Adolph Gallands Last Interview

[Grendel]

Originally posted by john9001
if galland had defected to england and flown with the RAF, then he would have been hero.

Then he would have been a traitor to his country, a man who broke his oath to his nation's armed forces and the oath to fight for his country.

But as now, Galland is a true patriot, one of the finest leaders and warriors the history of humankind has produced, and a real figurehead worth having as an example.

[Suave]

Oh no! A traitor to nazi Germany!

I've known some old fellas living in the states who were german soldiers in wwII, pretty good old guys, but make no mistake, I know that they were nazis. He sure wasn't fighting in the german resistance.

Notice how all the crimes of the nazis are pinned on to a handful of nazi leaders, but never the nation of people that executed the crimes.

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by LEDPIG
Leave it to me to start intelligent and interesting discussion...

You did?  Must have missed that thread...



ack-ack

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by Holden McGroin
Oskar Schindler was a member of the Nazi party but ended up being one of the good guys.

Yanno I've often given this thought.

Was he really one of the good guys or was he just a smart buisnessman that played to both sides of the isle to try to insure his own survival?

As for the Germans. Many were Nazis. Many were not.

Many simply fought for their country be it right or wrong.

I think if it were this country and llets say Iraq suddenly were able to mount a counter attack and  start attacking and invading us here.
I dont think you would see many who opposed the war at its outset refuse to fight in defence of this country.

[Oldman731]

Originally posted by DREDIOCK
I think if it were this country and llets say Iraq suddenly were able to mount a counter attack and  start attacking and invading us here.
I dont think you would see many who opposed the war at its outset refuse to fight in defence of this country.

That scenario isn't Galland.  He was bombing and strafing Spaniards long before WWII started.  

As Charon pointed out several years ago, there's an inherent irony in saying that the German flyers were just defending their country.  Right:  defending it over Madrid, Warsaw, Holland, Norway, Belgium, France, England, Yugoslavia, Greece, Africa....

- oldman

[MotleyCH]

Originally posted by Masherbrum
Probably the best troll in the BBS that I have ever seen!!  LMFAO.  <> AKAK

Heh..and it wasn't even his thread.



Maybe him and Ledpig had this planned out.

[Timofei]

Originally posted by Grendel
Then he would have been a traitor to his country, a man who broke his oath to his nation's armed forces and the oath to fight for his country.

August 20, 1934 mandatory loyalty oaths were introduced throughout the Reich...

Article 1. The public officials and the soldiers of the armed forces must take an oath of loyalty on entering service.
Article 2
The oath of loyalty of the soldiers of the armed forces will be:
'I swear by God this sacred oath: I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Reich and people, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and will be ready as a brave soldier to risk my life at any time for this oath.'

These oaths were pledged to Hitler personally, not the German state or constitution. And they were taken very seriously by members of the German Officers' Corps with their traditional minded codes of honor, which now elevated obedience to Hitler as a sacred duty and effectively placed the German armed forces in the position of being the personal instrument of Hitler.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_oath

[cpxxx]

Before you judge you have to place yourself in the situation and ask. 'What would I do?'. You also have to remember the context, Germany's defeat in WW1 and the myth that it had been betrayed.

I know that whatever my doubts about the Nazis. I would have tried to have become a fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe. I would fight for my country.

I recently read a book on Auschwitz. One point the author made really cleared it up for me.  He found that Soviets or Japanese who committed atrocities always blamed the system or fear of authority but Germans or more specifically Nazis often felt that it was 'the right thing to do'. In fact there were often cases where SS men refused to take part in killings and were rarely persecuted. Gas chambers came about in part because of the traumatic effect of shooting so many people was having on many SS men.  You also cannot underestimate the effect of Goebbels propaganda had on people who already had an underlying prejudice against foreigners and Jews.

So it's easy to judge when you live in a free country with the benefit of hindsight. Even so how many of us know people who would be enthusiastic Nazis should our own countries fall under fascist rule? I know a few.

[midnight Target]

Seems to me there is a way to tell whether a German who fought in the war is worthy of honor or not. Answer a simple question..

Did you know about the death camps?

Galland as a general officer probably did know. This drops him into the "no honor" catagory as far as I'm concerned.

[Vudak]

Well, let's just look at present day America:

* There's an unpopular war that's bankrupting us

* Inflation at the pumps, and in other areas, is killing us

* Job security?  What's that term?

* There's a massive wave of immigrants who, generally speaking, are blamed for many (or most) of the problems in this country - crime, healthcare costs, high taxes, low job security, possible terror leaks, etc., etc., etc.,


It will be very interesting to see how we all handle these things in the coming years.  Call me an alarmist, but I could see this Republic being challeneged from the inside within a few decades.

[uvwpvW]

Originally posted by Oldman731
You can't possibly be serious?

- oldman

Why? Being a Nazi was a political view and culture. As long as the person wasn't involved in crimes against humanity I can forgive them. Same goes for the communists.

[LEDPIG]

To me hitler, goring those were the real A#$%oles, they should have been killed in the most terrible way, everyone else that was in WW2 was just a victim, the whole world was a victim, including the people from other countries. The true orchestrators of the violence are the ones i'm mad at but i think people and soldiers from other countries not just the americans were as much victims as we were. Unless of course you were a card carrying flag toting member of the ss then those people MUST DIE! WERE EVER THEY RAISE THERE HEAD.  

[B@tfinkV]

Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Yanno I've often given this thought.

Was he really one of the good guys or was he just a smart buisnessman that played to both sides of the isle to try to insure his own survival?

As for the Germans. Many were Nazis. Many were not.

Many simply fought for their country be it right or wrong.

I think if it were this country and llets say Iraq suddenly were able to mount a counter attack and  start attacking and invading us here.
I dont think you would see many who opposed the war at its outset refuse to fight in defence of this country.

i tend to agree, he (O.S.) was loved and celebrated by the jews as a near god.

Funny how the situations of the time make a man who doesnt murder some of the people he has been ordered to a hero. ten years later he wouldnt have had the opertunity to make a very easy and obviously compasionate descision and achieve never ending fame for such a small action, that the vast majority of the world's people might never have let themselves be involved with in the first place.


never the less, history was good to him and he did make a change to the lives of many, he is a hero.

[Jackal1]

Originally posted by Oldman731
You can't possibly be serious?

- oldman

Took the words right out of my mouth..errr fingers.
I`ll have to be excused if I don`t break out the "respect" candles and hold a ceremony for the damn Nazis.

[B@tfinkV]

What would you have done if your country went to war?



 i think the vast majority of people dont have a realistic enough imagination of the individual's mind and how life is percieved by another life form to yourself.
 while i would say now i would revolt against the nazi rule if i were in his shoes, how do i know what his shoes felt like?


our own armies are right now commiting war crimes as we speak, just because we beat the nazis does this mean we can now emulate them in minor ways?


The lasrgest war crime of the 2nd world war on an equal level to the jewish excecutions was the 2 big bombs we dropped to wipe out an entire nation of civillians in two bombing raids.


and now the world is a mess because we all know that Abombs are going to be the next war without a doubt. so the guilty parties of the only large scale use of nuclear weapons thus far in mans history are running about the globe frantically trying not to let anyone more people have the potential to return the favour.




WW2 was the war of all wars, and it was ended with many grudges that will last hundreds of years, as we can see by the strong opinions of everyone here.



If a lasting world peace and no more use of nuclear weapons is the future of mankind, it would be more of a shock thean curing AIDs with a bowl of soup and some rice.