# Were enemy soldiers nice to eachother on WW1/WW2? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-enemy-soldiers-nice-to-eachother-on-ww1-ww2/691638 "2014-06-25T19:29:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-enemy-soldiers-nice-to-eachother-on-ww1-ww2/691638/81 "2014-06-27T23:09:21Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Kobayashi;17499440[The Beeb has a good overview of the complex situation in the Balkans at the time and the factions involved.] ([BBC - History - World Wars: Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941 - 1945](http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml)) [/QUOTE] Indeed, that _is_ a great think. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-enemy-soldiers-nice-to-eachother-on-ww1-ww2/691638/82 "2014-06-28T16:46:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Some of them were nasty Nazis, but some were the farm boy who got drafted. Once those farm boys who got drafted started gunning down civilian men, women, and children they became nasty Nazis who fully deserved their fate at the hands of any Partisan group that encountered them. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-enemy-soldiers-nice-to-eachother-on-ww1-ww2/691638/83 "2014-06-28T16:47:01Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Only in your imagination. Please show where I have said anything to the effect that it was always impossible for every single operating Partisan group the former Yugoslavia throughout the entire course of WWII to keep POWs. You’re joking, right? You said it right here in black in white, your lie is obvious, and your attempt to cover it up with claims of not having said the magic words always impossible under every single circumstance are transparent for what they are. Here, I’ll quote it for you again: > [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > > **Try and trade them for your own guys.** > > Blind fold them and drive them to a field and leave them. > > If you kill them, you will sure as hell be shot if captured yourself. > > \*\*In Yugoslava during WWII, the first option was not available \*\*and the the second option would only strengthen the enemy. As for your third statement, Partisans prayed to be shot quickly if they were captured (they were usually tortured and sent to concentration camps if they survived) . Not available. Your words; not “not always available”, “not available”. If you actually were aware that prisoner exchanges occurred and on a regular basis at that, it makes your response to the third statement extremely bizarre; why would they pray to be shot quickly rather than pray to be exchanged quickly? ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-enemy-soldiers-nice-to-eachother-on-ww1-ww2/691638/84 "2014-06-28T16:57:14Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > You’re joking, right? You said it right here in black in white, your lie is obvious, and your attempt to cover it up with claims of not having said the magic words always impossible under every single circumstance are transparent for what they are. Here, I’ll quote it for you again:Not available. Your words; not “not always available”, “not available”. If you actually were aware that prisoner exchanges occurred and on a regular basis at that, it makes your response to the third statement extremely bizarre; why would they pray to be shot quickly rather than pray to be exchanged quickly? My undergraduate degree is in history with a lot of higher level courses about the history of the Balkans. Keeping prisoners and making prisoner exchanges were not possible for many Partisan groups. Any military historian will gladly confirm that. It is to Tito and his officers credit that sometimes it was done, but on a practical level, it simply was not possible in all circumstances which left executing captured enemy soldiers as the only alternative. These weren’t little German choir boys drafted against their will. No man served on the genocide units that didn’t want to. They killed civilians. A Partisan unit executing such “soldiers” was self-defense of the remaining civilian population in the area. My third statement was a rebuttal of the claim that executing captured German would only make things harder for the Partisans (a laughable concept considering the behavior of the German army during World War II). A captured Partisan would pray for a quick death versus being tortured, raped (happened to men and women), and shipped to a painful death in a concentration camp. Compared to how the enemy treated them, the choice of some of the Partisan units to allow captured Germans to die with dignity appears quite saintly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-enemy-soldiers-nice-to-eachother-on-ww1-ww2/691638.md?page=4)