[Michael81Dus]

Of course the German troops were not responsible for their leaders crimes. Nobody would call Rommel a war criminal, because he wasn´t. But he too was so controlled by the Nazis, that he had nothing to decide. Soldiers in Germany were not even allowed to vote in the Weimar Republic, they were merely receiving orders. It was not the duty to refuse orders if they mean a crime, unlike today. And what would you say about the men who drafted men with the age of 17,18,19, 20 who died then - and have never had the chance to express their opposition against the regime? I say these boys were victims of Hitler, mislead in a war "to defend the fatherland", but actually it was vice versa. I´m sure noone had picked up the gun against the Brits, Americans, French, Canadians if 1. they had known what Hitler did in the East, 2. not a Nazi official had threatened to shoot them if they did not and 3. had known that after Hitlers defeat both sides realized that the enemy is in the East.

[mewzilla]

Michael, I have a book recommendation for you. If you're interested, click here for amazon.com's listing for Hitler's Willing Executioners.

[Atlantic Friend]

I entirely agree, Michael, the vast majority of the Germans soldiers were fighting for Germany, not for the Nazis. And God knows there were many reasons for a German to fight :

- the Versailles Treaty - while no excuse for National Socialism - gave non-Nazis enough reasons to fight;

- the German generals ordered them to swear allegiance to Hitler personally from 1935 onward;

- the Nazi propaganda that always portrayed Germany as the victim (remember the fake attack on Gleiwitz by SD agents wearing Polish uniforms) kept the country in the right state of mind;

- when hostilities broke out between European major powers (and, later, the USA), I doubt any German soldier would have stopped fighting for any reason, because they felt Germany's survival was at stake. They ceased to fight when they thought everything was lost and further fighting was useless.

[The Scourge of Yazid]

Even though I've only read the first five or so chapters of Goldhagen's book-never seemed to get around to completing it-I have to agree with the general assessment that it has immense value as an historical document bearing witness.

Another great book, which I've previously mentioned on these forums, is "Endless Miracles, written by Jack Ratz; he was a man who lived in a nation-which at the time was a Soviet republic-whose entire Jewish population was extirpated during the Holocaust

I also have to second the remarks about the general culpability of German soldiers; these were men very much like their Japanese counterparts.

Even though many Japanese soldiers were fanatical adherents to the philosophy of emperor worship, not every military action they engaged in was purely voluntary.

The bonsai charges and kamikaze missions in particular, were only able to take place after the intended cannon fodder had been supplied with a steady stream of sake and/or narcotic drugs.