a. to issue binding political instructions to the separate administration areas, having in mind the situation existing at the time and the goal which is to be achieved.
b. to secure for the Reich supplies essential to the war from all the occupied areas.
c. to make preparations for, and to supervise the carrying out, in main outline, of the primarily important questions for all areas, as for instance, those of finance and funds, transport, and the production of oil, coal and food;
2. the carrying out of sharply defined decentralization in the separate administration areas, grouped together by race or by reason of political economy, for the carrying out of the totally dissimilar tasks assigned to them.
As against this, an administrative department, regulating matters in principle, and to be set up on a purely economic basis, as is at present envisaged, might very soon prove to be inadequate, and fail in its purpose. Such a central office would be compelled to carry out a common policy for all areas, dictated only by economic considerations, and this might impede the carrying out of the political task and, in view of its being run on purely bureaucratic lines, might possibly even prevent it.
The question therefore arises, whether the opinions which have been set forth should not, purely for reasons of expediency, be taken into consideration from the very beginning when organising the administration of the territory on a basis of war economy. In view of the vast spaces and the difficulties of administration which arise from that alone, and also in view of the living conditions created by Bolshevism, which are totally different from those of Western Europe, the whole question of the USSR would require different treatment from that which has been applied in the individual countries of Western Europe.
2.4.41
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1019-PS
Appendix to Memorandum No. 2
Recommendations as to the personnel for the Reich Commissariats in the East and for the Political Central Office in Berlin