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Policies Concerning Treatment of Jews in the Government-General

In order to preserve uniformity in dealing with all Jewish affairs, it is necessary to reach an understanding concerning the basis on which our future work will be built up.

On taking over the department of Jewish affairs in the Office of the Governor General, I am therefore turning to the advisers in this field and would like to outline briefly the attitude that will be appropriate in confrontation with Jewry. This will at the same time indicate the targets at which we must aim (Basic Working Principles 1-9). These working principles are roughly as follows:

1. Spatial separation between Poles and Jews. In the decision whether a person is a Jew or a non-Jew,* the sole essential factors are his racial origins and blood and his acceptance of Judaism (through marriage of a non-Jew with a Jew): not simply membership in a religious community.

2. A full Jew (Volljude) [here] – unlike in the Nuremberg Laws – is a person who has two or more Jewish grandparents or is married to a Jew and does not dissolve this connection.

3. As a matter of principle Jews are to work for Jews; for instance, only Jews are to be used for the building of accommodations for Jews.

4. The Jews are to establish their own social insurance system and are not to pay contributions to non-Jewish insurance schemes, nor make claims on non-Jewish facilities.

5. The property and funds of such Jewish organizations will be under the protection of the German Administration. The same applies to Jewish welfare establishments.

6. It should be considered whether, as a temporary measure, the Polish Red Cross may be used by Jews if Jews had up to now supported and helped this institution.

7. All measures must be directed at the target that later the whole of Jewry will be concentrated in a specific district and in one area of Jewish settlement, as a self-supporting society under the control of the Reich.

8. Preparation of a plan for the resettlement of 400,000 Jews who will enter the area of the Government-General after May 1, 1940.

9. Creation of archives on Polish Jews and Jews in general (newspaper reports, regulations, laws, culture, races, health care, etc.).

In addition you are requested to answer the following questions, as far as possible, in accordance with the situation in your district:

1. In which districts and which sub-districts do the largest number of Jews live at the present time, and what percentage do they form of the general population in those areas (with maps, if possible)?

2. Which areas are the least valuable economically as regards the nature of the soil? How large are they? Where are they situated (map)?

3. Which areas are least closely populated, how large are they, how many people live there at the present time? Why are they so sparsely populated? What nationalities live there (numbers!)? To what extent would it be possible to resettle the non-Jewish nationalities? Is the area suited for a purely Jewish colony?

4. What property is still in Jewish hands? Where is the Jewish property and of what does it consist? What additional means would have to be supplied for the settlement of the 400,000 Jews who will arrive here after May 1, 1940?

5. What proposals can you make for the accommodation of the deportees? What possibilities of work are there for the deportees in the various districts (preferably in public services)? What temporary arrangements – camps, etc. – are still available at the present time?

6. What has been done up to now in order to prevent as far as possible the likelihood of infection or disease being passed on to non-Jews? What is the position concerning health and hygiene among the Jews in the area of the Government-General, particularly where living conditions are cramped and close contact between Jews and non-Jews cannot be avoided?

In addition, I request a report on all plans for work and the dispatch of a record of all measures taken up to now by your office in any Jewish affairs.

 

(for) Dr. Gottong

Head of Department for Jewish Affairs

Eksterminacja, pp. 48-51.

Yad Vashem