Knowledge of the Mass Murder of Jewish People Possessed by Ordinary German

Abstract

In 1933, the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, came to political power in Germany. As a direct result of the Nazi’s actions, approximately 6 million Jewish victims were killed. The Nazi Party members were undoubtedly responsible for these results, but were the non- party Germans? To answer this sensitive question, the extent of knowledge of these events must be investigated. To what extent did “ordinary” German civilians know about the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust in Berlin from 1942 to the end of the Second World War? The population must be categorized by those who knew about the Jewish deportations and murders, those who chose to know, those who chose not to know, and those who did not know.
 To investigate this idea, oral interviews were collected. They hold value as a first hand perspective, but have limitations of dishonesty and censorship of information. A large collection of survey information from 1985 was heavily considered, in addition to various secondary sources such as articles, videos, and books, and primary sources such as maps and photographs.
 After weighing probable statistics and popularity of Nazi ideology, evidence supports the idea that more Germans chose not to know about the extermination of Jews than any other extent, due to the high number of Nazi ideology supporters, high degree of terror propaganda, and indoctrinated youth.