Knowledge of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe: Difference between revisions

Historians Vági, Csősz, and Kádár argue that the government had a clear understanding of the Nazi's genocidal policies and actively collaborated with the regime.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Vági, Zoltán|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/892850946|title=The Holocaust in Hungary evolution of a genocide|date=2013|publisher=AltaMira Press|isbn=978-0-7591-2198-0|oclc=892850946}}</ref> György Ottlik's 1944 report to the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reflects an awareness of the change in Nazi policy, that is one from discrimination to systemic genocide.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Museum.|first=United States Holocaust Memorial|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/839307441|title=Documenting life and destruction: Holocaust sources in context|year=2010 |publisher=Altamira|oclc=839307441}}</ref> His report outlines how the Nazis had begun justifying the genocide so as to convince the Sztójay to cooperate with their policies.<ref name=":12" /> Ottlik's report also discusses how France was already cooperating with Nazi policies at the time of the report.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":13">György Ottlik’s report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, October 10, 1942, HNA, Series K 64, fascicle 96, item 41, fi le 437/1942.1</ref> Horthy's memorandum to the Sztójay outlines how he was forced in a situation where he was not allowed to intervene with German policies.<ref name=":16">Horthy’s memorandum to Sztójay, June 1944, in Miklós Szinai and László Szűcs, eds., Horthy Miklós titkos iratai (Budapest: Kossuth, 1962), 450–54.</ref> Horthy describes the Jewish question as cruel and inhumane.<ref name=":16" /> The Hungarian elite also had significant knowledge of the Nazi's genocidal policies.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sanders|first=Paul|date=2015-11-03|title=The 'strange Mr Kastner' – Leadership ethics in Holocaust-era Hungary, in the light of grey zones and dirty hands|journal=Leadership|volume=12|issue=1|pages=4–33|doi=10.1177/1742715015614878|issn=1742-7150|doi-access=free}}</ref> The Relief and Rescue Committee in Budapest, run by Zionist activists, bargained for the lives of Jews with Nazi officials.<ref name=":14">Sanders, Paul (3 November 2015). "The 'strange Mr Kastner' – Leadership ethics in Holocaust-era Hungary, in the light of grey zones and dirty hands". ''Leadership''. '''12''' (1): 4. [[Doi (identifier)|doi]]:10.1177/1742715015614878. [[ISSN (identifier)|ISSN]]&nbsp;1742-7150.</ref> The committee would offer cash, valuables, contacts, promises of alibis in exchange for the lives of over a thousand Jews.<ref name=":14" />