Unfortunately most people were Mitläufer, also in the occupied countries. Watched and looked but did nothing. Of course most people are still like that.
Some reasons are off course the same in the occupied terretories as in germany itself - fear of inprisonment or worse, fear to loose the work, not wanting to bother with politics, just trying to get on with the easiest way through life, swimming with the stream instead of against it etc.
BTW, my father was in several occupied countries and was most impressed by the dutch. He said that while they off course could not stop the germans by themselves, there were less collaborateurs and the dutch kept more of their dignity than others.
But off course each country has its good and bad citizens, it is "just" a matter of how many and which side the state tries to help.
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As a medical man myself I fully appreciate your assessment of engineers. However, in medicine some of the worst excesses of nazism occurred. I agree that in itself people's education has nothing to do with whether they supported the nazis or not. In Holland it was the dockers of Amsterdam who showed most courage against the occupying forces.
Interesting thoughts!
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The number of german prisoners of the nazis is actually surprisingly large. I forgot the exact number, as I am not good at numbers, but I remember being quite astonished by it.
Well, there was a large number of reasons you could be imprisoned, being against the nazis is just one of them, others are:
- being a jew (after all, many were germans) - being a "Roma" (gipsy) - being gay - being a "normal" criminal - Having a jew as girl/boy friend
