from the numerous "satellites" of the regime, from which no responsibility was taken,
and the definition of the symbolic congruence of the German "victim". This look
dominated the interpretation of the role of the Wehrmacht in the Second World War.
About indifference to the Jewish victims of the war the first postwar years,
according to well-known political scientist H. Arendt. Her observation was confirmed
by the empirical data of the polls of the postwar period [9, 72]. Appeal to sociological
data occurred in subsequent decades. British historian Yan Kershou in his article
"Hitler's Myth: The Image and Reality of the Third Reich" writes about various surveys
conducted among the German population during the first post-war decade. The
majority of those polled in 1945-49 stated that national socialism was a good idea, but
poorly implemented. In 1945, 42% of young people and 22% of adult Germans
believed that the revival of Germany would be best served by the "strong new Führer."
In 1946, 6% (in 1950, there were 33%), the Germans said that the Nuremberg court
was unfair. It became noteworthy that in 1946, 55% of the respondents complained of
severe penalties for Nazi criminals, while in three years the number fell to 31%, as
influenced by the transformation of the denationalization policy. In addition, it turned
out that 37% emphasized that the Holocaust as "the destruction of Jews, Poles and other
non-Aryans was necessary for the security of the Germans" (in 1960, 20% of Germans
said that Jews were partly guilty of being burned and killed) This was aggravated by
the fact that 1 out of 3 respondents in the occupation zone of the USA stated that Jews
should not have the same rights as the Aryan race. One third of the population believed
that the conspirators on July 20, 1944 - were traitors, not heroes. As for the personality
of A. Hitler, seven years after the war, a third of the Germans still had a positive attitude
towards the Nazi leader, 10% considered Hitler the most prominent statesman whose
magnitude would be appreciated later, and 22% believed that he had made "some
mistakes" but was an excellent leader and 14% of Germans would again vote for a
similar authoritarian person. The public opinion poll showed that almost 70%
categorically denied the responsibility of the Germans for the war. Significantly, the
polls in 1995 showed substantially opposite results, when 80% of respondents stated
that they considered the liberation of Nazism from time to time in 1945 [14, 134-136].
After all, the German people had to realize their responsibility for the crime and
acknowledge the guilt. For this purpose, posters bearing the image of the atrocities of
war were published, the first German feature film of 1947, W. Shtaudte "The Killers
are among us," was shown.
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