To the
modern observer it may seem mind-boggling how a nation's population may have
turned a blind eye towards atrocities being committed against members of their own, but that's what ended up
happening for 12 years in Nazi Germany. Great numbers of the Germans agreed and
helped contribute to the prosecution of their Jewish neighbors by the Nazis.
The Gestapo was a relatively small force, with only about 50 to 100 agents in
major cities like Düsseldorf and Hamburg. They relied heavily on denunciations
by the local population to arrest those people who were deemed undesirable. Why though, would the average citizens of a modern and
"civilized" nation have contributed to the eradication of
a segment of their own population? The answer, as we discussed in class, is more
complex than what is normally perceived. The most accepted perception is that
those Germans who did denounce their Jewish neighbors to the authorities were
doing so because they believed in the Nazi ideology of Anti-Semitism. Certainly,
it is possible that the majority of Germans did have anti-Semitic views and
thus had no trouble denouncing other Jews they knew. However a great portion of the denouncements were
because of a vendetta and/or personal gain. In this case the denouncer could be
a disgruntled business owner upset over the threat of competition that a Jewish
business may provide.
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| Nazi Prosecution of a Jewish Business |
Did the denouncer know what was
going to happen to their Jewish neighbor they denounced? It is almost certain
they knew the denounced was in for a nightmarish experienced and may even have
faced death at the hands of the Nazis. However they refused to believe this
reality and instead convinced themselves of ideas such as that their Jewish neighbors
were being relocated to other places outside the Reich where they would not be
a “threat” to them.
I think it is important to remember that the Holocaust was perpetrated not just by the top levels of the Nazi leadership but also through the actions (and inactions) of average Germans. As the denunciations show, Germans used the new legislation and restrictions put in place by the Nazis to their own benefit. While there is no doubt that Nazi Germany was a police state and that dissenters risked more there than in other Western states, the notion of the Gestapo as all powerful or images of people cowering in their houses in fear is a bit distorted. People in Nazi Germany had agency and the decisions they made (or failed to make) allowed (if not contributed to) mass genocide.
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