How did German families of SS/Nazi soldiers react to post-WWII re-education that explicitly called our how wrong the actions of their people were?

by dearaudio

I’m trying to compare post WWII Nazi families to the US South’s Confederate families. Many US families still defend their ancestors actions to this day. On the other hand, I often see a lot of posts from Germans talking about how their country did a lot of work to educate their citizens in how wrong the Nazi party and their actions were. I wonder what the US could’ve done differently to end up with a Southern population that better recognized the atrocities of the Confederacy.

ConcertinaTerpsichor

There is an excellent book called “The Wages Of War,” by Ian Buruna that discusses exactly this within a broader context of WWII. He provides very detailed descriptions from the leadership to the hoi polloi, of what steps were taken or were NOT taken in order to help people accept what had happened and accept responsibility for their actions. It’s an excellent and revealing book.