Why did hitler order the final solution?
INTENTIONALISTS VERSUS FUNCTIONALISTS Two historical schools of thought have emerged around the question of the origins of “The Final Solution” (German, Enloesung)- the decision to completely obliterate European Jewry. Tim Mason (1981) has framed the debate in terms of “intentionalists” versus “functionalists. The “intentionalists” (1) have argued that it was Hitler’s intention from the beginning (even before his rise to power) to exterminate the Jews and that the war with Russia was a pretext for that undertaking, at the very least, an integral part of it. Based on his avowed antisemitism as early as Mein Kampf (1923) and his early statements (1939) that Jews would be completely destroyed if they plunged Germany into another world war, these historians have taken the view that all decisions, political and military, were made with an eye to the ultimate extermination of the Jews. The other point of view, espoused by the “functionalists,(2) has argued that the “Final Solution” was decid
