The Final Solution To The Jewish Problem Summary

Karl A. Schleunes explains the way National Socialism began to rise in Germany during the years that followed World War I. His book was not meant to show how concentration camps functioned or what the Nazis chose to call the “The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.” Schleunes, instead, wanted to come to grips with the reality of how and why these concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, came to be. He traces the relations of Germans and the Jews living in Germany between the time periods of Germany’s unification in the Second Reich to the Nazi regime that occurred in the Third Reich. Schleunes illustrates this through events and ideas. The Bismarckian constitution of 1871 brought emancipation which for the Jews meant full and equal participation

Did that seem to be the consensus of all historians? According to Schleunes, that is simply not the consensus of all of them. He views the Final Solution as a product of something completely unplanned. Schleunes give many different examples of the Final Solution’s unplanned history, which only the most important should be highlighted. Anti-Semitism was floating around in Germany and elsewhere in Central Europe before Hitler came to power. In eastern Europe in the late 19th century, for example, Jews faced massive persecution. The most important being in Romania right after it unified which was the closest parallel to the German experience with the Jewish problem. Romanians claimed to be of Latin origin, descendants of Roman settlers, which made them superior to the Jews. The Romanian government quickly instituted repressive measures against Jews some of which excluded Jewish children from schools, barred them from business and professional pursuits, and limited their religious observances. Like Romania, Germany also unified in the late 19th century and the Second Reich was born. Germans were plagued with the question of defining Germany. The struggle brought out two different groups of German nationalists. The Kleindeutschers who wanted a small Germany which excluded Germans living within neighboring states. The other group was called Grossdeutschers who wanted to include all Germans

It was the first time that Nazi leadership began to think practically about a final solution. Germany, which was a haven for Jews, was now their worst nightmare. Jews in German territory had no idea what was going to happen to them. They certainly did not know this would eventually lead them to their deaths. Germany was now at war with some of the world’s major powers and were fully confident that they would be victorious. This put them in the position to be able to begin thinking about getting rid of the Jewish population permanently. During peacetime, Germany would have never dreamed of this, but wartime was a whole different ball game. Before and during the war, it was the Jews that helped keep Hitler in power. The Jews helped him ignore every social and economic promise he made to the people of Germany by instead focusing their attention towards the Jews. Hitler created this situation and the Jewish problem for Germany and when he was left with no other options it became necessary for him to find a final and total