Why did he do it? Why not just kick them out of Germany?

This, basically. The Nazis flip-flipped wildly throughout their rule on what exactly to do with their undesirables.

First they went "We'll just bully them until they leave on their own".

Then they wanted to ship all undesirables to Madagascar.

Then when the German expansion started they were stuck with some additional millions of Jews and gypsies. They improvised, going from 'just shoot them or something' to 'how about gas trucks?' to even more efficient killing methods.

Hitler's orders were rarely written down but it's know that he frequently went like "Boy, it sure would be nice if someone would take care of all the Jews for me!" to his inner circle of SS cronies, who then implemented their own interpretation of what Adolf actually wanted.

Then Heydrich (probably) pitched the Endlösung in 1942 and all bets were off, we deathcamps now.

>Hitler's orders were rarely written down
I wonder why that is. It seems like any military chain of command writes things down. Maybe its because they destroyed records with anything "final solution" on it when they discovered they were losing and didn't want to pay repercussions?

Strategically, when you have absolute power and confidence in your subordinates, it makes some sense. In addition to enemies getting their hold on such, having orders written out in any detail often ties the hands of those you delegate them to. You want, at best, a "spirit of intent" to reach your more skilled commanders, and need only be specific with the more troublesome and incompetent ones, which said military leaders often were in turn.

Hitler, all in all, gets a lot more credit/blame for WW2 than he deserves. It's a lot easier, both legally and psychologically, to lay the blame at a single "dead evil man's" feat, than face the truth about just how many men were sympathetic to the resulting efforts, on both sides, and just how many men were probably several times over more destructive, both in intent and in action, than even he was, and just taking advantage of the situation.

>Why not just kick them out of Germany?
>kick them out
Europe has kicked out jews over 100 times

Their track record shows banishment doesnt make them behave so you have to completely genocide them.
Yes but bombing Palestinian civilians is totally moral am I right Schlomo?

Because he could and had no place to kick them out to

>It's a lot easier, both legally and psychologically, to lay the blame at a single "dead evil man's" feat, than face the truth about just how many men were sympathetic to the resulting efforts, on both sides, and just how many men were probably several times over more destructive, both in intent and in action, than even he was, and just taking advantage of the situation.

Is it bad I want to compare this with Japanese warcrimes and point out that some of the early German SS had to get drunk to kill hundreds? Probably. However just following orders is hardly an excuse for what they did. I think its propaganda that Hitler is blamed for most of the outcome of WWII. Whatever gets Germany back in gear to deal with their past I guess. Japan still hasn't fully accepted all the shit they have done yet, which is really interesting as a Historiography.

>Strategically, when you have absolute power and confidence in your subordinates, it makes some sense.
Not really but whatever.

>spirit of intent
Yeah the early SS were literal convicts that were used to violence I don't think its the best place to use verbal orders.

>Maybe its because they destroyed records with anything "final solution" on it when they discovered they were losing and didn't want to pay repercussions?

This is certainly possible, as the Nazis did attempt to destroy as much incriminating evidence as they could.

However, diary entries from Hitler's inner circle survived - so it's possible to get some idea of what he really did and wanted.

One theory is that he didn't want his orders written down because he would give vague, slightly different, sometimes contradictory orders to different people - to promote infighting between his subordinates and to ensure that he'd always be the number one man with the plan.

Then again, he was also a batshit vegetarian on speed so who knows what he was thinking.

>sometimes contradictory orders to different people - to promote infighting between his subordinates
Didn't he meet with Stalin at one point?
Because that sounds like something Stalin would do.

They never met, though they briefly exchanged letters concerning the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

Though you're right, the similarity is striking. Maybe it's part of the asshole dictator guidebook.

I thought the deathcamps started in 1941

>Maybe it's part of the asshole dictator guidebook

It is actually

He wanted to put them in Madagascar

There was the Einsatzgrouppen death squads in eastern europe following Germanys invasion of Poland. These guys werent even "soldiers" really. After the actual military would take an area, the Einsatzgrouppen would move in behind them, get the villiage census data, and then tell all the jews to meet somewhere for some sort of re evalutation/bullshit excuse.

Then when they would all get there, they would just kill them all. The worst one was the Babi Yar Massacre. In total they killed around 1 million.

Then theres the camps. In 1942, top nazi officials held a meeting in Wannsee were they discussed their new plan. They had gathered data on all jews within the territory they had, they move all these jews to inclosed ghettos that would act as holding stations, and then from there, ship them to slave labor camps as needed.

youtube.com/watch?v=2a_cmbi3iIg

Divide and conquer those which you use, oldest trick in the book