The Holocaust was an inconceivable historical event, which forever robbed Western culture of its innocence. As civilized human beings, we fail to understand how events of such horror could have taken place, and how an idea so inhumanly warped could have spread like wildfire through an entire continent, instigating the systematic annihilation of millions of Jews. This free online course was produced jointly by Tel Aviv University and Yad Vashem – the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. This course is the second of the two courses and covers three themes in its three weeks: Week 1: The Final Solution We’ll look at the cultural and mental processes that paved the way to the comprehensive and systematic mass murder of Jews in Europe – that is, the Final Solution. As part of this hard lesson we will discuss the various characteristics of the murder sites and death camps, and reveal selected aspects of the horror that occurred in them. Week 2: Jewish and Non-Jewish Responses to the Holocaust We will try to explore questions regarding knowledge about the application of the Final Solution, as well as a variety of responses and annihilation of victims, local populations and perpetrators. Week 3: The End of the War We will dedicate this lesson to the events that occurred in the last years of the Holocaust, as well as questions of memory, commemoration and future research. We strongly recommend that you register for "The Holocaust - An Introduction (I): Nazi Germany: Ideology, The Jews and the World" as well (https://www.coursera.org/learn/holocaust-introduction-1/home/welcome). Taking both parts of the course would enable you to obtain a fuller and more comprehensive knowledge about The Holocaust. This online course is offered in an innovative, multi-level format, comprising: Comprehensive lectures by leading researchers from Tel Aviv University and Yad Vashem. A wealth of voices and viewpoints presented by guest lecturers Numerous documents, photos, testimonies and works of art from the time of the Holocaust. Novel learning experience: Crowdsourcing – involving the learners themselves in the act of collecting and shaping information, via unique, exciting online assignments.
Introduction
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From the course by Tel Aviv University
The Holocaust - An Introduction (II): The Final Solution
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The Final Solution and the Drive for Eliminating All Jews and All Perceived Jewish "Influences"
This lesson will be devoted to the cultural and mental processes which paved the way to the comprehensive and systematic mass murder of Jews. We will deal with the specific decision-making process regarding the murder of the entire European Jewry, the implementation of the initial murder, the broadening circle of killing, and the early Jewish reactions to the "Final Solution".
Meet the Instructors
Professor Havi Dreifuss, PhDProfessor
Havi Dreifuss is a historian of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe; senior lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at TAU; heads the Center for Research of Holocaust History in Poland, Yad Vashem.
Dr Na'ama Bela Shik, PhDDirector, Educational Technology Department, The International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem
The International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem
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>> Hello.
We are happy to open our second part of the course,
The Holocaust, An Introduction.
And it's wonderful to have you with us.
Some of you have already taken the first part of this course
and must remember how we tried to set
the needed world of knowledge necessary for our understanding
of the Holocaust as well as expose you
to the value and limits of historical sources
in what we call From the Historian's Desk.
Others are joining us only today,
and as much as it is always great to see new faces,
even in this virtual world, we strongly
recommend you take this part after finishing the first one.
This is true not only due to the many notions and facts already
introduced in the first part, but also since today, we
are about to discuss maybe the most difficult part
of the Holocaust, the development
and implementation of the mass murders of the Jews.
In today's session, we will try and expose
how decisions regarding the total annihilation of the Jews
were made and what did it mean for the millions
of targeted victims as well as for the perpetrators.
We will depict the terrifying reality of some of the death
sites, as well as the constant assault on human souls created
as a system in the Nazi camps.
Just as before, this will be done
with a combination of many different points of view--
Germans, with all their internal complexities, local ones,
and their various historical contexts,
as well as the Jewish perspective, which
will expose the absolute horror of the individuals whose world,
family members, as well as beliefs and hopes,
were brutally crushed.
The questions we will ask today address the origins
of the mass murders, and the main figures or powers,
which contributed to their development.
This is not a new question.
And it has actually been haunting many
from the moment the magnitude of the Holocaust was exposed.
Thus, as part of the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi leaders--
to be discussed much later in this course--
some questions about the mechanism, which
led to the mass murder of the millions of Jews were asked,
and documents collected during the trials,
served as important sources for historians.
From the late '60s, the world of research was dominated
by dispute between two different schools of thought--
Intentionalism and Functionalism.
Each holding opposing perceptions regarding
key questions in the field.
The Intentionalists claimed that the Holocaust, the mass murder
of the Jews, was a product of direct early intention.
They argued that, on the basis of Nazi anti-Semitic ideology,
Hitler, as a supreme leader, had a design planned
for the total removal of the Jews,
which he implemented in a more or less linear manner,
since his rise to power in 1933.
In contrast, Functionalist researchers
claimed that the mass murder of the Jews
was a function of events, an outcome
of an unintended process, escalating
as a result of many different factors,
as internal struggles within the Nazi bureaucracy.
Those two approaches actually had a few main points
of contention.
First, was the Holocaust a result of ideology?
Or of an ongoing radicalization?
Meaning, was Nazi ideology the true driving force
of the Nazi regime?
Or only a facet, a tool, propaganda
used to achieve power and political dominance?
Yet, those schools also differed in the question
of Hitler's rule in the events.
The Intentionalists claimed that Hitler and his senior ranks
were responsible for all decisions taken in the Third
Reich, including the mass murder of the Jews.
While the Functionalists emphasized
bureaucracy's and grassroot's part in the implementation
of anti-Jewish steps.
Each of those schools was criticised
for different weaknesses of its argument.
The Intentionalists were challenged
for placing the responsibility for the atrocities only
on Hitler and his high ranking staff.
And thus, clearing the German society of responsibility
for those deadly deeds.
They were also accused for anachronism
interpreting early sources, not in their context,
but in light of later understandings
and developments.
The functionalists were criticised
for diminishing the role of ideology
and anti-Semitism in the mass murder of the Jews.
They were asked, if there are only circumstantial reasons,
thus, if millions of Jews were murdered,
only as a result of practical problems,
such as food shortage, or local aspirations,
why were the Jews the ones who were repeatedly targeted?
Phrasing it differently-- why the Jews, and not the cyclists,
or people with blue eyes?
The bottom line, the fact that no direct order, signed
by Hitler, was ever found, contributed to the ambiguity.
Yet today, we know that ambiguity was part
of the system, and served it.
As you remember, Hitler used to set the general goals
and policy guidelines, often orally,
and expected his people to suggest way to accomplish them.
The policy termed Working Towards the Fuehrer.
It will be exactly this process that will, on the one hand,
continue to emphasise the total removal of the Jews
as a central object.
And on the other hand, encourage the constant emergence
of endless creative initiatives of high and low
German officials to solve the Jewish question.
The many initiatives will result,
not only in a continuous escalation
of anti-Jewish steps, but also in interweaving
the actions of grassroots actors with those
of high ranking Nazis.
All contributing to a set of decisions,
which will ultimately lead to the implementation
of the final solution of the Jewish question.
Mass and total murder of the Jewish people.
Thus, today we can say that the intentionalism
and functionalism focus on two different aspects
of the mechanism, which made the magnitude of the catastrophe
possible.
The Intentionalist exposed the essence of the Nazi ideology,
and the central place of hatred of the Jews
and anti-Judaism in it.
And emphasised Hitler's role, as well as
the role of his highest ranking servants.
The Functionalists, on the other hand,
uncovered the many local powers and individuals,
who served this genocidal regime,
whether because of pure belief or careerism,
while trying constantly to promote its goals.
Both schools have contributed to our current understanding
that the mass murder of the Jews was
a product of a number of decisions driven from above,
but taken also as a result of an ongoing restlessness
from below.
Yet, prior to our attempt to better understand
who decided on what Nazi Germany termed
the final solution of the Jewish question,
we must emphasise the existence of the cultural and mental
process, which paved the way to a comprehensive and systematic
mass murder of the Jews.
Indeed, Nazi redemptive anti-Semitism--
again, discussed at length before--
defined the Jews as an anti-race,
a destructive element of humanity, and a hazard
to the existence of the most needed racial new order
of the world.
This was the leading motivation.
Yet it would not have been able to manifest itself,
if not for the well rooted hostility toward the Jews
all over Europe.
Traditional hatred of the Jews, as well as
modern anti-Semitism, throughout Europe, for educated people,
as well as laymen, the concept of a world without Jews
started to be a possible vision.
Jews stood for a principle of equality.
And we can see the issue of burning books,
of desecrating Torah scrolls.
They were obsessed, the Nazis, with marking and defining
the Jews everywhere.
But there was also a process of self-purification,
and that's very interesting.
Carl Schmitt, the legal expert in Nazi Germany--
he spoke in 1936 about purifying the Nazi legal system
from Jewish ideas.
The Association for the German Language
embarked on a process of purifying the German language
from Jewish influences.
In the 1940s, the Einsatzstab Rosenberg,
led by the Nazi leader Rosenberg,
collected the Jewish libraries and Jewish and degenerate art
from all over Europe and quarantined them in Prague.
Now, if we take these all together,
we have to add to that, that Hitler
was a transformational leader.
This is a concept which is very important.
Hitler was a person who succeeded
in transforming society within a very short period
into a different society.
And that is what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s
and can explain what happened afterwards in the 1940s.
>> Over time, this mental process will not just lead to
the acceptance of the mass murder >> But
to extent of involvement in its implementation.
So how did this Final Solution of the Jewish question emerge?
Who are the individuals and organizations which took an active part in its planning
and in its actual implementation?
How are millions of human beings, of Jews, murdered, and
what was the effect of the murder on victims, perpetrators, and witnesses.
Those are some of the difficult questions we would like to address today.
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