Göbbels and Geneva convention

Just read the Göbbels memoirs for 1945 ( January-April´s beginning ) released in the late 1970´s. I think they are real...

Anyway, there is a part after the Dresden bombing when he thinks of Germany giving up the Geneva convention of POW treatment. One of the ideas being of course the strengthening of the western defence line as no mercy would be expected from the US and British soldiers either after that.
( The Russians definitely showed no mercy ).

This was however blocked by high ranking officers and even by Bormann according to Göbbels.

Anyway, if this would have been chosen how awful would the war had turned in the last months? Or would it change anything?

 

Certainly there was a posibility of the war becoming more brutal.

After the bombing of Dresden, Goebbels suggested the Führer that some 10.000 Western allies POWs had to be shot. Hitler agreed with that but never gave the concrete order.

Remember that the Western allies POWs were to some extent treated much better than nearly any other prissoners the Germans kept. If Goebbels would have convinced the Führer to abandon Geneva convention (more than it was already abandoned) then the allied POWs would have seen many more horrible things than they actually lived.

 

If it had happened and the allies had found out about it, there would have been a lot less German POW's taken in the last few months.

 

You're right, redcoat. And I quote myself: