How far were the German people responsible for the Holocaust?

The deputies of Hitler played an important if not the most important role in PR and its application to the Nazi regime as it gradually became more and more abominable. The first of many attempts to ‘impress’ The Führer by means of anti-Semitic acts were the Nuremberg Laws put into place in 1935. There were two measures put into place by the Annual party rally conference in Nuremberg. 1. The protection of German blood and German honour. This prevented Jewish-German marriages and extramarital relations between Jews and Germans, also the employment of ‘German’ women under the age of 45 in Jewish households. 2. The Reich citizenship law, which defined the difference between Reich citizens (Germans) and Nationals (Jews).

The deputies were also a major factor on their own. For instance, Göebbels the propaganda minister was responsible for producing such films as ‘’The Eternal Jew’’ which showed the brutality that was going to come with the final solution. Even though Göebbels was in charge he did not have full purchase over popular culture until he created the Reich chamber of culture; even then he did not have full control over how the regime was portrayed. It wasn’t until April 1935 that the Reich chamber of culture fully took over censorship in Germany. The opening of the house of German art in Munich in 1937, with noted pieces of Aryan and degenerate art, plainly showed the stage at which the regime had reached. These had adverse effects on the German people; they were seduced by the images of the Jews into believing that they were a blight on the German nation.

The Nuremberg Laws lead to other smaller anti-Jewish legislation, which was introduced by Hitler’s deputies. Hitler, of course, had to approve the laws before they were passed; which he did. So he must have been aware that his deputies were slowly increasing the amount of racial oppression against the Jews. This disproves David Irving’s theory. In his book ‘Hitler’s War’ he states, using what he claimed to be new evidence and interpretations of known documents, that Hitler was totally without responsibility of the Jewish pogrom during the Holocaust. He does this by having a complete disregard for the truth or accuracy. His argument is developed through disingenuous literalness to examples of Hitler’s Aesopian language. He also refers to certain telephone calls between Himmler and Heydrich. Of course Irving has over inferred this source to meet his needs. This relates closely to holocaust denial, however it is not the same. What Irving is saying is that the holocaust happened but without the knowledge of Hitler, it was done behind his back by over zealous deputies. This is to an extent my argument however I believe that Hitler had some involvement even if his inferiors instigated the Holocaust.

        Post-war Holocaust denial was very prominent in its affront to the evidence and those that had survived or spoken out against the Holocaust. The Nuremberg war crime trials, where prominent Nazi officials were tried for war crimes is just one of the glaring sources of evidence that the Holocaust happened. The rejecters of the ‘Final Solution’ come with many different angles. H Elmer Barnes an American  sociologist. was at first a sympathiser for the German people’s anger towards the Treaty of Versailles. He then began to question whether the Third Reich had any involvement in the Holocaust whatsoever. He is quoted as saying: ‘‘it is almost alarmingly easy to demonstrate that the atrocities of the allies in the same period were more numerous as to the victims and were carried out for the most part by methods more brutal and painful than alleged exterminations in gas ovens.’’ The use of the word ‘alleged’ defines his view on the whole issue. Another amateur historian who also denied the Holocaust was Arthur Butz. He took a different slant, he said that the there were concentration camps, but they were merely transit camps/ghettos where Jews were taken for their own safety due to the advancement of the Red Army towards the western front. Dawidowicz was quoted as saying that Butz’s book was ‘’clearly the product of an unhinged mind.’’ Although they did have evidence to back up their arguments their work was still an insult to professional historians of the Holocaust. In 2005 60 years after the war there are still instances of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism. The newly elected Iranian Prime minister has denied the Holocaust and openly vowed to destroy Israel. These are examples of how evidence can be misinterpreted to give a totally different account of an event.

        Barnes talks about the Allies having more brutal methods to their victims, this gives way to the view that somehow the Allies had some responsibility for the Holocaust. Appeasement is an apt word in this circumstance because this is exactly what was happening between the Allies and Hitler. In 1938 Hitler met with the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Von Shcuschnigg to demand concessions for the Austrian Nazi party. Shcuschnigg refused, he resigned and was replaced with Arthur Seyess-Inquart who declared unity with Germany. Anschluss as it was called, was forbidden by the treaty of Versailles. Members of the House of Commons including Anthony Eden and Winston Churchill called on Neville Chamberlain to do something about Hitler and the Nazi regime. In 1937 Hugh Christie an MI6 agent, reported on a meeting with Goering to the British government who told Christie that Hitler was planning to take over Czechoslovakia and Austria. Christie told the British government that Hitler would be ousted by the military if Britain joined forces with Czechoslovakia. So the British government knew before hand that Hitler would take over Austria and yet they did nothing to prevent it, this is evidence that they. In 1938 after Anschluss Hitler added tension by demanding the Sudetenlandbe made a part of Germany. To remedy this the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Germany met in Munich to write what turned out as the Munich agreement, which they all signed. This granted Germany the Sudetenland, this was seen by the majority of the British public as a good move to avoid a war with Germany. However this supposed move to prevent a war lead to Hitler acquiring more and more of Eastern Europe, effectively giving Hitler the incentive to carry on demanding more land until he invaded Poland causing the Second World War. War being a catalyst in the already unstable relationship between the Nazi regime and the Jews, this lead to the idea of the Final Solution to mass exterminate the Jews. So it could be argued that the Allies, by appeasing Hitler, brought about the Second World War and ultimately the Holocaust.

         War, to be more specific the Second World War, was a major agent that added to the somewhat devastating state of Nazi Germany in 1939. When Hitler took over Austria in 1938 he acquired a large number of extra Jews in addition to the German Jews that he was already persecuting. This brought about a need for a solution to the Jewish ‘problem.’ The Wansee conference of 1942 (organised by Heidrich) is where the ‘Final Solution’ was decided as the best course of action to deal with the Jewish concern. The reason for this solution to be needed was the large increase in Jews under German control. This is undeniable evidence that by this time Hitler and his government were prepared to mass exterminate the Jews. At this conference the members approved the plans for the Death camps at Sobibor, Belzec and Triblinka. This is well documented and therefore is another piece of evidence to refute Holocaust denial.

        The German people, being the subject of the question require a mention in whether or not they were responsible for the Holocaust. Historians have mentioned their total responsibility. They were not totally responsible, as the Holocaust occurred due to a merger of all the previously mentioned ideas, because a pogrom of this magnitude cannot be solely blamed on one part of society everyone will involved no matter how small. The German people are accountable due to their lack of any morality towards the plight of their Jewish brethren. They were torpid towards the issue, in that kind of situation there was no chance that they knew nothing about it. In some cases German people even joined the ranks of Jewish exterminator, as it were. An example being in 1941 when Hitler ordered an increase in the amount of Einsatzgruppen, the membership went from 4,000 to 60,000 between June and December of the same year. As these figures suggest there was no shortage of volunteers. So the German people can now be split into to separate equally accountable groups; those who did nothing and let the Jews be exterminated on a mess scale, and those who were actively involved and helped the Nazis Reach their ultimate goal of solving the Jewish issue through any means necessary, even if it meant the destruction of 6 million innocent people.