a pointedly friendly letter to Bocchini in which he nevertheless complained
strongly about the propaganda campaign, the arrests, and about the fact that
the Italians had not kept to certain parts of the agreement concerning the right
to opt for German or Italian nationality
111
On 15 November Wolff and the
under-state secretary in the Italian Interior Ministry, Buffarini Guidi, came to
an agreement in Rome which, in particular, ensured the release of those who
had been arrested.
112
The option process, which had been completed by
the end of 1939, resulted in a large majority opting to emigrate.
113
Of the 200,000 people who had opted for Germany or were German
citizens, 56,000 had left their homeland by the end of 1940. However,
during the last months of 1940 the numbers of resettlers were declining
significantly. By the middle of 1942 only a further 20,000 people had left
South Tyrol, and then the whole project came to a halt. The vast majority
had emigrated to Austria, around 21,000 to other parts of the Reich.
114
While the majority of South Tyroleans were housed in makeshift reset-
tlement camps, Greifelt’s RKF office stuck to the plan for a settlement of the
South Tyroleans en bloc. Himmler’s original idea of resettling the South
Tyroleans in the Beskyda was dropped fairly quickly, in view of the negative
response of those affected.
115
After the victory over France in June 1940,
Greifelt put forward a new plan. On 10 July he produced a memorandum
which envisaged the resettlement of the South Tyroleans in Burgundy.
A week later Himmler made a surprise revelation of this idea, which had
allegedly already been approved in principle by Hitler, to a delegation of
those who had opted for Germany. The delegation went on a tour of
inspection to the proposed settlement area, and on 23 July was received
by Himmler for a final meeting. Although work continued on the project
during the following years, the annexation of French territory and the
expulsion of the indigenous population in order to ‘free up’ the settlement
area would have damaged German–French relations to an extent that made
it inconceivable during the war.
116
After the occupation of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1941 a new settlement
area was discussed and then rejected, namely Lower Styria, which had been
annexed by Germany. Finally, in mid-1942 the most outlandish plan of all
was mooted: to settle the South Tyroleans in the Crimea, a scheme pro-
posed to Himmler in May 1942 by the former Gauleiter of Vienna, Alfred
Frauenfeld, who had been designated as the future Commissar-General of
the Crimea. Himmler discussed this project with Hitler and both men liked
the idea. It was agreed, however, that its implementation would have to be
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