Essay Sample on Ordinary Germans: Witnesses to the Holocaust

Introduction

Having studied the Holocaust for more than ten years, while looking deep into the perpetrators and the victims, historians have been seen to overlook the civilian Germans. The ordinary Germans participated in the Holocaust, either through their quietness or their persecution of the Jews. The German civilians were part of the individuals who led to the murder of six million Jews during the Nazi regime. It is through the study of the Klemperer's diaries that much is unveiled concerning the motivation of the mass killings. Christopher Browning is among the historians who deeply analyzed the Klemperer's diaries and uncovered that the ordinary Germans had a hand in the mass killings despite them not being affiliates of the Nazi regime. The Reserve Battalion 101 was a cluster of 500 German civilians from Hamburg, who were willing to kill their victims, as confirmed by Browning. In his book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101, Browning argues that anti-Semitism, peer pressure, dehumanization of the victims and propaganda were the motivating factors for the mass killings (Kociuruba 2009, 4). Although anti-Semitism existed in Germany even before the Nazi era, it is among the factors that motivated the ordinary Germans to facilitate the Holocaust.

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In writing his book, Browning relied on Victor Klemperer's diaries for some background information. Klemperer was a Jewish man living in German in Dresden during the Nazi era. His spouse was not a Jew, and therefore he was not admitted to the concentration camp, thus surviving the Holocaust. Throughout the Nazi regime, Klemperer noted down in much detail the events he witnessed in his day-to-day life. The detailed events in his diaries later came to reveal what motivated the ordinary Germans in participating in the Holocaust.

The Nazis found anti-Semitism in existence in German and decided to use it as a tool for exploiting the Jews. According to Klemperer, the feelings against the Jews existed before the Nazis but were made even intense during the Nazi era. Klemperer remembers an event that took place in 1923 on 10th January 1937 (Klemperer 1999, 24). This was a period when nationalism was stronger in Germany due to the presence of the French and Belgians at Ruhr, and Klemperer had been scheduled to present a talk on the yeartide of Germany's unification in 1871. Nevertheless, the management of the university denied him the chance since they saw it imprudent for a Jew to talk in such a nationalist zeal amongst the populace. The fact that nobody condemned this injustice made Klemperer accept the reality that antisemitism existed in Germany even before Hitler took over. Browning (1998) agrees with Klemperer's revelation that antisemitism was in Germany way before the Nazis.

The above information is important since it reveals that the ordinary Germans who facilitated the Holocaust had not to be Nazis, but to only trust that their actions were right. Being raised in a community that onfanged and revered the beliefs, the probability that the Germans would help the ones who implemented the Holocaust or would be apathetic to the plight of the Jewish bydwellers, is important. Being antisemites, they trusted that the Jews were inferior, thus they would not oppose their persecution (Burk 1993,564). It would be even much easier for the already brainwashed Germans to assume as well as approve the atrocious acts that the Jews encountered. Klemperer, therefore, reveals the deep-rooted antisemitism was present in Germany before Hitler's regime and contributed to the elimination of the Jews from 1933 till the end of the 12-year Nazi regime.

In his book, Browning reveals the influence of the past antisemitism culture on the killings of the Jews. Browning (1998,195) says, "[It is] doubtful that they were immune to "the influence of the times," . . . to the incessant proclamation of German superiority and incitement of contempt and hatred for the Jewish enemy." In this case, the Jews were framed as enemies to the Germans. It was, therefore, easier to assault Jews through this frame without questioning. Browning highlights that those who participated in the war were hindered from quoting antisemitism as one factor that motivated them. The police killings at Jozefow was their initial killing, commanded by Major Trapp. This first instance is filled with much reluctance to kill, but Major Trapp insists that they had to kill since he had orders from above. He incites the police by telling them that the Jews were their enemies since they bombed their women and children. The description presented the Jews as more evil and dangerous.

Additionally, the German's cognizance of the concentration camps towards the end of the Nazi era provides evidence of their indifference with the Jews. Browning explains many instances where the Jewish were killed and the ordinary Germans knew about it (Riech 1992, 3). He provides details of the atrocious events that happened in the camps targeted towards the Jews. Browning (1998) goes ahead and gives details of the mass graves and the shooting of fellow Jews on their way to Poland. This revelations apparently shows how Germans felt regarding the Jews, without being influenced by the Nazis. Anti-Semitism offered the Germans a serene environment to advance their atrocities towards the Jews, making the mass killing to be easily implemented.

Anti-Semitism was a significant factor that motivated the ordinary Germans to facilitate the Holocaust. The Jews were framed as very evil and dangerous people who killed women and children for other Germans. This deep-rooted hatred made the German civilians remain silent as they watched Jews suffering. Even though antisemitism was a motivating factor in the Holocaust, it was not the only one since not all Germans were antisemitism. Additionally, the war was conditioned by alcohol so that the police could not feel the evils they were doing to fellow human beings. The Jews were dehumanized so that they could be seen as beings that could be killed.

Bibliography

Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: HarperPerennial, 1998. 191-223.

Burk, Kurt. "Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men, Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland." Militargeschichtliche Zeitschrift 2 (1993): 564.

Klemperer, Victor. I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941. Trans. Martin Chalmers. New York: Modern Library, 1999.

Kociuruba, Alysa. "Ordinary Germans or Willing Killers: Klemperer and the Goldhagen Debate." Ph.D. diss., The Ohio State University, 2009.

Reich, Walter. "The Men Who Pulled the Triggers." The New York Times (1992). www.nytimes.com/1992/04/12/books/the-men-who-pulled-the-triggers.html