Hello! I have been taking a second look at the Holocaust after digging into my family tree. I am curious how much the people of Germany knew about what was actually happening during WW2, and how they viewed what they knew. From my limited research skills, there’s not many sources of information on it. I have watched documentaries where they bring the citizens of surrounding towns into the liberated concentration camps, and they appear shocked. Yet, from what I’ve read, they were mostly aware of where the war was leading, including “death camps.” Can someone shed more light on this for me? How much did they know and how did they feel about it?
The goals of Hitler “Endsieg, Lebensraumerweiterung, extermination of Jews” were all well known among the German public since they were described in his book Mein Kampf. This book was very popular and it was a tradition in nazi Germany to gift it to ones significant other on their wedding. The book contained all his theories and plans. Furthermore after the war in the occupied zone of the US there were Surveys held between November 1947 to 1949. The question if national socalisim was a good idea but badly implemented was said to be true by around 47% -55% of the people. The question “the extermination of Jews, poles, Russians and other non aryans was necessary for German security” got approved by 37% of the Germans in the US zone.