Wehrmacht War Crimes - An Overview

Wehrmacht (Army, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine) War Crimes in the Second World War. Note due to the sensitivity of this topic, this videos contains a lot of quotes from experts. The video provides a list of war crimes committed and specifically covers three that are in terms of impact the most important: The Maltreatment and killing of Prisoners of War on the Eastern Front, the Wehrmacht's activate participation and support of the Holocaust, and the Anti-Partisan Warfare.
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Hartmann, Christian (Hrsg.); Hürter, Johannes (Hrsg.); Jureit, Ulrike (Hrsg.): Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Bilanz einer Debatte. C. H. Beck: München, Germany: 2014 (2005).
Streit, Christian: Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene - Massendeportationen - Zwangsarbeiter, in: Michalka, Wolfgang (Hrsg.): Der Zweite Weltkrieg. Analysen - Grundzüge - Forschungsbilanz. Piper: München, 1989.
Rutherford, Jeff: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front. The German Infantry’s War, 1941-1944. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2014.
Wette, Wolfram (Hrsg.); Ueberschär, Gerd R. (Hrsg.): Kriegsverbrechen im 20. Jahrhundert. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft: Darmstadt, 2001.
Otto, Reinhard; Keller, Rolf: Zur individuellen Erfassung von sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen durch die Wehrmacht, in: Altrichter, Helmut (Hrsg.); Möller, Horst (Hrsg.); Schwarz, Hans-Peter (Hrsg.); Wirsching, Andreas (Hrsg.): Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte. 59. Jahrgang / Heft 4 / Oktober 2011. Oldenbourg: München, 2011.
www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchi...
Stopper, Sebastian: Der sowjetische Partisanenkrieg und seine militärische Effizienz, in: Altrichter, Helmut (Hrsg.); Möller, Horst (Hrsg.); Schwarz, Hans-Peter (Hrsg.); Wirsching, Andreas (Hrsg.): Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte. 59. Jahrgang / Heft 3 / Juli 2011. Oldenbourg: München, 2011.
www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchi...
Hartmann, Christian: Wehrmacht im Ostkrieg. Front und militärisches Hinterland 1941/42. De Gruyter Oldenbourg: München, Germany, 2010.
Müller, Rolf-Dieter (Hrsg.); Volkmann, Hans-Erich (Hrsg.): Die Wehrmacht - Mythos und Realität. R. Oldenbourg Verlag: München, 1999.
Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume II. Politics and Ideology. Cambridge University Press: UK, 2015.
Bartov, Omar: The Eastern Front 1941-45, German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare. Second Edition. Palgrave: Hampshire, UK, 2001.
Echternkamp, Jürgen (Hrsg.): Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg. Band 9, Zweiter Halbband: Ausbeutung, Deutungen, Ausgrenzung. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: München, Germany, 2005.
Töppel, Roman: Kursk 1943. The Greatest Battle of the Second World War. Helion: Warwick, UK: 2018.
Mawdsley, Evan: Thunder in the East. The Nazi-Soviet War 1941-1945. Second Edition. Bloomsbury: London, 2016.
Epkenhans, Michael; Zimmermann, John: Die Wehrmacht - Krieg und Verbrechen. Reclam: Ditzingen, Germany, 2019.
Smelser, Ronald; Daviess II, Edward J.: The Myth of the Eastern Front. The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture. Cambridge University Press: New York, USA, 2008.
Overy, Richard: The Bombing War. Europe 1939-1945. Allen Lane: London, UK, 2013.
Lieb, Peter: Rezension - Hermann Frank Meyer: Blutiges Edelweiß. Sehepunkte. Ausgabe 8 (2008), Nr 5. www.sehepunkte.de/2008/05/1346... Last Accessed: 29th-May-2020
Judgment of the International Military Tribunal - Judgement : Doenitz. The Avalon Project. Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. Yale Law School.
avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/juddo... Last Accessed: 29th-May-2020
#WarCrimes #WehrmachtWarCrimes #WW2

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Please keep your comments respectful. Update Video that addresses some of the questions asked here (e.g., will you do Allied War Crimes? Will do you do more Wehrmacht War Crimes? etc.). It includes a "state of the channels" address as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmKWi6WvgKmLfpo

[@ultimusborussiarum9333]

All in all a very good video. You could also haved mentioned that furthermore there was the Wehrmacht-Untersuchungsstelle für Verletzungen des Völkerrechts (WUSt). It was mainly installed to record the Wehrmachts own crimes. The sources in the Internet differ, if this institution only was used to cover the crimes of the Wehrmacht or if it kept a accurated detailed record. I don't know if the work of this institution was ment for the public. If not, than there would be the possibility, that there record was accurate, because well, the Nazis documented many of there crimes in detail, even in the KLs.

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

​@@ultimusborussiarum9333 > It was mainly installed to record the Wehrmachts own crimes. according to what I know, it was installed to record crimes against members of the Wehrmacht and also defend Wehrmacht members against claims of war crimes.

[@ultimusborussiarum9333]

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized Ok, thanks for the answer!

[@takasmaka820]

The Ciepielów massacre that took place on 8 September 1939 was one of the largest and best documented war crimes of the Wehrmacht during its invasion of Poland. On that day, the forest near Ciepielów was the site of a mass murder of Polish prisoners of war from the Polish Upper Silesian 74th Infantry Regiment. The massacre was carried out by soldiers from the German Wehrmacht 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment, 29th Motorized Infantry Division, under the command of Colonel Walter Wessel.

[@teaser6089]

I love that you did this, is there any chance you have done on about the Warcrimes of the Allies or are you willing to do one? As the Allies did do things that aren't a-okey in ww2

[@AlexanderSeven]

Military history demonetized.

[@TimDutch]

That hit hard

[@alexanderblatt8653]

I got an ad so not yet... but yeah give it a couple hours =(

[@filipeamaral216]

LOL so true.

[@PalleRasmussen]

@@alexanderblatt8653 I got none. At last not at first like usual.

[@Anonymous-bc4dl]

@Alexander Seven haha, good one :) important to stay funny even when we are talking about such a serious subject

[@Richi_Boi]

Good that - despite it being a "charged" topic" - you made a vid about it. Some nasty opinions should not stop you from making objective history.

[@wyattpeterson6286]

Exactly!

[@nekrataali]

I think the only people who get charged up about nazi war crimes are nazis tbh lol...for everyone else? It's the lowest bar of human decency in acknowledging atrocities carried out by the Axis Powers.

[@nekrataali]

@@Laotzu.Goldbug You mean like the historical inaccuracies, misleading facts, and outright lies by the Nazis and Wehrmacht told after the war ended? lol

[@rubman8937]

@@nekrataali i mean, that name aint helping his case there.

[@Nero_Karel]

@@nekrataali Because the Allies never lied or committed war crimes, right? Have some nuance, please

[@misterbeach8826]

As a historian, I wrote my German master thesis about Wehrmacht crimes. I think it is a good video. What is worth noting is perhaps: Halder plays a major role in how the Allies and the German public saw the Wehrmacht after the war. He spent years on a narrative about brave soldiers that did not commit crimes. Guderian, Manstein did the same, but since Halder was more important than those smaller generals, or field marshals, he had also a better and bigger standing in the US. Another point worth noting is that it literally took the German government 40 years to acknowledge the Wehrmacht crimes. It was the famous German president Weizäcker, who finally officially admitted the crimes in the '80s, which caused a huge outrage in some parts of the public. But if you are German, you may recall how many TV series, films, and books were published specifically about the Wehrmacht crimes in the '90s. The last change point, which changed the public perception, was due to a (for its time) controversial museum series in the '90s. It is then where it became public common sense, for the majority of Germans, that the Wehrmacht was not some knight's club but actually committed crimes from the very first days -- and Halder ordered the crimes against the Russian people and Jews specifically. The only reason why Halder was not convicted during the Nürnberg trials was, by the way, due to his superior intelligence knowledge about the Red Army. The USA specifically requested Halder's expertise, who was Chief of Army of the Wehrmacht for many years.

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

thx, was caught in the spam filter. Yeah, Halder's role in the Historical Division was crucial.

[@mortarriding3913]

Hey! That's a good point. Did you also study the use of Nazis in West Germany and other Western government endeavours? Like the Gehlen organisation? If so I'd be very interested to see your thesis.

[@mortarriding3913]

@Amelia Knows Best good question.

[@mortarriding3913]

@Lucius Sulla you don't even know who brainwashed you do you?

[@Shantykoff]

Did the DDR not talk about wehrmacht attrocities too? It's kind of interesting, since they were not the successesors of the Third Reich

[@kstreet7438]

"But it was the ss who did it all" Says everyone on reddit and KZbin comments.

[@gozolino]

How did the SS got so far in soviet territory? Perhaps they needed an ARMY, maybe a german one...

[@kingslushie1018]

That’s depressing to think about

[@SouthParkCows88]

And the allies committed no war crimes says everyone else.

[@babladuar421]

@@SouthParkCows88 whataboutism

[@HistoryGameV]

@@SouthParkCows88 Literally no one says that...

[@otohikoamv]

Just from my own family history - one of my grandfathers survived German occupation in Russia, in a village near Demyansk. The Germans entered in September 1941 and did not leave until March 1943; during the first winter, they also survived the famed Demyansk Airlift (which would serve as a successful model for the ill-fated one the following winter in Stalingrad). In general, German attitude was characterized by indifference towards the civilians, though this indifference was often extreme. They entered and left the village without fighting, and so there was no combat damage as such. The Germans immediately commandeered all buildings; confiscated all food, livestock, and any other equipment (then deciding which to give back to the care of the civilians). All houses (about 60 at the time) in the village were then used as quarters for troops; their civilian inhabitants were forced to live in shacks and other small outbuildings; larger barns and stables were also used by the Germans for their horses and supplies. The troops showed no regard for comfort of civilians; immediately, a lot of damage was done to the buildings where they stayed as Germans broke or defaced furniture, fences, walls, etc. at will. Gardens were trampled and fruit trees cut down. The troops had no regard for privacy of the civilians and would barge into outbuildings and shacks at any time of day or night as they pleased, often demanding food (in broken Russian). Peasants were expected to act as servants - cooking food, tending to German equipment, patching up uniforms, cleaning up the houses-turned-troop-quarters. Women in the village (which was still pretty conservative in the 1940s, and women usually covered their heads while outside) were particularly shocked that Germans would defecate and relieve themselves in the open, walk around naked, or shower in plain view - but I don't recall any stories of sexual violence, and the soldiers generally kept away from the women, allowing them to go about their business and enter the occupied houses to clean and cook. They were much more mistrustful of the men, and totally indifferent towards kids (as my grandfather, who was 14 years old when the occupation started, recalled). At some point in the early fall of 1941, a few dozen people (out of a village population of maybe 500), mainly fit adult men, were marched off for forced labour - supposedly back in Germany. This included my grandfather's 20-year-old brother; he was never seen again. The first winter was an extremely harsh one, because that was when the Germans were themselves surrounded in the Demyansk Pocket. Again, there was no fighting in my grandfather's village, but the situation was tense; Germans built trenches and reinforced positions in the woods outside the village, and sometimes the village was deserted as they went to man those positions. Food was scarce. Animals were slaughtered, mostly for the Germans' benefit, although the families in the village were able to generally help each other out, and there was no widespread starvation. However, the health of the villagers was poor by the spring of 1942 and there were outbreaks of dysyntery and other illnesses that year, from which some of the civilians died. There were no doctors in the village, and Germans were not providing medical aid, nor allowing anyone to leave the village to go to a hospital (which would have meant a 20-30km walk to Demyansk to get to the nearest hospital in any case, as all transport was confiscated). There were several German units rotated through the village (my grandfather could not tell exactly who they were, but presumably they were all Heer). In 1942, the Germans seemed to get increasingly paranoid about partisans - although no partisan activity was actually happening in that area. Again, a number of civilians were disappeared, sometimes on the pretext of questioning. Any civilians approaching German trenches in the woods or wandering around could be shot on sight, and a number were. More were taken away for forced labour. Numerous buildings in the village were burned, destroyed, or heavily damaged - not by fighting, but by the German troops (sometimes to scavange materials, to clear lines of sight, or for unclear reasons). Almost no lifestock was left, and the fields and gardens outside the village where food was grown were drastically reduced in size (peasants were simply not allowed to enter many areas). The Germans basically disappeared overnight in March 1943 - again, no fighting happened in the village. By that point, out of an original population of 500, only about 200 or 250 people remained, mainly women, old men, and children (including my grandfather, who'd just turned 16 when the occupation ended). Most of them were half-starved by that point; the Soviet forces also largely bypassed the village, and little to no relief was sent by the government. Civilians quickly set about trying to scavenge some German supplies. Accoridng to my grandfather, the village's kids quickly raided the German trench complex in nearby woods, finding and feasting on some canned rations, and "capturing" an MG-42 which they used to shoot at crows in the trees. A couple of days later, my grandfather and his best friend went to check a barn on the edge of the village, which the Germans used as a storehouse - hoping to find more rations to feed their families. The barn had a heavy wooden door, and the two teenagers had to pull on it together - but as soon as the door came loose, an explosion blew it and the roof out. The Germans boobytrapped it when they were leaving - it later turned out that this was done to numerous other buildings in the village, and the civilians were not informed (nor, indeed, told of the Germans' retreat). My grandfather's friend was killed instantly; luckily for my grandfather, he was pulling on the heavy wooden barn door and was behind it, so it absorbed most of the shrapnel and impact - but his feet were hit hard and he would spend months in hospital at Demyansk, where they would repeatedly debate amputation (he eventually fully recovered). Out of the 60 or so houses in the village, only 20 were standing when the war ended - others were destroyed, damaged, or left abandoned with their inhabitants no longer alive. This is despite the fact that in the entire war, the village did not see any active combat, nor was ever bombed, nor did any massacres or reprisals ever happen on a large scale. It was just very gradual, low-level sort of mistreatment, regular removal of people for forced labour - and widespread neglect and indifference, towards both people and property, at a time where starvation and disease were probably the biggest dangers. The village never really recovered and its population continued to decline as people left to go to cities and collective farms; by the time I visited it about 20 years ago, only 6 of the original houses were still standing, with hulks or bare foundations of others standing in ruins, some left more or less untouched from the war. So, just a bit of family history from a personal perspective! [edit] PS - just a couple of factors to ponder for the more historiographically-minded: -For the entire year and a half of occupation, my grandfather's village was occupied by frontline or near-frontline Heer units. Though actual fighting never got closer than a few kilometers away, this meant that it never came under any German rear-area or civilian administration (like most territories that were occupied for a similar length of time in the USSR), and never had any Einsatzgruppen pass through, or any atrocities that were organized from the top. On the other hand, it also suggests that the actions like grabbing groups of civilians for labour, hunting for suspected partisans, or destruction of local property were probably done on the decisions of local combat unit commanders, possibly on their own (or their direct superiors') initiative. - Ironically, one of the reasons that the locals may not have been treated as harshly as some other places in the USSR was because of how they and their village looked. Like a lot of people in the Novgorod region, the villagers around Demyansk were typically tall, blond-haired, and blue-eyed (though my grandfather ended up shorter than most because of malnutrition between ages 14-16 in the occupation). The village had also been "crown property" before the Russian Revolution and the end of serfdom in the late 19th century - meaning that the villagers weren't ever serfs that worked for a local title-holder's private estate, but subjects of the Tsar directly, producing grain etc. for the state reserves - and quickly switched to doing same for the Soviet government after the Revolution, without having to go through any drastic local changes. As a result, the village was much neater and better-off than what the Germans may have expected or found in other parts of Russia and the USSR - the houses were well-built out of good-quality brick; they had well-tended community farming that wasn't in turmoil from forced collectivization; there was no signs of widespread poverty, hunger, social inequality, forced labour, or civil unrest that plagued parts of the southern USSR after the Revolution; and while the population was mostly illiterate and had little knowledge of the outside world - they probably "looked civilized" to frontline Wehrmacht troops, which may have also spared them some of the worse violence that was done elsewhere. Which may indirectly confirm some of the prejudices that led the same soldiers to that type of violence against those they would've considered "less civilized".

[@nattygsbord]

Thanks for your story. Nor much reading from Russia is available here in the west so personal anecdotes are welcome. And it is important that they are being written down like this so they are not being forgotten.

[@ivanschinkarew222]

Very interesting to heard about stories of civilians under german occupation. This kind of civilian narratives in general are not mentioned at all. It seems that the fate of the local population varies due to a number of factors. My grandfather lived in a small village in Belarus, near Smolensk, and he suffered a lot during the occupation. He had his first wife and mother killed in reprisal by partisans and ended up been deported with his entire family to Germany to forced labor. My father was born during his deportation in october 1943. In the forced labor camp my grandfather told that the german treatment differs from soldier to soldier. Some were indifferent to my father and his brothers misery and others, in the other hand, supplied my grandmother with their own rations. Despite overall mistreatment, there was still some kind of human empathy with regular german soldier who ended up dealing with forced labor population on a daily base. That’s the reason that my grandfathers my father and his brothers survived the war.

[@variszuzans299]

A little bit from my family history. My grandmother lived in an ethnic (non-Russian) rural farmer village near Chudovo in which is still today Leningrad Oblast (or Novgorod Oblast). During the interwar period collectivization took place. Of course, it is a story of it's own. Not only were they required to give all their livestock to the koklhoz, but also houses had to be moved from their original places to a new place along the central street of the new village one next to the other (possible for wooden houses). During the 1941-42 winter, this area came under German control, briefly, as the front stabilized west of the Volkhov river. The Germans came to the village. Not sure if they were front line units or not. EDIT: actually, looking at old battle maps of the area, they had to be the 12th panzer division and the 20th motorized division, which attacked through that area, and she remembered that the Germans had "tanks". The houses were quartered, but the civilians were not mistreated. Also, property was not damaged. People lived as before. An uncle of hers spoke German (which he learned as a German POW in WWI), so he served as a translator for the Germans. He retreated with the German units, and actually managed to survive the war. When the Germans left, everybody had to stay inside the houses, which were guarded. And then they were gone. When the Soviets recaptured the area, all people were deported. There were talks of shooting of "collaborationists". Actually, only women, children, and the elderly were there, because young males had been drafted by the Soviets. It could have been because of proximity to the front lines. Whatever may be, people were driven by rail cars to Siberia to work in a special military sovkhoz. So, in this case, we can talk about drafting of forced labour by the Soviets.

[@otohikoamv]

@@variszuzans299 Thanks for sharing that! I know some people from the same types of groups on what today is the Russian-Estonian border, and yes, it's a similar story - where the way both Germans and Soviets behaved may be totally different. And, it should be underlined - if the Germans were guilty of extreme neglect of the civilians in my grandfather's village, the Soviet government didn't do much better. They didn't bother to even visit the village for weeks after the occupation, and while this isn't something my grandfather ever mentioned (probably because at that time he was in hospital in Demyansk)... I'm almost certain that the first thing they did when they finally arrived was to arrest numerous people suspected of collaborating with the Germans. In fact I can't be sure how many people never came back to the village because they were taken by the Germans, or whether they never came back because they were taken by Soviet authorities after liberation - no such archive record probably even exists. It's a really complex history, and there are indeed many sides to it! More than anything, I think it speaks to the really confusing (or confused) ethnic politics of both Germany and the USSR in that period - both of whom did terrible things. I'd visited areas just on the Russian side of the same region and, sadly, there are many villages that were completely destroyed by the Germans - some where little is even known about what happened, since nobody survived. It's resonable to assume that it was the Germans that did most of that - but equally reasonable to wonder how many people in the area disappeared after Soviet reoccupation, and then simply written off alongside those killed or starved by the Nazi policies... The fact that my grandfather's village never fully recovered after the war is also as much, if not more, something that Soviet authorities can be rightly blamed for. This may have been intentional, since the Soviet attitude to anyone - even ethnic Russians - who survived German occupation was very negative. It was considered a "black mark" on the survivors and their communities, and in fact it was not until after Stalin's death that any noticeable development started happening again in that area. My grandfather avoided military service because of his foot injuries, returned to communal farm work, and was only finally sent to Demyansk to complete an elementary school education in 1954-55, by which time he was already in his late 20s - and even those dates are probably not incidental (Stalin died in 1953). Otherwise, it was as though that whole area was purposely forgotten by the Soviet government for a decade after the war. Ironically, that particular grandfather is the only unambiguous "Russian" in my family, ethnically speaking - the others being predominantly from "German" backgrounds (Saxon, Prussian and Holstinian nobility who emigrated to Russia in the early-mid 19th century, long before Germany existed) or "Finnish" (in reality, more from Saami, Karelian and Pomor ethnic backgrounds), and by a small part from many other minority backgrounds of the former Russian empire (including traditional Nazi ethnic targets like Jews and Gypsies, and groups that got more of a reputation for collaborating with Germans - such as Zaporozhie Cossacks and Western Tatars). Needless to say, the history of the war and its ethnic politics is full of sad ironies for me - I almost wish that I could pick a "good side" or "right side", but that's terribly difficult to do, even if all my ancestors happened to be on the Soviet side. The only thing I can say for sure is that had Germany won, I definitely would not be alive today - two of my other grandparents (very narrowly) survived the Siege of Leningrad - but aside from that... One myth that unfortunately persists is that Hitler's atrocities were motivated by ethnic hatred, while Stalin's were "purely political" and treated everyone equally badly (or well, as long as they accepted Soviet political doctrine). While it's true that the two states and the "logic" of their repressions were very different - to say that ethnic prejudice had no role in it for the Soviets in places they occupied is completely false. Stalin absolutely did discriminate between different groups (he built a whole system of Soviet control in minority areas based on that!), and with Baltic states in particular - it's hard to argue that the treatment of most populations there (as long as they weren't Jewish or one of the other Nazi-targeted groups) wasn't far, far worse at the hands of Stalin's forces compared to Hitler's troops. In fairness to my grandfather and the people in his village - they probably didn't even know anything about the Soviet treatment of other people, even so geographically nearby. He didn't become literate for another decade after the war, nor venture anywhere beyond Demyansk until 1955 - and his ancestors had lived in that same area for well over a thousand years, as best we can tell. This was probably the first and only time they'd been invaded by "foreigners", with the possible exception of the Varangians, and later other Russian states besides Novgorod. It's a tragedy however one slices it, and I'm hoping that we all collectively learn something from it - as well as those of other atrocities of WWII, whichever side actually committed them!

[@kcgm4059]

Thank you for sharing these stories

[@cccooooooolllllllll7344]

When you are so early the thumbnail is still red.

[@BasedBebs]

@Oliver Viehland Woah, almost like that's the joke!

[@SouthParkCows88]

That threw me off at first.

[@yousefseed1874]

It's like MHV has no idea what to put on thumbnail

[@buddy4445]

@Mialisus Oman

[@raseli4066]

Still is

[@Cybermat47]

If you lose subscribers from this, you’ve only lost people who prefer fantasy to history.

[@El-Schnorro]

That's a rather nice euphemism for Nazi apologetics

[@sincereeastman6972]

What a bunch of Werhaboos 😂😂😂

[@aeropone]

Hey, I am a Wehraboo, but that doesn't mean I don't recognize their war crimes. I just see that every country in every war ever did them, so I don't care. I am more interested in the technology and tactics of that time anyways.

[@kyledonahue9315]

Lilium Test Did you not watch the video? I’m curious how you could come away with such a cavalier attitude towards German war crimes when the evidence makes is abundantly clear how much more brutal and widespread German atrocities were compared to every other belligerent during the war.

[@user-xt3xn2hl4e]

@@kyledonahue9315 Look up the Bengali famine of 1943, the Rape of Berlin, Katyn massacre, and etc.

[@user-xq5og9lt8p]

If you ever travel to Belarus, try to find a building which is over 80 years old. They are really, really rare. That struck me the first time to realise how badly the entire country was leveled...

[@nekrataali]

That's really messed up, now that I think about it. I wonder how much architectural history was lost because of this.

[@Sea-zu4bj]

men bls I believe Poland lost most of its historical sites, or at least in Warsaw

[@user-xq5og9lt8p]

@@nekrataali the heaviest loss would be the imperial palace complex of Peterhoff which was sacked and burned almost completely. I'm not afraid to state it wasn't only a loss for Russian culture but for humanity as a whole

[@evanhunt1863]

Similar thing with Seoul. Try finding a building older than the active phase of the Korean War. Note: I say active phase. because legally the war is still ongoing.

[@marsing69]

yep philippines too. manila was a cultural and financial center before the war, got completely leveled and has never recovered

[@WilhelmScreamer]

Now this is one I swore was on your "I will never touch this ever" list. Bold

[@blitzy3244]

Wow, so bold to talk about what everyone has heard 10x over through High School and College.

[@normandypilot8873]

@@blitzy3244 But its a very heated topic and the risk of backlash is quite high. Also the cold non judgemental way of handling this mater differs far from the mostly judging way of how you hear about it in school.

[@DaveSCameron]

Yet deftly if not 100% worked out...

[@nomobobby]

Sad Beemer Boi Mostly they just highlight the tragedy of deaths- how many pages it would take to list the victims, etc. Very rarely does anyone mention the organization of the crimes and the people who cooperated with SS. No one ever talks about POWs and (in the States at least) nobody ever mentioned the Russians by name, 2nd only to the Jews in terms of the dead. Which is a terrible oversight that I just now realized typing this. They just want from Jews to “Eastern European” (no mention of Russia or Soviet’s) gays, other minorities. Nobody ever discussed Russia unless it’s the Cold War, and even then they say almost nothing about the rise of communism or their contribution to WW2. Before I found this channel, didn’t even know US had given material aid to the Soviet’s- the only aid we hear about is marshal plan or current foreign aid. TL:DR a lot of potential lessons about the world wars are lost cause nobody wants to teach them to kids. Hard to make “never again” statements when most of the conditions of the time and motivation to do these heinous acts remain a mystery.

[@vaclav_fejt]

He said SS were on that list.

[@notoriousblt1038]

Even if someone is dense enough to deny the Wehrmacht doing war crimes, the question remains: who exactly carved the path for the SS? They clearly didn’t invade places alone

[@tavish4699]

Its a war dude....you cannot Blame a guy for fighting and pushing through Enemy Lines. Its not his fault what happens in his back and he shouldt Think about it .....he has different Problems at that moment

[@weasle2904]

@@tavish4699 no ones entirely blaming the average infantry soldier you block head, but the institution they are a part of. And there definitely is some blame for the hundreds of thousands of German soldiers who did nothing and "just followed orders" committing these atrocities...

[@mortarriding3913]

@@weasle2904 speak for yourself. They are complicit.

[@ohauss]

@@tavish4699 You're not particularly good at thinking. Just at revisionism and lying about what happened. It had nothing to do with "behind his back".

[@tavish4699]

@@ohauss what do you mean ? The Frontlinie german soldier was between 17 and 21 years old This means they were too young to have voted for adolf Hitler Which means it isnt their fault that he could rise to Power. They had to fight by law ! They were forced to if you didnt you vanished and never came home If you fought you had a slim Chance of getting home and thats what the german soldiere did ! He fought for his survival not for adolf

[@peterfromthenetherlands3823]

I as a Dutchman want my grandfather’s bicycle back that the Wehrmacht stole in 1944! The bloody thing even had wooden tires....

[@mks2987]

Oh, do you mean West Germany?

[@platenoise256]

@@mks2987 not funny didn't laugh

[@platenoise256]

homeboy wants their gramp's bike back

[@muhammadthoriqbhadrika]

Then return my great grandmother's bike that KNIL stole in 1948,it's a bloody gazelle

[@peterfromthenetherlands3823]

That was a bad affair I know. But the KNIL needed bikes to be faster at a village to burn it down.

[@user-xq5og9lt8p]

The "Clean Wehrmacht" myth is a thing that must be fought with. I appreciate your efforts.

[@donoteventry4298]

@@AdamMann3D litteraly NOBODY thinks that Its even mentionned in the video that the Wehrmacht as an ORGANISATION comitted war crimes and not necesseraly the individual soldiers

[@slavsupreme5129]

DoNotEvenTry I don’t know about you, but if I mention anything WW2 German related it’s automatically assumed to be “nazi” and “war crimes” related

[@GenMaj_Knight]

@@donoteventry4298 Literally no one defending the Wehrmacht says they never committed one single war crime either. People usually are referrencing the Holocaust when they mean "The Wehrmacht never did this or that."

[@nattygsbord]

The Wehrmacht was not clean. But there was also good men in that army who hated the things the SS did towards the jews and openly protested against them and gave them insults and slurs and handed over food to jews at train stations. It is important that we don't forget both sides of the same coin.

[@jameson1239]

DoNotEvenTry where the hell do you live your history education must be much better then ours as you talk about Germany in ww2 is automatically nazis hell I watched a video of someone taking a WW1 uniform to school he got called a nazi

[@jessealexander2695]

A very important topic to cover, thanks for making this video. I know from experience it isn't easy to talk about this sort of thing in public and "on the record," so Hut ab.

[@JohnSmith-ts3dt]

Hey look who I found.

[@sargonsblackgrandfather2072]

Adi Krieg “who controls the media”? Okay Nazi

[@gareginnzhdehhimself]

@Adi Krieg So you are basically admitting that Jews are the master race. Ironic.

[@truecerium4924]

I think you did a very good job treating this complicated matter in such a short timeframe with such a high level of objectivity. Many thanks!

[@sweetio]

lmao

[@sameerhasan8101]

​@@sweetio why? what's funny about it?

[@user-xq5og9lt8p]

Buffles me every time how most of defenders of Wehrmacht are Americans and not Germans...respect from Russia, both our people suffered greatly in that war, and though we'll forget crimes done against our people, let us not spread any more hatred. Danke für deine video.

[@comradekenobi6908]

@anon anon Too respectful

[@skeletonwguitar4383]

Its the usual "Theyre yankees after all" im not surprised. Im glad Russians and Germans actually have business and respect for each other DESPITE of history. Since it is history, should be remembered, learned and cast aside afterwards. And Idk about how the majorities are Americans as youve said. Heck, even this third world country loves Nazis and being Wehraboos to an excessive amount that isnt funny anymore.

[@sweetio]

@@skeletonwguitar4383 because they are just objective

[@lsaria4977]

The Wehrmacht apologist movement essentially started in America under the influence of Franz Halder and was allowed prosper because he was working for the US Army, both for the Historical Commission and providing intelligence on the USSR. They even denied a request to have him retried for war crimes after his diaries revealed he had been key to formulating multiple illegal orderz such as the Barbarossa Decree He exerted a huge amount of influence on US perception of the war on the Eastern Front by effectively editing all accounts published in the United States for over a decade after the war ended, and as the Cold War developed the US and UK needed a sanitized image of the Wehrmacht to justify (West) German rearmament, and so the myth propagated much further in those countries than elsewhere.

[@1Maklak]

After the war, Russia put it's liberated POWs into Gulags and killed most of the rest of them. The greatest oppressor of Russia (and Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and so on) was your own government, not invading Germans.

[@archiveacc3248]

To all the people with the "but muh Allied war crimes!!" comments- have you ever considered that this is a video discussing Wehrmacht war crimes, and as such it would be outside of the context of the video to discuss Allied war crimes? It does not mention Russian or US war crimes, the same way that it does not mention Japanese war crimes or the actions of the SS taken independently of the Wehrmacht. The purpose here is not to provide context for war crimes among all combatants, it is to learn specifically about the Wehrmacht and war crimes. Anyone with a brain can realize this

[@wasilijsaizev1]

agreed

[@wasilijsaizev1]

@@firstname_lastname840 the reason for creating this video is the old myth, which was created after the war. The old Wehrmacht generals were telling that all the crimes were made by the SS and Hitler himself. The Wehrmacht Was just doing its job. This myth is existing till now. At the same time the people are discussing all the time about bombing of the german cities by the allies, and raping of the german wimen by the soviet soldiers. But noone wants to know about russian wimen, raped by the Wehrmacht soldiers.

[@edmiesterful]

The Germans literally killed more civilians than all the allies combined.

[@edmiesterful]

@Hans Becker Axis civilians casualties made up 4% of ww2 deaths, Allied civilian casualties made up 58%, so i'll repeat again and say the Germans killed more people than ALL Allied forces.

[@wasilijsaizev1]

@@firstname_lastname840 sorry but I can not agree with that. The press is full of newspaper articles, KZbin and TV full of documentation movies, and bookstores are full with books about soviet army war crimes. In german and english languages, and since perepstroika also in russian. Autors like Franz Kurowski have written a lot of books about allied army war crimes. Everybody is aware about that. Nobody is denieing that. But if you got to Facebook WWII groups, a lot of People are denieing the Wehrmacht war crimes. A lot of politicians also. Gerhard Schröder for example. His Defense Minister Scharping made a Prohibition to All Bundeswehr soldiers for visiting of the "Wehrmacht war crimes" exhibition, which was exhibited from 1995-1999

[@KrzysztofDanielCiba]

War crimes committed by Werhmacht hadn't started on the Eastern Front. I am a bit surprised not a single word mentions Polish campaign 1939 when all this started.

[@jameson1239]

Technically that’s still eastern

[@HistoryGameV]

Yeah, usually Poland just gets wrapped up as 'Eastern Front'. But it's true, on day 1 of Case White the Wehrmacht commited its first war crimes. Literally on the first day of the war.

[@kiiik8801]

@@user-sm8us5yt9h German anticivilian terror started at 1st od September 1939, Wehrmacht was involved from the day one. Many book on the topic, unfornutelly all of them I can reccomed are in Polish. According to Geneva Convention it's the attackers army responsible for security of civilians around front zone. SS and other police units were supervised by Wehrmacht commanders. During the war there is only one supreme commander, a military one. Every unit is obeing him, otherway is a mess

[@PiotrusGranie]

@@user-sm8us5yt9h Another idiot who claims that only the SS commited warcrimes.

[@HistoryGameV]

@@user-sm8us5yt9h On day 1 the Luftwaffe attacked civilian installations all across Poland. Even back then this was a war crime. So yeah. First summary execution in Poland was carried out after 7 days, by a Wehrmacht unit.

[@shockblaster1201]

As a reenactor in a German unit, I feel it is my duty to make clear that not only the SS, but also (and especially) the Wehrmacht committed warcrimes, and should be remembered by anyone portraying such group. Saying the Wehrmacht was apolitical and wasn't involved in warcrimes, especially as a reenactor, is plainly denying the past you yourself are trying to show. While the unit I'm portraying, the 25th Infanteriedivision (mot.)/107th Panzerbrigade/25th Panzergrenadierdivision doesn't have a record for warcrimes (none that I could find when researching the unit's history, movements and assignments), I'm very certain they did engage in them as, for most of the war, they were part of Heeresgruppe Mitte from Barbarossa to Bagration

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

From my families expierience the germans here fare more gentenmenly, especialy compared to the brutish red army soldiers. Keep in mind 0 of my ancestors where in the german army while many where in the red army.

[@belgebelgravia100]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 Gentlemanly? Tell the women and children of Oradour sur Glane that, when the Germans locked them in a church and set it on fire, killing more than 600 people. Or when, the SS and collaborative Ukrainians murdered 33,000 Jews in 48 hours, at Babi Yar which averages to about 678 per hour. Hell, it's not like the German Wehrmacht disagreed, Erich von Manstein, architect of the German invasion of France and Field Marshal: "Jewry is the middleman between the enemy at our rear and the still fighting remnants of the Red Army and the Red leadership; more than in Europe, it [Jewry] occupies all key posts of the political leadership and administration, of trade and crafts and forms the nucleus for all disquiet and possible revolts. The Jewish-Bolshevist system must be exterminated once and for all."

[@WolfhoundMercenary]

@Il Bugiardo dell'Umbria It's always funny how it's the Lithuanians who keep whiteknighting Nazi Germany. I wonder why? With their logic - I guess a child molester treating me politely probably means he ain't that bad, right?

[@Winthropede]

Il Bugiardo dell'Umbria alright tell the others whose families suffered under Nazi occupation that their “annecdotes” don’t matter

[@variszuzans299]

No one is trying to rewrite history here. The Soviets treated peoples they "liberated" in their own Leninist ways (as the Germans in their Nazi ways). Males were drafted into assault units with minimal training, the rest were used as forced labor for transporting munitions to the front etc. They are not thought as war criminals today because they fought on the side of the all mighty Anglo-Americans (or else, they would have been vilified). But, the great thing is that today we can finally talk about it openly and call things as they were, and not as Anglo-American and Soviet propaganda made us to believe.

[@jimmyseaver3647]

A deceased family friend was a courier for the _Heer_ on the Eastern Front. He didn't really talk much about his experiences, but did mention that he attended one of Hitler's rallies. After the War, he changed faiths and regretted his actions. Still, I wonder how many orders he carried that called for mass executions and the like?

[@yousefseed1874]

Well he did nothing wrong. He needed to follow orders or him or his relative's lives were in danger

[@MrMatapatapa]

@@yousefseed1874 No, that is wrong. "following orders' is a shit excuse.

[@heno02]

@@yousefseed1874 What is "not a defense as ruled in the Nürenberg trials" for 500, Alex?

[@RandomCommentDue]

@@yousefseed1874 Men were not punished for not taking part in the atrocities. They could opt out, then they were typically transferred to a unit not supposed to carry anything out for awhile, especially in the rear line 'police battalions'

[@nattygsbord]

@@MrMatapatapa In the case of nazi- Germany,, then yes i agree with you. However to say that "following orders" is a bad excuse is not something I agree with. Personally I could never massacre innocent civilians because I know that I could never live with myself after doing such a thing. But I will not judge teenage boys killing people after being ordered by their superiors and fearing punishment if they refuse. Young people do not have the same self-confidence to stand up against authorities. And nor can I blame Polish farmers for not saving the lives of jews by hiding them from SS after they had run away from a death camp. If the SS would find out what the had did, then not just he would have been killed, but also his entire family... and perhaps his entire village. So I don't like to be too judgmental. Even if this farmer would have been prepared to risk his own life to save someone else, do he really have the right to risk the lives of his family and village? All I am saying is that I think that things are hard and difficult to judge. (P.S yes I know that the nazis who served in the death squads were usually 100% volunteers, and they also had the option to opt out without any punishments or negative consequences for themselves or their families, and for those few who actually choose to use this option, are there no signs that their career were suffering because of their choice.)

[@louisrizzi9990]

The scale of human suffering caused by the Wehrmacht on the Axis-Soviet front is staggering, and is perhaps the most important lesson of the entire war, more than combined arms doctrine or logistics or the things we fans of military history so often put in the spotlight. To marvel at the effective construction and deployment of arms without considering who they are being used against and why is bad history, and I'm glad to see you explore this side more.

[@nattygsbord]

World war 2 was an industrial war done on scale never seen before in history. The mobilization never seen in another war. But the organized murder of civilians also took forms of extreme efficiency and industrial scale. The entire state machinery was brought into this... the railroads, technicians to build ovens, gas chambers, gas vans and ventilation, and electric fences, the secret police tracked up people, the military provided machine guns for the guard towers and land mines outside the camps. And the efficiency was brutal. Gas did cost nearly nothing to produce. The camps did not need much personnel. Millions of people died in just a year. Evidence was hidden by burning the bodies to ashes, and then using the ashes to grow trees. The killers did not have to see their victims, since the dirty work of taking care of dead bodies was done by slaves. And nearly no one successfully able to flee from those horrible places. The chance of survival was literary less than one in 250.000 in one of those. And even less if you were a child, elderly, a mother or disabled and unfit to work - because then you were killed right away. And almost all among those few who were lucky to flee were men who were working outside in the forest as a slave and cutting trees. Otherwise was there nearly no chance at all of surviving, except an armed uprising. To me the lesson of all this is how powerless the individual is against an evil government. If the Germans were able to do this with such a brutal efficiency in 1942, then imagine what a modern government would be able to do today... Back then it was almost impossible to flee from a factory of death. You had to worry about guards with machine guns, electric fences, barbed wire, land mines, And even if you manage to get out of the camp, then you would have to flee out in the woods starved and with a striped pyjamas and no food or cover against the cold. And meanwhile would trucks with guards and barking dogs come out and looking after you. And people would feel sympaties with you and give you food and a blanket if you were lucky. But they would be too afraid to hide you, because then their entire family could be killed if your enemy would found out. And today I imagine that chance of surviving a genocide is not 1 in 250.000.... but rather it is 0%. Today governments can track fleeing prisoners with drones flying around or satellites. Heat seeking sensors can see the heat of a human body hiding in a forest. Microphones, surveillance cameras and sensors can easily track people down. With RFID tags can you track down the movement of cattle on a radar. With coal cameras can you see through walls if someone is hiding on the other side.

[@hakozak3437]

Blah blah

[@vinz4066]

​@@hakozak3437 Whats your Problem?

[@PBI45]

​@@vinz4066nazi or a stupid kid, probably both

[@dr.johannesmunch891]

Why do People downvote this Video? You gave facts, underlined with proven statistics and reliable quotes. What's wrong with People? Are they in doupt of the facts? Or do they dislike the Präsentation? Yes MHV this was overdue

[@laurie1183]

Some people will be salty he wasn't calling all German soldiers nazis and others will be salty that he implied the Germans may possibly have done a bit off a bad thing.

[@Perkelenaattori]

The Wehraboos aren't happy when their logic of the clean Germans with their supersoldiers is being questioned.

[@mortarriding3913]

@@Perkelenaattori all they have is lies.

[@projectpitchfork860]

He may habe facts, but they still have their opinion. It may be wrong and completely disproven, but it's their opinion, that's wrong and disproven.

[@JosiahJS976]

Because they are butthurt.

[@Crembaw]

Potent and vitally necessary video. I have an “acquaintance” (a Navy officer, no less!) who keeps insisting that the war was not ideological, only the regime was. I’m glad to have such a thorough rebuttal pre-made and at the ready the next time I have to avoid talking to him. Thank you for your continued, vital work.

[@thomaskositzki9424]

German Navy? Oh so embarrasing. Go tell that nuklehead!

[@sabre0smile]

That was a heavier video than usual, but I didn't know a fair few of the statistics you brought up. Thank you for teaching this in a respectful manner and putting it all in perspective.

[@clpfox470]

Geneva Convention? More like Geneva suggestion

[@florinsi]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJ2TmYCcprOEY8k

[@crazeelazee7524]

"They are still holding conventions during war? Anyways, turn around, close your eyes and hope that it only takes one bullet"

[@patrickazzarella6729]

Laughs in Soviet Union and Nazi Germany

[@athesiaman7749]

Hitler was deeply scarred by his experience during WWI and often shunned the use of chemical weapons (barring those of Jewish decent) during WWII. Just goes to show how awful chemical weapons are.

[@drox3992]

@@florinsi Lmao. You were very quick with that clip.

[@colliwer]

Thanks for making this. I've been seeing a lot of "Clean Wehrmacht" talk going around recently

[@PolakInHolland]

Aloemancer Fight it and highlight it for the revisionist nonsense it is.

[@Celestial1000]

Where ?

[@nekrataali]

I've seen it for as long as I can remember. The History Channel had a lot of "Clean Wehrmacht" shit, which didn't help, although I think it was because sources are much better now (David Irving wasn't completely outed as a neo-nazi back in the 90s, for example). I also was taught a lot of myths in middle through high school about WWII that I had to unlearn once I became an adult, such as Glorious Saint Rommel. "He was a gentleman and a scholar who never hurt anyone! He politely asked the Allies for a debate of ideas which is how the campaign for North Africa was determined!"

[@TK2692]

@@nekrataali I can confirm this. I started learning about World War II from the History Channel, and for years I believed that the Wehrmact had never liked the Nazis, but they strongly believed that soldiers shouldn't get involved in politics, so their hands were tied. That shit was everywhere in the early 2000s. Those beliefs all immediately collapsed once I started to question them and started to do basic research.

[@Nero_Karel]

Active armies are rarely "clean", but it's silly how only the Axis seems to generally be held to that standard

[@Wottymotty]

In Russia near Leningrad my grandmothers side was nearly wiped out in a exucution line. And my grandmother witnessed it all. My great grandmother was shot in her house on the out skirts of Leningrad. And my grandfathers 9 month old sister was shot as well. And my great uncle was captured by the Germans as a soviet machine gunner and then he was exucuted sadly. Hopefully this doesn’t happen again.

[@mortarriding3913]

It already is happening again. WW3 is just fought in different ways. Primarily over environmental and economic security.

[@thomaskositzki9424]

It is so sad and embarrasing to hear what my country did 70 years ago. Lets hope for the best. Greetings from Germany

[@projectpitchfork860]

@@mortarriding3913 That's not a war. Or even a world war.

[@mortarriding3913]

@@projectpitchfork860 you don't know what war is.

[@projectpitchfork860]

@@mortarriding3913 Says the guy who calls fighting for economic power a war.

[@TheGoodShepherd117]

This was really good! One thing to add was while Western pow rates were indeed worse in Asia and the Pacific by Japan the Chinese pow death rate by the Japanese was I believe over 90% and maybe over 95%. You and Justin should think about doing a similar video on War Crimes by the Japanese Armed forces as well. Again really good video.

[@lpflore]

I would also support such a video. Many people sadly forget the sacrifices China had to make in order to defend themselves against Japan. And today people who don't know about that claim that the CCP made the proper think bad of Japan while it is Japan's own fault. Same for Korea.

[@JennyGormanRitter]

Thank you, people seem to forget that the Japanese ate POWs towards the end of the pacific theater. If that shit ain't wrong, then I don't want to be right.

[@lewisirwin5363]

Really in the 90s per cent? Dear God!

[@TheArklyte]

I feel like covering both back to back is just inviting a disaster. Someone will try to get channel blocked or to hijack it.

[@jameson1239]

War crimes of the Japanese hm I think you mean all of them

[@NotNicot]

Editor: How much red do you want in the video's image? Military History: _Yes_

[@skeletonwguitar4383]

*Yesn't*

[@motleyzadot6867]

I mean red is the color that stands out the most XD.

[@anonviewerciv]

Can't wait to see some apologia in the comments. 1:11 War crimes definition. 3:25 Oh wow, I thought comfort women were just an Imperial Japan thing. 5:10 Mistreatment of POWs. Mostly Soviet. 13:20 Heavy-handed resistance suppression.

[@JohnSmith-ts3dt]

Sure Jane.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

For what is there to apolagise? In war there are no rules, everything goes. Literally no one in my family holds grudges for those who died in the war, so dont even think that I am observing with no involvement, my ancestors where on the recieving side.

[@Rotsteinblock]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 there are rules, known as the "Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hague_Conventions_of_1899_and_1907

[@andresmartinezramos7513]

@Mialisus he means mostly Soviet prisoners of war died in German hands

[@sincereeastman6972]

What a Werhaboo 😂😂😂 what next “Without Germany technology we wouldn’t have the jet engine?”

[@mediocreman6323]

Around the turn of the millennium, there was a “Wehrmachtausstellung” (“exhibition of the Wehrmacht”) in Vienna, were war crimes of that force were documented; I remember watching a documentary on Austrian television about its visitors, and what I found so interesting about it was, that the people who actually _were there_ had a much more differentiated view on the matter, while their sons and daughters zealously took sides and either wanted their fathers cleared of all suspicion or the very opposite. Interesting, isn't it?

[@phoenix_radio]

Fascinating.

[@MrLukasboys]

The videos and interviews I've seen about it see both Wehrmacht veterans in denial, saying that nothing happened and them being confronted by other veterants.

[@mediocreman6323]

@@MrLukasboys - I think I found what I saw back then, I recommend to search KZbin for “Wehrmachtsausstellung Wien”, I found videos like watch?v=LFcVxW5mA9c - it is _very_ interesting. Not everybody was in denial, the majority of the soldiers did not participate in war crimes, but they did happen. And of course, the people who did it, well, they would not go there and even less let themselves being interviewed. It could have brought them behind bars, you know.

[@treyebillups8602]

Didn’t a bunch of Neo-Nazis protest the exhibition?

[@FlagAnthem]

This is bad news for the future

[@untruelie2640]

Another major war crime was to intentionally deprive civilians of food. This was seen as one, if not THE major method to exterminate the population of the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht played an essential role in it, because vast areas of the occupied territory were controlled by the military, which also supervised the local economy and logicstical issues.

[@Cyricist001]

Eh, as far as food went, with so many men drafted Europe had a shortage of food. Germany had strict rationing since the war started. Britain debated about using German civilians as slave labor but decided to ship them to Canada instead because feeding them was getting hard to justify, the Bengal famine was also partly do to limited surplus food ready for export, most being shipped to Britain. Starvation tactics have been mainstream during the 19. century by all imperial powers. Also, starvation tactics were a major factor for the defeat of Central Powers in WW1, people don't like changing winning strategies when they work.

[@Invicta556]

I think it was a few years ago i saw footage of Kharkov in color from ww2 and it showed the occupation of the city in 1942 and it was horrific how Regular heer security troops were marching past starving civilians laughing at them. The moment i saw that you see the "just the ss" myth is false.

[@SMFCNA]

but stalin and stuff?!

[@dehavillandvampire2190]

Do you have a link at all? I'd really be interested in seeing that.

[@thesnake2620]

@Lucius Sulla Excellent arguement there

[@Phunny]

@@kaistzar2831 And this is related to Wehrmacht war crimes and blatant disregard for human life how?

[@user-me5oq3kl4h]

@@kaistzar2831 sending them home and feeding them? Oh no what tyrants soviets were.

[@TheIfifi]

Thought you wouldnt touch this. Very impressed that you did! Super exciting!

[@sweetio]

why?

[@TheIfifi]

@@sweetio he has mentioned that he wouldnt do it in the past

[@matthewkennedy6506]

This ones gonna be spicy

[@ivoboksem851]

Yeah boiiiiiiiiii

[@na8291]

and it really shouldn't be, sadly

[@matthewkennedy6506]

@@na8291 You are right there mate.

[@mariuspequeno2175]

Spicy ... sorta like mustard

[@TheMadVulpen]

Ye

[@xollii9593]

thank you for making this video and showing the respect you always give. we can't ever forget this

[@josephsteven1600]

Thank you Military History Visualized, your videos always help educated me about WWII and other military concepts. Especially me from Philippines that have difficulty with access to material. Take care and more blessings to you.

[@rubenvo3627]

This video was long overdue for this channel but I am glad you made it. War is hell

[@drillthrallable]

Glad you made this video. Lots of people like studying the equipment of WWII so it's good you put that in the proper perspective. I like studying the equipment, especially the planes and ships so I'll be back for more of your work.

[@JS-vd3yq]

I am extremely thankful that you talked about this topic in the video. You do a very good job.

[@tommyscaletta]

This content has more educational value than what you learn in school. It is important to have a detailed account of what happened in order for us to take note and prevent it from ever happening again.

[@andyl8055]

Always a challenging topic, and you covered it as objectively as one can hope to do given what is being discussed.

[@randylong6550]

Thank you for this well thought out and articulate information.

[@cliffcannon]

This is an extraordinary presentation, clear and comprehensive. Thank you very, very much ... bright light really _is_ the best disinfectant!

[@PointReflex]

I never understood the controversy behind the German war crimes. If you talk about them on the internet you will be received with pitchforks and torches wich is insane at minimum. But if you do it in person, the story is completly different. :/

[@hmonglord]

Because on the internet you have a "face".

[@907airsoft8]

I can feel the wheraboos typing FURIOUSLY

[@AL_THOMAS_777]

😁

[@Kierkergaarder]

Thank you. This is well ordered and thought out. Amazing content as always.

[@mpersad]

A hugely important topic to be investigated. This video is outstanding, one of your best in my opinion. It is clear, balanced and exhaustively researched. Well done.

[@Tepid24]

There are few things scarier than the professor you owe an assignment to popping up in the sources for a milhisvis vid. Like a ghost that haunts you and judges you for procrastinating.

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

:)

[@rare_kumiko]

Oh, Bernhard, you're a bold one. Thanks for an excellent video as usual!

[@ottofin3178]

I'm very glad to see you finally cover this topic.

[@steelhammer96]

Thank you for handeling such a delicate topic in this way!

[@user-lf6qm8yn1k]

Good overview, thank you for highlighting important theme. My granny told me about one case in her town Volokolamsk she witnessed. It was terrible, and conducted solely by Wehrmacht

[@AL_THOMAS_777]

🙏🙏🙏мир SHALOM PEACE for you and your whole family !!

[@padraigmcgrath3876]

An excellent video on a very important topic. Superbly well researched. The "clean Wehrmacht" myth was always patent nonsense, but some people love their myths. So there is nothing to do but show them the proof in detail.

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Mika_565]

thank you for making this video, its such an important topic to cover, especially from a military history channel

[@ValensRenvhaggel]

The way you approached this topic... 10/10 pure class!

[@septimiusseverus343]

When I first learned about the Wehrmacht war crimes, I wasn't that fazed, because: 1 - There is no such thing as a "Clean Military." 2 - The Wehrmacht was an instrument of National Socialism, and as such the ideology would have filtered through the ranks and been indoctrinated, with varying degrees of success, into the soldiers. War crimes are nothing new. What truly stands out about the Wehrmacht war crimes are the motivation behind them, and the successful cover up which only started to truly fall apart after the Cold War ended, which gave plenty of opportunity for reflection and reevaluation. It is good that the myth of the Clean Wehrmacht, and indeed of "Clean Warfare" in general, are being debunked.

[@ananthu8534]

the same way the British empire is "Clean" for Indians and Africans 😅

[@andrewwavell1930]

Thank you for an informative video about a very difficult and controversial subject. I hope you will do more videos on war crimes that will help to debunk some of the myths on this subject that developed after WW2. Maybe a video about General Halder at OKH, who should probably have been prosecuted for war crimes at Nuremberg for his involvement in the various criminal orders you mentioned here; and why he escaped prosecution when other senior generals like Keitel and Jodl did not.

[@kjaesp]

Thank you for this video man. Appreciate what you're doing.

[@arsenal-slr9552]

Never thought you would venture into this territory. Incredible work as always.

[@evanhunt1863]

I remember hearing an anecdote from someone who claimed to have German tank commander as an ancestor. He described that man as a sick human being who allegedly liked to run over civilians and ended up getting his just deserts from partisans. What I love is how that anecdote ended: "Who's that for Mien Oppa?"

[@ModellingforAdvantage]

Big topic, covered well. Thanks.

[@aarongodwin6302]

the video i've been waiting for. thank you!

[@jonnydeathstar-wotreplays2406]

Much respect to you for tackling this topic.

[@kalebk9595]

This comment section is going to be just great

[@neyenmalek6761]

"BU BUT THE SOVIET ARMY WAS WORST!!!11!!"

[@gozolino]

Video title: "Wehrmacht War Crimes" Crying Boy: "wHaT AbOuT ThE AlLIEs?"

[@SMFCNA]

It is always funny when they realize our fine channel host, despite being German, isn't a Nazi. I think it seriously bothers them lol, and they can't write it off as hiding power levels.

[@BulletproofBoyScout123]

Marcos Barieri yeah what about the Italians and Japanese too 😭😭😭 guess I’m a whataboutism boy now oh god no!!!

[@hanfpeter2822]

@@SMFCNA isn't he austrian?

[@chefboyjc9439]

Damn, looks like youtubes notifications finally worked

[@germangamingvideos6069]

If you want to get all vids you need to specify the bell setting to "all"

[@DatPiffy]

You can approach these delicate topics very well from an academic perspective. Well done.

[@blackspectre209]

Thank you for this relay, this helped greatly in perspective.

[@thedmitry5165]

Ask a pole, belorussuian, ukranian, russian about german war crimes - they will tell you a lot about these. Most of us have someone, who died during the Second World War, and large part of us had relatives who died as non-combatant, directly because of war crimes. As russian myself, I will never forget about these crimes - and I have a good reason for it. During the war, part of my family used to live in a village Malye L'zi (Малые Льзи), which used to be in Leningrad district during the war, but now is considered a part of Pskov district (oblast), about 200 kms south of Leningrad/St. Petersburg. It was a decent place, pretty big for a village, around 40 or 50 families lived there. These territories was conquered by germans fairly quickly, during the autumn of 1941, before Luga defence line battles. I can't recall much about this period of occupation, and my greatgrandmother, who told me this story in full details, died about ten years ago, so I can't ask her again. Germans passed the village, probably with a fight (we're finding some pieces of military equpment underground here and there), it is located just a kilometer away from the main road to the Leningrad, but they wasn't stationed directly in the village. They was guarding the bridge right next to it though, on the main road. German forces was often taking away the food and other supplies, they took last of my family's livestock - a goat and few chickens. I've heard that Gestapo tortured to death a school teacher, who was living in the village, for his "links to the partisan activities", despite having really low presence of partisans in the area. People was pulled out to do forced labor, someone was even sent to Germany IIRC, and barely anyone came back. They was occupied for four years, and made it out to the winter of 1944, when things turned even harder. I don't know how exactly it happened, yet somehow, in February villagers found out that german forces was retreating. And they're not just retreating - they are destroying everything on their way. I don't know why exactly, but only few families was able to escape - probably because of extremely cold weather of february and lack of any supplies. And you should also consider that many of remaining villagers was really old and wasn't able to get away quickly, or women with many children, because almost every man was either in Red army, many already died there, or was pulled by germans for forced labor. My great-great-grandmother Alexandra (around 30 at that time) and her daughter, my great-grandmother Antonina (around 13) was in this bunch, who chose wandering off to the gigantic swamp, in few kilos away from the village, during the harsh winter. They was surviving the occupation witouth Alexandra's husband, Pavel, who died in 1939 during the Winter war. And, as I'm typing that, they made the right decision. I don't know which branch of german forces done that, someone claimed that they was SS troops, but i can't find any evidence on that. Anyway, they done some real war crimes. If local historians are right, fleeing german troops was gathering any food that they was able to find, and they didn't find any here, so they did what they did. Germans gathered everyone who was in the village, and shoved them into small banya, a common russian washing house, which belonged to my family, standing behind our garden on the river bank. And they burned them to death. 87 people. Elders, children, women - everyone. Many of them was my relatives too - Alexandra's mother, and her sisters, her older relatives was there. I still don't know why they wasn't able to get away, it's highly likely that they wasn't ready to depart this quickly, because IIRC there was only few hours between the message about germans and their arrival. Remains of my family fleed to the swamp, where they was surviving for few days, digging dugouts and trying to find any food. Barely survived, they returned to the village, and found everyone burnt to death, and every single building burnt down, including their barns with all their tiny remaining food supplies. Only chimneys was rising from the burnt debris. They was living in dugouts for several years there, trying to rebuilt local kolkhoz, local collective farm. And on the place of this massacare was placed a monument, back in november of 1944, remains of the people who died there was buried at the village cemetry. The village was eventually rebuilt and repopulated, but never reached it's pre-war size, barely hitting the half of it. Alexandra carried on and lived there till her death in 1991, and Antonina moved to Leninrgrad, where she worked hard and almost hitted a Hero Of Labor soviet medal. I had an honour to see and talk with her, while i was a teenager, and she told me at least the part of this story before her death in 2012 (IIRC), other ones i gathered from my other relatives and old villagers. My family still own that land and the house in this village, and we are visiting it during the summer, as common russian дача (dacha) tradition goes. Every time that I walk to the river side, barely 50 meters from our plot, to adjust the water pump for our garden, or to wash something, I walk right by that monument. It makes me think about these times, these atrocities and how people survived it, over and over again, and i think that made an impact on me as person. There are endless amounts of such stories, of various kinds, and the thing is - WW2 had an heaviest impact imaginable on lives and destiny of many millions of Soviet and eastern European nations, leaving these countries wrecked and devastated for many years. Some part of that impact can still be seen even 75 years later after the end of war. Many of my other relatives also fought, died, starved, and survived during these times, and almost anyone here have such stories to share. And that's why I will never forget the german war crimes of WW2. If you was able to read this far - thank you for your attention, writing this story down was... harder than I thought. Also, the video is great, thanks for your work, MHV! This is a theme that surely should be talked about, seeing how people are trying to deny these crimes and nazist idea of removing most part of slavs entierly, would be great to hear more about Eastern front from you. Keep up the good work! Edit: fixes on dates

[@NC7491]

Thank you for writing your story. I hope your relatives are in a good place and no one has to experience again what they experienced.

[@TK2692]

Thanks for taking the time to type this all out, especially considering how hard it must have been. It is so important for these stories to be preserved. It makes me sick to see so many Nazi apologists infesting every corner of the internet these days. Stories like yours are what they are defending, and they know it.

[@mortarriding3913]

Hi The Dmitry. Do you mind if I share this story with a friend?

[@thedmitry5165]

@@mortarriding3913 yeah I don't mind that, feel free to

[@ogscarl3t375]

I usually give your videos a like MHV but this topic is close to home as the entire polish side of my family minus my grandfather on my fathers side & his two sisters died at the hands of the Nazi's either in whilst in service of the Polish Army or in death camps so I don't really know whether to give this video a like for obvious reasons :l

[@eric3844]

I feel you. Nearly the entire Lithuanian side of my family that remained in Lithuania was murdered by the Germans, either in concentration camps or reprisal killings. This is a very hard subject to study, but it needs to be, I think, so we remember the true horrors of Nazism and all aspects of the Nazi Regime.

[@sebastiannicolaikaupe5175]

Remembering the crimes of empires past is paramount to avoiding making the same mistakes. Given the rise of right-wing, nationalistic ideas and governments in Europe and a (felt, I'll admit) decline in acceptance of compromise as a political and diplomatic tool in recent years, content like this might be more needed now than it has been for quite some time. Even if it hurts.

[@eshaanbidarakoppa5738]

You should like the video. Just because the video is bad in content, he did work hard and if you want more people to see this you should like

[@superxDification]

@@AdamMann3D "aggressive communists" like Trump in the US, Höcke in Germany, Strache/Kurz in Austria, the PiS party in Poland, Orban in Hungary and Erdogan in Turkey?

[@sargonsblackgrandfather2072]

Jimmy De'Souza okay can you point out where these all powerful communist regimes we’re all living under the boot are? Apart from in your feverish imagination obviously.

[@saifakib8346]

Thank you for covering this difficult topic.

[@zed1207]

Thank you for this wonderful contribution, it more than justifies a membership.

[@edwardreilly3500]

When you ever upload I know it will be excellent

[@cam1149]

Anyone who wants to have an inkling of what these such crimes were like to experience I recommend the 1985 Russian Film "come and see" by Director Elem Klimov who experienced them first hand on the eastern front. And then when you have finished watching and the chill is running down your back and you sit there not moving in shock, know that, according to Klimov he actually showed a sanitised version of how bad it was! That was the only way he could make this film. The trailer is here for anyone who is interested kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3nEhISLYpmqqdU

[@chrismath149]

I am surprised such a film was made in Soviet Russia. While it does not seem to present the Germans at the good guys I always thought the Soviets also wanted people to believe in the greatness of war. After seeing that, I would not want to take a step in a military uniform, regardless of what nation it belongs to.

[@chuchucat7387]

@@chrismath149 It was denied release by Soviet authorities for years for the reason you mention.

[@BrannigansLaw]

@@chuchucat7387 I believe it was denied release for the "aesthetics of dirtiness", i.e depicting Soviet Belarus as a backward society. I'm surprised they allowed it to be released at all given that it shows some locals collaborating with the SS, something I'm sure they would rather not acknowledge. It's a great film, the last hour in particular is absolutely unforgettable.

[@WolfhoundMercenary]

That movie was hard to watch. On the other hand, it has probably the most rugged looking partisans I've ever seen on a movie screen. Even though most of them don't have any lines, you can see what they've been through just from their faces alone. Brilliant moviemaking.

[@ajshell2]

@@chrismath149 I completely agree. That was one of the most brutal movies I've ever seen.

[@brownpcsuncedu]

Nice professional job with a really touchy subject!

[@hugostiglitz7373]

Thank you for making this. It is a very hard topic, and I think you presented and discussed it very well.

[@CrvenkapicaIVZNG]

Chapeau! A good introduction to a topic that - in such a short time - could hardly have been better represented. And a big thumbs up, for the courage to put this topic in front of "the Germans". Eine gute Einführung, in eine Thematik, die man - in so kurzer Zeit - kaum hätte besser darstellen können. Und ein dicker Daumen nach oben, für den Mut dieses Thema "den Deutschen" vorzusetzen.

[@jackprichard6780]

Great video. It's not my area of expertise but I learned a lot from this video. Thank you.

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Glad it was helpful!

[@dmh0667ify]

Very well-done, with a necessary, strict adherence to the facts and, more importantly, the Truth. Thank you.

[@NardoVogt]

Thanks. As always, great work. Weiter so.

[@nash-p]

I see what you're doing MHI. Good to know you're human

[@sweetio]

tell us

[@cpmenninga]

I may be wrong, but it seems like he is strategically discussing human rights issues from world war 2 while the subject of human rights in the us has come to the fore.

[@bogey_dope9969]

Good on you for attempting to correct some of the misinformation out there surrounding this topic. It's worrying to see how pervasive the Clean Wehrmacht myth has become, particularly among some of the younger students of history that I know. The general acceptance of the myth among some of my peers actually served as inspiration for research I did as an undergrad. As others have already commented, any effort such as your own in the face of such a misconstrued subject should be lauded.

[@Yui_187]

Great video as usual

[@Raider8784]

Really excellent video. Very informative.

[@TheStugbit]

Great video, and necessary! When it comes to the Japanese, you compared the death rates with the Allied prisioners of war, American, British and so forth. It would be also interesting if we could have the rates considering the Chinese prisioners only, because from what I understand so far, the Japanese also had some kind of view of the Chinese people similar to what the Nazi's saw the slave people. I would not be surprised if this percentage grows with Chinese prisoners only.

[@greenflagracing7067]

The Chinese lost an average of 200,000 dead per month during the war.

[@TheStugbit]

@@greenflagracing7067 soldiers or civilians?

[@marcusflutist1230]

@@TheStugbit most of Chinese losses were civies

[@greenflagracing7067]

@@TheStugbit both. that is the monthly average for the duration of the war.

[@PolishBehemoth]

I'm a ww2 buff. Hardly any history buffs talk about german army war atrocities. Everytime.i bring it up people act like its conspiracy and im like "did you aee the movie denial? Do you know how many thousands of people were there?! How can evwrybody be lying about the same thing?"

[@SammyNeedsAnAlibi]

That was AWESOME and well presented- and you have a new Subscriber!

[@chinacatsunflower8054]

Excellent job. Thank You.

[@dvdbradford]

Great video. I always hoped to see some sort of content like this out of your channel. That said, I'm kind of disappointed by the sheer volume of comments that are so defensive about the Wehrmacht. Warcrimes aren't an Olympic sport or a pissing contest. We can examine them in case studies and that does not take away from other atrocities. Moreover, the attempt to shift narrative away from the subject matter here does not add any meaningful discussion to what is being covered in this video, and quite frankly it is rather telling. If your first reaction to this video is "b-b-but what about xyz..." You don't come off as clever. At worst you come off as a Nazi sympathizer, at best, a Wehrmact weeb who is weirdly defensive about an army you were never a part of.

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

> That said, I'm kind of disappointed by the sheer volume of comments that are so defensive about the Wehrmacht. if you look at the like - dislike ratio, you will see it is actually a minority, although a very vocal one.

[@dvdbradford]

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized Thanks for the reply! I have been a fan of your channel for years. Hope you didn't take my frustration as a dig to you, the channel, or the video. I think it is very important to have videos like this one; content to temper the "fun" [for lack of a better word], of studying munitions, equipment, and tactics used throughout various conflicts. Videos like this remind the audience that war is hell, and should not be sugar coated or romanticized. Again, thank you for creating such informative content.

[@RuneOverW]

Thank you for speaking about this, a lot of people, including past-me, always thought that the Wehrmacht was almost clear from warcrimes and that that was all the SS’s doing.

[@Splattle101]

Well done, great video!

[@brankodrljaca1313]

Very brave of you for making this video and thank you for that. Saying that regular German troops commited crimes will get you hated in much of mainstream places on the internet. Once I got into discussion where the guy got visibly upset because I said that Germans wanted to exterminate the Poles, had their own "Katyn" (German massacres of Polish intellectuals and elites in 1939-40) and killed millions of Poles (even more than Soviet occupation). He claimed that no one in Eastern Europe ever saw that, that Germans were always polite and responded only when attacked while Soviets were barbarians that killed everything (I wasn't trying to defend Soviets in any way). Number of burned villages and pictures of lamp post with hanged people disprove that. Still, I would like if you could get some attention also on Yugoslavia and Greece where Wehrmacht regulars also committed atrocities. Even before any guerilla movements started they shot and hanged random civilians in Pančevo because someone shot at local German paramilitary (during a full scale invasion) and filmed it. During pacification of Serbia in late 1941, regular German army, shot 100 civilians for every German soldier killed in combat, even shooting high school kids.

[@greenflagracing7067]

Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East. Stephen Fritz, is a good and detailed read on this.

[@dakotarose3377]

Well done. Thank you.

[@gizmophoto3577]

An outstanding and timely summary. Thank you for your willingness to address this subject. So sad that we live in a world where acknowledging horrific crimes could be the least bit controversial.

[@ErokLobotomist]

One of the best books on this topic is, Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing and Dying by Sonke Neitzel. Truly shocking read, I used to buy into the myth of the clean Wehrmacht before that book.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Also, I didn’t know Belarus was the nexus of soviet partisan efforts. That really makes me respect the film “Come and See” more than I already did because the more I learn about the subject matter, the more I recognize elements depicted in the film and that is the hallmark of a film that transcends depiction and becomes legitimate informative and representative. If there is only one film about the Eastern front on a course syllabus introducing people to the Second World War and it’s historiography, it should be that one.

[@WasilijSaizev]

Very good. I'm still missing some of the matters, but this one is a good overview

[@AlleyCatGhost]

About time bro

[@gammainc1666]

Thank you for making this video. This topic is often muddled by revisionists and people who solely place the blame on the SS, and it's hard to find accurate and factual information about the subject. Hopefully this will help combat revisionism.