Kube was actively involved in the
Holocaust and governed an area located at the heart of the
Pale of Settlement, where there was a particularly high population of Jews. He began to distinguish between "German Jews" (German-speaking Jews from
Central Europe) versus the "non-German Jews" (mostly
Yiddish-speaking Jews from
Eastern Europe). His less hostile view of German Jews is shown in his behaviour towards those deported to Minsk in late 1941. He was particularly incensed by the presence of deportees who were
Mischlings or had been decorated for their service in World War I. On at least one instance, he was able to arrange for the transfer of a Jewish decorated World War I veteran to
Theresienstadt. The man,
Karl Loewenstein, survived the war there. His interest in these Jews, whom he regarded as belonging "to our cultural
milieu," prompted him to file a complaint with the
Reich Security Main Office and Heydrich, in which he stated that "during the evacuation of Jews from the Reich, the guidelines on who was to be evacuated had not been properly observed" and he attached a list of names. During the 2 March 1942 massacre, Kube withheld German Jews from a
mass shooting, which was conducted in Minsk under the supervision of
Sturmbannführer Eduard Strauch, at which 3,412 Jews were killed. This unprecedented act that provoked a formal complaint from the SS, according to which "
Generalkommissar Kube appears to have promised to the German Jews, who before my time were delivered to the ghetto five thousand strong, that life and health would remain theirs". Kube told Strauch that his methods were "unworthy of a German person and a Germany of
Kant and
Goethe". Strauch wrote a letter to
Erich von dem Bach recommending Kube's dismissal, accusing him of being unable to differentiate between a German and a German Jew, his open appreciation for the ethnically Jewish composers
Jacques Offenbach and
Felix Mendelssohn, warning the Minsk
Judenrat about an upcoming "resettlement", and calling a policeman a "pig" for shooting a Jew. Heydrich flew to Minsk to deliver Kube a reprimand, after which he felt compelled to comply with extermination actions. On 31 July, he wrote to his friend, the
Reichskommissar for the Ostland,
Hinrich Lohse, in
Riga: Following lengthy talks with the SS-
Brigadeführer Zenner and the extraordinarily diligent head of the
SD, SS-
Obersturmbannführer Strauch, in the last two weeks in White Russia we have liquidated roughly 55,000 Jews....In the city of Minsk about 10,000 Jews were liquidated on 28 and 29 July. Of these, 6,500 were
Russian Jews, predominantly women, children, and the aged; the rest were Jews unfit for labor, mainly from
Vienna,
Brünn,
Bremen, and Berlin. The latter had been sent to Minsk last year in accordance with the Führer's orders....In Minsk proper there are 2,600 Jews from Germany left. By March 1942, Kube's preferential treatment of German Jews appeared to come to an end after pressure from his superiors within the SS. In the spring of 1942, contrary to the opinion of SS-
Obersturmführer Kurt Burkhardt, he ordered the resumption of mass murders in the ghettos, which had been interrupted during the winter months because of the frozen ground. He justified this with the fear of the spread of
epidemics in the ghettos. In an order dated 8 September 1942, Kube stressed that "the strong presence of Jews among the [partisans]" could only be counteracted by "cleansing the country of Jews". In May 1943, Kube demonstrated a
gas chamber to a delegation of
Italian fascists. Kube planned to level Minsk and replace it with a German settlement called Asgard. ==Assassination==