Beevor: we must revisit seeds of Final Solution
ACCLAIMED HISTORIAN Sir Antony Beevor used his speech at the Holocaust Educational Trust’s annual Lord Merlyn Rees Memorial event in Westminster on Tuesday to encourage renewed study of the reasons behind the Nazi regime’s plan for a “Final Solution”.
Speaking to a packed audience, including several Shoah survivors, the author said he believed the Nazi leaders turned to the slaughter of the Jews after they had “woken up to the fact that they might face military disaster and retribution after all”.
Sir Antony, who has written acclaimed books on the battles of Stalingrad and Berlin, added: “Absolute victors do not have to worry about facing trials for their war crimes.”
He said that the “history of the Shoah or Holocaust has never been straightforward” largely down to the “lack of documents”.
“Hitler,” he added “perhaps unsurprisingly wanted nothing written down” and the Nazis had also made a point of destroying documents.
Sir Antony said he believed that the Holocaust should be looked at within the wider context of the Second World War.
“I was greatly encouraged when, in 2012, the Holocaust remembrance centre of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem organised a major four-day conference.
“It posed the question: ‘1942: A Turning Point in World War Two and in the Final Solution?’
“Now, as we approach the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I would like to raise the subject again.” Discussing exactly when Adolf Hitler agreed his plan for the Final Solution, Sir Anthony said: “Some historians argue that the key decision to use industrial genocide took place in July or August 1941, when a quick victory still seemed to be within the Wehrmacht’s grasp.
“Others think that it did not take place until the autumn, when the German advance in the Soviet Union slowed perceptibly.”
Sir Antony said his “estimate” was that the decision took place in the second week of December that year.
The audience included Lord Eric Pickles, former Board President Jonathan Arkush and Labour MP Rosie Duffield.