Germany 1939-49: Racial policies and the Final Solution
Background
Hitler had always believed that the Second World War would be both a conventional confrontation with Germany’s enemies, Britain and France, but it would also contain a second, more hidden aspect. For Hitler it would be a racial war, fought not on battlefields against armies, but in occupied territories against Jews, Poles, Gypsies and other racial ‘degenerates’. As Hitler’s war changed between 1939 and 1942, so did his racial priorities, resulting in an escalation and a radicalisation of racial policy until the Final Solution, the mass extermination of all Europe’s Jews was attempted.
One of the problems for historians in exploring the evolution of the Holocaust is the fact that Hitler rarely wrote anything down or committed his signature to any documents about the genocide. He was wary about being held to account for the fate of the Jews and also preferred to operate his government informally. This means that historians attempting to trace the connection between Hitler and the Holocaust have often drawn radically different conclusions. There have been three main schools of thought about Hitler and the fate of the Jews since the end of the Second World War. See the table below:
Hitler had always believed that the Second World War would be both a conventional confrontation with Germany’s enemies, Britain and France, but it would also contain a second, more hidden aspect. For Hitler it would be a racial war, fought not on battlefields against armies, but in occupied territories against Jews, Poles, Gypsies and other racial ‘degenerates’. As Hitler’s war changed between 1939 and 1942, so did his racial priorities, resulting in an escalation and a radicalisation of racial policy until the Final Solution, the mass extermination of all Europe’s Jews was attempted.
One of the problems for historians in exploring the evolution of the Holocaust is the fact that Hitler rarely wrote anything down or committed his signature to any documents about the genocide. He was wary about being held to account for the fate of the Jews and also preferred to operate his government informally. This means that historians attempting to trace the connection between Hitler and the Holocaust have often drawn radically different conclusions. There have been three main schools of thought about Hitler and the fate of the Jews since the end of the Second World War. See the table below:
IntentionalistIntentionalist historians (mainly writing in the two decades after the end of the war), argued that Hitler had a long term plan for the Holocaust. This plan dated back to 1918, when it first became a major ambition of Hitler’s and was carefully put into action over the next two and a half decades.
Most primary evidence does not support this view and many intentionalists, such as the historian Lucy Dawidowicz have relied largely on secondary sources such as Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf. |
FunctionalistFunctionalist historians argue that the cause of the Holocaust was less to do with Hitler and more the product of the inner workings of the Nazi State. This is a position that seems to be more supported by evidence. Some extreme functionalists have argued that Hitler was completely unaware of the Holocaust, but this is an argument that has been largely dismissed by academic historians.
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SynthesistThe Synthesist approach, pioneered by Ian Kershaw, presents elements of both arguments. Kershaw argued that the development of policy in Nazi Germany could be best described as ‘working towards the Führer’. This meant that Hitler expressed himself in ‘broad visions’ and never went into specifics. His ambitious ministers then attempted to interpret his will, competing with one another, which helped to radicalise policy. Hitler was intimately involved in policy making that interested him and could intervene decisively when necessary, but often stepped back from direct administration.
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Racial Policy 1939-41
Poland and the Einsatzgruppen When Hitler divided Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union the two victims of German racial policy were the Poles and the Jews. The fate of the Poles that Hitler had planned was to turn them into a slave people to serve their German masters. This meant that their leaders (nobles, intellectuals, priests) would be executed and Poles would be prohibited from education or any kind or political organisation. A Polish Army barracks at the town of Ozwiciem was turned into a concentration camp and a site of terror for Polish political prisoners where brutal treatment was meted out. When the town was Germanified, it was renamed Auschwitz. Long before the Final Solution had been decided upon, the mass killing of Jews had begun in Poland. The country was divided into three, the Warthegau and East Prussia were considered sufficiently Germanic to incorporate directly into the Reich, but a large ‘rump’ state, called the General Government by the Nazi Regime, was run as a direct colony by Hans Frank. Hitler wished to see the newly annexed areas become Jew and Pole free and told their Gauleiters that he was unconcerned how they achieved this.One method was to indiscriminately dump racial undesirables across the border in the General Government without Frank’s authorisation. This action led directly to the development of ghettoes (see next section). |
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