In 1996, Historian Daniel J. Goldenhagen releases a book to the world which will attempt to challenge earlier Historians and their view of how the common people of Nazi Germany interacted with Judaism. The book is titled Hitler's Willing Executioners in which he uses it to describe a very extreme form of anti-Semitism, which had evolved through religious anti-Semitism -- named eliminationist Antisemitism. Goldenhagen argues that Germany's Anti-Semitism is atypically and uniquely horrific in comparison to any other country, point out Martin Luther (the 16th century Reformist) and his work as an example of percolated anti-Semitism throughout Germany.

And the end of his book he writes:

“The conclusion of this book is that antisemitism moved many thousands of "ordinary" Germans— and would have moved millions more, had they been appropriately positioned—to slaughter Jews. Not economic hardship, not the coercive means of a totalitarian state, not social psychological pressure, not invariable psychological propensities, but ideas about Jews that were pervasive in Germany, and had been for decades, induced ordinary Germans to kill unarmed, defenseless Jewish men, women, and children by the thousands, systematically and without pity.”

After the publication of this book, Goldenhagen became a very controversial character amongst the ring of Holocaust Historians. He was lambasted and castigated by most prominent Historians, backed by none.

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Some quotes:

• Hilberg: "by the end of 1996, it was clear that in sharp distinction from lay readers, much of the academic world had wiped Goldhagen off the map"
• Bauer: "Goldhagen stumbles badly, his thesis does not work"

Do you agree with any aspects of Daniel's thesis, or not, and if so why?

Do you agree more with Kershaw's quote of

"The road to Auschwitz was built with hate, but paved with indifference"

- Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich: Bavaria 1933-45 (1983), p. 277.

The quote shows the laity of Nazi Germany were more in the dark about the horrors committed by the Nazis. Did Imperial Germany have a lot of anti-Semitism?

Thanks,
hoping for good replies

References:
Bauer, Yehuda (2002). Rethinking the Holocaust. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 107.

Hilberg, Raul (Summer 1997). "The Goldhagen Phenomenon". Critical Inquiry. 23 (4): pp.721–722