Quote:
|
Originally Posted by August
The Axis nations, on the other hand STARTED the war for the sole purpose of eliminating and/or enslaving the local populations of those nations they subjugated.
|
This is simply not true, and the only times I've seen this argument before is in WWII Allied propaganda. The reason for going to war was to restore and create a third Reich, to create a Grossdeutschland. That was the main reason. They also wanted to restore their honour after the crushing humiliation of Versailles, and this is the main reason why it was so easy to make Germans call for war. They wanted to get even, and prove themselves as a great nation once more.
True, the prospects for anyone with "impure" blood were bleak, but they were not the reason Hitler wanted Europe. They
were the reason Hitler attacked Russia, because he wanted to eliminate the Eastern threat. Apart from that, there was no enslaving of the local population in the "white" countries.
Quote:
|
Nazi concentration camps were being built as early as 1934.
|
1933, actually, but they were not for the purpose of ethnic cleansing or anything like that, they were for "habitual and dangerous criminals". The SS Deathshead division was formed to guard these camps in 1936, but the first deportation of Jews didn't occur until 1940. The infamous "Endlösung" wasn't conceived until summer 1941, and implemented in 1942. That's when certain KZ-camps were transformed into death camps.
Quote:
|
The Waffen SS were not feared by "veterans of all nations". While their favored status in the nazi heirarchy meant they sometimes were better equipped than their counterpart Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe (Fallschirmjager) ground units, their combat effectiveness was no better and indeed in many cases much worse.
|
"Many" is stretching it. There are examples of SS incompetance in combat, but by and large they had the better training. So they were rarely worse than the Wehrmacht, and typically better. Like you said, being favoured meant they were given all they needed to be an elite, and that includes better training.