I’ve seen this claim before and at best its only a half truth. I can’t give a full write up unfortunately but a lot of top Nazis and SS members were given cover to settle elsewhere or used to agitate against the Soviet Union. Some were useful, like engineers or other academic Nazis, others were useful because they could be trusted to be anticommunist and still others had useful contacts in parts of the world the US had little to no influence in.
It’s not a half truth, it’s a full truth. Doesn’t mean your statements are untrue or mutually exclusive. There were certainly Nazis being used and recruited directly into other services on the end of the allies, no doubt. US rocket development is a great example on that.
But I am talking about the majority of just the basic German administration, public, medical, engineering and civil servants, and just the people in general. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs and structures that simply couldn’t be replaced but also wasn’t filled with the brightest and smartest super suited to the things you’re talking about. It wasn’t just the SS and top brass that were Nazis. It went through and through the entire society. And you really cannot simply throw these kinds of people in jail without having replacements ready. Up to 45 million Germans were part of Nazi organizations and thus affiliated with the ruling party that had been overthrown.
There were simply too many, so prosecution was deemed impossible at scale. It’s a really interesting process, but the allies tried, but it lead to problems
If we are talking about why most of the Nazis weren’t put on trial the reason “they were in administration” is only half the truth as a lot of Nazis weren’t put on trial because the US had a use for them or because they just didn’t care enough. I mean look at how the Soviets approached denazification and how the US did. East Germany was a lot more thorough than west germany.
As an example SS members were allowed entry to Canada who had a very strict “no communists” immigration policy and their SS tattoos actually proved to be an advantage to prove that.
I’ve seen this claim before and at best its only a half truth. I can’t give a full write up unfortunately but a lot of top Nazis and SS members were given cover to settle elsewhere or used to agitate against the Soviet Union. Some were useful, like engineers or other academic Nazis, others were useful because they could be trusted to be anticommunist and still others had useful contacts in parts of the world the US had little to no influence in.
It’s not a half truth, it’s a full truth. Doesn’t mean your statements are untrue or mutually exclusive. There were certainly Nazis being used and recruited directly into other services on the end of the allies, no doubt. US rocket development is a great example on that.
But I am talking about the majority of just the basic German administration, public, medical, engineering and civil servants, and just the people in general. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs and structures that simply couldn’t be replaced but also wasn’t filled with the brightest and smartest super suited to the things you’re talking about. It wasn’t just the SS and top brass that were Nazis. It went through and through the entire society. And you really cannot simply throw these kinds of people in jail without having replacements ready. Up to 45 million Germans were part of Nazi organizations and thus affiliated with the ruling party that had been overthrown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denazification
There were simply too many, so prosecution was deemed impossible at scale. It’s a really interesting process, but the allies tried, but it lead to problems
If we are talking about why most of the Nazis weren’t put on trial the reason “they were in administration” is only half the truth as a lot of Nazis weren’t put on trial because the US had a use for them or because they just didn’t care enough. I mean look at how the Soviets approached denazification and how the US did. East Germany was a lot more thorough than west germany.
As an example SS members were allowed entry to Canada who had a very strict “no communists” immigration policy and their SS tattoos actually proved to be an advantage to prove that.