In December 1942, Himmler sent a note to Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo, in which he stated:

"The Fuhrer gave orders that the Jews and other enemies in France should be arrested and deported. This should take place, however, only once he has spoken with Laval about it. It is a matter of 6-700.000 Jews."

Private diaries of Nazi propaganda maestro Joseph Goebbels and Himmler unearthed from the secret Soviet archives show that Adolf Hitler personally ordered the mass extermination of Jews on December 12, 1941, during a meeting of Nazi German regional governors in the chancellery.

As Goebbels wrote: "With regards to the Jewish Question, the Fuhrer decided to make a clean sweep ..."