Were the reasons for the Holocaust functionalist or intentionalist?

Answer

There's an ongoing debate among historians about this. There are also various intermediate views. It seems to me that the (intentionalist) notion that there was a 'master plan' in place already in the 1920s or early 1930s is unlikely. (However, from 1945 till the early 1960s a simple intentionalist view was just taken for granted by nearly all historians and went unuqestioned).

It seems more probable that the early Nazi 'plans' for the Jews were a 'territorial solution', but no effort was made to plan it realistically or efficiently. (In this context, 'territorial solution' means resettlement, in Eastern Europe or, as was briefly suggested in 1940, Madagascar).

There is a whole spectrum ranging from extreme intentionalism (for example, that Hitler was determined from about 1919 on to exterminate the Jews) to extreme functionalism, which believes that many of the pressures started with middle ranking German officials in occupied Poland and that these pressures then 'worked their way upwards' to the top.

The most radical functionalist views imply but rarely spell out the notion that to some extent the Nazis 'slid' into the decision to carry out the Holocaust - that by invading Poland and later the western areas of the Soviet Union they exacerbated their own self-inflicted 'Jewish problem' by adding large numbers of Jews to the populations under their control. Obviously, this needs qualifying, as it was the Nazi leadership that had created this 'problem' for itself.

Some historians, like Ian Kershaw, combine the two perspectives but lean towards functionalism.

Please also see the links below.

First answer by Joncey. Last edit by Joncey. Contributor trust: 1881 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 16 [recommend question]