WillKill4Food said:
Were these generals not the exception? And did the enlisted Germans (e.g. the soldiers in RotLA) tend to oppose Hitler's ideology?
That's an interesting question. I've read much on the period, including numerous personal memoirs. You have to allow for a lot of self-fashioning and image preservation when reading those personal accounts. A lot of dissociation went on after the war.
However, there was a trendency among the aristocratic officer class to look down on the little Gefreiter, but they were also the men for whom war would mean a return to fame, and the active life of command.
Then there were generals like Guderian who openly argued with Hitler over policy, and got away with it (barring a case of dismissal and re-instatement).
One of the most interesting cases is that of Admiral Canaris, head of German Military Intelligence, who was actively working against Hitler's policies, whilst still holding his position.
The wiki page on Canaris is a useful overview of his situation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris
There were many attempts to remove Hitler, and until July 1944 the generals were able to keep the army separate from Party membership.
Many in Germany were ignorant of the real situation in the 1930s. The country was emerging from political and economic chaos, and looking to a strong leader to restore Germany's position in Europe (Versailles and it's aftermath having imposed a continually humiliating position on the country, and a it's severity a prime cause for a second Great War).
Some openly joined the Nazi Party, and in every society there is a type of person who will take advantage of a given situation for selfish means (feeding economic, power or sadistic needs).
Others would have had little choice but to accept the situation (the acquiesence I referred to).
Some stood against it, but imprisonment and death were the frequent cure for that.
When we label soldiers from this society as 'Nazis' we overlook a myriad of human emotions. This doesn't just relate to the Germans in ROTLA, but to any case where the whole country is made to be synonymous with the party of it's leader.
In modern usage "Nazi" is synonymous with "villain", which implies that any person in a German uniform is also a villain, and therefore fair game for killing. The deleted scene of Sallah's intended execution would have made amends against that interpretation, but it would also have called into question Indy's activities. However, a pulp hero doesn't stop to question his actions, and, I suppose, the audience is not meant to.
Since Indy was presented as a rogue, I have long viewed him as an anti-hero, which makes him all the more interesting a character. As an anti-hero, unbound by heroic considerations, he can fight his way through a convoy of German soldiers (who are likely ignorant of their mission, or of Indy's status), while forming his own justification.
This adds another layer to the film. It's not simply the great patriotic American hero despatching goose-stepping Nazis. Indy is aware of what Hitler's possession of the Ark might mean, and he could base that on Hitler's desire to possess it. The consequences, if the Bible myths proved to be accurate, would bring about a greater number of deaths. The Germans in the convoy then become pawns in a greater game, regardless whether they were sympathic to the Nazi cause, or whether they were just soldiers lucky enough to be in employment during hard economic times.