How do you deal with something like the Holocaust when it's all over and done with?

On today's episode, part two of our coverage of the Holocaust,

perpetrated against the Jewish people and other minorities by Nazi Germany,

we cover the fallout of one of humankind's most massive atrocities,

and the many ways in which people have tried to understand it in the years since.

After World War II, the victorious allies were left with a massive responsibility,

not only occupying much of war-torn Europe and making sure hundreds of thousands of Europeans didn't succumb to starvation and anarchy,

but also making sure that the Nazis were properly held accountable for their crimes.

The allies felt that if Germany had any real chance of becoming a free nation again,

Nazis needed to be punished, and the German people needed to be shown that they were responsible in part for the Holocaust,

but also to govern a new nation, Germany would need some experienced bureaucrats,

and the only Germans who had that experience, former Nazis,

however they allies to handle this conundrum.

Also, how harshly do you punish a nation for being complicit in something as terrible as the Holocaust,

when that same nation is already in ruins?

And how do you convince the population that they deserve to be punished when they feel that they're the victims?

For many post-war Germans, it was hard to wrap their heads around the fact that the world saw them as evil,

to many they had just been doing their jobs,

and it was the allies who were the real aggressors.

It was so hard for many to process what had happened in Germany,

were Germans just evil?

How could ordinary people be capable of something so monstrous?

...