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From February or early March 1945, Joseph Goebbels advocated Germany’s withdrawal from the Geneva Convention. He believed that this would discourage German soldiers from surrendering to the Western Allies. His proposal found little support — even Martin Bormann opposed it — but Goebbels continued to write in his diaries that it would have been the right thing to do.

Presumably, Goebbels believed that shooting Western Allied soldiers trying to surrender (as well as POWs already held) would cause the Wallies to shoot Germans, and that this would make the Germans fight to the last man and the last bullet — which they were supposed to do anyway.

What would’ve happened if Germany abandoned the Geneva Convention in 1945?
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