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There are two main schools of thought amongst historians about the Final Solution and only one of them is right.

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Introduction

There are two main schools of thought amongst historians about the Final Solution and only one of them is right. The 'intentionalist' theory is that of one which places Hitler at the helm where he is seen to have had the intention from the beginning (even before his rise to power) to exterminate the Jews. International Jewry was blamed for the humiliation of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, and German Jewry was accused of betraying Germany in World War I. The 'functionalist' theory is that where the 'Final Solution' was decided upon only after many failed attempts to force Jews to emigrate from Germany. After the attempt to get rid of the Jews the 'functionalist' theory believes that the 'Final Solution' was forced because there was no other option. There is evidence to help both sides of argument but in this case the theory of the functionalists is right. The fact is, Hitler's 'Final Solution' evolved and shifted from 1933 to 1941 and thus helped the idea that the intention of Genocide was not on the cards. ...read more.

Middle

In 1940, plans were devised by the Nazis to ship all Jews to Madagascar. This was called the 'Madagascan Plan' and involved moving every single Jew from Germany and her captured lands to Madagascar so as to rid them from Germany altogether. This was abandoned soon after the Wannsee Conference as it was deemed impractical for operation during wartime. Even in Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, we can see The Death Camps that led to the death of so many Jewish people was actually under the ultimate control of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi SS. Some would say that Hitler did not even order the 1st destruction process of the Jewish race but only found out about it and decided to go along with it after there was no other way out. On October 23, 1941 Himmler issued an order down the Nazi chain of command which heralded a major change in Nazi policy with respect to the "Jewish problem." ...read more.

Conclusion

Likewise every Jewish or Polish, African or Asiatic child can be declared a German citizen without further ado. (Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf: Chapter 3) We can see Hitler only wanted a pure German race, not the destruction of others in Germany. He wanted to get rid of them, and in the end it came down to genocide. In the end we can see that Hitler and in turn the whole Nazi party wanted to rid Germany and Europe of all Jewish presence as they were al fault for everything wrong in there. Hitler does not state (before the killing of the Jewish people) that he wish to bring physical harm to the Jewish race, only to condemn them to another place outside of the Reich. After the attempt to move all Jewish people from Germany and surroundings Hitler's only option was to destroy them. It was the only thing to do in a time of war. It is seen that Hitler did not want to commit to genocide at the beginning but that the annihilation of the Jewish race came about after many attempts to get rid of them another way. ...read more.

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