I grew up in Austria and there was / sometimes still is a storyline that all austrian soldiers were victims of the nazis. As in germany, some were hardcore nazis, some wanted a future and did not challenge the regime, some were against it and some were murdered because they fight against it, which means to take your whole family at risk of death.

The evil stuff that the nazi regime did is not only military stuff, but through mandetory conscription of even teenagers, they made sure that the whole population was involved somehow. The soldiers of the Wehrmacht were someoned (teenage) sons / husbands, fathers,...

I hate that I never asked my grandfather about the war in detail, because my mother kind of forbid it. I know his job was in measurments if distances/the surroundings and not with actual combat. He spend about a year as prisoner in russian camps and kind of was proud to have learned some phrases in english and russian. As a kid I never understood why he kept repeating them. Now I think it was his way to recognize his enemys as humans and have normal boring conversations with them.

This topic is never just an miliatry analysis for most of us, but it always has to do with people you know and love.