In chapter fifteen of Noam Chomsky's 1988 essay The Culture of Terrorism, he makes the point that enthusiastic support for Hitler's program of anti-semitism never really had a broad base, even among Nazi party members - and that for the most part, the German public was largely uninterested or ambivalent about it. He cites a study conducted by Norman Cohn to support this point.
This characterisation of the German public is important for left-wing thought for a variety of reasons, but I was wondering about how true it is. Was the average German extremely invested in the execution of anti-semitic policies in Germany at the time?
Anti-semitism was broadly accepted all over different parts of the world, so the oppression against Jews in Germany had not an insignificant acceptance in society. Though I would not agree on saying that there had been a broad enthusiasm about it. Not at all.
Furthermore, one should not forget that the majority of Germans was rather uninformed about what was happening. There had been rumours of deporting the Jews to the east or elsewhere but the actual size of the oppression and persecution was mostly unrevealed.