Were there any news about what was going to happen to Jews in Germany occupied territories and if yes, how did the European public react to these?

by etwa777
dischorus

You may find this previous thread useful: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/108uh4/during_world_war_two_to_what_extent_were_people/

Not exactly the same question, but close.

midnightrambulador

This is a hugely controversial question, which historians and non-historians have debated for decades. After all, it strongly ties into moral judgements, into questions of "right and wrong" during wartime: if everyone in the occupied countries knew what was going to happen to the Jews, so the reasoning goes, then aren't they accomplices to the Holocaust for letting it happen?

Anyway, on to the question itself. For the Netherlands, at least, I can answer it. In 2012, the historian Bart van der Boom gave an interview to the magazine Historisch Nieuwsblad, about the book he had just published on precisely this topic. Van der Boom bases his conclusions on Dutch wartime diaries (both of Jews and non-Jews), with the argument that thoughts written down "as things happened" are more reliable than later recollections. In the interview, he discusses his main findings:

  • Level of awareness: The Dutch people at large are aware that the Jews are being rounded up and taken to Poland. However, nobody knows that the Jews are being exterminated; everyone believes that "only" prison camps and forced labour await in Poland.
  • Reactions of Jews: The Jews' own reactions vary. Some go into hiding, but others deliberately cooperate with the Germans, reasoning that "if I try to hide and get caught, they'll shoot me for sure; if I cooperate, I might survive the camps." Again, nobody knows the fate the Germans really have in store for the Jews.
  • Reactions of non-Jews: The non-Jewish Dutch population are more or less unanimously horrified at the German persecution of Jews, seeing it as a barbarian action that goes against the long-standing Dutch tradition of religious tolerance. However, they don't think there's anything special or unique about the anti-Jewish policies; rather, the view is that "we're all being oppressed; the Jews are just getting picked on extra hard."

Van der Boom sums up his main conclusion as follows:

The "guilty bystander" myth holds that Dutch people collectively looked the other way when Jews were being taken away to be murdered – because it didn't interest them, or even because they despised Jews. I say this is wrong. They really didn't know.

I hope that sheds some light on the matter, at least for this one country. I'll gladly translate more parts of the interview, just ask.