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Towards the Eichmann Trial erusalem, April 1961-Nissan 5721 No, 10 TOWARDS THE EICHMANN TRIAL PREVENTION OF THE EMIGRATION OF 1,000 ' I ........... '. .... ,. CHILDREN FROM RUMANIA -'-:-77.::-:~:--~- -Il I _ ••• I", ! ,'CI"r - , gu iI'!Il Berlin, 3 March, 1943. Secret _ I! ,~.i Bt!:~ r , To: Foreign Ministry, Attention : Coun­ GhtJk ,.' J sellor Herr von Hahn. Berlin, ' ,.... ......, .... J R auchstrasse. Re: Transfer of Jews from the Balkans '" to Palestine. ,....,.tf.... .. _l. Documentation: None. ••••• 'Yoa .em I.e.. " ...",.... •• It •• According to reliable information which must be kept secret negotiations which might prove successful are being •• I' 1 1 •• conducted between J ewish leaders in R umania-through their offices in Con­ stantinople-and Turkey, for the grant • of' transit visas for on~ thousand J ewish !!!Eltt1I. ~=~.&l_ ....kD» .... children and one hundred J ewish adults who will accompany the former on their !!.!!II. 0_. trip via Bulgaria and Turkey to Pa­ lestine. I ...~u.~l_ • .-SUu':U__ ..... We request every effort to prevent rln,... 111'.~ ._ ~"l' __U_. 1a this emigration. By Order a-.u•• ' t1Nr liar. "ell.... 1._ .u .or Eichmann ttlrJr:e1 la ....to ....... l ..... y.l'tIuAl.... tiNI' .1_ .&u.'.ll_ '1'0. tI:rId. ..... Dv.... l.nt .. ,., I .u. 'np.. ftIa 1 ... ,MUUu atalea a1 t 100 J ..l .... ~.lt,....... ... a-Ial_, «t... 1111 S.. _eaarMtt al' ·.aaoa-z.1"· aat , ........ The document speaks for itself. ..,0 "or Jalprl...... ISO nrnl .... l&1I.U_ It had a two-fold purpose: first-to •• rbrl.... will. prevent all emigration of J ews (especial­ I. wtl'4l P"'''' ·u. ,.~1aa' .......... ly of children) from countries within the ••1'1UlI ~oJl. .'&11 •••1' ......r)tIIl_. Nazi zone of influence, in the hope that ultimately they would be done to death with the active aid (or under the "in­ K207357 fluence") of the Germans; second­ to prove to the Mufti that the Germans were preventing emigration to Palestine. Documents exist proving that the Mufti was particularly "interested" in plans concerning the rescue of J ews and transporting them to Palestine. Germany. Thus it conducted propaganda against the Jewish emigrants abroad and made it difficult for them to find a re­ fuge. Up to the beginning of 1938, Chronology 140,000 Jews left Germany . 1938 .of the Catastrophe 13 March: Annexation of Austria to the Reich. All decrees published in the past five years against the Jews immediately came into force in Austria. 1920 office of President of the State and Head of the Government. 28 August: Forcible expulsion of Foundation of the Nazi Party He became Fuhrer and Reichs­ thousands of Jews who were Po­ I ts programme included extreme kanzler, sole ruler of Germany. lish citizens and who had lived anti-Semitic features including in Germany. deprivation of citizenship for 1 April: Official "Boycott day" against the Jews of Germany. 9 October: Kristallnacht. the Jews and the threat of ex­ A wave of anti-Jewish riots pulsion from Germany. On this day Jews were ar­ officially staged in Germany, os­ rested and beaten and entry in­ tensibly in reprisal against the to Jewish business was prohi­ 1923 assassination of the Secretary of bited. A spate of orders and or­ the German Embassy in Paris 8 November: Munich Putsch. dinances against the Jews be­ by Hershl Greenspan. The riots A stillborn Nazi attempt at gan with the object of robbing continued for several days. (The revolution. and impoverishing them. These name "Kristallnacht" was given decrees continued to be issued because it involved the smash­ until the jews disappeared from ing of thousands of expensive 1924 Germany. window-panes of Jewish busi­ Hitler in Landsberg Prison-dict­ First wave of emigration of Jews nesses.) ates "Mein Kampf". from Germany. According to an official Ger­ In this two volume book ( the According to the report of the man report on Kristallnacht 191 first volume was published in National Representation of the synagogues were burned, 5,500 1925) Hitler expressed his basic Jews 38,000 Jews left Germany shops were destroyed, 30,000 views and revealed his plans, in 1933. Emigration was still un­ Jews were arrested, half of them which he subsequently endea­ restricted and the emigrants deported to the Buchenwald voured to put into practice could take a considerable part Concentration Camp, 36 Jews when he achieved power. The of their property. were killed and many others book is full of insults and threats severely wounded. A collective to the Jews. 1935 fine of one billion marks was Few people have read the imposed upon the Jews of Ger­ 15 September: Nuremberg Laws. whole book. Those who did read many while a new spate of de­ Law of State Citizenship, for­ crees designed to complete the it at the time thought that what mally proclaimed at the Con­ it contained was not real plans act of robbery was promulgated. gress of the Nazi Party in N u­ but merely propaganda. remberg declared that only a Third wave of Jewish emigration person of German or related after Kristalnacht. 1932 blood could be a citizen of the According to the figures of State; that Jews were undesir­ the Jewish Representation in 21 July: In the Reichstag Elections able aliens, blood-defiled, en­ Germany 215,000 Jews left Ger­ the Nazi Party receives 37.4 per dangering the honour and se­ many between April 1933 and cent of the votes (230 deputies), curity of the German people. July 1939. In this period 97,000 becoming the largest party in They could not be Staatsburger left Austria and 17,000 the Pro­ the German parliament. (citizens) but remained subjects tectorate. In the elections held on No­ (S taa tsangehorige) . vember 6 of that year the per­ A second wave of Jewish emigration 1939 centage declined to 33. 1 per from Germany as a result of the cent, although the Nazis still re­ Nuremberg Laws. 24 January: Establishment of the mained the largest party in the Central Office for the Emigra­ Reichstag. This wave was more difficult and encountered more obstacles tion of the Jews. than the first. A large number The Office was headed by 1933 of countries surrounded them­ Heydrich, head of the Security 31 January: Hitler appointed selves with a rampart of restric­ Police and the SD. Branches of Reichskanzler (Premier). tive laws, or prohibited the en­ the Central Office were opened After the death of the aged try of refugees. The wicked Ger­ firs t in Vienna and then in President Hindenburg (August man regime wished to force the Prague. These two institutions 2, 1934) Hitler proclaimed Jews to depart but at the same were headed by Adolf Eich­ himself his successor, uniting the time coveted Jewish assets in mann. "The Emigration Offices'! which at first engaged in en­ THE HOLOCAUST OF EUROPEAN JEWRY - IN NUMBERS forced migration and extortion of sums of money from the J ews % 0/ losses Jewish popula· Victims 0/ based on the were converted in the course of tion in 1939 annihilation time into offices for the expul­ Percentage a/losses sion and deportation of Jews. (1) Poland 3,250,000 2,850,000 67.7 When in September 1939 the (2) Soviet Russia (the Nazi Reich Security Head Office was occupied provinces) 2,100,000 1,500,000 71.4 established, comprising Division (3) Rumania 850,000 425,000 50.0 IVB4 for Jewish Affairs (Berlin, (4) Hungary 400,000 200,000 50.0 Kurfiirstenstrasse 16), Eich­ (5) France 300,000 90,000 30.0 mann was appointed its head. (6) Czechoslovakia 315,000 240,000 76.2 From this office, he directed the (7) Germany 193,000 110,000 57.0 implementation of "the final so­ (8) Austria 90,000 45,000 50.0 lution" of the Jewish problem. (9) Lithuania 150,000 130,000 86.6 30 January: Hitler threatens the (10) Latvia 95,000 80,000 84.2 destruction of the Jews of Eu­ ( 11 ) Holland 150,000 105,000 70.0 rope. (12) Belgium 90,000 40,000 44.4 The following passage is from ( 13) Yugoslavia 75,000 55,000 73.3 a statement made by him in the (14) Greece 75,000 60,000 80.0 Reichstag: ( 15) Italy 57,000 15,000 26.3 "If international European (16) Bulgaria 50,000 7,000 14.0 Jewry, in Europe and elsewhere, (17) Others 15,000 5,000 33.3 should involve the European 8,255,000 5,957,000 72.1 peoples in a new world war, the result will be not Bolshevist do­ mination of the globe, and there­ REMARKS fore the victory of Jewry, but (a) This table of figures was assembled by the distinguished statistician and demo­ the destruction of the Jewish grapher, J acob Lestchinskyl. The figures are the results of estimates and calcula­ race in Europe." tions and do not. pretend to b~ absolutely accurate. J acob Lestchinsky says that A similar statement was made the true, accurate figures may be at most two to three per cent higher or lower, by Hitler on 30 January 1941. and no more. (b) In this table the year 1939 was taken as a basis of comparison. This means that 15 March: Conquest of Czechoslo­ J ews who fell victim to the Nazis in Germany since 1933 and in Austria since vakia, which becomes the Ger­ 1938 were not taken into account. Lestchinsky estimates their number in Ger­ man "Protectorate" of Bohe­ many alone (including suicides) at 30-40,000. mia-Moravia. (c) There are other calculations, according to which the Jewish losses are higher Slovakia becomes an "inde­ or lower than those given in the table.
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