Gord McFee
Eh...I'm not too sure that "the chief Nazis virtually all acknowledged that the extermination of the Jews took place." For example:
Ohlendorf:
"I repeat that I was neither given such an order extermination on racial and religious grounds nor was there even the slightest hint, given to me that such plans or goals existed for the Russian campaign. This is not only true for the Slavs but this is also true for the Jews. "
Oswald Pohl:
"In no way am I responsible or guilty for the liquidate of the 5 million Jews or the rests of others in the concentration camps..."
Goering:
"Yes, I frankly admit (the creation of) concentration camps for Communists and other enemies of National Socialism at that time, but certainly not with the idea of killing people or of using them as extermination camps."
Kaltenbrunner:
"I learned most about itconcentration camps here, because I only worked in Berlin as chief of the RSHA since 1943?...I am thought of as another Himmler. I'm not. The papers make me out as a criminal. I never end anyone."
Lammers:
"Finally, however, in 1943, rumors cropped up that Jews were being end. I had no jurisdiction in this field; it was merely that I occasionally received complaints and on the basis of these complaints I investigated the rumors. But, as far as I could tell, at any rate, these rumors always proved to be only rumors. Every one said he had heard it from somebody else and nobody wanted to make a definite statement. I am, in fact, of the opinion that these rumors were based mostly on foreign broadcasts and that the people just did not want to say from where they had the information."
"Himmler denied any legal killings and told me, with reference to the order from the Fuehrer, that it was his duty to evacuate the Jews and that during such evacuations, which also involved old and sick people, of course there were cases of rest, there were accidents, there were attacks by enemy aircraft."
Hoess:
"The Reichsfuhrer gave frequent warnings that every SS man who laid violent hands on a detainee would be punished; and quite often SS men who did ill-treat detainees were punished."
Those aren't exactly confessions to any holocaust. I think that most of the German officers who testified at those post-war kangaroo courts first heard about the holocaust at the trials. They didn't believe it.
