SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

220 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
des Hautes Etudes en sciences sociales and the Sorbonne, was held in
Paris from 29 June through 2 July 1982. The proceedings were published
in 1985 in a volume of the same name. 635
On that occasion, Uwe Dietrich Adam analyzed the National Socialist
policy on the subject of the Jews between September of 1939 and
June of 1941, a period which “can be regarded as being the descent towards
the ‘final solution.’” He stressed immediately, however, that: 636
“[…] the precise date at which this ‘final solution’ was ordered
constitutes a problem not yet resolved for German and for world history.”
On the subject of the origins of the alleged genocide of the Jews,
Adam took a decided stand against the radical intentionalist thesis supported
by Eberhard Jäckel, stating that he “agreed with the vast majority
of historians in thinking that the order to liquidate the Jews on the German
territory was never given, not even planned, in any way whatsoever,
prior to the beginning of the war.” 636 Given that “no written trace of
this order has ever been found” and that it is highly unlikely that it will
be found in the future, Adam stated that: 637
“[…] it becomes the task of the historian to date it in the most
precise manner possible, using [the tool of] interpretation. Methods
and hypotheses in this respect are limitless, we face very diverse
opinions. Some people see the conception of the ‘final solution’ as
having taken place at the time of Landsberg (Jäckel, Dawidowicz);
another dates it to March of 1941 (Krausnick) or July of 1941 (Hilberg,
Browning), still others to the fall of 1941 (Adam, Broszat).
Neither the laws nor the measures taken by the Third Reich against
the Jews allow us to fix a date for the issuance of the order. However,
for those who are conversant with the institutional structure of
the Third Reich after the beginning of the war, each measure taken
reduces the possibilities of interpretation and allows, in the end, to
eliminate certain dates or to confirm others with some degree of certainty.”
(Emph. added)
At the outbreak of the war the Jewish question, as it had been formulated
in the Party program and defined by the early protagonists of race
legislation, had been resolved; Adam: 638
635 Colloque de l’École des Hautes Études en sciences socials, L’Allemagne nazie et le
génocide juif, Gallimard, Paris, 1985.
636 Ibid., p. 177.
637 Ibid., pp. 177f.
638 Ibid., p. 179.