Heinrich Himmler : A Life (180 page)

Read Heinrich Himmler : A Life Online

Authors: Peter Longerich

 

209
. Rebentisch,
Führerstaat
, 508.

 

210
. Führer edicts of 1 April 1944, in
RGBl
1944 I, 109 ff.

 

211
. BAB, R 43 II/364a, Himmler to Lammers, 4 September 1944. Stuckart and Lammers agreed not to accept any closures, but to agree to Bormann’s request to subordinate the Prussian district governors (Regierungspräsidenten) to the
provincial governors (Oberpräsidenten) (R 43II/656, especially the meeting of 27 September 1944).

 

212
. BAB, NS 19/1272, Excerpt of the minutes concerning the ‘Assembly’ of the government of the General Government, 18 November 1943.

 

213
. The district governors’meeting is dealt with in detail in Lehnstaedt, ‘Reichsministerium’, on the basis of a set of hitherto unknown minutes in the Archiwum Akt Nowych in Warsaw; a note of this speech is also in BAB, R 43 II/425a.

 

214
. BAB, NS 19/3280.

 

215
. Rebentisch,
Führerstaat
, 505 f.

 

216
.
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 8 November 1943, also 31 January 1944.

 

217
. Ibid. 25 and 29 February 1944.

 

218
. Ibid. 20 December 1943. He was responding here to Himmler’s alleged intention to subordinate the Education Ministry to himself.

 

219
. Ibid. 25. January 1944. For Bormann’s critical comments on Himmler’s increase in power see also the entries for 13 March and 18 and 27 April 1944.

 

220
. Ibid. 11 May 1944.

 

221
. See above pp. 632 ff.

 

222
. Schulte,
Zwangsarbeit
, 226.

 

223
. The DEST produced aircraft parts: for Messerschmitt in Flossenbürg and Mauthausen, for Junkers in Natzweiler, and for a Luftwaffe plant in the Dutch KZ Herzogenbusch. In Oranienburg a large brick-factory was turned into a large foundry for producing shells; although Himmler requested Pohl to use ‘Russian improvisation’ in carrying out the changeover, production remained far below expectations (BAB, NS 19/443, Himmler to Pohl, 11 March 1944). The German Fine Furniture AG (Deutsche Edelmöbel AG) in Butschowitz and the German Master Workshops (Deutsche Meisterstätten) in Prague also produced aircraft parts. On armaments production in the plants see Schulte,
Zwangsarbeit
, 227 ff.

 

224
. BAB, NS 19/4010, speech in Posen, 4 October 1943, also published as doc. PS-1919, in
IMT
, vol. 29, pp. 110 ff., quotation 144.

 

225
. Schulte,
Zwangsarbeit
, 234; Kaienburg,
Wirtschaft
, 483 ff.

 

226
. BAB, NS 19/1802, Report of the departmental head of W-5 in the WVHA on the experiments, countersigned by Himmler. On the Kok-Sagys project see Gerlach,
Morde
, 1023 ff.; Kaienburg,
Wirtschaft
, 847 ff.; Susanne Heim,
Kalorien, Kautschuk, Karrieren. Pflanzenzüchtung und landwirtschaftliche Forschung in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten 1933–1945
(Göttingen, 2003), esp. 144 ff.

 

227
. BAB, NS 19/1802, Himmler to Göring on the interview on 20 February 1943, 22 March 1943.

 

228
. Ibid. and an undated note containing six points. On the institutions working on Kok-Sagys research see Heim,
Kalorien
, 131 ff.

 

229
. BAB, NS 19/1802, minute of 15 April 1943; report on the workshop of those interested in Kok-Sagys rubber in the SS Main Office, 25 June 1943.

 

230
. BAB, NS 19/1802, Göring, 9 July 1943.

 

231
. Ibid. Himmler telex to the HSSPF, 21 July 1943; Himmler note of 7 July 1943 on the organization of the office of the representative for rubber plants; Himmler to Darré, 2 August 1943.

 

232
. Heim,
Kalorien
, 172 ff.

 

233
. BAB, NS 19/1802, minute of a meeting with Himmler on 24 July 1943.

 

234
. During the summer and autumn 1943 he had a lengthy dispute with Governor-General Frank who eventually agreed to grant him 10,000 hectares. (BAB, NS 19/1802); see correspondence in the same file and Himmler’s minute of 22 November 1943.

 

235
. BAB, NS 19/1802, brief overview, 29 March 1944; according to that, in the winter of 1943–4 30,000 hectares were envisaged for Kok-Sagys.

 

236
. Ibid. correspondence with the German ethnic group in Romania, State Peasant Office.

 

237
. Ibid. Brandt to Winkelmann, 28 June 1944.

 

238
. Ibid. Report of Corvette Captain Stahl about his official visit of 15–27 May 1944, 2 June 1944. Stahl refers to a meeting with Himmler on 20 May 1944.

 

239
. BAB, NS 19/1802, Backe to Himmler, 20 December 1944. Backe asked Himmler to agree to reduce the amount of land, to which Brandt responded positively in his letter of 13 January 1945.

 

240
. Ibid. Stahl, report on official visit to the west of Ukraine, 9 November 1943.

 

241
. Ibid. Backe to Himmler, 20 December 1944.

 

242
. Ibid. message of 14 March 1944. In the case of 10,000 hectares one could anticipate a yield of only 150 to 300 tons; originally it was assumed it would be more than 600 tons.

 

243
. Ibid. 5 April 1944.

 

244
. Schulte,
Zwangsarbeit
, 392 ff.; Orth,
System
, 175 ff.

 

245
. IfZ, NO 1523.

 

246
. Orth,
System
, 192.

 

247
. Michael J. Neufeld,
Die Rakete und das Reich. Wernher von Braun, Peenemünde und der Beginn des Raketenzeitalters
(Berlin, 1997), 21 ff.; Heinz Dieter Hölsken,
Die V-Waffen. Entstehung, Propaganda, Kriegseinsatz
(Stuttgart, 1984), 40 f.

 

248
. Neufeld,
Rakete
, 217 ff.

 

249
. Ibid. 220; BAB, BDC, SS-O von Braun, who had joined the SS on1 May 1940.

 

250
. Neufeld,
Rakete
, 221 ff.

 

251
. Ibid. 221 ff. The development work on the rockets was also moved underground in caves in the Austrian Alps, which were given the codename ‘Cement’ and were built by KZ prisoners under Kammler’s direction. (ibid. 246 f.).

 

252
. BAB, NS 19/1444; R 3/1583, Himmler to Speer, 21 August 1943. See also Neufeld,
Rakete
, 241 f.

 

253
. Result of the Armaments’ conference of 15–20 August 1943, published in Boelcke (ed.),
Deutschlands Rüstung
, 291.

 

254
. Neufeld,
Rakete
, 258 f. The information is based on Braun’s account. After the war he reported that he had been ordered to see Himmler, who offered to take over the development of the rocket programme. He had declined. The harassment that followed was, he said, intended to break his will.

 

255
. Ibid. 260 ff.

 

256
. See the overview in Rainer Fröbe, ‘Hans Kammler—Technokrat der Vernichtung’, in Ronald Smelser and Enrico Syring (eds),
Die SS. Elite unter dem Totenkopf. 30 Lebensläufe
(Paderborn, etc., 2000), 305–19.

 

257
. BAB, NS 19/4010, speech in Posen, 4. October 1943, also published as doc.PS-1919, in
IMT
, vol. 29, pp. 110 ff., quotation p. 145 f.

 

258
. BAB, NS 19/4010, published in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 162 ff., quotation p.169.

 

259
. BAB, NS 19/2662.

 

260
. Katrin Paehler, ‘Ein Spiegel seiner selbst. Der SD-Ausland in Italien’, in Michael Wildt, (ed.),
Nachrichtendienst, politische Elite, Mordeinheit. Der Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS
(Hamburg, 2003), 241–66. On Himmler’s prediction see already Josef Schröder,
Italiens Kriegsaustritt 1943. Die deutschen Gegenmaβnahmen im italienischen Raum: Fall ‘Alarich’ und ‘Achse’
(Göttingen, etc., 1969), 196.

 

261
. Stein,
Geschichte
, 192 f.

 

262
. Querg,
Spionage
, 311 ff.

 

263
.
ADAP
, Series E, vol. 6, no. 311, of 11 September 1943.

 

264
. Lutz Klinkhammer,
Zwischen Bündnis und Besatzung. Das nationalsozialistische Deutschland und die Republik von Salò 1943–1945
(Tübingen, 1993), 117 f.

 

265
. Ibid. 120 ff.

 

266
. BAB, NS 19/1881, Order of 31 August 1943; see Klinkhammer,
Bündnis
, 356.

 

267
. BAB, NS 19/1881, Himmler order of 2 October 1943; see Klinkhammer,
Bündnis
, 357.

 

268
. BAB, R 70 Italien, vol. 5, minute for SS-Sturmbannführer Wenner of 13 February 1944; see Klinkhammer,
Bündnis
, 364. Stein,
Geschichte
, 270, mentions the creation of a Waffengrenadier division (ital. No. 1) in April 1945.

 

269
. On the Jewish persecution in Italy from September 1943 see Liliana Picciotto Fargion, ‘Italien’, in Wolfgang Benz (ed.),
Dimension des Völkermords. Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus
(Munich, 1991), 199–227; Michaelis,
Mussolini
, 342 ff.; Klinkhammer,
Bündnis
, 530 ff.

 

270
. On Dannecker’s activities in Italy see Steur,
Dannecker
, 113 ff.

 

271
. PAA, Inland IIg 192, minute by Wagner of 4 December 1943, published in
ADAP
, Series E, vol. 7, 111.

 

272
. Ibid.

 

273
. Fargion, ‘Italien, 215 ff.

 

274
. Ibid. 206 and 222 f.

 

275
. See Fleischer,
Griechenland
, 260 ff.

 

276
. See the memoirs of Errikos Sevillias,
Athens—Auschwitz
(Athens, 1983). Moreover, in April there was a similar ‘action’ in Albania, during which around 300 Jews were arrested and transported to Bergen-Belsen via Belgrade (Gerhard Grimm, ‘Albania’, in Wolfgang Benz (ed.),
Dimension des Völkermords. Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus
(Munich, 1991), 229–39, at 237).

 

277
. Fleischer,
Griechenland
, 265 ff.

 

278
. Sundhaussen, ‘Jugoslawien’, 325.

 

279
. On German Jewish policy in France after the collapse of Italy see Klarsfeld,
Vichy
, 276 ff.; Jonathan Steinberg,
Deutsche, Italiener und Juden. Der italienische Widerstand gegen den Holocaust
(Göttingen, 1992), 206 ff.; Zuccotti,
Holocaust
, 180 ff.

 

280
. Klarsfeld,
Vichy
, 278 ff.; Zuccotti,
Holocaust
, 181 ff.

 

281
. See above p. 185.

 

282
. Klarsfeld,
Vichy
, 289.

 

283
. Ibid. 298 ff.; Zuccotti,
Holocaust
, 190 ff.

 

284
. On the government reshuffle see Eberhard Jäckel,
Frankreich in Hitlers Europa. Die deutsche Frankreichpolitik im Zweiten Weltkrieg
(Stuttgart, 1966), 293 f.

 

285
. CDJC, CXXXII-56, published in Klarsfeld,
Vichy
, 574 ff.; Zuccotti,
Holocaust
, 197 ff.

 

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