My history teacher told me that the Wehrmacht, or the standard ground troops of the German army, weren’t the cruel monsters that people think of when they think of Nazis. People think of the SS. The Wehrmacht was mostly made up of misguided and brainwashed individuals who saw themselves as protecting their country and people from foreign invaders that the German propaganda machine had, very effectively, told them existed.

I want to believe this is true, and that the vast majority of a large group of people didn’t turn to evil, but I want to fact check first.

I know the SS were by far the crueler of the two groups, but were the Wehrmacht really just confused, brainwashed people who saw the only way forward being to defend their country and trusting that their leaders had their best interest in mind, or was it the hate-filled faction of bloodthirsty white-supremacists everyone thinks it was?

To be clear I’m not condoning either organization’s actions, and I know the Wehrmacht can’t claim total innocence from the atrocities committed, I just want to know if they’re as bad as people say.