He assumed that due to Stalin's unpopularity in the East, he'd be able to steam-roll any Soviet vassal armies.
To be fair, he technically wasnt wrong on that one. It was well documented that a lot of the armies that were heavy in non-Russian ethnic groups (Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Polish, etc) did just mass surrender to the Nazi's, or turned their guns around and joined them. And it is true that many of the people of those areas did indeed welcome the Wermacht as liberators and showered them with gifts and recruits, as well as promises of anti-partisan militias.
But like you said, that goodwill was almost immediately covered in gasoline and set on fire pretty much as soon as the SS showed up and started doing SS things. And suddenly, what had once been pacified territory that required a token garrison was now completely destablized and rife with guerillas at a time when the Wermacht could ill afford such a situation, and they never recovered from it.
Which, if anything, shows why pragmatism will almost always win out over dogma in the long run.
I agree. Hell, the Soviet Red Army had the highest rate of defection of any army, and they were winning. That's per capita.
Part of it makes me wonder that if Germany had been Fascist like Italy, Spain, or Portugal, could they have won the war? Frankly, I'm not even certain there would have been a holocaust if Germany was Fascist rather than National Socialist. Hell, Japan might have had a better go of it if they hadn't done exactly what the Nazis did.
To be fair, he technically wasnt wrong on that one. It was well documented that a lot of the armies that were heavy in non-Russian ethnic groups (Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Polish, etc) did just mass surrender to the Nazi's, or turned their guns around and joined them. And it is true that many of the people of those areas did indeed welcome the Wermacht as liberators and showered them with gifts and recruits, as well as promises of anti-partisan militias.
But like you said, that goodwill was almost immediately covered in gasoline and set on fire pretty much as soon as the SS showed up and started doing SS things. And suddenly, what had once been pacified territory that required a token garrison was now completely destablized and rife with guerillas at a time when the Wermacht could ill afford such a situation, and they never recovered from it.
Which, if anything, shows why pragmatism will almost always win out over dogma in the long run.
I agree. Hell, the Soviet Red Army had the highest rate of defection of any army, and they were winning. That's per capita.
Part of it makes me wonder that if Germany had been Fascist like Italy, Spain, or Portugal, could they have won the war? Frankly, I'm not even certain there would have been a holocaust if Germany was Fascist rather than National Socialist. Hell, Japan might have had a better go of it if they hadn't done exactly what the Nazis did.