I don't think the specific atrocities were planned. I'm fairly certain that the death camps weren't; they only came about after it became evident that the Einsatzgruppen were unable to murder Jews quickly enough. However, it seems reasonable to conclude that the general outline of "ethnic cleansing" by settling Jews in the East was in Hitler's mind even as he wrote Mein Kampf. Shirer makes exactly that point in R&FotTR -- that Hitler laid bare the basics of his plan in his book, but few read it, and fewer believed him. Even when he spoke to the Reichstag in Jan 1939 and stated that if war broke out, it would result in the annihilation of the Jews, nobody took it as anything more than overheated rhetoric.
As for Churchill's quote, if I remember correctly, he owned up to it in Their Finest Hour, the second volume of his WWII memoirs. My library, which includes all six volumes of that set in first or second edition, is still back in California so I cannot confirm it.
Also, DP, I don't think anyone here is trying to exonerate American criminals on the basis of German history.
As for Churchill's quote, if I remember correctly, he owned up to it in Their Finest Hour, the second volume of his WWII memoirs. My library, which includes all six volumes of that set in first or second edition, is still back in California so I cannot confirm it.
Also, DP, I don't think anyone here is trying to exonerate American criminals on the basis of German history.
