I've just read that when a Soviet artillery commander told his troops to open fire on the Germans on June 22nd 1941 the men replied that they should let them come closer and try to explain to them that they should come to their senses and help rise up against Hitler.
The Russian people at the beginning of the war thought the German people were fine, just their leaders that were evil.
It took awhile for the Soviet people to treat the Germans in uniform as the enemy.
Stalin even alluded to that in a speech in May 42, that indifference to the enemy had been replaced by hate.

Ironcross,
Have you ever been to war?
Have you ever become a killer of men?
If the answer is No, then do not judge those that have.
You just don't know what can urges can be released in people in combat.

As for chopping off ears etc, that went on in the Falklands War in 1982.
Respectable people change once they've been in combat.

__________________