by The Destruction of the European Jews, Vol. 1-3 (Third Edition) Yale University Press (2003) (pdf)
be a key agency in the destruction apparatus may not be an important
link in the governmental structure. In short, when we speak of the
55
THE STRUCTURE OF DESTRUCTION
machinery of destruction, we refer to German government in one of its
special roles.
The German administrative apparatus consisted of a Führer (Adolf
Hitler) and four distinct hierarchical groups:5 the ministerial bureaucracy, the armed forces, industry, and the party. Their detailed organization is shown in Tables 3-1 to 3-5.
For centuries the civil service and the military were considered the
two pillars of the German state. The modern civil service and the
modem German army have their origins in the mid-seventeenth century. The growth of these two bureaucracies, not merely as administrative machines but also as hierarchies with their own traditions, values, and policies, is in a sense synonymous and identical with the rise of the
modem German state. The business sector became a political factor,
on a par with the older organizations, only in the nineteenth century.
The party was the youngest hierarchy in the Nazi government; it was
barely ten years old in 1933. But the party already had a vast bureaucracy,
competing
with
the
other
hierarchies
and,
in
some
areas,
threatening their prerogatives. In spite of the different historical origins
of these four bureaucracies and in spite of their different interests, all
four could agree on the destruction of the Jews. The cooperation of
these hierarchies was so complete that we may truly speak of their
fusion into a machinery of destruction.
The
specific
contribution
of
each
hierarchy
can
be
assessed
roughly
along jurisdictional lines. The ministerial bureaucracy, staffed
with civil servants, was the chief implementer of anti-Jewish decrees
during the early stages of the destruction process. The ministerial civil
service wrote the decrees and regulations which defined the concept of
“Jew,” which provided for the expropriation of Jewish property, and
which inaugurated the ghettoization of the Jewish community in Germany. Thus the civil servant set the course and the direction of the entire process. This was his most important function in the destruction
of the Jews. But the civil service also had a surprisingly large role in the
later, more drastic anti-Jewish operations. The Foreign Office negotiated with Axis states for the deportation of Jews to killing centers; the German railways took care of the transport; the police, completely
3.
Franz Neumann, Behemoth (2d ed.; New York, 1944), pp. 365-99, 468-70. The
charts of the ministerial bureaucracy, the business sector, and the regional machinery are
based in pari on the organization chart certified by Frick, PS-2905. The organization of
the armed forces prior to 1938 is described by Hans Bemd Gisevius in Trial of the Major
War Criminals, XII, 197. The armed forces after their reorganization are described by
Walther von Brauchitsch in his affidavit of November 7, 1945, PS-3703. The party chart
is based on an affidavit by Franz Xaver Schwarz (Party Treasurer), November 16, 1945,
PS-2903.
56
T A B L E 3 - 1
MINISTERIAL BUREAUCRACY
Chu
(Frick)
(Conner)
Rust
Himmler
(Schlegelberger)
Reinhardt
Pfundtner (Schlegelberger) Zschin
Stuckert
(Freister)
(Landfried)
Conti
Rothenberger
Propaganda
«Sira
Tern'1
Re
Dorpmuller Ohnesorge
(Todtl
Speer
Gutterer
(Mackensen) Me
Lange
(Weiasacker)
Puhl
note: Predecessors of last incumbents are in parentheses. Ministers and Staatssekretäre (Undersecretaries) separated by line space. The Reich Chancellery (not shown) was placed between Hitler and the ministries for liaison purposes.
T A B L E 3 - 2
THE ARMED FORCES
To January ¡9}»
(Navy, Air Foret OmU(td)
Armed Forces Office
War Minis
in War Ministry
Feldmarschall von
Generaloberst Keitel
Commander in Chief
of the Army
Generaloberst von Fritsch
Beck
After Keorganiuuion
Chief. High Command of the
Armed Forces
Commander in Chief of the
(Oberkommando der Wehrmachi
Armed Forces
orOKW)
Commander in
Chief. High Command
Commander In
Chief. Directorate
Commander in
Chief, General
Chief of the Army of the Army
Chief of the Navy of Naval Warfare
Chief of the Air Force Staff of the Air Force
von Brauehltsch — Haider
Rider----------------- Schniewlndt
Gdring
Jcschonnck
(succeeded by
(succeeded by
(succeeded by
(succeeded by
(succeeded by
Hitler)
Zeitzler and
Korten and Krelpe)
________________ Guderian)_________
T A B L E
3-3
BUSINESS
Planning
War Production: AUo-
"RatiortaliSAtion" Business Practices
cations, Priorities, elc.
and Efficiency
uni Miscetla-
Problems
neons Maturs
Office of the
Planning Office
Armament
Reich Economic
Four-Year Plan
Ministry
Chamber
(Reichswirl-
schdflskammer)
Deputy: Kfimer
------------------ 1 i---------------------- 1 I----------------- 1
Hermann Main
Business Croups General Pleni
Industrial Rings
Main Committees
Trade Associations Reich Groups
Gôring
Trusteeship
(Geschäfts-
potentiaries
(Industrieringe)
tHauprausscküsse)
(Reichsvereini-
(Reichsgruppen)
Works
Office East gruppen)
(Generalbevollgungen)
mächtigte)
Pleiger Winkler
Labor: Sauckel Weapons: Zangen
Each member Iron: ROchling
Industry: Zangen
Forests: Alpers Chemical
Etc.
of a ring
Coal: Pleiger
Trade: Hayler
Prices: Fischbock Industry: Krauch
produced com Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
ponents of the
(The regional
final product,
machinery of the
Reich Chamber
ba.1 bearings
consisted of the
Chambers of
Commerce and
Industry)
s
T A B L E
3-4
PARTY
Führer Chance
Party Chance
1
ef of Staff: (Luire]
Foreign
Propaganda Finar
Policy
Goebbels
Schw
Reichsleii'
lin Office
Offices
note: Broken lines indicate position of Party Chancellery as clearing I
: for reports to Hitler and as channel of directives from Hitler. All
party agencies were responsible to Hitler- Not all of them are listed.
T A B L E 3 - 5
REGIONAL MACHINERY
Party
State
1
1 4
1 3
1 1
3 1
Reichsstatthalter
Oberprasidenten
Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter
Gauleiter
(Regents)
non-Prussian Lander
Prussian Provinces
Reichsgaue
non-Prussian Lander
(These areas were incorporated
and Prussian provinces
into the Reich under the Nazi
(The territory of a Gau
regime; the Reichsstatthalter
was not necessarily
and Gauleiter in each Reichs-
identical with the area
gau was one person)
of a Land or province)
Regierungspräsidenten
Kreisleiter
Landrate
Burgermeister
Ortsgruppenleiter
(rural)
(cities)
THE STRUCTURE OF DESTRUCTION
merged with the party's SS, was engaged extensively in killing operations.
The army was drawn into the destruction process after the outbreak of war by virtue of its control over vast territories in Eastern and Western Europe. Military units and offices had to participate in all
measures, including the killing of Jews by special mobile units and the
transport of Jews to the death camps.
Industry and finance had an important role in the expropriations, in
the forced labor system, and even in the gassing of the victims.
The party concerned itself with all questions that involved delicate
problems of German-Jewish relations (half-Jews, Jews in mixed marriages, etc.) and generally pushed for drastic action. It was not an accident that the military arm of the party, the SS (which was amalgamated
with
the
Interior
Ministry’s
police),
carried
out
the
most
drastic operations of all, the killing operations.
Each
hierarchy
contributed
to
the
destruction
process
not
only
administrative
measures,
but
also
administrative
characteristics.
The
civil service infused the other hierarchies with its sure-footed planning
and bureaucratic thoroughness. From the army the machinery of destruction
acquired
its
military
precision,
discipline,
and
callousness.
Industry's
influence
was
felt
in
the
great
emphasis on
accounting,
penny saving, and salvage, as well as in the factory like efficiency of the
killing centers. Finally, the party contributed to the entire apparatus an
“idealism,” a sense of “mission,” and a notion of “history making.”
Thus the four bureaucracies were merged not only in action but also in
their thinking.
The destruction of the Jews was thus the work of a far-flung administrative machine. This apparatus took each step in turn. The initiation as well as the implementation of decisions was largely in its hands.
No special agency was created and no special budget was devised to
destroy the Jews of Europe. Each organization was to play a specific
role in the process, and each was to find the means to carry out its task.
62
c
H
A
P
T
E
R
F
DEFINITION °
BY u
DECREE r
A destruction process is a series of administrative measures that
must be aimed at a definite group. The German bureaucracy
knew with whom it had to deal: the target of its measures was Jewry.
But what, precisely, was Jewry? Who was a member of that group?
The answer to this question had to be worked out by an agency that
dealt
with
general
problems
of
administration—the
Interior
Ministry.
In the course of the definition making, several other offices from the
civil service and the party became interested in the problem. For purposes of orientation, therefore. Tables 4-1 to 4-3 show the structure of the Interior Ministry and the two agencies that throughout the years
were most closely concerned with the general aspects of anti-Jewish
action, the judicial machinery and the Reich Chancellery.
The problem of defining the Jews was by no means simple; in fact, it
was a stumbling block for an earlier generation of anti-Semites. Hell-
mut von Gerlach, one of the anti-Semitic deputies in the Reichstag
during the 1890s, explained in his memoirs why the sixteen anti-
Semitic members of the legislature had never proposed an anti-Jewish
law: they could not find a workable definition of the concept Jew. All
had agreed upon the jingle:
Never mind to whom he prays,
The rotten mess is in the race.
[Was er glaubt ist einerlei
In der Rasse iiegt die Schweinerei.]
But how to define race in a law? The anti-Semites had never been able
to come to an agreement about that question. That is why “everybody
continued to curse the Jews, but nobody introduced a law against
them.”1 The “simple” people who wrote the Nazi Party program in 1920
did not supply a definition either. They simply pointed out that a member of the community could only be a person of “German blood, without regard to confession.”
1.
Hellmut von Gerlach, Von Rechts nach Links (Zurich, 1937), pp. 111-13. The
author, an anti-Semitic deputy, quit the faction in disgust.
65
DEFINITION BY DECREE
T A B L E 4-1
THE INTERIOR MINISTRY
Minister.............................................. .... Dr. Wilhelm Frickt
Staatssekretär in Charge....................
Constitution and Law......................... ___Staatssekretär Dr. Wilhelm Stuckartf
Deputy...........................................
... Ministerialdirigent Hering
Constitution...................................
Ministerialrat Medicus
Administrative Law.......................
.... Ministerialrat Dr. Hoche
Citizenship Law...........................
..
.... Ministerialrat Dr. Hubrich
Naturalization............................
___Oberregierungsrat Dr. Duckart
International Law.......................
Minivt^nalrut Olnbki*
Race ..............................................
.. Ministerialrat Lösener
Name Changes...........................
.... Ministerialrat Globke
Health................................................
.... Staatssekretär Dr. Leonardo Conti||
Public Health.................................
Eugenics and Race..................... .... Ministerialdirigent Dr. Linden
note: For more elaborate charts and descriptions of (he Ministry, see Hans
Pfundtner, ed., Dr. Wilhelm Frick und sein Ministerium (Munich, 1937); affidavit by Hans
Globke, November 14, 1947, NG-3540; organization chart of the Interior Ministry, 1938,
NG-3462; organization chart of the Interior Ministry, 1943, in Taschenbuch fär Verwaltungsbeamte, 1943, PS-3475.
tFrick was succeeded in 1943 by Himmler.
tPfundtner resigned in 1943; his position was left vacant.
IStuckart was appointed in 1935; his predecessor was Staatssekretär Grauen.
IlConti was also appointed in 1935; his predecessor was Ministerialdirektor Dr. Giitt.
When the Interior Ministry drafted its first anti-Jewish decree for
the dismissal of Jewish civil servants, it was confronted by the same
problem that had troubled the anti-Semites and the early Nazis. But the
bureaucrats of the Interior Ministry attacked the problem systematically, and soon they found the answer.
The decree of April 7, 1933,! provided that officials of “non-Aryan
descent” were to be retired. The term non-Aryan descent was defined
in the regulation of April 11,1933,’ as a designation for any person who
had a Jewish parent or grandparent; the parent or grandparent was
presumed to be Jewish if he (or she) belonged to the Jewish religion.
The phraseology of this definition is such that it could not be said to
have run counter to the stipulations of the party program. The ministry
had divided the population into two categories: “Aryans,” who were
people
with
no
Jewish
ancestors
(i.e., pure
“German
blood”),
and
“non-Aryans,” who were all persons, Jewish or Christian, who had at
least one Jewish parent or grandparent. It should be noted that this
2. RGBl I, 175.
3. RGBl I, 195.
66
DEFINITION BY DECREE
T A B L E
4 - 2
THE JUDICIAL MACHINERY
Justice Ministry
1933-41 1 1941-42
1 1942-45
Minister:
Gürtner