SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 215
Counselor Wetzel, a member of Rosenberg’s staff, answered on his
behalf by means of a letter dated 16 January 1942 addressed to Reichskommissar
Lohse: 625
“Re: Evacuation of Jews from Germany to Minsk.
I have received the letter dated 5 January 1942 from the city
commissar at Minsk, of which I enclose a retyped copy for your information.
I have been informed by the RSHA that 25,000 Jews from the
Reich were scheduled for Minsk to be temporarily housed there in
the local ghetto. Of these, some 7-8,000 have arrived at Minsk. The
remainder cannot be moved to Minsk for the time being because of
transportation problems. However, as soon as these problems will
have been overcome, it is likely that these Jews will reach Minsk. I
ask you to instruct the Minsk city commissar in this sense and to request
him to get in touch with the competent police commander in
the matter of food and housing for the Jews. I ask you moreover, to
advise him [the city commissar] to use the official way of communication
in the future.”
On 6 February 1942, however, the Generalkommissar for White Ruthenia,
Wilhelm Kube, backed Janetzke’s request. He restated that it
was impossible to accept a further contingent of 25,000 Jews in a city
like Minsk, 80% of which lay in ruins. 626
On 26 June 1942, the Chief of the security police and the SD said in
a report: 627
“The measures taken by the security police and the SD must
bring about basic changes in White Ruthenia as well. In order to establish
control over the Jews, regardless of any future dispositions,
Jewish councils of elders were set up which are responsible to the
security police and the SD for the attitude of their racial brethren.
Furthermore, registration of the Jews as well as their concentration
in ghettos has started. Finally, the Jews have been identified by a
yellow mark to be worn on the chest and on the back similar to the
Jewish star used in the Reich territory. In order to make use of the
labor potential of the Jews they are normally employed in groups
and for clearing operations.
625 GARF, 7445-2-145, p. 68.
626 GARF, 7445-2-145, p. 72-73.
627 “Meldungen aus den besetzten Ostgebieten Nr. 9” (Messages from the occupied eastern
territoties, no 9), Berlin, 26 June 1942. Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennii Vojennii Archiv (Russian
State War Museum, subsequently quoted as RGVA), 500-1-755, p. 190.