A World War II Question, Band of Brothers brought it up

I'm rewatching Band of Brothers on the History Channel and it brought up a point I forgot about since I last watched it.

Do you think the German people knew about the Concentration Camps?

Is it possible that the Nazi regime had such a control over information that no one civilian knew about it?

I find it hard to believe that none of the civilians knew about the concentration camps, but considering the fact that even the allies had no idea what was really going on until after they had already beaten the germans and actually visited the camps, it wouldn't surprise me if none of the general public knew what exactly was happening.

How many Americans knew about Japanese Internment Camps?

It's a good question.

Given the collective guilt Germany has over the concentration camps, I'd say that the majority of the population did not know the extent of what occurred in them.

I mean, I really think there is no way to know, but I'd like to think that they didn't.

The SS were conditioned over months and months to be able to do the heinous crimes they did, but normal people can't stand up for that kind of crap.

I'd like to point out that this is a common misconception. Wehrmacht soldiers frequently committed war crimes and atrocities. This happened mostly on the eastern front, but also on the western. Just look up "Vinkt masacre" and you'll understand my dislike of the wehrmacht being depicted as "innocent" soldiers.

Another mistake. The Allies were already informed of the mass destruction of Europe's Jews in 1942 by the Polish underground, clearly had detailed information of Auschwitz by 1944 and were well aware of its purpose as the text in the upper right corner reads: Gas Chambers IV & V

To finally answer your question. They knew and the common phrase "Wir haben das nicht gewusst" or "We didn't know" is a load of bullshit.

"Die Endlösung" or "Final solution" wasn't some closely guarded secret. The ovens of Auschwitz for instance were built by civilian engineers from Topf & Söhne, whose engineers even visited the camps and knew exactly what their use was. The nazi regime was very open about what they were doing and how they were doing it.

No, much like the Allies in the early 40'ies, German civilians knew but they just didn't want to believe it.

I could see that being very possible. But didn't Hitler express his "Final Solution" a lot towards the German populace? Or am I mistaken?

Edit: Just read Josken's post. Thanks for clearing that up.

And to reinforce Josken's points, surely the German civilians didn't just chalk up the sudden absence of Jews solely to the pogroms that were incited early on.

Don't forget, though, that Germany had already been accused of atrocities(in WWI) and those claims were disproven. People had a reason to be skeptical, especially when the truth was so unbelievable.