Home purchase contract

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German Jews who were to be deported to the "old people's ghetto" Theresienstadt from 1942 after the planning of the Wannsee Conference concluded so-called home purchase contracts with the Reich Association of Jews in Germany at the instigation of the Gestapo . In it, the older Jews were promised lifelong free accommodation, food and medical care. In addition to a calculated advance payment, further taxes, donations and asset transfers were requested. In fact, the deportees in Theresienstadt found overcrowded and hardly heated homes, poor nutrition and inadequate medical care. The assets later fell to the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA).

Jewish old people's homes

By order of the Reich Security Main Office, the “Reich Association” was responsible for the organization of Jewish welfare and thus also for Jewish retirement homes. At the beginning of 1941 150 old people's homes were operated directly by the Berlin headquarters or by the 17 district offices and 13 Jewish religious associations. Forced property sales, which resulted in overcrowding, and ordered spending cuts, the situation worsened: the inmates were left with a bed, a chair and a cupboard.

On July 1, 1941, all existing contracts with residents had to be converted into "home purchase contracts", in which the residents were obliged to help finance the maintenance of their fellow inmates. When a new member was accepted, the minimum amount was 11,000 Reichsmarks , based on an expected life expectancy of 85 years. This amount was to be paid in cash or in securities to the Reichsvereinigung, which in return promised room and board for life.

Planning for a special concentration camp "Ghetto Theresienstadt"

As early as November 1941, Reinhard Heydrich had come up with the plan to set up the Theresienstadt concentration camp as an “old people's home for Jews” from Germany. At the Wannsee Conference (January 20) this plan was confirmed, and on February 19, 1942 board members of the Reichsvereinigung were informed accordingly. The first transports to the east started in September 1941. There was great concern in Jewish circles as to how the elderly and the physically handicapped should survive the long, arduous journey and temporary accommodation. Under these circumstances, they were relieved that a camp in Terezín with permanent buildings had been chosen as a more accessible and climatically favorable destination.

The "home purchase contract H"

Since July 1942, all previous contracts have been rewritten into the so-called "Home Purchase Contract H". It was pointed out in it that the Reich Association of Jews in Germany had to raise the funds for all persons jointly housed in Theresienstadt. It is therefore the duty of everyone who has property not only to pay for their own accommodation, but also to provide the means to care for those in need.

The purchase amount was calculated by estimating 150 RM each month up to the age of 85. A progressively increasing compulsory tax of 25% to 80% was required of the rest of the property; a generous “voluntary donation” was also expected. In addition to a blank line to insert the amount of a cash payment, the contract contained another line for the documented assignment of assets such as securities, bank balances and mortgages . A legal claim to repayment in the event of death or "if the contract is terminated for other reasons" was excluded.

The Reich Association of Jews in Germany undertook to provide the contracting party with home accommodation and food for life, to have the laundry washed, to provide him / her with medical care and medication if necessary, and to ensure the necessary hospitalization. "

The Reichsvereinigung reserved the right to accommodation “outside of the old Reich ”. The contractual partner could not derive any claims “from a change in the current form of accommodation”. In the event of a physical or mental illness that made it impossible to remain in communal accommodation, the Reichsvereinigung was allowed to arrange for other accommodation.

On 30 June 1942, on behalf of the RSHA, the Reichsvereinigung wrote to its district offices: “Home purchase contracts are to be concluded if there is at least 1,000 RM assets.” The emphatically operated “advertising” was felt to be compulsory. A contemporary witness calls the home purchase contracts "fraudulent contracts" and reports: "In the case of my parents, to name just one example, the threat was: '... if you do not sign this contract, you will be deported' to the East '...' "

reality

Most of the victims selected for deportation to Theresienstadt were temporarily housed in a collective camp two days before their departure. A bailiff served them a document declaring their remaining property to be “ property against the state and the people” and confiscating them . Employees of the tax office, the housing office and the municipal food office worked hand in hand and withdrew food cards , pension notices, savings books and apartment keys. The Gestapo officers searched the luggage and the victims.

Viktor Klemperer wrote in his diary: “Theresienstadt is regarded as a privilege and is probably also in relation to Poland, although this deportation also means a complete loss of property and slavery. Nobody knows exactly what Theresienstadt is really about, whether there is starvation and death or a halfway human life ... "

In fact, the newcomers to Theresienstadt spent the first few days in the so-called “sluice” in unheated barracks and were then sent to overcrowded houses from which the previous owners had removed everything they could take with them. Six weeks after their arrival, around a quarter of the weakened elderly had died of malnutrition , cold and illness caused by poor hygienic conditions. Later, “a change in the current form of accommodation” could mean deportation to the Auschwitz extermination camp . The Hamburg lawyer and consultant Dr. Ernst Kaufmann paid 13,534 RM for the home purchase contract and was deported to Theresienstadt on June 9, 1943, but came to Auschwitz on October 9, 1943 and was murdered there.

Probably 42,000 German Jews were transported to Theresienstadt, of which 20,000 died and 16,000 were sent on to Auschwitz and murdered.

Pillage

According to the “ Eleventh Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Law ” of November 25, 1941, a Jew lost his German citizenship when leaving the Reich territory ; at the same time his fortune fell to the German Empire. The administration and utilization of the confiscated assets was the task of the Berlin Chief Finance President. The “Eleventh Ordinance” did not apply to the transports to Theresienstadt, however, as the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was not considered a foreign country. Therefore, an individual decision was required in each case in order to be able to legally confiscate Jewish property as "anti-people and anti-state" assets in accordance with the law on the confiscation of property against the people and the state of 1933 . These assets also fell to the Reich Ministry of Finance and were withdrawn from the Reich Security Main Office. It was therefore endeavored to cover the costs incurred in Theresienstadt in other ways, to acquire parts of the assets beforehand and to generate profits.

For payments in favor of the Reichsvereinigung, a "special account H" was set up at the Heinz Tecklenburg & Co. bank in Berlin , which the Reich Security Main Office could access. The expected advance payment for home purchases was RM 150 per month; In 1943, however, 11.13 RM per person were spent on monthly meals.

Since the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) could no longer access the property of the Jews according to the 11th ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Law, the RSHA set up the “Special Account W” for further asset recovery. In an internal protocol of March 6, 1942, it is stated that “it is requested to encourage the Jews to make substantial 'donations' for the 'W' account in the near future. So far, apparently due to the misunderstanding that the Jews benefit directly from the fund, few amounts have been received. "

The home purchase contracts demonstrably raised at least RM 109 million; The total value of the assets collected in this context was probably 400 million RM. The Reich Association of Jews in Germany was dissolved on June 10, 1943; Her property and the property she managed went to the Reich Security Main Office.

Home purchase contracts in literature

In her novel Die Todgeweihten , published in 1949, the Hamburg author Berthie Philipp describes her experiences with home purchase contracts, her deportation, her life in Theresienstadt and her rescue.

See also

literature

  • Hans G. Adler : The hidden truth. Theresienstadt documents. Mohr, Tübingen 1958.
  • Helmut Eschwege : On the deportation of old Jews through “home purchase contracts” 1942–1945. In: Giesela Neuhaus, Beate Roch (ed.): Anti-Semitism and mass murder. Contributions to the history of the persecution of the Jews (= texts on political education. H. 16). Rosa-Luxemburg-Verein, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-929994-14-3 , pp. 51-73.
  • Berthie Philipp: The doomed. A novel about Theresienstadt. Morawe & Scheffelt, Hamburg 1949.

Evidence

  1. ^ A b Susanne Willems: The resettled Jew. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89468-259-0 , p. 395.
  2. ↑ Beate Meyer (Ed.): The persecution and murder of Hamburg's Jews 1933–1945. History, testimony, memory. State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-929728-85-0 , p. 70.
  3. ↑ Beate Meyer (Ed.): The persecution and murder of Hamburg's Jews 1933–1945. History, testimony, memory. State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-929728-85-0 , p. 71.
  4. ^ Printed as a document in: Heiko Morisse: Jüdische Rechtsanwälte in Hamburg. Exclusion and persecution in the Nazi state (= Hamburg contributions to the history of German Jews. Vol. 26). Christian, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-7672-1418-0 , p. 69, as well as in Norbert Haase, Stefi Jersch-Wenzel , Hermann Simon (eds.): Memory has a face. Photographs and documents on the National Socialist persecution of Jews in Dresden 1933–1945 (= series of publications by the Saxon Memorials Foundation in memory of the victims of political tyranny. Vol. 4). Modifications made by Marcus Gryglewski. Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-378-01026-6 , p. 171. At the time see Susanne Willems: Der entsiedelte Jude. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89468-259-0 , p. 410.
  5. ↑ Susanne Willems: The resettled Jew. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89468-259-0 , p. 409.
  6. ↑ This information does not appear from the contract text. Documented by Hans G. Adler: The hidden truth. 1958, p. 763.
  7. ↑ Hans G. Adler: The hidden truth. 1958, p. 49.
  8. ↑ hagali-forum ( Memento of the original dated February 12, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed December 8, 2006)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / forum.hagalil.com
  9. ↑ Document printed by Hans G. Adler: The secret truth. 1958, p. 61. Contents also in the express letter of the RIM in: Walther Hofer (Ed.): Der Nationalozialismus. Documents 1933–1945 (= Fischer pocket books 6084 books of knowledge ). Original edition, revised new edition, 869. – 950. Thousand. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-596-26084-1 , p. 298 f.
  10. ↑ Viktor Klemperer : I want to give testimony to the last. Diaries. Volume 2: 1942-1945. 2nd Edition. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-351-02340-5 , p. 393: June 12, 1943 .
  11. ^ Heiko Morisse: Jewish lawyers in Hamburg. Exclusion and persecution in the Nazi state (= Hamburg contributions to the history of German Jews. Vol. 26). Christian, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-7672-1418-0 , p. 68.
  12. ↑ Beate Meyer (Ed.): The persecution and murder of Hamburg's Jews 1933–1945. History, testimony, memory. State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-929728-85-0 , p. 72.
  13. ↑ Hans G. Adler: The hidden truth. 1958, p. 54.
  14. ↑ Document VEJ 6/83 in: Susanne Heim (Ed.): The Persecution and Assassination ... Volume 6: German Reich and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in October 1941-March 1943. Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-036496- 5 , p. 299.
  15. ↑ Hans G. Adler: The hidden truth. 1958, p. 51.