is it possible that WW 2 and the Holocaust never would have happened

What is certainly brought into question is the inevitability of the Polish war in particular. That needed to be done. The bigger problem that triggered german agression was the unfinished resolution of WWI deliberately rigged to inflict ongoing problems which hitler was step by step repairing. Danzig was a problem as other parts of poland. Yet he did show the way with France. Which was surely the reason for France's hesitation in 1939.  They had all they wanted including peace.

I do think that a resolution with Poland was a possibility then and had to include Danzig and plausibly a port arrangement for poland with German help. All this would have left an array of buffer states in front of Germany to confront the USSR. I do think that all this was close to Hitler's real intent at the time.

All this would have forestalled a war with the western powers which he was not ready for and he knew this.

That then leaves the whole problem of genocide. Until then we had nasty suppression of the jews and other minorities in Germany. That framework continued until they had to confront the probability of losing the war with russia in 1942. Again this was a racist accomadation but not necessarily genocidal early on. The numbers involved were small and many certainly were fleeing.   Their actual removal was a possibility although vigorously opposed by Western nations.

It is hard to see a decent into War once all had acquiesed to a resolution of Vesailles.  Without such a war, then the whole genocide problem fades for lack of ehough victims.  The big numbers came with Poland.

What we are seeing is a consequence of many miscalculations, not all Hitlers either.  The mere fact that That France had a real settlement on its borders from Hitler that the French were happy with speaks volumes.  Resolving the Eastern borders were ultimately a German problem and creating a German ethnic state is one solution that still leaves millions of Germans outside but with a welcoming homeland.

The imposed solution went much farther by forcing ethnic germans out of thousands of villages throughout Eastern Europe.

Regardless the times had the doctrine of Eugenics and had the real genocides of the Armenians, and the Kulaks practically on their doorstep.  All that made the unthinkable thinkable.  At the same time Jim CRow was once again enslaving millions of Blacks in the USA and do not ask how well non whites or immigrants were treated in the British or French empires.

The worst possible crime in the history of modernity did have the silver lining of intensifying public censure of any such line of thinking.  No more free passes.  This has hugely affected our behavior to this day and that includes the USA civil rights movement.  Yet it is still a road that is generational in scale.

Curiously the spiritual aspect of the Holocaust may have been a necessary prelude to the creation of Israel.  Did someone ever think this way?  Talk about a blood sacrifice.

understanding that we all choose our death options before we are born changes everything.

hi 

I have read your post on "The Man Who started WWII" about Edward Rydz-Smigly is it possible that WW 2 and the Holocaust never would have happened if Edward Rydz-Smigly was not involved or was WW2 and the Holocaust always going to happen anyway even if Edward Rydz-Smigly was involved or not.