Reich headquarters for Jewish emigration

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration was set up in Berlin on February 11, 1939 on Hermann Göring's instructions in order to accelerate the emigration of Jews from Germany . Reinhard Heydrich had already suggested this immediately after the Reichspogromnacht and referred to the experiences of the Vienna Central Office for Jewish Emigration , whose organizational model had proven itself since August 1938 in the interests of the National Socialists. Reinhard Heydrich became head of the Reich Central, which formally belonged to the Reich Ministry of the Interior ; The managing director was initially Heinrich Müller , who was followed by Adolf Eichmann in October 1939 .

Area of ​​responsibility

In Göring's directive of January 24, 1939, the following are named as the tasks of the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration:

  • As a preparatory measure for increased emigration, to create a “suitable Jewish organization”, obtain the provision of domestic and foreign funds and determine suitable destination countries for emigration;
  • preferring to ensure that poorer Jews emigrate;
  • to quickly obtain the necessary government certificates and ID cards through central processing.

According to the instructions, the Reich Central Office was to be formed “in the Reich Ministry of the Interior”, but Reinhard Heydrich immediately took over the management and staffing of the office and only involved the specialist ministries through representatives in a committee.

The Berlin central office started work in March 1939. Initially, 200 applications were received every day; up to June there were a total of 6,187 despite the "still missing organizational training".

Foreign exchange procurement

In the directive, Göring's Ministerial Director Helmut Wohlthat was also named as the agent who led negotiations with George Rublee from the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees ( Rublee-Wohlthat Agreement ), which dealt with the financing and organization of the emigration of Jews from Germany. On the one hand, there was the question of whether the "showcase money" demanded by the receiving countries, which should not be raised given the shortage of foreign exchange, could be pre-financed and later transferred to a trust fund through German export proceeds, debt register claims or confiscated Jewish assets. Second, consideration was given to using the largest part of the confiscated Jewish property for the maintenance of around 200,000 mostly older Jews who were not able to work and who remained in Germany. These plans proved to be unfeasible, at least with the outbreak of the war.

The "First Quarterly Management Report 1939" of the Central Security Office states that the Jewish middle class has become impoverished and points out that immigration regulations have been tightened everywhere and the "model monies" increased. On February 25, Heydrich issued an "Order on the Property Tax of Emigrating Jews"; with this money the emigration of penniless Jews should be promoted.

Reich Association

The “suitable Jewish organization” mentioned in the directive for the preparation of emigration applications was created by the Tenth Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act of July 4, 1939. The main purpose of this compulsory union called the Reich Association of Jews in Germany , which brought together German Jews and stateless Jews residing in Germany, was originally intended to be the preparation for emigration, which was to be left to the Jews to a considerable extent. The "Reichsvereinigung" was supposed to ensure that wealthy Jews paid a certain percentage of their wealth as an " emigration tax" in order to be able to finance the emigration of poorer Jews.

Branch offices: Participation in deportations

Branch offices of the Berlin Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration were:

The Reichszentrale and its branches were later identical to Eichmann's department in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). After the beginning of the war, the “central offices” remained in existence and continued to promote emigration at least in the first year of the war, before they changed their function and almost exclusively organized deportations to the extermination camps . The central offices for emigration now set guidelines according to which the Reich Association of Jews in Germany , which was forced to cooperate, and the religious communities subordinate to it, had to prepare lists and help with the deportation.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shorthand transcript of the discussion of the Jewish question at Göring on November 12, 1938. In: IMT, ISBN 3-7735-2522-2 , Volume 28, Document 1816-PS, p. 532 f / Document VEJ 2/146 in: Susanne Heim (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (source collection) Volume 2: German Reich 1938 - August 1939 , Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58523-0 , pp. 408– 437.
  2. ↑ as a document printed by: Helmut Krausnick : Judenverendung In: Anatomie des SS-Staates , dtv München 1967, vol. 2, p. 282 f.
  3. ↑ See document Heydrich's letter of January 30, 1939 / copy for the AA  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed April 29, 2008)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ghwk.de  
  4. ↑ S. Adler-Rudel : Jewish self-help under the Nazi regime 1933–1939. In the mirror of the reports of the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany. ISBN 978-3-16-835232-7 , p. 112.
  5. ↑ Heinz Boberach (Ed.): Reports from the Reich, 1938-1945: The secret situation reports of the SS security service. Herrsching 1984, ISBN 3-88199-158-1 , p. 222 f.
  6. ↑ Magnus Brechtken : "Madagascar for the Jews". Munich 1997, ISBN 3-486-56240-1 , p. 212.
  7. ↑ Uwe Dietrich Adam: Jewish policy in the Third Reich. Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3-7700-4063-5 , p. 161.
  8. ↑ July 22, 1939. Orders from Reich Protector v. Neurath , announcement in the Prague daily newspaper “Der neue Tag”.
  9. ^ Justice and Nazi Crimes - Volume XXV, serial no. 645 ( Memento of April 29, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), p. 2.
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Benz u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of National Socialism. Munich 119, ISBN 3-423-33007-4 , p. 700.
  11. ^ Raul Hilberg : The annihilation of the European Jews. Frankfurt / M. 1990, ISBN 3-596-24417-X , Vol. 2, p. 415.
  12. ^ Raul Hilberg: Die Vernichtung ... , Vol. 2, p. 452 f.