31 y o polfag here
also
my grandgrandfather from mother side, was arrested by Gestapo in occupied Tarnow, in Poland, because of corruption in some addminstrative work he was doing
They sentenced him for 4 years of forced labour in Germany
He escaped after an year, bringing photos from his work, of himself and prisoners from local concentration camp,
I seen photos myself, of him ( wearing german long coat in winter without any marks or insignia) holding a shovel, posing to camera.
When he escaped he brought those pics back to Poland = he had those photographs in his personal belongings, so it was not for any propaganda purpose.
He was weel feed, and he came back with some earned german currency... ( such force labour .. )
After hearing his stories, from my grandgrandmother, I started doing resarch over holocaust
ALSO
one of the stories from my grandgrandmother was saying that while german occupied those areas around Tarnow, it was peaceful, Germans were polite to local population, esspecially after they deported Jews from the city.
one of the stories was that while germans were retreating, there were still german patrols, in the area, group of 5 germans visited houese of my grandma, she had 5 kids at time, they knocked to doors, showed with hands they hungry... she took them inside, was making some potato-thingys on the oven, dry stuff to eat... while she was preparing for them, they been waiting patiently, some playing with the kids
one kid peed the german guy knee, etc, he just standed up went out shaked it off, all did smile etc
they paid her for food with packs of matches and a some accesories for field food cooking.
When Russians were coming, all girls been running and hidding in forests, barns, soviets been plondring houses and raping, this is what she told me.
So yah my expression from doing resarch and hearing stories of my fammily experience with German occupant, makes german look as a good guys