- Question
Who is responsible for the Holocaust?
Across German-occupied Europe, Nazi German collaborators proved successful in their destruction of two-thirds of European Jewry: systematically murdering six million Jews and five million non-Jews. But, who is truly culpable for this mass murder of eleven million people?
Hitler was singlehandedly responsible for the Holocaust
This position holds that Hitler was singlehandedly responsible for the Holocaust. It argues that, although antisemitism long predated him, the vision of mass extermination was his — that the Holocaust could not have unfolded without his will and his hold over a mesmerised state.
Hitler and his henchmen were culpable for the events of the Holocaust
This position holds that Hitler and his close henchmen bear responsibility for the Holocaust. It argues that the genocide was driven by Hitler together with the senior Nazi leadership who planned and ordered it, rather than by Hitler acting entirely alone or by the German people at large.
Everyone contributed to the Holocaust
If the government and the citizenry kept one another in check, plans for the Holocaust would have been effectively halted. Yet, neither party voiced concern. Thus, mass murder continued.
Only Nazi German citizens bore responsibility for the Holocaust
This position holds that responsibility for the Holocaust lay specifically with the Nazi German citizens who enabled and carried it out — not Hitler alone, nor humanity at large. It argues that the genocide required the participation and complicity of ordinary Germans under the regime.