Other than the high-ranking Nazis at least.
Stalin was not a popular man in the soviet union, especially in areas like Ukraine and the Baltic states. When Germany launched operation barbarosa there were a lot of people who initially welcomed the Germans as liberators - until it was clear that the Germans were going to be even worse.
What if instead Hitler made some sort of grand proclamation that he was fighting against the bolshevik tyranny to overthrow Stalin, and restore an independent Ukraine and other states (with fascist leadership obviously) in order to gather local support and maybe even defections, while actually planning to enact generalplan-ost and the other horrific plans after the soviet union was defeated?
Could such a strategy have produced enough defections and local support to make a meaningful difference? would it be enough to sway neutral countries such as Turkey or Sweden to participate in the invasion?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Liberation_Army
Historically, the so called Russian Liberation Army, made up of former soviet POWs that fought for Nazi Germany, managed to peak at around 120,000 troops in April 1945, despite the fact that it was formed in 1944 and only after everyone from Kiev to Vladivostok knew that the Nazis meant bad things for anyone who wasn't German.
It would reason to me that if they just kept a leash on the SS and army (just wait a few years then you can murder them all) they could get far more defections, and it could be just enough to make a significant change, maybe even enough to be decisive.
What do you guys think?
Stalin was not a popular man in the soviet union, especially in areas like Ukraine and the Baltic states. When Germany launched operation barbarosa there were a lot of people who initially welcomed the Germans as liberators - until it was clear that the Germans were going to be even worse.
What if instead Hitler made some sort of grand proclamation that he was fighting against the bolshevik tyranny to overthrow Stalin, and restore an independent Ukraine and other states (with fascist leadership obviously) in order to gather local support and maybe even defections, while actually planning to enact generalplan-ost and the other horrific plans after the soviet union was defeated?
Could such a strategy have produced enough defections and local support to make a meaningful difference? would it be enough to sway neutral countries such as Turkey or Sweden to participate in the invasion?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Liberation_Army
Historically, the so called Russian Liberation Army, made up of former soviet POWs that fought for Nazi Germany, managed to peak at around 120,000 troops in April 1945, despite the fact that it was formed in 1944 and only after everyone from Kiev to Vladivostok knew that the Nazis meant bad things for anyone who wasn't German.
It would reason to me that if they just kept a leash on the SS and army (just wait a few years then you can murder them all) they could get far more defections, and it could be just enough to make a significant change, maybe even enough to be decisive.
What do you guys think?