What do German veterans of the Second World War still alive today think of Hitler now?
Since the only answer here is a bias, let’s share the other ones.
Henri Joseph Fenet, Charlemagne SS, the last recipient of the knights cross was sentenced to 20 years hard labour. In an interview, in 1970 about the battle of Berlin – “We didn’t think of death at all. Not at all. Only of fighting, keeping on fighting. We lived and fought only to fight. Loyal to the end. Loyal to the end… Now, I have only one regret… I wished an earlier involvement”
Fridolin bin Spaun, apart of the Freikorps Oberland, the last living member described his first time meeting Hitler – “He was indeed observing me. And that was one of the most curious moments of my life. I had a feeling that he was searching somehow, the gaze which at first rested completely on me suddenly went straight through me and into an unknown distance. It was so strange. And the long gaze which he had given me convinced me completely that he was a man of honourable intentions. I can only say that I am glad that I saw Hitler’s most beautiful side. Surely the here must have been dark sides, but I saw his wonderful side, and nobody can take that away from me.”
Julius Streicher, prominent National Socialist. He made books exposing evils of Judaism to children. He was charged with crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. His final words were – “Heil Hitler! (When asked to state his name) You know my name well. Julius Streicher! The Bolsheviks will hang you one day! (To the hangman) I am now by God my father! Adele, my dear wife”
Ursula Haverbeck 1928-present (don’t have the name) – “Why did these events—why did this conflict, Jews and Germans, become so stark. And why this hate of the Jews, why did it have to happen? I have never read, from any other people, such hate-filled expressions about another people as I’ve heard from the Jews. All you have to do is read the Talmud. I have all twelve volumes there in the authorized, most recent translation and edition, 2002. Because we wanted to verify the commonly circulated statements from the Talmud, are they accurate? Especially compared with an authorized edition. And I couldn’t read more than three pages, it made me feel ill. That’s how revolting it is, all the stuff in it is about sexuality and pedophilia. About how you can do it with a three-year-old child. You know, it’s all alien to us. I don’t even want to think about it.”
According to Gottfried Wagner, Winifred Wagner’s grandson. She and other Germans would use the word USA Unser Seliger Adolf which means “Our blessed Adolf”
Leon Degrelle, Belgian SS – "When I look back, I have only one feeling…This is a huge regret, a regret that we have not succeeded. That we were not able to create this European world that would have been master of the universe forever. Which would have provided for our race, the first place. The great domination of the mind. And when we see what there is before us. What thirty years of victory of the others have done. The anarchy of the world. The collapsing of the European, This desertion throughout the universe. When we see in our own countries, the breakdown of morals, the fall of the homeland, the fall of the family. The collapse of social order. When we see the appetite of material goods which has replaced the great flame of the ideal that animated us. Well, really, between the two we chose the right side. The little wretch of Europe today, with this common tinpot market. It cannot give happiness to mankind. The consumer society is rotting humanity instead of elevating it. So the rest of us at least, we have dreamed of something marvelous. And we have only one desire that this spirit could be reborn and with all my strength until the last moment of my life I will fight for this. For what was our fight and our martyrdom. Shall be one day the resurrection!”
German Wehrmacht 1980 – “To be exact, we did not fight against the Russians, but against Bolshevism. They were people like you and I. We fought against Stalinist and Bolshevism. We defended our country against it, and more importantly, all of Europe. If we hadn’t stopped it, it would have reached the Netherlands and France too. Right up to the channel, that was their plan. We also fought the Americans when they landed, in France, in Italy, and Africa. In the end, the Russians outnumbered us by twelve to one. And we still tried to keep them from the borders of the Reich. To defend our people”
French SS reduced from 7,000 to 30 able men, most of those who made it back to France were denounced and sent to allied prison camps. In that group, French general Philippe Leclerc captured a defiant group of 12 Charlemagne SS men. The general immediately asked them why they wore a German uniform, to which one of them replied by asking the general why he wore an American one. The 12 French Charlemagne SS men were later executed without any form of due process.