A Functionalist Explanation for The Final Solution
and the Perpetrators of the Holocaust
Abstract:
A functionalist viewpoint of how the Final Solution came to pass, demonstrates that there were different steps the Nazis took in trying to eliminate an entire race of people. This project will look at different interpretations of how the Final Solution happened and how different historians use evidence to defend their specific claims. While arguing for one side, the other must also be examined, so I will go into the intentionalist argument to show why I believe it isn’t as strong of an argument. Historians that argue this believe that Hitler was the strong leader who without the Holocaust couldn’t have happened. Also, that Hitler and the Nazis had a clear set plan for the murder of European Jews from the 1920s. While I agree that Hitler was a key component for the Third Reich and the Final Solution, he wasn’t the only person responsible. A functionalist argument claims that Hitler and the Nazis did not have a grand plan to eliminate all of Europe’s Jews from the minute Hitler took power in 1933. Rather that there were different stages in Germany during the Nazi regime, and that was how the Nazis were able to murder six million Jews in the Holocaust, along with millions of others. This viewpoint also shows how people, and not just Hitler, were responsible for committing crimes against humanity and mass murder. This project will demonstrate how the Final Solution became a sad reality and the people most responsible for the death of millions.