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If Hitler had used the Jewish for fighting

Discussion in 'What If - Other' started by west novie, Jun 1, 2005.

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  1. west novie

    west novie Member

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    Can you imagine what a difference it would have made if Hitler used the Jewish to fill his army ranks. You can say that Hitler used the Jews to gain political power but he was actually respected by the German populace at this time as he had brought them out of the depression and and had knocked unemloyment down. Instead of doing what he did to the Jewish people, he could have used them to help fill his ranks against the red army thus overpowering them. And in his own sick way have them killed off by serving their country at the same time.
     
  2. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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    Welcome to the Forums, west novie!

    Well, of course doing absolutely anything else than killing jews would benefit the German industrial and war machine per se if we look a it from the maximum advantage point. This would release also the guards men from the camps to other duties in the army. And the trains (!!)

    I would however think that the Jewish were quite capable of the usage of machinery and production parts of the factories so instead of fighting I´d recommend that they were put to manufacturing the guns, ammo etc the personnel that was desperately needed in the Reich at the time.

    Of course putting them to the army would help in the replacement situation but Hitler´s own decisions really depleted the army out of men
    ( Stalingrad, North Africa, Falaise, Operation Bagration etc etc ) so most of all making more men availvable would just increase the losses, I think.
     
  3. esoxlee

    esoxlee Member

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    Had Hitler not persecuted the Jews, particularly the scientists, one can also argue that the Nazis may have developed the A-bomb before the Americans. Can you imagine, Hitler with an arsenal of V2’s armed with atomic warheads. There could be a swastika flapping over the White House today. But as it turned out, hundreds of the most brilliant minds in Germany, including Einstein, found their way to the US. Many of which worked on the Manhattan Project. :eek:
     
  4. Friedrich

    Friedrich Expert

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    Welcome aboard, you two, Esoxlee and West movie! ;)

    900.000 German Jews (from annexed Austria, Bohemia & Moravia and Poland) couldn't have meant a big difference in the general numbers (maybe another 100.000 men in uniform, but not more).

    But what about German industry? Speer managed to take production levels up to its maximum in 1944 because then there were 11 million slave workers in the Reich (mostly Polish, Jews and Soviets). With Germans only, the Reich couldn't have been able to man such a big industrial machine and have 8 million men in uniform at the same time.

    But the Holocaust, being Hitler's # 1 aim, did affect negatively and deeply the German war effort.
     
  5. PFC Wilks

    PFC Wilks Member

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    acctually, they did use some jewish prisoners. they where in groups of 5 or 10 with 1 or 2 german co's. if the jews ran, bullet to the head. esey as that. but i'm not getting rashal, i'm jeish meself... any ways. they where the leat equiped, least trained, slums of the german army. they where normally only equiped with k98's and the accaional mp40 for the co's, and alot of motars.
     
  6. Gen.Patton

    Gen.Patton Member

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    Those people were called Ost battalions. As soon as the allies came close, they surrendered and the allies let them go home.
     
  7. PFC Wilks

    PFC Wilks Member

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    thats right i could remeber
     
  8. stg44

    stg44 Member

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    the germans would have been able to beat russia and would have nuked london with the V-2
     
  9. Friedrich

    Friedrich Expert

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    I don't think so, stg44…

    They may have kept the brains, but Germany remained without the industrial and economic power to achieve that.
     
  10. Demon-ZX

    Demon-ZX Member

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    Hello west novie!!! Hitler despised the Jews!!! It was the whole reason for going to war. Why the hell would he have had them fighting on their side? THEY WERE GERMANY'S "ENEMY"!!! duh.
     
  11. Fitzy

    Fitzy Member

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    yes hitler despised the jews, but west novie is saying if hitler used them as something like a first line of defense they would die before having to sacrifice the "pure blood" of the german army, hitler would not tell the jews that he hated them, he would pretend to like them and use them to his advantage, not wasting his money to kill them... the whole reason for going to war was not the jews it was the result of him taking over countries and britain was sick and tired of it they needed to stop it once and for all because appeasement would not work
     
  12. bigiceman

    bigiceman Member

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    Hitler did bring the country out of a depression, but one of the things that he used as a sociological tool was the villification of the jews. To bring a society out of something as pervasive as a depression takes a lot of focus. I think by pointing to the jewish community as the cause of their woes and then pillaging them Hitler achieved some of this focus.

    I agree that the inclusion of the small percentage of eligible men into the armed service would not have made a decisive difference in the conflict. The Russian army could have sustained much more damage before they were brought anywhere close to depletion. Better strategic decisions would have made a much larger impact. Thank the Lord Hitler thought he knew how to run a war and didn't listen to the generals.

    The scientist angle is an interesting one. If the scientists could have been enlisted into the effort before the clear intention for military domination of the continent was obvious, there could have been a lot more scientific advancement on the German side. That would have been bad. Hitler's decision on what to do with it would have then been the deciding factor.

    The development of the MP44 was early enough in the war to have caused a lot more allied casualties if it would have been put into wider production and distribution. I have been told that the allied generals in charge of the sectors of the front where they were used could tell there was something different based upon their casualty figures. This illustrates that even if Hitler would have been presented with better scientific technology it would not guarantee that it would have been used against the allies.

    V2 rockets with nuclear warheads is a scary thought. I followed a thread that talked about the development of the nuclear weapons used in WWII by the allies and it all came down to a math error on the part of one scientist or group of scientists. They would have continued researching nuclear weapons if that error had not been made.
     
  13. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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    Hitler did blame the jews in many ways but still I would not forget the treaty of Versailles which definitely "put the keys into Hitler´s hands" in my opinion. Without the horrible conditions Hitler could have never made it.
     
  14. bigiceman

    bigiceman Member

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    Gotta agree with you there. The German people were put in such horrible conditions that looking back, it seems almost inevitable that some sort of nationalistic leader would come along and take them into another conflict.
     
  15. PzJgr

    PzJgr Drill Instructor

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    That opened the door per say. To keep it open, and stay in power (police state wise) he had to give the German people a scapegoat. Thus, the German populace being distracted, he could consolidate his gains and keep is reign of terror going.

    But had he been able to stay in power without having to use the Jews as a scapegoat, I believe many other countries may have been enticed to jump on the national socialist band wagon. Consider that there were many south american countries sympathetic to the national socialist cause. It could have become a worldwide phenamenon much like communism during the postwar years. Except Germany would have been the center of the socialist world.
     
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