I've pondered that dilemma; that is, attempted to put self as German-born, living out the runaway inflation of the Wiemar predicament … then espying a Strange Guy who--whatever else is true--could mesmerize a crowd/spin rhetoric which appealed not only to innate -even primitive- 'buttons-to-be pushed', and did so within a population (myself included) genuinely at poverty level [except the inevitable plutocrats, natch.]
But then also created a framework around which to hang all his fulminations, one logically connected and compelling but above all: perfectly tailored to build on the rampant discontent.
(This re the initial seductions, since studied well beyond TMI.)

Then, flash-forward.. to yours (and millions') predicament: I see two aspects to this; one is the plight of those innocent (by time of birth and other qualifiers) of the seduction, the huge adventure (!!) and then horrible outcome of surrendering absolute-Power to the Strange Guy. That situation can be analyzed-to-death by all the academic methods, Psych, Philosophy and so on.
But second is the attitude of onlookers (those within the Adventure but never giving allegiance to the perpetrators) and all the rest of external peoples.
I think.. that a frequent ingredient of the withholding of empathy? compassion? by the Auslanders(?) is connected with the reputation of the German tribe:
that of The Arts/Bach et al, meticulous creation of state-of-art machines and other, related cerebral qualities; lastly and maybe especially: the high education level of the population.

aka How Could They ______! or ______!

But, once having reviewed the trajectory of this 'Exceptional' tribe, my own: I deem this sub-rosa permanent criticism of the German tribe: bogus.
If one totted up the reported Murican atrocities past/present, local/abroad just commented on in these foribuses
(and then for me anyway: also ponder Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here--from 1935!) and throw in our oxymoronic 'business ethics' and the already slipping-away democratic Ideal (said to animate Americans.. once upon a time)
… where's the significant Difference? Am I a torturing-bastard because an infrahuman named Soo explained-away 'water-boarding' to a credulous (also bogus) selected-President? I think not.
(I also throw into the mental-mix the anecdote, told in these pages, of a brief exchange with someone in the village of Dachau--now a bloody half-century ago!)

Anyway, and for me, it's no longer a puzzlement. But obviously I am outnumbered in many psyches. That's their problem.
How long do people keep these Nasty-memes? Well, 150 years after end of our civil *war, some millions of Muricans still call the Pres. of the US a nigger.
* The first one, that is: call me in 5 or n years re the one that's brewing?

(Hey I only had one medium Screwdriver avec fresh-squeezed orange juice/a dash of bitters.)