What accounts are there of common Wehrmacht troops (instead of SS) commiting atrocities dirng WWII?

Question

Everything I have read seems to point at only the SS during World War 2

Answer 1

Atrocities during the Invasion of Poland

Wehrmacht units killed over 16,000 Polish civilians during the 1939 September campaign through executions, terror bombing of open cities or murder. After the end of hostilities, during the Wehrmacht's administration of Poland, which went on until October 25, 1939, 531 towns and villages were burned, and the Wehrmacht carried out 714 mass executions and a number of other crimes. Altogether, it is estimated that 50,000 Polish civilians had perished including 7000 Jews.[1]

Atrocities during the Battle of France

Between May 25 and May 28 1940, the German Wehrmacht committed several war crimes in and near the small village of Vinkt. Hostages were taken and used as human shields. As the Belgian army continued to resist, farms were searched (and looted) for more hostages who were later executed. In all 86 civilians were executed, but the total death toll was probably 140. The reason for the carnage is unclear. See massacre at Vinkt.

Destruction of Warsaw

Up to 13,000 soldiers and 250,000 civilians were killed by German-led forces during the Warsaw Uprising. Human shields were used by German forces during the fighting and during the Wola Massacre 50,000 civilians were executed to intimidate the Poles into surrender.

Commissar Order

The order cast the war against Russia as one of ideological and racial differences, and provided for the immediate liquidation of political commissars of the Red Army. The order stated that German soldiers guilty of violating international laws would be "excused". The order was formulated on Hitler's behalf by the Wehrmacht command and distributed to field commanders.

Barbarossa Decree

The decree, issued by Keitel a few weeks before Operation Barbarossa, exempted punishable offences committed by enemy civilians (in Russia) from the jurisdiction of military justice. Suspects were to be brought before an officer who would decide if they were to be shot. Prosecution of offenses against civilians by members of the Wehrmacht was decreed to be "not required" unless necessary for maintenance of discipline.

POW Camps

In 1929, the Third Geneva Convention (1929) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War had been signed by Germany and most other countries, while the USSR and Japan did not sign until after the war (final version of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949). This meant that Germany was obliged to treat all POWs according to it, while in turn, Germans captured by the Red Army could not expect to be treated in such a manner. In fact, the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan also did not treat prisoners of war in accordance with the Geneva Convention, while Stalin himself did not care about his own captured son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, declining an offer to exchange him for General Paulus.

While the Wehrmacht's prisoner-of-war camps in the West generally satisfied the humanitarian conditions prescribed by international law, prisoners from Poland (which did never capitulate) and the USSR were incarcerated under significantly worse conditions. By December 1941, more than 2.4 million Soviet Red Army troops that had been taken prisoner. These prisoners suffered from malnutrition and diseases like typhus that resulted from the Wehrmacht's failure to provide sufficient food, shelter, proper sanitation and medical care for the prisoners. Prisoners were regularly subject to torture, beatings and humiliation. Between the launching of Operation Barbarossa in summer 1941 and the following spring, more than two million Soviet prisoners of war died while in German hands. The German failure to attain their anticipated victory in the East led to significant shortages of labor for German war production and, beginning in 1942, prisoners of war in the eastern POW camps — primarily Soviets — were seen as a source of slave labor to keep Germany's wartime economy running.

Massacres of prisoners-of-war

Killing of POWs by Wehrmacht soldiers started during the September 1939 campaign in Poland. Numerous examples exist in which Polish soldiers were killed after capture, for instance at Śladów where 252 POWs were shot or drowned, at Ciepielów where some 300 POWs were killed, and at Zambrów where a further 200 POWs were killed. Some 50 British officers who had escaped from Stalag Luft III were shot after recapture, and 15 uniformed U.S. Army officers and men were shot without trial in Italy. Hitler's Commando Order, issued in 1942, provided "justification" for the shooting of enemy commandos whether uniformed or not. The massacres include that of at least 1500 black French POWs of West African origin and was preceded by propaganda depicting the Africans as savages. The massacres of black French troops are described in an upcoming book.[2]

Night and Fog Decree

This decree, issued by Hitler in 1941 and disseminated along with a directive from Keitel, was operative within the conquered territories in the West (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands). The decree allowed those "endangering German security" to be seized and to make them disappear without a trace. Keitel's directive stated that "efficient intimidation can only be achieved either by capital punishment or by measures by which the relatives of the criminal and the population do not know his fate."

Answer 2

It wasn't only the SS that committed atrocities. The first answer here is correct about the Wehrmacht. And what is less known is that many atrocities were committed by the members of police bataillons. These police bataillons were not a part of the SS and were no more "especially Nazi" than the Wehrmacht was, although actually every German institution from that time has to be called Nazi. They were common policemen like the members of the Wehrmacht were common soldiers. I suppose you know about the mass shootings of Jews in East Europe, esp. in the Soviet Union, during World War II, the Holocaust didn't only take place in death camps. Many of these mass murders were comitted by the police bataillons. Read Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing Executioners" or Browning's "Ordinary Men" about this.

Answer 3

The Wehrmacht was not blameless; except for North Africa, were Rommel personally forbade reprisals, Germany Regular Army units shot and killed civilians and POWs in every theatre. The Wehrmacht was especially vicious in the Eastern Front. Unlike the Waffen SS, however, the Wehrmacht was not convicted as a criminal organization by the Nuremburg Tribunal.

The allies, Russians, Brits and Americans were not blameless either, if you're looking for atrocities. Indiscriminate bombing of civilians, use of incendiary bombs on cultural centers, vaporizing women and children, not to mention reports of killing of prisoners during the Normandy Invasion and drive across France. "Comrade kill your German," was a common saying after the Red Army threw the Germans back at the gates of Moscow....prisoners were hardly taken. I could go on, but you get my drift.

Answer 4

I don't know about italians, but as far as I know about the hungarian troops: there are 2 villages in Romania (Ip and Trasnea) were the hungarian army (known as "the hortyst army") initiate the masacre of the villagers (especially the men).