chapotraphouse

The experience was both collective and deeply personal. One soldier explained, “We were all so shocked that as we sat down together that evening, hardly anything was said about the incident. In particular, no one related what he had personally done."

The soldiers of the 3rd Company demonstrated a wide variety of emotional reactions to this killing. The first and most common reaction was some form of shock. By all accounts, this type of operation was not something to which these men had been exposed, certainly not in the Loire Valley, where they were previously stationed. The men were upset, uneasy, and disgusted; however, the reasons for these reactions are varied and often unclear. For many of the soldiers, what had been done apparently just felt wrong. Some soldiers thought that this was not a job for the army or that the Jewish civilians were not legitimate targets. For others who participated more intimately in the killing, the violent scenes and physical revulsion were traumatic. Some of the men seem to have felt a sense of shame and denial because they did not wish to speak about or acknowledge what they had done.

American Holocaust Museum: Ordinary Soldiers: A Study in Ethics, Law, and Leadership