The holocaust and war crimes through the lens of ordinary German soldiers.
The myth that the holocaust happened outside of the knowledge of the ordinary German soldier is wide spread one.
When the allies liberated the camps in Germany and occupied Europe the phrase "wir haben das nicht gewusst" was used often as an excuse, it were just limited numbers people of the awful regime that did this and all of it out of sight of the population, a big secret.
The Wehrmacht tried to wash his hands in innocents by putting the blame on the Waffen SS, they were as regular army troops not involved in these massacres and if they were they were forced to, because Befehl ist Befehl.
The mass executions were indeed not done in public in German cities but they were done in occupied towns and villages in the East, in area occupied by large numbers of WH troops that witnessed them.
These WH troops visited these execution sites as a kind of a tourist sightseeing trip, some of them even participated.
The taking of pictures was strictly prohibited by the organizers of the mass executions, not really because it was all that secret, they were allowing tourists and were sending back reports to Berlin about their progress; taking pictures was prohibited because it could damage the moral back home if the soldier that took them showed them to his friends and family when on vacation back in Germany and if these pictures would by accident fall in the hands of the allies it also could be evidence used against them.
Despite that Befehl is Befehl in the German army many soldiers just ignored this order and took pictures anyway.
Did they take this pictures so that they could proof large groups of people were exterminated in the East? No, not really, most of them took these pictures as gruesome souvenirs, a kind of evidence, that the filthy Jew or Untermensch finally got what he deserved, that the German army was taking care of business, no more half measures.
In this thread I'll show some pictures of my small collection.
Please feel free to add others if you have them.
The myth that the holocaust happened outside of the knowledge of the ordinary German soldier is wide spread one.
When the allies liberated the camps in Germany and occupied Europe the phrase "wir haben das nicht gewusst" was used often as an excuse, it were just limited numbers people of the awful regime that did this and all of it out of sight of the population, a big secret.
The Wehrmacht tried to wash his hands in innocents by putting the blame on the Waffen SS, they were as regular army troops not involved in these massacres and if they were they were forced to, because Befehl ist Befehl.
The mass executions were indeed not done in public in German cities but they were done in occupied towns and villages in the East, in area occupied by large numbers of WH troops that witnessed them.
These WH troops visited these execution sites as a kind of a tourist sightseeing trip, some of them even participated.
The taking of pictures was strictly prohibited by the organizers of the mass executions, not really because it was all that secret, they were allowing tourists and were sending back reports to Berlin about their progress; taking pictures was prohibited because it could damage the moral back home if the soldier that took them showed them to his friends and family when on vacation back in Germany and if these pictures would by accident fall in the hands of the allies it also could be evidence used against them.
Despite that Befehl is Befehl in the German army many soldiers just ignored this order and took pictures anyway.
Did they take this pictures so that they could proof large groups of people were exterminated in the East? No, not really, most of them took these pictures as gruesome souvenirs, a kind of evidence, that the filthy Jew or Untermensch finally got what he deserved, that the German army was taking care of business, no more half measures.
In this thread I'll show some pictures of my small collection.
Please feel free to add others if you have them.