Historians have also debated the inherent Germanness of the Holocaust.
Some, such as Daniel Goldhagen, rooted Nazism in “eliminationist” expres-
sions of anti-Semitism that appeared at the end of the nineteenth century,
claiming that the willingness of even ordinary Germans to kill Jews was
rooted in the unique circumstances of German history. That Germans were
situated at the heart of every major European war, the argument goes, not
only enhanced the prestige of the Prussian, and later German, military, but
also desensitized Germans to violence. This “Sonderweg” (special path)
approach has been challenged, not least by Holocaust historians, who have
noted that there were people in every European country who embraced
Nazism – some with even greater enthusiasm than German Nazis themselves.
At the heart of both of these debates is the role of Adolf Hitler in perpetrat-
ing the atrocity of the Holocaust. In some sense, Hitler’s life embodied the
frustration and disillusion of German nationalism. He was born in Austria and
later emigrated to Bavaria – two focal points of German nationalist activity.
Thus, he was especially sensitive to the impact of the First World War on
German nationalism. The Treaty of Versailles and other treaties, while recog-
nizing the right of many people to national self-determination, denied
Germans the right to create a Grossdeutchlandby amalgamating Germany and
Austria. In addition, in 1919–20 he fought against communism and commu-
nist revolution in Bavaria.
In 1923, Hitler joined the local branch of the National Socialist German
Workers’ Party (NSDAP), or Nazi Party, in Munich, and soon became one its
most important leaders. Later that year, he led a failed attempt to take over
the city, and was imprisoned. While in prison, he wrote Mein Kampf, his man-
ifesto, in which he described his pathological hatred of Jews, and internalized
and systematized racist ideas and his belief in theories concerning Jewish con-
spiracy. Some historians see this as a sort of conversion experience, in which
he reevaluated his prewar life as a time of ignorance and naïveté. Upon his
release from prison, he began to reorganize the Nazi Party, making use of his
personal charisma and oratorial skills, and his quick denunciation of Jews and
communists as the enemies of the German people.
The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party to power coincided with and was facil-
itated by the collapse of the Weimar Republic. By 1930, the Weimar
government was on the verge of collapse, with no viable alternatives. Its imme-
diate replacement was a right-wing coalition led by Hindenburg. In 1928, the
Nazi Party entered the national elections, but its showing at the polls was weak.
Through a campaign of propaganda and brutality, the Nazis won more votes in
the elections of 1930 and 1932. In 1932, after the Nazi Party received nearly 40
percent of the popular vote, a coalition of conservative parties under the leader-
ship of Franz von Papen invited Hitler to join the cabinet. Von Papen and
others assumed that they could use him to enhance the tenuous coalition’s nar-
row majority. In January 1933, Hitler was named chancellor by Hindenburg.
Following Hindenburg’s death in August 1934, he assumed the title of führer.
From renewal to devastation, 1914–45 221