Editing Denazification (section)

==Responsibility and collective guilt==
{{main|German collective guilt}}
[[File:German woman reacts to exhumed victims of a death march in Nammering.jpg|thumb|After the defeat of Nazi Germany, German civilians were sometimes forced to tour concentration camps and in some cases to exhume mass graves of Nazi victims. {{Ill|Nammering|de}}, May 18, 1945]]
[[File:Eure Schuld.jpg|thumb|"Diese Schandtaten: Eure Schuld!" ("These atrocities: your fault!"), one of the propaganda posters distributed by US occupation authorities in the summer of 1945<ref>Jeffrey K. Olick, "In the house of the hangman: the agonies of German defeat, 1943–1949",

 p. 98, footnote 12([https://books.google.com/books?id=eBzJvmrOSL0C&pg=PA98 books google])</ref>]]

The ideas of [[collective guilt]] and [[collective punishment]] originated not with the US and British people, but on higher policy levels.<ref name="Francis R. Nicosia pp. 130, 131">{{Cite book|last1=Nicosia|first1=Francis R.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1x76ff3|title=Business and Industry in Nazi Germany|last2=Huener|first2=Jonathan|date=2004|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=978-1-57181-653-5|edition=1|pages=130–131|jstor=j.ctt1x76ff3|author-link=Francis R. Nicosia}}</ref> Not until late in the war did the US public assign collective responsibility to the German people.<ref name="Francis R. Nicosia pp. 130, 131"/> The most notable policy document containing elements of collective guilt and collective punishment is [[JCS 1067]] from early 1945.<ref name="Francis R. Nicosia pp. 130, 131"/> Eventually horrific footage from the concentration camps would serve to harden public opinion and bring it more in line with that of policymakers.<ref name="Francis R. Nicosia pp. 130, 131"/>

As early as 1944, prominent US opinion makers had initiated a domestic propaganda campaign (which was to continue until 1948) arguing for a harsh peace for Germany, with a particular aim to end the apparent habit in the US of viewing the Nazis and the German people as separate entities.<ref>Steven Casey, (2005), The Campaign to sell a harsh peace for Germany to the American public, 1944–1948, [online]. London: LSE Research Online. [Available online at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/00000736 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070105134203/http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/00000736/ |date=January 5, 2007 }}] Originally published in History, 90 (297). pp. 62–92 (2005) Blackwell Publishing, "Indeed, in 1944 their main motive for launching a propaganda campaign was to try to put an end to the persistent American habit 'of setting the Nazis apart from the German people{{'"}}.</ref>

Statements made by the British and US governments, both before and immediately after Germany's [[Surrender (military)|surrender]], indicate that the German nation as a whole was to be held [[moral responsibility|responsible]] for the actions of the Nazi regime, often using the terms "collective guilt" and "[[collective responsibility]]".<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Balfour|first1=Michael Leonard Graham|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FiyHJ8MiR1gC&q=collective+responsibility+german&pg=PA262|title=Withstanding Hitler in Germany, 1933-45|last2=Balfour|first2=Michael|date=1988|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-00617-0|pages=264|language=en}}</ref>

To that end, as the Allies began their post-war denazification efforts, the [[Psychological Warfare Division]] (PWD) of [[Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force]] undertook a psychological propaganda [[Political campaign|campaign]] for the purpose of developing a German sense of collective responsibility.<ref name="janowitz1946">{{Cite journal|last=Janowitz|first=Morris|date=1946|title=German Reactions to Nazi Atrocities|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2770938|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=52|issue=2|pages=141–146|doi=10.1086/219961|jstor=2770938|pmid=20994277|s2cid=44356394|issn=0002-9602|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In 1945, the Public Relations and Information Services Control Group of the [[Control Commission for Germany – British Element|British Element (CCG/BE)]] of the [[Allied Commission|Allied Control Commission for Germany]] began to issue directives to officers in charge of producing newspapers and radio broadcasts for the German population to emphasize "the moral responsibility of all Germans for Nazi crimes".<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FiyHJ8MiR1gC&dq=collective+responsibility+german&pg=PA262| title = Balfour, p. 263| isbn = 9780415006170| last1 = Balfour| first1 = Michael Leonard Graham| last2 = Balfour| first2 = Michael| year = 1988| publisher = Routledge}}</ref> Similarly, among US authorities, such a sense of collective guilt was "considered a prerequisite to any long-term education of the German people".<ref name="janowitz1946" />

Using the German press, which was under Allied control, as well as posters and pamphlets, a program was conducted which was intended to acquaint ordinary Germans with what had taken place in the concentration camps. An example of this was the use of posters with images of concentration camp victims coupled to text such as "YOU ARE GUILTY OF THIS!"<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WOD9ncsixssC&dq=%22You+are+guilty!!%22+Dachau&pg=PA61| title = Marcuse, p. 61| isbn = 9780521552042| last1 = Marcuse| first1 = Harold| date = March 22, 2001| publisher = Cambridge University Press}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=NEVER AGAIN!: A review of David Goldhagen, Hitlers Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (London, 1997)|url=http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj77/maitles.htm|url-status=live|access-date=August 25, 2021|website=pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030822133901/http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk:80/isj77/maitles.htm |archive-date=August 22, 2003 }}</ref> or "These atrocities: your fault!"<ref group="Notes">Eric Voegelin, Brenden Purcell "Hitler and the Germans", Footnote 12, p. 5 "In the summer of 1945, the Allies publicly displayed horrifying posters and reports from the Dachau and Belsen concentration camps with the accusatory headline 'Diese Schandtaten: Eure Schuld!' ('These atrocities: Your fault!')." See Christoph Klessmann, Die doppelte Staatsgrundung: ''Deutsche Geschichte, 1945–1955''., p. 308</ref>

English writer [[James Stern (writer)|James Stern]] recounted an example in a German town soon after the German surrender:

{{Blockquote|[a] crowd is gathered around a series of photographs which though initially seeming to depict garbage instead reveal dead human bodies. Each photograph has a heading "WHO IS GUILTY?". The spectators are silent, appearing hypnotised and eventually retreat one by one. The placards are later replaced with clearer photographs and placards proclaiming "THIS TOWN IS GUILTY! YOU ARE GUILTY!"<ref>Therese O'Donnell ''[http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/legstd25&div=37&id=&page= Executioners, bystanders and victims: collective guilt, the legacy of denazification and the birth of twentieth-century transitional justice]'', Legal Studies Volume 25 Issue 4, pp. 627–667</ref>}}

The introduction text of one pamphlet published in 1945 by the American War Information Unit (Amerikanischen Kriegsinformationsamt) entitled ''Bildbericht aus fünf Konzentrationslagern'' (''Photo Report from Five Concentration Camps'') contained this explanation of the pamphlet's purpose:<ref name="marcuse_p127">{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WOD9ncsixssC&pg=RA2-PA426| title = Marcuse, p. 426, footnote 77| isbn = 9780521552042| last1 = Marcuse| first1 = Harold| date = March 22, 2001| publisher = Cambridge University Press}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |year=1945 |title=Bildbericht aus fünf Konzentrationslagern |publisher=Amerikanischen Kriegsinformationsamt |trans-title=Photo Report from Five Concentration Camps |language=de|type=pamphlet}}, 32 pages.  [https://nrw.vvn-bda.de/bilder/kz.pdf 2006 reconstruction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304205925/http://www.nrw.vvn-bda.de/bilder/kz.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103080723/http://www.nrw.vvn-bda.de/bilder/kz.pdf |archive-date=2007-01-03 |url-status=live |date=March 4, 2016 }} available online by the [[Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime|Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime/Federation of Antifascists]] of [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] (''Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten Nordrhein-Westfalen'') (VVN-BdA)</ref>

{{Blockquote|Thousands of Germans who live near these places were led through the camps to see with their own eyes which crimes were committed in their name.  But it is not possible for most Germans to view a KZ. This pictorial report is intended for them.<ref>Original {{langx|de|"Tausende von Deutschen, die in der Nähe dieser Orte leben, wurden durch die Lager geführt, um mit eigenen Augen zu sehen, welche Verbrechen dort in ihrem Namen begangen worden sind. Aber für die meisten Deutschen ist es nicht möglich, ein K.Z. zu besichtigen. Für sie ist dieser Bildbericht bestimmt."}}</ref>}}

[[File:NaziConcentrationCamp.gif|thumb|US Army soldiers show the German civilians of [[Weimar]] the corpses found in [[Buchenwald concentration camp]], April 16, 1945.]]
A number of films showing the concentration camps were made and screened to the German public, such as ''[[Death Mills|Die Todesmühlen]]'', released in the US zone in January 1946, and ''[[Welt im Film No. 5]]'' in June 1945. A film that was never finished due partly to delays and the existence of the other films was ''[[German Concentration Camps Factual Survey|Memory of the Camps]]''. According to Sidney Bernstein, chief of [[Psychological Warfare Division]], the objective of the film was:

{{Blockquote|To shake and humiliate the Germans and prove to them beyond any possible challenge that these German crimes against humanity were committed and that the German people – and not just the Nazis and SS – bore responsibility.<ref name="PBS">{{Cite web|title=Frequently Asked Questions {{!}} Memory Of The Camps {{!}} FRONTLINE {{!}} PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/camp/faqs.html|access-date=August 25, 2021|website=www.pbs.org}}</ref>}}

Immediately upon the liberation of the concentration camps, many German civilians were forced to see the conditions in the camps, bury rotting corpses and exhume mass graves.<ref name="marcuse_p128">{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WOD9ncsixssC&dq=vansittartist&pg=RA2-PA427| title = Marcuse, p. 128| isbn = 9780521552042| last1 = Marcuse| first1 = Harold| date = March 22, 2001| publisher = Cambridge University Press}}</ref> In some instances, civilians were also made to provide items for former concentration camp inmates.<ref name="marcuse_p128" />