Goldhagen
argued that ordinary German citizens were willing to kill Jews because of
Anti-semitism. However, the existence of exterminate camp, which were built to
exterminate Jews, make contradiction in his theory. If ordinary German citizens
were really willing to kill Jews, then why did Nazi make exterminate camp that industrialized
exterminate progress? Furthermore, then why did Nazi regime tried to conceal
the existence of exterminate camp and the final solution to German citizens? German
regime tried to censor the mails between German and Jews to conceal the
existence of exterminate camp. Although many German heard the rumor about the
final solution, they believed that such things couldn’t happen in the civilized
nation.
The ones who were involved in crime weren’t free of the guilty. For
example, according to historian Konrad Kwiet, the Germans who were involved in
mass killing in Eastern Front went out to drink after the killing not to
celebrate but actually to forget what they did. If German soldiers were willing
to kill ordinary Jew because of anti-semitism, there was no reason that they
tried to forget the crime what they performed. The fact that the orders to
exterminate Jews had a pattern to familiarize the perpetrators also weakens the
Goldhagen’s argument. Nazi regime ordered 3 separate exterminate orders. They
targeted at male Jews in June 1941, women in July, children in August.
According to Konrad Kweit, it was to exclude any feelings of sympathy for the
victims from executioners.
It
can be one of reasons that extermination camps were highly industrialized. Even
though many German were involved in Holocaust, they also felt guilty. To
deprive the guilty and to conceal the crime from ordinary German citizens, they
industrialized extermination process.
Goldhagen argued that anti-semitism that was
prevalent among ordinary German among centuries was the decisive factor for
Holocaust. Then was anti-semitism so strong among ordinary German and was it
the only cause?
It cannot be denied that there was anti-semitism among Germans after
the Great War. However, before the Great War, it wasn’t an important political
issue among public. For example, in 1983, the Conservative party that had an
anti-semitism approach managed to obtain only 10% of votes. A majority of
German voters were prepared to vote for parties that were explicitly opposed to
anti-Semitism. This indicates that anti-Semitism did not form any significant
political or social issue for the German population before the rise of Nazi
regime.
It is also important that Jews were accepted in middle-class
circles, flocked to Germany to escape from normatively anti-Semitic East
European societies, intermarried with Germans, and even converted to
Christianity in considerable numbers in the nineteenth century. Even there was
a Nazi member who tried to marry Jews. His name was August Landmesser. All
these contradict to Goldhagen’s claims of a society which thoroughly hated Jews
for centuries. In fact, according to Yehuda Bauer, during World War I, the
German army had even been enthusiastically welcomed by Polish and Russian Jews
because it protected them from the anti-Semitic terror enacted by the Russian
forces and were friendly to them.
So, it should be noted that although there was anti-semitism in
Europe for centuries, strong anti-semitism among German people in 19th
century began after the Great War. One good example is stab_in_the_back legend.
After the armistice of November 1918 Germans who were ashamed of the defeat
wanted the scapegoat. Some German generals, especially Erich Ludendroff, one of
two top German commanders blamed government and civil population that home
front failed to support the military. Conservatives, nationalists and ex-military leaders began to speak
critically about the peace and Weimar politicians, socialists, communists,
Jews, and sometimes even Catholics were viewed with suspicion due to presumed
extra-national loyalties. It was claimed that they had not supported the war
and had played a role in selling out Germany to its enemies. Although it caused
several assassinations of Jews figure, it never caused massacre by the public.
In fact, many Jews received high political positions in the Weimar Republic.
For example, Hugo Preuss who later became minister of Interior of Weimar
Republic wrote the Weimar Constitution. It was in 1930’s when public blamed and
persecuted Jews widely. And it was Nazi propaganda which provoked these
actions. The first action by Nazi against Jews was the boycott of 1933. It was
first national boycott against Jews. Even though national boycotts, many
individual Germans ignored the boycott and used Jewish owned shops. It
indicates that at first laws were not as rigorously obeyed or as devastating as
in later years and it was Nazi propaganda that caused strong and widespread
among anti-semitism in Germany.
All these attest that while anti-semitism was present in German society
prior to World War II, it was not of a murderous, eliminationist type, and was
even milder than other East European countries like Russia. So Goldhagen’s
argument about eliminationist anti-Semitic norms that had supposedly been
present in Germany for a long time is hardly convincing.
발표 대본
물론 여기저기서 가져와서 고친 거(팀원들이 한거랑 위키피디아랑 등등)
하지만 제가 한국 블로그(제가 자주 가는 역사블로그)에서 찾아서 첨가한 것도 있으니까 절대 완전히 배낀 건 아니라구요(ㅠㅠ)
디아3
