Correspondence, decrees and lists for the Karlsruhe / Baden area: Registration and deportation of Polish Jews; short report and list of names for the "Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich" (1938-1939)

Scope and content

The first letter of this subunit is dated 07/07/1938 and is the only document in the context of the so-called "Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich". It is a short report ("Vorbeugende Verbrechensbekämpfung") of the Karlsruhe Criminal Investigation Department to the local police president concerning the arrest of 40 male Jews and 84 so-called "anti-social persons" in mid-June 1938 and their admission to the CC Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Dachau. Included is a list with names and dates of birth of the 40 Jews concerned (Doc ID 11200764).

In the main, the subunit consists of a detailed documentation of the state persecution of Jews of Polish nationality in the Karlsruhe / Württemberg-Baden area for the period from October 18, 1938 to December 29, 1939, focusing on the ban on residence directed against them, their arrests carried out in this context and the deportation of the male prisoners to the German-Polish border on October 28 and 29, 1938, as well as the subsequent debates and political decrees. With regard to the so-called "Polenaktion" of October 1938, there is, among other things, a directory with information on the names, dates of birth and addresses of the 63 male Jews concerned, cf. Doc ID 11200770, see also: Doc ID: 11200778.

Mainly the following sources are included in the bulk:
- Decrees and correspondence of the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior in Berlin, addressed to the Gestapo Karlsruhe, various district offices and police headquarters in Baden, to Stapo (leading) offices and non-Prussian state governments (excluding Austria and Sudetengau) as well as to the German Border Service in Neu-Bentschen,
- Various letters and reports of the police headquarters in Karlsruhe with numerous typewritten and handwritten lists (also of other police stations) of persecuted persons.

For the entire period (Oct. 1938 to Dec. 1939) is documented among other things:
- The bureaucratic registration of all Jews with Polish citizenship living in the Karlsruhe (Baden) area,
- Correspondence on the financing of the deportation of October 1938 (see also Doc ID 11200805),
- The development in dealing with the women and children who remained on the spot. Among other things, it contains a Personal data sheet pertaining to the wife and children of a deported polish Jew (cf. Doc ID 11200799).
- Results of the negotiations between the Nazi authorities and the Polish state.

I) In the debate about further deportations to Poland in the course of 1939, the focus was on the initial deportation detention in concentration camps (Jewish women were now also threatened by deportations). Jewish men were to be sent to CC Buchenwald, Jewish women to CC Ravensbrück. In this context, notes can be found on the age limit with regard to admissions to a camp. The correspondence between the police president in Karlsruhe and the Gestapo Berlin documents the persistent urge from Karlsruhe for the rapid deportation or camp admission of all Polish, foreign and stateless Jews still in the Karlsruhe area, cf. Doc ID 11200820, 11200838, among others. The Gestapo Berlin approved the admission of Polish Jews to a concentration camp, cf. Doc ID 11200844
- In this context, a letter from the Upper Council of the Israelites of Baden dated June 23, 1939 should be emphasized. In this letter, the lawyer Julius Ellenbogen asked the police headquarters in Karlsruhe for an extension of the time limit for the prohibition of residence, see Doc ID 11200818. A relevant decision of the Minister of the Interior dated July 5, 1939 can be found under Doc ID 11200826.
The correspondence with, among others, the District Commissioner in Kuschten is in the context of the preparations for the so-called "Second Polenaktion", which was planned for July 31, 1939 and instead took place in mid-September 1939.
- It is worth mentioning an order by Werner Best (on behalf of the Reichsführer SS) concerning the temporary cessation of further deportations due to the tightened Polish border surveillance of July 8, 1939, see Doc ID 11200829.

II) For the year 1939, there are also correspondence and decrees concerning the permission of the Jewish men deported to Poland in October 1938 to briefly re-enter the German Reich. The decision was taken in the context of the planned "aryanization" of the property in spring/summer 1939. Subsequently, the men were again to be deported to Poland, now with women and children (cf. Doc ID 11200795ff.).
To be emphasized are:
- Letter of the Reich Minister of the Interior concerning visas in Polish passports, 26.12.1938-05.05.1939, cf. among others Doc ID 11200807.
- Letter from the Karlsruhe Criminal Investigation Department and lists of the whereabouts and property of Polish Jews who were registered in the Karlsruhe area and some of whom were no longer present (in particular for the period 09/11-16/1939). It contains information on emigration or flight or immersion of the persecuted persons (cf., inter alia: Doc ID 11200825; 11200841; 11200849-11200854; 11200871-11200880; 11200891- 11200907).

The subunit contains among other things:
- lists of Jews of Polish citizenship (separated by gender),
- List with 77 names and dates of birth of (majority) women of Polish nationality who are still in the Karlsruhe area. Contains planned departure dates given by the persons concerned, approx. June 1939, Doc ID 11200821.
- Directory of 22 Jewish (Polish or stateless) women (with dates of birth) who were to be taken into deportation custody, 07/25/1939, cf. Doc ID 11200832; see also: Doc ID 11200887,
- a standardized letter from the Police President in Karlsruhe, addressed to all listed Jews with Polish citizenship, concerning their impending admission to a camp, 20.08.1939 (Doc ID 11200837).
- Lists of those affected (with names and dates of birth), see: Doc ID 11200839ff.
- Various undeliverable postcards of the Karlsruhe Police Headquarters addressed to Jewish women concerning their police summons, 09/06-07/1939 (Doc ID 11200855ff.).
- Excerpt: „Merkblatt für die Anleitung der Volksgenossen bei der Ausfüllung der Volkskarteikarten“ (Information sheet for the instructions of the Volksgenossen when filling in the people's file cards) (supplement to the police register of residents), undated, Doc ID 11200867.
- Correspondence on how to deal with stateless and foreign Jews residing in the Karlsruhe area, as well as lists of these Jews (cf. et al: Letter concerning deportation detention of stateless Jews, 07/29/1939, Doc ID 11200834; letter concerning deportation of foreign Jews, 07/31/1939, Doc ID 11200835; listing of names and dates of birth of persons with French, British, Polish citizenship and stateless persons, Doc ID 11200847; "Enemy foreigners" Doc ID 11200883; 11200885).

A letter from the Foreigners' Office in Karlsruhe concerning the whereabouts of (Polish) Jewish women in the border zone, 09/26/1939, Doc ID 11200881; 11200888 should be emphasized.

The document with the latest date is a letter from the Karlsruhe State Police Headquarters to the Land councilors, police presidents and directors in Baden, as well as to the Gestapo field offices and border police commissariats in Baden and to the Minister of the Interior, concerning a decree of the RSHA of 12/21/1939, in which the prohibition of the deportation of "Jews from the Old Reich including the Ostmark and the Protectorate to the occupied Polish territories" was ordered, 12/27/1939, Doc ID: 11200890.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

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