I always hear a lot about Germans choosing to flee west and surrender to the Allies rather than the Soviets, but why is this?
Also, did this have anything to do with Communism, because I have also heard that going through the 30's into the 40's there were Communist sympathizers in Germany at the time, were they afraid of the Soviets as well though?
They were taught, brainwashed, in to believing that the soviets were sub-human savages. Barbarians. They put out a lot of propaganda about Russian soldiers raping and pillaging and ignoring laws in order to improve the moral while fighting them. But it worked so well that many of them genuinely believed it. Maybe they were right in some cases, too. They thought they'd be tortured and executed by the Soviets immediately.
Well in addition to any brainwashing there is the simple fact that Germany slashed and burned their way into Russia. Tens of millions had died and many homes and cities were destroyed. Germans feared reprisal for their own conquests and actions. The allies on the other hand, led primarily by America and Britain hadn't faced the same level of destruction