One thing that came to my mind again.

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[DerangedFerret]

Yes, and he was a brutal ass to his troops.

[Flack]

You do realize the HJ were already a combat force to be used by the SS and the Nazi party. Bringing it into the Heer would have removed most of the political indoctrination from the mix. How is taking kids out of the hands of the hands of the Nazi party and putting them into regular army training behavior befitting a Nazi?

Combat force? What combat? Streefights? That was the SA's business! The SS was really nothing but Hitlers bodyguards and camp guards.

"In 1936, the SS absorbed all of Germany's regular police forces and formed the Ordnungspolizei and the Kriminalpolizei. These two organizations would later be folded into the RSHA just prior to the start of World War II.

In 1939, from the existing Totenkopfverbände was formed the SS Division Totenkopf composed of former members of the Concentration Camp service. The Totenkopf division would later become a division of the Waffen-SS."

"After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Hitler assumed the office of Reichspräsident, and thus became commander in chief. All officers and soldiers of the German armed forces had to swear a personal oath of loyalty to the Führer, as Adolf Hitler now was called."
I don't know, i think that every part of german society was influenced on pretty much every level!

[Flack]

Patton committed a lot of warcrimes =)

Eisenhower was faaar worse:

"Bacque charges that hundreds of thousands of German prisoners of war (POWs) who entered the camps were not transferred out, so they must have died. He also points to a German report recording the death of 1.4 million German POWs, and Soviet data accounting for only 450,600 of these deaths. (The remainder, he says, must then have died in Western camps.) In his book Other Losses, Bacque recounts interviews with people who claimed to have witnessed trucks full of dead leaving the camps each day, and civilian women who say they were fired upon while trying to throw bread over the camp fence. The fact that Red Cross inspectors were banned, Red Cross food aid was returned, building of shelters was forbidden and soldiers were kept on short rations are seen by Bacque as a "method of the genocide.""

[TheDeadlyShoe]

 

[Flack]

Being a person who has spoken to people who were actually taken to these camps, at least i know what i am talking about.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

He's a crank.

http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/b/bacque-james/ambrose-001.html

http://www.cyberussr.com/hcunn/for/us-germany-pow.html

[GammaCommander]

I don't find it surprising that German POWs were dying in Allied camps. I am pretty sure there was alot of hatred towards the German, especially from Jewish soldiers. Still, it was better than being a POW to the Nazis, Japanese, or Russians.

[Flack]

I don't find it surprising that German POWs were dying in Allied camps. I am pretty sure there was alot of hatred towards the German, especially from Jewish soldiers. Still, it was better than being a POW to the Nazis, Japanese, or Russians.

Partially true, Russian POW's in german camps were screwed. Same for german POW's in russian camps.
However allied prisoners were not treated overly bad, say they had roofs over their heads and such. Japanese camps were truly evil!

[TheDeadlyShoe]

From reading those links I provided, it seems as though this Bacque person parlayed like a few beatings by camp guards, an extreme European food shortage, and some basic math errors into pure slander. 

In fact,  it seems as though that even if Germany had succeeded in holding off its foes militarily, Continental Europe's collapsed economy would have ended the Reich anyway.  Diverting agricultural supplies into weapons production is no joke.

[CommanderNewbie]

Secondly, as a General in the German Army in WW2 how would you avoid dealing with Nazi's?

That was my earlier point.  Hence my comment that I can't really say that I respect any of the german high command.

It strikes me as an impossible feat for someone who does not sympathize with the nazi cause to rise to the rank of general in WW2.  That isn't to say that Rommel was a nazi; from what I've read, I know he wasn't.  But he certainly wasn't against Hitler's rule, perhaps less so when things began to fall apart.  Of course, that was the case for many.

Though your comment about republicans doesn't really serve as an accurate comparison mainly because of the ideological differences between democracy and nazism.  Lets not get in to that, though

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From what I understand, Rommel was personally dignified and honorable.  Unfortunately, he sided with the genocidal maniac (even if it was for Germany) and that is something that I can't respect.




Also, Patton was crazy too.  Nobody is perfect, which is why it's so hard to find someone you can truely respect.  This is especially true in warfare, where the whole objective is to kill others to complete your objectives.  Of course, there's no shortage of bravery or valor.