The postwar period
On May 9, 1945, the Wehrmacht High Command announced in its last report that
the armed forces had laid down their weapons at midnight and that »the
German Wehrmacht [...] was, in the end, honorably defeated by overwhelmingly
superior forces.« A few months later, former leading Wehrmacht generals
formulated their view of the role of the Wehrmacht in World War II for the
first time. In this memorandum, the war against partisans, executions of hostages,
and the recruitment and conscription of slave laborers were ...
Former
POWs upon returning to Germany from the Soviet Union, in the Friedland refugee
camp, 1955
Alfred Strobel/SV-Bilderdienst
