I don't think people understand how shocking the Final Solution was to the German people when they actually saw it in pictures, in person and in newsreels. The average German even with the state controlled press often had some limited understanding that bad things were happening to the Jews and others, but it rarely went much beyond that.
I talked to a 90 year old German about it who witnessed SS troops in his area organize a mob during Kristallnacht. Who fought in Stalingrad and knew about the horrors human beings could do to each other in a dirty war and he is upfront and he is open that he was taught in school all about the U.S. because they told him this would be a place people like you would eventually rule over in a few decades. He was hit by his teacher with a ruler for saying that he thought it was odd that a small country like Germany could rule almost the entire world.
But, he said the horror of the camps was something else entirely far far beyond what he or the German people would have ever supported and he does to this day believe had the horror of the death camps had been known during the war there would have been a civil war inside the German Army and inside Germany itself.
The problem was there was no way for the masses of ordinary people in a Totalitarian system back then for people to find out back then as all information was controlled and if someone told you something like this you couldn't trust what anyone told you as anyone could be working for SS and those who knew about it didn't talk to it to others for fear they would report them as potental spies or enemies of the state.
People today in modern Germany or modern democratic countries ask how could they not know and most today believe they did all know. Some certainly did know, but given the system we are talking about even a father talking about it to his son risked his son telling someone and his father and son being killed as enemies of the state or his son turning his father in a liar and an enemy of the state... lets just say information that if repeated could get you killed didn't travel very far.
Back to the origional question no given what the Western Allies and Soviet's did though often horrible to the German people they felt more horrible about what happened so there was not going to be any kind of uprising... however if the Western Allies were dumb enough to continue to try to force Germany to become all subsistance farmers and millions of Germans were dying like flies then you could see West Germans start attacking American and British troops, an organized rebellion start to form and Stalin backing pro-Communist rebels in West Germany who hate the U.S. and UK more then Stalin for forcing them to starve to death in numbers that could actually have rivaled the Final Solution had the plan announced in 1944 been enacted completely.
I talked to a 90 year old German about it who witnessed SS troops in his area organize a mob during Kristallnacht. Who fought in Stalingrad and knew about the horrors human beings could do to each other in a dirty war and he is upfront and he is open that he was taught in school all about the U.S. because they told him this would be a place people like you would eventually rule over in a few decades. He was hit by his teacher with a ruler for saying that he thought it was odd that a small country like Germany could rule almost the entire world.
But, he said the horror of the camps was something else entirely far far beyond what he or the German people would have ever supported and he does to this day believe had the horror of the death camps had been known during the war there would have been a civil war inside the German Army and inside Germany itself.
The problem was there was no way for the masses of ordinary people in a Totalitarian system back then for people to find out back then as all information was controlled and if someone told you something like this you couldn't trust what anyone told you as anyone could be working for SS and those who knew about it didn't talk to it to others for fear they would report them as potental spies or enemies of the state.
People today in modern Germany or modern democratic countries ask how could they not know and most today believe they did all know. Some certainly did know, but given the system we are talking about even a father talking about it to his son risked his son telling someone and his father and son being killed as enemies of the state or his son turning his father in a liar and an enemy of the state... lets just say information that if repeated could get you killed didn't travel very far.
Back to the origional question no given what the Western Allies and Soviet's did though often horrible to the German people they felt more horrible about what happened so there was not going to be any kind of uprising... however if the Western Allies were dumb enough to continue to try to force Germany to become all subsistance farmers and millions of Germans were dying like flies then you could see West Germans start attacking American and British troops, an organized rebellion start to form and Stalin backing pro-Communist rebels in West Germany who hate the U.S. and UK more then Stalin for forcing them to starve to death in numbers that could actually have rivaled the Final Solution had the plan announced in 1944 been enacted completely.
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