I've long pondered the nature of the accountability of the average German for all the crimes committed during WWII and the Holocaust. I've lived in Germany, known actual German Wehrmacht soldiers who fought on the Eastern Front, visited three concentration camps and studied the history back and forth, and I've at various times had different views on this. On the one hand, they lived in a police state where all information was controlled, where criticizing the government or sharing unapproved messages was illegal and punishable with severe penalties. But on the other hand, they couldn't have NOT known, as deportation trains traveled extensively throughout Germany, soldiers from the East came back on furloughs, their government made pretty shocking and evil statements that only an idiot would not see as dangerous, etc. etc.
Most recently, I have been more and more convinced that nothing but sheer willful blindness could hide the reality. A really, really good book that has helped my thinking was this one:
Soldaten - On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs
This book is really good because these are transcripts the British made of German POWs who did not know they were being recorded, so their conversations were not veiled or hidden. While there were some German soldiers in these who didn't know about their crimes or were shocked, many, many did, and even the civilians MUST have known this.
And then I think about Orwell and his concept of double-think: The ability to know two facts that are contradictory but to accept them both as true. Orwell, of course, based it all on the Nazis, and it's clear that something like this was going on psychologically in the German society.
Now, bringing this to modern times, I've been following the Ukraine/Russia war closely and watched a lot of videos of both Russian troops captured and Russian civilians being interviewed about the war. The latter are a mix of people who oppose the war and say it in veiled ways (a minority) and then the majority who toe the party line and deny atrocities. Now, it's hard to tell who is a real believer, vs. people who just say they are to avoild punishment (this is a big problem in China too, or any closed system). But at the point that they influence their neighbors, it almost doesn't matter, because the whole country is a giant feedback loop.
Now, I've been very tempted to embrace the idea that the Russian people are actually victims of Putin's disinformation and his police statements, but to do this suggests that something may be true of the German civilians as well. Clearly there are differences. The Nazi ideology was the result of all-pervasive brainwashing that took over society. They did this for 12 years. Now, Putin's had 20, and though he does do brainwashing in the media, it's not as strong, and he's only basically had full control of the media narrative for the last 10 years or so. But it's very easy as a Russian to go about your day and not think about politics, vs. a person in Nazi Germany where it's in everything you do. You couldn't even take a vacation without doing it through Kraft durch Freude. Now, there's all sorts of reasons Putin didn't do it that way, mostly because he's trying to be subtle and for a bunch of people who survived Soviet times, putting in that kind of structure was a red flag.
Anyway, I'm still not sure where I fall on this. I suspect that the answer, unhappily, is a middle ground between black and white in both cases. But I'm interested in your thoughts.
Most recently, I have been more and more convinced that nothing but sheer willful blindness could hide the reality. A really, really good book that has helped my thinking was this one:
Soldaten - On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs
This book is really good because these are transcripts the British made of German POWs who did not know they were being recorded, so their conversations were not veiled or hidden. While there were some German soldiers in these who didn't know about their crimes or were shocked, many, many did, and even the civilians MUST have known this.
And then I think about Orwell and his concept of double-think: The ability to know two facts that are contradictory but to accept them both as true. Orwell, of course, based it all on the Nazis, and it's clear that something like this was going on psychologically in the German society.
Now, bringing this to modern times, I've been following the Ukraine/Russia war closely and watched a lot of videos of both Russian troops captured and Russian civilians being interviewed about the war. The latter are a mix of people who oppose the war and say it in veiled ways (a minority) and then the majority who toe the party line and deny atrocities. Now, it's hard to tell who is a real believer, vs. people who just say they are to avoild punishment (this is a big problem in China too, or any closed system). But at the point that they influence their neighbors, it almost doesn't matter, because the whole country is a giant feedback loop.
Now, I've been very tempted to embrace the idea that the Russian people are actually victims of Putin's disinformation and his police statements, but to do this suggests that something may be true of the German civilians as well. Clearly there are differences. The Nazi ideology was the result of all-pervasive brainwashing that took over society. They did this for 12 years. Now, Putin's had 20, and though he does do brainwashing in the media, it's not as strong, and he's only basically had full control of the media narrative for the last 10 years or so. But it's very easy as a Russian to go about your day and not think about politics, vs. a person in Nazi Germany where it's in everything you do. You couldn't even take a vacation without doing it through Kraft durch Freude. Now, there's all sorts of reasons Putin didn't do it that way, mostly because he's trying to be subtle and for a bunch of people who survived Soviet times, putting in that kind of structure was a red flag.
Anyway, I'm still not sure where I fall on this. I suspect that the answer, unhappily, is a middle ground between black and white in both cases. But I'm interested in your thoughts.