We are at war. You can pretend we can be one country again, but we can't.

[RZM]

117. That's still a hotly debated question

And Goldhagen certainly isn't without his critics.

My personal opinion is that peole 'knew,' meaning most people kinda sorta knew, but maybe chose not to think about it too much. But I'm sure feelings ran the gamut. Some probably had a good idea of exactly what was going on, others maybe had a much less realistic view. But I'll be most had at least some inkling that mass murder was occurring. That range of opinion existed among the European Jewish population itself, at least until the death camps were operating in full force from late 1941-on.

The Rosenstrasse affair is an interesting example. That was an action in early 1943 where Himmler tried to round up and deport the last Jews living in Berlin. These were assimilated German Jewish men who were married to non-Jewish women. While they were being detained, their wives went out into the streets and protested in front of the building where they were held. Surprisingly, the Nazis ended up backing down. There's a recent German movie about this, though I haven't seen it.

The incident could be construed as evidence that the forceful behavior of these women meant that they knew full well what was in store for their husbands.

Of course, you could also argue that anybody would be worried and mad if their spouse was going to be sent away. But it does point in the direction that the average German person knew that when the Nazis sent Jews east, very bad things were in store.