# WWII German Soldier Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 19, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336 "2012-04-19T23:33:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/1 "2012-04-19T23:33:06Z")
Germany has just surrendered to the Allies. If you were a German Army private I assume you were allowed to go home. How high up the chain of command would you have to be before you were personally held responsible for atrocities? And what about the SS troops? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/2 "2012-04-20T00:19:17Z")
If an atrocity was involved, even privates would be held personally responsible. Nuremberg dealt with the biggies, but over 1600 others were dealt with by regular military tribunal. The Malmedy Massacre trial, for example, accused 75 soldiers of complicity in the atrocity, from a general down to privates. ---
**Author:** ![Weaver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Weaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weaver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/3 "2012-04-20T00:36:52Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > Germany has just surrendered to the Allies. If you were a German Army private I assume you were allowed to go home. > > How high up the chain of command would you have to be before you were personally held responsible for atrocities? And what about the SS troops? IIRC, the SS were hunted down as thoroughly as the Allies could manage, a task made easier by the fact that most units had blood type tattoos that the regular military lacked. ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/4 "2012-04-20T00:39:44Z")
> **[Prisoner of war | Germans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_war#Germans)** > > During the war, the armies of Western Allied nations such as Australia, Canada, the UK and the US were given orders to treat Axis prisoners strictly in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Some breaches of the Convention took place, however. According to Stephen E. Ambrose, of the roughly 1,000 US combat veterans he had interviewed, only one admitted to shooting a prisoner, saying he "felt remorse, but would do it again". However, one-third of interviewees told him they had seen fello In Britai... They took a while till they went home. There were official trials for atrocities, but hundreds of thousands were indirectly punished by being used as forced labour, including clearing minefields and the like. Otara ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/5 "2012-04-20T01:17:28Z")
Of course if you surrendered to the Soviets “a long time” meant at [least four years](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_prisoners_of_war_in_the_Soviet_Union)(assuming you survived that long). ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/6 "2012-04-20T09:10:23Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > Germany has just surrendered to the Allies. If you were a German Army private I assume you were allowed to go home. > > How high up the chain of command would you have to be before you were personally held responsible for atrocities? And what about the SS troops? A thorough answer to that could fill a book. There were millions of individual fates. Those soldiers who were not yet taken prisoner and who found themselves on German soil near the end of the war often simply threw away their uniform and and their weapon, changed to civilian clothes and tried to make their way back home. Others who surrendered to American or British forces in Germany often were released within weeks or months, including officers. Soldiers who surrendered to the Soviets were used as forced laborers in the Soviet Union and brought to far away places in Siberia. Some of them were summarily sentenced to long prison terms. The last German POWs held by the Soviets returned as late as 1956 (“return of the 10,000”, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOCJwvrDnUA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOCJwvrDnUA) ). In general, German soldiers tried to be taken prisoner by American and British Forces and not by the Soviets or - to a lesser extent - by the French. There were also cases where American and British forces handed over German POWs to the Soviets. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/7 "2012-04-20T09:52:27Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Others who surrendered to American or British forces in Germany often were released within weeks or months, including officers. Often, but not always. Many were not released until the end of 1948. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/8 "2012-04-20T20:23:45Z")
Denazification procedures divided them into the Blacks, the Greys and the Whites, the latter being held non-culpable and released. Realistically, they couldn’t hold huge numbers for as long as it took to check everyone thoroughly, not least because the Allied armies were demobilising themselves too and investigatory personnel were constantly departing for home. Budgets were being reduced and the pressure was on to wind up warcrimes investigations. The need to get West Germany functioning again as an economy prompted the release of men quite quickly, especially if they had, or claimed to have, a job to go to. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/9 "2012-04-20T20:55:15Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > In general, German soldiers tried to be taken prisoner by American and British Forces and not by the Soviets or - to a lesser extent - by the French. What was bad about surrendering to the French? Or have I misunderstood? ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/10 "2012-04-20T21:04:42Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > What was bad about surrendering to the French? Or have I misunderstood? The French held a particular strong grudge against the Germans after having been through more than 4 years of German occupation. German soldiers expected to be treated harshly as POWs by the French. Indeed, many German POWs were used by the French as forced laborers and for hazardous duties such as clearing mines with their bare hands. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/11 "2012-04-20T23:23:57Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > There were also cases where American and British forces handed over German POWs to the Soviets. To expound on this a bit, Soviet former POWs were also handed over to the Soviets by the Americans and British, and oftentimes they were the ‘German’ POWs being handed over. Large numbers of Soviets served in the German military mostly either as [Hiwis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiwi_(volunteer)) or [Osttruppen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostlegionen); between the two the numbers were about one million. Some were truly volunteers, Hiwi being an abbreviation of Hilfswilliger or “voluntary assistant” but the vast majorities were either conscripted or ‘volunteered’ out of necessity as the alternative to genocide. From the [US Holocaust Memorial Museum](http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007178) > [@](#): > > SECOND LARGEST GROUP OF NAZI VICTIMS > > The brutal treatment of Soviet POWs by the Germans violated every standard of warfare. Existing sources suggest that some 5.7 million Soviet army personnel fell into German hands during World War II. As of January 1945, the German army reported that only about 930,000 Soviet POWs remained in German custody. The German army released about one million Soviet POWs as auxiliaries of the German army and the SS. About half a million Soviet POWs had escaped German custody or had been liberated by the Soviet army as it advanced westward through eastern Europe into Germany. The remaining 3.3 million, or about 57 percent of those taken prisoner, were dead by the end of the war. Second only to the Jews, Soviet prisoners of war were the largest group of victims of Nazi racial policy. Former POWs returning to the Soviet Union after the war weren’t treated well, both those who had served with the Germans and those who hadn’t, they could look forward to forced labor at best upon their return. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/12 "2012-04-20T23:35:12Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > The French held a particular strong grudge against the Germans after having been through more than 4 years of German occupation. German soldiers expected to be treated harshly as POWs by the French. > > Indeed, many German POWs were used by the French as forced laborers and for hazardous duties such as clearing mines with their bare hands. Short rations & physical abuse, too. Many POWs held in the US were well-treated, & then repatriated through France…and sent to the mines. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/13 "2012-04-20T23:42:43Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > To expound on this a bit, Soviet former POWs were also handed over to the Soviets by the Americans and British, and oftentimes they were the ‘German’ POWs being handed over. Large numbers of Soviets served in the German military mostly either as [Hiwis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiwi_(volunteer)) or [Osttruppen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostlegionen); between the two the numbers were about one million. Some were truly volunteers, Hiwi being an abbreviation of Hilfswilliger or “voluntary assistant” but the vast majorities were either conscripted or ‘volunteered’ out of necessity as the alternative to genocide. From the [US Holocaust Memorial Museum](http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007178)Former POWs returning to the Soviet Union after the war weren’t treated well, both those who had served with the Germans and those who hadn’t, they could look forward to forced labor at best upon their return. It went further than just POW’s. The Soviet Union wanted everyone who had ever been a citizen returned. Some of the people who were sent back to the Soviet Union had fled during the Revolution. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/14 "2012-04-21T00:20:46Z")
[Here is the memoir of a German soldier.](http://www.feldgrau.com/interview5.html) It outlines his service but the second half of the article is about being captured and life following the end of the war. This includes the time spent in a postwar POW camp. ---
**Author:** ![Grateful-UnDead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ccd318/32.png) [@Grateful-UnDead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grateful-UnDead)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-german-soldier-question/619336/15 "2012-04-21T01:06:44Z")
Actually, there is a lot more to this story than is commonly known; I have a neighbor who served in the German army during WWII. Despite the fact he is now 96, we still have lively discussions about world events, both past and present. In 1940 he was a professional NCO in the Latvian army. Russia invaded Latvia in 1940, and he was forcibly inducted into the Russian army. As part of this incorporation, the Russians murdered most of the Latvian officer corps, and replaced them with Russians. Germany attacked Russia in 1941 and in July 1941 arrived in Latvia; my friend and many of his comrades deserted the Russian army and joined the Germans in their fight against the Russians. He served most of the war on “The Russian Front”, fighting in the German army. In 1945 at the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt and Stalin agreed, amongst other things, that all of the Latvians serving in the German army were Russian citizens, traitors and war criminals. Consequently, upon their capture, they were to be “repatriated” to the Russians and dealt with as “war criminals”. In 1945, my neighbor and his comrades surrendered to the Americans and were incarcerated in a POW camp near Mannheim. Sometime later, the American camp commander was informed that the next day, the Russians would be coming to take possession of the incarcerated Latvians, and will be “returning them to Russia”. The American commander notified the Latvian commander of this. He also mentioned that that evening the entire American garrison would be attending a celebration in a local tavern and the gates would be accidentally left open. During this period my friend and his comrades escaped; others were not so fortunate. Most of those who were unfortunate enough to end up in Russian hands were either murdered or died from maltreatment. Moreover, right up to the collapse of the Soviet Union, my friend and his comrades were harassed by Soviet agents and actions were initiated to have them returned to Russia as “war criminals”. This harassment was part of the Soviet strategy in the cold war to intimidate opposition in the West.