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Western Civilization · Chapter 13

Escalation and Evidence: Reading the Holocaust as a Process

The Holocaust was not one decision but an escalation over roughly a decade, and understanding the escalation is the point. Rebuild the eight steps in the order they actually happened — the ladder on the right explains the mechanism at each rung — then move the dial to see what the intentionalist and functionalist readings each rest on, and what each struggles to explain.

Put the process in order

Eight moments, shuffled. Click the one you think came next. If it is out of order you will be told why it belongs later — the sequence itself is the argument.

How was the decision reached?

No written order from Hitler has ever been found. Historians therefore argue about mechanism — never about whether it happened. Slide between the two classic positions.

IntentionalistFunctionalist

The ladder you are building

Nothing placed yet. The first rung is the phase in which the German state was still trying to make Jews leave rather than to kill them.

Where you are standing

The claim

Evidence it rests on

What it struggles to explain

The reckoning — unlocked when the ladder is complete