The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945 (60 page)

"Gordon, 2 12-13, says that 15% of all the accused (67 persons: p. 244) ended up in prison or in a concentration camp, and she labels them as 'high-level' opponents: the remaining 85% are termed either 'middle-' or 'low-level'. The last category (82 persons) had a brush with the Gestapo but virtually nothing happened to them. Many of these people may simply have been accused without much basis, and some were probably accused falsely. In view of how readily one could be denounced when the accusation involved race issues, and how widespread were the excesses routinely committed by the Gestapo, it is reasonable to conclude that in all likelihood many had also been charged without foundation in that group termed by Gordon 'middle-level' opponents, the 3o3 people'who were arrested but not necessarily sentenced for concretely aiding Jews or having sexual relations with them'. (See also below, ch. 7, on 'Compliance through Pressure'.)

" For the 'illustrative cases' see Gordon, pp. 234, 236. The cases mentioned are in HStA D: Gestapo a 1,810 and 36,150, respectively. In the latter case the Jewish woman was fined 150,000 Reichsmark.

17 Cf. ibid. 11875. A dissatisfied woman clerk who was dismissed denounced her employer in 1939 for favouring Jewish customers: he was a Party member.

Ibid. 17369.

' StA W: Gestapo 13701.

w Ibid. 1488.

Ibid. i 1079.

2 ' Ibid. iii 89.

StA W: Gestapo 5988.

z„ Ibid. 2040.

zs Ibid. 14940. Within months the family was again baselessly denounced for'friendship to the Jews' by the same family, and the charge was investigated.

Z; Ibid. 8841. The letter begins: As we are informed' ('Wie mitgeteilt wird').

21 Ibid. 14893.

ze LA Speyer: Polizeibeh6rden/H97, 10.

27 Schadt, 270. Frequently there were 'preventative denunciations': that is, people sought to exculpate themselves from a complaint they believed would soon be laid against them by laying charges of their own. See e.g. StA W: Gestapo 11294.

2" HStA D: Gestapo 65053.

zy Gordon, 241.

30 Ibid.

" StA W: NSDAP/GL X11/i. The workers in the 29 cigar factories in Kahlgrund (employing 2,206 women and 242 men) were drawn from a 'poor and over-populated' area where the Jewish-owned factories played an important economic role. A local gendarme reported in Oct. 1935 that they 'appreciated their employer' and could not care less whether he was 'Aryan or Jew'.

Robinsohn, 78. As many as 15.6% of all those brought to trial in Frankfurt were acquitted.

" Grunberger, 149.

Moore, Disobedience, 482.

See Hermann Graml, 'Die Behandlung der Anfallen von sogenanter Rassenschande Beteiligten " Deutschblutigen" Personen', Gutachten des Instituts fur Zeitgeschichte, i (Stuttgart, 1958), 72ff•: Robert H. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass., 1988). 133-4.

StA W: Gestapo 14779.

'' See Horst Seidler and Andreas Rett, Das Reichssippenamt entscheidet: Rassenbiologie im Nationalsozialismus (Vienna, 1982), 59ff.

I ' StA W: Gestapo 12,345.

Ibid. 4739.

411 Ibid. 11455•

" Ibid. 72675.

iz Ibid. 6146.

45 Ibid. 2159.

41 See e.g. ibid. 7457.

44 Ibid. 2839.

" StA W: Gestapo 14 341

47 Ibid. 12070. Cf. ibid. 16710, from Urspringen (early 1940).

Ibid. 17933•

'z Ibid. 1607-

Ibid. 17625.

54 Ibid. Cf. HStAD: Gestapo 7.535.

55 StA W: Gestapo 661.

"' Ibid. 6113.

StA W: Gestapo 3705.

See e.g. ibid. 4767, which resulted in a Jewish-owned business being taken over.

5' Ibid. 2838: cf. ibid. 14843, the case of a factory-owner shut out of the NSDAP in July 1935: and ibid. 3459 (another man in June 1936).

57 StA W: NSDAP/GL/XII/i contains relevant correspondence: cf. StA M: NSDAP 437 (GL letter of 17 Nov. 1938).

'" For various kinds of denunciations of relations with Jews see e.g. StA M: NSDAP 358 (three separate ones from Laufen in 1937: 19 May, 24 June, 6 Dec.; see also ibid. 572 and 578.

" Deutschkron, iogff.: Behrend-Rosenfeld, 202ff.

61 See the letter of 3 Nov. 1941 from Gestapo Nuremberg to the Administration in Wurzburg: StA W: NSDAP/GL/MF XII/4.

" For all of the above see StA W: Gestapo i6o15.

Kershaw, Popular Opinion, 277.

' StA W: LRA Bad Neustadt 21 go 5: report, i Dec. 1936: also cited in Kershaw, Popular Opinion. 240.

For recent approaches to accommodation see Gruchmann. 84ff.: Proctor. 64ff.: Peukert. Volksgenossen, 55ff.: Marssolek and Ott, 13'ff.; Peter Hayes, Industry and Ideology: IG Farben in the Nazi Era (Cambridge. 1987), Siff. See the important study of Hitler's role in fostering the acceptance of the new order in Kershaw, The Hitler Myth, 48 ff.

4 In general, see Konrad Kwiet and Helmut Eschwege, Selbstbehauptung and Widerstand: Deutsche Juden im Kampf um Existenz and Menschwenwurde 1933-1945 (Hamburg, 1984), 157ff. For Belgium see Helene Moszkiewiez, Inside the Gestapo: A Jewish Woman's Secret War (Toronto, 198, 5). 43R•: for France see Tom Bower, Klaus Barbie, Butcher of Lyons (London. 1984), 51 ff. Bower cites August Moritz, head of section vi in Lyons, who noted that besides the political fanatics there were criminals and others who used the mechanism of the denunciation to remove enemies. According to him, queues formed daily at the special kiosks for denunciations... We had so many that we couldn't even check most of them.' Cf. Bertran M. Gordon, Collaborationism in France During the Second World War (Ithaca, 1980), 339, and John F. Sweets, Choices in Vichy France: The French under Nazi Occupation (Oxford. 1986), 100.

' StA W: Gestapo 6146. For a discussion of this case see pp. 174-5 above. Cf. Henry, Victims and Neighbors, io6.

StA W: Gestapo 7177: cf. ibid. 7597.

Ibid. 10014; cf. ibid. 8871. 8989.

" StA W: Gestapo iooi4: he was deported to Theresienstadt (Terezin) on 23 Aug. 1942 (his file is no. 10305).

v Ibid. 7989 (emphasis added). For cases where no intercourse took place but convictions were still obtained see Noam and Kropat, i 18f., and Anja Rosmus-Wenninger. Widerstand and Verfolqung am Beispiel Passaus 1933-1939 (Passau, 1983), 72-3.

12 Ibid. 14557. See Kwiet and Eschwege. 141 IT.

10 StA W: Gestapo 6814.

Ibid. 6916.

" Cf. Adler, 280-1; Raul Hilberg. The Destruction of the European Jews. rev. edn. ii (New York. 1985(, 417ff.; Ralph Giordano, Die Bertinis (Frankfurt, 1982). A Trier Party leader suggested that Jews should also wear a yellow star on the back of their clothing to make them recognizable from behind. See Franz Josef Heyen. Nationalsozialisnms im Alltag (Boppard. 1967), 1 52.

" Adler, 621.

15 Ibid. 281.

" Lotte Paepcke, leh wurde vergessen: Bericht einer liidin, die das Dritte Reich uberlebte (Freiburg, 1979). 6off.

" StA W: Gestapo Io822.

Ibid. 14270; see also ibid. 15978.

19 Ibid. 8871

211 StA W: Gestapo 11646 (his file is No. 3776).

221 Ibid. 12589.

zi Ibid. 5628.

fi Ibid. 5860.

27 Ibid. ii58

21 Ibid. 12037.

-'z StA M: NSDAP 358; the woman lived in Furth.

StA W: Gestapo 15963; Cf. ibid. 135 34. From elsewhere see HStA D: Gestapo 46339.

:~ StA W: Gestapo 5952: cf. ibid. 7120, from Feb. 1939.

Hans Peter Bleuel, Sex and Society in Nazi Germany, trans. J. Maxwell Brownjohn (Phil., 1973), 208ff.

3' For an introduction see Jeremy Noakes, 'Nazism and Eugenics: Background to the Nazi Sterilization Law of 14 July 1933'. in R. J. Bullen et al. (eds.), Ideas into Politics (London. 1984). 75ff.. and Peukert. Volksgenossen. 246ff.

' BA/MA: KTB RW 21-65/3.

" Erna Paris, Unhealed Wounds: France and the Klaus Barbie Affair (New York, 1985)• 41.

StA W: Gestapo 1303. See ibid. 10249 for another example of bringing charges of sexual offences as a means of harassment (in Kleinwallstadt. Jan. '937).

Ibid. 8792.

" See Hirsch, Maier, and Meinck (eds.), 350fl.

" StA W: Gestapo 10266.

S' For examples of prostitutes hiding 'submerged' Jews see Boehm, ioo, and Gerhard Kiersch et al., Berliner Alitag im Dritten Reich (Dusseldorf, 1981), 106-7.

See Schellenberg, 18ff.. on 'Salon Kitty'.

StA W: Gestapo 2040.

Sarah Gordon, 212.

;' Robinsohn,4i.

See Noarn and Kropat, 15 6 ff.

44 StA W: Gestapo i 3085.

"' Ibid. 6024; for other cities see Bleuel, 214ff.

StA W: Gestapo 3585, 8440, 14410•

aF Ibid. 13085.

17 Ibid. 9380; 14689 (hers is No. 12562).

Ibid. 7182, 14640.

11 Ibid. 15622.

52 StA W: Gestapo 17 31 5. Cf. other cases of Party members and the Hitler Youth, ibid. 85, 191, boo, 10 30, 1116. Nearly 300 cases deal with homosexuality, and 126 others with 'morals charges'.

' 3 Kogon, 50.

"' See Bleuel, 222ff.

Ibid. 222.

See Hansjuergen Koehler, Inside Information (London. 1940), 59o. He was able to avoid 'the nauseating task' of serving in the local branch (p. 189). See also his Inside the Gestapo (London, 1940), with corroborating evidence in Leonard Gross, r55f.; Robinsohn, 107, mentions the Hamburg 'Rassenschande-Dezernat'.

fi" See Moritz and Noam, 284ff.

5'StA W: Gestapo 15591.

Schutz, i 15 ff. Regionally directed Gestapo interest at about the same time can be deduced from correspondence in StA Marburg, i8o LRA Wolfhagen, from the Kassel Gestapo (27 Sept. 1935). Cf. the request on 26 Aug. 1938 from the Karlsruhe Kripo to be informed of Jewish indictable activities, whether of a 'political or general criminal nature', reprinted in Paul Sauer (ed.), i. iio.

BAK: Ri8/3746b.

fi See Willi Bohn, 'Hochverrater!' (Frankfurt, 1984), 104R•

" StA W: Gestapo 8989.

nz See e.g. ibid. io524.

See Adler, 678ff.

fi' See Ralf Dahrendorfs comments in Society and Democracy in Germanic (London, i968), 364, on the 'great quiet' of the Germans.

They bear the formula 'Verfahren eingestellt'

71 Ibid. 17654.

72 Ibid. 7100.

71 Ibid. 1761o.

71 Ibid. 15866.

°`' For the records see StA M: Sondergericht.

'" StA W: Gestapo 6209.

Ibid. '7505. Stechner was exonerated by the Bamberg special court, for reasons not stated in this file.

" ibid. 5080.

- Ibid. 4905.

'N Ibid. 17666.

-" Ibid. 11898.

75 See e.g. StA W: Gestapo 5421: Aschaffenburg, Sept. 1937.

'' Ibid. 5421.

84 Ibid. 5667. She was tried and given 4 months in gaol. Cf. a case from Geroda. Mar. 1941 (ibid. 13167).

85 There is a remarkable silence in the long report of events in the Palatinate from Speyer, 30 Nov. 1938, in StA M: Gestapoleitstelle Munich 6o.

StA W: Gestapo 10675; he does not seem to have been charged.

Ibid. 7220.

"' Ibid. 7279.

17 StA W: Gestapo 15 113. A warning was issued.

"' Ibid. 13463.

vi Ibid. 8043: see also the case of a woman in Wiesentheid, 14 Nov. 1938 (ibid. 14392).

xx Bay HStA: MAio668i, also in Broszat et al. (eds.), Bayern in der NS-Zeit, I. 475.

89 StA W: Gestapo 9434.

`'' StA W: NSDAP XII/4 (it was called a 'Merkblatt'). For a detailed examination of the deportations from Lower Franconia see Adler, 168ff., and Schultheis, 527ff.

Ibid. 10672 (all cases are in this file).

Ibid. 2635.

yy See Dettelbacher, 142; Schultheis gives a full photographic record, with about too pictures of events in Kitzingen and Wiirzburg.

Kwiet and Eschwege, 150-I.

01 See the account of Flade, Wurzburger iuden. 343ff.

17 Ibid. 593.

YN Ibid. 625.

:: See Schultheis. 564ff.

Yfi Ibid. 616.

112 See Gerum's large file in the BDC. On taking up his position as Gestapo chief of Wurzburg in mid-April 1934. by his own account Gerum found within 'official Party circles' there'innumerable unclean elements' who had found their way into various offices. By early May 1935 he was writing 15-page letters to his superiors denouncing many members in the 'movement'-among other things, for corruption and 'sexual misconduct' (including homosexuality), charges denied in even longer letters by Gauleiter Otto Hellmuth. His boss, Heinrich Himmler, according to another letter in Gerum's dossier, had little use for him, among other things because he was not above pulling strings to get ahead himself, but also because he was prone to criticism of other Party comrades.

"" Peukert, Volksgenossen, 64.

' Diemut Majer, 'Fremdvolkische' im Dritten Reich: Ein Beitrag zur nationalsozialistischen Rechtssetzung and Rechtspraxis in Verwaltung and Justiz unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der eingegliederten Ostgebiete and des Generalgouvernements (Boppard, 1981), 125-6. On the gypsies, see Joachim S. Hohmann, Geschichte der Zigeunerverfolgung in Deutschland (Frankfurt, 198, ), 178, who sets the number killed at 500,000. See also Reiner Pommerin, 'Sterilisierung der Rheinlandbastarde': Das Schicksal einer farbigen deutschen Minderheit 1918-1937 (Dusseldorf, 1979), 41ff.; Bock, 238, suggests that 400.000 sterilizations took place. See the correspondence (spring 1934) from the head doctor in Oehringen (Wurttemberg), from which one might deduce popular acceptance of sterilization among the population there: HStA S: E 151.k.Vl. A recent study of the Nazi euthanasia programme, first instituted at the beginning of the war in 1939, counts the following numbers of victims: at least 5,ooo chronically ill children, an additional 70,000 or so hospital patients (about 1,000 of whom were Jewish), another 20.000 concentration-camp inmates, and'at least' 30,000 hospital patients were killed after the 'action' had been officially halted in August 1941. most of them Polish and Soviet foreign workers who became mentally ill, or came down with tuberculosis. See Schmuhl, 361-4. For comments on euthanasia of the population in Lower Franconia see StA W: SD 10; report of 13 Feb. 1941: 'A part of the population, in particular the religious, especially Catholic, section, rejects any interference with life, even of the sick ... The majority of the population, however, have already progressed so far that they completely approve the euthanasia of the seriously mentally ill, and are even of the view that in this area more could be undertaken than has been the case thus far.'