Hitler and a Historian

Hitler and a Historian
By
Robert E. Reis

ONE of the world’s most notorious self-proclaimed experts on the Holocaust is Professor Christopher R. Browning. He has appeared as a hired expert witness at several legal actions. 
He is now the Frank Porter Graham Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a witness against Ernst Zündel in Canada and against David Irving in the United Kingdom.

This essay is an examination of the evidence Browning puts forth in his book The Path To Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution (Cambridge University Press, Canto Edition, 1995)
The title of this collection of essays makes it clear that Professor Browning believes that a form of genocide was unleashed by responsible German officials upon the Jews of Europe and that he is convinced that he has discovered the manner in which the decision or decisions were made to perpetrate this crime. I intend to analyze this book as a work of historical scholarship to see what kind of evidence Professor Browning uses and how he interprets it in the context of his title.

What does Professor Browning mean by the “Final Solution”? He tells us in his Preface that “the Nazi regime called this attempt to murder every Jew in Europe the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’” ( p. ix. ) Naturally this statement would lead one to believe that Professor Browning can point to a mountain, a hill, a pile, or even one German document in which some German officials use the phrase “The Final Solution of the Jewish Question” explicitly to mean a policy of killing each and every Jew in Europe.

Professor Browning then tells us that he has concluded that the “Final Solution” was not a premeditated plan of Adolf Hitler but that it “emerged from a series of decisions between the spring and fall of 1941” in which Adolf Hitler “played the central role.” (p. xi). Naturally this statement would lead one to believe that Professor Browning can point to a mountain, a hill, a pile, or even one German document that confirms Adolf Hitler’s central role in making the alleged series of decisions to adopt a policy of killing each and every Jew in Europe.

This paper will seek to find where and how and to what extent the essays which follow this preface substantiate Professor Browning’s assertions that the Nazi regime called the “Final Solution of the Jew Question” an attempt to murder every Jew in Europe and that Adolf Hitler played a central role in a series of decisions made in the spring and fall of 1941 to murder every Jew in Europe.

In the Index of The Path To Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution the phrase the “Final Solution (of the Jewish Question)” is referred to at eleven places in the body of the book under the sub-topic “decisions/order for”. If one examines the pages indicated (pp. 4-5, 27, 54, 87-8, 90-93,98, 101, 104, 111-114, 117-8, and 104), how many German documents does Professor Browning cite in order to prove that the “the Nazi regime called this attempt to murder every Jew in Europe the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question. ‘“? None, not a single German document is cited to authenticate this claim.

Disappointed so far in our search for confirmation of Professor Browning’s assertion that the Nazis themselves used the term “the Final Solution of the Jewish Question” to mean the murder of each and every Jew in Europe we return to the index. The index suggests nine other locations that the curious reader might explore under the sub-heading: “A systematic/total mass murder of the European Jews.” Let us explore these nine additional indicated locations( pp. 19, 25-7, 42, 52-4, 56, 74, 81-4, 129, and 181 to see how many German documents are cited that would prove the Nazis used the term “the Final Solution of the Jewish Problem” to mean the murder of every Jew in Europe. The answer again is the Professor Browning does not cite one single German document that substantiates his claim.
Let us recapitulate. Professor Browning’s index has pointed to twenty locations where evidence should be found that the Germans used the phrase “the Final Solution of the Jewish Question” to mean the murder of every Jew in Europe. In each and every case Professor Browning fails to cite a single German document that substantiates his claim.

In addition to examining the pages mentioned in the index, a careful reading of the entire text shows no instance where a Nazi document is cited in which the phrase “the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem” is used to means the murder of every Jew in Europe.

If Professor Browning does know of a single document that can substantiate his interpretation of the phrase in question, he omits any citations in his book which would tell his readers what the document is and where it might be found. Where a simple graduate student would supply a definitive footnote, this professor provides nothing at all.

Disappointed in our search for a footnote that might confirm Professor Browning’s assertion that the term “the Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was used among the Nazis to mean the murder of all the Jews in Europe, let us reluctantly proceed to examine how well Professor Browning succeeds in substantiating his charge that Adolf Hitler played a central role in the series of decisions that the professor claims were made in the spring and fall of 1941 that are alleged to have culminated in a decision to murder all of the Jews in Europe” (p. xi). If Professor Browning is correct, this book ought to be filled with numerous citations of German documents of the time which connect Adolf Hitler with a decision so momentous.

Let us examine the twenty four locations in the text where the index tells that Adolf Hitler is mentioned ( 3-7, 8-9, 15-17, 18-20, 21-3, 24, 25, 27, 28, 31, 54, 73, 78-9, 83, 87-90, 92-99, 101, 104-5, 110-121, 126, 127, 130, 144, in order to see what substantiation Professor Browning provides for his charge that Adolf Hitler played a central role in the decision to murder all of the Jews in Europe.
How many German documents does Professor Browning cite that substantiate his claim that Adolf Hitler played a central role in the decision to murder the Jews? None, not a single German document is cited that connects Adolf Hitler with any decision to kill the Jews.

That’s it. A very painstaking reading of the entire test of Professor Browning’s book does not uncover a single citation from a contemporary German document that sustains his claim that Adolf Hitler played a central role in a series of decisions during 1941 that culminated in a decision to kill each and every Jew in German controlled Europe.

This is especially odd considering that Professor Browning vigorously condemns the Jewish historian Arno Mayer for making an “extraordinary allegation” (with which Professor Browning disagreed) in a book “without footnotes” and for which offense Professor Mayer is condemned for the crime of arguing for a thesis without providing “evidence.” (p. 83).

Notwithstanding his failure to provide evidence to substantiate either of the two crucial charges discussed above, Professor Browning, does cite German documents at times.
Some of these documents seem to stand as strong refutations of Professor Browning’s theses!

Although arguing that the Nazis used the term “the Final Solution of the Jewish Question” to mean the murder of each and every Jew in Europe, Professor Browning quotes a senior SS officer as writing to Berlin on July 23,1941, “A solution of the Jewish question during the war seems impossible in this area because of the tremendous numbers of Jews. It could only be achieved through deportations” (p. 104).

Professor Browning tells us that in the month that Hitler unleashed his armed forces against Poland ( September 1939) , the German dictator told the Nazi Party leader Alfred Rosenberg that he envisaged a process of demographic change in Eastern Europe that would last “for decades” (p. 9)

Professor Browning tells us that as early as 1940 some Nazi officials in Poland advocated the intentional mass starvation of the Jews in the ghettos, “but they received no support from Berlin” (p. 89).

Professor Browning tells us that Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, drafted a memorandum for Adolf Hitler in May of 1940 that stated:
“I hope completely to erase the concept of Jews through the possibility of a great emigration to a colony in Africa or elsewhere. . . . However cruel and tragic each individual case may be this method is still the mildest and the best, if one rejects the Bolshevik method of physical extermination of a people out of inner conviction as un-German and impossible.”

Professor Browning goes on to tells that Adolf Hitler approved this memorandum and ordered it circulated to the leaders of the Nazi Party (pp. 16-7). Professor Browning does not point out that there was hardly a worse condemnation available in Nazi vocabulary that to call a behavior “un-German” , nor does he explain why a man with allegedly murderous intentions towards the Jews would circulate a memorandum condemning genocide to the potential perpetrators.

Professor Browning quotes Adolf Hitler as lamenting in March 1940, “[T]he Jewish question really was a space question which was difficult to solve, since he had no space at his disposal. Neither would the establishment of a Jewish state around Lublin ever constitute a solution as even there the Jews lived too closely together to be able to attain a somewhat satisfactory standard of living . . . . He, too, would welcome a positive solution to the Jewish question; if only he could indicate a solution; this, however was not possible under present conditions when he had not even sufficient space for his own people” (pp. 15-6). It is difficult to explain how a man with allegedly murderous intentions would be concerned about the quality of life of his intended victims.

Professor Browning tells us the Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda, was writing in his diary for March 18, 1941: “[Hitler] puts the Jews to work and they are indeed obedient. Later they will have to get out of Europe altogether.” (pp. 94-5)

Goebbels is not yet aware of any rush by Hitler to decide the fate of Europe’s Jews in a murderous fashion.

Professor Browning tells us that in that same month Hans Frank, the German ruler of occupied Poland, was telling his staff, “[F]rom the broad perspective it is not practical to engage in racial experimentation at the moment. As Reich Marshall Göring recently said: ‘It is more important to win the war than to implement racial policy’” (pp. 92-99).

Professor Browning cites an International Military Tribunal document that has Adolf Hitler telling a group of senior political and military leaders on July 16, 1941 that it was fortunate that the Russians had given the order for partisan warfare, for it gave Germany “the opportunity to exterminate anyone who is hostile to us. . . . Naturally the vast area must be pacified as quickly as possible; this will happen best by shooting anyone who even looks askance at us”(pp. 104-5). But professor Browning shows no connection between the ruthless suppression of partisans and any policy of genocide.

I have saved Professor Browning’s quintessential act of scholarly malfeasance for last. Professor Browning explicitly charges that “probably in July [1941] Hitler indicated his approval for the preparation of a plan for the mass murder of all European Jews under Nazi control” ( p. 25) and he reiterates and specifies this charge by telling the reader that in July 1941 Adolf Hitler “solicited a plan to extend the killing process already underway in Russia to the rest of Europe’s Jews.”(p. 88)

Does he provide as with footnotes? Yes, he does.

Do his footnotes refer to a German document? No.

How does he substantiate his charge that Adolf Hitler indicated his approval for the preparation of a plan for the mass murder of all the European Jews under Nazi control? He tells us twice to read his previous book: Fateful Months: Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution (New York, 1985), from pages 8 to 38.

But wait, Professor Browning is not through. If one reads a little further on, we will discover that Professor Browning does not assert that his previous book contains proof that Adolf Hitler approved a plan for the extermination of Europe’s Jews. No, Professor Browning tells us:“I have argued elsewhere that in the euphoria of victory of the summer of 1941, Hitler solicited a plan for the systematic murder of the European Jews. . .”, and he refers to the entire contents of his previous book! (p. 54) This is an explicit admission that his previous book Fateful Months: Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution contains arguments and not proofs. Professor Browning has created the perfect set of Non-Footnote Footnotes! He has issued a gigantic “Trust me” to the scholarly world and the Cambridge University Press has swallowed it whole.

It is only fair to let Professor Browning tell us what he believes the purpose of historical scholarship to be. Fortunately he is explicit about this. He believe that the “purpose of historical scholarship” is “to do painstaking research” that leads to the creation of “provocative and challenging theses that provide the impetus for reexamining important issues” ( p. 76).

For Professor Browning the function of historians seems to be to generate work for other historians. He obviously has rejected, or forgotten that the traditional, and perhaps to him outmoded, purpose of historical research is simply to find out what actually happened.

Posted by Robert Reis on Sunday, September 6, 2009 at 09:56 PM in National Socialism
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