Found this editorial on my daily News runs for WW2, The good Germans<br><br> - Haaretz - Israel News Thoughts? I think it's bogus, it seems to want to downplay the contributions made by the German Resistance and instead "up play" the pro Nazi movements which seem to be greatly exaggerated by the writer. I would like to know where they got this figure. Funny, last I heard the Nazi's were one of the most unpopular political parties in Germany for most of their campaign whose popularity partially rose when they came to power through "various means", enough to say the majority simply backed them? Probably not. Even then, how do you define something like that? Had it not been for the resistance movements people within Germany may not have gotten word on the true extent of things such as the Holocaust, conditions on the fronts, etc since the only source of news was from the propaganda wing of the party! On the Allied side of things, the partisan movements were vital to help end the war sooner. I'm sure many Wehrmacht and S.S. veterans who fought on the Eastern Front would love to chat with the writer about the "benefits" of partisian groups. And later, Right... After the Night of Broken Glass Germany became polarized, there were people who were indeed antisemetic but not enough to physically attack Jews, their property, etc. There were those who weren't antisemetic and there were those who of course enjoyed what had happened. There was a public outcry over these events, simply put, people wanted answers. At this point people joined the resistance movement, they may not have joined the larger groups but smaller less organized forms did exist, some of which worked to shelter Jews for the Gestapo. German resistance to Nazism was strong long before the Final Solution ever came into play. Hell, there was resistance before the Nazi's even came into power! (fully?) Or what about groups like Edelweisspiraten, children, teenagers, etc who probably had little to no comprehension of what was happening inside Concentration Camps, the Eastern Front, etc. Jewish resistance wasn't even touched on, nearly 200,000 Germans with some form of Jewish blood (either half or full) joined the Wehrmacht, S.S., etc, some even had positions higher up in the party. Why? Some of them claimed they did it simply to show how bogus Nazi ideology was, "anything a "true German" can do a Jewish German can do as well". (paraphrased quote of course) And, Why do people try to downplay contributions made by German soldiers, military personnel, etc when it came to saving victims of the Holocaust or objecting to Nazism? I guess you have to have either been a martyr or doing something that could have gotten you killed to be a "hero" in the eyes of the world, at least according to the author(s)... "Heroes" stand up for those of us who can't, if people honestly expect that for a nation or group of people to oppose something they all need to pick up arms like some sort of Viking civilization... The author only mentions 3 or 4 groups/people who were part of the resistance, uses a hindsight bias, makes some outrages claims with little proof to back it up, etc. The unfortunate part is people will read it and take it for fact or walk away only to use the "knowledge" another day. I die a bit inside when I see such revisionist or blatantly one sided material written about World War 2, peoples contributions, etc. Thoughts? It seems the author of the book is talking about how the Holocaust had an impact on German Resistance or the will to do something. The writer of the linked article seems to have written a rebuttal arguing no one wanted to help Jews.
