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

Realistically, the average soldier was so screened from real news and the concentration camps. It wasn't until near the end or after the war they realized it.

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Not necessarily.

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The extermination camps were located in remote areas of Poland, with the exception of Auschwitz which was a massive labor camp with a death camp attached at Birkenau. Yes, they were remote and deliberately so.

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You have to remember the ideology that Hitler spread. He galvanized that nation like no one ever really has in such a short time. That alone distorts one's view.

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Yeah, but when he came to power less than a third of the country identified with Nazism.

One of the first things the Nazis did was remake the education system. The adult population may have been willing to accept what benefits the Nazis initially provided, but you wouldn't find many true believers among them. However, by 1939 there was a generation of teen and twentysomething fanatics willing to fight to the end.

Germany definitely wanted eastward expansion. The war in the west was based on a need to secure its flank. Germany had no explicit desire for French or British territory beyond that, and would have preferred not to fight in the west at all.

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But did Germany really want to expand, or did they want to simply fortify their defensive position? What, really, was it about?

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Google "Lebensraum."

Hitler wanted to unite all Germans under one umbrella, hence the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland, and the want of the Polish Corridor and Danzig. That would be followed by conquests in Eastern Europe, where the inferior Slavic races would be removed, killed, or enslaved and new German settlers would move in.

Hitler did not have a particular beef with Britain and France other than the Versailles Treaty. He only went to war with them because they declared war on him. Hitler's true hatred lay with the Communists and Jews.

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One of the first things the Nazis did was remake the education system. The adult population may have been willing to accept what benefits the Nazis initially provided, but you wouldn't find many true believers among them. However, by 1939 there was a generation of teen and twentysomething fanatics willing to fight to the end.

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“When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already. … What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.’” - Adolf Hitler, November 6, 1933

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When did the German soldiers of WWII realize they were the 'bad guys'? by Undertow

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When the second guy posted the same thing?

This isn't a very good joke.

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At some point during the war, the average soldier probably heard rumors or knew about the mass killing of Jews in their concentration camps.

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I'm not defending this, but they probably thought they were freeing people from Stalin's wrath - which killed far more people.

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At some point during the war, the average soldier probably heard rumors or knew about the mass killing of Jews in their concentration camps.

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Perhaps they believed such rumors to be to unbelievable or some serious fricked up Allied propaganda. Geez, you still have people who don't believe it.

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What, really, was it about?

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Expansion of controlled land for marketing of goods. Money, it's always about money. So much of what we have been told and taught was political scapegoating 101. He needed someone to blame, someone convenient. Jews were less than 1% Of the population.