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Entry: Willing Executioners?--The Holocaust, Germans, and Collective Guilt Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/willing_executioners_the_holocaust_germans_and_collective_guilt#28686 Post contents: De zayas making a compelling case that the Germans were not aware of the Holocaust. This is indeed likely. On the other hand, the German people likely were aware that Jews had their property confiscated, were driven from their homes, were forced to be publicly identified, etc. So although it is clear that the Germans were not collectively (or even to any significant degree) supporters of genocide, it is undeniable that they collectively did not object to the elimination from public life and forced removal of the Jews. It is furthermore undeniable that the Nazis were brought to power through democratic means in free elections. Indeed, the greatest support for the Nazi party was in the eastern regions of Germany whose ethnic cleansing of Germans by Soviet forces was so decried by de Zayas. The picture that emerges is that in the 1930's the German people's attitudes, with exceptions of course, towards Jews and Slavs was comparable to that of some of the more extreme Israeli settlers towards Arabs, or white South African suporters of apartheid towards Blacks. While the propogandistic work of those such as Goldhagen portraying Germans as genocidal monsters is wrong, whitewashing guilt for what the Germans have actually been responsible for is also wrong. Sorry, but a generally decent people would not have voted the Nazis into power nor enthusiastically supported a war of invasion of its eastern neighbors. Sent at: 2008 12 02