Heinrich Himmler : A Life (175 page)

38
. BAB, NS 19/419, 20 January 1943; see Wagner,
Belgien
, 248.

39
. Franz Petri, ‘Die geschichtliche Stellung der Germanisch-Romanischen Grenzlande im Westen’, in
Westland. Blätter für Landschaft, Geschichte und Kultur an Rhein, Mosel, Maas und Schelde
, ed. Reich Commissar for the Occupied Dutch Territories, 2nd series (1943), 66–72, extracts reprinted in Hans Derks,
Deutsche Westforschung. Ideologie und Praxis im 20. Jahrhundert
(Leipzig, 2001), 270 ff. An allusion to the continual ‘incorporation’ by the Reichsführer-SS of new territories on ‘racial-biological’ grounds can be found in a further article by Petri in the same journal, 1st series (1943), 61, reprinted in Derks,
Westforschung
, 267 ff. See also Wagner,
Belgien
, 249; Derks,
Westforschung
, esp. 85 ff., who engages critically with the older research literature, in particular with Karl Ditt, ‘Die Kulturraumforschung zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik. Das Beispiel Karl Petri (1903–1993)’,
Westfälische Forschungen
, 46 (1996), 73–176.

40
. IfZ, NO 1469, Berger to Himmler, 27 October 1942. Hitler advocated the creation of two Reich Gaus on Belgian soil but his aim was annexation, as is clear from his comments at a meeting on 12 July 1944 on the inauguration of the civil administration in Belgium (BAB, R 43 II/678a).

41
. Ibid. minutes of the meeting on the inauguration of the civil administration in Belgium of 12 July 1944.

42
. See above p.503.

43
. BAB, NS 19/1846, Himmler to Berger, 29 October 1941; according to Himmler’s
Dienstkalender
the meeting took place on 20 October 1941.

44
. Kaiser, ‘Politik’, 549 ff.

45
. Spannenberger,
Volksbund
, 310 ff.

46
. Stein,
Geschichte
, 135; Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 167; Shimizu,
Okkupation
, 223.

47
. Holm Sundhaussen, ‘Zur Geschichte der Waffen-SS in Kroatien 1941–1945’,
Südost-Forschungen
, 30 (1971), 176–96, at 178.

48
. PAA, Inland IIg 309. The agreement was confirmed by an exchange of notes of the foreign ministers (ibid.); see Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 180 f.; Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 197 ff.

49
. Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 179.

50
. BAB, R 49/13, instruction from the RFSS on the expansion of the work on ethnic issues done by the party and the demarcation of the areas of responsibility of the SS Main Offices, 28 November 1941. According to Hess’s instruction of 26 February 1941 Himmler had been appointed ‘NSDAP expert responsible for all border and ethnic matters’ (IfZ, Partei-Kanzlei, Anordnungen). See Lumans,
Auxiliaries
, 137;
Dienstkalender
, introduction, 54. The VoMi and Staff Main Office were raised in June 1941 to Main Offices (IfZ, NO 4047, Himmler’s instruction of 11 June 1941).

51
. See the
Dienstkalender
on the telephone conversation with Bormann, 13 November 1941.

52
. Directive 2/42, published in
‘Führer-Erlasse’
, no.148.

53
.
Dienstkalender
, 6 November 1941; Sepp Janko,
Weg und Ende der deutschen Volksgruppe in Jugoslawien
(Graz and Stuttgart, 1982), deals with this meeting (p. 214); see also Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 185; Shimizu,
Okkupation
, 209.

54
. BAB, NS 19/3519, Keitel to Himmler, 30 December 1941.

55
. Shimizu,
Okkupation
, 148 ff.

56
. Ibid. 152 ff. Under Meyszner a police command structure, with a commanding officer of the order police, of the security police, and of the SD, was established, that by September 1942 had taken over the police forces which up to that point had been under the command of the military: German police units, strengthened by ethnic Germans and also the ‘Serbian Staff Guard’.

57
. Ibid. 225;Führer decree of 22 January 1942 on the deployment of an HSSPF in the area of the military commander for Serbia, published in
‘Führer-Erlasse’
, no. 139; see also BAB, NS 19/1728, Himmler to Werner Lorenz, who was originally to support recruitment on the spot, 24 January 1942.

58
. Shimizu,
Okkupation
, 225 ff. He wrote the first draft of the call himself. After consultation with the Foreign Ministry the text was finally published in February 1942 (BAB, NS 19/1728, Himmler’s draft call; text published in
Shimizu,
Okkupation
, p. 225f.; PAA, Inland IIg 323, draft by the Foreign Ministry). Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 191 ff., compares the two versions.

59
. Shimizu,
Okkupation
, 228 ff., Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 188 ff.; Stein,
Geschichte
, 153 ff.

60
. Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 196.

61
. Shimizu,
Okkupation
, 206 ff.

62
. IfZ, NO 5901, Berger to Brandt, 16 June 1942.

63
. Letter of 13 July 1942 to Lorenz, cited in Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 184, after a version commissioned by the German Protestant Church’s relief organization at the end of 1951 (according to this the original document is in NARA, T 580/76/O345).

64
. Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 196.

65
. Ibid. 233.

66
. PAA, Inland IIg 305, note by Luther on a speech for Ribbentrop, 18 October 1941; Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 197 f., also Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 181.

67
. PAA, Inland IIg 309, letter from the German legation in Zagreb, 16 June 1942, quoting from a letter from a German general in Zagreb of 21 May 1942, according to which ‘after a recent decision of the Wehrmacht High Command the registration, recruitment and training of ethnic Germans capable of military service’ was ‘to be carried out in the south-eastern area by the SS’; Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 198, also Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 182.

68
. In the Foreign Ministry the view was taken that the removal of the ethnic Germans would give a clear signal to the Italians, who occupied part of Croatia, that the Germans were prepared to cede the country to them. This can be read, for example, in PAA, Inland IIg 309, note by Luther on a speech for Ribbentrop, 12 June 1942.

69
. See the material in PAA, Inland IIg 201; Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 183. See in addition the extensive material in the files PAA, Inland IIg 305 and 309. Berger’s instruction to implement the inspection went out on 26 August 1942 (BAB, NS 19/319, letter to Nageler).

70
. PAA, Inland IIg 309, note by SS Main Office, Amt VI, 24 July 1942, on the meeting on 23 July with Under-Secretary Luther about Hungary, Croatia, and Slovakia: ‘As far as the outside world can tell the recruitment must seem to be voluntary but internally it must be pursued with vigour.’ Cf. Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 184, also Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 201. On 22 September the
German Newspaper in Croatia
published an order from the ethnic group leader which set out the rules for the call-up of ethnic Germans to the Waffen-SS (17 to 35 years) or to the squads of the ‘German force’ or the German units of the Croatian Home Guard.

71
. PAA, Inland IIg 305, Berger and Lorenz signed a ‘regulation of the recruitment procedure among ethnic Germans’, 29 August 1942. See Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 202 f.; Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 188 f.

72
. Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 201, and Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 191.

73
. Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 188 and 191; Casagrande,
‘Prinz Eugen’
, 204. PAA, Inland IIg 307, note on Croatia of 10 October 1942; a further note, in which the Croats declared their acceptance of the German measures, is referred to in the telegram from Kasche of 1 December 1943 (ibid.); Inland IIg 306, letter from Luther of 8 November 1942.

74
. Valentin Oberkersch, Die Deutschen in Syrmien, Slawonien, Kroatien und Bosnien. Geschichte einer deutschen Volksgruppe in Südosteuropa (Munich, 1989), 387 f.

75
. Spannenberger,
Volksbund
, 311 f.

76
. Ibid. 314;
Dienstkalender
, 18 November 1941.

77
. PAA, Inland IIg 305, draft by Rintelen for the Under-Secretary, 19 December 1941; see also Spannenberger,
Volksbund
, 315.

78
. Spannenberger,
Volksbund
, 319 f.

79
. See below p. 674.

80
. See below p. 673.

81
. BAB, R 49/2612, note by Stier of 3 September 1942 on a discussion with Himmler (of 1 September,
Dienstkalender
), in which the RFSS gave the instruction not to exert pressure on Hungary over this matter.

82
. Gerhard Seewann and Norbert Spannenberger (eds), Akten des Volksgerichtsprozesses gegen Franz A. Basch, Volksgruppenführer der Deutschen in Ungarn, Budapest 1945/46 (Munich, 1999), 69.

83
. PAA, Inland IIg 305, statement by Luther of 3(?) September 1942; Sundhaussen, ‘Geschichte’, 187. Luther makes a similar argument in Inland IIg 255, 5 November 1942, saying the resettlement would produce ‘catastrophic psychological and also political consequences for the whole of the 2½ to 3 million Germans in the south east’, and would ‘prejudice’ German policy with regard to these ethnic groups in an unacceptable way. See also Inland IIg 255, Rintelen to Ribbentrop, 27 September 1942, Foreign Ministry to VoMi, 4 November 1942, and also the note by the Under-Secretary on a speech of 5 December 1943; in addition Inland IIg 305, Berger to Triska, 2 September 1942.

84
. PAA, Inland IIg 214, note by Triska, 7 January 1943.

85
. The same is true of the small German minority in Danish North Schleswig. The German occupying powers used the ethnic group simply as a ‘reservoir that it aimed to exploit for the German war effort’ (Thomsen,
Besatzungspolitik
, 109)—by deploying it for the Waffen-SS, its own militia (the so-called temporary volunteer service), as well as for many ancillary services.

1
. For details see Himmler’s office diary (
Dienstkalender
), 28 July to 6 August 1942.

2
. Hannu Rautkallio,
Finland and the Holocaust: The Rescue of Finland’s Jews
(New York, 1987), 163 ff. For a critical view of it see William B. Cohen and Jörgen Svensson, ‘Finland and the Holocaust’,
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
, 9/1 (1995), 70–92, esp. 82 f.

3
. Hilberg,
Vernichtung
, 761 ff.; Holm Sundhaussen, ‘Jugoslawien’, in Wolfgang Benz, (ed.),
Dimension des Völkermords. Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus
(Munich, 1991), 311–30, at 323.

4
. Angrick,
Besatzungspolitik
, 131 ff.

5
. PAA, Inland IIg 200, Killinger to the Foreign Ministry, 12 August 1942, and to Himmler, 26 July 1942; see Christopher R. Browning,
The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland, 1940–1943
(New York and London, 1978), 115 ff.

6
. This was Luther’s assessment in PAA, Inland IIg 177, note of 21 August 1942.

7
. PAA, Inland IIg 208, letter from the OKW, Armaments Office to the Foreign Ministry, 21 July 1942; see also Randolph L. Braham,
The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary
, 2 vols. (New York, 1994), 284 ff.

8
. PAA, Inland IIg 208, Himmler to Ribbentrop, 30 November 1942.