Perpetrators and the Scope of Their Crimes

Since the 19^th century there had existed an antisemitic plan to deport European Jews to the island of Madagascar.

In 1940, these plans were revived by the German Foreign Ministry and the Reich Security Main Office. However, the new parameters opened up by war allowed new, and significantly more extreme, possibilities. The Nazi regime deported the Jewish populations in occupied areas of Poland and France with brutal violence. What’s more, in Alsace and Lorraine some of the non-Jewish French population were also deported.

Photo by Hanns Hubmann, July 1940

The Gauleiter of Saar-Palatinate and radical anti-Semite, Josef Bürckel, liked to come across as down-to-earth. This propaganda photo depicts him eating stew at an event celebrating the return of the population to border areas that had been vacated for military purposes in July 1940. He would then be appointed Chief of the German Occupation Administration in Lorraine, while the Gauleiter of Baden, Robert Wagner, would be assigned the same role for Alsace. In their new positions, the two men would see the opportunity to have the Jews from their districts deported. It is assumed that they worked from their own initiative but could be sure of Adolf Hitler’s approval.

Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the political-racial police units centralised by the Reich Security Main Office, took over responsibility for carrying out the deportations. This was presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a success. To stave off potential criticism, he described this operation, which had not been previously agreed upon, as having been carried out on orders from the “Führer”. By his own admission, it was Heydrich’s colleague, Adolf Eichmann, who made the arrangements for the trains to cross the demarcation line. Eichmann said during his trial in Jerusalem in 1961 that he had been relieved when the operation had been successfully completed.<br />
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Letter from Reinhard Heydrich to the Foreign Ministry, 29.10.1940 — Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the political-racial police units centralised by the Reich Security Main Office, took over responsibility for carrying out the deportations. This was presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a success. To stave off potential criticism, he described this operation, which had not been previously agreed upon, as having been carried out on orders from the “Führer”. By his own admission, it was Heydrich’s colleague, Adolf Eichmann, who made the arrangements for the trains to cross the demarcation line. Eichmann said during his trial in Jerusalem in 1961 that he had been relieved when the operation had been successfully completed.

Letter from Reinhard Heydrich to the Foreign Ministry, 29.10.1940

Letter from Reinhard Heydrich to the Foreign Ministry, 29.10.1940

Adolf Eichmann was responsible for the organisation of all deportations. Here you can read his statements he made in Jerusalem about the deportations in October 1940.