Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

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Gorque
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Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#1

Post by Gorque » 14 Nov 2013, 00:56

Please forgive me if this question has already been answered; I wondering where I can find the full 1Höppner memorandum 16-7-41 forwarded to Eichmann.

In appendix B from the Wannsee House and the Holocaust there is reproduced a copy of it. Is this the full memorandum or an abbreviation of it?

little grey rabbit
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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#2

Post by little grey rabbit » 14 Nov 2013, 01:29

I can't answer as to Wannsee House and the Holocaust, but you can find a poor reproduction of it in its entirety here
http://old.justice.gov.il/mojheb/Eichman/t219.pdf


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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#3

Post by Gorque » 14 Nov 2013, 01:59

Thank you little grey rabbit .

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spottedcow
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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#4

Post by spottedcow » 15 Nov 2013, 00:34

Here's a scan:
Attachments
k.166.jpg

little grey rabbit
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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#5

Post by little grey rabbit » 15 Nov 2013, 00:55

Do you have the attachment also?
And are either of them signed? They appeared not to be in the Israeli justice version, but the quality was so bad it was difficult to tell. The one you show seems to have been cut off where you would expect the signature to be.

My understanding is that Eichmannw wasn't promoted to Obersturmbannfuehrer until November 1941, but I can never remember those ridiculous SS ranks, so I am not surprised if they couldn't either.

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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#6

Post by spottedcow » 15 Nov 2013, 06:24

I believe the first scan (above) is an original office copy. It is not signed. The Aktenvermerk appears to be a typed copy (i.e., not an original). Also not signed. All scans originate from the materials of the Greiser Trial proceedings held at IPN Warsaw. I do not recall there being a mention that these were "reproductions." I would assume these were found after the war in Poznan. As far as know the copies sent to Berlin have not been found but I could be wrong.

Patrick
Attachments
k.161.jpg
k.161v.jpg

little grey rabbit
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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#7

Post by little grey rabbit » 15 Nov 2013, 06:45

I do not recall there being a mention that these were "reproductions."
Easy tiger. A reproduction simply refers to any image of a physical object. There are good quality and bad quality reproductions. Yours are good quality reproduction, the Israeli justice was a poor quality reproduction. And don't get me started on reprographic patinas!

If it was a typed copy it would have Abscrift across the top. You will note both have SS-Sturmbannfuehrer at the bottoms sans signature or even name.
The letter could have had a signature and a name that has been chopped off - it appears to have only one hole punch, rather than two centered, which would suggest it was originally of A4 size.

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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#8

Post by Boby » 15 Nov 2013, 11:57

Original reference:
AIPN, GK 196/36 (NTN 36), Bl. 166-167R (see Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933-1945, Bd. 4: Polen September 1939 - Juli 1941 (Oldenbourg, 2011), S. 680, Anm. 3)

It is a Durchschlag (i.e, a carbon copy).

Boby,

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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#9

Post by little grey rabbit » 16 Nov 2013, 00:00

It is a Durchschlag (i.e, a carbon copy).
You are right. I had become distracted by the underlining etc on the letter. Do you know what the stamp says?

Here is what Eichmman had to say regarding it
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eic ... 78-01.html
Dr. Servatius:

The next document is exhibit T/219, document No. 1410. This is a communication from the Wartheland District, sent by a Sturmbannfuehrer - whose name, according to the reference, must be Hoeppner - to Eichmann. The stamped date of dispatch is not clear. There is a stamp at the top of the communication, 16 July 1941, and another communication, dated the same day, 16 July 1941, Posen, is attached. It is difficult to understand how a communication dated 16 July 1941, can already have an incoming stamp for the same day in Berlin [As Boby points out, it probably didn't make it to Berlin].

This incoming stamp is not entirely legible, but next to it are the initials "UWZ" - Umwandererzentrale (migration centre). In the bottom left-hand corner, it says "Zu den Akten" (for filing). That is how I read this note. In other words, no action was taken. The contents of the communication are particularly significant. I would first refer you to paragraph 1. This states that, as far as the Final Solution of the Jewish Question is concerned, in discussions in the Reichsstatthalterei (Reich Commissioner's Office) - probably meaning Bohemia and Moravia - various references were made to solving the Jewish Question in the Warthe District of the Reich - therefore it was not Bohemia and Moravia, but the Warthe District. Then a proposal is made as to how to solve the problem.

I now turn to paragraphs 4 and 5, five, which are of interest here.

Paragraph 4: "There is a danger this winter that it will not be possible to feed all the Jews. It should be seriously considered whether the most humane solution would not be to do away with the Jews, unless they are capable of working, by means of some quick method. In any case, this would be more convenient than letting them starve to death." The proposal is also made that, in this camp, all the Jewesses who might bear children should be sterilized, in order to provide a total solution to the Jewish Question in this generation.

Witness, did you receive this communication? What steps were taken as a result?

Accused: Had I received the communication and actually held it in my hands, I am quite sure that, despite the twenty years which have intervened, I would have remembered it, because of its drastic contents. I can, therefore, state quite truthfully that I did not receive this communication. I should like, in addition to the explanations given so far, to try and ascertain whether this communication was dispatched at all. In the covering letter it says, "I would welcome your reaction." On the left it says, "z.d.A." - zu den Akten (for filing).

In such cases, normal bureaucratic practice was not to file the correspondence away, but to keep it available for renewed submission. In addition, this communication, if I had received it, would have been the first indication to me of the physical extermination of the Jews, whereas I can remember very clearly that the first reference to this I had heard, came from the Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service, Heydrich, and was made considerably later in time. Thirdly, and in conclusion, I may observe that, if this were the original of the document or the file minute, then it would be signed; if it were the duplicate, it would be initialled - and neither is true here, neither the first nor the last page is signed. That is all I wish to say.
Should we expect such a document to have been initialed by Hoeppner, if he had been following bureaucratic practice?

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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#10

Post by spottedcow » 16 Nov 2013, 07:17

Do you know what the stamp says?
Easy tiger. I can't make it out. Maybe someone else can.
Attachments
hm.jpg

Boby
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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#11

Post by Boby » 16 Nov 2013, 11:28

Perhaps it is Ausgegangen?

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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#12

Post by little grey rabbit » 18 Nov 2013, 06:24

Boby, I know people who get very excited when they see a document without the SS runic typewriter key.

How common was it, in your opinion, for documents from the RSHA to appear with or without SS runic typescript?

I imagine it was very tiresome lugging those big heavy machines around and they may well be conspicuous by their absence.

Although these guys had one
[img]ho.org/GB/Books/dth/Image25.jpg[/img]
Or possibly they had special machines to type holocaust related letters as an alibi, so as to be able to say they were forgeries (just kidding).


If anyone has a pressing need for one, there is one here
http://www.hammarlund.ru/IMOGENHASSAL/SILENTA.htm

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Re: Rolf-Heinz Höppner memorandum

#13

Post by little grey rabbit » 18 Nov 2013, 06:40

Hoeppner should have borrowed the typewriter in his office that this guy was using
old.justice.gov.il/mojheb/Eichman/t364.pdf

Of course, maybe the SS key had got gummed up in the year following.

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