All German soldiers were not NAZI’s. Many German soldiers fought for the same reason most soldiers fight; for the man on his right and on his left. The cruelest soldiers in WW2 were the Japanese. The most brutal were the German SS Divisions AND the Soviet Red Army. In North Africa, where it was largely the British against the German Wehrmacht, the conflict was described as “The war without hate.” on the Eastern front, where the Germans(SS) fought the Soviets, it was called “The war without pity.”
“
All German soldiers were not NAZI’s. Many German soldiers fought for
the same reason most soldiers fight; for the man on his right and
on his left.
“
IIRC there was some fellow that did his dissertation on German
Army soldiers that would not have passed the racial purity test if
really scrutinized.
In other words, German Army soldiers of at least some sort of Jewish heritage.
And I think this story got at least a substantial segment on NBC DateLine.
With some of his mentors (or “thesis advisors”) telling him they
thought he’d not find any such thing.
What was truly interesting was the researcher’s finding that even
when the officers knew (or had reasonable suspicion) of their
subordinates “Non-Aryan problem”, they generally provided the soldiers
cover and did what they could to keep them in their command.
There were a bunch of confused people in Germany during WWII.
Including the ones that pushed to the East and found Jews that rode
horses and shot well...the Nazis (especially Himmeler’s Anhenerbe)
didn’t know what to make of those folks!
If I'm not mistaken, veterans of the Afrika Korps and the British 8th Army have had joint reunions over the years. I do know Adolf Galland of the Luftwaffe became very close friends with many of the British flyers he opposed during the Battle of Britain (even becoming friends with Douglas Bader during the war...allowing an artificial leg to be dropped into his POW camp).
I do remember a 40 year reunion of the American troops meeting with the Waffen SS soldiers they opposed at Point du Hoc....they didn't seem to like each other at all, looked like they'd still shoot at each other.
What I never believed would happen is that there's been some Japanese soldiers and American Marines who've met each other in Iwo Jima and Okinawa commemorations. If you remember the hatred in which they held each other, you'd be astonished to see these men embrace each other (even after 60 years)...I seriously doubt there'd be a Stalingrad reunion between Red Army soldiers and von Paulus's 6th Army.
As a side note, a seminary professor here in Jackson was trained to be a Kamikaze pilot at the end of WW II (I told him once he must not been very good at it if I'm still talking to him). Dr. Toshiro was only 13, but he was going to bomb ships when the Americans invaded the mainland. When the U.S. dropped the A-bombs and the Japs surrendered, it left his life in a void. He came to Christ in a revival meeting held by some American missionary, and he later became an American citizen and pastored a church in Kentucky for 20 years (his son fought in the Gulf War). After hearing him give his testimony one night, an old Navy veteran came up to him and hugged him, saying he never thought he'd embrace a veteran of the Japanese Army, but that Christ has brought us all together.