SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 209
and dated 17 October 1941, speaks of “measures to be taken after the
end of the war towards a fundamental solution of the Jewish question.”
611
During a meeting of Reichsmarschall Göring with the Reichskommissars
for the occupied territories and the military commanders, which
took place on 6 August 1942, Rosenberg declared: 612
“The Jewish question for Europe and for Germany can be considered
solved only when no more Jews exist on the European continent.”
We may thus conclude that the Wannsee meeting was convened
solely for the purpose of informing the agencies concerned that emigration
and the Madagascar plan had been abandoned, replaced as they
were by the start of a new policy of large scale deportations of Jews into
the East, and of discussing the problems arising from the new situation.
The Madagascar plan officially was shelved on 10 February 1942. The
reasons are explained in a note by Rademacher to envoy Harald Bielfeld
of the Foreign Ministry, written on that day: 613
“In August of 1940 I transmitted to you for your files the plan
elaborated by my department for the final solution of the Jewish
question, whereby the island of Madagascar was to be ceded by
France, with the practical implementation of this task to be entrusted
to the RSHA. In accordance with this plan, Gruppenführer
Heydrich was ordered by the Führer to carry out the solution of the
Jewish question in Europe.
The war against the Soviet Union has meanwhile opened up the
possibility of providing other territories for the final solution. The
Führer has decided accordingly that the Jews will not be deported to
Madagascar but to the East. Hence, Madagascar need no longer be
considered for the final solution.”
This shows clearly that the “Endlösung” was of a territorial nature
and consisted in the deportation of the Jews to the territories held by
Germany in the East. This is in perfect agreement with another important
document, the Luther memorandum of August of 1942. In it, Luther
resumed primarily the essential elements of NS policy towards the
Jews: 614
611 PA, Politische Abteilung III 245, AZ Po 36, vol. I.
612 URSS-170. IMT, vol. XXXIV, p. 417.
613 NG-5770.
614 NG-2586-J.