"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (124 page)

For abbreviations used in the chart, see the list of abbreviations. For definitions of Nazi terminology, see the glossary.

Appendix 2: The Wannsee Protocol of January 20, 1942 (English Version and Original German Version)

This protocol is one of the most important documents of the Holocaust. It outlines the bureaucratic organization of the murder of the European Jews. The protocol is composed in a “neutral” language, in which the term
killing, extermination
, or
Final Solution
never appears; it is therefore one of the best-known examples of Nazi bureaucratic language, which did not explain but concealed its aims. The protocol is reproduced in the German original and in an English-language version.

The English text is based on the official U.S. government translation prepared for evidence in trials held by the International Tribunal for War Criminals at Nuremberg (Doc. N6-25866), as reproduced in John Mendelsohn, ed.,
The Holocaust: Selected Documents in Eighteen Volumes
, vol. 11,
The Wannsee Protocol
, and a 1944 “Report on Auschwitz” by the Office of Strategic Services (New York: Garland, 1982), 18–32. Revisions to the Nuremberg text, for clarification and correction, were made by Dan Rogers of the University of South Alabama.

The “Wannsee Conference” was named for an SS-owned villa on the shores of a Berlin lake called the Wannsee; that is where the conference took place. Assembled there were high officials of all Reich ministries; they were convened at the request of Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) and head of the German Secret Police apparatus (Gestapo). Heydrich and his superior, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, were in the process of assuming leadership in the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” that is, the murder of Europe’s Jews. According to documents recently found in Moscow, the decision for the “Final Solution” was made not earlier than autumn 1941 (presumably October 1941). The meeting was a part of that process, as bureaucratic coordination would be required for the massive efforts to be undertaken throughout Europe to kill 11,000,000 Jews described in the document. The Nazis ultimately succeeded in killing between 5 and 6 million of Europe’s Jews. The following protocol of this conference was stamped Top Secret.

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.

Gauleiter Dr. Meyer and Reichsamtleiter Dr. Leibbrandt

Secretary of State Dr. Stuckart

Secretary of State Neumann

Secretary of State Dr. Freisler

Secretary of State Dr. Bühler

Under Secretary of State Dr. Luther

SS-Oberführer Klopfer

Ministerialdirektor Kritzinger

SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann

SS-Gruppenführer Müller

SS-Obersturmbannführer Eichmann

SS-Oberführer Dr. Schöngarth

Commander of the Security Police and the SD in the Government General

SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Lange

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.”Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories

Reich Ministry for the Interior

Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

Reich Ministry of Justice

Office of the Government General

Foreign Office

Party Chancellery

Reich Chancellery

Race and Settlement Main Office

Reich Main Security Office

Security Police and SD

Security Police and SD

II. At the beginning of the discussion Chief of the Security Police and of the SD, SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich, reported that the Reich Marshal 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-SS 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

• 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 Moravia 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.

Apart from the necessary Reichsmark exchange, foreign currency had to presented at the time of landing. In order to save foreign exchange held by Germany, the foreign Jewish financial organizations were—with the help of Jewish organizations in Germany—made responsible for arranging an adequate amount of foreign currency. Up to 30 October 1941, these foreign Jews donated a total of around 9,500,000 dollars.

In the meantime the Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police had prohibited emigration of Jews due to the dangers of an emigration in wartime and due to the possibilities of the East.

III. Another possible solution of the problem has now taken the place of emigration, i.e. the evacuation of the Jews to the East, provided that the Führer gives the appropriate approval in advance.

These actions are, however, only to be considered provisional, but practical experience is already being collected which is of the greatest importance in relation to the future final solution of the Jewish question.

Approximately 11 million Jews will be involved in the final solution of the European Jewish question, distributed as follows among the individual countries:

The number of Jews given here for foreign countries includes, however, only those Jews who still adhere to the Jewish faith, since some countries still do not have a definition of the term “Jew” according to racial principles.

The handling of the problem in the individual countries will meet with difficulties due to the attitude and outlook of the people there, especially in Hungary and Rumania. Thus, for example, even today the Jew can buy documents in Rumania that will officially prove his foreign citizenship.

The influence of the Jews in all walks of life in the USSR is well known. Approximately five million Jews live in the European part of the USSR, in the Asian part scarcely ¼ million.

The breakdown of Jews residing in the European part of the USSR according to trades was approximately as follows: