Why National Socialist Germany Killed Millions Of Jews

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

The efforts the Nazi party expended on carrying out their ‘final solution to the Jewish question in Europe’ involved changing the structure of a whole country’s economic, social, and military sectors; a mobilisation completed by many various competing and collating departments and agencies, all of which were expected by their superiors to show initiative in their operations. This mode of command lends plausibility to the theory that the ‘final solution’ of the holocaust was not necessarily a result of a direct command by the Führer (No records of any such order exist) but rather the culmination of the departments of the Nazi state vying for approval from their superiors by following the ideology to its ‘logical conclusion’ with Hitler’s approval. This could be seen to support Berghahn, as it was the confusion and rush to meet growing needs that drove the party to extermination over deportation. It also supports Kershaw, who

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

The investigation assesses the Nazi regime from 1933 – 1945 in regards to the totality of their actions. In order to evaluate the Nazi regime on whether or not they were more evil than other genocidal regimes, the investigation evaluates how the Nazis controlled their country. The investigation will start in the early years of the Nazi regime in how they set up their totalitarian government and how they expanded their control. Then the Holocaust will be looked at for how the Nazis treated those they were exterminating. Accounts from soldiers and Jewish people who lived through the Nazi control will be mostly used to evaluate if the Nazis were more evil than other genocidal regimes. Two of the sources used in this essay, “The Liberation of Dachau” by Chuck Ferree, and “Fate did not let me go” a letter by Valli Ollendorff are then evaluated for their origins, purposes, values and limitations.

In the pre-war years, the Nazi Party wanted to find a solution to the “Jewish question” – meaning what to do with them (“Final Solution” Learning). On July 31, 1941, Heydrich submitted the “draft of the measures he proposed to undertake ‘to implement the desired final solution of the Jewish Question’” (“SS”). In the fall of 1941, the Nazi soldiers implemented the plan and began to effectuate it by experimental gassings in the Auschwitz extermination camp and then moving forth to surrounding camps (“Final Solution” Learning). Between then and 1945, the top SS soldiers continued to give the orders to torture, mass shoot, gas (especially in constructed extermination camps), enforce murderous labor, and other means (“Holocaust”). The ideas, which were thought of by Himmler, Eichmann, and Heydrich, are what allowed for this brutality to cause such a large scale genocide. Despite the eleven million

Structuralists/functionalists see the Final Solution as more of a heinous result of the build-up of tensions against the Jews in Germany at the time. They are often inclined to believe that the attempted genocide of the Jewish population was the outcome of a chain of events. As tensions rose, and other attempts at ridding Germany of the Jews via deportation and ghettoization failed, Hitler and his cabinet eventually came to the conclusion that the Holocaust was the only most feasible and cost-effective method of ridding Germany of the Jewish menace. Accomplished historian and structuralist, Martin Broszat has argued that, “there had been no comprehensive general extermination order at all, and the program of extermination had gradually developed

In a continuation of the previous argument, it can also be argued that the Final Solution arose as a result of the chaotic nature of the Nazi regime during this period as per the Structuralist argument. This concept relies on the fact that these various institutions within the Third Reich competed with one another and as a result of this chaos ensued as these various institutions had poorly defined roles. An example of such would be the transportation of Jews to Madagascar to effectively deal with the Jewish question, at first Heydrich had suggested that the Jews be moved to suitable territory and it had been the Jewish section of the foreign office who had then suggested Madagascar, a place which would not sustain the Jewish population of Europe. Another example of such would be the movement of Jews to the East of Poland which led to the development of local initiatives as construction of gassing facilities were ordered and the utilisation of gas vans. This concept of Cumulative Radicalisation as devised by Mommsen argues that Hitler had no clear plan as to what to do with the Jews. As a result of this it could be argued that the Final solution emerged as a result of these various institutions all working towards the goal of the Fuhrer which created this chaos state and led to systematic extermination of the Jews by 1942.

In the 1940s, while many of the people focused on the Second World War, Hitler and many of the Germans under his influence killed numerous groups of people that tainted the German or Aryan superior 4race. These people included Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, people with disabilities, prisoners of war, and communists. The Final Solution, or the Holocaust as it is known now, was a plan made by the top of the Nazi party and was executed primarily by Hitler's followers. Holocaust, the word now brings living fear to those who experienced the tragedy and those reading the survivors' accounts. Night by Elie Wiesel, a memoir using logos and pathos at a high efficiency, and Schindler`s letter by his Jews, excels at providing creditability, are two accounts that have ample amounts of rhetoric.

However, an examination of the policies of the Nazi regime shows that although it was not defined as a final solution, the German nation had already embarked on the path of “scientific” racism that ultimately manifested in the final solution of the Nazis. The 1933 Law for

When referring to the ‘Holocaust’ – defined by (Oxford Dictionary) as ‘Destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war:’ – we have to take into account the global awareness and knowledge of that time. We, as a planet, have come to acknowledge the ‘Holocaust’ not as the aforementioned and defined, but as the time in which, between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany, lead by Adolf Hitler, persecuted and massacred approximately six million Jews, as well as a plethora of other individuals, including the mentally handicapped, communists, poles, gypsies, homosexuals (just to name a few), as well as attempting to conquer the world. It is estimated that no less than ten million casualties were a result of the Nazi agenda, out of combat (The History Place). Giving reference to the question, in this essay I will outline and counterpoint two keys questions when regarding the approaches of functionalists and intenationalists, firmly rooting them as the crux as my debate, which are: Did Adolf Hitler have a so-called ‘master plan’ in bringing about the Holocaust, and where did the initiative come from? I will now proceed to open the debate, by first giving a brief outline as both approaches and what they encompass.

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.

Adolf Hitler, chancellor and dictator of Germany from 1934 to 1945, was founder and leader of the Nazi Party. Under the leadership of Hitler, Nazi Germany created concentration camps to segregate Jews and many other minorities from German society. Though, the Jewish population was not great in Germany, individuals who had converted to another religion or had ancestors who were Jewish were also categorized by the Nazis as a Jew. The “Final Solution,” the genocide of more than six million Jewish people, consisted of gassing, shootings, starvation and random acts of terror. This is the most familiar scheme from the

German Attitudes Toward the Jews and the Final Solution There are those that claim that Hitler’s conscious personal hatred of the Jews, his unique and central role in the rise of Nazi Germany were fundamental in the development of the anti-Jewish policies that emerged leading to the final solution. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the anti- Jewish feeling in Germany reflected a much stronger, widespread support amongst its people and this essay will examine the role and attitudes of the German people towards the Final Solution. On the 1st of April, 1933, the boycott of Jewish businesses reflected evidence of widespread anti Jewish feelings amongst the lower bureaucracy of the

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