Thank you for pointing that out. It's important to remember that these, for the most part, aren't high ranking Nazi's or SS Death Camp guards, the majority of the German POW's were simply rank and file soldiers drafted into the German army by Hitler when he began his conquest of Europe. Keep in mind that these soldiers also, when given the chance, laid down their arms and surrendered to Allied troops. Therank and file German soldiers weren't terrorists blowing up schools or cutting off peoples heads, they were regular soldiers fighting on conventional battlefields according to the rules and laws of war. I wouldn't say that they deserve our respect (they did fight for Hitler after all), but they certainly don't deserve our derision.
And in death, all soldiers are equal. There is a certain honor in giving up your life for your homeland, no matter which country or which side you fought for, and that honor should be remembered from time to time.
"Dulce et decorum, pro patria mori est".
I have always thought it a mistake to confuse the honorable service of soldiers with the regimes they are often forced to serve.
Brave and honorable men exist in all countries, however unworthy the leaders or causes they may serve.
I imagine it takes the same guts to drop onto a Belgian frontier fortress in 1940 or crash land a glider under fire onto Maleme airfield on Crete in 1941 as it did to jump into the Kanev bridgehead or seize the bridges at Arnhem, Eindhoven and the third Dutch city, the name of which I've forgotten, just to use three examples from WWII, of German, Soviet and American, English and Free Polish airborne ops.
"And in death, all soldiers are equal. There is a certain honor in giving up your life for your homeland, no matter which country or which side you fought for, and that honor should be remembered from time to time."
What a pantload of sentimental BS.