The Mass Extermination Of European Jews

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 the book Ordinary Men, Christopher Browning tackles the question of why German citizens engaged in nefarious behavior that led to the deaths of millions of Jewish and other minorities throughout Europe. The question of what drove Germans to commit acts of genocide has been investigated by numerous historians, but unfortunately, no overarching answer for the crimes has yet been decided upon. However, certain theories are more popular than others. Daniel Goldhagen in his book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, has expounded that the nature of the German culture before the Second World War was deeply embedded in anti-Semitic fervor, which in turn, acted as the catalyst for the events that would unfold into the Holocaust. It is at this

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

“Was German ‘Eliminationist Anti-Semitism” Responsible for the Holocaust?” is a fascinating and somewhat discouraging debate that explores the question of whether German anti-Semitism, instilled within citizens outside of the Nazi Party, played a vast role in the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust . Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of “The Paradigm Challenged,” believes that it did; and argues quite convincingly that ordinary German citizens were duplicitous either by their actions or inactions due to the deep-seeded nature of anti-Semitic sentiment in the country. On the other hand, Christopher R. Browning, who has extensively researched the Holocaust, argues that the arguments of Goldhagen leaves out significant dynamics which were prevalent throughout most of Western and Eastern Europe during this period of history.

However, Dawidowicz published The War against the Jews in 1975, she like other Intentionalist historians advocated that ‘Jews were at the centre of his mental world and formed an inseparable core of National Socialist doctrine’. In relation to the Nazi bureaucracy she claimed that Hitler had a wide range of long term plans and one of them involved deliberately creating chaos and instability within the party structure. And, that he formed a structure where people would have to fight for survival within the intentionally formed bureaucratic structure.

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.

camps it was time to kill as many as they could in on final swoop.

Historians are often divided into categories in regard to dealing with Nazi Germany foreign policy and its relation to Hitler: 'intentionalist', and 'structuralist'. The intentionalist interpretation focuses on Hitler's own steerage of Nazi foreign policy in accordance with a clear, concise 'programme' planned long in advance. The 'structuralist' approach puts forth the idea that Hitler seized opportunities as they came, radicalizing the foreign policies of the Nazi regime in response. Structuralists reject the idea of a specific Hitlerian ideological 'programme', and instead argue for an emphasis on expansion no clear aims or objectives, and radicalized with the dynamism of the Nazi movement. With Nazi ideology and circumstances in

Structuralists put more emphasis on broader historical developments e.g. economic structure, political factors. They accept leaders have influence but view their actions as determined more by the conditions in which they operate rather than by their own wishes. Intentionalist historians argue that Hitler was a very powerful ruler who operated in line with a ‘master plan’; it was always his intention to start a war in Europe and exterminate European Jews. Conversely, functionalism

Many religious conflicts are built from bigotry; however, only few will forever have an imprint on the world’s history. While some may leave a smear on the world’s past, some – like the homicide of Semitic people – may leave a scar. The Holocaust, closely tied to World War II, was a devastating and systematic persecution of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime and allies. Hitler, an anti-Semitic leader of the Nazis, believed that the Jewish race made the Aryan race impure. The Nazis did all in their power to annihilate the followers of Judaism, while the Jews attempted to rebel, rioted against the government, and united as one. Furthermore, the genocide had many social science factors that caused the opposition between the Jews and Nazis.

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

Intentionalists- They believe that anti-Semitism is the focus of Hitler’s implementation of the Final Solution. They believe Hitler’s answer to the “Jewish question”, the Final Solution, was created before the year of 1939.

The Final Plan was Adolf Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews. The reason Hitler decided to do this was because of Germany's defeat in WW1, which put them millions of dollars in debt. The stereotype of the Jew in the early 1900s was that they were very wealthy, that they were greedy with their money. After WW1 the United Nations made Germany pay for all of the damage. Germany was in so much debt that Hitler made it seem that he would win the war and get them out of debt. However, Germany lost the war, surrendering on May 7, 1945.

The mass murder of millions of Jews was a horrendous experiment and something only men filled with hatred could inflict on the innocent lives of that era. A deportation train would arrive at a Natzi camp and unload all of the Jews that had been collected and taken from their homes. The Jews would be unloaded and the men were separated from the woman and children. A physician would glance at each person to see determine their health status and whether they were worth keeping alive. The ones deemed weak in the eyes of the Natzi’s were taken to gas chambers. In order to prevent panic, the victims were told they were simply taking a shower to get rid of the lice. Each person would hand over their valuables and then fully undress. The line of Jews

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