ABSTRACT
The previous analyses and summaries all culminate at this point-the issue of German collective and individual guilt. Both types of guilt involve the issue of German accountability for the crimes of the Nazi regime, and they oscillate on an axis between two poles. At one pole we find the argument claiming that “we didn’t know anything,” which is countered at the opposite pole by “we knew, but we were unable to do anything,” or as formulated by Ralph Giordano:
The collective sentiment “But we didn’t know anything!” by the way, is usually followed by a second argument that goes hand in hand with it, an afterthought so to speak, that says: “We couldn’t do anything about it!”
