"Why, Lord, did you remain silent?"

Man's.

If any gods existed, they too would surely be to blame, and the Holocaust would make no sense.

Since it seems they don't, the Holocaust makes perfect sense.

The Holocaust was the result of a people strongly identified with a misguided ideology that gave them an illusory sense of superiority, along with resentment over the suffering they endured in WW1 and the aftermath, that for a while they lost their humanity. It all comes down to ego, or identification with the mind-made self, which led to the belief that others were responsible for their suffering, justifying their vengeance.

Re: "Why, Lord, did you remain silent?"


Yes, Lord Ellpus, why do you remain silent?

It bothers me a lot...

I don't know that it is appropriate to blame the entire German nation for the deaths of the Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals and the mentally and physically handicapped. It is certainly true that the National Socialists were able to exploit the "stab in the back" myth and the "Versailles Diktat" myth in their political campaigns. However, in an open election, the National Socialists never polled more than 35%. When Hitler ran against Hindenberg for the Presidency, he only polled 35%. Hitler came to power because he was able to forge an alliance with von Papen and the DNVP (the German National People's Party), a right-wing party. In fact, von Papen had never been elected to the Reichstag, and was originally a member of the Centre Party, a center-right Catholic Party. After the Reichstag fire, blamed on a mentally ill Dutchman who was alleged to be a member of the Communist Party, Hitler was able to ban left-wing parties. Even with that restriction of the political parties able to offer candidates for the Reichstag, the National Socialists only polled 44% of the vote. So Hitler, sure of the votes of the National Socialists and the DNVP, cut a deal with the Centre Party to assure the rights of Catholics in Germany, and was able to get the two thirds majority necessary to pass the Enabling Act, which allowed Hitler to legislate through the cabinet without reference to the Reichstag. From that point forward, it was no longer a matter of who would be willing to oppose the National Socialists--it quickly became a matter of one's very life to oppose Hitler. A few months after the Enabling Act, Hilter's SS moved against the SA, in the event known famously as the "Night of the Long Knives." People who were seen as opposing the National Socialists, or simply as critical of the state, soon disappeared.

Even that 35% of the German electorate who voted for the National Socialists in 1932 and 1933 cannot reasonably be accused of approving the holocaust. There was no reason to assume that it would take place, ten years before the Wannsee Conference. It was at the Wannsee Conference in 1942 that the "Final Solution" was made known to government officials, and Reinhard Heydrich basically told those attending who would be responsible for implementing the policy and let them know that they were required to cooperate. Hitler, of course, had already decided upon the attempted extermination.

Certainly there were thousands of viciously cruel Germans involved; certainly it is possible that as many as millions of Germans just didn't care. It is not, however, reasonable to claim that the Germans as a nation were responsible. Certainly as early as 1933, there was no reason for anyone to assume any of it would happen--Hitler himself might not yet have decided that that was what he would do. But by mid-1934, it was no longer relevant who knew what or how they felt about it. From summer 1934, there was no one in Germany who was in any position to challenge Hitler.