Hitler's Willing Executions Research Paper

DISC Assignment Hitler’s Willing Executions

Did the masses of “ordinary Germans” approve of the mass murder of Jews and act as willing participators in the Holocaust?

Participate: to be involved/take part
(if somebody doesn’t do anything to stop the action, he/she is still a participator)

Source/Author | Evidence & Interpretation | A- Daniel Goldhagen B- R. J. Evans C- Christopher Browning D- D. Bankier E- I. Kershaw F- M. Housdon G- Joshua D. Franklin H- William L. Shirer J- Ian KershawN- German policeman O- member of SSP- Nazi party memberR- David BuffumT- Italian writer | YES-many of the German perpetrators knew explicitly that they had a choice not to kill, and that no German perpetrator was ever killed,
sent to a concentration camp, jailed, or punished in any serious way for refusing to kill Jews.
-It was possible for many perpetrators to avoid killing Jews-not a single German perpetrator was ever seriously punished for refusing to kill Jews (yet chose to destroy them anyway)-It has been the unspoken practice of so many scholars to all but ignore-Germans’ cruelty towards Jews was voluntary, widespread, sustained, incentive, and gleeful. Such gratuitous cruelty could have been produced only by people who approved of what they were doing-ordinary Germans degraded brutalized and killed Jews willingly because of their hatred of Jews-27% of those at the end of the war admit that they knew the extermination of Jews was taking place-Germans expressed different degrees of dissent to different policies yet virtually no dissent existed against the eliminationist persecution of the Jews-If Germans had been genuinely opposed, Hitler would have never been able to continue the murder mass-German perpetrators were like the perpetrators of other mass slaughters; the vast majority of them were willing executioners NO-old belief is made of abstract faceless structures and institutions greatly exaggerated -any people from any era with any set of beliefs about Jew (even non anti Semites) would have acted in exactly the same manner with the same brutality, zeal, and laughter-those who acquired Jewish property generally did so innocently -they disapproved of what they were doing but were forced-blindly obedient pressured to act as they did -did not know that their countrymen were killing
Jews en masse-did not support the Nazi regime and its many brutal policies-did not approve of the general eliminationist persecution o the JewsYES-they enjoyed doing it because their minds and emotions were eaten up by a murderous all-consuming hatred of the Jews that had been pervasive in German political culture for decadesNO-no choice for they faced death if they refused to obey the order YES-vast majority accepted the legal measures of the regime which ended emancipation and drove the jews from public positions, socially ostracized them and completed the expropriation of their property YES-local population, out of anti-Semitism, fear of Nazi retributions, or callous indifference, did not support of help the JewsNO-Throughout occupied Europe, people who opposed the Nazis and the occupation of their countries organized resistance movements -there was a coalition of nations that was fighting against GermanyYES-overt appeal, apathetic shrug of the shoulders, turning of the face from unpalatable truth-willingness to accept uncritically the state’s right to take a radical action against its ‘enemies’-reflection of a prevailing lack of interest in the Jewish question b/c Germans had plenty of other things on their mind NO-blank condemnation, feeling of impotenceYES-passive acceptance of and active support for racial policies and actions were displayed-most people were indifference (indifference = certainly not a way of stopping the cause so it’s approving)-conformed to the demand & far too few people made conscious choices to oppose this particular form of evil-became normal to conform to highly abnormal expectationsNO-they had orders from high above which left them little room for choiceYES-directors of Zyklon-B claim that they sold their product merely for fumigation purposes and were unaware that lethal use had been made of it BUT this defense does not hold up b/c letters were found between the workers offering not only zyklon but also ventilating and heating equipment -even the men who seemed outwardly decent and prosaic were involved in complicity of a number of German businessmen involved with mass murderYES-Jewish Question was ignored by many, did not rank highly relative to other factors shaping German popular opinion-people welcomed increasing levels of ‘legal’ discrimination against jews which he publicly advocated-passive acquiescence and outright approval for the escalating inhumanity of Nazi anti-Jewish policy was demonstrated YES-“thought that one should disobey or evade the order to participate in the extermination of the Jews did not therefore enter into my mind at all” (perhaps not willingly but did participate)NO-“we were all so trained to obey orders without even thinking, that the thought of disobeying an order would simply never have occurred to anybody and somebody else would have done just as well if I hadn’t”YES-we have fought against Jewry for years; we have indulged n the most horrible utterances YES-state of popular indignation that would spontaneously lead to such excesses, can be considered non-existent (German’s concern for Jews did not exist)YES-faithful followers were not born torturers, were not monsters, but ordinary men |