Was Hitler a Christian?

[Ivan Denisovich]

It's also well-documented that the Nazis had trouble killing "efficiently", at first, and tried various methods before settling on the gassing as a primary method.

Considering that in less than half a year, by the end of 1941, about half a million Jews had been murdered within the areas of the Soviet Union conquered by the Nazis I would hardy tell that Nazis had trouble with efficient killing. Shooting was deemed to be too hard on psychic of executioners.

The camps were originally just supposed to hold those who couldn't be held through normal courtroom proceedings for, y'know, actually doing something illegal.

First camp was supposed to be used for imprisoning communists, socialdemocrats and Reichsflagge members. All in all camps were designed as a terror instrument [Richard Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich,s. 351, 352 of Polish edition].

Death was a sort of "beneficial" side-effect of the starvation/overworking, until such time as the actual exterminations began, which Hitler (et al) referred to as the "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem".

Extermination begun with invasion of Poland, though it was Polish intelligentsia that was targeted at first [Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands. Europe between Hitler and Stalin, s. 148 of Polish edition]. That does not mean that Jews weren't being killed though.

It's always worthy to point out that jews weren't the only ones being on the extermination radar. That's the only issue I have with the Holocaust narrative. It doesn't do the overall inhumane nature of the regime any justice and adds insult to injury to all the other victims. Of course, the largest homogenous group have been jews, but Sinti and Roma have been nearly as efficiently exterminated as other and less known groups.

Term "Holocaust" is used to describe Nazi policy towards Jews and in wider meaning also towards other nations so narrative easily can focus on one particular group of victims, depending on what writer have in mind when he is using the term. But in good literature of the subject Sinti and Roma aren't being neglected. Books about T4 aktion also are available.

As for inhumane nature of regime I think that Evans, Snyder, Kershaw, Burleigh or Longerich are presenting it rather well.