Latvijas Vēsturnieku komisijas raksti - 23.sējums

Dr. Matthew Kott. What Does the Holocaust in the Baltic States Have to Do with the SS’ Plans?
a convenient laboratory for experimenting in building a model “SSified” state. This model
could then be perfected and applied later for the eventual seizure of power by the SS
in Germany proper. 7
Just as the Holocaust in the Baltics and the USSR was foremost in Himmler’s mind
in 1941, so was the struggle for control of the Germanic countries, and particularly
Norway, a key concern of his in 1940. Already from the outset of the German invasion
on 9 April 1940, Himmler was working quickly to infiltrate high-ranking SS placemen
in positions within the Nazi occupation apparatus in Norway. The offices which these
special emissaries of Himmler held were often as heads of seemingly unassuming,
middle-rank departments, yet all these men held incongruously high ranks within the SS.
Furthermore, many of them were assigned special personal powers as advisers (Berater)
to various organisations in Norway over which the SS sought to take control, such as
the Norwegian police, or Vidkun Quisling’s Nasjonal Samling (National Unity) party.
After Quisling’s first attempt at seizing power in a coup on 9 April was quashed by
the German authorities, a power struggle ensued for how Norway would be run. The
two main factions were led, on the one side, by the Nazi Reichskommissar for Norway,
Josef Terboven, and on the other, by the clique of SS advisers. 8 Throughout the summer
of 1940, there were intense negotiations over how the Norwegian collaborationist
administration would be constructed, and who would lead it. When the jockeying between
the factions resulted in a deadlock, Adolf Hitler made the final decision in September
1940 naming Quisling and his Nasjonal Samling party the sole partners in ruling the
occupied Norway with the Germans. On the face of things, this was a clear setback
for Himmler’s faction, and one by one the Reichsführer-SS recalled his special envoys
transferring them to other duties of more immediate importance.
Interesting to note is that there is a significant overlap of key SS personnel between
the early phases of the German occupation in Norway, and the genocidal activities of
Einsatzgruppe A (EG A) in the Baltic countries and Belarus.
The most prominent example is that of Franz Walther Stahlecker, most widely
known as the commander of EG A and Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des
SD (BdS) for Reichskommissariat Ostland from 1941 until his death in March 1942.
His consolidated report of 15 October 1941 is one of the most infamous and damning
documents in the history of the Holocaust. 9
Prior to this, however, Stahlecker had also served as BdS for occupied Norway as
well. Already in April 1940, Himmler chose Stahlecker as one of his key representatives
in Oslo. Stahlecker arrived in Norway in mid-April at the head of a 200-man-strong
Einsatzgruppe. 10 Bearing also the official title of Ministerialrat, Stahlecker enjoyed a
broad remit in shaping the organs of local administration and reorganising the police
forces in Norway to fit the needs of the occupation regime. Stahlecker was also one
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