Abstract

Analyzes the question of German guilt for the Holocaust according to criteria of criminal law and ethics. Concludes that while the political leadership and the perpetrators were clearly guilty, the ordinary citizen was not. True, he caused the Holocaust by supporting the Nazi regime, but he neither intended it nor knew about it, nor would he have been able to prevent it. However, the German nation, though not collectively guilty, is accountable. This accountability requires the punishment of the perpetrators and restitution to the victims, as well as dissociation from the Nazi past and the demonstration of good will toward the Jews and Israel. Judges that, considering all the difficulties, West Germany fulfilled these requirements reasonably well.