Historian Alan Farmer comments “in short, the regime confirmed and enforced the values and prejudices of a substantial section of the population” suggesting that anti-Semitism was something the German people had already subscribed to, they just needed a push in the right direction and the Nazi party clearly did that.
The USSR in particular was aware of the mass shootings either from those who witnesses it or took part. Their stories were taken home and told to their families and were passed on in turn. Many who heard of these terrible stories supplied the details of how this was done from their imaginations, it was the only way they could picture something so incredible. The more the stories were passed on the more they became filtered and less precise. However the knowledge of what was happening was there.
Another point to make is the attempts of allies; they aired radio broadcasts and made leaflet drops warning the German nation about the horrors of the holocaust. These attempts gave the German people a general awareness, they knew enough to make them realise if not the extent at least the direction of the Nazi party. This general awareness and realisation was at least enough to get people worried about what was to happen to Germany if the war was lost. So many Germans heard rumours of the horrors inflicted on Jews but they had not dared to face the whole truth.
To many Germans the fate of the Jews was of minimal interest, was this a matter of passive complicity or should we look upon it as a sign of approval. After all the killing process could not have taken place without the willingness or cooperation of ordinary German men and women. The survival of the holocaust depended on ordinary Germans to be train drivers. It also needed someone to put gas in the chambers and those to implement the killing
Many of these ordinary Germans were volunteers in the German army, SS and the Killing squads known as the Einsatzgruppen. So why did professionals such as teachers, lawyers and doctors feel the need to join such brutal groups. When the diaries of the reserve police battalion 101 were found they unearthed some shocking statistics, the majority of the members of this group were ordinary German citizens; only 30% were fully fledged Nazi party members, one in thirty men were SS members. The average age was thirty six and eighty percent of these men went home to their families.
There are two given reasons why they joined up the first is peer pressure, they just couldn’t resist and say no. The second is their strong anti-Semitic views provoked by the propaganda message which was incorporated into all aspects of German life.
However this issue should also be looked at from the point of view of those Germans who did help Jews. The possibility should also be considered that some really were oblivious as to what was going on. The best line of defence for the German people is Hitler’s secrecy over the matter; some Germans genuinely brought the line that the Jews were being resettled in Labour camps. At the words labour camp you would expect a few raised eyebrows but viewed in the context of the time sending people into labour camps was not an uncommon procedure.
For many Germans the holocaust was out of sight it took place outside of Germany, therefore it is understandable that some were reluctant to believe in the rumours that travelled back to them. May it also be pointed out just as a matter of comparison that this was also believed by allies Britain and America. Mass killings were known of in these countries just as it has been in Germany. The allies believed this was merely Nazi propaganda, rumours to be ignored.
Even if the truth was fully known, what could ordinary Germans have done to oppose the Nazi regime? The Nazi party ruled by fear and many believed they would be killed if they spoke out against these atrocities. Some kind hearted Germans did indeed take in Jews risking the life of their families and of themselves. However the number that killed out weighed the number that helped
Ernst Nolte has argued that the Holocaust should be viewed in the context of the time. It was not a unique act. After 1917 the Soviet Union attempted to eliminate a whole class of people. He also suggests that the holocaust should also be seen as part of a reaction to Bolshevik mass murder. He claims Germany acted in self defence against an enemy who was also waging a war of annihilation
In conclusion it is fair to say that the Holocaust was a mainly a German enterprise. I feel that the German people could have done more to ease the suffering of the Jewish people. I would agree with Goldhagen when he states that the German peoples anti-Semitic views somewhat blurred their moral Judgement. However it is fair to give some leeway and excuse some German people for their blind ignorance of the matter due to Hitler’s secretive ways, convincing Nazi propaganda and reasons as to where the Jewish people were being taken put the German people at ease. Some were more involved than other where it comes to killing and helping. I believe some German people were very sympathetic to the plight of the Jews and did want to help they just did not know how. It surely should be agreed upon that the German people as a whole share a collective responsibility for what happened to the Jewish people.
