World War II history reimagined for the American Male...

[Arjen]

It is simply a deceitful attitude and contrary to the law of war.

The unlawful acts were the occupation and the mass murders that followed.
I could share some personal familiy history about that, but somehow I think that would be pointless.

 

[Justo Miranda]

The unlawful acts were the occupation and the mass murders that followed.
I could share some personal familiy history about that, but somehow I think that would be pointless.

That is true, but the armed provocation of a few small groups of guerrilleros has never benefited the rest of the civilian population, on the contrary, they turned them into human shields that were the object of the wrath of occupying power.

Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Arjen]

But by then you are no longer arguing maintaining the rule of law, but giving in to being at the receiving end of might is right.

 

[Justo Miranda]

But by then you are no longer arguing maintaining the rule of law, but giving in to being at the receiving end of might is right.

The defeated government already did all that legally by surrendering... to avoid worse evils to the civilian population. To use this civilian population again as a human shield for propaganda operations such as giving a bad image to the occupying army by publicizing reprisals is disgusting. Who encouraged the poor Jews of the Warsaw ghetto to rise up against the Germans? ¿A friend, or a criminal?

 

[Arjen]

If surrender is signed under duress - say after the bombing of Rotterdam, explicitly aimed at forcing surrender - the legality of occupation is rather questionable. Again, you are arguing submitting to force, not submitting to law.

Where does the resistance strike?
When the Germans landed on Crete, their life was made as miserable as the resistance could make it, in a landscape that was offered lots of opportunity to do so.
If the Jews in Warsaw had not risen, they had stood a good chance of being deported to, then murdered in the death camps - as happened to most of my wife's relatives - they were operating right till the very end.

 

[Justo Miranda]

If surrender is signed under duress - say after the bombing of Rotterdam, explicitly aimed at forcing surrender - the legality of occupation is rather questionable. Again, you are arguing submitting to force, not submitting to law.

Where does the resistance strike?
When the Germans landed on Crete, their life was made as miserable as the resistance could make it, in a landscape that was offered lots of opportunity to do so.
If the Jews in Warsaw had not risen, they had stood a good chance of being deported to, then murdered in the death camps - as happened to most of my wife's relatives - they were operating right till the very end.

I agree with you that in our time any occupation and most wars are considered illegal, but in the forties international legality was not the same, wars were legal and there were consensual ways of treating the civilian population and prisoners, which were not respected in many cases. but they saved many lives.
Extermination in concentration camps during the Boer War is just as criminal as it was in the Second World War, it is just as criminal to giving explosives to women and children inciting them to attacking a tank as it is to kill a few German soldiers in a French brothel to provide humanitarian material on retaliation to the BBC.

 

[amadolabonte]

I should add that the British commandos wore regular uniforms and that the obsessive portrayal of guerrillas and militiamen as popular heroes of anti-fascist liberation by the media of the 1960s created an atmosphere of tolerance towards the terrorists that we are now paying for.In my opinion, when a country at war formally surrenders, it should not initiate guerrilla movements no matter how many Sten rifles the British send them by parachute Rent an apartment in Dbayeh. It is simply a deceitful attitude and contrary to the law of war. It didn't help much, in the end the war was won in the American factories and many unfortunate Europeans who believed in the "resistance" died an unnecessary death.

thank you for your suggestion