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...One
way or another - I will tell you that quite openly
- we must finish off the Jews. The Fuehrer put it into
words once: should united Jewry again succeed in setting off a
world war, then the blood sacrifice shall not be made only by
the peoples driven into war, but then the Jew of Europe will
have met his end. I know that there is criticism of many of
the measures now applied to the Jews in the Reich. There are
always deliberate attempts to speak again and again of
cruelty, harshness, etc.; this emerges from the reports on the
popular mood. I appeal to you: before I now continue speaking
first agree with me on a formula: we will have pity, on
principle, only for the German people, and for nobody else in
the world. The others had no pity for us either. As an old
National-Socialist I must also say that if the pack of Jews (Judensippschaft)
were to survive the war in Europe while we sacrifice the best
of our blood for the preservation of Europe, then this war
would still be only a partial success. I will therefore, on
principle, approach Jewish affairs in the expectation that the
Jews will disappear. They must go. I have started negotiations
for the purpose of having them pushed off to the East. In
January there will be a major conference on this question in
Berlin,* to which I shall send State Secretary Dr. Buehler.
The conference is to be held in the office of SS Obergruppenfuehrer
Heydrich at the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt).
A major Jewish migration will certainly begin.
But
what should be done with the Jews? Can you believe that they
will be accommodated in settlements in the Ostland? In
Berlin we were told: why are you making all this trouble? We
don't want them either, not in the Ostland nor in the Reichskommissariat;
liquidate them yourselves! Gentlemen, I must ask you to steel
yourselves against all considerations of compassion. We must
destroy the Jews wherever we find them, and wherever it is at
all possible, in order to maintain the whole structure of the
Reich... The views that were acceptable up to now cannot be
applied to such gigantic, unique events. In any case we must
find a way that will lead us to our goal, and I have my own
ideas on this.
The
Jews are also exceptionally harmful feeders for us. In the
Government-General we have approximately 2.5 million [Jews],
and now perhaps 3.5 million together with persons who have
Jewish kin, and so on. We cannot shoot these 3.5 million
Jews,** we cannot poison them, but we will be able to take
measures that will lead somehow to successful destruction; and
this in connection with the large-scale procedures which are
to be discussed in the Reich. The Government-General must
become as free of Jews as the Reich. Where and how this is to
be done is the affair of bodies which we will have to appoint
and create, and on whose work I will report to you when the
time comes....
PS-2233.
*
See Document 117.
**
The figures are not based on facts. |
