Was it necessary to take revenge on German civilians?

Most of Chaim Gorelik's family survived the war. Perhaps because of this, he opposed taking revenge on civilians in Germany. Some of his front-line comrades had a different view.The commander of another platoon in Gorelik's unit was Mikhail Milashevskii from Kiev, a graduate of Kiev University. Milashevskii was a Ukrainian by nationality, but his wife was Jewish. After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, he was drafted into the Red Army. His wife and two children failed to leave Kiev and were killed at Babii Iar. Milashevskii learned about this at an early stage of the war and went amok taking revenge on Germans. In April 1945 Gorelik had a remarkable conversation with Milashevskii, which he included in the first draft version of his memoirs in 1964:

"He asked me:

– How many Germans have you taken revenge on for the death of your loved ones?

– In hand-to-hand combat – eight or ten of them, but when I used a machine gun, I don't know how many.

– That's not what I mean. [I mean] civilians or [what I refer to as] disguised fascists?

– I do not do that.

– That means that you are not doing what you should.

– And what about you ...?

– Only [let it remain] between us. In any place where I encounter German men, I talk to them or ask others to find out who they are. If I find out that he is a Nazi, I deal with him myself.

– How, where?

– Maybe in the woods, or in a barn, or in a cellar, but I do not leave them alive

How many of them he killed, I do not know, but he knew German well and told me this in such a convincing manner that I believed him."