You're getting close to the 100k subscriber mark. Congratulations!! I wonder what video you will present for that milestone.?.? Great job. Thank you...........
As a teenager (long ago) I asked my parents (Dutch) if and when they knew about the extermination and concentration camps. They both said they knew during the war, but surpisingly a discussion between them erupted on when they knew it. My mother read an illegal paper daily and said she knew early 1942 and my father (catholic, not reading an illegal paper) knew at the end of 1942. As he was himself deported to Berlin for forced labor, he witnessed a few things himself the next years.... And, to his credit, risked life and limb to try to mitigate the worst for Polish, French and Russian prisoners by printing illegal fake food stamps that he himself tried to exchange for food and smuggle into the factory again. He was the only prisoner that was free to leave the factory after hours and in weekends to roam within the city of Berlin as he was the only "arian" (blue eyes and dark blond hair) prisoner and he spoke some German. But he dared not to escape as he was told that his mother and five sisters in the Netherlands would be shot (his father died in 1931). The most bizarre thing was that at christmas 1943 he was invited at the family dinner of the director of the factory to enjoy a lavish meal as the director thought it inappropriate that an innocent arian would have to live from "such meager rations". He very narrowly escaped death many times during those years. Insane.
@@andrewallen9993 No. And the police in the Netherlands should be ashamed about that. But on the other hand, what could they have done and what would be the alternative? Very difficult situation back then. On the streets of Amsterdam, the best thing to do was at the time not as black and white as behind the walls of the factory in Berlin.
My father was a medic in one of the many hospitals constructed in England during WWII to take care of the wounded after D-Day. He told me what he had learned from many of the wounded about the atrocities being committed throughout German-occupied Europe, and he vowed he would make sure that his children, if he ever had them, would know that these things actually happened. During our time in Karslruhe, Germany, in the early 1960s, I was able to hear the words of former Wehrmacht soldiers who went to our church about the things they witnessed, especially on the "eastern front." Thank you, sir, so very much for making sure at least one more generation learns of these things, before they happen again. May God bless you and yours!
@@cardiacmyxoma4073 I have sent you links but they are being deleted. You can go to duck duck go or any of the not main search engines and search international lawsuit breech of Nuremberg code.
@@cardiacmyxoma4073 also interesting is duck duck go and search the "medicine" that everyone is taking, starts with the letter v_____ under microscope. You will see many videos and what you will see is horrific.
I am from Serbia. My old neighbor who died around 2010, he was sent to Dahau. He was a member of Slovak minority in Serbia, recruited by Germans to Wehrmacht, he deserted when he witnessed atrocities. He then started to travel toward Russia to join them but he was captured by Romanians in Romania and given to Germans. He was lucky that he ended there in 1944 and he told me a lot about Dahau. He told me that one of SS guards put on himself prisoner uniform and after liberation his group found him some 10-20km from camp with bicycle. Whole group of prisoners beaten him to death.
@@GlennaVan Saddest part of all story. My old neighbor was talking about this experiences every time when he came to my store to buy groceries. I always had prepared chair for him in my store because he was too weak to walk on long distances so he needed to take a breath in my store. Ghosts of the past never abandoned him.
My father was among the American soldiers that liberated one of the camps, and talked sometimes about marching the local population through them. He remained furious until the day that he died about that phrase that you used. I forget exactly what you said, but he quoted it frequently. About we didn’t know what happened there. He said the stench of death was apparent for miles, and it was obvious what was going on there. Many of the locals had jobs involving supplying goods or services to the camps, or at least the soldiers stationed there. He also said that after that experience, 2 things happened, at least in his unit. First, they pretty much stopped taking SS prisoners, and second, any sympathy for the German civilians, and the suffering the war inflicted on them was gone.
Glad you shared this. Common sense tells us that EVERYONE knew what was going on. The populace was so brain washed into hating the Jews and Slavs that they turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. Once again, thanks for your fathers service and taking the time to share the story of his righteousness anger. *Respect To Your Father*
@@theyangview1898 Wrong. I do not understand why people can not comprehend the lack off communication in the 30's and or early 40's. 'Everyone' was not aware of what was really going on. There is no way they could have, due to the tight leash the military had on the populace. Yes, society was told to hate the Jews and that they would be moved elsewhere. Nobody would ever think to stand against this and or question it, due to the fact they would in turn be treated as a Jew (relocated) and there is many instances of this happening. My grandmother and grandfather lived in Germany during the war and told me plenty. They NEVER knew Jews were being killed. Why? Because the military did everything possible to make everyone believe all was well and attempted to make life as normal as possible. They did this to control the German people and to continue productivity. This is the only reason Germany held on as long as they did. Now, for the small communities who lived near the death camps, that is a different story. Some and or most of them knew, but to assume 'everyone' in the country knew is farfetched and unrealistic, especially when criticizing the German regulars which my grandfather served with. 'The populace was so brain washed into hating the Jews' You speak as though this method is in the past and is no longer happening. Look what is happening in America with openly anti-Semitic politicians in office 'brainwashing' Americans to hate Jews. The sad part is that a lot of Americans listen and approve.
@@sudeepkawasthi thank you for your kind words. He never felt that way, but believed the ones who never came back were the heroes. He actually loved the German people that he came to know when stationed in Germany after the war. He just hated the claims that nobody knew. He also acknowledged that there wasn’t a lot that they could have done about it.
My grandparents and my parents were living in Germany ( Nürnberg during this horrible times. I am German too but I had the benefit of a late birth and know all the stories just from telling. My parents were 15 and 17 when the war ended and did not know a lot about what happened in the concentration camps. But my grandparents did. My grandparents were humble people with little social standard and not much money. My grandpa was badly injured from the first ww as he lost a leg. For this he could not be forced to fight again in the 2cnd WW. They hided many of this poor people in a hidden room behind the walls in their house. One day they got caught and my grandpa was taken outside and shot without a trial. This was according to martial law. We, the grandchildren are still in warm and closed contact to two families in Israel who are descendants of people my grandparents saved. May such a horror never happen again! (Apolog. for my poor English)
You must be very proud of your grandparents, and your grandpa died because he helped others. They were very brave people. Thank you for sharing this. 🇺🇸
At least your grandparents were good people- God bless them- cause the vast majority of Germans were not. They were true monsters who supported the Nazis and blamed everything on the Jews.
I live in Germany, being half German, half Dutch. I know for a fact that every grown up knew. My grandfather and his brother who acted against Hitler, as well as other family members from Hamburg confirmed that without exception all of their friends, colleagues and neighbours knew about the existence of those camps.
I am german from origin. My parents were 15 and 12 when the war started. They thought that the jews were going to their promised land. My mother learnd about the KZ's after the war and my father as a young soldier in 1944. He couldn't and didn't want to believe what he heard. His parents knew and did secretly supplie food and other things for jews and prisoners of war. They never told their sons because a loose lip could mean death. Also they lived in times where a lot of people didn't even have their own radio and when Hitler took over listening to and reading about anything else then propaganda had the death penalty. Talking to the wrong person could kill your whole family. You couldn't trust anybody. My mother witnessed how a young classmate got rewarded in class for turning in his parents. The parents were never been seen again. What could they do? It is very easy to be brave in theorie when you live in other times savely and in comfort. This said. In my lifetime I met two jewish elderlie women on seperate occasions who would show me their KZ number tattoo's. They both said that they hated the ' normal' folks the most because the Nazi's were plain evil and they( the jewish people) knew that they were the enemy. But the normal people who just would look away and would let all of it happen were worse. I can only hope that when I am tested I will be brave and strong. I always think I would be but I was never in a lethal situation by doing the right thing.
It takes a blind woman to make sense! The best version of "The Miracle Worker" is the one where Patty Duke played Helen Keller and Anne Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano; September 17, 1931 - June 6, 2005) played Annie Sullivan! Young people can't handle black and white film most of the time...TRAGIC!
@@HistoryHustle The terrific secret-Walter Ze'ev Laqueur (Jewish writer) The allies knew everything but prefer bombing cities. Please don't hide this posting.History needs to knew all facts!
@@mattolivier1835 what’s not hard about this subject? It’s discussing the death and mistreatment of millions of people during the most brutal conflict in human history
My dad (US Army) visited Dachau shortly after its liberation. He said that he could smell the camp long before he got there. He said it smelt like death. He said that there was no way that the local people didn't know what was going on in the camp. He said it was obvious.
I think people remember things differently over time and even if the signs were there at the time (of the atrocities) sometimes they were forgotten. A bit like the parents of a school shooter that have witnessed the unusual behaviour of their child, the fascination with guns and obsession with killing but after their child shoots up an entire school they say "We had absolutely no idea." But that's what they chose to remember and over time it no longer becomes a choice, it's just a memory.
Self preservation. No one was safe. As I spoke with the mother of an older friend over 30 years ago. She was in the US visiting my friend. She still spoke in whispers and was on the lookout when she spoke. You keep your head down and do as you are told or you die next. The fear was real in her. She was young and chosen for eugenics. Never saw the child.
Of course, the majority knew. But what do you think they could have done? You were either on Hitler's side or dead! That was something my grandma always told me. And they did in fact kill Germans that rebelled against it. If your life is in danger people will close their eyes whether it's right or wrong. The best example was the recent US election where the democrats fraudulently won the election. There was evident after evidence, dead people voting even but everyone closed their eyes just for their own good. And that is what happened in Germany. The Germans left behind had to pay a high price and until this day generations that haven't even around then pay for it. Germany is still low key controlled by the US as well as the Jews. The old generations of jews are understandably bitter and the young generation is entitled and thinks the whole world owes them something.
@@HistoryHustle , I am aware of several works of collected ostkrieg front soldier's letters home that brought this issue to light in the most peripheral ways. It's on the Home-front where this video broadened my knowledge of the "receiving end" of this data, Professor. Thank you once again!
I am not German and do not have a drop of German blood in me or in any member of my family. In fact, if Hitler saw me, he would bark order to his German Shepherd, Blondie, to get that Untermensch out of here. So here is my response to this video: 1) When did Churchill, Roosevelt know about the death camps and the trains carrying the Jews to their final destinations? And what did they do about it? If knowledge of the existence of these death camps was widespread in Germany, I cannot imagine that British and American spy networks in Germany would not have known about these camps. 2) Even if the German civilians knew about the existence of these death camps, what could they do about them? If you had been in the shoes of German civilians, what could or would you have done?
@@karllarsen8797 #1) sounds like the topic for another video! What did the Allies know, and when did they know it? Likewise, why didn't they bomb these camps? Or the Hungarian railroads leading to Auschwitz from their bases in Italy in 1944? #2) There was some German resistance to the War (Albeit most were rounded up & executed By Gestapo & RSHA) of the homegrown variety, and there were those executed (Shot or hanged) for surrendering (for "defeatism") in the last months of the war as the Allies advanced into Germany. There were some Germans who hid Jews during the war as well, but they were fewer than the majority who stood in silence and in apathy out of (a rightful) fear of the State.
My grandmother was born and raised in Worms, Germany. She was born in 1944. She said that the citizens were lied to, kind of like North Korea. As a young child, she was made to believe that America was jealous of Germany becoming a super power which is why we started a war with them. Her whole town had been bombed to hell by the US, and she had PTSD with loud noises for the rest of her life. Her father was a nazi soldier who died when she was a baby. She learned the truth years later and subsequently became the first German woman from her town to marry an American, which caused a huge stir with the locals. Her bravery and strength is why I am here today.
@@patriciabrenner9216 Nein, criminals were harshly punished, even German soldiers were disciplined for looting of innocents (expect yews) and were even shot for raping.
I'm grateful for videos like these, and also for all the people sharing their stories in the comment section. My Grandfather fought in the war, but whenever I would try and ask him something about it, he would sit in silence and become emotional - I could tell he didn't want to speak about it, so I stopped trying, and let him be. I'm so thankful for those sharing their stories...
@@mephistophelean Oh, kind of like most people in the united states. When a whistle blower comes forward like Snowden, most people call him a traitor. Same with Assange. People like to support gov't for some reason.
Here in California people had no idea where all the rounded up Japanese-Americans were being taken. No one protested the deportations, and no one really cared--it was mostly cheered, and people eagerly grabbed the possessions and properties the victims were forced to abandon. It's not exactly like the German situation, but it's not that different either: innocent people, only because of their race, were deported to concentration camps. They weren't killed or tortured, but no one really knew that: they were forgotten. I guess I see Americans as living in a glass house of denial on this. Basically, the lesson here, and it's universal, is that if the government and society "others" a group of people, then it's anything goes: you can dispossess them, deport them, even kill them. People will go along with it to get rid of what they're convinced is an existential danger. All of us have a potential murderous Nazi inside us. It only takes the right triggers of fear and manipulation.
It was terrible but there's a HUGE difference between rounding up Japanese people who may or may not be sabatoures and putting them in camps to try to prevent attacks and the Nazis killing Jews JUST because they were Jews. Would you want to take the risk of thousands of Japanese people destroying infrastructure because it isn't nice to round them up? They attacked America unprovoked so precautions were taken. It was horrible but you can't compare the past by today's Standards. Jews and others were persecuted because of hatred. The Japanese we're locked up for Americans safety.
@@anthonyabbett2473 You could also make a case that the Japanese were interned for their own safety from inevitable large scale attacks from Americans. Remember there were still very limited laws against lynching at that time. Thankfully there weren't many personal physical attacks during that period.
I was born and raised in Germany. I was the youngest of 5 siblings. One night they thought I was sleeping, I overheard this story. My mother was born in Danzig Prussia. It now belongs to Poland. In front of her house was a man made river called Radaune. Polish prisoner were forced to clean out the river bed. She didn't have much food, but when she boiled potatoes and she had some left she went to the river at night and gave what she had left to those prisoners. One night she couldn't go and send my oldest brother to give the Polish prisoner. My brother was about 11 years old. She warned him to be careful and not to be caught by the German guards. One of the prisoners turned my mother in because she didn't have enough to give him anything. The guards were on the look out and my brother was spotted. He took off running, but one of the guards shot at him. It hit his leg and he was bleeding quite a lot. My mother tended to his wound and made him hide in case they would start searching houses. He staid in hiding for several days till his wound was healed. She never again had him bring food to those prisoners, but she continued to do it. Thank God she never got caught and the prisoners beat up the snitch. One night she was seen and ended up in prison. She was married to an German officer who got her out. Otherwise I would not be able to tell this story. Danzig got heavily attacked by the Russians and my mother was forced to flee. She and some of my siblings ended up in Denmark were they lived in a refugee camp. 3 years later they were returned to Germany and ended up living in different refugee camp. She ended up living in the southern part of Germany. One of the well of person had to take her in. In return she had to work for them. My siblings also had to go and work for a farmer. After a few years she moved to a small city where I grew up and much later I married an American and ended up living in Texas. I have heard horrible stories about the war. In the city they tasted sirens often. My mother used to drew me to the ground and covered my body with hers. She taught we were being bombed. I was always embarrassed when she done that, but later I understood why she done that.
Wow, incredible woman your mother was. I bet you all became amazing people because of her as well. Thank you so much for sharing this story because it's nice to hear the good that came during these atrocities ❤️
@@bobbysmith855 Thank you to all that left a nice comment about my mother. I heard her say she didn't do it because she was brave. She done it because those prisoners were mistreated and looked like skeletons. She also knew what hunger was. She was hungry sometimes for 8 days with nothing to eat. She had some knowledge of plants and herbs and they also shewed on bark. In the refugee camp in Danmark they feed them the same soup every day. She said it was disgusting, because the Danes hated all Germans and put mice, shoe soles and other creatures in the soup. My mother was never a Nazi, she was a civilian women with children fleeing from the Russians. But they were German, therefor they got treated badly.
"Wir haben das nicht gewust"; TRANSLATION ="We didn't knew this"... Although many claimed ignorance about the holocaust and the extermination-camps, the truth is that many knew, but were (understandably)afraid to act or even voice their opinion against it in public, fearing they would end up in those extermination-camps themselves... I remember what a German woman once told me in the 70's, she was only 16 when she lived in the vicinity of a death-camp; She recalled;" If the wind was blowing in the "wrong" direction, you could smell that somewhere they weren't burning wood or coal, but something else..."
@Undead Werewolves The first to die were the dissenters. Communists, Social Democrats, Christians. Remember that the Nazi party was not forged at a tea party, but as the most violent of a bunch of very violent parties.
@@undeadwerewolves9463 The same woman who told me that story, also witnessed her father and older brother both killed by the gestapo, simply because the father openly defied the nazi's and her older brother came to his aid when the gestapo-men viciously started to beat the father up, which resulted in both of them being shot right in front of their home... So "standing by" is sometimes more advisable then "doing the right thing" unless you have a deathwish!
To even make that statement. Goes to show how bad the world has turned. Think how everyone looks at Germany for the 6 million holocaust. Yet no one mentions Stalin's 40 million he ordered killed. Then chairman Mao killing 60 million Chinese.
@@damonbryan7232 Yes - the Communists murdering Jews and everyone else is never talked about in the News Media, never acknowledged by Government Leaders, nor taught about in the schools! But the Atrocities committed by the NAZIS and Japanese during WW2 are always talked about, acknowledged, and taught about - so I see hypocrisy in all of this and possible suppression of information about Communist committed atrocities in WW2, before, and afterwards also! History Hustle is the only unbiased and 100% Truthful and forthright source on TH-cam about the Communist Atrocities as well as the NAZI and Japanese Atrocities! In the USA Communists are calling for a Communist Revolution here to overthrow our Egalitarian Democracy - the Communists are trying to take over the Whole World just like Hitler tried to do!
Goddamn right those Nazi bastards knew! How could they not know people talk? The Germans like to make the excuse that there was a few evil Nazi’s doing all these bad things and the rest of them were just kind of unaware. This is complete bullshit. Almost all of the Germans were worshiping Hitler prior to the war and during the early years of the war. They are guilty as willing accomplices. Every single German that wore a Nazi uniform should have been executed, Unless they had strong evidence of subversive resistance against the Nazis. What they did was absolutely horrible, almost unimaginable! How can humans do that? What kind of evil is in their hearts? We know that most humans are not much civilized, just completely dominated by fear and hatred.
@@steveperreira5850 Did u know the US gov secretly brought Nazis to the US to work at places like NASA and live a normal life 🙃 look up operation paperclip
@@steveperreira5850 well the damn soviets were doing the same by putting ppl to gulags and had to worship stalin like god like literally so did anyone bother to question em dumbasses?
I am German. In my Opinion , the truth is: they don‘ t wantet to know about the Death-Camps more than realy didn‘t knew. An absolutly Shame for our Nation. Never forget !
The more I have studied the 2nd World War the more I believe Hitler knew (deep down) that he had lost the war by October 1941. Then the real nastiness begun.
Thank you, Stefan. This was very enlightening. This is second and third hand, so take it for what it's worth, but amidst the one discussion I had with an old German neighbor about the war (while I was stationed there in the US Army in the early 1990s), he said that 'everyone' knew, or at least that it was 'assumed' that the Jews were being 'taken care of' (That's how he put it). When I asked why it could be assumed, he said "They shipped them out of here. To where? No one would have taken all of them." Sadly, he was right. The rest of Europe and the U.S. didnt want them, or at least not in large numbers. That's not to say everyone agreed with the camps, but he explained that it would have been dangerous to voice any opposition to it, and that you could be shot for that. -Same goes for anyone hiding or supplying food and water to escaping Jews. It was an interesting conversation. Lots of people today say they couldnt have stayed quiet, but really? When it comes down to it, ninety nine percent of people everywhere are afraid for their own lives, and their family's lives, and will go along with anything authorities do out of fear. Its just human nature. BTW, its VERY Impolite to discuss the subject with modern Germans unless they bring it up, and its even against the law in Germany to discuss many related topics, so most will not discuss it at all. Its a dark part of their past and most dont care to talk about it. My conversation with my neighbor was unique, and only happened after we had known one another for 2 years. I found the German people to be very polite and welcoming during my time there, and modern Germans are no more responsible for what happened 75 to 80 years ago than you were for colonists taking Native American lands, or slavery (assuming youre American). People have been f'n other people over since forever, and we can all learn from such atrocities.
The truth will withstand the most searching of inquiries; only lies require draconian laws to prevail. Plus the imprisonment of 90+ year old grandmothers in Germany.
@@novadhd Truth!! Progressive Liberals make white Americans feel like we are all responsible for slavery when it was only certain people (mainly in the South) that wanted slavery and fought in the civil war to try to keep slavery. Many whites hated slavery and started the Abolishment movement to free slaves and thousands died in the civil war to end slavery. What happened to Jews in Germany is one of the absolute worse atrocity the world has ever seen. So American haters, take a look at Germany and other European countries that knew it was happening but did little to help until after they were invaded by Nazi Germany.
I am grateful to see these videos. My family lived in Poland. My grandfather and many in his family were drafted into the German army. I don't know what they knew, they never talked about it. I remember once my aunt mentioned that my grandfather had a good time in the army in Oslo Norway, but I don't how much of that is true and how much of it was hiding from the truth. He spent the rest of his life after the war in a bottle. (Alcoholic)
I'm grateful for the pics and vids for public record. World War II brought out the worst of humanity both times ever (the darkest hour of the Holocaust followed by the dropping of nukes on Japan). 2 darkest things and cruelest things humanity has ever done
My dad was there and served under Patton when they got to these camps it was gut retching as he said! And they found out YES Germans knew what was going on but too scared to speak up they marched those Germans thru those camps and made sure they knew! All SS guards and anyone working there should have faced a firing squad, there were some of our troops and long with other allied troops shot a lot of these guards in anger, yes, the Germans knew
I knew two U.S. Army veterans who took part of the liberation of two separate camps. One was Nordhausen, which was a death camp and the other was un-named, but was in Germany, also a death camp. Both of these veterans told me the same thing independent of each other: When the shock of what they found subsided, they began to search out, on their own, any SS they could find. They were identified by a tatoo unique to SS. Upon this verification, they were summarily executed. They also told me of a verbal order that went out, weeks later to not take any SS prisioners. Both said that they did not directly take part of the executions, but they witnessed many of them. These executions continued until the surrender. The man who was at Nordhausen was private with the 104th Infantry Division (Timberwolf Division). The other was a Captain with the Provost Marshal's Office.
Dave, I thank your dad for his service and his humanity to serve, to be part of the liberation of these innocent victims of the haulocaust. An American hero, and you should be proud!
Because of your Dad's service and those of his comrades in Arms so many people have their lives. My Maternal Grandmother was a Holocaust Survivor. I am very grateful for my life.
My dads infantry division was among the first to enter Dachau. What he saw there ruined him for the rest of his life. He was only 18 and just couldn’t handle it. He suffered from severe PTSD the rest of his life
I had an old neighbor who liberated several camps. I would ask about his time in the military and all he could say was, “bad.” He died in 2016 at age 103.
Excellent treatment. I lived in Berlin for 20 years. Your thesis that the Nazis were hesitant in the early forties to publicize the processing of Jews should be more nuanced. Perhaps this was true in other parts of Germany. In Berlin, it was not. The Nazis maximized the propaganda value of their control over the Jews to demonstrate to Berliners unmistakably who was in charge. As you say, the Nuremburg Laws were instituted in 1938, stripping Jews of their livelihoods and professions. The results were there for everyone to see. Starting in 1941, the machinery of the deportations was in the open streets from the beginning to the end. Jews from the northern part of the city were marched and humiliated on the streets in large groups to Grünewald in the south. Conversely, Jews from the southern portion of the city were marched through the streets north to Putlitzer Bahnhof. Jews were also collected in large numbers in the very center of the city at the Grosse Hamburger Cemetery and in Levetzow Strasse, before being taken or marched to further transit points. Others were deported from Anhalter Bahnhof, a railway station in the heart of the city. These deportations went on from 1941 until 1943, when the 60,000 Jews left living in Berlin had been forcibly removed. Amidst this display of power, it is understandable that some citizens would be frightened into silence. However, it is a tough case to make that every single Berliner was not aware that these people were facing a very bleak fate indeed. Germans chose not to ask and to turn a blind eye. The question of what did they know about the killing in the death camps is therefore moot. The abject cowardice and inhumanity of the silence of the citizenry--from the early 1930s until the bitter end of the War--made the abject horror of the death camps a foregone conclusion.
This is why better never qualify those events as 'perpetrated by the nazis,' for indeed this is Germany as a whole produced such a result; hence i will qualify those as 'German atrocities.' And yet i love German culture and have kept wondering for decades: how could they go there?
@@archaic9525 a German friend whose parents were in WWII in Germany told me, very sharply, they ALL knew! This was in response to my saying not all of Germans were Nazis and not all knew! He said they ALL supported Hitler and loved him, he said it was like Mass hypnosis, they all knew and approved and supported Hitler! My friend said, he could not understand how or why, but it was so! My response to you is Hate the sin, but love the sinner. I also do not understand how any human being could do or approve if these things, but I can understand love the sinner while hating the sin.
A friend of my dad told me when they were helping liberate a camp, the locals told them how to get there. He said you could literally smell the camp from a road a mile from the camp. They knew.
Great video sir. When I served in W. Germany in the late 80s I had quite a few German friends and I talked to their parents. They all knew. All of the parents said the Gestapo were everywhere and informants too. You could never be too careful speaking anything against the Reich or you would end up in a concentration camp yourself.
First of all, dear Prof. from the Netherlands, thank you very much for tackling this important topic the way you did. Just a few words: I live in Germany and I am 1/2 German. What I observe still today, even in my generation is that people say: I've had enough of this topic and do not wish to hear anything about it any more. Then during the nazi period: people saw the Jews and other people disappear all of the sudden, their flats suddenly empty ( apart from what was openly visible during the Reichskristallnacht-Pogrom). What I am sad to observe still today in this country is a tendency to overrespect any rule, the rules and abiding by them seems to have a real priority still. I believe that is problematic. Most nazi felons said: I only carried out orders and it seems to be a perfectly fine excuse for them from their point of view. Or a certain tendency to complain: We had to suffer as well , we did not have an easy life either, which is completely unproportional and denies reality. A certain arrogance towards foreigners and towards local people, when they are abroad ("the Germans know best how to do things"). Well, I must admit that I have difficulies with dealing with some traits of the German personality. When I read about certain people who did not follow the general way of acting during the nazi period, I feel really glad and grateful.
I recently saw the video of 3 german teenagers who handed out leaflets against Hitler and his party. They were arrested and beheaded. Both the brother and sister
@@radhasen.animalwelfare.5644 The Scholls. They started, along with some friends, an opposition group called the White Rose. One of their friends had just come home from the eastern front, and told them about the slaughter of the innocents he witnessed. I'm certain that many soldiers, including the SS guarding the camps did the same thing; came home and talked about it. How could they not? Whether it was to their parents, siblings, or spouses, they would have had a need to talk. The public knew what was going on, even if it wasn't exactly clear. Sorry, Radha, I got off track! Yes, those young people were incredible. They knew the risk, but felt compelled to act. One of the "awful" things they did against the Reich was handing out pamphlets, what dangerous criminals.
I'm reading a great book on this subject: Hilter's beneficiaries. the average German knew..but chose to turn a blind eye because they were benefiting. this great book has shown how the average german benefited from what was looted from Jews and others like French, Poles or Russians btw... the movie of Judgment at Nuremberg proved that too good video
I'm glad people in this day and age are still asking questions about what happened and not just forgetting about it or not caring. The victims need a voice. The world needs answers.
My mother came from Germany and I remember a story that she told me about her uncle aged 18 at the time and working on the railway, he was overheard saying “ how would you feel if that was your mother “ so you can guess what this train was carrying , at the end of the day he and his young friend were both found executed, I guess in those days when Hitler said “ jump “ you asked how high
Was it a case of not knowing, not wanting to know or.....A Society within the Third Riech that prevented them from either? Well thought through and explained. Thank you.
I am not German and do not have a drop of German blood in me or in any member of my family. In fact, if Hitler saw me, he would bark order to his German Shepherd, Blondie, to get that Untermensch out of here. So here is my response to this video: 1) When did Churchill, Roosevelt know about the death camps and the trains carrying the Jews to their final destinations? And what did they do about it? If knowledge of the existence of these death camps was widespread in Germany, I cannot imagine that British and American spy networks in Germany would not have known about these camps. 2) Even if the German civilians knew about the existence of these death camps, what could they do about them? If you had been in the shoes of German civilians, what could or would you have done? Even if it can be proven that knowledge of the existence of these death camps was widespread among the German population, knowing is one thing, being able to do anything about it is something else entirely.
None of the above. Let's try Option 4: "History is always written by the victors, and the histories of the losing parties belong to the shrinking circle of those who were there." - Joachim Peiper
Excellent video Stefan. You certainly do not disappoint with your thoughtful presentation on a most difficult subject. Thank you for keeping the truth out in the open where it belongs.
Hoi Stephan (Stefan?) geweldig hoe je de geschiedenis, hoe verschrikkelijk dan ook, vertaalt in een 10 minuten interessante reis door de tijd. Heb je wat gestuurd via paypal. Keep up the good work!
Having spent time in Germany over the last 20-plus years, ( even by accident attending a school lesson in Offenburg and picturing these youngsters faces- i wont go into detail of the objects they were handed-)- it`s still a sensitive subject to even those that were not even born then. Modern Germany, unlike many nations, have faced up to their past misdeeds .Stefan,Sir, you handled this topic in an intelligent, professional ,dignified manner, and most importantly, balanced
@@patriciabrenner9216 hi Patricia..every country has form,in Germany for the most have faced up to the past unlike many other nations.The neo N*zi revival is occuring in much of Europe.Avd gained 11% last elections,much of it in the formet GDR which has a different historical take on the ww2 period.I dont know where u are from,bur please take alook at your local /national polls to see how ult right parties did
Interesting content thank you. Just so people know there were specific death camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka but there were many more labor camps. Absolutely the Germans knew about it as anyone against the war effort could be sent German or not. My grandfather was a political prisoner sent to labor camp in Austria. Although the Jews were primarily affected there was many Russians, and other Europeans.
To which labor camp in Austria did the German-Hitlerite occupying forces send your grandfather during the war? Can you mention the name of the labor camp or the location of the labor camp?
It also should be mentioned that by the time of the Russian campaign the SS had gained control over all police organizations in Germany. As a result many of the Einsatzgruppen consisted of reserve police battalions full of middle aged family men not young fanatical Nazis as were found in the Waffen SS formations. The men of the reserve police battalions certainly shared their experiences with many people back in Germany and were sometimes troubled by the atrocities they were involved in even if they ultimately carried out their so-called 'duty'. Chris Brownings book "Ordinary Men" is a great overview of this.
Also the belief that the regular German army wasn't involved with the final solution is another big falsehood. Just look at the actions of the German 6th army is the Belaya Tserkov massacre. The wehrmacht went in, separated the Jews from the regular population, put the stars of David on them, then handed them over to the SS, gave them ammunition and supplied guards for the massacre.
@@MattRichardsonX They had been somewhat involved yes, but the Wehrmacht had also opposed the Schutzstaffel quite a bit. Many of the Wehrmacht men also did not have a choice - the SS signed up for it.
@@kaiserin7814 Not much of a difference between Waffen SS and the Wehrmacht. Neither were responsible for the final solution but both participated in it.
I want to congratulate you on doing an excellent, informative, and vital video in the most caring and sensitive way possible! You really showed true concern for the victims! Many of my family perished in these camps and the survivors are unable to talk about what they experienced! My friend's mother was hidden in Berlin by a caring gentile couple throughout the entire war! She survived because of that courageous couple! You always do great and truthful videos keep up the good work!
I was lucky that my grandparents lived long. Two of them were supporting the Nazis. This grandfather remained to be a Nazi till he died in the 1980s. Whenever I got a gift from him, as a child, it was military stuff like toy-submachine guns. Whenever he made political statements, some hatred against the jews was involved. The other grandma and grandpa were the opposite and completely against the Nazis. A sister of this grandma was arrested because of some agitation against the party, she was also Jehova's witness and it was a tricky thing to get her out of jail before deportation. In the time of the 3rd Reich this grandma was in her 30s. She was very aware of the deportations and that there must have been awful conditions at the camps and in the east in general. But she knew nothing about the killings. Of course she could imagine that many people probably would die there, but she had no idea about industrial murdering in these camps. There is another thing one should know. Although many many soldiers must have known more (but by far not all of them) - they simply didn't talk about the war! The husband of another sister of my grandma (who was against the Nazis) had a quite rare fate. Fighting at Stalingrad he was taken as prisoner and survived the camps in Sibiria. I thing only 5000 or 8000 German soldiers returned from that places. He also was one of the last 10.000 soldiers send back to Germany after some intervention of Adenauer. Because of the divorce of my mother I lived at his family for roundabout 6 month. "Erich" did't waste a single word about his story at Stalingrad and in the camps. Nothing. He was a rigorous person but kindhearted. I didn't know his story when I lived there as a child and sometimes I was wondering about his behave. At dinner he covered his plate with one arm while eating very fast with the other hand. I had the idea that he even doesn't chew potatoes or so, just gulp them down. He also got enraged when I sometimes refused to eat because I didn't like the meal. Well, from all I heard from my grandparents I have to say: This discussion makes not really sense. There were guilty Germans because they supported the system and the party. They always knew that they are guilty! Other Germans were disgusted by what the Nazis did. But most of them never had the chance to change a single thing.
You're right. If a person supported the party, then some guilty is involved. And many people did not accept the defeat and specially the Russian occupation. Those feelings must have been complex.
Question....did your the grandparents who supported the Nazi's ever say why they did? Was it to do with many jews being communist? I have heard many various insight into this.....I would love to know their reasons why. From doing some research on Hitler his hatred towards jews seemed to stem from the fact that many jews were communist and that he believed that they wanted to destroy Germany and exterminate the German people. I think this stemmed from the fact that he knew he HAD to have know what the jewish bolsheviks did to the ethnic Christians in the former Soviet Union. Many many jews were communist especially when you look at their percentage of the population in Russia and they made up the majority of Lenin/Stalin's government. During their communist reign they genocided, tortured, worked to death (in concentration camps - Gulags) tens of millions of people. He knew he had to have known and I think if there were many communist jews in Germany it drove what he did to them. It was wrong no one deserves this.....but neither did the russians. With the World Economic Forum - lead by a prominent jew - Klaus Scwab and their goal of worldwide communism...."You will own nothing and be happy" tagline . I suspect the world government will be headed by jews. It is becoming pretty obvious to many. For these jews who are inherently evil .....they WILL lose in the end. I suspect there are jews of course who have no idea or do not support this but that said ....their Talmud does say that they believe all non jews are meant to be their slaves.....and the jews are meant to rule over them.
@@alexlanning712 Not an apologist, what Hitler did was terrible....he judged jews as a collective rather than as individuals. He saw them as a collective threat. We see this today with the demonizing of white people and the Dem's revisionist history they are trying to have taught in the schools. Why you ask? well the US provides the most freedoms of any country in this world and for worldwide communism to take root it needs to be destroyed and right now the Dem's are trying to do this internally. A revisionist in what way? LOL What happened in the former Soviet Union by the communists (and yes many were jewish...as Putin himself acknowledged) those are facts my friend. Those who support communism of course want to hide these facts. Those at the World Economic Forum don't want people to realize that the rainbows and utopia they are trying to "sell" to people is really a lie it is world wide communism run by a wealthy elite group who will dictate everything about your life....you will have no freedoms to speak of.
Mooi Sefan,en dapper dat je deze episodes verteld.ze mogen niet vergeten worden vooral in tijden van onstabiliteit zoals nu. Dankjewel (had ik vroeger maar zo,n geschiedenis leraar als jij).
This guy was half Jewish! Do people really believe that all Jews were worried about one another? Friedrich Alexander Maria "Fritz" Mandl (9 February 1900 - 8 September 1977) was chairman of Hirtenberger Patronen-Fabrik, a leading Austrian armaments firm founded by his father, Alexander Mandl. The Wöllersdorfer cartridge factory, from October 1933, the site of the holding camp Wöllersdorf A prominent fascist, Mandl was attached to the Austrofascism and Italian varieties and an opponent of Nazism. In the 1930s he became close to Prince Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, the commander of the Austrian nationalist militia ("Heimwehr"), which he furnished with weapons and ammunition.[1] He inherited the weapons factory from his father, Alexander Mandl, which was used to help equip Hitler's Germany. Until 1940, Mandl tried to maintain contact with Hermann Göring's office in order to supply Germany with iron.[2]
My father, a Pole from Poznan, was a member of the First Transport to Auschwitz in June 1940. Nazi German atrocities are an unfathomable history and I must say for an 18 minute presentation, you have done this very well.
I live across the road from a very nice 97 y/o German-American woman, loved her. She passed away Dec. 2019. We spoke often, especially about WWII. As an American born, she and her family travelled back and forth to Germany. On one of their trips they couldn’t leave, this was in the 1940’s. Upon my inquiry she stated she and her family “did not know what was happening to the people of the Jewish faith.” I doubted very much she was being truthful. She told me how she and a cousin went to a grocery store with ration coupons, she saw a man who looked very poor with tattered clothes. She states she purposely dropped a food coupon near him, he picked it up and gave her a weak smile. I believe they knew, they just chose to look the other way.
I know a story from my relatives i dont know anymore the exact relation i have to them. Anyways he was a construction engineer and there was an air attack at or near Bremen 1944. A concentration camp was hit, if I remember it correct it was "just" a so called Durchgangslager/transition camp, that means a camp where people from France or Benelux stayed for a short while before being send to the death camps. He had to go there and help to repair the camp. He came back home pale white and could not eat for days. After 2 weeks he told his wife what he saw and said not to tell their children, children talk a lot and if they talk the whole family could end up there as well. So they decided to be silent, to survive instead of being heroic, probably like many others. Nazis knew how to seed fear, it is one thing to risk your own life, but another to destroy the lifes of your loved ones and even friends as well especially when the chance of successful opposition is minimal to non existent.
@@patriciabrenner9216 I can recommend an interesting youtube series called War Against Humanity if you are interested especially episode WAH 044 "Resist, collaborate, die". Unfortunately posts with links get deleted. It is a complex topic, most people not only in Germany chose collaborate or at best to turn their back on the victims, to answer it with cowards, as understandable as it is from the victims point of view, is far too simple for me.
Not trashing or anything but your English at the beginning sounded like you were carefully considering the pronunciation of every word before you spoke it. Again I'm not complaining or saying it's bad, just that I noticed and could only think. I don't know any Dutch and can't imagine narrating a twenty minute video fluently in the language. I do imagine that if I did I'd actually be considering the pronunciation of every word. Thank you for the educational video and insightful look into a lesser known perspective of the Holocaust and respect for learning an entire new language and making this video that much more accessible to the world.
It was a taboo subject because speaking out against it could land you in a camp alongside the "undesirables". Some vocal opponents like Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were even guillotined. One can get a good understanding of what went on by studying Martin Niemöller, the prominent Lutheran pastor and his personal journey towards redemption.
@@ralphvon283 Hey there what do you think was German soldiers mail opened and censored? That happened to mail from G.I.'s sent back home. Ask yourself would you have joined the Weiße Rose? "First they came for the socialists" would that have included you, perhaps?
@@ralphvon283 What's less than a few hundred? A few dozen? Ridiculous assertion. Ralph Von Hoch Oben.... Germany got played in a political struggle between Capitalism and Communism that rages on 'til this day. A struggle between individual freedom and the collective good. Thousands of Germans were killed and thousands more put in concentration camps among them Freemasons, Communists, Socialists, Trade Unionists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Protestants, and many others.
@Sam Stoker I agree. And the fact it’s *Austria* that has made unvaccinated people into second class citizens/making a law to lock them away, while a large population of Austrians cheer it on is very very disturbing. Oh and Germany plans to do the same soon… then the UK is thinking about it too. Dark times we are in.
@@undeadwerewolves9463 The Netherlands are on it too..the 2G law. It means you can't get a QR code when you are not vaccinated. Even if you do a test and the result of the test is negative, you cannot get the code. You need a QR code to enter restaurants, cinema's, museums etc.
@@gtrulez proves it not about health at all. They want us to get used to the idea that an app determines what you can and can't do because that's our future
I'm a daughter of a German, who lived in Germany during WWII and asked my father many times if he knew what was happening with the jews people during that time and he denied to know it. I thought he didn't know because he was a child, but after some years I went to Germany so as to work, live and meet the rest of the family (we live in South America) and his cousin (same age) told me that they something knew and there were worries because their grandma, who was jewish and they all lived together. Thanksfully nothing bad happen to her, she died pacefully while sleeping in her bed at the right time. You can imagine I've many questions yet, sadly most of them are now dead. Thank you for let the people know what was happen, the horrors, the cruelty, the injustified atrocities jews had to endure.
I was in Germany in the 80's and a cab driver took a bunch of us around, showing us sights. He was asked if Germans knew about the death camps and he said it was common knowledge, but just not acknowledged.
I'm swedish and work with old people in health care, and met several survivors who moved here after the war. After so many decades, I still saw an extreme fear in their eyes when they first saw me - I'm really tall, 180cm female, and very blonde and blue eyed... it shook me that their first reaction, after so many years, was fear to see someone who must have reminded them 😢. I wrote my papers while studying history at the university about racial biology and hygiene in Sweden before the war, and it's stunning to realise the close relationship between German and swedish 'scientists', and how much we taught Germans in racial science. That's almost never mentioned in Sweden or in swedish schools.
I currently have a patient, german, who was 16 when the war ended... We talked about her experience during ww2, and, of course, no one knew anything about the holocaust, but the worst part of the entire war was after the war and what happened to Germans and how they were treated...
I think it's a bit of both combined with basically only knowing rumors which usually are not the most trustworthy source so you usually don't take those seriously. Then the people also where in war with half the world so your main thoughts might be with your family on the frontline or in the cities that get bombed and survival itself and well a huge problem also is that humans tend to forget what they don't see. Like for example we all know about afghanistan and how fucked it is now because of our incompetence but do we even think about it or ask questions after a while? I don't think so, even media seems to have forgotten about afghanistan and it will stay forgotten until some unfortunate event reminds us that it even existed. I mean we have corona these days which is what affects us all personally and our thoughts are kinda forced on this topic since it is everywhere while afghanistan is a thing from the past and far away. We simply don't think about it and probably also don't want to think about it since the dramatic pictures we had in media for a few weeks where enough for us. At least this is my primitive attempt of understanding such a complex situation and compare it with unfortunate events we have these days.
@@HistoryHustle excellent quality like always! And also very actual sadly. Like now with ukraine we see again that people only care about what they see permanently. Like Ukraine was in war for years but we in the west only noticed it once again when the russian invasion was in the news. I actually wonder how much the russian people know about the current conflict considering the propaganda. Overall it's just a tragedy what happens in history and even today. It's scary to think how easy it must be to manipulate people and the results of that. It's sad that we can't have peace in europe. Like corona is not dead yet and we already have cold war 2...
in September 1982 my wife and I and two other couples from home (NY) visited Munich primarily to go to the Oktoberfest as we had done a few times before. Well, one lazy day we got to talking and the subject of the Kamps came up. We talked about visiting one as in all the times we had been to this part of Germany (Bavaria) we had not done that. Some of us didn't want to get depressed and just have a jolly time on our vacations, but most of us wanted to go to one nearby if there was one. It happens that Dachau is nearby. We got some advice as to what direction to go and rented a Meitwagon (rental car). We drove (I drove) to Dachau, which is the name of the town, not only the Kamp. As we got nearer the Kamp we saw signs in German and English (a great rarity in Germany) saying that the Kamp was this way or that way. We all expected that we would be soon out in the country where we imagined such a grim, terrible place would be. Then we saw a sign telling us to turn right and we did. In a moment we were there at the grey-walled Kamp, in the middle of the town of Dachau. Not in the country or even on the outskirts, but in the very middle of town with roads on all four sides, sidewalks and all. We were dumbfounded. What? This is the famous Dachau Konzentrationslager? Here? In the town where anyone could drive or walk past it? Yes. There were large multiple openings in the wall to let air blow in and out, I suppose. You could see inside through them and hear what was going on inside as well. You might think, "Well, the town has grown up around this place and it was actually out in the woods or something back in the day." No. How do I know this? Once inside, the old Nazi administrative offices had been turned into a museum for tourists. We were told that people from the town had worked there in various secretarial and clerical jobs. There was an enlarged copy of an aerial photo of the Kamp made in the late '30s. It was clear and sharp (the Germans are nothing if not technically adept). It showed the same roads with cars from that time on them, people walking on the same sidewalks, all going about their ordinary business. You could see the roofs of many of the same buildings that are still there and the town all around it. That's how I know. I had the most harrowing afternoon of my life, complete with "visions" and the "sounds" of snarling, barking dogs, prisoners in rags disembarking from the cattle cars at the tracks behind the Kamp, indistinguishable German being shouted, people crying, screaming in pain and well, you know. What did the Germans know about the Death Kamps? You tell me.
Thanks for your reply. "What did the Germans know about the Death Kamps? You tell me." I anwer that question in the video. Perhaps watch the video first and comment afterwards.
From what my grandparents told, I know that people suspected what was going on in the Reich, but knew nothing concrete, and that it was better not to ask too many questions about Jewish neighbours or friends who had "moved to the East" and were never heard from again. No Aryan German wanted to expose himself by asking questions or make himself suspicious to the neighbourhood, which was all ears with GESTAPO informers. The better-educated Germans, however, knew that "resettlement" = killing, but admitting this was dangerous and was considered to be defiling one's nest. So they didn't do it, and after the war and the end of Nazi rule they had more important things to do and suppressed the "resettlement" of Jews or unpopular Germans in their consciousness and in the post-war media. It was only the left-red '68ers who dragged the topic into the public eye.
Interesting piece. Imagine yourself as a German citizen hearing rumours and whispers about what was happening in the east. What rules your silence? Disbelief? Or the certain knowledge that if you speak out you’ll share a Jewish Fate? I, for one, do not apportion blame to the vast majority of the German people in their time. Germany was a very different place. Fear and self-preservation were powerful motivators, just as they are in today’s tyrannical regimes.
Yes this is the issue. The video doesn’t address, without doubt rumours would have been swirling around Germany…. but what is the truth? what is the penalty for asking too many questions? What if your neighbours are gestapo informants? What if you buy into the idea of racial superiority, but don’t necessarily believe that leads to the murder of “ inferiors “?….. this issue has been oversimplified by commentators and historians
Mate you forget that there was no movement against the camps because nobody really cared tbh, pretty much all the western world was anti semitic, there was a study during ww2 that found that in america 55% of people thought jews should be governed by a different set of laws and standards to other Americans because they were viewed as second class citizens or some shit. Ill have to look up but the allies knew from the start of the war. The germans had been indoctrinated against the jews from before hitler even became the fuhrer. Everyone knew about the camps. Everybody turned a blind eye. Ignorance and apathy.
Thank you so much for actually talking about what the Germans knew. There are so many videos out there that are titled "What the Germans Knew" then spend only 4 minutes out of a 20 minute video talking about it ..
About 15 years ago a high school friend of mine moved to Germany, he asked his history teacher why they don’t speak about what happened and he wasn’t even able to get an answer… His teacher just said “never speak of that, we don’t speak of that here”…. Crazy crazy times but America is no better, we have quite a few things that we don’t speak of either… but it was interesting to learn this first hand
yes no on talks of this sad things that happened to humans... it is totally disgusting to think that with all these people in towns near buy they could not do something.... Just like what is going on today in America... people dont want to talk about the problems of what the president is doing to trash our country and all the democratic party is destroying our constitution.
This should be interesting. I'm curious as how it coincides with what I've been told by people that lived through that period in Germany or who had connections with them here...as in my grandfather.
When I was a history major at Boston College I became close to a German language professor. He once stated to me over coffee that he knew about the Holocaust as a teenager and followed by saying that if a German ever said they didn't know that they were a liar. There is much more to the conversation but his blunt response still hangs with me to this day.
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen wrote his doctoral thesis which he then turned into a book called "Hitler's Willing Executioners...Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust" It speaks of the fact that there were 17 camps spread throughout Germany and that most people were connected with the camps by either working there or helping out...or living right near a camp. He says that everyone, to a smaller or greater extent, was involved and that if anyone denies this, they are LYING. I also read another book, which name escapes me, that when Martin Luther's religion was accepted in Germany many years before, there was a collective consciousness of something called "Elimination Theory" meaning that the idea of totally annihilating the Jews was no longer anathema...so that when hitler, yemach shemo, may his name be ERASED!, came along and did what he did, the German people were more than willing and able to join in the fun!
I had a German friend who escaped East Germany just before the wall went up. He told me as a little boy he lived in a tiny village not far from Buchenwald. He was forbidden by his parents to go anywhere near the camp. Typically, he and some friends approached the camp, and could smell, what he said, a smell like "roasted pork".... On returning home,he was thrashed by his father. It was a climate of fear that kept the indigenous German population in check. Better not to think or know...The truth.
I’m sorry but the number one priority of Germans as a nation should first and foremost be to remember and vow to never allow it to happen. Everything else is secondary. If they have to go to war, they go to war. Something like this cannot be conveniently washed away just by having children or the children having children.
My father was in the United States military, and I lived in West Germany for most of elementary school. Although I went to an American School, most of my teachers were of German descent. As children, we were often asked to answer back in unison why we were in Germany, and the right answer was "NATO", without any sort of dive into the actual meaning behind it, and the Holocaust was strangely absent from all of our lessons. Something that is burned into my memory to this day, is noticing that one of my favorite teachers, who was still a relatively young woman in the late '80s / early 90s had what I later knew to be an Auschwitz tattoo on her arm. I am grateful that my parents took such an interest in educating us about the world, otherwise I could have left that country without knowing anything about the horrors that occurred there less than 50 years before.
Hello, thank you very much for this content. Do you have any recommendation on more content in this matter? Like, what the business, profession people know and what happened to the houses, and belongings of the victims ¿?? Thank you
Newly Subscribed. Thank you for being thorough with this video. I am a Jew and grew up with limited knowledge of the Holocaust. My parents did not want to ever discuss it. I have looked into it many times. I know that the Soviet Union persecuted Jewish people in the past, but did not know of the numbers that were sent to be killed. This gave me a deeper understanding of the Holocaust.
Welcome to the channel. If you are interested in it, here I have a video about the Jewish Oblast created by the Soviets in the 1930s which still exists today. I recorded it on location: th-cam.com/video/8g2eT6OGjfA/w-d-xo.html
There is no way they didn’t know, didn’t smell burning flesh. The fear of the same happening to them, I imagine played a large roll in them “ not knowing”. It takes a lot of courage to stand against evil when it arises but not standing up against it and maybe even being a part of it in the beginning, allowed Hitler and his government to perform the atrocities they did and get away with them.
People sometimes have the tendency to reply before watching the video. I don't get this. Most of the time they share over-simplifications that contribute next to nothing to the topic discussed. Please watch the video if you haven't seen it already and share your thoughts on it afterwards. Thank you.
Thank you for your reply. Recently I also made a video about the brave Jewish parachutists. In case you're interested: th-cam.com/video/QqnKpCARs7Y/w-d-xo.html
@@romecottrell4558 true. Bro there is nothing that can be hidden under the sun. In one way or the other, facts will come out. Even if you were alone at the place. God is mysterious in it's ways. From the stories, it is clear even those who were committing the things were self incriminating out of guilt by sharing some experiences with their families. Human blood is dangerous. You can't kill innocent people more so babies and expect peace. Germans made a big mistake here. I even wonder how they expected to win the war with such inhumane industrial atrocities. God wouldn't have allowed that for certain
Great video! It’s really hard to tell but were you born with a cleft? I was born with one and just had my 29th surgery. I always get excited when I meet people with it as it’s not common where I’m from.
My father was a war correspondent, employed by the SS. He always said he didn't know. But today I wonder, how could he not, as a journalist covering the various fronts, know about this? Sadly, he is not alive anymore, so I can't ask him. I believe he knew.
@@HistoryHustle for years he refused to talk about the war. He’d leave the room the moment someone brought it up. It was only much later that he’d comment, but always just briefly. But he did say he did not know.
My dad,a war correspondent,got permission from general Patton to get the surrounding villagers to walk through daccha camp...The pictures he took are horrific
My family is German and we still know many families in Germany and I remember my older relatives talking about how everyone in the closer towns knew exactly what was going on. Even some of my relatives are guilty of this. I had relatives in the us army in ww2 and two in the German army. They knew what was going on and a lot of the time they personally knew people it was happening to as they used to be neighbors
I'm sure many whom lived surrounding area knew, but not in every corner of Germany, like everyone seems to portray. So, no not everyone knew. Or do you know what atrocities are going on in the "NC State" Prisons right now too? It's the exact same example. There's inmates being beaten, raped, sodomized. Mail is being withheld, telephone calls cut short, educational books not permitted in some and much more atrocities. Some get killed and it's never mentioned at all. "RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE" and that's in TODAY'S World. A lot of people speak about Nazi's doing what they did back then, and have it going on right now in their own State in the USA. If you disagree with Naziism then be an advocate for Prisoner Rights RIGHT NOW!
@@BasementEngineer if they said anything other than what??? They talked about how it happened around them and people knew so what would you be arrested over? I think you mean a lot of people deny it happening?
@@AlanpittsS2b Sorry if I wasn't clear. In Germany today one cannot openly question the common narrative of the holocaust. In the German judiciary this is termed Offenkundingkeit, roughly meaning "everyone knows that this happened and the courts accept this as proven fact." German lawyer Silvia Stolz tried to introduce evidence that this Offenkundigkeit was far from correct. She was held in contempt and sentenced to prison. Right now 90+ year old grandmothers are in prison for doubting the narrative proffed herein. The very idea that questioning a narrative, and the attempt to produce evidence calling that narrative in question, resulting in prison sentences, ought to be enough to seriously question that narrative.
Tumbnail photo colorized by Julius Jääskeläinen. Check out MORE of his work:
instagram.com/julius.colorization/
More shocking in color than in B/W. Horrifying.
You're getting close to the 100k subscriber mark. Congratulations!! I wonder what video you will present for that milestone.?.?
Great job. Thank you...........
The terrific secret-Walter Ze'ev Laqueur
👍 Good Job
What is the difference with what was going on in south Africa and what happened in Russia
As a teenager (long ago) I asked my parents (Dutch) if and when they knew about the extermination and concentration camps. They both said they knew during the war, but surpisingly a discussion between them erupted on when they knew it. My mother read an illegal paper daily and said she knew early 1942 and my father (catholic, not reading an illegal paper) knew at the end of 1942. As he was himself deported to Berlin for forced labor, he witnessed a few things himself the next years.... And, to his credit, risked life and limb to try to mitigate the worst for Polish, French and Russian prisoners by printing illegal fake food stamps that he himself tried to exchange for food and smuggle into the factory again. He was the only prisoner that was free to leave the factory after hours and in weekends to roam within the city of Berlin as he was the only "arian" (blue eyes and dark blond hair) prisoner and he spoke some German. But he dared not to escape as he was told that his mother and five sisters in the Netherlands would be shot (his father died in 1931). The most bizarre thing was that at christmas 1943 he was invited at the family dinner of the director of the factory to enjoy a lavish meal as the director thought it inappropriate that an innocent arian would have to live from "such meager rations". He very narrowly escaped death many times during those years. Insane.
Many thanks for sharing this. I hope to cover more on the Netherlands and the Holocaust in the future.
@@HistoryHustle Good. Note in my story that forced laborers were starved to death behind factory walls in the center of Berlin!
So unlike the Netherlands police force he didn't help the Germans by rounding up Dutch jews for shipment to the death camps?
@@andrewallen9993 No. And the police in the Netherlands should be ashamed about that. But on the other hand, what could they have done and what would be the alternative? Very difficult situation back then. On the streets of Amsterdam, the best thing to do was at the time not as black and white as behind the walls of the factory in Berlin.
@@ronaldderooij1774 The same as the Danes perhaps?
" Sorry mein Herr but all the records showing who are Jewish have been lost/destroyed/misfiled"
My father was a medic in one of the many hospitals constructed in England during WWII to take care of the wounded after D-Day. He told me what he had learned from many of the wounded about the atrocities being committed throughout German-occupied Europe, and he vowed he would make sure that his children, if he ever had them, would know that these things actually happened. During our time in Karslruhe, Germany, in the early 1960s, I was able to hear the words of former Wehrmacht soldiers who went to our church about the things they witnessed, especially on the "eastern front." Thank you, sir, so very much for making sure at least one more generation learns of these things, before they happen again. May God bless you and yours!
Thanks for your reply.
Thank you for sharing. I believe it's happening again right now. We need Nuremberg 2.0
@@ronronniemeyers wait where is it happening again?
@@cardiacmyxoma4073
I have sent you links but they are being deleted. You can go to duck duck go or any of the not main search engines and search international lawsuit breech of Nuremberg code.
@@cardiacmyxoma4073 also interesting is duck duck go and search the "medicine" that everyone is taking, starts with the letter v_____ under microscope. You will see many videos and what you will see is horrific.
I am from Serbia. My old neighbor who died around 2010, he was sent to Dahau. He was a member of Slovak minority in Serbia, recruited by Germans to Wehrmacht, he deserted when he witnessed atrocities. He then started to travel toward Russia to join them but he was captured by Romanians in Romania and given to Germans. He was lucky that he ended there in 1944 and he told me a lot about Dahau. He told me that one of SS guards put on himself prisoner uniform and after liberation his group found him some 10-20km from camp with bicycle. Whole group of prisoners beaten him to death.
@Fock Religion He told me that they recognized him camouflaged in prisoner uniform. They witnessed his attrocities.
@@GothicKnight81 Seems it would be easy to recognize him - he would not be skin and bones like the prisoners!!!
@@GlennaVan Saddest part of all story. My old neighbor was talking about this experiences every time when he came to my store to buy groceries. I always had prepared chair for him in my store because he was too weak to walk on long distances so he needed to take a breath in my store. Ghosts of the past never abandoned him.
@@GothicKnight81 Thank you for being kind to this gentleman who had been through so much.
@@GothicKnight81
My thanks too.
My father was among the American soldiers that liberated one of the camps, and talked sometimes about marching the local population through them. He remained furious until the day that he died about that phrase that you used. I forget exactly what you said, but he quoted it frequently. About we didn’t know what happened there. He said the stench of death was apparent for miles, and it was obvious what was going on there. Many of the locals had jobs involving supplying goods or services to the camps, or at least the soldiers stationed there. He also said that after that experience, 2 things happened, at least in his unit. First, they pretty much stopped taking SS prisoners, and second, any sympathy for the German civilians, and the suffering the war inflicted on them was gone.
Glad you shared this.
Common sense tells us that EVERYONE knew what was going on. The populace was so brain washed into hating the Jews and Slavs that they turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. Once again, thanks for your fathers service and taking the time to share the story of his righteousness anger. *Respect To Your Father*
@@theyangview1898 Wrong. I do not understand why people can not comprehend the lack off communication in the 30's and or early 40's. 'Everyone' was not aware of what was really going on. There is no way they could have, due to the tight leash the military had on the populace. Yes, society was told to hate the Jews and that they would be moved elsewhere. Nobody would ever think to stand against this and or question it, due to the fact they would in turn be treated as a Jew (relocated) and there is many instances of this happening. My grandmother and grandfather lived in Germany during the war and told me plenty. They NEVER knew Jews were being killed. Why? Because the military did everything possible to make everyone believe all was well and attempted to make life as normal as possible. They did this to control the German people and to continue productivity. This is the only reason Germany held on as long as they did. Now, for the small communities who lived near the death camps, that is a different story. Some and or most of them knew, but to assume 'everyone' in the country knew is farfetched and unrealistic, especially when criticizing the German regulars which my grandfather served with.
'The populace was so brain washed into hating the Jews' You speak as though this method is in the past and is no longer happening. Look what is happening in America with openly anti-Semitic politicians in office 'brainwashing' Americans to hate Jews. The sad part is that a lot of Americans listen and approve.
Your father was a true hero. Their reaction was the right one. Shame on those who knew
@@sudeepkawasthi thank you for your kind words. He never felt that way, but believed the ones who never came back were the heroes. He actually loved the German people that he came to know when stationed in Germany after the war. He just hated the claims that nobody knew. He also acknowledged that there wasn’t a lot that they could have done about it.
God bless the memory of your father and god bless the commanders who forced the locals to walk thru the camps after liberation.
My grandparents and my parents were living in Germany ( Nürnberg during this horrible times. I am German too but I had the benefit of a late birth and know all the stories just from telling.
My parents were 15 and 17 when the war ended and did not know a lot about what happened in the concentration camps. But my grandparents did. My grandparents were humble people with little social standard and not much money. My grandpa was badly injured from the first ww as he lost a leg. For this he could not be forced to fight again in the 2cnd WW.
They hided many of this poor people in a hidden room behind the walls in their house. One day they got caught and my grandpa was taken outside and shot without a trial. This was according to martial law.
We, the grandchildren are still in warm and closed contact to two families in Israel who are descendants of people my grandparents saved.
May such a horror never happen again!
(Apolog. for my poor English)
Thanks for sharing this.
Danke für was dein Opa hat getan.
You must be very proud of your grandparents, and your grandpa died because he helped others. They were very brave people. Thank you for sharing this. 🇺🇸
At least your grandparents were good people- God bless them- cause the vast majority of Germans were not. They were true monsters who supported the Nazis and blamed everything on the Jews.
Incredible. You should be so proud of that.
I live in Germany, being half German, half Dutch. I know for a fact that every grown up knew. My grandfather and his brother who acted against Hitler, as well as other family members from Hamburg confirmed that without exception all of their friends, colleagues and neighbours knew about the existence of those camps.
Thanks for sharing this.
Of course they knew
Wow! I had heard that all the people claimed ignorance of the camps.
@@deadendkid5764 Well of course they did- once they were caught.
I am german from origin. My parents were 15 and 12 when the war started. They thought that the jews were going to their promised land. My mother learnd about the KZ's after the war and my father as a young soldier in 1944. He couldn't and didn't want to believe what he heard. His parents knew and did secretly supplie food and other things for jews and prisoners of war. They never told their sons because a loose lip could mean death.
Also they lived in times where a lot of people didn't even have their own radio and when Hitler took over listening to and reading about anything else then propaganda had the death penalty. Talking to the wrong person could kill your whole family. You couldn't trust anybody. My mother witnessed how a young classmate got rewarded in class for turning in his parents. The parents were never been seen again. What could they do? It is very easy to be brave in theorie when you live in other times savely and in comfort.
This said. In my lifetime I met two jewish elderlie women on seperate occasions who would show me their KZ number tattoo's. They both said that they hated the ' normal' folks the most because the Nazi's were plain evil and they( the jewish people) knew that they were the enemy. But the normal people who just would look away and would let all of it happen were worse.
I can only hope that when I am tested I will be brave and strong. I always think I would be but I was never in a lethal situation by doing the right thing.
“Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings.”
― Helen Keller
It takes a blind woman to make sense! The best version of "The Miracle Worker" is the one where Patty Duke played Helen Keller and Anne Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano; September 17, 1931 - June 6, 2005) played Annie Sullivan! Young people can't handle black and white film most of the time...TRAGIC!
Interesting quote.
Who was Hellen Keller?
So called “peace advocate”, yet she could only talk with her hands🙄
The terrific secret-Walter Ze'ev Laqueur
Stefan, you handled a hard subject with care and focus. Well done. This type of video really shouldn't be demonetized.
Many thanks for your reply. I'm very surprised since the video isn't demonetized.
@@HistoryHustle
The terrific secret-Walter Ze'ev Laqueur (Jewish writer)
The allies knew everything but prefer bombing cities.
Please don't hide this posting.History needs to knew all facts!
What is so hard about this subject? Speak for yourself fool.
@@mattolivier1835 what’s not hard about this subject? It’s discussing the death and mistreatment of millions of people during the most brutal conflict in human history
@@TryHardSoviet All of the brutality was caused by governments. Yet people keep supporting gov't for some reason. Hahahaha. Silly people.
My dad (US Army) visited Dachau shortly after its liberation. He said that he could smell the camp long before he got there. He said it smelt like death. He said that there was no way that the local people didn't know what was going on in the camp. He said it was obvious.
I think people remember things differently over time and even if the signs were there at the time (of the atrocities) sometimes they were forgotten. A bit like the parents of a school shooter that have witnessed the unusual behaviour of their child, the fascination with guns and obsession with killing but after their child shoots up an entire school they say "We had absolutely no idea." But that's what they chose to remember and over time it no longer becomes a choice, it's just a memory.
Self preservation. No one was safe. As I spoke with the mother of an older friend over 30 years ago. She was in the US visiting my friend. She still spoke in whispers and was on the lookout when she spoke. You keep your head down and do as you are told or you die next. The fear was real in her. She was young and chosen for eugenics. Never saw the child.
...You know. But if you mention it, you might be talking to an informant. Then THEY might kill YOU.
So you shut up.
A few really don't know.
Was your dad in the rainbow division. Mine was
Of course, the majority knew. But what do you think they could have done? You were either on Hitler's side or dead! That was something my grandma always told me. And they did in fact kill Germans that rebelled against it. If your life is in danger people will close their eyes whether it's right or wrong. The best example was the recent US election where the democrats fraudulently won the election. There was evident after evidence, dead people voting even but everyone closed their eyes just for their own good. And that is what happened in Germany. The Germans left behind had to pay a high price and until this day generations that haven't even around then pay for it. Germany is still low key controlled by the US as well as the Jews. The old generations of jews are understandably bitter and the young generation is entitled and thinks the whole world owes them something.
Superb synopsis of the thorny issue of "What did the people of Germany Know, & when did they know it?" Thank you Professor! Great video, Sir.
Thanks for watching, Daniel!
@@HistoryHustle , I am aware of several works of collected ostkrieg front soldier's letters home that brought this issue to light in the most peripheral ways. It's on the Home-front where this video broadened my knowledge of the "receiving end" of this data, Professor. Thank you once again!
@@danielhammersley2869
The terrific secret-Walter Ze'ev Laqueur
I am not German and do not have a drop of German blood in me or in any member of my family. In fact, if Hitler saw me, he would bark order to his German Shepherd, Blondie, to get that Untermensch out of here. So here is my response to this video:
1) When did Churchill, Roosevelt know about the death camps and the trains carrying the Jews to their final destinations? And what did they do about it? If knowledge of the existence of these death camps was widespread in Germany, I cannot imagine that British and American spy networks in Germany would not have known about these camps.
2) Even if the German civilians knew about the existence of these death camps, what could they do about them? If you had been in the shoes of German civilians, what could or would you have done?
@@karllarsen8797 #1) sounds like the topic for another video! What did the Allies know, and when did they know it? Likewise, why didn't they bomb these camps? Or the Hungarian railroads leading to Auschwitz from their bases in Italy in 1944? #2) There was some German resistance to the War (Albeit most were rounded up & executed By Gestapo & RSHA) of the homegrown variety, and there were those executed (Shot or hanged) for surrendering (for "defeatism") in the last months of the war as the Allies advanced into Germany. There were some Germans who hid Jews during the war as well, but they were fewer than the majority who stood in silence and in apathy out of (a rightful) fear of the State.
My grandmother was born and raised in Worms, Germany. She was born in 1944. She said that the citizens were lied to, kind of like North Korea. As a young child, she was made to believe that America was jealous of Germany becoming a super power which is why we started a war with them. Her whole town had been bombed to hell by the US, and she had PTSD with loud noises for the rest of her life. Her father was a nazi soldier who died when she was a baby.
She learned the truth years later and subsequently became the first German woman from her town to marry an American, which caused a huge stir with the locals. Her bravery and strength is why I am here today.
What do you think they are lying to us today about?
@@BuenasNoticiasdeIL Our whole history
So the Germans were still criminal loving after the war!
@@patriciabrenner9216 Nein, criminals were harshly punished, even German soldiers were disciplined for looting of innocents (expect yews) and were even shot for raping.
@@davidcrew8846 absolute bollocks..
I'm grateful for videos like these, and also for all the people sharing their stories in the comment section. My Grandfather fought in the war, but whenever I would try and ask him something about it, he would sit in silence and become emotional - I could tell he didn't want to speak about it, so I stopped trying, and let him be. I'm so thankful for those sharing their stories...
Thanks for sharing this.
12:36 "People made efforts not to know." This is chilling.
Agree.
Oh, just like the vaccine truths. You know, the clot shot.
Deliberately not wanting to know or to hear what is happening actually tells us that they did know but simply didn't want to think about it.
@@mephistophelean Oh, kind of like most people in the united states. When a whistle blower comes forward like Snowden, most people call him a traitor. Same with Assange. People like to support gov't for some reason.
@@mattolivier1835 Oh come on, you cannot link the US government with the Nazis and the holocaust! Are you for real?
"If people claimed they didn't know it was due to their efforts not to know." Thanks for sharing! 👏👏👏
Thanks for watching!
Here in California people had no idea where all the rounded up Japanese-Americans were being taken. No one protested the deportations, and no one really cared--it was mostly cheered, and people eagerly grabbed the possessions and properties the victims were forced to abandon. It's not exactly like the German situation, but it's not that different either: innocent people, only because of their race, were deported to concentration camps. They weren't killed or tortured, but no one really knew that: they were forgotten. I guess I see Americans as living in a glass house of denial on this. Basically, the lesson here, and it's universal, is that if the government and society "others" a group of people, then it's anything goes: you can dispossess them, deport them, even kill them. People will go along with it to get rid of what they're convinced is an existential danger. All of us have a potential murderous Nazi inside us. It only takes the right triggers of fear and manipulation.
So True look at the mass psychosis going on. in another 6months all unvaxxed will dissappear. Europe already forbids all unvaxxed from public lufe
It was terrible but there's a HUGE difference between rounding up Japanese people who may or may not be sabatoures and putting them in camps to try to prevent attacks and the Nazis killing Jews JUST because they were Jews. Would you want to take the risk of thousands of Japanese people destroying infrastructure because it isn't nice to round them up? They attacked America unprovoked so precautions were taken. It was horrible but you can't compare the past by today's Standards.
Jews and others were persecuted because of hatred. The Japanese we're locked up for Americans safety.
@@anthonyabbett2473 You could also make a case that the Japanese were interned for their own safety from inevitable large scale attacks from Americans. Remember there were still very limited laws against lynching at that time. Thankfully there weren't many personal physical attacks during that period.
Most People in USA still have no clue that USA is a Nazi Country
@@normanklein3155 That's a sorry excuse for stealing people's property and running them out of town--we're protecting you from the murderous mob.🙄
I was born and raised in Germany. I was the youngest of 5 siblings. One night they thought I was sleeping, I overheard this story. My mother was born in Danzig Prussia. It now belongs to Poland. In front of her house was a man made river called Radaune. Polish prisoner were forced to clean out the river bed. She didn't have much food, but when she boiled potatoes and she had some left she went to the river at night and gave what she had left to those prisoners. One night she couldn't go and send my oldest brother to give the Polish prisoner. My brother was about 11 years old. She warned him to be careful and not to be caught by the German guards. One of the prisoners turned my mother in because she didn't have enough to give him anything. The guards were on the look out and my brother was spotted. He took off running, but one of the guards shot at him. It hit his leg and he was bleeding quite a lot. My mother tended to his wound and made him hide in case they would start searching houses. He staid in hiding for several days till his wound was healed. She never again had him bring food to those prisoners, but she continued to do it. Thank God she never got caught and the prisoners beat up the snitch. One night she was seen and ended up in prison. She was married to an German officer who got her out. Otherwise I would not be able to tell this story. Danzig got heavily attacked by the Russians and my mother was forced to flee. She and some of my siblings ended up in Denmark were they lived in a refugee camp. 3 years later they were returned to Germany and ended up living in different refugee camp. She ended up living in the southern part of Germany. One of the well of person had to take her in. In return she had to work for them. My siblings also had to go and work for a farmer. After a few years she moved to a small city where I grew up and much later I married an American and ended up living in Texas. I have heard horrible stories about the war. In the city they tasted sirens often. My mother used to drew me to the ground and covered my body with hers. She taught we were being bombed. I was always embarrassed when she done that, but later I understood why she done that.
Very interesting to read. Many thanks for sharing this.
Thank you for your testimony...your mother was an amazing woman
Wow, incredible woman your mother was. I bet you all became amazing people because of her as well. Thank you so much for sharing this story because it's nice to hear the good that came during these atrocities ❤️
I pray we continue to have such brave people around us in the future.
@@bobbysmith855 Thank you to all that left a nice comment about my mother. I heard her say she didn't do it because she was brave. She done it because those prisoners were mistreated and looked like skeletons. She also knew what hunger was. She was hungry sometimes for 8 days with nothing to eat. She had some knowledge of plants and herbs and they also shewed on bark. In the refugee camp in Danmark they feed them the same soup every day. She said it was disgusting, because the Danes hated all Germans and put mice, shoe soles and other creatures in the soup. My mother was never a Nazi, she was a civilian women with children fleeing from the Russians. But they were German, therefor they got treated badly.
"Wir haben das nicht gewust"; TRANSLATION ="We didn't knew this"...
Although many claimed ignorance about the holocaust and the extermination-camps, the truth is that many knew, but were (understandably)afraid to act or even voice their opinion against it in public, fearing they would end up in those extermination-camps themselves...
I remember what a German woman once told me in the 70's, she was only 16 when she lived in the vicinity of a death-camp; She recalled;" If the wind was blowing in the "wrong" direction, you could smell that somewhere they weren't burning wood or coal, but something else..."
"I'm not a Nazi but my neighbor is," most frequently heard excuse from Germans by occupying American GIs.
Evil wins when good men stand by and do nothing…
@Undead Werewolves The first to die were the dissenters. Communists, Social Democrats, Christians. Remember that the Nazi party was not forged at a tea party, but as the most violent of a bunch of very violent parties.
@@undeadwerewolves9463 The same woman who told me that story, also witnessed her father and older brother both killed by the gestapo, simply because the father openly defied the nazi's and her older brother came to his aid when the gestapo-men viciously started to beat the father up, which resulted in both of them being shot right in front of their home... So "standing by" is sometimes more advisable then "doing the right thing" unless you have a deathwish!
@@bobvanpeborgh6312
The terrific secret-Walter Ze'ev Laqueur.
The allies knew everything, but preferred bombing cities.
Your conversational English is getting almost fluent. Very good stuff!
Thanks Nick!
You are brave about talking about the tianmen square masscare in 1989 infront of the tianmen square in China
Thanks!
This could be the most viewed video of this channel. We are all waiting for. 🚀
To even make that statement. Goes to show how bad the world has turned. Think how everyone looks at Germany for the 6 million holocaust. Yet no one mentions Stalin's 40 million he ordered killed. Then chairman Mao killing 60 million Chinese.
@@damonbryan7232 Yes - the Communists murdering Jews and everyone else is never talked about in the News Media, never acknowledged by Government Leaders, nor taught about in the schools! But the Atrocities committed by the NAZIS and Japanese during WW2 are always talked about, acknowledged, and taught about - so I see hypocrisy in all of this and possible suppression of information about Communist committed atrocities in WW2, before, and afterwards also! History Hustle is the only unbiased and 100% Truthful and forthright source on TH-cam about the Communist Atrocities as well as the NAZI and Japanese Atrocities! In the USA Communists are calling for a Communist Revolution here to overthrow our Egalitarian Democracy - the Communists are trying to take over the Whole World just like Hitler tried to do!
@@jamesgibbs7872
The terrible secret- Walter Ze'ev Laqueur
As someone who’s family was largely killed in the Holocaust, thank you for telling the truth that they knew.
Thanks for replying.
Goddamn right those Nazi bastards knew! How could they not know people talk? The Germans like to make the excuse that there was a few evil Nazi’s doing all these bad things and the rest of them were just kind of unaware. This is complete bullshit. Almost all of the Germans were worshiping Hitler prior to the war and during the early years of the war. They are guilty as willing accomplices. Every single German that wore a Nazi uniform should have been executed, Unless they had strong evidence of subversive resistance against the Nazis. What they did was absolutely horrible, almost unimaginable! How can humans do that? What kind of evil is in their hearts? We know that most humans are not much civilized, just completely dominated by fear and hatred.
@@steveperreira5850 Did u know the US gov secretly brought Nazis to the US to work at places like NASA and live a normal life 🙃 look up operation paperclip
@@steveperreira5850 well the damn soviets were doing the same by putting ppl to gulags and had to worship stalin like god like literally so did anyone bother to question em dumbasses?
@@Elizabeth-zh9vj yes.
Denial 101 (according to Orwell's 1984):
1) active effort of forgetting
2) actual forgetting
3) forgetting of having forgotten in first place
I am German. In my Opinion , the truth is: they don‘ t wantet to know about the Death-Camps more than realy didn‘t knew.
An absolutly Shame for our Nation. Never forget !
Thanks for your reply.
Nope. I already forgot. Stop being so dramatic clown girl.
Even the allied didn’t want to talk much about it - or even talk about it over the radio. The Rosenstrasse protest were another interesting event
The more I have studied the 2nd World War the more I believe Hitler knew (deep down) that he had lost the war by October 1941. Then the real nastiness begun.
Bravo, bless you
Thank you, Stefan. This was very enlightening.
This is second and third hand, so take it for what it's worth, but amidst the one discussion I had with an old German neighbor about the war (while I was stationed there in the US Army in the early 1990s), he said that 'everyone' knew, or at least that it was 'assumed' that the Jews were being 'taken care of' (That's how he put it). When I asked why it could be assumed, he said "They shipped them out of here. To where? No one would have taken all of them." Sadly, he was right. The rest of Europe and the U.S. didnt want them, or at least not in large numbers. That's not to say everyone agreed with the camps, but he explained that it would have been dangerous to voice any opposition to it, and that you could be shot for that. -Same goes for anyone hiding or supplying food and water to escaping Jews. It was an interesting conversation.
Lots of people today say they couldnt have stayed quiet, but really? When it comes down to it, ninety nine percent of people everywhere are afraid for their own lives, and their family's lives, and will go along with anything authorities do out of fear. Its just human nature.
BTW, its VERY Impolite to discuss the subject with modern Germans unless they bring it up, and its even against the law in Germany to discuss many related topics, so most will not discuss it at all. Its a dark part of their past and most dont care to talk about it. My conversation with my neighbor was unique, and only happened after we had known one another for 2 years. I found the German people to be very polite and welcoming during my time there, and modern Germans are no more responsible for what happened 75 to 80 years ago than you were for colonists taking Native American lands, or slavery (assuming youre American). People have been f'n other people over since forever, and we can all learn from such atrocities.
Thanks for replying.
The truth will withstand the most searching of inquiries; only lies require draconian laws to prevail. Plus the imprisonment of 90+ year old grandmothers in Germany.
the Holocaust was much more recent phenomenon and was much worse. Not excusing slavery at all.,
@@novadhd Truth!! Progressive Liberals make white Americans feel like we are all responsible for slavery when it was only certain people (mainly in the South) that wanted slavery and fought in the civil war to try to keep slavery. Many whites hated slavery and started the Abolishment movement to free slaves and thousands died in the civil war to end slavery. What happened to Jews in Germany is one of the absolute worse atrocity the world has ever seen. So American haters, take a look at Germany and other European countries that knew it was happening but did little to help until after they were invaded by Nazi Germany.
I am german and I can tell you it’s not against the law to discuss related topics. It’s simply illegal to say that the holocaust didn’t happen.
I am grateful to see these videos. My family lived in Poland. My grandfather and many in his family were drafted into the German army. I don't know what they knew, they never talked about it. I remember once my aunt mentioned that my grandfather had a good time in the army in Oslo Norway, but I don't how much of that is true and how much of it was hiding from the truth. He spent the rest of his life after the war in a bottle. (Alcoholic)
Sorry to hear that. Thanks for your reply, Ingrid!
O Boo Hoo dude he knew.
Not trying to sound or b mean.
He had alot on his mind must have been frightening.
But most Ppl knew 🤦
I'm grateful for the pics and vids for public record. World War II brought out the worst of humanity both times ever (the darkest hour of the Holocaust followed by the dropping of nukes on Japan). 2 darkest things and cruelest things humanity has ever done
@@skymycat1What is wrong with you?? That's so unkind, and totally uncalled for.
My dad was there and served under Patton when they got to these camps it was gut retching as he said! And they found out YES Germans knew what was going on but too scared to speak up they marched those Germans thru those camps and made sure they knew! All SS guards and anyone working there should have faced a firing squad, there were some of our troops and long with other allied troops shot a lot of these guards in anger, yes, the Germans knew
What a situation to be in ,you know but know better to speak up or your body will be there also I bet they were scared to death to even look that way
I knew two U.S. Army veterans who took part of the liberation of two separate camps. One was Nordhausen, which was a death camp and the other was un-named, but was in Germany, also a death camp. Both of these veterans told me the same thing independent of each other: When the shock of what they found subsided, they began to search out, on their own, any SS they could find. They were identified by a tatoo unique to SS. Upon this verification, they were summarily executed. They also told me of a verbal order that went out, weeks later to not take any SS prisioners. Both said that they did not directly take part of the executions, but they witnessed many of them. These executions continued until the surrender. The man who was at Nordhausen was private with the 104th Infantry Division (Timberwolf Division). The other was a Captain with the Provost Marshal's Office.
Dave, I thank your dad for his service and his humanity to serve, to be part of the liberation of these innocent victims of the haulocaust. An American hero, and you should be proud!
Because of your Dad's service and those of his comrades in Arms so many people have their lives. My Maternal Grandmother was a Holocaust Survivor. I am very grateful for my life.
My dads infantry division was among the first to enter Dachau. What he saw there ruined him for the rest of his life. He was only 18 and just couldn’t handle it. He suffered from severe PTSD the rest of his life
I had an old neighbor who liberated several camps. I would ask about his time in the military and all he could say was, “bad.” He died in 2016 at age 103.
Thanks for sharing.
Excellent treatment. I lived in Berlin for 20 years. Your thesis that the Nazis were hesitant in the early forties to publicize the processing of Jews should be more nuanced. Perhaps this was true in other parts of Germany. In Berlin, it was not. The Nazis maximized the propaganda value of their control over the Jews to demonstrate to Berliners unmistakably who was in charge. As you say, the Nuremburg Laws were instituted in 1938, stripping Jews of their livelihoods and professions. The results were there for everyone to see. Starting in 1941, the machinery of the deportations was in the open streets from the beginning to the end. Jews from the northern part of the city were marched and humiliated on the streets in large groups to Grünewald in the south. Conversely, Jews from the southern portion of the city were marched through the streets north to Putlitzer Bahnhof. Jews were also collected in large numbers in the very center of the city at the Grosse Hamburger Cemetery and in Levetzow Strasse, before being taken or marched to further transit points. Others were deported from Anhalter Bahnhof, a railway station in the heart of the city. These deportations went on from 1941 until 1943, when the 60,000 Jews left living in Berlin had been forcibly removed. Amidst this display of power, it is understandable that some citizens would be frightened into silence. However, it is a tough case to make that every single Berliner was not aware that these people were facing a very bleak fate indeed. Germans chose not to ask and to turn a blind eye. The question of what did they know about the killing in the death camps is therefore moot. The abject cowardice and inhumanity of the silence of the citizenry--from the early 1930s until the bitter end of the War--made the abject horror of the death camps a foregone conclusion.
This is why better never qualify those events as 'perpetrated by the nazis,' for indeed this is Germany as a whole produced such a result; hence i will qualify those as 'German atrocities.' And yet i love German culture and have kept wondering for decades: how could they go there?
@@archaic9525 a German friend whose parents were in WWII in Germany told me, very sharply, they ALL knew! This was in response to my saying not all of Germans were Nazis and not all knew! He said they ALL supported Hitler and loved him, he said it was like Mass hypnosis, they all knew and approved and supported Hitler! My friend said, he could not understand how or why, but it was so! My response to you is Hate the sin, but love the sinner. I also do not understand how any human being could do or approve if these things, but I can understand love the sinner while hating the sin.
Thanks for your reply.
A friend of my dad told me when they were helping liberate a camp, the locals told them how to get there. He said you could literally smell the camp from a road a mile from the camp. They knew.
I understand. Thanks for sharing.
Great video sir. When I served in W. Germany in the late 80s I had quite a few German friends and I talked to their parents. They all knew. All of the parents said the Gestapo were everywhere and informants too. You could never be too careful speaking anything against the Reich or you would end up in a concentration camp yourself.
Thanks for your comment.
Teachers like him are the reason why history was my favorite class🙏🏻 I’m glad I discovered this channel
Great 👍
I agreeee me tooo !
First of all, dear Prof. from the Netherlands, thank you very much for tackling this important topic the way you did.
Just a few words: I live in Germany and I am 1/2 German. What I observe still today, even in my generation is that people say: I've had enough of this topic and do not wish to hear anything about it any more. Then during the nazi period: people saw the Jews and other people disappear all of the sudden, their flats suddenly empty ( apart from what was openly visible during the Reichskristallnacht-Pogrom).
What I am sad to observe still today in this country is a tendency to overrespect any rule, the rules and abiding by them seems to have a real priority still. I believe that is problematic.
Most nazi felons said: I only carried out orders and it seems to be a perfectly fine excuse for them from their point of view.
Or a certain tendency to complain: We had to suffer as well , we did not have an easy life either, which is completely unproportional and denies reality.
A certain arrogance towards foreigners and towards local people, when they are abroad ("the Germans know best how to do things").
Well, I must admit that I have difficulies with dealing with some traits of the German personality.
When I read about certain people who did not follow the general way of acting during the nazi period, I feel really glad and grateful.
Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Thanks for your reply.
I recently saw the video of 3 german teenagers who handed out leaflets against Hitler and his party.
They were arrested and beheaded.
Both the brother and sister
@@radhasen.animalwelfare.5644 The Scholls. They started, along with some friends, an opposition group called the White Rose. One of their friends had just come home from the eastern front, and told them about the slaughter of the innocents he witnessed. I'm certain that many soldiers, including the SS guarding the camps did the same thing; came home and talked about it. How could they not? Whether it was to their parents, siblings, or spouses, they would have had a need to talk. The public knew what was going on, even if it wasn't exactly clear.
Sorry, Radha, I got off track! Yes, those young people were incredible. They knew the risk, but felt compelled to act. One of the "awful" things they did against the Reich was handing out pamphlets, what dangerous criminals.
So glad I discovered this channel. Your passion for history comes across. Currently working my way through every video you have made.
Awesome, enjoy!!
Yes !!! The same here !! Wonderful Work!
Thank you for addressing this uncomfortable topic and posting this video. Well done.
Thanks for your reply.
I'm reading a great book on this subject: Hilter's beneficiaries. the average German knew..but chose to turn a blind eye because they were benefiting. this great book has shown how the average german benefited from what was looted from Jews and others like French, Poles or Russians
btw... the movie of Judgment at Nuremberg proved that too
good video
Thanks for your reply.
Those trials proved nothing, exept victor's justice.
I'm glad people in this day and age are still asking questions about what happened and not just forgetting about it or not caring. The victims need a voice. The world needs answers.
Thanks for sharing.
My mother came from Germany and I remember a story that she told me about her uncle aged 18 at the time and working on the railway, he was overheard saying “ how would you feel if that was your mother “ so you can guess what this train was carrying , at the end of the day he and his young friend were both found executed, I guess in those days when Hitler said “ jump “ you asked how high
If you did not keep your mouth shut and jumped, you were in a prison or on the next train.
That's were it pretty much came down to.
Was it a case of not knowing, not wanting to know or.....A Society within the Third Riech that prevented them from either? Well thought through and explained. Thank you.
Thanks for commenting 👍
I am not German and do not have a drop of German blood in me or in any member of my family. In fact, if Hitler saw me, he would bark order to his German Shepherd, Blondie, to get that Untermensch out of here. So here is my response to this video:
1) When did Churchill, Roosevelt know about the death camps and the trains carrying the Jews to their final destinations? And what did they do about it? If knowledge of the existence of these death camps was widespread in Germany, I cannot imagine that British and American spy networks in Germany would not have known about these camps.
2) Even if the German civilians knew about the existence of these death camps, what could they do about them? If you had been in the shoes of German civilians, what could or would you have done? Even if it can be proven that knowledge of the existence of these death camps was widespread among the German population, knowing is one thing, being able to do anything about it is something else entirely.
None of the above.
Let's try Option 4:
"History is always written by the victors, and the histories of the losing parties belong to the shrinking circle of those who were there." - Joachim Peiper
@@karllarsen8797 dude if you are not german then why do you live in Germany
@@V-oe9cu
Never have. By the way, how does the location of my abode have any relevance on the issue at hand?
Excellent video Stefan. You certainly do not disappoint with your thoughtful presentation on a most difficult subject. Thank you for keeping the truth out in the open where it belongs.
Much appreciated, Mark!
Hoi Stephan (Stefan?) geweldig hoe je de geschiedenis, hoe verschrikkelijk dan ook, vertaalt in een 10 minuten interessante reis door de tijd. Heb je wat gestuurd via paypal. Keep up the good work!
Hi Johnny. Enorm bedankt voor je donatie 👍
Having spent time in Germany over the last 20-plus years, ( even by accident attending a school lesson in Offenburg and picturing these youngsters faces- i wont go into detail of the objects they were handed-)- it`s still a sensitive subject to even those that were not even born then. Modern Germany, unlike many nations, have faced up to their past misdeeds .Stefan,Sir, you handled this topic in an intelligent, professional ,dignified manner, and most importantly, balanced
@Fock Religion What the US has to do with German crimes? Are you some kind of moral relativist?
They say they have faced it. I am not sure. There is a neo Nazi revival in Germany.
@@patriciabrenner9216 hi Patricia..every country has form,in Germany for the most have faced up to the past unlike many other nations.The neo N*zi revival is occuring in much of Europe.Avd gained 11% last elections,much of it in the formet GDR which has a different historical take on the ww2 period.I dont know where u are from,bur please take alook at your local /national polls to see how ult right parties did
Please, shut up!
@@BaluDerBaer933 thé Time you could order Jews around is past
Glad there are still people like you Prof. that will not let us forget what happened in that God awful war! Thank you Prof.
Thanks!!
Sadly he doesn't seem to notice parallels with what is happening in the world today th-cam.com/video/DvEAnPp4FiE/w-d-xo.html
@@pspears4741, yep.
Great job on the closed captions, much appreciated.
Interesting content thank you. Just so people know there were specific death camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka but there were many more labor camps. Absolutely the Germans knew about it as anyone against the war effort could be sent German or not. My grandfather was a political prisoner sent to labor camp in Austria. Although the Jews were primarily affected there was many Russians, and other Europeans.
To which labor camp in Austria did the German-Hitlerite occupying forces send your grandfather during the war? Can you mention the name of the labor camp or the location of the labor camp?
@@GabrielKruize2003 he was in a few but liberated from Matthausen-Ebensee
Thanks for replying!
@@novadhd Glad to hear your grandfather was liberated, and thanks for sharing his story.
You’re a very interesting historian/teacher.
Thanks for watching.
It also should be mentioned that by the time of the Russian campaign the SS had gained control over all police organizations in Germany. As a result many of the Einsatzgruppen consisted of reserve police battalions full of middle aged family men not young fanatical Nazis as were found in the Waffen SS formations. The men of the reserve police battalions certainly shared their experiences with many people back in Germany and were sometimes troubled by the atrocities they were involved in even if they ultimately carried out their so-called 'duty'. Chris Brownings book "Ordinary Men" is a great overview of this.
Also the belief that the regular German army wasn't involved with the final solution is another big falsehood. Just look at the actions of the German 6th army is the Belaya Tserkov massacre. The wehrmacht went in, separated the Jews from the regular population, put the stars of David on them, then handed them over to the SS, gave them ammunition and supplied guards for the massacre.
@@MattRichardsonX They had been somewhat involved yes, but the Wehrmacht had also opposed the Schutzstaffel quite a bit. Many of the Wehrmacht men also did not have a choice - the SS signed up for it.
Ordinary Men is a good book.
@@kaiserin7814 Not much of a difference between Waffen SS and the Wehrmacht. Neither were responsible for the final solution but both participated in it.
This is an outstanding presentation of a difficult topic; a must watch for all
👌👌👌
Nah, not too difficult. Maybe for you clown.
I want to congratulate you on doing an excellent, informative, and vital video in the most caring and sensitive way possible! You really showed true concern for the victims! Many of my family perished in these camps and the survivors are unable to talk about what they experienced! My friend's mother was hidden in Berlin by a caring gentile couple throughout the entire war! She survived because of that courageous couple! You always do great and truthful videos keep up the good work!
Many thanks for your reply. Sorry about your family.
I was lucky that my grandparents lived long. Two of them were supporting the Nazis. This grandfather remained to be a Nazi till he died in the 1980s. Whenever I got a gift from him, as a child, it was military stuff like toy-submachine guns. Whenever he made political statements, some hatred against the jews was involved. The other grandma and grandpa were the opposite and completely against the Nazis. A sister of this grandma was arrested because of some agitation against the party, she was also Jehova's witness and it was a tricky thing to get her out of jail before deportation. In the time of the 3rd Reich this grandma was in her 30s. She was very aware of the deportations and that there must have been awful conditions at the camps and in the east in general. But she knew nothing about the killings. Of course she could imagine that many people probably would die there, but she had no idea about industrial murdering in these camps. There is another thing one should know. Although many many soldiers must have known more (but by far not all of them) - they simply didn't talk about the war! The husband of another sister of my grandma (who was against the Nazis) had a quite rare fate. Fighting at Stalingrad he was taken as prisoner and survived the camps in Sibiria. I thing only 5000 or 8000 German soldiers returned from that places. He also was one of the last 10.000 soldiers send back to Germany after some intervention of Adenauer. Because of the divorce of my mother I lived at his family for roundabout 6 month. "Erich" did't waste a single word about his story at Stalingrad and in the camps. Nothing. He was a rigorous person but kindhearted. I didn't know his story when I lived there as a child and sometimes I was wondering about his behave. At dinner he covered his plate with one arm while eating very fast with the other hand. I had the idea that he even doesn't chew potatoes or so, just gulp them down. He also got enraged when I sometimes refused to eat because I didn't like the meal. Well, from all I heard from my grandparents I have to say: This discussion makes not really sense. There were guilty Germans because they supported the system and the party. They always knew that they are guilty! Other Germans were disgusted by what the Nazis did. But most of them never had the chance to change a single thing.
good to hear your story
You're right. If a person supported the party, then some guilty is involved.
And many people did not accept the defeat and specially the Russian occupation. Those feelings must have been complex.
Question....did your the grandparents who supported the Nazi's ever say why they did? Was it to do with many jews being communist?
I have heard many various insight into this.....I would love to know their reasons why.
From doing some research on Hitler his hatred towards jews seemed to stem from the fact that many jews were communist and that he believed that they wanted to destroy Germany and exterminate the German people. I think this stemmed from the fact that he knew he HAD to have know what the jewish bolsheviks did to the ethnic Christians in the former Soviet Union. Many many jews were communist especially when you look at their percentage of the population in Russia and they made up the majority of Lenin/Stalin's government. During their communist reign they genocided, tortured, worked to death (in concentration camps - Gulags) tens of millions of people. He knew he had to have known and I think if there were many communist jews in Germany it drove what he did to them. It was wrong no one deserves this.....but neither did the russians.
With the World Economic Forum - lead by a prominent jew - Klaus Scwab and their goal of worldwide communism...."You will own nothing and be happy" tagline . I suspect the world government will be headed by jews. It is becoming pretty obvious to many. For these jews who are inherently evil .....they WILL lose in the end. I suspect there are jews of course who have no idea or do not support this but that said ....their Talmud does say that they believe all non jews are meant to be their slaves.....and the jews are meant to rule over them.
@@banker1313 apologist, history revisionist
@@alexlanning712 Not an apologist, what Hitler did was terrible....he judged jews as a collective rather than as individuals. He saw them as a collective threat. We see this today with the demonizing of white people and the Dem's revisionist history they are trying to have taught in the schools. Why you ask? well the US provides the most freedoms of any country in this world and for worldwide communism to take root it needs to be destroyed and right now the Dem's are trying to do this internally.
A revisionist in what way? LOL
What happened in the former Soviet Union by the communists (and yes many were jewish...as Putin himself acknowledged) those are facts my friend. Those who support communism of course want to hide these facts. Those at the World Economic Forum don't want people to realize that the rainbows and utopia they are trying to "sell" to people is really a lie it is world wide communism run by a wealthy elite group who will dictate everything about your life....you will have no freedoms to speak of.
Mooi Sefan,en dapper dat je deze episodes verteld.ze mogen niet vergeten worden vooral in tijden van onstabiliteit zoals nu.
Dankjewel (had ik vroeger maar zo,n geschiedenis leraar als jij).
Hoi Harry, enorm bedankt voor je complimenten!
Well whatever the Austrians knew they seem to have forgotten.
This guy was half Jewish! Do people really believe that all Jews were worried about one another? Friedrich Alexander Maria "Fritz" Mandl (9 February 1900 - 8 September 1977) was chairman of Hirtenberger Patronen-Fabrik, a leading Austrian armaments firm founded by his father, Alexander Mandl.
The Wöllersdorfer cartridge factory, from October 1933, the site of the holding camp Wöllersdorf
A prominent fascist, Mandl was attached to the Austrofascism and Italian varieties and an opponent of Nazism. In the 1930s he became close to Prince Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, the commander of the Austrian nationalist militia ("Heimwehr"), which he furnished with weapons and ammunition.[1] He inherited the weapons factory from his father, Alexander Mandl, which was used to help equip Hitler's Germany. Until 1940, Mandl tried to maintain contact with Hermann Göring's office in order to supply Germany with iron.[2]
?
🤣 hmm?
Most unrepentant excuse makers of the post war period. Austrians actually claim to have been victims of the Germans.
@@alswann2702 Never ask a woman her age, a man his salary, or an Austrian what he did during the war.
My father, a Pole from Poznan, was a member of the First Transport to Auschwitz in June 1940. Nazi German atrocities are an unfathomable history and I must say for an 18 minute presentation, you have done this very well.
Thanks for your reply, Robert.
The poles were murdering German ex-patriates by the tens of thousands when Germany reclaimed its stolen territory from Poland.
I live across the road from a very nice 97 y/o German-American woman, loved her. She passed away Dec. 2019. We spoke often, especially about WWII. As an American born, she and her family travelled back and forth to Germany. On one of their trips they couldn’t leave, this was in the 1940’s. Upon my inquiry she stated she and her family “did not know what was happening to the people of the Jewish faith.” I doubted very much she was being truthful. She told me how she and a cousin went to a grocery store with ration coupons, she saw a man who looked very poor with tattered clothes. She states she purposely dropped a food coupon near him, he picked it up and gave her a weak smile. I believe they knew, they just chose to look the other way.
Thanks for sharing this.
I know a story from my relatives i dont know anymore the exact relation i have to them. Anyways he was a construction engineer and there was an air attack at or near Bremen 1944. A concentration camp was hit, if I remember it correct it was "just" a so called Durchgangslager/transition camp, that means a camp where people from France or Benelux stayed for a short while before being send to the death camps. He had to go there and help to repair the camp. He came back home pale white and could not eat for days. After 2 weeks he told his wife what he saw and said not to tell their children, children talk a lot and if they talk the whole family could end up there as well. So they decided to be silent, to survive instead of being heroic, probably like many others.
Nazis knew how to seed fear, it is one thing to risk your own life, but another to destroy the lifes of your loved ones and even friends as well especially when the chance of successful opposition is minimal to non existent.
So a coward.
@@patriciabrenner9216 ...easy said - in hindsight...!
...try to put yourself into his situation...!
@@Packless1 Easy to side with murderers... as they did.
@@patriciabrenner9216 I can recommend an interesting youtube series called War Against Humanity if you are interested especially episode WAH 044 "Resist, collaborate, die". Unfortunately posts with links get deleted.
It is a complex topic, most people not only in Germany chose collaborate or at best to turn their back on the victims, to answer it with cowards, as understandable as it is from the victims point of view, is far too simple for me.
@@patriciabrenner9216 -Judgmental much?
Not trashing or anything but your English at the beginning sounded like you were carefully considering the pronunciation of every word before you spoke it.
Again I'm not complaining or saying it's bad, just that I noticed and could only think. I don't know any Dutch and can't imagine narrating a twenty minute video fluently in the language. I do imagine that if I did I'd actually be considering the pronunciation of every word. Thank you for the educational video and insightful look into a lesser known perspective of the Holocaust and respect for learning an entire new language and making this video that much more accessible to the world.
I do my best, thanks for your reply.
It was a taboo subject because speaking out against it could land you in a camp alongside the "undesirables". Some vocal opponents like Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were even guillotined. One can get a good understanding of what went on by studying Martin Niemöller, the prominent Lutheran pastor and his personal journey towards redemption.
less than a few hundred protested out of a population of 60 million plus.
@@ralphvon283 Hey there what do you think was German soldiers mail opened and censored? That happened to mail from G.I.'s sent back home. Ask yourself would you have joined the Weiße Rose? "First they came for the socialists" would that have included you, perhaps?
The question here isn’t whether they should have spoken out against it. The question is whether they knew,
@sam's club As do you Sam. You are no different.
@@ralphvon283 What's less than a few hundred? A few dozen? Ridiculous assertion. Ralph Von Hoch Oben.... Germany got played in a political struggle between Capitalism and Communism that rages on 'til this day.
A struggle between individual freedom and the collective good. Thousands of Germans were killed and thousands more put in concentration camps among them Freemasons, Communists, Socialists, Trade Unionists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Protestants, and many others.
Thank you. You've explained this in great detail with sources to back things up. Please don't stop teaching!
Thanks for your reply.
Props man, you make subtitles actually worth reading. Youd answer all my micro questions without me needing to ask them. VERY accessible.
Thanks for your reply!
Really compelling, very sad, stark realization of the evil of extremism. Excellent as usual Stefan. Thanks and cheers. And yes NEVER forget history!
Thank you, Otis!
@Sam Stoker I agree. And the fact it’s *Austria* that has made unvaccinated people into second class citizens/making a law to lock them away, while a large population of Austrians cheer it on is very very disturbing. Oh and Germany plans to do the same soon… then the UK is thinking about it too. Dark times we are in.
@@undeadwerewolves9463 The Netherlands are on it too..the 2G law. It means you can't get a QR code when you are not vaccinated. Even if you do a test and the result of the test is negative, you cannot get the code. You need a QR code to enter restaurants, cinema's, museums etc.
Nah, not too compelling. Relax fool.
@@gtrulez proves it not about health at all. They want us to get used to the idea that an app determines what you can and can't do because that's our future
probably one of the best videos ive seen on youtube. Youve handled this very difficult topic with deference and skill. thank you
Thanks. Working on follow-ups now.
I completely don't understand why this video would be demonitized. Thank you for such an educational and tactful video.
Thanks for watching.
You're sharing a reading of history in a novel way and dealing with often neglected topics. Teacher to teacher - well done, all the best 👍🏼
Thank you for replying.
We toured Dachau in 1965 and Yad Vashim in 1982. At an Isreali kibbutz we met short elderly women with fading series of numbers on their forearms .
I'm a daughter of a German, who lived in Germany during WWII and asked my father many times if he knew what was happening with the jews people during that time and he denied to know it. I thought he didn't know because he was a child, but after some years I went to Germany so as to work, live and meet the rest of the family (we live in South America) and his cousin (same age) told me that they something knew and there were worries because their grandma, who was jewish and they all lived together. Thanksfully nothing bad happen to her, she died pacefully while sleeping in her bed at the right time. You can imagine I've many questions yet, sadly most of them are now dead. Thank you for let the people know what was happen, the horrors, the cruelty, the injustified atrocities jews had to endure.
Thanks for sharing this.
I was in Germany in the 80's and a cab driver took a bunch of us around, showing us sights. He was asked if Germans knew about the death camps and he said it was common knowledge, but just not acknowledged.
Could be true yes.
I'm swedish and work with old people in health care, and met several survivors who moved here after the war. After so many decades, I still saw an extreme fear in their eyes when they first saw me - I'm really tall, 180cm female, and very blonde and blue eyed... it shook me that their first reaction, after so many years, was fear to see someone who must have reminded them 😢. I wrote my papers while studying history at the university about racial biology and hygiene in Sweden before the war, and it's stunning to realise the close relationship between German and swedish 'scientists', and how much we taught Germans in racial science. That's almost never mentioned in Sweden or in swedish schools.
I currently have a patient, german, who was 16 when the war ended... We talked about her experience during ww2, and, of course, no one knew anything about the holocaust, but the worst part of the entire war was after the war and what happened to Germans and how they were treated...
Most people knew enough for not wanting to know more.
Pretty much yeah.
@ger du Nobody new? You should rewatch Stefan’s presentation.
I think it's a bit of both combined with basically only knowing rumors which usually are not the most trustworthy source so you usually don't take those seriously. Then the people also where in war with half the world so your main thoughts might be with your family on the frontline or in the cities that get bombed and survival itself and well a huge problem also is that humans tend to forget what they don't see. Like for example we all know about afghanistan and how fucked it is now because of our incompetence but do we even think about it or ask questions after a while? I don't think so, even media seems to have forgotten about afghanistan and it will stay forgotten until some unfortunate event reminds us that it even existed. I mean we have corona these days which is what affects us all personally and our thoughts are kinda forced on this topic since it is everywhere while afghanistan is a thing from the past and far away. We simply don't think about it and probably also don't want to think about it since the dramatic pictures we had in media for a few weeks where enough for us. At least this is my primitive attempt of understanding such a complex situation and compare it with unfortunate events we have these days.
And what do you think of the video?
@@HistoryHustle excellent quality like always! And also very actual sadly. Like now with ukraine we see again that people only care about what they see permanently. Like Ukraine was in war for years but we in the west only noticed it once again when the russian invasion was in the news. I actually wonder how much the russian people know about the current conflict considering the propaganda. Overall it's just a tragedy what happens in history and even today. It's scary to think how easy it must be to manipulate people and the results of that. It's sad that we can't have peace in europe. Like corona is not dead yet and we already have cold war 2...
in September 1982 my wife and I and two other couples from home (NY) visited Munich primarily to go to the Oktoberfest as we had done a few times before. Well, one lazy day we got to talking and the subject of the Kamps came up. We talked about visiting one as in all the times we had been to this part of Germany (Bavaria) we had not done that. Some of us didn't want to get depressed and just have a jolly time on our vacations, but most of us wanted to go to one nearby if there was one. It happens that Dachau is nearby.
We got some advice as to what direction to go and rented a Meitwagon (rental car). We drove (I drove) to Dachau, which is the name of the town, not only the Kamp.
As we got nearer the Kamp we saw signs in German and English (a great rarity in Germany) saying that the Kamp was this way or that way. We all expected that we would be soon out in the country where we imagined such a grim, terrible place would be.
Then we saw a sign telling us to turn right and we did. In a moment we were there at the grey-walled Kamp, in the middle of the town of Dachau. Not in the country or even on the outskirts, but in the very middle of town with roads on all four sides, sidewalks and all.
We were dumbfounded. What? This is the famous Dachau Konzentrationslager? Here? In the town where anyone could drive or walk past it?
Yes.
There were large multiple openings in the wall to let air blow in and out, I suppose. You could see inside through them and hear what was going on inside as well. You might think, "Well, the town has grown up around this place and it was actually out in the woods or something back in the day."
No.
How do I know this?
Once inside, the old Nazi administrative offices had been turned into a museum for tourists. We were told that people from the town had worked there in various secretarial and clerical jobs. There was an enlarged copy of an aerial photo of the Kamp made in the late '30s. It was clear and sharp (the Germans are nothing if not technically adept). It showed the same roads with cars from that time on them, people walking on the same sidewalks, all going about their ordinary business. You could see the roofs of many of the same buildings that are still there and the town all around it. That's how I know.
I had the most harrowing afternoon of my life, complete with "visions" and the "sounds" of snarling, barking dogs, prisoners in rags disembarking from the cattle cars at the tracks behind the Kamp, indistinguishable German being shouted, people crying, screaming in pain and well, you know.
What did the Germans know about the Death Kamps?
You tell me.
Thanks for your reply.
"What did the Germans know about the Death Kamps?
You tell me."
I anwer that question in the video. Perhaps watch the video first and comment afterwards.
@@HistoryHustle I did. I asked the question generically, not specifically to you, who does know.
From what my grandparents told, I know that people suspected what was going on in the Reich, but knew nothing concrete, and that it was better not to ask too many questions about Jewish neighbours or friends who had "moved to the East" and were never heard from again. No Aryan German wanted to expose himself by asking questions or make himself suspicious to the neighbourhood, which was all ears with GESTAPO informers. The better-educated Germans, however, knew that "resettlement" = killing, but admitting this was dangerous and was considered to be defiling one's nest. So they didn't do it, and after the war and the end of Nazi rule they had more important things to do and suppressed the "resettlement" of Jews or unpopular Germans in their consciousness and in the post-war media. It was only the left-red '68ers who dragged the topic into the public eye.
Tbh that's the only good thing the left will ever do in its life
@Mik: thanks for your reply.
Interesting piece. Imagine yourself as a German citizen hearing rumours and whispers about what was happening in the east. What rules your silence? Disbelief? Or the certain knowledge that if you speak out you’ll share a Jewish Fate? I, for one, do not apportion blame to the vast majority of the German people in their time. Germany was a very different place. Fear and self-preservation were powerful motivators, just as they are in today’s tyrannical regimes.
@Torontoboy45 good JOKE. Do you want to say GERMANS were slaves of Adolf Hitler? Whole GERMANS were ROTTEN.
Yes this is the issue. The video doesn’t address, without doubt rumours would have been swirling around Germany…. but what is the truth? what is the penalty for asking too many questions? What if your neighbours are gestapo informants? What if you buy into the idea of racial superiority, but don’t necessarily believe that leads to the murder of “ inferiors “?….. this issue has been oversimplified by commentators and historians
They put Hitler in power; read Mein Kampf. Of course, I feel almost the same way about Trump though not quite.
Mate you forget that there was no movement against the camps because nobody really cared tbh, pretty much all the western world was anti semitic, there was a study during ww2 that found that in america 55% of people thought jews should be governed by a different set of laws and standards to other Americans because they were viewed as second class citizens or some shit. Ill have to look up but the allies knew from the start of the war.
The germans had been indoctrinated against the jews from before hitler even became the fuhrer.
Everyone knew about the camps. Everybody turned a blind eye.
Ignorance and apathy.
@@rlkinnard Hitler was not democratically elected…. so who is “they”
Thank you so much for actually talking about what the Germans knew. There are so many videos out there that are titled "What the Germans Knew" then spend only 4 minutes out of a 20 minute video talking about it ..
Thanks for watching.
“There are none so blind as those who will not see”
Interesting quote.
Great vídeo with the proper tone. Never forget.
Thank you, Miguel, never forget.
Great video! And props for giving sources, that's not a given on TH-cam.
Thanks for watching.
Yes,not such a pleasant subject matter, but you have covered this well,Stefan....Let nobody forget what occurred during the Holocaust...
About 15 years ago a high school friend of mine moved to Germany, he asked his history teacher why they don’t speak about what happened and he wasn’t even able to get an answer… His teacher just said “never speak of that, we don’t speak of that here”…. Crazy crazy times but America is no better, we have quite a few things that we don’t speak of either… but it was interesting to learn this first hand
No they don’t speak of that and they should. History repeats all the time
Well I am German went to school in the nineties. And we talked about it. I do not know, how it is today, though.
yes no on talks of this sad things that happened to humans... it is totally disgusting to think that with all these people in towns near buy they could not do something.... Just like what is going on today in America... people dont want to talk about the problems of what the president is doing to trash our country and all the democratic party is destroying our constitution.
@@katieorear493 You're insane.
@@katieorear493 Let's Go Brandon.
Good job mate, very good presentation.
Thank you, Neil!
This should be interesting. I'm curious as how it coincides with what I've been told by people that lived through that period in Germany or who had connections with them here...as in my grandfather.
Hope you found the video interesting.
When I was a history major at Boston College I became close to a German language professor. He once stated to me over coffee that he knew about the Holocaust as a teenager and followed by saying that if a German ever said they didn't know that they were a liar. There is much more to the conversation but his blunt response still hangs with me to this day.
Interesting to read. Thanks for sharing this.
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen wrote his doctoral thesis which he then turned into a book called "Hitler's Willing Executioners...Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust" It speaks of the fact that there were 17 camps spread throughout Germany and that most people were connected with the camps by either working there or helping out...or living right near a camp. He says that everyone, to a smaller or greater extent, was involved and that if anyone denies this, they are LYING.
I also read another book, which name escapes me, that when Martin Luther's religion was accepted in Germany many years before, there was a collective consciousness of something called "Elimination Theory" meaning that the idea of totally annihilating the Jews was no longer anathema...so that when hitler, yemach shemo, may his name be ERASED!, came along and did what he did, the German people were more than willing and able to join in the fun!
this was a really well done video! up there with the quality of the bigger channels 👌
Many thanks for replying.
I had a German friend who escaped East Germany just before the wall went up.
He told me as a little boy he lived in a tiny village not far from Buchenwald. He was forbidden by his parents to go anywhere near the camp.
Typically, he and some friends approached the camp, and could smell, what he said, a smell like "roasted pork"....
On returning home,he was thrashed by his father. It was a climate of fear that kept the indigenous German population in check.
Better not to think or know...The truth.
Interesting to read, thanks for sharing.
“Climate of fear”…..sounds very familiar since 2020.
I’m sorry but the number one priority of Germans as a nation should first and foremost be to remember and vow to never allow it to happen. Everything else is secondary. If they have to go to war, they go to war. Something like this cannot be conveniently washed away just by having children or the children having children.
My father was in the United States military, and I lived in West Germany for most of elementary school. Although I went to an American School, most of my teachers were of German descent. As children, we were often asked to answer back in unison why we were in Germany, and the right answer was "NATO", without any sort of dive into the actual meaning behind it, and the Holocaust was strangely absent from all of our lessons. Something that is burned into my memory to this day, is noticing that one of my favorite teachers, who was still a relatively young woman in the late '80s / early 90s had what I later knew to be an Auschwitz tattoo on her arm. I am grateful that my parents took such an interest in educating us about the world, otherwise I could have left that country without knowing anything about the horrors that occurred there less than 50 years before.
Thanks for sharing this.
Hello, thank you very much for this content. Do you have any recommendation on more content in this matter? Like, what the business, profession people know and what happened to the houses, and belongings of the victims ¿?? Thank you
Thanks for your reply.
Excellent video! Great teacher! Thought I'd heard everything about the Holocaust until today! Subscribed.
Hi Sarah, welcome to the channel!
Newly Subscribed. Thank you for being thorough with this video. I am a Jew and grew up with limited knowledge of the Holocaust. My parents did not want to ever discuss it. I have looked into it many times. I know that the Soviet Union persecuted Jewish people in the past, but did not know of the numbers that were sent to be killed. This gave me a deeper understanding of the Holocaust.
Welcome to the channel. If you are interested in it, here I have a video about the Jewish Oblast created by the Soviets in the 1930s which still exists today. I recorded it on location:
th-cam.com/video/8g2eT6OGjfA/w-d-xo.html
Soviets persecuted everyone but their persecution of Jews doesnt even come close to what the Germans did to the Jews in Poland.
There is no way they didn’t know, didn’t smell burning flesh. The fear of the same happening to them, I imagine played a large roll in them “ not knowing”. It takes a lot of courage to stand against evil when it arises but not standing up against it and maybe even being a part of it in the beginning, allowed Hitler and his government to perform the atrocities they did and get away with them.
People sometimes have the tendency to reply before watching the video. I don't get this. Most of the time they share over-simplifications that contribute next to nothing to the topic discussed. Please watch the video if you haven't seen it already and share your thoughts on it afterwards. Thank you.
This was such a brilliant examination of the evidence. Unbiased. Detailed. Mark Felton quality. Subscribed.
Many thanks, Idrissa. Welcome to the channel!
I'm Jewish (American born, Hungarian-Russian descent). Thank you for this excellent video.
Thank you for your reply. Recently I also made a video about the brave Jewish parachutists. In case you're interested:
th-cam.com/video/QqnKpCARs7Y/w-d-xo.html
On your background map the description ´Nordirland´ is written across the centre of England. Why ?
This German map gives the name of the whole country: "England and Northern Ireland". The letters of the latter word ended up over England.
Thank you for your very important work.
Thanks for your reply.
I’m Swedish and I’ve never heard the story of the diplomat. So sick of how my country constantly tries to sweep its mistakes under the rug.
Thanks for your reply.
@@HistoryHustle No matter how much you try to hide a secret, it will come out sooner or later 😉. Just my opinion folks 🙋🏽.
@@romecottrell4558 true. Bro there is nothing that can be hidden under the sun. In one way or the other, facts will come out. Even if you were alone at the place. God is mysterious in it's ways.
From the stories, it is clear even those who were committing the things were self incriminating out of guilt by sharing some experiences with their families. Human blood is dangerous. You can't kill innocent people more so babies and expect peace. Germans made a big mistake here. I even wonder how they expected to win the war with such inhumane industrial atrocities. God wouldn't have allowed that for certain
Great video! It’s really hard to tell but were you born with a cleft? I was born with one and just had my 29th surgery. I always get excited when I meet people with it as it’s not common where I’m from.
I was born with one yes. I had also many surgeries, last one was 17 years ago. I didn't have as many as you had. Hope you're doing well. Take care 👍
My father was a war correspondent, employed by the SS. He always said he didn't know. But today I wonder, how could he not, as a journalist covering the various fronts, know about this? Sadly, he is not alive anymore, so I can't ask him. I believe he knew.
Hello Rita, thanks for sharing. What can you tell us about his experiences? How did he reflect on the war after it was over.
@@HistoryHustle for years he refused to talk about the war. He’d leave the room the moment someone brought it up. It was only much later that he’d comment, but always just briefly. But he did say he did not know.
As someone who is interested in history well done this was great video
Thanks for your reply.
My dad,a war correspondent,got permission from general Patton to get the surrounding villagers to walk through daccha camp...The pictures he took are horrific
Your Dad is very important to our History...
Indeed.
@John: thanks for sharing.
New sub here! Thank you for educating me on a a couple of things I didn't know.
Rest In Peace to All who were murdered
Welcome to the channel!
This video *HAS* to be seen by every student in History class.
Thank you, feel free to share of course :)
@1:27 why do those tanks have a cross on them that looks like the cross on the Swiss flag? Just curious.
Good question, I'm not sure.
My family is German and we still know many families in Germany and I remember my older relatives talking about how everyone in the closer towns knew exactly what was going on. Even some of my relatives are guilty of this. I had relatives in the us army in ww2 and two in the German army. They knew what was going on and a lot of the time they personally knew people it was happening to as they used to be neighbors
These people who think this didn’t happen are really naive. Open your eyes!!! Just wait until it happens again with the unV.
I'm sure many whom lived surrounding area knew, but not in every corner of Germany, like everyone seems to portray. So, no not everyone knew. Or do you know what atrocities are going on in the "NC State" Prisons right now too? It's the exact same example. There's inmates being beaten, raped, sodomized. Mail is being withheld, telephone calls cut short, educational books not permitted in some and much more atrocities. Some get killed and it's never mentioned at all. "RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE" and that's in TODAY'S World. A lot of people speak about Nazi's doing what they did back then, and have it going on right now in their own State in the USA. If you disagree with Naziism then be an advocate for Prisoner Rights RIGHT NOW!
If your relatives said anything different in Germany, they'd be arrested. Offenkundigkeit, you know.
@@BasementEngineer if they said anything other than what??? They talked about how it happened around them and people knew so what would you be arrested over? I think you mean a lot of people deny it happening?
@@AlanpittsS2b Sorry if I wasn't clear.
In Germany today one cannot openly question the common narrative of the holocaust. In the German judiciary this is termed Offenkundingkeit, roughly meaning "everyone knows that this happened and the courts accept this as proven fact."
German lawyer Silvia Stolz tried to introduce evidence that this Offenkundigkeit was far from correct. She was held in contempt and sentenced to prison.
Right now 90+ year old grandmothers are in prison for doubting the narrative proffed herein.
The very idea that questioning a narrative, and the attempt to produce evidence calling that narrative in question, resulting in prison sentences, ought to be enough to seriously question that narrative.