the face expressions of these old germans show pride and justification for what they committed. Most of them were in the SS...I would dig a whole and hide my face until I die for suffocation.
@hydroptere I'm sure most of them live with continuous anguish from what they did in their youth. If they weren't fighting under fear of death and punishment, I'd like to think they wouldn't have done the things they did.
I've noticed that many documentaries on WW2 make little or no mention of Stalin's atrocities against his own people. It's good to finally watch one that covers it all.
@GreenShadedThing You're WRONG, Stalin executed and imprisoned hundreds of thousands that he suspected to be Nazi sympathizers, "almost always wrong" He was inconceivably paranoid about this... even those civilians who put up white flags on their windows, paid dearly for that little mistake. Whenever Russians were liberated from Nazi POW camps, he immediately had them arrested and sent to the Gulag & not just the soldiers, but women as well. The list goes on and on.
@lmos26 dont get too excited. I didnt stated that as a fact, if you take a closer look I used word maybe, which indicates that I didnt really knew. but thanks for clearing that, now I dont have to use this word in this context anymore ;)
@Scorpion17a surprising huh? lol! but they were lucky that they held out at Stalingrad till winter came..that's the Russian's army specialty; to combat in winter. by that time, the Wehrmacht were too ill equipped/ supplied, and the russians produced better (and more) weapons & an abundance of soldiers.
@Scorpion17a The Nazis underestimated the patriotism of the Soviet people, especially the ethnic Russians. Further, Nazi racial theories only served to inflame the anger of the Slavic people and spur them on to victory. You're right. That was some achievement.
@andrewdudeldoo The mechanism of racial hatred is unfortunately no different from religious faith. In fact, the more fundamentalist a religious faith, the greater the propensity towards racism. It's the same mechanism exploited by propagandists to brainwash armies in terms of objectifying the enemy, just as, say, the Americans did with the Japanese in the Pacific arena. The Nazis and the American propagandists alike were/are master manipulators of social dogma.
@gsmonks True. The saying "Kill a Jap for Jesus" did a wonderful job of both: a) summing up beliefs of the day and tapping into this potential power for uniting a common people (the Americans) AND b) providing a simple means of fulfilling something both motivational and righteous.
Yet I do not know who then is to blame for the ensuing evil (is it possible that the associated "evil" could be argued out and replaced with "unfortunate reality?"). Leaders, or men too weak to stand up for "good?"
@andrewdudeldoo Evil is best defined as "the lack of empathy", and anyone allowing themselves to go down that road is complicit. Social/peer pressure is the leverage most often used, and too few people are taught to stand up to social/peer pressure, and even fewer are born with the intelligence, insight and spine to see it for themselves.
@gsmonks Do you feel yourself capable of standing up to such influences? Not just visualizing such a situation, but actually experiencing the rejection and loneliness that comes with being ostracized from a group to which your personal convictions do not claim allegiance.
What is a worth "field" in which to place your self-worth so as not to be affected by such negative influences?
@andrewdudeldoo Not only am I capable of standing up to such influences, but have done so all my life. For myself, self-worth has nothing to do with it. It's simply a case of siding with the truth, and in many or most cases letting time take care of the rest.
Today's great evil is consumerism- a fact to which most are utterly blind. Second only to consumerism is the bourgeois mentality that goes hand-in-hand with it. These are the most destructive forces at work in the world today.
@gsmonks Unfortunately, consumerism isn't only a belief, but also a foundation for social status structure. Money is to be gained with the expectation that it will allow for a "better" lifestyle. Your friends want to watch the big football game? Obviously they should come over to your house, since you just bought a 200" plasma tv. You're the envy of all our friends, and you bask in the power that it gives you. This soon becomes the person's adopted self-worth, and they chase the feeling
@andrewdudeldoo Oh, it's a belief-system, which is precisely why it figures in terms of social status and self-worth. The proof is that removal of it from the equation and its position as social foundation automatically evaporates.
The problem with consumerism is that, in its way, it's a deep-rooted addiction, and whole societies are affected. Only the addiction to fossil fuels poses problems as grave, as the world's population, the third great evil of our age, sets us up for collapse.
@alanheath2 a good point....my uncle was in the war and he said he felt badly for the german soldiers after the war....they were soldiers doing their job
there are not many people that can kill others without a rationalization. If lived your whole life propagandized, with no access to alternate information. How would you know that people who you were attacking were not inferior, evil etc..
If people realized (and i think most did) that they were deceived, why would they want to kill each other any more?
@andrewdudeldoo soldiers of opposing camps have met regularly all over the world. Depending on the experience they have had, some manage to keep a very honest point of view and some form of humor, when all possible retaliation has disappeared. My familly is half Algerian and my wifes uncle is from France and was in the french army fighting against the Algerians during the 1958-62. Hearing his experience brought a lot of understanding about what really happened and why.
No need to call names in a debate. Pure speculation on your part, but the evidence suggests you're wrong. Stalin deported disloyal ethnic groups which helped the Nazis, but he did not exterminate. As for Germany's future under Stalin, look to east Germany under Honecker for how Germany might have been ruled in a Soviet controlled Europe.
@toffanful I would not fancy living in East Germany - having been there various times in the 1980s but it seemed better than living in Nazi Germany, which I did not have the good fortune to visit but those I have talked to - and they are many - did not enjoy their time there!
I am not certain though that Stalin's deportations were not a form of extermination. Deporting people to places where they have no chance of finding food and shelter does strike me as being likely to lead to death.
@alanheath The deportations of minorities like the Crimean Tartars, Chechens, and Volga Germans did lead to a death rate of up to 25% from 1941 - 1944, and that was a crime. But keep in mind, those deaths were largely the result of wartime deprivation, indifference and organizational confusion at a time when the Soviet Union was fighting for its existence an re-establishing an industrial base beyond the Urals. Stalin was tough and cruel. but not an exterminationist like the Nazis.
@toffanful I do not accept that these deaths were the result of war time deprivation - this is an absurd excuse. The Bolsheviks knew a war was going on and if they had not wished so many people to die then they should not have deported them. The deaths of millions meant to more to Stalin than to Hitler although I accept that Stalin did not attempt mass extermination as Hitler did.
@alanheath Let me give you an analogy. The US put Japanese Americans in concentration with no evidence of treason and the American homeland was never threatened with extinction by foreign armies on their soil. If Stalin wanted these people destroyed en masse, he would have done so. He didn't and the Chechens were brought home en masse by Khruschev. See Richard Evans or Alexander Worth on oral testimony of Volga Germans. Privation? Yes: Mass starvation? No.
@alanheath How can you dismiss wartime deprivation as an element of deportee deaths when so many millions of loyal Soviet citizens starved during the war? This is not an absurd observation. Nevertheless, we agree on the cynicism of state power on all sides, but again, the Soviets were not racial exterminators. One could survive the gulag and be released, an option not given to those at Belzec, Treblinka, or Sobibor.
@toffanful I am not denying wartime deprivation - however if thousands of people are suddenly dumped in the middle of nowhere with no means of supporting themselves then they are going to die.
You are correct. Many were dumped in the middle of nowhere. However, the surviving Volga Germans and Chechens stated that they would get a mouldy sack of corn or mash meal once or twice a month without knowing when food would arrive. That was cruel. No denying it. But the extermination of these minorities was not the objective. The objective was collective punishment of the many because of the Nazi collaboration of the few. I think we basically agree on this one.
You`re trying to excuse the soviet ethnic policies with deprivation, collaboration or whatever`s related to the war. What i was writing about happened before the German invasion, when soviets were their most precious ally, or even before that. I`d really like to know how will you explain that to not admit their common objective was extermination of that "minority".
Anyhow, it doesn`t matter for the victims what objective persecutors had.
Such a poor excuse, Germans had thiers too. How will you explain what they did before thier "patriotic war" started? Still these insolent people caims the massacres of Katyn, Harkiv and Mednoye should be considered as "war crimes", nevermind that they weren`t at war and the "liberation" was a year before. How about the deportations from eastern Poland at that time? The "Polish opration" of NKVD in 1937? Not an extermination?
It appears to me that the german soldiers/officers who have been in this video have only the regret that germany lost the war. In spite of bneing barbarians! My question is , "Why has such barbarous people like the germans and also the japanese been "rebuilt" by the stupid politicians of the usa?
Ok. After 15-20 minutes of watching I'm getting to the point. This movie is the next attempt to set equation mark between Stalin and Hitler. That russians won the war contrary to the decisions made by Stalin.
Stalin was not angel. Yes, he missed the german invasion. And made a lot of mistakes we call now "atrocities". But before judging his actions we have to understand first who left behind the scene of this war.
Everybody, please read this from the very beginning to the very end(no spaces): unityinchrist . com / history / meaning / print / MeaningOfHistoryprt . htm This says everything exactly why and how shit happened without blaming anyone - true peacemaker!
While Soviet [propaganda encouraged Soviet soldiers to take their revenge ( including many rapes in Berlin) , the Germans wee the first to lay the ground rules, including rape of young girls, murder of entire villages, and burning of all civic centers in Russia during the German retreat. Germans set the ground rules, and the Soviets played them. But again, the Soviet response to Nazi crimes were mild in comparison. By the way, I am a Professor of European History at the University of Windsor.
Don't believe that one rifle for 5 people BS, the guy saying this later said and I qoute: "we thought we would be given weapons when we enter the fight, in our battery it wasn't like this" battery means he was in artillery unit(where most of soldiers either operate the cannon/howitzer/AT gun or carry the rounds, while others guard the unit) and BBC just misinterpreted this. The situation when infantry units were given 1 rifle for more than 1 soldier was in Stalingrad, and mostly with MG support
Also Mosin rifle was produced since 1891(mostly imported, but Commies got their own production durin Industrialization). Do you really think that Russians had enough rifles for WWI and the Civil war, and then most of them somehow dissapeared? I would imagine a lack of ammo, mortars, etc, but rifles? I can accept Stalingrad, even though my books say otherwise(12 book History of World War 2, Voenizdat). You may say it's full of propaganda, but the strategic operations and stats are very accurate.
AlsoI've never read a credible history book in English saying that infantry units were ever undersupplied with rifles. PPSHs, mortars, trucks, guns, aircraft and ammo YES, sometimes, but NOT the Mosins! Otherwise artillery and tank units were lacking heavily in personal weapons, but not infantry units. Watch more BS that says that mostly unarmed Russians were laying bones to get rid of them Germs, but its not a FACT that it was happening all the time 1rifle for 5 people like they're saying here.
wow this war in the east really shrinks the whole d day thing ...no disrespect but the battles in the east were mega battles.. stalingrad a battle too far for the nazis..and thank god for the red armie..
@andrewkenworthy My respect for appreciating the contribution. Some fools think that they would rather live under German rule, even though the German plans were to exterminate up to around 70% of all people east of Germany. I can see you're from Finland, and even though Finland was on the Nazi side, I respect your opinion just because you understand the thing. If not for German defeat, most probably I wouldn't be typing this right now. Thanks mate.
newlove559. I assure you, you neither know your history or understand who is manipulated by propaganda. A 100 times worse than the Nazis? The very fact that the Soviets allowed Germany to survive after the war is a testament to their humanity, a humanity which the Nazis had no intention of reciprocating. You dumbass!
@toffanful what are you talking about man, russians made germans march to sibiria, they were allways full of shit and even now they lie all the time, what mercy are you talking about ? theydid the same thing germans did to them, an eye for an eye. The only true heroes are the alies, germans and rusians were 2 idiots who wanted to kill each other and because one of the won it is aceptable to say russian were good, they didnt kill anyone, they didnt have camps, they didnt anax anyone after the war
@Guitarnoob99 Hey fool, only around half a million of German POWs died in Soviet Union, while at least 3.3 million Soviet POWs were exterminated by the Nazis through starvation, diseases and summary execution while the total Soviet loses account for around 27 million irrecoverable losses(KIA, Lost, dead POWs and etc). Also, even though USSR wasn't signatory to Hague conventions, German prisoners lived in barracks, while most of Soviet POWs lived on the bare ground. Now you feel the difference?
@AngryTruthSeeker hey comunins bitch, i have no idea where are you taking all this info you are backing up, but if for some reason you were looking at wikipedia, i can tel you internet doesnt have it all. Beside why are you standing up for other bad regime and rule ? you should know better to defend russian scum, who lie and hite everything all the time so the numers you found were not true at all, im sure of it it is like 2-3 times bigger.
@Guitarnoob99 Think what you want, facts will remain facts. I'm not a historian, but I've studied history on both sides of the ocean, here in Russia and in the States and I have access to databases and books you wil get broke just looking at. Internet has it all, it's just you don't have access to it. I'm not standing up for the bad regime, I'm standing up for my people. Read about "Generalplan Ost" and you will find out why Germans were treating Soviet POWs this way.
@AngryTruthSeeker Don't waste your time trying to educate those like Guitarnoob. They are like right-wing Republicans in the USA. Don't confuse their innate biases with the facts.
@Guitarnoob99 Ohhh the only true heroes are allies - you say. Wihout Soviet force your stupid allies would be one of many provinces of Reich like France, Poland etc. Try to understand with your small brain that allies couldn't win the war on their own..
@toffanful yes using the term dumbass really offends me :) Unfortunately for you i do know my history the Nazis gave us a way off this rock one day when the planet dies with there rockets, they also stopped plans for soviet world domination !! nothing you say can change the truth of these two facts!!! you retarded donkey lover
@NEWLOVE559 World domination? The Soviets couldn't even maintain agricultural self-sufficiency under communism. They imported a high percentage of their food from the west. Further, Soviet power was defensive. Look at the militarism we face today with the USA unipower adopting perpetual warfare as policy. Frankly, I kind of miss the Soviet Union. The world was a safer place. By the way, the Soviets sent the first satellite and cosmonaut into space with their own technology.
@toffanful They were both brutal regimes. The Soviets would have done much worse if USA and Britain were not thier allies. There were 10s of thousands of rapes and other horrible things Russians did when they took Germany.
@toffanful You're the dumbass. The Russians would never have allowed a Germany to exist, had it not been for the Western allies. The Russians had no humanity, and acted as bad, sometimes worse, than the Germans did.
@dymd3z That's a contextually inaccurate view, given that Russia was being exterminated as a sovereign state and their people enslaved or killed in accordance with Nazi policy in the East. Communism saved western democracy, as western historians Alan Bullock, AJP Taylor, and Len Deighton convincingly argue in their monographs.
@toffanful and the very fact that they enslaved the whole Eastern Europe and made us dumb and poor for 60 years shows that they are evil as the nazis .
@Heer88 You forget that eastern Europe acted as cannon fodder for the Nazi regime. Given that Eastern Europe collaborated with Hitler, they got off pretty easy. Nazi Europe invaded Russia, not the other way around. Incidentally, if you believe the Soviets made you dumb, I respectfully suggest your dumbness was self-inflicted. I lived in Moscow in 1976 and all news was available if you read Pravda from the back page to the front, much like current western newspapers.
@toffanful Not all of Easten Europe was cannon fodder , and not all of Eastern Europe collaborated with Nazi Germany , ( Yugoslavia didn't for example) . Who invaded who doesn't have importance , cause this conflict was invevitable , sooner or later if not Nazi Germany the Soviets would of invaded .I don't have any dumbness , what was inflicted by the soviet was goverment of murderers that created Belene our prison camp well know here same as Aushwitz .
As for Yugoslavia, there was a puppet Croatian state, muslims from Bosnia made uf some two waffen SS divisions. Even the Serbian Cetniks collaborated if it was about fighting comunists of Tito or killing Jews, becouse of that the allies cut the support for them and the goverment of King Peter to support the communists.
Stalin said it clearly, he was waiting for the "imperialists" to destroy each other before they`ll start to "liberate" the proletaryans... Well done Germany!
@Heer88 That`s why i put the word between quotation marks.
As for the cannon fodder, at first these were mostly Romanians, whose country was also nicely carved up by Hungary, Bulgaria and... the soviets. Later, when Germany was short of human "resources" they begun creating even Russian divisions of Vlasoff and Kaminsky. It`s a bullshit that the whole eastern Europe collaborated, even if they`d want to, most wasn`t even allowed.
@MaximusProteus yeah true again , bulgarians for example didn't even fought on the Eastern front against the soviets , even months before 9 of september 1944 we got out of the alliance with Nazi germany but nonetheless the soviets declared war on us ! this meant they invaded neutral country as we were not part of any major alliance . We didn't take part of the german invasion mainly because russians liberated us in 1879 .
@Heer88 I know, similar reasons made Horthy to refuse Germans any help in 1939. They also weren`t very supportive later and finally Germans occupied Hungary. Some little contingent of Slovakia fought in Ukraine, there`s some propaganda movie or a newsreel series about it. Other minor units were made by the volunteers from the German puppet states, some Italian, but it was all more for the propaganda purpose than military.
@toffanful Stalin was the biggest nazi collaborator. Between 1939-41 they invided and occupied together Romania, Finnland, Baltic States and Poland. When Britain blocked whole German trade they got tons of resources from the soviets, nazis even asked them to join the axis pact.
When the soviet "liberation" camed in 1944-45 every non communist resistance was a "fascist collaborator" for them, even if they`d cooperate with red army before in Vilnius, Lwów and other fights.
@MaximusProteus The Soviets tried to stop Nazi expansion into Czeckoslovakia. When the western powers ignored Russia and appeased Nazi Germany, Stalin reciprocated Hitler's offer of a non-aggression pact. Russia took the only option available as the west refused to form a united front against German expansionism.
@toffanful I agree that the west should not have backed down and should have invited the USSR into the talks. Nonetheless Hitler could offer Stalin much more than the west could and Hitler was a natural ally for Stalin - unlike the west.
@alanheath Hitler was not a natural ally for the USSR otherwise Stalin would have sought a German alliance much sooner that August 1939. Russia had always allied itself with the west against German expansionism, as in WW1. Ideology was not a determining factor for Stalin. National survival of the USSR was.
@toffanful ... Stalin wanted that alliance, even Lenin and both states collaborated on many fields all along the interbellum period.
Are you kidding? Moscow was always allied with Germany, always supported its expansion and vice versa, first world war was an exception and they both wanted to reverse its outcome, what they did in 1939.
@toffanful There was no question of survival for the USSR in 1939. There was just a question of imperialist expansion at the expense of Poland, the Baltic States, Romania and Finland.
@toffanful First of all the soviets made up the German military when they still cared about the Versaillese restrictions.
The soviets did nothing about Czechoslovkia but asked to let thier army pass through Poland. Exactly when Germans broke the Munich treaty, took Bohemia and Moravia, soviets begun negotiating closer economic and political relations. It`s merely your opinin that was the only option, but ask yourselve if Hitler would take a risk if not that pact.
@Heer88 This is only simbolic, an example of many, countles, far more bloody massacres... Just in 1937 NKVD carried out a "Polish operation", meaning that they found, captured and executed everyone with a Polish surname living in USSR, barely 100.000. These idiots found them by a... phone book.
Between 1939-1941 they sent about 1.7 millions to gulag from eastern Poland, mostly women and childrem, about 300.000 survivors were evacuated in 1943 to Iran.
Yea right... so who does remember? Nobody cares about the German crimes as well, except for the crimes against the soviets and Jews. The only thing was and is Katyń also becouse Germans used it for the means of thier propaganda. Even asking about it was enough to be accused of "fascist collaboration" and to break the relations with Polish goverment, which wasn`t useful anymore, especially after the "accident" of gen. Sikorski...
@MaximusProteus Well i can speak only for me and my father we remember these things cause they are part of the truth , the truth that wasn't completely told by losers and winners of WWII . So at least i will remember as long as i live , i will tell my kids if i have such and everyone i know about it .
You know what i mean, these crimes are just a tool of propaganda even today. Whatever Germans or the soviets did the common people will know only if it`s useful for some goverments or the other powers. You know, i know and maybe a pack of other, meaningles individuals, so what?
@MaximusProteus yeah i get your meaning , well unfotunately i don';t have the power of a goverment so to tell it to everyone , but we must keep this truth so it to not disappear at all , that's what we can do for now .
I`m not expecting you to do anything about it, besides, you have your own agenda. It just makes me angry that even if what i know is true, it doesn`t matter if others don`t know it.
Finally i watched all 20 parts of this, quite interesting, documentary, which tends to be balanced. But i wonder, why if British showed what was going on in Ukraine, what did the soviets done to the nazis and vice versa... there`s not a word about Poland, except for Aushvitz. It`s getting boring.
@Heer88 Let me ask you this. Given the history of the past 60 years after the Soviet victory, and a current, prosperous. independent Poland, do you really believe Poland would exist as it does today if Nazi Germany had won the war?
@toffanful Of course not so independent as it is now , even Bulgaria wouldn't be so independent if Nazi germany had won , but at least no one would install communist dictatorship which kill inteligent people and built death camps for that purpose . Hitler was against the jews now against bulgarians , so i have nothing against him as he didn't any wrong to my people .
@toffanful No idea why you`re asking him about that and why should he even care...
Your idea of present Poland is kinda funny, but nevermind. Soviet intentions were different and Molotov made it clear in a one speech in 1940 that there will never be again such a country, they knew exactly what German plans are and not only did they accepted, but supported them. Given the history of past century i know Poland owns its existence only to a fact that these two allies sometimes fight.
@MaximusProteus What's funny about my analogy on Poaland? Answer my original question instead of dismissing it. Further, when you preface your responses with " those insolent people", you are not interested in historical debate. You are exercising personal prejudices and hatreds which detract from our search for historical interpretation.
@toffanful What`s funny is your idea of present Poland as "prosperous and independent".
You`re ignoring my questions in general... What i`ve said is that initially the soviet intentions were exactly the same as German - etchnic cleansing. Since at least 1937 they lost thier interest to "liberate" and establish a puppet goverment so the "Polish" communists were executed. That`s a prejudice and hatred, to ignore or justyfie it, is insolent and that`s what`s Moscow doing till this day.
@toffanful its actually the western powers germany should be thanking, when the russian half failed in the 90s, germany gets a full on democracy and all original territories, now they are the leading power in europe, poland is now trying to emulate them.......
@runningcockroach Joking? Who cares for the Polish speaking puppet goverment anymore?
In 90s, for your information, both Margaret Thatcher and Francoise Mitterand were afraid and opposed unification of Germany, they proposed to help Moscow and it was Gorbachev who forced this idea. Democracy? LOL
@toffanful Soviets and humanity ? you are crazy and definately didn't live under their rule , the least they have was humanity and the GULAGS and death camps clearly show something that your western eyes don't want to see .
@gdwlennon Democracy and capitalism dont mix well together. Instead of the ones with the biggest guns being in charge you end up having ones with the biggest wallets in charge. Two different ways of achieving the same goal.
Once, at the start of WWII, they were both allies (Greman and Soviets). They planned and executed the invasion of Poland in 1939 which really started this horrible war. By the way, when Soviets took Polish prisoners of war, they later selected army officers and murdered them (Katyn Massacre) - shot in the back of head, some 20 000. Watching this video keep this in mind, both systems - National Socialism and communism - were of the same, hellish origin.
War sucks, not matter what or when. It just sux. We all should devide things down to the Bone, down to what is really important. Nobody sees that anymore. It´s a Bummer.
How do people let themselves be convinced to fight for another mans ideas? surely leading by resplendent example is better than picking up a gun and threatening to do harm to anyone who doesn't accept your beliefs, history has shown that violence ultimately leads to nought, look at any war, Korea, Veitnam, France, England, Africa, Italy, Russia, China, Japan, and many to numerous to mention, and what is achieved.....? fuck all... I will fight back if shot at, but will not shoot to prove a point.
Its very easy really,if I use propaganda and your friends and neighbours believe it and turn against you and your family,what do you do?
If I tell you that if you do not take up arms and fight for me then I will kill your wife in front of you first, then your children then your parents,now tell me that you will not pick up that gun do the dictators bidding.
Your only hope is to get out with your family but how many do you take with you and how many are you prepared to sacrifice?
The west lost WW2, the outcome of the whole war was that half of europe fell under communist rule then for the next 60 years we had to live with the threat of nuclear annihilation by the commies, even today there are still thousands of nukes pointed at europe and the usa. At the end of WW2 Patton wanted to drive onto Moscow, he should have been allowed to do it, the world would have been a much better place, commies killed 10-20 times as many people as nazis.
1 rifle for 5 guys? Thats gotta be a joke. Is this where they started the ethnic jokes of Europe? How many Whatever....does it take to..........THis is hilarious!!!! What 1 carries the bullets; the other is used for a rifle rest, the next a pointer-where to shoot. And finally the marksman. And finally, the 5th one carries the rifle and decides who shoots next. NO,no, Ivan.....you shot last time. Its Vladamir's turn!
I'm sorry it had to be said. Love&respect to my Russian brothers.
@gdwlennon Democratic Capitalism? Oh, I had no idea what you meant, until I looked it up. Wage slavery! Ah, I got you now! Can't every recall any vote I ever had on anything, not even had a choice whether I would be a slave in school for 12. Or even if I wanted to be a citizen or not. I can't recall my signature on any of these democratic laws, which make them non-binding contracts... not withstanding how non-binding the contract implied in citizenship made with a baby. What a farce.
i despise communist but not all russians were communist, not all germans were nazi's... both race were victims, the only thing wrong was that majority played the cards on the table, and they killed each other and became very good at it.
Both sides were guilty of atrocities but the German and Japanese commited far more than what was inflicted upon them. I'm Chinese and I havce to say at least the Germans today are ashamed of WWII but the Japanese Government refuses to aknowledge their wartime crimes during WWII and even honour their generals who participated in WWII recently. It's appalling that the Allied forces granted political immunity to those involved in Unit 731. You don't see that side of the coin in these documentaries?
@triniazn I think if you read up on the subject you will find the soviets committed far more atrocities than the germans, they had already killed 10 million of their own people before the war started, thats a fact.
when im studying history, we learnd about marx, communism and its basic principles, the rules of it really sounds nice on the 1st time, but the truth is leaders with personal intentions fuckd up everything in their country
@gdwlennon I'm sorry.. that's not freedom. We're living in a very subtle form of slavery.
The illusion of choice gives us the impression to be free.. but we're not. We're self-feeding self-housing slaves of the political and economical elite.
All recent evidence indicates that Hitler was mis-directed by a fantastic plot using a double agent.
His pitch was that he represented anti-Communistic anti-Jewish White-Russians located at Soviet HQ. Further, that these guys really wanted to kill Stalin - but could never ever get that close. Ergo, they were willing to leak high quality intel to Germany so that Stalin would be destroyed.
Like a fool, Hitler bought it. Naturally, the agent traded pawns for rooks. Almost certainly he was the sourc
capitalism is not democratic. and democracy only means that if most people who vote are poor and own no land and are on public welfare, they the mob rules. lol. each nation needs a King. lol
1 gun between 5 men is fuckin crazy. even though they didn't have much in the way of arms it kinda hints at the untapped manpower russia had waiting to win them the war.
As an American who spent 30+ years working for the DoD and studying military history, it still amazes me that the USA got drug into this European conflict. I agree with selling Britain enough arms and equipment to keep their little Island safe but we had no reason to choose Stalin over Hitler. Choosing between Hitler and his Nazis or Stalin and the Jews was basically a "coin toss". USA had no reason to militarily back either of them. I feel bad for the Jews but their fight wasn't OUR fight...
@cyphertek- I know quite well that Hitler declared war on us in support of his alliance with Japan. It's actually a puzzling piece of history that Hitler would "force our hand" by declaring war. It was a BIG strategic mistake on his part. USA might have still stayed out of European theater and focussed on the Pacific. I guess we couldn't simply ignore Hitler's move but our level of involvement in Europe was still our choice.
@randy95023 Hitler saw the US as an ideological enemy anyway, democratic /degenerate in his view and US sympathies and interest in the European theatre - expressed very strongly throughout the Cold War - were obvious from the statements and actions of the government of the time.The majority of the US population had its roots in Europe and support for Nazism was very limited. War plans already existed for the European theatre with with Hitler seen as ultimately a greater threat to the US & world.
I always thought that too, after Pearl Harbor Hitler made a mistake to declare war on the U.S... What kind of support did Hitler recieve from Japan? What was the benefit of Japan as an ally? I wonder if after Pearl Harbor Hitler had gone on and condemded Japan for the attack, what would have happened? Can u imagine if Hitler said he has no reason to fight Japans war and then waited to see if the U.S would declare war on him. Just some interesting what if scenarios i guess
@randy95023 such an..., america had every reason to choose USSR, because they done it after they new for shure who is going to absorb the most of the fight and who then going to still all the technology from Germany (operation Paper clip) aond claiming victory.
@randy95023 such an..., america had every reason to choose USSR, because they done it after they new for shure who is going to absorb the most of the fight and who then going to still all the technology from Germany (operation Paper clip) aond claiming victory and becoming a major player in the world.
0:36 to 0:54 DEAD ON. This is exactly the point. Soviet War Crimes have been forgotten about, white-ashed over and largely bypassed because they fought as an Allied nation and won the war. Had Germany won the war, we'd all have Holocaust memorials built for those enslaved and murdered by Communism. Don't think for a moment that the Soviets were the "better of two evils". They were far worse than even fanatical nazi stooges. Reality is a harsh pill, take it like a big boy for once.
There's a rule about war: Never invade Russia. Through out modern history no one has ever taken the Russia's Captial: Napoleon failed to take St. Petersberg, the Kaiser failed to take Petrograd and Hitler failed to take Moscow
It's amazing that the Germans bought into all that Nazi/Aryan "Superman" bullsh*t. The average Ukranian peasant was a good, hard working person with good morals. Most Ukranians hated Communism as much, if not more than the Nazis did. Germans paid dearly for their following a egomaniacal Austrian Corporal to their doom...
Basically comissars were basically one of the many contributing factors to the massive Red Army defeats because they were shitty commanders and overruled CEOs's orders
eventually after Stalingrad they took didn't allow comissars to have any say in military matters anyway, so in a bizarre way the Germans were doing the soviets a favour with their comissar order.
Russian tactic was to dump peasants and non-soldiers in the front line to give Germans a false hope and a false estimate on Russian strength, before they reached real Russia. Facts are that Nazis advanced only about 50-100 miles into Russian land. These peasants were sent without guns or mechanized arms. Russian commanders were there only to observe German tactics and then run back and teach what happened. Thats why Germans were successful in Belarus and Ukraine and totally failed in Russia.
I don't know if its right or wrong, but thats a story I heard, from someone whose relative was on the eastern front. Russian side. Soviets put the weakest forces to the front, say in Belarus and Ukraine, where it didn't matter what happened, and kept the strongest units back around Russian cities. Logic was that even the weak forces can somewhat grind down strong Nazi units
It wouldn't be possible to dump peasants to the front lines, since before 1941 Russian army had few actual peasants. The problems were, as the film says, in the fact that Stalin purged the best officers and tried to command himself in the beginning. Add to that prehistoric weapons at that time and you get heavy losses.
why wasnt germany nuked?
SHMUJEW 1 week ago
@SHMUJEW Really?
n74jw 2 days ago
Hitler and Stalin were essentially the same when things went bad for their soldiers. Both essentially said, 'I don't care what happens to you.'
SoF333 2 weeks ago
@SoF333 no different to any modern goverment
mainface 6 days ago
3:12 The Sacred War !!
HikaruFX12645 2 weeks ago
the face expressions of these old germans show pride and justification for what they committed. Most of them were in the SS...I would dig a whole and hide my face until I die for suffocation.
hydroptere 3 weeks ago
@hydroptere I'm sure most of them live with continuous anguish from what they did in their youth. If they weren't fighting under fear of death and punishment, I'd like to think they wouldn't have done the things they did.
weirdguy75 3 weeks ago
I wonder why that all start in Poland!!!
uveolo 4 weeks ago
I've noticed that many documentaries on WW2 make little or no mention of Stalin's atrocities against his own people. It's good to finally watch one that covers it all.
lmos26 2 months ago 18
@lmos26 maybe because this was mainly after the war
GreenShadedThing 2 weeks ago
@GreenShadedThing You're WRONG, Stalin executed and imprisoned hundreds of thousands that he suspected to be Nazi sympathizers, "almost always wrong" He was inconceivably paranoid about this... even those civilians who put up white flags on their windows, paid dearly for that little mistake. Whenever Russians were liberated from Nazi POW camps, he immediately had them arrested and sent to the Gulag & not just the soldiers, but women as well. The list goes on and on.
lmos26 2 weeks ago
@lmos26 dont get too excited. I didnt stated that as a fact, if you take a closer look I used word maybe, which indicates that I didnt really knew. but thanks for clearing that, now I dont have to use this word in this context anymore ;)
GreenShadedThing 2 weeks ago
one rifle between 5 soldiers! how in the fucking hell did they survive and win the war.. that's some achievement!
Scorpion17a 4 months ago
@Scorpion17a surprising huh? lol! but they were lucky that they held out at Stalingrad till winter came..that's the Russian's army specialty; to combat in winter. by that time, the Wehrmacht were too ill equipped/ supplied, and the russians produced better (and more) weapons & an abundance of soldiers.
allewen 3 months ago
@Scorpion17a The Nazis underestimated the patriotism of the Soviet people, especially the ethnic Russians. Further, Nazi racial theories only served to inflame the anger of the Slavic people and spur them on to victory. You're right. That was some achievement.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
Soviet soldiers reciprocated the crimes German troops had inflicted among the Soviet population. No one is a saint in war.
alexkvaskov 4 months ago
@alexkvaskov Except on an infinitely smaller scale...
lektrum 4 months ago
I wonder what would happen if the two sides of veterans (the german and russian) were brought into the same room.
Why is it that two people--two individuals--can be convinced to want to kill one another out of hatred? What diffuses this hatred?
andrewdudeldoo 5 months ago 3
@andrewdudeldoo The mechanism of racial hatred is unfortunately no different from religious faith. In fact, the more fundamentalist a religious faith, the greater the propensity towards racism. It's the same mechanism exploited by propagandists to brainwash armies in terms of objectifying the enemy, just as, say, the Americans did with the Japanese in the Pacific arena. The Nazis and the American propagandists alike were/are master manipulators of social dogma.
gsmonks 4 months ago
@gsmonks True. The saying "Kill a Jap for Jesus" did a wonderful job of both: a) summing up beliefs of the day and tapping into this potential power for uniting a common people (the Americans) AND b) providing a simple means of fulfilling something both motivational and righteous.
Yet I do not know who then is to blame for the ensuing evil (is it possible that the associated "evil" could be argued out and replaced with "unfortunate reality?"). Leaders, or men too weak to stand up for "good?"
andrewdudeldoo 4 months ago
@andrewdudeldoo Evil is best defined as "the lack of empathy", and anyone allowing themselves to go down that road is complicit. Social/peer pressure is the leverage most often used, and too few people are taught to stand up to social/peer pressure, and even fewer are born with the intelligence, insight and spine to see it for themselves.
gsmonks 4 months ago
@gsmonks Do you feel yourself capable of standing up to such influences? Not just visualizing such a situation, but actually experiencing the rejection and loneliness that comes with being ostracized from a group to which your personal convictions do not claim allegiance.
What is a worth "field" in which to place your self-worth so as not to be affected by such negative influences?
andrewdudeldoo 4 months ago
@andrewdudeldoo Not only am I capable of standing up to such influences, but have done so all my life. For myself, self-worth has nothing to do with it. It's simply a case of siding with the truth, and in many or most cases letting time take care of the rest.
Today's great evil is consumerism- a fact to which most are utterly blind. Second only to consumerism is the bourgeois mentality that goes hand-in-hand with it. These are the most destructive forces at work in the world today.
gsmonks 4 months ago
@gsmonks Unfortunately, consumerism isn't only a belief, but also a foundation for social status structure. Money is to be gained with the expectation that it will allow for a "better" lifestyle. Your friends want to watch the big football game? Obviously they should come over to your house, since you just bought a 200" plasma tv. You're the envy of all our friends, and you bask in the power that it gives you. This soon becomes the person's adopted self-worth, and they chase the feeling
andrewdudeldoo 4 months ago
@andrewdudeldoo Oh, it's a belief-system, which is precisely why it figures in terms of social status and self-worth. The proof is that removal of it from the equation and its position as social foundation automatically evaporates.
The problem with consumerism is that, in its way, it's a deep-rooted addiction, and whole societies are affected. Only the addiction to fossil fuels poses problems as grave, as the world's population, the third great evil of our age, sets us up for collapse.
gsmonks 4 months ago
@gsmonks
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@gsmonks Well said.. One couldn't say it better.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@andrewdudeldoo I have been to veterans reunions and it is not like that at all. There is next to no hatred.
alanheath2 3 months ago 3
@alanheath2 a good point....my uncle was in the war and he said he felt badly for the german soldiers after the war....they were soldiers doing their job
allanro28 1 month ago
@andrewdudeldoo
there are not many people that can kill others without a rationalization. If lived your whole life propagandized, with no access to alternate information. How would you know that people who you were attacking were not inferior, evil etc..
If people realized (and i think most did) that they were deceived, why would they want to kill each other any more?
serialkiller1990 3 months ago
@andrewdudeldoo soldiers of opposing camps have met regularly all over the world. Depending on the experience they have had, some manage to keep a very honest point of view and some form of humor, when all possible retaliation has disappeared. My familly is half Algerian and my wifes uncle is from France and was in the french army fighting against the Algerians during the 1958-62. Hearing his experience brought a lot of understanding about what really happened and why.
hamrite 1 month ago
@PskovIsKool : I couldn't agree more, and I'm Ukrainian-Canadian. A very astute observation.
toffanful 5 months ago
No need to call names in a debate. Pure speculation on your part, but the evidence suggests you're wrong. Stalin deported disloyal ethnic groups which helped the Nazis, but he did not exterminate. As for Germany's future under Stalin, look to east Germany under Honecker for how Germany might have been ruled in a Soviet controlled Europe.
toffanful 5 months ago
@toffanful I would not fancy living in East Germany - having been there various times in the 1980s but it seemed better than living in Nazi Germany, which I did not have the good fortune to visit but those I have talked to - and they are many - did not enjoy their time there!
I am not certain though that Stalin's deportations were not a form of extermination. Deporting people to places where they have no chance of finding food and shelter does strike me as being likely to lead to death.
alanheath 5 months ago
@alanheath The deportations of minorities like the Crimean Tartars, Chechens, and Volga Germans did lead to a death rate of up to 25% from 1941 - 1944, and that was a crime. But keep in mind, those deaths were largely the result of wartime deprivation, indifference and organizational confusion at a time when the Soviet Union was fighting for its existence an re-establishing an industrial base beyond the Urals. Stalin was tough and cruel. but not an exterminationist like the Nazis.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@toffanful I do not accept that these deaths were the result of war time deprivation - this is an absurd excuse. The Bolsheviks knew a war was going on and if they had not wished so many people to die then they should not have deported them. The deaths of millions meant to more to Stalin than to Hitler although I accept that Stalin did not attempt mass extermination as Hitler did.
alanheath 4 weeks ago
@alanheath Let me give you an analogy. The US put Japanese Americans in concentration with no evidence of treason and the American homeland was never threatened with extinction by foreign armies on their soil. If Stalin wanted these people destroyed en masse, he would have done so. He didn't and the Chechens were brought home en masse by Khruschev. See Richard Evans or Alexander Worth on oral testimony of Volga Germans. Privation? Yes: Mass starvation? No.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@alanheath How can you dismiss wartime deprivation as an element of deportee deaths when so many millions of loyal Soviet citizens starved during the war? This is not an absurd observation. Nevertheless, we agree on the cynicism of state power on all sides, but again, the Soviets were not racial exterminators. One could survive the gulag and be released, an option not given to those at Belzec, Treblinka, or Sobibor.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@toffanful I am not denying wartime deprivation - however if thousands of people are suddenly dumped in the middle of nowhere with no means of supporting themselves then they are going to die.
alanheath 4 weeks ago
You are correct. Many were dumped in the middle of nowhere. However, the surviving Volga Germans and Chechens stated that they would get a mouldy sack of corn or mash meal once or twice a month without knowing when food would arrive. That was cruel. No denying it. But the extermination of these minorities was not the objective. The objective was collective punishment of the many because of the Nazi collaboration of the few. I think we basically agree on this one.
toffanful 3 weeks ago
@toffanful Why can`t you answer my comments?
You`re trying to excuse the soviet ethnic policies with deprivation, collaboration or whatever`s related to the war. What i was writing about happened before the German invasion, when soviets were their most precious ally, or even before that. I`d really like to know how will you explain that to not admit their common objective was extermination of that "minority".
Anyhow, it doesn`t matter for the victims what objective persecutors had.
MaximusProteus 3 weeks ago
@toffanful "wartime deprivation..." etc.
Such a poor excuse, Germans had thiers too. How will you explain what they did before thier "patriotic war" started? Still these insolent people caims the massacres of Katyn, Harkiv and Mednoye should be considered as "war crimes", nevermind that they weren`t at war and the "liberation" was a year before. How about the deportations from eastern Poland at that time? The "Polish opration" of NKVD in 1937? Not an extermination?
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
It appears to me that the german soldiers/officers who have been in this video have only the regret that germany lost the war. In spite of bneing barbarians! My question is , "Why has such barbarous people like the germans and also the japanese been "rebuilt" by the stupid politicians of the usa?
mochompy 5 months ago
Heroic soviet soldiers won the Great War of Century
Mrjaguarpaw1 6 months ago 2
@Mrjaguarpaw1 DON'T TREAD ON A RED.
baron8107 6 months ago
Ok. After 15-20 minutes of watching I'm getting to the point. This movie is the next attempt to set equation mark between Stalin and Hitler. That russians won the war contrary to the decisions made by Stalin.
Stalin was not angel. Yes, he missed the german invasion. And made a lot of mistakes we call now "atrocities". But before judging his actions we have to understand first who left behind the scene of this war.
Nice attempt BBC! And go to hell.
crist2000a 6 months ago
Everybody, please read this from the very beginning to the very end(no spaces): unityinchrist . com / history / meaning / print / MeaningOfHistoryprt . htm This says everything exactly why and how shit happened without blaming anyone - true peacemaker!
AngryTruthSeeker 7 months ago
While Soviet [propaganda encouraged Soviet soldiers to take their revenge ( including many rapes in Berlin) , the Germans wee the first to lay the ground rules, including rape of young girls, murder of entire villages, and burning of all civic centers in Russia during the German retreat. Germans set the ground rules, and the Soviets played them. But again, the Soviet response to Nazi crimes were mild in comparison. By the way, I am a Professor of European History at the University of Windsor.
toffanful 7 months ago
Don't believe that one rifle for 5 people BS, the guy saying this later said and I qoute: "we thought we would be given weapons when we enter the fight, in our battery it wasn't like this" battery means he was in artillery unit(where most of soldiers either operate the cannon/howitzer/AT gun or carry the rounds, while others guard the unit) and BBC just misinterpreted this. The situation when infantry units were given 1 rifle for more than 1 soldier was in Stalingrad, and mostly with MG support
AngryTruthSeeker 7 months ago
Also Mosin rifle was produced since 1891(mostly imported, but Commies got their own production durin Industrialization). Do you really think that Russians had enough rifles for WWI and the Civil war, and then most of them somehow dissapeared? I would imagine a lack of ammo, mortars, etc, but rifles? I can accept Stalingrad, even though my books say otherwise(12 book History of World War 2, Voenizdat). You may say it's full of propaganda, but the strategic operations and stats are very accurate.
AngryTruthSeeker 7 months ago
AlsoI've never read a credible history book in English saying that infantry units were ever undersupplied with rifles. PPSHs, mortars, trucks, guns, aircraft and ammo YES, sometimes, but NOT the Mosins! Otherwise artillery and tank units were lacking heavily in personal weapons, but not infantry units. Watch more BS that says that mostly unarmed Russians were laying bones to get rid of them Germs, but its not a FACT that it was happening all the time 1rifle for 5 people like they're saying here.
AngryTruthSeeker 7 months ago
wow this war in the east really shrinks the whole d day thing ...no disrespect but the battles in the east were mega battles.. stalingrad a battle too far for the nazis..and thank god for the red armie..
andrewkenworthy 7 months ago 2
@andrewkenworthy My respect for appreciating the contribution. Some fools think that they would rather live under German rule, even though the German plans were to exterminate up to around 70% of all people east of Germany. I can see you're from Finland, and even though Finland was on the Nazi side, I respect your opinion just because you understand the thing. If not for German defeat, most probably I wouldn't be typing this right now. Thanks mate.
AngryTruthSeeker 7 months ago
@AngryTruthSeeker Well said
toffanful 4 weeks ago
newlove559. I assure you, you neither know your history or understand who is manipulated by propaganda. A 100 times worse than the Nazis? The very fact that the Soviets allowed Germany to survive after the war is a testament to their humanity, a humanity which the Nazis had no intention of reciprocating. You dumbass!
toffanful 8 months ago 19
@toffanful what are you talking about man, russians made germans march to sibiria, they were allways full of shit and even now they lie all the time, what mercy are you talking about ? theydid the same thing germans did to them, an eye for an eye. The only true heroes are the alies, germans and rusians were 2 idiots who wanted to kill each other and because one of the won it is aceptable to say russian were good, they didnt kill anyone, they didnt have camps, they didnt anax anyone after the war
Guitarnoob99 8 months ago
@Guitarnoob99 Hey fool, only around half a million of German POWs died in Soviet Union, while at least 3.3 million Soviet POWs were exterminated by the Nazis through starvation, diseases and summary execution while the total Soviet loses account for around 27 million irrecoverable losses(KIA, Lost, dead POWs and etc). Also, even though USSR wasn't signatory to Hague conventions, German prisoners lived in barracks, while most of Soviet POWs lived on the bare ground. Now you feel the difference?
AngryTruthSeeker 7 months ago
@AngryTruthSeeker hey comunins bitch, i have no idea where are you taking all this info you are backing up, but if for some reason you were looking at wikipedia, i can tel you internet doesnt have it all. Beside why are you standing up for other bad regime and rule ? you should know better to defend russian scum, who lie and hite everything all the time so the numers you found were not true at all, im sure of it it is like 2-3 times bigger.
Guitarnoob99 7 months ago
@Guitarnoob99 Think what you want, facts will remain facts. I'm not a historian, but I've studied history on both sides of the ocean, here in Russia and in the States and I have access to databases and books you wil get broke just looking at. Internet has it all, it's just you don't have access to it. I'm not standing up for the bad regime, I'm standing up for my people. Read about "Generalplan Ost" and you will find out why Germans were treating Soviet POWs this way.
AngryTruthSeeker 7 months ago
@AngryTruthSeeker Don't waste your time trying to educate those like Guitarnoob. They are like right-wing Republicans in the USA. Don't confuse their innate biases with the facts.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@Guitarnoob99 Ohhh the only true heroes are allies - you say. Wihout Soviet force your stupid allies would be one of many provinces of Reich like France, Poland etc. Try to understand with your small brain that allies couldn't win the war on their own..
Mrjaguarpaw1 6 months ago
@toffanful yes using the term dumbass really offends me :) Unfortunately for you i do know my history the Nazis gave us a way off this rock one day when the planet dies with there rockets, they also stopped plans for soviet world domination !! nothing you say can change the truth of these two facts!!! you retarded donkey lover
NEWLOVE559 7 months ago
@NEWLOVE559 World domination? The Soviets couldn't even maintain agricultural self-sufficiency under communism. They imported a high percentage of their food from the west. Further, Soviet power was defensive. Look at the militarism we face today with the USA unipower adopting perpetual warfare as policy. Frankly, I kind of miss the Soviet Union. The world was a safer place. By the way, the Soviets sent the first satellite and cosmonaut into space with their own technology.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@toffanful They were both brutal regimes. The Soviets would have done much worse if USA and Britain were not thier allies. There were 10s of thousands of rapes and other horrible things Russians did when they took Germany.
ohara3762 7 months ago
@toffanful Soviets were, in the Tention, no better than the Nazis. So shut the fuck up, Deputy Sheriff !
TheElephant79 7 months ago
@toffanful You're the dumbass. The Russians would never have allowed a Germany to exist, had it not been for the Western allies. The Russians had no humanity, and acted as bad, sometimes worse, than the Germans did.
dymd3z 5 months ago
@dymd3z That's a contextually inaccurate view, given that Russia was being exterminated as a sovereign state and their people enslaved or killed in accordance with Nazi policy in the East. Communism saved western democracy, as western historians Alan Bullock, AJP Taylor, and Len Deighton convincingly argue in their monographs.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@toffanful and the very fact that they enslaved the whole Eastern Europe and made us dumb and poor for 60 years shows that they are evil as the nazis .
Heer88 1 month ago
@Heer88 You forget that eastern Europe acted as cannon fodder for the Nazi regime. Given that Eastern Europe collaborated with Hitler, they got off pretty easy. Nazi Europe invaded Russia, not the other way around. Incidentally, if you believe the Soviets made you dumb, I respectfully suggest your dumbness was self-inflicted. I lived in Moscow in 1976 and all news was available if you read Pravda from the back page to the front, much like current western newspapers.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@toffanful Not all of Easten Europe was cannon fodder , and not all of Eastern Europe collaborated with Nazi Germany , ( Yugoslavia didn't for example) . Who invaded who doesn't have importance , cause this conflict was invevitable , sooner or later if not Nazi Germany the Soviets would of invaded .I don't have any dumbness , what was inflicted by the soviet was goverment of murderers that created Belene our prison camp well know here same as Aushwitz .
Heer88 4 weeks ago
@Heer88
As for Yugoslavia, there was a puppet Croatian state, muslims from Bosnia made uf some two waffen SS divisions. Even the Serbian Cetniks collaborated if it was about fighting comunists of Tito or killing Jews, becouse of that the allies cut the support for them and the goverment of King Peter to support the communists.
Stalin said it clearly, he was waiting for the "imperialists" to destroy each other before they`ll start to "liberate" the proletaryans... Well done Germany!
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@MaximusProteus yes i know these facts too . Only bad is that Stalin didn't liberate but enslaved these proletaryans .
Heer88 4 weeks ago
@Heer88 That`s why i put the word between quotation marks.
As for the cannon fodder, at first these were mostly Romanians, whose country was also nicely carved up by Hungary, Bulgaria and... the soviets. Later, when Germany was short of human "resources" they begun creating even Russian divisions of Vlasoff and Kaminsky. It`s a bullshit that the whole eastern Europe collaborated, even if they`d want to, most wasn`t even allowed.
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@MaximusProteus yeah true again , bulgarians for example didn't even fought on the Eastern front against the soviets , even months before 9 of september 1944 we got out of the alliance with Nazi germany but nonetheless the soviets declared war on us ! this meant they invaded neutral country as we were not part of any major alliance . We didn't take part of the german invasion mainly because russians liberated us in 1879 .
Heer88 4 weeks ago
@Heer88 I know, similar reasons made Horthy to refuse Germans any help in 1939. They also weren`t very supportive later and finally Germans occupied Hungary. Some little contingent of Slovakia fought in Ukraine, there`s some propaganda movie or a newsreel series about it. Other minor units were made by the volunteers from the German puppet states, some Italian, but it was all more for the propaganda purpose than military.
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@toffanful Stalin was the biggest nazi collaborator. Between 1939-41 they invided and occupied together Romania, Finnland, Baltic States and Poland. When Britain blocked whole German trade they got tons of resources from the soviets, nazis even asked them to join the axis pact.
When the soviet "liberation" camed in 1944-45 every non communist resistance was a "fascist collaborator" for them, even if they`d cooperate with red army before in Vilnius, Lwów and other fights.
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@MaximusProteus The Soviets tried to stop Nazi expansion into Czeckoslovakia. When the western powers ignored Russia and appeased Nazi Germany, Stalin reciprocated Hitler's offer of a non-aggression pact. Russia took the only option available as the west refused to form a united front against German expansionism.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@toffanful I agree that the west should not have backed down and should have invited the USSR into the talks. Nonetheless Hitler could offer Stalin much more than the west could and Hitler was a natural ally for Stalin - unlike the west.
alanheath 4 weeks ago
@alanheath Hitler was not a natural ally for the USSR otherwise Stalin would have sought a German alliance much sooner that August 1939. Russia had always allied itself with the west against German expansionism, as in WW1. Ideology was not a determining factor for Stalin. National survival of the USSR was.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@toffanful ... Stalin wanted that alliance, even Lenin and both states collaborated on many fields all along the interbellum period.
Are you kidding? Moscow was always allied with Germany, always supported its expansion and vice versa, first world war was an exception and they both wanted to reverse its outcome, what they did in 1939.
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@toffanful There was no question of survival for the USSR in 1939. There was just a question of imperialist expansion at the expense of Poland, the Baltic States, Romania and Finland.
alanheath 4 weeks ago
@toffanful First of all the soviets made up the German military when they still cared about the Versaillese restrictions.
The soviets did nothing about Czechoslovkia but asked to let thier army pass through Poland. Exactly when Germans broke the Munich treaty, took Bohemia and Moravia, soviets begun negotiating closer economic and political relations. It`s merely your opinin that was the only option, but ask yourselve if Hitler would take a risk if not that pact.
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@toffanful Plus where was the soviet humanity at Katyn or in Finland ?
Heer88 1 month ago
@Heer88 This is only simbolic, an example of many, countles, far more bloody massacres... Just in 1937 NKVD carried out a "Polish operation", meaning that they found, captured and executed everyone with a Polish surname living in USSR, barely 100.000. These idiots found them by a... phone book.
Between 1939-1941 they sent about 1.7 millions to gulag from eastern Poland, mostly women and childrem, about 300.000 survivors were evacuated in 1943 to Iran.
MaximusProteus 1 month ago in playlist Więcej filmów od użytkownika KoLo2071
@MaximusProteus Never are to be forgotten these people and the crimes of the Soviet totalitarian system !!
Heer88 4 weeks ago
@Heer88
Yea right... so who does remember? Nobody cares about the German crimes as well, except for the crimes against the soviets and Jews. The only thing was and is Katyń also becouse Germans used it for the means of thier propaganda. Even asking about it was enough to be accused of "fascist collaboration" and to break the relations with Polish goverment, which wasn`t useful anymore, especially after the "accident" of gen. Sikorski...
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@MaximusProteus Well i can speak only for me and my father we remember these things cause they are part of the truth , the truth that wasn't completely told by losers and winners of WWII . So at least i will remember as long as i live , i will tell my kids if i have such and everyone i know about it .
Heer88 4 weeks ago
@Heer88
You know what i mean, these crimes are just a tool of propaganda even today. Whatever Germans or the soviets did the common people will know only if it`s useful for some goverments or the other powers. You know, i know and maybe a pack of other, meaningles individuals, so what?
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@MaximusProteus yeah i get your meaning , well unfotunately i don';t have the power of a goverment so to tell it to everyone , but we must keep this truth so it to not disappear at all , that's what we can do for now .
Heer88 4 weeks ago
@Heer88
I`m not expecting you to do anything about it, besides, you have your own agenda. It just makes me angry that even if what i know is true, it doesn`t matter if others don`t know it.
Finally i watched all 20 parts of this, quite interesting, documentary, which tends to be balanced. But i wonder, why if British showed what was going on in Ukraine, what did the soviets done to the nazis and vice versa... there`s not a word about Poland, except for Aushvitz. It`s getting boring.
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@Heer88 Let me ask you this. Given the history of the past 60 years after the Soviet victory, and a current, prosperous. independent Poland, do you really believe Poland would exist as it does today if Nazi Germany had won the war?
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@toffanful Of course not so independent as it is now , even Bulgaria wouldn't be so independent if Nazi germany had won , but at least no one would install communist dictatorship which kill inteligent people and built death camps for that purpose . Hitler was against the jews now against bulgarians , so i have nothing against him as he didn't any wrong to my people .
Heer88 4 weeks ago
@toffanful No idea why you`re asking him about that and why should he even care...
Your idea of present Poland is kinda funny, but nevermind. Soviet intentions were different and Molotov made it clear in a one speech in 1940 that there will never be again such a country, they knew exactly what German plans are and not only did they accepted, but supported them. Given the history of past century i know Poland owns its existence only to a fact that these two allies sometimes fight.
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@MaximusProteus What's funny about my analogy on Poaland? Answer my original question instead of dismissing it. Further, when you preface your responses with " those insolent people", you are not interested in historical debate. You are exercising personal prejudices and hatreds which detract from our search for historical interpretation.
toffanful 4 weeks ago
@toffanful What`s funny is your idea of present Poland as "prosperous and independent".
You`re ignoring my questions in general... What i`ve said is that initially the soviet intentions were exactly the same as German - etchnic cleansing. Since at least 1937 they lost thier interest to "liberate" and establish a puppet goverment so the "Polish" communists were executed. That`s a prejudice and hatred, to ignore or justyfie it, is insolent and that`s what`s Moscow doing till this day.
MaximusProteus 4 weeks ago
@toffanful its actually the western powers germany should be thanking, when the russian half failed in the 90s, germany gets a full on democracy and all original territories, now they are the leading power in europe, poland is now trying to emulate them.......
runningcockroach 1 month ago
@runningcockroach Joking? Who cares for the Polish speaking puppet goverment anymore?
In 90s, for your information, both Margaret Thatcher and Francoise Mitterand were afraid and opposed unification of Germany, they proposed to help Moscow and it was Gorbachev who forced this idea. Democracy? LOL
MaximusProteus 1 month ago in playlist Więcej filmów od użytkownika KoLo2071
@toffanful yeah they allowed them to survive cos allies were still strong.seems u are not that smart.
Praventore 1 month ago
@toffanful Soviets and humanity ? you are crazy and definately didn't live under their rule , the least they have was humanity and the GULAGS and death camps clearly show something that your western eyes don't want to see .
Heer88 4 weeks ago
@gdwlennon Democracy and capitalism dont mix well together. Instead of the ones with the biggest guns being in charge you end up having ones with the biggest wallets in charge. Two different ways of achieving the same goal.
dmacid 8 months ago
Never mind the Nazis, the average Soviet should've ganged up and hung every commissar themselves.
Kelly14UK 9 months ago
@gdwlennon capitalism democratic?
How do you explain then, the capitalism of Mussolini, Franco and Hitler?
Democrats? There is no democracy in a society divided in classes.
LevTrotsky1917 9 months ago
There is no g0d. RIP
warLock21X 9 months ago
Once, at the start of WWII, they were both allies (Greman and Soviets). They planned and executed the invasion of Poland in 1939 which really started this horrible war. By the way, when Soviets took Polish prisoners of war, they later selected army officers and murdered them (Katyn Massacre) - shot in the back of head, some 20 000. Watching this video keep this in mind, both systems - National Socialism and communism - were of the same, hellish origin.
KrzysiekWawrytko 10 months ago
@JohnBullocks do not juge the whole nation by a hanful of assholes, there were many who fled the country when Hitler came to power
julqw2 10 months ago
And Wolfgang Horn should shut the fuck up. He prbly already has.
TheElephant79 10 months ago
War sucks, not matter what or when. It just sux. We all should devide things down to the Bone, down to what is really important. Nobody sees that anymore. It´s a Bummer.
TheElephant79 10 months ago
@gdwlennon Communist assured survival of your capitalism. 26 million soviets dead
gigobait 11 months ago
How do people let themselves be convinced to fight for another mans ideas? surely leading by resplendent example is better than picking up a gun and threatening to do harm to anyone who doesn't accept your beliefs, history has shown that violence ultimately leads to nought, look at any war, Korea, Veitnam, France, England, Africa, Italy, Russia, China, Japan, and many to numerous to mention, and what is achieved.....? fuck all... I will fight back if shot at, but will not shoot to prove a point.
BraniusBalki 1 year ago
@BraniusBalki
Its very easy really,if I use propaganda and your friends and neighbours believe it and turn against you and your family,what do you do?
If I tell you that if you do not take up arms and fight for me then I will kill your wife in front of you first, then your children then your parents,now tell me that you will not pick up that gun do the dictators bidding.
Your only hope is to get out with your family but how many do you take with you and how many are you prepared to sacrifice?
athaidream 1 year ago
@gdwlennon Death for capatalism!!!
goronek 1 year ago
The west lost WW2, the outcome of the whole war was that half of europe fell under communist rule then for the next 60 years we had to live with the threat of nuclear annihilation by the commies, even today there are still thousands of nukes pointed at europe and the usa. At the end of WW2 Patton wanted to drive onto Moscow, he should have been allowed to do it, the world would have been a much better place, commies killed 10-20 times as many people as nazis.
photonprojector 1 year ago
it is funny how national socialists were fighting communistic socialists, at the final century of western civilization
sinitskyd 1 year ago
1 rifle for 5 guys? Thats gotta be a joke. Is this where they started the ethnic jokes of Europe? How many Whatever....does it take to..........THis is hilarious!!!! What 1 carries the bullets; the other is used for a rifle rest, the next a pointer-where to shoot. And finally the marksman. And finally, the 5th one carries the rifle and decides who shoots next. NO,no, Ivan.....you shot last time. Its Vladamir's turn!
I'm sorry it had to be said. Love&respect to my Russian brothers.
peace.
translationwiz 1 year ago
@gdwlennon Capitalism doesn't go along well with democracy. Capitalism is everything but freedom.
chezza55 1 year ago
@chezza55 It's just the fags that don't go to school.
4FunPlayin 1 year ago
@gdwlennon Democratic Capitalism? Oh, I had no idea what you meant, until I looked it up. Wage slavery! Ah, I got you now! Can't every recall any vote I ever had on anything, not even had a choice whether I would be a slave in school for 12. Or even if I wanted to be a citizen or not. I can't recall my signature on any of these democratic laws, which make them non-binding contracts... not withstanding how non-binding the contract implied in citizenship made with a baby. What a farce.
cobrachoppergirl 1 year ago
i despise communist but not all russians were communist, not all germans were nazi's... both race were victims, the only thing wrong was that majority played the cards on the table, and they killed each other and became very good at it.
ouano1 1 year ago
when the divisions fought face to face at stalingrad the germans tactical advantage was negated, Stalin was correct to a certain degree !
Look at the German losses taking Sebastapol compared to the Russian losses when they retook the city.
bisleybob3 1 year ago
"things just got out oph hand, the soviets just ate one oph our guards!"
sheemsheem 1 year ago
Both sides were guilty of atrocities but the German and Japanese commited far more than what was inflicted upon them. I'm Chinese and I havce to say at least the Germans today are ashamed of WWII but the Japanese Government refuses to aknowledge their wartime crimes during WWII and even honour their generals who participated in WWII recently. It's appalling that the Allied forces granted political immunity to those involved in Unit 731. You don't see that side of the coin in these documentaries?
triniazn 1 year ago
@triniazn I think if you read up on the subject you will find the soviets committed far more atrocities than the germans, they had already killed 10 million of their own people before the war started, thats a fact.
photonprojector 1 year ago
when im studying history, we learnd about marx, communism and its basic principles, the rules of it really sounds nice on the 1st time, but the truth is leaders with personal intentions fuckd up everything in their country
UseUrHead503 1 year ago
In america you have the choice between two by global elitists pre-selected members of two arms of practically the same party.. how is that democracy?
The winner is who can pay more lobbyists.. the money for that comes from huge corporations that in turn want their candidates to do what they want.
That is the very definiton of fascism.
181183R20710 1 year ago 9
@gdwlennon I'm sorry.. that's not freedom. We're living in a very subtle form of slavery.
The illusion of choice gives us the impression to be free.. but we're not. We're self-feeding self-housing slaves of the political and economical elite.
181183R20710 1 year ago
fuck democratic capitalism facism and comunism! only freedom brand new system connection of anarchy-democracy-liberalism, wake up people
ProthSteriel 1 year ago
Its scary how nationalistic Russians are.
FXThug 1 year ago
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none of this would have mattered if we had won the war....they had to won they had to .....
grietis 1 year ago
none of this would have mattered if we had won the war..... incredible... he is still fighting the war.
vespacurry 1 year ago
All recent evidence indicates that Hitler was mis-directed by a fantastic plot using a double agent.
His pitch was that he represented anti-Communistic anti-Jewish White-Russians located at Soviet HQ. Further, that these guys really wanted to kill Stalin - but could never ever get that close. Ergo, they were willing to leak high quality intel to Germany so that Stalin would be destroyed.
Like a fool, Hitler bought it. Naturally, the agent traded pawns for rooks. Almost certainly he was the sourc
staydput 1 year ago
At :36 says it all about Bechler: if we'd won, it wouldn't have mattered that we'd murdered millions. Would've been alright
rubiconsedge 1 year ago
@rubiconsedge I was startled, then staggered by his comment. So all these years later, no change in his view of the supremacy.
PoliticalPars 1 year ago
oh, yeah and a pimp too. lol
Rico8458 1 year ago
capitalism is not democratic. and democracy only means that if most people who vote are poor and own no land and are on public welfare, they the mob rules. lol. each nation needs a King. lol
Rico8458 1 year ago
@Rico8458 Eure tim wim pup de pup
Joker3797 1 year ago
imagine 400,000 prisoners taken at kiev. germans could not deal with so many all across the front.
Rico8458 1 year ago
1 gun between 5 men is fuckin crazy. even though they didn't have much in the way of arms it kinda hints at the untapped manpower russia had waiting to win them the war.
stump229 1 year ago
As an American who spent 30+ years working for the DoD and studying military history, it still amazes me that the USA got drug into this European conflict. I agree with selling Britain enough arms and equipment to keep their little Island safe but we had no reason to choose Stalin over Hitler. Choosing between Hitler and his Nazis or Stalin and the Jews was basically a "coin toss". USA had no reason to militarily back either of them. I feel bad for the Jews but their fight wasn't OUR fight...
randy95023 1 year ago
@randy95023 You say you study military history, but you don't seem to remember Hitler declared war against US few days after Pearl Harbor.
cyphertek 1 year ago
@cyphertek- I know quite well that Hitler declared war on us in support of his alliance with Japan. It's actually a puzzling piece of history that Hitler would "force our hand" by declaring war. It was a BIG strategic mistake on his part. USA might have still stayed out of European theater and focussed on the Pacific. I guess we couldn't simply ignore Hitler's move but our level of involvement in Europe was still our choice.
randy95023 1 year ago
@randy95023 Hitler saw the US as an ideological enemy anyway, democratic /degenerate in his view and US sympathies and interest in the European theatre - expressed very strongly throughout the Cold War - were obvious from the statements and actions of the government of the time.The majority of the US population had its roots in Europe and support for Nazism was very limited. War plans already existed for the European theatre with with Hitler seen as ultimately a greater threat to the US & world.
EvilSirJasper 1 year ago
@randy95023
I always thought that too, after Pearl Harbor Hitler made a mistake to declare war on the U.S... What kind of support did Hitler recieve from Japan? What was the benefit of Japan as an ally? I wonder if after Pearl Harbor Hitler had gone on and condemded Japan for the attack, what would have happened? Can u imagine if Hitler said he has no reason to fight Japans war and then waited to see if the U.S would declare war on him. Just some interesting what if scenarios i guess
silentghost23 1 year ago
@randy95023 such an..., america had every reason to choose USSR, because they done it after they new for shure who is going to absorb the most of the fight and who then going to still all the technology from Germany (operation Paper clip) aond claiming victory.
vikruss 1 year ago
@randy95023 such an..., america had every reason to choose USSR, because they done it after they new for shure who is going to absorb the most of the fight and who then going to still all the technology from Germany (operation Paper clip) aond claiming victory and becoming a major player in the world.
vikruss 1 year ago
budenny was a fool.
hackerhaterhugo 1 year ago
0:36 to 0:54 DEAD ON. This is exactly the point. Soviet War Crimes have been forgotten about, white-ashed over and largely bypassed because they fought as an Allied nation and won the war. Had Germany won the war, we'd all have Holocaust memorials built for those enslaved and murdered by Communism. Don't think for a moment that the Soviets were the "better of two evils". They were far worse than even fanatical nazi stooges. Reality is a harsh pill, take it like a big boy for once.
MrHappyTruth 1 year ago
There's a rule about war: Never invade Russia. Through out modern history no one has ever taken the Russia's Captial: Napoleon failed to take St. Petersberg, the Kaiser failed to take Petrograd and Hitler failed to take Moscow
snakes3425 1 year ago
nice collection of stolen things behind thous germans
miroslaw2000 1 year ago
Germany blew it when Hitler ordered his panzer armies to encircle Kiev
gopconservative78 1 year ago
That guys seems to know a lot about the cannibalism, bet he ate someone.
Eidelmania 1 year ago
Russian won in spite of Stalin ,Germany lost because of Hitler
sekulaadam 1 year ago 6
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Jesus must fuck all the Imperialist Christ Terrorists or Big God will fuck all together!!!
EuroNetWelt 1 year ago
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@gdwlennon Fuck your mother, Motherfucker!!! Jesus must fuck all the Imperialist Christ Terrorists or Big God will fuck all together!!!
EuroNetWelt 1 year ago
It's amazing that the Germans bought into all that Nazi/Aryan "Superman" bullsh*t. The average Ukranian peasant was a good, hard working person with good morals. Most Ukranians hated Communism as much, if not more than the Nazis did. Germans paid dearly for their following a egomaniacal Austrian Corporal to their doom...
randy95023 1 year ago
hitler went wide instead of going deep. deep was better. straight line deep past moscow... better than a wide front.
Rico8458 1 year ago
long live nazism and republican capitalism.
Rico8458 1 year ago
long live I
borderpatrol05 2 years ago
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DEATH TO NAZISM! LONG LIVE COMMUNISM!
gomez2905 2 years ago
Basically comissars were basically one of the many contributing factors to the massive Red Army defeats because they were shitty commanders and overruled CEOs's orders
eventually after Stalingrad they took didn't allow comissars to have any say in military matters anyway, so in a bizarre way the Germans were doing the soviets a favour with their comissar order.
steelpanther88 2 years ago
Russian tactic was to dump peasants and non-soldiers in the front line to give Germans a false hope and a false estimate on Russian strength, before they reached real Russia. Facts are that Nazis advanced only about 50-100 miles into Russian land. These peasants were sent without guns or mechanized arms. Russian commanders were there only to observe German tactics and then run back and teach what happened. Thats why Germans were successful in Belarus and Ukraine and totally failed in Russia.
83ls 2 years ago
Interesting thought. Wrong, but interesting.
Pseudologic 2 years ago
I don't know if its right or wrong, but thats a story I heard, from someone whose relative was on the eastern front. Russian side. Soviets put the weakest forces to the front, say in Belarus and Ukraine, where it didn't matter what happened, and kept the strongest units back around Russian cities. Logic was that even the weak forces can somewhat grind down strong Nazi units
83ls 2 years ago
It wouldn't be possible to dump peasants to the front lines, since before 1941 Russian army had few actual peasants. The problems were, as the film says, in the fact that Stalin purged the best officers and tried to command himself in the beginning. Add to that prehistoric weapons at that time and you get heavy losses.
Pseudologic 2 years ago