'We knew nothing about it.....Very few Germans did.'

Viet Nam and Iraq are not in the United States. It's easy to ignore or be ignorant of foreign policy. It is virtually impossible when it's happening right on your doorstep. That is the difference.

When they say they didn't know, I believe them. It's like, "Oh, I had a hunch, a suspicion. I figured it out with 99% certainty. But did I ever SEE someone shoved in an oven first-hand? Nein!"

Read the books "Storm of War" by Andrew Roberts and "Ostkrieg" by Stephen Fritz. Both have come out in the past year or so and are damning in their evidence of both the Wermacht and the majority of civilians were aware of the concentration camps and what was happening. In fact, many more of the German Army were involved than previously aware of.

German generals were surreptiously taped in in Scottish castle where they were being held. The Generals, to a man, said "We are going to tell everyone that we knew nothing about what was going on"

Many German soldiers took pictures of the killings they participated in and sent those pictures home, along with letters describing in detail what they both saw and did. Those civilians who lived close to the camps, like Dacheau, complained of the stench of the camps.

There is an incredible scene in the movie "Schindler's List" where the Jews are being transported by rail to Auschwitz. A little boy in the field near the railroad tracks sees the cattle cars the Jews are in and draws a cutting motion across his throat.

They knew.....or pretended that they didn't know.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/feb/17/johnezard

Here's your proof. Goldhagen is your proof. Studies done by the US armies on the German population even show that 37% didn't deny that the extremination of Jews was for the safety of the Reich (the anwer should have been like 0.000001% in a normal country).

You've also said (in a previous post) that the Allies didn't know about the Holocaust before 1945. Well, I think we both know that this is a lie. I'm mentioning Auschwitz solely, however it was easy to assess what was going on in other camps in occupied Poland just by what was happening in Auschwitz. Witold Pilecki's reports from the time he spent in the camp (volunteered to enter to confirm the Home Army's fear of an extremination going on), Rudolf Vrba's report on his time spent in Auschwitz (escaped) and the Allied aerial-photos taken in 1944.

luverofmovies- I agree. When I graduated from college back in '79 I went to Germany to work in a Youth Hostel. One of my German co-workers who was my age had a father who had been in the Army in WWII.

Even all those years later it seemed to be very difficult for Germans to deal with what happened. This young guy told me his father had "only been a corporal" and the war was over soon after he joined the Army. It was as if he wanted to minimize his family's involvement in any way.

I imagine that the guilt would be terrible, even guilt by association, to realize that you stood by and did or said nothing. Yet again, in Nazi Germany, doing or saying the "wrong" thing could get you killed.

And let's face it, a lot of the world knew something very bad was happening. I recall something about the Red Cross being allowed to inspect some of the camps. The conditions were supposedly better and "humane" at those camps. But really, why didn't the Red Cross object to people being held prisoner who had done NOTHING wrong? The world turned a blind eye.