Oh, I'm sure the command knew what was going on, the subtext indicates it was encouraged. This is the prime reason that the young folk that have never been to war, seem to be quick to implement it. It should always be the very last resort because things like this happen, when the enemy is demonized to such an extent.

[–] begsby@liberdon.com 9 points 1 day ago

@marathon @Bernard they knew, and latvian ss were also "Unterrasse", but the kind that would have been taken care later. listen to Himmlers secret speech

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee -5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

"Even" US army forces were ordered to commit atrocities (for the usefulness of terror ot for the quick fix/shortcut of it), but some units did them in their own (that command may or may not have found out later about). It's just that war is chaos, & fog of war very real and a tool. The logistics of war are insane & at every level there are just individual people prone to people things.

Propaganda paints a picture for you and the tool to flight it is knowledge.

[–] marathon@thelemmy.club 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Never on the same scale as the Waffen-SS.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yes - to clarify, I wasn't disagreeing with anything I replied to.

I broadly assume "command" knows about shit happening, it's too many purely logistic things to just slip by (especially when whole units are involved). However I also assume that command (and historically later commands) decides if they know/knew about it (unless there is direct evidence they knew about it or ordered it).