Response by Himmler to General von Ginant

Reichsfuehrer

Journal No. AR 31/22/42 October 9, 1942

Secret!

With reference to the memorandum from the Commander of the Military District (Wehrkreisbefehlshaber) in the Government-General to the OKW [High Command of the Wehrmacht] concerning the replacement of Jewish labor by Poles, I have the following comments:

1. I have given orders that all so-called armament workers who are actually employed solely in tailoring, furrier and shoe-making workshops be collected in concentration camps on the spot, i.e., in Warsaw and Lublin, under the direction of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Kruger and SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl. The Wehrmacht will send its orders to us, and we guarantee the continuous delivery of the items of clothing required. I have issued instructions, however, that ruthless steps be taken against all those who consider they should oppose this move in the alleged interest of armaments needs, but who in reality only seek to support the Jews and their own businesses.

2. Jews in real war industries, i.e., armament workshops, vehicle workshops, etc., are to be withdrawn step by step. As a first stage they are to be concentrated in separate halls in the factories. In a second stage in this procedure the work teams in these separate halls will be combined, by means of exchange, into closed enterprises wherever this is possible, so that we will then have simply a few closed concentration-camp industries in the Government-General.

3. Our endeavor will then be to replace this Jewish labor force with Poles and to consolidate most of these Jewish concentration-camp enterprises into a small number of large Jewish concentration-camp enterprises ? in the eastern part of the Government-General, if possible. But there, too, in accordance with the wish of the Fuehrer, the Jews are some day to disappear.

signed H. Himmler

Distribution:

1. SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl

2. SS Obergruppenfuehrer Krueger

3. SS Brigadefuehrer Globocnik

4. Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt)

5. SS Obergruppenfuehrer Wolff.

NO-1611.