Post-War Germany: Wehrmacht Veterans?
MF006
We have seen a lot of information about the effects of combat and the loss
of an unpopular war on soldiers (a.k.a Vietnam), and even the effect of
combat and the difficulties of returning to civilian life on US WW2
veterans. However, is there any literature on how German WW2 veterans
re-adjusted to life after suffering the loss of so many comrades, the
defeat of their country, and the realities and tragedies of Naziism?
If the US is any example, I would imagine that many German soldies
suffered and are still suffering. It would be interesting to see any
similarities and/or differences.
Thanks.
Mark
John B. Morgan
On Fri, 31 May 1996, MF006 wrote:
> If the US is any example, I would imagine that many German soldies
> suffered and are still suffering. It would be interesting to see any
> similarities and/or differences.
I'm no expert on the subject, but I've read a lot of Heinrich Boll, a German
novelist and story-writer (now dead, sadly) who served in the Wehrmact during
WWII. He won the Nobel Prize at one point. A considerable amount of his
fiction describes average German soldiers both during and in the aftermath of
the war. I can't remember which story he says this in, but I recall that
in one he said that by 1944/45, the average German soldier didn't care
who won or lost the war, they just wanted it to be over. It's true that, as
in Vietnam, the Germans lost their war, but to many German soldiers by
the end of the war the destruction of Nazism was as much a relief as it
was to the Allies. I'm sure Boll doesn't speak for all German soldiers,
particularly the members of the Waffen-SS, but from other accounts I've
read it seems a fair assessment of German attitudes. Another important
distinction is that returning German soldiers weren't treated with
contempt by their society - no matter what people had thought of the war
and its instigators, returning Wehrmacht soldiers would have been treated
with a great deal of sympathy. This is also in sharp contrast to Americans
in Vietnam, who were often treated with indifference or even anger by
a large segment of the population upon their return.
John Morgan "Very possibly I shall have you slaughtered
The University of Michigan and skewered in my stables and enjoy a slice
jbmo...@umich.edu of you with crisp crackling from the baking
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jbmorgan/ tin basted and baked like sucking
pig with rice and lemon or currant sauce.
It will hurt you."-Bello, in Joyce's ULYSSES
Georg Schwarz
MF006 <mf...@aol.com> wrote:
> If the US is any example, I would imagine that many German soldies
> suffered and are still suffering. It would be interesting to see any
> similarities and/or differences.
I guess that the most important difference is that Germany was a
devasted, conquered country at the end of WW II, so more or less
everyone, civilians and military people, somehow suffered from the war;
something which does not apply to the US and the Vietnam war.
--
Georg Schwarz (sch...@physik.tu-berlin.de, ku...@cs.tu-berlin.de, PGP 2.6ui)
Institute for Theoretical Physics +49 30 314-24254 FAX -21130 IRC kuroi
Berlin University of Technology http://itp1.physik.tu-berlin.de/~schwarz/