Hitler’s Prophecy: The Key to the Holocaust

137 Pages·2021·6.901 MB·English

by  Simon Burgess

Hitler’s
This is a highly readable overview of, and contribution to, the debate around the
timing and nature of decision-making in relation to the Holocaust, encouraging us
to think anew about the role of Hitler and how power operated in his dictatorship.
Dr Paul Moore, University of Leicester
Prophecy
Most historians, after a long and involved dispute, now accept that
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Hitler’s threats to annihilate the Jewish population on the European
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continent were an important element in the Nazi regime’s escalating le
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wartime policy of expulsion and extermination. The general consensus, ’
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however, is that the ‘Final Solution’ was not ordered at a particular P
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moment so much as gradually adopted. o

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In a compact, readable and cogently argued text, Hitler’s Prophecy h
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draws on the rapidly expanding provision of online archival materials to c
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set out some significant new findings, proposing a fresh answer to the :

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abiding question of exactly when and why the Holocaust was put into
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practical effect. It examines the circumstances in which the prophecy was e

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initially formulated and subsequently, at critical points, menacingly
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repeated, and links the prophecy to the eventual evacuation of Jewry ‘to y

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the east’ in an ultimately homicidal form, identifying the order – in fact o

ord ers – that were issued. th
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Covering the period from January 1939 to the spring of 1942, it
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describes in detail the exact sequence of events, establishing Hitler’s o
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direct responsibility as well as depicting the role played by the main o
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collaborators who were involved in ‘realising’ his chilling prediction. a
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Simon Burgess is the author of Stafford Cripps – A Political Life, which was
shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and co-author (with Vittorio Bufacchi) of Italy
Since 1989. He has taught at the Universities of Reading and London, contributed
to BBC Radio 4’s Document programme and also worked for Der Spiegel magazine.

Cover illustration: the moment in Hitler’s January 1939 speech when he prophesied
the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe (photograph courtesy of CriticalPast) S
IM The Key to the Holocaust
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VALLENTINE MITCHELL ISBN 978 1 912676 97 2 RG
E
S
Catalyst House 814 N. Franklin Street S
720 Centennial Court Chicago
Centennial Park Illinois 60610
Elstree, WD6 3SY, UK USA
VALLENTINE S B
MITCHELL www.vmbooks.com VMALITLCENHTEILNLE IMON URGESS
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HITLER’S
PROPHECY
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HITLER’S
PROPHECY
The Key to the Holocaust
SIMON BURGESS
VALLENTINE MITCHELL
LONDON • CHICAGO
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First published in 2022 by Vallentine Mitchell
Catalyst House, 814 N. Franklin Street,
720 Centennial Court, Chicago, Illinois,
Centennial Park, Elstree WD6 3SY, UK 60610 USA
www.vmbooks.com
Copyright © 2022 Simon Burgess
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
An entry can be found on request
ISBN 978 1 912676 97 2 (Paper)
ISBN 978 1 912676 98 9 (Ebook)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data:
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, reading or otherwise, without the
prior permission of Vallentine Mitchell & Co. Ltd.
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: The Final Problem 1
1. 1918 11
2. The Speech 17
3. Special Tasks 24
4. The Commission 29
5. Paying the Price 36
6. ‘The Greatest Crime’ 44
7. Three ‘Solutions’ 52
8. A Deadly Enemy 60
9. The Birthday Present 64
10. Wendepunkt 71
11. The Conference 78
12. Win or Lose 85
13. Orders 91
14. Who Knew? 106
Epilogue: The Reason Why 111
Select Bibliography 115
Index 123
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Acknowledgements
Excerpts from official documents are reprinted with the consent of the
National Archives, Kew, London. The following libraries and archives have
kindly provided valuable material: the British Library and in particular the
Newsroom, London; the British Library of Political and Economic Science,
London; the German Historical Institute, London; the Wellcome Institute,
London; the Wiener Library, London; the Institut für Stadtgeschichte,
Mannheim, Germany; the Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm, Sweden; the
Malmö Stadsarkiv (and Anette Sarnäs); the United States National Archives;
and the Hoover Institution Library (with the research assistance of Jenny
Fichmann). I am also grateful to Professor Dan Michman for his very
helpful suggestions. Thanks are due to CriticalPast for permission to use
the front cover photograph.
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Introduction
e Final Problem
‘Hitler’s will’, British intelligence reported in December 1945, ‘has been
discovered’.1 It was found sewn into the shoulder padding of a German
prisoner-of-war during a routine search. The prisoner turned out to be a
trusted messenger who had left Hitler’s besieged Reich Chancellery bunker
in Berlin on 29April with instructions to try to reach the headquarters in
northern Germany of Admiral Doenitz, nominated by Hitler as his
successor. The genuineness of the will – in fact a personal will and a political
testament – was quite certain. Hitler’s signature was authenticated by
experts. The text had clearly been prepared using the special Führer-
typewriter, the large typeface compensating for his weak eyesight. The
contents of the will tallied with various accounts about the final few hours
in the bunker obtained from interviews with many witnesses.2 But the
clinching factor was the characteristic style. ‘His political testament’, the
intelligence officer wrote:
…is divided into two parts, the first being a tirade disclaiming all
responsibility for the war and blaming it on the Jews, whom he says
were the real agency which led England into war with Germany in
1939. In this he again states that he has no intention of falling into
enemy hands, but will instead stay in Berlin and choose death
voluntarily at the moment when he feels his position can no longer
be maintained. He orders, however, the rest of the German people
to continue fighting with all possible means. The whole document
is full of the type of phrase which occurred so frequently in his
speeches. It is perhaps significant that the last words he writes in his
will are ‘International Jewry’, which sufficiently indicates the state of
his mind at the time.3
Because the will explicitly specified that Hitler had decided to take his own
life, the British hoped that publication would finally dispose of the idea,