Language:
English
Year of publication:
1988
Titel der Quelle:
Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual
Angaben zur Quelle:
5 (1988) 3-48
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews History 1939-1945
Abstract:
Presents the hypothesis that between September 1939-summer 1941 various groups of Germany's educated elite involved with planning devised the Final Solution; i.e. it evolved from proposals of subordinate planning officials, gradually moving from the lower to the higher bureaucratic echelons. Analyzes the situation in the General Government, which suffered, according to reports of German economic planners, from overpopulation, low productivity, and lack of capital. Describes the views of economists such as Helmut Meinhold, Walter Emmerich, and Rudolf Gater, and the government institutions in which they functioned - the Reich's Central Office for Economics, and the General Government's Office for Population Policy and Welfare. The latter office was responsible for ethnic policy and resettlement, and later for the processes of ghettoization and deportation. These planners saw the elimination of the Jews as the simplest and most viable means of slowing down capital erosion and opening the possibility for economic expansion. Thus, the Final Solution could be implemented with the appearance of being a reasonable measure.
Note:
Appeared also in "Holocaust; Critical Concepts in Historical Studies" II (2004).
URL:
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