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Central
Office for Vienna, IV., June 12, 1939
Jewish
Emigration
To
SS
Obersturmbannfuehrer Krueger
Ministry
for Interior and
Cultural
Affairs
Vienna,
I.,
Re:
Withdrawal of [status as] legally recognized public
corporation from the Jewish Community of Vienna.
Proceedings:
Conversation between Privy Councilor SS Obersturmbannfuehrer
Krueger and SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Eichmann of June
6, 1939.
With
reference to the above conversation concerning the withdrawal
of status as legally recognized public corporation from the
Jewish Community of Vienna, we wish to report the following:
Contrary
to the position in Berlin, we were able to arrange back in the
middle of last year that the Jewish financial institutions
abroad, such as the "Council for German Jewry," the
"American Joint Distribution Committee,"
"Hicem," etc., provide considerable sums in foreign
currency for Jewish emigration from Germany, after, on the one
hand, the responsible leaders of the Jewish organizations had
undergone the appropriate handling, and, on the other, various
agreements could be made with the Reich Ministry of Economics.
Subsequently, about $1,400,000 was transferred in foreign
currency from Paris and London to Vienna. These sums in
foreign currency are controlled and administered by the
Central Office for Jewish Emigration in cooperation with the
Foreign Currency Department in Vienna.
In
view of the purpose for which these sums are to be used, the
Reich Ministry of Economics has authorized the release of
these sums from the required levy and, in addition, permits
this foreign currency to be paid to the Jews in the Ostmark
[Austria] at unlimited exchange rates.
This
foreign currency made it possible, on the one hand, for the
emigration of Jews to be carried out, as this currency enabled
them to produce the sums required as landing money, and, on
the other hand, the requirements of the Jewish organizations
in the Ostmark could be financed. (The monthly budget
of the Jewish Community in Vienna, for instance, amounted to
more than 1,200,000 Reichmarks. For understandable reasons the
tax income of the Jewish Community is dropping continuously.
At the present time about 36,000 Jews must receive assistance
for food, etc., from the Jewish Community, and the whole
network of Jewish employees has to be maintained in the
interest of speeding the emigration of the Jews, etc.)
With
the aid of this income in foreign currency and the resultant
funds here, and also through the creation of other, additional
opportunities for immigration, it was possible by June 10,
1939, to get 106,672 Jews from the Ostmark to emigrate
legally.
As
the Jewish organizations abroad would stop further transfers
of foreign currency immediately if the Jewish Community in
Vienna were to lose its status as a legally recognized public
corporation, it is requested that, in view of the resultant
consequences and in the interest of continued increased
emigration of the Jews from the Ostmark, this
cancellation should not be carried out for the time being, and
the status quo be maintained or permitted to continue until
the end of January 1940. This is particularly so as the
organizations abroad are now making difficulties insofar as
they take the stand that the 77,000 Jews of Mosaic religion
can no longer receive the same sums in foreign currency as
were provided for 185,000 Jews of Mosaic religion. Their aim
is to reduce the monthly allowance of $100,000 to $50,000 in
view of the drop in the number of Jews of Mosaic religion.
I
thereupon threatened the Jewish organizations abroad that if
they failed to maintain the payments at the level of $100,000,
the Jewish Community would immediately lose its rights as a
corporation.
The
Jewish organizations abroad have in fact been intimidated by
this threat, and the sums for May and June were sent to Vienna
in full in foreign currency.
Head
of the Central Office
for
Jewish Emigration
signed
Eichmann
OEsterreichisches
Staatsarchiv Abteilung: Allgemeines Verwaltungsarchiv. Der
Reichskommissar fuer die Wiedervereinigung OEsterreichs mit
dem Deutschen Reiche
(Austrian State Archives Department: General Administrative
Archives. The Reichskommissar for the Reunification of
Austria with the German Reich), 1762/1. |
