Fatherland

cheek. "Don't tell me. It's empty."
    "No. It's not empty. It's full."
    He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his hands. Then he turned the case upside down and shook the contents out onto the bedspread.

4

    Affidavit sworn by Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary, Interior Ministry:
    [4 pages; typewritten]

    On Sunday, December 21, 1941, the Interior Ministry's Adviser on Jewish Affairs, Dr. Bernhard Losener, made an urgent request to see me in private. Dr. Losener arrived at my home in a state of extreme agitation. He informed me that his subordinate, the Assistant Adviser on Racial Affairs, Dr. Werner Feldscher, had heard "from a fully reliable source, a friend" that the one thousand Jews recently evacuated from Berlin had been massacred in the Rumbuli Forest in Poland. He further informed me that his feelings of outrage were sufficient to prevent him from continuing his present employment in the Ministry, and he therefore requested to be transferred to other duties. I replied that I would seek clarification on this matter.
    The following day, at my request, I visited Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich in his office in Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. The Obergruppenführer confirmed that Dr. Feldscher's information was correct and pressed me to discover its source, as such breaches of security could not be tolerated. He then dismissed his adjutant from the room and said that he wished to speak to me on a private basis.
    He informed me that in July he had been summoned to the Führer's headquarters in East Prussia. The Führer had spoken to him frankly in the following terms: He had decided to resolve the Jewish Question once and for all. The hour had arrived. He could not rely upon his successors having the necessary will or the military power he now commanded. He was not afraid of the consequences. People presently revered the French Revolution, but who now remembered the thousands of innocents who had died? Revolutionary times were governed by their own laws. When Germany had won the war, nobody would ask afterward how we did it. Should Germany lose the mortal struggle, at least those who had hoped to profit from the defeat of National Socialism would be wiped out. It was necessary to remove the biological bases of Judaism once and for all. Otherwise the problem would erupt to plague future generations. That was the lesson of history.
    Obergruppenführer Heydrich stated further that the necessary powers to enable him to implement this Führer Order had been granted to him by Reichsmarschall Göring on 31.7.41. These matters would be discussed at the forthcoming interdepartmental conference. In the meantime, he urged me to use whatever means I considered necessary to discover the identity of Dr. Feldscher's source. This was a matter of the highest security classification.
    I thereupon suggested that, in view of the grave issues involved, it would be appropriate, from a legal point of view, to have the Führer Order placed in writing. Obergruppenführer Heydrich stated that such a course was impossible, due to political considerations, but that if I had any reservations I should take them up with the Führer personally. Obergruppenführer Heydrich concluded our meeting by remarking in a jocular manner that we should have no cause for concern on legalistic grounds, considering that I was the Reich's chief legal draftsman and he was the Reich's chief policeman.
    I hereby swear that this is a true record of our conversation, based upon notes taken by myself that same evening.
    Signed, Wilhelm Stuckart (attorney)
    Dated June 4, 1942, Berlin
    Witnessed, Josef Buhler (attorney)

5

    Across the city the day died. The sun dropped behind the dome of the Great Hall, gilding it like the cupola of a giant mosque. With a hum, the floodlights cut on along the Avenue of Victory and the East-West Axis. The afternoon crowds melted, dissolved, re-formed as nighttime queues outside the cinemas and restaurants, while above the Tiergarten, lost in the gloom, an airship droned.
    Reich Ministry for Foreign Affairs Secret State Document

    Dispatch from German Ambassador in London, Herbert von Dirksen

    Account of conversations with Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, United States Ambassador to Great Britain

    [Extracts; two pages, printed]

    Received Berlin, June 13, 1938
    Although he did not know Germany, [Ambassador Kennedy] had learned from the most varied sources that the present government had done great things for Germany and