The Origins of Nazi Genocide

The topic of Nazi Genocide during the Second World War is a complicated one to say the least. The origins for the systematic murder of six million European Jews continues to be debated today. Based on the interpretations of historical events occurring during the Nazis’ rule of Germany, the most probable explanation is that Hitler and the Nazi leadership never lost sight of their final anti-Semitic goal, but only moved forward toward the “final solution” when the circumstances presented themselves. The following will discuss the origins of Nazi Genocide during: the rise of Nazi Germany, the first year of WWII, and after the attack on the Soviet Union.

During the rise of Nazi Germany (1933 – 1939), the combination of Nazi fanatical ideology, totalitarian government, and Nazi policies would create a framework for future mass exterminations. The background to the rise of Nazi ideology begins before the First World War. Europe was transforming into a modern industrial society. Tradition links of society disappeared as urban life proliferated. Within that framework, the middle-class and elites became threatened by the organization of modern capitalism and losing control of the economy. The desire to recreate the frameworks of traditional society led to the inception and rise of political religions. It was not a coincidence that the rise of the Nazi party began during the Great Depression. Although they were anti-democratic and anti-liberal in nature, the Nazis were ultra-nationalist and appealed to the rights of the nation and the racial community. Eugenics was an important part of the Nazi ideology. The German people were united by their genes or “blood.” Nazi eugenics focused on improving the race while excluding non-desirable races. Nazi related groups used social Darwinism to justify exclusion and segregation. This belief in racial superiority, combined with a twisted sense of modernity would provide the roots for Nazi genocide when added to Europe’s age old anti-Semitic tradition. Some Jews believed that they had entered modern society as equals after the French Revolution, but many Jews were major figures in the socialist movement. There was a vision of Jews threatening capitalism and the middle-class from their socialist ground. Religious discrimination could easily transfer into nationalism against the Jews. The German humiliation in WWI accelerated anti-Semitic passions because many Germans, including Hitler, were convinced that the Germans were “stabbed in the back” by the Jews resulting in the loss of the war. Hitler was the driving force behind the Nazis rise and one cannot underestimate the degree of his fanaticism. He genuinely believed the Jews were responsible for all problems throughout history and wished to “save humanity” from the Jews at any cost.

The Nazis doctrine of anti-Semitism, eugenics, and ultra-nationalism would have been nothing but far-right rhetoric, if not for Hitler and the Nazi Party’s total control of the German government. Totalitarianism strengthened and spread the Nazi ideology. By the eve of World War II, the Nazi party was in control of key positions in all branches of the government. The huge scale of genocide which would occur could not take place without a modernly organized and absolute system of government. Control over the Jews and other “undesirables” in the Third Reich was total because there were files on all citizens. Hitler and the Nazi leadership would use their power to create policies which tapped into and intensified anti-Semitic fervor. The Nuremburg Laws established the criteria for “Jewish.” This categorization included: full Jewish, mixed breed, and mixed breed 2nd-degree. When the deportations to the concentration camps began, it would decide life and death. The Nazis were careful not to upset the German population with this policy. Jews with full-German spouses enjoyed some immunity because outrage within German families could influence public opinion early on. The categorization shows the combination of fanatical and bureaucratic elements. Also in 1935, segregation laws limited the rights of Jews and economic privileges. Jews could not walk on main streets, sit on certain benches, or live in houses with Aryans. German Jews had to use restricted ration cards and could only shop in designated stores. After 1938, Jewish children were not allowed into non-Jewish schools. The Nazi campaign to segregate the Jews served to desensitize the German public and most citizens were indifferent to the persecution. Keeping public opinion apathetic to the Jewish situation would be critical when the Nazis began their “final solution.”

In the first year of World War II, the world witnessed the German war-machine defeat Poland in three weeks and roll through Western Europe in just six weeks. Signs of the impending genocide could be seen. With the beginning of the war, Hitler gave an order to kill inmates in mental institutions. Seventy thousand mentally ill victims was the target number for operation T-4. The killings were justified through ideas of social Darwinism and modernity. The mentally ill should not be allowed to reproduce and pass on their illnesses, and to keep them alive would be an unnecessary drain on German resources. The continuation of T-4 eventually halted in the fall of 1941 because Catholic churches and German families began complaining. As a result, specialists in murder and extermination were made available to assume positions at extermination camps for the final solution. After Poland fell, German special units followed the German army and began a calculated campaign to kill Polish and Jewish elites. Thousands were killed to prevent any organized Polish resistance against Nazi occupation. Even as Nazi officials authorized the murder of entire groups, the final solution of genocide for the Jews and other groups still had not been conceived. On September 21st, 1939 the Nazi leadership ordered Polish Jews to be moved to large cities by railway for a “final goal.” Geographic concentration and the establishment of Jewish councils would be vital for a large operation in the future. The Germans ordered a census to be conducted by the councils. The census was obviously used to calculate welfare, but would also be used to create a viable system for a “final solution.” The Nazis had already segregated the German Jews, now the next step would be emigrate them out of the Reich. The Germans restricted Polish Jew emigration. As a result, Poles and Polish Jews would be expelled further east to make room for ethnic Germans and a solid German state. The exchange of populations led to the idea of extermination to create “living space.” In the west, Vichy France published a Statute of Jews which was essentially the Nuremburg Laws. France has a history of anti-Semitism and published the laws before Germany had even ordered them. Established Jews in France looked down upon the German and Polish Jews. They believed they could reach an understanding with Vichy France and shift attention to the immigrant Jews. Without any solidarity between eastern and western Jews, deportations for the genocidal exterminations would soon be conducted with little resistance.

The attack on the Soviet Union and the events immediately after it mark the final phase before the systematic murder of Jews in extermination camps. In the fall of 1940, Hitler cannot invade England because the Royal Navy and RAF are too powerful. The United States was drawing closer to full involvement. The Nazi war effort required Russian oil and Hitler also believed a total victory over the Soviet Union would deter the United States from entering the war. On March 31, 1941 Hitler declares to his top generals that the war against the USSR will be one of extermination. The first order was to shoot any political official taken prisoner. The second order was that no military justice or tribunals be applied during operations. “War crimes” would be allowed and encouraged. Hitler ordered Himmler’s SS to follow the German army into Russia. The official orders from SS commanders were to incite local populations to create anti-Jewish outbursts and kill all Jewish POWs. The German military planners were aware that supplying the army would be difficult. The easy solution would be to starve the Soviet, Jewish, and POW populations. The Nazis took modernity to its extremes. Expansion of killings in Soviet territories came as a result of food shortage. In the beginning the killings were mainly men, but by mid-August 1941 the proportion of women and children increased. Nazi science found gas as a way to kill as many people as possible. Before the final solution was even decided upon, the genocide had unofficially begun, 600,000 Soviets and Jews were already dead from Himmler’s murder squads.

In the fall of 1941, crucial events would take place influencing the Nazi development of the “final solution” and eventually leading up to the Wannsee Conference. In September the USS Greer attacked a German submarine. Hitler feared increased US involvement and in his eyes, the American Jews were pushing the US towards war. On September 17th he gives the order for deportation of all German Jews to Poland. Hitler wanted to use the German Jew elites as hostages to send a message to American Jews. In November, to make room in Polish ghettos, Polish Jews were deported to occupied Russia. The Polish Jews were literally shot to death as they arrived in occupied territory. Nazi modernity and ideology teaches that the advantages for killing them far outweighed the prospects of housing and feeding them. Later in the month Chelmno, a murder site outside Lodz, is created to clear the ghettos. Belzec is the first extermination camp built and uses gas banks. In December, Pearl Harbor is attacked and Germany is forced to declare war on the US. Hitler now has the world war in which he can fulfill the ultimate prophecy in Nazi ideology, extermination of all Jews. Himmler noted in his diary that Hitler would not allow Germany to be “stabbed in the back again.” He orders the killing and extermination of all “partisans.” This is the indirect order to begin the Final Solution before the Wannsee Conference. In January of 1942 the Wannsee Conference was held in Berlin and hosted by Heinrich Himmler to discuss the logistics of genocide. Himmler calculated 11 million Jews in Europe, Russia, and North Africa which could be put into slavery at concentration camps and then exterminated. First on their agenda was to reclassify the Jew breeds. The Nuremburg Laws were extended to include 2nd-degree mixed breeds that “looked Jewish” or married a Jew. The discussion of classification for murder is almost absurd, but it exemplifies the Nazi desire to create an illusion of legality while following fanatical anti-Semitism. The second issue was the decision to put able Jews to work before extermination. The final issues, capture, transportation, and finance involved the logistics for such a large, genocidal operation. The Wannsee Conference marked the official beginning to Nazi Germany’s systematically murderous campaign against European Jewry, as well as marking the end of the origins for Nazi genocide.

To a historical question of this magnitude, there is no single, unquestionable explanation. Some believe that the Nazi ideology was murderous and aimed at the Jews. Hitler’s intention, from the moment of taking power, was to pursue his racist ideology regardless of world events. This intentionalist position seems too simple an explanation. Other may support the argument that there was never an official decision to kill the Jews. The exterminations were haphazard and grew without their control from an initial base of decisions. Again, this seems unlikely, but could probably be supported with particular historical evidence. The most logical conclusion is that the Nazi leadership made decisions influenced by their fanatical ideology. They implemented their general plan when the opportunities arose and were able to implement them with the presence of totalitarianism, modernity, and anti-Semitism. It began with mass murders justified by a warped rationality and sense of modernity. It ended with a deep, ideological desire to exterminate 6 million Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals.