by The Destruction of the European Jews, Vol. 1-3 (Third Edition) Yale University Press (2003) (pdf)
state and Jewry's mounting problems. 103 104 105 106
103. Text in Leo Baeck Institute, Reichsvertretung collection, AR 221. In subsequent drafts this sentence was lengthened. "Leadership" ( Führung) became “direction"
(Leitung) and the active “we have taken over” (wir haben .. . übernommen) became the
passive “was transferred to us" (ist uns übertragen worden). Final text in Adler-Rudel,
Jüdische Selbsthilfe, pp. 185-86.
104. Summary of meeting in Leo Baeck Institute, Reichsvertretung collection, AR
221. See also letter by Dr. Heinrich Stern (Berlin) to Hirschland, complaining of Hirsch-
land's conduct of the meeting and the mode in which Hirsch was elected. AR 221. The
Berlin group remained unhappy. See letter by Stahl (Chairman of Berlin Gemeinde),
Kareski, and Rosenthal to Reichsvertretung, June I, 1937, and reply by Baeck and
Hirsch, June 3, 1937, AR221.
105. Margaliot, “Leadership.” Yad Vashem Studies 10(1974): 133-36.
106. See drafts in Leo Baeck Institute, AR 221. Also Hahn's "Reichsvertretung,"
In Zwei Welten, p. 103.
183
CONCENTRATION
The initial policy of the Reichsvertretung was founded on the concept that the Jews had to hold out (auszuharren) in the hope that Nazi Germany would moderate its anti-Jewish course and would grant the
Jewish
community
sufficient
“Lebensraum”
for
continued
existence.
As yet, emigration was viewed not as the way, but as a way out.“1' By
the end of 1935 this principle was no longer tenable. Symbolically, the
Reichsvertretung
was
required
to
change
its
name
from
a
representation of German Jews to one of Jews in Germany. Substantively, its
activities were concentrated on such problems as vocational training
and
emigration,
as
well
as
the
continuing
tasks
of
welfare.
The
Reichsvertretung
had
to
increase
its
budget
accordingly.1“
Although
still
dependent
on
funds
from
communities
and
Landesverbände,
it
received
increasing
amounts
from
foreign
Jewish
welfare
organizations, thus strengthening its central character.105
Further changes occurred in 1938, when many Jews were losing
their foothold in the economy. In some smaller communities, shrunk by
emigration, questions arose about the administration of communal real
property or the proceeds from its sale. The Reichsvertretung all but
abandoned
its
“representational”
function
and
became
a
Reichsverband (federation) for administrative purposes. On July 27, 1938, the
Jewish leadership decided that all those in the Old Reich who were
Jews by religion should have to belong to the Reichsverband. By February
1939
this
new,
all-inclusive
organization
(Gesamtorganisation)
was
engaged
in
correspondence
under
as
yet
another
name:
the
Reichsvereinigung.' 10 It is at this point that the last, critical change
occurred. On July 4,1939, the Reichsvereinigung was taken over, lock,
stock, and barrel, by the Security Police.
The decree of July 4,1939,"1 was drafted by Ministerialrat Lösener
and a fellow expert, Rolf Schiedermair."2 It was signed by Interior
Minister
Frick,
Deputy of
the
Führer
Hess,
Minister of Education
Rust, and Minister of Church Affairs Kerri. Part of the decree affirmed
the
existing
state
of
affairs.
The
territorial
jurisdiction
of
the
Reichsvereinigung was defined as the Old Reich, including the Sudeten 107 108 109 110 111 112
107. Gruenewald, "Reichsvertretung,'’ Leo Baeck Year Book I (1956): 61, 67.
108. See Reichsvertretung budget for April 1, 1934 to December 31, 1935, Leo
Baeck Institute, AR 221.
109. Ball-Kaduri, “Reichsvertretung," Yad Vashem Studies 2 (1958): 177.
110. Fabian, "Reichsvereinigung,'' in Gegenwart im Rückblick, pp. 169-70. One of
the Retchsvereinigung's first acts was the imposition, with German backing, of a special
contribution (ausserordentlichen Beitrag) levied on Jewish emigrants as a graduated
property tax from 0.5 to 10 percent. See report of the Reichsvereinigung for 1939, Leo
Baeck Institute, AR 221.
111. RGBl 1, 1097.
112. Affidavit by Lösener, February 24, 1948, NG-I944-A.
184
T A B L E 6-3
JEWISH COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION, 1939
Reich Security Main Office
Heydrich
Gestapo Vienna
Gestapo Prague
Central Office for Jewish
Central Office for Jewish
Emigration, Vienna
Emigration, Prague
Reichsvereinigung
Rabbi Leo Baeck,
Vorsitzender
Community Organizations
Kultusgemeinde Vienna
Kultusgemeinde Prague
(Kultusgemeinden) and
Reichsvereinigung Branch Offices
Dr. Josef Lowenherz,
Dr. Fleischmann,
(Bezirksstellen)
Amtsdirektor
Zentralsekretär
note: Kultusgemeinden and Reichsvereinigung Bezirksstellen within the Reich area were under local Gestapo supervision. Information on this chart is based on documents at the YIVO Institute, New York City.
CONCENTRATION
T A B L E 6-4
THE REICHSVEREINIGUNG, 1939
Chairman of the Vorstand
Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck
Deputy Chairman.................
Heinrich Stahl
Dr. Paul Eppstein
Moritz Henschel
Vorstand Members.
Philipp Kozower
Dr. Arthur Lilienthal
Dr. Julius Seligsohn
Finance and Communities
Dr. Arthur Lilienthal
Finance.............................
Paul Meyerheim
Communities....................
Dr. Arthur Lilienthal
Migration................................................................................... Dr. Paul Eppstein
Information, Statistics, Emigration of Women...................... Dr. Cora Berliner
Passage, Finance, Administration..........................................Victor Löwenstein
Counseling and Flanning....................................................... Dr. Julius Sel
igsohn
(Representacives
f Erich Gerechter
Emigration to Palestine in Germany of Jewish . J
and
Agency for Palestine) (Dr. Ludwig Jacobi
Pre-Emigration Preparations
Vocational Training and Re-training..................................... Dr. Conrad Cohn
Agriculture.............................................................................Marlin Gerson
Commerce and the Professions, Apartment Problems . Philipp Kozower
Schools.......................................................................................Paula Fürst
Teachers................................................................................. Use Cohn
Teaching of Languages.......................................................... Use Cohn
Welfare...................................................................................... Dr. Conrad Cohn
General Welfare Problems.....................................................Hannah Kaminski
Health......................................................................................Dr. Walter Lustig
note: Jüdisches Nachrichienblatt (Berlin), July 21, 1939. As listed in the Jüdisches
Nachrichtenblatt, all Jewish officials carried the middle name Israel or Sara. The Jüdisches
Nachrichienblatt was the official publication of the Reichsvereinigung. There was also a
Jüdisches Nachrichienblatt in Vienna, published by the Jewish community, and another
Jüdisches Nachrichienblatt in Prague.
area but excluding Austria and the Protektorat. All the local Gemein-
den were placed under the Reichsvereinigung in a straight hierarchical
relationship
(see
Tables
6-3
and
6-4).
The
Reichsvereinigung
was
charged with the upkeep of Jewish schools and financial support of
indigent Jews.
The decree, however, was also a Nazi measure. It specified that the
subjects of the Reichsvereinigung were “Jews,” not only those who
belonged to the Jewish religion but all persons classified as Jews by the
definition decree. The framers of the decree inserted another provi-
186
THE REICH-PROTEKTORAT AREA
sion, one that was to have profound importance in a few short years.
The Interior Ministry (by which was meant the Security Police) was
empowered to assign additional tasks to the Reichsvereinigung. These
assignments
were
going
to
turn
the
Jewish
administrative
apparatus
into
a
tool
for
the
destruction
of
the
Jewish
community.
The
Reichsvereinigung, with its Gemeinden and territorial branches, would
become an arm of the German deportation machinery.
Significantly,
this
transformation
was
being
accomplished
without
any change of personnel or designation. The Germans had not created
the Reichsvereinigung and they had not appointed its leaders. Rabbi
Leo Baeck, Dr. Otto Hirsch, Direktor Heinrich Stahl, and all the others
were the Jewish leaders. Because these men were not puppets, they
retained their status and identity in the Jewish community throughout
their participation in the process of destruction, and because they did
not lessen their diligence, they contributed the same ability that they
had once marshaled for Jewish well-being to assist their German supervisors in operations that had become lethal. They began the pattern of compliance by reporting deaths, births, and other demographic data to
the Reich Security Main Office and by transmitting German regulations
in the publication Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt to the Jewish population.
They went on to establish special bank accounts accessible to the
Gestapo and to concentrate Jews in designated apartment houses. Toward the end, they prepared charts, maps, and lists and provided space,
supplies,
and
personnel
in
preparations
for
deportation.
The
Reichsvereinigung and its counterparts in Vienna and Prague were the
prototype of an institution—the Jewish Council—that was to appear in
Poland and other occupied territories and that was to be employed in
activities resulting in disaster. It was a system that enabled the Germans to save their manpower and funds while increasing their stranglehold on the victims. Once they dominated the Jewish leadership, they were in a position to control the entire community.
The concentration of the Jews marks the close of the preliminary
phase of the destruction process in the Reich-Protektorat area. The
fatal
effects
of
this
preliminary
phase
were
manifested
in
two
phenomena.
One
was
the
relationship
of
perpetrators
and
victims.
When the bureaucracy stood at the threshold of most drastic action,
the Jewish community was reduced to utter compliance with orders
and
directives.
The
other manifestation
of the
German
strangulation
regime was the ever widening gap between births and deaths in the
Jewish community. Its birth rate was plunging toward zero; the death
rate was climbing steadily to unheard-of heights (see Table 6-5). The
Jewish community was a dying organism.
187
CONCENTRATION
T A B L E 6-5
BIRTHS AND DEATHS OF JEWS IN OLD REICH
(NOT INCLUDING AUSTRIA AND PROTEKTORAT)
Population
Year
Births
Deaths
at End of Year
1940
396
6,199
ca. 175,000
1941
351
6,249
ca. 140,000
1942
239
7,657
[after deportations] 51,327
1940-42
986
20,105
note: SS-Statistician Korherr to Himmler, March 27, 1943, NO-5194. Mass
deportations started in October 1941.
P O L A N D
When the German army moved into Poland in September 1939, the
destruction
process
was
already
well
within
its
concentration
stage.
Polish Jewry was therefore immediately threatened. The concentration
was carried out with much more drastic dispatch than had been dared
in the Reich-Protektorat region. The newly occupied Polish territory
was, in fact, an area of experimentation. Within a short time the machinery of destruction in Poland overtook and outdid the bureaucracy in Berlin.
There were three reasons
for this development. One is to be found
in the personnel composition of the German administration in Poland.
As we shall see, that administration had a large number of party men in
its ranks. It was less careful, less thorough, less “bureaucratic” than
the administration in the Reich.
Another, more important reason for the unhesitating action in Eastern Europe was the German conception of the Pole and of the Polish Jew. In German eyes a Pole naturally was lower than a German, and a
Polish Jew lower (if such a thing was possible) than a German Jew. The
Polish Jew was on the bottom of the German scale—the Germans
referred
to
Eastern
Jewry
as
“subhumanity”
(Untermenschtum).
In
dealing with
East Europeans, both Poles and Jews, the bureacracy
could be less considerate and more drastic. In Germany the bureaucracy was concerned with the rights and privileges of Germans. It was careful to deflect destructive measures from the German population.
Much thought was given to such problems as couples in mixed marriages,
the
disruption
ofGerman-Jewish
business
relationships,
and
so
on. In Poland such problems had little importance, for it did not matter
188
POLAND
that a Pole was hurt in consequence of a measure aimed at the Jews.
Similarly, the bureaucracy in Germany made some concessions to Jews
who had fought in World War I, who had served for many years in the
civil service, or who had done something else for Germany. In Poland
such considerations did not apply.
The third and most important reason for the special treatment of
the Polish Jews was the weight of their numbers. Ten percent of the
Polish population was Jewish; out of 33,000,000 people, 3,300,000 were
Jews. When Germany and the USSR divided Poland in September
1939, two million of these Jews were suddenly placed under German
domination. Warsaw alone had about 400,000 Jews, that is to say,
almost as many as had lived in Germany in 1933 and more than remained in the entire Reich-Protektorat area at the end of 1939. The uprooting and segregation of so many Jews posed altogether different
problems and gave rise to altogether different solutions. Thus the concentration in Poland was not confined to a system of composite restrictions such as those discussed in the first section of this chapter.
Instead,
the
bureaucracy
in