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

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I'd say France is the one that should shoulder some blame for WWII starting.

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For sure. France stubbornly disregarded everyone else begging that the burden on Germany not be so onerous. Hitler's movement was largely a reaction to the economic ruin that the treaty in large part contributed to and secondarily was a reaction to the very popular theory of the "stab in the back", which was the majority opinion (though false) that since the German army was in France when the German home government signed the armistice, they therefore must have been WINNING at the time, and as such, the subsequent embarrassment and financial ruin was all due to Weimar government having betrayed the then-winning army. The early Nazi party fought the Communists NOT because they had differences on economics - they were both socialist movements - but rather because each was vying with the other to be THE socialist party going forward. The only difference between them was that one was internationalist and backed by the bolsheviks and trying to be like them, while the other (the Nazis) were German nationalists.