I've just read an article written by a Jew whose grandparents were German Jews. He wrote about how his family were affected by the Holocaust, so I'll quote him:
"My grandparents, like many German Jews of their generation, were strong atheists; yet my father's parents believed that their children, as immigrants to England, should adapt to British life. They therefore had all their children baptised. Later my mother also wanted to escape the narrow ingrown Jewish community in Manchester so, whilst in her late teens, she went down the road to a local church and was baptised! In neither case was baptism viewed as being in any way religious; rather it was seen as a cultural form to aid identification with the British community.
"So I was brought up without any religious teaching or practice but, if anything, we were 'Christian' and I too was baptised as a baby... My mother had taught us nothing about our Jewish heritage or history, so [the Bible] opened my eyes to a new world. At that time my Jewishness was being brought home to me by the shocking revelations in the news of what had been happening in Germany during the war... and I found myself the butt of severe anti-Semitism. For the next couple of years I was badly bullied and miserable, but I was still reading the Scriptures, like a novel, from the beginning to the end."
The author, Martin Goldsmith, refers to many Jews in Germany being atheists, yet happy to get baptised as a pragmatic measure to help them become accepted in a new culture! He wasn't told anything about his Jewish heritage. Religion played no meaningful part in his family's life. Now, just imagine if many Christians in Germany were also atheists - indifferent to their religious heritage and having been baptised as infants. It meant nothing to them. This should not be a surprise to anyone. Millions of people just go through the outward motions of religious ceremonies (like baptisms, marriages and funerals) as a social norm, yet without having any belief or faith themselves. Recognising that fact would prevent blaming an entire religion for Nazi atrocities - millions of people might have allowed those things to be done in their name, but many millions more objected to that.
Martin Goldsmith has just written a book called "Any Complaints? Blame God!" - how best to question God by learning from the Jewish prophet Habakkuk. (Authentic Media)