The Germans and the Holocaust

Popular Responses to the Persecution and Murder of the Jews

Susanna Schrafstetter, Alan E. Steinweis

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781785337369, 9781782389521
• eBook ISBN: 9781782389538
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

For decades, historians have debated how and to what extent the Holocaust penetrated the German national consciousness between 1933 and 1945. How much did "ordinary" Germans know about the subjugation and mass murder of the Jews, when did they know it, and how did they respond collectively and as individuals? This compact volume brings together six historical investigations into the subject from leading scholars employing newly accessible and previously underexploited evidence. Ranging from the roots of popular anti-Semitism to the complex motivations of Germans who hid Jews, these studies illuminate some of the most difficult questions in Holocaust historiography, supplemented with an array of fascinating primary source materials.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Figures
• Introduction — The German People and the Holocaust
• Chapter 1 — Anti-Semitism in Germany, 1890–1933: How Popular Was It?
• Chapter 2 — German Responses to the Persecution of the Jews as Reflected in Three Collections of Secret Reports
• Chapter 3 — Indifference? Participation and Protest as Individual Responses to the Persecution of the Jews as Revealed in Berlin Police Logs and Trial Records, 1933–45
• Chapter 4 — Babi Yar, but Not Auschwitz: What Did Germans Know about the Final Solution?
• Chapter 5 — Submergence into Illegality: Hidden Jews in Munich, 1941–45
• Chapter 6 — Where Did All "Our" Jews Go? Germans and Jews in Post-Nazi Germany
• Appendix A — Proclamation of the Alliance against the Arrogance of Jewry 1912
• Appendix B — Reports from American Diplomat George S. Messersmith to the State Department (Excerpts) 1933
• Appendix C — Police Precinct Report, Berlin 1938
• Appendix D — Social Democratic Party (SoPaDe) Report on the November 1938 Pogrom (Excerpts) 1938
• Appendix E — Report from the Mayor of Amt Borgentreich to the Gestapo in Bielefeld (Excerpt) 1938
• Appendix F — SD Reports on German Popular Opinion during World War II (Excerpts) 1943–44
• Appendix G — Statement by Benno Schülein (Excerpt) 1946
• Appendix H — Statement by Dr Sophie Mayer (Excerpts) 1946
• Appendix I — Moses Moskowitz, "The Germans and the Jews: Postwar Report" (Excerpts) 1946
• Index