Response Paper 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Response Paper 4 - Essay Example Historians in the intentionalist side of the divide believe that the Holocaust has been the Fuhrer’s objective all along and has, in fact, been in the offing since 1919. The policy, which came to be known as the Last Solution, has been credited to Hitler’s madness alone and no one else’s (or at least primarily) though, according to Totten & Feinberg, he was influenced by the anti-Semitism sentiments in Germany and Austria back in the nineteenth century (29). Here, the Nazi structure has been reduced to a mere tool – a mechanism carrying out Hitler’s specific orders to annihilate the Jews in Europe. On the other hand, the functionalist argument dilutes Hitler’s complicity in the Holocaust. The main premise of this stand is that anti-Semitism has flourished in the German society, particularly in the Nazi hierarchy, whose members either wanted drastic solutions to Germany’s problems or to please their Fuhrer or both. Here, it is assumed that such deep-rooted anger towards the Jews made it easier for the bureaucracy to adopt a coordinated program in so short a time to exterminate the Jewish population. According to Berger, there are no evidences that specifically points to direct orders from Hitler himself and that what has been determined was an order to purge Germany of Jews, but with no explicit command as to how this will be achieved (5). In examining the merits and demerits of the arguments raised by the intentionalist and functionalist perpsectives, two important facts emerge. First is that both have legitimate claims to credibility and significance. For example, there are rich sources that demonstrate the systematic evolution of Hitler’s hate towards the Jews and these underscored how it became easier for him to attempt to annihilate the race, using the war as a pretext. Here, it also became easier for historians to credibly justify the sheer insanity of the mass murder. The breadth and