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I was going to add the Soviets to the list, but I don't know enough about their mass treatment of German civilians in particular, though obvious they treated th
by panzagl 6y ago
I was going to add the Soviets to the list, but I don't know enough about their mass treatment of German civilians in particular, though obvious they treated their own civilians badly enough. The Eastern front was more brutal, but brutality of soldiers against soldiers is not really an exception even in modern warfare as opposed to organized murder and abuses of enemy non-combatants on a strategic scale.
- Hitton 6y agoWhy just treatment of German civilians? Soviets were assholes to pretty much everybody. Baltic states, Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, Finland, China, ... - they all enjoyed "friendliness" of Soviets. They also raped women liberated from concentration camps. During liberation of Poland it's estimated they raped ~100,000 women. Talk about saving the victims.
- panzagl 6y agoThe Soviets were bad, but I am not personally familiar enough with the sources to say whether Soviet atrocities were official policy, ill-disciplined soldiers or both. The Eastern Front is popular with a certain sort of armchair historian/wargamer/etc. because 'the Germans were the good guys' (or 'there were no good guys') which allows them to distance themselves from the atrocities while still fetishizing the cool tanks and uniforms. Seems spurious to me, but it's not like I would call someone on it and tell them they're a bad person.