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German
society in the 1930s was permeated by antisemitism, racism, a
utopian vision of humanity organized under German hegemony, and a
deep-seated and basic callousness towards human life. All of these
elements contributed to the form of warfare waged by Nazi Germany
and were themselves reinforced by the war. Large and varied segments
of this society accepted the basic tenet that the Jews had to
disappear. Although the way to effect this disappearance was not
clear, humanitarian considerations were in any case irrelevant.
In this
atmosphere, the idea of encouraging Jews to emigrate evolved into a
policy of deportation, then brutal deportation, and finally
deportation for the purpose of murder. It is not clear whether
Hitler instigated these developments or simply allowed them to
happen, as his underlings on various levels took independent
initiatives in order to interpret and carry out their superiors'
wishes. When the SS and other agencies, including the army,
efficiently murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews during the
invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Hitler knew that the
option of total annihilation had become feasible. Over the next
half-year, plans for the construction of extermination camps were
made and their implementation began. The origin of the idea of
murdering all the Jews is not clear, even though passages in
Hitler's book Mein Kampf suggest that such an order might eventually
be given. In view of the nature of the Nazi bureaucracy, the order
itself had to have come from Hitler, but its implementation was the
handiwork of many tens of thousands, with the acquiescence of
millions. |
