While at first only boycott, disenfranchising, pushing Jews out of their careers and finally driving them out of the country were attempted, later the most various plans for forcible emigration and settling in special Jewish reservations were considered. So, for example, at the beginning of World War II, the relocation of European Jews to the island Madagascar was considered. As the execution of such plans did not represent the ultimate solution in the sense of national socialist ideology, Hitler and his closest circle, to which Himmler, Heydrich, Goebbels and Goering belonged in particular, eventually hit on the radical solution, the so called “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, that is the physical annihilation fo Jews. The seeds of this radical solution are already indicated in an explanation of Goering of 12 November 1938 to the Flight Ministry, according to which, in the event of a war, an immense reckoning with the Jews would take place. JMT vol 18 p 538 f, Krausnick p 338
Hitler himself explained on 21 January 1939 to the Czechoslovakian Foreign
Minister Chvalkovsky, according to an official German transcript:
“ We are going to annihilate the Jews. The Jews did not do 9
November 1918 in vain, this day will be avenged”. Krausnick p 340
This same thought Hitler dressed up as a prophesy in his Reichstag speech
of 30 January 1939, in which he stated, among other things:
“ I want to be a prophet today:
If the international finance Judaism inside and outside Europe should succeed in tumbling the peoples into another world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thereby the victory of Judaism, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”. JMT vol 31 p 65, Doc Ps. 2663, Krausnick p 340
Heydrich as chief of the Security Police (Sipo) and the Security Service (SD) was already charged by the edict of 24 January 1939 with the task of solving the Jewish Question either by emigration or forced resettlement in the form most appropriate for the circumstances prevailing. JMT vol 26 p 266 f, Doc. Ps. 710
On 21 September 1939, Heydrich directed an express letter on the Jewish Question to the chiefs of the Einsatzgruppen for Poland, then already in existence, in which, in reference to a conference in Berlin that same day, he indicated that the planned measures (that is the Final Solution) must be kept strictly secret, that one must distinguish between the long-term ultimate goal and the short-term measures being carried out to attain it. JMT vol 26, DOC Ps 3363
Presumably in fall 1940 the national socialist leadership, on grounds of the successes of the war to date, dropped the plan to “solve the Jewish Question” by emigration. Therefore, emigration was prohitted.
The planned invasion of the Soviet Union offered the national socialists in power the possibility of deciding on and introducing the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” in the form of physical annihilation of Jews as “potential opponents”.
Just when Hitler irrevocably decided on the physical annihilation of Jews can no longer be determined. During the planning of the Eastern campaign (Operation Barbarossa), Hitler and his inner circle had probably already decided to annihilate Eastern Jews, whom he had always considered particularly dangerous. At the latest in March 1941, when he let his intention of shooting the political Commissars of the Red Army be known, he probably also gave the secret order for the Final Solution, that is, the physical annihilation of Jews, an order that was probably never written down. The term “Final Solution” first occurs in a letter by Goering of 31 July 1941 to the chief of the Sipo and SD at the time, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Heydrich. Krausnick p 361, 372, IMT vol 11 p 440 f, 458 ff, (Testimony of Hoess) & vol 4 p 396 ff (Testimony of Wisliceny), Krausnick p 372, Doc vol V p 427, JMT vol 26 p 266 f, Odc. Ps. 710
In the framework of military preparations for the Eastern Campaign, Reichsfuehrer SD received in March 1941 from the High Command of the Wehrmacht [OKW] extraordinary powers in the “Guidelines for Special Areas in Advisory 21”, which amounted to the killing of Jews without regard to age or sex in the occupied Eastern territories. JMT vol 26 p 53 ff & vol 4 p 416 ff (Testimony of Schellenberg)
In these guidelines of the OKW of 13 March 1941, it says on the subject:
“I. …..
2b) In the operating theater of the army, the Reichsfuehrer SS receives
special tasks from the Fueher for the preparation of the political administration,
which result from the fight to the finish of two opposing political systems.
In the framework of these tasks, the Reichsfuehrer SS works independently
and on his own authority….
Further details are decided by the OKH and the Reichsfuehrer SS directly…”
Krausnick p 199
Himmler regarded the execution of this strictly secret order “his historical obligation” and called it, in a speech addressing SS-Gruppenfuehrer in October 1943 “an unwritten and never to be described page of fame” in the history of the SS he led. JMT vol29 p 145 f, Doc. Ps. -1119
The organizational preparation for the planned annihilation of the Jews in the to be occupied Soviet territories Himmler turned over to Heydrich, the chief of the Sipo and SD, who also negotiated the 26 March 1941 agreement with the High Command of the army regarding the creation and action of the Einsatzgruppen, and agreement that the High Command of the army accepted unchanged on 28 April 1941 as an order. Krausnick p 202 f, JMT vol 4 416 ff
It was agreed, taking into consideration the fundamental orders of the Fuehrer of 13 March 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), that to assure the safety of the fighting troops in the coming campaign against Russia, and to support the army, special groups of the Security Police and the SD would be deployed. In the region of each Army group, there would be an Einsatzgruppe.
The range of tasks assigned to the Einsatzgruppen, Einsatzkommandos
and Sonderkommandos [special squads] is indicated in a secret order of
28 April 1941 signed by the High Command of the army, in which the assignment
of the Sonderkommandos is expressed as “in the framework of their tasks,
to act against the civilian population executively on their own responsibility”.
Krausnick p 204 f.
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