henkster, I'm really surprised at you. You base your assumptions on what liberals & COMMUNIST agitators ( literature/screenplays) say!
Of course these Intellectuals, commies will do their obligatory hand wringing.
None of my Onkels or even my own Vater had those sentiments! AND, some paid a price with blood......I'll believe them before anyone else!
You might as well quote what a NY newspaper or Pravda publishes as truth.
Let me ask a question: Show me the newspaper headlines, " Germany and The USSR invade peaceful Poland to start WWII" or "German & Russian War Criminals on trial!"
Your father and uncles were more into the “Verlorene Ehre” theme from German culture. Yes, I read that too. It was directed toward the war veterans and families of war veterans from World War 2. The point of that theme is that soldiers fight for each other. In the Heer, it was even more pronounced than in most other armies, because of the Heer’s practice of having a “home town” for each regiment. That meant that the soldiers in a particular regiment who marched into the Soviet Union in 1941 had all grown up together. It made for a very cohesive and formidable fighting force.
For the guys in a that regiment who survived to 1943 or 1944, they had seen many or most of their childhood friends die in combat. They then became the Feldwebeln, whose units contained the younger brothers of their friends, and were responsible for their lives. And for their deaths.
After the war, when confronted with the excesses of the regime they fought for, they had to question whether all the sacrifice had been done only in the service of evil. It’s a hard burden to bear, and that struggle was also presented in German culture. It just took a little longer before it was more socially acceptable to express it.
However, I reject the notion that “how could we let this happen” was communist propaganda. It assumes that what the Nazi regime did was acceptable, or somehow excusable because the Soviets were bad, too. I reject that notion outright. Do not apologize for Nazi Germany. The Germans were confronted with the evils of the Nazi regime, and had their noses rubbed in it. “How could we have let this happen” is a totally natural and honest response.
And on a personal level, I note that at that time, your father and uncles were trying to kill two of my uncles. So don’t expect any sympathies for the Nazis from me.