Enemy Ace : the way you rewrite the history, is simply disgusting (And I'm very very polite)
In France, Belgium publicly rewriting history like you did, bring you to face lawsuits... Not less and it happened in near past.
Actually, the local population had been very clearly informed that they were to stay home and off the roads, and that partisan type activity would not be tolerated
So, you really think that you could occupied a country and simply decide what the population could or couldn't do, and hope that YOUR rules will be strictly followed ? Are you serious ?
In response, the local "Maquise" kidnapped a small group of German soldiers, tortured and murdered them
Fact only advanced by the advocats of the few SS prosecuted in the 50's. No proof and no evidence of that.
Basic law school tactics : try to demonstrate that you were not the agressors but only defend yourself.
The reality is : some german soldier were killed during a combat following an ambush. Of course, the Germans were angry by that, but where in the "rules of war", loosing soldier give you the right to kill wife and children in represail ???
Because to remember the fact, the SS put dozens of children and their mothers in the church, put the fire and wait outside ready to kill each people who will manage to escape the fire.
To this day there are older people in the area who will not talk to or do business with each other
One more manipulation, the reality is the German succeded to rally some local population to them. There is a word for this kind of people : "collaborator". And yes, after the war there was conflit between some people and these cowards.
Yes, when fighting against those who DO NOT fight "soldier to soldier" it has always been a tactic to hold local leaders and the families of local opponents in custody.
Yes, and deported them to concentration camp and we all know the following steps after that. (I necessary if could tell you the story of some members of my familly, member of the resistance and deported in concentration camp)
This has been true throughout the recorded history of warfare and is true to this day
Second basic and poor law school argument "We were not the only ones to do that, so we are not guilty".
attack without any uniforms or insignia to identify themselves in direct violation of the laws of war/ Geneva convention they were "freedom fighters"
Honestly, I never expected to see a German invoking the Geneva convention to defend what the Nazi did during WWII...
Yes, some resistance troop didn't have distinctive insignia, but compared to how the German violated ALL the Geneva convention during all the war.... It's just ridiculous advancing this kind of arguments.
(As far I know the unarmed American soldiers murdered during the Battle of the Bulge had full uniform, insignia, etc)
Yes, the resistance is not 100% percent right and some actions were on the edge of the "rules of the war", but that never legitimate that the Nazis did.
I believe that the "Resistance" bears a large share of the blame
Bad strategic decision ? Yes, they undervalued the level of actrocity they could wait from the SS
But that change nothing in the fact that the SS are 100% responsible of the massacre.
Your reasoning is absurd : pushing a bit further and you will say the Allied are all responsible of every atrocity of the war: if they had surrender in 1940, the poor German soldiers would have not been forced to defend themselve to save their lifes and the WWII would have ended in 1940.
I complete the sentence of my previous message : We have forgiven but not forgotten and we
will never accept that people minimize the facts and rewrite them.
I suppose this threads will be locked in the very near future...