Best-selling author Daniel Jonah Goldhagen discussed how his research about the Holocaust has revealed attitudes of its perpetrators Wednesday evening.

Goldhagen, the author of "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans" and "A Moral Reckoning", spoke to students and faculty at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

Common theories about why German citizens participated in the violent acts were discredited as Goldhagen explained the manner in which people involved themselves. The four theories include coercion, the necessity of obeying authority, psychological pressure and human desire to perform a job well, all of which imply the perpetrators' disapproval of what was happening.

"These people knowingly contributed willingly to death of the Jews," Goldhagen said. The four common theories cannot account for basic facts, he said.

The people recruited to work for the Nazis were generally not members of the Nazi party. Goldhagen said only 25 percent were, and yet many chose willingly to participate in the brutality against the Jews.

"These men had no more difficulty in slaughtering Jews than extreme followers of the regime," Goldhagen said. In many units, soldiers were told they did not have to participate in the killings. Yet Goldhagen estimates 100,000 Germans were involved in the extermination process, a number he admits is probably low.

Throughout his speech, some members of the audience appeared startled by Goldhagen's information. With all the seats filled, people sat on the floor and lined the back of the auditorium to hear a different view of a subject that left a long-lasting impression on the face of history.
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