CED Group Mueller Question:

In your article, you argue that ethnic war is not as all-encompassing as its definition leads people to believe, but rather is carried by opportunistic, often non-ideological thugs operating under the guise of ideological-driven leaders while the majority of people stand by in confusion, disbelief or indifference. Even if most people did not actively participate in the killings, aren’t they guilty by silence? They may not have had the same nationalistic vehemence as the state leaders or bloodthirst as the “thugs,” but didn’t they indirectly participate by allowing their state to get to such a place where this was possible? Would you argue that the Holocaust was not an ethnic war of antisemitic Germans against the Jewish people, but rather a war led by zealous leaders who organized opportunistic, non-ideological Germans?