Adolph Hitler’s Role in the Holocaust

One of the issues that Holocaust deniers frequently bring up is the idea that Hitler himself may not have been “aware” of the Holocaust. This is an idea that arises from the complexity of the Nazi state. It is true that Hitler himself organized the inner workings of the Third Reich to be very complicated, and ensured that all of his different henchmen and lieutenants were always receiving orders that set them at odds with each other.
 
However, the idea that Hitler himself might not have known about the plan of organized killing of millions of Jews and others in the Holocaust has been revealed to be ridiculous. Although the notorious death camps did not go into full operation until near the end of the war, the efforts to construct them began many years earlier. Hitler and his lieutenants had to work hard in order to draw industrialists, inventors and others into the fold of Nazism to ensure that the Holocaust and its engines of destruction would be supported by an “industrial” system of death.
 
Deniers point to the idea that the “Final Solution,” the idea of the complete destruction of all the Jewish people of Europe, might not have been put into writing until the Wannsee Conference. The Wannsee Conference was a secret conference held during the second half of the war and led by such figures as the senior SS agent Reinhardt Heydrich, among others. During this meeting, these Nazi leaders laid out their plans to exterminate all the Jews of Europe.
 
While it is true there are few documents bearing Hitler’s signature in relation to this event, it is also true that nothing of such importance took place in Nazi Germany without Hitler’s say so. He made certain this was the case in order to be sure that no one in his regime would gain more power over the German people than he had. As there were many Nazi leaders, maintaining confusion and mystery was key.
 
Many other Germans of the time were also well aware of the death camps and what they represented, even if they were not aware of the full extent of the Holocaust. Death camps in Germany, Poland and elsewhere were intended to be in remote places, but they still let out a horrible stench and smoke as helpless prisoners were burned. The idea that Hitler himself might not have realized what was going on is laughable and a hallmark of Holocaust denial.