Dear friends from around the world. It was a real honor and a pleasure for me to talk to Paul about some of the Wehrmacht soldiers I interviewed. I thank you for the many positive comments, from which I also gather that the topic is new for some of you. I also know that it is, of course, controversial and multifaceted. In the context of the program, we could only address some of these aspects. I would be delighted if some of you would like to delve deeper into the German eyewitnesses and read “The Cursed Generation”. I would also be very happy to come back on the show if Paul agrees and other topics are desired, such as the expulsion of 16 million Germans from the East or the view of child soldiers. It's good practice for me, because I have to speak more English. It's especially difficult live when you have the words in German but can't find the adequate translation on the fly. Best regards and Merry Christmas to all: Christian Hardinghaus (writing from one of my other book accounts).
Woody, you did a great job as host, and Christian had a compelling story to tell. I was just listening to a Zoom where Dr. Marci Shore was the guest. She thinks we should be aware of the vulnerability of the human condition to normalize events (paraphrasing). Some how we need to be “weathering" people against the elements that normalize what people do to each other. Education, self questioning, recognizing a government moving in the wrong direction and doing something about it, hard to say.
Excellent work Christian. A real privilege to have been able to get those soldier's accounts of how it was and their experiences. Sadly there are not many left now.
This presentation was valuable to know how many of the soldiers thought and fought. We don't get to hear it much so thank you Mr. Hardinghaus for so much work and detail. Just as a sidenote, you did so very well with English which really helped bring a real picture to their lives. We are at a point in looking back it's good perspective to hear from an area of the War I know very little about.Thank you and Happy Holudays.
Christian, you did a great job telling your story in English. Cursed Generation is 5 stars on Amazon and 20 dollars in paperback, so I thank you and Woody. Similar to the Japanese Theater , the historical material for scholars also has little to read or research.
Only caught the last part live, but had to go back and start from the beginning. On an individual soldier's level, I think reluctance to talk about the war is common to US veterans that I know as well. This topic is an excellent addition to the channel since it fills in the blanks on what was it like being an individual soldier on the other side. Thanks for bringing Christian on the program. Christian thanks for doing the interviews of the veterans. Thanks for doing a program on a difficult subject. Great job Woody!
I own my grandfather on my mother's side photo album of the war years. I have photos of his training in Germany and France. He was a radio operator (Funker). He was sent too Russia. I have lots of photos of him in a horse drawn artillery unit. I can see places he served in current maps of the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. Sad too see it all again.
Very interesting presentation. Many war veterans have been reluctant to talk about their wartime experiences. I can imagine it would be even more difficult to talk about from a German perspective for obvious reasons. I found this to be a complicated but very worthwhile episode.
Thank you gents, that was an excellent discussion. I will be looking for your book Christian. I had family on both sides of the conflict, they came from Scotland, East Prussia and Australia. Australian 7th division, merchant marine, RAAF. On the German side, Wermacht, SS and a U-boat commander.
Thank you Christian and Woody. I do like these personal recollection presentation, especially Otto's story. My Oma and Opa from Amsterdam had varied experiences with various Germans during the warand the experiences were as varied. Thank you both for this presentation.
Very interesting account regarding Wigand. The third book of Robert Forczyk’s book on Stalingrad had mentioned that some soldiers flew into Stalingrad after the encirclement in order to rejoin their comrades but this is the first detailed story I’ve heard of such an event. Crazy to think this sort of thing happened. Incidentally, have you ever tried getting Forczyk on the show? His work is first class and it would be great to see him on here.
Fantastic talk by Christian. It is great that he could earn the trust of these veterans. Whatever their motivations for fighting, their perspectives are needed to help complete the Eastern Front picture.
An excellent episode among all of those you continue to present. Here we can just begin to understand the individual experiences that show that war, any war, is truly a descent into hell
Really enjoyed the show boys. The axis war memories seems to have been forgotten over the years and l am glad we have got their stories. All German's were not Nazi's and had no choice in what happened. Thanks Christian
I love the content of WW2TV may i please thank christian for his explaination of what it's like to be caught up entirely of something you have no control of yet must follow no matter what. i don't go along with an angel 'guided me' tosh but i do 100% understand how i might behave the same way if i was in their position. this is a valuable document no matter how flawed and should be applauded for it's honesty. 10/10 more please, bring christian back again.
Excellent presentation on a politically emotive subject. Christian explained his research really well, considering English is not his native language. A soldiers accounts, if not politically motivated on either side, are always worthy of our attention.
As an American Marine Corp vet from the Gulf war I’ve always wanted to learn how German military vets from WW2 were treated by the govt and society at large. How does modern Germany deal with its past while they try to rebuild its military today.
I have long been interested in hearing the German and Japanese perspectives on the war so I found this interesting. The speaker was excellent. However, I listen to veteran stories (and interviews), such as this author presents, through the experience of having grown up in the American south where you were regularly fed the bogus 'confederacy lost cause' narrative. I think Woody's comments throughout the interview are exactly right.
I really appreciated the work that Christian has done in helping get the stories of the few German WW2 soldiers left to the public. I don't subscribe to the idea that "every German from that time was a Nazi" that many do. Yes, the Nazi regime had its many supporters, but there were also many Germans who were caught up in the war simply due to their love of country, or the conscription laws. I didn't agree with my country's support for the Viet Nam or Iraq wars, but I would still have felt obligated to serve if asked to. Just because a regime is considered criminal doesn't imply that all who serve the military are supporting its criminal acts. Some simply have no choice.
Love Christian's final comments - most people would fall into line . Look around today; who of us for example would open our homes to a homeless person? It's more a of a case this is what I would want myself to be able to do.
Christian - sehr schwer mit Fremdsprache benutzen! Ich studiere Deutsch 2 jähre aus USMA, danach war ich im Schweinfurt 85-88. Es ist schwer. Vielen Dank.
Dear Christian, thank you for such insight, that was remarkable. I was born in 1965 so had Grandparents and relatives who fought in WW2 so I have always found it to be a very interesting subject. I have read the book Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor and felt cold and dirty just reading it. Thank you once again for such insightful information. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.
Many thanks for covering a topic that appears to be taboo. It is important that these voices are heard. Germany as a nation should be prepared to confront its past openly and honestly. A weird inversion is occurring in Germany’s refusal to acknowledge the genocide that is occurring in Israel.
Of course all Germans were not Nazi, but they were allied with and enablers of the Nazi agenda. When faced with multiple bad choices I hope I would chose to fight for the best of humanity rather than go along with the worst. People maybe looking at this for real where I live in a few weeks. Very thought provoking episode.
@ My Lai might be an even better crime to consider as the US soldiers involved were not strictly volunteers during that time. Volunteer “prison guards”, no thanks either.
"... that every soldier was not a Nazi." Where can you have any corroborative evidence for any individual soldier interviewed? Individual experiences are as suspect as those of a person in a criminal court case, especially that now all contrary testimony is probably buried. Not implying that all are guilty of some crime, but innocence cannot be assumed, and the facts are all too often missing. Not wanting to talk about 'it' can be indicative of horrors witnessed, but also horror committed. That is just a fact of war and the fog of war and the fact many of the witnesses were dead BECAUSE of the horror committed.
Holger Czukay (the bass player in Can) grew up in the Germany of the 50s and 60s. He said many of the older generation had a tendency to be quite openly pro Hitler in private. A political and public culture that was as amnesiac as it was anodyne pulled in the opposite direction.
Over the past year and a half I've been listening to journals and notebooks and I've heard from a few World War II veterans that were German soldiers who were not with the SS and definitely not Nazis,, and it's absolutely heartbreaking to find out as a woman in my 50s what the Soviets did to the east Germans and German people who were innocent civilians as they went West into East Germany and then to occupy East Germany all those years.. there were so many East German women that became pregnant with babies after being raped and some of these girls were only 13 years old.. even more tragically a lot of these women that were raped committed suicide afterwards and they were raped and gang beaten.... Just horrible stories and I don't know for the life of me why Roosevelt was an ally of the Soviet Union and it's probably just because Britain was out of necessity... The USA did not need to be but the British did.. ..
It would be very difficult to acknowledge killing other people to no purpose at all. Even if you were just an ordinary Wehrmacht soldier who survived, killing isn't easy and when it ended in defeat resolving the feelings of guilt for killing that every person should feel would be hard.
A very difficult subject. Lots of nationalism, racism, and personal decisions to be made. In the time, I have questions about how I would have reacted. It's all about how you're programmed. I like to think we're a little bit more moralistic nowadays.
Gutted I missed this Live due to work, Christian was so good in transmitting this info into a language not of his native tongue. There is no element of Nazi apologists about this subject as long as the differential is made between a)the SS and b) the Neo nazi's that were present in the Wehrmacht. One can have empathy for an ordinary German soldier, who may have voted for the NASDP in the 30's for a nationalistic reason, but then had no control over the future indoctrination. I didn't vote for Blair, but when you are ordered to go to war, you follow orders. How you conduct yourself in that war determines if your personal testimony is worth listening to or understanding and empathising.
Your loss I feel. We've had guests from 32 different countries on WW2TV, with many guests using their second or third Language. IMHO it is worth having the perspectives of these historians despite their imperfect English
This was a fascinating insight into WW2 from the German soldier perspective, thank you so much Christian and Woody. Christians did a brilliant presentation considering English is not his first language, thanks again
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 91 | คู่เอก "คมอาวุธ vs อเล็กเซย์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/V0RkEfYFsgM/mqdefault.jpg)
Dear friends from around the world. It was a real honor and a pleasure for me to talk to Paul about some of the Wehrmacht soldiers I interviewed. I thank you for the many positive comments, from which I also gather that the topic is new for some of you. I also know that it is, of course, controversial and multifaceted. In the context of the program, we could only address some of these aspects. I would be delighted if some of you would like to delve deeper into the German eyewitnesses and read “The Cursed Generation”. I would also be very happy to come back on the show if Paul agrees and other topics are desired, such as the expulsion of 16 million Germans from the East or the view of child soldiers. It's good practice for me, because I have to speak more English. It's especially difficult live when you have the words in German but can't find the adequate translation on the fly. Best regards and Merry Christmas to all: Christian Hardinghaus (writing from one of my other book accounts).
Woody, you did a great job as host, and Christian had a compelling story to tell. I was just listening to a Zoom where Dr. Marci Shore was the guest. She thinks we should be aware of the vulnerability of the human condition to normalize events (paraphrasing). Some how we need to be “weathering" people against the elements that normalize what people do to each other. Education, self questioning, recognizing a government moving in the wrong direction and doing something about it, hard to say.
Excellent work Christian. A real privilege to have been able to get those soldier's accounts of how it was and their experiences. Sadly there are not many left now.
Thank you to Christian for being brave about speaking another language and for devoting himself to this story.
This presentation was valuable to know how many of the soldiers thought and fought. We don't get to hear it much so thank you Mr. Hardinghaus for so much work and detail. Just as a sidenote, you did so very well with English which really helped bring a real picture to their lives. We are at a point in looking back it's good perspective to hear from an area of the War I know very little about.Thank you and Happy Holudays.
Christian, you did a great job telling your story in English. Cursed Generation is 5 stars on Amazon and 20 dollars in paperback, so I thank you and Woody.
Similar to the Japanese Theater , the historical material for scholars also has little to read or research.
Only caught the last part live, but had to go back and start from the beginning. On an individual soldier's level, I think reluctance to talk about the war is common to US veterans that I know as well. This topic is an excellent addition to the channel since it fills in the blanks on what was it like being an individual soldier on the other side. Thanks for bringing Christian on the program. Christian thanks for doing the interviews of the veterans. Thanks for doing a program on a difficult subject. Great job Woody!
I own my grandfather on my mother's side photo album of the war years. I have photos of his training in Germany and France. He was a radio operator (Funker). He was sent too Russia. I have lots of photos of him in a horse drawn artillery unit. I can see places he served in current maps of the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. Sad too see it all again.
Very interesting presentation. Many war veterans have been reluctant to talk about their wartime experiences. I can imagine it would be even more difficult to talk about from a German perspective for obvious reasons. I found this to be a complicated but very worthwhile episode.
Thank you gents, that was an excellent discussion.
I will be looking for your book Christian.
I had family on both sides of the conflict, they came from Scotland, East Prussia and Australia.
Australian 7th division, merchant marine, RAAF.
On the German side, Wermacht, SS and a U-boat commander.
Very tragic and traumatic. Getting those soldiers to open up and give their stories. Thanks Christian.
Thank you Christian and Woody. I do like these personal recollection presentation, especially Otto's story. My Oma and Opa from Amsterdam had varied experiences with various Germans during the warand the experiences were as varied. Thank you both for this presentation.
Very interesting account regarding Wigand. The third book of Robert Forczyk’s book on Stalingrad had mentioned that some
soldiers flew into Stalingrad after the encirclement in order to rejoin their comrades but this is the first detailed story I’ve heard of such an event. Crazy to think this sort of thing happened.
Incidentally, have you ever tried getting Forczyk on the show? His work is first class and it would be great to see him on here.
Robert Forczyk declined an invitation unfortunately
Incredible. What a amazing episode.
Fantastic talk by Christian. It is great that he could earn the trust of these veterans. Whatever their motivations for fighting, their perspectives are needed to help complete the Eastern Front picture.
Thank you very much for this to Christian & Paul. Excellent and very important episode. Blessings
Thank you Christian. Oh my word, the story of your grandfather and his angel was fascinating.
Terrific guest speaker.
An excellent episode among all of those you continue to present. Here we can just begin to understand the individual experiences that show that war, any war, is truly a descent into hell
Really enjoyed the show boys. The axis war memories seems to have been forgotten over the years and l am glad we have got their stories. All German's were not Nazi's and had no choice in what happened. Thanks Christian
I love the content of WW2TV may i please thank christian for his explaination of what it's like to be caught up entirely of something you have no control of yet must follow no matter what. i don't go along with an angel 'guided me' tosh but i do 100% understand how i might behave the same way if i was in their position. this is a valuable document no matter how flawed and should be applauded for it's honesty. 10/10 more please, bring christian back again.
Really interesting perspective Thanks Christian and Woody
Excellent prelsentation
Excellent show beginning to end
Excellent I did enjoy this presentation.
Great episode and subject.
Great episode and a reminder that these were real people that had to experience and fight in such a horrible war. Thanks Woody & Christian.
It was such an honor to live the first half of my life with my Dada who fought for the Italians in Ethiopia, Greece and in the Italian civil war.
When your grandfather tells you he escaped the Falaise pocket, that is when you know you will be a WWII historian the rest of your life
Excellent presentation on a politically emotive subject. Christian explained his research really well, considering English is not his native language.
A soldiers accounts, if not politically motivated on either side, are always worthy of our attention.
As an American Marine Corp vet from the Gulf war I’ve always wanted to learn how German military vets from WW2 were treated by the govt and society at large. How does modern Germany deal with its past while they try to rebuild its military today.
Woody I applaud you for doing this, history is truly the story of all sides.
It was not an easy decision to make. I'm no Nazi apologist, but wanted to hear the stories
I have long been interested in hearing the German and Japanese perspectives on the war so I found this interesting. The speaker was excellent. However, I listen to veteran stories (and interviews), such as this author presents, through the experience of having grown up in the American south where you were regularly fed the bogus 'confederacy lost cause' narrative. I think Woody's comments throughout the interview are exactly right.
amazing listen ,thank you
I really appreciated the work that Christian has done in helping get the stories of the few German WW2 soldiers left to the public. I don't subscribe to the idea that "every German from that time was a Nazi" that many do. Yes, the Nazi regime had its many supporters, but there were also many Germans who were caught up in the war simply due to their love of country, or the conscription laws. I didn't agree with my country's support for the Viet Nam or Iraq wars, but I would still have felt obligated to serve if asked to. Just because a regime is considered criminal doesn't imply that all who serve the military are supporting its criminal acts. Some simply have no choice.
There's an interesting lecture by some American historian in which he discusses the Vietnam Nam draft and "Macnamara's morons". Worth a watch.
Love Christian's final comments - most people would fall into line . Look around today; who of us for example would open our homes to a homeless person? It's more a of a case this is what I would want myself to be able to do.
Christian - sehr schwer mit Fremdsprache benutzen! Ich studiere Deutsch 2 jähre aus USMA, danach war ich im Schweinfurt 85-88. Es ist schwer. Vielen Dank.
Dear Christian, thank you for such insight, that was remarkable. I was born in 1965 so had Grandparents and relatives who fought in WW2 so I have always found it to be a very interesting subject. I have read the book Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor and felt cold and dirty just reading it. Thank you once again for such insightful information. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.
Many thanks for covering a topic that appears to be taboo. It is important that these voices are heard. Germany as a nation should be prepared to confront its past openly and honestly. A weird inversion is occurring in Germany’s refusal to acknowledge the genocide that is occurring in Israel.
Of course all Germans were not Nazi, but they were allied with and enablers of the Nazi agenda. When faced with multiple bad choices I hope I would chose to fight for the best of humanity rather than go along with the worst. People maybe looking at this for real where I live in a few weeks. Very thought provoking episode.
I wonder how many in the US Army's 372nd Military Police Company thought they would fight for the best of humanity.
@ My Lai might be an even better crime to consider as the US soldiers involved were not strictly volunteers during that time. Volunteer “prison guards”, no thanks either.
"... that every soldier was not a Nazi."
Where can you have any corroborative evidence for any individual soldier interviewed?
Individual experiences are as suspect as those of a person in a criminal court case, especially that now all contrary testimony is probably buried. Not implying that all are guilty of some crime, but innocence cannot be assumed, and the facts are all too often missing.
Not wanting to talk about 'it' can be indicative of horrors witnessed, but also horror committed. That is just a fact of war and the fog of war and the fact many of the witnesses were dead BECAUSE of the horror committed.
Most legal systems operate on the presumption of innocence. "Innocent until proven guilty"?
Holger Czukay (the bass player in Can) grew up in the Germany of the 50s and 60s. He said many of the older generation had a tendency to be quite openly pro Hitler in private. A political and public culture that was as amnesiac as it was anodyne
pulled in the opposite direction.
What the difference about Wehrmacht veterans and prisons full of convicts? Some of the convicts may actually be innocent of their crimes.
Over the past year and a half I've been listening to journals and notebooks and I've heard from a few World War II veterans that were German soldiers who were not with the SS and definitely not Nazis,, and it's absolutely heartbreaking to find out as a woman in my 50s what the Soviets did to the east Germans and German people who were innocent civilians as they went West into East Germany and then to occupy East Germany all those years.. there were so many East German women that became pregnant with babies after being raped and some of these girls were only 13 years old.. even more tragically a lot of these women that were raped committed suicide afterwards and they were raped and gang beaten.... Just horrible stories and I don't know for the life of me why Roosevelt was an ally of the Soviet Union and it's probably just because Britain was out of necessity... The USA did not need to be but the British did..
..
It would be very difficult to acknowledge killing other people to no purpose at all. Even if you were just an ordinary Wehrmacht soldier who survived, killing isn't easy and when it ended in defeat resolving the feelings of guilt for killing that every person should feel would be hard.
As usual blame the wars on the victims
It's not about blame. It's about hearing different perspectives
A very difficult subject. Lots of nationalism, racism, and personal decisions to be made. In the time, I have questions about how I would have reacted. It's all about how you're programmed. I like to think we're a little bit more moralistic nowadays.
Gutted I missed this Live due to work, Christian was so good in transmitting this info into a language not of his native tongue. There is no element of Nazi apologists about this subject as long as the differential is made between a)the SS and b) the Neo nazi's that were present in the Wehrmacht. One can have empathy for an ordinary German soldier, who may have voted for the NASDP in the 30's for a nationalistic reason, but then had no control over the future indoctrination. I didn't vote for Blair, but when you are ordered to go to war, you follow orders. How you conduct yourself in that war determines if your personal testimony is worth listening to or understanding and empathising.
Not a single story about ordinary soldiers stealing the food reserve and the animals of the peasants in winter in the soviet union?
What's your point? Of course we know those things happened
His English is so rudimentary it has caused me to leave.
Your loss I feel. We've had guests from 32 different countries on WW2TV, with many guests using their second or third Language. IMHO it is worth having the perspectives of these historians despite their imperfect English
This was a fascinating insight into WW2 from the German soldier perspective, thank you so much Christian and Woody. Christians did a brilliant presentation considering English is not his first language, thanks again