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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   3638 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 14, 2024

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During WWII Germany was of course villainized in propaganda and amongst western Allied soldiers; massacres of surrendering German soldiers were not regular but also not uncommon.

I think it's important to point out here that the massacred soldiers in question were almost(?) all Waffen-SS, not Wehrmacht.

For larger massacres, generally. But lots of ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers had their surrenders not-so-politely declined; this was sort of glossed over in the post-war official histories but appear frequently in AARs. Also as Ioper notes due to the influx of draftees and soldiers from other branches into the Waffen-SS (whose units were almost always subordinated or OKH or OKW) just because someone was in the SS doesn't mean they were SS.

At the point of the Allied invasion of continental Europe that distinction isn't super clear due to the massive expansion and forced conscription of both large numbers of Germans (often Wehrmacht) and foreigners, doubling in size many times over. It wasn't remotely the same org as before or at the start of the war.

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