Hitler's War - Page 2

Albert Speer, in one last act of mercy, told Hitler to his face that he had not carried out Hitler’s orders but Hitler allowed Speer to leave his bunker alive- much to Speer surprise. At Hitler’s end, we saw a man who can’t admit a mistake and blamed all around him for his own failures. Germans was forced to suffer Hitler’s hubris after his death but many Germans were like Junge in that they refused to see what was in front of them. Only after the war were they forced to confront the reality of Nazism.

Downfall showed us the human side of Hitler and his aides. And left us with the question, how could real people hated so much and be so wiling to destroy an entire civilization to fulfill their evil intent?

The History channel showed the consequence of Hitler’s vision as they presented a whole week of the key events of both Eastern and Western Front. The special told the story through the eyes of the soldiers on both sides and presented an excellent first hand view of the war. We heard from the Russian soldier, who raised the flag on top of the Reichstag at the end of the battle for Berlin and we heard from a British soldier, who admitted that in one battle, “very few prisoners were taken” after a popular officer was killed.

While most Americans know the events that shaped the Western front, there is very little known about the Eastern Front and yet vast majority of the European war casualties occurred there.

The war between the Soviet Empire and Germany Third Reich was a war of annihilation. Germany war was not just against the Soviet armies but Soviet people. War crimes were committed on a large scale and the Russians returned the favor when they moved west toward Berlin. Rape and plunder was a common day happening on the eastern front and the civilian population was not spared. At the end, the German peopled suffered the recrimination of the war that their leaders started.

The authors of the special viewed both fronts as separate entity. The Eastern Front was a war to the death between two totalitarian dictators whereas the Western Front was a war of liberation. The difference can be seen in the war upon citizens. On the Western Front, there was very little war against civilians during the ground war. The Russians, on the other hand, showed little regard toward the German civilians. Hitler’s war of complete destruction came back to haunt the German people as the Russian returned the favor during their march to Berlin.

Article Author: Tom Donelson

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