Compiled by Sonia Sanjay (printsbysonia)
Summary of Holocaust Historiography
Interpretations:
● Intentionalist
o Interpretations that assume that Hitler/Nazis planned to exterminate the Jews from the star
● Structuralism
o Interpretations that argue the nature of the Nazi state produced genocide
▪ No coherent plan
y
▪ Chaotic competition for Hitler’s approval between different elements of leadership
produced a situation in which genocide could occur
ja
▪ Due to the particular Nazi policies of Aryan supremacy and the way by which each
Nazi leader interpreted Hitler's wishes
● Functionalism
o Closely related to structuralism
an
o Holocaust was an unplanned, ad hoc response to wartime developments in E. EU when
Germany conquered areas with large Jewish populations
● Synthesis
o Interpretations that show characteristics of more than one of the above (internationalism,
structuralism, functionalism)
● Cause of the Holocaust: Intentionalist (I)
.S
Lucy Dawidowicz ● Extreme intentionalist
● “Straight road to Auschwitz”
● “Hitler’s early speeches indicate beyond doubt his ultimate goals for the
destruction of the Jews”
● “Since 1918, Hitler conceived his master plans”
● Believed that Nazi anti-semitism was derived from Hitler’s own personal
hatreds
A
● Hitler’s intention was always to use the disorder of war as a cover
○ “Plans for destroying the Jews were always part of Hitler’s thinking”
● The war against Poland was twofold – traditional war of conquest for land
and raw materials and the ideological war against the greatest enemy of the
Reich: the Jews
a
Daniel Goldhagen ● Germany has “eliminationist anti-semitic nature” & Hitler always intended to
kill the Jews
● Popular opinion in Germany was already sympathetic to a policy of Jewish
extermination
ni
○ Germany enthusiastically welcomed persecution of Jews
■ Had its roots deep German anti-Semitism
○ Hitler was the driving force behind anti-Jewish policies
Andreas ● Hitler was obsessed with destroying Bolshevism
So
Hilgruber ○ In Hitler’s mind, Bolshevism was inseparable from international
Judaism
● Hitler was the driving force behind the Holocaust
● FS emerged out of war against Russia
● Everything that happened after Operation Barbarossa was part of a master
plan Hitler developed in the 1920s
Karl Dietrich ● Hitler was an anti-semitic fanatic who controlled the party expertly
Bracher ○ Aim: to use the state to achieve his personal agenda
● Nazi state was less organised than outward appearances
○ Hitler intentionally created multiple departments & encouraged
, Compiled by Sonia Sanjay (printsbysonia)
competing interests
○ Aim: ‘divide & rule’ in order to see his will done
Eberhard Jäckel ● Nazi anti-semitism was derived from Hitler’s own personal hatreds
● Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht & other events directly flowed from Hitler’s
hatred of the Jews
● No single killing order
○ Extermination was divided into several phases & covered a wide
variety of methods/victims
y
Richard Breitman ● Hitler was the architect of the Final Solution
● Hitler decided on the Holocaust in late 1930s to no later than 1939/41
ja
Saul Friedlander ● “In all its major decisions, the Nazi regime depended on Hitler”
● Nazi goals were systematically pursued & rapidly achieved
Carrie Supple ● Hitler & the Nazis planned the systematic genocide of Jews from the start of
Chancellorship
an
○ Not an ad hoc reaction to political, social & economic problems in
Germany
Gerald Fleming ● Unbroken continuity of specific utterances from early manifestations of
anti-semitism to liquidation directly ordered during the war
.S
● Hitler decided at an early stage to commit genocide
○ Characterises Hitler as a secretive man who “refused to confide in
others”
● Himmler mentioned a ‘Fuhrer-Order’ concerning annihilation of Jews
○ Indicated Hitler verbally issued a command on the subject
● Cause of the Holocaust: Functionalist/structuralist (F)
A
Raul Hilberg ● No written order; Third Reich was governed by announcement
○ There was empowerment to proceed
○ Genocide of the Jews was an administrative processtaken at the
initiative of “countless decision makers in a far found bureaucratic
machine”
a
○ Administrative machinery gathered momentous, finding the shortest
path to the final goal
● Perpetrators worked together in a mechanised fashion
○ No master plan/blueprint
ni
○ A consensus for mass murder emerged an=mongst these
bureaucrats
■ Developed a “shared comprehension of consonance &
synchronisation”
So
Chirstopher ● “Jewish problem” was self imposed
Browning ● There was no plan for dealing with the Jews by deportation East as late as
1941
● Genocide was planned in the early stages of Barbarossa, rather than once
this campaign had failed
● Emigration couldn’t be done & invading other countries meant more Jews
● “If one wanted to know what Hitler was thinking, one should look at what
Himmler was doing”
○ While Hitler was the author behind the Holocaust, it was Himmler
that was able to translate Hitler’s ideology into a concrete program
● Himmler would have had to receive some form of authorisation (even if it
Summary of Holocaust Historiography
Interpretations:
● Intentionalist
o Interpretations that assume that Hitler/Nazis planned to exterminate the Jews from the star
● Structuralism
o Interpretations that argue the nature of the Nazi state produced genocide
▪ No coherent plan
y
▪ Chaotic competition for Hitler’s approval between different elements of leadership
produced a situation in which genocide could occur
ja
▪ Due to the particular Nazi policies of Aryan supremacy and the way by which each
Nazi leader interpreted Hitler's wishes
● Functionalism
o Closely related to structuralism
an
o Holocaust was an unplanned, ad hoc response to wartime developments in E. EU when
Germany conquered areas with large Jewish populations
● Synthesis
o Interpretations that show characteristics of more than one of the above (internationalism,
structuralism, functionalism)
● Cause of the Holocaust: Intentionalist (I)
.S
Lucy Dawidowicz ● Extreme intentionalist
● “Straight road to Auschwitz”
● “Hitler’s early speeches indicate beyond doubt his ultimate goals for the
destruction of the Jews”
● “Since 1918, Hitler conceived his master plans”
● Believed that Nazi anti-semitism was derived from Hitler’s own personal
hatreds
A
● Hitler’s intention was always to use the disorder of war as a cover
○ “Plans for destroying the Jews were always part of Hitler’s thinking”
● The war against Poland was twofold – traditional war of conquest for land
and raw materials and the ideological war against the greatest enemy of the
Reich: the Jews
a
Daniel Goldhagen ● Germany has “eliminationist anti-semitic nature” & Hitler always intended to
kill the Jews
● Popular opinion in Germany was already sympathetic to a policy of Jewish
extermination
ni
○ Germany enthusiastically welcomed persecution of Jews
■ Had its roots deep German anti-Semitism
○ Hitler was the driving force behind anti-Jewish policies
Andreas ● Hitler was obsessed with destroying Bolshevism
So
Hilgruber ○ In Hitler’s mind, Bolshevism was inseparable from international
Judaism
● Hitler was the driving force behind the Holocaust
● FS emerged out of war against Russia
● Everything that happened after Operation Barbarossa was part of a master
plan Hitler developed in the 1920s
Karl Dietrich ● Hitler was an anti-semitic fanatic who controlled the party expertly
Bracher ○ Aim: to use the state to achieve his personal agenda
● Nazi state was less organised than outward appearances
○ Hitler intentionally created multiple departments & encouraged
, Compiled by Sonia Sanjay (printsbysonia)
competing interests
○ Aim: ‘divide & rule’ in order to see his will done
Eberhard Jäckel ● Nazi anti-semitism was derived from Hitler’s own personal hatreds
● Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht & other events directly flowed from Hitler’s
hatred of the Jews
● No single killing order
○ Extermination was divided into several phases & covered a wide
variety of methods/victims
y
Richard Breitman ● Hitler was the architect of the Final Solution
● Hitler decided on the Holocaust in late 1930s to no later than 1939/41
ja
Saul Friedlander ● “In all its major decisions, the Nazi regime depended on Hitler”
● Nazi goals were systematically pursued & rapidly achieved
Carrie Supple ● Hitler & the Nazis planned the systematic genocide of Jews from the start of
Chancellorship
an
○ Not an ad hoc reaction to political, social & economic problems in
Germany
Gerald Fleming ● Unbroken continuity of specific utterances from early manifestations of
anti-semitism to liquidation directly ordered during the war
.S
● Hitler decided at an early stage to commit genocide
○ Characterises Hitler as a secretive man who “refused to confide in
others”
● Himmler mentioned a ‘Fuhrer-Order’ concerning annihilation of Jews
○ Indicated Hitler verbally issued a command on the subject
● Cause of the Holocaust: Functionalist/structuralist (F)
A
Raul Hilberg ● No written order; Third Reich was governed by announcement
○ There was empowerment to proceed
○ Genocide of the Jews was an administrative processtaken at the
initiative of “countless decision makers in a far found bureaucratic
machine”
a
○ Administrative machinery gathered momentous, finding the shortest
path to the final goal
● Perpetrators worked together in a mechanised fashion
○ No master plan/blueprint
ni
○ A consensus for mass murder emerged an=mongst these
bureaucrats
■ Developed a “shared comprehension of consonance &
synchronisation”
So
Chirstopher ● “Jewish problem” was self imposed
Browning ● There was no plan for dealing with the Jews by deportation East as late as
1941
● Genocide was planned in the early stages of Barbarossa, rather than once
this campaign had failed
● Emigration couldn’t be done & invading other countries meant more Jews
● “If one wanted to know what Hitler was thinking, one should look at what
Himmler was doing”
○ While Hitler was the author behind the Holocaust, it was Himmler
that was able to translate Hitler’s ideology into a concrete program
● Himmler would have had to receive some form of authorisation (even if it
