EerieVon
Member
The general population of Germany has nothing to feel ashamed for. The genocide that was committed was done so by a very small percentage of the population, and members of the SS--for the most part. The average Heinz on the street had little or no knowledge of what was truly happening. The population thought it was a mass resettlement to the east territories--the SS even went so far as to send postcards from relatives that were incarcerated in concentration camps. And up until the break of the war the jews were being relocated to Palestine (until British warships starting turning away the freighters under the threat of force) and to what ever county would take them. It wasnt until half way through the war that the policy shifted from forced relocation to the government general of Poland to mass extermination. As far as the war is concerned, you have to keep in mind the political perspective of the times--the recent loss of WWI, the Versailles Treaty which stripped Germany of a great deal of land and the ability to have a proper armed forces. The utter failure of the Weimar Republic. The war (up until the invasion of Poland) had been more or less about reclaiming lost territory and respect