There have been much which has been written about the Holocaust since 1945. The best books to read on the 3rd Reich are RJ Evans the 3rd Reich @ War, Ian Kershaw's 2 books on Hitler titled Hubris (1999) & Nemesis (2000). You can find so much told by Holocaust survivors, trips to the gas vans in Auschwitz-Birkenau & other extermination camps. But what you rarely hear is the account of those who were in the Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Groups), the 1s who shot & killed Jewish men, women & children in the ditches of the USSR during Operation Barbarossa. This is a controversial idea but there is an educational value to this. Should Holocaust history also have accounts of Nazis who worked in the extermination camps & the Einstazgruppen who shot & killed Jews in the ditches by shooting them in the head? Those who committed the Holocaust atrocities believed in the ideology of what they were doing. The Nazis who did these killings were often ordinary Germans with oridinary interests whether it's the fact that Reinhard Heydrich (killed in 1942 assassination by Czechs helped by the British) was a violinist & skier. The Einsatzgruppen who did the shootings were usu. 20 to early 30 something German men from 1942-45, though they sometimes got help from Ukrainian & other auxiliaries in the USSR. The Germans who did these killings grew up on the Nazi ideology which was put into them from the time they were boys. Would you want to hear Nazis (if any are still alive) esp. Einsatzgruppen tell you of why they did the killings. Yes, it's getting the account of murderers, but what do you think
There are amny accounts and testimonials, as far as I know they're not used that much, e.g. in history schoolbocks. I've seen several documentaries about the Holocaust and some of them used eye witness accounts from former SS or Einsatzgruppen members. Strange thing is, many of them didn't seem to be nazi indoctrinated, very regular guys who "just followed orders" (a widely used argument). Harald Welzer has done some serious research investigating written testimonials on this and categorised it as "Tötungsarbeit", meaning: a lot of the people who did the shooting considered it work. I think it's important to hear & read these first hand accounts, as this is one of the most unanswered questions - why and how could they do that?
Agree with you that we should hear Einsatzgruppens (if any are still alive), only that Holocaust survivors, descendants of Holocaust survivors & many Jews (incl. non-Jews) would be troubled hearing them. Thanks for thoughts. Nazi indoctrination would only be a reason & many regarded this as work & 'just followed orders.' Seems that ordinary people can do horrible things. Dr. Josef Mengele when he did pseudo-scientific experiments on prisoners in Auschwitz or when Claus Schilling did malaria, high altitude, freezing & drinking saltwater tests in Dachau believed in the ideologies of what they did. Those who killed others in the gas vans believed in their ideologies. In Asia with the Rape of Nanking, Bataan massacre, Unit 731 in Manchuria or Shiro Ishii flea bombs, the Japanese soldiers who did this also believed in the ideology. Before & during WW2, both Germany & Japan believed they were the greatest & schools indoctrinated kids esp. schoolboys to believe this. The indoctrination was also done in the military. Many perhaps most German & Japanese in their militaries between 1939 to 1945 (or 1931-45 when you consider Japan's 14 year war with China) were usually 20s to mid 30 something. That means to repeat that with Einsatzgruppen from 1941-45 were almost always German men who were born in 1920-24 & in the early 1930s up to Operation Barbarossa in 1941, they would've been boys in 1933 when the Nazis came to power, thus indoctrinated for years. The Einsatzgruppen took the ideology to extreme when they shot & killed Jewish men, women & children in the ditches that they would regard it as work, just following orders, etc. They may or may not realize how indoctrinated they were by Nazi ideology. Some of the Einsatzgruppen would have remorse over what they did just as some of the Japanese soldiers who committed the Rape of Nanking, Bataan, etc. would also have remorse. Only those in the Einsatzgruppen know their beliefs & if they have changed years after the war. Nazi Germany & Imperial Japan continue to be discussed so many years after the war because the topic becomes how 2 advanced & cultured nations had totalitarians & those many following them.
I don't see the big deal about it. It's historical significant. I think it would help people understand what happened. Most people think those who carried out the Holocaust were ordered to do so. In fact, they were volunteers. You could walk off the job pretty much whenever you wanted, and many did in fact do that. It was main reason for introducing the gas chambers, as it removed those doing the killing from the killing it allowed them to have peace of mind and allowed them to keep working.
There's tons of testimony from these Einzatsgruppen/sondercommandos including trial testimony and later as another poster mentioned a number of documentaries where these old men were interviewed. the old men all more or less were blase about their actions. "I was following orders" was always a common refrain, but somehow that just doesn't seem adequate. since they didn't go insane from guilt, they must have had some method of seperating themselves from their actions. Of course one could argue that once an enemy is demonized they are no longer human beings and therefore its easy to indulge in heinous acts.
Yes, they use that as an excuse because decades have passed and they realise the excuse, "I volunteered," wouldn't go over too well today.
I read an article by a burglar in prison. He had become a police officer in Denver, Colorado, for all the right reasons. Then he detailed how, in two years, he went bit by bit and step by step to being a full-fledged burglar. I think it's fascinating to see how apparently normal people go horribly bad.
What about the Holocaust by the Americans against the germans during the occupation after the war? The Americans killed far more germans after the war than the number of jews that died. http://www.politicalforum.com/history-past-politicians/242037-other-holocaust.html#post1061104094 Perhaps this should be in the textbooks?
The Journal of Historical Review as well as James Bacque have historical revisionism, usually closely linked to Holocaust denial, written on their agenda. I agree that some historical facts are not covered enough in textbooks (e.g. Armenian Genocide, Truman's denial of Japan's offer to surrender unconditionally before the dropping of little boy) and the simple fact that something is ignored doesn't mean it is or was not there. This neo-nazi nonsense, however, is just that - nonsense.
