Heinrich Himmler : A Life (157 page)

21
. Jacobsen,
Nationalsozialistische Auβenpolitik
, 234 ff.; Lumans,
Auxiliaries
, 62 ff.

22
. Jacobsen,
Nationalsozialistische Auβenpolitik
, 249.

23
. This is what Karl Haushofer said he believed in a letter to Hess, 10 December 1936, printed in Jacobsen (ed.),
Steinacher
, doc. no. 109.

24
. Luther,
Volkstumspolitik
, 157.

25
. Ibid. 155.

26
. Luther demonstrates this with the example of the conflicts between German associations in Poland in 1937 and in Romania, as well as with the reluctance of VoMi to intervene in Yugoslavia. Also VoMi gave up favouring the (Nazi) Amerikadeutscher Volksbund over other American organizations, which was criticized by the Foreign Department (
Volkstumspolitik
, 154 ff.).

27
. PAA, Inland IIg 214; Luther,
Volkstumspolitik
, 164 f.

28
. IfZ, Party Chancellery, Order 5/39g of 3 February 1939; Luther,
Volkstumspolitik
, 165.

29
. Luther,
Volkstumspolitik
, 166.

30
. Karl M. Reinerth, ‘Zu den innenpolitischen Auseinandersetzungen unter den Deutschen in Rumänien zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen’, in Walter König (ed.),
Siebenbürgen zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen
(Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna, 1994), 149–67, here 160 f.; on Romania see also Johann Böhm,
Die Deutschen in Rumänien und das Dritte Reich 1933–1940
(Frankfurt a. M., 1999), 197 ff.

31
. Akiko Shimizu,
Die deutsche Okkupation des serbischen Banats 1941–1944 unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der deutschen Volksgruppe in Jugoslawien
(Münster, 2003), 59 ff.

32
. Norbert Spannenberger,
Der Volksbund der Deutschen in Ungarn 1938 bis 1944 unter Horthy und Hitler
, 2nd rev. edn. (Munich, 2005), esp. 141 ff.

33
. Smelser,
Sudetenproblem
, 175 ff.

34
. Luther,
Volkstumspolitik
, 160.

35
. Smelser,
Sudetenproblem
, 185.

36
. Luther,
Volkstumspolitik
, 166.

37
. Otto Heike,
Die deutsche Minderheit in Polen bis 1939. Ihr Leben und Wirken kulturell, gesellschaftlich, politisch. Eine historisch-dokumentarische Analyse
(Leverkusen, 1985), 214 ff.

38
. Ernst Hochberger, ‘Die Deutschen in der Slowakei’, in id., Anton Scherer, and Friedrich Spiegel-Schmidt,
Die Deutschen zwischen Karpaten und Krain
(Munich, 1994), 12–78, here 38.

39
. By contrast, at this stage the recruitment of potential spies and future volunteers for armed SS units appears to have been a secondary motive for Himmler’s activities in the field of ethnic German policy; see Lumans,
Auxiliaries
, 38.

40
. Jacobsen,
Nationalsozialistische Auβenpolitik
, 252 ff.

41
. BAB, NS 19/1446, notes on statements made by Himmler at lunch on 30 January 1939.

42
. Hans-Jürgen Döscher,
SS und Auswärtiges Amt im Dritten Reich. Diplomatie im Schatten der ‘Endlösung’
(Berlin, 1991), 149.

43
. Ibid. 150.

44
. USHMM, Acc. 1999.A.0092, 2 February 1938.

45
. Ibid. 2 February 1939: ‘Apart from Herr v. R., nobody has given me a ring.’

46
. Döscher,
Auswärtiges Amt
, 140 f.

47
. Ibid. 141 ff., quotation 143.

48
. Ibid. 115.

49
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Neurath, letter of appointment from Himmler of 18 September 1937; see Döscher,
Auswärtiges Amt
, 136 ff.

50
. Ibid. 160 ff.

51
. Ibid. 153.

52
. Ibid. 185 f.

53
. Ibid. 175 ff.

54
. BAB, NS 19/809, without giving day.

55
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Schumburg, certificate of service dated 13 May 1937. On Schumburg see in particular Döscher,
Auswärtiges Amt
, 119 ff.

56
. Gestapo Chief Müller described him in an assessment of 1944 as ‘a sort of liaison with the Reich Security Main Office’ (BAB, BDC, SS-O Schumburg, 19 July 1944).

57
. Ibid.

58
. Ibid. assessment of 19 July 1944; see Döscher,
Auswärtiges Amt
, 131. The plan to move Schumburg to a foreign posting was prevented by the outbreak of war. In October 1939 Schumburg took over the special German desk, which is where the link with the SS was located. Schumburg regarded himself as in the first instance a representative of the SS within the Foreign Ministry, and thus it was understandable that, in his 1944 assessment of him, Müller should have considered that ‘his sympathies lie more with us than with the Foreign Ministry’.

59
. PAA, Inland IIg 101, Heydrich to Foreign Ministry, 4 May 1936; note from the Foreign Ministry, 4 May 1936; RFSS to the Foreign Ministry, 24 November 1936, and further correspondence; see Döscher,
Auswärtiges Amt
, 129 f.

60
. BAB, R 58/860, list of Winzer’s, 12 August 1942.

61
. PAA, Inland IIg 61, Schumburg to the state secretary, 13 July 1939.

62
. Decree of 3 September 1939, published in
‘Führer-Erlasse’ 1939–1945. Edition sämtlicher überlieferter, nicht im Reichsgesetzblatt abgedruckter, von Hitler während des Zweiten Weltkrieges schriftlich erteilter Direktiven aus den Bereichen Staat, Partei,
Wirtschaft, Besatzungspolitik und Militärverwaltung
, compiled and ed. Martin Moll (Stuttgart, 1997).

63
. This agreement was contained in a Ribbentrop edict of 26 October 1939, which is referred to by Likus in a note dated 8 August 1940 about the SD abroad (PAA, Inland IIg 71).

64
. BAB, R 58/243, agreement of 8 August 1940 (Annex A of the RFSS’s circular edict of 23 May 1942).

65
.
Völkischer Beobachter
, 22 and 23 October 1936.

66
. On the police conferences see Jacobsen,
Nationalsozialistische Auβenpolitik
, 462 f.

67
. PAA, Inland IIg 71; BAB, NS 19/253, programme for the German–Italian conference: NS 19/256, Bülow-Schwandte (Foreign Ministry) to Himmler concerning the impending conference, 24 August 1937.

68
. BAB, NS 19/2736, Personal staff (Brandt) to the RFSS’s press office, 28 August 1937.

69
. ‘Unter Kameraden’ (articles and photos on the visit), in
Das Schwarze Korps
, 28 October 1937.

70
. USHMM, Acc. 1999.A.0092.

71
. Ibid. 15 November 1937.

72
. Ibid. 14, 17, and 19 November 1937.

73
. On Dollmann see PAA, Inland IIg 82, Pusch notes for Luther, 3 and 9 March 1942, which refer to a ‘close relationship of trust’ between them. See also Dollmann’s memoirs,
Dolmetscher der Diktatoren
(Bayreuth, 1963).

74
. Dollmann,
Dolmetscher
, 82.

75
. USHMM, Acc. 1999.A.0092, 9–13 December 1937.

76
. NARA, T 580/207/725, RFSS to Wüst, 10 December 1937.

77
. Doc. PS-386, in:
IMT
, vol. 25, pp. 402 ff., minutes by Colonel Hossbach dated 10 November 1937 of the meeting of 5 November 1937; see in particular Walter Bussmann, ‘Zur Entstehung und Überlieferung der “Hoßbach-Niederschrift”’,
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 16 (1968), 373–84, and Bradley F. Smith, ‘Die Überlieferung der Hoßbach-Niederschrift im Lichte neuer Quellen’,
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 38 (1990), 329–36. On the ‘decisive year 1937’ see Klaus Hildebrand,
Das vergangene Reich. Deutsche Außenpolitik von Bismarck bis Hitler 1871–1945
(Stuttgart, 1995), 632 ff.

78
. On the Blomberg–Fritsch affair see Müller,
Heer
, 255 ff.; Karl-Heinz Janssen and Fritz Tobias,
Der Sturz der Generäle. Hitler und die Blomberg–Fritsch-Krise 1938
(Munich, 1994).

79
. On this reshuffle see Tobias,
Sturz
, 48 ff. Janssen und Tobias convincingly demonstrate that, with his reshuffle of 1938, Hitler found a way out of a crisis which was unexpected and which had initially baffled him, indeed plunged him into despair; this is also shown by the Goebbels diaries for this period.

80
. Walter Schellenberg,
The Schellenberg Memoirs
, ed. Louis Hagen (London, 1956), 31 f.

81
. Horst Mühleisen, ‘Die Fritsch-Krise im Frühjahr 1938. Neue Dokumente aus dem Nachlaß des Generalobersten’, in
Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen
, 56/2 (1997), 471–508. This contains Fritsch’s letter to Himmler (doc. 5), which was not sent, in which he spelled out his failures and challenged him to a duel. In particular, in the statements published here as documents 7 and 8, Fritsch accused Himmler of having intentionally initiated the affair.

82
.
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 31 January 1938.

83
. Ibid. 18 March 1938.

84
. Ibid. 12 August 1938.

85
. All documents in BAB, NS 19/3940: with a letter of 28 February 1938 Himmler had initially assigned the investigation to the Small Arbitration Court, but, after receiving a report, subsequently ordered proceedings to be started by the Great Arbitration Court. See also the report of the Great Arbitration Court of 23 May 1938 and RFSS to the Arbitrator of the Great Arbitration Court, 17 June 1938.

86
. Ibid.

87
. BAB, NS 19/4005, speech to the Gruppenführer meeting in Munich, 8 November 1938.

88
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Wittje, Himmler to Daluege, 11 September 1942.

89
. Janssen and Tobias,
Sturz,
discuss the possibility that Himmler wanted to become War Minister or to take over a new ministry in the military field. In any case, Hitler made it clear to the generals that he decisively rejected such an idea (128 ff.).

90
. USHMM, Acc. 1999.A.0092.

91
. Neufeld, Huck, and Tessin,
Ordnungspolizei
, 9 ff.

92
. On the occupation and annexation of Austria see Dokumentationsarchiv (ed.),
‘Anschluß’ 1938
.
Protokoll des Symposiums in Wien am 14. und 15. März 1978
(Vienna, 1981); Gerhard Botz,
Die Eingliederung Österreichs in das Deutsche Reich. Planung und Verwirklichung des politisch-administrativen Anschlusses (1938–1940)
, 2nd rev. edn. (Vienna, 1976); Norbert Schausberger,
Der Griff nach Österreich. Der Anschluß
(Vienna and Munich, 1978).

93
. Helmuth Koschorcke, ‘“Unternehmen Otto”. Die deutsche Polizei in den historischen Tagen der Wiedererschaffung Großdeutschlands’, in
Die Deutsche Polizei
, 7, of 1 April 1938.

94
.
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 3 April 1938.

95
. Himmler order of 12 March 1938, published in
Die faschistische Okkupationspolitik in Österreich und der Tschechoslowakei (1938–1945)
, documents selected and introduced by Helma Kaden (Berlin, 1988), doc. no. 3. He had already organized the deployment of the order and security police for the occupation of Austria on the day before his flight: BAB, R 19/401, Himmler order re: ‘Special assignment Austria’, 11 March 1938.