It occurred to me that Nazi ideology was entrenched in the German people from as early as the 1920s and officially since 1933 to 1945. You’d think that such a systemic worldview would be difficult to eradicate but it would seem Nazism was quickly removed after the Allies and Russians conquered them.
On the flip side, the Taliban have an entrenched ideology, but despite being occupied for over 20 years they returned to power overnight.
So, I guess two questions: Why didn’t the Nazis wage a guerrilla campaign to retake power? And why were we unable to destroy the Taliban the way we did Nazism?
Resources - Germany was occupied by 4 countries, all of which had large, drafted armies. The US didn’t ever really attempt a full occupation of Afghanistan and outsourced the occupation to blatantly unprepared Afghan forces.
Depletion of resistance - As Germany fought almost until the complete end, there just weren’t many young male ardent Nazis left after they lost 2,000,000 people during the war. The Taliban by contrast melted into the South of Afghanistan and eventually Pakistan, and never really went away.
Common enemy - Remember, Germany was divided between east and west for decades. Whatever Nazis were left likely retained their hatred for communism, and had at least that as a reason for collaborating with the western allies. This wasn’t as much of a factor for the Eastern part of Germany, but then again that regime didn’t last either.
Better occupiers? A bit speculative, but one might imagine that the occupying forces would’ve been more sympathetic to Europeans that had more in common with themselves as compared to Afghans from a completely different world. American forces in Afghanistan were rather heavy-handed, walling themselves off from the common Afghan people and building detention and torture centers. The resulting Humiliation and frustration among Afghans may have contributed to sympathy for the Taliban.