Examples Of Hitler's Motives For The Holocaust

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In order to understand whether or not Hitler had planned and willed to kill the Jews from 1925, we must interpret his motives for the Holocaust. During this time, Hitler rose to prominence through his book, ‘Mein Kampf’, and became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Under Hitler’s control, Nazi Germany slowly pushed Jews out of the country, where the Holocaust came into place through stages of developments in plans. The statement of Hitler’s intention to kill the Jews from 1925 was partially false, because functionalism provided the most accurate perspective of Hitler, it was the work of those below Hitler that lead to the genocide and there was little evidence to support the opportunist side of the argument. Hitler had some desire to kill the Jews, but …show more content…

Even before 1925, Hitler already had anti-Semitic views, and did have some intention to kill the Jews under the functionalist view. He operated as what historians such as Browning and Mommsen call, ‘the weak dictator’, and did not use the full potential of his power, which saw lower ranked Nazis play a vital role towards the creation of the Holocaust. Ian Kershaw’s book, “Hitler”, reinforced the functionalist view of Hitler. Kershaw wrote: “The signs are that ‘Crystal Night’ had a profound impact upon Hitler…he had harboured feelings which fused fear and loathing into a pathological view of Jews as the incarnation of evil threatening German survival”. Goebbels’ plan of enacting a pogrom against the Jews was successful in pushing for violent action. The Holocaust arose from Kristallnacht in 1938, in