Naz Kershaw: Hitler's Power In The Third Reich

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Kershaw has developed a synthesis view between the two schools of thought, though leans towards the structuralist school, blending the two positions to arrive at a more complex and precise interpretation of Hitler’s power in the Third Reich.
Kershaw argues that Hitler plays a decisive role in the development of policies but also argues that many of the measure that ultimately led to the Holocaust were undertaken by lower-ranking officials without direct order from Hitler in the expectation that such steps would win them the approval of the Fuhrer .
Kershaw supports Mommsen’s view of the Holocaust being the result of ‘cumulative radicalization’ of the Third Reich caused by the endless power struggles and the Nazi elite’s violent and drastic move toward antisemitism. Kershaw additionally subscribes to the view argued by structuralist historians Broszat and Mommsen that Nazi Germany was a chaotic collection of rival bureaucracies in perpetual power struggles with each other. According to Kershaw , the …show more content…

A stark example of 'cumulative radicalisation' and 'working towards the Fuhrer' concept is with the Children's 'Euthanasia' programme (T4 programme) under Bouhler and Brandt came into force because of a father of a deformed child petition to Hitler to 'put down' his child. This petition was chosen through 'working towards the Fuhrer' as it was deemed likely to please Hitler and later decided to deal with similar cases in the same way. This view of the Holocaust as a process is very much at odds with the extreme intentionalist approach as advocated by Lucy Dawidowicz, who argues that Hitler had decided upon genocide as early as November 1918, and that everything that occurred form that particular point onwards was entirely directed towards that actualisation of that goal

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