She also notes that when confronted with the exterminations there was an element of denial , disbelief , and confusion . Asked about concentration camps , very few Germans associated them with the Jews , leading to the conclusion that they did not understand how they had been used against the Jews during the war and instead continued to think of them as they were before the war , the place where political opponents to the Nazis were kept . " This naivete is only understandable if large numbers of Germans were truly ignorant of the existence of these camps " . A British study on the same attitudes concluded that Those who said National Socialism was a good idea pointed to social welfare plans , the lack of unemployment , the great construction plans of the Nazis ... Nearly all those who thought it a good idea nevertheless rejected Nazi racial theories and disagreed with the inhumanity of the concentration camps and the ' SS ' . Sarah Gordon writes that a majority of Germans appeared to approve of nonviolent removal of Jews from civil service and professions and German life . The German public also accepted the Nuremberg laws because they thought they would act as stabilizers and end violence against Jews . The German public had as a result of the Nazi antisemitic propaganda hardened their attitudes between 1935 and 1938 from the originally favorable stance . By 1938 , the propaganda had taken effect and antisemitic policies were accepted , provided no violence was involved . Kristallnacht caused German opposition to antisemitism to peak , with the vast majority of Germans rejecting the violence and destruction , and many Germans aiding the Jews
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Denazification