Anticipatory Obedience and the Nazi implementation of the Holocaust in the Ukraine: A case study of central and peripheral forces in the generalbezirk zhytomyr, 1941-1944

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 1-22

  Lower, Wendy ^a  

^a UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 61449284250     PISSN: 87566583     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/hgs/16.1.1     Document Type: Review

References (132)

1. Dieter Pohl, Von der Judenpolitik zum Judenmord: Der Distrikt Lublin des Generalgouvernements 1939-1944 (Frankfurt: Lang, 1993)
2. and Nationsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944: Organisation und Durchführung eines staatlichen Massenverbrechens (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1997)
3. Thomas Sandkühler, "Endlösung" in Galizien: Der Judenmord in Ostpolen und die Rettungsinitiativen von Berthold Beitz, 1941-1944 (Bonn: Dietz, 1996)
4. Bernhard Chiari, Alltag hinter der Front: Besatzung, Kollaboration, und Widerstand in Weissrussland, 1941-1944 (Düsseldorf: Droste, 1998)
5. Walter Manoschek, "Serbien ist Judenfrei": Militärische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in Serbien 1941-1942 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1993)
6. Bogdan Musial, Deutsche Zivilverwaltung und Judenverfolgung im Generalgouvernement: Ein Fallstudie zum Distrikt Lublin, 1939-1944 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999)
7. Christian Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde: Die deutsche Wirtschafts- und Vernichtungspolitik in Weissrussland 1941-1944 (Hamburg: Hamburger Ed., 2000)
8. Sybille Steinbacher, "Musterstadt" Auschwitz: Germanisierungspolitik und Judenmord in Ostoberschlesien (Munich: Saur, 2000)
9. See Spector, The Holocaust of Volhynian Jews, 1941-1944 (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1990). Current dissertations in progress or recently completed ones to be published include local studies of Kiev, Riga, Lviv, Lodz, the Warthegau, Bialystok, Bohemia-Moravia, and Zhytomyr
10. Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, pp. 44-81
11. and Christian Gerlach, "German Economic Interests, Occupation Policy, and the Murder of the Jews in Belorussia, 1941-1943," in Ulrich Herbert, ed., National Socialist Extermination Policies: Contemporary German Perspectives and Controversies (New York: Berghan, 2000), p. 222
12. Bogdan Musial, Konterrevolutionäre Elemente sind zu erschiessen: Die Brutalisierung des deutsch-sowjetischen Krieges im Sommer 1941 (Berlin: Propyläen, 2000)
13. On the role of Globocnik, see Musial's "The Origins of 'Operation Reinhard': The Decision-Making Process for the Mass Murder of the Jews in the Generalgouvernement," in David Silberklang, ed., Yad Vashem Studies XXVIII (Jerusalem, 2000), p. 115
14. Steinbacher also stressed economic interests plus the germanization campaign as the major motivation for lower-level perpetrators in East Upper Silesia; see her study, Musterstadt, pp. 326-28
15. Thomas Sandkühler, "Anti-Jewish Policy and the Murder of the Jews in the District of Galicia, 1941-1942," in Herbert, ed., National Socialist Extermination Policies, p. 122
16. Dieter Pohl, "The Murder of the Jews of the General Government," in ibid., pp. 85-86
17. Population figures found in "Der Generalbezirk Shytomyr," 15 March 1942, RMfdb0, Zhytomyr State Archive (hereafter ZhSA), P1151-1-51
18. In February 1943 the Generalbezirk was remapped into 29 subdistricts. ZhSA, P1151-1-26
19. The role of the different German units in the atrocities is scattered in various sources. On the Einsatzgruppen, the activities reports of Einsatzgruppe C are published (in part) in Yitzhak Arad, Shmuel Krakowski, and Shmuel Spector, The Einsatzgruppen Reports: Selections from the Dispatches of the Nazi Death Squads' Campaign Against the Jews in the Occupied Territories of the Soviet Union, July 1941-January 1943 (New York: Holocaust Library, 1989)
20. Additional quantitative detail on the massacres has been compiled by Aleksandr Kruglov in his Entsiklopediia khlokosta: Evreiskasia entsiklopediia Ukrainy (Kiev, 2000)
21. Richard Breitman, Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998), p. 64
22. Ruth Bettina Birn, Die höheren SS- und Polizeiführer: Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten (Düsseldorf: Droste, c. 1986), p. 3
23. Also see "Friedrich Jeckeln: Spezialist für die 'Endlösung' im Osten," in Die SS Elite unter dem Totenkopf, Ron Smelser and Enrico Syring, eds. (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2000)
24. For Hitler's visit to Berdychiv, see the war diary of his personal security forces, NARA, RG 242, T-78, roll 351, frames 6311391 and 6311205. Himmler's schedule and activities are detailed in Der Dienstkalender Heinrich Himmlers 1941/1942, Peter Witte, Michael Wildt, Martine Voigt, et al., eds. (Hamburg, 1999), p. 224
25. and in Richard Breitman, The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution (New York: Knopf, 1991), p. 213
26. For Heydrich's involvement, see his orders especially from July 1941 in Peter Klein, ed., Die Einsatzgruppen in der besetzten Sowjetunion 1941/42: Die Tätigkeits- und Lageberichte des Chefs der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Berlin: Hentrich, 1997)
27. See Wendy Lower, "Nazi Colonial Dreams: German Policies and Ukrainian Society in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, 1941-1944," (Ph.D. Dissertation, American University, 1999), pp. 146-60
28. Dieter Pohl, "Schauplatz Ukraine: Der Massenmord an den Juden im Militärverwaltungsgebiet und im Reichskommissariat 1941-1943," in Nobert Frei, Sybille Steinbacher, and Bernd C. Wagner, eds., Ausbeutung, Vernichtung, Öffentlichkeit: Neue Studien zur nationalsozialistischen Lagerpolitik (Munich: Saur, 2000), pp. 135-37
29. This "spectacle" and mass-shooting incident have been recounted in Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen, and Volker Riess, eds., "The Good Old Days": The Holocaust as Seen by its Perpetrators and Bystanders (New York: Free Press, 1991)
30. Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman, The Black Book (New York: Holocaust Library, 1980), p. 14
31. German Police Decodes, 27 August 1941, ZIP/MSGP.28/12 September 1941. GPDs from 13-31 August, section.5, "Executions." NARA, RG 457, Box 1386
32. Also see the statement of a member of the 2.Feld-Fernsprech Komapnie/643 about the ghetto massacres, reprinted in Hans Safrian's "Komplizen des Genozids: Zum Anteil der Heeresgruppe Süd an der Verfolgung und Ermordung der Juden in der Ukraine 1941," in Die Wehrmacht im Rassenkrieg: Der Vernichtungskrieg Hinter der Front, Walter Manoschek, ed. (Wien: Picus, 1996), p. 106
33. Eyewitness testimony of shootings of Jews in Berdychiv in late July, see testimony of Hans Wilhelm Isenmann, member of SS Wiking Division, USHMM, FSB (KGB), RG 06.02502 Kiev
34. Also see the "Abschlussbericht" in the West German war crimes case against Friedrich Becker, chief of the Schutzpolizei in Berdychiv, Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen, Ludwigsburg (ZStL) 204 AR-Z 129/67, 1000
35. Von Oelhafen statement of 7 May 1947, NARA, RG 238, roll 50, m1019. Under civil administration Kamianets-Podolsk fell within the Generalbezirk Volhynia
36. On the destruction of Zhytomyr's population of approximately 5,000 Jews, see the Einsatzgruppe C reports of 19, 22, 30 July 1941, 19 September 1941, 7 October 1941, in Arad, Krakowski, and Spector
37. Also eyewitness accounts in the West German case against SK4a members Kuno Callsen et al., ZStL, 207 AR-Z 419/62
38. The Vinnytsia massacres are enumerated in Aleksandr Kruglov's Unichtozhenie evreiskogo naseleniia v Vinnitskoi oblasti v 1941-1944 (Mogilev Podol'skii, 1997)
39. and described in "The Extermination of Two Ukrainian Jewish Communities: Testimony of a German Army Officer, Erwin Bingel, August 1945," reprinted in Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, volume 3 (Jerusalem, 1959), pp. 303-20
40. Reprint of Mueller's order "Beschaffung von Anschauungsmaterial, " 1 August 1941, in Klein, ed., Die Einsatzgruppen, p. 342
41. Klaus-Michael Mallman, "Die Türöffner der 'Endlösung': Zur Genesis des Genozids," in Die Gestapo im Zweiten Weltkrieg: "Heimatfront" und be-setztes Europa (Darmstadt: Primus, 2000), p. 453
42. Häfner statement, 6 July 1965, Callsen trial, ZStL, 207 AR-Z 419/62, 17
43. The author has not found any evidence of Heydrich's visit to Zhytomyr in August 1941. Häfner's claim shows traces of the "Ohlendorf" defense in which lower-level killers tried to hide their crimes under a "Führerbefehl." On the evolution of such trial defenses in West Germany and the radical role of lower-level types in the expansion of victims to women and children, see Mallman's "Die Türöffner," pp. 437-63
44. Affidavit of Erwin Schulz, 26 May 1947, Nuremberg Military Tribunal, NO-3644, volume 4, pp. 135-36
45. Additional postwar Schulz statements are analyzed by Christopher Browning in The Path to Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 108
46. Ralf Ogorreck argues that there was a "caesura" in August 1941, basing his case on the actions, orders, and postwar testimonies of the Einsatzgruppen, see his Die Einsatzgruppen und die "Genesis der Endlösung" (Berlin: Metropol, 1996), pp. 178-79
47. For a contrasting view of the evolution of the policy that stresses the leadership's clear intentions as of early 1941, see Breitman's The Architect of Genocide
48. Browning, The Path to Genocide, pp. 105-9
49. Einsatzgruppe C Activity Report, 20 August 1941, NARA, RG 242, T-175, roll 233, frame 2721995
50. Safrian, "Komplizen des Genozids," pp. 106-7
51. Von Stülpnagel order, AOK 17, 30 July 1941 NARA, RG 242, T-501, R 674, frame 8308402
52. RG 238, T-1119, roll 23 frame 61, NOKW 1593
53. Unsere Ehre Heisst Treue, p. 104
54. See the Goroschki (Volodars'k-Volyns'kyi) report of Infantry Regiment 375, 9 August 1941, Anlage KTB SD 454, NARA, RG 242, T-315/R 2215/000935-6
55. a brief account is also in the War Diary of SD454, NARA, RG 242, KTB SD 454, T-315, roll 2216, frames 000420-422
56. Christian Streit, Keine Kamaraden: Die Wehrmacht und die sowjetischen Kreigsgefangenen, 1941-1945 (Bonn: Dietz, 1997), p. 350, n. 193
57. The Soviet broadcast of August 1941 is reprinted in Zhytomyrshchyna v period tymchasovoi okypatsii nimets'ko-fashysts'kymy zaharbnykamy, 1941-1944 (Zhytomyr, 1948), p. 74
58. Norman Cameron, R. H. Stevens, and H. R. Trevor-Roper, eds., Hitler's Table Talk, 1941-1944: His Private Conversations (New York: Enigma, 2000), p. 590
59. In the subdistricts the Gebietskommissar was supported by the native (Ukrainian and ethnic German) subdistrict leaders and village elders as well as two or more gendarme stations manned by a German Order Police officer (lieutenant) and his Ukrainian Schutzmannschaften. For the general administrative structure of the RKU see the RmfdbO's "Braune Mappe," ZhSA, P1151-1-31a
60. also see Hitler's 17 July 1941 order on the administration of the East naming Rosenberg as the Reich Minister and allocating police and security matters to Himmler. NARA, RG 242, T-454, roll 100, frame 000676
61. Klemm's introductory memorandum to his new district commissars, 5 December 1941, ZhSA P1151-1-33
62. Verordnung über die polizeiliche Strafgewalt der Gebietskommissare, 23 August 1941 in the "Braune Mappe," pp. 56-57
63. Gerald Reitlinger, The House Built on Sand: The Conflicts of German Policy in Russia, 1939-1945 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1960)
64. Jonathan Steinberg, "The Third Reich Reflected: German Civil Administration in the Occupied Soviet Union, 1941-1944," English Historical Review 110 (June 1995), pp. 620-51
65. Himmler to Berger, criticizing Rosenberg's commissars, August 1942, NARA, RG 242 T-175, roll 66, frame 2582327
66. NARA, RG 238, IMT PS-2174
67. Dieter Pohl, quoted in his "The Murder of Jews in the General Government," in Herbert, ed., National Socialist Extermination Policies, p. 90
68. The commissars met RKU Erich Koch in Königsberg and also underwent some political education at "Die Falkenburg am Krössinsee" including some time at the Institut für politische Erdkunde. See Commissar Klemm's files, ZhSA P1151-1-24, P1151-1-26, and P1151-1-49
69. Some members of EK5 and EK6 staffed the Sipo-SD offices in Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia and related their criminal activity to their new colleagues. See statement of SSPF Otto Hellwig interrogation at Nuremberg, 21 August 1947, NARA, RG 238, m1019, roll 26
70. Dr. Franz Razesberger, former Sipo-SD Chief for Zhytomyr who arrived in January 1942, postwar criminal investigation statements ZStL, ARZ 204 8/80 I, 65-66; III 191-247
71. Demonstrated in the files of Gebietskommissar Erwin Göllner, Berdychiv, who issued orders to Ukrainian staff about the seizure of Jewish monies (November 1941), forced registrations (January 1942), and individual searches for Jewish "fugitives" (March 1942). When the gendarme units found Jews they brought them first to the district commissar, Göllner, who contacted the SD. See Göllner's files in Zhytomyr Oblast Records, USHMM, accession 1996.a0269, reel 3, 1188-2-42
72. Gebietskommissar Dr. Blümel in Tschdnow, Jewish Payment lists, November 17, 1941-February 28, 1942, in Zhytomyr Oblast Records, USHMM, accession 1996.a0269, reel 8, P1537-1-282
73. Reich Commissar Koch advised his commissars to ghettoize Jewish populations of 200 or more persons. The Commissars determined the degree of restricted living conditions (street assignments, curfews) against the Jews, see Koch's September 1941 order on ghettoization in ZhSA, P1151-1-31A
74. Jews were given rations if food was left over, and the level was not to exceed the caloric intake allotted to children (up to 14 years of age). Jewish rations in the RKU Ernährung und Landwirtschaft report of 20 February 1942, AOR Kiev, USHMM, RG 31.002M, reel 2, 2206-1-65
75. The Koziatyn camp was co-managed by the district commissar, Steudel, and the SD chief at Berdychiv, Fritz Knop. See the few remaining camp records, in ZhSA P1182-1-6, and correspondence over its closing, 5 May 1943, ZhSA P1536-1-2
76. On the involvement of the commissars' finance office around the massacres, see ZhSA P1182-1-6
77. and Dr. Muessig (Klemm's accountant) orders on the collection of Jewish valuables, July 1942, 27 October 1942, ZhSA P1151-1-139
78. The inventory commission under Herr Plisko of the General Commissar's office kept files of local requests for Jewish furniture, which the commission fulfilled, ZhSA P1152-1-16
79. The housing office fulfilled similar requests for former Jewish dwellings, see ZhSA P1151-1-8. These files are on microfilm at the USHMM, accession 1996A.0269, reel 9
80. "Abschlussbericht," West German war crimes investigation of the Litin Commissariat, LStL, ARZ 204a 135/6 II, 561-63
81. On Samhorodok's Gebietskommissar Steudel's liquidation orders to Ukrainian mayor in Germanivka, his inspection of the death pits, and the arrival of SD riflemen from Vinnytsia, see "Abschlussbericht," West German war crimes investigation of the Kasatin Commissariat, ZStL, ARZ 204 137/67 II, 20-22
82. Similar patterns of the commissar's involvement in the neighboring commissariat of Luzk (Volhynia). See Spector, The Holocaust of Volhynian Jews
83. Himmler advised Rosenberg of the commissariat's role in these manhunts in his 10 January 1942 memorandum on the Jewish Question in the East, NARA, RG 242, T-454, roll 154, MR334
84. Order of 12 March 1942; KdG Shitomir von Bredow to Hauptmannschaft Vinnitsa, to all SSPF, Sonderbefehl; KdO Befehl Nr. 6, 12 January 1942 appeared through KdG, 14 February 1942, "Bei Exekutionen auf Grund vollkommen klar liegender Fälle braucht keine Genehmi-gung eingeholt werden, jedoch ist in jedem Falle unter Angabe des Tatbestandes kurze Meldung zu erstatten"; ZhSA P1151-1-9
85. See the 4 July 1942 order of KdO von Oelhafen on the Einsatz of Forstschutzkommandos (FSK) states that by order of the HSSPF of 22 June 1942 that FSKs be used to secure forests, and that they work in closed units and carry out tasks similar to those of the police, ZhSA P1151-1-9
86. On 6 June 1942, Commander of the Gendarmerie, Vinnytsia ordered the shooting of men who have been found in the woods and who "wander without business and look suspicious." ZhSA P1151-1-9
87. Gendarme reports of shootings from Meister d. Gen u.Postenführer Mayer-hoher in Pohrebyschche, ZhSA, P1182-1-6, in Ruzhyn, ZhSA P1182-1-36 and in Koziatyn, ZhSA, P1151-1-38
88. See Martin Dean's "The German Gendarmerie, the Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft and the 'Second Wave' of Jewish Killings in Occupied Ukraine: German Policing at the Local Level in the Zhitomir Region, 1941-1944," German History 14 (1996), pp. 176-81
89. General Commissar Lagebericht, 3 June 1942. Bundesarchiv Koblenz, r6/310, 6. I am grateful to Dieter Pohl for this document
90. BdO von Bredow to field offices, order states that it is strictly forbidden to employ Jewish dentists, 11 Februaryr 1942, P1151-1-11
91. Kasatin Gendarme order barred all Jewish workers from the gendarmerie offices, June 1943, ZhSA P1182-1-36
92. General Commissar Leyser and the case of his Jewish tailor, statement of Hermann Zieren Personalsacharbeiter of Leyser in the case against Franz Razesberger, ZStL I 204 AR-Z 8/80, 53, 41, and 62
93. On the difficulties of securing thousands of skilled laborers for the construction of the Hitler compound, see General Kommissar Shitomir, Lagebericht, 3 June 1942, Bundesarchiv Koblenz, R6/310
94. Economic reports from Klemm's deputy Nottbohm and the construction setbacks due to lack of skilled labor, ZhSA P1151-31
95. On the building needs for Klemm's personal quarters, ZhSA P1151-1-32
96. Klemm's collective measures for dealing with local acts of resistance, 14 December 1941, ZhSA P1151-1-21, and 18 December 1941, ZhSA P1151-1-4
97. See Kurt Klemm's statement of 22 August 1962, ZStL, 204 AR-Z 129/67 III, p. 830
98. Statement of Franz Razesberger, 19 January 1957, ZStL, 204 AR-Z 8/80, III, p. 207, 830
99. Regarding his uniform, Klemm's request to Rosenberg was forwarded to Hitler, 12 July 1943, NARA, RG 242, T-454, roll 91, frame 000873
100. Rosenberg-Himmler memo of September 1942, NARA, RG 242, T-175, roll 17, frame 2521105
101. SS-Oberführer Otto Jungkunz was later named the Gebietskommissar over the Hegewald settlement. Outside Zhytomyr, SA Obergruppenführer Heinrich Schoene was the General Commissar of Luzk, SS and Police Leader Curt von Gottberg was the General Commissar of Belorussia, and SS-Gruppenführer Otto Wächter was the district governor in Cracow and then Lviv
102. Razesberger claims that he received the order from his superior, Dr. Thomas, in Kiev during May 1942 and that he delayed pushing it through until Himmler arrived. Razesberger's defense is not very trustworthy given his documented involvement and persistent postwar attempts to conceal his criminal role in face of prosecutors. See case against Razesberger, ZStL III 204 AR-Z 8/80, 326-27
103. also see Justiz und NS Verbrechen. Band XVI case against Knop, et al. (Berdychiv SD office), pp. 345-49
104. Richard Breitman, The Architect of Genocide, p. 238. The subsequent fate of the thirty Jews is not known
105. Peter Hoffman, Hitler's Personal Security (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1979), p. 39
106. "Abschlussbericht" in the Schmidt-Danner case, Sta Muenchen, File no. 111 Js 24/69. I am grateful to Konrad Kwiet for the investigative material on the RSD in Vinnytsia
107. Schmidt report to Rattenhuber, "Judenfrage in Winniza und Umgebung," AOR Kiev USHMM RG 31.002M, reel 11, 3676-4-116
108. Kruglov figures, Unichtozhenie, p. 9
109. Schmidt activity report of 12 January 1942 to Rattenhuber Kiev, AOR, USHMM, RG 31.002m, reel 11, 3676-4-116
110. Schmidt activity report (15 April-15 May 1942) to Rattenhuber, dated 16 May 1942
111. See Kiev AOR, USHMM, RG 31.002m, reel 11, 3676-4-116
112. An estimated 40,000 Jews were killed in and around Vinnytsia between July 1941 and September 1942, according to an economics official from Rosenberg's office, see his trip report of 10 September 1942, Kiev AOR, USHMM, RG 31.002M, reel 3
113. Extraordinary Commission report on Vinnytsia, testimony about April 1942, Gregory Stepanovic 29 April 1944, Vinnytsia State Archives, fond 7021-54-1341, p.121 in USHMM, RG 22.002M, reel 4
114. Also see survivor witness statement of Solomon Goljak, 11 September 1969, West German investigation of the Sipo-SD in Vinnytsia, ZStL, 204a AR-Z 122/68, 196-197
115. also in this case see the 15 October 1965 statement of SS-Policeman Johann Bahmann, of the Sipo-SD Vinnytsia. Faina Vinokurova, Deputy Director of the Vinnytsia Archives, stressed the role of the Hitler headquarters in the local massacre at the Oxford Conference Remembering for the Future, England, July 2000
116. Schmidt telegram to Rattenhuber, 28 January 1942, regarding anti-Jewish measures and Fritz Todt, Kiev AOR, USHMM, RG 31.002M reel 11, 3676-4-116
117. Razesberger order of 11 July 1942, Kiev AOR, USHMM, 3676-4-116
118. I am grateful to Richard Breitman for this document. According to Shmuel Spector this order was not carried out entirely; some Jewish laborers were spared. See his entry "Vinnitsa" in the Israel Gutmanedited Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, pp. 1575-76
119. Feldpolizeisekretär Schumacher to RSD Security Group Ost. July 31, 1942, Kiev AOR, USHMM, RG 31.002M, reel 11, 3676-4-116
120. RSD chief Rattenhuber to SS Police Station Leader Bock, July 31, 1942, Kiev AOR, USHMM, RG 31.002M, reel 11, 3676-4-116
121. Danner confirmed that Jews were killed on 1 August 1942, Kiev AOR USHMM, RG 31.002M, reel 11, 3676-4-116
122. Thousands more were brought in from Transnistria and worked to death on the autobahn. See Hermann Kaienburg, "Jüdische Arbeitslager an der Strasse der SS," Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 20 JH (1996), pp. 13-39
123. See September 1943 Vinnytsia military armaments and economics report, NARA, RG 242, T-77, roll 1159, frames 0007-8. Although " abtransportiert" might have been a euphemistic reference to the murder of these Jews, the Germans may have included these Jewish laborers in the death marches to the Reich
124. Hegewald Speech, NARA, Record Group (RG) 242, T-175, roll 90, frame 2612809
125. SS and Police Leader Otto Hellwig to the Kommandeur der Gendarmerie Shitomir, 24 September 1942, Zhytomyr State Archive (ZhSA) P1151-1-9, Owrutsch, SSPF z.Zt. Einsatz-Stab Nord, 24 September 1942
126. See Hitler's monologue from July 22, 1942, reprinted partially in Hitler's Table Talk, Cameron, Stevens, and Trevor-Roper, eds., pp. 586-90
127. The policy regarding abortions was not clearly defined and resulted in some confusion. For the original Bormann order to Alfred Rosenberg, 23 July 1942, NARA, RG 238, NO-1878
128. Later in June 1944, Reich Commissar Koch reported that punishments were not meted out against locals who carried out abortions, only in the case of a Ukrainian doctor who performed an abortion on a Reich German. Otto Brautigam, in the RmfdbO responded to Koch's report reiterating the Führer's "will" (interpreted by Bormann in the July order) that only an abortion carried out on a German woman was a punishable offense. See Brautigam memo, 20 June 1944, NARA, RG 238, NO-2597, NO-2598
129. Another example of Nazi policy formation that stemmed from Hitler's declaratory monologues is found in Reich Commissar for the Ukraine Erich Koch's memo about reduced rations for Ukrainians. Koch ordered a ration reduction based on Hitler's remarks that wheat grew in abundance around his Vinnytsia bunker while Reich Germans were going hungry. Koch order in "Vermerk über die Tagung in Rowno," 26-28 August 1942, NARA, RG 242 T-454, roll 92, frame 000895
130. Himmler's decisive role in the final liquidation of ghettos in Poland and the Ukraine is documented. See his July 1942 order for the General Gouvernement, in Helmut Heiber, Briefe an und von Heinrich Himmler
131. also in Pohl's Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944, pp. 204-213
132. On the Ukraine, see Martin Dean, "The Ghetto Liquidations of 1942-1943," in Collaboration in the Holocaust: Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine, 1941-1944 (New York: St. Martin's Press, in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2000)