Those who were tried in Nuremburg in 1945 and convicted were either executed or sentenced to life long prison sentences, though it is widely agreed by historians that too many people simply "got away with it." The holocaust by the Nazi's is the largest in history. It is felt by many that the holocaust could have been much smaller had the rest of the world stepped in and helped the Jews. Whilst The final solution was kept secret by the Nazis, their previous legislation against the Jews was done publicly, and yet the immigration laws held by major powers such as the United Kingdom and the United States did not make any allowances for the huge numbers of Jews trying to flee Germany in the 1930s and so many were trapped. During the War, when these countries may have received reports of the mass killings it would have been much harder to take action. Already being at war with Germany, there was little else they felt they could do to help these people on German occupied land other than try to win the war, which they did, but too late. .
The school of thought that believes it would be utterly implausible for anyone who accepts that the holocaust was a reality to say it was some kind of reactionary accident on the part of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi's is called The Intentionalism . This is the belief that the genocide of millions was planned and premeditated over the course of Hitler's time in power and even some say his entire life.
The school of thought that doesn't believe this is known as Functionalism. Functionists are of the belief that genocide was not Hitler's intention, but something that took place as a result of the war.
The evidence in favour of the belief that Hitler had clear and definite intentions regarding the fate of the Jews is rather overwhelming. A brief glimpse at the timeline of the German third Reich leading up to the Second World War shows this. .
The persecution of not only Jews but also most of the minority groups in Germany went back to the very beginning of the Nazi's time in power.