Were German recruits forced to do any horrible things like execute cowards or civilians to soften them up to the violence?

by [deleted]

[deleted]

hillsonghoods

There's a wealth of information about atrocities by the German Army during WWII on the flaired user profile of /u/commiespaceinvader, which you can find here. But you might in particular find their answer on How often did the regular German army (Werhmacht) commit war crimes during ww2? informative.