Hitler issued the orders, but he himself was not involved in the executions. Who organized and executed the Holocaust plans? Who were the killers? Were they sadists and psychopats? Were they normal people that followed orders?

The SS organization was a private army of the Nazi party and de facto of Hitler, himself. The SS was not included into the budget of the German Reich, and supported itslef by the plundering of the vicitm's properties and the profits from industrial enterprises using slave labor. Most of the killings was done by the SS.

The realization of this ghastly affair Hitler left to three trusted henchmen: Himmler, Heydrich and Goebbels. Himmler, the shy romantic, blindly devoted to Hitler, provided the organizational talent and the raw firepower of the SS. Goebbels, the master propagandist, neutralized the German people by poisoning them with hatred toward the Jews, blaming them for all the calamities brought upon them by their Fuhrer. The planning and execution of the work were left to Himmler's deputy, Rheinhard Heydrich.

Heydrich, the brilliant deputy of Himmler, was the evil genius of the Third Reich. He was a real puppet master who manipulated everybody, including Himmler and Hitler. Heydrich was involved in all of Hitler's dirty tricks, like burning of the Reichstag, the Gleiwitz incidence that triggered the World War II. Heydrich pushed Hitler to order the Night of the Long Knives. He prepared the Master Plan for the Holocaust, selected and trained the Einsatzgrouppen and chaired the infamous Wanasse Conference. He ran the show.

The fate of the European Jewry, was sealed quite early. In January 1939, Hitler openly predicted this in a speech to the Reichstag. In 1939, before the outbreak of WWII, Heydrich issued detailed directives to the Einsarzgrouppen: Jews should be concentrated in ghettos close to the railroads stations, in each ghetto Judenrats are to be created, etc. In June of 1941, Himmler put Auschwitz on the historical map, and in January of 1942, all the chips were in place, after the Wansee Conference.

Who were the perpetrators? Who were the people who pulled the triggers and poured the cyclone? They were normal people, from all walks of life, including an opera singer and a Lutheran pastor. Heydrich proved that it is easier to make mass murderers from a group of normal people than to make a killer from a single person.

kimel@systec.com