hhThe Local Population

The oppression of the Jews, their expulsion from society and eventual extermination were not isolated events. They were perpetrated as part of a clearly defined Nazi policy. As early as the 1930s, broad segments of the German population were already being exposed to the antisemitic government. A policy which culminated in the Kristallnacht pogrom. Nazi Jewish policy could not have been implemented in such a way had it not been accepted, albeit silently, by the majority of the German people. The segregation of the Jews in various Nazi-occupied countries, followed by their deportation and murder, was also carried out in clear view of the locals. Only a small minority of people in the occupied countries, some of whom were also victims of the brutal Nazi occupation policy, chose to actively help the Jews. Most of them stood by and refrained, for various reasons, from responding to the exclusion, dispossession and murder of the Jews. Some people and organizations collaborated actively by handing over Jews and even murdering them.

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