[dfwgator]

I think had the Germans treated the Russians humanely, many would have welcomed them as liberators from Stalin.

[ealgeone]

I think had the Germans treated the Russians humanely, many would have welcomed them as liberators from Stalin.

I really think this is an overlooked aspect of the Eastern Front. All Hitler had to do was "play nice" until he'd won and then he could've enacted his plans.

Good thing he was an idiot.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Very true.

I remember a old man from Kiev telling me how they welcomed the Nazis as liberators.

It was not until they saw that it was, "Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss" that they started fighting back.

On the east they were fighting Stalin and on the west they were fighting Hitler. They didn't have a chance.

[The Antiyuppie]

“I think had the Germans treated the Russians humanely, many would have welcomed them as liberators from Stalin.”

Not too likely. They wanted “lebensraum” (room to live), and they were concerned that there were just too many Eastern Europeans to...eliminate. The plan was to push them out of valuable areas and have them die off in the deserts and non-arable lands. So, although the collaborators thought that they were being “liberated”...they were next on the list after the Jews.

[Cronos]

That's a big what-if. There was a massive difference between the conduct of the Germans in WWII and those in WWI -- WWI were still somewhat gentlemen (and before that, they were pretty much gentlemen)

The Mein Kampf very clearly portrayed slavs as untermenschen. There was no question of treating them humanely.