Fabrikaktion

The Fabrikaktion (Factory Action) is the term for the roundup of the last Jews to be deported from Berlin starting 27 February 1943. Most of these remaining Jews were working at Berlin plants or for the Jewish welfare organization. The term was coined by the victims after World War II, the Gestapo called the plan "Große Fabrik-Aktion" (Large factory action).[1] While the plan was not restricted to Berlin, it later became most notable for ensuring the Rosenstrasse protest in Berlin.

The Rosenstraße today: the building in which the detainees were held no longer exists. A rose colored Litfaß column commemorates the event.

Situation

In September 1942 there were about 75,800 Jews left for labour in the arms industry. With the final roundup of Berlin Jews soon to come, the Nazi government informed factory owners that their Jewish workers, even those married to Germans, were going to be deported to labor camps and that the government would work swiftly to replace their labor with forced laborers from the east- factory owners were to prepare for this transition.[2] The RSHA took action planning multiple deportation trains to Riga and Auschwitz.[3] Because the war consumed most of the transportation capacity the deportations were not performed immediately but the factories were informed that their Jewish labour workers would be "evacuated" at the end of March 1943.[4]

At the beginning of 1943, the plan included 15,100 Jewish workers in Berlin and 5,300 outside of the capital with most of them living in major cities or labour camps. On 20 February 1943, SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann (a main architect of the Holocaust) and head of sub-department (Referat IV B4) of the RSHA issued details on the "technische Durchführung der Evakuierung von Juden nach dem Osten" (Technical Procedures for the Evacuation of Jews to the East). Within that plan the following groups of Jews would be excluded from deportation:

  • Jewish partners in mixed marriages
  • Married Geltungsjuden (people considered to be Jewish under the Nuremberg laws) living with Aryan relatives
  • Jews over the age of 65 unless married to Jews below that age
  • Jewish veterans of the First World War carrying medals
  • and a list of special persons listed by name

Though these persons would not be deported they would not be allowed to work in the arms industry. They were to be placed into different positions where they could be called in without the factories to intervene in the deportation.

Action

In most of the cities, the Jews were called in on 26 February 1943 to register the next day with the Gestapo for a check of their labour papers. In Breslau, most of the Jews were rounded up without prior signals the morning of 27 February through interception at their home or work place and transported to the synagogue. In Dresden, the labour camp Hellersberg was used for concentration. In most parts of the Reich, these actions were finished after two days.

In Berlin, the roundup of ten thousand Jews began 27 February 1943 in preparation of the Fuhrer's 54th birthday on 20 April. Those arrested were working in various ammunition factories.[5] The arrested persons were transported to six locations in Berlin for concentration:

  • the main hall of the Clou Concert Hall (a former covered market) on Mauerstraße in Mitte district
  • a garage in the Hermann Göring Barracks in Reinickendorf district
  • the horse stalls of a barracks on Rathenower Straße in Moabit district
  • the synagogue on Levetzowstraße in Moabit
  • the Jewish Senior Center ("das jüdische Altersheim") on the Großen Hamburger Straße in Mitte district
  • the house of the Jewish Community on Rosenstraße in Mitte (where Jewish men married to German women were brought, due to their special circumstances of being in a "mixed marriage").[6]

The "Fabrikaktion" is perhaps especially noted for engendering the Rosenstrasse protest, in which the "Aryan" wives of Jewish prisoners protested in front of the Jewish Community on Rosenstrasse for the release of their Jewish husbands. During the 27 February roundup, about 2,000 of the ammunition factory workers were Jewish and in an intermarried relationship, which prompted the protest.[7] "Fabrikaktion" motivated Germans with strong relationship ties to Jews to become rescuers. German wives felt compelled to protect their Jewish husbands, and were willing to risk more in order to save them as was demonstrated at Rosenstrasse.[8]

Forced laborers, even those working under the SS, were taken from their places of work during "Fabrikaktion". A group of Jewish forced laborers working in the Reich Main Security Office's Library were taken to Auschwitz following this event, with the two surviving men having been saved by their German wives.[9]

Fugitives

About 4,700 of the remaining 11,000 Jews left in Berlin were able to escape and to go into hiding.[10] This matches with stories of survivors telling that they had been warned by their colleagues and foremen - in one case even a police officer - shortly before the action took place. On the other hand, most of the fugitives were captured - the Gestapo used search service and the help of Jewish "Greifer" collaborators. It is estimated that only 1,500 Jews were able to hide away until the end of the war.

Literature
  • Wolf Gruner: Widerstand in der Rosenstraße. Die Fabrik-Aktion und die Verfolgung der „Mischehen“ 1943. fibu 16883, Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-596-16883-X
  • Claudia Schoppmann: Die "Fabrikaktion" in Berlin. Hilfe für untergetauchte Juden als Form des humanitären Widerstandes. In: Zeitschrift für Zeitgeschichte 53 (2004), H.2, Seite 138-148
  • Beate Kosmala: Missglückte Hilfe und ihre Folgen: Die Ahndung der "Judenbegünstigung" durch NS-Verfolgungsbehörden. In: B.Kosmala / C.Schoppmann (Hrsg.): Solidarität und Hilfe für Juden während der NS-Zeit. Band 5: Überleben im Untergrund. Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-932482-86-7
  • Nathan Stoltzfus: Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1996, ISBN 0-393039-04-8 ISBN 0-8135-2909-3
  • Nathan Stoltzfus: Protest in Hitler's "National Community": Popular Unrest and the Nazi Response. New York: Berghahn Books, 2016, ISBN 9781782388258

See also

Notes and References
  1. Lutjens, Richard N. (2019). Submerged on the Surface: The Not-So-Hidden Jews of Nazi Berlin, 1941–1945. Berghahn Books. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-78533-455-9.
  2. Stoltzfus, Nathan (1996). Resistance of the Heart- Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse protest in Nazi Germany. Rutgers University Press. p. 206. ISBN 0-8135-2909-3.
  3. Stoltzfus, Nathan (1996). Resistance of the Heart- Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse protest in Nazi Germany. Rutgers University Press. p. 207. ISBN 0-8135-2909-3.
  4. Stoltzfus, Nathan (1996). Resistance of the Heart- Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse protest in Nazi Germany. Rutgers University Press. p. 206. ISBN 0-8135-2909-3.
  5. Laub, Dori (2013). "In Search of the Rescuer in the Holocaust". Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques. 39 (2): 41–44. JSTOR 42703761.
  6. Lutjens, Richard N. (2019). Submerged on the Surface: The Not-So-Hidden Jews of Nazi Berlin, 1941–1945. Berghahn Books. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-78533-455-9.
  7. Laub, Dori (2013). "In Search of the Rescuer in the Holocaust". Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques. 39 (2): 44. JSTOR 42703761.
  8. Baron, Lawrence (1986). "THE HOLOCAUST AND HUMAN DECENCY: A REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON THE RESCUE OF JEWS IN NAZI OCCUPIED EUROPE". Humboldt Journal of Social Relations. 13:1 and 2 (Fall/Winter & Spring/Summer 1985/6): 245. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  9. Schidorsky, Dov (2007). "The Library of the Reich Security Main Office and Its Looted Jewish Book Collections". UT Press. 42 (1): 29. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  10. Lutjens, Richard N. (2019). Submerged on the Surface: The Not-So-Hidden Jews of Nazi Berlin, 1941–1945. Berghahn Books. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-78533-455-9.
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