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The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania
© 1978, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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Page 35 |
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Part II
The Orders
for the "Final Solution" of the Jewish Question
1. The Order of the Führer (der
Führerbefehl) in General
A mission announced as an Order of
the Führer imposed on those to whom it was entrusted an unconditional
fervour in its execution. According to the testimony of Eichmann, it was as an
"Order of the Führer" that Heydrich presented to him the task of the
extermination of the Jews, a task for which Heydrich gave him the
responsibility.
The Order of the Führer gave the force of law to
the measure ordered. Such was the foundation of the regime based on the
"Führerprinzip." But this principle set up a complex system which was
ramified by a multitude of chiefs in a hierarchy engaging the personal
responsibility of each one in the accomplishment of his task. They had to use
their initiative not only with their subordinates but also with their superiors
to develop as well as possible the action under the sign of the Order of the
Führer. In this hierarchy of responsibilities, the highest level was that
of Orders of the Führer, by definition in conformity with the doctrine and
therefore right. Next came the level of governmental orders, which applied the
supreme orders in terms of one of the spheres constituting the life of the
people (Ministries, Party, SS) and often acted in contradictory
interdependence. Beneath the governmental level was that of the administration,
which arranged by its orders the execution of those of a higher level. But,
given the Führerprinzip, these less important acts were to be accomplished
with the same conviction as the governmental acts, the whole being animated by
the conscience of the direct and total responsibility of each member of the
people to the Führer.
It may be argued that the efficiency shown
in the accomplishment of the evil acts of the Hitlerian regime was not due to
blind obedience but rather to a very lucid zeal developed by subordinates who
sometimes gave a stimulus to their superiors in the execution of the order that
the latter had received.
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The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania
© 1978, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 35 |
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