Himmler argued that SS officers and soldiers “stayed decent” while overseeing the extermination of the Jews. How, in his explanation, was this possible? SOURCES FROM THE PASTAfter reviewing the "Sources from the Past: "We Will Never Speak about it in Public" feature, answer the followingquestions.SOURCES FROM THE PAST"We Will Never Speak about It in Public"On 4 October 1943, Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS and chief of the German police, gave a three-hour speech to onassembly of SS generals in the city of Posen (Poznan), in what is now Poland. In the following excerpt, Himmler justified Nazianti-Jewish policies that culminoted in mass murder. The speech, recorded on tope and in handwritten notes, was enteredinto evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trials in 1945.I also want to speak to you here, in complete frankness, of a really grave chapter. Amongst ourselves, for once, it shall be saidquite openly, but all the same we will never speak about it in public....I am referring here to the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people. This is one of the thingsthat is easily said: "The Jewish people are going to be exterminated," that's what every Party member says, "sure, it's inour program, elimination of the Jews, extermination-it'll be done." And then theyall come along, the 80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his onedecent Jew. Of course, the others are swine, but this one, he is a first-rate Jew. Of all-those who talk like that, not one has seen it happen, not one has had to go throughwith it. Most of you men know what it is like to see 100 corpses side by side, or 500or 1,000. To have stood fast through this and except for cases of human weakness to have stayed decent, that has made.us hard. This is an unwritten and never-to-be-written page of glory in our history....The wealth they possessed we took from them. I gave a strict order, which has been carried out by SS ObergruppenfuehrerPohl, that this wealth will of course be turned over to the Reich in its entirety. We have taken none of it for ourselves. Individualswho have erred will be punished in accordance with the order given by me at the start, threatening that anyone who takes asmuch as a single Mark of this money is a dead man. A number of SS men, they are not very many, committed this offense, andthey shall die. There will be no mercy. We had the moral right, we had the duty towards our people, to destroy this people thatwanted to destroy us. But we do not have the right to enrich ourselves by so much as afur, as a watch, by one Mark or a cigarette or anything else. We do not want, in the end,because we destroyed a bacillus, to be infected by this bacillus and to die. I will neverstand by and watch while even a small rotten spot develops or takes hold. Wherever it-may form we will together burn it away. All in all, however, we can say that we have car-ried out this most difficult of tasks in a spirit of love for our people. And we have sufferedno harm to our inner being, our soul, our character....What was Himmler's point hereabout "decent" Jews?Why was it so important toHimmler that individual Germansnot take the wealth of murderedJews?For Further ReflectionHimmler argued that SS officers and soldiers "stayed decent" while overseeing the extermination of the Jews; how,according to him, was this possible?Source: Heinrich Himmler, " We Will Never Speak about it in Public" (The Complete Text of the Poznan Speech), October 4, 1943, Translation usedwith permission of the Holocaust History Project (www.holocaust-history.org).Heinrich Himmler, "We Will Never Speak about it in Public" (The Complete Text of the Poznan Speech), October 4, 1943, Translation used with permission of the

Question

Himmler argued that SS officers and soldiers “stayed decent” while overseeing the extermination of the Jews. How, in his explanation, was this possible? SOURCES FROM THE PASTAfter reviewing the &#34;Sources from the Past: &#34;We Will Never Speak about it in Public&#34; feature, answer the followingquestions.SOURCES FROM THE PAST&#34;We Will Never Speak about It in Public&#34;On 4 October 1943, Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS and chief of the German police, gave a three-hour speech to onassembly of SS generals in the city of Posen (Poznan), in what is now Poland. In the following excerpt, Himmler justified Nazianti-Jewish policies that culminoted in mass murder. The speech, recorded on tope and in handwritten notes, was enteredinto evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trials in 1945.I also want to speak to you here, in complete frankness, of a really grave chapter. Amongst ourselves, for once, it shall be saidquite openly, but all the same we will never speak about it in public....I am referring here to the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people. This is one of the thingsthat is easily said: &#34;The Jewish people are going to be exterminated,&#34; that's what every Party member says, &#34;sure, it's inour program, elimination of the Jews, extermination-it'll be done.&#34; And then theyall come along, the 80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his onedecent Jew. Of course, the others are swine, but this one, he is a first-rate Jew. Of all-those who talk like that, not one has seen it happen, not one has had to go throughwith it. Most of you men know what it is like to see 100 corpses side by side, or 500or 1,000. To have stood fast through this and except for cases of human weakness to have stayed decent, that has made.us hard. This is an unwritten and never-to-be-written page of glory in our history....The wealth they possessed we took from them. I gave a strict order, which has been carried out by SS ObergruppenfuehrerPohl, that this wealth will of course be turned over to the Reich in its entirety. We have taken none of it for ourselves. Individualswho have erred will be punished in accordance with the order given by me at the start, threatening that anyone who takes asmuch as a single Mark of this money is a dead man. A number of SS men, they are not very many, committed this offense, andthey shall die. There will be no mercy. We had the moral right, we had the duty towards our people, to destroy this people thatwanted to destroy us. But we do not have the right to enrich ourselves by so much as afur, as a watch, by one Mark or a cigarette or anything else. We do not want, in the end,because we destroyed a bacillus, to be infected by this bacillus and to die. I will neverstand by and watch while even a small rotten spot develops or takes hold. Wherever it-may form we will together burn it away. All in all, however, we can say that we have car-ried out this most difficult of tasks in a spirit of love for our people. And we have sufferedno harm to our inner being, our soul, our character....What was Himmler's point hereabout &#34;decent&#34; Jews?Why was it so important toHimmler that individual Germansnot take the wealth of murderedJews?For Further ReflectionHimmler argued that SS officers and soldiers &#34;stayed decent&#34; while overseeing the extermination of the Jews; how,according to him, was this possible?Source: Heinrich Himmler, &#34; We Will Never Speak about it in Public&#34; (The Complete Text of the Poznan Speech), October 4, 1943, Translation usedwith permission of the Holocaust History Project (www.holocaust-history.org).Heinrich Himmler, &#34;We Will Never Speak about it in Public&#34; (The Complete Text of the Poznan Speech), October 4, 1943, Translation used with permission of the

Accepted Answer

Heinrich Himmler, in his chilling speech on October 4, 1943, sought to justify how SS officers and…