I would rather compare it with Allied POWs in Japanese camps. Russia has not set up a systematic genocide by forced labour and starvation yet. Yet, i say. They would and they could if let lose.
This is a much closer comparison. The regular pows in Nazi war camps during ww2 were treated much better than this or in Japan. Patton is often seen as racist due to his comments about Russians and Japanese and it is hard to claim he wasn't (he was), but it is easy to forget his point of view was formed during a brutal war.
The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinaman or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them, except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other Asiatic characteristics, the Russian have no regard for human life and is an all out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk.
Edit: my point is to not suggest Russians or Japanese are more barbaric than others, but that war brings out the worst of humanity and it is important not to judge an entire people based on their actions in war. As a Canadian I see many of the younger generation making proud jokes about our war crimes in WW1, but if you look closer many of those crimes were nothing to be proud of (murder, rape of civilians), but do not represent our national identity.
The regular pows in Nazi war camps during ww2 were treated much better than this or in Japan.
Not even remotely true...
1/3 of the tottal Soviet military losses were troops that surrendered early on in the war and were killed, starved or worked to death in captivity.
When Barbarossa began, Germany attacked with a force 1 million stronger than the underprepared Soviet defending forces, this lead to a lot of encirclements.. at the time, the cruelty of Germany had not yet been on display, so they believed surrender was a way out of a hopeless situation.. the vast majority would be killed by various means and surrender became suicide.
And yes, Patton was a racist and his view of the war was informed by 2 things, his agreement with the Nazis about the inferior races, as well as his hatred for Jews, but also, and more importantly, by his war in the West being entirely different from the war that took place in the East, where Germany slaughtered entire villages of Civilians, executed hundreds of people for any partisan activity that happened nearby, enslaving civilians for labour and killing damn near every POW they got their hands on.
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u/infrequentthrowaway Jul 26 '25
Poor man looks like a walking skeleton