Through analysing the three sources stated above it is clear that there were various means and methods as to how the German people discovered information on the Final Solution. Source one, demonstrates that through the dictatorship regime carried out by the Nazis, workers were given orders to not only exterminate non-Aryans but to “Keep quiet about this or face the death penalty”. Despite such threats this source demonstrates that there were in fact normal workers within camps who witnessed the brutality carried out. This is an obvious, potential way for people to find out about the Final Solution. Source one also has an American observer telling of how “when the crematoria went on, the electricity in the houses went down.” This again acknowledges the fact that locals near to such camps would have witnessed the repercussions of the actions that were taking place within such extermination camps.
Source two takes a different view on how the German people would have found out about the Final Solution. This source talks of the Allies making it public knowledge as to the occurrences within the camp by bringing local Germans into these camps. Source two clearly states that people knew about the Final Solution and even “…got up petitions to have the camps moved elsewhere”. This source was however written in 1993, which was many years after the actions took place, leaving it unclear whether this was just one group of people’s experience or if this knowledge can be viewed on a broader basis.
In source 3 there are a number of indications given to us to show that the German people had found out about the final solution. It tells us how German soldiers would speak openly in public places and with strangers about the camps and the number of Jews that were killed in them, those involved “publicly divulged information”. People also heard and greatly discussed what they heard through allied radio channelling. The allies talked about how many millions of Jews had been exterminated. The response from a well-known German Ludwig Haydn states, “With regard to the mass murder of Jews, the broadcasts merely confirm what we know here anyhow”. Source three also tells us about a leaflet that had been dropped on Germany by the allied forces. The U.S. air force dispersed 9million copies of this leaflet, which referred to the explicit information of the mass murder of Jews in the camps, detailing greatly how this was “One of the most terrifying crimes recorded in history”.
Despite each of the three sources analysing different aspects of the German publics knowledge of the Final Solution they all give examples of how the German people would discover the information. Both source two and three both metion the Allies had a big part to play in how German people gained information both during and after the War. Source one on the other hand, tells of a more personalised instance where local people were affected “when the ashes from the crematoria fell, they settled on the front lawns.”
How reliable is the source 4 as evidence of what the German people knew about the final solution?
Source four is an extract from an illegally produced pamphlet by ‘the white rose,’ an extremist anti-Nazi resistance movement. This initially tells us that this source cannot be taken as the whole truth for everyone in Germany. The pamphlet was also written by a student called Hans Scholl who had “served as a medical orderly on the Eastern front and was aware of the atrocities carried out against both Jews and Russians.” This gives us a clear indication that this person was well educated and so knew the details of the brutalities suffered by both the Jews and the Russians. It would be unfair to jump to a conclusion that all German people had this level of insight into the actions the Nazis had chosen to take. Although this leaflet does heavily criticise the Germans lack of response to the Nazis action there is no mention of why some choose to not take action. There is no mention of the fear many may have felt due to the Nazi dictatorship or of the extent to which they understood the goings on in the extermination camps. In summary ‘the white rose’ organisation was extremist and in hindsight had every right to be anti-Nazi, however criticising the German people with statement such as “the German nation goes on sleeping its dull stupid sleep, giving these Fascist criminals the boldness and opportunity to storm ahead and they do” would simply cause agitation rather than support for their organisation. This source may however be seen as a just statement as many Germans did choose to go along silently with the Nazis actions. This is clearly seen in other sources such as in source six where it says, “My mother… was convinced everything the Nazis did was right and essential.”
To what extent do sources 5, 6 and 7 give a full and accurate account of what the German people knew about the final solution?
Through out this assignment and looking through are sources we are always finding new evidence. Through neither of them we cannot determine wither or not the German people actually knew about the final solution. In source 5 we discover that although the camp was quite close to these people, they never knew what was going on behind their walls. An American soldier tells us what happened when he escorted local Germans around the concentration camp and the torture chambers and ovens. “Men and women screamed and fainted. Others were led away crying hysterically. All swore that during the past years they had no idea what had been going on in the camp just outside their town.
Source 8 states that “An enormous number of ordinary, representative Germans became…Hitler’s willing executioners”. Use all the
sources to explain whether or not you support this view.
This quotation is partly true. An enormous number of people did become “Hitler’s willing executioners”; we learn this through source 3. In source 3 it tells of the SS man who openly talked and somewhat boasted about the number of Jews being killed every week in the camp where he worked. It tells us he “Openly boasted about the liquidation of the Jews”. This kind of behaviour shows us that a man was willing to carry out such crimes as murder and even go on to boast makes it worse because executing and murdering a great number of people is not done by an ordinary, representative German. In source 1 we learn how people were not willing executioners. This is because we hear of the workers at an extermination camp being told “Keep quiet about this or face the death penalty” by a senior soldier. This is obviously not the sort of language someone would be using to a “willing executioner”. These people were obviously afraid by what they seen and were later probably made to dispense of the body’s.
