PugJesusNazis cleaning up Nazi mistakes
https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1771221/nazis-cleaning-up-nazi-mistakes
Explanation: After WW2, Norway, using a very dubious interpretation of international law, forced German PoWs to disarm the minefields that the Nazis themselves had laid down in Norway - a very dangerous task. This was pretty well illegal, but none of the Allies after WW2 had the motivation left in them to quarrel over international law with a member of the coalition who had spent years under Nazi occupation. Hundreds of German PoWs died, and thousands were injured.
Denmark would also use German PoWs to clear minefields, but by a negotiated surrender agreement, and using German PoWs with pre-existing demining experience, which is a bit less objectionable, but still illegal under international law.
frogMm. A lot of them were young conscripts. Just kids. And violating international law with dubious arguments doesn’t sit right. With me, at least.
I don’t know that I have any strong condemnation for the occupied countries who used German PoWs in that way, considering that the question becomes who is going to die rather than if someone is going to die with the post-war situation being what it was. But it’s still something that sits uneasy.
SkullgridMm. A lot of them were young conscripts. Just kids.
have you dealt with teenagers?
Hell, have you dealt with Toddlers? they will look you in the eye while asking you if the thing they are actively doing , which they KNOW they are not meant to do , is an OK thing to do.
If your ass ended up in the nazi army, fucking go clear that minefield. You enjoyed setting it up, now dismantle it you sack of shit.
I knew a professor from Austria who was 15 near the end of the war. His school gave the class a choice of enlistments: Army, Navy (u boat), or airforce. He said none and was mocked and shunned by his classmates. When the tanks rolled into town he was handed a rifle and promptly ran up to the first tank to surrender.
The even larger issue, one that underpins a lot of laws of warfare, is that you want people to have every good reason to surrender. If POWs have to be treated according to specific laws, then everyone knows approximately how bad it can be, and they all know that at the worst, they can surrender. If you can set POWs to work clearing minefields or commit any other given atrocities against them, then armies have every reason to fight to the death rather than surrender when backed into a corner, and that doesn’t do anyone any good.
it’s a fair point. but the reality of many wars reaching a point of “total war” ware both sides abandon any rules agreed to or even within their own cultural norms, it has a limit to how effective it will be.
surrendering in a losing war very early and quickly is wise, but few people who are running a country at war are wise or motivated by any form of loss reduction.
AllNewTypeFaceIt’s not near the hundred worst things that happened due to WW2, though it’s not alright either.
This was done by all the allies, not just Norway and Denmark. In 1945 none of the allies had motivation to stop Norway, since they themselves had decided to do it this way. en.wikipedia.org/…/Forced_labor_of_Germans_after_…
Even mine sweeping at sea was done by German sailor POWs. en.wikipedia.org/…/German_Mine_Sweeping_Administr…
As legal justification as to why they could do this, the allied command claimed that these prisoners of war weren’t POWs anymore after Germany surrendered, instead they were “Disarmed Enemy Forces” and thus according to them the Geneva convention no longer applied: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disarmed_Enemy_Forces
There’s also a Danish film about these POWs: Land of Mine. Good movie imo. And after seeing it a few years ago, I looked up the historical background, which is how I knew that your comment was incorrect.
