Matrix Morpheus

What absolute nonsense. Invading Poland was not a defensive move.

That's not the point. 14 yo's didn't cause the situation they found themselves in, to provide one example. What if you were a German that got drafted, you'd choose being shot over serving, I'd imagine you'd claim.

I really don't think I'm the sort of person the Nazis would have placed in anything other than a prison camp.

What does that have to do with OP's meme? I get it but let's be reasonable in our assessment of history.

I'm not sure where the conversation lost you. While most Germans were caught up in events bigger than themselves and nobody is easier to pry into compliance than 18-21 year olds, the idea that they were volunteering for a defensive war is absurd on its face and the idea that I'm being a hypocrite for saying that because apparently I would have joined in the frenzy is also nonsense as the Nazis were very clear that the war was about sweeping people like me out of Germany. (Why, you ask? Pick a reason. I tick off dozens of the Nazi's boxes for enemy of the State.)

I wasn't defending the defensive war part, although the argument could be made had they not invaded Russia, Stalin would have attacked Germany, just the part about MOST Germans having to do what they had to do. Millions fell on the Eastern front without ever seeing anyone other than Russians. Your situation has zero effect on that.

Then the Soviets start with the argument that they were being defensive about a western front invasion from Germany - which, after 1813, 1914, and 1919, was not without precedent. So we have now two aggressors claiming defense. Someone is bullshitting but their arguments are indistinguishable.

That's the whole problem: if you're paranoid enough about what might maybe happen someday, even if entirely unprovable, you can justify any act of aggression no matter how aggressive as defensive.

Don't accept it. Don't let it have any kind of basis. Don't let that argument be made. Don't even let that argument begin. Be clear on who gets to claim defense.

Less than 10% of the population were members of the Nazi party.

Neither of those poor excuses fit the meme.

Sydney: They chose to fight, NOT to defend their homeland but because it was better than being shot.

CADem: Less than .4% of Americans are in the military. So what? We're all responsible for what the military does, through our elected leaders and the direction we choose to take.
For the Germans who faught, invading all of Europe is in NO WAY, defending the home. All Germans were part of it, simply through making the mistake of letting Hitler take power.

What can you do when a totalitarian government drafts you? Most of the people that fought, in the beginning, didn't put Hitler in power. Then in 1944, they knew the winds of war had shifted and it was coming home. Then it was the elderly and children more and more.

What diff does that make?
You're not, "defending home" when you are invading everyone around you!

By the time the war was, "coming home" tough shit!

I see. So you despise US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq that served?

Grunts don't make policy.

Are you just stupid? What is your problem?

How are we trying to expand our homeland by being in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Gawd, you are an idiot. Now I hate our troops because I think a meme premise saying Germans during WWII, Nazi's and the goal of saving their homeland was more important than wiping Jew's from the planet earth, is total bullshit!

I get why you keep equating the poor Germans and their great white hope and superiority with America. Go grab your tiki torch loser! Oh, it's not about bigotry and hate of all those brown people crossing our southern border, it's about losing our white identity and how that would ruin America.

Don't ever equate MY country, to Nazi's. EVER!

You're not worth talking to. Crawl back under the rock you came out from.

F**KING TRIGGERED

BWHAHAHAHA

If you think 17 yo's in 1944 cared more about killing Jews than defending their homeland, or just protecting their lives, you're a retarded dipshit that drank all the kool aid, you f**ktard.

Muh tiki torches.

The Free City of Danzig was a German majority that was in favor of annexation by Germany. The polish corridor connecting the city to Germany was given to Poland by the treaty of Versailles. Part of Hitler’s justification for the invasion was to liberate the ethnic Germans in these regions, in effect defending the “home” that was taken from Germany after WWI. While most of the citizens in the third Reich were not members of the Nazi party they were coerced to go along with Hitler’s vision as a result of an effective propaganda campaign, fear and intimidation.

The meme made the argument that most people were motivated by a sense of nationalism and not racism. The meme did not say that the German people were not responsible for the actions of the state