Hitlet's Impact on the Nazis' Jewish Policy in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XXIII

Some Remarks about Hitler’s Impact on the Nazis’ Jewish Policy

Up to the present day no written order by Hitler to annihilate the Jews has been found, which has induced some historians to suggest that the decision to institute the Final Solution was not Hitler’s. Yahil shows that an elaborate technique to distribute criminal orders was developed in Nazi Germany in the war years, which prevented their being disseminated to outsiders. Only rarely did the perpetrators transmit such orders in written form and these were to be destroyed after their reception. Using numerous examples, Yahil shows that Hitler systematically and at various stages intervened in the implementation of Nazi policy concerning the Jews.