preview

Compare And Contrast The Functionalist View Of The Holocaust

Decent Essays

The Holocaust was identified as a genocide and is recognised as one of the most tragic and important events in all of history. Over the span of four years the German Nationalist Socialist Party singlehandedly killed over eleven million innocent civilians. This was such a small amount of time to kill so many people which really shocked many people around the globe. But one thing has been argued ever since the end of the war and this is the question of when the Holocaust initially started. The dating of the Holocaust has been so problematic because of the significant separation between historians. The historians are separated because of the views they take and there is evidence which backs up all of their views. There are three views and these …show more content…

It may seem that the functionalists are forfending Hitler from all the abhorrence but they are just placing him in the 1930’s where anti-Semitism was prevalent and the conception of liberating Europe from the Jews was not a unique conception or plan. Hans Mommsen was recognised as a leading expert on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust who is a functionalist and strongly believes the functionalist viewpoint. Mommsen believes Adolf Hitler rather than acting decisively, reacted to various social pressures. Mommsen was also opposed to the notion of the Nazi Germany as a totalitarian state. He was best known for arguing that Adolf Hitler was a “Weak Dictator” thesis as he quotes “Adolf Hitler was unwilling to take decisions, frequently uncertain, exclusively concerned with upholding his prestige and personal authority, influenced in the strongest fashion by his current entourage, in some aspects a weak dictator”. Functionalism analyses the occurrence of the Holocaust from two perceptions and sanctions the audience to understand that it is crucial to pinpoint the time period and to understand the reasons why such a horrible event

Get Access