This is the context in which to interpret the letter of July 31, 1941, that Göring sent to Heydrich, authorizing him to find “an overall solution to the Jewish question in the German sphere.” Heydrich already had authority over “emigration and evacuation,” as the letter noted. He had no need for new authority unless he was being given a new assignment, and this document extended his competence to the entire “German sphere” and asked him to identify a “total solution,” implicitly in addition to the partial solution already being enacted in Russia.
