Jewish adviser

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Jewish advisors , previously also known as Judenreferenten , formed a small group of specialists from Adolf Eichmann's employees in the " Eichmannreferat " of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), who were deployed in foreign countries occupied by German troops to intern Jews living there and, from 1942, to deport them to Organize extermination camps .

Definition of terms

The National Socialist word creation "adviser for Jewish questions", also abbreviated "Judenberater", can be traced for the first time for August 1940. Initially, the term also supplanted common terms such as "Judenreferent" or "clerk for Jewish questions".

The designation "Judenberater" (or "adviser for Jewish questions") served to distinguish between "Jewish clerks" of the various Reich authorities and at the same time played down and veiled their real function. "Jewish advisors" were not "advisors" in the literal sense of the word: They were only used in friendly, allied or defeated countries to promote the disenfranchisement, plundering and deportation of Jews. In doing so, they influenced the government that was left there and was ready to collaborate . In France and several other countries defeated by Germany, the Jewish advisors were subject to the commander of the security police in disciplinary terms. In friendly and allied countries such as Bulgaria or Romania, the Jewish advisors were assigned to the foreign diplomatic missions of the Foreign Office under the designation “Gehilfe des Polizeiattachés” and were subordinate to the police attaché or the German ambassador.

The “Jewish advisors” of the SS received their instructions exclusively from the “ Eichmannreferat ”, which kept up to date “through regular activity reports and briefings on their activities”. Most of them had the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer .

In addition, there were Jewish advisors , often referred to as "racial advisers", in ministries, municipalities, special-purpose associations (e.g. the German Municipal Association ), etc.

Countries of assignment and "Jewish advisors" working there

In Denmark and Norway with a small number of Jews, there were no “Jewish advisors”. In Serbia , the armed forces and the security police took action against the Jews. In Poland , Luxembourg , Alsace-Lorraine and the conquered Soviet territories , no “Jewish advisors” were needed because they were completely under German control. In Greece, Italy and Hungary, “Jewish advisors” were sent out late. In order to be able to commence the deportations there more quickly, an 8 to 15-man task force was assigned to the "Jewish advisors".

Perpetrator profiles

Most of the perpetrators who were later promoted to "Jewish advisors" were born between 1905 and 1913, had joined the NSDAP before 1933 , only found a secure position when they joined the SS and quickly moved into positions in which they could exercise power.

According to Claudia Steur, the “Jewish counselors” can be divided into two groups. The group with Dannecker, Wisliceny, Brunner and also Boßhammer and Abromeit as Eichmann's close confidants also served as role models for the other “Jewish advisors”. The others were privy to plans to murder the Jews relatively late. Her "striving for power, reputation and social advancement" was an important motive for her later participation in the Holocaust. They "slowly grew into a role that was becoming more and more brutal, which they then unscrupulously and consistently filled without doubting the correctness of the instructions given to them until the end of the war."

Jewish officers in the Foreign Office

The Foreign Office (AA) also gradually introduced functionaries to the embassies, who were to be called Jewish officers and who essentially had the same tasks as those sent by the RSHA. After the war, however, the AA was able to disguise its active participation in the murder of the Jews of Europe. For example, Peter Klassen , the Jewish advisor at the Paris embassy, ​​headed the “Political Archives of the Foreign Office” for years after 1945. He sifted through and cleaned up the files there according to his worldview or moved them to untraceable corners. Research into this group of people still requires extensive research.

What is known so far is a joint meeting of the AA and RSHA, “Working Conference of the Jewish Referees of the German Missions in Europe” in Krummhübel from April 3rd to 5th, 1944, the starting signal for the upcoming “Anti-Jewish foreign action”. However, for reasons that are unclear to this day, the RSHA sent it to the RSHA at short notice. Franz Alfred Six propagated here as a speaker unmistakably: The physical elimination of Eastern Judaism deprives Judaism of its biological reserves .

After the return of German files that the Allies had taken into custody after May 1945, only small parts of the AA personnel policy with “Jewish officers” during the Holocaust are known. In the Foreign Office, Emil Schumburg , Franz Rademacher and, from 1943, Eberhard von Thadden , were named "Judenreferent", both publicly and internally .

literature

  • Claudia Steur: Eichmann's emissaries. The "Jewish advisors" in Hitler's Europe. In: Gerhard Paul , Klaus-Michael Mallmann (ed.): The Gestapo in the Second World War. "Home Front" and Occupied Europe. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2000, ISBN 3-89678-188-X , pp. 403-436.
  • Astrid M. Eckert: Fight for the files. The Western Allies and the return of German archive material after the Second World War. Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-515-08554-8 ( Transatlantic historical studies. 20 history ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Claudia Steur: Eichmanns emissaries. The 'Jewish advisors' in Hitler's Europe. In: Gerhard Paul , Klaus-Michael Mallmann (ed.): The Gestapo in the Second World War. Darmstadt 2000, p. 403 with note 1.
  2. ↑ a b Claudia Steur: Eichmanns Emissäre , p. 404.
  3. ^ Claudia Steur: Theodor Dannecker. A functionary of the "Final Solution" . Essen 1996, ISBN 3-88474-545-X , p. 43.
  4. ↑ z. B. Bernhard Lösener held the latter title in the Ministry of the Interior; after 1945 he named the distinguished advisor for "racial law" .
  5. ↑ Lieven Saerens: Rachel, Jacob, Paul et les autres: une histoire des Juifs à bruxelles . Trad. du néerlandais par Serge Govaert. Brussels: Mardaga, 2014 ISBN 978-2-8047-0210-6 .
  6. ^ Claudia Steur: Eichmanns Emissäre , p. 432.
  7. ↑ a b Claudia Steur: Eichmanns Emissäre , p. 434.
  8. ^ Karl-Heinz Drescher: Krummhübel 65 years ago . In: krummhuebel.riesengebirgler.de , accessed on November 15, 2010 (on classes).
  9. ↑ See the results of the Independent Historical Commission - Foreign Office since 2010 . In their main work "The Office ..." etc., classes are not mentioned.
  10. ↑ one day: Diplomats of the "final solution" and protocol
  11. ↑ See Astrid M. Eckert, Kampf um die Akten .