This relates to the functionalism-intentionalism debate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism%E2%80%93intentionalism_debate - the functionalists, also called structuralists, take the view that what happened was an emergent property of German society and the intentionalists take the view that it was imposed by people at the top. I'd suggest that both can be true; an avalanche is a self-sustaining process with its own internal workings and it can start in a chaotic way based on trivial things, a light gust of wind perhaps, but it's also possible to start an avalanche intentionally with explosives and to do things to maximize its impact. A panicked crowd in a theater has its own dynamics, but somebody can trigger those dynamics by shouting "fire". That a system is complex or chaotic doesn't mean that it can't be directed, at least up to a point.
This relates to the functionalism-intentionalism debate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism%E2%80%93intentionalism_debate - the functionalists, also called structuralists, take the view that what happened was an emergent property of German society and the intentionalists take the view that it was imposed by people at the top. I'd suggest that both can be true; an avalanche is a self-sustaining process with its own internal workings and it can start in a chaotic way based on trivial things, a light gust of wind perhaps, but it's also possible to start an avalanche intentionally with explosives and to do things to maximize its impact. A panicked crowd in a theater has its own dynamics, but somebody can trigger those dynamics by shouting "fire". That a system is complex or chaotic doesn't mean that it can't be directed, at least up to a point.