Compare And Contrast The Two Schools Of Thought About The Holocaust

1. What are the two schools of thought about the Holocaust? Define them.
There are two major schools of thought regarding the planning of the Holocaust; the Intentionalist school, and the Functionalist school. The Intentionalist school believes that Hitler’s intentions from very early on were for the exterminations of the Jewish race. According to them the “Final Solution” was simply a means of completing this goal of Hitler’s. On the other hand, according to the Functionalist school, although Hitler wanted Europe to be “Jew free” he never intended for a genocide of the Jews, rather for this idea of a “Jew free” Europe to be achieved through emigration. The Functionalist school believes that the decision to pursue extermination was not made by Hitler, rather overall by the conditions fabricated by the war. The Intentionalists view Hitler in a more aggressive and vigorous manner, while the Functionalists view Hitler as solely …show more content…
They wanted to get the British to get rid of the white paper in order to maintain their ability to achieve a Jewish state in Palestine, and help the Jews escape the genocide placed on them by opposing nations, but separately. They founded a group which sought to make common cause with the Arabs, which followed the Zionist’s desire to help stop the attacks towards the Jews. Two main goals that the Zionists had was wanting to cope with the Arab attacks on Jews, and to defend against an invasion by the Axis on Palestine. In World War II the Zionists hunted down and assassinated Nazis, and helped sneak Jews into palestine as part of an illegal immigration. The Zionists demanded the formation of a Jewish Military not only to help the Jews themselves, but also to give the Jewish people a military force under “their own flag”, which relates back to the Zionist’s desire for Palestine to be their Jewish