“Today’s meeting is of a decisive nature. I have received a letter written on the Fuehrer’s orders by the Stabsleiter of the Fuehrer’s deputy, Bormann, requesting that the ‘Jewish Question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another. And yesterday, once again did the Fuehrer request by ‘phone for me to take coordinated action in the matter’.
“Since the problem is mainly an economic one, it is from an economic angle that it shall have to be tackled. Naturally a number of legal measures shall have to be taken which fall into the sphere of the Minister for Justice and into that of the Minister of the Interior; and certain propaganda measures shall have to be taken care of by the office of the Minister for Propaganda. The Minister for Finance and the Minister for Economic Affairs shall take care of problems falling into their respective resorts.” (1816-PS)
Goering then said that it was not sufficient to have demonstrations and to burn down Jewish property. In such cases the real loss usually fell on German insurance companies. He continued:
“I should not want to leave any doubt, gentlemen, as to the aim of today’s meeting. We have not come together merely to talk again but to make decisions, and I implore the competent agencies to take all measures for elimination of the Jews from German economy and to submit them to me, as far as it is necessary.
“The fundamental idea in this program of elimination of the Jew from German economy, is first, the Jew being ejected from the economy transfers his property to the State. He will be compensated. The compensation is to be listed in the debit ledger and shall bring a certain percentage of interest. The Jew shall have to live out of this interest. It is a foregone conclusion, that this aryanizing, if it is to be done quickly, cannot be made in the Ministry for Economy in Berlin. That way, we would never finish * * *.
“It is my lot, so that the damage will not be greater than the profit, which we are striving for.
“It is obvious, gentlemen, that the Jewish stores are for the people, and not the stores. Therefore, we must begin here, according to the rules previously laid down.
“The Minister for Economic Affairs shall announce which stores he’ll want to close altogether. These stores are excluded from aryanizing at once. Their stocks are to be made available for sale in other stores; what cannot be sold, shall be processed through the “Winterhilfe” or taken care of otherwise. However, the sales values of these articles shall always be considered, since the State is not to suffer but should profit through this transformation. For the Chain and Department stores—I speak now only of that, which can be seen, certain categories have to be established, according to the importance of the various branches.
“The trustee of the State will estimate the value of the property and decide what amount the Jew shall receive. Naturally, this amount is to be set as low as possible. The representative of the State shall then turn the establishment over to the “Arian” proprietor, that is, the property shall be sold according to its real value.
“There begins the difficulties. It is easily understood that strong attempt will be made to get all these stores to Party members and to let them have some kind of compensations. I have witnessed terrible things in the past; little chauffeurs of Gauleiters have profited so much by these transactions that they have now about half a million. You, gentlemen, know it. Is that correct?” (1816-PS)