62: "The More Who Die, the Better"
Beginning only days after the German invasion of Poland, Security Police and party leaders in Prague, Vienna, and Kattowitz - seizing on the notions expounded by Heydrich of a "Jewish reservation" to be set up east of Cracow - saw the chance of deporting the Jews from their areas. Eichmann's own initiative and ambition appear to have triggered the hopes of immediate expulsion of the Jews; between 18 and 26 October [1939] he organized the transport of several thousands of Jews from Vienna, Kattowitz, and Moravia to the Nisko district, south of Lublin. Gypsies from Vienna were also included in the deportation. At the same time, the resettlement of the Baltic Germans began. Within days of the Nisko transports beginning, the lack of provision for the deported Jews in Poland, creating the chaotic circumstances following their arrival, led to their abrupt halt. But it was a foretaste of the greater deportations to come. At the end of the month, in his new capacity as Reich Comm...