Soren
1) Finns seemed to think that shooting of PoWs by German soldiers were more common in early days, that weakened the revenge theory. Yes, there were also Soviet atrocities in those early days and some killing were clearly revenges to Soviet atrocities.
2) Finns were really appalled how some, in fact rather many ordinary German soldiers handled and murdered Jews regardless their age or sex. What was writtten to soldiers belt buckles didn't seem to have effect on their behavior.
Juha
JUuha
Finland fought what I consider to be an honourable war. It is the only country in Europe that did not persecute any minority, and absolutely refused to hand over any Jews, foreign or nationals to the Nazis.
I particulalry remember one story of a particular member of the Finn army who saved the lives of more than ten German SS troopers, and was offered the iron cross as a reward by a th ankful German High Command. He turned it down, saying that as a Jew, he found it reward enough for SS men to owe their lives to someone they would otherwise despise.
All this talk of diminished German responsibility is untenable as a defence to German attrocities. For a start, it was germany who started the war, by invading country after country, not the other way around. In the case of the invasion of the USSR it was the Germans who started the indiscriminate massacre of prisoners, and further, codified that with the infamous "commissar order, and soon thereafter the Fuhrere directive that essentially lifted all moral responsibilities and sense of ethics from every GTerman soldier fighting on the eastern front. I dont recall the exact wording, but it stated something along the lines to fight and kill without mercy or pity, or sense of guilt about what they were doing. Germans were generally enthusiastic ihn their support for this illegal order, and carried it out with great enthusiasm. The result was at least 10 million Russian dead, avoidable deaths, not your average or unavoidable casualties of war. Germany embarked on a war of ethnic cleansing, which is a nice way of saying they murdered people indiscriminately.
Did the Russians respond to that, you bet they did, as the trail of murdered German soldiers across the battlefields of Eastern Europe demonstrate. The Russian nation is a proud country, and the war against the Nazis was not a war fought for the communists, or for Stalin.....it was a war of national liberation, of the defence of the motherland against an invader. And theres the rub.....the Russians were invaded, making the the germans the instigators of the trouble. Moreover, it was the Germans who started the mass killings. Why can I say this...because the Germans were massacreing prisoners and civilians from the very beginning long before the Russians had the chance or capability to do the same in reply. In June and July 1941 the numbers of German prisoners being captured by the Russians was insignificant, whereas the numbers of Russians (soldiers and civilians) being capturedm numbered in the millions. It was the Germans who had official orders to commit murder, it was the germans who invaded country after country without even bothering to declare war (the only exception to this being the German DOW against the United States), it was the Germans who even stabbed their erstwhile allies in the back, and lied and cheated to everyone they had dealings with, time after time after time.......
And what of the common man, what is his responsibility in all of this. They do have to shoulder a portion of the burden of guilt. It started in 1933, with the election ofa regime that clearly was ammoral and not interested in the rule of law. To try and say that the German nation was duped is utter rubbish. They knew what Hitler was, and decided to seel their souls for thirty pieces of silver regardless. Why???? Well in the case of the anti-semitism it was because most Germans agreed with Hitler, Jews were seen as one of the root causes to Germany's trouble, the 5th column that sneakily stabbed Germany in the back, and robbed her of her victory in 1918. That this is totally baseless is clear now, but the germans allowed their innate prejudices get the better of them, and the final solution was the logical outgrowth of that
Every German soldier bears a portion of war guilt as well, by the oath of fealty they made to Adolf Hitler personally, and not to the German State. This was not a minor or obscure emantic use of words. At the time it was seen for waht it was, an abject promise to do what was in the interest of Adolf Hitler, and not what was best for the country, or what was right and just. A soldiers job is to protect his country, not a particular individual, and most people saw the oath to Hitler for what is actually was
When I ponder this subject I always think of John Donnes famous poem , as made famous in by Ernest Hemingway's book bearing the same name
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
Never a more true word than for germany were these words spoken
