- 03 Dec 2012 10:45
#14120741
Stemming from some comments about Soviet occupation of Germany after WW2 and how it was 'nicer then the Germans deserved', I have been thinking..
I am operating under the view that the Soviet policy towards the Germans after WW2 was harsh, but not genocidal. The mass expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe along with the ~2 million German POWs who died in the USSR strike me as minor compared to the genocidal campaign of Nazi Germany in the USSR. I am trying to understand why the historic outcome happened rather than a bloody or genocidal revenge. I am under the impression that communism and Stalin operated with the idea of converting people to their ideology, so it was better to change Germany and the Germans than seek bloody revenge - would that impression be correct?
If the Soviet union had a stronger nationalist streak to it by the end of WW2, would that have been enough for an official indifference toward German civilian deaths? Or support for the targeting and elimination of German civilians as an act of revenge for the million killed by the Nazis? Did the Soviets actually have the man power and structure where they could massacre millions of civilians? If the Soviets were massacring millions of German civilians in revenge, would the Americans have continued their food and trade program to the Soviets? Would they or any Western Ally intervene to stop the massacre?
I am operating under the view that the Soviet policy towards the Germans after WW2 was harsh, but not genocidal. The mass expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe along with the ~2 million German POWs who died in the USSR strike me as minor compared to the genocidal campaign of Nazi Germany in the USSR. I am trying to understand why the historic outcome happened rather than a bloody or genocidal revenge. I am under the impression that communism and Stalin operated with the idea of converting people to their ideology, so it was better to change Germany and the Germans than seek bloody revenge - would that impression be correct?
If the Soviet union had a stronger nationalist streak to it by the end of WW2, would that have been enough for an official indifference toward German civilian deaths? Or support for the targeting and elimination of German civilians as an act of revenge for the million killed by the Nazis? Did the Soviets actually have the man power and structure where they could massacre millions of civilians? If the Soviets were massacring millions of German civilians in revenge, would the Americans have continued their food and trade program to the Soviets? Would they or any Western Ally intervene to stop the massacre?
Jaded centrist. Wary Cautious liberal. Obligated Engineer(Civil).
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