The bottom-up approach is a viewpoint on the causes of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.
This approach is usually housed under a common debate in understanding the Holocaust, known as the
functionalism versus intentionalism
Functionalism may refer to:
* Functionalism (architecture), the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building
* Functionalism in international relations, a theory that arose during the inter-War period
* ...
debate. Functionalists represent the argument that the decision to kill the Jews developed over time with a concept called "
cumulative radicalization
In historiography and genocide studies, cumulative radicalization is the notion that genocide and other mass crimes are not planned long in advance, but emerge from wartime crises and a process of radicalization. Originally coined by German histori ...
" (
Hans Mommsen
Hans Mommsen (5 November 1930 – 5 November 2015) was a German historian, known for his studies in German social history, and for his functionalist interpretation of the Third Reich, especially for arguing that Adolf Hitler was a weak dictator. ...
). Intentionalists, on the other hand, believe that the
Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
was intended to occur all along and use
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
to prove this point. In the functionalism versus intentionalism debate, the bottom-up approach originated under the functionalist perspective.
Götz Aly
Götz Haydar Aly (; born 3 May 1947) is a German journalist, historian and political scientist.
Life and career
Aly was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg. He is a patrilineal descendant of a Mixed Turkish-Kurdish convert to Christianity name ...
, specifically, has argued the case for the bottom-up approach from the functionalist view.
The approach is best defined as one of the many arguments used to explain the Holocaust. This reasoning focuses on those of lower rank and their pressuring of higher ranks to implement what is now known as the Final Solution.
Application
In Götz Aly's book Final Solution': Nazi Population Policy and the Murder of the European Jews'', Aly points to a very specific proposal by Rolf-Heinz Höppner, who at the time was simply an SS-Obersturmbannführer (or an SS Officer). This letter written by Höppner was sent to
Jewish question
The Jewish question, also referred to as the Jewish problem, was a wide-ranging debate in 19th- and 20th-century European society that pertained to the appropriate status and treatment of Jews. The debate, which was similar to other "national ...
. In a portion of the letter he wrote:
There is a danger that, in the coming winter, it will become impossible to feed all the Jews. It must seriously be considered whether the most humane solution is to finish off the Jews unfit for labour through some fast-acting means. This would definitely be more pleasant than letting them starve to death.
The letter, which was sent on July 16, 1941, is one that functionalists arguing the bottom-up approach utilize as evidence. Aly goes deeper and explains that the letter had not only been written by Höppner, but it had also been discussed at a lower level. Götz Aly writes, "Thus it was the lowest ranks of the resettlement apparatus that thought up 'things' which, it was said, 'sometimes oundedfantastic'."
Aly is not the only one that argues that the lower ranks were responsible for bringing about The Final Solution—though he is the most recognized. Dan Stone, author of the book ''Histories of the Holocaust'', asserts that "The perpetrators on the ground were not automatons who simply followed instructions from Berlin; they were much worse—active agents who drove the murder process forward at every stage." However, he is less extreme than Götz Aly since he gives the leadership credit for making the process a reality. Stone cites the work of the
Einsatzgruppen
(, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...
in the months leading up to the decision to exterminate the Jews. As
Timothy D. Snyder
Timothy David Snyder (born August 18, 1969) is an American historian specializing in the modern history of Central and Eastern Europe. He is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute fo ...
, author of the somewhat controversial book '' Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin'', describes the situation, Einsatzgruppen were being used as a way to tally up mass shootings of Jews to report back to ''Reichsführer-SS''
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
as a method to continue rising in ranks.Stone. p. 200.
Competing approaches
Top-bottom approach
Whereas the bottom-up approach is almost exclusively assigned to the functionalist standpoint, the top-bottom perspective can lend a hand to either side of the argument.
Intentionalists use the top-bottom approach to solidify their conclusion that the intent to kill the Jews was always present in the higher-ranked officials. For this idea, they point specifically to Hitler's ''
Mein Kampf
(; ''My Struggle'' or ''My Battle'') is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germ ...
'', where he, essentially, calls for the extermination of European Jews. Therefore, the idea goes that Hitler, who intended to eradicate Europe of Jews, passed down an order (physical evidence of which has never been found) to eliminate all Jews in Europe.
Functionalists have also used the top-bottom approach. Functionalism simply claims that the solution to the Jewish question escalated over time, therefore, it does not overrule a top-bottom approach. Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and/or
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust.
He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...
could have issued an order from the top to the bottom to eliminate the Jews in Europe without negating the thesis of functionalists.
See also
*
Functionalism versus intentionalism
Functionalism may refer to:
* Functionalism (architecture), the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building
* Functionalism in international relations, a theory that arose during the inter-War period
* ...
*
Nazi foreign policy debate
The foreign policy and war aims of the Nazis have been the subject of debate among historians. The Nazis governed Germany between 1933 and 1945. There has been disagreement over whether Adolf Hitler aimed solely at European expansion and domina ...
**
Auschwitz bombing debate
The issue of why the Allies did not act on early reports of atrocities in the Auschwitz concentration camp by destroying it or its railways by air during World War II has been a subject of controversy since the late 1970s. Brought to public att ...
*
Historiography of Germany The historiography of Germany deals with the manner in which historians have depicted, analyzed and debated the history of Germany. It also covers the popular memory of critical historical events, ideas and leaders, as well as the depiction of those ...
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Historikerstreit
The ''Historikerstreit'' (, "historians' dispute") was a dispute in the late 1980s in West Germany between conservative and left-of-center academics and other intellectuals about how to incorporate Nazi Germany and the Holocaust into German hist ...
''
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Sonderweg
(, "special path") refers to the theory in German historiography that considers the German-speaking lands or the country of Germany itself to have followed a course from aristocracy to democracy unlike any other in Europe.
The modern school of t ...
''
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Vergangenheitsbewältigung
''Vergangenheitsbewältigung'' (, "struggle of overcoming the past" or "work of coping with the past") is a German compound noun describing processes that since the later 20th century have become key in the study of post-1945 German literature, so ...
''
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Victim theory
The victim theory (german: Opferthese), encapsulated in the slogan "Austria – the Nazis' first victim", was the ideological basis for Austria under allied occupation (1945–1955) and in the Second Austrian Republic until the 1980s. According ...
, a theory that Austria was a victim of Nazism following the ''
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...