# Did people in Sweden, Switzerland, Spain Know About the Holocaust?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-sweden-switzerland-spain-know-about-the-holocaust/266536>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 28, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-sweden-switzerland-spain-know-about-the-holocaust/266536 "2004-09-28T18:42:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-sweden-switzerland-spain-know-about-the-holocaust/266536/21 "2004-09-30T01:19:25Z")

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> [@Polycarp](#):
>
> Wernher von Braun did receive assistance in his rocketry researches from a prison camp at Dora (location not clear to my quick Google search), but was under the impression that it was a prison camp for persons convicted of criminal offenses. He said after the war that he knew nothing about the Holocaust, and the guilt that he felt is that in his position, he could have found out the truth but did not try to do so.

Dora-Mittelbau was near the town of Nordhausen. It was originally a subcamp of Buchenwald, but was put under it’s own administration in 1944. The Germans built their rockets there. And, yeah, von Braun said he knew nothing about the Holocaust. He had gone to the camp. He had seen corpses. He had seen people hung. He had ordered people hung. But he didn’t know anything about it.

The Holocaust really is the weirdest thing in the world, because it happened, but no German ever knew it was happening. If you don’t believe it, just ask them. One is forced to conclude that Hitler planned it and carried it out all by himself, with no help from anybody. It’s just the damnest thing.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-sweden-switzerland-spain-know-about-the-holocaust/266536/22 "2004-10-05T19:59:56Z")

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**Captain Amazing** , he knew people were being killed in a time of war. He knew (presumably) that he was living under a repressive autocracy run by a militaristic madman. He even knew that if he didn’t go along to get along, he would be next in line for the Big Goodbye.

Did he know of the systematic genocide being carried out by his government? Did he know that the people in the prisons weren’t criminals, but innocent people picked up by goon squads? Did he ever tour the showers or the ovens?

I’m really, genuinely curious.

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