Examples Of Intentionalism In The Holocaust

“Hitler willed and planned to kill the Jews since 1925.” How true is this statement?

The Holocaust, considered as the deadliest genocide in history, was a genocide in which approximately six million Jews were massacred by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. The development of this mass killing is blamed upon the dictator of Germany reigning at that time, Hitler, but it has been subject to two very different perspectives, functionalist, and intentionalist. The intentionalist perspective declares that Hitler had methodically planned out his actions and had a grand scheme that he had put into motion, while the functionalists argue such a plot did not exist.

Going into further detail on functionalism and intentionalism- The functionalist perspective

One intentionalist argument is that Hitler was a methodical thinker, who planned out the Holocaust out of his deep hatred for Jews. Hitler had planned for the mass annihilation of the Jews as he had despised them, which is evident in his own written book. These are extracts from Hitler's Mein Kampf: "The nationalization of our masses will succeed only when, aside from all the positive struggle for the soul of our people, their international poisoners are exterminated.""If at the beginning of the war and during the war twelve or fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the nation had been subjected to poison gas, such as had to be endured in the field by hundreds of thousands of our very best German workers of all classes and professions, then the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain. Several passages in Mein Kampf are undeniably of a genocidal nature. He references the genocide of Jewish people, which hints that he had constituted a plan that is later used to initiate the operation of the Holocaust. Mein Kampf is often used by intentionalists to support their opinions, as it contains passages that indicate Hitler did have a master plan. The quotes display evidence that Hitler had thought of a plan to exterminate the Jews, which all contributes to

This point is reinforced by Eberhard Jäckel's books regarding Hitler and the genocide of the Jews. He expresses the view that Mein Kampf was not only a "blueprint" for power, but also for genocide. In his 1977 essay, Hitler and the Genesis of the Final Solution, he states: "great deal of evidence that some [local officials] were shocked or even appalled when the Final Solution came into effect. To be sure, they did not disagree with it. But they agreed only reluctantly, referring again to an order given by Hitler. This is a strong indication that the idea did not originate with them." From this statement, we learn that Hitler was definitely the one who was commanding and brought about the Final Solution. It provides evidence implying that all essential decisions were made by Hitler, this refutes the claims made by functionalists and suggest that the Holocaust was caused by the sole intents of