When people hear Germany they think of hitler and WW2 and how bad the nazis were. But the question is in their point of view were they bad people? Sure they killed jews. But when your country calls you have to go. their was rebellions, but none succeful. Try to flee the country instead of serving you would be shot. Most were excited and glad of what hitler said. He was gifted in the art of speech. Jews were also thought of as the enemy of Germany, and bringing their country down. What do you think of nazis?
All leading Nazi's actally in the political group Goebbels and Himmler etc or just people who lived in Germany at the time and were therefore Nazi's. Can you really say they were bad?
If you read Goldhagen or Dawidowicsz' views on this then you would argue yes, most of their evidence coming from the 'Police Battalion 101'.
Personally I take a more synthesist/structuralist approach. I do not belive that the people of Germany were to blame, but I do not think they should have been completely absolved. It would have been very difficult not to know what was going on, especially if you lived in the General Government. That being said the view that all Germans are to blame is ridiculous and is disproven buy the sporadic pogroms in Eastern Europe both before and during the Nazi occupation.
Just because someone followed the orders of Hitler doesn't make them, they simply did it because if they didn't they would die. In every war there is no "good" or "evil" side, it is simply your opinion on the matter. You may believe that Al-Quida is evil, but they see you as the evil one.
i really dont care. ill kill any nazi. its not my fault those people were to much of a wimp to accept death so instead they killed others. if something ever told me i had to kill hundreds of people or they would kill me. well pick the place to put the bullet
Opentotruth Wow. So if a skinhead came up to you...you would put a bullet in him? Kind of extreme...dont you think? The incident happened over 60 years ago, You shouldnt really hold a grudge for past things. My grandparents came from germany and i had relatives that served in world war 2 as nazis, you gonna kill me?
I don't see Nazi's as bad people..maybe what they did yes evil... but like a lot of you have said most of them had no choice its either that or death...and for some people that enough convincing..would u choose any differently..?
I don't see how he could have had this "control" over the whole of Germany (at least the majority) of "if you don;t do as I say I will shoot you". Maybe a few but when you have milions of people being controlled in this way I don't see how it would work.
We are naturally coded to obey authority figures (to survive, to conform etc.) it is a question of to what level we will obey.
A very basic experiment my psychology teacher did in class was just to ask a pupil to take a note to another teacher (the note just said this pupil is taking part in an obediance experiment) the pupil obeys because it is easier to obey the authority figure than incur the punishment of disobeying. It wasn't like a consciouse decisions of "well of i don't take it this will happen" but an instant response of "why not?"
Stanley Milgram performed an experiment to answer the question: "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders?"
As there has been 13 pages of this stuff I am going to wade right in and say what I believe without reading it all so apologies in advance if I repeat someone elses thoughts.
It is a sad shame that because of the politics after WW2 the West was more concerned with winning the support of the Germans than punishing Nazi war criminals. One consequence of this faliure to root out the Nazi virus from West Germany has been the gradual humanisation of Hitler. Just as the memory of Napoleon's terror was forgotten once his contemporary victims died, he is now judged by his love life, legal code and remarkable military successes, Hitler is also becoming a subject of fascination rather than total vilification. His humanisation, like Napoleon's will take generations, but the recent interest in his library and dress code are the first signs of the inevitable.
