Terror and Expulsion Source: FROM THE PRESENTATION Chapter 8 Introduction 1938 was a fateful year for German Jewry. As the Nazi state strengthened and consolidated itself, and as the last remaining moderates in the government and the army were expelled or forced to retire, anti-Jewish policies within all agencies dealing with Jewish affairs escalated. The series of events and developments that took place throughout the year, coming to a peak with the Kristallnacht' pogrom of November 9-10, made 1938 a watershed in the fate of German Jewry. Screen 1. The radicalisation of anti-Jewish policy applied to all aspects of life and involved all bodies, which dealt with Jewish matters. The background continued to be marked by conflicts of interests between the various players. High-Profile Actions High-profile actions - boycotts and violence - which were meant to aggravate the isolation of the Jews, intensified in the course of 1938. Jews were barred from a long list of public places; new regulations were introduced to with the aim of identifying the Jews and segregating them. In July, Jews were ordered to carry identification cards marked with the letter J, and at year's end a new law required them to take on additional middle names: "Israel" for men and "Sarah" for women. Economic Measures When Hjalmar Schacht was ousted from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Goering, as Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan - which aimed at preparing the German economy for war - became the person responsible for directing anti-Jewish policy. This reinforced the economic assault on the Jews: preparations were made to dispossess the Jews and to eliminate them from the German economy. Thus, in April 1938 Jews were ordered to file statements listing their possessions. In July, an addendum to the Nuremberg Laws defined a "Jewish business"; at this point, the area of economic activity open to Jews was systematically reduced. Police Measures The security forces, the police, and the SD sought to prompt greater numbers of Jews to leave Germany. To this end, they began to use internment in concentration camps as a means of pressure. In the summer of 1938, preparations were begun to make the camps ready to receive large numbers of Jews. Lists were compiled of well to do Jews who were to be interned at a future time. Their desire to encourage Jews to emigrate led the police and the SD into a degree of conflict with the economic ministries. They feared that a sweeping economic expropriation might make emigration economically unfeasible for many Jews, and would leave those who remain without the resources they would need to live on. Anschluss - Annexation of Austria to the Reich Screen 1 Upon being annexed to Germany, Austria erupted in a frenzy of street violence against Jews, and Nazi activists began to seize Jewish property. The real turning point, however, came from a different direction. Whereas in Germany, the SS and police had to compete with other authorities in Jewish affairs, in Vienna they were the first to take control of this field of activity and were able to establish themselves as the principal authority. For the first time in its history, the Jewish department of the SD, headed by Adolf Eichmann, was given executive powers. Screen 2 After his arrival in Vienna on March 15, Eichmann reorganised the Jewish community according to his approach, which sought to force Jewish emigration. He set up the "Central Office for Jewish Emigration", so that Jews who wished to leave could make all arrangements at one location. The violent atmosphere, combined with the elimination of bureaucratic red tape, induced one-half of Austria's Jews to emigrate penniless within half a year. Eichmann's methods and policies would later serve as a model for activity in Germany itself. Leaving For Any Destination. From the testimony of Ezra Peri, son of a Jewish shoemaker from Vienna. In the street - they did not know I was Jewish, but my father was caught there and was ordered to clean flagstones with a toothbrush. They humiliated him in the street along with the Orthodox Jews. The inhabitants stood around and laughed. Father continued to work at home; at first his Christian customers still came, but afterwards they were not allowed to hand over shoes for repair and SA people made sure of it. Some continued to come in through the back door. Our neighbours were absolutely all right, relatively speaking: they said, Our Jews are OK'. We made efforts to emigrate to any place that might take us in - Colombia, Panama, Ethiopia. People with money could buy visas. There was an activist in Hashomer Hatzair - he says that they did think about Palestine but didn't really intend to go there. Father refused to think about Palestine. Only after the Nazis came in did people think about leaving for any destination.' The World's Response The Evian Conference Screen 1 The economic and social problems which had originated in the world economic crisis of the 1930's, combined with increased antisemitism in many countries, led to reluctance among many governments to oppose Hitler's anti-Jewish policies, lest they be perceived as siding with the Jews. The long lines of visa applicants queuing up in front of all foreign consulates, were in themselves a troublesome concern to the respective governments. There was no willingness on their part, however, to approach the root causes of the problem by taking a stand against Nazi anti-Jewish policy. Governments referred not to the "Jewish problem" but to a general problem of refugees. More US Immigration Policy US immigration policy was based on the 1921 Immigration Act, which set annual quotas for each country of origin. Germany's quota was 27,000 per annum. America was loathe to admit large numbers of immigrants because of its economic crisis, high unemployment, a wave of antisemitism in the 1930s, and its isolationist policy. The result of this policy, which was exacerbated by bureaucratic obstacles created by consuls, was that, up until 1938, even the annual immigration quota for Germany was not filled; about 47,000 persons from Germany immigrated to the United States in 1933¯1938. Screen 2 The Evian Conference As the problem of refugees from Germany grew increasingly acute, President Roosevelt called for an international conference. The parley began on 6 July 1938, in Evian, on the shores of Lake Geneva. Thirty-two countries participated, but none was willing to revise its immigration policy. The delegates did express regret about the refugees' suffering but stated that their countries could not take in any more. (World map with notes on various countries' attitudes) USA: Some millions of people, as this meeting convenes, are, actually or potentially, without a country…My Government's invitation to this meeting stated specifically that whatever action was recommended here should take place within the framework of the existing laws and practices of the participating Governments…The American Government has taken steps…so that now a total of 27,370 immigrants may enter the United States on the German quota in one year…'. Great Britain: 'The United Kingdom is not a country of immigration. It is highly industrialised, fully populated and is still faced with the problem of unemployment…Many overseas territories [of the British Empire] are already overcrowded, others are wholly or partly unsuitable for European settlement …No thickly populated country can be expected to accept persons who are deprived of their means of subsistence before they are able to enter…'. France: 'France has hitherto solved the problem on her own territory, at her own risk and expense…She has herself reached, if not already passed, the extreme point of saturation as regards admission of refugees…Like America, France considers the refugee problem to be an international political problem, which can only be finally solved by the joint and collective action of the Governments of the world…'. Belgium: 'We have already taken in many refugees and have reached our saturation point.' Netherlands: 'We can admfurther refugees if those presently in out go elsewhere.' Australia: 'We do not wish to encourage further immigration because we have no real racial problems, we are not desirous of importing one.' New Zealand: 'For economic reasons we can take in only a very small number of refugees.' Canada: 'Our economic crisis leaves us with almost no room for immigrants. We can take in farmers only.' (Canada imposed severe limits on immigration and admitted only immigrant who possessed $10,000 or more.) Chile: 'We have no need whatsoever for lawyers and doctors.' Brazil: 'The imminence of unemployment must always be borne in mind…80% of each quota has to be earmarked for agricultural immigrants…and that no member of these latter categories may change his occupation until four years after his arrival in the country…'. Venezuela: 'We are not interested in rocking our demographic equilibrium; we have no desire to take in Jewish merchants and intellectuals.' Dominican Republic: 'The Dominican Government, which for many years past has been encouraging and promoting the development of agriculture…would be prepared to make its contribution by granting especially advantageous concessions to Austrian and German exiles, agriculturists with an unimpeachable record who satisfy the conditions laid down by the Dominican legislation on immigration…'. Colombia: '…Can a state, acting in this way, flood other countries with the citizens of whom it wishes to get rid?… It would be useless for us today to find homes for the present political refugees and to hear the grievances…of those who have come to voice their complaints before this modern Wailing Wall…The worst thing is that the bad example of the Old World may be copied in other countries, and the world will then become uninhabitable…'. More 1 The Intergovernmental Committee. The only result of the Evian Conference was the creation of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees. Its tasks were twofold: to explore with the various governments possibilities of refugee resettlement; and to attempt to obtain Germany's co-operation in regulating the outflow of refugees. The chair of the committee, George Rublee, met several times with Hjalmar Schacht, the former German Minister of Economic Affairs, to work out an agreement that would allow emigrants to take more property with them when leaving Germany, thereby making it more likely for them to find destinations. These discussions ended when the war began. More 2 The Marking of Jewish Passports. A tide of Jewish refugees from Austria to Switzerland prompted the Swiss to require holders of Austrian and German passports to obtain entrance visas. The head of the Swiss Police, Dr. Heinrich Rothmund, suggested to the Germans to mark Jews' passports with the letter J, so that the Swiss border police could identify them upon arrival. On October 5, Jews were required to present their newly marked passports. Deportation of Jews with Polish Citizenship Screen 1 The forced-emigration policy was first put into effect by the SS in late 1937. The expulsion of various groups of Jews from the Reich peaked in October 1938. The Government of Poland issued a regulation that had the effect of revoking the passports of the Polish Jews who were living in Germany. This, in effect, made them stateless, and practically ruled out any possibility they might have had of emigrating. In response, the head of the German security police, Reinhard Heydrich, ordered his forces to arrest some 17,000 Jews and deport them to Poland. More Detention in Concentration Camps. In September 1937, Himmler ordered the release of Jews from detention if they could prove that they would emigrate. Starting at the end of that year, attempts were made to deport all Jews who held Soviet citizenship; in 1938, men in this category were sent to concentration camps and informed that they would not be released until their departure from Germany was assured. In June, 2,200 Jews who had been convicted of any offence at any time - even parking violations - were arrested and sent to concentration camps as ":asocial elements". Here, too, their release was conditioned on emigration. Screen 2 On October 28-29, 1938, some 17,000 Jews of Polish citizenship were arrested - some dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night and not allowed to take any belongings - and were delivered to the Polish border in sealed trains. Not all of them managed to cross the border; thousands remained for days in the no-man's-land near Zbaszyn. In discussions between the governments of Poland and Germany, it was agreed that the Jews would be re-admitted to Germany for four weeks to liquidate their property and prepare for final departure. More The Deportation to Zbaszyn. (The testimony could also be a part of screen 2) Everyone…was loaded onto the wagons…Crying women and children, heartrending scenes…Arriving at the border at 5 p.m., we were shoved across it…for three days we were on the platform and in the train station, 8,000 people. Women and children fainting, unconscious, incidents of death, faces yellow as wax…On the fourth day help finally came…from the Warsaw Jewish committee…'. The Kristallnacht ' Pogrom of November 1938 Screen 1 Anti-Jewish violence erupted again in the summer of 1938, coupled with demands to expel the Jews once and for all. An intent to induce the forced emigration of Jews took shape, but so did the realisation that the possibilities of emigration were steadily contracting. These factors combined to bring the situation to a boil. Screen 2 On November 7, 1938, Herschel Grynszpan, a young Jew of Polish origin whose family had been banished from Germany to Zbaszyn, shot the third secretary of the German embassy in Paris, Ernst vom Rath. When news of the assassination spread, anti-Jewish violence broke out in several locations in Germany. After Rath died on the evening of November 9, Goebbels delivered an acrid speech in which he called for an outlet for the "people's rage" against the Jews. In the wake of the party's mobilisation to attack the Jews, Heydrich issued orders to exploit the action for expropriation of the archives of the Jewish community and for arrests of Jewish men for internment in concentration camps. Screen 3 On the night of November 9-10, most synagogues across Germany were set on fire. More than 1,000 synagogues were destroyed; sacred implements and Torah scrolls were burned and vandalised. Fire-fighters stood aside until the flames threatened to engulf nearby houses. Members of the SA and Hitler Youth, joined by some of the population, destroyed and looted homes and shops and beat and abused their Jewish owners. The pogrom acquired the name Kristallnacht' because of the shattered shop windows that filled the streets with fragments of glass. Ninety-one Jews were murdered, scores of others committed suicide, and more than 26,000 were sent to concentration camps. Most were released over subsequent months under orders, backed by threats, to sell their property and leave the country; others perished in the camps. Screen 4 A map of Germany with 'hot spots' of testimony about Kristallnacht and, perhaps, some information on events in various towns (see Appendix). 1. From the memoirs of Alfons Heck. My neighbour Helmut and I were on our way home from school, walking past the synagogue when a group of men led by Paul Wolff, a local carpenter and fervent member of the SS, marched in front of us singing. Suddenly they broke into a run and stormed the entrance of the building. Seconds later, the intricate lead crystal window above the door crashed into the street, and pieces of furniture came flying through doors and windows… …The SA men were laughing at Frau Marks who stood in front of her smashed plate glass window, both hands raised in bewildered despair. Why are you people doing this to us?' she wailed at the circle of silent faces in the windows, her life-long neighbours. What have we ever done to you?' Alfons Heck, The Burden of Hitler's Legacy , (Frederick 1988) p. 61. 2. From the testimony of Mrs. Aaron Our apartment was raided during night…At first they rang repeatedly. We did not open. Then they hammered on the door, so that we eventually opened it. The SS men standing there immediately began beating my husband. They told me: Please go inside. We have an account to settle with this gentleman'. They took him outside…The noise woke up the janitor…He went outside and found my husband lying on the sidewalk, unconscious. He carried him inside and I called our doctor. She told me on the phone: please call a Jewish doctor. I will not come to you anymore'. From: Martina Kliner-Fruck, Es ging ja ums ueberleben, (Frankfurt and New York 1994) p. 88-9. 3. From the protocol of 10 November 1938 taken in the court of Buchen in the matter of the killing of Susanne Stern, a widow, aged 81: the testimony of Adolf Heinrich Frey, of the SA, who shot her: I knocked on the door…I demanded that Stern get dressed…She sat down on the …sofa. When I asked her whether she did not intend to follow my instructions and get dressed, she answered she would not get dressed or come with us. We can do whatever we want…. I am not leaving my house. I am an old lady'…. I took my service revolver out of my pocket…I called on the woman another 5 or 6 times to get up and dress. Stern loudly screamed into my face with scorn and insolence: I will not get up and I will not get dressed. You can do with me whatever you want.' At the moment she screamed do with me whatever you want', I released the safety of the pistol and shot her once…Stern collapsed on the sofa. She leaned back and grabbed her chest with her hands. I now shot her for the second time, this time aiming at her head.' Paul Sauer, Dokumente ueber die Verfolgung der juedischen Buerger in Baden-Wuerttemberg , Vol. 2 (Stuttgart 1966), p. 26-27. 4. From the testimony Hannele Zuerndorfer 'It must have been around 3 or 4 a.m. when I was awakened by the noise of breaking china and glass… A group of animals stormed into the room, their faces distorted with hatred…They ran around the room, destroying, shattering and crashing everything…A chair flew through the air and landed in the mirror, the splinters flying all over. I ducked and saw one of the monsters swinging his knife at a picture with a terrible roar …My attention was captivated by my father in his night-gown turning towards the picture, as if he wanted to protect it. Not this one. Not this one'. I heard him beg…I saw another Nazi throwing the big block of marble from the table…My father ducked instinctively, jumping on the bed, and watched wordlessly as the one with the knife swung it and slit the picture…'. Barbara Suchy Duesseldorf ñ Donnerstag den 10 November 1938, (Duesseldorf 1989) p. 115-116. 5. Letter of Margarete Drexler to the Gestapo Mannheim, 24 November 1938 To the Secret State Police Landau (Pfalz) The sum of 900 Marks in cash was confiscated from me in the course of the action of November 10. I herewith request to act for the return of my money, as I need it urgently for my livelihood and that of my child. I hope that my request will be granted, considering that my husband died as a result of his injuries during the war ¯ he fought and died for his fatherland with extreme courage ¯ and I am left without any income…. His medals and decorations prove that he fought with great courage and honour… I can only hope that as a widow of such a man, so honoured by his country, my request for the return of my property will not be in vain. With German greetings, (signed) Frau Margarete Drexler Widow of reserve staff surgeon Dr. Hermann Drexler' Yad Vashem Archive O.51/81 Visuals: DREXLER1 ¯ DREXLER7 7. Testimony of Twerski (Vienna) ñ video From Outcast 31:00 ¯ 32:50. They burst into our home - I was a child - it was at night. They woke me up by beating me. And throwing things around and burning. They had...in every home they went first at the entrance they used to take out their bayonets...They were SS and SA people… and tore out the "mezuza" out and throw it away. At me they threw a bayonet and the bayonet was stuck in the door. They broke everything and burned it. They took all the books in Hebrew and threw them down through the window into the yard, poured petrol on it and burned it. Before that, books they did not burn, they told me: you have to tear them. Of course I did not want to tear them. It is not easy, so I got beaten up very badly. In the end I saw there was no way out so I tried just to take the cover...not the book itself, just the cover. Of course they were even more angry. And then when they almost left, I ran down to the yard and tried to save every book I could that already started burning. I have one here that started to burn already that I managed to save. But what at least gave us the satisfaction that we managed to save the Sifrei Tora, the Tora scrolls...'. 8. Miriam Ron ñ Leipzig - video From Outcast 32:50 ¯ end of her testimony. We had no radio, we didn't know what's going on. And a little bit later came an employee of my father ¯ he was not Jewish and he said, 'go away, run away as quick as you can because I have seen in your street about 25 people that I know that are SA. They don't come in uniform, they came out dressed in civil.' So we ran out and tried to stop a taxi. He didn't want to take us. He said, 'I'm sorry, but my car is going to be completely spoiled.' Then we walked and walked and then in one street my mother saw a shop that she knew, and my mother said, 'let's go in the shop'. And I just pretend that I wanted to buy something but the owner of the shop said: 'don't, please go. My business is in danger if you stay here.' So we went out again. We tried to stop another taxi driver. And he said, 'come in, I will take you. I am not afraid. I will take you. And besides, I hate them, the Nazis. My family, they are all communists. And they are all in concentration camps. And if I can do something against them I will do it.' And he took us to the Polish Consulate, which was in a very nice quarter, but it was just opposite the High Court. The High Court of all Germany was in Leipzig. And all the time, when I ever passed this, my parents said to me: 'From here comes justice. And from this house justice comes from, they threw the garbage of the whole...' It was such an insult that I can't forget.' 9. Benjamin Sommer - video 38:30 'Then came Kristallnacht' .... No one thought ... we knew about the assassination.... We knew they would avenge it, that they would do something, but no one in his most awful dreams imagined anything like Kristallnacht' . It was terrible. Sudden. It transformed the situation from one moment to the next.' And then they felt the disaster coming… 'Downstairs, in our house, they broke all the shop windows…In the morning, everybody shut themselves in their houses. There was nothing else to be done… It was terrible. It was a sign something was going to happen… The next morning they broke in the door. They didn't even ring the bell. They caught my father. They simply threw him down the stairs. The non-Jewish neighbours heard screams and opened the door. Then they quickly shut it again…There was nothing to be done…They took my father to Dachau and we stayed alone… There were no news from him of course. And terrible anxiety…' 40:44 'There was a rumour that they would release prisoners under certain conditions. Mostly if the person to be released would turn over his business to an Aryan… Of course nothing was paid…They also had to sign that they would not tell anything…' 41:39 'Then, when they started to release people, we knew that those returning to Mannheim arrive at 5 o'clock in the morning at the railway station. So my mother and sister got up every night… I stood at the window at 5…6…7 and nothing happened.' 42:30 'And then, after several months, one day father returned. He seemed to be totally broken. He didn't tell us, the children, anything. He spoke to mother. We didn't know what he told her. The only thing was that as a child I saw that a few weeks later he went to gefalse teeth…They had broken his teeth…He had to turn over his business….' More Report of the American consul in Stuttgart, Nove15, 1938: '…In a figurative sense, my home had been bombarded by visitors and telephone calls giving evidence of the distressing circumstances in which many people are finding themselves. Hundreds are appealing for help and encouragement, and with husbands in concentration camps many are without funds…For more than five days the office has been inundated with people. Each day a larger and larger crowd has besieged the Consulate, filling all the rooms and overflowing into the corridor of a building six stories high. Today there were several thousand.' John Mendelsohn (ed.), The Holocaust, Vol. 5, (New-York 1982), p. 179-181. More The world's response The violence of Kristallnacht' stunned the world. The Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Switzerland, and France allowed some of Jewish refugees to enter without visas and passports; after they closed their frontiers again, they allowed the illegal immigrants to remain. The United States, backed by American public opinion, recalled its ambassador from Berlin in protest. On November 18, Roosevelt announced that the 12,000-15,000 refugees who had entered the U.S. on tourist visas would be allowed to remain. However, he vehemently resisted any change in the immigration and quota policies. Great Britain, responding to the pressure of public opinion, allowed 45,000 Jews, including 10,000 parent-less children, to enter during the year after Kristallnacht' pogrom. <B> In the Wake of Kristallnacht' Screen 1 The Kristallnacht' pogrom served the radical forces as a means for re-energising and toughening German anti-Jewish policy. The next day, November 10, Hitler gave orders to solve the Jewish problem systematically, by means of legislation. The riots were brought to a halt and Goering convened a meeting in his office to elaborate policy for the future. Representatives of the relevant government ministries, the security police, the governing authority in Austria Opening: Goering: 'Gentlemen! Today's meeting is of a decisive nature. I have received a letter written on the, and the insurance companies all took part in the meeting. (Round table with the participants: opening, discussion topic by topic, and summary) Fuehrer's orders… requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, co-ordinated and solved one way or another… Because, Gentlemen, I have enough of these demonstrations! They don't harm the Jew but me who is the last authority for co-ordinating the German economy. …We have not come together merely to talk again, but to make decisions…' The Insurance Problem: Goering: 'If today, a Jewish shop is destroyed, if goods are thrown into the street, the insurance company will pay for the damages, which the Jew does not even have… It's insane, to clean out and burn a Jewish warehouse then have a German insurance company make good the loss…I may as well burn the raw materials before they arrive…'. Mr. Hilgard [the representative of the insurance companies]: '…Because of the justified anger of the people against the Jew, the Reich has suffered a certain amount of damage… The people…who have a right to claim compensation are partly Jews, partly Aryans…The majority of victims, mostly the owners of the buildings are Aryans, the Jew has usually rented the store…' Goebbels: 'In these cases, the Jew will have to pay. Goering: It doesn't make sense. We have no raw materials…One could go nuts.' Hilgard: '… We have to make sure that confidence in the German insurance shall not be ruined.… It would be a black spot on the shield of honour of the German insurance.' Goering: 'It wouldn't be the minute I issue a decree, a law sanctioned by the state…The insurance may be granted, but as soon as it is to be paid, it'll be confiscated. That way we'll save face....I wish you had killed 200 Jews, and not destroyed such values.' Heydrich: 'there were 35 killed....' The Case of a Jewellery Store Hilgard: 'The most remarkable of these cases is the case of Margraf, Unter Den Linden… This damage was reported to us as amounting to 1,700,000 because the store was completely stripped.' Goering: 'Daluege and Heydrich, you'll have to get me this jewellery through raids, conducted on a tremendous scale.' Daluege: 'The order has already been given…. According to reports, 150 were arrested by yesterday afternoon...' Goering: 'And the jewels?' Heydrich: 'That is very difficult to say. They were partly thrown into the street and picked up there. Similar things happened with furriers, for example in Friedrichstrasse... There the crowd was naturally rushing to pick up minks, skunks etc. It'll be very hard to recover that...' Emigration Heydrich: 'In spite of the elimination of the Jew from the economic life the main problem, namely to kick the Jews out of Germany, remains. May I make a few proposals to that effect? We have set up a centre for the Emigration of Jews in Vienna, and that way we have driven out 50,000 Jews from Austria while only 19,000 Jews were eliminated from the Reich during the same period of time…' Goering: 'How was that possible?' Heydrich: '…We extracted a certain amount of money from the rich Jews who wanted to emigrate… They made it possible for a number of poor Jews to leave. The problem was not to make the rich Jews leave, but to get rid of the Jewish mob…This way, may I propose that we set up a similar procedure for the Reich with the co-operation of the competent government agencies…based on our experiences… (Goering: Agreed) As another means of getting the Jews out, measures for emigration ought to be taken in the rest of the Reich for the next 8 to 10 years. The highest number of Jews we can possibly get out during one year is 8 -10,000.' Marking the Jews and the Creation of Ghettos Heydrich: '…I'd like to make a few proposals regarding police measures which are important also because of their psychological effect on public opinion. For example, who is Jewish according to the Nuremberg laws, shall have to wear a certain insignia. That is a possibility, which shall facilitate many other things…' Goering: 'But, my dear Heydrich, you won't be able to avoid the creation of ghettos on a very large scale, in all the cities. They shall have to be created.' Heydrich: '…From the point of view of the police, I don't think… a ghetto in the form of completely segregated districts where only Jews would live, can be put up. We could not control a ghetto … It would remain the permanent hideout for criminals and also for epidemics and the like…' Goering: 'And in towns all of their own.' Heydrich: 'If I could put them into towns entirely their own, yes. But these towns would be such a haven for criminals of all sorts that they would be a terrific danger. I'd take different steps. I'd restrict the movement of the Jews …' Separation on Trains Goebbels: '…I advocate that the Jews be eliminated from all positions in public life in which they may prove to be provocative. It is still possible today that a Jew shares a compartment in a sleeping car with a German…' Goering: 'In that case, I think it would make more sense to give them separated compartments.' Goebbels: 'Suppose, though, there won't be many Jews going on the express train to Munich, suppose there would be two Jews in the train and the other compartments would be overcrowded. These two Jews would then have a compartment all to themselves…' Goering: '... Should a case like you mention arise and the train be overcrowded, believe me, we won't need a law. We'll kick him out and he'll have to sit all alone in the toilet all the way!' Goebbels: 'I don't agree. I don't believe in this. There ought to be a law.' Segregation in Holiday Resorts and Schools Goebbels: '…There ought to be a decree barring Jews from German beaches and resorts…' Goering: 'We could give them their own.' Goebbels: '…It'll also have to be considered if it might not become necessary to forbid the Jews to enter the German forests. It is a constant provocation and we are having incidents all ttime. The behaviour of the Jews is so inciting and provocative that brawls are a daily routine…' Goering: 'We shall give the Jews a certain part of the forest…' Goebbles: '… Jews should not be allowed to sit around in German parks...Furthermore, Jewish children are still allowed in German schools. That's impossible. It is out of the question that any boy should sit beside a Jewish boy in a German Gymnasium and receive lessons in German history. Jews ought to be eliminated completely from German schools; they may take care of their own education in their own communities.' Segregation in Shops and Hospitals Goering: '…If one Jew won't have any more work, he'll have to live modestly…The question is of course whether … the Jew shall have to buy from the Aryan.' Heydrich: 'No, I'd say that for the necessities in daily life, the German won't serve the Jew anymore.' Goering: 'One moment. You cannot let him starve…' Heydrich: 'We'll have to decide whether we want this or not… As some additional measures I'd propose to withdraw from the Jews all personal papers such as permits and drivers licenses...Furthermore…exclusion of the Jews from public theatres, movie houses etc…cultural activities in holiday resorts may be considered an additional feature…I don't see why the Jew should go to these places at all.' Goering: 'To health spas, no.' Heydrich: 'Well, then I'd like to propose the same thing for hospitals. A Jew shall not like in a hospital together with Aryan Volksgenossen…' Goering: 'Are there no Jewish sanatoriums and Jewish hospitals? (Remarks: Yes!)…These things will have to be straightened out one right after the other.' Heydrich: 'I only meant to secure your approval in principle so that we start out on all this.' The Closing of the Conference Goering: 'One more question, gentlemen. What would you think the situation would be if I'd announce today that Jewry shall have to contribute 1 billion as a punishment?' Buerckel: 'The Viennese would agree to this wholeheartedly.' Goering: '…The pigs won't commit another murder. Incidentally, I'd like to say again that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany.' Von Krosigk: '…The idea of the ghetto is not a very agreeable one. Therefore the goal must be as Heydrich said, to move out whatever one can!' Goering: '…If in the near future, the German Reich should come into conflict with foreign powers, it goes without saying that we in Germany should first of all let it come to a showdown with the Jews…I wish to summarise: The Minister of Economic Affairs shall … take all steps necessary within the next few days…also the Ministry of Interior and the Police will have to think over, what measures will have to be taken. I thank you.' (Conference closed at 2:40 p.m.) Yad Vashem Archive, N/11/465/E. Screen 2 The participants in Goering's conference decided that the Jews should be bear the cost of repairing the damage and that the Reich would expropriate the insurance proceeds that they were owed. Additionally, German Jewry was assessed a fine of 1 billion Reichsmarks. On November 12, 1938, a regulation was issued for the elimination of the Jews from the economic life of Germany'. It was to go into effect as of January 1, 1939. Subsequently, a long list of regulations and statutes was enacted, limiting the presence of Jews in every field of life. Jewish children were expelled from German schools; Jews were barred from cultural performances, cinemas, and recreation and sports facilities; their drivers' licenses were revoked; and their entrance to the government quarter in Berlin was categorically prohibited. Screen 3 On 24 January 1939, a new Zentralstelle fuer Juedische Auswanderung (Central Office for Jewish Emigration), under Heydrich, was charged with the task of using all available means to prompt Jews to emigrate. In July a Jewish organisation - the Reichsvereinigung - was established which incorporated all of German Jewry and co-ordinated emigration from the Jewish side. The goals and methods devised by the SS and SD thus became permanent policy. Control of Jewish affairs was concentrated in the hands of a single agency ¯ the security police. The system that administered anti-Jewish policy in Germany ¯ and which was to do so throughout Europe after the war began ¯ was now established. MORE A wave of street violence against the Jews followed Germany's entry into Bohemia and Moravia. The Jews were ordered to submit declarations listing their assets, and their property was Aryanized. In June 1939 Adolf Eichmann arrived in Prague and established a local office for Jewish emigration, along the lines of the Austrian and German model. 26,629 Jews out of the 118,310 Jews of the Protectorate emigrated by October 1941. Back to the top