By the beginning of 1945, Nazi Germany was in its death throes . The Soviets were grinding through central Europe toward Berlin, the Western Allies had successfully invaded Normandy and were pressing in on those fronts, and neither Italy nor Japan nor any of the smaller Axis powers was in any position to help Germany out of its doom spiral.

Germany was suffering nearly everything it had previously imposed on its neighbors: invasion, slaughter, aerial bombardment, starvation, and crimes against civilians. Anyone familiar with the long catalog of Nazi atrocities may struggle to fully sympathize with the Germans in their desperate hour, but civilians and non-combatants are entitled to a degree of protection, even when they've supported a state that has not extended that right to others. Ho

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