Need your help in finding the name of a documentary

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Kentaurus
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Need your help in finding the name of a documentary

#1

Post by Kentaurus » 14 May 2006, 06:11

I remember a thread in the Holocaust section of the forum some months ago where someone asked if there exists film footage of German massacres against the civil population of occupied countries. When I read that thread I remembered having seen a documentary on German TV some years ago. That documentary contained footage of German reprisals against the civil population of IIRC a Serbian town. The reprisals were meant as punishment for the killing of German troops by partisans. As I understand it is rather famous footage. It shows the hanging of a dozen or more randomly chosen citizens of the town. One of the victims yells "Heil Hitler" before they kick the chair from under his feet. The executioner is a collaborateur and a citizen of the town. Part of the same action is the shooting of a large number of citizens of the town. They were lined up against a long wall and shot. From that incident stems a rather famous photo of the victims lined up against the wall and a German soldier (who wears a helmet) stepping forward and pointing a pistol at the victims. I tried to find the photo through Google but no luck. If someone could post the photo. The film footage is commented on by the soldier who filmed it. He remembers how shook up he was by it all, especially by the collaborateur who carried out the hangings as he seemed to really enjoy his work. Now my questions are, do I remember correctly that this happened in a Serbian town? Which town was it? I would be most grateful if someone could tell me the name of that documentary as it might be available on a file sharing network and I could check the facts myself. Thanks!

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Kentaurus
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#2

Post by Kentaurus » 02 Jun 2006, 06:04

I found part of the footage that I'm talking about here:

http://www.flurl.com/uploaded/World_War ... 85396.html

The footage starts around timecode 00:00:43 and finishes at around 00:02:25. Does someone know the name of the town where it happened? As I said, IIRC it was in Serbia. Does someone know the name of the German-TV documentary that showed that footage. The reason why I'm asking is that I remember that the German soldier who filmed the footage comments on it in the documentary and his comments are very insightful.


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Peter H
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#3

Post by Peter H » 02 Jun 2006, 08:18

Kragujevac,October 1941.

I think the documentary was part of the Crimes of the German Wehrmacht: Dimensions of a War of Annihilation, 1941—1944 [Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Dimensionen des Vernichtungskrieges 1941—1944] exhibition.

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Gebirgsjaeger
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#4

Post by Gebirgsjaeger » 02 Jun 2006, 09:21

Kentaurus wrote:I found part of the footage that I'm talking about here:

http://www.flurl.com/uploaded/World_War ... 85396.html

The footage starts around timecode 00:00:43 and finishes at around 00:02:25. Does someone know the name of the town where it happened? As I said, IIRC it was in Serbia. Does someone know the name of the German-TV documentary that showed that footage. The reason why I'm asking is that I remember that the German soldier who filmed the footage comments on it in the documentary and his comments are very insightful.
Hi Kentaurus,

you´re talking about Pancevo, Serbia on 22 April 1941.

Yugoslav forces had cleared Pancevo on 12 April 1941. On their retreat they killed nine Germans (Volksdeutsche/sog. Donauschwaben). Their bodies were found outside the village and taken back into Pancevo. There was a funeral for those killed on the morning of 22 April 1941. A military band of the Wehrmacht participated.

In the meantime the regiment "Grossdeutschland" had arrived in the area of and around Pancevo. With the exception of a medical company there where no SS units anywhere around Pancevo.

After "Grossdeutschland" had arrived there were several incidents involving snipers against German soldiers, mostly shooting from the villages cemetary onto a road used by German messangers. Two members of "Grossdeutschland" where killed.

The German "Standortkommandant" Oberstleutnant v. Bandelow, issued the following public order: "There have been repeated attacks and snipings against German soldiers in violation of international law. For every wounded or killed German soldier 10 Serbs will be hanged. If this still doesn´t stop the sniping we will double the number to 20."

During a search of the cemetary´s catacombs and a nearby restaurant the Wehrmacht soldiers arrested several ARMED citizens/civilians. Because the "Grossdeutschland" had no own military judge, the judge of the next Division, "SS Reich" was ordered to take up the case (SS-Sturmbannführer Rudolf Hoffmann). A regular German military trial was held and 36 Serbs were found guilty, 4 were not found guilty and released. They guilty were all sentenced to death according to the rules of landwarfare (Haager Landkriegsordung). The delinquents that wore there weapons open were sentenced to death by shooting, those who wore them concealed were sentenced to death by hanging.

The firing squad (Exekutionskommando) was formed under the command of the leader of Pionierzug III/GD. For every delinquent there were two German soldiers in the firing squad and the Leutnant was responsible for any "Fangschuss".The others were hanged by civilians the ethnic German Hermann Brumm und an Hungarian citizen. The whole execution was filmed and photographed by PK-man Gottfried Kessel of "Grossdeutschland".

After the war the whole incident was investigated by the German state attorneys in Munich and Darmstadt. On Sept 28th, 1973 the case against the SS judge Rudolf Hoffmann was closed and he was not found guilty of a crime because "from documents and witnesses we came to th result that the people killed on April 22 1941 in Pancevo were partisans. Such partisans could be sentenced to death according to international law. They were killed after the surrender of the Yugoslav army on April 17th 1941."

Source: Post, Walter "Die verleumdete Armee"

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