A testimony about how little that regime cared about their people. The same people that brought them to power.
8 months ago | 20
Regardless of the moral implications, from a pure practical military standpoint, the dismissal of these hospital cities plan was arguably a sound decision by German high command given what they had experienced and expected so far. Between the brutal bloodshed in the Eastern Front, and relentless bombing raid on major cities, to the Germans the lack of respect on civilians from both sides in the war was obvious, especially towards German citizens after what they had done to the Allies. Hence, it would be unrealistic to expect Allied armies including Russians to actually respect such arrangement fully - the Soviet would likely siege such hospital cities anyway and cutting off medical supplies as a method to force a surrender. It would only demoralize the remaining German forces and created such weaknesses for Allies to exploit. And then such plans also directly came into conflict into late war German fighting strategies - in face of numerical superior and mechanized Allies forces, most of the broken German divisions had to retreat away from open field battles where Allied armies could brought their full potentials, and into urban combat where fortified cities provided ambushes, bottlenecks, and limited heavy vehicles, giving German foot soldiers with mostly handheld weapons a slight fighting chance to delay and damage opponents as long as possible. Such arrangement of hospital cities would directly reduce these advantageous areas to Germans and detrimental to what left of their fighting strength. And lastly there were already an ongoing evacuation and movement of German refugees away from the east, which was overburdening the road and transportation networks inside Germany while also showing that they were already saving themselves.
8 months ago | 5
I mean, when you're in a life or death struggle with international Communism you gotta do what you gotta do
8 months ago | 6
The same German High Command that urged their own soldiers not to retreat but instead stay & get slaughtered.
8 months ago | 2
Germany 🙂↕️ They were Target of Two World Wars; and they lost 😔 I hope they will rise again soon 🔥♥
8 months ago | 11
it wouldnt have worked anyway, not with the soviets advancing in the east
8 months ago | 0
Germany 🙂↕️ They were Target of Two World Wars; and they lost 😔 I hope they will rise again soon 🔥♥
8 months ago | 6
War Academy
🤔 Did you know what the so-called "Hospital Cities" were?
On April 21, 1945, the OKW issued a directive prohibiting the creation of "hospital cities", a proposal promoted by the International Red Cross to establish combat-free zones in Germany.
The German High Command feared that these zones would demoralize the troops, allowing them to take refuge instead of continuing to fight. Therefore, Wilhelm Keitel categorically prohibited their implementation, as well as any negotiation with the enemy on the matter.
The directive stated:
1-No German city will be considered hospital nor will there be medical zones.
2- Any discussion on the subject is prohibited, especially among medical officers.
3- The troops must be informed immediately.
The fact that this directive was issued suggests that in the days leading up to it, the International Red Cross had contacted Germany via Sweden or Switzerland, raising the possibility of establishing "hospital cities". These areas would have been combat-free zones, where civilians and wounded could take refuge, in an attempt to reduce humanitarian suffering in the final stretch of the conflict. However, this idea was viewed with suspicion by the German High Command.
With this directive, the Third Reich reaffirmed its policy of total resistance, even in the final moments of the war.
8 months ago | [YT] | 265