Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs. Photo: Amazon.

Recordings of conversations had between German POW’s during World War II reveal the senseless and disturbing acts of murder and rape conducted by the Nazi fighting force, separate from the SS, which is generally associated with the horrific war crimes of Nazi Germany.

“There was an event in the market square, crowds of people, speeches given. We really sprayed them. That was fun,” a German soldier said while being held at London’s Trent Park detention center.

Over 10,000 German POW’s were bugged between 1940 and 1945 by British and American forces, in hopes of attaining valuable military secrets of the Nazis.  A series of conversations between the German war prisoners have been made public in the book entitled Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs.

“I loved dropping bombs,” said another German POW. “It makes you feel all tingly, a great feeling. It’s as good as shooting someone down.”

German historians Soenke Neitzel and Harald Welze’s book, which has been translated into English, lies in stark contrast to the dispelled narrative that the Wehrmacht (Germany’s armed forces) were not significantly active in committing acts of barbarism during the second world war.

A passage from the book reads as follows:

Zotlöterer: “I shot a Frenchman from behind. He was riding a bicycle.”

Weber: “At close range?”

Zotlöterer: “Yes.”

Heuser: “Did he want to take you prisoner?”

Zotlöterer: “Nonsense. I wanted the bicycle.”

In another recording, one of the German prisoners describes an event where a female spy was caught “running around the neighborhood”, so she was beaten, raped, and then thrown out onto the street.

“When she was lying there on her back, we threw grenades at her.  Every time one of them landed near her body, she screamed. And just think, there were eight German officers sitting at that table with me, and they all broke out laughing.”