2) Koppe, 18.10.40: "[The] so-called Sonderkommando Lange, assigned to me for special tasks, was detached to Soldau in East Prussia from 21 May to 8 June, 1940, as per agreement with the Reich Main Security Office [RSHA]. During this period, it successfully evacuated 1,558 mental patients from the Soldau transit camp" [source].
3) Goebbels 31.1.41: "Mit Bouhler Frage der stillschweigenden Liquidierung von Geisteskranken besprochen. 40000 sind weg, 60000 müssen noch weg. Das ist eine harte, aber auch notwendige Arbeit. Und sie muß jetzt getan werden. Bouhler ist der rechte Mann dazu" [source].
4) Staatssekretäre meeting, 2.5.41: "There is no doubt that as a result many millions of people will be starved to death if we take out of the country the things necessary for us” [Aktennotiz über Ergebnis der heutigen. Besprechung mit den Staatssekretären über Barbarossa, 2.5.41, 2718-PS, IMT XXXI, pp.84-85, English translation in NCA V, p.378; cf. Alex J. Kay, ‘Germany's Staatssekretäre, Mass Starvation and the Meeting of 2 May 1941’, Journal of Contemporary History, 41/4, October 2006, pp.685-700]
5) Backe, 23.5.41: "This will inevitably result in an extinction of industry as well as of a large part of the people...” [Wirtschaftspolitische Richtlinien für die Wirtschaftsorganisation Ost vom 23.5.1941, erarbeitet von der Gruppe Landwirtschaft, 23.5.41, EC-126, IMT XXXVI, pp.135-57. English translation in NCA, VII, pp.295-306, here p.305].
6) Hitler, 16.7.41:
Nobody shall be able to recognize that it initiates a final settlement. This need not prevent our taking all necessary measures - shooting, resettling, etc. - and we shall take them.7) Höppner 16.7.41:
But we do not want to make any people into enemies prematurely and unnecessarily. Therefore we shall act as though we wanted to exercise a mandate only. At the same time we must know clearly that we shall never leave those countries" [Vermerk über die Besprechung am 16.7.1941, L-221, IMT XXXVIII, pp.86-94, here p.87; English translation NCA VII, pp.1086-1093, here pp.1086-1087]
4. This winter there is a danger that not all of the Jews can be fed anymore. One should weigh honestly, if the most humane solution might not be to finish off those of the Jews who are not employable by means of some quickworking device. At any rate, that would be more pleasant than to let them starve to death.8) Heydrich 17.7.41: "Above all, the following must be discovered: all important functionaries of State and Party, especially professional revolutionaries . . . all People’s Commissars in the Red Army, leading personalities of the State . . . 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. Executions are not to be held in the camp or in the immediate vicinity of the camp . . . The prisoners are to be taken for special treatment if possible into the former Soviet Russian territory [502-PS; scan of German text]."
5. For the rest, the proposal was made that in this camp all the Jewish women, from whom one could still expect children, should be sterilized so that the Jewish problem may actually be solved completely with this generation [source and German scan].
9) Goebbels 20.7.41:
Just as the fist of an awakened Germany has struck this racial filth, the fist of an awakened Europe will surely follow. Mimicry will not help the Jews then. They will have to face their accusers. The court of the nations will judge their oppressor.10) Himmler, 1.8.41: "Explicit order from the R[eichs]F[ührer-]SS: All Jews must be shot, drive Jewish women into the swamps" [source, p.138].
Without pity or forgiveness, the blow will strike. The world enemy will fall, and Europe will have peace [source and source].
11) Goebbels citing Hitler 20.8.41: "But I will not rest or be idle until we too have gone all the way with the Jews" (Goebbels' diary in Browning, p.320).
12) Hübner 5.9.41: "we don’t treat the Jews with kid gloves and...in the east already many a Jew no longer lives" (source here).
13) Deutche Zeitung in der Niederlanden, Nr. 98, 10.9.41, p.2: "Dieser teuflische Plan entpuppt such bei naeherem Zusehen als ein Vernichtungsfeldzug gegen die Wolgadeutschen. Ihre planmaessige Ausrottung ist das Ziel die Gewalthaber in Kreml [source]."
14) Voelkische Beobachter, 11.9.41, p.1 (VB 254), headline: "Die Wolgadeutschen sollen nach Sibirien verbannt werden. Unter dem Vorwand der "Umsiedlung" voellige Ausrottung der letzten 400 000 Bauern deutscher Abstammung" cited in Wolfram Meyer zu Uptrup, Kampf gegen die "jüdische Weltverschwörung" : Propaganda und Antisemitismus der Nationalsozialisten 1919 bis 1945. Berlin: Metropol, 2003, p.387 (courtesy of Nick Terry).
15) Rosenberg 12.9.41: "Stalin now was also going to expel the remaining 400,000 Volga Germans to Siberia, that is, to murder them" [source].
16) Wolfgang Diewerge, Das Kriegsziel der Weltplutokratie. Dokumentarische Veröffentlichung zu dem Buch des Präsidenten der amerikanischen Friedensgesellschaft Theodore Nathan Kaufman “Deutschland muß sterben” (“Germany must perish”) (Berlin: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1941):
Who Should Die — Germans or Jews?17) Rasch, 17.9.41: "There is only one possibility, which the German administration in the General Gouvernement has not sufficiently understood for a long time, the solution of the Jewish problem by extensive labor utilization of the Jews. This will result in a gradual liquidation of the Jews, a development which corresponds to the economic conditions of the country." [source].
Here a modest point may be permitted: There are about 20 million Jews in the world.
How would it be if one wanted to treat 20 million Jews according to the proposal of their racial comrade Kaufman rather than 80 million Germans? Then peace would certainly be assured. For the Jew is the troublemaker, the warmonger, everywhere in the world [source and source].
18) EM 101, 2.10.41: "Sonderkommando 4a in collaboration with Einsatzgruppe HQ and two Kommandos of police regiment South, executed 33,771 Jews in Kiev on September 29 and 30, 1941"
19) Hitler, 6.10.41: Jews of Vienna and Berlin "verschwinden" [source].
20) Reichenau, 10.10.41: "Therefore the soldier must have full understanding for the necessity of a severe but just revenge on subhuman Jewry. The Army has to aim at another purpose, i.e. the annihilation of revolts in hinterland, which, as experience proves, have always been caused by Jews [source and source]."
21) Alnor, 11.10.41: "Especially the shooting of women and children, who sometimes had to be taken to the execution site screaming, has been the source of general horror. The rather compliant mayor of Libau […] appeared personally before me and pointed out the agitation throughout the city. Also officers asked me if this cruel manner of executing even children was necessary. In any cultured state and even in the Middle Ages it was not allowed to kill pregnant women. Here even that was not taken into consideration.[…] I am of the opinion that this will one day turn out to be a serious mistake. Unless one also liquidates thereafter all elements participating therein. (Es sei denn, dass man alle dabei mitwirkenden Elemente auch anschlieβend liquidiert)[Bericht des Gebietskommissars Libau, gez. Alnor, an den Generalkommissar Lettland, Drechsler, 11.10.1941, VEJ 7, pp.556-57 (Dok. 200), translation by Roberto Muehlenkamp here].
22) Richter file memo, Bucharest, 17.10.41 (enclosed in 3319-PS): "According to information today from director General Lecca, 110,000 Jews are being evacuated from Bukovina and Bessarabia into two forests in the Bug River Area. As far as he could learn, this action is based upon an order issued by Marshal Antonescu. Purpose of the action is the liquidation of these Jews." (PS-3319, NCA VI, p.34 and IMT Ninety-Second Day: Wednesday, 27th March, 1946 (Part 2 of 10))
23) Wurm 23.10.41:
24) Hitler, 25.10.41: "This criminal race has the two million dead from the World War on its conscience, now again hundreds of thousands. No one can say to me: we can't send them in the morass! Who then cares about our people? It is good if the terror we are exterminating Jewry goes before us." [source and source]Dear Party Comrade Rademacher!On my return trip from Berlin I met an old party comrade, who works in the east on the settlement of the Jewish question. In the near future many of the Jewish vermin will be exterminated through special measures (source note 82).
25) Wetzel, 25.10.41: "As things now are, there are no objections if the Jews who are not capable of work, are eliminated with the Brackian remedy" [source].
26) Wagner, 13.11.41: "non-working prisoners of war in the prison camps are to starve" [Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, p.801, citing AOK 18 Chef des Stabes, Merkpunkte aus der Chefbesprechung in Orscha am 13.11.41, NOKW-1535].
27) Lohse, 15.11.41:
I have forbidden the unauthorized ("wild") executions of Jews in Libau because the manner in which they were carried out was irresponsible.28) Goebbels 16.11.41: "The Jews are receiving a penalty that is certainly hard, but more than deserved. World Jewry erred in adding up the forces available to it for this war, and now is gradually experiencing the destructon that it planned for us, and would have carried out without a second thought if it had possessed the ability. It is perishing according its own law: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”" [source and source].
Will you please inform me whether your inquiry of October 31 should be interpreted as a directive to liquidate all the Jews in Ostland ? Is this to be done regardless of age, sex, and economic requirements (for instance, the Wehrmacht's demand for skilled workers in the armament industry)? Of course the cleansing of Ostland of Jews is a most important task; its solution, however, must be in accord with the requirements of war production. [source].
29) Goering, 11.41: "This year, 20 to 30 million people will die of hunger in Russia. Perhaps it is a good thing that this is happening, because certain peoples must be decimated" [source].
30) Rosenberg 18.11.41: "In the east some six million Jew still live, and this question can only be solved in a biological eradication of the entire Jewry of Europe. The Jewish question is only solved for Germany when the last Jew has left German territory, and for Europe when not a single Jew lives on the European continent up to the Urals. ...for this reason it is necessary to expel them over the Urals or eradicate them in some other way" (source).
31) Hitler, 28.11.41: "Germany's objective would then be solely the destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the protection of British power." [source]
32) Hitler 1.12.41:
Now, he who destroys life is himself risking death. That's the secret of what is happening to the Jews. Whose fault is it when a cat devours a mouse? The fault of the mouse, who has never done any harm to a cat?33) Jaeger report, 1.12.41: "I am of the view that the sterilization program of the male worker Jews should be started immediately so that reproduction is prevented. If despite sterilization a Jewess becomes pregnant she will be liquidated [source]."
This destructive role of the Jew has in a way a providential explanation. If nature wanted the Jew to be the ferment that causes peoples to decay, thus providing these peoples with an opportunity for a healthy reaction, in that case people like St.Paul and Trotsky are, from our point of view, the most valuable.
By the fact of their presence, they provoke the defensive reaction of the attacked organism. Dietrich Eckart once told me that in all his life he had known just one good Jew : Otto Weininger, who killed himself on the day when he realised that the Jew lives upon the decay of peoples.
It is remarkable that the half-caste Jew, to the second or third generation, has a tendency to start flirting again with pure Jews. But from the seventh generation onwards, it seems the purity of the Aryan blood is restored. In the long run nature eliminates the noxious elements.
One may be repelled by this law of nature which demands that all living things should mutually devour one another. The fly is snapped up by a dragon-fly, which itself is swallowed by a bird, which itself falls victim to a larger bird. This last, as it grows old, becomes a prey to microbes, which end by getting the better of it. These microbes, in their turn, find their predestined ends.
If we had more powerful microscopes, we would discover new worlds. In the absolute, moreover, nothing is either great or small. Things are big or little by the standard one selects.
What is certain, in any case, is that one cannot change anything in all that. Even a man who takes his own life returns finally to nature—body, soul and mind.
The toad knows nothing of his previous existence as a tadpole, and our own memory serves us no better as regards our own previous state. That's why I have the feeling that it's useful to know the laws of nature—for that enables us to obey them.
To act otherwise would be to rise in revolt against Heaven. If I can accept a divine Commandment, it's this one: "Thou shalt preserve the species [source].
34) Lohse, 2.12.41: "I request most emphatically that the liquidation of Jews employed as skilled workers in armament plants and repair workshops of the Wehrmacht who cannot be replaced at present by local personnel be prevented [source]."
35) Seraphim, 2.12.41:
Scooping off the agricultural surplus in the Ukraine for the purpose of feeding the Reich is therefore only feasible if traffic in the interior of the Ukraine is diminished to a minimum. The attempt will be made to achieve this
1. by annihilation of superfluous eaters (Jews, population of the Ukrainian big cities, which like Kiev do not receive any supplies at all);
2. by extreme reduction of the rations. allocated to the Ukrainians in the remaining cities;
3. by decrease of the food of the farming population [Bericht Prof. Seraphim mit Anschreiben der Rüstungsinspektion Ukraine, 2.12.41, 3257-PS. IMT vol. XXXII, 71-75, here p.74; translation in NCA, vol. 5, p.996].36) Goebbels on Hitler's address to the Gau and Reich leaders of 12.12.41: "As concerns the Jewish question, the Führer is determined to make a clean sweep. He had prophesied to the Jews that if they once again brought about a world war they would experience their own extermination. This was not just an empty phrase. The World War is there, the extermination of Jewry must be the necessary consequence. This question must be seen without sentimentality. We are not here in order to have sympathy with the Jews, rather we sympathise with our own German people. If the German people have now once again sacrificed as many as 160,000 dead in the Eastern campaign, then the authors of this bloody conflict must pay with their lives." [source]
37) Rosenberg, 14.12.41: "comments on the New York Jews did not perhaps have to ... be somewhat altered. [...] I took the position not to speak about the extirpation (Ausrottung) of the Jews. The Führer agreed with this attitude and said they saddled us with the war and they brought the destruction; it would be no wonder if they were the first to feel the consequences." [source]
38) Frank 16.12.41:
This war would only be a partial success if the whole lot of Jewry would survive it, while we would have shed our best blood in order to save Europe. My attitude towards the Jews will, therefore, be based only on the expectation that they must disappear. They must be done away with. I have entered negotiations to have them deported to the East. A great discussion concerning that question will take place in Berlin in January, to which I am going to delegate the State Secretary Dr. Buehler. That discussion is to take place in the Reich Security Main Office with SS-Lt. General Heydrich. A great Jewish migration will begin, in any case.39) Kube, 16.12.41: "Is the slaughter to be carried out by the Lithuanians and Letts, who are themselves rejected by the population here? I couldn't do it. I beg you to give clear directives [in this matter], with due consideration for the good name of our Reich and our Party, in order that the necessary action can be taken in the most humane manner." [source].
But what should be done with the Jews? Do you think they will be settled down in the 'Ostland', in villages? This is what we were told in Berlin: Why all this bother ? We can do nothing with them either in the 'Ostland' nor in the 'Reich kommissariat'. So liquidate them yourself.
Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourself of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews, wherever we find them and wherever it is possible, in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole. This will, naturally, be achieved by other methods than those pointed out by Bureau Chief Dr. Hummel. Nor can the judges of the Special Courts be made responsible for it, because of the limitations of the framework of the legal procedure. Such outdated views cannot be applied to such gigantic and unique events. We must find at any rate a way which leads to the goal, and my thoughts are working in that direction.
The Jews represent for us-also extraordinarily malignant gluttons. We have now approximately 2,500,000 of them in the General Government, perhaps with the Jewish mixtures and everything that goes with it, 3,500,000 Jews. We cannot shoot or poison those 3,500,000 Jews, but we shall nevertheless be able to take measures, which will lead, somehow, to their annihilation, and this in connection with the gigantic measures to be determined in discussions from the Reich. The General Government must become free of Jews, the same as the Reich. Where and how this is to be achieved is a matter for the offices which we must appoint and create here. Their activities will be brought to your attention in due course." (source).
40) Himmler, 18.12.41: "Judenfrage/als Partisanen auszurotten" [source].
41) Braeutigam 18.12.41:
in reply to your letter of November 15, 194142) Schroeder, 23.12.41: most of Riga's population had "gratification and hopes for a complete elimination of the Jews" (Angrick & Klein, p.163, citing LVVA, P 70-5-44, 29-30, Der SSPF Latvia, KdO, Report of 23.12.41).
The Jewish question has presumably been clarified meanwhile by means of verbal discussion. In principle, economic considerations are not to be taken into account in the settlement of the problem. It is further requested that any questions that arise be settled directly with the Higher SS and Police Leader. [source].
43) Salitter 26.12.41:"Of the Bolsheviks, however, no Latvian wants to know, as there is rarely a family that has made it through the Soviet occupation without blood sacrifices. Their hatred is especially directed at the Jews. They have therefore from the moment of liberation until now participated copiously in the extermination of these parasites. However, as I found out especially regarding the railway personnel, they cannot understand why Germany brings the Jews to Latvia instead of having exterminated them in its own country [scan of German text; translation kindly provided by Roberto Muehlenkamp]."
44) EM 156, 16.1.42: "On November 30, 1941, 10,600 Jews were shot in Riga. The action was led by the Higher SS and Police Chief. One officer and 20 men of Einsatzkommando took part." [source]
45) Wannsee Protocol 20.1.42: "The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as a the seed of a new Jewish revival (see the experience of history)" (source).
46) Hitler 23.1.42: "For my part, I restrict myself to telling them they must go away. If they break their pipes on the journey, I can't do anything about it. But if they refuse to go voluntarily, I see no other solution but extermination" [source]
47) Hitler 30.1.42: "We are fully aware that this war can end either in the extermination of the Aryan people or in the disappearance of Jewry from Europe. I said as much before the German Reichstag on September 1, 1939. I wish to avoid making hasty prophesies, but this war will not end as the Jews imagine, namely, in the extermination of the European-Aryan people; instead, the result of this war will be the annihilation of Jewry. For the first time, the old, truly Jewish rule of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” will obtain" (Domarus).
48) Kube, 6.2.42: "because the ground in White Russia is frozen down to a depth of two meters, other possibilities were also not available" (Browning, p.394).
49) Mueller 18.2.42: "'where you cut wood, that is where the chips fall,' and the Jewish enemy will always try to exaggerate as much as possible the measures being taken against him in the hope of arousing pity and to achieve the cancellation of these steps. Since they began taking action against this enemy, he has been trying by means of anonymous letters to avoid the destiny that is appropriate to him [source and source]."
50) Hitler, 22.2.42: "The Jew will be identified! The same battle which Pasteur and Koch had to fight must be led by us today. Innumerable sicknesses have their origin in one bacillus: the Jew! Japan would also have got it had it been remained open any longer to the Jew. We will get well when we eliminate the Jews" [source].
51) Hitler, 24.2.42: "Today the idea of our National Socialist, and that of the fascist revolution, have conquered great and powerful states, and my prophecy will find its fulfillment, that through this war Aryan humankind will not be annihilated, but the Jew will be exterminated. Whatever the struggle may bring with it or however long it may last, this will be its final result. And only then, with the removal of these parasites, will a long period of understanding between nations, and with it true peace, come upon the suffering world" [source].
52) Rosenberg, 28.2.42: "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 in- formation 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 success- fully 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." [Rosenberg an Keitel. Betr.:Kriegsgefangene, 28.2.42. 081-PS, IMT XXV, pp.156-161, here p.157. English translation NMT, III, pp.126-130, here 127].
53) Final Solution conference, 6.3.42: "it was in no way tenable to keep the half-Jews permanently alive" [source and source, pp.5-6].
54) Goebbels, 6.3.42: "Everywhere the Jews are busy inciting and stirring up trouble. It is therefore desirable that many of them must pay with their lives for this. Anyway, I am of the opinion that the greater the number of Jews liquidated, the more consolidated will the situation in Europe be after this war. One must have no mistaken sentimentality about it. The Jews are Europe's misfortune. They must somehow be eliminated, otherwise we are in danger of being eliminated by them" (source).
55) Rademacher 24.3.42: The stronger the German victory looms, the greater and more urgent becomes the tasks of the Referat, because the Jewish question must be solved in the course of the war, for only so can it be solved without a world-wide outcry (Browning, p.83, citing PA, Inland II 347/3, Rademacher to Schroeder, 24.3.42)
56) Goebbels, 27.3.42:
Beginning with Lublin, the Jews in the General Government are now being evacuated eastward. The procedure is a pretty barbaric one and not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews. On the whole it can be said that about 60 per cent of them will have to be liquidated whereas only about 40 per cent can be used for forced labor.57) Turner, 11.4.42: "Already some months ago, I shot dead all the Jews I could get my hands on in this area, concentrated all the Jewish women and children in a camp and with the help of the SD got my hands on a "delousing van," that in about 14 days to 4 weeks will have brought about the definitive clearing out of the camp, which in any event since the arrival of Meyssner and the turning over of this camp to him, was continued by him. Then the time is come in which the Jewish officers to be found in prisoner of war camps under the Geneva Convention find out against our will about their no longer existing kinfolk and that could easily lead to complications" (source).
The former Gauleiter of Vienna, who is to carry this measure through, is doing it with considerable circumspection and according to a method that does not attract too much attention. A judgment is being visited upon the Jews that, while barbaric, is fully deserved by them. The prophesy which the Fuehrer made about them for having brought on a new world war is beginning to come true in a most terrible manner. One must not be sentimental in these matters. If we did not fight the Jews, they would destroy us. It's a life-and-death struggle between the Aryan race and the Jewish bacillus. No other government and no other regime would have the strength for such a global solution of this question. Here, too, the Fuehrer is the undismayed champion of a radical solution necessitated by conditions and therefore inexorable. Fortunately a whole series of possibilities presents itself for us in wartime that would be denied us in peacetime. We shall have to profit by this.
The ghettoes that will be emptied in the cities of the General Government now will be refilled with Jews thrown out of the Reich. This process is to be repeated from time to time. There is nothing funny in it for the Jews, and the fact that Jewry's representatives in England and America are today organizing and sponsoring the war against Germany must be paid for dearly by its representatives in Europe - and that's only right." [source].
58) Goebbels 27.4.42: "I talked to the Fuehrer once more in detail about the Jewish question. His attitude is unrelenting. He wants, under all circumstances, to push the Jews out of Europe. That is right. The Jews have brought so much misery to our continent that the severest punishment meted out to them is still too mild....[source]."
59) Wetzel, 27.4.42: "It should be obvious that one cannot solve the Polish problem by liquidating the Poles in the same way as the Jews. Such a solution to the Polish problem would burden the German people with guilt for years to come and lose us the sympathies of people everywhere, particularly since our neighbors would be bound to reckon that they would be treated in the same way when the time came." [source].
60) Goebbels 29.4.42: "The SD gave me a police report on conditions in the East. The danger of the Partisans continues to exist in unmitigated intensity in the occupied areas. The Partisans have, after all, caused us very great difficulties during the winter, and these difficulties have by no means ceased with the beginning of spring. Short shrift is made of the Jews in all eastern occupied areas. Tens of thousands of them are liquidated [source]."
61) Greiser, 1.5.42: "the action of special treatment of about 100,000 Jews in the area of my Gau" (source).
62) Triska 12.5.42: "Nach Transnistrien wurden die 28 000 Juden in deutsche Dörfer gebracht! Inzwischen wurden sie liquidiert" [scan; transcription also here].
63) Bräutigam, 5.42: "A considerable portion of the Jews in Transnistria have died" (Browning, p.93, citing NG-4817 and T 120/6737/E510802).
64) Goebbels 15.5.42: "A report from Paris informs me that a number of those who staged the last acts of terror have been found. About 99 per cent of them are eastern Jews [Ostjuden]. A more rigorous regime is now to be applied to these Jews. As far as I am concerned, it would be best if we either evacuated or liquidated all eastern Jews still remaining in Paris. By nature and race they will always be our natural enemies anyway [source]."
65) Decree 24.7.42: "Pregnancies and births in the ghetto are prohibited; pregnancies have to be terminated; pregnant women will be shot." [YVA 048 B12/4 cited in USHMM, Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto, p. 22; Avraham Tory, Surviving the Holocaust. The Kovno Ghetto Diary, entry for July 24, 1942, New York, 2011; Wolfram Wette, Karl Jäger. Mörder der litauischen Juden, Frankfurt am Main 2011, p.139].
66) Luther 26.7.42: "subjected to special treatment" [source: T/1023].
67) Himmler, 28.7.42: ""The Führer placed on my shoulders the implementation of this very difficult order. The responsibility cannot be taken away from me in any case." [source].
68) Kube, 31.7.42:
I myself and the SD would certainly much prefer that the Jewish population in the district general of White Ruthenia should be eliminated once and for all when the economic requirements of the Wehrmacht have fallen off. For the time being, the necessary requirements of the Wehrmacht who is the main employer of the Jewish population are still being considered. The clear anti-Jewish attitude of the SD and the difficult task of the units in White Ruthenia to deliver again and again new Jewish transports from the Reich to their destination, both put an undue strain on the physical and spiritual strength of men of the SD and diverts them from their real purpose, which lies in the White Ruthenian region itself."69) Bene, 13.8.42: "Since my above mentioned report the situation has considerably changed. After the Jews had found us out and got to know, what is behind the deportation and labor service in the East, they no more report for the weekly shipments. Of 2000 Jews called up for this week only about 400 showed up. In their homes the called up Jews cannot any longer be found [German text, English translation]."
I should therefore be grateful if the Reich Commissioner could see his way to stop further Jewish transports until the partisan threat has finally been overcome. I must make 100 percent use of the SD against partisans and against the Polish Resistance Movement, both of which demand the use of the full strength of the SD units, which are none too strong as it is. [NMT IV, p.193].
70) Thierack 14.9.42: "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 [source]."
71) Thierack 18.9.42: "Delivery of asocial elements [asozialer Elemente] while serving penal sentences to the Reich Leader SS to be worked to death [zur Vernichtung durch Arbeit]. Persons under security detention, Jews, gypsies, Russians, and Ukrainians; Poles with more than 3-year sentences; and Czechs and Germans with more than 8-year sentences, will be turned over without exception, according to the decision of the Reich Minister of Justice [source and scan of German text]."
72) Himmler, 9.10.42: ""Nevertheless, the Jews are supposed to disappear from there as well, according to the wishes of the Führer." [source]
73) Thierack 13.10.42: "With a view to freeing the German people of Poles, Russians, Jews, and gypsies and with a view to making the Eastern territories which have been incorporated into the Reich available for settlements for German nationals, I intend to turn over criminal proceedings against Poles, Russians, Jews, and gypsies to the Reichsfuehrer SS. In so doing I base myself on the principle that the administration of justice can only make a small contribution to the extermination of members of these peoples. The Justice Administration undoubtedly pronounces very severe sentences on such persons, but that is not enough to constitute any material contribution towards the realization of the above-mentioned aim [source and scan of German text]."
74) Besprechungsniederschrift der Besprechung über die Endlösung der Judenfrage, 27.10.1942, p.2: "Having regard to this, it was agreed that the proposal to sterilize all half-Jews of the first degree should be approved [source and source]."
75) Himmler, 27.10.42: "Therefore I order, in spite of economic considerations, the destruction and obliteration of the Ghetto of Pinsk. 1000 male workers may be spared, in the event that the operation allows for this, to be made available to the Wehrmacht, for the production of wooden prefabricated huts. These 1000 men must be kept in a well-guarded camp, and if security not be maintained, these 1000 are to be destroyed [source and source]."
76) Hitler, 8.11.42:
There is only one thing left, that is to fight. Just as I said at a certain moment to the internal enemies: "It is not possible to come to an understanding with you peacefully; you want force, so now you'll get it." And these internal enemies have been taken care of.77) Himmler, 10.12.42: "abschaffen" of 600,000 to 700,000 French Jews [source]
Another power, too, which was very strong in Germany has meanwhile been able to learn from experience that the National Socialist prophecies are no mere phrases; it is the main power to which we owe all this misfortune-international Jewry. You will recall the Reichstag session at which I declared: "If Judaism imagines by any chance that it can bring about an international world war for the extermination of the European races, the result will not be the extermination of the European races, but the extermination of the Jews in Europe [source].
78) Goebbels, 14.12.42: "Jewry must pay for its crime just as our Fuehrer prophesied in his speech in the Reichstag; namely, by the wiping out of the Jewish race in Europe and possibly in the entire world" [source].
79) Himmler, 29.12.42: "Jews executed 363.211" [source]
80) Goebbels, 2.3.43: "Goering realizes perfectly what is in store for all of us if we show any weakness in this war. He has no illusions about that. On the Jewish question, especially, we have taken a position from which there is no escape. That is a good thing. Experience teaches that a movement and a people who have burned their bridges fight with much greater determination than those who are still able to retreat" [source].
81) Strauch, 8-10.4.43: "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." [Shalom Cholawsky, The Jews of Bielorussia during World War II, Amsterdam, 1998, p.64, citing Protokoll über die Tagung der Gebietskommissare, Hauptabteilungsleiter und Abteilungsleiter des. Generalkommissars in Minsk vom 8.April bis 10.April 1943. YV TR-10/808; also in Erich Haberer, ‘The German police and genocide in Belorussia, 1941-1944. Part I: Police deployment and Nazi genocidal directives’, Journal of Genocide Research, 2001, 3 (1), p.13, citing CSA-Minsk 370/1/1263/126-45].
82) Hitler, 17.4.43: "Where the Jews were left to themselves, as for example in Poland, gruesome poverty and degeneracy had ruled. They were just pure parasites. One had fundamentally cleared up this state of affairs in Poland. If the Jews there didn't want to work, they were shot. If they couldn't work, they had to perish. They had to be treated like tuberculosis bacilli, from which a healthy body could be infected. That was not cruel, if one remembered that even innocent natural creatures like hares and deer had to be killed so that no harm was caused. Why should one spare the beasts who wanted to bring us Bolshevism more? Nations who did not rid themselves of Jews perished" [source].
83) Berger, 19.4.43, NO-628: "In Hungarian Government circles there exists a well-founded fear that the accession to the confederation will be tied up with compulsion to liquidate the Jews [source]."
84) Brandt, 20.4.43: "The Reichsführer-SS has received your report on "The Final Solution of the European Jewish Question". He wishes that "special treatment of the Jews" not be mentioned anywhere [Brandt an Korherr, 20.4.43, BA NS19/1570, also NO-5196]
85) Himmler April 1943 Kharkov speech: "The decision, therefore, lies here in the East; here must the Russian enemy, this people numbering two hundred million Russians, be destroyed on the battle field and person by person, and made to bleed to death.
It is my opinion - and here, I believe, I am speaking to men [p. 3] who already understand this - that we must conduct the war and our campaign on these lines:-how can we take the most men from the Russians-dead or alive? We shall do it by killing them or taking them prisoner and [p. 4] really putting them to work, by endeavoring to gain as much control as possible over any territory we occupy, and by leaving empty of people any territory we dispose of, any areas we make over to the enemy. Either they must be deported and will be used as labour in Germany for Germany, or they will just die in battle. To hand people back again, giving the enemy workers once more and enabling him to recruit again,-that I think, taking the broad view, would be absolutely wrong. That could not be advocated [source]."
86) Goebbels 9.5.43:
None of the Führer’s prophetic words has come so inevitably true as his prediction that if Jewry succeeded in provoking a second world war, the result would be not the destruction of the Aryan race, but rather the wiping out of the Jewish race87) Goebbels, 13.5.43: "At noon I mentioned this to the Fuehrer. He believed the Protocols were absolutely geniune.... The Jewish question, in the Fuehrer's opinion, will play a decisive role in England.... In all the world, he said, the Jews are alike. Whether they live in a ghetto of the East or in the bankers' palaces of the City or Wall Street, they will always pursue the same aims and without previous agreement even use the same means. Once might well ask why are there any Jews in the world order? That would be exactly like asking why are there potato bugs? Nature is dominated by the law of struggle. There will always be parasites who will spur this struggle on and intensify the process of selection between the strong and the weak. The principle of struggle dominates also in human life. One must merely know the laws of this struggle to be able to face it. The intellectual does not have the natural means of resisting the Jewish peril because his instincts have been badly blunted. Because of this fact the nations with a high standard of civilization are exposed to this peril first and foremost. In nature life always takes measures against parasites; in the life of nations that is not always the case. From this fact the Jewish peril actually stems. There is therefore no other recourse left for modern nations except to exterminate the Jew...." [source].
[...]
The Jews laughed in Germany too when they first saw us. They are not laughing any longer. They chose to wage war against us. But that war is turning against them. When they planned a war to totally destroy the German nation, they signed their own death warrant [source and source].
88) Tauebner judgment 24.5.43: "The accused shall not be punished because of the actions against the Jews as such. The Jews have to be exterminated and none of the Jews that were killed is any great loss. Although the accused should have recognized that the extermination of the Jews was the duty of Kommandos which were set up especially for this purpose, he should be excused for considering himself to have the authority to take part in the extermination of Jewry himself. Real hatred of the Jews was the driving motivation for the accused. In the process he let himself be drawn into committing cruel actions in Alexandriya which are unworthy of a German man and an SS-officer. These excesses cannot be justified, either, as the accused would like to, as retaliation for the pain that the Jews have caused the German people. It is not the German way to apply Bolshevic methods during the necessary extermination of the worst enemy of our people. In so doing the conduct of the accused gives rise to considerable concern. The accused allowed his men to act with such vicious brutality that they conducted themselves under his command like a savage horde [source]."
89) Guenther, 31.5.43:
On 13th April, 1943, the former German dentist Ernst Israel Tichauer and his wife, Elisa Sara Tichauer, nee Rosenthal, were committed to the court prison by the Security Service. Since that time all German and Russian Jews who were turned over to us had their golden bridgework, crowns, and fillings pulled or broken out. This happens always one to two hours before the respective action. Since 13th April, 1943, 516 German and Russian Jews have been finished off. On the basis of a definite investigation gold was taken in only two actions - on 14th April, 1943, from 172, and on 27th April, 1943, from 164 Jews. About 50 per cent. of the Jews had gold teeth, bridgework, or fillings. Hauptscharfuehrer Rube of the Security Service was always personally present, and he took the gold along, too. Before 13th April, 1943, this was not done [source].90) Lohse, 18.6.43:
The fact that Jews receive special treatment requires no further discussion. However, it appears hardly believable that this is done in the way described in the report of the General Commissioner of 1 June 1943. What is Katyn against that? Imagine only that these occurrences would become known to the other side and exploited by them! Most likely such propaganda would have no effect only because people who hear and read about it simply would not be ready to believe it."91) Himmler, 19.6.43: "the evacuation of the Jews, despite the disturbances this will cause in the next 3 to 4 months, is to be radically expedited and must be endured" [source].
"To lock men, women, and children into barns and to set fire to them does not appear to be a suitable method of combatting bands, even if it is desired to exterminate the population. This method is not worthy of the German cause and hurts our reputation severely [source].
92) Himmler 4.10.43: I shall speak to you here with all frankness of a very serious subject. We shall now discuss it absolutely openly among ourselves, nevertheless we shall never speak of it in public. I mean the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race [source].
93) Himmler, 6.10.43: "I ask you that what I tell you in this circle you will really only hear and never talk about it. The question came up to us: What do to with the women and children? I decided to find a very clear solution also in this respect. This because I didn’t consider myself entitled to exterminate the men, that is, to kill them or to have them killed, and to let the children grow up as avengers against our sons and grandsons. The difficult decision had to be taken to make this people disappear from the earth. For the organization that had to carry out the task if was the most difficult we had so far. It has been carried out without, as I consider myself entitled to say, our men and our leaders having taken harm to their spirit and soul. The path between the possibilities existing here, to either become crude and heartless and no longer to respect human life or to become weak and collapse to the point of nervous breakdowns, the path between this Scylla and Charybdis is horrendously narrow" [source and source].
94) Goebbels 9.10.43: "Regarding the Jewish question, he [Himmler] gives a very unadorned and frank picture. He is of the conviction that the Jewish question can be solved by the end of this year. He advocates the most radical and most severe solution, namely to exterminate Jewry, bag and baggage. Of course, if brutal, this is a consistent solution. Because we must take on the responsibility of entirely solving this question in our time. Subsequent generations will doubtlessly no longer dare address this problem with the courage and obsession as we are able to do today." [source]
95) Himmler, 16.12.43: "Thus I have basically given the order to also kill the wives and children of these partisans, and commissars. I would be a weakling and a criminal to our descendants if I allowed the hate-filled sons of the sub-humans we have liquidated in this struggle of humanity against subhumanity to grow up." [source]
96) Himmler 26.1.44: "Largest stabilisation in the G.G. since the solution to the Jewish question. – Race war. Total solution. Not allowing avengers to rise against our children." [source]
97) Greiser, 14.2.44: "The reduction of the population will be carried out by the Sonderkommando of SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Bothmann, which operated in the area previously. The RF will issue an Order instructing SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Bothmann and his Sonderkommando to leave their station in Croatia and be available for service in the Wartheland." [source]
98) Foreign Office, Inf. XIV, 'Anti-Jewish action abroad', 28.4.44, 3319-PS: "The physical elimination of Eastern Jewry would deprive Jewry of its biological reserves. Its present structure was characterized by its association with the three World-Powers. That association became obvious in the Soviet-Union through the ideological combination of Jewry and Bolshevism in England by the penetration of the leading class and in the United States by the occupation of decisive key positions in high finance. The Jewish question must be solved not only in Germany but also internationally."
99) Himmler, 5.5.44: "The Jewish question has been solved within Germany itself and in general within the countries occupied by Germany. It was solved in an uncompromising fashion in accordance with the life and death struggle of our nation in which the existence of our blood is at stake [..] You can understand how difficult it was for me to carry out this military order which I was given and which I implemented out of a sense of obedience and absolute conviction. If you say:'we can understand as far as the men are concerned but not about the children`, then I must remind you of what I said at the beginning. In this confrontation with Asia we must get used to condemning to oblivion those rules and customs of past wars which we have got used to and prefer. In my view, we as Germans, however deeply we may feel in our hearts, are not entitled to allow a generation of avengers filled with hatred to grow up with whom our children and grandchildren will have to deal because we, too weak and cowardly, left it to them." [source].
100) Himmler, 25.5.44: "Another question which was decisive for the inner security of the Reich and Europe, was the Jewish question. It was uncompromisingly solved after orders and rational recognition. I believe, Gentleman, that you know me well enough to know that I am not a bloodthirsty person; I am not a man who takes pleasure or joy when something rough must be done. However on the other hand, I have such good nerves and such a developed sense of duty - I can say that much for myself - that when I recognise something as necessary I can implement it without compromise. I have not considered myself entitled - this concerns especially the Jewish women and children - to allow the children to grow into the avengers who will then murder our fathers and our grandchildren. That would have been cowardly. Consequently the question was uncompromisingly resolved." [source]
101) Himmler, 21.6.44:
It was necessary to resolve another big question. It was the most horrible task and the most awful assignment that any organization could receive: the solution of the Jewish question. I want to say a few words on the matter to this group with complete candor. It's good that we had the hardness to exterminate the Jews in our territory. Don't ask yourselves how difficult it would have been to carry out such an order, even though, as soldiers, I might say you would understand. But thinking critically as German soldiers, you can see that the order was essential. Because we wouldn't have been able to withstand the aerial bombing if we had had the Jews in our cities. I am also convinced we would not have been able to hold the Lemberg front of the Generalgouvernement if the big ghettos in Lemberg, Krakau, Lublin, and Warsaw had still been there. We cleaned out the last one, the big ghetto in Warsaw, in summer 1943. In Warsaw there were 500,000 Jews. I tell you this number confidentially. It took us five weeks of street fighting. Just the same, I want to answer a little question that surely you must have. The question is, of course you had to kill the adult Jews, I understand that, but how could you do the same to the women and children? So I have to tell you something: The children will be grown one day. Do we want to be so improper that we say, no, no, we're too weak to kill children. Our children can deal with them. Our children will fight that one out. But the Jewish hate, small today, will be big tomorrow, and the grown avengers will attack our children and grandchildren, who will then have to deal with them. I am convinced that this will be the case even if Adolf Hitler does not survive. No, we cannot shirk our responsibility to kill all the Jews. That would have been cowardly and therefore we adopted a clear solution to the problem, as difficult as it was [source].
Sterling work there, Jonathan. Sorry to come over slightly ungrateful but why are points 3, 13 and 14 in German ? I'm a cultural vacuum and only speak English lol
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