Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Holocaust Almanac: David Irving's Hitler, Essay I
Summary: Eberhard Jaeckel's Essays on David Irving (English translation)
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Reply-To: kmcvay@nizkor.org
Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Irving

Archive/File: pub/people/i/irving.david/jackel/jt-1-3 (Part 3 of 6)
Last-modified: 1996/02/26

Who Really Gave the Order?

No  one,  neither  Hitler nor Goebbels,[29]  to  whom  Irving
ascribes the main culpability, ever made statements  such  as
Hitler  did. But Irving claims that they, the most  loyal  of
the  loyal,  committed  the dirty deed behind  the  Fuehrer's
back!

There is considerable evidence that Hitler made all important
decisions  by  himself,  often to the  consternation  of  his
closest  associates, and that he especially  during  the  war
insisted  on a complete overview of all the events.  He  paid
attention  to innumerable details, the movement of  divisions
and regiments, the numbers of hostages to be shot, the design
and   development  of  decorations.  It  is  therefore  quite
unthinkable  that he would miss even a day of the  Holocaust,
the  mass  murder  of Jewry, that enormous  undertaking  with
thousands  of  participants, quite apart  from  the  victims.
Bormann  at  least,  the  all-knowing secretary,  would  have
promptly  informed  him  of it. But it  wasn't  necessary  to
inform Hitler. He knew well what was happening.

He  even  announced his intentions openly,  on  the  30th  of
January  1939, before the Parliament of Greater  Germany,[30]
Here are his words, the meanings of which would only later on
become clear:

     I   shall   once   again  be  your   prophet:   if
     international  Jewry with its financial  power  in
     and  outside of Europe should manage once more  to
     draw  the  peoples of the world into a world  war,
     then the result will not be the Bolshevization  of
     the world and thus the victory of Jewry but rather
     the  total  destruction  of  the  Jewish  race  in
     Europe.

Ever since Mein Kampf, this was one of Hitler's two major war
aims.  The  other was the conquest of territory  for  "living
space"[31]  in  the East. That is why for him  the  war  only
started  with  the  attack  on  the  Soviet  Union.  Previous
military  undertakings had been mere campaigns,  intended  to
open the path to Russia. After the collapse of France in  the
summer of 1940 the road was clear. Immediately thereafter  he
began with his preparations.

In that connection an unlikely information source has come to
the  fore.  After  the war Himmler's masseur  and  confidant,
Felix  Kersten, reported that his patient had once  told  him
the following: immediately after the campaign against France,
Himmler  was  called  to  the Fuehrer's  headquarters.  There
Hitler is said to have revealed that he, Himmler, would  have
to carry out the destruction of the European Jews. Himmler is
said  to have raised objections, to have spoken for the  plan
to resettle the Jews on the African island of Madagascar, but
that the Fuehrer insisted on his order.

Granted,  this  is not a very sound source, especially  since
Kersten tells the story differently in different editions  of
his  book. But the story is nonetheless believable:  at  that
very  time Hitler also revealed his plan of conquests to  his
generals.  The fact that territorial conquest and destruction
of  the  Jews were closely interrelated, even interdependent,
provides still deeper insight into Hitler's world view.

Actually   it   is  quite  believable  that  Himmler   raised
objections.[32] In the territories occupied by Germany  there
lived  four million Jews and a similar number would be  found
in  the  parts  of Russia slated for conquest.  Approximately
half  of these were women and children. Hi 1 was supposed  to
collect  and  then  murder  all  of  them.  Aside  from   the
incredible problems of transport and organization he would be
needing  hundreds  if  not thousands of soldiers  or  police,
prepared to kill defenseless men, women and children.  It  is
understandable  that  Hi  1  would  have  seen  this  as   an
impossible  task,  that he would have even regarded  it  with
pure horror.

An  echo  of these sentiments can be heard in his [Himmler's]
later  record  of his secret discussions [33] On  October  6,
1943 he said the Jewish question had for him become "the most
difficult question of my life ' and then he continued:

     Gentlemen: that short sentence 'The Jews are to be
     destroyed" is easily spoken. But for him who  must
     carry  it  out, it requires the hardest  and  most
     difficult tasks possible. [...] We had to face the
     question: How is it with the women and children? I
     have   decided  also  in  this  to  find  a  clear
     solution. I could not see my way clear to  destroy
     the  men-let's say it clearly: murder or have them
     murdered-and then to let the children grow  up  to
     avenge themselves on our sons and grandchildren. A
     most  difficult decision had to be  made  to  make
     this people completely disappear from the earth.

On May 5,1944:

     At  the  beginning or before the war, the  Fuehrer
     warned the Jews: "Should you once again incite the
     European peoples to war, it will not lead  to  the
     destruction  of  the  German  people  but  to  the
     destruction of the Jews." ... Perhaps you can feel
     with  me  how  difficult it  was  to  follow  this
     soldierly order that had been given me and which I
     have fulfilled in obedience and good faith.
     
On May 24, 1944:

     Yet  another question vital for the inner security
     of  the  Reich  and  for  Europe  was  the  Jewish
     question. It was solved as ordered, rationally and
     without compromise.
                              
And on June 21, 1944

     It  was  the  most terrible problem and  the  most
     terrible  task that could have been given  to  any
     organization,  the  task  of  solving  the  Jewish
     question.

Who,  besides Hitler, could have ordered that terrible  task,
that  "soldierly  order"?  Between  the  two  men  stood   no
intermediary.

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