Depends on your perception on greatness doesn't it? I'll rather take Finnish soldiers of the Winter war and Norwegian/Greek/Yugoslavian/Soviet resistance fighters over any SS lot any day of the week.
Some say that the best soldier is one with nothing to lose, I say that the best soldier is one with nothing to lose in death but everything to gain in the death of his/her enemies and in the victory of his/her cause. And I like my people rational, which is why I'd take Paulus over Rommel any day of the week. Anyone who has the guts to say "I ain't dying over no Bohemian corporal" in 1943 is worth of every bit of my respect.
I am, infact, contrary to what you seem to believe, an anarchist. Not in the "let's grow our food in communes, call the coppers fascists and get high on grass" - type of way, but in the sense of rising beyond morality, be it recorded in laws or tattooed on my mind. As such I find it foolish to believe that desperate people held at gunpoint would make greater warriors than those fighting for what they believe to be right no matter what the cost. Ultimately you have to ask yourself, as anyone judging people's character, what are the sacrifices these people are willing to make. Someone who fights because he has to, has nothing to offer but his life. Someone fighting for himself and his family has more than that at stake, his soul and his spirit.
