Very soon after the program started, due to the emergence of the Cold War, the western powers and the United States in particular began to lose interest in the program, somewhat mirroring the Reverse Course in American-occupied Japan. Denazification was carried out in an increasingly lenient and lukewarm way until being officially abolished in 1951. The American government soon came to view the program as ineffective and counterproductive. Additionally, the program was highly unpopular in West Germany, where many Nazis maintained positions of power. Denazification was opposed by the new West German government of Konrad Adenauer, who declared that ending the process was necessary for West German rearmament.
Does not committing atrocities against 30% of a nation, itself, constitute an atrocity though? When the consequences of not killing authoritarians and a critical mass of their supporters leads to them further entrenching and committing more atrocities than simply eradicating them, wasn’t a choice already made to be party to the atrocities through inaction?
Hey look, it’s both sides of the trolley problem.