furniture, with paintings and chandeliers made of cut crystal. Here death wore a different face. Though it was surrounded by comfort and luxury, it retained its military character – uniforms, official reports, clicking of heels, crisp commands. For stolen luxury must never soften an official of the Reich. These were the spoils of a victor; yet an official of the Reich knows that he must strike hard to pay for such luxury, he must eradicate, liquidate and root out all enemies, those identified by the signatures, symbols and initials. Once the enemy is turned into numbers, then the numbers must be transformed again into graphs. At first the graphs go up. They keep going up and up, regularly and steadily. And then they go down, also regularly, neatly, until the numbers fade awayinto nothingness. The officials of the Reich don’t need to concern themselves with these graphs or keep track of these numbers. But they must speed up or slow down their movement according to the interests of the Reich.
There is no room for shouting and excitement in the world that prevails in the upstairs rooms. There the work is done by servants whose final goal was assigned them by the Leader himself. The head of this branch, the one in charge of it all, knows the secret of the final solution. He receives briefings from the head office in Berlin. He travels to conferences, he submits quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports; these are neat and clean, with carefully drawn graphs and photographic enclosures. The text is businesslike and gratifying. It shows precisely how the property in the warehouses is increasing, how many new objects have been acquired. It also specifies by how many the numbers have decreased. The pages covered with meticulous writing are contained in hard black covers.
The head of the Central Bureau was a young man; most of his staff were older than he. For when the interest of the Reich and the eradication of its enemies are concerned, regular promotions and years of service don’t count. Yet this agency wasn’t an ordinary office – it was a military, fighting unit. Of course the enemy had no weapons. They were powerless, weak men, women and children. But the Reich couldn’t be hoodwinked in such a manner. The Reich knew well that this enemy was worse, far more dangerous than foreign armies in the field. That was why the Reich considered it more important to exterminate this enemy than to occupy whole countries with subjected populations.
The head of the Central Bureau had recently returned from the East. He had examined the extermination camps,he had carefully studied the technology of murder. They were obliged to show him everything – he was one of the select circle of the enlightened, after all – he would actually provide the numbers. They complained that liquidation was progressing too slowly, that it required too much ammunition which would serve a better purpose at the front. Other means of killing – clubs, axes, hammers – weren’t effective enough; they were even more time-consuming. At some camps they were trying benzene injections, at others the exhaust fumes of trucks. But now that the proposal to use gas had been approved, the operation would go full-steam-ahead. Zyklon B was a speedy and safe medium.
The commanders of the camps, of course, had no idea who had conceived of the idea that saved them so much work. The commanders didn’t know that it was the man personally entrusted by the Leader with the execution of the whole campaign: Reinhard Heydrich. They assumed that he was simply the Acting Reich Protector, who was keeping order in Bohemia and Moravia. But his mission was greater, encompassing all of Europe. It was he, the enemy of all enemies, who would carry out the final solution.
Only a few people were aware of Heydrich’s true mission. Even he, the head of the Central Bureau, learned about it merely by chance from Eichmann. For while Eichmann was ostensibly responsible for all orders and
There is no room for shouting and excitement in the world that prevails in the upstairs rooms. There the work is done by servants whose final goal was assigned them by the Leader himself. The head of this branch, the one in charge of it all, knows the secret of the final solution. He receives briefings from the head office in Berlin. He travels to conferences, he submits quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports; these are neat and clean, with carefully drawn graphs and photographic enclosures. The text is businesslike and gratifying. It shows precisely how the property in the warehouses is increasing, how many new objects have been acquired. It also specifies by how many the numbers have decreased. The pages covered with meticulous writing are contained in hard black covers.
The head of the Central Bureau was a young man; most of his staff were older than he. For when the interest of the Reich and the eradication of its enemies are concerned, regular promotions and years of service don’t count. Yet this agency wasn’t an ordinary office – it was a military, fighting unit. Of course the enemy had no weapons. They were powerless, weak men, women and children. But the Reich couldn’t be hoodwinked in such a manner. The Reich knew well that this enemy was worse, far more dangerous than foreign armies in the field. That was why the Reich considered it more important to exterminate this enemy than to occupy whole countries with subjected populations.
The head of the Central Bureau had recently returned from the East. He had examined the extermination camps,he had carefully studied the technology of murder. They were obliged to show him everything – he was one of the select circle of the enlightened, after all – he would actually provide the numbers. They complained that liquidation was progressing too slowly, that it required too much ammunition which would serve a better purpose at the front. Other means of killing – clubs, axes, hammers – weren’t effective enough; they were even more time-consuming. At some camps they were trying benzene injections, at others the exhaust fumes of trucks. But now that the proposal to use gas had been approved, the operation would go full-steam-ahead. Zyklon B was a speedy and safe medium.
The commanders of the camps, of course, had no idea who had conceived of the idea that saved them so much work. The commanders didn’t know that it was the man personally entrusted by the Leader with the execution of the whole campaign: Reinhard Heydrich. They assumed that he was simply the Acting Reich Protector, who was keeping order in Bohemia and Moravia. But his mission was greater, encompassing all of Europe. It was he, the enemy of all enemies, who would carry out the final solution.
Only a few people were aware of Heydrich’s true mission. Even he, the head of the Central Bureau, learned about it merely by chance from Eichmann. For while Eichmann was ostensibly responsible for all orders and
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