Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
Oh, I'm absolutely not saying that. Of course, the German people are not inherently evil. That's ridiculous. My point is that human beings act within more of a framework than simple self-interest. Desperate times lead to desperate men, but it doesn't have to lead to evil.
Of course not every German owned a pillow or lamp from the camps. My point was that they lived in a society that condoned those things. I'm sure many German families had a Jewish neighbour who they refused to help as they were carted off by the Gestapo. It doesn't have to be about guilt, but responsibility.
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What about fear? Being a Jewish collaborator in much of Nazi Germany was a capital offense. They knew their neighbor was going to die... but they had a responsibility to their families to keep them safe. Why die too?
One exception is in NW Germany, with the civilian police authorities still in place, token Jewish families were actually left intact to fool the locals. "See, we're not killing them all, your neighbors have the yellow star and they are still there."
I contend the German people had no clue their desperation lead to evil until it was too late.