re: When did the German soldiers of WWII realize they were the 'bad guys'?

quote:

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German soldiers committed war crimes in Poland from the very outset. One soldier in the 41st infantry division noted, "Polish civilians and soldiers are dragged out everywhere. When we finish our operation, the entire village is on fire. Nobody is left alive, also all the dogs were shot."

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I don't know if this was one of them but there were specific Reprisals targeted at certain Polish villages. Not many know this but there was a vicious little "Ethnic Cleansing War" going on in Poland before the war. The "combatants" were the ethnic Germans, who were Lutheran, fighting the ethnic Poles where were Catholic. There were incidents of ethnic Poles and Germans killing each other. Apparently they really hated each other.

That story is very sad. Remember that Poland fought for Napoleon's France against both the Russians and the German speaking peoples. That hate between ethnic Germans and Poles was deep and went back for generations.

During this time when Poland was independent before WW2, both Poles and Germans committed atrocities against each other -- their very neighbors! It's sickening to contemplate.