Nilgiri
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While these men were indeed warriors but what they fought for was far from honourable. As @Desertfalcon has pointed out whatever failings the present German Republic has cannot compare to the evil regime in Berlin that was the cause of deaths on a scale hitherto unknown and probably never to be matched.
All I can say is .....
We are honouring individual soldiers, not a regime here.
Individual warriors of the "enemy" side (as despicable as actions of leader/regime may be) are given much tribute in the ancient Indian epics for example....and also seen in Homer's works, Gilgamesh and other old works too...I think we should continue at least this thread into the modern world, given all the other noble threads we are losing with each passing moment as we are beset by sheer gluttony and materialism.
I wouldn't say the same about the SS,the Einsatzgruppen and what else.
Not all SS units were heinous. Some actually refused to follow distasteful orders given to them. It depended on the field commander and sometimes even the mid rank officers.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...lies-search-SS-officer-saved-thier-lives.html
http://www.annefrank.dk/Gerstein/index.htm
To this day, my friends grandmother (Ukrainian lady) has not a bad word to say about the Germans, especially the SS. They treated her fairly and she noticed the SS had much greater overall discipline as well.
The field units certainly overall ran their affairs with high professionalism and honour overall ( there were exceptions of course).
You are correct the other elements of the SS (death units like Einsatzgruppen) had much innocent blood on their hands and really are not worthy to have the SS title to them imho. They have definitely brought shame and much dishonour to the SS and Germany as a whole. The excuse of "just following orders" does not hold up, I always judge on the actions and evidence period.