To What Extent Was Hitler Responsible For The Holocaust

While there are varying degrees of intensity, the essence of the two arguments centre on the responsibility and questionable pre-conceived nature of the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question.’ Both disciplines utilise their own interpretations of primary source evidence to answer the following two questions: was the Holocaust a premeditated and articulated master plan developed by Adolf Hitler in the earlier years of his political career? and was the Holocaust carried out according to the orders of Hitler, or did the initiative develop amongst the ranks of the German bureaucracy and eventuate from the commands of powerful Nazi party members. The questioning of the motivations and logistical proceedings behind the Holocaust came to light in the 1945 Nuremberg War Crime Trials where the incorrect Intentionalist view was heavily enforced and taken as an almost gospel truth. As time passed, logic presided and historians began to challenge the dominant interpretation, thus birthing the Functionalist view. The Intentionalists inaccurately hold Hitler as an all-powerful, all-controlling being whose goal from the start was to eradicate the Jews, arguing that this plan was consistently and meticulously followed from the conception of his political career to the fall of the Nazi Party. The

Studies of the Holocaust have provoked passionate debates. Increasingly, they have become a central topic of concern for historians particularly since the early 1970s, as the Holocaust studies were generally limited. However, one of the most intense debates surrounding the role played by Hitler in the ’Final Solution’. That is, whether and when Hitler took a decision to initiate the extermination process. Of course, this issue has caused incredible controversy and naturally such a contentious topic of debate has radically produced large amounts of new data and literature. Conflicting, an interpretation has caused further disparities between historians over Hitler’s role in the Holocaust. For this

While Hitler was the leader of the Third Reich, the functionalists believed that the ‘road to Auschwitz’ was characterized by an indirect unplanned path that was defined by cumulative radicalization of the Nazis due to the prevalence of chaotic decision-making processes that were a major feature of the polycratic system of governance. Additionally, this system was characterized by the elimination of individuals considered as destructive to the Nazi movement, leading to the creation of a movement that was ready to do anything to achieve a ‘final solution’ to the ‘Jew problem’. Karl Schleunes falls in this school of thought. Karl Schleunes argument, like that of other functionalists, was cemented on institutions and structure of the Third Reich. With the intentionalists arguing that the Holocaust was the fulfillment of Hitler’s plan hatched in the 1920s, their argument was summer up as the ‘straight road to Auschwitz.’ For functionalists, however, the path to the Holocaust was not straight, a reason why Karl Schleunes labeled his book The Twisted Road to

that Hitler wanted to eliminate the Jews before anything else. Hitler firmly blamed all of the bad things on the Jews, and wanted to exterminate them as a whole. Dawidowicz states, “The mass murder of the Jews was the consummation of his fundamental beliefs and ideological convictions” (Dawidowicz, The War against the Jews, 3). She expresses the idea that Hitler was taking place in early anti-Semitism,

Assess the View That the Holocaust Was Mainly the Result of a Long Term Plan by Hitler to Eliminate the Jews

Hitler, in 1934-1945, believing in the works of Charles Darwin, made concentration camps for the jews. He discriminated against the Jews, and declared The Aryan race to be superior. The killing of the Jews was both out of fear and pride for Hitler. He feared the fact that the Jews might spoil the pureness of the Aryans. He took pride in the fact that his race was superior, and so wanted to maintain his race’s superiority to keep his pride intact.

Hitler had shown unwillingness to tolerate the Jews and once he was appointed Chancellor, he started to take elimination measures like deportation, forced emigration, and isolation to enforce his belief. He took advantage of Germany’s weakness in World War One, then used it as an opportunity to blame the Jews for Germany’s defeat. Hitler’s political party was the largest political party in Germany thus allowing them to draw very large crowds to gatherings. He had very good oratory speeches with hand gestures that easily manipulated people to adhere to his views. Hitler constantly targeted the Jews because he knew people believed in these speeches. People in Germany were already anti-semitic but Hitler made it worse by constantly consuming them in his speeches. From the way he spoke about the Jews, we could clearly see the possibility of genocide. Hitler wanted Germany to be free of any humans that anyone other than his ideal master race so he personally selected bodyguards to be part of a group called the SS. Hitler was responsible for ordering the SS to carry out the extermination of anyone who did not fit this ideal. The SS handled oppositions using force and as a result of which people were forced to give into the idea of violence. Sometimes people purposely went along with this Holocaust ideal due to the fear of getting killed. These terrors allowed the holocaust occur

Hitler believed that the German people were part of an 'Aryan race,' a superior group that should be kept pure to fulfill their mission of ruling the world. He felt that the Jewish people were 'sub-human,' when in actuality they were virtually the same as his 'Aryan race.' Not only did Hitler have a personal hatred toward the Jewish people, but he also blamed them for 'stabbing Germany in the back' after Germany's defeat in World War I. Hitler used them as scapegoats because they were a minority and were easy to put the blame on. 'Historians agree that the Holocaust resulted from a confluence of various factors in a complex historical situation. That anti-Semitism festered throughout the centuries in European culture is centrally important; the Jews were (and are) a minority civilization in a majority environment. In periods of crisis, instead of searching for the solution of

Horror struck on January 30, 1933, when Germany assigned Adolf Hitler as their chancellor. Once Hitler had finally reached power he set out to complete one goal, create a Greater Germany free from the Jews (“The reasons for the Holocaust,” 2009). This tragedy is known today as, “The Holocaust,” that explains the terrors of our histories past. The face of the Holocaust, master of death, and leader of Germany; Adolf Hitler the most deceitful, powerful, well spoken, and intelligent person that acted as the key to this mass murder. According to a research study at the University of South Florida, nearly eleven million people were targeted and killed. This disaster is a genocide that was meant to ethnically cleanse Germany of the Jews. Although Jewish people were the main target they were not the only ones targeted; gypsies, African Americans, homosexuals, socialists, political enemies, communists, and the mentally disabled were killed (Simpson, 2012, p. 113). The word to describe this hatred for Jewish people is known as antisemitism. It was brought about when German philosophers denounced that “Jewish spirit is alien to Germandom” (“Antisemitism”) which states that a Jew is non-German. Many people notice the horrible things the Germans did, but most don’t truly understand why the Holocaust occurred. To truly understand the Holocaust, you must first know the Nazis motivations. Their motivations fell into two categories including cultural explanations that focused on ideology and

Hitler is 25% responsible. He was a very intelligent man, when he had an idea he stuck with it and would go through absolutely anything to make sure that his plan turned out exactly how he wanted it to. He was smart and determined. In this case his plan was the Jewish Question, he strongly believed that the jewish people were inferior and that they were going to destroy the country, he also believed that they were the reason why Germany lost World War One(Bullock "Hitler, Adolf (1889–1945)"). Hitler was not taken seriously until the great depression started in 1929, people were desperate and it made something like listening to Hitler’s deranged ideas more rational. The majority of Germany was scared of a communist revolution and they thought that Hitler would be able to stop it(Bullock "Hitler, Adolf (1889–1945)"). So they liked the idea of Hitler being of high power and they did in fact show that when they supported him being Chancellor. After Hitler became chancellor he started taking out his opponents one by one. Not only did he kill the majority of his opponents but he managed to get the police and power of state under his control, and his control only(Pierstorff “Was Hitler Democratically Elected?”). After all of this he was the full-blown dictator of Germany. But all of this didn’t satisfy him, he wanted more. One of Hitler’s attributes was playing on the weaknesses of others, he began taking the other European countries over one by one. But this soon turned to chaos because not everyone was

His theory was that Aryans characterized by having blond hair and blue eyes of Christian German descent should rule and take over the world since they were far more superior than other races (http://remember.org/guide/Facts.root.hitler.htm). This is very hypocritical because Hitler himself was not an Aryan ad therefore he himself should have been eliminated. His political aim was to kill anyone who did not fit this description and he did not only just hate Jews, he hated anyone who did not fit

Functionalism versus intentionalism is an ongoing historical debate about the origins of the Holocaust. The two questions that the debate centers around on are; was there a master plan by Adolf Hitler for the holocaust? The intentionalist argument is that there was a ‘master plan’, while functionalist’s ague that there was not. The second question is whether the initiative for the Holocaust and the Final Solution come from Adolf Hitler himself, or from lower ranks in the Third Reich. Both side agree that Hitler was the supreme leader, and was responsible for encouraging the anti-Semitism during the Holocaust, but intentionalists believe that the initiative for the final solution came from above, while functionalists argue that it came from the lower ranks within the bureaucracy.

The issue of Hitler’s psychological abnormality and the cause being has many believed that it also stems from him being rejected twice to his dream school, the Academy of Arts in Vienna. He has been raised with the constant influence of anti-semitic beliefs and many believed that a staggering amount of Jewish people who were in power during the time had a lot of impact whether he would have been accepted to his dream school or not-- this obviously made him dislike the general Jewish population more than he already did. However, it is not just Hitler’s psychological state of mind that enabled him to commit barbaric and inhumane acts of aggression towards millions of Jewish people, but also the German citizens’ defeated and worn out feelings that also allowed for the horrendous acts to be committed. This is due to the fact that Germany lost the First World War and were deemed to be responsible for the reparations that totalled to 132 billion gold marks, or over $33 billion US dollars, and with this plus the fitful psychological state of mind of the dictator himself, Hitler and the Germans sought out for revenge and found the Jewish population as the main target to place their rage. The idea of using the Jewish population as the scapegoat for their

Adolf Hitler came to power over Germany in January of 1933. He hated Jews and blamed them for everything bad that had ever happened to Germany. Hitler’s goal in life was to eliminate the Jewish population. With his rise to power in Germany, he would put into action his plan of elimination. This is not only why German Jews were the main target of the Holocaust, but why they were a large part of the years before, during, and after the Holocaust. Hitler’s “final solution” almost eliminated the Jewish population in Europe during World War II. At the end of the war and along with his suicide, the Jewish population would survive the horror known as the Holocaust and the Jews would eventually find their way back to their homeland of Israel

The Holocaust is most well-known for the organized and inhumane extermination of more than six million Jews. The death total of the Jews is this most staggering; however, other groups such as Gypsies, Poles, Russians, political groups, Jehovah’s witnesses, and homosexuals were targeted as well (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Introduction to the Holocaust). The initial idea of persecuting select groups of people began with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. In January 1930, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany after winning over its people with powerful and moving speeches. From this point forward, it was a goal for both Hitler and his Nazi Party to rid the world of deemed “inferior” groups of people (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Timeline