>From what I am to understand, the Army knew little of the SS's activities...at least from the reaction of Generals like Rommel who did refuse orders to kill Jews amongst POWs...he had the ability to do that because of his position. When the atrocities of the final solution came to light, many in the regular army knew nothing of it and were horrified. I think that had a major morale killing effect that helped turn the tide of the war. It was after these revelations that many in the high command saw Hitler as the nutball he was and that is when the assassination plots started come up. When they realized what they were fighting for, many had little taste for it and only fought because they knew that the SS officers assigned to their units would execute them on site if they failed to fight. Without knowing what was going, I am sure many saw the SS as an elite unit that was a great career path that would help them rise in rank faster. I bet once you were in, the only way out of the SS was in a coffin.
-----Original Message----- From: Judah McAuley [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 6:10 PM To: cf-community Subject: Re: Candidate responds to charge he dressed as Nazi - CNN Political Ticker - CNN.c If you really don't want to serve in the military and have been conscripted by a foreign occupier, do you really think that you're going to be drafted into an elite unit responsible for highly sensitive missions? I'm rather doubting that the US brought a bunch of a-political Iraqis into black ops squads. Just a guess there. Judah On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 2:21 PM, Eric Roberts <[email protected]> wrote: > > How many of those soldiers didn't have a choice? It wasn't exactly a > volunteer army and some of that may have been well do this or you die. I am > sure there were some die hard Nazi's in the unit as well, but I doubt all > were. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Judah McAuley [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 4:18 PM > To: cf-community > Subject: Re: Candidate responds to charge he dressed as Nazi - CNN Political > Ticker - CNN.c > > > On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 1:07 PM, Robert Munn <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Sounds to me like he was attempting an analysis of the soldiers in the > unit, >> suggesting that they felt Soviet Communism was a bigger threat to their >> country than Nazism, so they chose to fight what they saw was the greater > of >> the two evils. Politically tone deaf, absolutely. As much as anything, >> that's his weakness as a candidate. > > He definitely was doing an analysis of the soldiers in the unit for > part of it. When they talk about them being "collaborators" he says > that he doesn't agree with that, that they were fighting a bigger evil > which, in context, is obviously the Soviet Union. I think that it is a > disingenuous move though since the Nazi SS weren't so much foot > soliders serving to hold the eastern front as they were a high-level, > political, police force charged with doing the Reich's dirtiest work. > If you were Latvian and saw yourself as having to make a choice > between Hitler or Stalin, I could certainly see choosing Hitler. A > damned if you do, damned if you don't sort of choice about who is > going to rule your homeland. Joining the Wiking division of the SS > though? That's a bit different and I think it is disingenuous for him > to suggest otherwise. > > And, really, when it comes down to it and you have to waffle and say > "I don't think we can judge them", well, he may not be a nazi > sympathizer but he doesn't seem to have much moral grounding. > > Juda > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:329107 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
