This article explores Allied intelligence officers’ encounters with and interrogations of German civilians from autumn 1944 onwards, psychological warfare operations directed at civilians, and their wider ramifications. Focusing especially on the officers serving with the Psychological Warfare Division (PWD), I will demonstrate that field intelligence officers’ stance towards German civilians was fluid and often ambiguous, with the encounter causing considerable distress to some of them. Their reports and correspondence further suggest that in this period, Germans readily professed knowledge of atrocities. But contrary to intelligence officers’ expectations, they failed to accept any guilt or responsibility. Finally, I will argue that the very foundations and techniques of Western Allied psychological warfare may have reinforced and legitimised justification strategies that separated between “real” Nazis and everyone else. This was at odds with one of the central aims of Military Government, i.e. to inculcate a sense of culpability in Germans.

中文翻译：

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好赌、坏赌和黑马：盟军情报官员与德国平民的相遇，1944-1945

本文探讨了盟军情报人员从 1944 年秋季开始与德国平民的遭遇和审讯、针对平民的心理战行动及其更广泛的影响。我将特别关注在心理战部 (PWD) 服役的军官，我将证明现场情报人员对德国平民的立场是不稳定的，而且往往模棱两可，这次遭遇对他们中的一些人造成了相当大的痛苦。他们的报告和通信进一步表明，在这一时期，德国人欣然承认自己了解暴行。但与情报人员的预期相反，他们没有接受任何内疚或责任。最后，我会争辩说，西方盟军心理战的基础和技术可能加强并合法化了将“真正的”纳粹分子与其他人分开的正当化策略。这与军政府的中心目标之一不一致，即在德国人中灌输一种罪责感。