> Heck, even the "final solution" orders weren't put in signing -The "Final Solution"(tm) was basically just that - the logical conclusion to a number of gradu

> Heck, even the "final solution" orders weren't put in signing -The "Final Solution"(tm) was basically just that - the logical conclusion to a number of gradual steps being taken in that direction, getting increasingly lethal. The original intent was to rid Europe of its Jewish population, and as the war progressed (and, conjecturing on my part, as the Nazi regime became more and more desensitized to such inconveniences as reluctance to performing atrocities), killing them all off seemed like a workable solution. Early in the war one senior nazi (Eichmann? Sounds like something Eichmann could think up) voiced a plan to have European jews shipped en masse to Madagascar to create a Jewish heimat there; after invading The Soviet Union, it was suggested that jews could be deported to Siberia. Eventually it turned out extermination camps were more workable. IIRC, to the extent you can say that one man was the driving force behind the Holocaust, that would be Reinhard Heydrich, an ambitious, ruthless SOB in the SS who called the Wannsee conference where various branches of the Nazi machine decided that organized mass murder was the way to go; it has been argued that part of his motivation was an attempt to gain favour with Hitler and to be seen as a man of action. (Then again, if Heydrich hadn't stepped up, someone else likely would)