One could be a Nazi without ever seeing or thinking about Jews

It irked me that nobody in England seemed to grasp that Nazism had been about building a new world order based on the noble ideals I still found so satisfying. For it had not taken me many weeks in the country to discover that the English definition of Nazi could be summed up in a single word, ‘Jew-gasser’. That was so misguided, such a mistake. Yes, we were taught to despise Jews, but what English people didn’t seem to appreciate was that for Nazis like me everything to do with Jews had been a minor issue, that one could be a Nazi without ever seeing or thinking about Jews.

K. Fitzherbert, True to both my selves (1997), loc. 3630

I think about these kind of things a lot. The ability to see things selectively without even trying is underappreciated in historical (and political) analysis.

Every sixth Jew who died in the Holocaust—altogether close to a million people—came from Ukraine

Every sixth Jew who died in the Holocaust—altogether close to a million people—came from Ukraine. By far the best-known massacre, with the greatest number of victims, took place in Babi Yar (in Ukrainian, Babyn Yar, or Old Woman’s Ravine) on the outskirts of Kyiv. There, in the course of two days, the automatic fire of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C, assisted by the German and local police, killed 33,761 Jewish citizens of Kyiv.

S. Plokhy, Gates of Europe (2025), loc. 4,608

The worst was in the ruins of Warsaw, or the fields of Treblinka, or in the marshes of Belarus, or the pits of Babi Yar

The American and British soldiers who liberated the dying inmates from camps in Germany believed that they had discovered the horrors of Nazism. The images their photographers and cameramen captured of the corpses and living skeletons at Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald seemed to convey the worst crimes of Hitler. As the Jews and Poles of Warsaw knew, and as Vasily Grossman and the Red Army soldiers knew, this was far from the truth. The worst was in the ruins of Warsaw, or the fields of Treblinka, or in the marshes of Belarus, or the pits of Babi Yar.

T. Snyder, Bloodlands (2010), 311-2

There's more on this around 382f. He is very good on uncovering our historiographical bias on this.

Traditional empires had never done anything like this to Jews

Traditional empires had never done anything like this to Jews. On any given day in the second half of 1941, the Germans shot more Jews than had been killed in the entire history of the Russian Empire

T. Snyder, Bloodlands (2010), 227

Necessity, as the Greeks knew already, is not only a blind goddess, but a cruel one too.

There was a lot of talk,after the war, in trying to explain what had happened, about inhumanity. But I am sorry, there is no such thing as inhumanity. There is only humanity and more humanity: and that Doll is a good example [a character who was instructed to shoot German wounded because it was too much effort to bring them home] What else was he, Doll, but a good family man who wanted to feed his children, and who obeyed his government, even though in his innermost being he didn't agree? If he has been born in France or America, he'd have been called a pillar of society and a patriot; but he was born in Germany and so he is a criminal. Necessity, as the Greeks knew already, is not only a blind goddess, but a cruel one too.

J. Littell, The Kindly Ones (2006) tr. C. Mundell, 589

At dawn the barbed wire was full of children’s washing hung out in the wind to dry

The mothers stayed up to prepare the food for the journey with tender care, and washed their children and packed their luggage; and at dawn the barbed wire was full of children’s washing hung out in the wind to dry. Nor did they forget the diapers, the toys, the cushions and the hundred other small things which mothers remember and which children always need. Would you not do the same? If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him to eat today?

P. Levi, If this is a man (1958), tr. S. Woolf, If this is a Man / The Truce (1979), 21