In my lifetime it's definitely morphed from a sort of uplifting idea about the power of 'simple humanity standing up in the face of authoritarianism or the war machine' into a sort of bizarre invented 'last moments' pre-gore pic for a lot of wild accusations without much basis in reality.
Sort of uplifting anti-authoritarian shorthand turned dehumanizing atrocity propaganda for a bunch of gruesome urban legend stuff.
In my lifetime it's definitely morphed from a sort of uplifting idea about the power of 'simple humanity standing up in the face of authoritarianism or the war machine' into a sort of bizarre invented 'last moments' pre-gore pic for a lot of wild accusations without much basis in reality.
Sort of uplifting anti-authoritarian shorthand turned dehumanizing atrocity propaganda for a bunch of gruesome urban legend stuff.