* * * * * *
“Special questions concerning the Government-General:
“The Government-General will have to receive the Jews who are ordered to emigrate from Germany, and the New Eastern Gaus.”
* * * * * *
“The following reported on the situation in the Eastern territories: * * *
“2. Reichsstatthalter Gauleiter Forster: The population of the Danzig/West Prussia Gau (newly acquired territories) is 1.5 million, of whom 240,000 are Germans, 850,000 well-established Poles and 300,000 immigrant Poles, Jews and asocials (1,800 Jews). 87,000 persons have been evacuated, 40,000 of these from Gotenhafen. From there, also the numerous shirkers, who are now looked after by welfare, will have to be deported to the Government-General. Therefore, an evacuation of 20,000 further persons can be counted on for the current year. * * *” (EC-305)
Comparable reports were made by other Gauleiters at this meeting. These figures, it may be noted, were only as of February 1940.
These forcible deportations did not involve merely ordering the victims to leave their homes, and to take up new residences elsewhere. These deportations were accomplished, according to plan, in a brutal and inhuman manner. This is shown in a speech delivered by Himmler to officers of the SS on a day commemorating the presentation of the Nazi flag. The exact date of the speech does not appear in the document, but its contents plainly show that it was delivered sometime after Poland had been overrun. In this speech Himmler said:
“Very frequently the member of the Waffen-SS thinks about the deportation of this people here. These thoughts came to me today when watching the very difficult work out there performed by the Security Police, supported by your men, who help them a great deal. Exactly the same thing happened in Poland in weather 40 degrees below zero, where we had to haul away thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands; where we had to have the toughness * * * you should hear this but also forget it again—to shoot thousands of leading Poles.” (1918-PS)
Such Poles from the incorporated area as managed to survive the journey to the Government-General could look forward at best to extreme hardship, and exposure to degradation and brutality. For the Jews who were forcibly deported to the Government-General there was no hope. Frank, by his own admissions, had dedicated himself to their complete annihilation. In his diary Frank wrote: