Editing Martin Bormann (section)

===Personal Secretary to the Führer===
Preoccupied with military matters and spending most of his time at his military headquarters on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|eastern front]], Hitler came to rely more and more on Bormann to handle the domestic policies of the country. On 12 April 1943, Hitler officially appointed Bormann as Personal Secretary to the Führer.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=752}} By this time Bormann had ''de facto'' control over all domestic matters, and this new appointment gave him the power to act in an official capacity in any matter.{{sfn|Speer|1971|pp=333–334}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 121-0723, Marburg-Drau, Adolf Hitler.jpg|thumb|Bormann (behind and to Hitler's right) on the [[Old Bridge, Maribor]], Yugoslavia, April 1941 (now Maribor, Slovenia)]]

Bormann was invariably the advocate of extremely harsh, radical measures when it came to the treatment of [[Jews]], the conquered eastern peoples, and prisoners of war.{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=152}} He signed the decree of 31 May 1941 extending the 1935 [[Nuremberg Laws]] to the annexed territories of the East.{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=152}} Thereafter, he signed the decree of 9 October 1942 prescribing that the permanent [[Final Solution]] in [[Greater Germanic Reich|Greater Germany]] could no longer be solved by emigration, but only by the use of "ruthless force in the special camps of the East", that is, extermination in [[Nazi death camps]].{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=152}} A further decree, signed by Bormann on 1 July 1943, gave [[Adolf Eichmann]] absolute powers over Jews, who now came under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Gestapo.{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=152}} Historian [[Richard J. Evans]] estimates that 5.5 to 6 million Jews, representing two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe, were exterminated by the Nazi regime in the course of [[The Holocaust]].{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=318}}

Knowing Hitler viewed the [[Slavs]] as inferior, Bormann opposed the introduction of German criminal law into the conquered eastern territories. He lobbied for and eventually achieved a strict separate penal code that implemented [[martial law]] for the Polish and Jewish inhabitants of these areas. The "Edict on Criminal Law Practices against Poles and Jews in the Incorporated Eastern Territories", promulgated 4 December 1941, permitted corporal punishment and death sentences for even the most trivial of offences.{{sfn|Lang|1979|pp=179–181}}{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=439}}

Bormann supported the hard-line approach of [[Erich Koch]], ''Reichskommissar'' in [[Reichskommissariat Ukraine]], in his brutal treatment of Slavic people. [[Alfred Rosenberg]], serving as head of the [[Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories]], favoured a more moderate policy. After touring collective farms around [[Vinnytsia]], Ukraine, Bormann was concerned about the health and good physical constitution of the population, as he was concerned that they could constitute a danger to the regime. After discussion with Hitler, he issued a policy directive to Rosenberg that read in part:

{{blockquote|The Slavs are to work for us. In so far as we don't need them, they may die. The fertility of the Slavs is undesirable. As to food, they are to not get more than necessary. We are the masters; we come first.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|pp=78–79}} }}

Bormann and Himmler shared responsibility{{efn|Bormann was in charge of organisation and Himmler looked after providing training and equipment.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=858–859}} }} for the ''[[Volkssturm]]'' (people's militia), which drafted all remaining able-bodied men aged 16 to 60 into a last-ditch militia founded on 18 October 1944. Poorly equipped and trained, the men were sent to fight on the eastern front, where nearly 175,000 of them were killed without having any discernible impact on the Soviet advance.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=858–859}}

In early 1945, Bormann edited the [[Bormann dictations]] of supposed remarks made by Hitler to Bormann; the authenticity as well as the degree of editing applied by Bormann to Hitler's original remarks are disputed among historians.{{sfn|Schirrmacher|2007|p=42}}