HITLER'S "FINAL SOLUTION."   Term Paper ID:28719 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analysis of systematic murder of European Jews. "Intentionist" & "functionalist" explanations. Role of Nazi Party propoganda, European anti-Semitism.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Analysis of systematic murder of European Jews. "Intentionist" & "functionalist" explanations. Role of Nazi Party propoganda, European anti-Semitism. Paper Introduction: The "Final Solution," or systematic murder of the European Jews, fit Adolf Hitler's ideology from the very beginning of his career, but it was not part of his plan for the Third Reich until circumstances made it possible. For more than two decades historians have debated the "intentionalist" and "functionalist" explanations of the Final Solution. Intentionalists hold that the direction of the Reich was primarily guided by Hitler's decisions which were "calculated or 'intended' to realize the goals of an ideologically derived 'program'" that he had followed since the 1920s. In this view, the death camps were the long-awaited culmination of Hitler's program. Functionalists, on the other hand, argue that the Final Solution was not part of a comprehensive plan, "rather, the Holocaust resulted from the failure or unfeasibility of increasingly radical plans to [expel] Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. They propose instead a balancedview in which the fanaticism of Hitler and his clique -- as well as theideologically-persuaded thousands who carried out the Final Solution --reached a logical culmination -- that they might have desired but had neverbelieved was possible -- in circumstances that made it not just possiblebut, indeed, "practical" to undertake the systematic murder of the Jews. For more than two decades historians have debated the"intentionalist" and "functionalist" explanations of the Final Solution.Intentionalists hold that the direction of the Reich was primarily guidedby Hitler's decisions which were "calculated or 'intended' to realize thegoals of an ideologically derived 'program'" that he had followed since the192 s.[i] In this view, the death camps were the long-awaited culminationof Hitler's program. K. In Sources of the West: Readings in Western Civilization. [xv]Lukacs, 19 . (New York: Longman, 1998), 262. Browning, "Beyond 'Intentionalism' and'Functionalism': A Reassessment of Nazi Jewish Policy from 1939 to 1941,"in Reevaluating the Third Reich, ed. [ix]Lukacs, 19 . Thomas Childers and Jane Caplan, 211- 233. [xii]Adolf Hitler, quoted in Stackelberg, 217-218. . . Functionalists, on the other hand, argue that theFinal Solution was not part of a comprehensive plan, "rather, the Holocaustresulted from the failure or unfeasibility of increasingly radical plans to[expel] Jews and from the loosening of all constraints against mass murderin the war."[ii] Recent historians, however, have begun to argue thatneither position offers either an adequate description of what happened ora sufficient explanation of causation. New York: Longman, 1998.Lukacs, John. [xvii]Browning, 215. The 35 , Jewsremaining within the Reich were a relatively small problem compared withthe nearly 2 million Jews in the conquered Polish territories -- Russianand Polish Jews who were, "in the Nazi catalog of 'subhuman' races" lowereven than the Jews of Germany.[xi] In a speech to the Reichstag in January, 1939 Hitler continued toplace blame, in his words, on the "international Jewish financiers insideand outside Europe" who hoped to "plung[e] the nations into another worldwar" but now he promised that the result would not be "the Bolshevizationof the world" (a curious goal for financiers) but "the annihilation of theJewish race in Europe."[xii] The promise of victory over the Jews wasentirely different from a proposal for mass murder, however, and it cannotbe definitively shown from such statements that the Holocaust had alwaysbeen his eventual goal. Vol. There is, however, noquestion that this could serve as an exculpation of Hitler and his mostradically racist associates in the devising of the Final Solution. Themost overwhelming of these massacres took place at Babi Yar where a specialunit, with the approval and assistance of the Army, shot 33,771 Jews in amere two days. And war itself, especially all-out warsuch as that conducted against Russia, also tended to reduce individualresistance to killing. [xiii]Stackelberg, 219. They were lockedinside the walled neighborhoods and shot on sight if they left -- and thosewho aided them were also subject to summary execution. . Kishlansky, 3d ed. As Peukert notes, the Final Solution "was a systematic, high-technology procedure for 'eradicating,' or 'culling,' those without'value," whose presence within the body politic was a threat to the healthof the Aryan race.[xxiv] The systematic propaganda of the Nazi Party,presented in the disguise of scientific logic, did go a long way towardinuring the participants to the murder of millions. In part the willingness of the Germansto participate in, or, at the least, ignore the Final Solution was due tothe systematic portrayal of the racial question as a matter of science andnecessity. Vol. Hitler's War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and the Course of Expansion. But this speech showed that his policy wasevolving as increasingly radical means were required to solve the Jewishproblem. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1993.Rich, Norman. Thepoison of European anti-Semitism was a centuries-old presence in theEuropean system but to result in the mass murder of over 6 million peopleit had to be refined in the consciousness of Adolf Hitler who found that,in administering his brand of poison, he had created a situation thatenabled the imminent total eradication of the source of his driving phobia-- something even this madman had not been able to hope for. Various other relocation plans were seriously considered and, shortlyafter the German victory over France, Reinhard Heydrich informed ForeignMinister Ribbentrop "a territorial solution" had become absolutelynecessary to deal with the 3.75 million Jews now under Nazi control.[xiv]The Lublin option seemed unworkable and the Nazis refused to considerPalestine, out of fear of a new Jewish state and center of power. [v]Lukacs, 187. [xix]Stackelberg, 223. As SamBankhalter, who was in several camps, reported, "I saw Dr. Mengele'sexperiments on children [who] became vegetables . [iii]John Lukacs, The Hitler of History (New York: Knopf, 1997), 182. In order tobring about this immense resettlement plan the Nazis began to deport Jewsto ghettoes in the large Polish cities -- Lodz, Warsaw, and Cracow -- and"German officials in occupied Poland vied with each other in theireagerness to clear their regions of Jews."[xiii] The ghettoes of Polandraised the level of brutality shown toward the Jews. Mark A. Peukert, "The Genesis of the 'Final Solution' fromthe Spirit of Science," in Reevaluating the Third Reich, ed. [xiv]Ibid., 22 . 1973. The Hitler of History. New York: Knopf, 1997."Memories of the Holocaust." In Sources of the West: Readings in Western Civilization. [xxiv]Detlev J. In Poland the original plan was to establish a three-tiered bufferbetween Germany and the East. The governor of the Lublin region strenuously objectedto the program, however, and the movement of the Reich's Jews failedbecause of the excessive need for rail transport that had to be taken awayfrom the war effort. I saw Ilse Koch witha hose and regulator, trying to get pressure to make a hole in a woman'sstomach [and] I saw them cutting Greek people into pieces."[xxi] Asidefrom the most extreme cases, however, thousands of other "randomlyentangled Germans from all strata of society conscientiously -- indeedoften zealously --carried out the myriad tasks expected of them" and themurder campaign depended on their work.[xxii] There was a sense in which many Germans were forced to carry out thiswork. Mein Kampf [extract]. Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies. more fundamental than his obsession with theimportance of Lebensraum" -- the acquisition of 'living room' in which theAryan Reich could expand and would, whenever necessary, enslave raciallyinferior peoples as laborers.[iii] Hitler had convinced himself that theexistence of Jews in Europe was the fundamental problem of history.Although anti-semitism was quite common and there certainly "was no dearthof racial theorists in Vienna, or anywhere else in Europe for that matter,for Hitler to draw on" his obsession was much deeper than the prevailingfeeling against the Jews.[iv] It was a genuine "phobia" for which the"true motives -- or, in other words, the real sources -- are notascertainable."[v] It was certainly clear in Hitler's statement of his ideas, MeinKampf, that he was dedicated from the beginning to the idea of Lebensraumas necessary to the salvation of the Aryan race. . As a French colony it was now available, but itcould not support more than a few thousand people and the costs ofrelocating the Jews in the midst of the war were prohibitive. [iv]Norman Rich, Hitler's War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and theCourse of Expansion, 1973 (New York: Norton, 1992), xxxiv. Kishlansky, 26 -263. 2, From 16 to the Present, ed. Kishlansky, 266-268. The addition of the Jews to this list seems to havecome about early in the planning stage as well since, as Browning notes,"there is simply no documentary evidence for a plan for the massiveexpulsion" of Russian Jews into the Soviet wastelands that is at all"commensurate with the well-documented resettlement plans of the pre-1941period."[xvii] Although Hitler did not announce the plans for thewholesale slaughter of the Jews until December, 1941, documents do indicatethat Heydrich and Reichsmarschall Göring had undertaken the planning of theFinal solution, as it was now called, as early as July, 1941.[xviii] Theimmense level of slaughter in the Russian campaign -- primarily carried outby Heydrich's special Einsatzgruppen, units that followed the army and,primarily, murdered civilians -- proved that it was possible to inducelarge numbers of people to commit undisguised murder on a mass scale. New York: Norton, 1992.Stackelberg, Roderick. 3d ed. [ii]Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations,Legacies (London: Routledge, 1999), 215. But the argument of strict Intentionalists that this had beenHitler's plan all along does not, as some have claimed, tend "to exculpateother sectors of German society, including lower-level and non-Nazi elitesand institutions."[xxiii] One of the overwhelming facts about theHolocaust is this enormous number of people who were, in fact, guilty oftaking part in the capture and transport of the victims, the management ofthe camps, and the killing itself, as well as the number who had to remainindifferent to what was going on. Theexpulsion of Jews from Germany and Austria was also constrained by"potentially adverse effects of anti-Semitic measures on the Germaneconomy" but the expulsion proceeded and, as Jews were subjected toincreasingly strong restrictions, many more were encouraged to leave.[x]Once the war began, however, Hitler was faced with an even greater numberof Jews whose fates were, he felt, at his disposition. [viii]Ibid. [xxi]Sam Bankhalter quoted in "Memories of the Holocaust" in Sourcesof the West: Readings in Western Civilization, vol. Hundreds ofthousands of people were enslaved in factories and/or crammed into smallspaces with inadequate food, water, and sewage and deportation to Lublinseemed preferable. Theysearched for other options but the African island of Madagascar was thebest they could find. [xxv]Browning, 226. [vi]Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf [extract], in Sources of the West:Readings in Western Civilization, vol. Thomas Childers and Jane Caplan (NewYork: Holmes and Meier, 1993), 211. "The Genesis of the 'Final Solution' from the Spirit of Science." In Reevaluating the Third Reich, ed. The loosening of personalinternal restrictions on mass murder came about as a result of the campaignin Russia and the desperation of the German army there. 2, From 16 to the Present, ed. [xxiii]Stackelberg, 216. The far western portionof Polish territory would be entirely resettled by Germans. New York: Longman, 1998.Peukert, Detlev J. [xxii]Browning, 226. K. BibliographyBrowning, Christopher R. In the longer run 1.5 million Jews, "a quarter of all the Jews killedin the Holocaust, were murdered in open air shootings" carried out by theEinsatzgruppen and an increasing number of other units of the SS and theArmy.[xix] But the mass shootings were "psychologically debilitating forthe perpetrators and inefficient in terms of the ratio of kills to thenumber of executioners and the time invested" and so by the Fall of 1941plans were underway for the death camps.[xx] Once the camps were operational (by February, 1942) the killingproceeded on a hitherto inconceivable scale. Jews from Poland and the Reich would beconfined to the far eastern part of this territory, around Lublin, whilethe Poles would occupy a second strip to the West. 2, From 16 to the Present, ed.Mark A. [x]Stackelberg, 217. [xi]Ibid., 219. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1993.Hitler, Adolf. "Beyond 'Intentionalism' and 'Functionalism': A Reassessment of Nazi Jewish Policy from 1939 to 1941." In Reevaluating the Third Reich, ed. 3d ed. [xvi]Browning 219-22 . Mark A. Thomas Childers and Jane Caplan, 234-252. Mark A. As Lukacs notes, it is clear that "the Jewish 'problem' was Hitler'sfundamental obsession . 2, From 16 to thePresent, ed. [xx]Ibid., 224. Kishlansky, 3d ed. By 1941, when hewas preparing for "a new kind of war --an unrestricted and brutal war,against Russia" Hitler constantly emphasized the term "Jewish-Bolshevism"to describe the ideological enemies of the Reich.[xv] Even Hitler,however, did not entirely believe in this identification of the Jews withCommunism. [vii]Ibid. In his view the Aryanrace, the world's only true "culture-founders" had been responsible for allthe advances made by European civilization and the inferior races -- eventhose "culture-bearers" who were adept at copying the Aryans' genius --weremeant to serve the master race.[vi] The Aryan needed to reassert himselfover the lesser peoples and just as in the past, when "he regulated theirpractical ability according to his command and his will for his aims," heneeded to rearrange the world to his purposes.[vii] At the very bottom ofthe racial ladder, however, "the Jew forms the strongest contrast to theAryan".[viii] These culture-destroyers had been responsible for Germany'sdefeat in World War I and by 1938 he was firmly convinced that "thedecisions of the British and French governments, and of PresidentRoosevelt, to resist him" were primarily due to Jewish influence.[ix] Hitler was still sensitive, however, to the need to placate publicopinion in the Western nations and plans for the deportation of the Jewswere not, at first, a ruse designed to cover up mass extermination. [xviii]Stackelberg, 222. The "Final Solution," or systematic murder of the European Jews, fitAdolf Hitler's ideology from the very beginning of his career, but it wasnot part of his plan for the Third Reich until circumstances made itpossible. But insheer survival terms the all-out war meant that anyone identified as theenemy by the leadership was likely to be accepted as such by the people.The Final Solution worked only because these circumstances provided thenecessary work force and prevented opposition. Browning claims that although Germans "followed many paths to theFinal Solution, ultimately they killed Jews not because Jews werecommunists, or alien bodies polluting the healthy [race], or obstacles tomodernization, but because they were Jews and, as such in wartime, theenemy."[xxv] Their acceptance of this proposition was often, of course,predicated on their acceptance of Hitler's radical racial thinking. The immediate origins of the Final Solution lay, therefore, in thebrutal practical question of what the Nazis could do to maintain theirdominance in the war while solving this primary problem. ThomasChilders and Jane Caplan (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1993), 236. But the constant repetition of the term kept the two enemiesconnected in the public mind and this enabled "the quantum leap to massmurder as a solution to the Nazis' self-imposed Jewish question [to]initially [take] place, therefore, in the context of a war of exterminationagainst Bolshevik Russia."[xvi] From the beginning of plans for the Russian invasion the massexecution of Communist functionaries and various other categories ofpersons was intended. But, as the experiencein Russia had shown, identifying the Jew with the Bolshevik threat to theirown liberty, also served to persuade many Germans of the importance ofridding themselves of this threat. But the camps alsoreleased, and empowered, an incredible level of sadism among the workers.Survivors' memories are studded with examples of such behavior. (New York: Longman, 1998), 264-65. London: Routledge, 1999.----------------------- Endnotes [i]Christopher R. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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