We've discussed Nazi atrocities, what Hitler "got right", and the Holocaust at various points over the past year or so. A few of us have even been shocked to discover that we even have people who could accurately be described as "Holocaust deniers" visiting the board.
So when I came upon this video just now, I thought that it might be interesting to a core group of board members. It's a little long (about 30 mins) but I personally found it eye-opening, and it basically shattered a few misconceptions that I personally might have had regarding what some refer to as the "clean Wehrmacht". I didn't even know that this phenomenon existed or even had a name. It was just something I sort of took for granted...
Put simply, I basically (prior to watching this) held the general belief that atrocities committed by the Germans on the Eastern Front during WW2 were mainly from Nazi-oriented units like the SS, Einsatzgruppen, Waffen SS, etc... Like many, I felt that the Wehrmacht itself was largely above the sort of racial/political animosity that led to the wholesale slaughter of "undesirables" like Jews, Russian civilians Russian POWs, etc... The Wehrmacht fought the war on the military side, while the Nazi fanatics who followed in the rear were the murderers...Basically the concept that the Wehrmacht was "clean"...
There wasn't a large deal of research or self-examination of this ideal, even during the time I lived in Germany from 1979-85. But subsequently, it seems to have become a controversial issue as a 1995 exhibit entitled War of Extermination which dealt with atrocities committed by the Wehrmacht from 1941-44 on the Eastern Front, resulted in protests, riots, and even an arson attack when it opened in various German cities.
German WW2 veterans and their relatives were especially inflamed since the Army's actions in the War had largely been viewed as above the fray. In fact, many people actually viewed the Wehrmacht as a victim of the Nazis, a theory prevalent during the war itself and promoted by Donitz in his surrender announcement of 1945. Personally, I found a lot of similarities between the "clean Wehrmacht" myth and the "lost cause" ideology which attempts to remove Slavery as a cause of the Civil War...
But an accidental discovery by German historian Sonke Neitzel in 2001 basically turned the clean Wehrmacht myth on its head. While doing research at the British Archives he came upon thousands of pages of transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between Wehrmacht POWs housed in both an English and an American POW Camp.
These casual conversations of men describing to each other atrocities they either had participated in or had personal knowledge of resulted in a renewed examination of the average German soldier's role in what the Nazis labeled the War of Extermination. The video discusses a couple of studies that have emerged, as well as research into whether or not Hitler was able to basically indoctrinate the Wehrmacht into being the embodiment of his definition of" German warrior" via the various youth programs started as early as 1933. I found it fascinating...
So when I came upon this video just now, I thought that it might be interesting to a core group of board members. It's a little long (about 30 mins) but I personally found it eye-opening, and it basically shattered a few misconceptions that I personally might have had regarding what some refer to as the "clean Wehrmacht". I didn't even know that this phenomenon existed or even had a name. It was just something I sort of took for granted...
Put simply, I basically (prior to watching this) held the general belief that atrocities committed by the Germans on the Eastern Front during WW2 were mainly from Nazi-oriented units like the SS, Einsatzgruppen, Waffen SS, etc... Like many, I felt that the Wehrmacht itself was largely above the sort of racial/political animosity that led to the wholesale slaughter of "undesirables" like Jews, Russian civilians Russian POWs, etc... The Wehrmacht fought the war on the military side, while the Nazi fanatics who followed in the rear were the murderers...Basically the concept that the Wehrmacht was "clean"...
There wasn't a large deal of research or self-examination of this ideal, even during the time I lived in Germany from 1979-85. But subsequently, it seems to have become a controversial issue as a 1995 exhibit entitled War of Extermination which dealt with atrocities committed by the Wehrmacht from 1941-44 on the Eastern Front, resulted in protests, riots, and even an arson attack when it opened in various German cities.
German WW2 veterans and their relatives were especially inflamed since the Army's actions in the War had largely been viewed as above the fray. In fact, many people actually viewed the Wehrmacht as a victim of the Nazis, a theory prevalent during the war itself and promoted by Donitz in his surrender announcement of 1945. Personally, I found a lot of similarities between the "clean Wehrmacht" myth and the "lost cause" ideology which attempts to remove Slavery as a cause of the Civil War...
But an accidental discovery by German historian Sonke Neitzel in 2001 basically turned the clean Wehrmacht myth on its head. While doing research at the British Archives he came upon thousands of pages of transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between Wehrmacht POWs housed in both an English and an American POW Camp.
These casual conversations of men describing to each other atrocities they either had participated in or had personal knowledge of resulted in a renewed examination of the average German soldier's role in what the Nazis labeled the War of Extermination. The video discusses a couple of studies that have emerged, as well as research into whether or not Hitler was able to basically indoctrinate the Wehrmacht into being the embodiment of his definition of" German warrior" via the various youth programs started as early as 1933. I found it fascinating...
