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The Central
Bureau for Jewish Emigration was an office through which the
Security Police and the SD promoted the departure of Jews. It was
headed by Adolf Eichmann, who orchestrated the expulsion of Austrian
Jewry in ways that would subsequently be applied in deporting Jews
throughout Europe: concentration of Austrian Jews in Vienna; setting
defined quotas and tasking the Jewish community with full
responsibility for filling them; eliminating bureaucratic obstacles;
and, charging wealthy Jews for the expenses of ousting the needy.
On January
24, 1939, Hermann Goering established a similar center in
Germany-the Reich Center for Jewish Emigration-and installed
Reinhard Heydrich at its head. After the Reich occupied Bohemia and
Moravia, a central office patterned after that in Vienna was set up
under Heinrich Mueller. The office in Prague would eventually
oversee the banishment of Jews from the Protectorate to
Theresienstadt. The offices in Vienna and Prague were subordinated
to the Reich Center for Jewish Emigration, the management of which
was handed to Eichmann.
After
Poland was occupied, Eichmann was instructed to deport the Jewish
population from the western Polish provinces, which Germany had
annexed. In December 1939, he was further tasked with the
"centralized treatment of all Security Police affairs
associated with the evacuation of the eastern area." |
