Heydrich's instructions to Einsatzgruppen in Poland 1939

[David Thompson]

Document 3363-PS, Concerning the Jewish Question in German Occupied Territory, Secrecy For the 'Entire Planned Measures,' and "First Preliminary Measure for the Final Aim', in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. VI, US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1946, pp. 97-101.

Translation of Document 3363-PS

Copy.
The Chief of the Security Police
P1 (II)--288/39 Secret.
Berlin, 21 September 1939.

Express letter.
To: The chiefs of all Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police.
Subject: Jewish question in the occupied territory [Judenfrage im besetzten Gebiet]

With reference to today's conference in Berlin, I am once more stressing that the entire planned measures (hence the final aim) [die geplanten Gesamtmassnahmen (also das Endziel)] are to be kept strictly secret.

It has to be distinguished between:

(1) the final aim (which will take some time) and

(2) the sections of fulfillment of this final aim (which will be achieved in short terms).

The planned measures demand most thorough preparation in technical as well as in economic respect.

It is self-evident that the imminent tasks cannot be outlined in all detail from this office. The following instructions and terms of reference are at the same time serving the purpose of keeping the chiefs of the operational groups to practical considerations.

I: The first preliminary measure for the final aim is the concentration of the Jews from the country into the larger towns. This has to be carried out with acceleration. It has to be distinguished:

(1) between the area of Danzig and West-Prussia, Poznan, Eastern Upper Silesia, and

(2) the remaining occupied territories.

As far as possible, the area as mentioned under number (1) has to be cleared [freigemacht] of Jews, at least the aim has to be to establish only a few concentration towns [Konzentrierungs staedte] .

In the areas as mentioned under number (2), as few concentration points [Konzentrierungspunkte] as possible are to be established [festzulegen] so that the measures to be taken later will be carried out in an easier manner [erleichtert werden]. It has to be observed that only such towns will be established as concentration points, which either are railway centers or at least are situated at railway lines.

In principle, Jewish communities of less than 500 heads are to be dissolved, and to be transferred to the nearest concentration town.

This decree does not apply to the area of Einsatzgruppe I which is situated east of Cracow, roughly circumscribed by Polanico, Jaroslaw, the new line of demarcation, and the former Slovak-Polish border. Within this area, only an approximate census of the Jews has to be carried out. Furthermore, the Jewish Councils of Elders are to be established, as mentioned immediately below.

II. Councils of Jewish Elders:

(1) In each Jewish community, a Council of Jewish Elders is to be set up which, as far as possible, is to be composed of the remaining influential personalities and rabbis. The council is to be composed of up to 24 male Jews (depending on the size of the Jewish community).

The council is to be made, in the true sense of the word, fully responsible for the exact and punctual [termingemaesse] execution of all directives which have been or which will be issued.

(2) In case of sabotage of such instructions, the councils are to be warned of severest measures.

(3) The Jewish Councils are to take an improvised census of the Jews of their area, possibly divided as to sex (age groups):

(a) up to 16 years of age,

(b) from 16 to 20 years of age, (

c) those above [20 years,] and also according to the principal vocations, and they are to report the results in the shortest possible time.

(4) The Councils of Elders are to be made acquainted with the time and date of the evacuation [Abzug], the evacuation possibilities and finally the evacuation routes. They are, then, to be made personally responsible for the evacuation of the Jews from the country.

The reason to be given for the concentration of the Jews to the cities is that Jews have most decisively participated in sniper attacks and plundering.

(5) The Councils of Elders of the concentration centers are to be made responsible for the proper housing of the Jews to be brought in from the country. The concentration of Jews in the cities for general reasons of security will probably bring about orders to forbid Jews to enter certain wards of that city altogether, and that in consideration of economic necessity they cannot, for instance, leave the ghetto, they cannot go out after a designated evening hour, etc.

(6) The Council of Elders is also to be made responsible for the adequate feeding of the Jews on the transport to the cities.

No scruples are to be voiced, if the migrating Jews take with them all their movable possessions, as far as that is technically at all possible.

(7) Jews who do not comply with the order to move into cities are to be given a short additional period of grace when there is a good reason. They are to be warned of strictest penalty if they should not comply by the appointed time.

III. All necessary measures, on principle, are always to be taken up in closest agreement and collaboration with the German civil administration and the competent local authorities: In the execution of this plan, care must be taken that economic security suffer no harm in the occupied zones.

(1) The needs of the army should particularly be kept in mind, for example, it will not be possible to avoid leaving behind here and there some Jews engaged in trade who absolutely must be left behind for the maintenance of the troops, for lack of any other way out.

In such cases, the immediate Aryanization of these enterprises is to be planned for and the emigration of the Jews is to be completed later, in agreement with the competent local German administrative authorities.

(2) For the preservation of German economic interests in the occupied territories, it is self-understood that Jewish war and ordinary industries and factories, and those important to the Four Year Plan, must be kept going for the time being.

In these cases also, immediate Aryanization must be planned for and the emigration of the Jews must be completed later.

(3) Finally, the food situation in the occupied territories must be taken into consideration. For instance, as far as possible, real estate of Jewish settlers should be provisionally entrusted to the care of neighboring German or even Polish peasants to be worked by them in order to insure harvesting of the crops still in the fields, or cultivation.

In regard to this important question contact should be made with the agricultural experts of the C.d.Z. [Chief of the Civil Administration].

(4) In all cases in which a conformity of interests of the Security Police on the one hand, and the German civil administration on the other hand, can be reached, I am to be informed of the individual measures in question as quickly as possible before their execution, and my decision is to be awaited.

IV: The chiefs of the Einsatzgruppen are to report to me continuously on the following matters:

(1) Numerical survey on the Jews present in their territories (if possible according to the above-mentioned classification).

The number of Jews who are evacuated from the country and those who are already in towns are to be listed separately.

(2) Names of towns which have been designated as concentration points.

(3) The time set for the Jews to be evacuated to the towns.

(4) Survey of all Jewish war and ordinary industries and factories or those important to the Four Year Plan in their territory.

If possible, the following should be specified:

(a) Kind of factory (also statement on possible reconversion of factory to really vital or war-important factories or those important to the Four Year Plan);

(b) Which factories should be most urgently Aryanized (in order to avoid loss); what kind of Aryanization is suggested? Germans or Poles, (the decision depends on the importance of the factory);

(c) Number of Jews working in these factories (include leading positions).

Will it be possible to keep the factory going after the Jews have been removed or will German or Polish workers respectively have to be assigned for that purpose? To what extent?

If Polish workers have to be used, care should be taken that they are mainly taken from the former German provinces in order to somewhat ease the problem there. These questions can only be solved by incorporation and participation of the labor offices which have been set up.

V: For the fulfillment of the goal set, I expect the full cooperation of all forces of the Security Police and the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst).

The chiefs of the neighboring Einsatzgruppen shall immediately establish contact with each other in order to be able to cover completely the territories in question.

VI: The High Command of the Army; the Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, (Attention : State Secretary Neumann); the Reich Ministry of the Interior (Attention: State Secretary Stuckart); for Food, and for Economics (Attention: State Secretary Landfried); as well as the chief of the Civil Administration of the occupied territories have received copies of this decree.

Signed: Heydrich.
Certified,
Signed: Schmidt, Office Clerk.
Certified true copy,
Signed signature, Major (GSC).

[Agadanik]

David, I recall reading somewhere that there was an instruction to E-Gruppen to incite local population to anti-Jewish pogroms. I have no other details and don't remember whether the author was Himmler or Heydrich, but believe it was either of the two.

Can you help?

rgds, -Agadanik

[David Thompson]

Agadanik -- You asked:

I recall reading somewhere that there was an instruction to E-Gruppen to incite local population to anti-Jewish pogroms. I have no other details and don't remember whether the author was Himmler or Heydrich, but believe it was either of the two.

Can you help?

Sure. These instructions were given during the Russian campaign in 1941. This list isn't comprehensive, but there are references to such instructions in these reports:

Comprehensive Report of Combat Group A up to 10/15/1941
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=60197
Draft Report on Einsatzgruppe A operations through Dec 1941
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 236#548236
Operational Situation Reports USSR
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 346#564346 (#1)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 962#450962 (#22 and #36)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 989#450989 (#40)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 081#451081 (#47)

[Agadanik]

Thanks, David. Great. Just what I was looking for.

[michael mills]

This decree does not apply to the area of Einsatzgruppe I which is situated east of Cracow, roughly circumscribed by Polanico, Jaroslaw, the new line of demarcation, and the former Slovak-Polish border. Within this area, only an approximate census of the Jews has to be carried out. Furthermore, the Jewish Councils of Elders are to be established, as mentioned immediately below.

The above paragraph of Heydrich's decree is historically the most important.

Why did the decree not apply to the area east of Krakow?

The most likely answer is that it was planned to concentrate all of the Jews of the German-occupied part of Poland in that area.

As at the date of the decree, 21 September 1939, the original partition of Poland between German and the Soviet Union, as laid down in the secret appendix to the Non-Agression Pact of 23 August. Under that partition agreement, the eastern boundary of the German Zone of Occupation ran along the Vistula and San, ie the Lublin District was in the Soviet Zone.

In the Borders and Friendship Treaty of 28 September, the line of demarcation was moved to the east, with Germany getting the Lublin District in exchange for surrendering Lithuania to the Soviet Union.

Once that change was made, the Lublin District was selected as the area where the Jews of German-occupied Poland and also of the Greater Reich (Germany, Austria, Bohemia-Moravia), a total of just under two million persons, were to be concentrated.

The arrangements laid down in Heydrich's decree were for the concentration of Jews in larger towns near railways so as to facilitate their subsequent movement into the resettlement area east of Krakow.

The concentration of Jews near larger towns was stated by Heydrich to be the first preliminary measure for the final aim. It is not clear whether the "final aim", as at the date of the decree, was the resettlement of the Jews in thearea East of Krakow, or whether that was a further preliminary measure.

[David Thompson]

Michael -- You remarked:

It is not clear whether the "final aim", as at the date of the decree, was the resettlement of the Jews in thearea East of Krakow, or whether that was a further preliminary measure.

Heydrich is distinctly evasive about the "final aim," though his (translated) metaphor "final aim" is interesting by itself:

With reference to today's conference in Berlin, I am once more stressing that the entire planned measures (hence the final aim) [die geplanten Gesamtmassnahmen (also das Endziel)] are to be kept strictly secret.

It has to be distinguished between:

(1) the final aim (which will take some time) and

(2) the sections of fulfillment of this final aim (which will be achieved in short terms).

The planned measures demand most thorough preparation in technical as well as in economic respect.

It is self-evident that the imminent tasks cannot be outlined in all detail from this office. The following instructions and terms of reference are at the same time serving the purpose of keeping the chiefs of the operational groups to practical considerations.