Q.3b Do sources F and G suggest that the Nazis were successful in their aim?
Ans. The Nazis aim was to use propaganda to lull the Jews into a false sense of security and to kill the rumours of the Jewish holocaust.
Source F is a quote from "In Hitler's Germany" by b. Engelmann. It was written in 1988 so author's memory may be selective. The author says that his mother "was convinced everything the Nazis did was right." In this source there is also evidence that propaganda did not work on everyone "she dismissed all the whispers of atrocities as stupid, malicious gossip"
Source G is the memories of Ines lyss who lived in Hamburg again written after the event so you have to be sceptical of what is said. Lyss says that in her older years she doubts what she was told, "when your young you believe it, you want to believe it." The Nazis used SS soldiers on leave as means of spreading propaganda to the public, lyss says it was an SS soldier she asked about the camps
Q.4. How does source H attempt to represent the views of different Germans towards the Final Solution?
Ans. Source H is an extract from “schindler’s list” made in 1993 by Stephen Spielberg. It is a secondary source because it was made 48years after the holocaust. We have to take into account this and also the fact that the film may have been dramatised for a modern film audience. The source shows us the views of common Germans such as the young girls in the street, and up the political ladder as far as a general called “Amon Goethe”
In the first scene we see ss soldiers physically and verbally abusing a Jewish man, we see one ss soldier draw his knife and cut the Jews beard.
We then see how the Jews were put to work shovelling snow in the streets, one ss soldier sees a one armed Jew and makes the remark “look, a one armed Jew, twice as useless”
The next scene shows us the thoughts of “Amon Goethe” through one of his speeches. In his speech he refers to the extermination of Jews as a “great day” “today is history”
In the last scene we see the Jews being rounded up, the effect and strength of Goebbels propaganda is shown here with young girls, who obviously don’t fully understand what is happening, shouting “Goodbye Jews”.
The final words we hear are “The Jews have no future… it’s nazi policy”
Through out the whole extract from the film we only see the views of those that support the nazi government but as we know the Nazis weren’t supported by everyone so obviously there are those in Germany who would have opposed this but might not have due to threat from the ss or sa.
Q.5 Which of the two Sources I or J is more critical of the role of the German people in the final solution?
Ans. Source I is an adaptation from " Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust" by Daniel Goldhagen. Daniel wasn't there and can't possibly know what exactly happened so this Source must be taken with great scepticism; also Daniel Goldhagen was a Jew and may feel resentment towards the Nazis. Source I says that "Nazism was gleefully embraced by most Germans" He says that the "normal" hatred of the Jews turned into a "policy of extinguishing them entirely". The author in Source I thinks that it was not only the SS that killed Jews but the ordinary people. He says, "Ordinary folk, family men, a faithful microcosm of German Society as a whole …took to mass murder with a vengeance"
Source J is taken from "Racism in the Third Reich" by Stewart Ross. Stewart Ross wasn't there so his evidence also has to be viewed very sceptically. Although he claims that the German people didn't actually join in he says they didn't care what happened to the Jews "Most were indifferent".
I believe that Source I is more critical of the German people because it says that most took part in the Holocaust whereas Source J says that most Germans didn't care and it was only a few that joined in.
Q.6 Sources K and L are the views of two German Soldiers. What are the strengths and weaknesses of these Sources for an Historian studying the final solution?
Ans. Source K is an extract from a statement by Franz Stangl, Commandant of Treblinka Concentration Camp. The fact that this is a Statement may mean that it was taken during an interview at a Trial. If this was taken at a Trial then Franz Stangl may be trying to cover his back, to make him seem innocent. He says, "We agreed that what they were doing was a crime" meaning others are to blame and I am innocent.
Source L is an extract from an interview in 1989-90 of Otto Kumm an SS Commander during the War. Because this Statement was taken a long time after the event Otto's memory may be selective, so selective that it makes him look impervious to blame. It makes the SS look innocent and the "Death's Head Battalions" were to blame for everything.
In Source K and L both men are lying for their own benefit. A strength in their Statement is that they were there at the time. A weakness is that both men may have a selective memory of the events that actually took place.
Q.7 what light does source M shed upon conditions in Germany that would have permitted the final solution to take place?
Ans. Source M is a quote from "Nazi policy against the Jews" by William Carr taken from "Life in the Third Reich" by Richard Bessel. This source is a secondary source; it was written in 1987, it is unreliable. The first line of the quote says that the operation was shrouded in secrecy "by carrying it out in a remote part of Poland." The author says that rumours circulated about the dreadful deeds but many Germans "were indifferent to the fate of the Jews." The Nazis denied most of the rumours by saying that the Jews where being resettled. This proves that did work on most people, "dictatorship gradually corrupts its citizens." This is in view of Carr.
I think that the people of nazi Germany didn't ask questions because the nazis placed the fear of god in the people, their punishment would have been to "risk arrest and probably death."
Q.8. The German people were “Hitler’s willing executioners”. Using the sources and your own knowledge to what extent do you agree with this statement?
Ans. The statement that the German people were Hitler’s willing executioners is not exactly true, most of the German people had no knowledge of the extermination camps.
Source F suggests that the German people were so manipulated by the “Ministry for Peoples Enlightenment and Propaganda” that they failed to notice or even think that the Jews were being executed. In this source we can see this because the woman “dismissed all whispers as malicious gossip”. The author of the source also says that his mother had a nervous breakdown after being shown the corpses at Dachau.
Source G claims that the German people were not Hitler’s willing executioners but didn’t speak up because of fear of reprisals from the ss or sa “You open your mouth about any of this, we’ll kill you and your family”.
Source I is an extract from “Hitler’s willing executioners” by David Goldhagen. This source is a secondary source plus it is biased because the author may be a Jew. This source claims that the German people as a whole “Gleefully embraced Nazism” but in election results we can clearly see that the nazi party never had a clear majority so the whole German population can’t be blamed as bringing the nazi party to power.
Source J is an extract from “Racism in the Third Reich” by
Steward Ross. This source claims that the German people saw Jews being rounded up and did nothing; it also claims that the German people may have known of and visited concentration camps. This source also states that many Germans were kept in the dark about the exterminations but a small percentage of the population were involved in the exterminations
Source L is an extract from an interview with Otto Kumm an ss commander during the war. This is a primary source so it is reliable but we should remember that he tries to pass the blame for the executions away from him and his men by saying “Waffen-SS were separate from the Death’s head battalions”
After examining the sources and claims in some of them that the German people were Hitler’s willing executioners I have decided that I do not agree with this statement. The claim that the whole of the German population embraced nazism can be disproved by the election results and also the number of opposition parties such as the KPD (Communist party) and the SPD (Social democrats). Although I can’t find any evidence that the German people didn’t notice the increase in laws against them i.e. the Nuremberg laws, and the increased removal of Jews from there homes.