Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Prague

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The Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Prague , also known as the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Bohemia and Moravia called, was an order of the Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia , Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath , the end of July 1939 by Walter Stahlecker and Adolf Eichmann created SS office in Prague at the time of National Socialism . The Prague Central Office was built on the model of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna created in August 1938 , but was significantly smaller than it. The tasks of the central office initially included accelerating the forced emigration of Jews from the “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia” occupied by the German Reich . Later, the central office was the executive body for all Jewish affairs in the Protectorate, including deportations to the extermination camps . It existed until the beginning of May 1945, from August 20, 1942, as the central office for the settlement of the Jewish question in Bohemia and Moravia .

tasks

The villa in which the former Central Office for Jewish Emigration or the Central Office in Prague was located. The Dutch embassy previously resided in the building . The building is located at Dělostřelecká 11, formerly Schillstrasse 11, in the Prague district of Střešovice .

The task of the Central Office was initially to accelerate the forced emigration of Jews in the occupied Czech Republic and the Jewish refugees there. In the central office, all measures relating to the departure were coordinated, such as questions of citizenship , property taxes, currency exchange , construction and monitoring of retraining centers as well as issuing and viewing all necessary documents. Before the “Jewish emigrants” were processed in the central office, they received support from the emigration department of the Jewish Community (JKG) in Prague in compiling all the necessary documents. A total of 18 documents had to be submitted in German and typed for the forced exit, including tax returns and a police clearance certificate . In addition, the JKG was forced to set a property tax for every person leaving, which amounted to up to 20% of the total property . Furthermore, a so-called Dego levy had to be paid for every single part that the emigrant took with him . There were strict restrictions on taking precious metals with you. Radios, musical instruments and other valuables, however, were not allowed to be exported at all. After the end of this bureaucratic process, the JKG issued a passport with an appointment for the central office to those who wanted to leave the country.

The JKG, like the Jewish councils elsewhere , became the central contact point of the SS for "Jewish matters" through forced cooperation with the Nazi occupiers . The head of the JKG was Franz Weidmann , his deputy was the head of the "emigration department of the cultural community" Jakob Edelstein . The JKG was forced to meet a daily quota of emigrants, the number was initially 200 people, which gradually decreased to 40 due to the war. If these quotas were not met, the head of the emigration department, Edelstein, in particular, had to expect reprisals. These orders were given verbally by the SS.

The applicants were finally processed quickly in the central office. Employees from the various departments checked the payment of all fees and the correctness and completeness of all necessary documents. Finally, the emigration tax was set, which went to the emigration fund, which was affiliated with the central office. The emigrants, who had to finance the central office and their departure themselves through their taxes, could only emigrate after this procedure. This bureaucratic procedure was extremely humiliating for the applicant due to long waiting times and sometimes mistreatment. Before leaving, however, the applicants had to move to Prague on the orders of the SS . Until the travel ban in December 1941, over 26,500 Jews were still able to emigrate from the Protectorate.

Other tasks of the central office included the implementation of regulations that discriminated against Jewish citizens in quick succession. These included measures such as residence professionally and capital transfer prohibitions, restrictions on club memberships and residence, the obligation to wear a Jewish star and other harassment. Furthermore, in early 1943 the SS created a Central Jewish Museum in Prague , in which exhibitions on Judaism were organized. After the ban on emigration, the focus of work within the central office was on asset utilization, exclusion and finally the deportation of the Jewish victims to the ghettos and extermination camps . The Theresienstadt ghetto, established at the end of 1941, was also under the control of the central office. The central office eventually became the executive body for all matters relating to the so-called “ Jewish question ” in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

In autumn 1941 5,000 people were transported to the Lodz ghetto and a further 1,000 people to the Minsk ghetto . In June 1942 another 1,000 Jews from Prague were deported to the Majdanek concentration camp . Between November 1941 and March 1945, around 74,000 Jews from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were deported in 122 transports to the Theresienstadt ghetto and from there, most of them were sent to the extermination camps . In total, around 78,000 Czech Jews were victims of the Holocaust. Of the 1,500 Austrian Jews who were deported from the Protectorate, only 350 survived.

Structure and staff

The central offices in Vienna, Prague and the central office established in Amsterdam in April 1941 were branch offices of the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Berlin . Formally, the central office in Prague was subordinate to the commander of the Security Police and the SD in Prague; In practice, however, like the Reich headquarters and the central offices attached to it, it was subordinate to the Eichmann department, which was later set up in the Reich Security Main Office . Until mid-February 1940, the central office was exclusively responsible for Prague, then for the entire Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This office was initially headed briefly by Eichmann and from autumn 1939 continuously by Hans Günther , whose deputy was temporarily Karl Rahm . Eichmann brought experienced employees from the Vienna Central Office with him to set up this office, including Franz Stuschka and Franz Novak . In March 1941, the 42 employees at the central office were mainly SS members, but also 8 secretaries and 3 civilian employees. The main office was temporarily headed by Ernst Girzick . Another 14 civil employees were employed in the Bohemia and Moravia Emigration Fund, which was attached to the central office. The emigration fund , headed by Karl Reisinger , had an administration and recycling center, which in turn employed 240 people, including 200 Czechs. Up to 2,000 properties confiscated from Jewish citizens were administered there. From the spring of 1941, a branch of the Prague central office in Brno was set up under the direction of Anton Burger , to which an emigration fund as well as an administration and recycling center were also affiliated. From 1940 to 1945 the Prague Central Office ran a re-education camp in Linden .

literature

  • Jan Björn Potthast: The Jewish Central Museum of the SS in Prague. Opponent Research and Genocide under National Socialism. Campus-Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-593-37060-3 .
  • Hans Safrian : Eichmann and his assistants . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-596-12076-4 .
  • Hans Günther Adler : Theresienstadt. The face of a coercive community 1941–1945 . Afterword Jeremy Adler . Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-694-6 (reprint of the 2nd verb. Edition Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1960. 1st edition ibid. 1955).
  • Hans G. Adler: The Hidden Truth, Theresienstadt documents . Mohr Siebeck Tübingen 1958.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Günther Adler: Theresienstadt. The face of a forced community 1941–1945 , Göttingen 2005, p. 5f.
    Wolfgang Benz : Central Office for Jewish Emigration , from: Benz / Graml / Weiß: Encyclopedia of National Socialism , 2001, p. 700 online ( Memento from December 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 76 kB).
  2. ↑ Jan Björn Potthast: The Jewish Central Museum of the SS in Prague - Opponent Research and Genocide under National Socialism . Munich 2002, p. 68.
  3. ↑ a b Jan Björn Potthast: The Jewish Central Museum of the SS in Prague - Opponent Research and Genocide in National Socialism , Munich 2002, p. 70 ff.
  4. ↑ Jan Björn Potthast: The Jewish Central Museum of the SS in Prague - Opponent Research and Genocide in National Socialism , Munich 2002, p. 96 ff.
  5. ↑ a b Flight / Emigration - “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia” ( Memento of November 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) at www.doew.at.
  6. ↑ Dirk Rupnow: Endlager Museum , in: Gedenkdienst Edition 02/07.
  7. ^ Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance: Deportations to Theresienstadt.
  8. ^ Gabriele Anderl, Dirk Rupnow, Alexandra-Eileen Wenck, Historians Commission of the Republic of Austria: The Central Office for Jewish Emigration as a Robbery Institution , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2004, p. 311.
  9. ↑ Gabriele Anderl, Dirk Rupnow, Alexandra-Eileen Wenck, Historians' Commission of the Republic of Austria: The Central Office for Jewish Emigration as a Robbery Institution , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2004, p. 309 f.
  10. ↑ Jan Björn Potthast: The Jewish Central Museum of the SS in Prague - Opponent Research and Genocide under National Socialism. Campus-Verlag, Munich 2002, p. 76 ff.
  11. ↑ Helena Krejčová u. a .: Židé v protektorátu - Hlášení Židovské náboženské obce v roce 1942. 1. vyd. Praha: Maxdorf & Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, 1997. ISBN 80-85270-67-6 . s. 123-124.

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 45.5 ″  N , 14 ° 23 ′ 16.9 ″  E