Grave del “soldato tedesco sconosciuto eseguito dal suo per aver rifiutato di dare fuoco a una chiesa” a Ostaszewo, in Polonia (recentemente restaurato)
https://i.redd.it/g6xra2g8fwqf1.jpeg
di woronicz
Grave del “soldato tedesco sconosciuto eseguito dal suo per aver rifiutato di dare fuoco a una chiesa” a Ostaszewo, in Polonia (recentemente restaurato)
https://i.redd.it/g6xra2g8fwqf1.jpeg
di woronicz
5 commenti
Reminds me a story of first day of russian invasion. One russian officer and his subordinate tried to stop other russian soldiers who shot civilian cars in Kharkiv. He saved one girl and her mom. Was killed in that fight. His subordinate fortunately got in captivity. Hope he wasnt exchanged and is fine now
In other word: r/Atheims mods got him.
Rip, hero
Unknown? There lies a picture on top of it?!
You have to wonder how many took a choice like that. Saying ‘No’ to do something they believed was wrong, while full well knowing the consequences of their choice.
It must be difficult to not choose self-preservation in such a situation.
It has to be noted that this was 1945. By that time, the german army had a mandate to shoot any insubordinate soldier. Earlier in the war, officers generally didn’t take action like that. They would make someone else set the church on fire instead. As the war went on, the wehrmacht became more and more repressive towards its own soldiers and especially to civilans. Early in the war, people weren’t forced to commit illegal and immoral acts. They made volunteers do it instead.
At least, that’s what my great grandfather wrote in his letters during the war and what my other grandfather would talk about decades later.
This is important to point out so people don’t use cases like these to push the “clean wehrmacht” myth by saying that the soldiers didn’t engage in war crimes.