13 August 1941

SECRET

(I1 1d 3000) THE REICH COMMISSAR FOR EASTLAND

Riga, 13 August 1941

TO: The Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories, Berlin W 35.

I beg to enclose an account of planned provisional directives for treatment of Jews in the Reichskommissariat Ostland. [Translator's note: Baltic States and White Russia.]

[Signed] BANSE [?]

To Department [Hauptabteilung] II with request for opinion.
(By order)
(Habs, 24 August)

(Gauleiter has taken cognizance)
(return to Dr. Runte)
(19 August 1941)

Enclosure : (I11 a/13/ ei Grh) [Translator's note: All lines enclosed in parentheses were added to the original typewritten document in pencil or ink. There is also a slip attached to the document, initialed by Dr. Runte, Gauleiter M. and R.] Reich commissar for Eastland

Kommissariat Ostland, 13
Aug. 41 Habs 4 Sept.

SECRET!

Provisional directives on the treatment of Jews in the area of the Reichs-Kommissariat Ostland.

My instructions in my address of 27 July 1941 in Kowno determine the final settlement of the Jewish question in the area of the Reichskommissariat Ostland.

Insofar as further measures are taken, especially by the Security Police (SIPO), to carry out my oral instructions, they will not be affected by the following preliminary directives. It is merely the job of these preliminary directives to assure these, and for such length of time, minimum measures by the General or Regional Commissars, where and for as long as further measures are not possible in the direction of the final solution of the Jewish question.

Provisional directives on the treatment of Jews in the area of the Reichs-Kommissariat Ostland.

My instructions in my address of 27 July 1941 in Kowno determine the final settlement of the
Jewish question in the area of the Reichskommissariat Ostland.

Insofar as further measures are taken, especially by the Security Police (SIPO), to carry out my
oral instructions, they will not be affected by the following preliminary directives. It is merely the job of
these preliminary directives to assure these, and for such length of time, minimum measures by the
General or Regional Commissars, where and for as long as further measures are not possible in the
direction of the final solution of the Jewish question.

1. 1. For the time being only those Jews will be subject to these directives who are citizens of the
      German Reich, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, of the former Republics of Poland, Lithuania,
      Latvia, Estonia, of the USSR or of its component states, or stateless Jews.
   2. Other Jews of foreign nationality, others of mixed blood and spouses of Jews who are not ready toshare the fate of their Jewish spouses are to be denied permission to leave the area of the
      Reichskommissariat Ostland because it is a military area. They are to be watched. In addition they can be subjected to the following measures, among others: obligation to report daily, prohibition of moving, or assignment to specific dwelling, prohibition of leaving the municipal area limitations on circulation. In case of necessity they are to be taken into police custody until further decisions can be made.
2. A Jew is, whoever descends from at least 3 grandparents who were full Jews by race. A Jew's
   also whoever descends from one or two grandparents who were full Jews by race, if he
   1. belongs or belonged to the Jewish denomination, or
   2. on 20 June 1941 or later was married to, or living in common-law marriage with, a person
      who is Jewish within the purview of these directives, or who now or in future enters into such a
      relationship.
3. In cases of doubt, the district (or municipal) Commissar decides, according to his best
   judgment, who is a Jew within the purview of these directives.
4. General Commissars will immediately order the following measures, as soon as or insofar as
   civil administration has been introduced in their areas :
   1. The Jews are to be listed, through imposition of the duty to report, by name, sex, age,
      and address. Furthermore the rosters of Jewish congregations, and the statements of trustworthy
      natives, will serve as bases for their listing.
   2. It will be decreed that Jews distinctively mark themselves by prominently visible
      yellow hexagonal stars of at least 10 cm. in diameter worn on the left side of the, breast and in the
      center of the back.
   3. Jews are prohibited from:
      1. Changing of their home town and their homes without permission of the area
         (municipal) Commissar.
      2. Use of sidewalks, public means of transportation (i.e., railroad, streetcars,
         bus, steamer, horse-drawn taxis) and automobiles
      3. Use of public facilities and institutions serving the population (resorts and
         bathing facilities, parks, meadows, playgrounds, and athletic fields).
      4. Attendance at theatres, movies, libraries, museums.
      5. Attendance at schools of any type.
      6. The possession of automobiles and radio sets.
      7. Kosher slaughtering.
   4. Jewish doctors and dentists may treat or advise only Jewish patients. If Ghettos or
      camps are erected, they are to be distributed among them for the care of their inmates. Jewish druggists are to be permitted practice of their profession according to need, but only in Ghettos or camps. Drug stores previously managed by Jews are to be transferred to trusteeship of Aryan druggists. Practice of their profession is prohibited to Jewish veterinarians.
   5. Jews are to be forbidden exercise of the professions and activities designated below :
      1. Activity as attorney, notary-public or legal adviser.
      2. Operation of banks, money-changing offices and pawn shops.
      3. Activity as representative, agent, and intermediary.
      4. Trade in real estate.
      5. Migratory trade.
   6. The following will be decreed for the handling of Jewish property :
      1. General. The property of the Jewish population is to be confiscated and
         secured. The previous Jewish legal owner, from the moment of confiscation, is
         no longer authorized to dispose of his property. Legal transactions which violate
         this prohibition are null and void.
      2. Duty to report. The entire property of the Jewish population is to be reported.
         The deadline for reporting is determined by the General or area Commissars. It
         is mandatory for anyone who owns or stores Jewish property and anyone who,
         without being owner, proprietor or custodian, legally or actually disposes of, or
         can dispose of, Jewish property, to report it.
         The duty to report not only applies to the legal Jewish owner, but also to
         anyone who, for example, administers Jewish property, who has taken it into
         safe-keeping or obtained it in any other manner.
         The reporting must be done on a form according to the attached model.
         The General Commissars regulate reporting procedure with regard to local
         conditions and determine the officials to whom the reports are to be submitted.
         The reports should be submitted, if possible, to the area commissars.
         The area commissars are, however, empowered also to be in charge of the
         giving out and the receiving of forms ;this applies also to government offices
         which are not supplied or equipped by the civil administration. These offices are
         to forward the forms handed in to the area Commissars.
      3. The duty of delivery. Jewish property is to be delivered on special demand.
         The demand can take place by general proclamation or by order to definite
         individuals. The General Commissars order through proclamation immediate
         delivery of the following articles:
         1. Domestic and foreign currency.
         2. Securities and financial records of every sort,
            (i.e., stocks, promissory notes, exchange, debt records, bank and
            savings-bank books)
         3. All articles of value (coined and uncoined gold and silver, other
            precious metals, jewelry, precious stones, etc.)
            Articles turned in are to be entered in a serially numbered receipt book in two
            copies (carbon) according to the attached model. The entries are to be signed
            for by the person delivering the article and by the receiving office. The carbon
            copy of the entry is to be transmitted immediately by the receiving office to the
            area Commissar. The delivered articles are to be transmitted to the fund of the
            area Commissar and to be safeguarded by the latter. A special order will be
            issued on their utilization.
      4. 4. On the Question of Subsistence: The Jewish population is left with the
         following :
         1. That portion of their household articles necessary for scanty
            subsistence (furniture, clothing and linen)
         2. A daily amount of money 0.20 RNI (2 Rubles) for each Jewish member
            of the household, the amount of money for a month to be released in
            advance.
5. The following further measures are to be emphatically striven for, with due consideration forlocal and especially economic conditions :
   1. Jews are to be cleaned out from the countryside.
   2. The Jews are to be removed from all trade, especially from trade with agricultural
      products and other foodstuffs.
   3. The Jews are to be forbidden residence in resorts and spas, and in localities that are economically, militarily, or spiritually of importance.
   4. Jews are to be concentrated, as much as feasible, in cities or in sections of large cities,whose population is already predominantly Jewish. Ghettos are to be established there,
      and the Jews are to be prohibited from leaving these Ghettos. In the Ghettos they are to
      be given only as much food as the rest of the population can do without, but no more
      than suffices for scanty nourishment of the Ghetto inmates. The same applies to supply
      with other consumer goods. The inmates of the Ghetto regulate their internal
      conditions by self-administration which is supervised respectively by the city, area
      Commissar or his deputy. Jews can be assigned as police for internal order. They are to
      be equipped with rubber truncheons or sticks at most and are to be distinguished by the
      wearing of the white arm bands, with the yellow Jewish Star on the right upper arm. For
      the external hermetic sealing of the Ghettos, auxiliary police from among the natives
      are to be used as much as is feasible. Permission from the area Commissar must be
      obtained before anyone may enter the Ghetto.
   5. Jews, capable of working, are to be drafted for forced labor according to the need for
      work. The economic interests of natives worthy of assistance must not be interfered
      with by Jewish forced labor. Forced labor can be performed in working parties outside
      the Ghettos or in the Ghettos, or, where Ghettos are not yet established; also
      individually outside (i.e., in the workshop of the Jew). Pay need not correspond to work
      done; it need only correspond to the need for scanty subsistence for the forced laborer
      and the non-employable members of his family, taking due consideration to his present
      cash holdings. (cf. IV f 4 b) Those private establishments and persons, for whose account
      the forced labor done, pay an appropriate fee to the pay office of the area Commissar
      which, in turn, disburses pay to the forced laborers. A special order will be issued for the
      accounting on amounts of money received.
6. It is left up to the General Commissars to order measures mentioned in par. 5 uniformly for their area or to turn over their promulgation in detail to the Area Commissars. Likewise the General
   Commissars are authorized to issue more detailed orders within the framework of this policy or to
   authorize their area Commissars to do it.

DISTRIBUTION:
Reichskommissariat 12
Higher SS and Police leaders 20
General Commissar :
Estonia 10
Lithuania 10
Latvia 10
White Ruthenia 60