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Not all Germans supported Hitler and the Holocaust

Debate Information

Similar to my Germany wasn't the cause of World War I debate. People are always told that all Germans supported Hitler and the Holocaust during World War II. This isn't true because some Germans were just fighting for their country, not to help Hitler plans to kill people. This is historical hindsight at it's finest for World War II 

In fact, when some Germans saw videos of the Holocaust, they were shocked and disgusted

Here are German POWs watching a video of the Allied liberation of a death camp. Does their reaction look like they approve if this?


Image result for german reaction to the holocaust
Oppolzer
  1. Live Poll

    Did all Germans support Hitler and the Holocaust?

    12 votes
    1. Yes
        8.33%
    2. No
      91.67%



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  • OppolzerOppolzer 191 Pts   -  
    The support Hitler and the Nazi Party received was widely out of economic and social desperation. This had to do with the poor economic conditions in Germany at the time, primarily due to the Great Depression. When the Nazi regime was in power, Hitler was exasperated by the devoid public support for war. This had to do with the terrified population of engaging in war. If anything, the public was concerned with another Great Depression which resulted from World War I. Also, there was no time where the majority of German citizens supported anti-semitic violence. Often, people are misled by photos displaying Germans participating in anti-semitic violence. Even though racism was fairly severe in Germany at the time, it didn’t go to this unjust extent of prejudice, which was present in Hitler. The vast majority of German citizens were racist but did not want minorities to be subjected to government repression and violence.
    Zombieguy1987Plaffelvohfen
  • BonitaVanhooserBonitaVanhooser 143 Pts   -   edited December 2018
    How the public could know the cruel decisions and planning of their rulers. They only portray it politely and progressively in front of their people. Even, I can say people of Iran are not knowing the intentions of their masters behind their aggressive strategy to kill Syrians who don't belong to Shia sect. Similarly, people of America are not aware of why their taxpayer money is being spent on war or useless wars. 
    funperson
  • funpersonfunperson 66 Pts   -  
    Nazi party membership only peaked at about 10% of the population, and that was in 1945 right at the very end. Nazis were originally not allowed in the military because it was supposed to be nonpolitical, but that changed during the war. I'd imagine not a lot of Germans knew about the camps either.
  • piloteerpiloteer 1577 Pts   -  
    The guy on the top right hand corner of the photograph, with his hand under his chin seems pretty satisfied with what he's watching.
  • billbatardbillbatard 133 Pts   -  
    right also not all jews support zionism so lets not demonize whole races like that its evil
    The passion for destruction is also a creative passion. Mikhail Bakunin

  • piloteerpiloteer 1577 Pts   -  
    @billbatard

    Pretty much all Germans are evil and guilty for the holocaust 
  • MayCaesarMayCaesar 5967 Pts   -  
    I recently read an interview of a Goebbels' secretary. You would think someone who interacted every day with the director of Nazi propaganda would have been informed of everything happening in the country - but, as she said, nobody in the office was actually aware of any concentration camps or experiments on humans. It is reasonable to assume that the vast majority of Germans did not even realise any atrocities were happening.

    Now, obviously, the anti-semitic propaganda was very strong, and overall the state was totalitarian, with constant arrests of people over minor things. Everyone knew that was the case. At the same time, the majority of Germans likely thought that this was where the line was drawn: that Hitler's regime simply took down the opposition, like any dictatorship does. They were willing to put up with it in exchange for the economical renaissance the nation was experiencing.

    There are very few records, if any, of common citizens taking violent action against other people based on their race or nationality. It was a prerogative of the police and the army. Regular people just went about their lives as usual, and even though there was definitely a racist vibe going in the society, it tends to be exaggerated nowadays. In fact, a lot of Germans had Jewish friends or friends of other minorities.

    Hitler's support really started deteriorating when the war started, as @Oppolzer noted: people didn't want another depression and/or invasion and weren't thrilled about Hitler's plans to conquer Europe. This is one of the reasons why, once the war turned around, there was barely anyone left in Germany to defend the country. Unlike, say, Soviet Union, where common civilians took up arms and fought the German invaders at every corner, in Germany few civilians fought against the allied forces.

    On the trials in Nuremberg, a lot of the high-ranked officers claimed to not have known what was going on in the Nazi death camps. At the time their claims were dismissed, both due to how unbelievable they sounded, and to the political pressure to deal with them with extreme prejudice - but looking back now, what they said may very well have been true.
    Zombieguy1987Oppolzer
  • I thought it was pretty much a given that not all Germans supported Hitler and the Holocaust.





  • piloteerpiloteer 1577 Pts   -  
    @ZeusAres42

    Nope. It's not a given!!!!
  • piloteerpiloteer 1577 Pts   -   edited May 2019
    @MayCaesar

    Although krystalnacht was planned by the Nazi government, and it was the largest known pogrom, there were many other documented pogroms that were planned by normal German citizens going as far back as 1819. Now obviously my remarks about all Germans being evil and guilty of the holocaust is purely for shock value, and I don't actually believe that. However, the idea that antisemitism in German society is "overexaggerated" is simply untrue. Hence the reason Jews didn't gain civil rights until 1871. 

    https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/modern-europe/russian-soviet-and-cis-history/pogroms#C

     As far as high ranking officials being unaware of the death camps, that I can believe. There was actually documented instances early in Nazi rule where German citizens resisted certain laws that put Jews lives in danger. They couldn't stop the Nazis from passing the Nuremburg laws, but when it became known that some Jews were being murdered simply for being Jewish, many citizens, most notably the Christian church, were shocked and appalled at the idea of murder. Hence the reason the "final solution" was kept secret, because it was known that the bulk of German citizens would resist if they knew murder was involved. That doesn't mean that people who were against the murder of Jews weren't antisemitic themselves. Devout Christians are against murder, but that doesn't mean some of them don't think Jews are evil. You don't have to want to see Jews murdered to be antisemitic. You just need to buy into the absurd idea that Jews are conspirators.
  • RS_masterRS_master 400 Pts   -  
    Some Germans were Jews. Jews were brought by Hitler. Hitler brought them to a camp.People in the camp would die.Someone who died could be a christian Germans friend. If your friend dies you will feel disappointed about the person who killed him. Meaning he will be disappointed on Hitler and Germany.
  • VaulkVaulk 813 Pts   -  
    It's true that the majority of Germany didn't support or believe in the Nazi ideology.  This is a great history lesson though, despite the majority of the population refusing to support them...look what a minority group was able to accomplish in regards to the genocide of the Jewish population.
    Zombieguy1987
    "If there's no such thing as a question then what kind of questions do people ask"?

    "There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".

    "Oh, you don't like my sarcasm?  Well I don't much appreciate your stup!d".


  • piloteerpiloteer 1577 Pts   -  
    @Vaulk

    The nazis were not a "minority" group. In the 1933 election that was held in March, the nazis got 43.9% of the vote, and with their coalition party (the German national peoples party), they were able to gain a majority vote. The German public knew exactly who they wanted to be their ruler.
  • MayCaesarMayCaesar 5967 Pts   -  
    @Vaulk

    As Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". Some of the worst atrocities in human history were committed by tiny minorities under silent support, indifference or, at beast, lazy opposition from the rest of the population. In some cases, the entire totalitarian machine would be held on people's fear of one single person. A person who could be killed easily by any commoner in a fair fight, but who managed to create a mythology around them making them look like the entire nation is behind them.

    It is a tragic case of collective confusion: everyone thinks that the rest of the society sides with the dictator, so they do not oppose him either - even if, individually, only a small minority does. People trick each other into fearing the dictator, and the latter uses it to his advantage.
    VaulkZombieguy1987
  • NeopesdomNeopesdom 157 Pts   -  
    >>Not all Germans supported Hitler and the Holocaust

    ...hundreds of thousands of foreign peoples joined with Hitler’s legions to bring theirs people into special status in Hitler’s New Order. -http://global-politics.eu/waffen-ss-im-einsatz-hitlers-soviet-muslim-legions/

    Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem at the time, was a special VIP guest in Germany during WWII. He helped recruit muslims into the Nazi SS.



    The Grand Mufti proposed an Arab revolt all across the Middle East to fight the Jews... -https://time.com/4084301/hitler-grand-mufi-1941/

    13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar
    The division was composed of Bosnian Muslims with some Catholic Croat soldiers.

    Aserbaidschanische Legion
    The Azerbaijani Legion was one of the foreign units of the Wehrmacht, as was also the North Caucasian legion, consisting of mainly Muslim soldiers.

    Ostlegionen - Eastern Legions
    Ostlegionen (literally "Eastern Legions") or Osttruppen ("Eastern Troops") were conscripts and volunteers from the occupied eastern territories recruited into the German Army of the Third Reich during the Second World War.

    Turkistanische Legion -Turkestan legion
    Muslim volunteers from Central Asia, under the Wehrmacht's command, were mobilized exclusively on the Western front. The first "Turkestan Legion" was mobilized in May 1942, originally consisting of only one battalion but having been expanded to 16 battalions
    by 1943.

    Kaukasisch-Mohammedan Legion
    The Soviet Muslims fighting units were supposed to take part in bringing the whole Middle East into the German orbit. As Hitler said in December 1942, "I consider only the Muslims to be also reliable...I see no danger in the establishment of purely Muslim units."

    Wolgatatarische Legion
    Another of many units that consisted of Muslim Tartars, the Wolgatatarische Legion, was formed in Poland on January 1942. As
    propaganda tools the Nazis attempt to revive and encourage Pan-Turanian tendency in Turkey and within Soviet Muslims population,
    a national racist political ideology that promoted the unification of the Turanid race, also known as the Uralo-Altaic race.



    Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler was known as Islam’s most willing promoter and collaborator among the Nazi leadership. Himmler's liking for Islam, which he saw as a masculine, martial religion based on the SS qualities of blind obedience and readiness for self sacrifice, untainted by compassion for one's enemies. His admiration for Islam made him ready to receive more Muslim volunteers for his sinister legion.
      “Never argue with an id'iot They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain
  • 대왕광개토대왕광개토 235 Pts   -   edited August 2019
    Not all Germans supported Hitler. The fact that Operation Valkyrie was planned by some German military officials to assassinate Hitler supports it.
    Zombieguy1987
  • This debate is utterly ridiculous because there is no debate obviously not every German was a nazi 
  • YeshuaBoughtYeshuaBought 669 Pts   -  
    I agree with you. Hitler sent many Germans to death camps for resisting him annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd his agenda.
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