Would members of the Volkssturm have been heroes, or fools?

History is written by the victors. Had German won there would be 70 year old medals of the cross collecting dust in attics all over the world.

Though we lost the Vietnam War, our military personnel were heroes. However, they were not seen as such by the majority of the public—as if PTSD was not bad enough. Those who believe they are fighting for the survival of their country are heroes, even those that are not seen as heroes or do not see themselves as one.

I don’t see fighting for one’s country in itself as a heroic act; I see doing something that preserves or improve others’ lives as heroism. That applies to whatever side one is on in my book.

The word you’re looking for is “patriot”. And we should all think long and hard about those “heroes” of the Reich as that word is bandied about over here whenever suckers are required to fulfill the asinine policies of an inept and bungling government.

Fools, from your selection – but I think describing them as “brainwashed” is more accurate.

They were fools in that many of them would have voted Hitler into power. After that they lost control over events.

The fools in America are supporting the politics that by limiting or ending collective bargaining will take away what limited power the middle class workers have to protect themselves from being exploited.

If things had gone the other way would the British Home Guard had be considered fools when confronted with the best trained troops in the world at the time?

The children and old men in the Volkssturm were forced into military service in a last ditch effort to
buy the Nazi’s more time while Germany was being overrun. I think that victims would be a more apt description.

Heroes for those that joined and fought for a cause, though according to what I know, most, if not all, had no option. They didn’t choose to of their own free will. Whereas the comment in the previous thread assumes the ‘heroes’ are people who risk personal loss for a cause (gain for others) of their own free will.

@1TubeGuru That was my educated guess, victims of a governing body.

I think your question infers some decision on their part, but the only decision they had according to what I’ve read, was be part of the Nazi’s meat-shield or die, the ‘or die’ part being often one of two options provided by the regime.