Several Holocaust survivors were saved by a German soldier or Nazi official, are you surprised by this information?

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting article:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/nazi-official-who-risked-life-to-save-hundreds-of-jews-posthumously-recognized/

An actual Nazi official took advantage of his position to secretly save hundreds of Jews. Other survivors claimed to have been saved by a German soldier. Are you surprised by this information?

Updates

+1 y

Those German soldiers and that particular Nazi official risked their own lives by saving Jews.

Updates

+1 y

This survivor got saved by a German soldier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R8_cTt2kzI

[NamerOfStars]

Not at all. It's one thing to say (at the time) "I support Hitler; he's bringing back German pride", and quite another to say "Death to the undesirables!". Even those who knew what was going on might've had a much harder time supporting it when they interacted with its victims and began to see them as people.

Remember, also, that it didn't begin with suddenly rounding up the Jews, Comunists, homosexuals, etc.- it was called "the final solution" because every other method of getting rid of them had failed, and I have to imagine it's MUCH easier to just send those you don't like away than to see them horribly murdered before your eyes. Membership in the Nazi party, especially when it was forced, isn't an absolute guarantee of total evil- just look at John Rabe.

Not that this in any way justifies those horrors, but it's important to remember that human nature doesn't change, and has positive aspects as well as negative.

[Asker]

Indeed. It's one thing to think a party will help bring economic prosperity to your country than to actually join it for pure hatred and to murder people.

[genericname85]

most german people were not actually "nazis". but if you didn't at least claim to be a nazi, you could get in big drouble. that's why the war crime trials are still going on today. it's really hard to figure that shit out. like many people here in germany actually tried to help jews even though they risked their life doing so. cause if you were caught helping a jew, you'd be sent to the concentration camp as well or even straight up killed on the spot at some point.

it's somewhat like corona times. if you thought this disease isn't actually "so" terrible and you thought it's more like a flu that just passes, you would be excluded from many friends circles and could even lose your job if you uttered that out loud. similar but much more extreme if you said "jews are just people" back in germany at the time.

[Asker]

yeah that must've been very brave of them, risking their own lives to save others. They wanted to do the right thing even at such a horrible time in human history. It's interesting that even in the darkest moments, there are still good people around.

[genericname85]

yeah but even if you were at the front in the war, fighting the allies, you didn't choose to be there. it's either you're shot by the allies or by your own german officer. either way, your only way to survive is win the war or be lucky enough to be held captive as war prisoner.

[4ngelic]

no most germans in ww2 weren't nazis and a lot of the nazis joined for other reasons then hating jews. there's good people everywhere even in the darkest places

[ChefPapiChulo]

Wdym other reasons then hating jews?

[4ngelic]

@ChefPapiChulo they agreed with the nazi party on other ideas but not on the jew question, they better opportunities in life, getting out of poverty, privileges

[ChefPapiChulo]

Okay. You’re not wrong there. The Germans occupation and sacking of other countries did allow the Germans to have a better life after living in poverty due to losing world war 1.

[Berethor]

I'm not surprised, they was germans after all, not arabs, so many of them was not really evil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler#Hitler_on_Islam

[LiamJHayden]

Not at all. Many people can get caught up in propaganda and then see a stark reality that shocks them out of the trance. Others might know that there are issues and decide to work within the system to fix what they can.

[KostasKouvalis]

Not at all. Not all Nazis were bad. A lot of them were basically forced to enlist and threathened with death if they didn't follow orders

[Anonymous]

No. My great-grandfather, I've been told, was an unwilling Nazi soldier who did this exact thing. He didn't have a choice but to be a soldier, but used his position to help people escape Germany. He was eventually caught, tortured, and killed.

[ChefPapiChulo]

I don’t think you understand the difference between a nazi and the wehrmacht.

[Asker]

I'm sorry to hear about your great-grandfather's horrible death. It must have been very brave of him to risk his life for others, to do the right thing at such a terrible time.

[ChefPapiChulo]

Not all soldiers were nazis lol.

[ChefPapiChulo]

But that’s not to say that the army didn’t help. Because they most definitely did. Being a nazi meant being part of the political nazi group tho.

[joehypo1]

They made a movie about it very good movie you should check it out

[Asker]

Schindler's List sounds like a good one. He risked his own life too. That's gotta be very brave.. knowing very well that if he got caught he would've been killed but still did the good deed.

[AviatorTom]

No, not surprised. Not all Germans were hardened Nazis. They are human too.

[Anonymous]

No, it is old news.

[Drumlin2001]

Not surprised.