What made "Auschwitz" possible--causes?

1. The Nazi camp system
   • 1933-40: potential/perceived opponents
     1933: 25,000 inmates / 1937: 8,000 / 1938: 33,000 (75% Jews)
     • Sept. 1939: "Euthanasia" program (eugenics)
     • Spring/Summer 1940: Lublin and Madagascar Plans
   • 1941-42: victorious political and racial war
     1941: 1,100,000 murdered; 1942: 2,700,000
     (Oct. 1941-Dec. 1942: >75% of all people murdered in the Holocaust)
     • Jan. 1942 "Wannsee conference"
   • 1943: "efficient" labor exploitation for "total war"
     1943: 500,000 deaths; 1944: 600,000; 1945(1/3): 100,000
     • Aug. 44: 20 main camps +165 branch camps, 524,286 total inmates
     • Dec: 44: 500 branch camps, 714,000 inmates total; 40,000 guards
2. Film clip: "Nazi Designers of Death" (Mar-Nov. 1941)
3. The causal strands leading to genocide
   • Hitler's idea ("intentionalism") (LEader)
     1920s and 1930s statements (Information)
   • German antisemitism (religious vs. racial) (Ideology)
     more/different than anywhere else? (hm: scientific!)
   • Elite's Careerism ("structuralism")(Elites/Economics)
     Kurt Prüfer, Adolf Eichmann
   • Evolving Solution ("functionalism")(Int'l, pOp. reactions)
     
   • war, so-called Euthanasia, trial and error (Information)