tion before being issued.”
Irritated by the continuing arbitrary actions by officials
against Jews, he secured clear guidelines from Hitler later that
month. “I have sought the Führer’s pleasure on these matters,”
Göring announced, “and in the future this, his will, is to be
considered the sole guiding principle.” In the future, no Jews
were to be deprived of protected tenancies (that is, tenancies
from which they could not legally be evicted); Hitler merely
suggested that they be brought under one roof. The expropria-
tion of Jewish-owned housing was to be halted. “Most pressing,”
defined Göring, “is the Aryanization of factories and businesses,
agricultural real estate and forests.” While Jews were no longer
to use railroad sleeping cars or dining cars, a petty discrimina-
tion for which Goebbels had agitated in November, Göring
ruled out the introduction of “Jews Only” compartments or any
total ban on using public transport. Finally, he said, Hitler had
ordained that Jewish civil servants would not forfeit their pen-
sions.
In one respect Hitler, Göring, Ribbentrop, and Himmler
all saw eye to eye. All three saw Jewish emigration to Tanga-
nyika, to Madagascar, or to Palestine, as the only realistic solu-
tion. On January , , Göring set up within the Ministry of
the Interior a Central Reich Office for Jewish Emigration, and
ordered Heydrich to organize a suitable Jewish agency to process
applications, raise funds for the poorer Jews, and agree on desti-
nations. Göring insisted on being kept informed. “My decision,”
he ruled, “is to be obtained before taking any fundamental ac-
tions.”
With Göring’s inauguration of this central office, the ex-
pulsion of Jews from the German-controlled area of Europe
gained momentum. Two-thirds thus escaped before the war
obliged Heinrich Müller, of the Gestapo, to order a halt on Oc-