And if you read Mein Kampf and some of the laws enacted at that time, minorities in general and Jews especially were viewed in such childishly villainous terms ("The Jewish devils are lurking around every corner to molest you pure Aryan daughters!") it reads like a joke to us now. These days you couldn't get away with writing a comic book with a villain that shallow and ridiculous, but back then people believed it about their neighbors. The German's celebrated when the kicked Jews out of the country, and I am sure it was not just SS/SA forces that rioted and destroyed all the Jewish shops and ransacked Jewish homes during Kristallnacht.
The Germans now, the following generations, of course they should not be held accountable for their parent's and grandparent's sins, but that generation? They had some things to answer for.