Hi there! I would please like someone to correct this essay for Edexcel "From Kaiser to Fuhrer" Unit 3 Option D and tell me the good points/bad points of my performance. I wish someone would grade it too. I'm sorry for my bad English.
The question is "The final solution evolved because of the chaotic nature of the Nazi Regime in the years 1939-42." How far do you agree with this opinion?" (June 2010)
Plan (I always do this before writing the main essay)
For: Competing agencies // Polycratic state // Working towards the Führer// Cumulative radicalisation.
Against: The effects of the war on the Holocaust// Hitler's commitment to erradicate the Jews (internationalist view) // Support from sectors of the German society.
Essay
This question asks me to evaluate the impact of the chaotic nature of the Nazi Regime on the evolution of the Final Solution. It can be argued that the competing organizations was the main factor that caused the Holocaust because every agency wanted to demonstrate its loyalty towards the Fuhrer by promoting antisemitism, every time in a more dramatic way. On the other hand, it can be considered that there were other factors which were more important in the evolution of process of planning the mass murder. During the first years of WW2, Germany witnessed an increase in the number of Jews within their borders and the war brought the desire to exterminate the Jewish population as an act of revenge. It can be also suggested that the Final Solution evolved due to Hitler's ruthless determination to annihilate the Jews, or even due to the support from sectors of the German society towards the extreme anti-semitism.
The chaotic nature of the regime undoubtedly made the Final Solution to be more likely. For example, when Poland was invaded by the Wehrmacht in 1939, Hans Frank complained that the General Polish Government was overcrowded by Jews who were deported from Germany to this "puppet" country. This was due to the rivalry between him and Himmler. By 1941 the SS was acting "as a state within a state" and had no formal restraints to annihilate the Jewish population from the Baltic states and occupied Russia using Eissatzgruppen commands. An example of how working towards the Fuhrer had an impact on the evolution of the Holocaust can be clearly seen when Goebbels launched a propaganda campaign to portray the Jews as the menace of the Aryan race. He had lost Hitler's confidence due to his affair with a Czech actress in 1938 and he slowly gained it by demostrating that he was the most active anti-semitic politician in the Nazi ranks. For example in 1941 he constantly demanded that all Jews in Germany should wear a yellow star for identification. All this evidence shows that by 1942, the idea of working towards the Führer, the internal rivalries within the Nazi regime and the cumulative radicalisation derived from it were factors which led to the evolution of the Final Solution.
The war also had a significant role in the evolution of the Final Solution. It is undeniable that as war progressed the restrictions upon the Jewish community, which only accounted for less than 1% of the population in whole Germany, were more strict. Firstly, France's defeat made Hitler think that Madagascar could be stripped from the French Empire and that all the Jews could be shipped there. However, the UK ruled the seas so this plan had to be discarted. Secondly, the war against Russia was said to be a racial struggle against inferior races such as the Slavs. Himmler wanted to deport the Jews beyond the Ural mountains. This was called the General Ostplan but the Operation Barbarossa in 1941 did not succeed. These two examples demonstrate that the Nazi Regime was forced to prosecute the Final Solution to achieve "racial cleansing" as all the other plans of deportation had been thwarted by the war.
The state of war caused there to be acts of revenge against the Jewish community which inevitably provoked the Final Solution. When Hitler once declared war on the USA, he said that "the USA was a half-negro/half Jew country". In addition, when the USSR defeated the German thrust into Moscow in 1941 and when Stalin deported many Germans from the Volga region, Hitler arranged the Wansee Conference when it was decided the fate of the Jewish community in occupied land. Hitler now treated the Jews as partisans. All this shows that the Nazi Regime attempted to take revenge from their enemies by inflicting suffering on those who were most vulnerable. It is perceived that the war accelerated the paranoia and therefore the final solution evolved because of the world conflict, not because of the chaotic nature of the regime.
Some intentionalist historians simply believe that the Final Solution evolved due to Hitler's brutal commitment annihilate the Jewish population. This can be clearly seen when in 1939 he accused the "international Jewry" making all European nations plunge into a war which he said he was avoiding. He often referred to the removal of the Jewish population in his book Mein Kampf in 1924 and although he never signed a document authorizing the Holocaust, his attacks on the Jewish community can be regarded as a long term plan for the execution of the Jews. He first confined the Jews in the ghettos in 1940, he then made them have a "J" letter printed in their official documents, making them more identifiable and easily grouped together for the final execution. It can be suggested that the role of an individual and his conviction was the main factor for the evolution of the Holocaust.
The Final Solution could not have evolved with at least some support of the German society. It is widely known that most Germans never knew what was really happening in the concentration camps, for example when Eisenhower took the population living in Bergen to the concentration camp they were astonished when they were forced to witness the crude reality. On the other hand, the Protestant Church was profoundly anti-semitic and so was the official Reich Church led by Müller. A lot of Germans participated in the burning down of many synagogues in Kristallnacht in 1938, although it cannot really be assessed if this meant that most Germans were willing to take even more extreme acts against the Jews such as mass murder. Even though it is a controversial statement, it is unconceivable that the Final Solution would not evolve with the support, or at least the complacency of some Germans.
Overall, the Final Solution evolved due to many factors. The competing agencies and radicalization, the war, Hitler's long-term plans and the support of some of the Germans towards anti-semitism are just a few. The war promoted revenge against the Jewish community which was more vulnerable. War destroyed all plans for deportation such as Ost Plan and the Madagascar Plan. War also meant that the Nazi Regime had more Jews within its own borders who had to be executed in a more efficient way. I am more inclined to believe that the war was the primary factor for the evolution of the Nazi regime and not the chaotic nature of the Nazi state.