Leaving aside the question of "if", I'd rather focus temporarily on "why", this may have happened. The reason is, the question of "if" has already been settled in my mind, but I do realize that the research I've done not everyone bothers to do, and the conclusions of that research go up against a generation of popular film/entertainment and otherwise accepted history taught in western public schools.
So getting to "why" this could have happened:
The story of 6 million suffering Jews has had the following effects:
Germany, that is, it's people, have had to pay:
- Wiedergutmachung (Compensation): Germany paid billions (est 100 billion) of Deutsche Marks in individual compensation to Holocaust survivors through the Wiedergutmachung program.
- Luxembourg Agreement: In 1952, Germany agreed to pay Israel for Jewish property seized during the Holocaust. The initial agreement involved a payment of 3 billion Deutsche Marks.
- Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future" (EVZ): This foundation, established in 2000, had a fund of around 10 billion Deutsche Marks, contributed by the German government and companies, to compensate forced laborers.
For the war "they" supposedly started.
The Allies (including Communist Russia) pay nothing.
Psychological:
Westerners (including yours truly) are taught primarily about the so called horrors of the Holocaust when they learn basic (government funded) history about this time. What they are not taught:
Jewish Bolshevism in Russia that killed 100's of millions of people, mostly Christians and other non-Jews.
Russian Red Army treatment of Germans after the war. The stories of mass rape, multiple rapes of German women (including young girls) and murder does not touch on western history/entertainment. So also one does not hear about the murder of German men or them being sent to Siberia to work them to death as slave labor.
Psychological 2: The primary focus on victim hood is of 6m Jews, everyone else during the period is largely forgotten about. This not only served to justify the Jewish State of Israel, but it is also used constantly to re-direct accusations against Jews. For example, Israel (the modern state) has been guilty of more war crimes than all other nations put together according to the UN since it's inception. Yet, none of these stick because the US has veto power, and it simply vetoes any declaration of guilt or any action of punishment. This is great deal for any State that wants to do whatever it wants to other people's/ nations.
Indeed, we are even seeing it now. There is a mass murder of Palestinians going on (around 75% of that population is under 24 and 50% are children). Israel is committing war crimes but it's unlikely to be held to account. And why not? Because of two psychological factors 1) The Terrorist Card and 2) The anti-semite/Holocaust denier card.
Psychological 3:
The story of the Holocaust puts Israel as the "suffering servant" - the poor so called "chosen ones" who paid the sins for the non-Jewish beasts of other nations (particularly Germany), putting them, as a people as a sort of replacement for Christ. This story extends beyond the Holocaust - because a Jew will readily tell you that they have suffered for generations (kicked out of Europe scores of times), because of their Jewishness, not because of predatory lending practices, influencing war behind the scenes, taking over banking and major media industries, corruptions of nations (Weimar Germany and even the USA today) and other sins. No, to bring that up would be "anti-semetic".