An Einsatzgruppe D member about to shoot a Jew kneeling at a mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, in 1942. The photograph is inscribed: The last Jew in Vinnitsa.(Wikipedia)

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This then represents the public face of Hitler’s evolving or, perhaps better described, gradually revealed intention regarding the Jews. Certainly discussions with his closest lieutenants would have been far more direct. Which explains the candor of Reichsführer-SS Reinhard Heydrich in his September 21, 1939 “Jewish Question in the Occupied Territory” order to his Einsatzgruppen:

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“I refer to the conference held in Berlin today and once more point out that the planned overall measures (i.e., the final aim) are to be kept strictly secret. Distinction must be made between:

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(1) The final aim (which will require extended periods of time), and

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(2) The stages leading to the fulfillment of this final aim (which will be carried out in short terms).

“The first preliminary measure for achieving the final aim is the concentration of the Jews from the countryside in the larger cities. It must be speedily implemented. … as few concentration points as possible should be established so that only those cities are designated which are either railway junctions or at least lie on a railway line.”

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Many historians today, along with most Holocaust deniers, insist that Heydrich’s reference to a “final aim” means “resettlement” since that was the public face of R

The Final Solution: Extermination as first and last resort, Part 2