Of the population of Germany, not more than 10% were members of the National Socialist Party. “Nazi” is an abbreviation for “National Socialism” and Hitler never won a majority in any true election. He and the National Socialists took power; it was not given to them.
By contrast, the majority of Germans were bullied and oppressed by National Socialism, which took away their rights and liberties, and coerced them into the war effort. The differences between ordinary Germans and Nazi Party members was clear during the war.
In combat, Germans acknowledged both their opponent’s humanity and their own. By contrast, Nazis clung to the idea of “total war” and refused to surrender: Hitler ordered fighting to continue even when he had admitted that defeat was inevitable. The National Socialist perseverance in battle despite certain downfall was a tragic and horrid waste of human life.
On the battlefield, the behavior of the Germans differed from the behavior of the staunch Nazis. In July 1944, as the U.S. soldiers were in a near-stalemate with German forces in western France, an American officer named Major General Robert Chauncey Macon found his units at the end of a long fight to be only a few yards from where they’d started. General Macon lost 1400 men and gained only 200 yards of territory.
The fighting stopped and the sun set. Then, as historian Martin Blumenson writes, a dramatic and humane gesture came from the commander of the German forces whom General Macon had attacked all day:
That night the opposing German commander returned to Macon the medical personnel his troops had captured. He sent a note to explain that he thought Macon might need the medics more than he did. But the German added a cautious postscript. If the situation was ever reversed in the future, he hoped that Macon would return the compliment and the favor.
The thinking of the German commander differed from the thinking of the Nazis. This distinction is clear in the writing of another German officer, two months later.
This officer saw that victory for the Allies was unavoidable, defeat for the Nazis was inescapable, and that any further fighting was a senseless and cruel waste of human life. Generalfeldmarschall Günther Adolf Ferdinand von Kluge boldly addressed these words to Hitler in a letter in September 1944:
Should the new weapons in which you place so much hope, especially those of the air force, not bring success — then, my Führer, make up your mind to end the war. The German people have suffered so unspeakably that it is time to bring the horror to a close.
Hitler’s senseless demand to continue combat despite certain defeat manifested the Nazi disregard for people. General Ferdinand von Kluge’s strong words written directly to Hitler embody the thoughts of the ordinary Germans: it was time to end the war and save lives.
