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Originally Posted by sa226
I don't mean to add fuel to the fire or anything,
but weren't a majority of the German soldiers unaware of the concentration camps? Did the average German citizen know about what their beloved fuhrer was up to? I don't know the answer I just think the accusations of brutality is relative.
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To answer this bluntly, absolutely, they were aware of both. Having been to Dachau it became immediately clear to me that everyone knew about it. Especially those in Munich, it's practically right beside the city.
As for the larger concentration camps and the death camps, I suspect that many knew about them, but I came away from my concentration camp experience with the resolute feeling that there was absolutely nothing you could do about it. One voice does not resonate, it is quickly silenced. One voice is required to create a chorus, but there is no way anyone would be that voice.
This doesn't excuse the German people, but they were influenced by the smooth talking of a mad man. Hitler preyed upon the discontent of his country and turned that into something extremely powerful and scary. And one thing that seems lost in all of this is the anti-semitism of the rest of the world, not just in Germany.