30,000+ people all echoing this fucked up idea that in a society where there were TENS OF THOUSANDS of places where MILLIONS of people who had been publicly demonized, dehumanized, and segregated from the rest of society for OVER A DECADE were systematically forced into servitude and prostitution, sterilized, experimented upon, tortured, and killed—where MILLIONS OF HUMAN BEINGS simply disappeared from society, neighborhoods being completely emptied in cities or entire villages disappearing almost entirely, being marched through cities and towns all over the place in plain sight of civilians into camps, never to come out again—that in this society NOBODY KNEW WHAT HAPPENED…
NOBODY KNEW WHAT HAPPENED when it was literally EVERYWHERE. Where it was almost impossible to avoid encountering clear evidence of the fact that it was happening, including encountering the PEOPLE who were being imprisoned and tortured and murdered. When it was enshrined in law, discussed in that country’s media. WHEN THE REST OF THE WORLD HAD A PRETTY GOOD IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON, despite not being close enough to SMELL THE ROTTING BODIES.
It would have required thousands, TENS OF THOUSANDS, of people to do all the horrible things that happened to MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS of people during the reign of the Nazi regime. This went on for A DECADE. It wiped out MILLIONS. How many were charged with rounding people up, clearing out neighborhoods, transporting people, carrying out medical experiments, torturing people, enforcing servitude, running brothels, and actively engaged in torturing and murdering people, then disposing of the bodies?
HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU THINK WERE INVOLVED IN THIS? And do you think it’s possible that their families and friends had no idea what they did all day? That it was somehow a secret? That the millions of people who lived near the 42,500 camps and prisons where these people were slave labor or being sterilized, raped, tortured, and murdered were somehow completely ignorant of the fact that millions of people in their midst were being systematically rounded up, funneled into these facilities, and then NEVER COMING OUT? When allied soldiers came into these communities and the smell of death was everywhere for MILES, do you honestly think it’s possible that no one knew or at least suspected?
NO. FUCKING. WAY.
I know we want to believe that most people aren’t capable of horrible fucking things, but the truth is, they are. What the Holocaust should teach all of us is that normal people can do terrible things to other human beings with strikingly little encouragement. Hitler and top Nazi officials were not the only bad guys here. It wasn’t a lot of innocent people quietly going along with something they didn’t fully understand, nobly fighting for their country without knowing what their country was doing to people.
Fuck all of you. Watching people say “I love this!” to this shit, like it’s so great that we can finally relieve ourselves of concern over the idea that millions of people were in on the Holocaust and did jackshit about it, probably even SUPPORTED it, with some convenient fucking bullshit about how “THEY DIDN’T KNOW.”
The evidence is overwhelming. They did know.How could they not? It was all around them. Millions of people disappeared from their society, and it was well publicized. Maybe people didn’t know the full extent of what was happening, but it was no secret that Jewish people, people with disabilities, people who were homosexual, Romani people, and a whole host of other desirables were being systematically REMOVED from society and executed. It was in the papers. It was happening next door. Hell, thousands of them had to be directly involved just to maintain an operation of that magnitude.
SHUT THE FUCK UP about how GERMANS DIDN’T KNOW. They did. It’s just after the fact, nobody wanted to cop to the shit they let happen on their watch because they thought it was perfectly okay until someone walked in and got photographic evidence. Until they were shamed before the entire world. Those assholes covering their faces? Did it never occur to you that that’s not horror but SHAME? EMBARRASSMENT? That their glorious fucking Aryan nation was exposed to all the world for the horrors they perpetrated.
The idea that no one knew is so much ridiculous fucking bullshit, I can’t even handle it. It may be comforting, but it sure as hell isn’t reality.