Reasons for the development of the final solution

Leo Pearson 11H

History Coursework

The reason for the development of the final solution is under much historical debate. There is the structuralists who believe it was a result of wartime problems, that it was a improvised response to the problems. However there is the intentionalists who believe Hitler planned the holocaust due to his pathological hatred of the Jews. Now in this essay I am going to present the evidence for both schools of thought.

There is substantial evidence to support the structuralists. Nazi policy previous to 1939 towards the jews were concentrated on social exclusion, legislation and encouraged emigration. It can be seen that emigration was encouraged when in 1939 the Reich central office for Jewish emigration was set up. This is proof that the Nazis were still trying to pass on the ‘Jewish Problem’

The problem for the policy of emigration became increasingly difficult from Anchluss onwards. When Austria rejoined with Germany this gave Germany 150,000 more Jews which made emigration increasingly more unlikely, even though Eichman forced 45 000 Jews to emigrate. However emigration wasn’t possible at the outbreak of war due to Britain’s refusal to allow free acces to the sea. This restricted options to send Jews to Madagascar. British interference also restricted plans to send Jews to Palestine, which Britain controlled over a League of Nations Mandate, as the local Arab population were in uproar and Britain finally stopped Jewish emigration in 1944. This has been seen as evidence of Hitlers desire to pass on the Jewish ‘problem’ rather than the ‘final solution’. Also after the outbreak of war it left another large ‘problem’. When Germany took over Poland it left Germany with a further 3 million Jews. which meant emigration was impossible. This sharp increase of Jews and no way to deport them this led to the ‘final solution’.

However, other solutions were attempted before the development o9f the Final Solution. In Poland the problem of so many Jews was met by the establishment of ghettoes. The ghettos were situated in the poor slum part of the city (about 2% of the city) which were designed to kill Jews by natural attrition. However regional leaders in Poland considered them distasteful and too public. They also feared the spread of disease from the ghettos to the other areas of the city.

However when the nazis invaded the USSR it trapped a further 4 million Jews and made existing ...

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However when the nazis invaded the USSR it trapped a further 4 million Jews and made existing policies of transportation to ghettos and death by natural attrition impossible. There was also a plan drawn up to transport the Jews east of the Urals, but this option of emigration was again made impossible as the USSR put up a lot of resistance so they couldn’t get to eastern Russia. This proves though that the nazis intention to emigrate the Jews, rather than kill them, was still present in 1941.

Also another factor in the development of the ‘final solution’ is the Einsatzgruppen. The Einsatzgruppen was used to execute Jews. It is estimated that they killed 2 million Jews, with the help of the army & the local Slav population, who also shared the anti-semitic feelings of the Nazis (seen in pogroms ie:1905 in which the state sponsored violence towards the Jews to distract them from the problems seen in Russia). However the Einsatzgruppen found it hard to deal with, due to the thousands of murders involved. They started to suffer psychological problems, further more the Nazi officials found the public displays distasteful. So a new solution to the Jewish ‘question’ had to be found. This left to the ‘final solution’.

The Final Solution was drawn up in detail at the Wannsee conference. There it seems that the logistics of transporting Jews to polish death camps were finalised here, as the gassing of Jews were already underway, as a result of the success of the T4 euthanasia programme. So this was the solution for the ‘Jewish question’ as a result of the failure of the ghettos & the Einsatzgruppen.

This is the evidentiary support for the structuralists. Now I am going to discuss the evidence for the intentionalists view.

There is little doubt that Hitler was the author of the final solution, as he only had the power for it to happen or for it to stop. He has been quoted saying the ‘removal’ or ‘eradication’ of the Jews, but these are ambiguous, they could mean resettlement, weakening of position or Mass Murder.

Hitlers pathological hatred of the Jews cannot really be explained. However there is the view that he developed the hatred while he was in Vienna after 1908, he grew jealous of Jewish success there. He couldn’t consider that a race substandard to Aryans could make such flourishing businesses & and believed that they got them by deceitfulness & dishonesty. He also held responsible the Jews for the failure of German success in WW1, he said they insisted on an armistice because the war was costing them money and they had no interest in German victory.

Hitler also says in a passage of mein kampf, Hitler says 12,000 to 15,000 Jews should have been gased as a result of winning the First World War. Although this statement is again ambiguous & shouldn’t be seen as conclusive evidence that Hitler planned the final solution.

In my opinion the holocaust was a result of wartime problems as the structuralists do. The fact that up until the failure of the invasion of the USSR the Nazis were trying to deport Jews & force them to emigrate is evidence that it wasn’t Hitlers intention from a early age to kill the European Jews, which is what intentionalists believe. However Hitler did have strong anti-semitic feelings, although many of Europeans were anit-semitic. However the holocaust wouldn’t of been possible it there was no anti-semitism. Example of this can be seen from progroms in Russia which were usually government sponsored or approved violence towards the Jews. However the holocaust could of only happened with Hitlers approval, & also the only person that could stop the holocaust. But moreover I still support the structuralist way of thinking.

“it was only the failure of the Russian campaign & the Nazis inability to cope with the millions of deported Jews building up in Poland that led to initiatives which gained Hitlers approval. . . The holocaust was the result of the regime’s hasty search for a way out of the problem it had created for itself.”

Adapted from Mason1981, Mommsen 1991, & Broszat1979.