Quote:
Originally Posted by dculkin
I wonder how much the average German soldier knew about what Hitler was doing. On the other hand, so much of what they did in the ghettos and the concentration camps can't be justified, no matter how you cut it. And it took a whole bunch of willing accomplices to carry out those abominations.
I was recently at a dinner with several people, most of whom were only barely acquainted. One of the people at the dinner was a lady visiting from Germany. She was talking about the remote village where she grew up. You could have heard a pin drop when she said that she had been a member of the Hitler Youth. She said that the war was almost over by the time she and her family figured out that Hitler was a mad man. Propaganda is a powerful thing.
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The war was not about concentration camps. It's the most perpetrated misconception people have about WWII.
You're jumping from one aspect to another. No logic. You mention average soldiers, than you move to what you presume Hitler was doing, than to something you don't specify, that bares justification, by suggesting every average soldier did something at one of the getthos or concentration camps.
Soldiers fought the war. That's what they did. They died or they survived, by doing so.
Hitler didn't do anything, except having one fit after another, holding irrational speeches and giving insane orders.
That inturn was well acknowledged, by civilians and soldiers alike.
Now, what's so pin-dropping about a female who was in the Hitler Youth?
A vast number participated in it, based on the fact that it was mandatory at some point in time.
Even the Pope seemed to be a memebr of the HJ back in the days:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7576505/
And if, on the other hand, it took her that long to find out that Hitler was an insane and drug addicted lunatic, I like to tell you, the list of those who knew about him way before he came to power, is very long.
Yes, propaganda is a very powerful thing, still, Americans in general think they are immune to it.
To have an idea about propaganda is one thing, being impacted by the results of it, is another.
It takes the latter to sense an ounce of propaganda from afar, if it radiates.