The madness of blind 'obedience'

These days 70 years ago on the Volga there were those German soldiers who knew the game was up and realised the stupidity of the leadership in Berlin. They had the sense to realise they had been fooled and duped and were naturally angry with their situation.

Their letters home tell the story.

And there were those who continued foolishly to believe that Hitler would rescue them from their plight.

Sad to say it, but they were clowns, misguided men who placed such idiotic trust in a crazy leadership, a leadership that was all spoof, rhetoric, sometimes even fine sounding words.

And many of these men had given it their all. They were not all bad men. How could they have been? But of course there were the nasty ones there too, who found protection in the midst of all the madness and stupidity.

But outside the world of Nazi Germany ordinary women and men, both inside Germany and internationally, knew it was all a sham, bad stuff too.

Maybe the moral of the story is to appreciate and respect the ordinary good sense of the 'ordinary' people. And always be suspect of authority.