I once said that Robert E. Lee is a deserved hero for him standing with his state, and Censored immediately asked if this makes the Nazi soldiers fighting in the war heroes as well. I have thought a great deal about this, and I think I have an answer. It's kind of convoluted so bear with me. Yes, some of them I'm sure knew about what they were doing and decided to go through with it anyway, but there were also a bunch of people who were deluded into thinking that they were on the right side and thus didn't realize what they were actually doing. There were also a bunch of people who were merely executing orders. Were they heroes or not? It's hard to say, but certainly I hold some level of respect to anyone who is willing to die for a cause. I don't respect people like Hitler and his gang, who were doing the wrong thing intentionally, but I do respect, to an extent, those people like you or me who would probably do the same thing under the circumstances.
Robert E. Lee, due to his loyalty to his home state of Virginia, decided to follow Virginia's course of action and join the Confederate forces, even declining an offer of commanding the Union forces. Even though he was brought up as a practicing Christian, he wasn't confirmed as an Episcopalian until he was 46 years old in 1853, and even after the Civil War, he was described by Benjamin Harvey Hill as "a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbour without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward."
Nazi Germany, on the other hand, rejected Christianity and replaced it with an occult-based system of beliefs, and attempted to remake humanity in their image, promoting the Aryan people as the dominant "super-race" of conquerors and later eliminating the inferior "undesirables", with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin intended to be an occasion for Germany to show off their racial superiority, until Jesse Owens shattered the myth by winning 4 gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter sprints, long jump, and baton relay race, and stunning the Germans.