament are to be promoted and in 2nd place all the installations are to be created which really spare foreign exchange.

The substitutes produced by the Four Years' Plan are to be brought rapidly into circulation. The Reich Ministry for Economy and the other agencies should make suggestions by the beginning of November for rapidly increasing the introduction of the substitutes. The import of materials for which we have substitutes has to be drastically curtailed.

General Field Marshal Goering enlarged then upon the main problem of the session: how can these requirements be fulfilled.

He is faced with unheard difficulties. The treasury is empty, the industrial capacity is crammed with orders for many years. In spite of these difficulties he is going to change the situation under all circumstances. Memoranda were of no help, he desires only positive proposals. If necessary, he is going to convert the economy with brutal methods in order to achieve his aim. The time has come when private enterprise can show whether it has a right for continued existence. If it fails, he is going over to state enterprise without any regard. He is going to make barbaric use of his plenipotentiary power which was given to him by the Fuehrer.

All the wishes and plans of the state, party and other agencies which are not entirely in this line have to be rejected without pity. Also the ideological problems cannot be solved now, there will be time for them later. He urgently cautions against making promises to the workers which can not be kept by him. The wishes of the labor front recede entirely into the background. Industry has to be fully converted. An immediate investigation of all productive plants is to be initiated in order to determine whether they can be converted for armament and export or whether they are to be closed down. The problem of the machine industry has the first consideration in this respect. There is no place for printing and laundry machines and other machines of that kind, they all have to produce machine tools. In the field of machine tools the priorities of the orders are to be investigated, and wherever possible, increase in productive capacity is to be introduced. It follows without saying that work has to be conducted in 3 shifts.

It remains now to decide who is going to carry out this task; the state of the self-administrative industry. He requested a proposal from General Director Zangen for the methods to realize these plans. He warns all agencies, particularly the labor front, price controller, etc., from interfering with these proposals in any way. He is going to proceed ruthlessly against every interference on the part of the Labor Front. The Labor Front would not receive raw materials and workers for its tasks any more. Similarly all other party requirements have to be set aside without consideration. Foreign workers can continue being employed except in the particularly secret sections of the enterprise. At the present time the plants should not be burdened with unnecessary demands, such as athletic fields, casinos or similar desires of the Labor Front. Measures proposed by the Labor Front have to be submitted to him for approval.

Raw materials and power are to be subjected to accurate management. Similarly the distribution of men has to be organized in an entirely different way than it has been done until now. The retraining did not function; all agencies failed. The recommitment of the youth into the industry will be organized by him on a very large scale. Large state apprenticeships are to be created; besides, the plants will be obliged to hire a certain number of apprentices. A retraining of hundreds of thousands of people will have to take place. Much more work will have to be performed by women than until now. Above all, the young women have to be employed much more. Work periods of eight hours do not exist any more; wherever necessary, overtime is to be performed, double and triple shifts are a matter of course. Where the workers will protest, as in Austria, for example, General Field Marshal Goering will proceed with forced labor; he will create camps for forced labor. The Labor Front should not carry false social ideas among the workers. It is a fact that one generation has driven the cart into the mud through the mutiny of the workers and by being guilty of not having shot these workers on the spot. Therefore, we had to put the thing in order again.

Much is to be done at once in the field of transportation. The Ministry for Transportation should submit a request about the construction of rolling stock and about other requirements. The branch-canal near the Hermann Goering Works is particularly important. It cannot continue that the Armed Forces interfere with the car park. If that will continue, he will make a decision, because it is impossible that the people should starve on account of it.

In the agriculture it is of importance to employ foreign workers. Similarly the problem of the agricultural machine has to be promoted. Of particular importance is the erection of store-houses.

The Sudeten land has to be exploited with all the means. General Field Marshal Goering counts upon a complete industrial assimilation of Slovakia. Czechia and Slovakia would become German dominions. Everything possible must be taken out. The Oder-Danube Canal has to be speeded up. Searches for oil and ore have to be conducted in Slovakia, notably by State Secretary Keppler.

In the second part of his discussion General Field Marshal Goering took up the Jewish problem. The Jewish problem had to be tackled now with all methods, because they have to get out of the economy. However, the wild bustle of commissars as it developed in Austria has to be prevented under all circumstances. These wild actions have to cease and the settling of the Jewish problem should not be regarded as a system of providing for inefficient party members. Thereupon Ministry Councillor Fischboeck was allowed to speak. He revealed that in the beginning there were 25,000 commissars in Austria. Today there are still 3,500 who are useless almost without exception. In Austria the party is of the opinion that Aryanization is a duty of the party and that it is connected with the recompensation of the old party members.

In Austria there is still a total of 2 billions of Jewish property. The large enterprises are being bought up by the Control Bank; it is difficult to oust the Jews from the small industrial enterprises.

General Field Marshal Goering took a strong stand against the opinion that the Aryanization is the duty of the party. It is the duty of the State alone. However, he could not release foreign exchange for shipping away the Jews. In an emergency situation ghettos should be erected in the individual large cities.

State Councillor Schmeer cautioned against more lenient methods in the fight against the Jews; Jewish labor units should be established, then the people would emigrate of their own accord. State Councillor Neumann warned and expressed the opinion that one should use more precaution in this matter, particularly in Austria.

Thereupon the meeting was quite surprisingly closed by General Field Marshal Goering without recording the minutes of the meeting or making decisions.

HG.

Material for the Conference with Goering on 25 Nov 1938 (General Keitel, Brig. Gen. Thomas)

27 Oct 1938
W.Wi Id.

For the consideration of the assignment of tasks to people, state and the Armed Forces, judging of the requirements of raw materials, especially steel, appears necessary.

This is shown as follows, as far as it can be judged from here. The inclosed summary shows that one must count, according to the Fuehrer's directives, on a steel requirement for armament production, which amounts to 1.08 million tons monthly from 1 Jan 1939 on, that is, it must be increased by about 48% of the present contingent. Added to this requirement are the increased demands of the Four Years' Plan, the demands of export and the amount necessary for the upkeep of the production machine of German economy in the amount of 1.83 million tons monthly from 1 Jan 1939 on; thus this results in a total requirement of 2.9 million tons monthly from 1 Jan 1939 on, against which there is only a monthly production of at present 1.8 million tons monthly.

Furthermore, it must be pointed out, that with the increased use of steel, an increased use of the already scarce non-ferrous metals is necessarily coupled; the latter also are closely associated with the procurement of foreign exchange.

The increased rearmament of the armed forces must further affect deeply the supply requirements of the armed forces, especially munitions and fuels. Therefore, it must be expected that the future requirements of the armed forces will exceed the present plans (accelerated program for powder and explosives, fuel program), which will have an increase of the steel requirements not yet planned as result.

Secret

Summary of the Iron and Steel Requirements of the Armed Forces and Industry tons per month

	Contingent of the IVth quarter 1938	Contingent of the 1st quarter 1939	Requirement from 1 Jan 1939 on	in contrast to the contingent of 1st quarter 1939
I. Armed Forces	584,333	573,133	1,088,300	—515,167
II. War economical organization of German industry	306,600	306,600	613,500	—306,900
III. Export in case it is possible to reach the stage of beginning of 1938	380,000	380,000	550,000	—170,000
IV. Upkeep of the production machine of the German industry	582,800	582,800	582,800	——
V. Other requirements	83,500	83,500	83,500	——
Total	1,937,233	1,926,033	2,918,100	—992,067

Summary on the Iron and Steel Requirement of the Armed Forces (tons per months)

	Contingent of the IVth quarter 1938	Contingent of the 1st quarter 1939	Requirement from 1 Jan 1939 on	in contrast to the contingent of 1st quarter 1939
Army	300 367	266 000	525 000	—259 000
(For fortifications)	(86 667)	(85 000)	(165 000)	(—80 000)
Navy	78 000	74 000	140 500	—66 500
(For "Gruenewiese")	(- - -)	( - )	(35 000)	(—35 000)
Air Force	166 400	191 133	247 300	—56 187
(For fortifications)	(13 333)	(15 000)	(15 000)	( - )
Reich communication measures [RV-Massnahmen]	39 566	42 000	175 500	—133 500
(For increased extension of the Reich railroad)	(- - -)	( - )	130 000	(—130 000)
Armed Forces Total	584 333	573 133	1 088 300	—515 167

Chief OKW
58a 40 38 top secret
1157/38 top secret
7 Dec 1938
Top Secret
7 copies
7th copy
[in pencil]
To the State Secretary Neumann
Received copy without receipt K. 12 Dec 38
Documents for the conference at Field Marshal Goering's on 13
Dec 1938 with Supreme Commanders General Keitel,
Neumann, Koerner, Gen. Thomas.

To
the Supreme Commander of the Army }
the Supreme Commander of the Navy }
the Reichs Marshal of the Air Force and } one copy each
Supreme Commander of the Air Force }

The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces authorized me to inform the Supreme Commander of the following:

The strained financial situation of the Reich makes it necessary that for the rest of the current fiscal year 38/39 the expenses of the Armed Forces, which in the last months under the strain of extraordinary circumstances have undergone a very considerable increase, should be lowered again to a level which would be tolerable for some time.

It will be at the discretion of the Supreme Commander to decide what measures should be taken for this purpose according to the priorities in the armament program. According to the Fuehrer's request.

ARMY

The equipping with arms will have first priority, the providing of ammunition and the building of fortifications for the army will be considered in second place only.

NAVY

The building of ships, of ports and docks will have first priority over all other requirements, also over that of providing ammunition.

AIR FORCE

The equipping with arms will have first priority, the providing of ammunition will have to be considered in second place only.

If necessary, the initiation of new enterprises will have to be delayed, the execution of current enterprises and orders will have to be distributed over a longer period of time. The allotted quota of raw materials which will be decreased starting 1 Jan 39, will also compel us to a certain extent to do this. It has to be achieved that

in the Army
in the Navy
in the Air Force

during the period from 1 November 1938 to 31 March 1939 (end of the fiscal year) not more than

(Army): 3.7 billion RM (used until now 4.9)
(Navy): 650 million RM
(Air Force): 2.5 billion RM

should be expended in the form of cash and delivery treasury scrips.

It is not yet definitely established how much can be allotted for the next fiscal year 1939/40 in the form of cash and delivery scrips. At present, the branches of the Armed Forces cannot expect greater quotas than the following:

5.2 billion RM for the Army
1.4 billion RM for the Navy
4.9 billion RM for the Air Force

signed: Keitel

W H
58 a 40 38 g K
1157/38 g K
Top Secret
Copy
for information
[illegible signature]
to
the Chief of the Air Force
the Chief of the W Stb
Chief of the War Industry Staff Adjutant
1 March 1939
Draft
To the adjutant's office of General Field Marshal Goering.

On behalf of Brig. Gen. Thomas I request an appointment for a conference for the general before the departure of the General Field Marshal on following urgent subjects:

1. The branches of the Armed Forces—particularly the Navy—submitted requests for additional amounts of non-ferrous metals and of steel. General Thomas requests instructions what attitude he should take in regard to this question during the absence of the General Field Marshal.

2. The General Field Marshal has to make decisions in 2 matters concerning foreign policy.

[signature illegible]
Captain.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1316-PS

Working Committee Oldenburg
B.Nr. 15/41 g.Kdos. 21.3.41
2 copies
1st. copy.

TOP SECRET
Note for Files.

Regarding the discussion held on the 21.3.41. at 11 o'clock with the head of the department.

Top Secret

Present: General Thomas, Colonel Huenermann, Lt. Col. Luther,
Major v. Gusevius.

From the Quartermaster General: Major v. Altenstadt, Min. Dir. Sarnow.

Major v. a. develops the idea of the Quartermaster General regarding the employment of his organization. The Fuehrer had laid down that he would appoint his three commissioners in about four weeks time. Only then would he lay down the directives for their activities.

The Quartermaster General thinks it necessary to create a modest economic organization in the operational area as well, so as to be able to supply the needs of the fighting forces. This organization would later be replaced by the office of the industrial armaments organization. This was to a certain extent a measure of self-help by the Quartermaster General. He would also employ field-commands, which would be manned by individual officials. As soon as the operational area has moved on, the handing over of large areas has been planned. At this time the Quartermaster General's organizations will be withdrawn and their tasks will be taken over by the industrial armaments organization.

Regarding the present organization of the areas he mentioned the following:

Operational Area: Army area
Rear area of the Army
Political Area: in which the Wehrmacht commanders
operate.

In the rear area of the army, the Reichsleader of the SS is first of all responsible for the entire control, except for the economic field. The Wehrmacht commanders are made responsible for the exploitation of the country's industry. According to the general interpretation, this only means a utilization "for purposes of the Wehrmacht". Quartermaster General makes the following proposal:

The department IV-Wi at Army Commands will be enlarged, so that they are able to direct industry in the operational area. For this purpose the V.O. are to be strengthened by suitable personnel who can be employed in the spheres of banking, customs and finance.

OKW/industrial armaments department will put its demands to Quartermaster General. Quartermaster General will pass these demands in the form of an order to the V.O. at Army Commands. The IV Wi will of course receive the technical instructions from Industrial Armaments through the official channels, just as Industrial Armaments is also providing the organization in the form of IV Wi.

The proposal meets with general approval.

With regard to basic directives the representative of the Quartermaster General mentions:

Each army is followed by a security division. For reasons of expediency the industrial armaments commands in the beginning will be attached to these security divisions. As soon as operations have made further progress, the industrial armaments commands will come under the Wehrmacht commanders.

The Quartermaster General thinks it expedient, that the industrial armament Staff should be near to or actually with the Quartermaster General whilst operations are in progress. Only thus can it be guaranteed that the Industrial Armament Staff is kept informed of the progress of the operations as a whole, and of the intentions of the leadership. As soon as operations cease, the Industrial Armaments Staff will join the Industrial Armaments Department, as the inspectorates (with the Reich Commissioners) will then be operating as their economic department. The main activity of the Industrial Armaments Staff will then be properly in Berlin.

The Quartermaster General does not intend to create a Quartermaster General organization for the East. He will attach a General Staff Officer as representative to each Army Group. The Quartermaster General intends to go forward in person.

Min. Dir. Sarnow mentions that there is in existence an agricultural atlas of Russia which contains the latest information about all tractor stations. This atlas is in the possession of Secretary of State Backe. Acquaintance with this atlas is of the greatest importance for the V.O. and the industrial armaments commands. General Thomas orders that this atlas be obtained. On the basis of this publication the Quartermaster General is to receive information on how to supply the fighting forces with circulars containing detailed instructions regarding the armaments department to provide the Quartermaster General with the contributions required for compiling these circulars for the fighting forces. The Quartermaster General's representative mentions that it is intended to attach suitable individuals for the securing of these tractor stations to the armoured divisions.

In these circulars the primary demand made on the fighting forces will be:

a. Securing of all supplies found.

b. Safeguarding of all tractors and fuel in stock.

Quartermaster General states that Admiral Canaris has drawn up a list of reliable people with detailed knowledge of the locality and industry, who are to be employed immediately on entry. For the occupation of East-Galicia, special oil-detachments are to be provided, where possible from the present West-Galicia, to take over supervision of the oil installations in the district of Lemberg immediately.

The Chief of the department sums up:

1. The most urgent task is the strengthening of IV Wi. The staff of the industrial armaments command takes over the responsibility for this.

2. In the rear of the army area it is the intention to appoint a commanding general in the area of each Army Command, under whose command the security divisions will also be placed. Here in the industrial armaments commands are to be introduced and attached to the security divisions. As soon as this rear army area passes into the political area, the armament commands, or the industrial armament inspectorates, will come under the command of the Wehrmacht Commander.

3. The Reich Commissioners take over political administration in the so-called political area.

4. The inspectorates and industrial armaments commands furthest to the rear (western) must be the first to be employed, i.e., must be in front. They are the first to reach their final areas.

Distribution:
1st. copy
2nd. copy
Staff of the Industrial Armaments Department
Working Committee Oldenburg.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1317-PS

Rue Ic
Berlin, March 1, 1941
[stamp] TOP SECRET
5 copies, 1st copy
Re: Oldenburg
Memorandum

Conference at Office Chief, General of the Infantry Thomas on February 28, 1941

Present: General of the Infantry Thomas
Colonel Becht
Lt. Col. Luther
Lt. Col. Matzky
Major von Gusevius
Major von Payr
Major Huch
Captain Emmerich
Captain Dr. Hamann

The general ordered that a broader plan of organization be drafted for the Reich Marshal.

Essential Points:

1. The whole organization to be subordinate to the Reich Marshal. Purpose: Support and extension of the measures of the four-year plan.

2. The organization must include everything concerning war economy, excepting only food, which is said to be made already a special mission of State Secretary Backe.

3. Clear statement that the organization is to be independent of the military or civil administration. Close cooperation, but instructions direct from the central office in Berlin.

4. Scope of activities to be divided in two steps:

a. Accompanying the advancing troops directly behind the front lines, in order to avoid the destruction of supplies and to secure the removal of important goods.

b. Administration of the occupied industrial districts and exploitation of economically complimentary districts.

5. In view of the extended field of activity, the term war economy inspection is to be used preferably, instead of armament inspection.

6. In view of the great field of activity, the organization must be generously equipped and personnel must be correspondingly numerous.

The main mission of the organization will consist of seizing raw materials and taking over all important concerns. For the latter mission reliable persons from German concerns will be interposed suitably from the beginning, since successful operation from the beginning can only be performed by the aid of their experiences (for example, lignite, ore, chemistry, petroleum).

After the discussion of further details, Lt. Col. Luther was instructed to make an initial draft of such an organization within one week.

Close cooperation with the individual sections in the building is essential. An Officer must still be appointed for Wi. and Ro, with whom the operational staff can remain in constant contact. Wi is to give each section chief and Lt. Col. Luther a copy of the new plan regarding Russia.

Major General Schubert is to be asked to be in Berlin the second half of next week. Also, the 4 officers who are ordered to draw up the individual armament inspections are to report to the Office Chief at the end of next week.

(signed) Hamann
Distribution:
Staff 1st Copy
Rue 2nd Copy
Lt. Col. Luther 3rd Copy
Planning 4th Copy
Supply 5th Copy

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1337-PS

Decree setting up Secret Cabinet Council 4 February 1938

Reichsgesetzblatt, 1938, Part I, page 112.

For my guidance in the conduct of Foreign Policy, I am creating a Secret Cabinet Council.

I nominate as President of the Secret Cabinet Council:

Reichsminister Freiherr von Neurath.

I appoint as members of the Secret Cabinet;

The Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop,

The President of Prussia, Minister for Air and the Air Force, Field Marshal Herman Goering,

The Deputy of the Fuehrer, Rudolf Hess,

The Minister for Enlightenment and Propaganda, Dr. Joseph Goebbels,

The Minister and Head of the Reich Chancellory, Dr. Hans Heinrich Lammers,

The Supreme Commander of the Army, Col. Gen. Walther v Brauchitsch,

The Supreme Commander of the Navy, Admiral Dr. L.C. Erich Raeder,

Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, General of the Artillery, Wilhelm Keitel,

The Reichsminister and Head of the Reichschancellery will conduct the current business of the Secret Cabinet Council.

Berlin, 4th February 1938.
Fuehrer and Reichchancellor,
ADOLF HITLER.
Reichsminister and Head of Reichschancellery
Dr. LAMMERS.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1347-PS

The Reich Minister for Nutrition and Agriculture
Berlin W 8, Wilhelmstr. 72.
18 September 1942.

To the State Governments [Landesregierungen] (State Nutrition offices) the Prussian Provincial Presidents (provincial nutrition offices) with the exception of the Eastern territories not incorporated into Upper Silesia.

For information of the district presidents [Regierungspraesidenten] and respective authorities

Re: food supply for Jews.

2. Rations.

Jews will no longer receive the following foods, beginning with the 42nd distribution period (19 October 1942): meat, meat products, eggs, wheat products (cake, white bread, wheat rolls, wheat flour, etc) whole milk, fresh skimmed milk, as well as such foods are distributed not on food ration cards issued uniformly throughout the Reich but on local supply certificates or by special announcement of the nutrition offices on extra coupons of the food cards. Jewish children and young people over 10 years of age will receive the bread ration of the normal consumer. Jewish children and young people over 6 years of age will receive the fat ration of the normal consumer, no honey substitute and no cocoa powder, and they will not receive the supplement of marmalade accorded the age classes of 6 to 14 years. Jewish children up to 6 years receive 1/2 liter of fresh skimmed milk daily.

Accordingly no meat, egg or milk cards and no local supply certificates shall be issued to Jews. Jewish children and young people over 10 years of age will receive the bread cards and those over 6 years of age the fat cards of the normal consumer. The bread cards issued to Jews will entitle them to rye flour products only. Jewish children under 6 years of age shall be issued the supply certificate for fresh skimmed milk. "Good for 1/2 liter daily" shall be noted on it.

Jews cannot be self-providers in the sense of any decrees.

3. Regulation for sick persons, etc.

The regulations for sick and infirm persons, expectant and nursing mothers and women in childbed do not apply to Jews.

The regulations of this decree apply also to Jewish inmates of hospitals.

4. Special allotments.

Jews are excluded from special allotments.

5. Exchange of food cards for travel and restaurant coupons.

The exchange of food cards for travel and restaurant coupons may be allowed to Jews only in urgent exceptional cases.

6. Ration-free food.

For the purchase of non-rationed food the Jews are not subject to restrictions as long as these products are available to the Aryan population in sufficient quantities. Ration-free foods which are distributed only from time to time and in limited quantities, such as vegetable and herring salad, fish paste, etc., are not to be given to Jews. The nutrition offices are authorized to permit Jews to purchase turnips, plain kind of cabbage etc.

7. Marking of ration cards.

Ration cards issued to Jews shall be printed over diagonally (i.e. over all individual coupons) with the repeated over-print "Jew". A color in contrast to the basic color of the cards shall be chosen for this. Cards and coupons overprinted "Jew" do not entitle the bearer to special allotments. Cancellation of these coupons before issue of the cards is therefore not necessary.

8. Special shopping time for Jews.

In order to avoid inconveniences in the supply of the Aryan population, it is recommended that the nutrition authorities establish special shopping times for Jews.

9. Food gift parcels for Jews.

The nutrition offices have to charge in full against the rations of the received all gift food parcels from abroad addressed to Jews. Should it be products which are rationed but not regularly distributed (such as coffee, cocoa, tea, etc.) the entire shipment or in case of a delayed report on the receipt of the package, the still unused part—will be made available to big consumers, such as hospitals and will be charged against their rations.

In the decree of 29 April 1941, of which a copy is enclosed, the Reich Minister of Finance instructed the Customs Offices to report weekly to the competent nutrition offices all gift packages, regardless of the quantity of the incoming merchandise, when it is known or can suspect that the receiver is a Jew. In case the report of the Customs Office to the nutrition office is delayed until the food received in the gift package is consumed, it can still be charged against their rations.

Insofar as the State Police Offices are informed of these food parcels from abroad addressed to Jews, they will secure the packages and put them at the disposal of the nutrition offices [Ernaehrungs-Aemter].

For the Secretary of State Reicke

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1352-PS

COPY

The Leader of the Central Landoffice for the Reichfuehrer SS

Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Nationalism

Berlin NW7, May 29, 1940
Friedrichstrasse 110-112
Tel. 42 38 62
Az. K Al

Subject: Report on the confiscations in the Bielitz District of May 22, 1940

Ref: Your letter of May 22, 1940, Br./Schl. to the Silesian Land Office

Kattowitz Bernhardstrasse 49

I have repeatedly pointed out to you that the Land Office is to concern itself exclusively with the tasks outlined in the Service Directive of Feb. 1, 1940. In accordance with this, the Land Office, in the case under discussion, is also to restrict itself to the seizure and proposal for confiscation of Polish or Jewish private agriculture enterprises that are needed in consequence of the construction of the concentration camp. I forbid you any participation in measures going beyond this and their preparation, such as, more or less, the evacuation, management or reoccupation of the enterprises concerned as well as the accommodation elsewhere of the Polish farm owners. In the same way, the Land Office is to do nothing further regarding the Bielitz district villages named in the report than to undertake the seizure of the Polish and Jewish agriculture enterprises and to propose their confiscation to the State Police. Arrangements which according to the Land Office report have been found too sweeping are in every case to be revoked immediately, in consideration of their invalidity I again point out that as against the other Land Offices, the Silesian Land Office has the poorest results to show in connection with seizures.

Signed: W Baron von Holzschuher,
SS Group Leader
Certified a true copy
Signed: signature
Administrative Leader. (L.S.)

Ku/Ni
Kattowitz, May 22, 1940
SECRET

Report on Details of the confiscation in the Bielitz country

Some days ago the commandant of the concentration camp being built at Auschwitz spoke at Staff Leader Mueller's and we requested support for the carrying out of his assignments. He said that it was absolutely necessary to confiscate the agriculture enterprises within a certain area around the concentration camp, since not only the fields but also the farm houses of these border directly on the concentration camp. A local inspection held on the 21st of this month revealed the following: There is no room for doubt that the agriculture enterprises bordering on the concentration camp must be confiscated at once. Further than this, the camp commandant requests that further plots of farm land be placed at his disposal, so that he can keep the prisoners busy. This too can be done without further delay since enough land can be made available for the purpose. The owners of the plots are all Poles.

The following agreements have been reached by me with the Camp Commandant and the proper measures prepared. The Director of the Branch agency in Bielitz will immediately determine the names of the Polish farmers and will also divide the land to be confiscated into zones.

Zone 1. Enterprises whose plots border directly on the camp.

Zone 2. Agricultural plots with enterprises which are placed at the disposal of the camp for the employment of the prisoners, namely for about 2000 prisoners for the time being.

Zone 3. As in zone 2, with the only difference, that the number of prisoners has increased considerably. Zones 4 and 5 follow them. In the last case it must be determined to what extent it is possible to put that kind of terrain at the disposal of the camp. The result for Zone I must be known within a few days, in order to enable the Land office in Kattowitz to start the confiscation procedures. It will be necessary to state the size of the families whose enterprises have been confiscated, even giving age and sex.

I had the following discussion with the head of the labor-office in Bielitz.

The lack of agricultural laborers still exists in the old Reich. The transfer of the previous owners of the confiscated enterprises, together with their entire families, to the Reich is possible without any further consideration. It is only necessary for the labor office to receive the lists of the persons in time, in order to enable it to take the necessary steps (collection of transportation, distribution over the various regions in need of such labor). Furniture cannot be taken along under any circumstances in the course of the confiscation, the only things left to the Poles, were, anyway, only the most vital items, like bedding, ample food, clothes and other such things.

If the confiscation takes place the Poles will be billeted by the labor office in barracks, put at its disposal by the camp commandant, until their deportation. The deportation of the Poles of further zones will follow along the same lines.

This matter has already been discussed in its outlines with the agricultural management (Ruppert). A farmer will be appointed by the Association of Agricultural Management, who will supervise the agricultural labor of the prisoners at the agricultural enterprises and who, naturally, will carry the sole responsibility for the agricultural measures, which he alone determines.

As soon as the preparatory measures are finished, a meeting will be called on the spot, next week, with the participation of the agricultural management, in order to clear up and determine completely everything that might be necessary. The chief of the Branch Agency Bielitz has been ordered to report on Thursday the 23rd of this month to this office, in order to receive the necessary instructions.

Moreover, I have reached the following agreement with the camp commandant: As there are a number of villages in the district of Bielitz, which contain racial-German [Volksdeutsche] farmers, the existing Poles must be sheltered in those villages in the very near future as quickly as possible, in order to realize a quick consolidation of German folkdom [Volkstume]. The Poles of the confiscated enterprises are taken by the concentration camps then, but not as prisoners [Haeftlinge], rather until the Labor Office Bielitz has turned them over to the Reich as farm laborers.

The following villages are to be considered for the time being: Alzen, Ernstdorf, Batzdorf, Lomnitz.

I have already spoken with the mayor of Alzen, and he will collect all the Poles who possess agricultural property by Saturday, 25th of this month, and submit the list to the Branch Agency Bielitz. The Chief of the Branch Agency Bielitz is requested to get that list personally.

The confiscation of those Polish enterprises in Alzen will also be carried out within the next few days. The Commandant of the Concentration camp will furnish SS-men and a truck for the execution of the action. Should it not yet be possible to take the Poles from Alzen to Auschwitz, they should be transferred to the empty castle at Zator.

The liberated Polish property is to be given to the needy racial-German farmers for their use. The Chief of the Branch Agency must therefore on Saturday determine, in cooperation with the local authorities, the Germans who can be taken into consideration for that purpose.

The list of the Poles to be turned over to the Reich for agricultural labor is to be handed over to the labor office Bielitz, as quickly as possible. Care is to be taken that the size of the family, etc, is also indicated. The Poles in the other German villages of the district Bielitz, are to be determined in the same manner, in cooperation with the various mayors, in order to enable the office here to prepare the confiscation as quickly as possible. The execution of these measures naturally takes place simultaneously with those at Auschwitz. A discussion with the district-leader, the district head-farmers of the association of agricultural management for Eastern Germany [Kreislandwirt der Ostdeutschen landbewirtschaftungs-Gesellschaft] must of course, take place, before those measures are carried out.

signed: KUSCHE

Ku/Ni
CONFIDENTIAL

Report Re: Achievement of confiscations of Polish agricultural enterprises with the purpose to transfer the Poles to the Old Reich and to employ them as agricultural workers.

In the Old Reich again and again the complaint can be heard that a shortage of agricultural workers exists, and that it cannot be remedied by any means though Polish farm-workers have been placed at disposal. The employment offices have informed farmers and owners of estates who are looking for workers that it was difficult to get any workers at all from Poland, that the recruiting in the Government-General and also in the Eastern territory was initiated and the Poles who had applied were placed.

A few days ago, the Country Farmers Leader from Neutitschein called on our Office and told us that in his district many lands were still not yet tilled because there is a lack of any workers. The Reich Food Estate has decreed that everyone can procure himself Polish workers in the Eastern territory or in the Government General.

This appears preposterous if one knows that the office of the Higher SS and Police leader as deputy of the Reich commissar for the strengthening of German nationality, Land Office Silesia, cannot perform the confiscations of small and even very small agricultural enterprises for the reason that we do not know where to put the former Polish owners. Until now the work regarding the confiscation of Polish small farms has been limited to racial-German villages. I have already reported on this matter for the county of Blachownia as well as for the county of Bielitz-Biala, in connection with the institution of a concentration camp in Auschwitz.

I have made an arrangement with the Chief of an employment agency to transfer at once for employment into the Old Reich such Poles as agricultural workers who are designated by us.

It is possible without difficulty to accomplish the confiscation of small agricultural enterprises in the villages in which larger agricultural enterprises have been already confiscated and are under the management of the East German Corporation for Agricultural Development. For it is by no means difficult for the larger agricultural estate to manage a few hundred acres, of course consistent with its own character without any particular additional expenses. It is a matter of course that above all Polish arable lands adjacent to the land of the estate should be confiscated and added to the estate for exploitation. Agricultural-technical or other difficulties by no means can occur. The former owners of Polish farms together with their families will be transferred to the Old Reich by the employment agencies for employment as farm-workers.

In this way many hundred Polish agricultural workers can be placed at the disposal of agriculture in the Old Reich in the shortest and simplest manner. This way the most pressing shortage is removed that is now in a very disagreeable manner felt especially in the root-crop districts.

Besides, the settlers who are still working in the confiscated and formerly settled enterprises and who are superfluous are to be removed into the Old Reich, for until now they were only a burden for the respective enterprise if they are too numerous. In this way, Polish agricultural workers can be made free for the Old Reich.

The confiscations of small enterprises already achieved together with the following transfer of the farmer owners as agricultural workers to the larger estates already in operation have not only brought experience but have proved unequivocably that no difficulties are to be expected. The measures themselves are only a matter of organization, and the success of the measures as proposed by me is based on the good will of cooperation of the other authorities with the office of the Reich Fuehrer-SS as Reich Commissioner for the strengthening of German folkdom. Means of transportation to the railroad can be provided

1. by the enterprises of the East-German Corporation of Agricultural Development

2. by the SS NCO school in Lublinitz and the Concentration Camp of Auschwitz.

These two latter places will also detail the necessary SS-men for the day of the confiscation etc. In case that a place of assembly is necessary for the Polish land-workers who are to be transported into the Reich, for there too sufficient rooms and lodgings can be provided (Kaminiek, Zator Castle, barracks in Auschwitz).

I have already reported on the accomplishment of confiscations in Bielitz county and initiated the necessary measures.

For the purpose of accomplishing further measures proposed by me which envision particularly the supplying of the farms in the Reich with Polish agricultural workers, ask that I be given your consent and the necessary full authority.

(signed) Kusche
5/22/40.

Kattowitz, 16 May 1940.
Ku/Ni.
CONFIDENTIAL

Report on the accomplishment of confiscations of agricultural enterprises in Blachownia County.

With the scope of responsibility of the Higher SS—and Police leaders as the deputy of the Reichs Commissar for the strengthening of German nationality, Land officer Silesia, a survey was made in Blachownia County since the beginning of April as to how far confiscations of agricultural enterprises in Polish ownership could be accomplished.

Before the outbreak of the war the present county of Blachownia was a part of Czestachowa County (before 1941 this territory belonged to Russian Poland). Only recently, it was decided to incorporate the present county area of Blachownia County into the district of Oppeln. Blachownia is a rather big market-place which in Polish times was even called a Spa.

As the necessary preparations can be considered closed in the following a short survey on the general conditions shall be given as far as they are at present of interest and importance.

At first, contact was made by the Chief of the local agency of the Land Office in Lublinitz, with the local authorities of the Party, the State such as the East German Corporation for Agricultural Development and the Secret State Police, and after a thorough exposition of the aims of the Land Office, excellent state of agreement was reached. Before this the Land Office of Kattowitz had discussions in the same direction regarding the Blachownia County with the higher authorities of the Party and the State District Governor [Regierungspresident], Provincial Governor [Oberpresident], Gauleitung.

The chief of the local agency at Lublinitz had found out that a number of villages exist in Blachownia County the inhabitants of which belong for the greatest part to the German nationality and that particularly in recent years the Polish nationality strongly penetrated into these small ethnic German islands.

Blachownia County comprises about 133,000 inhabitants. Of these, 2,000 can be considered without further ado as ethnic Germans. The number of Jews is estimated at 6,000. 260 villages are combined in 15 greater communities. In 3 of such greater communities to which also the German villages belong, racial German mayors are in office.

1. The greater community Lipie: Mayor Mueller, comprising the racial-German villages of Haukow, Lindow, Natalin and Rosalin,

2. The greater community Scharny-Las: Mayor Lorenz, comprising the racial-German villages of Schwarzwald,

3. The greater community Wrozosowa: Mayor Neugebauer, comprising the racial-German village of Alt-Hutau.

The rest of the communities are Polish throughout and have still an almost pure Polish administration.

To 1. In greater Lipie 20 of the 23 villages are destroyed up to 80%. The ethnic-German families are living in the most primitive conditions, closely compressed into the few dwelling-houses still remaining or into other poorly prepared shelters consisting of destroyed houses even in holes in the ground. The German villages mentioned were founded about 80 years ago by Germans who came mostly from Middle-Silesia (Strehlen, district of Breslau). By hard work they have cleared the woods and created farms.

To 2. The Germans of this village immigrated about 100 years ago from the region of Frankfort on Main and have built up by their own work their economic basis of life.

To 3. In Alt-Hutau, it is a question above all, of Sudeten German-weavers, who immigrated in 1812 from Maehrisch-Truebau. Because of shortage of raw materials for several months the looms have been idle, so that, on account of the cessation of this so necessary opportunity for additional income, the economic situation of these ethnic-Germans is endangered.

In course of time, of course, the Poles also have intruded into these German settlements with the purpose at first to weaken Germanism in its economic existence and finally to drive it out. The agricultural enterprises of the racial-Germans have sizes from 1-1/2 to 5 hectares. In all probability the enterprises have become so small due to partitioning and above all to economic pressure from the former Polish masters.

By the quick advance of the German troops a terrible massacre of the ethnic Germans by the Poles of the Polish soldiery has been prevented. Before the outbreak of the war, the Poles in these German settlements behaved very aggressively against the German nationality and everything was made ready for its destruction during the disorders of war. Even if at the present moment the Poles have become a little more quiet it appears that it concerns only outward appearances. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to bring about a strengthening of the German nationality in the small far advanced German linguistic islands. These ethnic-Germans make the best impressions. For whole decades they have not abandoned their German national culture despite terror and so on, but have confessed firmly and resolutely. Thus for example, the present Mayor Mueller of Natalin has given to German children during the Polish times lessons in reading and writing on Saturday and Sunday because a school for the German minority did not exist. The ethnic-Germans and above all the youth know the German language not only orally but even by the written word.

In order to break down the Polish nationality most quickly in the German villages, the Polish agricultural enterprises were confiscated. Therewith it has to be remarked further that also Polish enterprises were destroyed by warfare and the Poles too are partly in a situation which gives grounds for fear in so far that theft of German property and other encroachments on the part of the Poles may occur. The confiscation was done in accordance with the directives of Reich Fuehrer-SS as Reich Commissioner for the strengthening of German nationality, on 9 May in the villages of Natalin and Rosalin. As the Polish enterprises were from 2 to about 8 hectares in size and the arable land and the farm-buildings are dispersed within the area. The County agronomist [Kreislandwirt] of the East-German Agricultural Development Corporation thought that a centralized management of the confiscated farms by appointment of a manager was impractical. He resolved therefore to give the arable land, livestock and other property to the trusteeship of needy racial-Germans. The agronomist who was present at the performance of the confiscation accomplished this at once on the spot. However he thought it necessary to take the former Polish owners as farm-workers to an estate in Blachownia County which is also managed by the East-German Agricultural Development Corporation, in order to enable the racial-Germans installed to run the Polish enterprises without friction. Today in fact farm-workers are lacking here, for the former workers were Jews and are useless for such work and moreover, they would endanger an orderly management. However, if the Poles would remain on their former farms the danger of the worst sort of sabotage to the agricultural property now at the disposal of the German Reich would exist. The Poles are paid for their work. The execution of the confiscation as well as the transfer of the Polish farm-workers to the estate of the East-German Corporation for Agriculture Management was accomplished quite quietly and without friction.

In the same way as it was done until now the break-up of Polish Nationality will be shortly accomplished in the other racial-German villages as well.

Because of the extremely good cooperation with the authorities, the party offices and the East German Corporation for Agricultural Development, and above all with the Secret State Police the confiscations etc. will be accomplished absolutely without friction in the future, as well especially as preparations of greatest minuteness will secure the success from the outset.

Before the end of June the soil in the ethnic-German villages of Blachownia County will be taken entirely from Polish hands and be confiscated for the German Reich at the disposal of Reich Fuehrer-SS as Reich Commissioner for the strengthening of German Nationality.

(signed) Kusche

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1366-PS

[Secret Decree of Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery Lammers of 29 August 1943, RK. 99 MD]

BUDGET OF THE REICH PROTECTOR FOR THE YEAR 1944

Introduction

* * *

The Fuehrer has modified the position, duties and authorities of the Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia upon the appointment of the new Reich Protector. The Reich Protector is the representative of the Fuehrer in his capacity as Chief of State ... It is his function to confirm the members of the government of the Protectorate, to appoint, dismiss and retire the German civil servants. He exercises the power to grant pardons and to quash legal proceedings except in cases before the Military and SS Police Courts.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1375-PS

Castle Krakow
25 Jan. 1940

Minister President Field Marshal Goering Deputy for the Four-Year Plan

The Commissioner General for the General-gouvernement Poland

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

S B 1/40

I To the Director of the Service Agency for the Four-Year Plan Major General Buehrmann or representative in Krakow Lenartovicza 13

For the execution of the task of systematically placing the economic strength of the General-gouvernement, within the framework of the Four-Year Plan, in the service of the German defense industry, I give the following

Directives

1. In view of the present requirements of the Reich for the defense industry, it is at present fundamentally impossible to carry on a long-term economic policy in the General gouvernement. Rather, it is necessary so to steer the economy of the General gouvernement that it will, in the shortest possible time, accomplish results representing the maximum that can be gotten out of the economic strength of the General gouvernement for the immediate strengthening of our capacity for defense.

2. In particular the following performances are expected of the total economy of the General gouvernement:

a. Intensification of agricultural production esp. in the larger farms (above 100 ha.) and a planned distribution of the food-stuffs to be requisitioned in order to fill the requirements of the troops, units, and service agencies as well as of the native population, which are not yet fully covered by the present production.

b. Fullest exploitation of the forests, in temporary disregard of forest conservation principles, so as to deliver to the Reich approx. 1 million fm sawmill lumber, 1. 2 million fm of mine timbers and up to 0.4 million rm of fiber wood.

c. Stepping-up of the raw material production in the industrial sector, in particular: in the extraction of iron ores and pyrites in order to cover the local needs of the smelting plants operated in the General gouvernement; in petroleum extraction; in order to cover the militarily most important requirements of the General gouvernement and to export the greatest possible quantities to the Reich; in the chemical industry (nitrogen, phosphate) to provide for the fertilizer requirements of agriculture in so far as they can be covered in the General gouvernement;

d. Exploitation, if necessary also partial expansion, of the industrial capacity existing in the General gouvernement, in order to execute as rapidly as possible the Wehrmacht orders to be placed by the Reich in the General gouvernement while maintaining production of those products which are absolutely vital for the running of the economic machinery in the General gouvernement even if the strictest standards are applied;

e. Maintenance of the productive capacity of those plants to which Wehrmacht orders have not yet been assigned but which are chosen as replacement plants for militarily vital factories which have been or will be evacuated in the Reich;

f. Stripping and scrapping of those plants which have neither been made into armament plants nor declared to be replacement plants, as well as of destroyed buildings;

g. Supply and transportation of at least 1 million male and female agricultural and industrial workers to the Reich—among them at least 7500 000 [sic] agricultural workers of which at least 50% must be women—in order to guarantee agricultural production in the Reich and as a replacement for industrial workers lacking in the Reich.

3. In order to attain the expected performances, provision is to be made:

a. that the organizational measures for increasing agricultural production and for the building up of the live stock, extraordinarily depleted by the war, are implemented by the insurance of the seed and fertilizer supply—if necessary by imports from the Reich—; by sufficient supplies of agricultural machinery from local production in the General gouvernement; by a planned development of the water economy which should be simultaneously designed for the requirements of the waterways and of the power supply;

b. that all uneconomic consumption of wood be avoided and that the shipment of the quantities to be delivered to the Reich is insured;

c. that within the framework of the stepping-up of the industrial raw material production the following are guaranteed: financing through the most extensive possible utilization of the credit system existing in the General gouvernement; procurement of the necessary mining and drilling equipment, the supplying of the workers with the food and articles of clothing absolutely essential for the maintenance of their full efficiency; the shipment, especially of mineral oil, to the Reich;

d. that in engaging the industrial capacity of the General gouvernement with armament orders from the Reich the following be coordinated:

nature and volume of the orders

location and capacity of the plants

raw material requirements and coverage the latter as far as possible out of raw material stocks existing in the General gouvernement—

requirements and provisioning of workers means of transport for delivery of materials and dispatch of finished products;

pre-financing of wages in the General gouvernement and transfer of the proceeds from the Reich;

e. that exact investigations be made in order to determine the plants which are either required for filling the armament orders or continue to work for the supplying of the General gouvernement with absolutely vital goods, or are being maintained as replacement plants, or are to be stripped and scrapped; and that the putting into operation or continued operation of the plants be uniformly regulated and made subject to permit;

f. that in order to insure the necessary supply of Polish workers in the Reich the labor offices harmonize the recruiting with the labor requirements in the General gouvernement; that the shipment will take place early enough to be completed in the course of April; that the transfer of savings of these workers be regulated who came to the Reich merely as migratory workers.

4. For the uniform orientation of the total economy of the General gouvernement towards the tasks now to be accomplished the following additional measures are to be taken:

a. In the food supply of the population it must under all circumstances be seen to it that the persons working in plants vital to life and armaments will maintain their efficiency while the rest of the population will have to remain restricted to a minimum ration as long as the food shortage lasts.

b. Any production which, on the basis of raw materials important for armament, is directed towards objects which in the framework of the present plan are not vital, is to be ruthlessly discontinued in so far as it will not be possible to switch it over to sufficiently abundant Ersatz materials and other materials (e.g. by producing wooden shoes while simultaneously prohibiting the production of leather shoes and boots for the native population). For the rest, all raw material saving decrees prohibitions of production and shipment and orders valid in the Reich are to be carried through in the Generalgouvernement at least to the same degree as is done in the Reich.

c. The shipment of raw materials to the Reich is to be limited to those amounts not absolutely needed in the Generalgouvernement to guarantee militarily vital production. The right of disposing of the stocks of raw materials, half-finished and finished goods in the Generalgouvernement is reserved to your service agency. For the better regulation of supply small amounts of valuable raw materials will be brought into collection depots from scrapped plants and from smaller depots.

d. The supplying of militarily vital plants with coal and the filling of the most urgent coal requirements of the population are to be guaranteed by agreements with the proper Reich agencies.

e. The collection of leather and old material [Erfassung] and the gathering of scrap are to be pushed forward according to plan. In view of the especial conditions in the Generalgouvernement, Jewish dealers who can be freed for this purpose from forced service etc., may also be engaged.

f. A transport plan will be drawn up in agreement with the transportation authorities with the object of bringing transport desires into line with transport possibilities and to arrive at priority scale which will then be made the basis of all further planning.

g. Price and wage regulations, currency protection and credit policy will be harmonized in closest accord between the agencies concerned with the object of creating stable conditions as an indispensable prerequisite for any economic planning.

h. In order to gain a conception of the presumable shape of the payment transactions between the Reich and the General-gouvernement, a payment balance sheet is to be drawn up as soon as it is possible to see to what extent armament orders from the Reich can be filled in the General gouvernement.

5. I reserve the right to issue further basic instructions.

Copy of the present is being sent to the subordinate service agencies as well as to the Commander in Chief East, the Chief of the Armament Inspectorate Upper-East, the Military Commander in Krakow and the Bank Director of the Emission Bank in Poland with the request that the service agency for the Four-Year Plan be supported in every possible way in the execution of its tasks.

(signed) Dr. Frank
Certified

(signed) Ministerialkanzleiobersekretaer als Kanzleivorsteher

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1376-PS

1940 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 778
20 May 1940 Nr 87

Decree of the Fuehrer of 18 May 1940 on the Execution of Power by the Government in the Lowlands

In order to secure public order and public life in the Dutch territories taken under the protection of German troops, I decree:

Paragraph 1

The occupied Dutch territories will be subordinated to the "Reichs Commissioner for the Occupied Dutch territories." His seat will be The Hague. The Reichs Commissioner is protector of the interests of the Reich and will represent the supreme power of the government within the civil sphere. He will be directly subordinated to me and will receive directives and orders from me.

Paragraph 2

The General military commander in the Netherlands will exercise military sovereign rights, his demands within the civilian sphere will be carried out by the Reichs Commissioner. He has the right to order the measures which are necessary for the execution of his military mission and for military security. The same right belongs to the supreme commanders of the branches of the armed forces.

Paragraph 3

The Reich Commissioner may use German Police forces to carry out his orders. The German Police forces are at the disposal of the German military commander insofar as the military necessities require this and if the missions of the Reichs Commissioner permit it.

Paragraph 4

For the execution of his orders and the functioning of the administration the Reichs Commissioner may make use of the Dutch authorities.

Paragraph 5

1. The law which was formerly valid remains in force, in as much as it is compatible with the occupation.

2. The Reichs Commissioner may enforce law by decree. The ordinances will be proclaimed in the "Ordinance for the occupied Dutch territories."

Paragraph 6

I appoint Reichs Minister Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart to be Reich Commissioner for the occupied Dutch territories.

Paragraph 7

Regulations for the execution and completion of this decree will be issued according to my directives for the civilian sphere by the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellory and for the military sphere by the Chief of the supreme command of the armed forces.

Paragraph 8

This decree will be enforced as soon as and insofar as I shall cancel the order given to the Supreme Commander of the Army for the exercise of the complete power.

Fuehrer's Hqs. 18 May 1940

The Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler

The President of the Cabinet Counsel for the defense of the Reich, Goering, Field Marshal

The Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, Keitel

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, von Ribbentrop

The Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1377-PS

1938 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 111

5th February 1938
Decree concerning the leadership of the Armed Forces—

4th February 1938

From now on I take over directly the command of the whole Armed Forces.

The Armed Forces Office with its functions as Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, hitherto within the Reichs War Ministry, will come directly under my command and as my military staff.

At the head of the staff of the supreme command of the Armed Forces is the former Chief of the Armed Forces department as "Chief of the supreme command of the Armed Forces". He is equal in rank to a Reichs Minister.

At the same time, the supreme command takes the responsibility for the affairs of the Reichs Ministry of War, and by my order the chief of the supreme command of the Armed Forces exercises the authority formerly belonging to the Reichs Minister.

It is the supreme command of the Armed Forces' duty to carry out in peace time, in accordance with my instructions, the preparation of the defense system of the Reich.

Berlin, 4 February 1938.

The Fuehrer and Reichs Chancellor
ADOLF HITLER

The Reichs Minister and Chief of the Reichs Chancellery

DR. LAMMERS

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces

KEITEL

REICHSGESETZBLATT, 5th February 1938

Decree concerning the setting up of a secret cabinet council of 4th February 1938.

To advise me in conducting the foreign policy I am setting up a secret cabinet council.

As president of the secret cabinet council, I nominate: Reichsminister Freiherr-Von Neurath

As members of the secret cabinet council, I nominate:

Reichsminister of the Exterior Joachim von Ribbentrop

Prussian Prime Minister, Reichsminister of the Air, Supreme Commander of the Air Forces, General Field Marshal Hermann Goering

The Fuehrer's Deputy, Reichsminister Rudolf Hess

Reichsminister for the enlightenment of the people and of propaganda, Dr. Joseph Goebbels

Reichsminister and Chief of the Reichs Chancellery Dr. Hans-Heinrich Lammers

The Supreme Commander of the Army, General Walter von Brauchitsch

The Supreme Commander of the Navy, Grand Admiral Dr. (honorary) Erich Raeder

The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Wilhelm Keitel

The current affairs of the secret cabinet council are handled by the Reichsminister and Chief of the Reichs Chancellery.

Berlin, 4 February 1938.

of the Reichs Chancellery

ADOLF HITLER

The Reichsminister and Chief of the Reichs Chancellory

DR. LAMMERS

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1381-PS

The Representative of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories with the Headquarters of Army Group North

December 1942
SECRET
[Rubber Stamp]

Political and Economic Problems of the Military and Civil Administration of the Occupied Eastern Territories.

Introduction: The author of this report as representative of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories with the Headquarters of Army Group North had the possibility to become acquainted with all questions of administration and economy in the Eastern area. An information trip also brought him to the

Army Area B (Donetz)
Army Area Don
Army Area Crimea
Army Area A (Caucasus)
into the General Commissariat Dniepropstrovsk
into several District Commissariats.

Conferences took place with all commanders of these army areas, the chiefs of staff, the chiefs of the departments VII, the chiefs and experts of the economic inspectorates and numerous economic teams and with field and local commanders.

In the field of civil administration, conversations were held with the competent experts as well.

Result: Necessity for our Present Eastern Policy.

Reasons: 1. The military results of the fighting of this year in the Eastern area is the fact that the fighting power of the Bolshevist army has not been broken yet. One must count on a prolonged duration of the war.

2. The size of the occupied territory results in a noticeable lack of security troops as well as fighting troops. The necessity of the military commitment of the Slav becomes apparent more and more, whether it be for the combatting of partisans and in the police service, or whether it is for use at the front even as will be necessitated by future developments.

3. The war economic importance of the Occupied Eastern Territories increases with the duration of the war. The last inhabitant of the country, able to work, must be utilized in agriculture or in war economic factories. His existence must be assured. Losses of a large number mean damage for the front which cannot be repaired.

4. As in all great wars of all times, one must also reckon with military reverses in the East. In retaining our present Eastern policy, we stand before the danger that one day the dissatisfaction of the population will find an outlet in a general uprising, whereby the supply for the front would be endangered most seriously.

5. It is the opinion of all military commanders as well as of the leaders of the civil administrative areas, to whom the reporter was able to talk, that the present Eastern policy must undergo a fundamental change in its basic points.

The following are the most important problems:

I. The Food Problem

The food rations granted to the Russian rural population do not constitute the assurance of their existence, but only a vegetating for a limited duration. One can never expect the necessary cooperation for the Armed Forces from a population who does not know whether it will still be alive tomorrow, who thus must expect death by starvation and who lived in the Bolshevist period—with the exception of the year 1933, with its bad harvest—better than today. The military dangers described at the beginning increase with the deterioration of the food basis; the tendency to support the partisans increases; the desire to experience again the former Bolshevist conditions comes to the foreground even in those who refute the system ideologically.

The rations allotted at present, which in practice are for the most part not issued complete, are as follows:

(Appendix A 3a)

City and Country: The following food situation prevails: The rural populations, although it has to hand over more today than in Bolshevist times, still goes rarely hungry. No matter whether it was in the time of the Mongol rule, or in Tsarist or Bolshevist times, they were always exploited, and they know methods of secreting food items, which guarantee them food despite of all controls. Today they are even able to deliver at least the most necessary things to the urban population through the black market. The German administration will never be able to develop a system which will enable a 100% seizure of products on Russian territory. The territory is too large for this, and the number of the appointed agricultural leaders is too small.

However, should one of the periodical bad harvests occur in Southern Russia within the next years, as last in the year 1933, then the present lack of reserves would result in a catastrophe in the Eastern territory, the effects of which would be unpredictable for the food situation in the rest of Europe.

The food question in the Eastern territory today is an urban problem. As already explained in the beginning, we must free ourselves completely from the attitude which we maintained at the time, that there were too many people in the territory, and that their extermination would mean a blessing to Germans! The German Armed Forces in the East live on the work performance of the cities there. Complaints about the lack of workers after the execution of the Sauckel action are common.

If we continue to maintain our present attitude, it will be the combat soldier who will pay with his blood for this mistake.

Generally there is no famine yet in the cities at present. The reporter was even able to establish in a city like Kharkov, which had been embattled to the finish, that the food situation is better than in the past year. This condition can be traced back to the fact that the urban population, which for the most part has been living in cities of industrial areas for only one or two generations, has relatives in the country by whom it is supplied with food items in exchange for consumer goods.

Nutrition—Nomadic Movement—Utilization of Labor.

He who flies over or rides through the occupied Eastern area today will notice crowds of people moving along the roads; there are hundreds of thousands of them, and according to the estimate of experts, their number often may reach a million. These crowds are on the move, either to look for food, or vice versa, to bring food to the cities in order to sell it.

The exchange of food items/consumer goods, which thereby is reached between city and country, is vital in the cities in view of the food supply which is insufficiently controlled by the German administration. Suggestions to suppress this self-support of the urban population radically are unbearable, because this would result in starvation of the urban population, causing decreased work performance and finally a revolutionary attitude.

Loss of Working Power

On the other hand, however, a tremendous amount of valuable working power is being lost for a certain time to the utilization of labor through the nomadic movement.

The conclusion therefore is: First securing of livelihood for the important war economically urban population and their relatives, and only then suppression of this self-support. But not vice versa.

Because of reasons of the utilization of labor therefore, all preparatory measures must be taken without delay in order to guarantee sufficient supplies for the urban population of the occupied Eastern territory which is important to the war economy.

The Family Problem

This must also include members of the family, because the male Slav worker like the female Slav worker will starve or practically give up the food to which they are entitled or even the cooked food which is being furnished in the factory mess halls, in order to save their children, parents, or other relatives from starvation.

The claim, that there are not sufficient food items on hand for this subsistence is countered by the fact that by way of the nomadic movement into the rural areas and the black market in the cities, food is supplied which until now has prevented specific signs of starvation on a larger scale.

The Occupied Eastern Area no Surplus Territory.

Despite this the realization that contrary to propagandistic claims the Ukraine as well as the areas of the Caucasus and the remaining Eastern area are not yet surplus areas at present, from which Germany and the rest of Europe could already be fed tomorrow. The truth is that the additional subsistence of Western Europe today can only result in the risk that the Eastern territory will become refractory tomorrow as a result of its present delivery quota, which has been increased considerably in comparison to the Bolshevist period and that simultaneously part of the urban population, which is indispensable for the war economic tasks will approach a slow ebbing of strength, if not even death of starvation.

Ukraine Industrial Area without Agricultural Surplus

The large number of publications, which are being distributed at present in Germany about the Eastern territory, are copies of obsolete or uncontrolled figures from Tsarist or Bolshevist times, which lack any knowledge of fact. As every expert will have to realize, the truth in the Ukraine is that a situation has been created by the Bolshevist industrialization and by the accumulation of giant urban populations in the Don- and Donetz areas, which consumed the agricultural surpluses, which were at hand during the Tsarist period for the overwhelming part in their own territory.

Exchange Trade A Regulator

A part of the food of the cities is being procured through the black market, which for the most part is barter trade. First of all it is a regulating factor. In the Bolshevist era the urban population was better supplied with consumer goods because of relatively higher wages at the expense of the Sochos- and Kolchos peasants. Today these consumer goods are wandering to the country as barter goods for food.

Dangers of the Black Market Prohibition.

The black market has been completely outlawed in individual area as in the Army Area North [XVIII.AOK], in Pleskau and, as the commander of Army Area Don has informed the reporter, in Transnistria, which had been ceded by Rumania.

All these prohibitions had a completely negative result. The goods disappeared from the markets, trading was continued in uncontrollable backyards, and the urban population lacked the most important food items. With a readmission of the markets, these dangerous symptoms vanished.

Black Market Prices

Following are some examples of black market prices in the occupied Eastern territories:

In Areas of the Caucasus
1 Egg RM 1.—
1 lb. Butter RM 15.— - 20.—
1 ltr milk RM 2.60 - 3.40
100 gr. tea RM 20.— - 40.—
1 apple RM 1.—
1 chicken RM 9.— - 10.—
1 lb. meat RM 5.—
1 winter overcoat RM 600.—
1 pr. shoes RM 200.— - 300.—
In the city of Kharkov:
1 ltr milk RM 3.— - 4.—
1 kg tea RM 1000.—
1 piece wartime soap RM 7.— - 8.—
1 ltr Vodka RM 70.—
1 cigarette RM -.30
1 pr shoes RM 400.— - 500.—

In regard to all these prices, however, it must not be forgotten that the majority of the scales being executed by means of barter.

The Armed Forces And Increases in Prices

Besides the lack of consumer goods, the German soldier is also responsible for the outrageous prices, because by uncontrollable means he is obtaining funds from home besides his pay, which in army of a million men add up to an imposing sum. Every expert of the conditions knows that the doughboy will today pay any price, because the additional food items are more import to him than money. The suggestion, made to the reporter by various economic inspectorates, that the soldier in future should receive no Reichskreditkassenscheine, but shall receive a type of substitute money for purchasing in post exchange [Marketendereien], can only then be carried out, if the post exchanges can offer to the soldier additional food items, which he would otherwise obtain in the black market.

The opportunity for the combat soldier to acquire additional food items or to purchase them for the homefront must not be hampered, it must not be forgotten, that this combat soldier decides the war.

The Combat Soldiers as the Bearer of Useful Barter.

It is therefore regrettable, that town commanders often punish the soldier severely, who exchanges tobacco goods or minor items of consumer goods which he receives from home, for food items with the local population. It has to be considered that the consumer goods in question are in most cases rubbish of the German household, items which can be foregone by the homefront, but which such as needles, twine, pocket knives, nails, combs, etc., are necessary in the eastern territory and bring good will. The combat soldier, who carried out this barter, procures additional food for the front and/or to the homefront, and at the same time supplies to the East the most necessary consumer goods, which cannot be supplied in general today by German authorities.

For these reasons, the market activity in Russian towns must be retained despite all mentioned disadvantages.

Price Ceiling in the Black Market.

In order not to let the prices rise beyond all limits it is recommended to have a certain control, a price ceiling which equals the present average price; however an experiment which was executed in various towns, is not recommended for imitation, whereby merchandise which was not sold on the market by evening, is confiscated and sold at the local average price.

Establishment of a Central Food Administration.

Despite all this, market dealing can not be a solution. The food supply must be assured by the German administration. Two ways constitute the solution.

1. Further expansion of the factory kitchens

2. Mass introduction of community kitchens.

This system was built up during the Bolshevist period in a form, which an unbiased reporter must describe as exemplary. For instance, there was in the town of Simferropol, in the Crimea, during the Bolshevist period a food trust which supplied 23 mess halls and 15 factory kitchens, by which 50,000 of the town's 140,000 inhabitants were fed. Breakfast, lunch and supper were served and could be eaten right there and then, or were taken home. The appearance of the population and its physical condition at the time of conquest of the territory proved that the food was sufficient. A system of feeding to the population was carried out here, which is also going into effect in Germany in numerous labor camps, and factory canteens, etc., but in its present stage does not yet approach the Bolshevist system.

The Example Simferopol

A Kriegsveraltungsrat, who came from the Arbeitsfront took over these institutions in the town of Simferopol to a certain extent and operated them according to the necessities and conditions of the present. This organization appears to be so successful that its general introduction into the towns of the occupied East must be thought over in manner and extent.

At first, this system is marked that only a single German administrative official can be in charge of the entire system without any further German help.

A Main Food Administration was established for the whole Crimea. The native town administrations supplied the collaborators of this organization, which, in Simferopol alone, runs today 12 mess halls and 49 factory kitchens, in which you can eat lunch or take it to your home. Those working for the German Armed Forces and also some of their relatives, a total of approximately 30,000 persons of the 70,000 inhabitants of the town, are fed. There is mostly soup, vegetables, sometimes fish and meat from deceased animals.

However the distribution of the allocated bread coupons frequently runs up against difficulties, since the bread supply is especially difficult in the Crimea. On the other hand an information service of the Food Administration itself is excellently organized; it consists of native residents, who immediately report, if spoiled, but still edible food from army stores, in the case of small truck farm vegetables etc. can be procured. Furthermore each deceased horse or cow within the territory of the town or its vicinity is reported immediately and examined for suitability.

A special control section of the Food Administration inspects the mess halls, doctors make spot checks of the quality of the food offered. In this case also, native help is used. Further sections of the Main Food Administration are the mill sections, which is in charge of the processing of grain. The section for the issuing of bread and food coupons, the bread baking and trading section etc. A procurement section which has to secure the release coupons from the competent German authorities and must look further for food, and call for it with its own vehicles, is in charge of the procurement of merchandise. All big consumers, such as hospitals, schools etc., have to submit monthly reports of supply requirements. Procurement takes place according to a common plan, so that the German agricultural leadership is not hampered by numerous individual requests.

This example must be imitated in its magnitude. In the field of food, the organizing capabilities of the Eastern population must be used, thus relieving simultaneously the German administrative apparatus.

The example Simferopol proves that we have to use the Slav in the huge Eastern territories for the organization of food, since he is always in the position to discover possibilities of procurement which we cannot do because of insufficient help. Self administration, which goes as far as possible, in the field of food for the urban population is necessary.

No Schematic All-inclusive Ruling of Fundamental Directives.

On account of the gigantic delivery quota of corn, meat, poultry, eggs, oil, to the German Reich, it is obviously not possible in the near future to guarantee to the urban population in the East a 100% supply of food. In addition, as already explained, there is still a great deal of food in the hands of the farmers and of some urban residents which is beyond our control. Thus schematic ruling would therefore lead to the result that the Russian towns would receive food which could be spared in an emergency at the expense of the German and/or the Western European territories. Thus the final conclusion can only be this that at the moment, a general systematic ruling which guarantees the minimum subsistence level of the entire population cannot be carried out in the occupied Eastern territories. On the other hand, the responsible leaders of the occupied territories must immediately receive the authority through directives from competent authority, that they can take immediate measures there, where serious dangers arise in the food situation of those natives employed in the war economy with freedom of decision and responsibility to exceed the presently authorized rations, which secure the minimum subsistence level and prevent the described dangers (loss of Man Power, Anti-German, and Pro-Bolshevist attitude). This system, which gives to the responsible administrative employee freedom of action and which has primarily been developed and tried by the English administration, based on hundred years of experience must be introduced more and more in the German work in the Eastern area. Basic decisions from central authorities, which can be of unforeseen consequence, should only be decided upon then, if the measures have proved themselves by experiments in a partial sector of the area.

II. The Position Agricultural

The food political situation which may become important during the coming year, even for the Reich and the whole of Europe, is opposite to the demand to procure sufficient food for people working in town in essential industry.

The following spot checks of the various Eastern territories give an approximate picture of the situation:

Caucasus

Economic Inspectorates established generally a surplus of farm products for the Reich can not be expected from the Caucasian area. At best, some cattle, sunflower seeds, wool and cowhides could be delivered.

As far as grain is concerned, it must be expected that there will not be enough in many cases for the supply of the local population until the next harvest. For example, details from the District Voroschilovsk (Stavropol): the territory covers approximately 540,000 hectars, 60,000 hectars of which are steppe.

The total area, growing wheat was 70,000 hectars, 10,000 hectars of which were destroyed by the Bolshevists. Of the total area growing oats, approximately 50% of 8000 hectars are destroyed and full of weeds. Of 17,000 hectars of barley, 4,000 hectars are destroyed. 8,000 hectar of meadow could not be mowed. The total cultivated area amounts to only 50-60% to that of 1940. Reason: lack of fuel and labor.

In the District Patigorsk, the conditions are still less favorable.

The example of the development of the Sovchos Semlianskaia near Voroschilovsk is also informative. According to this, there were the following during the Bolshevist time at this Sovchos:

104 horses presently 41
104 cows presently 60
32,000 sheep presently 8,899

5,561 double hundredweights of barley and fodder are required to keep the present livestock, 650 double hundredweights are available. Reason: 180 hectars of 750 hectars of wheat were destroyed by the Bolshevists. 360 of 475 hectars of barley are lost, since it could not be cut in time because of lack of gasoline, tractors, scythes, and man power; 20 hectars of oats are completely lost. 5 of 18 tractors are still on hand. 5,000 of the 8,899 sheep mentioned above must be surrendered to the Armed Forces in the near future.

Crimea

The result of the harvest is 191,969 tons of grain. 109,620 tons are needed for seed grain, 55,739 tons for fodder and 129,503 for food. Accordingly, there is a deficit 81,126 tons of grain in the Crimea. Added to this is a poor harvest of potatoes.

Territory Kharkov

In the territory of Kharkov (Army B) the delivery of cattle to the front has been so large, that only young cattle is still on hand. Thousands of hectars of the best soil could not be cultivated because there were no draft animals.

Ukraine

The total result of the harvest is worse than last year. In detail, the delivery quota calls for: 600 ltr. milk from each dairy cow at a price of 7 Pfg. per liter (during the Bolshevist period it was 90 ltr. at price of 15 Kopeken). Every liter delivered voluntarily exceeding this was paid with 3 Rbl. Because of the high delivery quota of more than 3 million tons of grain from the whole Ukraine it looks as follows in some of the districts of the country.

Rural District Wynica: The harvest gave winter wheat:

82 982 double hundredweights
———
55 900 double hundredweights must be surrendered
25 906 double hundredweights are required for feed grain.

This leaves 11,176 double hundredweights for feeding the population, which are by no means sufficient.

In the General Commissariat Shitomir about 28% of the livestock has to be consigned. Normally it would be 18%.

General Commissariat Dniepropetrovsk.

The presumed consignment of grain amounts to a total of 490,000 tons of the total crop of 820,000 tons. Thereby the population receives only 65 kg. per capita of which 30 kg. already were distributed.

26% of the total arable land is used for winter grains. Of that, 30% are good, 30% are spotted, and 40% did not come up at all.

The difficulties of cultivation are very great because of the shortage of tractors, fuel, and labor. Thus for 100 hectars 23-25 laborers are regularly required, but today only 13-14 are available. There are only 4-6 horses to 100 hectars. But the cow teams requires a greater number of laborers.

The consignment of live stock amounts to 50% of the stock. There are numerous cases where the farmer has to deliver his dairy cow, his only real property from the Bolshevik period.

III. The Agrarian Reform

The agrarian reform up to now has been carried out in a different manner in the various occupied territories. While the "Kalchos" were divided and the land given to the farmers for cultivation in the north and the center, not much was changed in the Bolshevistic conditions as such in the South, especially the Ukraine. The creation of agricultural cooperatives up to volume of 10% of the total agricultural area can not be considered as a basic change of the system.

It must be admitted that in the south with its strongly industrialized giant estates a slower pace is advisable in the division of the estate. The danger of a decrease in production in cases of a quick division would be present.

Conception of the Cossacks-Atamane.

In addition, another fact has to be taken into consideration, which is that old "Atamanen" have found in the Cossack areas for instance that only old Cossacks were capable of managing an individual farm. The young generation is partially so used to industrial agriculture that before all a certain re-education is necessary.

Also in carrying out of the new agricultural reform a general solution, as already mentioned, must not be striven for from the beginning; rather the return to individual farming must be carried out with consideration of economic and political points of view resulting from the particular situation in a particular region of the tremendous Eastern Area.

Special Arrangements in the Agrarian Reform.

The efficient German administrative expert must have the possibility of experimentation and his successes and his failures must become the basis for final decision of the central office.

The discussion, which the reporter was able to have with the specialists concerned in the entire eastern areas, resulted in the following proposed solution:

The Russian farmer is without exception land hungry and an opponent of the "Kalchos system." He desires private property of land, even though of limited extent. In contrast to the worker and intellectual he is the most honest opponent of the Bolshevik system. If tomorrow he is denied his property, then we shall lose the east economic and political power with which we could build up the Eastern Area.

Land Distribution According to Merit.

The demand to immediately allot to all farmers, land as private property, is in spite of these political points of view, of course unfeasible for the present.

First of all those farmers respectively their families, who themselves or whose sons have earned special merit in war economy in the fight against partisans, or today or tomorrow at the front, must receive self-sufficient individual farms.

Although later the distribution of land must be carried out in a generous manner without the qualifying clauses used today.

The greatest part of the agricultural region in the East must, because of the political reasons mentioned, as time goes on, become the property of farmer families in order to create a stratum of satisfied farmers as sure counter-weight against possible revolutionary ambitions of labor and intelligentsia in this manner.

State Farms and Farmer's Land

Besides these farmers' lands, a great number of state farms should be created by the taking over of the Sovchosen and/or the creation of new estates whose production would have to deliver the excess of agricultural products necessary for Europe.

IV. The Slav as Worker

Necessity of Realistic Policy

As initially pictured, every member of the rural population less means a weakening of the labor power as well as fighting power of the Reich. All occurrences of the recent past prove that there is no room for ideologies at this time. Where this demand is not heeded because of ideological reasons, for the sake of future problems, where the law of the best utilization of man-power is violated, the objection of the soldiers as well as that of responsible civil servants arises with justification. Thus we hear again and again from leading Germans in the East, the regret expressed that we learn too little from the English, who—under the cover of long term policy—act on the basis of the needs of the hour, while we antagonize people in the East and cause the greatest difficulties in reconstruction only in order to proclaim distant aims, whose accomplishment is in no way certain, but which come about on its own accord after a victory.

He who just like the reporter, has gone through English schooling and knows the English manner of treating foreign peoples, can only confirm that the greatest mistake of our entire Eastern policy is to be found in this field. First of all we have to win the war. Having won it, we can shape the area as we see fit. Every proclamation of an aim that repulses those who are of the most use for us in the Eastern area today, which makes them resent the German leadership, is, from a soldier's point of view, a mistake which has to be continually rectified by the commitment of German blood.

Thus the Project Sauckel as earned out in the Eastern area has caused unrest and dissatisfaction which is the equivalent of a lost battle, though without doubt it was the final means to cover the requirements for workers of the German economy.

Dangerous Excesses.

But the executing agencies have committed errors which should have been avoided: De-lousing of Russian girls by men, taking of nude photographs in forced positions, locking female doctors in cars in order to make them available to the transport leaders, transporting of shackled girls in shirts through Russian localities to the railroad, etc.... (The complete material has been channeled through the proper army regions to the OKH.)

Important Imponderables.

It is of course correct to consider these things without sentimentality. In spite of that the results of such errors must not be overlooked. Before everything, the treatment of the Eastern workers in the Reich is decisive. According to all previous reports the results in household and in agriculture are good; in industry bad. The fact that male and female workers housed in camps have no leave, that exercise of religion etc., in contrast to conditions in the Russian territories, is prohibited, leads the population of the occupied Eastern territories to the conclusion that the Slav is treated and utilized as a slave. The result is that when today a commission for the hiring of labor for the Reich appears in a region, everybody, as far as possible, flees into the woods.

Our propaganda, which attempts to influence the East by an expenditure of millions of Marks and irreplaceable paper, and also by the employment of valuable manpower, which is lost to the Armed Forces, must evaporate into thin air under these circumstances.

Attitude of the Eastern Peoples Important.

The Slav will formulate his opinion and attitude on the basis of his experiences in the Reich. Here comes the decision, whether millions of Slavs will reconstruct under German domination and leadership willingly or whether they, filled with hate, will seek every opportunity to destroy this domination, since their conditions make a worthwhile existence impossible.

The attitude, still present today occasionally in some places, to treat the Slav as a slave, whereby beatings are the best means of education, must be corrected by immediate orientation, and that the maltreatment concerned must be stopped at once by the severest threat of punishment.

Despite all terror during the Bolshevist period, the social aid measures for the Russian worker and his family were considerably better than is assumed in Germany—as has been proven in the meantime by unbiased investigations. In addition a purposeful meaning of his work in the realm of the community is given to him by unrelenting and refined propaganda. One must have much understanding for this, and it is by no means easy to win this people for us. Whoever represents the opinion that the attitude of this people is unimportant, sins against the German armed power in the face of the war economic and also future military indespensability of the Eastern peoples and calls for the danger that most valuable, forever irreplaceable German blood must be sacrificed in addition.

Methods of the Utilization of Labor.

The utilization of labor of the Slavic workers can be carried out best in similarity to the Bolshevist example, as various experiments which the reporter could observe, prove.

The Successes in Dniepropetrovsk.

Model successes have been achieved by Commissioner General Selzner in Dniepropetrovsk. The Russian worker, who practically has been primarily an armament worker for years, works according to the group piecework system. Not the individual performance, but that of the group was decisive. This system, the advantages of which are apparent, must be retained and introduced generally. Furthermore, the punitive system for contract violators or workers who violate the work discipline is ideal. At first, a reprimand is given or a monetary fine imposed. In case of repeated violations, additional duty [Dienstverpflichtung] with exact orientation about further punitive measures is another disciplinary procedure.

Educational Work Camps.

The severest punishment is confinement in a educational work camp. The maximum length of punishment here is 6 months. Such camps are in all District Commissariats, sometimes installed as mobile camps and made available to the Organization TODT. In the camps, all beatings and all corporal punishment are forbidden altogether, out of principle.

Coordination of Utilization of Labor and Food.

The work is carried out in groups, as in the group piecework. In case of full work performance, the convicts receive Armed Forces rations, diluted three times. If the group of ten men produce in their work performance only 50% of the quota, their food is diluted six times, and they receive 50% less bread. The results are marvelous. The amount of punishment decreases constantly, work performance increases, the morale of the workers is good, considering the circumstances.

Bonus System.

The Bonus system proves itself in case of the Eastern workers, industrial workers as well as farmers. Thus in the District Dniepropetrovsk, especially good results were achieved in the delivery of sunflowers, when 1 kg oil was made available to the farmer for every 100 kg of seeds delivered.

An especially attractive bonus is the distribution of tobacco. In several districts, the tobacco, allocated to certain armament and/or war economic plants, is distributed equally up to 90% to the workers, whereas the remaining 10% * * *

V. Salary, Money, Market—Price Problem

The salaries which are being paid at the present time in the Eastern area are so low, in comparison to the general market prices, that they are of absolutely no value: Actually, in the entire section, there exists no salary problem at all, but merely a food problem. It is impossible to raise the salaries in order to thereby make it possible for the workers to purchase the most essential consumer goods. There is enough money. The reporter experienced repeatedly that for example, porters, unskilled laborers, etc., were in possession of such amounts of money as no German General possessed. A raise of salaries would only constitute a swelling of the circulation of a medium of exchange and a further price increase.

Comparison with the Japanese Experience in China.

In the entire Eastern Area, prices are being paid today for food and consumer goods which are actually inflationary. The reporter, who before the war, in 1939 had the assignment to conduct the same investigations on the Chinese-Japanese battle front, today in the Eastern area can only determine that the German administration is repeating the same mistakes which Japan had previously exercised in the occupied Chinese territory.

Combining the Reichs-kreditmark with the Ruble.

The greatest financial mistake which we could have made was to combine the Reichsmark, respectively the Reichskreditmark with the Ruble, similarly as Japan had done with its leveling, in connection with the Chinese dollar, until after severe set-back, it was at last recognized that this had been the greatest mistake which could have been made at all by the Japanese financial policy.

The Reichskreditmark, which, not only in the Eastern, but also in other occupied territories, is the medium of exchange which the combat soldier accepts as standard salary, is today actually of inflationary value. Her fate depends on the Ruble, which is entirely beyond our control. Today there is no German office which could determine in which amounts the Ruble is circulating, which amounts, thru robbing of the inhabitants, have come into additional circulation at the Finance Offices and which amounts are brought in by the Bolshevists through the Front, into the occupied territory.

We therefore made the same mistake with the same repercussion. Just as Japan, after several years of the Chinese-Japanese war, decided to withdraw from the former use of enemy currency, we too shall have to take that step. The quicker this happens, the better it will be.

The Karbovanetz Experiment.

The introduction of the Karbovanetz in the Ukraine, put through as an attempted solution, must be recognized as such, although it, as local experts of the Reichscommissariat themselves confirm, was a useless attempt. It is so because a partial solution is senseless in the huge Eastern Area and the Karbovanetz is meaningless as long as the other immense territories retain the Ruble.

The attempt was also doomed to failure because currency problems can only be solved together with the consumer goods problem. One can determine and control mediums of exchange; nothing is changed in the price fixing, as long as not even a half way satisfactory consumers goods offer opposes the continuous flow of mediums of exchange to the working country—and city inhabitants.

The currency political experiment, taken as a whole, must therefore be considered as a failure in the Ukraine. It has only brought unrest to the people. Above all, the fact that large banknotes are not redeemable in Karbovanetz, has resulted in the transport of money into the other sections, where the notes are changed into small coins.

Central Solution of Currency Problem.

This case proves particularly well that such efforts towards solution should be conducted only centrally, never locally. This example is further proof that, as all the General officers of the Army sector and Army groups had informed the reporter the greatest danger in the Eastern area was the lack of a central leadership in the Civilian Administration.

VI. Care of the sick—Self Aid Service

With a view to the aim, that is to say, the maintenance of the able-bodied person, the most important beside the sustenance, is the care of the sick and the safeguarding of those people who through lengthy illness have become unfit for work.

In some Army sectors, in the meanwhile, precautions for the care of the sick have been taken, and it is true, not only in the interest of the country inhabitants working for the German Armed Forces, but above all, in recognition of the Russian Psyche, for their families as well. The measures, carried out in this sense in the various Army sectors, must be taken over in general.

The lack of medicinal items, in the entire Eastern Area, is particularly catastrophic. The number of hospitals, doctors and medical personnel is fairly adequate, despite the abductions during the retreat of the Bolshevists. In order to uphold the standard of the people, for the purpose of war economic and military utilization, you must however work primarily for the accumulation of medicines for the entire Eastern territory.

Exemplary Solution in the Northern and Central Army Sector

Of particular importance is the so-called Self Aid Service, which represents a special measure of the first order for the entire Russian area and which expects to lift the social calibre of the peasantry in the Northern and Central Army Sector. It is necessary to spread this organization to all other occupied territories.

As the reporter was able to determine, on the basis of intensive investigations, particularly in this field, measures were taken during the Bolshevistic period, which on the average, correspond to the German conditions. The partially carried out and proposed emergency measures for further accomplishments correspond of course in no way to the former Bolshevistic and other accomplishments as customary in Germany today. They have in fact the exclusive aim to keep the most important portions of the Eastern Nations alive and capable of working for the German Armed Forces and the sustenance of the German people.

VII. The School System

The viewpoint represented up to now by numerous German offices in the Eastern area, that the Slavic person should be kept in a condition which could not be primitive enough, cannot practically be carried out. All Military posts, all Civilian Administrative offices, with which the reporter spoke on this problem took the viewpoint that the front, like the German war economy, was in need of a worker's replacement, which could not be supplied by 3rd or 4th grade primary schools.

No Breeding of Superfluous Intelligentsia.

Without exception, the viewpoint is taken, of course, that it would be wrong to heed a Russian intelligentsia, which without possibility of commitment, dissatisfied and without work, tomorrow would have to become the bearer of National, Revolutionary and Panslavic ideas. It is here important to keep a proper plan in mind. To point here to India, to England's faulty policy, is premature. The reporter had the opportunity to study the English colonial policy in India. It is true that the English, out of consideration for later working possibilities, make it possible for every Hindu to study at any desired school or college. In this manner, a Hindu proletarian intelligentsia was created. However—on the other side of every propaganda—one must admit today that, as the result of this English policy, today, in the darkest home of the Empire, one cannot speak of serious uprisings in India and that the Indian economy is working one hundred percent for the British war.

The British Experiences.

It is, however, not decisive as was sometimes believed, if a young native inhabitant in a subordinate section has a college education or is illiterate, but decisive is the fact whether this person is satisfied with the extensive utilization of labor and thereby actually is the best collaborator of the ruling people, or if he, regardless of what educational class he belongs to, dreams only of the downfall of this ruling class. The fact that England, as the third people after the Greek and Roman Empire has succeeded on the basis of a century-long experience of her colonial statesmen to gain supporters for herself among the best of the conquered peoples is the basis of the rule of the British Isle.

The German Language in the East.

If we are prohibiting today the learning of the German language in the occupied Eastern territories, then this is considered only a sign of weakness, not that of strength. Military detachments told the reporter that they were in many instances asked by the natives why their children were not allowed to study the German language. The Russians concluded from this that the Germans intended to leave the Eastern territory in the shortest possible period of time. Throughout the existence of world history, the conquered have learned the languages of the ruling peoples. This law of nature cannot be changed.

Today it is actually so, that—contrary to the order of the Ministry for the East-German is being learned and taught everywhere. Especially exemplary is the settlement at Selzner in the General Commissariat Dniepropetrovsk, where in the professional schools all professional and technical expressions are taught to the apprentices right away in the German language.

Replacement [Nachwuchs] of Specialists.

Aside from the general school education the question of specialist training for industrial use plays the decisive part at present. Here also the way and manner is exemplary in which the solution is being executed in the General Commissariat Dniepropetrovsk with an inclination toward Bolshevist examples.

This concerns handicraft schools with attached retraining shops, which are connected with practical work in the factory.

The youths between the ages of 14-16 years, who have left school, attend a training course in industrial preparatory school, which lasts two months, after having taken a capability examination with the employment office. Then follows practical work in a factory; duration 6 month. This is followed by another training course of 2 month. After every attendance of a semester the youth advances into the next higher wage class. Altogether 12-16 months of training are given.

The system turns out useful specialists within the shortest period of time, even though they are not painstaking craftsmen. The continuation of this method is to be urgently recommended in view of the mobilization of labor, and if possible it should be executed by a central order for the remaining occupied Eastern territories.

In Dniepropetrovsk itself especially good participants of the training courses are finally taken over after the Germans example into an apprenticeship of three years' length, where their final training takes place under German supervision.

Retraining in Critical Professions.

With the same system the unskilled workers who were left behind by the Bolshevists are being retrained in the critical professions: metal craftsmen, construction craftsmen, carpenters, and stone cutters. Further schools for car mechanics, tractor drivers, etc., have been established and schools for other professions are being planned.

Medical and Legal Replacement Necessary.

Besides this special training for industrial use a thorough training of the young generation also in the medical, veterinary, and legal fields is necessary. Because we need the Slav as a peasant and worker and tomorrow as a fighting soldier, in order to maintain ourselves against the whole world, it is necessary that especially in the medical field the required education for the maintenance of the population, whose life and work is necessary for our front. The impetus is the greater, because already today the time has arrived, when Ukrainian and/or Russian doctors are working in the Reich itself as assistant doctors in German hospitals because of the lack of doctors and thereby represent to the leading doctors a more valuable help than the inexperienced young German generation.

The Rising Generation of Farmers.

Just as important is the rising generation of farmers. In reality, in the East, the Specialist Officers [Sonderfuehrer] who cultivated at home 10 Mozgen, does not manage half a dozen communal farms [Sovchose] and state farms [Kolchose] with a total of a hundred thousand hectars, but the problems of such agricultural installations are mastered by the Bolshevist agronomist subordinate to the former, who has received a preliminary training during the Bolshevist period in order to manage huge industrialized agricultural installations.

Basic Meaning of the School Problem.

However, the question of schools, apart from all practical aspects of the rising generation of workers is urgent for us, also for propagandistic considerations. All efforts of the reporter to determine which apart from the practical social measures of Bolshevism, of the number of Moscow's ideological propaganda slogans has developed actually the strongest public appeal, yield the following unmistakable picture:

The entire population of the Soviet Union, even as far back as the most remote village—despite all terrors—had the conviction that each and every one carries the marshal's baton in his knapsack. Every farmer's son, every worker's child actually had every opportunity for advancement in the countless schools of the Soviets. There was no village in which one or more farmer families could not state proudly that their daughter or their son is an engineer or a doctor or chief agronomist or Commander of the Red Army, etc. There was an unusually broad middle strata of Soviet intelligentsia, whose highest aspiration was the continuation of education, the breaking into the scientific world.

As a sole sample taken at random the Sovchos Semlianskaia near Voreschilovsk is mentioned. The following comprise the administration of this State property; a director with a monthly salary of 1000 Rubles, his deputy 600 Rubles, another agronomist for special assignments with 600 Rubles, two agronomists for sheep with 450 Rubles each, the chief animal agronomist with 850 Rubles, two animal specialists with 450 Rubles each, the veterinary with 750 Rubles, two assistants with 450 Rubles each, the chief shepherd with 350 Rubles, the bookkeeper with 750 Rubles, his deputy with 500 Rubles, three more bookkeepers with 350 Rubles each.

Such a staff of "these of the intelligentsia" [Intelligenzlern] administred 20,000 hectars with 605 workers, including the members of the family.

The crass transition from the Bolshevist propaganda of the "ascent" [Aufstieg] into the intelligentsia to our method of closing all schools is perhaps the very measure which is the most dangerous for our domination in the East.

Theater and Film

In the same connection the theater and film question is important. The incident in Kiev is well known, where, after the presentation of a revue under German stage-direction with nude girls, etc., although subdued but completely unmistakable protest reactions by the native inhabitants were the result. The Russian and the people of the East area influenced by him, still considered the theater as an educational institution. They expect either education or a political tendency in the sense of training. In the serious theater, every activity of amusement appears to them as a sacrilege and consequently our revues and soldier shows as a barbaric action against culture.

It is similar with the motion pictures. After the appearance of the first German entertainment films, for a long time the native public vainly racked its brains over their tendency. All German offices, all interpreters, all native inhabitants who were linguists were overwhelmed with pertinent questions. Apparently the peasants agreed on the solution that all German films, which, as is known, take place in an atmosphere of luxury essentially have a marked tendency to glorify capitalism and its outward forms.

Accordingly, it is vital to exercise the greatest caution and tact in the selection of films for the Eastern area. It is best to exhibit cultural films, which are received with the greatest elucidation.

VIII. The Judicial Problem

Collegiate Courts or Single Judges

In various army areas, as well as in the Reich Commissariat Ukraine, a legal code have been created for the arbitration of civil court disagreements. As for details, the opinions differ. In the Army Area North and in Army Area Center, collegiate courts have been set up. In the Ukraine, the point of view is taken that the single judges are better, because the Slav has the tendency to evade the responsibility. There were endless proceedings in the collegiate court without the possibility of arriving at a clear-cut judgment, but the single judge is forced to pronounce a sentence on his own responsibility. This shortens the proceedings and is more favorable in its consequences.

Trained Jurists

The experience and conclusion that only trained jurists are fit for this judicial office is general and unmistakable. This conclusion is general. It was explained especially clearly in the General Commissariat, Dniepropetrowsk by the highest judge, who is continually traveling in the country and is professionally best equipped to judge the situation. This example also proves that the 3 year elementary school [Grundschule] in the Eastern area is unfeasible.

In the necessary clarification of the legal code the inheritance law (testaments) and marital law in particular are very urgent.

IX. Unified Leadership.

The complaint of all military offices as well as numerous civil administration offices is that today the Ministry for the East is not uniformly decisive in the Eastern area, but that a half dozen other offices act independently. In the appendix a chart of the structure of Army Group A is included which shows how many and what offices work on their own responsibility, outside of the proper military administration in its sphere.

Of course, this independence of individual offices gives them an extraordinary striking power, but in the long run this division of authority cannot be kept up. Even if the mentioned offices retain their general independence in the future, it must by all means, be achieved that the commander of the army areas are given the authority to delegate to all these offices the tasks designated for the individual commitments after previous consultation. Every military and civil leader with final responsibility in the Eastern area is weakened in his authority and thus also in view to the achieving of his aims by the fact that there are today, a half dozen officers which act independently in his sphere without having to subordinate their own interests to the overall interest of the particular sector. This division of jurisdiction is the same over-bureaucratization which we justly criticize in our enemies and which the Fuehrer has often enough branded as the cause of the weakening of our effort.

It will have to come that the highest leadership issues directives which are decisive for the civil as well as military administrative districts, whereby a basic law, according to an English model, has to be considered always: first of all experiments are made, and only then, after examination of the experiences, will the final decisive orders be given by the central office. This knowledge of leadership from century old experience, as possessed by the British Empire must finally be taken over by the proper central administrative authorities in Berlin.

X. Administrative Experiment Areas.

The Army Area, respectively Army Group A (Caucasus) have organized experimental areas of the administrative type, and namely one in the territory of the Cuban-Cossacks around Unmanskaia, which includes six regions with a population of about 150,000 each, the other one in the area of the Karatschaier.

The two closed settlement groups of the Karatschaier are led by a committee of the eldest, each consisting of 8 of the noblest persons of the tribe, who are directly subordinated to the local commander in an advisory capacity.

The cooperative [Kolchos] land is divided up, and given to the farmers as their property. The old farmland from the Bolshevist period is tax-free, taxes are levied for the new.

In the experimental area of the Cuban-Cossacks, the role of the local commander is changed. Six regions are concentrated under one field commandant. The District Ataman is subordinated to the field commandant in an advisory capacity.

Furthermore, a special economic liaison staff has been created which is directly subordinated to the economic inspectorate Caucasus. The county Agricultural Supervisor [Kreislandwirt] must turn to him. The regional agronomist is also subordinate directly to the liaison staff.

The attempts to carry out a certain amount of self administration deserve the highest attention in the framework of the reconstruction policy in the East. We must learn from experiments. Whatever proves itself here must be exercised again tomorrow in the best suited areas, perhaps in the Ukraine, then again in parts of districts.

XI. Realist-Political Leadership of the Peoples in the Eastern Area.

An ideological goal must be given to the peoples of the Eastern area, where already today and tomorrow even more the last inhabitant is used for essential agricultural or war economic task, above that where his use in military combat, whether it is against partisan or directly on the front has already begun. As long as no such goal is in front of the eyes of the Slav, we must expect that all forces, organized in the meantime, will turn against the German leadership in case of a military reverse, with which a far sighted policy always must count upon.

Never in world history was there such a condition, whereby a large people respectively several large peoples gave their entire working power and their blood in military commitments without knowing what results they can achieve by this for themselves, their children and their children's children. The fact that we do not recognize this thesis of experience of history will cost us tomorrow the blood of hundreds of thousands of German soldiers. There is no General of the German Armed Forces today who has any understanding that we believe to be able to dominate the Slavs without consideration of this fact.

Self Administration

This impression of the Eastern peoples that their work and military utilization in the German service is meaningful, can only be achieved by giving them self administration in a national-political respect as a goal. Secret slogans can actually never be kept secret, that is known. Today, the conviction is at large all through the Eastern area that Germany has the intention to put the Slav on the same level as the Negro; that the Slav must be biologically exterminated at the first possible moment, that at best he would be all to seek his livelihood beyond the Ural mountains.

This knowledge constitutes the greatest danger for the German leader who wants to organize the Russian area. Already the fact that the marked conviction in the Eastern area is generally known and widespread today, means a weakening of the war economic and soldierly potential of the Slav, such as no partisan propaganda could achieve to such an extent.

Primacy of War Necessities

All of these projects exist beyond any ideological attitude. The military and war economic necessities are the only guides. If we forsake them, then the German soldier at the front will have to pay for our political errors in disposition with his blood.

We must build, by taking only those measures, beyond all ideology, which may be suitable after a victorious peace, which are useful in furthering the working and soldierly commitment of the Slav in our interest and thereby conserve German working power and German blood, and bring German victory closer.

Appendix A Daily Food Rations in the Occupied Eastern Territories. (in grams)

Consumer Class	Bread	Meat	Fat	Prepared Foods	Potatoes
In the Towns of Army Area A (Caucasus)
Normal Consumer	215	--	--	--	--
Worker for the German Armed Forces	345	28.5	10	--	--
Very Heavy Worker for the German Armed Forces	428	43	14.3	--	--
In some villages potatoes and vegetables are missing altogether.
In the Ukraine (without legal claim)
Unemployed	215	14.3	--	--	286
Families of those working for German interests	215	14.3	--	71,5	286
Workers for the German Armed Forces	286	28.6	--	71,5	355
Very Heavy Workers for the German Armed Forces	355	42.8	--	355(?)	355
These rations were issued hardly anywhere until now; especially the first two groups mentioned have not received these rations in most cases.
In the Towns of the Crimea
Workers for the German Armed Forces	300	--	--	71,3	--
Families	200	--	--	--	--
Children under 14	100	--	--	--	--
According to the importance of the factory, 3-5 grams of sunflower oil is distributed daily.
In the Towns of the General Commissariat Dniepropetrovsk
		(oil)
Normal Worker	250	--	6	50	--
Heavy Worker for the German Armed Forces	300	--	6	50	--
Very Heavy Worker for the German Armed Forces	400	--	15	50	--
Miners	700	--	20	100	--
Women and Children	250	--	--	--	--

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1383-PS

Excerpt from Transcription of a Stenographic Report of Discussion of the Current Military Situation—dated 12 December 1942—[Pages 65 and 66.]

Jodl: The Military Commander of France reports: The number of those French workers who were deported into the Reich since 1 June has now passed 220,000. There are, in round figures, 110,000 specialists in Berlin. An agreement has been successfully concluded with the French Government about cession of an oil refinery with a capacity of 1/2 million tons. More than that, the French Government has agreed to furnish other installations if need be.

(Reading)

There is nothing else to report from France. The sending away of the 121st and 304th was good. One already more than 50 trains, the other about 46 trains.

Down there in the Balkans a clean-up campaign is under way in Jajce. Where the opponent has retreated, he is being pushed. Those mountains here are quiet. At * * * across the demarcation line, have thrown back the enemy. Here he has attacked very hard, left 37 dead. People are continuously being arrested in Belgrade. One can say that every day between 15 and 30 Mihailovic followers are being shot.

Up here where the Italians have started to withdraw, the pressure has already become somewhat livelier. Here are concentrations,—here is where once in a while the railways are being destroyed, and also in this area where the pressure of the enemy against this contemplated Italian line is increasing.

Down here another clearing action by the Italians is now in swing.

In Finland everything is quiet, also after these fake attacks day before yesterday.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1384-PS

Conference of the Fuehrer with General Field Marshal Keitel
and General Zeitzler on 8 June 1943 at the Berghof—
Extract from stenographic notes.

[Page 6] The Fuehrer: * * * I can only say: we will never build up a Russian army, that is a phantom of the first order. Before we will do so, it will be much simpler if I get the Russians as workers in Germany; that is much more decisive. I don't need a Russian army which I have to strengthen with German corset stays through and through. It serves my purpose if I get Russian workers instead. Then I can release the Germans and reeducate the Russians. For us the most successful thing lies in the production of the Russian workers who are employed in Germany; of course, we have to feed them in a different way if we thrust a maximum amount of work upon them.

[Page 12] He said: Here, I lose 500,000 Jews. I must take them away, because the Jews are the element of revolt. But in my area, actually, the Jews were the only tradesmen. Now they want to set up high schools and grammar schools, thereby building here, a national Ukrainian state, that should in the future, fight against Russia. I am not even in a position to have the worker, who must work here, have his boots repaired. I can't do that because the tradesmen are no longer here. The Jews are all gone. What is more important, that I train the Ukrainians how to mend boots, or that I send them high schools so that they can build up the Ukrainian state?

[Page 25] Keitel: Now about the employment of people from deserters camps.

Fuehrer: I am of the opinion that they should be transferred to Germany and used there. They are prisoners of war. If I only could transfer 30, 40 or 50,000 men to the commissioner for coal production! But then they will have to be treated really in a decent way.

Zeitzler: I have set as my goal that they should become decent workers in Germany. We can't do much with deserters at the front. I can commit a few of them as volunteers for replacements. But the majority should go to Germany as workers in order to release Germans.

Fuehrer: I can only say: if we do not straighten out our coal affairs, the moment will arrive when I shall not be able to produce either ammunition or explosives anymore, nor will we be able to build submarines. This will happen in 100 other fields too. It is idiotic. But the moment will arrive. It is already tragic when the Italians come and ask us why do we not deliver this or that. I have to deliver it. We cannot, because we haven't got enough coal. That is sloppy, of course.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1386-PS

1936 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, 378
Law concerning the granting of amnesty of 23 April 1936

The Reich government has decided to enact the following law, which is announced hereby.

Par. 1

1. Amnesty is granted for punishable acts which the perpetrator has committed in his eagerness to fight for the National Socialist ideal. Excluded are intentional offences through which death of a human being has resulted; excluded also are acts, the motives and nature of which show base intentions of the perpetrator.

2. Sentences which through the punishable acts described in Par. 1, are recognized to be legal and are not yet carried out when this law goes into effect, will be remitted. Pending prosecution will be put off if the act has been committed before 20 April 1936; new prosecutions will not be established.

Par. 2

Amnesty is also granted for other punishable acts, under the provisions of the following regulations:

1. When this law goes into effect, sentences recognized as valid, but not yet carried out, will be remitted, if they consist of not more than one month imprisonment and/or a fine (the latter may be changed into one month imprisonment). If on account of several separate actions, a total fine is imposed, amnesty is only valid if the fine does not go over the limit described in section 1; when this law goes into effect, the same rule applies when several legal convictions are combined into one.

2. Pending prosecutions for offences, committed before 20 April 1936, will be put off if no higher punishment or combined punishment, of one month and a fine, can be expected. New prosecutions will not be established.

Par. 3

1. In addition to #1 and #2, when this law goes into effect, fines and imprisonment not exceeding 6 months either separately or both together recognized to be valid but not yet carried out, or which are still imposed for acts committed before 20 April 1936, will be remitted conditionally if they apply to:

1. Punishable acts against the law concerning treacherous attacks against the State and Party and for the protection of the party uniforms of 20 Dec. 1934 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, page 1269) with exception of offences against section 3 and section 5, chapter 1—as well as punishable acts against section 134 a and b and section 130 of the penal code.

2. Insults against the Fuehrer and Reichs Chancellor and other leading personalities of the state or the NSDAP, as well as other insults or physical injuries resulting from political arguments (sections 223, 223a of the penal code), and punishable remarks of dissatisfaction according to section 360 No. 11 of the penal code.

2. The same applies to punishable acts against section 330a of the penal code dealing with punishable acts as described in section 1 No. 1 and 2.

3. The fine will be remitted under the condition that the perpetrator does not commit a crime or a deliberate offence for a period of 3 years following the granting of the conditional amnesty.

Par. 4

The Reichsminister of Justice will issue the necessary regulations for the execution of this law.

Par. 5

The law goes into effect on the day following the publication. Berlin 23 April 1936

The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler
The Reich Minister of Justice
Dr. Guertner

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1388-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 479

Law concerning confiscation of Property subversive to People and State of 14 July 1933

The Reich Government has enacted the following law which is hereby promulgated:

The provisions of the Law confiscating Communist Property of 26 May 1933 (RGBl I, 293) are applicable to assets and interests of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and their welfare and affiliated organizations and also to assets and interests which are used or destined to promote Marxist or other activities found by the Reich Minister of the Interior to be subversive to people and state.

Berlin, 14 July 1933
The Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler
The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1388-A-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 479
Law Against the New Establishment of Parties July 14, 1933

The German Government has enacted the following law, which is herewith promulgated:

Art. 1

The National Socialist German Worker's Party [Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei] constitutes the only political party in Germany.

Art. 2

Whoever undertakes to maintain the organizational structure of another political party or to form a new political party will be punished with penal servitude up to three years or with imprisonment of from six months to three years, if the deed is not subject to a greater penalty according to other regulations.

Berlin, den 14 Juli, 1933.
The Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler
The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick
The Reich Minister of Justice
Dr. Guertner

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1389-PS

1935 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 769
Law creating Reich Labor Service of 26 June 1935

The Reich Government has decided to enact the following law which is hereby made public:

Chapter I

Labor Service of the Reich

Article 1

1. The Reich Labor Service is a service of honor for the German people.

2. It is the duty of all young Germans of both sexes to serve their nation within the Reich Labor Service.

3. It is the task of the Reich Labor Service to educate the German youth in the spirit of National Socialism for the community of the nation and the true conception of labor, particularly to inspire them with the necessary respect for manual labor.

4. The purpose of the Reich Labor Service is the execution of work for the common benefit.

Article 2

1. The Reich Labor Service is subordinated to the Reich Ministry of the Interior. The Reich Labor leader rules under its jurisdiction over the Reich Labor Service.

2. The Reich Labor leader is at the head of the Reichsleitung of the Labor Service. He dictates its organization, decides about the mobilization of labor and directs training and education.

Chapter II

The Labor Service Duty of the Male Youth

Article 3

1. The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor determines the number of the eligible recruits for every year and decides about the length of service.

2. The service starts at the minimum completed age of 18 and ends with the maximum completed age of 25.

3. As a rule, the eligible recruits will be called for labor duty in the year of completion of their 19th year.

4. Voluntary admission at an earlier age is possible.

5. Prison terms of more than 30 days will have to be made up for by the recruits and volunteers of the Reich Labor Service, if their offense does not make necessary their dismissal from the Reich Labor Service, according to Article 16.

Article 4

The eligible recruits for labor will be conscripted by the "Ersatzdienststellen of the Reich Labor Service."

Article 5

1. The following are excluded from the Reich Labor Service:

a. ex-convicts,

b. who is not in possession of the civic rights,

c. who comes under the regulations of security and correction according to Article 42a of the penal code,

d. who has been expelled from the National Socialist Party because of dishonorable activities,

e. who has been condemned by the court because of activities against the State.

2. The Reich Minister of the Interior can make exceptions concerning Part 1, letters c and e.

3. Labor Service recruits who have been declared unworthy to occupy public offices can only be called, after the time of the loss of that honor, determined by the verdict, has elapsed.

Article 6

1. Persons who are completely unfit for labor service will not be conscripted for same.

2. Labor Service recruits residing abroad or intending to go abroad can be exempted from the fulfillment of labor service for up to two years, in exceptional cases even permanently, but in any case only as long as they stay abroad.

Article 7

1. Not eligible for labor service are persons of non-aryan descent or who are married to a person of non-aryan descent. The ruling of the Reich Minister of the Interior as in Article 1, part 3 of the Reich Law for Civil Servants, dated 8 August 1933 (RGBl I, 575), determines who is to be considered of non-aryan descent.

2. Non-aryans who have been declared worthy for armed service [wehrwuerdig] according to Article 15, part 2 of the Armed Service Law [Wehrgesetz] can also be accepted for labor service. They cannot occupy superior positions in the labor service, though.

Article 8

Eligible labor recruits can be deferred from labor service for up to 2 years, in the case of vital professional reasons up to 5 years.

Chapter III

The Labor Service Duties of the Female Youth

Article 9

The rules concerning the labor service of the female youth will be a matter of special legislation.

Chapter IV

Duties and Privileges of the Members of the Reich Labor Service

Article 10

1. The following are members of the Reich labor service:

a. The cadre,

b. The conscripted recruits,

c. The labor service volunteers,

2. People can be hired by contract for certain functions of the interior service.

Article 11

1. The cadre consist of the leaders and office holders according to plan (T.O.) as well as the candidates for these offices. The regular leaders and office holders work for the Reich Labor Service on a professional basis.

2. The leader candidate has to sign up for at least ten years of continuous service and must prove his aryan descent, before he can be promoted to a regular leader [Truppfuehrer-sergeant]. He must also have accomplished his military service.

3. Regular leaders and office holders must absolutely resign at a certain age limit.

4. Civil servants of other administrations who are transferred to the Reich Labor Service retain their claim concerning their financial privileges which they acquired prior to their transfer.

5. The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor nominates and dismisses the members of the Reich Labor Service from the rank of major [Arbeitsfuehrer] and up. The other members of the Reich Labor Service are nominated and dismissed by the Reich Minister of the Interior on the proposal of the Reich Labor Leader [Reichsarbeitsfuehrer]. He can confer this authority onto the Reichsarbeitsfuehrer.

Article 12

1. A regular Fuehrer or office holder can be dismissed from the service in any of these instances:

a. in justified cases on his own request,

b. if he does not possess any more the necessary physical and mental capacities to carry on in his job, and if the recovery of these capacities cannot be expected within a year, according to a certificate of a doctor of the labor service.

c. if his superior decides that he does not possess the necessary qualifications any more to carry on in his office.

2. Subsequent discovery of reasons for inadmissibility to the Reich Labor Service according to Articles 5 and 7 will result in immediate dismissal.

3. The intention of dismissal is, in the cases of part 1, letters b and c, to be made known 3 months in advance to the members of the cadre with more than 5 years of service and 1 month for the other members, with the motivation of dismissal. No previous notification of dismissals are necessary in all other cases.

Article 13

The membership of the Reich Labor Service lasts from the day of admission or conscription [Gestellungstag] until the end of the day of discharge.

Article 14

Membership of the Reich Labor Service does not constitute a work and service relationship in the sense of labor rights and social security as put down in Article 11.

Article 15

The members of the Reich Labor Service come under the penal regulations of the Reich Labor Service.

Article 16

1. Labor service recruits and volunteers can be released before the end of their term in the following cases:

a. on their request, if a reason for deferment, according to Article 8 came into existence after induction.

b. if they are no longer in the possession of the physical or mental capacities necessary for the performance of the service.

2. A premature dismissal of labor service recruits and volunteers must be ordered in the case of subsequent discovery of reasons for inadmissibility to the Reich Labor Service according to Articles 5 or 7.

Article 17

1. Members of the Reich Labor Service who belong to the National Socialist Party, cannot participate in the activities of the Party or its sub-divisions.

2. In order to acquire and to exercise membership of any kind of organization as well as in order to form any kind of organization within or without the Reich Labor Service, the members of the Reich Labor Service must first obtain the authorization of the Reich Labor Service. The acquisition of membership of the National Socialist Party does not necessitate an authorization.

Article 18

The members of the Reich Labor Service must obtain an authorization in order to get married.

Article 19

The members of the Reich Labor Service must obtain an authorization in order to carry on a trade, for themselves and the members of their household, as well as in order to accept a paid, supplementary occupation.

Article 20

1. The members of the Reich Labor Service can refuse the position of a guardian, trustee, foster-father and supporter as well as any honorary occupation in the service of the Reich, country, community or the party.

2. An authorization is necessary for the acceptance of such a function. It can only be refused in vital cases.

Article 21

Members of the Reich Labor Service are entitled to free medical treatment and care in the case of sickness and accidents, according to special regulations.

Article 22

The salaries of the members of the Reich Labor Service are handled by the wage regulations of the Reich Labor Service.

Article 23

1. Financial claims resulting from the participation in the Reich Labor Service come under the regulations applicable to civil servants of the Reich. The highest authority in the spirit of these regulations is the Reich Labor Leader.

2. The decisions of the Reich Labor Service concerning the induction (Articles 5, 6, 7), deferment (Article 8) and dismissal (Articles 12 and 16) are binding for the courts. The same applies to decisions about temporary relief of duty.

Article 24

The protection of the incapacitated in performance of the service and the personnel release after at least ten years of service and their survivors is regulated by the Reich Labor Protection Law [Reichsarbeitsdienstversorgungsgesetz].

Article 25

1. The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor or his appointed representative office can authorize the departing members of the Reich Labor Service to wear the Reich Labor Service uniform until further notice.

2. This privilege is ordinarily only granted after at least 10 years of honorable service.

Chapter V

Final Instructions

Article 26

The legal and administrative regulations necessary for the execution and completion of this law will be issued by the Reich Minister of the Interior.

Article 27

1. This law becomes effective the day of its publication.

2. The Reich Minister of the Interior is authorized to determine at a later date for the effectiveness of various regulations of this law.

Berlin, 26 June 1935
The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler
The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1390-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 83

Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State of 28 February 1933

In virtue of Section 48 (2) of the German constitution, the following is decreed as a defensive measure against Communist acts of violence, endangering the state:

Article 1

Sections 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Thus, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house-searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

Article 2

If in a state the measures necessary for the restoration of public security and order are not taken, the Reich Government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority.

Article 3

According to orders decreed on the basis of Article 2, by the Reich Government, the authorities of states and provinces [Gemeindeverbaende], if concerned, have to abide thereby.

Article 4

Whoever provokes, or appeals for or incites to the disobedience of the orders given out by the supreme state authorities or the authorities subject to them for the execution of this decree, or the orders given by the Reich Government according to Article 2, is punishable—insofar as the deed is not covered by other decrees with more severe punishments—with imprisonment of not less than one month, or with a fine from 150 up to 15,000 Reichsmarks.

Whoever endangers human life by violating Article 1, is to be punished by sentence to a penitentiary, under mitigating circumstances with imprisonment of not less than six months and, when violation causes the death of a person, with death, under mitigating circumstances with a penitentiary sentence of not less than two years. In addition the sentence may include confiscation of property.

Whoever provokes or incites to an act contrary to public welfare is to be punished with a penitentiary sentence, under mitigating circumstances, with imprisonment of not less than three months.

Article 5

The crimes which under the Criminal Code are punishable with penitentiary for life are to be punished with death: i.e., in Sections 81 (high treason), 229 (poisoning), 306 (arson), 311 (properties), 324 (general poisoning).

Insofar as a more severe punishment has not been previously provided for, the following are punishable with death or with life imprisonment or with imprisonment not to exceed 15 years:

1. Anyone who undertakes to kill the Reich President or a member or a commissioner of the Reich Government or of a state government, or provokes to such a killing, or agrees to commit it, or accepts such an offer, or conspires with another for such a murder;

2. Anyone who under Section 115 (2) of the Criminal Code (serious rioting) or of Section 125 (2) of the Criminal Code (serious disturbance of the peace) commits the act with arms or cooperates consciously and intentionally with an armed person;

3. Anyone who commits a kidnapping under Section 239 of the Criminal Code with the intention of making use of the kidnapped person as a hostage in the political struggle.

Article 6

This decree enters in force on the day of its promulgation. Berlin, 28 February 1933.

The Reich President
von Hindenburg

The Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler

The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick

The Reich Minister of Justice
Dr. Guertner

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1391-PS

1934 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PAGES 605-607, 12 July 1934.

Statute of the Academy for German law.

Par. 1

It is the task of the Academy for German Law to further the rejuvenation of the Law in Germany. Closely connected with the agencies competent for legislation, it shall further the realization of the National Socialist Program in the realm of the Law. This task shall be carried out through well-fixed scientific methods.

The academy's task shall cover primarily:

1. The composition, the initiation, judging and preparing of drafts of law.

2. The collaboration in rejuvenating and unifying the training in jurisprudence and political science.

3. The editing and supporting of scientific publications.

4. The financial assistance for research and work in specific fields of Law and Political Economy.

5. The organization of scientific meetings and the organization of courses.

6. The cultivation of connections to similar institutions in foreign countries.

Par. 2

For the execution of its task, the Academy may set up special committees handling particular cases. These committees shall have as members outstanding specialists in jurisprudence and practice of the Law as well as experts in Economic Affairs. As a rule, a respectable member of the Academy, shall be the chairman of Committees. The President of the academy shall receive reports on the results of the work done by the committees.

Par. 3

The organs of the Academy are:

1. The President,

2. The Board of Directors.

Par. 4

In addition to the responsibilities fixed by the Law, the President shall have to carry out the following duties.

1. The internal control of the Academy particularly the fixing and distribution of the various duties and the forming of committees and the appointment of the chairman and members of the committees.

2. The draft of the budget of the Academy, the rendering of the account and the administration of the property.

3. The nomination and the dismissal of members.

4. The appointment of his deputy, of the members of the Board of Directors and of the Treasurer—all from among the members of the Academy.

5. The changing of the statutes.

In case the President is unable to carry out his duties, they will be carried out by his deputy.

A change of the statutes and the nomination of the President's deputy requires the confirmation of the competent Ministers of the Reich. As for the draft of the budget, and the rendering of the account, the provisions contained in Art. 9 to 12 shall be applied.

Par. 5

The Board of Directors shall support and advise the President; it shall discuss the budget and make a preliminary examination of the rendering of the account.

Par. 6

The academy consists of:

1. ordinary,

2. extraordinary,

3. supporting,

4. corresponding members.

Par. 7

Members are nominated for a term of 4 years. The number of ordinary members is not to exceed 300.

The ordinary members are compelled to participate in the meetings of the Academy and, according to rules set forth by the President, to cooperate in accomplishing the goal of the Academy.

Par. 8

The financial administration of the Academy will be handled by the treasurer. Current administrative matters will be handled by a director who will have a contract with the Academy.

Par. 9

It shall be up to the President to plan the budget before the beginning of each fiscal year [Rechnungsjahr]. This draft shall show and adjust all receipts and expenditures to be expected during the fiscal year—separated according to purpose and valuation. Only those expenditures are authorized which, after careful verification, are necessary for the completion of the tasks which the Academy is to fulfill according to Law or Statute.

Before being put into effect, the budget-plan shall be discussed by the Board of Directors.

Par. 10

The consent of the competent Ministers of the Reich is required for the budget plan. The Reich Minister of Justice shall receive it at a date set forth by him but not later than one month before the beginning of the new fiscal year.

Par. 11

The President shall have to account for all receipts and expenditures at the end of the fiscal year. This account shall be checked by the Board of Directors and passed on by it, with adequate comments, to the Reich Minister of Justice.

Par. 12

As for the drafting and execution of the budget, for financial administration and for bookkeeping as well as for the accounting, auditing and certification of accounting, the regulations of the Reich budget apply.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1392-PS

1936 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 933

Law on the Hitler Youth 1 December 1936

The future of the German Nation depends on its youth, and the German youth shall have to be prepared for its future duties.

Therefore the Government of the Reich has prepared the following law which is being published herewith:

Art. 1

All of the German youth in the Reich is organized within the Hitler-Youth.

Art. 2

The German Youth besides being reared within the family and school, shall be educated physically, intellectually, and morally in the spirit of National Socialism to serve the people and community, through the Hitler Youth.

Art. 3

The task of educating the German Youth through the Hitler Youth is being entrusted to the Reichs-Leader of German Youth in the NSDAP. He is the "Youth Leader of the German Reich". The position of his office is that of a higher governmental Agency with its seat in Berlin, and is directly responsible to the Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich.

Art. 4

All regulations necessary for the executions and completion of this law will be issued by the Fuehrer Chancellor of the Reich.

Berlin, 1 December 1936

The Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich
Adolph Hitler
The Secretary of State and Chief
of the Reichchancellery
Dr. Lammers

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1393-PS

1934 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 1269

Law on treacherous Acts against State and Party, and for The Protection of Party Uniforms of 20 December 1934

The Government of the Reich has decided to enact the following law, which is published herewith:

Chapter I

Article 1

1. Unless heavier punishment is sanctioned under the authority of a law previously established, imprisonment not to exceed two years shall be imposed upon anybody deliberately making false or grievous statements, fit to injure the welfare or the prestige of the government of the Reich, the National Socialist Workers Party or its agencies. If such statements are made or circulated in public, imprisonment for not less than 3 months shall be imposed.

2. Anyone committing the offense insolently and carelessly shall be punished with imprisonment not to exceed 3 months or with a fine.

3. If the offense is directed solely against the prestige of the NSDAP or its affiliated agencies, the offender shall be prosecuted only with the consent of the Fuehrer's deputy or of agencies authorized by him to initiate the prosecution.

Article 2

1. Anyone who makes or circulates statements proving a malicious, baiting or low-minded attitude towards leading personalities of the State or the NSDAP, or towards orders issued by them or towards institutions created by them—fit to undermine the confidence of the people in its political leadership—shall be punished with imprisonment.

2. Statements of this kind which are not made in public shall warrant the same punishment—provided the offender figures on his statements being eventually circulated in public.

3. The offender shall be prosecuted only by the order of the Reich Minister for Justice; in case the offense was committed against a leading personality of the NSDAP, the Reich Minister for Justice shall issue the order in agreement with the Fuehrer's Deputy.

4. The Reich Minister for Justice in agreement with the Fuehrer's Deputy shall determine who is to be regarded as a leading personality as specified in (1).

Article 3

1. Anyone who commits or threatens to commit a punishable act, or who is wearing the uniform or an insignia of the NSDAP, or carries it on his person without being a member of the NSDAP or its affiliated agencies and therefore being entitled to do so, will be punished with forced labor or in minor instances with imprisonment not to exceed 6 months.

2. Anyone who commits the offense with the intention to stir up unrest or to sow fear or terror in the population, or to create difficulties for the German Reich with a foreign power, shall be punished with forced labor not to exceed 3 years or with forced labor for life or in particularly grave cases with death.

3. According to this law, a German national may be punished also if he has committed the offense in a foreign country.

Article 4

1. Anyone who for the sake of a material advantage or for political ends poses as a member of the NSDAP or its agencies, shall be punished with imprisonment not to exceed 1 year plus a fine or either one.

2. The offender shall be prosecuted only in agreement with the Fuehrer or with those authorized by him.

Article 5

1. Anyone who manufactures, holds in stock, sells or otherwise brings on the market Party uniforms, parts of Party uniforms, textiles, flags or insignias of the NSDAP, its affiliated agencies or organizations, without the permission of the treasurer of the Reich, shall be punished with imprisonment not to exceed 2 years.

2. Anyone who has in his possession Party uniforms and insignias without being a member of the NSDAP or its affiliated organizations, or without being entitled to possess them for any other reason, shall be punished with imprisonment not to exceed 1 year. Anyone who wears any of the above mentioned items, shall be punished with imprisonment not to exceed 1 month.

3. To be put on a par with Party uniforms, parts of Party uniforms and insignia are those uniforms, parts of uniforms and insignias which can easily be confused with them.

4. The uniforms, parts of uniforms, textiles, flags or insignias in question shall be confiscated. In case no particular person can be prosecuted or condemned, the confiscation shall take place all the same—provided conditions justify it.

5. The confiscated items shall be turned over to the Reich Treasurer of the NSDAP or to those agencies appointed by him, for future use.

6. The prosecution of the offense and the confiscation (#4, section 2) can only be undertaken in agreement with the Fuehrer's Deputy or agencies authorized by him to handle this matter.

Article 6

According to the rules set forth in this law, anyone who has obtained membership of the Party through false pretenses is not a member of the NSDAP, its affiliated agencies or organizations.

Article 7

The Fuehrer's Deputy, in agreement with the Reich Minister for Justice and of the Interior, shall issue the necessary regulations for the execution and completion of Articles 1 to 6.

Chapter II

Article 8

1. The regulations set forth in this law, with the exception of Article 5 (1) apply accordingly to the "Reichsluftschutzbund", the "Deutschen Luftportverband", in agreement with the Reich Minister for Air, and by the Minister of the Interior for the Voluntary Labor Service and the "Technische Nothilfe".

Chapter III

Article 9

Article 5 (1) will become valid on 1 February 1935. The other rules set forth in this law will become valid one day after their publication; the law on treacherous acts against the Government of the National Revolution from 21 March 1933 (RGBl I, page 135) as well as article 4 of the law on the "Reichsluftfahrtverwaltung" from 15 December 1933 (RGBl I, page 1077) are obsolete.

Berlin, 20 December 1934

The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler

The Reich Minister for Justice
Dr. Guertner

The Fuehrer's Deputy and Minister without portfolio
R. Hess

The Minister of the Interior
Frick

also for the Reich Minister for Air

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1394-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PAGE 723, Art. 1-3, 13 October 1933

Law to guarantee Public Peace

The Reich Government passed the following law, which is published herewith:

Art. 1

1. With death or, as far as a more severe punishment is not provided, with a life-term in the house of correction or with up to fifteen years in the house of correction will be punished:

1. Whoever undertakes to kill a judge or a public prosecutor or an official, entrusted with tasks of the political, criminal, railroad, forest-custom-protective or security police, or a member of the Armed Forces or of the Storm columns (inclusive Stahlhelm) or of the Schutzstaffeln of the NSDAP, a (trustee) agent of the NSDAP, or a member of the German Air-Sport organization, out of political motives or on account of their official activity, or whoever incites to such a killing, whoever volunteers or accepts such an offer, or whoever agrees on such a killing with another person;

2. Whoever undertakes to kill a magistrate or juryman on account of his activity as magistrate or juryman, or a witness or an expert on account of testimony given in fulfillment of his duty as witness or expert, or whoever invites to such a killing, whoever volunteers, accepts such an offer, or whoever agrees on such a killing with another;

3. Whoever produces, circulates or for the purpose of circulation holds in readiness abroad printed matter in which the facts of high treason are substantiated (Art. 81 to 86 Criminal Code), or otherwise commits the crime of High-treason;

4. Whoever undertakes to import printed matter, as mentioned in No. 3, knowing of its high treasonable contents, for distribution at home, or who distributes such printed matter, after its import; or who furthers at home a crime of high treason, committed abroad.

2. The regulations in Art. 86a Criminal Code about confiscation and rendering useless will be employed accordingly.

Art. 2

With house of correction up to five years will be punished whoever undertakes to import printed matter with intention of distributing it for purposes endangering the country, in which are substantiated the facts:

1. of a punishable crime in accordance with the law forbidding the (new) organization of parties of 14 July 1933 (Reich Law-Publication I, page 479) or

2. of a punishable invitation or provocation according to Art. 110 to 112 Criminal Code or

3. of a punishable untrue report, in accordance with Art. 3 of the Reich President's decree to prevent treacherous attacks against the government of the national revolution of 21 March 1933 (RGBl. I, page 135).

Art. 3

For the crimes mentioned in Art. 1 and 2, the special courts, established according to the decree of the Reich government of 1 March 1933 (RGBL I, p. 136) are competent; insofar as the competence of the Supreme Court Reich court and the court of appeals [Oberlandesgericht] is not proven.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1395-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 1016, 1 Dec. 1933

Law to secure the unity of Party and State, 1 Dec. 1933

The Reich government has decided on the following law which is announced herewith:

Par. 1

1. After the victory of the National Socialist revolution, the National Socialist German Labor Party is the bearer of the concept of the German State and is inseparable from the state.

2. It is a corporation in public law. Its organization will be determined by the Fuehrer.

Par. 2

The deputy of the Fuehrer and the Chief of Staff of the SA will become members of the Reich government in order to insure close cooperation of the offices of the party and SA with the public authorities.

Par. 3

The members of the National Socialistic German Labor Party and the SA (including their subordinate organizations), as the leading and driving force of the National Socialist State will bear greater responsibility toward Fuehrer, people and state.

2. In case they violate these duties, they will be subject to special jurisdiction by party and state.

3. The Fuehrer may extend these regulations in order to include members of other organizations.

Par. 4

Every action or neglect on the part of members of the SA (including their subordinate organization) attacking or endangering the existence, organization, activity or reputation of the National Socialistic German Labor Party, in particular any infraction against discipline and order, will be regarded as a violation of duty.

Par. 5

Custody and arrest may be inflicted in addition to the usual penalties.

Par. 6

The public authorities have to grant legal and administrative assistance to the officers of the Party and the SA which are entrusted with the execution of the jurisdiction of the Party and SA.

Par. 7

The law regarding the authority to inflict penalties on members of the SA and SS, of the 28 April 1933 (RGBl p. 230) will be invalidated.

Art. 8

The Reich Chancellor, as Fuehrer of the National Socialistic German Labor Party and as the supreme commander of SA will issue the regulation necessary for the execution and augmentation of this law, particularly with respect to the organization and procedure of the jurisdiction of the Party and SA. He will determine the time at which the regulations concerning this jurisdiction will be effective.

Berlin, 1 Dec. 1933

Reichs Chancellor
Adolf Hitler

The Reichs Minister of the Interior
Frick

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1396-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 293

Law concerning the confiscation of Communist property of 26 May 1933

In order to prevent for all times property in the service of communist activities to be used subversively to the State, the Reich Government has enacted the following law, which is hereby promulgated.

Section 1

1. The highest provincial authorities [obersten Landesbehoerden] or offices designated by them may confiscate on behalf of the province, assets and interests of the Communist Party of Germany and their welfare and affiliated organizations [Hilfs- und Ersatzorganisationen] and also assets and interests used or destined for the promotion of communistic activities.

2. The Reich Minister of the Interior may request the highest provincial authorities to take measures under (1).

Section 2

Section 1 is not applicable to assets which have been rented or delivered under reservation of ownership rights, unless the lessor or the deliverer intended to promote communistic activity by the surrender of property.

Section 3

Interests in confiscated assets shall become extinct. However, existing rights in land are not affected by the confiscation of real property; the confiscating authorities may declare such right extinct, where the payment of proceeds can be considered as an intention to promote communistic activities.

Section 4

In order to prevent hardships, creditors affected by the confiscation may be satisfied from proceeds of the confiscated assets.

Section 5

Where measures, according to the spirit of Sections 1 and 3 were taken, prior to the effective date of this law, they may be ratified by the authorized office under Section 1, pursuant to the provision of this law.

Section 6

Measures under Sections 1, 3 and 5 become effective upon delivery of the order to the affected party upon the promulgation of the order.

Section 7

No compensation is granted for measures taken under Sections 1, 3 and 5.

Section 8

The Reichs Minister of the Interior is authorized to issue legal and administrative regulations for the administration and enforcement of this law.

Berlin 26 May 1933

The Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler

The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1397-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PAGE 175, Art 1-18, 7 April 1933.

Law for the Reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service 7 April 1933

The Reichsgovernment has enacted the following law, which is hereby proclaimed:

Art. 1

1. For the reestablishment of a national professional civil service and for the simplification of administration, officials may be discharged from office according to the following regulations, even when the necessary conditions according to the appropriate law do not exist.

2. Officials, as used in this law, means immediate [unmittelbare] and mediate [mittlebare] officials of the Reich, immediate and mediate officials of the federal states [Laender], officials of communes [Gemeinde] and communal associations, officials of public legal corporations as well as institutions and undertakings placed upon the same status as these public legal corporations (Third decree of the Reichspresident for the safeguarding of business and finance of 6 October 1931-RGBl. I P. 537, 3rd part, Chapter V, Section I, Art. 15, subparagraph 1). The stipulations apply also to employees of agencies supplying social insurance, who have the rights and duties of officials.

3. Officials as used in this law also includes officials in temporary retirement.

4. The Reichsbank and the German State Railway Co. are empowered to make corresponding regulations.

Art. 2

1. Officials who since 9 November 1918 have attained the status of officials without possessing the required or usual preparation or other qualifications are to be dismissed from service. Their former salaries will be accorded them for a period of 3 months after their dismissal.

2. A right to waiting allowances, pensions, or survivors pension and to the continuance of the official designation, the title, the official uniform and the official insignia is not possessed by them.

3. In case of need a pension, revocable at any time, equivalent to a third of the usual base pay of the last position held by them may be granted them, especially when they are caring for dependent relatives; reinsurance according to the provisions of the Reich's social insurance law will not take place.

4. The stipulations of Section 2 and 3 will receive corresponding application in the case of persons of the type designated in Sec. 1, who already before this law became effective had been retired.

Art. 3

1. Officials, who are of non-aryan descent, are to be retired; insofar as honorary officials are concerned, they are to be removed from official status.

2. Section 1 is not in effect for officials who were already officials since 1 August 1914, or who fought during the World War at the front for the German Reichs or who fought for its allies or whose fathers or sons were killed in the World War. The Reichsminister of the Interior can permit further exceptions in understanding with the appropriate special minister or the highest authorities of the federal states in the case of officials abroad.

Art. 4

Officials, whose former political activity does not offer a guarantee that they at all times without reservation act in the interest of the national state can be dismissed from service. For a period of 3 months after dismissal they are accorded their former salary. From this time on they receive 3/4 of their pension and corresponding survivor's benefits.

Art. 5

1. Every official must allow himself to be transferred to another office of the same or equivalent career, even into such a one having less rank or regular salary—reimbursement for the prescribed costs of transfer taking place, if the needs of the service require it. In case of transferment to an office of lower rank and regular salary the official retains his previous official title and the official income of his former position.

2. The official can, in place of transfer to an office of lesser rank and regular income (section 11) demand to be retired.

Art. 6

For the simplification of administration officials can be retired, even if they are not yet unfit for service. If officials are retired for this reason, their places may not be filled again.

Art. 7

1. Dismissal from office, transfer to another office and retirement will be ordered by the highest Reichs or federal state agency which will render final decision without right of appeal.

2. The dispositions according to Art 2 to 6 must be made known at the latest by 30 Sept 1933 to those affected. The time can be shortened by agreement with the Reichsminister of the Interior, if the appropriate Reichs or federal state agency declares that the measures authorized in this law have been carried out.

Art. 8

A pension will not be granted to the officials dismissed or retired in accordance with Art 3 and 4, if they have not completed a term of service of at least 10 years; this applies also in the cases in which according to the existing stipulation a pension is already accorded after a shorter term of service. Articles 36, 47 and 49 of the Reichs officials' law, the law of 4 July 1921 on increased computation of time in service accomplished during the war (RGBl p. 825) and the corresponding provisions of federal state laws remained unchanged.

Art. 9

1. In the calculation of length of service valid for pension purposes, excepting time of service accrued in their last employment, only a term served in the Reichs, Federal State, or communal service according to the existing regulations may be credited to officials dismissed or retired according to Articles 3 and 4. Also accrediting of this length of service is only permissible, if it bears some relationship in preparation or career to the position last held; such a relationship of lower career to a higher one is to be regarded as an orderly promotion. If the official would have obtained a higher pension by the addition of later years of service to time served in an earlier position regularly obtained by qualifications and preparation, the ruling more favorable to him takes precedence.

2. The implementative regulations govern the calculation of time served with public corporations and with institutions and undertakings placed upon the same basis as these public corporations.

3. Accreditation and certification of time served valid for pension purposes, which conflict with the carrying out of the provisions of Section 1, are nullified.

4. In the case of officials of the Reich and of public corporations, institutions, and agencies under the supervision of the Reich, the Reichsminister of the Interior in agreement with the Reichsminister of Finance can mitigate hardships; the highest federal state authorities can do the same in the case of other officials.

5. Sections 1 to 4 as well as Article 8 will also be applied to such officials who already, before this law came into effect, were retired either permanently or temporarily upon whom Articles 2 to 4 would have been applied if the officials had been still in service at the time this law came into effect. The new accrediting of time of service valid in the calculation of pensions and the accrediting of pensions and of waiting allowances must, at the latest, take place on 30 Sept 1933 with effect as of 1 Oct 1933.

Art. 10

1. Guiding principles, which are established for the amount of pay for officials will be based upon the calculation of service remunerations and pension. In case decisions by the competent authorities on the applying of the guiding principles do not yet exist, they are to be issued without delay.

2. After decisions by the competent authorities concerning the application of the guiding principle have been made, if officials are found to have received higher remunerations than are due them according to the decisions, they then have to reimburse the surplus amounts received since 1 April 1932 at the pay office where the payments were given out. The argument of no longer existing enrichment (Articles 812vBGB and subs) is excluded.

3. Subsections 1 and 2 are valid also for persons who have been retired inside of one year before this law became effective.

Art. 11.

1. If, in the accrediting of pay-seniority of officials who leave the service on account of Articles 3 and 4, employment outside of the Reichs, Federal State, or communal service has been calculated, then the pay-seniority is to be newly calculated. Therein only an employment in the Reichs, Federal State, or communal service, or according to the implementative regulations, in the service of public corporations and institutions and undertakings equivalent to the former may be accredited. Exceptions can be permitted by the Reichsminister of the Interior in agreement with the Reichsminister of Finance for Reichs officials; for other officials, by the highest federal state authorities.

2. If a new accrediting of pay-seniority according to Section 1 comes into consideration, then in the case of officials retired or dismissed according to Articles 3 and 4, the new determination of pay-seniority will be carried out in conjunction with the determination of the pension amount.

3. The same is valid for the persons named in Article 9, Section 5.

Art. 12.

1. The salaries of Reichsministers appointed since 9 Nov 1918, which are not calculated according to the provisions of Articles 16 to 24 of the Reichsminister law of 27 March 1930 (RGBl I P. 96) are to be newly calculated. In the new calculation, the above-mentioned provisions of the Reichsminister law are to be applied as if they had been already in effect at the time of the Reichsminister's dismissal from office. According to this law, excess payments received since 1 April 1933 are to be paid back. The argument of no longer existing enrichment (Article 812 and subs BGB) is inadmissible.

2. Section 1 will receive application upon the members of the federal state government appointed since 9 Nov 1918 with the provision that in place of the Reichsminister law the corresponding provisions of the federal state law will be in effect; however, payments may only be made to the amount which results from the application of the fundamental principles of Articles 16 to 24 of the Reichsminister law.

3. The new calculation of payments must take place before 31 December 1933.

4. Retroactive payments will not take place.

Art. 13.

The survivors payments will be calculated with corresponding application of Articles 8 to 12.

Art. 14.

1. Against the officials who have been dismissed or transferred upon the authority of this law, the institution of civil service punishment proceedings on account of misdemeanors committed while in office with the object of cancellation of pension, survivors benefits, designation of office, title, official uniform and insignia. The institution of the proceedings must take place on 31 December 1933 at the latest.

2. Section 1 is also valid for persons who within one year of the date that this law becomes effective have been retired and upon whom the Articles 2 and 4 would have been applied, if these persons had still been in service when this law came into effect.

Art. 15.

The provisions concerning officials will be applied in an appropriate manner to employees and workers. The implementative regulations govern detailed application.

Art. 16.

If unreasonable hardships occur in the carrying out of this law, then higher payments or transition money may be granted in accordance with the general regulations. The decisions in this matter will be made by the Reichsminister of the Interior in agreement with the Reichsminister of Finance in the case of Reichs officials, in other cases by the highest federal state authorities.

Art. 17.

1. The Reichsminister of the interior will issue in agreement with the Reichsminister of Finance, the necessary regulations for the execution and carrying through of this law and the general administrative provisions.

2. If necessary the highest federal state authorities will issue supplementary regulations. In this matter they must confine themselves to the framework of the Reichs regulations.

Art. 18.

With the expiration of the periods established in this law, the general provisions valid for the professional civil services will be again completely valid, without prejudice to the measures taken on the basis of this law.

Berlin, 7 April 1933

The Reichschancellor
Adolf Hitler

The Reichsminister of the Interior
Frick

The Reichsminister of Finance
Count Schwerin von Krosigk

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1398-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 433

Law to Supplement the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of 20 July 1933

The Reich government has enacted the following law, which is hereby promulgated:

The Law for the Restoration of Civil Service from 7 April 1933 (RGBl I, page 175) is supplemented as follows:

1. The following is added to Article 2:

Article 2a

1. Officials, who have belonged to the communist party or to communistic auxiliary or collateral organizations, or otherwise have been active in furthering the aims of Communism, are to be discharged. Discharge is not necessary for (a) officials, who before 30 January 1933 joined a party or an organization, which has placed itself behind the government of the national revolution, and (b) officials, who have distinguished themselves exceptionally in the national movement.

2. Officials, who in the future are active for Marxism (Communism or Social-Democracy) are to be discharged.

3. The following are the bases on which officials are discharged: Sec. 1,—Sec. 2,—Art. 2, Sec. 1, sentence 2—Secs. 2 and 3.

Berchtesgaden, 20 July 1933

The Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler

For the Minister of the Interior:
The Reich Minister of Finance
Count Schwerin von Krosigk

The Reich Minister of Finance
Count Schwerin von Krosigk

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1400-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 433

Law Changing the Regulations in regard to Public Officers, June 30, 1933

Chapter 2

Article 1a

1. Only such persons may be appointed Reich officials who possess for their career the prescribed education or customary training or who have special qualifications for the office about to be given, and who guarantee that they will support the Reich at all times without reservation.

2. Women may only be appointed Reich officials for life when they have completed the 35th year.

3. Anyone of non-Aryan descent, or married to a person of non-Aryan descent, may not be appointed a Reich official. Reich officials of Aryan descent who marry a person of non-Aryan descent are to be discharged. The question of who is of non-Aryan descent is to be decided by regulations decreed by the Reich Minister of the Interior.

4. If urgent requirements of the administration so necessitate, the highest Reich officials may make exceptions in individual cases—exceptions from the provisions of (2) with the approval of the Reich Minister of Finance, exceptions from the provisions of (3) with the approval of the Reich Minister of the Interior.

Article 6

1. The provisions are also to be applied to the civil service regulations of the states, local communities, and of the other bodies, institutions, and foundations of public law * * *.

2. The German State Railways, the Reichsbank, the public-legal religious societies, and the confederations are empowered to issue similar regulations.

Chapter 3

Article 7

2. When the economic status of a female official appears to be permanently secured because of a family income, the officials * * * may order a dismissal. The conditions for dismissal are always present when the husband is a permanent official not subject to dismissal.

Chapter 8

Article 40

1. The states and the bodies of public law not supervised by the states are empowered and compelled to lower the incomes of their officials insofar as they are higher than the incomes of Reich officials of equal rank. The Reich ministers and the Reich chancellor are to be considered as Reich officials within the scope of this chapter. Sentence 1 is not applicable to university teachers; for them the special rules of Section 44 apply. Similarly, the Reich Government or the state governments may make different rules in other cases in which the scholarly or artistic significance of an office requires a special evaluation.

2. The local communes, and the other bodies of public law which are under the supervision of the state officials are empowered and obligated to reduce the salaries of their officials, insofar as they are higher than the salaries of state officials, of corresponding rank.

Article 44

1. The state governments are empowered to alter or annul the assurances given to university professors before this chapter became effective. They are not bound hereby to agreements, compromises, legal judgments or arbitration decisions.

Chapter 13

Article 77

1. Insofar as the execution of the provisions of this law requires it, deviations from the Reich constitution and from the state constitutions are permissible.

Berlin, 30 June 1933

The Reichschancellor
Adolf Hitler

The Reichsminister for Finance
Graf Schwerin von Krosigk

The Reichsminister of the Interior
Frick

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1401-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 188

Law Regarding Admission to the Bar, 7 April 1933

The Reich Government has enacted the following law that is promulgated herewith:

Art. 1. The admission of lawyers who, according to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, of April 7, 1933 (RGBl, I 175), are of non-Aryan descent, may be cancelled till September 30, 1933.

The provision of clause 1 does not apply to lawyers already admitted before August 1, 1914, or, who, during the World War fought at the front for Germany, or her allies, or who lost their fathers or sons in the World War.

Art. 2. Persons who, according to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of April 7, 1933 (RGBl. I, p. 175) are of non-Aryan descent, may be refused permission to practice law, even if there exists none of the reasons enumerated in the Regulations for Lawyers. The same rule applies in cases, as where a lawyer described in Section 1, clause 2, wishes to be admitted to another court.

Art. 3. Persons, who were active in the communistic sense are excluded from the admission to the Bar. Admissions already given have to be revoked.

Art. 4. The Justice-Administration can issue an injunction against a lawyer until it is decided, if use will be made of the right to revoke the admission in accordance with Art 1/1, or Art 3. The prescriptions of Art 9/b/2-4 of the Bar regulation (Reichs-Law-Publication 1933, I, page 120) apply accordingly to the injunction against representation.

Against lawyers of that type as described in Art. 1/2 the injunction against representation is only then permissible when the use of Art. 3 is concerned.

Art. 5. To revoke the admission to the Bar is considered an important reason for the cancelling of employment contracts, which were concluded by the lawyer as employer.

Art. 6. In case the admission of a lawyer is revoked in accordance with this law, then for the cancelling of leases of rooms, which were rented by the lawyer for himself or his family, the regulations of the law about the cancelling right of persons concerned by the law for the renovation of professional bureaucracy, 7 April 1933, (RGBl. Part I, page 187) will accordingly be used. The same will apply to employees of lawyers, who lost their job owing to the fact that the admission of the lawyer was revoked or an injunction against representation against him was issued in conformity with Art. 4.

Berlin, 7 April 1933

The Reichs-Chancellor
Adolf Hitler

The Reichs-Minister for Justice
Dr. Guertner

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1402-PS

1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 685

The Homestead Law, Sept. 29, 1933

The Reich Government desires to maintain the peasantry as the well-spring of the German people by securing the German tradition of ancestral rights.

The Reich Government, therefore, has enacted the following law. The basic thoughts of the law are:

The owner of an hereditary manor is called a peasant.

Only a respectable person who is a German citizen and has German or cognate blood may be a peasant.

Section 12

Only a German citizen can be a peasant.

Section 13

Requirement of German or cognate blood.

(1) Only a person of German or cognate blood may be a peasant.

(2) A person is not considered German or as having cognate blood, if his paternal or maternal ancestors have Jewish or colored blood in their veins.

(3) The first of January, 1800, is the day that decides whether the premises of Section I obtain. In case of doubt whether the premises of Section I obtain, the inheritance court decides on a motion of the owner or of the district leader of the peasants.

Berlin 29 Sept 1933.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1403-PS

1937 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 1333

Law on the Granting of Indemnities in Case of Confiscation or Transfer of Property, 9 December 1937

The Reich government has decided to proclaim the following law:

Chapter 1. Property of Communists, Enemies of the People and the State

Article 1

If objects and rights have been seized in favor of a state on the basis of the law on the confiscation of communist property of 26 May 33 (RGBl I, page 293) or of the law on the confiscation of property of enemies of the people and the state of 14 July 1933 (RGBl I, page 479) before the law became effective, the state shall not be responsible for the claims which have arisen against the former owner of the seized property or rights.

Article 2

1. Rights, which are still existing at the time this law becomes effective and apply to confiscated objects, are deemed expired with the seizure. The same is true in the case of guarantees on property which has been confiscated.

2. Section 1 is not being applied if the seized objects have already been sold by the state before this law became effective.

Article 3

1. Corporations are not responsible for liabilities from the time before the confiscation, if all the shares have been transferred by confiscation to the property of a state, unless the liabilities were recovered by the sequestration decreed for the preparation of the seizure.

2. The existing rights of third persons in the property of such corporations will be considered as expired.

Article 4

Legal personalities, corporations, or legally incompetent associations, whose property has been confiscated, are considered as dissolved by the seizure. A liquidation does not take place.

Article 5

Claims against the owners of property mentioned in Article 4 shall be deemed expired through confiscation of the property. The same applies to individual members or partners of associations. The affidavits and other liabilities existing in order to insure the safeguarding and guarantees of such claims are also deemed expired.

Article 6

1. If someone suffered financial loss through sequestration or seizure of objects and rights on account of the laws mentioned in Article 1, or through their effect, an indemnification from the means of the state in whose favor the confiscation or seizure took place can be granted. In the sense of this regulation, no one has suffered loss who was affected by the sequestration or seizure directly.

2. A person shall not be granted compensation on the basis and with the acquisition of this right, which expired with this law, if he has intentionally or carelessly promoted:

1. Communist aspirations.

2. Marxist or other movements which have been declared as hostile to the people and state by the Minister of the Interior.

It is not an intentional promotion of aspirations as designated in No. 2, if the victim stood under the control or direction of the state.

3. An indemnification can also be granted in the cases of (2) No. 2, i.e. if the victim is needy in the sense of Article 13(2) or if the predominant viewpoints of the public interest speak for the granting of indemnification.

Article 7

1. Indemnification will only be granted if the victim makes a petition before 31 March 1938.

2. The petition has to be. sent in writing to the competent authority (Article 9), with reference to the cause of the offense.

Article 8

1. The determination of the indemnification takes place in a determination procedure and before determining authorities.

2. The Reich Minister of the Interior can decree that no determining procedures shall take place for certain properties or in certain districts. If such a regulation is issued by the Reich Minister of the Interior, the regulations of this section with the exception of Articles 1, 4 and 5 are not to be applied for the property of the district.

Article 9

1. The determining authority in Prussia and Bavaria is the president of the government (in Berlin the police president), in Saxony the Kreishauptmann, and in the other states the highest authority of the state.

2. The Reich Minister of the Interior may decide that a common determining authority will be formed for several administrative districts.

Article 10

1. The determining authority for the district in which the sequestered or seized property, whose indemnification has been proposed, used to be, is locally responsible.

2. The highest authority of the state or the Reich Minister of the Interior appoints the determining authority, if the property was located in the district of several determining authorities and if several determining authorities of the same state are involved.

3. The Reich Minister of the Interior is entitled to appoint exclusively one or more determining authorities for certain kinds of confiscated or seized objects and rights.

Article 11

1. The petition to grant indemnification shall be refused, if it has not been made within the time determined in Article 7, section 1. The determining authority is obliged to admit the petition, if the victim proves that he himself or his legal representative or his proxy failed to make the petition within the appointed period through no fault of their own and inasmuch as it will be repeated within two months after clearing the obstacle. Petitions cannot be made any more after 31 March 1939.

2. If the petition to grant indemnification is received by a determining authority, which is locally not responsible (Article 10), it will fall within the appointed time.

Article 12

1. The total amount of indemnifications, which shall be granted because of sequestration or seizure of property of a certain owner of property, is limited by the extent of this property. Each economic unit will be considered property in the sense of the first sentence, if the confiscated property of a person includes several economic units of the kind designated in Article 2 of the Reichsbewertunsgesetz [Law for the evaluation of property] of 16 Oct 1934 (RGBl I, page 1035). For the classification according to economic units, a determined purpose in the period before the confiscation is of no importance.

2. In order to estimate the extent of property according to Section 1, its selling value is decisive.

Article 13

1. In determining the indemnifications, the creditors should be treated in the succession as is provided for their satisfaction in the bankruptcy order.

2. This principle is to be disregarded, if reasons of fairness require to do so; particularly these victims are to get privileged treatment whose livelihood or economic progress is endangered or require an indemnification in order to fulfill their duties of livelihood on the basis of the law.

Article 14

1. The determining authority fixes the amount of money to be paid as indemnification. It can determine installments and the time of payments. Inasmuch as there is no other clause in the decision of the determining authority, the amount of money is payable to him within one month after the decision has been delivered to the victim.

2. The determining authority may rule that an indemnification will be effected by Reich or state-owned mortgage-deeds or by transferring an object, or that claim of indemnification due to the victim on account of the decision of the determining authority will be secured by arranging a lien on land.

3. The state can propose, until the decision of the determining authority has been relayed to the victim, what, in the amount of the indemnification which is being granted for an expired lien on land (Article 2, 6), a new lien on land will be entered into the land-register in its place. The determining authority has to respect such a move except in the case that this would be particularly unfair toward the victim. The new lien on land has to be entered into the land-register under the same conditions as the expired one insofar as the determining authority does not issue different instructions; the rate of interest may be reduced by the determining authority to five percent.

Article 15

1. The victim is entitled to appeal to the determining authority of the Reich against the decision of the determining authority. (Article 16)

2. The appeal must be delivered in writing to the determining authority or to the determining authority of the Reich, within two weeks after the decision has been forwarded and it must be substantiated. Article 11, Section 1 will be applied respectively.

3. The determining authority may submit its decision to the determining authority of the Reich for scrutiny. Its presentation to the determining authority of the Reich has the effect of an appeal.

Article 16

1. The determining authority of the Reich will be linked to the Reich Minister of the Interior.

2. The determining authority of the Reich consists of chambers. Each chamber is composed of five members including the chairman, three of whom must have the ability to perform the functions of the judge or of higher administrative offices, two members will be suggested by the Deputy of the Fuehrer.

3. The chairman and the members will be appointed by the Reich Minister of the Interior.

Article 17

1. The decisions of the determining authorities are to be delivered to the victim.

2. The decision of the determining authority of the Reich is final.

Chapter 2. Property forfeited to the Reich

Article 18

If the property of a person deprived of his citizenship (law on the recall of naturalizations and the deprivation of the German citizenship of 14 July 1933—RGBl I, page 480) has been confiscated, or has been declared forfeited to the Reich, previous to this law, the Reich is not responsible for claims against the person deprived of his citizenship.

Article 19

1. Rights on objects of such properties, which have been declared as forfeited to the Reich, are deemed expired with the declaration of forfeiture. The same applies to objects on which property rights have been secured.

2. Section 1 will not be applied, if the objects have already been sold by the Reich before effectiveness of this law.

Article 20

If someone has suffered a loss of property through sequestration or the declaration of forfeiture (Article 18) or through the effect of this law, he may be granted an indemnification from the funds of the Reich. The victim in the sense of this regulation is not he who was directly affected by the sequestration or declaration of forfeiture.

Article 21

The regulations of Articles 6 to 17 will be applied respectively according to Articles 22 and 23.

Article 22

The determining authority of the Reich will decide on the petition.

Article 23

An indemnification will also not be granted (Article 6(2)), if the victim has knowingly supported the person deprived of his citizenship in hurting German interests.

Chapter 3. Property of Former Associations of Employers and Employees

Article 24

1. The property administration of the DAF [German labor front], Ltd., Berlin (hereafter called "property administration of the German labor front") as trustee of the German labor front, will be put in possession of the former associations of employers and employees including the auxiliary and replacement organizations, property administrations, pension disbursing agencies and other special properties, upon entrance into effect of this law.

2. In the case that only former associations of employers and employees have interests in a legal personality, the property administration of the German labor front will be put in possession of both the shares of property of the former associations of employees and employers and the property of the legal personality. However, if the legal personality represents a corporation, a limited liability corporation, or company, the property administration of the German labor front will only be put in possession of the shares or business shares; the company continues its existence with rights and obligations. Sentence 2 is not effective if the exclusive purpose of the company was the administration of houses of labor unions or if a property administration or trustee company of a former association of employers and employees is involved, the property of which will be put in possession of the property administration of the German labor front as provided in (1). The property administration of the German labor front (DAF) will in these cases take possession of both the shares and business shares, and also of the property of the company.

3. Inasmuch as the property of a former association of employers and employees has already been disposed of through an orderly liquidation or agreement, it will be left as it is. Pending liquidations and settlements will not be continued.

4. The Reich Minister of the Interior will announce, in agreement with the Deputy of the Fuehrer, the Reich Minister of Economy and the Reich Minister for Labor, the owners of property, possession of which has been transferred to the property administration of the German labor front according to (1), (2) first sentence and (2) third sentence. These regulations will be announced in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger and Preussischer Staatsanzeiger (official publications) until the 30 June 1938. They are binding for courts and administrative authorities.

5. The owners of property to be made public as provided in (4), are, inasmuch as they represent legal personalities or collective personalities, dissolved with the effectiveness of this law. A liquidation does not take place.

6. The leader of the German labor front Dr. Ley will be the guardian entitled to dispose of the properties confiscated by the general public prosecutor of the Country Court I Berlin from the time of confiscation of the properties up to the effectiveness of this law and will be verified with the authority to take action compatible with the purpose of the sequestration and according to his judgment conformable to duty; in particular to give and receive declarations of will for the owners of the confiscated property.

Article 25

1. The German labor front and the property administration are responsible for claims against those owners of property, which has been transferred to the latter, only in the case, if the claims arose after a day which the Reich Minister of the Interior will determine in cooperation with the Deputy of the Fuehrer, the Reich Minister of Economy and the Reich Minister for Labor at the announcement of the owners of property (Article 24(4)).

2. The German labor front and the property administration of the German labor front are responsible for claims resulting from service or work status with the owners of property mentioned in Article 24 or the German labor front only, if the service or work status has been extended by the German labor front beyond the 30 Sept 1933.

Article 26

1. Rights on objects, which the property administration of the German labor front acquires according to Article 24, are expiring. The same applies to property rights secured in such objects.

2. Section (1) will not be applied, if the objects have been already liquidated at the effectiveness of this law or if the rights or the secured property have been established after the day to be determined according to Article 25 (1).

Article 27

If the victim suffered a loss in property on account of the regulations of Articles 25 and 26, he can be granted an indemnification from the funds of the German labor front and the property administration of the German labor front.

Article 28

The regulations of Articles 5 to 17 will be applied on the basis of Articles 29 and 30 respectively.

Article 29

The petition to grant an indemnification has to be made in writing by 30 Sept 38 to the determining authority (Article 30) by stating the cause of the offense.

Article 30

1. The determining authority of the Reich will decide on the motion (Article 16). The chambers will judge the case in a composition of three members including the chairman of whom one member will be suggested by the Deputy of the Fuehrer, another one by the Reich Minister of Economy in conjunction with the Reich Minister for Labor. The chairman and the members will be appointed by the Reich Minister of the Interior.

2. Before the decision a representative to be named by the German labor front has to be heard.

Article 31

Inasmuch as economic associations of employers and their institutions have been incorporated or joined or dissolved within the framework of the legislation on the preliminary erection of the Reich food estate, the regulations of this part will not be applied.

Chapter 4. Final Regulations

Article 32

1. Indemnification will not be granted on the basis of other laws in those cases affected by this law. Existing claims expire.

2. If a party proves by litigation that the pending claim comes under this law, the court has to discontinue the procedure and to defer temporarily the distraint resulting from an executory decision already enacted. The court may also issue these regulations under the authority of the law if it views the pending claim as falling under this law. In both cases the court has to inform the proper determining authority by presenting the records. The rules of the court cannot be contested.

3. The determining authority may admit the further prosecution of the claim by regular legal steps or present the records to the determining authority of the Reich for a decision.

4. If the determining authority or the determining authority of the Reich permits the further prosecution of the claim by regular legal steps, the court has to lift on request the regulation on the discontinuance of the legal dispute or the temporary suspension of the distraint.

5. The decision of the determining authority of the Reich to deal with the claim in a determining procedure does not permit its further prosecution by legal steps and the distraint of the claim.

Article 33

If there exists already an executory title on claims which are affected by this law, the regulations of Article 32 will be applied respectively.

Article 34

Inasmuch as a legal dispute is being settled by this law, the court costs will be cancelled and the extrajudicial costs balanced against each other.

Article 35

1. The granting of an indemnification by arbitration will not be excluded by the regulations of this law. The determining authority has to verify the agreement.

2. If an agreement on the claims and rights affected by this law had already been concluded at the time this law became effective, it will be left as it is.

Article 36

1. If the Reich or a state has transferred confiscated properties as a whole or in part to another natural or legal personality, the determining authority may impose upon the one who takes possession of the property, the duty to give total or partial indemnification to the entitled persons. In case the Reich or a state will be declared liable of indemnification, it must at the same time be determined whether and in what amount the one who takes possession has to pay compensation to the Reich or State. The person taking possession of the property has the right to appeal against the decision of the determining authority to the determining authority of the Reich.

2. Resulting from the valid decisions of the determining authorities, by which according to (1) obligations will be imposed on the one who takes possession, the distraint will be executed.

Article 37

The decisions of the determining authorities are binding for the regular courts and other places of judgment.

Article 38

Articles 3, 4 and 7 of the law on the confiscation of communist property of 26 May 1933 (RGBl I, p. 293) are no longer valid.

Article 39

1. If objects and rights are seized on the basis of the laws designated in Article 1, the State is responsible for claims against the former owner of the confiscated objects only with the rights and objects fallen to it by the confiscation. Rights on objects of seized property continue to exist.

2. In case of excessive debts, bankruptcy proceedings against the property will be enacted through motion of a state or creditor, according to regulations. The referee in bankruptcy has to be appointed in agreement with the central administration board responsible for the district of the bankruptcy court and has to be recalled on its request.

3. The same applies if the property of a person deprived of citizenship (Article 18) has been declared to fall to the Reich after this law had become effective.

Article 40

The Reich Minister of the Interior will be authorized to issue in agreement with the other responsible ministers the legal and administrative instruments required in order to execute and supplement this law.

Berlin, 9 December 1937

The Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich
Adolf Hitler

The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick

The Deputy of the Fuehrer
R. Hess
(Reich Minister without Portfolio)

The Reich Minister of Finance
Count Schwerin von Krosigk

The Reich Minister of Economy
authorized to manage affairs:
Goering
(Prussian Premier)

The Reich Minister for Labor
Franz Seldte

The Reich Minister for Justice
Dr Guertner

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1406-PS

1938 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 414

Decree for the Reporting of Jewish Owned Property of 26 April 1938

On the basis of the Decree for the Execution of the Four Year Plan of 18 October 1936 (RGBl I, 887) the following is hereby decreed:

Article 1

1. Every Jew (Article 5 of the First Regulation under the Reich Citizenship Law of 14 November 1935 (RGBl I, 1333)) shall report and evaluate in accordance with the following instructions his entire domestic and foreign property and estate on the day when this decree goes into force. Jews of foreign citizenship shall report and evaluate only their domestic property.

2. The duty to report holds likewise for the non-Jewish marital partner of a Jew.

3. Every reporting person's property must be given separately.

Article 2

1. Property in the sense of this law includes the total property of the person required to report, irrespective of whether it is exempt from any form of taxation or not.

2. It does not include movable objects used by the individual or house furnishings as far as the latter are not classed as luxury objects.

Article 3

1. Every part of the property shall be valued according to the usual value it has on the effective date of this regulation.

2. No report is necessary when the total worth of the property to be reported does not exceed 5000 marks.

Article 4

The report is to be presented on an official form by 30 June 1938, to the administrative official responsible at the place of residence of the reporting individual. When such a report is not possible by this date the responsible office can extend the period. In such case, however, an estimate is to be presented by 30 June 1938, together with a statement of the grounds of delay.

Article 5

1. The reporting individual must report, after this decree goes into force, to the responsible office, every change of said individual's total property as far as it exceeds a proper standard of living or normal business transactions.

2. The reporting requirement applies also to those Jews who were not required to report on the effective date of this regulation, but who have acquired property exceeding 5000 Reichsmarks in value, after this date. Article 1 (1) clause 2, shall apply respectively.

Article 6

1. The administrative offices responsible under this regulation are in Prussia—Highest Administrative Officer [Regierungspraesident] (in Berlin the Police President); Bavaria—Highest Administrative Officer [Regierungspraesident]; Saxony—The District Head [Kreishauptmann]; Wurtemberg—The Minister of the Interior; Baden—The Minister of the Interior; Thueringen—Reich Governor [Reichsstatthalter]; Hessen—Reich Governor; Hamburg—Reich Governor; Mecklenburg—Ministry of the State, Interior Department; Oldenburg-Minister of Interior; Braunschweig—Ministry of Interior; Bremen—Senator for Administration of Interior; Anhalt—Ministry of State Interior Department; Lippe—Reich Governor (Land Government); Schaumburg-Lippe—Land Government; Saarland—The Reich Commissioner for the Saar.

2. Austria—The Reich Governor has jurisdiction. He may transfer his authority to another board.

Article 7

The Deputy for the Four Year Plan is empowered to take such necessary measures as may be necessary to guarantee the use of the reported property in accord with the necessities of German economy.

Article 8

1. Whoever wilfully or negligently fails to comply with this reporting requirement, either by omitting it, or making it incorrectly, or not within the time specified, or whoever acts contrary to any instruction issued pursuant to Article 7 by the Deputy of the Four Year Plan shall be punishable by imprisonment and by a fine or by both of these penalties, in particularly flagrant cases of wilful violation the offender may be condemned to hard labor up to ten years. The offender is punishable notwithstanding that the action was in a foreign country.

2. Any attempt to commit such actions is punishable.

3. In addition to the imposition of the penalties under (1), the property may be confiscated, insofar as it was involved in the criminal action. In addition to hard labor confiscation may be made. Where no specific individual can be prosecuted or convicted, confiscation may be decreed independently, where the prerequisites for confiscation warrant it.

Berlin, 26 April 1938

The Deputy for the Four Year Plan
Goering
General Field Marshal

The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1946-693256

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E-text prepared by Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)

E-text prepared by Graeme Mackreth
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(https://archive.org)