muzagga skrev:Denna konversation har jag ej heller tagit del av. Men det skulle vara intressant att veta vad det var Hellqvist undrade över. Detta får vi tyvärr aldrig veta eftersom han lovat Voss att ej återge deras brevväxling - vilket absolut skall respekteras.
Inget hindrar mig från att posta mina frågor. Bortsett från några bortgallrade frågor om rena teknikaliteter, så lydde de som följer:
1) How was your friend Heinrich treated as a POW? How were the Waffen-SS soldiers you know treated as POWs in general?
2) Did Captain Herbert ever learn your secret?
3) Is it your impression that people your age (in their teens) joined the Waffen-SS mainly because it was perceived as an elite, or because of political beliefs?
4) You write in your book that you saw yourself as a member of a future elite; was this a result of the indoctrination the youth of Germany was
subjected to?
5) On a related note, the theme of a "Crusade against Bolshevism" is quite common in Eastern Front veterans' memoirs. Do you think that was a more immediate motivation for the common soldier, than of the "Lebensraum" idea?
6) There are several places in the book where the soldiers, or at least you, express negative views of NSDAP officials. Didn't that go against the fact that the Waffen-SS was the armed branch of the NSDAP, or didn't you see it that way?
7) I found the incident with the young Jew in Poland very interesting. Given that young German soldiers had been subjected to a lot of anti-Jewish propaganda for the better part of their lives, how do you explain why your sympathies lay with the Jew, and not his guards? Did your unit hold itself to higher standards?
8 ) Given that certain units within other Waffen-SS divisions (as well as some Heer units), were guilty of war crimes like massacres of POWs, what do you think were the reasons for "Nord" not being like them? Did the officers set an example during training and in the field?
9) I've just read Alfred Novotny's "The Good Soldier", and he mentions the propaganda he and his fellows in the Grossdeutschland division were
subjected to. As you don't mention it in your book, did you get very little of it on your part of the front? In general, how was the propaganda that reached the troops received?
10) Reading some accounts by Allied soldiers, some of them appear to almost enjoy battle (the one who springs to mind is Donald Burgett, but there are others). In the German accounts I've read, that kind of enthusiasm is absent. Do you think there's another reason that the German authors downplay it other than the fact that they were on the losing side?
20) Novotny also mentions the difference between the fronts, where the Americans and British were referred to as "die Gegner", while the Soviets were "der Feind". Did you make that distinction in your regiment, too?
------------------
Man skulle kunna önska sig att Voss skrivit en bok som gick in djupare på en del kontroversiella ämnen, men man måste komma ihåg att boken skrevs när han var 19-20 år, och att han inte riktigt hunnit skaffa sig perspektiv på det han varit med om. Å andra sidan innebär det att berättelsen får en omedelbarhet och fräschör de mer genomtänkta memoarerna saknar. Läsaren ska vara klar över att Voss var en av cirka en miljon män som tjänstgjorde i W-SS. Man ska inte utgå från att han var typisk för den genomsnittlige SS-soldaten, men man ska samtidigt komma ihåg att den typiske SS-soldaten knappast var ett monster. Han var nog mer lik oss än vad vi själva tycker känns betryggande. Ett monster kan alltid avfärdas som en anomali; en människa som slåss för en mer eller mindre uppenbart omoralisk sak hamnar obekvämt nära oss själva. Frågeställningen blir, efter att ha läst Voss bok: hur kunde en intelligent yngling halka in på en sådan bana, och hur hade jag själv gjort? Boken komplicerar bilden av Waffen-SS, och gör förhoppningsvis att vi själva blir mer vaksamma på de budskap vi utsätts för i vår nutid.
