Many of the foreign volunteers fought under the banner of the swastika from areas outside Europe and were motivated by a desire for the freedom of their nations against Soviet domination or British imperialism.[3] Placing the volunteers from Eastern Europe who fought alongside the Germans into context, German historian Rolf-Dieter Müller comments that people in countries from Finland to Romania "suddenly found themselves caught between the 'red' hammer and the 'brown' anvil", leaving them little in terms of options; their subsequent collective "shock over German ruthlessness was surpassed only by their dislike for and even hatred of the Soviet Union".[10]