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The Wannsee Protocol

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The Wannsee Protocol 1 Primary Source 13.3 WANNSEE PROTOCOL, JANUARY 20, 1942 On January 20, 1942, fifteen senior Nazi officials met in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. Present were representatives of the foreign office; the justice, interior, and state ministries; and the SS—the brutal paramilitary organization concerned with internal affairs. The meeting was headed by Reinhard Heydrich (1904–42), director of the SS secret police, the Gestapo. The Wannsee Conference was to coordinate the ministries involved in the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” that is, the deportation and extermination of all the Jews in Europe. The killing of Jews had already begun with the invasion of Poland in September of 1939. Death squads of the SS, Einsatzgruppen, executed insurgents, educated elites, nobles, priests, and Jews. During the course of the war, they killed roughly 2 million people, including 1.3 million Jews. However, squads of executioners would take a long time to annihilate the millions of Jews spread throughout Europe, and the Nazis were in a rush. The war had accelerated at the end of 1941, as the USSR went on the offensive, and the Pearl Harbor attack had pushed the U.S. into the war. Moreover, individual Nazi officials in the Baltic States and Eastern Poland, on their own initiative but sure of finding favor in Berlin, began the mass murder of whole Jewish communities, including women and children. Then, in September 1941 at Auschwitz, 600 Soviet POWs were put to death using the insecticide Zyclon-B. Ultimately, in six death camps (all in Nazi-occupied Polish territory: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau) some 3 million Jews and many tens of thousands of Gypsies, or Roma, and other non-Jews perished. This was only a fraction of the 11 million prisoners (including up to 6 million Jews) who died in thousands of Nazi camps during the war. Even when military retreat forced the abandonment of the killing centers, merciless Nazi guards marched hundreds of thousands of prisoners westward for further use as slave labor; up to one-third died in transit. Although Heydrich ordered the Wannsee Conference minutes destroyed, one copy was found in 1947. It is transcribed below. For the text online, click here. Stamp: Top Secret 30 copies 16th copy Minutes of discussion. I. The following persons took part in the discussion aBout the final solution of the Jewish question which took place in Berlin, am Grossen Wannsee No. 56/58 on 20 January 1942. Gauleiter1 Dr. Meyer2 and Reich Ministry for the Occupied 1 A regional Nazi party leader. 2 Reichsamtleiter Dr. LeibBrandt3 Eastern territories Secretary of State Dr. Stuckart4 Reich Ministry for the Interior Secretary of State Neumann5 Plenipotentiary6 for the Four Year Plan Secretary of State Dr. Freisler7 Reich Ministry of Justice Secretary of State Dr. Bühler8 Office of the Government General9 Under Secretary of State Dr. Luther10 Foreign Office SS-Oberführer11 Klopfer12 Party Chancellery Ministerialdirektor Kritzinger13 Reich Chancellery SS-Gruppenführer14 Hofmann15 Race and Settlement Main Office SS-Gruppenführer Müller16 Reich Main Security Office SS-OBersturmbannführer17 Eichmann18 2 Alfred Meyer (1891–1945), Deputy Reichminister in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. He committed suicide at the end of the war. Most of the “doctor” participants were PhDs, not MDs. 3 Georg LeiBBrandt (1899–1982), a Nazi politician and theoretician who survived the war and moved to America. 4 Wilhelm Stuckart (1902–53) was a lawyer and official of the Nazi party and was sentenced to time served during the NuremBerg Trials. 5 Erich Neumann (1892–1948), a Nazi official, was arrested By the Allies then released in 1948 due to poor health. 6 An official with complete power or authority in a specific area. 7 Roland Freisler (1893–1945), a Nazi lawyer and judge; killed in a BomBing raid in 1945. 8 Josef Bühler (1904–48), a deputy governor to the General Government, executed in 1948 By the Supreme National TriBunal of Poland for crimes against humanity. 9 The administrative body of Nazi occupied Poland, from 1939 to 1945. 10 Martin Franz Julius Luther (1895–1945) was imprisoned in 1943 for disagreements with his superiors. LiBerated By Soviet troops in 1945, he soon died of a heart attack. 11 A rank in Both the SA and SS meaning “senior leader” which came to Be regarded as equal to senior colonel rank. 12 Gerhard Klopfer (1905–1987), a Nazi and assistant to Martin Bormann (1900–45), head of the Party Chancellery. He was charged with war crimes But acquitted for lack of evidence. 13 Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger (1890–1947), the representative of the Reich Chancellery was convicted of war crimes and died in NuremBerg. 14 A rank in the SA and SS “group leader,” equivalent to the military rank of lieutenant general. 15 Otto Hofmann (1896–1982), a Nazi official, sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes. 16 Heinrich Müller (B. 1900) was an official of the Gestapo, thought to have died in 1945 But without confirmation. 17 A rank in the SA and SS, equivalent to lieutenant colonel in the German Army. 18 Adolf Eichmann (1906–62), one of the major organizers of the Holocaust; caught by Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, in Argentina in 1960, he was tried and hanged. 3 SS-Oberführer Dr. Schöngarth19 Security Police and SD20 Commander of the Security Police and the SD in the Government General SS-Sturmbannführer21 Dr. Lange22 Security Police and SD Commander of the Security Police and the SD for the General-District Latvia, as deputy of the Commander of the Security Police and the SD for the Reich Commissariat “Eastland”. II. At the Beginning of the discussion Chief of the Security Police and of the SD, SS- Obergruppenführer Heydrich, reported that the Reich Marshal23 had appointed him delegate for the preparations for the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe and pointed out that this discussion had Been called for the purpose of clarifying fundamental questions. The wish of the Reich Marshal to have a draft sent to him concerning organizational, factual and material interests in relation to the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe makes necessary an initial common action of all central offices immediately concerned with these questions in order to Bring their general activities into line. The Reichsführer-SS24 and the Chief of the German Police (Chief of the Security Police and the SD) was entrusted with the official central handling of the final solution of the Jewish question without regard to geographic Borders. The Chief of the Security Police and the SD then gave a short report of the struggle which has been carried on thus far against this enemy, the essential points Being the following: a) The expulsion of the Jews from every sphere of life of the German people, b) The expulsion of the Jews from the living space of the German people. In carrying out these efforts, an increased and planned acceleration of the emigration of the Jews from Reich territory was started, as the only possible present solution. By order of the Reich Marshal, a Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration was set up in January 1939 and the Chief of the Security Police and SD was entrusted with the management. Its most important tasks were 19 Karl EBerhard Schöngarth (1903–46), an official of the SS. He was found guilty of war crimes and hanged. 20 The Sicherheitsdienst, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS. 21 Obergruppenführer was the highest rank in the SS, second only to Reichsführer Himmler. 22 Rudolf Lange (1910–45), commander of the SD in Latvia. 23 As reichmarschall, Hermann Göring (1893–1946) was senior to all commanders in the German Army. Göring gave Heyrdrich the order in 1941 to find a total solution to the Jewish question. 24 The Reichsführer-SS was the highest rank of the SS, held By Heinrich Himmler (1900–45) from 1929 to 1945. 4 a) To make all necessary arrangements for the preparation for an increased emigration of the Jews, B) To direct the flow of emigration, c) To speed the procedure of emigration in each individual case. The aim of all this was to cleanse German living space of Jews in a legal manner. All the offices realized the drawBacks of such enforced accelerated emigration. For the time being they had, however, tolerated it on account of the lack of other possible solutions of the proBlem. The work concerned with emigration was, later on, not only a German proBlem, But also a proBlem with which the authorities of the countries to which the flow of emigrants was Being directed would have to deal. Financial difficulties, such as the demand By various foreign governments for increasing sums of money to Be presented at the time of the landing, the lack of shipping space, increasing restriction of entry permits, or the cancelling of such, increased extraordinarily the difficulties of emigration. In spite of these difficulties, 537,000 Jews were sent out of the country Between the takeover of power and the deadline of 31 October 1941. Of these approximately 360,000 were in Germany proper on 30 January 1933 approximately 147,000 were in Austria (Ostmark) on 15 March 1939 approximately 30,000 were in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia25 on 15 March 1939. The Jews themselves, or their Jewish political organizations, financed the emigration. In order to avoid impoverished Jews’ remaining Behind, the principle was followed that wealthy Jews have to finance the emigration of poor Jews; this was arranged By imposing a suitaBle tax, i.e., an emigration tax, which was used for financial arrangements in connection with the emigration of poor Jews and was imposed according to income.
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