http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/NT_war-criminals_Vol-XIII.pdf (Vol-XIII pages
147- 151 )
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-1880 PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 1314
"REFLECTIONS ON THE TREATMENT OF PEOPLES OF ALIEN RACES
IN THE EAST" A SECRET MEMORANDUM HANDED TO HITLER BY
HIMMLER ON 25 MAY 1940*
[Handwritten] Dr. Gross of the Racial Policy Office has been
informed 28 November 40
Wolff
For the files
[stamp] Top Secret
Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the
East
Concerning the treatment of peoples of alien races in the East
we have to see to it that we acknowledge and cultivate as many individual
ethnic groups as possible, that is, outside of the Poles and the Jews, also the
Ukrainians, the White Russians, the Gorals [Goralen], the Lemcos [Lemken] and
the Cashubos [Kaschuben] . If other small and isolated national groups can be
found in other places, they should be treated the same way. What I want to say
is that we are not only most interested in not unifying the population of the
East, but, on the contrary, in splitting them up into as many parts and
fragments as possible.
But even within the ethnic groups themselves we have one
interest in leading these to unity and greatness, or perhaps arouse in them
gradually a national consciousness and national culture, but we want to
dissolve them into innumerable small fragments and particles.
We naturally want to use the members of all these ethnic
groups, especially of the small ones, in positions of police officials and
mayors. Only the mayors and local police authorities will be allowed to head
those'ethnic groups. As far as the Gorals are concerned the individual
chieftains and elders of the tribes, who live in continuous feud with each
other anyhow, should fill these positions. There must be no centralization
toward the top, because only by dissolving this whole conglomeration of peoples
of the Government General, amounting to 15 million, and of the 8 million of the
eastern provinces, will it be possible for us to carry out the racial sifting
which must be the basis for our considerations: namely selecting out of this
conglomeration the racially valuable and bringing them to Germany and
assimilating them there.
• This memorandum is undated, but the time of Himmler's
handing it to Hitler and others is noted in the next document reproduced
herein.
147
Within a very few years-I should think about 4 to 5 yearsthe
name of the Cashubes, for instance, must be unknown, because
at that time there won't be a Cashubian people any more
(this also goes especially for the West Prussians). I hope
that
the concepts of Jews will be completely extinguished through
the possibility of a large emigration of all Jews to Africa or
some
other colony. Within a somewhat longer period, it should also
be possible to make the ethnic concepts of Ukrainians,
Goralsand
Lemcos disappear in our area. What has been said for those
fragments of peoples is also meant on a correspondingly larger
scale for the Poles.
A basic issue in the solution of all these problems is the
question of schooling and thus the question of sifting and selecting the young.
For the non-German population of the East there must be no higher school than
the four-grade elementary school. The sole goal of this school is to be-
Simply arithmetic up to 500 at the most; writing of one's
name; the doctrine that it is a divine law to obey the Germans and to be
honest, industrious, and good. I don't think that reading is necessary.
Apart from this school there are to be no schools at all in
the East. Parents, who from the beginning want to give their children better
schooling in the elementary school as well as later on in a higher school, must
take an application to the Higher SS and Police Leaders. The first
consideration in dealing with this application will be whether the child is
racially perfect and conforming to our conditions. If we acknowledge such a
child to be as of our blood, the parents will be notified that the child will be
sent to a school in Germany and that it will permanently remain in Germany.
Cruel and tragic as every individual case may be, this method
is still the mildest and best one if, out of inner conviction, one rejects as
unGerman and impossible the Bolshevist method of physical extermination of a
people.
The parents of such children of good blood will be given the
choice to either give away their child; they will then probably produce no more
children so that the danger of this subhuman people of the East [Untermenschenvolk
des Ostens] obtaining a class of leaders which, since it would be equal to us,
would also be dangerous for us, will disappear-or else the parents pledge
themselves to go to Germany and to become loyal citizens there. The love toward
their child, whose future and education depends on the loyalty of the parents,
will be a strong weapon in dealing with them.
Apart from examining the applications made by parents for
148
better schooling of their children, there will be an annual
sifting of all children of the Government Geperal between the ages of 6 to 10
years in order to separate the racially valuable and nonvaluable ones. The ones
considered racially valuable will be treated in the same way as the children
who are admitted on the basis of the approved application of their parents.
I consider it as a matter of course from an emotional as well
as from a rational viewpoint that the moment children and parents come to
Germany they are not treated like lepers in the schools and in everyday life,
but, after having. changed their names, they should, in full confidence, be
incorporated into the German life, although attention and vigilance must be
exercised
. with regard to them. It must not happen that the children be
made to feel as outcasts, because, after all, we believe in this, our own
blood, which, through the errors of German history has flowed into an alien
nationality and we are convinced that our ideology and our ideals will strike a
chord of resonance in the racially equal soul of these children. Here teachers
and Hitler Youth leaders especially must do an out-and-out job, and the mistake
that has been made in the past with the people from Alsace Lorraine must never
be repeated; namely, that on one side one wants to win the people as Germans, and
on the other side one constantly hurts and repudiates their human value, their
pride and honor through distrust and insults. Insults like "Polack"
and "Ukrainian" or something like that must be made impossible.
The children will have to be educated in an elementary school
and after those four grades it can be decided whether the children should
continue to go to the German grammar school or should be transferred to a
national political institution of education.
The population of the Government General during the next 10
years, by necessity and after a consistent carrying out of these measures, will
be composed of the remaining inferior population supplemented by the population
of the eastern provinces deported there, and of all those parts of the German Reich
which have the same racial and human qualities for instance, parts of the Sorbs
[Sorben] and VVends [VVenden].
This population will, as a people of laborers without leaders,
be at our disposal and will furnish Germany annually with migrant workers and with
workers for special tasks (roads, quarries, buildings) : they themselves will
have more to eat and more to live on than under the Polish regime; and, though
they have no culture of their own, they will, under the strict, consistent, and
just leadership of the German people, be called
149
upon to help work on its everlasting cultural tasks and its
buildings and perhaps, as far as the amount of heavy work is concerned, will be
the ones who make the realization of these tasks possible.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-ISSI PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 1313
FILE NOTE OF HIMMLER, 2S MAY 1940, CONCERNING THE HANDLING
AND DISTRIBUTING OF HIS MEMORANDUM ON THE TREATMENT
OF ALIEN RACES IN THE EAST
The Reich Leader SS Special Train, 28 May 1940
Top Secret
On Saturday, 25 May, I handed my memorandum on the treatment
of peoples of alien race in the East to the Fuehrer.* The Fuehrer read the six
pages and considered them very good and correct. He directed, however, that
only very few copies should be issued; that there should be no large edition,
and that the report is to be treated with utmost secrecy. Minister Lammers was
likewise present. The Fuehrer wanted me to ask Governor General Frank to come
to Berlin in order to show him this report and to tell him that the Fuehrer
considered it to be correct.
I suggested to the Fuehrer that Minister Lammers, who had
received one copy from me, be ordered to present this report to the four
Gauleiters of the eastern Gaue: Koch, Forster, Greiser, the Oberpraesident of
Silesia, the Governor General Frank, as well as to Reich Minister Darre, and to
inform them that the Fuehrer acknowledged and sanctioned this report as a
directive.
Then a short file note should be made concerning the
notification of the persons named as to the contents of the report. The Fuehrer
agreed and gave the order to Minister Lammers.
Reich Leader Bormann received another copy for notification of
the deputy of the Fuehrer.
One copy was given to the chief of my office, SS Brigadier
General Greifelt in his capacity as Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of
Germanism. I shall give him the order to inform in turn all Chiefs of the Main
Offices as well as the first five concerned Higher SS and Police Leaders East,
North East, Vistula, Warta, and South East and to have a report made on this
subject in the same manner. The notification to the Chiefs of the Main Offices
shall be effected by an SS Leader who will have to wait until the chief
concerned of the Main Office has read the
• Document NO-1880. Prosecution Exhibit ·1814. reproduced
immediately above;
150
report and has acknowledged it by his signature. At the same
time everyone has to confirm that he has been informed of the fact that this is
to be considered as a directive, but that it shall never be laid down in an
order of one of the Main Offices either in form of a mere excerpt or from
memory.
Moreover SS Brigadier General Greifelt is authorized to bring
the contents of the report to the attention of Mayor Winckler and his own main
collaborators; the latter he shall suggest to me.
Furthermore, I will personally give one copy to the Chief of
the Security Police with the order to notify his main coworkers in the above
described manner and without making any copies.
He has to suggest to me the circle of coworkers who are to be
informed of the report. [Handwritten by Himmler]
The same applies to the Chief of the Race and Settlement Main
Office. The
Reich Leader SS
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/NT_war-criminals_Vol-XIII.pdf (Vol-XIII pages
147- 151 )
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-1880 PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 1314
"REFLECTIONS ON THE TREATMENT OF PEOPLES OF ALIEN RACES
IN THE EAST" A SECRET MEMORANDUM
HANDED TO HITLER BY
HIMMLER ON 25 MAY 1940*
[Handwritten]
Dr. Gross of the Racial Policy Office has been
informed
28 November 40
Wolff
For the files [stamp] Top Secret
Reflections
on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East
Concerning
the treatment of peoples of alien races in the East we have to see to it that
we acknowledge and cultivate as many individual ethnic groups as possible, that
is, outside of the Poles and the Jews, also the Ukrainians, the White Russians,
the Gorals [Goralen], the Lemcos [Lemken] and the Cashubos [Kaschuben] . If other small and isolated
national groups can be found in other places, they should be treated the same
way.
What
I want to say is that we are not only most interested in not unifying the
population of the East, but, on the contrary, in splitting them up into as many
parts and fragments as possible.
But
even within the ethnic groups themselves we have one interest in leading these
to unity and greatness, or perhaps arouse in them gradually a national
consciousness and national culture, but we want to dissolve them into
innumerable small fragments and particles.
We
naturally want to use the members of all these ethnic groups, especially of the
small ones, in positions of police officials and mayors. Only the mayors and
local police authorities will be allowed to head those'ethnic groups. As far as
the Gorals are concerned the individual chieftains and elders of the tribes,
who live in continuous feud with each other anyhow, should fill these
positions. There must be no centralization toward the top, because only by
dissolving this whole conglomeration of peoples of the Government General,
amounting to 15 million, and of the 8 million of the eastern provinces, will it
be possible for us to carry out the racial sifting which must be the basis for
our considerations: namely selecting out of this conglomeration the racially
valuable and bringing them to Germany and assimilating them there.
•
This memorandum is undated, but the time of Himmler's handing it to Hitler
and others is noted in the next document reproduced herein.
147
Within a very
few years-I should think about 4 to 5 years
the name of the
Cashubes, for instance, must be unknown, be
cause at that
time there won't be a Cashubian people any more
(this also goes
especially for the West Prussians). I hope that
the concepts of
Jews will be completely extinguished through
the possibility
of a large emigration of all Jews to Africa or some
other colony.
Within a somewhat longer period, it should also
be possible to
make the ethnic concepts of Ukrainians, Goralsand
Lemcos disappear
in our area. What has been said for those
fragments of
peoples is also meant on a correspondingly larger
scale for the
Poles.
A basic issue in
the solution of all these problems is the question of schooling and thus the
question of sifting and selecting the young. For the non-German population of
the East there must be no higher school than the four-grade elementary school.
The sole goal of this school is to be-
Simply arithmetic
up to 500 at the most; writing of one's name; the doctrine that it is a divine
law to obey the Germans and to be honest, industrious, and good. I don't think
that reading is necessary.
Apart from this
school there are to be no schools at all in the East. Parents, who from the
beginning want to give their children better schooling in the elementary school
as well as later on in a higher school, must take an application to the Higher
SS and Police Leaders. The first consideration in dealing with this application
will be whether the child is racially perfect and conforming to our conditions.
If we acknowledge such a child to be as of
our blood, the parents will be notified that the child will be sent to a school
in Germany and that it will permanently remain in Germany.
Cruel and tragic
as every individual case may be, this method is still the mildest and best one
if, out of inner conviction, one rejects as unGerman and impossible the
Bolshevist method of physical extermination of a people.
The parents of
such children of good blood will be given the choice to either give away their
child; they will then probably produce no more children so that the danger of
this subhuman people of the East [Untermenschenvolk des Ostens] obtaining a
class of leaders which, since it would be equal to us, would also be dangerous
for us, will disappear-or else the parents pledge themselves to go to Germany
and to become loyal citizens there. The love toward their child, whose future
and education depends on the loyalty of the parents, will be a strong weapon in
dealing with them.
Apart from
examining the applications made by parents for
148
better schooling
of their children, there will be an annual sifting of all children of the
Government Geperal between the ages of 6 to 10 years in order to separate the
racially valuable and nonvaluable ones. The ones considered racially valuable
will be treated in the same way as the children who are admitted on the basis
of the approved application of their parents.
I consider it as
a matter of course from an emotional as well as from a rational viewpoint that
the moment children and parents come to Germany they are not treated like
lepers in the schools and in everyday life, but, after having. changed their
names, they should, in full confidence, be incorporated into the German life,
although attention and vigilance must be exercised
. with regard to
them. It must not happen that the children
be made to feel as outcasts, because, after all, we believe in this, our own
blood, which, through the errors of German history has flowed into an alien
nationality and we are convinced that our ideology and our ideals will strike a
chord of resonance in the racially equal soul of these children. Here teachers
and Hitler Youth leaders especially must do an out-and-out job, and the mistake
that has been made in the past with the people from Alsace Lorraine must never
be repeated; namely, that on one side one wants to win the people as Germans,
and on the other side one constantly hurts and repudiates their human value,
their pride and honor through distrust and insults. Insults like
"Polack" and "Ukrainian" or something like that must be
made impossible.
The children
will have to be educated in an elementary school and after those four grades it
can be decided whether the children should continue to go to the German grammar
school or should be transferred to a national political institution of
education.
The population
of the Government General during the next 10 years, by necessity and after a
consistent carrying out of these measures, will be composed of the remaining
inferior population supplemented by the population of the eastern provinces
deported there, and of all those parts of the German Reich which have the same
racial and human qualities for instance, parts of the Sorbs [Sorben] and VVends
[VVenden].
This population
will, as a people of laborers without leaders, be at our disposal and will
furnish Germany annually with migrant workers and with workers for special
tasks (roads, quarries, buildings) : they themselves will have more to eat and
more to live on than under the Polish regime; and, though they have no culture
of their own, they will, under the strict, consistent, and just leadership of
the German people, be called
149
upon to help
work on its everlasting cultural tasks and its buildings and perhaps, as far as
the amount of heavy work is concerned, will be the ones who make the
realization of these tasks possible.
TRANSLATION
OF DOCUMENT NO-ISSI PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 1313
FILE
NOTE OF HIMMLER, 2S MAY 1940, CONCERNING THE HAN
DLING AND DISTRIBUTING OF HIS MEMORANDUM ON THE TREAT
MENT OF ALIEN RACES IN THE EAST
The Reich Leader
SS Special Train, 28 May 1940
Top Secret
On Saturday, 25
May, I handed my memorandum on the treatment of peoples of alien race in the
East to the Fuehrer.* The Fuehrer read
the six pages and considered them very good and correct. He directed, however,
that only very few copies should be issued; that there should be no large
edition, and that the report is to be treated with utmost secrecy. Minister
Lammers was likewise present. The Fuehrer wanted me to ask Governor General
Frank to come to Berlin in order to show him this report and to tell him that
the Fuehrer considered it to be correct.
I suggested to
the Fuehrer that Minister Lammers, who had received one copy from me, be
ordered to present this report to the four Gauleiters of the eastern Gaue:
Koch, Forster, Greiser, the Oberpraesident of Silesia, the Governor General
Frank, as well as to Reich Minister Darre, and to inform them that the Fuehrer
acknowledged and sanctioned this report as a directive.
Then a short
file note should be made concerning the notification of the persons named as to
the contents of the report. The Fuehrer agreed and gave the order to Minister
Lammers.
Reich Leader
Bormann received another copy for notification of the deputy of the Fuehrer.
One copy was
given to the chief of my office, SS Brigadier General Greifelt in his capacity
as Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germanism. I shall give him the
order to inform in turn all Chiefs of the Main Offices as well as the first
five concerned Higher SS and Police Leaders East, North East, Vistula, Warta,
and South East and to have a report made on this subject in the same manner.
The notification to the Chiefs of the Main Offices shall be effected by an SS
Leader who will have to wait until the chief concerned of the Main Office has
read the
• Document
NO-1880. Prosecution Exhibit ·1814. reproduced immediately above;
150
report and has acknowledged it by his
signature. At the same time everyone has to confirm that he has been informed
of the fact that this is to be considered as a directive, but that it shall
never be laid down in an order of one of the Main Offices either in form of a
mere excerpt or from memory.
Moreover SS
Brigadier General Greifelt is authorized to bring the contents of the report to
the attention of Mayor Winckler and his own main collaborators; the latter he
shall suggest to me.
Furthermore, I
will personally give one copy to the Chief of the Security Police with the
order to notify his main coworkers in the above described manner and without
making any copies.
He has to
suggest to me the circle of coworkers who are to be informed of the report.
[Handwritten by Himmler]
The
same applies to the Chief of the Race and Settlement Main Office. The Reich
Leader SS
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/NT_war-criminals_Vol-XIII.pdf (Vol-XIII
pages 147- 151 )
