- há 1 ano
Il y a un peu plus de 80 ans, de 1942 à 1944, la Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme (LVF), comprenant plus de 6000 hommes, fut envoyée en Biélorussie pour lutter contre les partisans soviétiques. Elle y a commis des massacres contre la population. Ces atrocités sont peu connues, car elles n'ont pas été étudiées en profondeur par les historiens français. Grâce à un film amateur inédit doublé d'un cahier intime, ce documentaire fait la lumière sur sur un épisode tragique et oublié de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
Categoria
😹
DiversãoTranscrição
00:00That was 81 years ago, in the USSR occupied by the Nazis.
00:23The whole village was burned down, they burned everything.
00:26From 1941 to 1945, Hitler's troops and their European allies committed numerous crimes against civilians.
00:41They threw us out and set the place on fire. They killed my father, and we were left all alone.
00:50That's where they burned them alive.
00:56Mass crimes of unimaginable proportions.
01:02These were the reprisal units; they didn't let anything slide.
01:07Among the Germans' allies, it is often forgotten, were the French.
01:11They belonged to the LVF.
01:20Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism.
01:25They too participated in the crimes, and their story has never been told on television.
01:29One of them, this man on the right, is called Hugo Ramaciotti.
01:37Having enlisted voluntarily in 1941, he kept a diary and filmed with his personal camera.
01:46Documents discovered by chance and entrusted to us by his family.
01:49It is through her eyes, her tormented impressions, that we will tell their story.
02:00His exceptional and unprecedented testimony sheds light on the atrocities committed against ordinary civilians.
02:07in the name of defending civilization.
02:09These soldiers belonged to Hitler's army, and they were French.
02:27All volunteers, they swore an oath to the fury and wore the uniform of the enemy.
02:33A tricolour patch sewn onto the right sleeve.
02:35While France was occupied by Nazi Germany,
02:41They were sent to the Eastern Front and formed the 638th Regiment of the Wehrmacht.
02:47To protect Europe from communism, he said.
02:52They were long considered, somewhat hastily, as insignificant soldiers.
02:57Poorly trained and poorly commanded, they are estimated to have numbered 6,000 over the course of the war.
03:02A small contingent compared to other European volunteers.
03:09A far cry from the 800,000 Russians and 250,000 Ukrainians recruited locally,
03:13or the 47,000 Spaniards sent by Franco.
03:15The story of these French people began in the summer of 1941.
03:25during Operation Barbarossa,
03:27when Hitler launched his army,
03:303.5 million soldiers,
03:31attacking the USSR.
03:32One month after the start of the attack,
03:40The Parisian collaborationist parties met at the Vélodrome d'Hiver.
03:44to demand France's participation in the offensive.
03:46They were never part of the French army.
04:16The LVF is a private military association.
04:21of the 1901 law type,
04:23supported by the German embassy,
04:25Pierre Laval,
04:26and Marshal Pétain.
04:29"You hold a part of our military honor,"
04:32the head of state will tell them from Vichy.
04:33Only half of the candidates were selected.
04:43Among them were adventurers,
04:46Petty thugs too.
04:48Some will triple their salary.
04:51Ambitious people.
04:52There are also these ideologues,
04:56who were called idealists at the time,
04:58like Jacques Doriot,
05:00the head of the PPF,
05:02the one who was speaking from the podium.
05:03In the eyes of the French public,
05:13They are traitors.
05:15It's at night, almost secretly,
05:17that the first contingent
05:18left the LVF barracks in Versailles,
05:21to go and fight in Russia.
05:22Here they are, heading east.
05:33filmed with Ugora Mazzotti's camera,
05:36always to the right.
05:40"We are leaving to participate"
05:41to the victory of National Socialist Europe,
05:44wrote the amateur cameraman.
05:48Assigned as a nurse
05:50to the first battalion of the LVF,
05:51he has no idea
05:53that they will soon be trained
05:54in the repression against the inhabitants.
06:03Within his own family,
06:05His commitment is not understood.
06:08And that's still the case.
06:0980 years later,
06:11when we meet in Paris
06:13his son Hugues,
06:147 years old at the time.
06:18Together, we watched the films
06:19and read his father's letters,
06:21died on the front in 1944.
06:23Not at all.
06:31Well, then,
06:33Here is the card he wrote to me
06:35So, two months before he died.
06:38"Be a proud man,
06:45courageous, strong and frank
06:48and abhorred lying.
06:51By this means,
06:52you will prepare yourself to be one day
06:54an upright man.
06:57I'm counting on you.
06:59I'm sending you a big hug.
07:00My little Hugues,
07:01see you soon.
07:06You know,
07:06Marshal Pétain said
07:08"Work, family, country."
07:10Eh ?
07:11Well, I would have liked to
07:12that my father
07:13pass the family
07:15before ideals.
07:17Family, country.
07:18I open the...
07:21I open the...
07:21Hugo Ramacciotti,
07:31an atypical soldier in the LVF
07:33and riddled with contradictions.
07:39He was born in 1908
07:40in an Italian family
07:41and spent his childhood in Egypt,
07:44raised in a Catholic school.
07:45Then he came to Paris
07:49study at HEC
07:50and married a French woman,
07:53Anne.
07:55Small business owner in the coffee industry,
07:58he considers himself more French
08:00than the French themselves.
08:04France, for him,
08:05That was all.
08:09And we must imagine
08:11the disappointment that it was,
08:12the catastrophe,
08:13when France
08:15lost the war
08:16facing Germany.
08:21Together,
08:22the father and the son
08:23attended
08:23at the entrance of the Germans
08:24in Paris in 1940.
08:30When trying to cross
08:31Foch Avenue,
08:32We saw German troops.
08:34who were marching.
08:36I couldn't prevent
08:37to stick their tongues out at them
08:38and my father scolded me
08:41because he said
08:42We're going to be in trouble.
08:43but he was,
08:46like me,
08:48It was awful for him
08:49to see that.
08:54For reasons that remain unexplained,
08:56he will tip over
08:57in the German camp.
09:00They were magnificent.
09:01They were impressive.
09:03They gave the impression
09:04of a strength
09:05huge.
09:07then my father
09:09has perhaps changed
09:10opinion
09:11because of that.
09:17In reality,
09:19this devout Christian
09:19is first and foremost
09:20an anti-communist.
09:21My father was speaking
09:24all the time
09:24of the crusade
09:25anti-Bolshevik.
09:27That was the big idea,
09:27the word crusade
09:28which refers
09:31to a Christian war.
09:36For him,
09:37Soviet Russia,
09:38He was the devil.
09:40It was the monster
09:41to be destroyed.
09:42He was above all
09:43very Catholic.
09:44Soviet Russia
09:47was clearly
09:48anti-Catholic.
09:51That's how it is.
09:52that he saw her
09:52In any case.
10:00In December 1941,
10:03three months
10:03after his commitment,
10:05Ramadziotti
10:05participated
10:06within the LVF
10:07at the Battle of Moscow
10:08at minus 40 degrees.
10:10A failure
10:14for Hitler's troops.
10:17And in particular
10:18for these French
10:18who approached
10:19of the Russian capital
10:20without managing to break through.
10:30He was convinced
10:31to win the war
10:33in two months.
10:34That the Germans
10:35were going to beat
10:36the USSR
10:37as they had beaten
10:37France.
10:40And in January 1942,
10:43He writes in his notebooks
10:44"We were arrested"
10:45by winter.
10:47In the spring,
10:49the battles
10:49will resume.
10:51In two months,
10:51It's over.
10:56But in the spring of 1942,
11:02Nothing is over yet.
11:04On the contrary.
11:07And for the LVF,
11:08A new battle begins.
11:11Nothing to see anymore
11:11with conventional warfare.
11:15With his classmates,
11:17Hugo Ramazzotti
11:17is sent
11:18200 kilometers
11:19behind the front lines.
11:21In Belarus,
11:23a Soviet republic
11:24conquered a year earlier
11:25by Hitler's armies.
11:29He settles in
11:30in several villages,
11:31including Murovo,
11:33on the banks of the Berezina.
11:34not far from the place
11:36where Napoleon
11:37and his great army
11:38have passed
11:38during retirement
11:39of Russia
11:40in 1812.
11:44This is it.
11:46at 2000 kilometers
11:47from France,
11:47that everything is going to get out of hand.
11:48The LVF
11:51its mission
11:51to fight
11:52against the Soviet guerrillas
11:53hidden in the forests
11:55around the village.
12:00Oddly enough,
12:01upon their arrival,
12:02the French
12:03are rather well received.
12:10We are staying
12:11staying with a local resident.
12:12Many kids
12:16and peasant women
12:17bring us
12:18strawberries
12:18and blueberries
12:19in exchange
12:20bread
12:20or soap.
12:24I contemplate
12:25beauty
12:26their eyes
12:26with long eyelashes
12:27and the red complexion
12:29and white
12:29of their faces.
12:34Our hostess
12:35we announce
12:35just a few days
12:36earlier,
12:37the supporters
12:38killed his brother
12:38after having
12:40stole a cow.
12:42Since they have
12:48took to the mountains,
12:50the supporters
12:51do not hesitate
12:51to requisition
12:52food
12:52in the village.
12:54In Mirovo,
12:5580 years after the events,
12:58we meet
12:58Anna Petrovna,
12:5912 years old at the time.
13:02For her,
13:03the arrival of the French
13:04in 1942
13:05It came at just the right time.
13:10The supporters
13:11had taken us
13:11pigs,
13:12sheep.
13:14They needed to feed themselves
13:14in the forest.
13:18That was before
13:18the arrival of the French.
13:23Very small,
13:24I had to lie down
13:25against a sheep.
13:27We hid
13:27supporters
13:28so that they don't take it.
13:31We slit her throat
13:33ourselves
13:34to eat it.
13:34They were kind.
13:38the French.
13:39Too nice.
13:41If they could be
13:42still here
13:42That would be good.
13:46A well-understood interest
13:47which even affects
13:49some families
13:50of supporters.
13:52In the neighboring village
13:53of Tchernivici,
13:55Irina Nikolaevna,
13:57although a girl
13:57resistance fighters,
13:59seems to appreciate
13:59some soldiers
14:00of occupying forces.
14:09Sometimes,
14:09they brought
14:10food,
14:11their remainder,
14:13And we talked.
14:17Peaceful relationships,
14:18temporarily.
14:22What is
14:23Can I say anything else?
14:30In Bosovo,
14:34there was
14:34a German doctor.
14:37My older brother
14:38brought him
14:39my little brother
14:40because he had
14:40inflammation
14:41on the arm.
14:45He was put
14:46the bandage
14:47ointment
14:48and the arm
14:48He recovered quickly.
14:55The French
14:55were taking
14:56girls
14:56out for a walk.
14:59Some
14:59They spoke Russian.
15:00The evening,
15:03We were dancing.
15:05We ran
15:06at these parties.
15:08They offered us
15:08harmonicas.
15:14It was good.
15:15An evening
15:16almost every day.
15:22For the soldiers
15:23of the LVF,
15:25The good life.
15:30they seem
15:31human beings,
15:32normal
15:33like us.
15:37But the fascists,
15:40They are the fascists.
15:42And the soldiers,
15:43They are the soldiers.
15:51Pacific in most
15:52villages
15:53where they settle,
15:54French soldiers
15:55will soon commit
15:56their first atrocities
15:57during patrols
15:58in the surrounding area.
16:04Upon their arrival,
16:06the German command
16:07gave them the mission
16:08to hunt down armed gangs
16:09which multiply
16:10helping hands
16:11against the roads
16:11communication
16:13in particular the road
16:13linking Warsaw
16:14in Moscow.
16:15invisible enemies
16:20knowing the place
16:22and threatening the occupier
16:22with every step.
16:32Here they are.
16:33those famous partisans.
16:36In Belarus,
16:37there will be some
16:37180,000.
16:38These images
16:43have reached us
16:44thanks to the cameramen
16:45sent by Stalin
16:46for the needs
16:47Soviet propaganda.
16:52Authentic images,
16:54Perhaps a little too cheerful,
16:56according to the accounts
16:57witnesses
16:57that we met
16:58in the former French zone.
16:59One of them
17:05is Goretsky Andrei Vitoldovic.
17:09He joined the resistance fighters.
17:10in the forest
17:11at the age of 15.
17:26I took my little cow.
17:27I ran away
17:30in the woods
17:30and I gave away my cow
17:31to the supporters.
17:37They accepted me.
17:39I was in the group
17:40Bolsheviks.
17:41There were nearly 400 of us.
17:50For months,
17:50the supporters
17:51are at a disadvantage
17:52facing the French
17:53who hold the villages.
17:57how we lived.
18:01We were starving.
18:06We were cold.
18:08There were many of us.
18:10400 people,
18:11They need to be fed.
18:13Hunger,
18:14the cold,
18:15fear.
18:16And that's all.
18:16We were left without food.
18:24without water.
18:26We ate grass,
18:27linden leaves,
18:29sorrel.
18:31We were trying to dig
18:31in the ground
18:32to find potatoes,
18:33even if damaged.
18:34I was naked,
18:38without shoes.
18:41That's how we lived.
18:45What I was thinking,
18:46how to survive.
18:54A total commitment
18:55caused by the crimes
18:56German soldiers
18:57from 1941,
18:59during the invasion
19:00of the USSR.
19:01From Moscow,
19:05Stalin called
19:06to the uprising
19:06residents.
19:23And that's what they do
19:24against the French
19:25of the LVF.
19:31The airplanes
19:38parachuted in
19:38weapons.
19:46We blew it up
19:47the railway
19:48between Samaljavitchi
19:49and Giudzina.
19:51We had to fight.
19:54It was war.
19:56Someone was killed.
19:57They were undressed
20:01to recover
20:02their clothes.
20:04The inhabitants
20:05they were helping us.
20:08Yes,
20:09We helped them.
20:12My father was
20:14liaison officer
20:15for the supporters.
20:18Everyone
20:19was waging war
20:19for his land,
20:22for his children,
20:22for the fatherland.
20:29The supporters
20:30were kind.
20:32They protected
20:33our homeland
20:33to prevent
20:34victory
20:34Germans.
20:36The Germans,
20:37these fascists,
20:38they were striking.
20:41Here,
20:41it was that
20:42families
20:42of supporters.
20:43We were all
20:43for the supporters.
20:47From the villages
20:48that they occupy,
20:50Hugo Ramazziotti
20:50and his comrades
20:51multiply
20:52operations
20:52of sweeping.
20:58He's filming
20:59with his camera
21:00seeing
21:01dandruff
21:01to his wife
21:02via military mail.
21:05And he does
21:05the story
21:06in his diary.
21:12A car
21:12just jumped
21:13on a mine.
21:16We must
21:16surprise
21:17supporters
21:17refugees
21:18in a village.
21:20We will cross
21:21thickets,
21:23marshes.
21:26I'm trying to take
21:27a reassured look,
21:28but I realize
21:29the danger.
21:32On three occasions,
21:34we find
21:34traces
21:35of camps
21:35that the supporters
21:36had to abandon
21:37hastily.
21:41One of them
21:41taken prisoner
21:44serves as our guide.
21:45A disappointing start.
22:01During operations
22:02combined
22:02with other units
22:03of the German army,
22:05they surround
22:06villages
22:06considered
22:07as enemies.
22:09Where,
22:09they think
22:11the supporters
22:11take refuge
22:12and feed on each other
22:12during the night.
22:13But it's a failure.
22:25One of the peasants
22:26we learn
22:26that the village
22:27housed 200 supporters,
22:29but that they retreated
22:30at 4 a.m.
22:34Fate seems
22:35to make fun of us
22:36And I don't understand anything.
22:37we appear
22:41in a corner
22:41and the supporters
22:43Dewar pisses.
22:45We're leaving again
22:46two days after
22:46and the supporters
22:48come back.
22:48It was during one of
23:05of these failed operations
23:07that the situation is spiraling out of control.
23:10Frustrated,
23:11the French
23:11they are attacking the livestock.
23:12The number of pigs
23:21and poultry
23:22massacred
23:22is incredible.
23:26It was necessary
23:27a simple break
23:28so that immediately
23:29The hunt is on.
23:32Why have I come?
23:33fuck
23:34in this mess?
23:36For a mazioti,
23:42a shock.
23:45The toll,
23:47very common
23:47on the Eastern Front,
23:48will become widespread
23:49to the LVF,
23:51because the officers,
23:52supposed to prohibit it,
23:53are often
23:54the first
23:54to engage in it.
24:03The captain
24:04is absolutely crazy.
24:04makes no sense
24:06of responsibility.
24:11What a band
24:11of bums
24:12and bastards.
24:20Looting,
24:22flight
24:23and already
24:25the first
24:26rapes.
24:29A legionnaire
24:29tell.
24:31I let myself
24:32to run into her
24:32And that's how I see it.
24:34boots
24:35dripping,
24:37grenades
24:38to my belt,
24:40the covered figure
24:41dust
24:41and dried sweat.
24:44He justifies himself.
24:48This is not
24:48a war of soldiers
24:49but pirates.
24:50for now,
24:59in Murovo,
25:00the inhabitants
25:00continue
25:01to support
25:01the French,
25:03including the family
25:03by Anna Petrovna.
25:08Support
25:09that she will pay
25:09at a high price.
25:10there was
25:14houses
25:14over there.
25:18Here,
25:18it was
25:18our house.
25:21And over there,
25:22Misha's house,
25:23the driver
25:24tractor.
25:27The supporters
25:28burned
25:28right here.
25:30They came
25:31and they burned
25:32the house.
25:32The cows
25:37were burned.
25:42Maybe
25:43because
25:43the French
25:43were there.
25:47The devil
25:48knows why.
25:58A population
25:59which is tearing itself apart.
26:02French citizens under threat
26:04who matter
26:05their first victims.
26:09We don't know
26:10if the person
26:11who smiles at us
26:11would not stab us
26:12with the greatest
26:13pleasures,
26:14Ramazzotti wrote
26:15in his diary.
26:20He continues
26:21to film.
26:25For his commitment
26:26in the war
26:26against the USSR,
26:27He is decorated
26:28of the winter medal
26:28to the East.
26:32That will be pleasing
26:33to Hugues,
26:33he said.
26:35Not fooled
26:35honors.
26:42He wishes
26:43NOW
26:43return to France,
26:45to find his wife
26:46and his son.
26:48But in the end
26:49of the year 42,
26:50with the beginning
26:51of the battle
26:51from Stalingrad,
26:53permissions
26:53are suspended.
26:54I have the blues
27:02Hopeless.
27:05I'm thinking of Hugues,
27:07to Anne.
27:11I have the impression
27:12to see her scream,
27:12to cry, to gesticulate
27:14and pray to me
27:16to backtrack.
27:17That was the correct answer.
27:29not to his ideal.
27:31He considers
27:32that in this LVF,
27:35there is a majority
27:35of thugs.
27:37It was a band
27:38rather than an army.
27:42For him,
27:42It was horrible.
27:43In the autumn of 1942,
27:54the units
27:54of the LVF
27:55have already been involved
27:56in massacres
27:57mass
27:58including Jews.
28:02On October 4th,
28:03this time,
28:04It's a French patrol
28:05who falls into an ambush
28:06tensed by the supporters.
28:1018 dead.
28:13It was bound to happen
28:17Sooner or later.
28:20The guys are operating on the ground.
28:23Two of them
28:24have severed fingers.
28:25They probably had
28:26rings.
28:30It seems that the injured
28:31have been completed
28:32by these bandits.
28:32for Ramazzotti,
28:44a new shock.
28:48The men are overexcited
28:49and would easily take revenge
28:50on civilians,
28:52he said.
28:53And they ask the question.
28:55Will there be
28:56A punitive expedition?
28:57Since a German decree
29:07from May 1941,
29:09reprisals
29:09on civilians
29:10are allowed.
29:12And the choice
29:12collective repression
29:13is left
29:14at the officers' discretion.
29:18He knows it.
29:20no soldier
29:20cannot be prosecuted
29:22for these acts
29:22against the population.
29:23Four days
29:33after the ambush,
29:35the German command
29:36launches an operation
29:37of retaliation
29:37led by the SS.
29:41These are guys' ruts
29:41who do not leave
29:42They have a lot behind them,
29:43Ramazzotti will write.
29:50For one week,
29:51The SS are going to attack them
29:52to the renowned villages
29:53and the enemies.
29:58A nightmare that is still raw.
30:0080 years later.
30:06We were mostly afraid
30:07of those who wore
30:08the helmet.
30:09On this helmet,
30:10there was a skull
30:11with very wide teeth.
30:14It looked like a grimace.
30:20Ramazzotti is not participating
30:21not to the operation,
30:23unlike some
30:24of his classmates
30:24of the first battalion.
30:28They came
30:29on that side
30:29And they burned everything.
30:31All !
30:32The supporters said
30:42Run away!
30:43Do not stay in the houses,
30:44Run away!
30:45The Germans are coming!
30:48But where could we hide?
30:52There was nothing we could do.
30:53To your supporters?
30:58Boom!
30:58They burn the house down.
31:07They listed torches
31:08and threw them away
31:09on the houses.
31:10Everything caught fire.
31:13Over there,
31:13It was burning.
31:14Over there,
31:14It was burning.
31:16And over there,
31:17The other houses too.
31:22And then,
31:23here.
31:25It was a purification.
31:27All those who were connected
31:28to the supporters
31:29were murdered.
31:29My mother was almost killed.
31:35If she hadn't
31:36kissed the German's hand,
31:37She was allegedly killed.
31:45I saw that the court
31:48was full of soldiers.
31:51They asked
31:52"They are here,
31:52The partisans?
31:54Dad said
31:56" Yes,
31:56They came.
31:58Someone had denounced
31:59dad, because they were taking care of him
32:00of their weapons.
32:05They turned everything upside down
32:06in the house.
32:07Then they hit him
32:08on the right cheek
32:09with something.
32:10He started to bleed.
32:11It was flowing a lot.
32:14I ran towards the woods.
32:16A soldier saw me
32:17And he laughed.
32:18He said
32:19"Little one, little one, little one!"
32:22I started to back away.
32:23He came towards me.
32:25He was big, robust,
32:27with a helmet.
32:28He grabbed my leg
32:30and threw me into the snow.
32:32I tried
32:33to run away
32:34by crawling.
32:40We didn't even have
32:41time
32:41to take our clothes.
32:45I was all alone.
32:47I was little,
32:47I was only 7 years old.
32:48I was afraid of the Germans.
32:56We ran away
32:58where our steps
32:59led us.
33:01We were crying,
33:01the little ones,
33:02Me and my brother.
33:05It was cold.
33:07minus 40 degrees.
33:08We had nothing to live on.
33:15My brother lit a fire.
33:19It warmed us up.
33:22We have arranged
33:22fir branches
33:23and we sat on it.
33:27We spent the whole winter
33:28in the woods,
33:29next to the fire.
33:30For the population,
33:44The ordeal has begun.
33:49Hundreds of people,
33:50perhaps thousands,
33:52will try to survive
33:53in the area
33:53controlled by the French.
34:00Some remain in the woods.
34:04Others are hosted
34:05in the neighboring villages
34:05by friends.
34:13War crimes
34:14which leave one indifferent
34:16a large number
34:17of French legionnaires.
34:20Watch their movies
34:21of that era.
34:25Sure of their righteousness
34:26after the ambush
34:27against their comrades,
34:28many approve
34:30repression.
34:34Hugo Ramacciotti
34:35himself
34:36does not take offense.
34:37The operations
34:38cleaning
34:39tests
34:39were atrocious.
34:40he wrote.
34:41But these are
34:42the necessities
34:43of the war.
34:44And I hope
34:44that the region
34:45will now
34:45calmer.
34:53In their struggle
34:54against the partisans,
34:56the French
34:56are now being helped
34:57by collaborators
34:58local.
35:00One at least
35:01by village.
35:03He points them out
35:04families
35:04of supporters.
35:09In our country,
35:09There was a traitor.
35:12He was a traitor.
35:13He betrayed the people.
35:19He was a policeman.
35:20without the traitors,
35:30the war
35:30could have ended
35:31faster.
35:38What were you doing?
35:40Traitors?
35:42We,
35:43the supporters,
35:44killed
35:45the traitors.
35:45what could
35:51What else is there to do?
35:54We couldn't
35:57to do things differently.
36:05What else can be done?
36:07It was necessary
36:08liberate the country.
36:08We are at the end
36:19of the year 1942.
36:22A general radicalization.
36:27While the allies
36:28land in North Africa,
36:30in Stalingrad,
36:31more than 200,000 German soldiers
36:33and of the two troops
36:34Romanian,
36:35Italian
36:35Hungarians and Croatians
36:36confront the Red Army.
36:46The LVF
36:47does not participate
36:47to battle.
36:50Considered by the Germans
36:51like soldiers
36:51of average quality
36:53the French remain
36:54stationed in Belarus,
36:561500 kilometers
36:57further west.
37:03Like the Russian volunteers,
37:04Ukrainians or Balts,
37:06they will continue
37:07to hunt down the supporters
37:08in the forests.
37:14But this time
37:14with new rules.
37:17On December 16, 1942,
37:20the German General Staff
37:21adopts a directive
37:22destination
37:22unit commanders.
37:27It says that
37:28all means
37:29will now be used
37:30against women
37:31and the children.
37:32Therefore,
37:33they say,
37:34that this leads
37:35to success.
37:36In other words,
37:41the entire population
37:42is a target,
37:43that it is linked
37:44to the supporters
37:45or not.
37:52Is the information arriving?
37:53until them?
37:56Ramadzioti is worried
37:59something completely different.
38:01The absence of letters
38:02of his family.
38:06It is 4:20 PM.
38:08Moutier is filming me
38:09with my device
38:10of photography
38:11smoking my pipe.
38:15The news
38:15are not famous.
38:16I sent it this morning
38:17my letter number 28
38:18to Anne.
38:20But what's going on?
38:24If Anne were ill,
38:25someone would write to me
38:26In its proper place, right?
38:28On the surface,
38:33He still believes it.
38:36My confidence
38:36in victory
38:37is unshakeable,
38:38he wrote.
38:41In reality,
38:43He is filled with doubt.
38:43One fact is intriguing
38:48for the rest
38:49of their mission.
38:51The officers
38:51they ask
38:52to no longer live
38:53in the same houses
38:53than the villagers.
38:59Civilians
39:00who house us
39:00are forced
39:01to settle elsewhere.
39:03The legionnaires
39:04are unhappy
39:04to put them
39:05at their doorstep.
39:09What to do?
39:13It's already been a year
39:18from Russia.
39:20Still not
39:20permission.
39:22An exile
39:23endless
39:24and routine.
39:29Behind
39:29false cheerfulness,
39:31he was stepping aside
39:31this blackening
39:32of stories
39:32sexual abuse
39:33committed by the legionnaires
39:34French,
39:35including officers
39:36on civilians.
39:42Men
39:43are at their wits' end.
39:43write to Maciuti.
39:46This legion
39:47is cursed.
39:52On Christmas Eve,
39:53He gets drunk
39:53with his classmates.
39:57That the year 43
39:59that
39:59of our victory,
40:01he launches
40:01to the off-center
40:02December 31st.
40:03She will be the one
40:14of the Ignumini.
40:18Because on January 6th
40:191943,
40:21six months
40:21after his arrival
40:22in Belarus,
40:24the nurse
40:24Amaciuti
40:25must participate
40:25to an expedition
40:26against villages
40:27alleged rebels.
40:27stated objective,
40:35free prisoners
40:36French detainees
40:37by the supporters.
40:44In reality,
40:45his battalion commander
40:46wants to make an impression
40:47and terrorize the population
40:49as they did
40:50the SS
40:50two months earlier,
40:51by applying
40:54the new rules.
40:59A quick section
41:01on horseback
41:01called
41:02"Shock troops"
41:03was constituted
41:04for the occasion.
41:08After a few skirmishes
41:09against the supporters
41:10in the forest,
41:12the column arrives
41:12in view of the small village
41:13of Sitch.
41:16He took
41:17his camera.
41:21I feel
41:23an unspeakable anguish.
41:26This village
41:26will be set on fire
41:27and with blood.
41:29Men
41:29have the order
41:30to go down
41:30any person
41:32that they encounter
41:32of any age
41:34or sex.
41:37These people
41:37are not responsible.
41:40There are children.
41:51As usual,
41:54they attack
41:54the village
41:55to the mortar shell
41:56but this time,
41:57They will rush in
41:58on all the houses
41:59without distinction
41:59and set them on fire
42:02one after the other.
42:04That they belong
42:05to supporters
42:05or not.
42:10Ramaciotti
42:10takes his few snapshots
42:11night
42:12then, horrified,
42:13Turn off his camera.
42:18These other images
42:19were filmed
42:20by German soldiers
42:21during similar massacres.
42:25Blows,
42:27torture,
42:28murders,
42:30rapes.
42:40The French
42:40were particularly nasty.
42:45They struck
42:46more people
42:47than the Germans.
42:50People
42:51were extremely afraid
42:52French
42:52charged with reprisals.
42:54They were called
42:55the punishers,
42:57the assassins.
43:00They raped women.
43:01my father has left
43:08in Sitsch
43:09to see
43:09and he saw
43:10the people killed.
43:15He saw
43:16their corpses
43:18recarbonized
43:18in the street.
43:22They threw
43:23children
43:23in the well
43:24with the grandmothers.
43:26Dad saw
43:30how they removed
43:31the bodies
43:32young girls
43:32from the well.
43:34He saw all of that.
43:36He came back
43:37at home
43:38with a fever.
43:40He said
43:41that he couldn't stand it.
43:42It was unbearable.
43:43to have.
43:45Everything was reduced to ashes.
43:46There was nothing left.
43:47The children
43:54are not responsible.
43:55What
43:55Are they guilty?
43:56Why did they
43:57killed and burned
43:58The children?
44:00After this night
44:05of horror,
44:06Hugo Ramaciotti
44:06resumes his camera
44:07and film,
44:08from afar,
44:09another village
44:10fire
44:11by the troupe
44:11shocking.
44:13Czernivici.
44:17From this quiet village,
44:20the awful death
44:21made its prey.
44:23A legionnaire
44:24told me
44:24that he witnessed
44:25unspeakable acts
44:26about an old man.
44:28They killed
44:30looted,
44:31raped
44:31to sanitize
44:33their dirty instincts.
44:33The inhabitants
44:45were locked up
44:45in the house.
44:48They killed them.
44:51They piled up
44:51their corpses
44:52on a table.
44:54Among these corpses
44:55stood
44:55my grandmother's
44:56and my aunt.
45:03My aunt was 12 years old.
45:11She was still alive
45:14above the corpses
45:16lying down
45:17about my grandmother.
45:22And she was screaming.
45:24She was crying.
45:28That's it,
45:29next to this tree.
45:31The house was there.
45:37They have completely
45:38The house was burned down.
45:40And she,
45:41They burned her alive.
45:45So,
45:46this stone here.
45:56That's where they were burned.
46:01Three days later,
46:13the survivors
46:14gathered here
46:15and they found
46:17my aunt's leg,
46:19not charred.
46:22The leg had remained
46:23with his boot.
46:24what I feel.
46:36Pain
46:37and pity
46:39to his loved ones
46:40who died
46:40For nothing.
46:41Back in his village
46:58garrison,
46:59Ramachuti tells
47:00the facts to his comrades.
47:05He protests
47:06with one of the leaders,
47:08Sergeant Barbara,
47:09and wrote in his diary.
47:14I am outraged.
47:17Barbara acknowledges
47:17having shot
47:18with his soldiers
47:19a considerable number
47:20of men,
47:20of women and children.
47:24But they are retreating
47:25behind the orders received.
47:29I make no secret of my contempt
47:30and say that there is
47:31among the horsemen
47:32genuine bandits.
47:41For a few days,
47:43this protest
47:44met Ramachuti
47:44in difficulty.
47:47Awareness,
47:48Commander Simoni,
47:49commander of the 1st battalion,
47:51opposes his promotion
47:52to the rank of corporal.
47:54But he is not sanctioned.
47:56and leaves it at that.
47:56What's going on?
48:01after the massacre
48:02Sitch?
48:04It's hard to know.
48:16The next massacre
48:17documented
48:18takes place
48:18Four months later,
48:20May 16, 1943,
48:22in this village,
48:24Kotovo.
48:24In Belarus,
48:30more than 600 villages
48:31and 9000 hamlets
48:32were burned
48:33and massacred
48:34by Hitler's forces.
48:37But how many
48:37By the French?
48:42The stories
48:43of several legionnaires,
48:45like Eric Laba's,
48:47refer to acts
48:48routine.
48:52We would suddenly appear
48:53like a hurricane.
48:55The inhabitants knew
48:56seeing us
48:57what awaited them.
48:59Ruthless,
49:00his face frozen,
49:01we accomplished
49:02in silence
49:03the few gestures
49:04indispensable.
49:06A tour of the barn,
49:08a handful of straw,
49:09a struck match
49:10and a kick
49:11in the first flames.
49:12after burning the village,
49:18the wells were collapsing
49:19with dynamite
49:20and they were ransacking the silos
49:21so that the potatoes
49:23become unsuitable
49:24to consumption.
49:25Bitter,
49:36Hugo Ramachioti
49:37will put away his camera.
49:38definitely.
49:42And in February 1943,
49:44when the battle
49:45of Stalingrad
49:45will be lost
49:48he will stop
49:48describe.
49:57Last night,
49:59I had a dream
50:00which made me anxious.
50:03I was in Paris.
50:05Stray bullets
50:06they whistled in my ears.
50:10Civilians,
50:11fucking joy,
50:12strolled through the streets
50:13and I felt
50:14than the Germans
50:15retreated
50:16ahead
50:16Anglo-gueulist.
50:22I was deeply moved
50:24in the face of collapse
50:25of my dreams
50:25socialists and nationalists.
50:28I deplored it
50:29of not being able to
50:30contributing to collective happiness
50:31and I felt myself floating
50:33around me
50:34the reproach
50:35terribly unfair
50:37for having betrayed France.
50:43In this premonitory dream,
50:50the contradictions
50:50of a man.
50:53In the name of his morality
50:54personal,
50:56he never stopped
50:56to criticize
50:57his classmates.
50:58He denounced
50:59their crimes.
51:04Yet,
51:05He remains with the LVF.
51:10It was full
51:11of contradictions.
51:13In three years of war,
51:15he came twice
51:16on leave.
51:17He had come to see me
51:18in Brittany
51:19and I heard
51:22my father said
51:22several times
51:23whom he admired
51:25two kinds
51:25of people,
51:28those who had chosen
51:29De Gaulle
51:29and those who had
51:31chose the LVF.
51:34And in 1944,
51:35when the FFI
51:37or people
51:37who were connected
51:38with the FFI
51:39searched
51:40to make him change
51:41in my opinion,
51:42they offered him
51:43to return with them,
51:46He opposed it.
51:48he said
51:48we don't give up
51:49comrades.
51:50I remember very well
51:51of this sentence
51:52in front of me,
51:53we don't give up
51:54comrades.
51:57So he knew
51:57that it was over,
51:59that he was going to lose.
51:59a tragedy
52:07where the end is written
52:09in advance,
52:11where one walks
52:11like a sleepwalker
52:12until his own downfall.
52:18The story
52:19from Gora Maciotti
52:20ended in July 1944.
52:23Wounded in the forehead,
52:24he dies
52:25in a hospital
52:25of East Prussia
52:26leaving his wife Anne
52:28and his son Hugues
52:30aged 10.
52:36Having become an adult,
52:38his son Hugues
52:39will be military
52:39like him.
52:41He will marry the girl
52:42of a French resistance fighter
52:43died in deportation
52:45in Nazi camps.
52:50My father is dead.
52:51he had
52:5136 years old.
53:00And often,
53:03I'm having a dream.
53:07I see it
53:08as if he were my son
53:11And I yell at him.
53:15I tell myself
53:17"But what is
53:18"What did you do here?"
53:22The history of the LVF
53:28will end
53:28in September 1944.
53:31After the liberation
53:32from Paris,
53:33when more than 1000
53:34of its members
53:34will join the division
53:35Charlemagne
53:36on request
53:38of Himmler,
53:38the head of the SS.
53:41They will find there
53:42veterans
53:42collaboration,
53:44including many
53:44French militiamen
53:45refugees in Germany.
53:50Until the collapse
53:51of the Third Reich
53:52in April 1945,
53:54they will fight
53:55in Poland,
53:56then in Germany.
53:58A few dozen
53:59of them
53:59will even be part
54:00of the last four
54:01defenders of Berlin.
54:09Taken prisoner
54:09by the Russians,
54:11most will be
54:12held in captivity
54:13in the Soviet Union,
54:15then in France,
54:17before being granted amnesty
54:18in the 1950s.
54:25To date,
54:27no French study
54:28has not been conducted
54:29in Belarus
54:29on the atrocities
54:30of the LVF.
54:31forgotten massacres,
54:36neglected by historians
54:37and still burning hot
54:39in the heart of the Belarusians.
54:40Subtitling by Radio-Canada
55:10Subtitling by Radio-Canada
55:12Subtitling by Radio-Canada
Comentários