ABSTRACT
German behavior in the last months of the war was influenced by such things as the Allies' insistence on unconditional surrender, the soldiers' dread of Soviet revenge, and the population's fear of the liberated concentration camp inmates. As for the triumphant Red Army, although it is true that its soldiers looted and raped with abandon, it is less clear whether these crimes were truly revenge for atrocities committed by the Germans and their allies. The former collaborationists had either joined the resistance, gone into hiding, or fled with the Germans and were now waiting to be arrested. Almost uniquely in the history of resistance movements, many of the conspirators were fighting unswervingly at the front while planning to assassinate their commander in chief. Great-power cooperation was still the slogan of the day, with the coordination and synthesizing of the planned retribution one of its great symbols.
