Somewhat off topic, but a documentary on the concentration camps mentioned that the gas chambers were developed to solve a morale prolem in the army. Originally there were death squads roaming eastern Europe to round up and shoot Jews and other undesirables into mass graves; but the army complained of low morale. Reading between the lines, it sounds like quite a few of the soldiers objected to this action - maybe they complained “I signed up for war, not slaughter”. Maybe it was actual disgust at what they were doing - many Germans were actually human. However, obviously there was enough push back, even in a fanatical strict military heirarchy, even in the days before the revelations of wholesale death camps gave racism a bad name; enough push-back that the German high command saw a problem.
So not every soldier was a sadistic killer; even the German command noticed that what they were doing was pushing many of their soldiers too far.
One might have hoped that this was the reason, but reality is more prosaic - the troops who did the killing by day were getting drunk all night (and during the shootings themselves) and that disturbed the higher-ups. And, to a large extent, Himmler himself was concerned that tasks such as the murder of women and children might soon take a toll on the “good and decent German soldier” (a paraphrase). Cite (at 1:27).
I think indirectly, the two of you are saying the same thing. There wasn’t much direct resistance by the Einsatzgruppen to what they were doing but there were strong enough stress reactions, like drunkenness, depression, and unprofessional behavior, by the squads, that Himmler and the other higherups wanted to find some way to increase the depersonalization of it and spare the psyche of the people doing the murdering.
All camp personnel were SS members AFAIK. Obviously you could not have a camp where the rank and file belonged to a different command structure than the officers.
This wouldd’ve included Demajanjuk who (admitted himself) that he had an SS tatoo on his arm that he later removed.
One minor (or major) point that should be noted. Not all German soldiers were members of the Nazi party. Quite a few were “drafted” into service and had no choice in the matter. I am not defending the actions of the soldiers, just pointing out that not every German in uniform was a Nazi.
No, but every member of the SS was. The SS was a Nazi party organization. And, yes, not every German in uniform was a Nazi, but, while I’ve heard that rationalization a lot, I don’t know but that it’s a distinction without a difference. The Nazi party had pretty much total control in Germany at the time. Even if they weren’t all party members, the government, the army, etc, all became instruments of the party’s will. So, whether a German in uniform was a Nazi or not, he was, through his actions, enforcing the party’s mandate and keeping them in power.
For many Germans during the Cold War it was useful to draw a distinction between all-Nazi organizations like the SS and Gestapo, and the Wehrmacht, which was long seen as fighting valiantly but for a bad cause. But a major Hamburg exhibit in 1995 showed that the army was far more complicit in war crimes than virtually anyone wanted to admit: H-Net Reviews
As I have understood it, in addition to the members of the Totenkopfverbande who where KZ-guards on a more permanent basis, other units of the SS, in particular the SS Division Totenkopf, but also other units, would spend some time in guard duty details, often as a sort of R&R from the front.
I’ve read books about Scandinavian volunteers, who, as all foreign volunteers, were included in SS-parent units, found themselves, more or less voluntary, doing KZ duty in between front assignments.
I’ll see if I can dig up some cites, but I remember reading some of these soldiers took pity on the inmates, and tried to help, but also that any guard caught helping an inmate, in particular failing to shoot someone attempting escape, would in turn risk getting shot.
However, most of these soldiers wouldn’t qualify as ardent Nazis, so this is perhaps not the type of guards the OP is looking for.
Good point - just wanted to add - technically no soldier in the Wehrmacht COULD be a Nazi, seeing as membership of a political party was illegal for anyone serving in the Wehrmacht. I believe even the right to vote was denied active service members, according to the Weimar republic constitution.
Just reading from the Holocaust Museum link, “definitely a hero” sounds awfully strong. Yes, he tried to disclose what he saw of the Holocaust as the war was drawing to an absolute close, and he had his quarrels with the Nazi Party. But he was an SS Lieutenant responsible for delivering Zyklon B to death camps, and it seems like (usually) did that job, though he might have ditched one load. It seems like he was a Nazi with very real qualms about the whole genocide thing - but he still did his bit until the cause was well and truly lost. That’s not a hero. That, at most, is a slightly less horrible species of monster.
And for that matter - waging aggressive war is a war crime in itself, folks. And ordinary German soldiers most certainly participated in that - over and over and over again.
Yes, and all of those seem to be officers. That page is pretty clear that they were in command of Ukrainian guards; not many are listed as being guards themselves. So I’ll grant you that I was wrong about the guards being “exclusively” Ukrainian/Soviet; I was surprised to learn (and am still not entirely convinced) that these Soviet POWs were themselves members of the SS in the same sense that the German and Austrian officers were.
Why is this obvious? Militaries all over the world and throughout history have had civilian employees and contractors, some of which are in armed roles.
One man’s obvious, is not necessarily another man’s…
It just seems to me that the idea of having officer who were not technically the direct senior officer of the rank and file would be a strange situation for any longterm arrangement. In this case I believe even the secretatriesin the offices at the camp, were (women’s) SS members.