Himmler: Hitler’s Role in the Holocaust

Real History and Hitler’s Role in the Holocaust

[RETURN
TO INTRODUCTION TO THESE HIMMLER
DOCUMENTS]

Thesis of
German historian Christian Gerlach built on this (slender) evidence See the comments on this document by Genocide expert Dr John Fox

The
press reports about the Christian Gerlach
hypothesis
generated a brief and lively debate on the Internet,
which is reproduced in the following panel

[H-Net
Humanities & Social Sciences
OnLine]

Himmler’s
Office Diary and the Holocaust

Author:
H-German Editor Jay Lockenour <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 12:41:09 -0500

Reply-To:
H-NET List on German History <[email protected]> Sender: H-NET List on German History <[email protected]>

1.
Submitted by: Dan Rogers [email protected]

To add a little further information to my note yesterday about
Christian Gerlach’s reported discovery in the Moscow archives, the New York Times
reported at length on the subject in its January 21 issue. Historians
Richard Breitman, Hans Mommsen, and Norbert Kampe are quoted.

The
Times reports that “the documents supposedly establish that Hitler did, indeed, make a personal decision to put to death German and all other European
Jews under Nazi occupation,” and “announced his decision to a secret meeting of 50 Nazi Party loyalists on Dec.
12, 1941 — a day after his declaration of war on the
United States.”

Richard
Breitman of American University comments in the
Times that “this is an important find and Gerlach and his colleagues are to be commended on their research and discovery….But the jury is still out on the exact interpretation of this meeting.” The Times article concludes with the statement that Hans Mommsen of Bochum
University “dismissed the meeting on Dec. 12, 1941, as a routine affair. ‘Hitler gave one of his usual speeches….It was nothing special.'”

2.
Submitted by: Fabian Rueger [email protected]:

I remember at least the Spiegel and the
Suddeutsche publishing an article on Gerlach’s work. If I remember correctly his basic argument is that the Himmler-Hitler meeting at that date in the diary might explain the change of date of the Wannsee conference, and thus gives for the first time a close hint to a verbal command of Hitler to plan a “Final
Solution”.–Yours,

Fabian
Rueger

3.
Submitted by: Michael Kater [email protected]:

So
it looks as if David Irving can still not shell out
his money.

Michael
H. KaterDistinguished
Research Professor of History, The Canadian Center for
German and European Studies, 230 York Lanes, York
University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M3J 1P3 Tel. 905-845-7021

4.
Submitted by: Herbert Mehrtens [email protected]:

Michael
Gerlach‘s paper on the question of the Hitler decision about the extinction of the Jews is quite convincing, but certainly not a ‘proof’. To my impression it presents a very good argument for a decisive meeting, where Hitler accepted and ordered (i.e. decided) that the extinction measures should be taken, following his own line and following those who had urged and started those actions.

I find here a merger of intentionalist and structuralist interpretations — as one would expect —
of Hitler being moved and moving at the same time. That is part of what makes the argument so convincing.

Prof.
Dr. Herbert MehrtensHistorisches
Seminar, TU Braunschweig, Schleinitzstr. 13, D-38106
Braunschweig, Germany Tel.: +531 391 3080, Sekretariat -3091, Fax -8162
priv. 1: Roggemannstr. 20 D-26122 Oldenburg Tel. &
Fax: +441 75190 priv. 2: Altstadtmarkt. 12 38100
Braunschweig Tel. 0531 43896

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