Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim O
Perhaps it was a spur of the moment idea. But the suggestion that it was pre-meditated is less likely for at least three reasons. - First, this wasn't the "norm" for German behavior on the Western Front. Even on the Eastern Front they generally exploited the prisoners or let them die from exposure. Those that they outright executed they often believed to be communist party members/commisars or had some other political reason for doing so.
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I would counter this by saying that by this time harsh treatment of any one captured by the SS was endemic.
The norm for SS behaviour was total ruthlesness. It started in 1940 with the murder of over 100 British Troops in the Dunkirk area and continued where ever the SS were present. Oradur sur Glane is another example that springs to mind in the West.