Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State (54 page)

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Authors: Götz Aly

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58.

On the bank’s founding and the initial skepticism surrounding it, see RFM (Bayrhoffer) to RWM (Holtz), Sept. 19, 1939, NA T 1139/53, NG-5326.

59.

Kasten, “Reichskreditkassen,” pp. 37-41; Kretzschmann, “Währungshilfe,” p. 1. On the credit issued by the main administration of the Reich Credit Bank to promote German interests in the occupied parts of the Soviet Union, see BA R 2/14631. Petrov offers a mistake-ridden and laudatory account in Money, pp. 32-40, but he is right when he asserts that “Reich officials were not uniformly the madmen they were depicted to be by wartime propaganda.”

60.

RKK administrative council, June 10, 1941, BA R 29/1, pp. 208-14; notation (Waldhecker), June 10, 1941, p. 221.

61.

Kretzschmann, “Reichskreditkassen,” pp. 118-19.

62.

Kasten, “Reichskreditkassen,” p. 26.

63.

Holzhauer, Barzahlung, p. 89.

64.

Kasten, “Reichskreditkassen,” pp. 113-14.

65.

Ibid., p. 49.

66.

Questionnaires, June 14, 1940, Archive de la Banque de France, 1065199801/46; General Confiscation Ordinance, May 201139/50, spezielle DevisenVO [special currency ordinance], Aug. 1, 1942, VOBlF, no. 73, Aug. 10, 1942, pp. 425-30. A senior customs official named Hartmann was in charge of the DSK in France.

67.

Belege zum Verwahrungsbruch [Evidence on the Tampering with Articles in Government Custody], AN AJ 40/1027.

68.

DSK, France, Erfolgsübersicht [progress report] (June 15, 1940-April 30, 1941), AN AJ 40/1027 (file “Entwürfe”).

69.

Goldaufkommen bei der RB aus ehemals einverleibten und vorübergehend von deutschen Truppen besetzten Gebieten [Gold Supplies at the Reichsbank from Formerly Annexed Territories and Those Temporarily Occupied by German Troops], no date, HAdDB B 331-BAY/678, p. 29.

70.

Mitteilungsblatt des Reichskommissars für das Ostland[Announcement Circular of the Reich Commissioner for Eastern Europe], ed. B, 2 (1942), Nov. 20, 1942, p. 225.

71.

Such records belie historian Jonathan Steinberg’s assertion that RKK transfers of gold from the victims of Nazi persecution can neither be proved nor disproved. See Steinberg, Bank, pp. 37-38, 101ff.

72.

The deportation took place on April 22, 1942. See Pätzold and Schwarz, Auschwitz, p. 129.

73.

RKK administrative council, Aug. 13, 1941, BA R 29/2, pp. 54-60.

74.

RKK administrative council, Jan. 19, 1942, BA R 29/3, pp. 69-74; Feb. 16, 1942, BA R 2/13502, pp. 39ff.

75.

RKK administrative council (Puhl), April 27, 1942, BA R 2/13502, pp. 54ff.

76.

Puhl, “Der Arbeitseinsatz für die Reichskreditkassen,” Feb. 28, 1941, in Oer-tel, “Reichsbank,” p. 101.

77.

Kasten, “Reichskreditkassen,” pp. 88ff., 121ff.

78.

RKK administrative council, April 11, 1942, BA R 29/3, pp. 151-54.

79.

Bohn, Reichskommissariat, pp. 154-55.

80.

Kretzschmann, “Reichskreditkassenscheine”; Kretzschmann, “Reichskreditkassen,” pp. 138, 113.

81.

State secretary of French Finance Ministry to president of French delegation to Armistice Commission, Feb. 1, 1941, SAEF B 0060937.

82.

“Konzept eines neuen Staatsaufbaus” (fall 1941), in Goerdeler, Schriften, pp. 790-91, 1006-07.

Chapter 4: Profits for the People

Böll, Briefe, pp. 14-15, 90, 102, 111. The quotations that follow are taken from the more than three hundred single-spaced pages of Böll’s letters. Böll’s wife, Annemarie, edited out numerous passages, many of which seem to have been about gifts that her husband sent or brought back home from the front.

Feldpostamt 405, BA-MA RH 24/5/181; progress report no. 1 of intendant, MBB/NF (Fritsch), July 1-Dec. 31, 1940, BA-MA RW 36/118, p. 88.

German Commissioner of the Central Bank of the Netherlands (Wohlthat), Material für den Januarbericht an Hitler [Material for the January Report to Hitler], Feb. 10, 1941, BA R 2/30701.

RFM (Breyhan) to MBB/NF (Wetter), Aug. 9, 1941, BA R 2/274, pp. 142-43.

Reichsbank board of directors to RFM, Nov. 21, 1940, BA R 2/56061, p. 469.

Reichsbank office, Rostock, to Reichsbank board of directors, May 16, 1941, BA R 2/56058, p. 48.

MBB/NF to OKH, Dec. 1, 1941, BA R 29/3, pp. 36-62.

RKK administrative council, July 21, 1942, BA R 29/4, pp. 59-60.

Managing intendant, MBB/NF, progress report no. 6, July 1-Dec. 31, 1942, BA-MA RW 36/127, p. 16; final report of MVB/NF, Währung und Finanzen [Currency and Finances], winter 1944-45, pp. 13-14, 18, BA-MA RW 36/225.

10.

July 6, 1942, BA-MA RW 36/95.

11.

The information was gathered as part of a survey carried out by the author among elderly women in his circle of relatives and acquaintances.

12.

Adelheid B. to G. Aly, May 20, 2003.

13.

Dennler, Passion, p. 31 (October 1940); Chmela Report, NID-14615.

14.

Wolf Goette (1909-1995) to his family and to A., July 6, Dec. 20, 1940; June 13, Oct. 5, Oct. 31, Nov. 17, 1941; April 28, 1942, Stiftung Archiv der Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Wolf-Goette-Archiv, Prague, 1939-42, Goettes Briefe/I, p. 157; Goettes Briefe/II, pp. 192, 210, 316; Goettes Briefe/III, pp. 23, 51, 65; 2./Familienbriefe Prag, vol. 4, pp. 213ff. The author is grateful to Gisela Riff-Eimermacher for alerting him to this source material.

15.

Umbreit, “Kontinentalherrschaft,” p. 236; Latzel, Soldaten, pp. 135-38.

16.a> Böll, Briefe, pp. 845, 874, 902-03.

17.

Ibid., pp. 619, 663, 694, 765, 833.

18.

Ibid., pp. 738, 798.

9. Michel, Paris, pp. 298-99.

0. Liselotte S. to G. Aly, May 25, 2003.

21.

Confiscated letters of the soldier Schwabe (Dec. 2, 1939-June 16, 1940), BA R 2/56100, pp. 54-61. On mass theft by German soldiers in Poland, see Böhler, Auftakt.

22.

RKK administrative council, Dec. 16, 1941, BA R 29/3, pp. 18-23.

23.

RWM, Conference on Currency Regulations for the Occupied Soviet Territories, Sept. 8, 1941, BA R 2/56060, pp. 18-30. The regulation was issued on Sept. 16, 1941, ibid., p. 102.

24.

Reichsbank board of directors to RFM, Aug. 17, 1942, ibid., pp. 118, 143ff.

25.

Bräutigam, Überblick, pp. 53-54; Oertel, “Reichsbank,” p. 159; Heilmann, “Kriegstagebuch,” p. 140.

26.

Marlene F. to G. Aly, Nov. 14, 2003; on the comparable situation in Belarus, see Gerlach, Morde, pp. 260-65.

27.

Böll, Briefe, pp. 924, 975, 986ff., 999-1000.

28.

Schmitt and Gericke, “Feldpost,” p. 62; Ziegler, “Erinnerungen,” p. 48. On the positive supply situation of German troops in the second and third winters of the war, see Rass, “Menschenmaterial,” p. 246.

29.

Customs Regulations for Members of the Wehrmacht, BA R 2/58094.

30.

Wehrmacht commander, Norway, Shipping and Personal Carrying of Wares, July 14, 1941, BA R 2/58094, pp. 155-56.

31.

The reason for the measure was the intervention of Swedish customs, since the leave transports passed through Swedish territory, Wehrmacht Chiefs of Staff, Jan. 9, 1943, BA R 2/58094, p. 260.

32.

Progress report of chief intendant, Norway (Jan. 1-March 31, 1944), BA-MA RW 7/171 lb, p. 87.

33.

Ibid. (April 1-June 30, 1944), p. 243.

34.

Ibid. (Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 1943), p. 6.

35. RKK administrative council, July 1, 1942, BA R 29/3, pp. 223-24; SS Main Office (Klumm) to Reichsführer Brandt, Nov. 9, 1944, in Petrik, Okkupa-tionspolitik, pp. 215-16.

36.

Schmitt and Gericke, “Feldpost,” pp. 3-4.

37.

Oberleitner, Feldpost, pp. 190-91.

38.

RFM (Schwerin von Krosigk) to chief of the OKW, Oct. 24, 1944, BA R 2/14554, p. 2; R 2/323. At the start of Germany’s occupation of northern Italy, Field Marshal Rommel had issued restrictions on “the bringing of goods back to Germany,” Sept. 21, 1943, BA R 2/30601.

39.

Lt. Int., MBiF, to OKH, July 27, 1943, BA R 2/14553, pp. 46-53.

40.

RFM to OFP, Würzburg, June 12, 1940, BA R 2/56059, p. 33.

41.

Customs authority, RFM (Siegert), Kontrolle der Wehrmachtangehörigen (durch die Hand des Herrn Staatssekretärs dem Herrn Minister) [Monitoring of Wehrmacht Members (hand-delivered by the state secretary to the minister)], June 13, 1942, BA R 2/56061, p. 28.

42.

Feldpostamt 406, July 1940, BA-MA RH 24/6/319; Gericke, Feldpost, pp. 61-62.

43.

OKW, Oct. 10, 1940; conference chaired by Göring on the economic exploitation of occupied territories, Oct. 7, 1940, LArch, Berlin, A Rep. 92/105, pp. 106-08. Umbreit merely alludes to the decree in “Kontinentalherrschaft,” p. 236.

44.

OKW (Reinecke), Über den Versand und die Beschlagnahme von Feldpost-páckchen [On the Shipment and Confiscation of Military Mail Packages], July 14, 1942, LArch, Berlin, A Rep. 92/105, p. 115.

45.

Hitler, Monologe, pp. 363-64 (Aug. 25 and 26, 1942).

46.

Ibid., p. 346 (Aug. 16, 1942).

47.

Hitlers Tischgespräche, p. 182 (July 17, 1942).

48.

Keitel, Aug. 16, 1942, LArch, Berlin, A Rep. 92/105, p. 116. On Sept. 17, 1942, the Finance Ministry declared that Hitler’s decree also applied to those entering from wartime allied and friendly states.

49.

Göring to StS, RK, and Mbfh., Aug. 6, 1942, IMG, vol. 39, pp. 388, 391.

50.

Seydelmann, Balance, pp. 105, 130, 182.

51.

ZFS, Kiel, progress report, Aug. 1, 1942-Jan. 31, 1943, BA R 2/56104, p. 53.

52.

Reinhardt to the OFP responsible for eastern borders, Jan. 28, 1942. The decree was later extended for the Reich’s northern, western, and southern borders, Oct. 7, 1942, BA R 2/31099.

. Foreign Office, Berlin (Wiehl), to RFM, Hamsterkäufe in Dänemark [Hoarding in Denmark], April 27, 1940, BA R 2/56058, p. 13.

54.

RKK main administration to Reichsbank board of directors, Oct. 5, 1940, BA R 2/56045, p. 14.

55.

MBiF, army field postmaster, diary (July 1-Dec. 31, 1940, and Jan. 1-June 30, 1941), BA-MA RW 35/1390, p. 26; 1391, p. 18.

56.

H.V. BL, Nov. 4, 1940; Frank to Keitel, Nov. 25, 1940, BA-MA RW 7/1710a, pp. 85-86; RKK administrative council, Feb. 16, 1942, BA R 29/2, p. 234.

57.

Böll, Briefe, pp. 108, 114 (Sept. 4 and 15, 1940), 264, 372, 526.

58.

Böll, Essayistische Schriften, pp. 261-76.

59.

OKW, Jan. 21, 1942, BA-MA RW 36/126. An identical text was drafted by the OKW/AWA, Oct. 6, 1941, BA R 2/58094, p. 411.

60.

RFM (Wucher), July 25, 1942, LArch, Berlin, A Rep. 092/105; Reichszoll-blatt, ed.B, 37 (1942), p. 309.

61.

Göring to the state secretary, treasury, and military commander, Summary of Results (Klare), Aug. 6, 1942, IMG, vol. 39, pp. 391, 410.

62.

Göring to Schwerin von Krosigk, Aug. 24, 1942, BA R 2/58091.

63.

RFM (Reinhardt) to OFP, Oct. 7, 1942, BA R 2/31099; RFM (Reinhardt), Sept. 28, 1942, R 2/58094, p. 476; OFP, Hamburg, to the HZÄ, Oct. 8, 1942, BA R 2/58088, p. 277.

64.

Göring to MBiF, Nov. 3, 1943, BA R 2/14553, p. 56.

65.

RFM (Litter), Geldmittel in Dänemark [Monetary Instruments in Denmark], Oct. 2, 1944, PA AA R 105210.

66.

Böll, Briefe, vol. O, pp. 407, 363, 406, 816, 417, 738, 908.