Global InformationFinal Solution information
| Final Solution | |
|---|---|
 Follow-up letter from Reinhard Heydrich to the German diplomat Martin Luther asking for administrative assistance in the implementation of the Final Solution, 26 February 1942 | |
| Also known as | Endlösung der Judenfrage |
| Location | German-occupied Europe |
| Date | 1941–1945 |
| Incident type | Genocide |
| Perpetrators |
|
| Participants |
|
| Ghetto |
|
The Final Solution (German: die Endlösung, pronounced [diː ˈʔɛntˌløːzʊŋ] ⓘ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (German: Endlösung der Judenfrage, pronounced [ˈɛntˌløːzʊŋ deːɐ̯ ˈjuːdn̩ˌfʁaːɡə] ⓘ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to the Jewish question" was the official code name for the murder of all Jews within reach, which was not restricted to the European continent.[1] This policy of deliberate and systematic genocide starting across German-occupied Europe was formulated in procedural and geopolitical terms by Nazi leadership in January 1942 at the Wannsee Conference held near Berlin,[2] and culminated in the Holocaust, which saw the murder of 90% of Polish Jews,[3] and two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe.[4]
The nature and timing of the decisions that led to the Final Solution is an intensely researched and debated aspect of the Holocaust. The program evolved during the first 25 months of war leading to the attempt at "murdering every last Jew in the German grasp".[5] Christopher Browning, a historian specializing in the Holocaust, wrote that most historians agree that the Final Solution cannot be attributed to a single decision made at one particular point in time.[5] "It is generally accepted the decision-making process was prolonged and incremental."[6] In 1940, following the Fall of France, Adolf Eichmann devised the Madagascar Plan to move Europe's Jewish population to the French colony, but the plan was abandoned for logistical reasons, mainly a naval blockade.[7] There were also preliminary plans to deport Jews to Palestine and Siberia.[8] In 1941, Raul Hilberg wrote that in the first phase of the mass-murder of Jews, the mobile killing units began to pursue their victims across occupied eastern territories; in the second phase, stretching across all of German-occupied Europe, the Jewish victims were sent on death trains to centralized extermination camps built for the purpose of systematic murder of Jews.[9]
- ^ Browning, Christopher (2007). The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942. University of Nebraska Press.
In a brief two years between the autumn of 1939 and the autumn of 1941, Nazi Jewish policy escalated rapidly from the pre-war policy of forced emigration to the Final Solution as it is now understood—the systematic attempt to murder every last Jew within the German grasp.
- ^ "Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
- ^ David S. Wyman; Charles H. Rosenzveig (1996). The World Reacts to the Holocaust. JHU Press. p. 99. ISBN 0801849691.
- ^ Holocaust Encyclopedia. "'Final Solution': Overview". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 2 March 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Browning424was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Browning (2004), p. 213.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
CRB/Pathwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Niewyk & Nicosia 2000, p. 76.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Hilberg273was invoked but never defined (see the help page).