Nazi Germany: the myth of the innocent bystander

In 1945, after defeat in the Second World War, many Germans claimed to have known nothing about what had happened to their fellow Jewish citizens – and with that, the idea of the ‘innocent bystander’ was born. But just how true was this claim? Delving into a rich archive of personal accounts of life in the Nazi era, Mary Fulbrook has unearthed a far more complex story, as she tells Rebecca Franks.

(Ad) Mary Fulbrook is the author of Bystander Society: Conformity and Complicity in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (Oxford University Press, 2023). Buy it now from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bystander-Society-Conformity-Complicity-Holocaust/dp/0197691714/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty

The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices