"Another type of perpetrator": The SS racial experts and forced population movements in the occupied regions

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Volumn 15, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 387-411

  Heinemann, Isabel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EASTERN EUROPE; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ETHNIC AND RACIAL GROUPS; ETHNIC GROUP; ETHNOLOGY; HISTORY; HUMAN; LEGAL ASPECT; MIGRATION; POLITICAL SYSTEM; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; REVIEW; SOCIAL CONTROL; SOCIAL PROBLEM; SOLDIER; WAR;

ETHNIC GROUPS; EUROPE, EASTERN; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; MILITARY PERSONNEL; NATIONAL SOCIALISM; POPULATION GROUPS; RACE RELATIONS; RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY; SOCIAL CONTROL POLICIES; WORLD WAR II;

EID: 9744274183     PISSN: 87566583     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/hgs/15.3.387     Document Type: Review

References (99)

1. This article is based on the research undertaken for my doctoral dissertation, "Rasse, Siedlung, Deutsches Blut": Die Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS und die nationalsozialistische Rassenpolitik im besetzten Europa 1939-1945" (Freiburg University, 2001)
2. Specifically, this contribution makes use of archival material from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. An earlier version of this article was presented at its Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies in July 1999 during a workshop on "SS Racial Policies and Forced Population Movements in Occupied Europe 1939-1945."
3. Finally, the arguments presented in this contribution were developed for an international conference in May 2000 at Freiburg entitled "New Perspectives in Holocaust Research."
4. Text of a flyer distributed in June 1970 in the town of Burgdorf near Hannover, where Otto von Fircks had been elected district president of the Christian Democrats. Cf. Heinrich Hannover, Die Republik vor Gericht 1954-1974: Erinnerungen eines unbequemen Rechtsanwalts (Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1998), pp. 316-17
5. See Heinrich Hannover, Die Republik vor Gericht, pp. 316-34
6. "Mit der Evakuierung geht es dort [in Łódź] sehr gut voran. Bis zum 12. Februar wird mit der Heraussetzung der Juden Schluß sein, dann kommen die Polen an die Reihe."
7. Cf. Götz Aly, "Endlösung": Völkerverschiebung und der Mord an den europäischen Juden (Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 1995), p. 83
8. A wide spectrum of SS institutions partook in this process, including the planners of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office), the killers in the Einsatzgruppen of the SiPo and SD (SS and police task forces), the Higher SS and Police Leaders and their staff, the soldiers of the Waffen-SS, and the racial experts of the Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS (RuSHA). The collaboration and self-initiative of army and police has been demonstrated and studied in recent years, but the role of the civil administration in the different regions still requires further treatment
9. See Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York: HarperCollins, 1992)
10. Hannes Heer and Klaus Naumann, eds., Vernichtungskrieg: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941-1944 (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1995)
11. and Dieter Schenk, Hitlers Mann in Danzig: Gauleiter Forster und die NS-Verbrechen in Danzig-Westpreußen (Bonn: Dietz, 2000)
12. The Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS (RuSHA) was founded on December 31, 1931 by Heinrich Himmler and thus was one of the three oldest and most important main offices of the SS. "Verlobungs-und Heiratsbefehl" of the Reichsführer SS, SS-Befehl Nr. 65. December 31, 1931. Bundesarchiv Berlin (BA) NS 2/174
13. Götz Aly has already argued that there was a close and causal connection to the mass extermination of European Jewry, but he focused only on the period from 1939 to 1941 and on Western Poland. Drawing upon his observations, I will try to broaden the view by taking into account examples of other European regions and to extend the analysis until the end of the war. See Aly, "Endlösung."
14. Dieter Pohl, Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944: Organisation und Durchführung eines staatlichen Massenverbrechens (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1996)
15. Dieter Pohl, Von der "Judenpolitik" zum Judenmord: Der Distrikt Lublin des Generalgouvernements 1939-1944 (Frankfurt: Lang, 1993)
16. Christian Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde: Die deutsche Wirtschafts-und Vernuichtungspolitik in Weißrußland 1941 bis 1944 (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1999)
17. Christoph Dieckmann, "Der Krieg und die Ermordung der litauischen Juden" in Ulrich Herbert, ed., Nationalsozialistische Vernichtungspolitik 1939-1945: Neue Forschungen und Kontroversen (Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 1998.), pp. 292-329
18. Bogdan Musial, Deutsche Zivilverwaltung und Judenverfolgung im Generalgouvernement: Eine Fallstudie zum Distrikt Lublin 1939-1944 (Wiesbaden: Harasowitz, 1999)
19. Sybille Steinbacher, "Musterstadt" Auschwitz: Germanisierungspolitik und Judenmord in Ostoberschlesien (Munich: K. G. Saur, 2000)
20. and Wendy Lower, "A New Ordering of Space and Race: Nazi Colonial Dreams in Zhytomir, Ukraine (1941-1944)," German Studies Review (forthcoming)
21. Götz Aly and Suzanne Heim, Vordenker der Vernichtung: Auschwitz und die deutschen Pläne für eine neue europäische Ordnung (Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1991)
22. Karl Heinz Roth, "Heydrichs Professor: Historiographie des "Volkstums' und der Massenvernichtungen: Der Fall Hans Joachim Beyer" in Peter Schöttler ed., Geschichtsschreibung als Legitimationswissenschaft 1918-1945 (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1997), pp. 262-342
23. Yaacov Lozowick, Hitlers Bürokraten: Eichmann, seine willigen Vollstrecker und die Banalität des Bösen (Zurich; Munich: Pendo, 2000)
24. and Karin Orth, Die Konzentrationslager-SS: Sozialstrukturelle Analysen und biographische Studien (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2000)
25. See Robert L. Koehl, RKFDV: German Settlement and Population Policy: A History of the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germandom (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957)
26. Robert L. Koehl, The Black Corps: The Structure and Power Struggles of the SS (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983)
27. Aly and Heim, Vordenker der Vernichtung; Götz Aly, "Endlösung"
28. Horst Gies, "Zur Entstehung des Rasse- und Siedlungsamtes der SS," Paul Kluke zum 60. Geburtstag dargebracht von Frankfurter Schülern und Mitarbeitern (Frankfurt, 1968), pp. 127-39
29. and James J. Weingartner, "The Race and Settlement Main Office: Towards an Order of Blood and Soil," The Historian 34:1 (1971), pp. 62-77
30. "Verlobungs-und Heiratsbefehl" of the Reichsführer SS
31. Approximately a quarter of a million of such marriage files of SS brides are stored in the Bundesarchiv Berlin. Care for the SS-Sippen, however, meant more than just racial selection. RuSHA officials were also in charge of the organization of typical SS ceremonies. For instance, they supervised SS-Eheweihen (SS marriages), Sommer-und Wintersonnenwenden (solstice celebrations), and Namensgebungsfeiern ("baptisms"), and they established special welfare institutions for SS families in the SS-Oberabschnitte, the so-called Sippenpflegestellen
32. Women's roles in the SS-Sippengerneinschaft are described by Gudrun Schwarz, Eine Frau an seiner Seite: Ehefrauen in der "SS- Sippengemeinschaft" (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1997)
33. "Es zeigte sich deutlich, welches Gewicht der SS dadurch zukommt, daß sie tatsächlich die einzige völlig durchorganisierte rassenpolitische Organisation der Bewegung ist." Of course, they argued for the complete registration and deprivation of rights not only of Volljuden, but also of Mischlinge ersten und zweiten Grades (people with respectively two or one Jewish grandparent) a problem they did not get tired of addressing. The Chief of Staff of the Racial Office of the SS, SS-Stubaf. Dr. Brandt, to Heinrich Himmler concerning a meeting on the subject of racial policy in Munich, letter of January 14, 1935. BA NS 2/143
34. The existing literature on the genesis of the Nuremberg laws does not consider the participation of SS experts in the preparations. Cornelia Esser, "Die Alchemie des Rassenbegriffs und die "Nürnberger Gesetze," Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 4 (1995), pp. 201-25
35. Otto Dov Kulka, "Die Nürnberger Rassengesetze und die deutsche Bevölkerung im Lichte geheimer NS-Lage und Stimmungsberichte," Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 32 (1984), pp. 582-624
36. and Lothar Gruchmann, "'Blutschutzgesetz' und Justiz: Zur Entstehung und Auswirkung des Nürnberger Gesetzes vom 15. September 1935," Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 31 (1983), pp. 418-12
37. Beginning in 1934, the education apparatus was speedily organized, paralleling the structure of the SS. So-called Schulungsleiter were placed at all levels of the SS (Sturm, Sturmbann, Standarte, Abschnitt) and in each Oberabschnitt a racial expert (Rassereferent) or RuS Leader (SS-Führer im Rasse- und Siedlungswesen) coordinated the ideological instruction and supervised the subordinate Schulungsleiter. The regular form of this education was the weekly meeting, the so-called Schulungsabend, which was also combined with occasional events such as guided tours of museums or archeological sites. For an analysis of the effects of this ideological training with regard to the implementation of the "Final Solution," see Jürgen, Matthäus, "Ausbildungsziel Judenmord? Zum Stellenwert der 'weltanschaulichen Erziehung' von SS und Polizei im Rahmen der 'Endlösung,'" Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 47:8 (1999), pp. 673-99
38. An illustration of ideologically based prejudices held by German students who came to Poland for their "Osteinsatz" under the auspices of the SS and who had clear notions of the "dirty Poles and filthy Jews" they were going to meet there has recently been offered by Geoffrey J. Giles, "Confirming Prejudices: German Students in the Occupied East under Himmler's Resettlement Program." Paper delivered at the Workshop on "SS Racial Policies and Forced Population Movements" at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, July 1999
39. Litzmannstadt became the most important "switching yard" of different populations in the Annexed Territories. Incoming German settlers heading for the Eastern borders of the Reich passed through Litzmannstadt as did the Poles and Jews who were deported to the General-gouvernement, and the ethnic Germans from Poland who were heading for the Altreich. In Litzmannstadt, all institutions that were engaged in the National Socialist population policy, for example the Reichskommissar zur Festigung deutschen Volkstum (RKF, Reichscommissioner for the Strengthening of Germandom), the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (Ethnic German Repatriation Office), and the RuSHA, had their own branch offices
40. The number of four million people comprises at least one million "racially undesirable" inhabitants of the Occupied Territories, one million ethnic Germans from foreign countries, and two million members of DVL-Groups 3 and 4 of the annexed Polish Territories
41. It is important to note that, first, Himmler's SS took over the implementation of population policy in the occupied East. The competencies of racial experts from Party institutions like the Rassenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP (racial-political office of the Party) were consequently limited to racial education and propaganda. Second, the SS itself established a vast apparatus for the planned ethnic reconstruction of the "German Lebensraum." This system of SS institutions was based on a precise division of labor. EWZ was in charge of the registration of the incoming ethic Germans, UWZ of the Polish evacuees; the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle took care of the ethnic Germans in the camps and arranged their resettlement. The Office of the Reichskommissar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums with Himmler as its formal chief coordinated the whole re-Germanization process in the Occupied Territories. Besides these institutions, RuSHA had the official task of screening both resettlers and evacuees. Consequently, RuSHA sections were set up in the offices of UWZ and EWZ. Furthermore, the different institutions used to cooperate successfully. The SS Main Offices' division of labor is described by Himmler himself in his decree on the foundation of the umbrella organization Hauptamt für Volkstumsfragen (Main Office for all questions regarding population policy) which was designed to represent the SS population policy vis-à-vis the Party. See Himmler's order of November 28, 1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) RG-15.007 M, reel 9
42. For a general discussion of inter-agency cooperation during the ethnic reconstruction of the Occupied Territories see my contribution, "'Ethnic Resettlement' and Inter-Agency Cooperation in the Occupied Eastern Territories" in Gerald D. Feldman and Wolfgang Seibel, eds., Networks of Persecution: The Holocaust as Division-of-Labor-Based Crime (in press)
43. The RuS office in the UWZ soon was transformed into RuSHA's official branch office in the Warthegau, the so-called Außenstelle Litzmannstadt. Later on, there were also branch offices of RuSHA in other regions where population transfers took place, for instance in Prague, Graz, Metz, and at different locations in Slovenia
44. They undertook the racial screening of ethnic Germans or Poles deemed suitable for "re-Germanization." They selected prisoners of war and foreign workers threatened by "special treatment" due to their racial categorization. Finally, they chose candidates for the SS and Waffen-SS, and the SS's own elite schools
45. On October 7, 1939, Himmler had obtained, per decree of the Führer, authority over resettlement of the returning ethnic Germans and the creation of new settlement areas by means of expulsion of existing populations. As RKF, he was also put in charge of the "Ausschaltung des schädigenden Einflusses von solchen volksfremden Bevölkerungsteilen, die eine Gefahr für das Reich und die deutsche Volksgemeinschaft bedeuten." ("Elimination of the harmful influence of such alien parts of the population as constitute a danger to the Reich and the German community"). Soon after his nomination, Himmler set up a whole staff office of the RKF, which was given the status of an SS Main Office in 1941
46. Order of Adolf Hitler's "zur Festigung deutschen Volkstums" on October 7, 1939, in Der Angriff auf Polen: Die Ereignisse im Winter 1939-1944, vol. 14 of Hebert Michaelis, Ernst Schraepler, and Günter Scheel, eds., Ursachen und Folgen. Vom deutschen Zusammenbruch 1918 und 1945 bis zur staatlichen Neuordnung Deutschlands in der Gegenwart: Eine Urkunden- und Dokumentensammlung zur Zeitgeschichte (Berlin: Dokumenten-Verlag, 1969), pp. 85-86
47. See also the aforementioned study of Robert L. Koehl on the RKF and Daniel Inkelas's Ph.D. dissertation, "'Visions of Harmony and Violence': RKF Landscape Planning and Population Policy in Annexed Poland, 1939-1944" (Northwestern University Press, 1998)
48. "Die rassische Untersuchung soll verhindern, daß sich im neu besiedelten Osten Mongolentypen entwickeln. Ich möchte hier eine blonde Provinz schaffen." Heinrich Himmler during bis visit to the EWZ in Łódź/Litzmannstadt on December 13, 1939; cited from a report by the RuS Leader at the EWZ, Erwin Künzel, on December 20, 1939, BA NS 2/60
49. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreement of September 1939 arranged the population transfer from the Soviet sphere of interest and the German-occupied regions of Poland. Ursachen und Folgen, XIV, p. 48
50. As early as October 14, 1939, the Chief of the RuSHA-Sippenamt ordered the racial experts to screen the ethnic Germans using the racial categories of the SS. BA NS 2/88. See also the RuSHA Chief, SS-Gruppenführer Günther Pancke, in his memo concerning a meeting with Himmler on November 11, 1939. BA NS 2/139. The number of the persons who were racially screened is revealed by the statistics of the EWZ in Łódź on December 11, 1944. Archiwum Państwowe w Łódźkiego 204, 2/11
51. Ranging from RuS I ("racially best") over RuS II ("good and average") and RuS III ("borderline cases") to RuS IV ("racially unfit and alien blood"). The same categories were used for non-Germans and ethnic Germans already classified in the DVL
52. There is no historical analysis of the whole process available. See the source collection edited by the Western Institute in Poznań: Karol Marian Pośpieszalski, Niemiecka Lista Narodowa w "Kraju Warty": Documenta Occupationis Teutonicae, IV (Poznań: Inst. Zachodni, 1949)
53. Decree Number 50/1 of the RKF of September 30, 1941 regarding the racial screening of the members of DVL-Group 3. BA NS 2/153; Allgemeine Anordnung 12 C of the RKF on the treatment of members of DVL-Group 3 of February 9, 1942. BA NS 47/28; Decree Number 66/2 of the RKF on the registration (Vorerfassung) of DVL candidates of February 10, 1942. BA NS 2/127; Order of the RKF on the treatment of the members of DVL Group of February 16, 1942. USHMM RG-15.007 M, reel 9. For the Wirthegau see for instance the order of the Reichsstatthalter in Posen to the District Governors in Posen, Hohensalza, and Litzmannstadt regarding the racial screening of the DVL on July 3, 1942. Archiwum Państwowe w Poznań. 299/1131
54. For the concrete numbers see: Kleiner Umsiedlungsspiegel des RKF of February 1943. BA R 49/87. For the selection statistics for the DVL in Wirthegau, see Archiwum Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, Warszawa (AGK) 167/1, and for Eastern Prussia see AGK 167/8
55. The consequences of the exclusion of the DVL nevertheless were postponed "for the duration of the war" - the population experts feared the destabilization of the Annexed Territories
56. For a thorough description of the expulsions and the population transfer in Western Poland, see Aly, "Endlösung."
57. For a detailed analysis of the UWZ Posen/Litzmannstadt, see Philipp T. Rutherford's dissertation on Nazi population policy in Reichsgau Wartheland: "Race, Space and the 'Polish Question': Nazi Deportation Policy in the Reichsgau Wartheland, 1939-1941" (University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 2000)
58. "Um bei der Evakuierung dieser [polnischen] Dörfer für uns tragbare, rassisch wie politisch nicht vollkommen unerwünschte Bauern am Abtransport nach dem Generalgouvernement zu verhindern und sie als Landarbeiter zu behalten, wären Verhandlungen mit dem Reichsernährungsministerium notwendig und eine Durchschleusung der zu evakuierenden Polen durch eine entsprechende Kommission, die sich aus einem örtlichen SD-Führer, einem Arzt und dem örtlichen RuS-Führer zusammensetzen könnte." Chief of RuSHA on November 20, 1939. BA NS 2/60
59. This calculation is based on my own research, but is also supported by the investigations of the Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen in Ludwigsburg (ZSt.), where a card index of about 550 persons, RuS Leaders and racial experts of RuSHA, has been compiled. ZSt. 414 AR 122/65. Special RuSHA-Einsatzgruppen were set up for the Polish Campaign in 1939. They cooperated closely with the Einsatzgruppen of Security Police and SD, seizing the agricultural property of Poles and Jews for later German settlement
60. For more details on this sample and the racial experts' careers and educational backgrounds, see my doctoral dissertation, "'Rasse, Siedlung, Deutsches Blut': Die Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS und die nationalsozialistische Rassenpolitik im besetzten Europa 1939-1945" (Freiburg University, 2001)
61. Himmler himself insisted on the fact that the racial examiners should be carefully trained because their decisions were of considerable importance. See for instance the correspondence between RuSHA Chief Otto Hofmann (who reported Himmler's wishes) and the head of RuSHA's Racial Office, SS- Standartenführer Professor Dr. Bruno Kurt Schultz, on the organization of the seminars in Prague. BA NS 2/89
62. Scholtz's example is representative for those older SS racial experts who became RuS Leaders of the SS-Oberabschnitte. Numerous experts followed similar career patterns and could likewise be offered as examples of typical RuSHA experts
63. "Gruppe A: Asiaten oder mit Asiatisch-orientalisch-vorderasiatischem Einschlag und undefinierbaren Mischtypen, welche ausgemerzt werden sollen." The RuS Leader Breslau Walter Scholtz to the RuSHA Chief Otto Hofmann on July 18, 1941. BA NS 2/79
64. "Die Gruppenaufteilung ist gut. Der Beginn der Arbeit jetzt schon ist verfrüht! Man würde nur einen winzigen Bruchteil der Bevölkerung der europäischen UdSSR erfassen. Außerdem würde man die Organisation des Abtransportes des Gefangenen gefährden. Jedoch muß diese Arbeit jetzt schon vorbereitet werden." Handwritten notice of RuSHA Chief Otto Hofmann. Undated. BA NS 2/79
65. The consequent extermination of the population in entire regions of Belorussia is described by Christian Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde
66. "Always to impose the death sentence - as a warning example for Poles as well as Germans - and to schedule the executions for Sundays and force all the Poles of the district and the guilty Germans to assist." ("... von der Möglichkeit der Verhängung der Todesstrafe, als abschreckendes Beispiel für Polen wie Deutsche, immer Gebrauch zu machen und zwar die Exekution für Sonntags allgemein anzuordnen, um sämtliche Polen des Kreises, sowie die schuldigen Deutschen hierzu heranzuziehen.") Scholtz to von dem Bach Zelewski, on May 12, 1941. Excerpt. Personal file Scholtz. Berlin Document Center (BDC). National Archives II Records Administration (NARA), SSO Walter Scholtz
67. Although a detailed analysis of the implementation of the DVL's racial selections in Western Poland is beyond the scope of this article, it should be noted that some Gauleiter proved especially reluctant to apply this new method of NS population policy. Himmler, nevertheless, insisted on his basic decrees concerning the racial screening of Groups 3 and 4 of the DVL and wrote letters to the Gauleiter to insist that they implement the selections. Arthur Greiser of Warthegau and Fritz Bracht of Oberschlesien were convinced as early as the end of 1941/ the beginning of 1942, and Erich Koch of Eastern Prussia did not make any objections at all. Only Albert Foster of Danzig-Westpreußen had a completely different concept of population policy and tried to do without the racial screenings by the SS racial experts. But the eager Higher SS and Police Leader Richard Hildebrandt, who became the last chief of RuSHA in 1943, and his RuS Leader, Franz Vietz, formed a vigorous SS counterpart to the Gauleiter. Himmler even came to Danzig to help overcome the confrontation between Hildebrandt and Forster on the Gau's population policy in November 1941, but the fight continued also under Hildebrandt's successor Fritz Katzmann. Consequently, large-scale racial selections in Danzig began no earlier than 1943. See for instance the letter of Himmler to Greiser on September 30, 1941. Archiwum Państwowe w Poznań 299/1114; Fritz Bracht to RuSHA Chief Hofmann on March 1, 1942. BA NS 2/80; RuS Leader Vietz in Danzig to the RuSHA in Berlin on racial screenings, May 20, 1943. BA NS 47/44; Himmler to Forster on November 29, 1943. AGK 167/44
68. Decrees of the Reichsprotektor on the relevance of racial quality ("Wiedereindeutschungsfähigkeit") for German naturalization in the Protectorate of March 28, 1942 and April 16, 1942. Referred to in the Report of the Chief of the Racial Office of RuSHA on the activities of RuSHA in Bohemia and Moravia of January 25, 1944. BA NS 2/153
69. See also the Letter of the office of the Reichsprotektor to the District Governors on the naturalization of Jewish Mischlinge of March 28, 1942. USHMM RG-48.005 M, reel 2. Selected Records of the State Archive in Prague, Office of the Reichsprotektor. I-3b 5090. Carton 365
70. "Inzwischen hat die Zusammenarbeit des Reichsprotektors und auch der Oberlandräte mit dem Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt SS und dessen Außenstellen bestätigt, daß der einzige absolute Maßstab bei der Prüfung des Volkszugehörigkeit die Wiedereindeutschungsfä higkeit im Sinne der vom Reichsführer SS aufgestellten Richtlinien darstellt." Notice of the Office of the Reichsprotektor in Bohemia and Moravia on April 16, 1942. See also the letter of the same day to the District Presidents by Heydrich's official Dr. Fuchs. USHMM RG 48.005 M, reel 2. Selected Records of the State Archive in Prague, Office of the Reichsprotector. I-3b 5090. Carton 365
71. The Lublin SS-Mannschaftshaus, designed both as an SS students' dormitory and a planning office for Globocnik's settlement operations, never assumed institutional independence, but existed as a branch of the SSPF-Office in Lublin. For a description of the planning effectuated by the RuS members in the context of the SS-Mannschaftshaus in Lublin see Bogdan Musial, "Ursprünge der 'Aktion Reinhardt': Entscheidungsfindung zum Massenmord an den Juden im Generalgouvernement." Paper presented at the Workshop on "SS Racial Policies and Forced Population Movements" at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, July 1999
72. In his order for the first large-scale expulsion of Poles and Ukrainians and the resettlement of ethnic Germans in the Lublin District and the area around the town of Zamość, Globocnik wrote with regard to the ethnic Germans: "Here it is not of any relevance which language somebody speaks or if he possesses all the skills that have become normal for modern Germans. The only importance is that German blood has been saved and that this blood can be made use of for the future strengthening and security of our entire Volkstum." ("Hier ist nicht maßgebend, welche Sprache einer spricht, hier ist nicht maßgebend, ob er über alle Kenntnisse verfügt, die heute dem deutschen Selbstverständlichkeit geworden sind, hier ist nur maßgebend, daß deutsches Blut gerettet worden ist und dieses Blut zur Sicherung und Festigung unseres gesamten Volkstums für die Zukunft eingesetzt werden soll.") Globocnik to his staff on November 22, 1942; BA R 49/3533
73. For the whole Zamość operation, see also the source collection by Czesław Madajczyk, Zamojszczyzna-Sonderlaboratorium SS. Zbiór dokumentów polskich i niemieckich z okresu okupacji hitlerowskiej, I and II (Warsaw: Ludowa Spóldzielnia Wydawnieza, 1977)
74. Czesław Madajczyk proposes to distinguish two phases of expulsion and "ethnic cleansing" in the Zamość region. First, during November and December of 1942 came the expulsion of 10,000 Poles. Second, the period of "pacification," i.e., of brutal antipartisan actions against entire Polish villages, in Summer 1943, resulting in the arrest of at least 32,000 people (during the antipartisan operations "Werewolf I" and "Werewolf II"). See Czesław Madajczyk, Zamojszczyzna- Sonderlaboratorium SS, p. 5
75. A detailed description of this "ethnic reconstruction" in the Generalgouvernement is offered by Bruno Wasser, Himmlers Raumplanung im Osten: Der Generalplan Ost in Polen 1940-1944 (Basel: Birkhäuser, 1993)
76. The local RuS official reported to his superior in the RuS branch office in Łod́ź: "The three racial experts here in Zamość are completely occupied. One or two of them accompany the evacuations in the morning, in order to clarify questions that arise in connection with whether people classified in race group III are allowed to remain in the district." "Die drei nach Zamość kommandierten E-Prüfer [Eignungsprüfer] sind voll beschäftigt. Einer oder zwei fahren jeweils morgens mit zum Evakuieren hinaus um die dort im Zusammenhang mit der Dabelassung von IIIer-Fällen auftauchenden Fragen an Ort und Stelle zu klären." First report of the RuS branch office in Zamość to the RuS branch office in Łódź on December 6, 1942. AGK 167/48
77. On July 5, 1941, the Reichsführer-SS ordered the racial examination of Polish civil workers meriting "special treatment," S IV D 26 4483/ 40g 196. The order of the Chief of RSHA of February 20, 1941, S ICD 208/42 ausl. Arb., extended the procedure to civil servants from the Soviet Union. Czechs were included in the procedure from 1942 on, Order of the Reichsführer-SS on June 13, 1942, IV D 1 b 138/40 II. For a regional study of racial screening in cases of "special treatment" effectuated in SS-Oberabschnitt Rhein, see Matthias Hamann, "Erwünscht und unerwünscht: Die rassenpsychologische Selektion der Ausländer," Beiträge zur nationalsozialistischen Gesundheits-und Sozialpolitik, III (Berlin: Rotbuch Verlag, 1986), pp. 143-80
78. The investigations and the resulting lawsuits have been documented by the Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen in Ludwigsburg (ZSt.) 414 AR 122/65
79. Racial screening in cases of "special treatment" persisted until the end of November 1944, when Kaltenbrunner issued an order to suspend them "until the end of the war." See the order of Kaltenbrunner to all HSSPF in the Reich of November 27, 1944 concerning "Ahndung schwerwiegender Verstoße und unerlaubten Geschlechtsverkehrs fremdvölkischer Arbeitskräfte aus dem Osten, Südosten usw. - Hier: Fortfall der rassischen Überprüfung." NO-1364
80. SS-Obergruf. Otto Hofmann, former Chief of RuSHA and by this time HSSPF in Stuttgart, to the Reichsstatthalter in Württemberg and Baden, on March 24, 1944, on the treatment of children of foreign workers. NO-4141. Bundesarchiv Koblenz (BArch) All. Proz. 1, Rep. 501. B 29. Circular of the Reichsminister des Inneren concerning children of foreign workers and the creation of Ausländerkinderpflegestätten of June 5, 1944. BA NS 2/154
81. See also Ulrich Herbert, Fremdarbeiter: Politik und Praxis des "Ausländer-Einsatzes" in der Kriegswirtschaft des Dritten Reiches (reprint Bonn: Dietz, 1999), especially pp. 287-91
82. Himmler's racial experts were bitterly dissapointed by the second Nuremberg Law of 1935, the "Gesetz zum Schutz des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre," which regarded as "Jews" only persons with three or four Jewish grandparents, allowing most "Mischlinge ersten und zweiten Grades" - persons with two or fewer Jewish ancestors - to be considered as Germans. Consequently, they did not tire of demanding further measures to completely eliminate those Mischlinge from the German Volk
83. "SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann steht auf dem Standpunkt, daß von der Sterilisierung weitgehend Gebrauch gemacht werden muß; zumal der Mischling, vor die Wahl gestellt, ob er evakuiert oder sterilisiert werden soll, sich lieber der Sterilisierung unterziehen wird." Besprechungsprotokoll über die Besprechung zur Endlösung der Judenfrage vom 20.1.1942 in Berlin am Großen Wannsee
84. Cf. Peter Klein, Die Wannseekonferenz vom 20. Januar 1942 (Berlin: Edition Hentrich), pp. 42-56
85. For the records of the two so-called Wannsee-Folgekonferenzen on the treatment of Mischlinge and Mischehen (mixed marriages) of June 3, 1942 and October 27, 1942 see Robert M. Kempner, Eichmann und seine Komplizen (Zurich: Europa-Verlag, 1961)
86. For a broad overview on NS policies towards Mischlinge in general see the study by Jeremy Noakes, "The Development of Nazi Policy towards the German "Mischlinge" 1933-1945," Leo Baeck Yearbook 34 (1989), pp. 291-354
87. A detailed study of the fate of Hamburg's Jewish "Mischlinge" is offered by Beate Meyer, "Jüdische Mischlinge": Rassenpolitik und Verfolgungserfahrung 1933-1945 (Hamburg: Dölling und Galitz, 1999)
88. "Bei den Mischlingen II. Grades müssen demnach im allgemeinen mehr jüdische Erbanlagen angenommen werden, als es zunächst nach der einfachen Teilung 1/2, 1/4 usw. den Anschein hat. ... In einer vor kurzem durchgeführten Untersuchung an 1.803 Judenmischlingen ... konnte festgestellt werden, daß neben den unerwünschten und für das deutsche Volk schädlichen Rassenanteilen ein überdurchschnittlicher Teil der Mischlinge auch erbbiologische Geringwertigkeiten aufwies. ... Es wird demnach vorgeschlagen, die jüdischen Mischlinge II. Grades nicht ausnahmslos den Deutschblütigen zuzuschlagen, sondern dieselben einer rassischen Sichtung zu unterziehen. Jene Mischlinge II. Grades, bei denen die jüdischen Rassenmerkmale im äußeren Erscheinungsbild deutlich hervortreten, wären in der Behandlungsweise den Mischlingen I. Grades gleichzustellen." "It is highly probable that Mischlinge of second degree in general possess more Jewish traits than can be deducted from the simple calculation of 1/2, 1/4 and so on. ... A recent examination of 1,803 Judenmischlinge has revealed that in addition to the unwanted racial traits which are noxious to the German Volk a significant portion of the Mischlinge also had hereditary defects. ... We thus propose not to consider all these Jewish Mischlinge of second degree as people of German blood without exception, but to subject them to a racial examination. Those Mischlinge of second degree whose outward appearance clearly
89. See the letter of Hofmann to the Reichsführer-SS from March 17, 1943, concerning the "Endlösung der Judenmischlingsfrage." Bormann ordered party officials to take into account the racial character of Judenmischlinge zweiten Grades and to rely on the expertise of RuSHA experts and of the members of the Rassenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP (RPA). Circular 117/ 1943 from August 22, 1943, of Martin Borman. BA NS 19/1047
90. Circular of the Reichsprotektor on the relevance of racial quality ("Wiedereindeutschungsfähigkeit") for German naturalization in the Protectorate of March 28, 1942
91. Letter of the office of the Reichsprotektor to the District Governors on the naturalization of Jewish Mischlinge of March 28, 1942. USHMM RG-48.005 M, reel 2; Report of the Chief of the Racial Office of RuSIIA on the activities of RuSHA in Bohemia and Moravia of January 25, 1944. BA NS 2/153
92. For the responsibility of RuS official Georg Gloystein for the deportation of Jews from Turek in the Warthegau (where he was leading an SS-Arbeitsstab to effectuate the resettlement of ethnic Germans) in the spring of 1942, see ZSt. 203 AR-Z 162/67. The killing of Jews by SS farmers and SS settlement experts in the Generalgouvernement and the Ukraine was mentioned in the following investigations: ZSt. 208 AR-Z 74/60, ZSt. 208 AR-Z 64/68, ZSt. 203 AR-Z 20/63
93. It should be noted that in Germany the Reichssippenamt, a section of the Reich's Ministry of the Interior, decided upon the Jewish or Aryan descent of civilians and distributed the so-called Ariernachweise (certificates of Aryan descent). Nevertheless, RuSHA's experts were hoping to gain control of the entire business of Abstammungsnachweise (certificates of descent) after the war, and corresponding plans for the dismantling of the Reichssippenamt were made in 1944. Letter of the representative of the Reichssippenamt in The Hague, SS-Obersturmführer Dr. Ispert, to the local chief of the Security Police on March 18, 1944. Approval of the plans by RuSHA representative SS-Sturmbannführer Oslander on April 4, 1944. BA NS 2/222
94. In the Netherlands, for instance, RuSHA genealogists in 1944 seized the "Judenmischlings-und Kolonialkartei," two special card indexes documenting Jews and people originating from the former Dutch colonies, which had been compiled by the Dutch SS member and genealogist SS- Untersturmführer Ten Cafe. These card indexes - so the racial experts believed even at the end of 1944 - would permit the foundation of a new anti-Jewish population policy after the war
95. Closing Brief of the Prosecution, Bundesarchiv Koblenz (BArch), All. Proz. 1, XXXXIV, Rep 501, Be 42
96. "Und als die negative Auslese wird die Erfassung sämtlicher Judentaufen sowie die Feststellung deren Nachfahren bis zum heutigen Geschlecht vorgenommen." Chief of RuSHA, Otto Hofmann, April 20, 1942. Das Arbeitsgebiet des Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt SS. BA NS 2/ 5S. Bl. 66-69
97. See the report of SS-Untersturmführer Dr. U. Grotefend to SS-Sturmbannführer Oslander from RuSHA on September 2, 1944, and the letter of the commander of SiPo and SD in Velp SS-Stubaf. Zoepf to the RuSHA Chief on September 27, 1944. BA NS 2/224. The Grotefend Mission in the camp of Westerbork was ordered by the HSSPF Rauter and the commander of SiPo and SD in Velp to provide a "reliable base for the further treatment of the Judenmischlinge in the Netherlands."
98. "Der Außenstehende mußte in der SS das Organ der Rassenvernichtung, im Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt die Seele dieser Politik vermuten." Eröffnungsrede für den Angeklagten Otto Hofmann vor dem Militärtribunal I Nürnberg im Fall VIII gegen Greiffelt und andere. BArch All. Proz. 1, XXXXIV, Rep 501, J 1
99. See Robert M. W. Kempner, SS im Kreuzverhör (Munich: Rütten und Loening, 1964), pp. 187-203