Heinrich Himmler : A Life (181 page)

286
. Klarsfeld,
Vichy
, 320. Somewhat different figures referred to in the literature are contained in Wetzel, ‘Frankreich und Belgien’, 132 f.

287
. On the rescue of the Danish Jews see Herbert,
Best
, 360 ff.; Leni Yahil,
The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy
(Philadelphia, 1969); Hans Kirchhoff, ‘SS-Gruppenführer Werner Best and the Action Against the Danish Jews—October 1943’,
Yad Vashem Studies
, 24 (1994), 195–222. On the passing on of the information about the impending deportations see Thomsen,
Besatzungspolitik
, 183 f.

288
. Braham,
Politics
, 250 ff.

289
. At the end of May 1943 Kállay made it clear in a speech that while he considered the ‘complete de-settlement of the Jews’ to be the ‘final solution’ of the ‘Jewish question’, this could only occur when the ‘question of where the Jews were to be de-settled to had been resolved’ (
Donauzeitung
1 June 1943, see Hilberg,
Vernichtung
, 883 f.).

290
. Braham,
Politics
, 381 ff.; on the organization of the occupation administration see ibid. 406 ff.

291
. Ibid. 396 ff.

292
. Christian Gerlach and Götz Aly,
Das letzte Kapitel. Realpolitik, Ideologie und der Mord an den ungarischen Juden 1944/1945
(Stuttgart and Zürich, 2002), 259.

293
. Braham,
Politics
, 510 ff. and 446 ff.

294
. Ibid. 674 ff.

295
. Ibid. 850 ff.

296
. Ibid. 1205 ff.

297
. Telegram from Veesenmayer to Ribbentrop, 6 July 1944, published in
ADAP
, Series E, vol. 8, no.101.

298
. BAB, NS 19/4013.

299
. BAB, NS 19/4014, passage published in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 203.

300
. Ibid.

1
. Bernhard Kroener, ‘
Der starke Mann im Heimatkriegsgebiet’
—
Generaloberst Friedrich Fromm. Eine Biographie
(Paderborn, etc., 2005), speaks of a ‘monopoly of force on the home front’ (p. 658).

2
. In January 1944 the members of the Solf Circle and Count James von Moltke were arrested, in March 1944 Hartmut Plaas, and on 20 July 1944 the arrest of Goerdeler and Beck was imminent.

3
. This is the thoroughly researched conclusion reached by Johannes Tuchel in his paper ‘Heinrich Himmler und die Vorgeschichte des 20. Juli 1944’ (manuscript), which the author kindly placed at my disposal. All assertions to the contrary in the literature are pure speculation; see e.g. Yehuda Bauer,
Freikauf von Juden? Verhandlungen zwischen dem nationalsozialistischen Deutschland und jüdischen Repräsentanten von 1933 bis 1945
(Frankfurt a. M., 1996), 173 ff.

4
. BAB, NS 19/4015.

5
. ‘Die Rede Himmlers vor den Gauleitern am 3. August 1944’, documented in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 1 (1953), 357–94, especially 375 f. Himmler also mentioned in his speech his conversation with Popitz of 26 August 1943. He emphasized that he had suspected Popitz of being a member of the conservative opposition and had therefore sought Hitler’s permission to have the conversation.

6
. On the conclusion of the attempted coup see Kroener,
Fromm
, 669 ff.; Peter Hoffmann,
Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat. Der Kampf der Opposition gegen Hitler
, 3rd edn. (Munich, 1979), 627.

7
. Ulrike Hett and Johannes Tuchel, ‘Die Reaktionen des NS-Staates auf den Umsturzversuch vom 20. Juli 1944’, in Peter Steinbach and Johannes Tuchel (eds),
Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus
(Bonn, 1994), 377–89, at 378.

8
. BAB, NS 19/1447.

9
. Hett and Tuchel, ‘Reaktionen’, 379.

10
. Ibid. 383 ff.

11
. BAB, NS 6/3, Kaltenbrunner to Bormann.

12
. BAB, R 58/1027.

13
. BAB, NS 19/1447; Jürgen Zarusky, ‘Von der Sondergerichtsbarkeit zum Endphasenterror. Loyalitätserzwingung und Rache am Widerstand im
Zusammenbruch des NS-Regimes’, in Cord Arendes (ed.),
Terror nach innen. Verbrechen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges
(Göttingen, 2006), 103–21.

14
. Winfried Meyer, ‘Aktion “Gewitter”. Menschenopfer für Macht und Mythos der Gestapo’,
Dachauer Hefte
, 21 (2005), 3–20, and Hett and Tuchel, ‘Reaktionen’, 382 f. The relevant orders issued by Müller are in BAB, R 58/775. Because of a typing error the action was sometimes called ‘Aktion [Operation] Gitter’.

15
. Zarusky, ‘Sondergerichtsbarkeit’, 113.

16
. BAB, NS 33/7, note of the meeting of 15 July 1943. Two out of the three new General commandos, including troops subordinate to them, were established with the assistance of the army; see Andreas Kunz,
Wehrmacht und Niederlage. Die bewaffnete Macht in der Endphase der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft 1944 bis 1945
(Munich, 2005), 123 f.

17
.
RGBl
1944 I, 161.

18
. Second Edict Concerning the Exercise of Authority in an Area of Military Operations within the Borders of the Reich of 20 September 1944, published in
‘Führer-Erlasse’
, no.363. This decreed that the authority of the armed forces was confined to those areas directly involved in combat. The edict should be seen in the context of the Second Edict Concerning Cooperation between the Party and the Wehrmacht in an Area of Operations within the Borders of the Reich issued on the same day (ibid., no. 362). On 13 July Hitler had already issued an edict increasing the responsibilities of the Gauleiters within an area involved in military operations but only with regard to party matters (ibid., no. 337).

19
. Kroener,
Fromm
, 714.

20
. BAB, NS 19/3910, 26 July 1944.

21
. BAB, NS 19/4015.

22
. Ibid. speech in Grafenwöhr, 25 July 1944, and speech at the Bitche military training area, 26 July 1944.

23
. ‘Die Rede Himmlers vor den Gauleitern am 3. August 1944’, documented in V
ierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 1 (1953), 357–94, quotation p. 371.

24
. BAB, NS 19/4043, 2 August 1944; see Kroener,
Fromm
, 712ff.; Kunz,
Wehrmacht
, 109.

25
. BAB, NS 19/3191, Pohl to Himmler, 17 August 1944, and reply of 19 August 1944.

26
. Ibid. 13 October 1944; see Kunz,
Wehrmacht
, 126 f.

27
. Kunz,
Wehrmacht
, 122 ff.

28
. BAB, NS 19/2409, Berger to Himmler, 1 August 1944.

29
. Kunz,
Wehrmacht
, 125 f.

30
. BAB, NS 19/4010, printed in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 162 ff., quotation p. 164.

31
. Matthias Schröder,
Deutschbaltische SS-Führer und Andrej Vlasov 1942–1945. ‘Russland kann nur von Russen besiegt werden’: Erhard Kroeger, Friedrich Buchardt und die ‘Russische Befreiungsarmee’
(Paderborn, etc., 2001), 156. On the military
role of the Vlasov Army see Joachim Hoffmann,
Die Tragödie der ‘Russischen Befreiungsarmee’ 1944/45. Wlassow gegen Stalin
(Munich, 2003).

32
. Schröder,
SS-Führer
, 192 ff.

33
. Ibid. 198.

34
. Ibid. 206 ff.

35
. Norbert Haase, ‘Justizterror in der Wehrmacht am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges’, in Cord Arendes (ed.),
Terror nach innen. Verbrechen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges
(Göttingen, 2006), 80–102.

36
. Order of 5 September 1944, quoted in Haase, ‘Justizterror’, 81 (original in Bundesarchiv-Zentralnachweisstelle).

37
. See Klaus-Dietmar Henke,
Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
, 2nd edn. (Munich, 1996), 812.

38
. Neufeld,
Rakete
, 287 ff.; the directive is printed in facsimile (p. 289).

39
. Ibid. 295.

40
. See the statistics in Hölsken,
V-Waffen
, 163.

41
. BAB, NS 19/4015, Speech to the officer corps of a Grenadier division at the Bitche military training ground on 26 July 1944, published in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 215 ff., quotation pp. 231 f.

42
. Churchill announced to the House of Commons that the number of those killed as a result of the bombardment was 2,752 at the beginning of July 1944 (ibid. 232, n. 44).

43
.
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 24 August 1944.

44
. Kunz,
Wehrmacht
, 129.

45
. Doc. D-762, published (together with Keitel’s edicts implementing it dated 18. August) in
IMT
, vol. 35, pp. 503 ff.).

46
. Bohn,
Reichskommissariat
, 110 f.

47
. Meershoek, ‘Machtentfaltung’, 401.

48
. Hirschfeld,
Fremdherrschaft
, 38.

49
. Thomsen,
Besatzungspolitik
, 206 ff.

50
. Ibid. 193 and 210 f.

51
. BAB, NS 19/4015.

52
. Lipscher,
Juden
, 178 f.; Gila Fatran, ‘Die Deportation der Juden aus der Slowakei 1944–1945’,
Bohemia
, 37 (1996), 99–119, at 116 ff.

53
. Braham,
Politics
, 890 ff.

54
. PAA, Inland IIg 210, Budapest embassy to the Foreign Ministry, 19 August 1944, printed in
ADAP
, Series E, vol. 8, no.167. On the August events see Braham,
Politics
, 911 ff.

55
. PAA, Inland IIg 210, Veesenmayer to the Foreign Ministry, 24 August 1944.

56
. 56 PAA, Inland IIg 209, Veesenmayer to Ribbentrop, 25 August 1944, published in Randolph L. Braham (ed.),
The Destruction of Hungarian Jewry: A Documentary Account
, 2 vols. (New York, 1963), no.214.

57
. Braham,
Politics
, 916.

58
. Bauer’s view in
Freikauf
, 347, that Himmler’s halt order of 24 August 1944 was linked to the start of negotiations between Kurt Becher and Saly Mayer in Switzerland on 21 August, which were concerned with the possible liberation of Jews in return for foreign currency or deliveries of goods, cannot be proved.

59
. Braham,
Politics
, 947 ff.

60
. At this point the decision to dismantle the extermination facilities at Auschwitz had either already been or was about to be taken: Czech,
Kalendarium
, refers to 31 October 1944 (last murder with gas) and 25 November 1944 (the start of the demolition of the crematoria).

61
. Veesenmayer report to the Foreign Ministry, 18. October 1941, published in
ADAP
, Series E, vol. 8, no.275. Eichmann maintained this intention until at least the middle of November (PAA, Inland IIg 209, Veesenmayer report of 13 November 1944).