我的叔叔奥古斯特-沃尔夫冈-佩特里是德国国防军的一名装甲部队指挥官。他在战争中幸存下来，在西伯利亚呆了5年，最终于2014年去世，享年102岁。他非常不愿意谈论自己的经历，尽管他确实向他的孙子托马斯-韦特讲述了那场战役的一些精彩部分。在我的书《未被记住的生命重生》（Amazon 2019）中，他描述了1944年穿越巴尔干的撤退。这里有一段摘录。
1944年夏秋之际，在从巴尔干半岛的漫长撤退过程中，彼得里中尉指挥一个装甲师保护德军集团的后方。
他的部队的作用是延迟俄国人的前进。
他的命令是相当直接的。
'骚扰敌人，但不要与他们交战'。
在这次撤退中，一个俄国炮兵阵地开始炮击逃亡的难民，这些难民挤满了主要道路，在前进的俄国军队和撤退的德国集团军之间形成了一个夹层。彼得里中尉的装甲部队在开阔地和树林中平行前进，试图将任何先进的步兵或摩托化部队挑出来。
当他看到避难者像钉子一样倒下时，他用无线电向总部报告了一个干掉俄国炮兵的计划。
他的上级军官对他的计划表示祝贺，但明确表示禁止他继续行动，他必须继续按计划撤退。
How were WW2 German veterans treated in Germany after the end of WW2?
How are WW2 German soldiers seen as in modern Germany? Are they viewed as honored veterans or monsters?
As “Tragische Gestalten”, tragic figures.
Since everything they did, all the good, all the bad, was, ultimately, pointless.
My grandfather did almost the whole war, being invalided out of the army in the winter of 1944.
He marched, killed, suffered all over Europe for 5 years and it was all for nothing.
All it got him was a stomach that would never work right for the rest of his live, loss of a good part of his small intestines and a bit of metal in the form of medals which he did not want and which he could not wear.
He could have chosen to exchange for some he could have worn, but he never did.
He spoke about the war to me once, when I told him I dreamed of an air rifle, he said “I swore in the war I would never touch a rifle once it is over, and I never had a problem keeping that oath.”
I felt bad afterwards. I did not know why, but I felt bad. I did not want a air rifle anymore.
When my cousin, older than me, went to the Bundeswehr for his mandatory service instead of doing Zivildienst Grandpa was, allegedly, not pleased. He did not want to have anything to do with the military and he did not want us to have anything to do with it either.
When it was my turn, I still went. My grandfather was dead by then.
But I will never forget how it began to slowly dawn on me during my service how unplesant war could potentially be… especially when you suffer through it and at the end you have less than nothing. Not even your self-respect.
At what point did German Commanders realize the war (WWII) was lost for Germany?
I remember a great story where a German Field Marshal was riding in his Mercedes in France, shortly after the Normandy invasion, and he suddenly stopped at the sight of an American logistics train, full of supplies and over three miles long.
He was stunned and said to his entourage, “We've already lost the war.”
They turned back to him and asked, “Why?”
He replied, “Because this train has more gear and supplies than I have ever seen in one place in my entire time in the Army… and it wasn't here yesterday.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Now, realistically, the
Why are the Germans the war losers? What was the main reason they lost the war?
Mmm, a good question. Let’s compare it with a brawl.
Germany is a nasty guy. Really tough. Has a history. He is strong, powerful, intimidating. He loves fighting. He was banned from the pub after an earlier brawl, but now he’s back, spoiling for a fight.
The pub is already quite rowdy. In one corner, Japan is kicking China. In another corner lies Ethiopia, bruised and battered, with Italy gloating over him.
Germany looks around, schmoozes somewhat with USSR and then picks a fight with a regular: Poland. Poland is a good brawler, but not nearly as good as Germany; Poland goes down.
With that, all h
How are German WW2 veterans viewed in Germany today?
It’s important to remember Germans are human. That means they feel disgusted by the events of World War II as much as anyone else; very likely more. They are reminded regularly of the Holocaust so that it does not repeat itself.
On to the answer: there aren’t many left alive today. Speaking anecdotally, most Germans I have known expressed no opinion on the few German Army veterans of the War living in Germany now. Germans are aware of the distinction between your average rank-and-file and those who committed war crimes, most of whom were exhaustively hunted down after the War. I’m pretty sure no veterans alive and known in Germany today are war criminals. That is not to say some Nazis did not escape justice, but that those who did are now dead, or hiding their war service.
Educated German opinion of current living veterans of World War II, then, ranges from indifference to quiet acknowledgement that they were men who sacrificed a great deal in war like any other men in war, and they should to some small degree be respected as human beings, at least, for that much. The ones who are still alive are treated perhaps with a bit of novel curiosity, since people who experienced the terror of the war as an adult are so incredibly rare these days. What happened to them is not talked about much. Aside from fringe neo-Nazis (less than 1% of the German population who, ironically, were not personally present during the war and had no actual involvement to be proud about), I’ve not noticed any pride about World War II service. Certainly not among actual German veterans of the war. There are no grandiose World War II parades, no proud government commendations of different regiments, nor designated federal celebratory World War II days.
In the years I lived in Germany, I went all over the country and lived in a couple of federal states. I could count on one hand the number of times World War II came up in conversation, a few times on my own inclination. Not once did I know anyone personally, nor know of anyone, with any negative opinion of veterans who went through what they did and still came out the other end alive. Not to say what they did was right, but I believe the average consensus is that what they went through was more than enough. War is hell.
Edit: I spoke to a few of my German friends recently to get some more feedback on this answer. They all reaffirmed my original conclusion that most people don’t care about nor pay any attention to 100-year-old veterans. The media do find such veterans interesting to scrutinise (they might dig up dirt on a hiding Nazi!) but usually there is no interesting story anymore, just that of some scared 18-year-olds who saw little action. The ones who were in positions of power in the army during the war are dead now, but opinion of them is quite negative.
My uncle, August Wolfgang Petri was a Wehrmacht Panzer commander. He survived the war and 5 years in Siberia, and eventually died in 2014 at the age of 102. He was very reluctant to talk about his experiences, although he did tell his grandson, Thomas Wetter, about some of the better parts of that campaign. In my book, ‘Unremembered Lives Revived’ (Amazon 2019) he describes the withdrawal across the Balkans in 1944. Here is an extract:
In the summer and autumn of 1944 during the long withdrawal from the Balkans, Oberstleutnant Petri was in command of a Panzer division protecting the rear of the German army group.
The role of his unit was to delay the advance of the Russians.
His orders were fairly straight forward:
‘Harass the enemy but don’t engage them.’
During this withdrawal a Russian artillery emplacement had started to shell fleeing refugees, who were filling the main roads, and formed a sandwich between the advancing Russian Army and the retreating German Army Group. The Panzers of Oberstleutnant Petri were making a parallel course across open and wooded country, trying to pick off any advanced infantry or motorised forces.
When he saw the refuges falling like ninepins, he radioed back to headquarters with a plan to take out the Russian artillery.
His superior officer congratulated him on his plan, but made it absolutely clear that he was forbidden to go ahead, and that he must just continue with the planned withdrawal.
However, this needless massacre of civilians made August’s blood boil. So, under cover of darkness, his unit outflanked the Russians, who had halted for the night, and took out the artillery emplacement. This was achieved without suffering any losses, and his unit then returned to their previous planned route of retreat.
When his superiors heard what he had been up to, there was an immediate knee jerk reaction to have him court martialled.
However, when they fully appreciated the success of his mission they recommended him for a medal!
Such is the scary world of action and reaction in the heat of battle.
What none of the German High Command realised at the time was that the Russians were receiving regular intelligence reports from Bletchley Park in England, where all German Army radio messages were being decrypted so rapidly that it only took a couple of hours for the information to be passed back to the Russians. It was likely therefore that the messages radioed to and from Oberstleutnant Petri had been read, and gave the Russians the reassurance that they could sleep easy in their beds that night. Naturally they assumed that no German junior officer would ever disobey orders!
The attack when it came must have been a nasty surprise!
留言
張貼留言