After the Second World War ended, in the famous Nuremberg Trials, the Allies (British, French, Americans, and Soviets) prosecuted twenty-two of Nazi Germany’s military, economic, and political leaders for their crimes against humanity. Others, like Hitler, escaped justice by committing suicide. But they alone were not responsible for carrying out the Holocaust. Many others assisted them in a variety of ways. First, explain what the Holocaust was and how it was ideologically, politically, socially, and/or economically linked to the Second World War. Second, explain who else was responsible for carrying out the Holocaust. Why did so many individuals abandon their fellow human beings in the name of collaboration? What different forms did collaboration take? To what extent were collaborators and collaborationists equally responsible as their German counterparts for supporting and seeing the “Final Solution” to the end? Finally, while some chose to collaborate, others chose to resist, bravely opposing the Nazis. To what extent did resistance movements undermine the war effort and the Holocaust? Can a history of the Second World War be written without acknowledging their role in the war?
