[世界史の理解]

2023年02月03日

Why was the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs involved in the extermination of Jews?Ribbentrop was originally a businessman who succeeded in exporting German wine to Canada and vice versa, and he was engaged in wine import and export business,even after World War I, so there were many Jewish acquaintances and it seems that there was little prejudice against Jews. However, due to their encounter with Hitler, Mr. and Mrs. Ribbentrop who are aiming to join the upper class, are forced to be involved in the Jewish issues. Ribbentrop, who was a newcomer and isolated among Nazi cadres or executives, immediately approached Himmler. Ribbentrop left the role of the pipe with the SS to Luther,who was an architect in Berlin and invited to the bureau of Ribbentrop due to the private relations with the Ribbentrops. Initially, there was a plan to transfer Jews to Madakaskar Island, but when Germany was defeated due to the continuation of the war against Britain, the failure of the occupation of Moscow, and the participation in the United States, an important meeting was held by the lake of Van-See on the outskirts of Berlin and the extinction of Jews was decided, called final solution of the Jewish problems.. The chairman was Heydlich and Eichmann was his aide,including the officials of the ministries related and commanders of massacres on the eastern front,but it was Luther who represented the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at this meeting. Diplomats from the Ribbentlop office, who were not professional diplomats, had to produce certain results anyway, so they worked hard on the transfer of Jews after 1942, when the area of diplomacy ceased to function. Not only Ribbentrop, but also the executives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs such as Weitzsaecker, Woermann, and Steengracht, will be found guilty in the Nuremberg trial and the continuing trial for the Ministers, but it was mainly due to the signature of these documents related to the transfer of Jews that they were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonments respectively.