Author: Lonely Cold Light
Looking at contemporary films about Nazi Germany, especially those made in the West, it is very natural to separate the German army from the Gestapo and the SS. There are even extreme films that separate ordinary SS members from the Gestapo. This will give ordinary people the impression that the Wehrmacht is nothing more than a machine at the behest of the state, and that it is the Nazi Party that is really guilty. These film and television works are shown to Western people, and they will resonate very much.
In the Western system, the Party and the Army themselves are separate. The party can be constantly changed, but the army is only at the behest of the government. If you understand Western history, this is almost impossible for modern Europe. The Nazi Party, for example, came to power from the time of Hindenburg's death until the surrender of Germany. It was impossible for the German army to be spotless for such a long time.
Hindenburg
In fact, the Wehrmacht, like the SS, was brainwashed by the Nazi Party, and they also committed heinous crimes against the people of Europe.
Hans Weigel of the German 4th Panzer Division wrote while stationed at Ghelów: "The patrol caught an old man and a six-year-old child with potatoes and salt. They said they were going fishing, but we suspected they were delivering food to the guerrillas, so we solved them. Such acts of carelessness were common within the German army, which retaliated by massacring a large number of Soviets accused of "partisans" before withdrawing from Ghelov. In fact, most of them are ordinary people.
Partisans in the USSR
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the German army, and if all crimes are enumerated, it is definitely a thick archive. The Germans also massacred the local population in the Belarusian region. According to official Soviet statistics, the post-war population of the Belarusian region decreased by 40%, and the number of deaths in Belarus reached 3.6 million.
The massacre of Europe by the Germans was definitely no less than the crimes committed by the Japanese army in East and Southeast Asia. Of course, the actions of the German army also provoked a revolt among the Belarusian people, and the number of Belarusian partisans soared, at most 150,000.
Today, many people believe that the three Baltic countries were the vanguard of anti-Soviet aggression, eating pot pulp to welcome the king when the German army arrived. In fact, the three Baltic countries were not less massacred during the German occupation. During the occupation of Latvia, the German Army Group A formed a working group with the main task of capturing suspected "partisans" and Jews. More than 400,000 people were arrested during this period.
Nazi concentration camps
A Latvian doctor was taken to a concentration camp by the Working Group on 30 June 1941, the second time he had been arrested. According to the doctor's recollection, he had been taken to the interrogation room of the German working group a few days earlier, but the working group had released him. Subsequently, on June 30, he was arrested again.
This time he finally ended up in Madona prison. Here he saw a policeman he knew, his hands and fingers covered in blood. He also saw three fellow villagers in the camp, all of whom had been beaten beyond recognition. The doctor was fortunate that he dug ditches in the camp and drank leaf soup every day.
Manstein was particularly fond of killing after he invaded the Soviet Union. Every time Manstein passed through a village, he had to kill dozens of people whenever he had time. According to Manstein's theory, these Soviets could have been cadres or Bolsheviks, and leaving them in the rear was a threat. During the German retreat from Moscow, they retaliated by plundering more than a hundred villages along the retreat road, which were also burned. Of course, these plunders could not support the continuation of the war by the Germans, and they were more angry.
Germans
The German Wehrmacht is also on a par with the Japanese army in terms of color. After the German invasion of Poland, there were incidents in which the German army pulled Polish women out of their homes and raped them directly on the street. These German soldiers were not SS, they were the Wehrmacht through and through. The rule that German soldiers must not have an affair with Jews became a dead letter after the war began. Because of their hatred of Jews, the Germans committed a large number of abuses against Jews.
Compared to ordinary German soldiers, the commanders may be a little more "elegant". After the German occupation of Paris, a large number of comfort stations were set up in Paris. These comfort centers were mainly used to receive German officers, and later as the number of comfort centers increased, German soldiers could also enjoy this treatment. In order to prevent the spread of the disease from affecting the combat effectiveness of the German army, the Wehrmacht General Headquarters also specially produced registration cards and regularly conducted physical examinations of women in comfort centers. Due to the lack of necessary conditions, disinfection became the most important part of the German commanders' propaganda to their subordinates.
Comfort houses in France
So the question arises, why did the West create a kind of Wehrmacht that was clean and well-behaved, and all crimes were committed by the SS? This is inseparable from the rapid entry into the Cold War after World War II. Germany's sweep across the continent at the beginning of World War II was a great threat to the United States. Because a divided Europe is fundamental to America's ability to pick peaches after the war. The United States tried once after World War I, but because of the remaining strength of Britain, France and Italy, the United States did not succeed.
Before World War II, the United States intentionally or unintentionally began to sanction Germany for overseas oil supplies. It was at this time that Germany moved to the Soviet Union in order to obtain enough oil. The outbreak of the Soviet-German war hit the United States in the hands. Through a series of aid programs, the United States helped the Soviet Union survive its most difficult first year. With the victorious conclusion of the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, the Soviet army began a full-scale counteroffensive.
At this time, the United States resolutely opened a second battlefield to land in Europe. After all, his own aid to the USSR was not for the sake of "anti-fascism", but in order to become a world hegemon.
Originally, according to the idea of the United States, he relied on the offshore balancing hand to let the Soviet Union and Germany lose both, and then he successfully replaced Britain as the hegemon. However, the Soviet Union had a strong mobilization power, and American aid played a 120% role in the hands of the Soviet Union, but it was pushed to Berlin. In order to prevent the Soviet Union from expanding its influence, the United States thus lowered the iron curtain of the Cold War. And Germany was thus divided into East Germany and West Germany.
In order to prevent a Soviet attack, the United States could only rebuild the Wehrmacht. The once disbanded Wehrmacht returned to the West German government. But this 180-degree turn is really a bit unresponsive to the people of Europe. In order to make a moral sense, Western public opinion led by the United States began to promote that Nazi Germany was not bound to the Wehrmacht, and that the Wehrmacht was only a war machine subordinate to the government.
East German People's Army
Of course, there was no problem with this on the East German side. After all, East Germany was also part of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the United Socialist Party had long been the ruling party, and the officers of the People's Army were mostly SED members. In other words, East Germany had been transformed into a half-socialist country, and the army was largely under the leadership of the SED. No German would have associated the KPA with Nazi Germany.
Of course, the West's constant glorification of the Nazi Party is not without harm. Due to the continuous glorification of the military discipline of the German Wehrmacht for political purposes, the smearing of the Soviet Union, and even fabricating rumors that Stalin and Hitler conspired to start World War II, today's Europeans have a wave of Nazi wind. Many young Europeans believe in Nazism.