Hitler's Questionable Leadership

by J. O. Jr.

A student essay from Dr. Elliot Neaman's History 210 class (historical methods - fall 1997)

Holocaust denial and the Holocaust in general is something for me that I never really thought of until enrolling in this class. I mean, I knew that Holocaust existed I just never gave it much thought. My family isn’t European, and as you know the Holocaust was something that rolled right through America at first, news one day and hey, the Giants finally beat the Yankees the next. I remember my grandfather talking about what he did in the United States Marine Corps during the war, island hopping to Japan. To my grandmother and uncles Germany wasn’t news, our family was fighting in the Pacific so news of Hitler wasn’t something that concerned us. But as I started learning about the Holocaust especially the views of Holocaust deniers, I wondered how could anyone refute that which is written and photographed so much.

There are some names that stand out in history. Famous, for the crimes and atrocities they have committed. Forever associated with murder, destruction, and ruthless behavior. These particular names range from the familiar to the genuinely unknown but criminals none the less. The chief perpetrators were Chancellor/President Adolf Hitler, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring (Luftwaffe Chief), Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler (SS Chief), General Reinhard Heydrich (Gestapo Chief), and Dr. Joseph Goebbles (Propaganda Minister). However, the two names that are most associated with the ruthless murder of European Jews during World War II were Hitler and Himmler.

First of all I’d like to bring out the facts as stated in history and in the book Hitler’s Willing Executioners by Daniel Goldhagen. By the spring 1941, Hitler’s Germany began to kill the entire Jewish population under its physical control. Nearing the end of the war by 1944 having largely finished the job Hitler’s Germany had successfully murdered approximately six million men, women, and children. Hitler was the President at the time of the "mass extinction". There is some Holocaust "deniers" that claim that Hitler knew nothing of these murders. That in fact he wasn’t really in charge at all, his generals ran the whole thing without his knowledge. Quoting real historians (not deniers) you will read that Hitler was in fact the "man in command".

The are people that actually deny the Holocaust. One of the most famous and the man I will be refuting is a right-wing writer of historical works by the name of David Irving. "Irving, is an English writer who had devoted his life to sanitizing the crimes of Hitler to make it easier to built a new Nazi movement today" (Stern, 22). It is Irving, who has frequently proposed extremely controversial theories about the Holocaust, including the claim that Hitler had no knowledge of the executions taking place under his reign as the leader of Germany. "Irving is one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial. Familiar with historical evidence, he bends it until it conforms with his ideological leanings and political agenda" (Lipstadt, 181). Irving has written books with many claims about Hitler’s ignorance towards the Final Solution. According to David Irving, Hitler was the weak leader who had his generals going around his orders and doing things on their own without his knowledge. Irving also contended that Hitler had not wished to murder the Jews, did not ordered any Jews be murdered, and that those murdered were committed without his knowledge or approval. According to Irving, the extermination was planned and implemented in great part by Heinrich Himmler and the SS without Hitler’s knowledge. Could Himmler have organized something this grand without Hitler’s knowledge?

Reading most of the research, I believe that the circumstances were very much reversed. Hitler didn’t let his generals do their jobs and he did turn loose the SS to dispose of Europe’s Jews. Regarding tactics and troop movements Hitler was the final decision-maker, and that was the problem. Hitler’s experience as an Austrian Corporal in World War I wasn’t the experience needed to move armies around Western and Eastern Europe. We know that German Armies didn’t move around Europe without the Fuehrer’s knowledge and approval. As a matter of fact nothing of importance happened without the Fuehrer’s knowledge and approval.

Hitler wanted complete domination over his generals. Just after taking the Chancellor job he had begun assembling the top military and naval leaders at various generals’ homes to address them on his vision of the future of the Third Reich and its armed forces. Hitler’s plan was to keep the army on his side until his government became so well established that he could deal with the generals on his own terms. To do this, (in the beginning) he was willing to do anything and say anything that would make them happy. However, most of the senior officers had grown to distrust the Nazi’s. They particularly distrusted the SA and the SS, which they suspected of trying to become armies unto themselves. This was were the distrust started between Hitler and his Generals. However, like loyal soldiers they always followed his command decisions; and he had them exactly were he wanted them.

There were many mistakes that Hitler alone made without consultation from his staff. For example: according to Correlli Barnett and Edwin Hoyt who wrote Hitler’s Generals and Hitler’s War (same title as Irving’s book) the defeat of France presented a totally unexpected problem of devising a cross-channel invasion of England. It was the admirals who opposed Hitler, saying that an invasion would be impossible unless the Luftwaffe had complete air superiority. Instead of fixing the problem regarding England Hitler decides to invade Soviet Union. The logic of taking on the Soviet Union is unknown; "if you can’t defeat one enemy, why a take on a equally powerful second?" Hitler made a pursuing delusion that a dictatorship with a population of some 80 million people (Germany) could conquer a dictatorship of some 200 million people (U.S.S.R). Hitler’s generals were shocked by the very idea of taking on a war on two major fronts. "By the time Hitler had compounded his errors of judgement he no longer believed anything his generals said" (Hoyt, 9). Even David Irving noted on page 416, that Hitler didn’t get along with his general staff.

Hoyt also states that Hitler’s early victories—the march into the Rhineland, the rearmament program, the annexation of Austria, even the initial triumph over Czechoslovakia—were political victories, not military victories. But Hitler’s mistakes didn’t end there his decision to declare war on the United States was according to his generals a miscalculation. It is true that we were openly helping Britain militarily, and that there had been a number of military incidents involving American warships and German U-boats. But those incidences were hardly enough to declare war, after all during the cold war the U.S. and the Soviet Union had confrontations like this all the time.

When the war finally came to America launched by the Empire of Japan at Pearl Harbor and Manila, most Americans (according to my grandparents) excepted a war against Japan only. And it might have been (maybe for a year or two) had not Hitler declared war against the Untied States. Had Hitler withheld, President Roosevelt might have committed the bulk of our forces to Japan instead of Germany and Europe.

The final mistake as stated by Barnett was The Normandy Invasion. Hitler’s Generals knew that the invasion of Europe was evident, but Hitler refused to listen to his Generals regarding the disputed location of the Allies landing. Hitler thought that General Patton would lead the invasion of Europe at a place called Callae, while most of Hitler’s Generals knew that something else was up. These were the command decisions that must have angered the Generals of Germany. After all Hitler had gotten Germany into a war against everybody. So during the early years of the war there was in fact a war between Hitler and his generals. "However, like loyal commanders they always followed the command decisions of the Fuehrer" (Barnett, 12).

Something that we must all remember is that without Hitler there would have been no victories, no defeats, no security service, and no generals, and possibly no war at all. In many of the books that I have reviewed to complete this essay there is some written about Hitler relationships with his generals. It was very common for Hitler to have some major confrontations with his generals especially over tactical emplacements. After all the generals in the German Army were professional soldiers, all of them had experience in World War I, and very capable of coordinating the war without Hitler’s help.

In Hitler’s War written by David Irving; the author claims that Hitler did not order, and did not know about, any extermination or Jews until late 1943 or early 1944. In fact Irving points out, Hitler had ordered Himmler (SS chief) that "there was to be no liquidation of the Jews", and this order was suppose to have been said on November 30, 1941 at 1:30pm. According to Irving it was Heinrich Himmler who was responsible for the extermination of the Jews; Hitler only wanted Jews relocated once the war was over. Irving also places the blame for mistreatment of the Jews on Hitler’s other generals’ like Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann who were subordinates to Himmler. Irving presents a letter (what he claims to be written proof) supposedly written by Himmler after talking with Hitler, that there was to be no liquidation of the Jews. Irving doesn’t say where he got the letter, and the letter isn’t really legible, except for the date and the time (Irving, 505). In David Irving’s own book Hitler’s War, many of his chapters point to Hitler’s overall command status. Two of the chapters in particular are titled "Hitler takes command" and "Hitler’s word is Law", if this is true then there shouldn’t have been a holocaust in the first place. From what I have read there was nothing that Hitler didn’t know about when it came to Germany.

A respected historian named Lucy Dawidowicz (possibly Irving’s biggest opponent) translates the letter as noted on page 505 of David Irving’s book Hitler’s War. She says that Irving’s translation, which denies Hitler’s responsibility for the murder of the Jews, was translated incomplete. As noted Irving offered an entry in Himmler’s handwritten telephone log. On November 30,1941, at 1:30 p.m., Himmler, then in Hitler’s military headquarters bunker Wolf’s Lair, telephoned SS Obergruppenfuhrer Heydrich then in Prague.

The telephone message was entered in four short lines in the log, through Irving cited only the last two lines: judentransport aus Berlin, keine Liquidierung. Translated: "Transport of Jews from Berlin, No liquidation". From this Irving concluded that Hitler had somehow learned what Himmler was up to and had ordered him to stop the massacre. An obedient Nazi, Himmler had called Heydrich in Prague to transmit Hitler’s order. These chain of events lead to some interesting questions by Dawidowicz. If Himmler continued to deceive Hitler before and after about the murder of the Jews, why should he be honest about the current halt of executions? Irving’s conclusion fails to provide a satisfactory explanation of those two lines in view of what actually happened (Dawidowicz, 1). Irving wittingly or unwittingly has in fact disproved his own theory. For if Himmler was indeed responsible for Hitler’s call, then Irving has shown that Hitler did in fact know all about the murder of the Jews.

Heinrich Himmler is the man that gets most of the blame from David Irving. Irving claims several times that Hitler and Himmler weren’t really close. But was it Himmler who did everything his Fuhrer told him to do? Himmler was than man who ran the SS, Police Battalions, and security in general. It was Himmler direct orders that sent millions of people to their graves during the years of Nazi domination. However, there are some facts that come into question for me. As an amateur historian and a future officer in the United States military, I wonder how a person can achieve great status in an army by not following orders. As we all have seen in the pictures of history, Himmler with the elite of Germany walking or waving to a crowd etc. Himmler couldn’t have got into such a position without swearing total loyalty to Hitler himself, which means in short following every order he ever gave. If Hitler gave an order that the Jews weren’t to be touched, well?

If what David Irving has written is true then the German Military had fall-outs at the highest levels of command. Reichsfuhrer Himmler who’s rank surpasses a general’s disobeying orders and made up his own. As I stated in the previous paragraph how does a person rise to the rank of Reichsfuhrer, and hold that rank, and not follow the orders of the elected leader of the time. After all we know, as a fact that Hitler did have people executed who weren’t on his side. If Hitler had said the Jews weren’t to be touched, Himmler as a professional soldier, and a man who’s been in a uniform and an officer since World War I, should have followed that order no questions asked for the sake of his status and command.

In the German command chain "Eichmann was head of the Reich Security Main Office. This was the desk of the Gestapo tasked to deal with Jewish matters. Eichmann came under Heinrich Muller, who came under Reinhard Heydrich (head of the Gestapo), who came under Heinrich Himmler (the Reichsfuhrer SS), who came under Hitler" (Barnett, 3). However, David Irving says that Himmler was much farther under Hitler than one would imagine from subsequent historical propaganda. Second Irving says that Relations between Himmler and Hitler were not close. They seldom saw each other; Himmler was a bit of a loose canon who operated very much at arms length from Hitler. He took his own decisions and acted, as he wanted and that Hitler couldn’t be bothered with much that Himmler was up too. Irving also claims that there was certain lack of affinity between the two, and this became increasingly evident as the war went on. He claims the Eichmann wrote this in his own diary.

However, in a book titled The Architect of Genocide the writer Richard Breitman claims that Himmler really couldn’t do anything without coaching from Hitler. Also, Himmler came to regard himself as an instrument of Hitler’s will.

Himmler by the year 1941 was the head of the SS (the black shirts) and all of the Police Battalions as well as the Gestapo. Herman Goering, the number two man in the Nazi regime gave up the position as of head of all German Police Forces on June 30, 1936, because of the wishes of Hitler himself. So, the overall command and chief of Germany (Hitler) handed over a very important command to a individual whom he had faith in to follow his orders unconditionally and to keep the Police Forces strong. Between the years 1936 until the end in 1945 Himmler was always ready to assume important new tasks and responsibilities. For twelve years he continued to assume new duties, ranging from head of all police forces, SS, the gathering of military intelligence, to the production of war material in the concentration camps. In 1945 he even became an army field commander, although he had no military command experience. "Himmler was given the nickname "Treuer Heinrich," or loyal Heinrich" because of the loyalty he showed for Hitler (Breitmen, 16). We have a man who according to David Irving was responsible for the final solution, without Hitler even knowing about one single death until 1943 or 1944. So why would Himmler be known as loyal Heinrich if he weren’t true to Hitler’s orders.

According to Kenneth Stern, in a public speech on February 24, 1943, Hitler spoke about the extermination of European Jewry. He compared the need to exterminate the Jews with having exterminated a bacterium"(Stern, 63). There are other arguments that Hitler was supposedly not to have done, but his subordinates done for him, without his knowledge of course. Like the order that there was to be no liquidation of the Jews. Himmler took that order as a total opposite to start executing Jews? Why would Hitler give such an order in the first place?

In May 1941, Himmler summoned Rudolf Hoss commandant of Auschwitz to Berlin and told him "the Fuhrer had given the order for a final solution of the Jewish question" and that "we the SS must carry out that order" (Hoss testimony at the Nuremberg trails Dawidowicz, 129). In the late summer of 1941 addressing the assembled me of the Einsatzkommandos at Nikolayev, he "repeated to them the liquidation order and pointed out to the leaders and men who wee taking part in the liquidation bore no personal responsibility for the execution of this order. The responsibility was Himmler’s alone, and the Fuhrer’s" (Otto Ohlendorf testimony in Einsatzgruppen case Dawidowicz, 129). With all the facts the I have cited one can clearly see that David Irving did in fact twist some facts around regarding the execution of the Jews during World War II.

Another fact that David Irving insists is true was that Hitler was a man of peace, who could have never harmed a soul. However Hitler himself documented his own hate of the Jews years before he became German Chancellor. Through out his book Mein Kampf Hitler refers to the Jews as many names. Some of those names were parasites, liars, dirty, crafty, sly, wily, cleaver, without any true culture, freeloaders, middlemen, maggots, eternal blood suckers, repulsive, unscrupulous monsters, foreign, a menace, bloodthirsty, greedy, the destroyer of the Aryan humanity, and the mortal enemy of the Aryan people. That’s some strong words for a man of peace to say they don’t sound like something Gandhi (Indian peace advocate) might say.

In the book entitled Hitler’s Generals by Correlli Barnett, it is Barnett who through historical fact shows Hitler as a man who attained command by corruption and murder. Once Hitler had attained power in January 1933, with all the self-confidence of grabbing power he exerted a command spell over his generals. Hitler had this ability to charm, to con, and to bully according to Albert Speer in the Nuremberg Trail testimony. He brought with him his personal adventure of fantasies of European continental domination. Hitler’s generals would have done anything to please him and not to disobey him. Barnett also adds that the German people should have saw through Hitler’s scheme long before he came to power. His testament Mein Kampf, published in 1925-1926 showed his ruthless anti-Semitism and visualized a German colonial empire carved out of Soviet Russia.

Deniers note that there is no single signed document by which Hitler ordered the Holocaust. From this they contend that if any extermination took place, Hitler did not know about it. Deniers do not acknowledge that a job so massive as the destruction of the Jews would require the knowledge and approval of the Nazi head of state in other words Hitler himself. Hitler did mention in his book Mein Kampf the need to exterminate the Jewish race. On January 30, 1939, Hitler gave his famous Reichstag speech. In that speech he reassured his claim about the extermination of the Jewish race in Europe. He explained that most of the problems the German people face have Jewish origins. Hitler even told Himmler on June 19, 1943, to press forward radically with the evacuation of the Jews—a term used, and understood as the euphemism for extermination. According to Kennith Stern Hitler knew exactly what Himmler was doing regarding the extermination of the Jewish race.

Another respected historian by the name of Daniel Goldhagen wrote in his book Hitler’s Willing Executioners what kind of soldiers the Germans were. Not like the Italians, the Germans were loyal followers and perfectionist who cataloged and logged everything including the Jews being sent away to concentration camps. Germany in fact provided their own evidence of guilt, logging down everything. The main declarations in Goldhagen’s book are that the perpetrators contributed to because they were coerced, because they were unthinking, obedient executioners of state orders. State orders that came from a man that according to Irving was weak and not in control of his own government. Many high ranking commanders who committed the executions wanted to know Hitler’s explicit instructions regarding the exterminations. When Otto Bradfisch, head of Einsatzkommando 8 asked Himmler in August 1941 who bears the responsibility for the execution, Himmler answered "these orders…come from Hitler as the supreme Fuhrer of the German government, and…they have the force of law" (Fleming, 24). If Himmler was the "Architect of Genocide" then Hitler was his financier. For without Hitler, Himmler would have never had his chance in the spotlight or command or even known as the chief perpetrator.

From most of the research I now know that Hitler was the overall commander and not the ignorant person David Irving suggest he was. He wasn’t a weak leader at all just not a very good strategist. He had the leadership to order the final solution, Himmler took that order and delivered the final result. But the real question that comes out of all this is: would any give such an order as the execution of an entire people in writing? But we all know as stated in Goldhagen’s book that even a few days before the end of World War II Hitler’s Germany was still executing Jews.

Could Hitler have been unaware of the Final solution up to 1943, as suggested by David Irving? That hypothesis goes against all evidence. Based on my research I will have to think that he gave an oral order sometime in early 1941 for the overall extermination of the Jews in Europe. However, there has never been clear evidence of Hitler’s authorization of the extermination program that was actually carried out under Heinrich Himmler through the SS. We know through this paper of what kind of men Hitler and Himmler were, so based on the evidence throughout all of my reading I would have to say that Hitler did give the overall order, and he is guilty as charged

Works Cited

Barnett, Corelli. Hitler’s Generals

New York; Grove Weidenfeld Publishing, 1989.

Breitman, Richard. The Architect of Genocide

New York; Random House Inc, 1991.

Dawiedowicz, Lucy S. The War Against The Jews 1933-1945

New York; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975.

Fleming, Gerald. Hitler and the Final Solution

Berkeley; University of California Press, 1982.

Goldhagen, Daniel J. Hitler’s Willing Executioners

New York; Random House Inc, 1996.

Hoyt, Edwin P. Hitler’s War

New York; McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1979.

Irving, David. Hitler’s War

New York; The Viking Press, 1977.

Irving, David. The War Between The Generals

New York; Cangdon & Lattes Inc, 1981.

Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying The Holocaust, Assault on Truth and Memory

New York; The Penguin Group, 1993.

Stern, Kenneth S. Holocaust Denial

New York; American Jewish Committee, 1993.