CMU Professor of History Eric A. Johnson said no one has done a
detailed study of German existence during the Third Reich — until now.

Johnson’s book “What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder and Everyday Life
in Nazi Germany, An Oral History,” is a survey and interview project of
Jewish and non-Jewish Germans during World War II.

Karl-Heinz Reuband, a German sociology professor at the University
of Dusseldorf, is the co-author.

Johnson began the book in 1991 because he could not understand how
an entire population was oblivious to the Holocaust. He said other
books have attempted similar studies on German knowledge of the
concentration camps, but lacked a systematic oral history.

“There have been a few scholars that have said the German population
must have known about the mass murder of Jews, but there was no
concrete evidence,” Johnson said. “We are the first to do a sober,
sophisticated study of what the German population knew.”

Reuband agreed, saying extensive survey data has never been used to
describe everyday life in Nazi Germany.

“Our book is systematic and based on quantitative data,” he said.
“Other books are — if oral history data is used — purely
non-quantitative with few subjects.”

Johnson and Reuband surveyed more than 3,000 Germans and interviewed
200 people about their daily lives during the Third Reich.

The surveys were conducted in four major German cities to ensure the
views reflected those of the majority of Jews and non-Jews who lived in
Nazi Germany, Johnson said.

“The most unique part of the book isn’t the findings, but the nature
of the evidence,” he said. “I was surprised that so many people would
tell us the things they knew in great detail.”

“What We Knew” features 40 interview narratives from both the Jewish
and non-Jewish perspective, including people who witnessed and
participated in the mass murder.

Johnson said one interviewee demonstrated how he was up to his knees
in blood from shooting Jews at close range, although he denied
involvement during the discussion.

“I asked some pretty difficult questions,” he said. “But when it
came to incriminating these people for crimes that are still
punishable, I avoided it. Some of their answers got under my skin a
lot, though.”

Johnson said he received many threats while working on the project
in Germany, especially after one reporter accused him of having
documents that would imprison many of the Cologne residents. He said he
had no such documents.

Following publication of the article, Johnson’s apartment and office
at the university were vandalized, but nothing was missing.

“Before I got into my car every night in Germany, I would look
underneath it,” he said.

Johnson and Reuband argue in the book about the percentage of
Germans that knew about the Holocaust, but conclude that at least
one-third of the population was aware of the mass murder.

“We show that two people from two different backgrounds can have
disagreements while looking at the same evidence,” Johnson said.

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