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When was the Final Solution decided upon and who decided it? One of the most interesting, and widely debated, aspects of the Holocaust is when was the Final Solution and who gave the command for the mass genocide. The command may have come as direct order from Hitler for the extermination of the European Jewry. However the question has been debated, with some historians believing the order perhaps emerge independently from the bureaucracy and ideology of the military. The final solution which has become the subject of intense debate has split historians into two broadly distinct camps, the internationalist and functionalist.
However the majority of historians believe that the decision was made in early to mid 1941, and that it got into full gear in early 1942, with discussions held in relation to the final solution at the Wannsee Conference. However recent documents regarding the personal diaries of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in fact allude to a clear and unambiguous order from Hitler himself to kill the Jews. It is generally accepted that the decision was made to physically exterminate the Jews in early to mid 1941. Hitler's secretary remembers a private meeting between Himmler and Hitler in the early spring of 1941, after which Himmler sat at her desk with a very troubled look on his face, put his head in his hands and said: "My God, my God, what I am expected to do." She is convinced that that was the day Hitler ordered him to murder the Jews. Other accounts suppose that the decision was made roughly around the time between March 1941 and the invasion of the Soviet Union.
Research in this area is hampered however, by the fact that no written Hitler-Order launching of the Final Solution has ever been found, and that if there ever was one, it most likely was destroyed. Historians have generally thought that the Final Solution unfolded first, with the Einsatzgruppen (special task forces) entering the Soviet Union behind the invading armed forces in late June 1941. They began shooting Jewish men, refraining from killing Jewish women and children however it was only a matter of time and adjustment before all Jews were being killed. Roughly 500, 000 Jews were killed in this way between July and December 1941. Primo Levi an Italian anti-Fascist remembers the feeling of waiting to die; Clearly they will kill us, whoever thinks he is going to live is mad. At that time, the sheer number of Jews to be killed and the effect on the police of shooting women and children caused other methods to be investigated.
This saw the introduction and establishment of death camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor in early 1942, to which Jews were transported and gassed with carbon monoxide or prussic acid (Zyklon B). However this raises several questions, such as why did Heydrich wait until January 1942 to hold the Wannsee Conference, where the administrative planning for the Final Solution was finalised? The conference had begun with Chief of Security police and the SD, SS-Obergruppenfhrer Heydrich, reporting that the Reich Marshal had appointed him delegate, of the preparations for the final solution of the Jewish Question in Europe. Various kinds of possible solutions were discussed and here both Gauleiter Dr.
Meyer and Secretary of State Dr. Buhler took the position that certain preparatory tasks connected with the final solution should be preformed right in the territories concerned, however in doing so, any alarm among the population must be avoided. Heydrich claimed that the meeting had been called to clarify fundamental questions on how to carry out the ordeal. The Reich Marshal had requested a draft to be sent to him concerning organisational, factual, and material interests in relation to the final solution of the Jews in Europe, focusing on the expulsion of the Jews from every sphere of life of German life. However most experts have agreed that an action on the magnitude of a mass genocide, with the resultant possible ramifications, could not have proceeded without Hitler's personal approval.
There are however many historians that take the functionalist view, believing that Hitler certainly must take responsibility but the decision to annihilate the European Jewry emerge somewhat independently from the bureaucracy and ideology of the military. Hitler they argue, was a remote leader whose vision, ideology and charisma often created a very general theoretical framework within which others would devise the policy details. It has even been suggested that due to no written evidence of the command to carry out the final solution smaller agencies lower down the SS hierarchy may have dreamed up the order to compete for Hitlers favour and reward. This would enable them to extend their own personal power base because of competition within Nazi departments. This belief is not the opinion held by all historians however until now, no written decision from Hitler has been found, although there are compelling indications that a verbal decision was certainly given. However recent discoveries cannot be called a written decision (which, if it ever existed, was almost certainly destroyed by the end of the war), but they are certainly unequivocal confirmation that a clear decision was taken by Hitler.
Even better, they help pinpoint the time it was taken. The recent discoveries allude to a clear and unambiguous order from Hitler himself to kill the Jews. At the same time, they suggest three revisions to the current theory may be in order. First, it is now likely that Hitler personally ordered the overall Final Solution decision; second, the decision was not made prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union - rather, the ultimate decision was taken near the end of 1941; third, the Final Solution was not a smoothly evolving process, but rather more dependant on the vagaries of the war effort. The documents include extracts from the diaries of Joseph Goebbels. With respect of the Jewish Question, the Fhrer has decided to make a clean sweep.
He prophesied to the Jews that if they again brought about a world war, they would live to see their annihilation in it. That wasn't just a catch-word. The world war is here, and the annihilation of the Jews must be the necessary consequence. The evidence strongly suggests that Hitler decided once and for all, in early December 1941, to exterminate all of European Jewry. That squares with the words, aspired final solution in Goering's order to Heydrich of July 1941, and helps to explain why the Wannsee Conference took place so long after the Goering order had been issued, that is, the final order had still not been given in July 1941. This does not mean that no order at all had been given at the time of the invasion of the Soviet Union.
Indeed, it is certain that an order to kill Jews, commissars and other "undesirables" had been given before the Soviet invasion, and it may well be that order that Hitler's secretary refers to. It most likely took the form of Hitler telling Himmler that as part of the invasion, the individuals mentioned above would be systematically killed and that Himmler was charged with execution of the order. But in addition to that, these individuals would have been aware of Goering's order for the administrative work to be done towards an aspired final solution. Everyone knew that a final solution - a decision to annihilate all of European Jewry - could only be made by Hitler.
And Hitler was legendary for hesitating, at times with almost disastrous effects, when faced with grave decisions, such as the Room Purge, the Munich Crisis and whether to run in the presidential election of 1932. It would be entirely in keeping with Hitler's personality if he hesitated several months after ordering the Einsatzgruppen shootings - a kind of pre-final solution - before he could bring himself to make the ultimate decision. Goering's order notwithstanding, there was little concrete action that Heydrich could take until there was a definitive decision from the man at the top. And the man at the top did not decide until December 1941. One can only speculate what finally catalyst Hitler into making the ultimate decision in December 1941, but a look at the situation at that time suggests several factors played a role. First, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the American declaration of war to Japan, and Hitler's own declaration of war against the United States, Hitler now had the "world" war referred to by Goebbels in his diary entry of December 12, 1941.
Second, the first great reversal of German fortunes in the war against the Soviet Union had taken place. On December 5, at the very gates of Moscow, the German army was stopped its tracks by the onset of a vicious Russian winter. Temperatures dropped to 31 degrees below zero that day, and the next day to 36 below. The Germans were not equipped with winter gear, the panzers broke down, and, on the 6 th, General Georgi Zhukov attacked on 200 -mile front before Moscow with 100 divisions that the Germans had not even known existed. Hitler must have known at this stage that his war effort was in serious, perhaps grave danger. There had been discussions on the use of poisonous gas as a means of killing Jews and avoiding public spectacles that sometimes accompanied shooting throughout the autumn of 1941.
The command for deportation, and mass killing of the European Jewry was a command which came from the top and as Hitler once said "Once I really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews. " He eventually achieved his goal, killing 6 million Jews. The command for the implantation of the final solution, is not documented however with help of Goebbels diaries, there is a clear connection between Hitler and the plan and command to exterminate the Jewish population. However the Holocaust was only made possible because of the active participation, or passive compliance of many groups and individuals, first within Germany, and later in other countries under Nazi occupation. World wide forces that might have acted to prevent the implementation of this horrific plan were either inadequate, slow to act, under informed, disbelieving, or downright unwilling to adjust their priorities in order to save Jewish lives. L. Primo, The Drowned and the saved Raymond Rosenthal, tr.
New York: Summit, 1988; Random/Vintage, 1989 paper. L, Davidowicz (ed. ), A Holocaust Reader, (New York, 1976, ) Minutes of the Wannsee Conference cited in Monash University, The Holocaust Handbook 2000. L. Jackson, I have lived a thousand years, growing up in the Holocaust, Simon and Schuster books, New York, 1997.
Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy, Fontana/Collins, Glasgow, 1989. Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, Bantam Books, New York, 1961. William L. Share, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1960 R. Landau, The Nazi Holocaust Ivan R Dee editor (Chicago, USA, 1948 revised 1992) G.
Fleming, Hitler and the Final Solution, (University of California Press, Berkley, 1984). Y. Lozowick, The early activities of Einsatzgruppen, cited in Monash University, The Holocaust, handbook 2000, ch. 6, pg. 234. T. Todorov, Facing the Extreme Henry Holt and Company Inc, USA, 1997 Bibliography:
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