On 23 October 1941 the Reich Security Main Office forbids the emigration of Jews to third countries1Mémorial de la Shoah, XXVb-7. This document has been translated from German.
Letter (marked ‘confidential’) from the Reich Security Main Office (IV B 4 b (Rz) 2920/41g (984)), signed p.p. Müller,2Heinrich Müller. to the representative of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD for Belgium and France, for the attention of SS-Brigadeführer Thomas, Brussels, dated 23 October 1941 (copy)3An additional copy was sent to the office of the representative of the Chief of the Security Police in Paris for information.
Re: emigration of Jews
The Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police4Heinrich Himmler. has ordered that the emigration of Jews is to be prevented with immediate effect. (The evacuation operations are not affected by this order.)
I would be grateful if you could inform the relevant internal German authorities in the area of service there of this order.
Only in very special individual cases, e.g. if there is a positive benefit for the Reich, can the emigration of individual Jews be permitted, subject to a prior ruling to this effect by the Reich Security Main Office.5At the end of the document is the annotation ‘Checked for accuracy, Bastgen’ and the stamp: ‘The representative of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD for Belgium and France’.