Modern history help!! Holocaust intentionalist vs functionalist (1 Viewer)

[lolmichelle]

Hello!

Im currently in year 11 and working to create a focus question for my historical investigation for modern history.
I want to talk about the debate over whether hitlers regime and the final solution were intentionalist or functionalist. theres a lot of historiography and debate on it, which is why imd doing it.

(jut in case yorue not sure of what these mean, intentioanlist is bascially saying that hitler wanted to eliminate the jews from the get go - that the final solution was his intention from as soon as the nazi party gained power.
functionalist sentiment is that hitler USED the discrimination and elimination of jews as a way of getting power, like a function of sorts)

idk how to word this into a single focus question. im thinking something like
was the final solution fortified by intentionalist or functionalist regime by hitler?

can someone let me know if this is a good idea for my historical investigation and perhaps suggest some ways of workding my question so that it sounds better? thanks

 

[Frostguard]

I like your idea but I'm not sure how you would structure the question. In my opinion I would structure as if it was a 'to what extent' question eg 'To what extent was the Holocaust evidence of Nazi intentionalism?' Or 'To what extent was the Holocaust evidence of Nazi fundamentalism?'. If you're going to discuss both then it would hard to, because it means you're going to have to search many websites, articles and whatnot to find out if the Holocaust was intentionalist or fundamentalist. You could also make your question as 'The Holocaust is described as Hitler's true objective and is proof that this event is intentionalism. Discuss the accuracy or truth behind this statement'.

Not sure what else to say but damnit I should've chosen this topic LOL why didn't I think of this this sounds so interesting! But yeah good luck with your historical investigation and try to stick to one perspective because having two perspectives will confuse you and make researching much more difficult.

 

[lolmichelle]

Thanks Frostguard! that was helpful sure is a lot of historiography to go through haha