[LarryLied]

Did you see the show? The vets were good. It is amazing what people can endure and still come out sane.

[weikel]

No I didn't. I don't really understand why the general staff put up with Hitler. There was a period of time between the "Roehm Putsch"( where the extreme leftist within the party were eliminated) and when the military took the Fuhrer Oath( the oldschool Prussian officers took oaths very seriously even though they generally hated the Nazis). Hitler had already done the job he had been appointed for( to prevent a communist takeover) and was then just a dangerous nut who didn't yet control the army. They should have deposed him after the Putsch and restored the monarchy, which was what most of the general staff wanted.

[mountaineer]

I saw the program and was annoyed at the way Mankiewicz kept trying to get these guys to feel guilty for what they did to survive. He obviously did not grasp that there was a difference between the regular army and the SS and Gestapo troops. He also didn't appreciate that few regular army guys were Nazis, least of all these "part-Jew" soldiers.

The veterans, on the other hand, displayed a great deal dignity in discussing what had to be a difficult thing to discuss. The book by Bryan Rigg sounds fascinating.