Heinrich Himmler : A Life (146 page)

131
. On the press reporting see Peter Longerich,
‘Davon haben wir nichts gewusst!’ Die Deutschen und die Judenverfolgung 1933–1945
(Munich, 2006), 112 ff.

132
. Wagner,
Volksgemeinschaft
, 292 ff.

133
. According to official figures, the number of murders and cases of manslaughter declined by 46.2 per cent between 1932 and 1938, the number of cases of grievous bodily harm by 58.3 per cent, of serious cases of theft by 58.7 per cent, of blackmail by 39.6 per cent, of arson by 45.2 per cent, and of counterfeiting currency by 88.2 per cent (
Deutsche Justiz
, 101 [1939], 1476). For an interpretation of the statistics see Wagner,
Volksgemeinschaft
, 214 ff. and 297 f.

134
. Michael Zimmermann,
Rassenutopie und Genozid. Die nationalsozialistische‘Lösung der Zigeunerfrage’
(Hamburg, 1996), 114 ff.

135
. Ibid. 81 ff.; see also Guenter Lewy,
The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies
(Oxford and New York, 2000), 15 ff.

136
. Zimmermann,
Rassenutopie
, 86 ff.

137
. Ibid. 106 ff.

138
. Ibid. 125 ff.; see also Lewy,
Nazi Persecution
, 43 ff.

139
. IfZ, Dc 17.02, circular edict of the RFSS, 8 December 1938; instructions on implementation from the Reich Criminal Police Office of 1 March 1939.

140
. Ibid. 5 June 1939; Zimmermann,
Rassenutopie
, 101 ff.

141
. BAB, NS 19/4004, 16 January 1937. For Himmler’s attitude towards homosexuality see Burkhard Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle unter dem Hakenkreuz. Die Verfolgung von Homosexuellen im Dritten Reich
(Paderborn, 1990). Apart from this important study see also: Geoffrey Giles, ‘The Institutionalization of Homosexual Panic in the Third Reich’, in Robert Gellately and Nathan Stoltzfus (eds),
Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany
(Princeton, etc., 2001), 233–55; Günter Grau (ed.),
Homosexualität in der NS-Zeit. Dokumente einer Diskriminierung und Verfolgung
, 2nd rev. edn. (Frankfurt a. M., 2004); Richard Plant,
Rosa Winkel. Der Krieg der Nazis gegen die Homosexuellen
(Frankfurt a. M., etc., 1991); Peter von Rönn, ‘Politische und psychiatrische Homosexualitätskonstruktion im NS-Staat’,
Part I
: ‘Die politische Genese des Homosexuellen als Staatsfeind’,
Part II
: ‘Die soziale Genese der Homosexualität als defizitäre Heterosexualität’, both in
Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung
, 11 (1998), 99–129 and 220–60; Hans-Georg Stümke,
Homosexuelle in Deutschland. Eine politische Geschichte
(Munich, 1989).

142
. Report of the president of the Higher State Court (Oberlandesgerichtspräsident) in Frankfurt, 2 September 1937, who repeats information from the Frankfurt police chief of 26 April 1937 (BAB, R 3001/1460); StA Marburg, LRA Eschwege Nr. 1718, Kassel criminal police department, guidelines for combating homosexuality and abortion of 11 May 1937, refers to the same comment. See Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle
, 122.

143
. BADH, ZM 1668, Akte 13.

144
. ‘As a German, as a National Socialist, I wish to make the following point quite soberly: People dispute about how many homosexuals there are and how many abortions take place: I don’t want to give any figures here’ (
Grundfragen der deutschen Polizei
, 14).

145
. BAB, NS 19/4004; excerpts also in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 93 ff.

146
. BADH, ZM 1668, Akte 13.

147
. BAB, NS 19/4005, speech by the RFSS at a meeting of the NSDAP’s Foreign organization in Stuttgart, 2 September 1938.

148
. BAB, NS 19/4004; excerpts also in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 93 ff.

149
. BADH, ZM 1668, Akte 13.

150
. BAB, NS 19/4005, speech by the RFSS at a meeting of the NSDAP’s Foreign organization in Stuttgart, 2 September 1938.

151
. BADH, ZM 1668, Akte 13. The figure of 400,000 is based on ten annual cohorts each with 40,000 capable of being recruited.

152
. BAB, NS 19/4004; excerpts also in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, pp. 93 ff.

153
.
Statistisches Jahrbuch 1937
, Secret (page stuck in) Reasons for the Exclusions and Expulsions mentions 23 exclusions and 29 expulsions on the basis of paragraph 175.

154
. See below pp. 368 ff.

155
. Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle
, 95 ff.

156
. Ibid. 110 ff.

157
. Edict of 10 October 1936, published in Grau (ed.),
Homosexualität
, doc. no. 27.

158
. Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle
, 122 ff.; Wagner,
Volksgemeinschaft
, 249 ff.

159
. IfZ, Annual report of Office V of the RSHA, 1940, 61; Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle
, 129 ff.

160
. On the statistics see Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle
, 122.

161
. ‘Das sind Staatsfeinde’,
Das Schwarze Korps
, 4 March 1937. See also: ‘Homosexualität und Kunst’ (11 March 1937), ‘Ächtung der Entarteten’ (1 April 1937), and ‘Was sage ich meinem Kinde?’ (15 April 1937), in which Himmler’s demand for a positive attitude towards the question of sexual relations between young people was addressed.

162
. StA Marburg, LRA Eschwege Nr. 1718, Kassel criminal police, guidelines for combating homosexuality and abortion, 11 May 1937.

163
. BAB, R 22/865, Statement by Himmler of 2 March 1937; see also Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle
, 116.

164
. Edict of 29 October 1937, in IfZ, Dc 17.02, collection of edicts concerning the preventive combating of criminality.

165
. Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle
, 156. Himmler took the view that this principle should never affect the position if one offered a preventive prisoner the possibility of release in the event of his agreement; since preventive detention did not carry a fixed term this ‘offer’ implied a threat of possible life imprisonment.

166
. IfZ, Annual report of Office V of the RSHA, 1940, decree of 12 July 1940.

167
. BAB, NS 19/4007, 29 February 1940, published in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 115 ff., quotation 120 f.

168
. BAB, R 58/261.

169
. BAB, NS 19/2376, Edict of 7 March 1942; Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle
, 30.

170
. Jellonnek,
Homosexuelle
, 34 ff.; NS 19/1916, statistics of the SS Court Main Office for the first quarter of 1943 contain 22 sentences, none of which is a death sentence. Geoffrey Giles, ‘The Denial of Homosexuality: Same-Sex Incidents in Himmler’s SS and Police’,
Journal of the History of Sexuality
(2002), 256–90, examined four cases contained in the SS and police judicial records in which sentences were imposed for such offences. Himmler confirmed two of the sentences (one of them a death sentence) and in the other two cases ordered ‘front-line duty’ instead of the sentences of imprisonment that had been imposed.

171
.
Das Schwarze Korps
, 25 May 1939.

172
. BAB, NS 19/688, correspondence about orders in 1937 and 1940. Himmler’s response to Rahn can be adduced above all from Brandt’s letter to Naumann (Propaganda Ministry) dated 2 November 1943 as well as from Brandt’s letter of 9 May 1944. On Rahn’s activities and his role in the SS see Hans-Jürgen Lange,
Otto Rahn. Leben und Werk
(Engerda, 1995), and id.,
Otto Rahn und die Suche nach dem Gral. Biografie und Quellen
(Engerda, 1999). Lange,
Leben und Werk
, 54 ff. documents the correspondence between Himmler and Rahn for the years 1936–9, which can be found among other things in Rahn’s SS-OAkte in the BDC.

173
. Referred to in the letter from the head of OKW, Amtsgruppe Inland, 16 March 1944 (BAB, NS 19/688).

174
. BAB, R 43 II/391, Himmler’s decrees of 26 June 1936 concerning the distribution of responsibilities within the sphere of the German police and concerning the appointment of a chief of the order police and a chief of the security police; see also Wilhelm,
Polizei
, 83 f.

175
. Wilhelm,
Polizei
, 84 f.

176
. Circular edict of the RFSS, 15 August 1936, Provisional Regulations Concerning the Replacement of Constables in the Schutzpolizei, in
RMBliV
1936, col. 1180c.

177
. The facts concerning personnel numbers and the duties of the order police have been gleaned from two addresses given by Daluege, one to SS leaders on 23 January 1939 and the other at a conference of Prussian district and provincial governors (Regierungs- and Oberpräsidenten) on 23 June 1939 (BAB, R 19/381). On the history of the order police see also Martin Hölzl, ‘Grüner Rock und Weiße Weste. Adolf von Bomhard und die Legende von der sauberen Ordnungspolizei’,
Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft
, 50 (2002), 22–43; Heiner Lichtenstein,
Himmlers grüne Helfer. Die Schutz- und Ordnungspolizei im ‘Dritten Reich’
(Cologne, 1990); Hans-Joachim Neufeld, Jürgen
Huck, and Georg Tessin,
Zur Geschichte der Ordnungspolizei 1936–1945
(Koblenz, 1957).

178
. Wilhelm,
Polizei
, 113 ff.

179
. Ibid. 110 ff.; on the strength of the fire brigades see Daluege’s statements of 23 January 1939 (BAB, NS 19/381).

180
. Orth,
System
, 35 ff.; Tuchel,
Konzentrationslager
, 326 ff.

181
. Hermann Kaienburg,
Der Militär- und Wirtschaftskomplex der SS im KZ-Standort Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg. Schnittpunkt von KZ-System, Waffen-SS und Judenmord
(Berlin, 2006), 19.

182
. Himmler to the Justice Minister, 8 February 1937, quoted in Falk Pingel,
Häftlinge unter SS-Herrschaft. Widerstand, Selbstbehauptung und Vernichtung im Konzentrationslager
(Hamburg, 1978), 63. On KZ Sachsenhausen see Hermann Kaienburg, ‘Sachsenhausen-Stammlager’, in Wolfgang Benz und Barbara Distel (eds),
Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager
, vol. 3:
Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald
(Munich, 2006), 17–72; Gerhard Finn,
Sachsenhausen 1936–1950: Geschichte eines Lagers
(Berlin, 1988); Kaienburg,
Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg
; Günter Morsch (ed.),
Mord und Massenmord im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen 1936–1945
(Berlin, 2005).

183
. On the history of the camp see Harry Stein, ‘Buchenwald–Stammlager’, in Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel (eds),
Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager
, vol. 3:
Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald
(Munich, 2006), 301–56; id.,
Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937–1945. Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung
, published by the Gedenkstätte Buchenwald (Göttingen, 1999); Jens Schley,
Nachbar Buchenwald. Die Stadt Weimar und ihr Konzentrationslager 1937–1945
(Cologne, etc., 1999). Himmler’s visit on 22 May 1937 is clear from his office diary (Michael Wildt, ‘Himmlers Terminkalender aus dem Jahr 1937’,
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 52 (2004), 671–91, here 686).

184
. Zámečník, ‘Dachau-Stammlager’, 245 ff.

185
. Jörg Skriebeleit, ‘Flossenbürg-Stammlager’, in Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel (eds),
Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager
, vol. 4:
Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück
(Munich, 2006), 17–66.

186
. On the history of the camp see Florian Freund and Bertrand Perz, ‘Mauthausen-Stammlager’, in Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel (eds),
Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager
, vol. 4:
Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück
(Munich, 2006), 293–346; Hans Maršálek,
Die Geschichte des Konzentrationslagers Mauthausen. Dokumentation
, 3rd edn. (Vienna, 1995).