nekolux said:
The only real nazis were the schutzstaffel and the gestapo.
Clemenstation said:
My boss' father was forcibly conscripted into the German army during WWII but apparently he never considered himself a Nazi. Grey area?
Clem, no, not a gray area. As Nekolux beat me to saying, being German is not synonymous with being a Nazi. The Nazis were a political party, not a culture, and as such you actually had to be enlisted as a member of the party to truly be a Nazi. The SS and Gestapo were special organizations that were exclusive to party members, but the regular forces were just that, the German armed forces. Not saying all army regulars can be held as innocents, many were party supporters or just plain cruel bastards themselves, but you really can't condemn them all as a whole the way you can condemn the SS.
And yes, Valkyrie wasn't historically accurate to the degree I'd have liked, but they made one very VERY good point in it. Heinrich Himmler was as much the puppetmaster of the Reich as Adolf Hitler was, and it always baffled me how downplayed Himmler's role was. Between the two, Himmler and Hitler, I'd say Heinrich was worse than Adolf. Heinrich Himmler was the head of the Schutzstaffel, Kriminalpolizei, Sicherheitspolizei, and Gestapo. Essentially, he ran the civilian and military police forces, an elite unit of military fanatics, AND the secret service. Add to all that, he was the driving force behind, and organizer/administrator of the death camps. Next to Himmler, Adolf looks to be a fucking saint.