Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. What I was thinking of though was the time and context in which he "created" it.
As you say, Herzl is considered the father of (modern political) Zionism, so he may very well have coined that term. The best source would be references to that term in his own writings. His life was from 1860 to 1904, so that suggests that the concept of a "final solution", either for the Jewish people, or to the "Jewish problem" in Europe, had a rich political history from the late nineteenth century up to the early 1940s, when the Third Reich attempted to implement it.
If true, then the trope is much deeper than just something the Nazis cocked up in 1942 to justify a planned genocide. But it would be good to pin it down with actual references, and enough quoted material to understand what Herzl actually intended when he used the term.
The "Final Solution" in Herzl's mind was the creation of a Jewish state which was later carried out to fruition by Chaim Weizmann with the help of Arthur Balfour's Balfour Declaration. From Balfour's perspective, the Declaration was a way to move Russian Jews OUT of the UK as Russian Jews had recently overthrown the czar and were also carrying out a civil war in Weimar era Germany leading to the rise of the NSDAP. (Fun fact, the US had already been overthrown by the same people with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913.) Speaking of the NSDAP, why did Hitler offer the Jews safe transfer to Palestine through the Haavara Agreement even after world Jewry declared war on Germany in 1933?
BUT, you know what they say. "History is written by the victors."
The history of the expression "the fFnal Solution.. " is much longer than most realize. The Nazis adopted it as an homage to the battle plan carried by Sherman when he and Custer and the bloodthirstiest of the post civil war Northern army were sent West to deal with "Indian Problem". There are a few decent texts on the subject and can be searched via duck duck go using the full name "The final solution to the Indian Problem".
Btw, I'm not mentioning that in any way to support the Zionism claim. Just that the expression does have it's roots way back in the century before the Nazis arose.
During the US genocide of the natives which began shortly after the Civil War and, oddly, continues to today. As can be seen in any news coming out of Standing Rock in the last 10 years or so.
I tried your search. On the first page of hits, there was just one that mentioned "final solution," and that was from 1910:
тАЬIt is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habitating so closely in these schools, and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is being geared towards the final solution of our Indian Problem." [1]
[1] Department of Indian Affairs Superintendent D.C. Scott to B.C. Indian Agent-General Major D. McKay, DIA Archives, RG 1-Series 12 April 1910
The quote is from the Canadian poet and Indian Affairs bureaucrat Duncan Campbell Scott, who wanted to solve Canada's "Indian Problem" through active assimilation and elimination of the Indians' separate ethnic identities. This was to be done by forced government schooling, which, as the quote acknowledges, carried a fairly brutal death rate for the children who were forced to attend. The point was not to kill them so much as to make them regular, English-thinking Canadian citizens, who would not then require separate arrangements with the Canadian government.
I don't know if the term "final solution" used here is related to the German use (Nazis or Herzl) or not. The time frame is similar, but it is also a different language and cultural/political salient. I believe the German term is 'Endloesung'. In either case, it is obviously a complementary trope to "X Problem" in reference to a problematic minority, and the two cases might have been coined independently.
If you have 10 hours or so, watch "Europa: The Last Battle." That's about the normiest sauce I can recommend.
Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. What I was thinking of though was the time and context in which he "created" it.
As you say, Herzl is considered the father of (modern political) Zionism, so he may very well have coined that term. The best source would be references to that term in his own writings. His life was from 1860 to 1904, so that suggests that the concept of a "final solution", either for the Jewish people, or to the "Jewish problem" in Europe, had a rich political history from the late nineteenth century up to the early 1940s, when the Third Reich attempted to implement it.
If true, then the trope is much deeper than just something the Nazis cocked up in 1942 to justify a planned genocide. But it would be good to pin it down with actual references, and enough quoted material to understand what Herzl actually intended when he used the term.
The "Final Solution" in Herzl's mind was the creation of a Jewish state which was later carried out to fruition by Chaim Weizmann with the help of Arthur Balfour's Balfour Declaration. From Balfour's perspective, the Declaration was a way to move Russian Jews OUT of the UK as Russian Jews had recently overthrown the czar and were also carrying out a civil war in Weimar era Germany leading to the rise of the NSDAP. (Fun fact, the US had already been overthrown by the same people with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913.) Speaking of the NSDAP, why did Hitler offer the Jews safe transfer to Palestine through the Haavara Agreement even after world Jewry declared war on Germany in 1933?
BUT, you know what they say. "History is written by the victors."
Thank you, Chris, for stating was actually happened.
should be: what actually happened.
The history of the expression "the fFnal Solution.. " is much longer than most realize. The Nazis adopted it as an homage to the battle plan carried by Sherman when he and Custer and the bloodthirstiest of the post civil war Northern army were sent West to deal with "Indian Problem". There are a few decent texts on the subject and can be searched via duck duck go using the full name "The final solution to the Indian Problem".
Btw, I'm not mentioning that in any way to support the Zionism claim. Just that the expression does have it's roots way back in the century before the Nazis arose.
During the US genocide of the natives which began shortly after the Civil War and, oddly, continues to today. As can be seen in any news coming out of Standing Rock in the last 10 years or so.
I tried your search. On the first page of hits, there was just one that mentioned "final solution," and that was from 1910:
тАЬIt is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habitating so closely in these schools, and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is being geared towards the final solution of our Indian Problem." [1]
[1] Department of Indian Affairs Superintendent D.C. Scott to B.C. Indian Agent-General Major D. McKay, DIA Archives, RG 1-Series 12 April 1910
The quote is from the Canadian poet and Indian Affairs bureaucrat Duncan Campbell Scott, who wanted to solve Canada's "Indian Problem" through active assimilation and elimination of the Indians' separate ethnic identities. This was to be done by forced government schooling, which, as the quote acknowledges, carried a fairly brutal death rate for the children who were forced to attend. The point was not to kill them so much as to make them regular, English-thinking Canadian citizens, who would not then require separate arrangements with the Canadian government.
I don't know if the term "final solution" used here is related to the German use (Nazis or Herzl) or not. The time frame is similar, but it is also a different language and cultural/political salient. I believe the German term is 'Endloesung'. In either case, it is obviously a complementary trope to "X Problem" in reference to a problematic minority, and the two cases might have been coined independently.