Not all Germans were silent. There was several underground resistance movements against the Nazis and Hitler. The White Rose and Realm of the Black, Red and Gold were two notable ones. I had a great-great-great uncle who was in the latter. He was caught and sent to Dachau early on and killed by the SS. I think there may have been many people who would have stood up but they saw what the SS did to people like my uncle and shut up for their own survival.
Of course, there is also just the mass hysteria of being caught up in a movement. There was so much anti-Jewish propaganda for decades blaming them for all the woes that Weimar was facing, many silently (or openly) cheered.
I know they weren’t all silent. Too many, though, acted like they didn’t have a clue afterward. Not true.
Fascinating information on the German resistance groups. Thanks.
My grandfather was in Germany as part of a Soviet occupation force at the end of WWII.
He said none of the Germans he talked to were Nazis, but all their neighbors were.
It pretty much brings things into perspective.
All of the Germans somehow knew about Holocaust, most of them benefited from looted Jewish&East European treasure and captured Allied slave labor.
Most of them supported Nazi policy until it went all wrong to hit them.
Germans, with the exception of a few really smart people, fapped for a Hitler’s portrait and believed all the propaganda on how he will smash all the “Judeo&Bolschevisten hordes” just before Allies bombed the last ounce of crap out of them.
But as soon as there wasn’t any Hitler around they all turned to a little sheep, fully unaware or actively opposing anything happened in their beloved Reich 1933-1945 (I wonder who has elected Hitler to office if it was all true?).