One of the greatest enigmas surrounding the Holocaust and more so, Nazi Policies towards Jews is uncovering when and how Hitler's Final Decision evolved. The readings for class, Christopher Browning's "The Decision for the Final Solution", Karl Schleunes" "Retracing the Twisted Road" and Lucy Dawidowicz's The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945, presented interesting outlooks answering no only the nature of how the Final Solution was formed, but also the time line with which the plan would be followed. .
The major underlying question is if the systematic murder of the European Jews was formulated before World War II or during it. Was the destruction, removal, and annihilation of the Jews part of his overall plan for the German empire? This debate between the Intentionalists (Hitler had the idea of removal/murder all along) and the Functionalists (Other solutions towards anti-Semitism did not work; murder was the only option) is verbalized in the opinions of the three authors. Dawidowicz is an ultraintentionalist and argues that as early as 1919, Hitler had decided to exterminate the European Jews (Browning, 97). Schleunes argues that although Hitler had voiced, as early as 1919, his wishes to exterminate the Jews from Europe, he continues by stressing the different meanings of the word exterminate. Exterminate can also mean emigrate, or removal from Europe - not necessarily murder. He continues by arguing that there was no centralized "extermination" of Jews for a long time until the late 1930s. Upon failure of all the different, independent methods to remove the Jews, extermination through murder seemed to most feasible to the German cause. Browning, in his article, presents both extremes than offers an insight of his own as a "moderate functionalist". He does not deny the significance of Hitler's anti-Semitism, just argues that the conscious extermination of the Jews was not derived well in advance (1919) from Hitler's anti-Semitism.
