Quote:
Originally Posted by Kongo Otto
With due respect but you're missing the point completely.
Despite of all personal bravery by U-Boot men and Captains, there is still the fact that we were on the wrong side of the table.
It's also not about beeing a Nazi or not, it's about the fact of being part of a system which brought Terror and Devastation all over Europe.
Your error is just to see the personal bravery which surely was above the call of duty, nevertheless you should also see the reason why the U-Boots sunk Allied Merchant ships.
The second World War was a war for racial supremacy and a war started by a System which was one of the most horrific in Human History and like it or not the Kriegsmarine was part of that System.
It was not like here is the heroic Kriegsmarine and over there are the evil Nazis, the Kriegsmarine was also part of this system like every other Service Branch of the then German Armed Forces.
Whilst the U-Bootwaffe was not involved in the Holocaust, Land based Units were involved in the Holocaust specially at Ports in the Baltics and the Balkans.
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you are making it way too easy for yourself there. by that definition,
everyone who lived in greater germany at that time, or serving in a branch of the armed forces, was "part of the system" and, therefore, evil?
that, clearly, was not the case. aside from the heavily indoctrinated parts of the nazi regime, like SS and secret police, the
majority of german soldiers, sailors and airmen were just that - soldiers, sailors and airmen, serving under a goverment which rose to power under circumstances that were questionable at best.
at the time, believe it or not, the nazis seemed like a good idea for most people. deriding the populace and soldiers for what we know today is nothing more than hindsight bias. if "being part of the system" were so bad and evil (i still don't follow that logic...), then every branch of the armed forces would have been declared a "criminal organisation" during the nuremberg trials. they weren't. only those who were truly evil and deserve contempt, now and always, were.
what i am trying to say is this: stop politicizing everything. character traits that define a good soldier or sailor are completely independent from the political system that they served in. they deserve recognition. and yet
almost everyone who served on the german side during the nazi reign gets demonized instantly.
example: we do it with the spartans or the romans. both are revered for their strong militaries and cited as examples of advancements in tactics or exemplary bravery and such. but neither were democrats or treated POWs particularly well.