February 26,
1999 Hitler
and the Final Solution: An
examination of the evidence provided in:
Christopher R. Browning's
The
Path To Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final
Solution (Cambridge
University Press, Canto Edition, 1995) By Robert E.
Reis  HRISTOPHER
R. Browning is a Professor of History at Pacific
Lutheran University. He is the author of numerous
monographs about the Nazi persecution of Jews and
was a prosecution witness against the Holocaust
Revisionist Ernst Zündel in a trial in
Canada.
The title of this collection of essays makes it
clear that Professor Browning believes that a form
of genocide was unleashed by responsible German
officials upon the Jews of Europe and that he is
convinced that he has discovered the manner in
which the decision or decisions were made to
perpetrate this crime. It is intended to analyze
this book as a work of historical scholarship to
see what kind of evidence Professor Browning uses
and how he interprets it in the context of his
title. What does Professor Browning mean by the "Final
Solution"? He tells us in his Preface that "the
Nazi regime called this attempt to murder every Jew
in Europe the 'Final Solution to the Jewish
Question'" ( p. ix. ) Naturally this statement
would lead one to believe that Professor Browning
can point to a mountain, a hill, a pile, or even
one German document in which some German officials
use the phrase "The Final Solution of the Jewish
Question" explicitly to mean a policy of killing
each and every Jew in Europe. Professor Browning then tells us that he has
concluded that the "Final Solution" was not a
premeditated plan of Adolf Hitler but that it
"emerged from a series of decisions between the
spring and fall of 1941" in which Adolf Hitler
"played the central role." (p. xi). Naturally this
statement would lead one to believe that Professor
Browning can point to a mountain, a hill, a pile,
or even one German document that confirms Adolf
Hitler's central role in making the alleged series
of decisions to adopt a policy of killing each and
every Jew in Europe. This paper will seek to find where and how and
to what extent the essays which follow this preface
substantiate Professor Browning's assertions that
the Nazi regime called the "Final Solution of the
Jew Question" an attempt to murder every Jew in
Europe and that Adolf Hitler played a central role
in a series of decisions made in the spring and
fall of 1941 to murder every Jew in Europe. In the Index of The
Path To Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final
Solution the phrase the "Final Solution
(of the Jewish Question)" is referred to at eleven
places in the body of the book under the sub-topic
"decisions/order for". If one examines the pages
indicated (pp. 4-5, 27, 54, 87-8, 90-93,98, 101,
104, 111-114, 117-8, and 104), how many German
documents does Professor Browning cite in order to
prove that the "the Nazi regime called this attempt
to murder every Jew in Europe the 'Final Solution
to the Jewish Question. '"? None, not a single
German document is cited to authenticate this
claim. Disappointed so far in our search for
confirmation of Professor Browning's assertion that
the Nazis themselves used the term "the Final
Solution of the Jewish Question" to mean the murder
of each and every Jew in Europe we return to the
index. The index suggests nine other locations that
the curious reader might explore under the
sub-heading: "A systematic/total mass murder of the
European Jews." Let us explore these nine
additional indicated locations( pp. 19, 25-7, 42,
52-4, 56, 74, 81-4, 129, and 181 to see how many
German documents are cited that would prove the
Nazis used the term "the Final Solution of the
Jewish Problem" to mean the murder of every Jew in
Europe. The answer again is the Professor Browning
does not cite one single German document that
substantiates his claim. Let us recapitulate.
Professor Browning's index has pointed to twenty
locations where evidence should be found that
the Germans used the phrase "the Final Solution
of the Jewish Question" to mean the murder of
every Jew in Europe. In each and every case
Professor Browning fails to cite a single German
document that substantiates his claim.In addition to examining the
pages mentioned in the index, a careful reading
of the entire text shows no instance where a
Nazi document is cited in which the phrase "the
Final Solution to the Jewish Problem" is used to
means the murder of every Jew in
Europe. If Professor Browning does know of a single
document that can substantiate his interpretation
of the phrase in question, he omits any citations
in his book which would tell his readers what the
document is and where it might be found. Where a
simple graduate student would supply a definitive
footnote, this professor provides nothing at
all. Disappointed in our search for a footnote that
might confirm Professor Browning's assertion that
the term "the Final Solution of the Jewish
Question" was used among the Nazis to mean the
murder of all the Jews in Europe, let us
reluctantly proceed to examine how well Professor
Browning succeeds in substantiating his charge that
Adolf Hitler played a central role in the series of
decisions that the professor claims were made in
the spring and fall of 1941 that are alleged to
have culminated in a decision to murder all of the
Jews in Europe" (p. xi). If Professor Browning is
correct, this book ought to be filled with numerous
citations of German documents of the time which
connect Adolf Hitler with a decision so
momentous. Let us examine the twenty four locations in the
text where the index tells that Adolf Hitler is
mentioned ( 3-7, 8-9, 15-17, 18-20, 21-3, 24, 25,
27, 28, 31, 54, 73, 78-9, 83, 87-90, 92-99, 101,
104-5, 110-121, 126, 127, 130, 144, in order to see
what substantiation Professor Browning provides for
his charge that Adolf Hitler played a central role
in the decision to murder all of the Jews in
Europe. How many German documents does Professor
Browning cite that substantiate his claim that
Adolf Hitler played a central role in the decision
to murder the Jews? None, not a single German
document is cited that connects Adolf Hitler with
any decision to kill the Jews. That's it. A very painstaking reading of the
entire test of Professor Browning's book does not
uncover a single citation from a contemporary
German document that sustains his claim that Adolf
Hitler played a central role in a series of
decisions during 1941 that culminated in a decision
to kill each and every Jew in German controlled
Europe. This is especially odd
considering that Professor Browning vigorously
condemns the Jewish historian Arno Mayer
for making an "extraordinary allegation" (with
which Professor Browning disagreed) in a book
"without footnotes" and for which offense
Professor Mayer is condemned for the crime of
arguing for a thesis without providing
"evidence." (p. 83). Notwithstanding his failure to provide evidence
to substantiate either of the two crucial charges
discussed above, Professor Browning, does cite
German documents at times. Some of these documents seem to stand as strong
refutations of Professor Browning's theses! Although arguing that the Nazis used the term
"the Final Solution of the Jewish Question" to mean
the murder of each and every Jew in Europe,
Professor Browning quotes a senior SS officer as
writing to Berlin on July 23,1941, "A solution of
the Jewish question during the war seems impossible
in this area because of the tremendous numbers of
Jews. It could only be achieved through
deportations" (p. 104). Professor Browning tells us that in the month
that Hitler unleashed his armed forces against
Poland ( September 1939) , the German dictator told
the Nazi Party leader Alfred Rosenberg that he
envisaged a process of demographic change in
Eastern Europe that would last "for decades" (p.
9) Professor Browning tells us that as early as
1940 some Nazi officials in Poland advocated the
intentional mass starvation of the Jews in the
ghettos, "but they received no support from Berlin"
(p. 89).  Professor
Browning tells us that Heinrich Himmler, the
leader of the SS, drafted a memorandum for Adolf
Hitler in May of 1940 that stated:
"I hope completely to erase the
concept of Jews through the possibility of a
great emigration to a colony in Africa or
elsewhere. . . . However cruel and tragic each
individual case may be this method is still the
mildest and the best, if one rejects the
Bolshevik method of physical extermination of a
people out of inner conviction as un-German and
impossible." Professor Browning goes on to tells that Adolf
Hitler approved this memorandum and ordered it
circulated to the leaders of the Nazi Party (pp.
16-7). Professor Browning does not point out that
there was hardly a worse condemnation available in
Nazi vocabulary that to call a behavior "un-German"
, nor does he explain why a man with allegedly
murderous intentions towards the Jews would
circulate a memorandum condemning genocide to the
potential perpetrators. Professor Browning quotes Adolf Hitler as
lamenting in March 1940, "[T]he Jewish
question really was a space question which was
difficult to solve, since he had no space at his
disposal. Neither would the establishment of a
Jewish state around Lublin ever constitute a
solution as even there the Jews lived too closely
together to be able to attain a somewhat
satisfactory standard of living . . . . He, too,
would welcome a positive solution to the Jewish
question; if only he could indicate a solution;
this, however was not possible under present
conditions when he had not even sufficient space
for his own people" (pp. 15-6). It is difficult to
explain how a man with allegedly murderous
intentions would be concerned about the quality of
life of his intended victims.  Professor
Browning tells us the Joseph Goebbels, the
minister of propaganda, was writing in his diary
for March 18, 1941:
"[Hitler] puts the Jews to
work and they are indeed obedient. Later they
will have to get out of Europe altogether."
(pp. 94-5) Goebbels is not yet aware of any rush by Hitler
to decide the fate of Europe's Jews in a murderous
fashion. Professor Browning tells us that in that same
month Hans Frank, the German ruler of
occupied Poland, was telling his staff,
"[F]rom the broad perspective it is not
practical to engage in racial experimentation at
the moment. As Reich Marshall Göring
recently said: 'It is more important to win the war
than to implement racial policy'" (pp. 92-99). Professor Browning cites an International
Military Tribunal document that has Adolf Hitler
telling a group of senior political and military
leaders on July 16, 1941 that it was fortunate that
the Russians had given the order for partisan
warfare, for it gave Germany "the opportunity to
exterminate anyone who is hostile to us. . . .
Naturally the vast area must be pacified as quickly
as possible; this will happen best by shooting
anyone who even looks askance at us"(pp. 104-5).
But professor Browning shows no connection between
the ruthless suppression of partisans and any
policy of genocide. BUT I HAVE saved Professor Browning's
quintessential act of scholarly malfeasance for
last. Professor Browning explicitly charges that
"probably in July [1941] Hitler indicated
his approval for the preparation of a plan for the
mass murder of all European Jews under Nazi
control" ( p. 25) and he reiterates and specifies
this charge by telling the reader that in July 1941
Adolf Hitler "solicited a plan to extend the
killing process already underway in Russia to the
rest of Europe's Jews."(p. 88) - Does he provide as with footnotes? Yes, he
does.
- Do his footnotes refer to a German document?
No.
How does he substantiate his charge that Adolf
Hitler indicated his approval for the preparation
of a plan for the mass murder of all the European
Jews under Nazi control? He tells us twice to read
his previous book: Fateful
Months: Essays on the Emergence of the Final
Solution (New York, 1985), from pages 8
to 38. But wait, Professor Browning is not through. If
read a little further on, we will discover that
Professor Browning does not assert that his
previous book contains proof that Adolf Hitler
approved a plan for the extermination of Europe's
Jews. No, Professor Browning tells that "I have argued elsewhere that in the
euphoria of victory of the summer of 1941,
Hitler solicited a plan for the systematic
murder of the European Jews. . .", and he refers to the entire contents of his
previous book! (p. 54) This is an explicit
admission that his previous book
Fateful Months: Essays on the
Emergence of the Final Solution contains
arguments and not proofs. Professor Browning has
created the perfect set of Non-Footnote Footnotes!
He has issued a gigantic "Trust me" to the
scholarly world and the Cambridge University Press
has swallowed it whole. It is only fair to let Professor Browning tell
us what he believes the purpose of historical
scholarship to be. Fortunately he is explicit about
this. He believe that the "purpose of historical
scholarship" is "to do painstaking research" that
leads to the creation of "provocative and
challenging theses that provide the impetus for
reexamining important issues" ( p. 76). For Professor Browning the function of
historians seems to be to generate work for other
historians. He obviously has rejected, or forgotten
that the traditional, and perhaps to him outmoded,
purpose of historical research is simply to find
out what actually happened. Copyright 1999
Robert
E. Reis | Write to
Professor
Browning.
Website
note: Professor Christopher Browning is one of
the expert
witnesses
selected by Prof Deborah Lipstadt to defend her in
the David Irving libel
action |