Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce Dennis
Messy time, the 20th century.
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Thatīs a statement I can agree 100%. A few general observations:
1) In the recent von Manstein biography by Mungo Melvin the author makes an interesting statement that from 1870 to 1945 German Army allways had a low tolerance for any kind of civilian resistance. Sadly the author does not ponder why it was so. I, for one, understand the policy perfectly: if civilians of an occupied country wish to be treated like civilians, they must also behave like civilians and by the definitions on the international law in effect at that time it meant that they refrain from any form of resistance. Period. Most of the battlefield atrocities in the West were rooted in the aforementioned tradition.
2) As far as the Eastern Front is considered, it is most interesting to note how few authors have asked the big question, i.e. why didnīt the Soviets evacuate their civilian population from the battle zones? And I believe that the answer lies in the mindset of bolshevik leadership. They simply ruthlessly calculated that the partisan warfare that was part and parcel of bolshevik way of war would surely lead to harsh countermeasures and that in turn to increased support for the partisans. And the plan worked perfectly, though at the expense of the poor civilians. That does not exonerate the NS responsibility for the massacres éntirely, or even mostly, but does show that the war on the Eastern Front was a different war from the beginning. And shows that the NS people were their own worst enemies as they simply failed to grasp that their plocies were in total opposition to their main goal, making Germany a BIG player. In short, the NS leadership lacked true statemanship. In this context it is interesting to note that Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated for exactly the same reason. Heydrich had managed to pacify the protectorate so that the British leadership wasnīt happy for the lack of saboteur activity there. So they carried out the assassination in the belief that Hiter will be enraged and will order excessive countermeasures. And again the plan worked like a charm. And again the poor civilians paid the price. And again the NS folks screwed up.
3) It is also quite interesting to note that the books by Polish historian Bogdan Musial have not been translated into English while every second rate holocaust book is. Musialīs findings are simply not too pleasant for the left dominated academia and political establishment as he has shown that while the Soviets were retreating in 1941, NKVD was fully committed to liquidate large number of people Stalin considered as his enemies.
4) And it is interesting too to note how Sylvester Stadler is harped upon due to his choice of a name. I am pretty certain that had he selected e.g. Ivan Konev as his name, no harping upon would take place. Yet, if the careers of these two are compared, one will note that Stadler spent his entire NS era career as a career military man, while Konev began his career as a political commissar who e.g. took action against anti-Bolshevik uprisings. And if Franco was an illegal entity, then the Soviet regime was even more illegal.