Himmlers diary

Himmler and Hitler

After a meeting with Hitler at his headquarter Himmler wrote in his diary, December 18, 1941:

"Judenfrage - als Partisanen auszurotten" 

Translation: "Jewish Question / to be exterminated as partisans." The Jewish Question was a common topic, and an expression often used. The expression Jewish Question is old. It was used in 1750 in Great Britain. Different Solutions to the Jewish Question has been presented earlier when discussing the jewish minority in different countries. Earlier suggestions of "solutions" to the Jewish Question has been assimiliation, integration, education etc. After 1860 the discussion about the Jewish Question started to be more antisemitic. Under the nazi regime in Germany they discussed a "Final Solution" (Endlösung) to the "Jewish Question". Heinrich Himmlers note is short but bears a devastating decision: the solution to the question concerning the jewish minority is that they are to be auszurotten (exterminated) as the partisans are exterminated wherever they are found.

Himmlers diary note

The revisionist David Irving have made some desperate attempts to interpret Himmlers words differently, playing with words very desperatly i'd say. He says it means, during this era, "rooting out" It's kinda funny but at the same time sad to see how he tries to change the meaning of the word auszurotten. But as someone wrote concerning this "According to German dictionaries, it means one thing and one thing only when referring to living beings: to kill."

I am swedish, and in swedish, which is a germanic language, we have a similair word: utrota. If somone here would say utrota means to "pull out the plant with the root", that is to "rota ut", people would laugh, even though the expression is based on that image. Words must be understood in their context, and words must be understood in how they are understood and used by people. The way David Irving has tried to explain the "root out" is not convincing, but rather tragic and desperate, in this context. German people knew what auszurotten means when it comes to pest. Swedish people knows that even if the original words means "root out", it is just a image used, though in the context of dealing with any form of life, wether it is insects, pest, enemies or innocent minorities, "utrota" means to kill, to exterminate, to annihilate. Words must be understood in how they are used by people. It's that simple.