Who decided the extermination of the Jews?
Even if the idea of the annihilation of the Jews was already written in Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” (“My Fight”), it seems that the decision was taken by Hitler probably late in 1938 or early in 1939. On January 30th 1939, in a speech at the Reichtag, Hitler threatens the Jews with “total annihilation if a new world war should begin”. In October 1939, Adolf Eichmann takes over the Jewish emigration and Evacuation department. In July 1940, and with the collaboration of the German Foreign Office and the RSHA (literally: Reich Security General Command – controlled by Reinhard Heydrich), he start to explore different plans of “evacuation” of the Jews to Madagascar. In July 1941, after the invasion of Russia, Goering ordered Reinhard Heydrich to prepare the “Final Solution of the Jewish Problem”. Even if there is no existing written order, all historians agree that Goering acted under direct order of Hitler himself. The first test of gassing of Jews by gas vans happened at Chelmno in Decembe
