A. K. Andersson this is correct. There were many Nazi sympathizers throughout the world. However the atrocities committed by the Nazis were primarily committed by German people. The SS were not a foreign legion, they were Germans. And while perhaps not ALL Germans were members of the Nazi party, the vast majority of Germans were comfortable letting their government to torture and murder their neighbors. Do not think though that the Germans are somehow unique in this. ALL countries and cultures are capable of committing these kinds of atrocities. The modern rise of right-wing fascist parties throughout Europe and the Americas (looking at you Greece, France, Brazil, and United States) should be a reminder of this. Hate is easy, because it absolves you of all responsibility.

The SS had some foreign divisions as well. Hard to get why they agreed to, as even if they were forced to take part in some kind of armed force, the Wehrmacht would be everything anyone would have to join. The SS was, among a lot of other things, very strict about the racial properties of its members. But they happily accepted a muslim legion, as the islamist-antijudaism granted them being as merciless as the german SS members were themselves ... also, if you have a huge load of crimes to committ, you may end up not having the ressources to be THAT picky, and at least, they knew having no allies at all would lessen their chances of success - not success like winning the war, but success like ridding the planet of as many jews, gipsies, homosexuals, communists, ... long list, this one ... as possible. The impact this had on the jewish population in europe still is massive, as, if I remember correctly, about one third of them were killed and more than half left the continent for good.

Oh I am so tired of these detours from reality. No, not ALL Germans, but enough of them. The wardens, the doctors, the administration - they WERE ordinary Germans, not some aliens from outer space... In my own hometown people were actively hunting jews who fled from a derailed train in a sad incident towards the end of the war, making sure they were send to the concentration camp. No, not soldiers but farmers, shop assistants, housewifes. To save some time, I'll copy and paste my previous comment "Nazis were Germans though, not something that appeared all of a sudden out of nowhere... I am German myself and old enough to have met my grandparents. They were in a terrible state before Hitler came into power and happy to accept any improvement, never mind where it came from...".

That is the point. It wasn't that pre regime a lot of people would have wished for this to happen, but during the regime, a lot of people happily raised their right arm and shouted "Sieg Heil!" or something similar. They were accepting towards the regime at the very, very least. When it was still possible to act against the regime without too much danger to one's own life, very few people had any idea what was about to happen, though. It wasn't that opposition towards the Nazis was something you proudly did in the open and broad daylight, but still - they did not gain that power by people diagreeing with them strong enough and in large enough quantity, but by the lack thereof. And don't get my started on the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht" that just was a regular army. It wasn't. Sure a lot of soldiers were just soldiers, but also, a lot were devout Nazis who'd not hesitate going an extra mile to impose some atrocity or another to a few more people at a time.

Coming to the US if a certain delusional ex-prez is re-elected.

I am not saying that all Germans were Nazis. I say that the death camps were established and led by the German Army.

That is true to some degree, but you cannot deny that the Wehrmacht also participated in running the entire mass killing indutry the regime had installed. This isn't something you can run just with a mere handful of people, even if they were the most convinced, least hesitating and least compassionate people to ever make up a large organization, you can not get rid of millions of people without contribution of many thousand people, and sure not against an actively opposing army or large fraction of the population. It's a large minority who were very active and devout Nazis, and a majority only minding themselves and not caring enough to take any risk to do anything about this. It wasn't until spring of 1945 that most germans started despicing the regime, if even then they did and not just accepted having lost the war due to massive overpower from the US, mostly. The regular army was not directly working inside concentration camps, but they did a lot of outside work, support, infrastructure, covering up, ... if you think about it, like half the people who died in those killing plants died in the last year before liberation. When losing the war was already obvious, a mere matter of time, they didn't decide to stop pointlessly killing people they considered unworthy, but increased their efforts, to get as much done as possible in the time remaining. Sickening like hardly anything else...

Actually by the SS under Heinrich Himmler. But a lot of atrocities were commited by the army (Wehrmacht) too... Also in the beginning of the extermination process the so called "Einsatzgruppen" went to the east and murdered about a Million people. These murderers were mostly "normal" policemen and other "normal" people from germany.

@Francisco Scaramanga: And you are totally right

No no wait!!! I used to say the same thing "Nazis are horrible....all of them!" But then we can't forget Oskar Schindler, he WAS a nazi. And he was a VERY good man, and saved more then a thousand people destined for concentration camps.

Tara, he did save some Jewish lives. But, he was NOT a champion or supporter of Jews per se. He created his 'system' of saving Jewish employees to keep his factories manned and the money rolling in (most young able-bodied men were conscripted and sent to the war front. Schindler's List is a white washing of Schindler's actions ... Spielberg did the equivalent of southern conservatives telling us how well-treated and happy the antebellum slaves were. It's a way of making history palatable.

Self-preservation.

what? no, you don't deserve a downvote, I was trying to communicate this myself but couldn't quite figure out how to say it.

Idk why you’re getting downvoted for that

I guess simply because of the misinformation?

I find it strange that the US novel "The wave" by Todd Strasser/ Morton Rhue is part of our school curriculum in Germany but not in the US. It shows exactly how this could happen, even in todays society. In fact, it DID happen right in an US classroom!

That is sad. I'm going to find this book. Thank you.

They're planning to do this with LGBTQ+, and were already on the way with all of their "conversion therapy" camps. Pay attention to laws being passed about that, and about allowing kids to be locked away at Christian/faith-based facilities. They are two small steps away from sending queer citizens to concentration camps. We already have them for brown people at the border.

I have a transgender daughter, and the thought of someone trying this with her, makes my blood boil. So, I do try to pay attention to these types of laws. But it does make you realize how complacent you can get if you aren't affected. I remember years ago before I had kids, I rarely paid attention to any local laws passed regarding our schools. Now, I see how important it is that everyone get involved.

Before Tik Tok, transgenderism was scarcely a thing.

He did not face massive opposition. In the Parliament these days, one political party had the spine to stand up against his "Ermächtigungsgesetzt" (=Empowering Legislation), that allowed the government - merely Hitler himself, as he was Reichskanzler, the Head of Government, and had no one opposing him in the government itself at that time), but immediately thereafter, the party was disbanded, forcefully so. All other parties either were already forbidden, didn't attend or voted either pro or abstented the vote. He was a con man, yes, but that doesn't mean he had a lack of agreement in the population or anywhere in the bureaucracy to begin with. This really doesn't shine a nice light on germany, germans, or humans at all ... propaganda DOES work ... people are willing to accept lies, if the lies somehow contain "you deserve better, and it is not your fault!", and a bit of time is there to pass to let it sink in before war and mass murder begins, you can be pretty sure that those in power will get away with their crimes long enough to fulfill their horrendous work to some degree at least.

Well, trump is the best example for that. But you are right. But he wasn't elected, thats my point. He didn't care much about things like this.

Because it's like saying the republicans are not American? The NSDAP was democratically elected by a majority.

Because it's b******t?

There were some friendly Germans. Even a Nazi, according to Corrie ten Boom. He was trapped, but he helped her. Not all Dutch were NSB'ers. Some hid Jews in their home and some betrayed em or were bystanders. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesofisrael.com/nazi-official-who-risked-life-to-save-hundreds-of-jews-posthumously-recognized/amp/