Central Office for Jewish Emigration

Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration
Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung
Agency overview
Formed24 January 1939
Dissolved1945
JurisdictionNazi Germany
HeadquartersKurfürstenstraße, 115/116, Berlin
Agency executives
Parent departmentReich Ministry of the Interior (nominal)
Reichssicherheitshauptamt (de facto from 1941)

Central Office for Jewish Emigration (German: Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung) was a designation of Nazi institutions in Vienna, Prague and Amsterdam. Their head office, the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung), was based in Berlin. Their purpose was to expel Jews from Nazi-controlled areas.

History

The office in Vienna, created in the former Palais Albert Rothschild at Prinz-Eugen-Straße 20-22, was founded in August of 1938[1][2] by Adolf Eichmann. He began the office as a way of getting around the red tape the Jews of Austria faced when trying to leave the country.[3]

Every organization, public or private, which was associated with emigration was required to have a representative at the Central Office.[2] The Central Office answered to the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service; SD) office in Berlin.

The Central Office paid for the emigration of the Jews by taking money from wealthier Jews and using it to expel their fellows.[4]

Following the Vienna branch, Eichmann opened another branch in Prague. Eventually, Eichmann set up a Central Office so that all arrangements for emigration could be made in one location. On 24 January 1939, the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung) was established in Berlin by Hermann Göring[5] with Reinhard Heydrich at the head. It was charged with the task of using all available means to prompt Jews to emigrate, and of establishing a Jewish organization that would incorporate all of German Jewry and co-ordinate emigration from the Jewish side.

Structure and key personnel

Heydrich served as director. The day-to-day manager (Geschäftsführer) was initially Heinrich Müller, then head of Department II of the Gestapo. In October 1939, following a reconnaissance mission to occupied Poland, Eichmann was transferred to Berlin and succeeded Müller as manager.[6] The Reichszentrale was run through a policy committee composed of representatives from different government agencies and a Gestapo-controlled executive.[7] In its early months the office received some 200 applications per day and processed 6,187 cases by June 1939.

The Reichsvereinigung

A key instrument of the Reichszentrale was the compulsory Jewish umbrella body it relied upon to administer emigration at the community level. This was the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Association of Jews in Germany), formally established on 4 July 1939 by the Tenth Decree of the Reich Citizenship Law. Every person defined as Jewish under the Nuremberg Laws and resident in the Altreich was required to join.[8] The Reichsvereinigung was placed under the direct authority of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) and was tasked with organising and supporting emigration, as well as collecting levies from wealthier Jews to fund the departure of those without means.[9] The organisation's leadership, including Rabbi Leo Baeck, remained in place under coercion; most were eventually deported. The Reichsvereinigung was forcibly dissolved by the RSHA in June 1943 after the majority of its members had been deported and murdered.[10]

References

  1. ^ "Creation of the 'Central Office for Jewish Emigration' (August 1938)" (in German). Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Testimony of Wilhelm Hoettl at the trial of Adolf Eichmann". Archived from the original on 27 February 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  3. ^ "Establishment of the Central Office For Jewish Emigration in Vienna", published 20 August 1938, Introduction. Found at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/imoffice.html. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  4. ^ Judgment in the Trial of Adolf Eichmann, part 8. Retrieved 23 February 2010 from "Trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem: Judgment Part 8". Archived from the original on 26 February 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
  5. ^ Hilberg, Raul (1985). The Destruction of the European Jews. New York: Holmes & Meier. p. 160. ISBN 0-8419-0910-5.
  6. ^ "Reichszentrale für Jüdische Auswanderung" (in German). Ghetto Theresienstadt Lexikon. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
  7. ^ "Reichszentrale Fuer Juedische Auewanderung". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
  8. ^ "Jewish Organisations". The Wiener Holocaust Library. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
  9. ^ "Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland". European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) Portal. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
  10. ^ "Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland: Records". The Wiener Holocaust Library. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
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