■ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies Documenting Life and Destruction Holocaust Sources in Context SERIES EDITOR Jürgen Matthäus CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jan Lambertz DOCUMENTING LIFE AND DESTRUCTION HOLOCAUST SOURCES IN CONTEXT This groundbreaking series provides a new perspective on history using first- hand accounts of the lives of those who suffered through the Holocaust, those who perpetrated it, and those who witnessed it as bystanders. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies presents a wide range of documents from different archival holdings, expanding knowledge about the lives and fates of Holocaust victims and making these resources broadly available to the general public and scholarly communities for the first time. Books in the Series 1. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume I, 1933–1938 , Jürgen Matthäus and Mark Roseman (2010) 2. Children during the Holocaust , Patricia Heberer (2011) 3. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume II, 1938–1940, Alexandra Garbarini with Emil Kerenji, Jan Lambertz, and Avinoam Patt (2011) 4. The Diary of Samuel Golfard and the Holocaust in Galicia, Wendy Lower (2011) 5. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume III, 1941–1942 , Jürgen Matthäus with Emil Kerenji, Jan Lambertz, and Leah Wolfson (2013) 6. The Holocaust in Hungary: Evolution of a Genocide , Zoltán Vági, László Csősz, and Gábor Kádár (2013) 7. War, Pacification, and Mass Murder, 1939: The Einsatzgruppen in Poland , Jürgen Matthäus, Jochen Böhler, and Klaus-Michael Mallman (2014) 8. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume IV, 1942–1943 , Emil Kerenji (2015) 9. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume V, 1944–1946 , Leah Wolfson (2015) 10. The Political Diary of Alfred Rosenberg and the Onset of the Holocaust , Jürgen Matthäus and Frank Bajohr (2015) A project of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Sara J. Bloomfield Director Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies Paul A. Shapiro Director Jürgen Matthäus Director, Applied Research under the auspices of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council Peter Hayes, Chair Doris L. Bergen Richard Breitman Christopher R. Browning David Engel Zvi Y. Gitelman Paul Hanebrink Sara Horowitz Steven T. Katz William S. Levine Deborah E. Lipstadt Wendy Lower Michael R. Marrus John T. Pawlikowski Alvin H. Rosenfeld Menachem Z. Rosensaft George D. Schwab Michael A. Stein Jeffrey Veidlinger James E. Young Th is publication has been made possible by support from Th e Blum Family Foundation and The Curt E. and Else Silberman Fund Documenting Life and Destruction Holocaust Sources in Context THE POLITICAL DIARY OF ALFRED ROSENBERG AND THE ONSET OF THE HOLOCAUST Jürgen Matthäus and Frank Bajohr Edited by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and the Zentrum für Holocaust- Studien at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich Advisory Committee: Christopher R. Browning David Engel Sara Horowitz Steven T. Katz Alvin H. Rosenfeld Rowman & Littlefield in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2015 For USHMM: Project Manager: Mel Hecker Translators: Kathleen Luft, Jan Lambertz Researcher: Holly Robertson Huffnagle Map: Peter Palm Published by Rowman & Littlefield 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Front cover: Alfred Rosenberg in Paris, November 1940, USHMMPA WS#75932. Copyright © 2015 by Rowman & Littlefield British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Matthäus, Jürgen, 1959– The political diary of Alfred Rosenberg and the onset of the Holocaust / Jürgen Matthäus and Frank Bajohr. pages cm. — (Holocaust sources in context) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4422-5167-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-5168-7 (ebook) All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America German-occupied territories in Eastern Europe, 1941–1942 (Peter Palm/Berlin) Contents Map vii Abbreviations xi Acknowledgments xv Editors’ Note xvii PART I: INTRODUCTION TO ALFRED ROSENBERG AND HIS DIARY 1 PART II: ALFRED ROSENBERG’S DIARY 1934–1944 17 PART III: RELATED DOCUMENTS 353 PART IV: A “FINAL SOLUTION” IN “THE EAST”: ROSENBERG AND THE “JEWISH QUESTION” 413 Ideology Applied: Rosenberg’s Antisemitism and the Nazi System 413 New Opportunities: Operation Barbarossa and the Onset of Genocide 432 A “Final Solution” in “the East”: Rosenberg and the Holocaust 447 From Selective Memory to Lost Record: Th e Postwar Fate of Rosenberg’s Diary Notes 468 List of Related Documents 481 Bibliography 485 Index 491 About the Editors 509 ix Abbreviations AA German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) APA Foreign Policy Office of the Nazi Party (Aussenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP) BAB German Federal Archive Berlin (Bundesarchiv Berlin) BdM League of German Girls (Bund deutscher Mädel) BDO League of German Officers (Bund deutscher Offiziere) BFÜ Plenipotentiary for Supervising the Nazi Party’s Ideological Training (Beauftragter des Führers für die Überwachung der gesamten geistigen und weltanschaulichen Schulung der NSDAP) BUF British Union of Fascists BVP Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year Plan (Beauftragter für den Vierjahresplan) CDJC Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation (Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine), Paris DAF German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) DDC Document Disposal Committee (of the OCCWC) ERR Task Force Reichsleiter Rosenberg (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg) xi xii Abbreviations FHQ Führer Headquarters ( Führerhauptquartier ) Gestapo Secret State Police (Geheime Staatspolizei) HA Main department ( Hauptabteilung ) HGS Holocaust and Genocide Studies HJ Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) HSSPF Higher SS- and police leader ( Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer ) IfZ Institute for Contemporary History (Institut für Zeitgeschichte), Munich IMT International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg IMT Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal KfdK Combat Union for German Culture (Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur) Mk Reichsmark NARA National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland NIOD NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies), Amsterdam NKFD National Committee for a Free Germany (Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland) NSB National Socialist Movement (Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging), Netherlands NSDAP National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei); also Nazi Party, the Party OCCWC Office of the Chief of Counsel for War Crimes OKH German Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres) OKW German Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) Abbreviations xiii OUN Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Orhanizatsiya Ukrayins’kykh Natsionalistiv) OUSCCPAC Office of US Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality RJF Reich Youth Leadership (Reichsjugendführung) of the Nazi Party RFSS Reichsführer-SS RKF Reich commissioner for the strengthening of Germandom ( Reichskommissar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums ) RKO Reich Commissariat/commissioner for the Ostland ( Reichskommissariat/kommissar Ostland) RKU Reich Commissariat/commissioner for the Ukraine ( Reichskommissariat/kommissar Ukraine) RLM Reich Air Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium) RMdI Reich Ministry of the Interior (Reichsministerium des Inneren) RMfdbO Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete); also Ostministerium RMVP Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda) RPK Reich Press Chamber (Reichspressekammer) RSHA Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheits-Hauptamt) of the SS RSI Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana) RWM Reich Defense Ministry (Reichswehrministerium) SA Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilung) of the Nazi Party SD Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst) of the Nazi Party Sipo Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei), comprised of Gestapo and German Criminal Police SS Schutzstaffel of the Nazi Party StdF Deputy of the Führer ( Stellvertreter des Führers ) TWC Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10 (Nuremberg: US Government Printing Office, 1949) xiv Abbreviations USHMM United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC USHMMA USHMM Archives VB Völkischer Beobachter VEJ Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933–1945 YIVO Jewish Scientific Institute (Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut), New York, NY YVS Yad Vashem Studies Acknowledgments T HIS PUBLICATION is the result of a joint project by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and the Zentrum für Holocaust-Studien at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich. It would not have been possible without the support of the directors of both institutions, Paul A. Shapiro and Andreas Wirsching. Translation and publication of this volume has been made possible through the generous support of the Curt E. and Else Silberman Fund. We are grateful to Richard Breitman and Christopher Browning for valuable advice on the introduction. In preparing the diary for a German- and English-language edition, we received crucial support from Cristina Bejan, Karel Berkhoff, Radu Ioanid, Elke Matthäus, Henry Mayer, and Holly Robertson Huffnagle. Special thanks go to Kathleen Luft for her thoughtful translations of difficult texts and to Jan Lambertz for bringing her amazing historical and linguistic expertise to bear. Our colleagues at Rowman & Littlefield, Susan McEachern, Elaine McGarraugh, and Jennifer Kelland, once more helped transform an unwieldy manuscript into a sizable book. Jürgen Matthäus Frank Bajohr June 2015 xv Editors’ Note T HIS VOLUME includes translations for all available diary entries by Alfred Rosenberg for the period from 1934 to 1944 and offers additional docu- mentation as well as contextual annotation. Parts I and IV provide background information essential for the understanding of the primary sources printed in parts II (Rosenberg’s diary) and III (related documents). While part I is designed as a brief introduction, part IV addresses in greater detail Rosenberg’s role in the process leading up to the murder of the European Jews and recon- structs the postwar fate of Rosenberg’s diary until these notes were handed over to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in December 2013. Part II is an English translation of the original pages of Rosenberg’s diary held in the archive of the USHMM (RG-71 Acc. 2001.62.14) for the years 1936 to 1944 and at the National Archives and Records Administration (RG 238 NM-66, Entry 1, boxes 120–21) for 1934 and 1935. Readers interested in the linguistic and stylistic peculiarities of his writings should consult the USHMM’s website (which includes a German-language transcription) or the German edition. 1 In this translation, we have retained emphases made by Rosenberg, explained his frequent abbreviations, and added editorial comments 1. “The Alfred Rosenberg Diary,” USHMM, http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhi- bitions/online-features/special-focus/the-alfred-rosenberg-diary (accessed June 28, 2015); Jürgen Matthäus and Frank Bajohr, eds., Alfred Rosenberg. Die Tagebücher von 1934 bis 1944 (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 2015). xvii xviii Editors’ Note in brackets in the text and in footnotes; his deletions of text passages or single words have only been reproduced here where they seemed relevant. We have adapted the contextual information in the documents’ footnotes as well as in the explanatory parts I and IV to meet the needs of a more general English-language audience. While we have tried to identify all names men- tioned by Rosenberg, we have focused our annotation efforts on historically important persons and issues related to the Nazi regime’s discriminatory and genocidal policies. The same relevance criteria have been used to select and annotate the documents translated and published in part III. Most biographic notes and other editorial annotations can be found in part II; the index helps to locate alternative spellings, especially for place-names and geopolitical terms. Names misspelled in Rosenberg’s diary have been cor- rected in the footnotes. Where an English-language term does not convey the same meaning as the original German phrase, we have added the latter in brack- ets, and we have used German administrative descriptors, titles, and ranks for which there is no fitting English-language equivalent. Abbreviations used by Rosenberg are explained in brackets but have been retained where their mean- ing is self-evident due to frequent repetition within a paragraph. The bibliog- raphy contains a list of publications for further reading, while more specific references to primary and secondary sources can be found in the footnotes to parts I and IV. The assertions, arguments, and conclusions in the editorial emendations, commentary, and annotations are those of the volume editors and do not neces- sarily reflect the opinions of the USHMM or the Institut für Zeitgeschichte. 1 P A R T I Introduction to Alfred Rosenberg and His Diary D IARIES WRITTEN in the 1930s and 1940s have deeply influenced our understanding of Nazi Germany. “To bear witness to the end” was the declared goal of Victor Klemperer, a former literature professor who, as a Jew (under the Nazi classification system), lost his job after Adolf Hitler’s accession to power. In his diaries, Klemperer chronicled, in meticulous detail and with gripping immediacy, the demise of the Germany he knew. Others witnessing the Nazi onslaught on Jewish life, first in the Reich and later across large swaths of Europe, also recorded their thoughts, fears, and hopes in close chronological proximity to the events. These diarists did not know what would happen next; much less did they have any idea that the Nazi war on the Jews would bring about the destruction of European Jewry. Yet the rough directness and intense propinquity of their writings helps us understand the everyday dimensions of persecution and the uncertainties of the situations within which Jews had to act. 1 Few leading Nazis kept diaries, and blind spots and omissions mark these chronicles. The men around Hitler had little inclination to bear witness to historical reality or question their role in its making: Nazi top officials saw themselves as resolute “men of action,” not reflective pen pushers—after all, their attraction to activism had gotten them where they were during the Third 1. Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years (New York: Random House, 1998). On other Jewish diarists, see the five-volume source series Jewish Responses to Persecution, 1933–1946 (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield in association with the USHMM, 2010–2015) For an in-depth analysis of the genre, see Alexandra Garbarini, Numbered Days: Diaries and the Holocaust (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006).