Central Office for Jewish Emigration () was a designation of Nazi institutions in Vienna, Prague and Amsterdam. Their head office, the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration ('), was based in Berlin. Their purpose was to expel Jews from Nazi-controlled areas.
History
The office in Vienna, created in the former Palais Albert Rothschild at Prinz-Eugen-Straße 20-22, was founded in August of 1938 by Adolf Eichmann. He began the office as a way of getting around the red tape the Jews of Austria faced when trying to leave the country.
Every organization, public or private, which was associated with emigration was required to have a representative at the Central Office.
Following the Vienna branch, Eichmann opened another branch in Prague. Eventually, Eichmann set up a Central Office so that all arrangements for emigration could be made in one location. On 24 January 1939, the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung) was established in Berlin by Hermann Göring with Reinhard Heydrich at the head. It was charged with the task of using all available means to prompt Jews to emigrate, and of establishing a Jewish organization that would incorporate all of German Jewry and co-ordinate emigration from the Jewish side.
Structure and key personnel
Heydrich served as director. The day-to-day manager (Geschäftsführer) was initially Heinrich Müller, then head of Department II of the Gestapo. In October 1939, following a reconnaissance mission to occupied Poland, Eichmann was transferred to Berlin and succeeded Müller as manager. The Reichszentrale was run through a policy committee composed of representatives from different government agencies and a Gestapo-controlled executive. In its early months the office received some 200 applications per day and processed 6,187 cases by June 1939.
The Reichsvereinigung
A key instrument of the Reichszentrale was the compulsory Jewish umbrella body it relied upon to administer emigration at the community level. This was the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Association of Jews in Germany), formally established on 4 July 1939 by the Tenth Decree of the Reich Citizenship Law. Every person defined as Jewish under the Nuremberg Laws and resident in the Altreich was required to join. The Reichsvereinigung was placed under the direct authority of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) and was tasked with organising and supporting emigration, as well as collecting levies from wealthier Jews to fund the departure of those without means. The organisation's leadership, including Rabbi Leo Baeck, remained in place under coercion; most were eventually deported. The Reichsvereinigung was forcibly dissolved by the RSHA in June 1943 after the majority of its members had been deported and murdered.