gnu - I don't follow you. It sounds like we both agree that Churchill would never have surrendered if the Germans had successfully invaded the UK in, say, 1940 or '41 and trapped him in some defensive installation in London the same way Hitler got trapped in Berlin in '45. I think Churchill would have fought to the death rather than surrender. So where do you think we disagree about it? I'm puzzled by your post. Please clarify.

Hitler, like Churchill, always swore that he and his government would never surrender, and he held to that, finally killing himself and doing his utmost to take the whole nation down with him once all hope was gone. I figure it would have been a very similar story with Stalin, had Russia fallen to German forces.

The people I feel the most for are all the ordinary citizens and soldiers who got caught up in those terrible events (on both sides).