Some of them guys looked like they were in their teens. Pretty crazy to think about that something like this actually happened.
They were! My grandfather signed up at 17; lied about his age so he could go.
Too bad they didn’t die like the Jews they killed. Slowly starved and then gassed. Or just shot in the back of the head on the side of a pit filled with dead bodies. Or hey, how about forcing them to lie on top of another dead body a wait to be shot? They were too nice. Those fu@&ers should have been burned alive.
Toward the end of the war children were forced to wear the uniform.
I knew an older gent who was in that position. He had no choice but to serve in the military of a dying Germany when he was told that he would. He wasn’t SS. After they were liberated, to hear him tell it he stripped off his uniform and threw his rifle into “the pond”.
I’m not going to defend the camp guards. They got what they got.
FWIW, they didn’t only kill Jews. They killed dissidents, homos, many others.
Yes, and the killing wasn’t only done by the Germans, either. But I don’t feel sorry for anybody that got shot in those videos. It was better than they deserved.
American heroes channel and Smithsonian have several great series on WWII. I feel drawn to some sad spots when we travel to europe, so i watch all of the programs.