Kitsune wrote:That is difficult to imagine for an Englishman? Because Germany was systematically and utterly confronted by its opponents. For example by Britain which from the very start of WWII (or actually even before that) tried to side with Stalin. And by Roosevelts USA who in 1943 stated that the only acceptable result of the war is Germany's unconditional surrender to all allies including then Sovietunion. That's why. After summer 1941 there was simply no way left out. And considering how Germany had been treated in 1919 its not so hard to understand why a considerable part of the German military leadership decided to go on with the fighting. Anyone that wants to understand the situation back then is adviced to imagine the constant and systematical bombings of the German cities and towns, and the Soviet army which later entered Germany murdering, raping and pillaging and with a bow wave of panicstricken civilians before them. The scenario has something apocalyptic to it. According to my grandparents (who by the way also claimed to have learned about the Holocaust only after the war - and said that at first they thought this to be Allied propaganda because it seemed so incredible) there was almost the belief that this will be the end of Germany. That the nation will be cut to pieces and that its inhabitants would have to live in ruins and among rubble to the end of their lives. From the viewpoint of zero hour the future seemed utterly dark. And when left with no alternatives human beings tend to continue hoping and fighting. It wasn't so much fanatic belief into national-socialism. And not at all the wish to conquer the world or Europe. With most Germans the war was NEVER popular - even a great deal of the enthusiasm in summer 1940 was about the belief that it was over with far less losses than expected. In the end most fought and died believing to defend there homecountry. And frankly, I don't think that there is any other motivating factor that could explain the amount of resilience displayed back then.
Ah yes, the Germans. They were the victims in that war...
No, let's get one thing quite categorically clear. The Reich started the war. It was 'encircled' only by its own policies which created a world of enemies.
The Versailles Treaty was flawed - Lloyd George readily admitted that as he helped to draw it up. Yet what happened from 1938 onwards went way beyond revision of Versailles.
Much of what happened to Germany and its people in the latter stages of the war was as a direct result of policies it had sown and deeds it had committed. That does not excuse the Red Army's horrific rape of the east German population, for example. But such rapes would not have occurred had Germany not invaded Russia and then promptly acted with such out-and-out brutality. For Hamburg and Dresden, read Warsaw and Rotterdam.
The war unpopular? Yes, to a point. But a feel a lot of the unpopularity is the result of feelings
ex post facto. From reading letters and diaries, there's little doubt in my mind that many Germans in the summer of 1940 were delighted with their lot and were overjoyed at Germany's status.
There is no doubt in my mind that military leaders put Pflicht before Volk when they knew the war was lost and that remains a most heinous failing.
In nature, we typically see complex decomposing to simple, entropy anyone?
