Context of Rosenberg diary entry 9 Oct 1942

On September 14, 1942, Thierack wrote:

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.

Mattogno's Dishonesty: the Föhl Letter

In MGK's Riposte, p.546, Mattogno writes as follows:

 On 21 June 1942 Walter Föhl, Deputy Director of the Department for Population and Social Welfare of the General Government (stellvertretender Leiter der Abteilung Bevölkerungswesen und Fürsorge des Generalgouvernements), wrote a letter containing the following information:

“Wir nehmen jeden Tag Züge mit je über 1000 Juden aus ganz Europa an und verarzten sie hier, bringen sie mehr oder weniger provisorisch unter und schieben sie meist weiter, hinein in die weißruthenischen Sümpfe Richtung Eismeer, wo sie alle – wenn sie es überleben (und das tun die Juden vom Kurfürstendamm oder aus Wien und Preßburg bestimmt nicht) – gegen Kriegsende versammelt sind, nicht ohne einige Autostraßen fertig gebaut zuhaben. (Aber man soll darüber nicht sprechen).”

“Every day we receive trains, each with more than 1,000 Jews from all of Europe, giving them medical checks, accommodating them more or less temporarily and sending most of them on, into the White Ruthenian marshes toward the Arctic Ocean, where they will all be assembled by the end of the war – provided they survive (and the Jews from the Kurfürstendamm or from Vienna and Bratislava certainly won’t) – not without having built some roads. (But we are not supposed to talk about it).”

The only sane reading of Föhl's letter is that it is a sarcastic commentary on how three of the RSHA's former suggestions (deportation to the Pripet marshes, detention in Siberian camps and roadbuilding in the East) have now been replaced by extermination in the Aktion Reinhard camps, with the exception of the use of some fit Jews (a relatively small number) for work tasks such roadbuilding on the DG IV project. Föhl's sarcastic tone is clearly expressed in the absurd formulation "the White Ruthenian marshes toward the Arctic Ocean", whilst the real murderous intent is conveyed in the phrase "provided they survive (and the Jews from the Kurfürstendamm or from Vienna and Bratislava certainly won’t)," which also echoes the euphemistic language used at Wannsee concerning "natural reduction." Yet Mattogno, a supposedly educated man, says "This provides further evidence in favor of a real “resettlement [Aussiedlung].”" This tells us everything we need to know about Mattogno.

From Destruction through Labour to Destruction of Labour

This phrase comes from Browning, p.87, and describes a transition that can be encapsulated in two extracts. The first comes from Oswald Pohl and describes the labour policy that existed as of April 1942 in the General Government:

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The commander of camp alone is responsible for the employment of the workers. This work input must be exhaustive in the true sense of the word, in order to obtain a maximum of achievement. [...] The work time is bound to no borders. [...] Time-consuming advances and lunch time only for meal purposes are forbidden. [IMT: The process, volume XXXVIII, page 366/Doku. 129-R].

The second comes from the diary of Hans Frank, is dated 9 December 1942, and describes the dilemma that Frank faced after Himmler had intervened to exterminate his essential Jewish workers:

In our time-tested Jews we have had a not insignificant source of labour manpower taken from us. It is clear that the process of mobilizing labour is rendered more difficult when in the midst of this wartime labour program the order comes that all Jews are to be left to their destruction [cited, Browning, p.79].

Extermination Planning and Forced Labour Needs

In the Occupied Eastern Territories, the Wehrmacht, SS and civil administration had complex relationships of co-operation and tension. They co-operated in killing actions, but also had conflicts concerning how much Jewish labour would be retained at each stage of the genocide. Below are two contemporary quotes from senior German figures in the Belorussia region that provide insights into those processes.

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The first extract comes from the KdS Minsk, Strauch, who has already been discussed in these blogs. On 8th-10th April, 1943, Strauch attended a gebietskommissars council meeting in Minsk in which he made this statement:

When the civil administration arrived it already found economic enterprises operated by the Wehrmacht aided by Jews. At a time when the Bielorussians wanted to murder the Jews, the Wehrmacht cultivated them. In that way Jews reached key positions and it is difficult today to remove them completely, for then the enterprises are liable to be destroyed, something we cannot allow ourselves. I am of the opinion that we can confidently say that of the 150,000, 130,000 have already disappeared. 22,000 are still alive in the area of the Gebietskommissariat [source: YV TR-10/808, cited by Cholawsky, p.64].

Strauch suggested that half (11,000) could be removed without causing undue difficulties:

I therefore want to request of you that, at least, the Jew disappear from any place where he is superfluous. We cannot agree to Jewish women polishing shoes...We will cut the number down to half without causing economic difficulties.

Strauch was thus frustrated by the fact that Jews could not be removed completely yet he still felt confident enough to request a 50% reduction in a population that had already been reduced from 150,000 to 22,000.

This willingness to overcome forced labour constraints was also shared by some civil leaders, who were under pressure to reduce the pressures on the food supply. There was a delicate balance between viewing Jews as essential workers and seeing them as useless eaters; and the administrators who were wedded most fanatically to Nazi antisemitic dogma were inclined to finally arrive at the latter perspective. This is most clearly apparent in the report written by the Gebeitskommissar for Slonim, Gerhard Erren, on 25th January 1942, which stated that:

[…] Upon my arrival here there were about 25,000 Jews in the Slonim area, 16,000 in the actual town itself, making up over two-thirds of the total population of the town. It was not possible to set up a ghetto as neither barbed wire nor guard manpower was available. I thus immediately began preparations for a large-scale action. First of all property was expropriated and all the German official buildings, including the Wehrmacht quarters, were equipped with the furniture and equipment that had been made available…the Jews were then registered accurately according to number, age and profession and all craftsmen and workers with qualifications were singled out and given passes and separate accommodation to distinguish them from the other Jews. The action carried out by the SD on 13 November rid me of unnecessary mouths to feed. The some 7,000 Jews now present in the town of Slonim have all been allocated jobs. They are working willingly because of the constant fear of death. Early next year they will be rigorously checked and sorted for a further reduction […]

[…] The best of the skilled workers among the Jews will be made to pass their skills on to intelligent apprentices in my craft colleges, so that Jews will finally be dispensable in the skilled craft and trade sector and can be eliminated.

Erren not only saw the need for Jewish labour as temporary, he took pro-active steps to ensure that non-Jews would be trained in the crafts currently occupied by Jews "so that Jews will finally be dispensable in the skilled craft and trade sector and can be eliminated."

In the case of Slonim, therefore, the timing of genocidal acts was very carefully planned, and could be implemented without resistance because the civil administration and SS were in accord. In the case of Minsk, by contrast, the SS (Strauch) had to negotiate with the civil administration (Kube), and the Wehrmacht, which was the main employer of Jewry in the region, and thus the pace of killing was slower.