War crimes influenced the nature of fighting on the Russian front. The
relevance had been recognised by the commander of the 58th Infantry
Division laying siege to Leningrad in October 1941. The German
this can degrade combat sustainability has been demonstrated by French
soldiers in Algeria serving during the past colonial civil war and by
American troops in Vietnam. Malaise induced by seemingly pointless,
yet officially sponsored, violence reduced the justification of
prosecuting the Russian war to German soldiers to one of mere
survival.
One veteran, Roland Kiemig, claimed after the war:
secret. They [the Russians] perished and many of them were killed
Another soldier, transport Gefreiter Hans R., gave a sobering
description of mass shootings he witnessed during the advance into
decided to investigate. Aged 93, some 40 years later, his description
of what happened was delivered in a precise monotone which consciously
suppressed the obvious emotion he felt. Outside the village they came
across a pit, 3m deep and 2.5m wide. Along its 150m length were
tumbled into the ditch and made to lie in rows, alternately head to
foot. Once a layer was in place, two SS men moved either side of the
ditch with a Russian machine pistol firing automatic bursts into the
backs of heads. Single shots rang out afterwards as they strode along
the line finishing off the wounded.
The child was grabbed, thrown into the ditch, and shot.
War Without Garlands by Robert Kershaw
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