As many know, during World War II, when Nazi soldiers killed millions of Jews at the Holocaust, many soldiers did not know what was happening. Nazi leaders despised Jewish people and, as a result, almost all soldiers knew it. This hate was taught to them and was clear. While they also knew the Jewish people were being treated terribly, most of the soldiers didn’t quite realize the full extent of the mass killings.
There existed the secret death camp where mass murders were committed and the Nazis had kept it secretative. The full truth was known only by the soldiers who worked in these camps. Soldiers might have heard rumors or seen things; they were not as informed as you presume them to be. According to history, many Jewish people were being killed during the war, and more soldiers likely understood that.
For example, Anton Schmid is a German who was on duty in Lithuania. He saw Jewish people abused and he did not want to participate, so he risked his life to help them escape. However, his story shows that some soldiers knew of the cruelty and chose to act; and he was eventually killed for his actions.
Besides, much later, many soldiers claimed they didn’t know what was happening after the war. It is hard to say if that was true or not. Some may have known the full truth, but some may not have. Some didn’t want it to be true so they didn’t want to admit what they saw or heard.
At the end of the day, it’s difficult to know the exact number of Nazi soldiers who knew about Holocaust. Few had not heard that the Nazis hated Jews, but many had heard even more. Of what was clear was that not everyone knew the full horror, even if they saw signs of it. Only some, like Anton Schmid, helped the victims of the cruelty that they saw.
