Final Solution

How and why was a modern European state capable, in the middle of the 20th century, of planning and carrying out the industrially-organized mass murder of six million Jews, male, female, adults and children? This text provides a detailed reconstruction of the Final Solution to answer this question. It explores the ideological imperative in the Nazi state to "solve the Jewish question" and Hitler's own role, and investigates the actions of those running the Reich Security Headquarters in Berlin and those lesser figures on the ground who were in the eye of the storm, grappling with the planning failures inherent in Nazi settlement plans and experiencing mounting difficulties in trying to be rid of "their" Jews.