Chapter 150 Chapter 25 "The Underworld Follows Him" ​​(1)

1943 Two days after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Reinhard Heydrich, who was in charge of deporting Jews, complained in writing that this was not the solution to the Jewish problem.For example, the deportation of these "unfit for destiny" to the French island of Madagascar had to be replaced by a more workable solution. On July 31, Heydrich received a brief order (signed by Goering on the orders of the Führer) instructing him to "make all the necessary organizational and financial preparations for the thorough Solve the Jewish question" (*Three weeks earlier, Hitler had hinted to Hewell what he would do. "I seem to be Robert Koch in politics." These words were drawn during a long evening in the sweltering bunker Said at the symposium. "He discovered the germ, and then medicine discovered a new method.

I have discovered the germ of the Jew and the leavening agent for the disintegration of society... I have proved one thing, that is, a country can survive without the Jew; without the Jew, the economy, art, culture, etc., will develop better .That's the worst blow I can give a Jew"). Hidden behind the tedious bureaucratic language was the overwhelming power given to the SS to exterminate the Jews of Europe.As a first step, Himmler—whose experience in Minsk still terrifies him—asked the head SS doctor what the best method of mass extermination was.The answer is: gas chambers.In the second step, he summoned Rudolf Hoss, the commander of the largest concentration camp in Poland, and secretly gave oral instructions. "He told me," Hoss testified, "to the effect that—I don't remember the exact words—that the Fuehrer had ordered that the Jewish question should be dealt with best. We, the SS, must carry out this order. If it is not carried out now, the future Jewish would have wiped out the German people." Himmler said he had chosen the concentration camp in Hoth on purpose because Auschwitz was strategically located near the German border and had enough space to meet the segregation requirements.Hoss warned that such an operation should be treated as an imperial state secret.He was not allowed to discuss the issue with his immediate boss.So after Hoss returned to Poland, behind the back of the prosecutor of the concentration camp, he secretly expanded the site in order to turn it into the largest killing center in human history.What he did not even tell his wife.

The reason why Hitler came up with the concept of concentration camps and believed that mass murder was feasible.According to him, it was the result of his research on the history of Britain and the United States.He admired the concentration camps for Boer prisoners of war in South Africa and the concentration camps for Indians in the wild west in the United States; he often praised the extermination of America - by starvation and even war - those that could not be tamed by captivity. The red "barbarian". To this day, he is still careful to combine his general government with that of Germany, because the general goals of both are the same.The revival of German honor and military power, the recovery of the German land, and even the expansion of living space to the east, all these were supported by the majority of his countrymen.However, a crossroads was finally in front of him.Hitler had to take a detour and solve the Jewish question once and for all.While many Germans were willing to join this nationalist crusade, most Germans wanted only the continuation of the limited persecution of the Jews, which had the tacit approval of millions of Westerners.

It was Hitler's intention to begin the extermination of the Jews in secrecy, then to leak the information to his own people bit by bit, and finally to reveal the details to them when the time came.This would bind the fate of the German people with his own, and his fate would become the fate of Germany.Thus linked to his expedition to cleanse Europe of the Jews, it will become a national mission and will mobilize the people of the country to greater efforts and sacrifices.It can also cut off the backs of the hesitant and benevolent. Up to this point, all this was still kept secret from Hitler's close staff - including secretaries, adjutants, servants and personal staff.Then, in the autumn of 1941, the Führer made public comments around the dinner table.This may be a temptation to reveal the truth. In mid-October, after talking about the people's need to be polite and well-behaved in their lives, he said: "But the most important thing is to eradicate the Jews. Without this, it is futile to remove the dirt no matter how clean it is." Two days later, he said that More clearly: "On the podium of the parliament, I predicted to the Jewish nation that if war is inevitable, the Jews will disappear from Europe. In the First World War, 2 million people died, and this evil nation has already Ashamed; now thousands more are dead. Don't tell me you can't put them in the Russian swamps either! Who cares about our troops? By the way, there are rumors among the public that we There's a plan to exterminate the Jews. It's a good idea. Terror is a salutary thing." He predicted that the attempt to establish a Jewish state was doomed to failure. "I have a lot of accounts to settle, but I can't think about them today. That's not to say I've forgotten them. I'll have a thick book out then! Even on Jewish issues, I find myself still very inactive. There is no point in making it more difficult when it is difficult enough at present. He who is good at waiting for an opportunity acts wisely."

One reason Hitler delayed the Final Solution was that he hoped that by hinting at the threat of extermination of the Jews, he would keep Roosevelt out of the war.However, the attack on Pearl Harbor dashed this slender hope.As a result, Hitler's hope turned into resentment, and "extermination" became a form of international revenge. After the decision was made, the Führer told those involved in the "Final Solution" that the massacre should be as humane as possible.This is in line with his beliefs.That is to say, he obeyed the will of God and wiped out the pests in the world.Despite his hatred of the hierarchy of the Roman Church (“I am and always will be a Catholic”), he was a fairly qualified Catholic and kept Catholic teachings in mind.That is to say, Jesus was killed by the Jews.To exterminate the Jews, therefore, was to avenge Jesus without incurring any pangs of conscience—as long as it was done objectively, without cruelty, with respect—and that pleased Himmler.He tasked experts with building gas chambers that would be both highly effective and "humane" for the mass extermination of Jews.He then loaded the victims into vans and sent them east to live in caves until the killing centers in Poland were completed.

Now, the time has come to establish a cleaning mechanism.Heydrich, who was in charge of setting up this institution, sent invitations to a number of state secretaries and heads of the main SS offices to attend the "Final Solution" meeting on December 10, 1941.The people who were invited only knew that the Jews were going to be escorted to the east, but they didn't quite understand the meaning of "final settlement".Therefore, they looked forward to the meeting with great interest. As the meeting was postponed for six weeks, their curiosity slowly died away.Frank, the head of the Polish government in the German-occupied area, was impatient to wait, so he sent his deputy Philip Poehler to Heydrich to inquire about the details, and held a meeting in Krakow in mid-December. "I will tell you publicly," said Hitler's former lawyer, "that in one way or another we will always kill the Jews." Heads of state present. Mass emigration is about to begin, for sure. But what will happen to the Jews? Do you think they will actually settle in the villages in the east? In Berlin, people say to us, why bother?' We have no use for them in the East. Let the dead bury their dead!'" He urged his audience not to sympathize with them. "Wherever it is possible to exterminate the Jews wherever they are found." This was a daunting task that could not be accomplished through legal means.Neither courts nor judges can afford to enforce such an extreme policy.He estimated—roughly—that there were 3.5 million Jews in the German-occupied areas. "We can't shoot these 3.5 million people, we can't poison them. But we can take steps to exterminate them successfully. I mean the measures that are being discussed in Berlin. Like the Reich, there will be no Jews in the German occupation. In Where and when? We're going to set up an agency here, that's their job. I'll tell you how they're going to do it then."

When Poehler came to Berlin on January 20, 1942, to attend a meeting convened by Heydrich, he knew better than most of the participants what was going on at the meeting.At about 11 o'clock in the morning, in a room of the "Main Office of Reich Security", located at 56-58 Grossen-Wanser Street, 15 large men were assembled, including representatives of Rosenberg's Eastern Department, and Goering. Representatives from the PLA Air Force Planning Department, representatives from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Party Affairs.After everyone sat down casually at the table, Chairman Heydrich began to speak.He said he was "charged with the task of bringing out the final solution to the Jewish question regardless of borders."After this euphemism, he went on to say something confusing (this was about Hitler): "No immigration now," he said, "there is a better solution, The Führer has given his consent—that is, to expel them to the East."

Having said that, Heydrich produced a chart showing where Jewish ghettos were to be evacuated.He also hints at their fate.Those who are fit to work will form a labor team, but those who survived the ordeal are not allowed to move freely.Because then they would "form new bacterial cells and rejuvenate the Jewish people. History has taught us this lesson." Georg Lebrand, the representative of Rosenberg's office, was puzzled.Martin Luther at the Foreign Office was also confused.He protested that a mass evacuation of Jews would cause serious difficulties for countries such as Denmark and Norway.Why not limit the deportations to the Balkans and Eastern Europe?Participants left Berlin with a variety of images in their minds.Poehler understood exactly what Heydrich was saying.But Luther told Fritz Hesse that there was no plan to kill the Jews.Lebrand and his boss, Alfred Meyer, made a similar briefing to Rosenberg.They said there was no mention of extinction at the meeting.

Thirty minutes of the meeting were distributed to the various ministries and main offices of the SS.Thus the term "Final Solution" became known in the imperial apparatus.However, the true meaning of Heydrich's words can only be understood by those who have been close to the extermination operation.Strangely enough, however, many of these select individuals believed that Adolf Hitler himself was unaware of their plot to commit mass murder.SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann, who headed the Gestapo's "Jewish Retreat Office", for example, considered this a myth.After the Wannsee conference, he joined Gestapo chiefs Müller and Heydrich "sitting comfortably around the fireplace", drinking and singing. "After a while, we climbed up on the chairs and toasted each other; then climbed up the table, climbed up on the chairs and walked around." Eichmann joined the celebration, not in the least disgusted. "At that time," he later testified, "I really felt a bit like Pilate, because I had no guilt in my heart... Who am I going to judge? In this case, I Whom can you talk to?" He, Müller and Heydrich, were merely enforcing the laws enacted by the Führer himself.

A few days later, Hitler himself involuntarily confirmed that the "Final Solution" was indeed proposed by him. "We must take drastic action," he said in Himmler's presence at lunch on January 23. "When a tooth is pulled out, the pain disappears as soon as it is pulled hard. Europe must be rid of the Jews. The Jews stand in the way. When I think of this, I just feel that I am extremely humane. The Jews were still mistreated in Rome when the church regulations were enforced. Until 1830, 8 Jews were parading through the streets of Rome every year on donkeys. As for me, I limited myself to telling them that they should walk. If something happens in the middle, I can’t do anything about it. But if they don’t walk on their own initiative, I have no choice but to exterminate them.” Before that, he had never told the Communist Party The diner has said so openly.Almost engrossed in this question.By January 27, he again wanted to wipe out all Jews from Europe.

A few days later, to celebrate the National Socialist Party's ninth anniversary in power, he gave a speech at the stadium, publicly exposed his concerns about the Jews. "I don't really want to talk about the Jews," he said.Then, he said at length: "They are our old enemies. Because of us, their plans went bankrupt, so they hate us, and we hate them. We understand that at the end of this war, it is not the Germanic nation that disappeared from Europe , the Jews will disappear.” He reminded his audience—about 40 senior military officers among them—that, as early as 1939, he had predicted that the Jews would be wiped out. "It was the first time that none other than the Jews bled to death; it was also the first time that the ancient Jewish law of 'an eye for an eye' was applied. The more the struggle unfolded, the more the anti-Semitic struggle And the more it will continue -- let the Jews of the world believe this. They will find a home in every prisoner-of-war camp, in every family that wakes up why it was sacrificed. Get rid of the world's worst The time will come when our enemies will not be able to do it for at least a thousand years." To those who were designing the gas chambers, to those who were building the killing centers in Poland, and especially to those who were using the "final solution" apparatus, this was the clarion call of mass murder.But to foreign observers, such as Arvid Freiburg, Hitler's appearance and speech that afternoon seemed to be a harbinger of disaster for Germany. "His face," the Swedish journalist wrote, "seemed weather-beaten and he seemed indecisive."