Comments by "Kameraden" (@Alte.Kameraden) on "Debate on Warsaw Uprising and Polish Resistance WW2 | TIK History Q&A 23" video.

  1. A Rock and Hard plate is a good description of the civilians trapped between the USSR and National Socialist Germany. I've often described it as being stuck between an anvil and a hammer. For example one description I often describe about Ukraine. You had pro Communist Partisans, Pro Nationalist Partisans, Pro German Partisans, AntiSemites among all their ranks. If you helped the Germans you were likely going to get murdered by Nationalist, or Communist Partisans. If you helped the Nationalist Partisans the Communist, Pro German and German forces would likely kill you. If you helped the Communist, the Nationalist, Pro German and Germans would likely kill you. If you refused to help anyone and tried to be neutral they'd likely accuse of you treason still and likely kill you. So I ask, if you were a farmer, and someone came by asking for food, what are your options? There are reasons why German patrols would come across farm villages completely empty of life after a ruckus was made by the partisans, and there are reasons why many fled with the Germans when the Germans retreated as well. These people were not given many options, and often punished for actions beyond their control. You can imagine a German Patrol forcefully taking food/livestock from your farm, then the partisans come by and find out your live stock is gone, and much of your food when they themselves came by wanting the same, imagine their reaction when you say the Germans took them, some of them would likely accuse you of treason. Imagine if the Germans came by and found out you allowed partisans to do the same, they would accuse you of aiding the enemy.
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  2.  @matro2  Pacific wasn't any better. China was a bloodbath easily comparable to the Eastern Front. It's often overlooked but 900,000 Chinese at least we know, served with the Japanese in Manchuria, and low China under the control of puppet states, like Manchukuo, which was technically ruled by the last Chinese Emperor who the Japanese installed into power there. You can imagine most of them were forcefully conscripted, but there were many who viewed the Japanese as the only means of rescuing China from the Decade's long period of civil conflict between the fractured warlords of China. Also China itself, the Republic of China often referred to as the Chinese Nationalist, not to be mixed up with the People's Republic of China, were not all Unicorns and Rainbows either. For example, the single most destructive act done in China that likely lead to more civilian deaths than any other act (other than the war itself) was conducted by the Chinese themselves. When they intentionally flooded the Yellow River, to flood farmland, villages and towns, directly killing something between 200,000-400,000 people, some say more, and indirectly killing millions from the famine, and refugee crisis it caused.... Ironically it did hurt the Japanese as it made it very difficult for the Japanese to feed their own forces in the area, let alone the Chinese they occupied. One of the primary reasons for Japan's invasion of China ironically, was the same as Hitler's wish to occupy Ukraine... food. But the Japanese occupied very little of it's actual agricultural centers The Republic of China denied them this with a 'water' earth policy, no pun intended, as they destroyed one of the few the Japanese did occupy. Japan occupied most of the much denser populated East Coast of China, and were unable to occupy much of their "Goal" which was the rural farmland. This also meant that Japan had to provide food for far more mouths than was available, and actually made their food shortage issue which lead to the invasion considerably worse. In turn, when it came to feeding Manchukuo, Korea, and Japan, well occupied China was pretty much last on the list, a sad similar scenario to what you see in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
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