Can the Holocaust be forgiven?

Holocaust perpetrators were brainwashed so they can be forgiven

Question: Can the Holocaust be forgiven?
Position‹2 of 2: The Holocaust can be forgiven
Argument1 of 3›: Holocaust perpetrators were brainwashed so they can be forgiven

Soldiers and impressionable children were undoubtedly a target of the Nazi regime. They were brainwashed into believing that what they were doing was for the good of Germany.

The argument

After Hitler came to power in 1933, the Hitler Youth had acquired over 50,000 members. By 1936, all other scouting and youth groups were banned in Germany. Children were lured in by a life of comradeship and being a part of something bigger than themselves. The Reich forced young men to join the Hitler Youth to be trained as loyal followers of Hitler and join the Reich when they were old enough. They became loyal soldiers, believing that they were doing the right thing. Children were forced into the doctrine of the Nazi regime without a choice. They were specifically targeted by Nazi propaganda for the purpose of being brainwashed into believing a flawed ideology. Through every facet of entertainment, children were indoctrinated to believe it was their duty to serve the Reich. The Nazis infiltrated public schooling as well, flooding the curriculum with the views of Nazi scholars. Boys as young as 17 from the Hitler Youth were forced to serve in the military. These boys were subjected to strict obedience to follow the Reich as they had been taught most of their life. Therefore, these young children should not be held accountable for their loyalty to the Reich and should be forgiven.

Premises

[P1]The Nazi regime forced and lured children into the Hitler Youth—over 50,000 members by 1933—indoctrinating them through schooling, entertainment, and propaganda into loyal service. [P2] Because these young people, some conscripted into the military as boys, were brainwashed into a flawed ideology without genuine choice, they bear diminished responsibility for their loyalty. [C] Therefore, on this argument, such indoctrinated perpetrators can be forgiven.

Counter-arguments

Not all children joined the Hitler Youth. Groups of children decided to reject the Hitler Youth and create secret youth groups. One of the most notable underground groups was the Edelweiss Pirates. This group outwardly defied the Hitler Youth by attacking them and vandalizing their property. Their resistance shows that children followed the Hitler Youth or defied the organization out of their own volition. Therefore, while children may have been a major target of propaganda, they had a choice in following it.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise describes the indoctrination of children, but the membership figures and schooling it cites do not cover the adults who designed, administered and staffed the camps — whose responsibility is what the question chiefly concerns. [Rejecting P2] Diminished responsibility is not the same as forgiveness, and the counter notes that groups such as the Edelweiss Pirates refused the Hitler Youth, which shows refusal was possible even under pressure; the argument also never says who would be in a position to forgive, since most of those wronged were killed.