You're right, you didnt say you disagreed with me, but from what I've read (admittedly only a small part of your views) I can only surmise that we would have very different views on the subject.
I too find the history of Nazi Germany fascinating... to the extent that people said to me that I'd become a Nazi if I persued this interest. My response was always the same: the more I read about The Third Reich, the less of a Nazi I become.
As I said, there are many sources of information about just what went on back then... the forum you suggest is just one of them. Some try to be historically accurate; others have a different agenda. The key, I think, is to read widely on the subject and, having done so, I am absolutely convinced of the terrible fate that would have awaited the world, if the Nazi's had not been beaten.
It is obvious that the Das Reich Division was a formidable fighting unit. It is also logical to assume that many of its members did not agree with the beastial acts that they were ordered to commit... in fact, who is to say how I would have behaved had I been in their ranks? The problem was that they were under the control of an ideology which is repugnant to any decent human being; an ideology that was ground into them by a totalitarian state that permitted no other source of information and facts than those which it wanted to perpetuate. Hitler was an extraordinarily clever man; his only disadvantage was that he was insane... his views and passions forged by the disgraceful (if understandable) treatment of his country after WW1, and by a shallow education and experience of the outside world. He was exposed to such rubbish as H S Chamberlain writings on race, Nietzsche's twisted views on man as an animal, and Wagner's opera world of Nordic heroes and the Goetterdaemmerung... and it all fitted in neatly with what he wanted to believe. This narrow view is easily overcome in normal circumstances, by exposure to a wider view of reality... but this didnt happen to Hitler, or to the crackpots who gathered round him. After taking power, the overwhelming state propaganda was to ensure that the young men who were to make up the crack battalions of Das Reich, Liebstandarte, Gross Deutschland and the rest, were never exposed to the truth either. When combined with the fact that many of them, dissillusioned by the way the world seemed to treat them, wanted to believe in the Nazi lies... to be the superior race... is it any wonder that so many were so easily fanaticised?
Armed with this fanaticism, incredible organisation, bravery and overwhelming militarism, they almost conquered the world. And you can see and hear this fanaticism still, amongst young men who admire power, and who seek to perpetuate the myth of Aryan superiority because they happen to be Aryans. But its all simplistic lies!
I met a guy in Greece once... he'd been in the Waffen SS in Russia. He told me of the tales of Aryan superiority he'd been fed prior to Barbarossa. Then he told me how quickly this lie had been exposed once they came across the Russian untermenchen at the battle of Kursk. Then all the bullshit flew out of the door and it was just a case of surviving... no more Aryan Gods, just frightened, starving men, shitting their pants and cursing GROFAZ... "Grosse feldherr alles zietung"... the Fuhrer who called himself the greatest military leader of all time.
Some carried on believing right to the end, some fought on with bravery born of terror, and loyalty to one's friends... but the real tragedy is that they were still fighting for a cause that was the most disgustingly evil lie that the world has ever known.
Speak about these people by all means, because they are victims themselves, but never raise them to the hieghts of heroes, or use the title that they fought under as you have done (without any explanation) and so help perpetuate a myth that is both inaccurate and dangerous.
Nothing to hide? You just have to look in the right places.
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