Sonderkommando J

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In Sonderkommando J , from 1944 onwards, so-called “unworthy of military service”, predominantly “ Jewish mixed race ” and “ Jewish misfits ” from “ mixed marriages ”, were employed as “special service conscripts” at Organization Todt (OT). These forced laborers were mostly barracked far away from their place of residence and deployed in closed columns for heavy physical work. Some historians interpret this exclusion as a preliminary stage of an intended deportation .

Closed work assignment

Significant peculiarities, which later also determined the forced labor in Sonderkommando J, can already be found in the " closed labor deployment ", which was part of a persecution concept directed against Jews. For example, the strict isolation of the Jewish work columns was adopted as a model and implemented purposefully by the labor administration among the special service conscripts of the Todt Organization.

According to the definition of the First Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Law , all male Jews who registered as unemployed from autumn 1938 were to be deployed in closed columns for earthworks or in quarries “to facilitate emigration efforts and in the interest of relieving public support funds”. The President of the Reichsanstalt für Arbeitsvermittlungs und Arbeitslosenversicherung , Friedrich Syrup , ordered on December 20, 1938, with the express approval of Hermann Göring , that Jews should be employed strictly separately from non-Jews.

Since many companies were unable to guarantee such a separation, the Central Office for Jews at the Berlin Employment Office initially obliged Jews to do “closed work” for leveling and demolition work or for garbage dumps on urban land. After the annexation of Austria at the beginning of 1939, the Vienna employment office sent more than a thousand Jews to Lower Saxony , where the columns were used to build dams and flood protection as well as to regulate the river.

After the beginning of the Second World War , however, industrial companies increasingly recruited Jewish workers who were deployed in their own departments or separated from "Aryans" by privacy screens . From the autumn of 1940 onwards, all Jews who were able to work were conscripted; now unlimited and also employed as a skilled worker. In February 1941, 24,500 male and 16,500 female Jews were employed in the “closed labor deployment”.

Exclusion

Radical anti-Semites within the NSDAP wanted to equate “first-degree Jewish half-breeds” with “full Jews” in the “ final solution to the Jewish question ” and considered their deportation and sterilization . In addition, forced divorces from mixed marriages were planned.

On April 8, 1940, a decree was issued that in principle all “Jewish first-degree mixed race” and “husbands of Jewish female or Jewish first-degree mixed race” were to be released from the Wehrmacht. Many military superiors followed this order only hesitantly, especially since many of those affected had received high awards and insisted on an exception. In May 1942, Adolf Hitler announced a tightened approach to the "half-breeds". In October 1942 the party chancellery demanded reporting on every half-breed in the Wehrmacht . "Mixed race first degree" are to be excluded from military service immediately and dismissed, unless they can show special permission from the "Führer". On June 20, 1944, the Army High Command declared the employment of all half-breeds, including the "second-degree Jewish half-breeds", as members of the army to be unacceptable, and instructed those released to be sent to work immediately.

Operational plans

There were an estimated 26,000 men of conscription age who did not serve in the Wehrmacht due to the discriminatory anti-Semitic decrees. In view of the lack of qualified specialists, they hardly had any problems finding a job.

As early as 1942, consideration had been given to removing these men from proper employment relationships and grouping them together in labor battalions. However, according to Ernst Kaltenbrunner's suggestion from the Reich Main Security Office, this group should not be combined in probation battalions of the Wehrmacht like other "unworthy of military service", but rather be used in separate formations of the Todt Organization "in a particularly tough operation". Finally, after controversial negotiations with the party chancellery and the high command of the Wehrmacht , a decision was made with Hitler's approval. On October 13, 1943, Fritz Sauckel, as “general representative for labor deployment”, informed the Gau employment offices that the “first-degree Jewish mixed race” and “Aryans married to fully Jewish women” were to be drafted into the Todt organization. As of November 1943, the employment offices made appropriate lists. There was regular cooperation with the Gestapo .

Convocations

For the public service , the Reich Ministry of the Interior achieved the exception that the OT deployment was suspended for their service workers who were “racially burdened”. Clergymen who were considered to be “mixed Jewish people” or “Jewish relatives” were also released from forced labor.

In many cases, the companies resisted the plan to withdraw qualified workers and presented them as “ indispensable ”. Presumably, some employers also complained to their employees for human reasons, in order to save them from the uncertain fate of the special service. In the spring of 1944 it was tightened up and in October 1944 Heinrich Himmler ordered all male employable “first-degree Jewish mixed race” and “Jewish relatives” to be ruthlessly pulled out of the factories within three days and transferred to the Todt Organization's construction battalions. “Aryan” men who were married to a woman classified as “Jewish mixed race” were also considered to be “Jewish infectious persons”. A few exceptional cases were precisely defined. Physically unsuitable men and female “mixed race” should be placed in closed groups by the employment office for manual work.

Numbers and destinations

In March 1944, the first troops, each with one hundred special service conscripts, were sent to northern France: In March there were 3,000 people from Baden, including some "Gypsies" and "Gypsy hybrids". Two other troops are detectable for food . 1680 men were listed for Hamburg, including those politically persecuted and convicted; Of these, six hundred people were postponed as “unfit for storage” or “unfit” for health reasons. In Vienna, around 4,100 conscripts were only recorded in December 1944, half of them women.

Since only a few regional lists have been preserved, it cannot be determined how many people were deployed in total. Estimates range from well over ten thousand to just under twenty thousand people.

The first working columns were brought to northern France to build the Atlantic Wall ; from August 1944, Bedburg was the destination, where an underground hydrogenation plant was to be built. From November 1944, closed groups were accommodated in various Reichsgauen as required ; generally they were deployed outside of their hometown.

living conditions

Almost always the conscripts were sent to work camps of the Todt Organization, which turned out to be tolerable to different degrees, but in some cases “were images of concentration camps”. The internees were guarded, were not allowed to go out, had post and letter controls and were not allowed to receive visits from relatives. Regardless of their qualifications, they were only used for “manual work” on the construction sites. They were not given food cards for heavy workers or work clothes, were not allowed to shelter in bad weather and could not go to air raid shelters.

Originally the Hamburg special service conscripts were supposed to be deployed in Weimar and Osnabrück , but they were indispensable for road clearance and rubble removal at home. Exceptionally, they were not subordinate to the Todt Organization, but to the Hamburg building administration. As "Sonderkommando J", they were only partially housed in camps in autumn 1944. Although the planned OT camps were partially destroyed or needed as alternative quarters for concentration camp outposts and forced laborers, the commandos were forced to barracks; but with little success. At the instigation of the Gestapo, groups of the Sonderkommando were interned in seven barracks in the Ohlsdorf cemetery . According to an inspection, the accommodations had damaged roofs and were not winter-proof; the forced laborers were poorly supplied by a large kitchen.

In principle, the collectively agreed wages for unskilled workers should be paid. This often worsened the financial situation of the relatives who were left behind; Moreover, payments were delayed.

The separation from the family was a heavy burden for those who were obliged to serve in the camps outside the country, because news reached them only with a time delay. Men feared that the Jewish wife or parents might be deported to the East while they were away. Their own future also seemed to be endangered: The conscripts in "Sonderkommando J" had received the same notification as those deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto , namely to report vacant living space, to name an asset manager and to place children under the age of sixteen with relatives.

The fear was not unfounded: On 13 January 1945, the command, all able-bodied came Geltungsjuden and Jews from "mixed marriages" in the Theresienstadt ghetto to deport. The late order was no longer implemented across the board and thanks to the timely liberation of Theresienstadt, almost everyone was able to return unharmed after the end of the war.

Interpretations

With the “closed labor deployment” of the “mixed race” and “Jewish Versippten” the National Socialist leadership combined not only economic motives but also the goal of separating these two groups from the “national community”, which could not be simply deported for fear of unrest among the population . When it comes to inhumane measures, the labor administration employees generally showed themselves to be uncritical helpers. Beate Meyer points out that those responsible were primarily concerned with enforcing racist principles and therefore grouping the forced laborers under discriminatory conditions, "presumably with the intention of being able to collect them later - should a corresponding order come in".

Ursula Büttner expressly contradicts a 1966 report by Hermann Graml that the “first-degree Jewish mixed race” - apart from discrimination - “in general could have lived relatively unmolested”. The defeat in the war in their own country alone saved the “first degree half-breeds” and the Jews from “mixed marriages” from the annihilation that the Nazi regime intended for them and which it had already initiated. According to Büttner, the action also showed the determination of the National Socialist leadership to settle accounts with the "Jewish relatives" who, despite all the pressures, remained unwavering by their Jewish spouses.

See also

literature

  • Ursula Büttner: Share the plight of the Jews. Christian-Jewish families in the Third Reich. Christians, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-7672-1055-X (pp. 65-71).
  • Wolf Gruner : The Nazi leadership and forced labor for so-called Jewish mixed race. An insight into the planning and practice of anti-Jewish politics in the years 1942 to 1944. In: Manfred Weißbecker, Reinhard Kühnl: Rassismus, Faschismus, Antifaschismus. Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X .
  • Dieter Maier: Labor assignment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews from 1938–1945. (Publications of the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial, edited by Wolfgang Scheffler / Gerhard Schoenberner) Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-127-6 -
  • Beate Meyer: The 'Sonderkommando J'. Forced labor of the "Jewish Versippten" and the "Mischlinge first degree" in Hamburg. In: Herbert Diercks: Forced Labor and Society. Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-379-5 , pp. 102–110 (Contributions to the History of National Socialist Persecution in Northern Germany, No. 8).
  • Beate Meyer: "Jewish mixed race". Racial policy and experience of persecution 1933–1945 . 2nd Edition. Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 (pp. 237-247).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The closed labor deployment of German Jews - On forced labor as an element of persecution 1938–1943 . Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-926893-32-X , p. 16. - The term “closed work assignment” goes back to Gruner and is taken up elsewhere, e.g. B. with Ulrich Herbert: History of Germany in the 20th Century. Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66051-1 , p. 492.
  2. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The Nazi leadership and forced labor for so-called Jewish mixed race. An insight into the planning and practice of anti-Jewish politics in the years 1942 to 1944. In: Manfred Weißbecker, Reinhard Kühnl: Rassismus, Faschismus, Antifaschismus . Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X , p. 73.
  3. ↑ Susanne Heim (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 , Volume 2: German Reich 1938 - August 1939 , Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58523-0 , p. 50 –51 / quotation from document VEJ 2/105, p. 307.
  4. ^ Dieter Maier: Labor deployment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938-1945. ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , pp. 23–24 / document on pp. 30–31.
  5. ^ Dieter Maier: Labor deployment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938-1945. ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , p. 40. / For numbers see also Wolf Gruner: The closed labor deployment of German Jews ... Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-926893-32-X , p. 92 and p. 95.
  6. ↑ Gruner contradicts the widespread view that forced labor was not introduced until a decree of March 1941. Wolf Gruner: The closed labor deployment of German Jews ... Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-926893-32-X , p. 180f and p. 338 / sa Susanne Heim (arrangement): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 , Volume 2, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58523-0 , p. 51.
  7. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The closed labor deployment of German Jews ... Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-926893-32-X , p. 176.
  8. ↑ see the minutes of the Wannsee Conference, pp. 10-14
  9. ↑ Joseph Walk (ed.): The special right for the Jews in the Nazi state. 2nd edition Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8252-1889-9 , p. 319.
  10. ↑ Beate Meyer: "Jewish mixed race". Racial policy and experience of persecution 1933–1945 . 2nd edition Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , pp. 231f.
  11. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The Nazi leadership and forced labor for so-called Jewish mongrels ... In: Manfred Weißbecker, Reinhard Kühnl: Rassismus, Faschismus, Antifaschismus. Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X , p. 66.
  12. ↑ Joseph Walk (ed.): The special right for the Jews in the Nazi state. 2nd edition Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8252-1889-9 , p. 390 (nos. 440 and 443).
  13. ^ Dieter Maier: Labor deployment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938-1945. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , p. 222 / sa Joseph Walk (ed.): The special right for Jews in the Nazi state. 2nd edition Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8252-1889-9 , p. 404.
  14. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The Nazi leadership and forced labor for so-called Jewish mixed race . In: Manfred Weißbecker, Reinhard Kühnl: Racism, Fascism, Antifascism. Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X , p. 68.
  15. ↑ Beate Meyer: The 'Sonderkommando J'. Forced labor of the "Jewish Versippten" and the "Mischlinge first degree" in Hamburg. In: Herbert Diercks : Forced Labor and Society. Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-379-5 , pp. 102–110 ( Articles on the History of National Socialist Persecution in Northern Germany, no. 8), p. 102.
  16. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The Nazi leadership and forced labor for so-called Jewish mongrels ... p. 66/67.
  17. ^ Dieter Maier: Labor deployment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938-1945. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , p. 217.
  18. ^ Dieter Maier: Labor deployment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938-1945. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , pp. 230/231.
  19. ↑ so Dieter Maier: Labor assignment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938-1945. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , p. 221.
  20. ↑ Document VEJ 11/171 in Lisa Hauff (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 (source book), Volume 11: German Reich and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia April 1943-1945 . Berlin / Boston 2020, ISBN 978-3-11-036499-6 , pp. 484-485.
  21. ↑ Beate Meyer: "Jewish mixed race". Racial policy and experience of persecution 1933–1945 . 2nd edition Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , pp. 238/239 / A reply to an intervention by Albert Speer has not survived: Document VEJ 11/173 in: Lisa Hauff (edit.): The persecution and murder of the European Jews through National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (source collection), Volume 11: German Reich and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia April 1943–1945 . Berlin / Boston 2020, ISBN 978-3-11-036499-6 , p. 488 with note 6.
  22. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The Nazi leadership and forced labor for so-called Jewish mongrels ... In: Manfred Weißbecker, Reinhard Kühnl: Rassismus, Faschismus, Antifaschismus . Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X , p. 71.
  23. ^ Dieter Maier: Labor deployment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938-1945. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , p. 219.
  24. ↑ Beate Meyer: The 'Sonderkommando J'. Forced labor of the "Jewish Versippten" and the "Mischlinge first degree" in Hamburg. In: Herbert Diercks (Ed.): Forced Labor and Society . Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-379-5 , p. 104.
  25. ↑ Wolf Gruner: Forced Labor and Persecution - Austrian Jews in the Nazi State 1938-45. Innsbruck 2000, ISBN 3-7065-1396-X , p. 283.
  26. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The Nazi leadership and forced labor for so-called Jewish mongrels ... In: Manfred Weißbecker, Reinhard Kühnl: Rassismus, Faschismus, Antifaschismus. Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X , p. 74.
  27. ↑ Ursula Büttner: Share the plight of the Jews. Christian-Jewish families in the Third Reich. Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-7672-1055-X , p. 67.
  28. ↑ Beate Meyer: The 'Sonderkommando J'. Forced labor of the "Jewish Versippten" and the "Mischlinge first degree" in Hamburg. In: Herbert Diercks (Ed.): Forced Labor and Society . Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-379-5 , p. 104. - According to Meyer, comparative studies on the camps are still pending.
  29. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The Nazi leadership and the forced labor of so-called Mischlinge ... . In: Manfred Weißbecker, Reinhard Kühnl: Racism, Fascism, Antifascism. Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X , p. 72.
  30. ↑ Ursula Büttner: Share the plight of the Jews. Christian-Jewish families in the Third Reich. Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-7672-1055-X , pp. 66 and 68.
  31. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The Nazi leadership and forced labor for so-called Jewish mixed race . In: Kurt Pätzold et al. (Ed.): Racism, Fascism, Antifascism. Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X , p. 71.
  32. ↑ Beate Meyer: The 'Sonderkommando J'. Forced labor of the "Jewish Versippten" and the "Mischlinge first degree" in Hamburg. In: Herbert Diercks (Ed.): Forced Labor and Society . Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-379-5 , pp. 104-105. (Contributions to the history of Nazi persecution in Northern Germany, no.8)
  33. ↑ Beate Meyer: "Jewish mixed race". Racial policy and experience of persecution 1933–1945 . 2nd edition Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , pp. 240f / Beate Meyer: The persecution and murder of Hamburg's Jews 1933-1945 . Published by the State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-929728-85-0 , p. 85.
  34. ^ Frederike Littmann: Forced laborers in the Hamburg war economy 1939-1945. Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-937904-26-3 , p. 607.
  35. ↑ Beate Meyer: "Jewish mixed race". Racial policy and experience of persecution 1933–1945 . 2nd Edition. Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , p. 246.
  36. ^ Dieter Maier: Labor deployment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938-1945. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , p. 219.
  37. ↑ Beate Meyer: "Jewish mixed race". Racial policy and experience of persecution 1933–1945 . 2nd edition Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , pp. 242 and 247.
  38. ↑ Ursula Büttner: Share the plight of the Jews. Christian-Jewish families in the Third Reich. Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-7672-1055-X , p. 67.
  39. ↑ Joseph Walk (ed.): The special right for the Jews in the Nazi state. 2nd edition Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8252-1889-9 , p. 406.
  40. ↑ Beate Meyer: The persecution and murder of Hamburg's Jews 1933–1945 . Published by the State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-929728-85-0 , p. 86/87.
  41. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The Nazi leadership and forced labor for so-called Jewish mixed race . In: Manfred Weißbecker, Reinhard Kühnl: Racism, Fascism, Antifascism. Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X , p. 74.
  42. ^ Dieter Maier: Labor deployment and deportation. The involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938-1945. ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , p. 239.
  43. ↑ Beate Meyer: The 'Sonderkommando J'. Forced labor of the "Jewish Versippten" and the "Mischlinge first degree" in Hamburg. In: Herbert Diercks: Forced Labor and Society. Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-379-5 , p. 105.
  44. ↑ Hermann Graml: On the position of the mixed race 1st degree. In: Expert opinion of the Institute for Contemporary History, Volume 2, Munich 1966, p. 31 / Quoted from Büttner, p. 70.
  45. ↑ Ursula Büttner: Share the plight of the Jews. Christian-Jewish families in the Third Reich. Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-7672-1055-X , pp. 66 and 70.