Holocaust Debate: Readers Respond to 'Hitler's European Helpers'

Dear Spiegel Online,

Well, the Poles are right to be outraged by the Spiegel article. In the course of World War II Germans brutalized every man, woman and child of the Polish nation and set some of the weaker ones to do unthinkable things. Spiegel's theme is pernicious because it leads to the conclusion that the Holocaust was perpetrated by the… Jews. Take Belzec death camp. There were only 20 to 30 Germans there together with about 120 Ukrainians, and they forced several hundred Jews to do the dirty work. Was it they, the Jews, who are then responsible for the deaths of 434,508 victims?

There are only two countries and two nations responsible for the outrages and the suffering of World War II: Germany and its ally the Soviet Union.

Marek Lesniewski-Laas
Cohasset, Massachusetts, USA

Dear Spiegel Online,

This piece is excellent reporting on a little-covered but very important matter. As your article reveals, the Nazis had plenty of help in the Holocaust from volunteers in every country they invaded. Every human has a dark area in their psyche. In Nazi Germany this became dominant in enough people that they were able to take over the country, despite losing every national election. But the Nazi phenomena and the attendant eager helpers serve as a stark warning to every nation. What happened in Germany those dark days can happen anywhere.

Keep up the good investigative reporting and don't let complaints stop you from stating the sometimes bitter truth.

Gerald Harp
Cedar Creek, Texas, USA

Dear Spiegel Online,

Poles and other Eastern European nations can deny their anti-Semitic acts if they wish. History knows and has recorded their criminality. No, it is not as great as the Nazis', but their nations' actions, with some notable exceptions, were despicable in the 1930's and 1940's and well deserving of opprobrium.

Herbert Yood
Orleans, Massachusetts, USA