- 16 hours ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00The Wehrmacht
00:30German soldiers have overrun Europe under the command of Adolf Hitler.
00:38Untold, thousands of soldiers have witnessed atrocities committed on defenceless civilians.
00:43Time and again, soldiers and officers have come into conflict with their conscience.
00:47But few are prepared to take responsibility for their actions.
00:52How much leeway did individual officers and soldiers have?
00:55Ten million were deployed on the Eastern Front in a war of annihilation.
01:00Carrying out Hitler's plans? Or was this the Wehrmacht's own war?
01:04Did it turn them into ruthless murderers? Or is barbarity an inevitable part of war?
01:14What role did the Wehrmacht play in the crimes committed in Germany's name?
01:27Human rights were brutally violated and international laws broken in many theatres of war.
01:34Crimes against civilians, against prisoners of war, participation in the Holocaust, crime after crime is documented.
01:41What did ordinary soldiers see or hear of them? How far were they involved?
01:50We had a different level, I have to say. But the people did not do anything.
01:54We had to do anything.
01:57I had to do my duty, understand? I can't say, now I see, that's schief.
02:04I can't be able to do anything. That's not going to happen.
02:06We looked through the window and saw there, there were a group of dead people on a row of people.
02:14The Wehrmacht was basically clean.
02:17I had to know, I only met people. I can't say that.
02:23I could have even had a hand up and then some cameras shot.
02:28But on the other hand, it was the same.
02:30We had to say, we had to say that it was a crazy.
02:34That you would see some people on a row of people, and then they would hang up there.
02:39It was a terrible.
02:41There were soldiers, there was a guy called a guy.
02:46They were not healing. They were there with us.
02:50Recently, the question of crimes committed by the German army has been more closely examined.
02:56Bitter public disputes have encouraged new studies.
02:59The results are complex.
03:01Illegal orders were issued. Crimes against humanity were committed.
03:05But there were also soldiers who followed the voice of their conscience.
03:14Newly discovered files of the British Secret Service.
03:17They reveal what the German military elite was really thinking.
03:21All the generals who became British prisoners of war had their conversations recorded round the clock.
03:27The 10,000 pages of transcripts offer a unique insight into the thinking of the German military elite.
03:36The men who had military responsibility for Hitler's war had always lived in a world apart.
03:41Shaped by World War I, they went on to serve a ruthless dictator.
03:4584 of the Wehrmacht's 3,000 generals were housed in a luxury prisoner of war camp, Trent Park, near London.
03:53Their conversations reveal what they really thought, thanks to the hidden microphones of the British Secret Service.
03:58General Heinrich Eberbach is a prisoner here. So too is his son, Eugen, a hardliner.
04:08But Heinrich Eberbach is beginning to have doubts.
04:11The British Secret Service were astonished by so much frankness.
04:21You might go as far as to save the million Jews, or however many of them we've killed.
04:27Well, that had to be in the interests of our nation.
04:33But the women and children, that was unnecessary.
04:37That's where we went too far.
04:40Well, if Jews have to go, then the women and children do too, or at least the children.
04:56You don't have to do it in public.
05:02But what good does it do just to get rid of the old people?
05:08It's too inhumane.
05:10How many Polos have we killed?
05:16We killed at least one million of them.
05:20How many did we kill in Yugoslavia?
05:24I never knew about that.
05:27I was never part of that.
05:31How many Russians have we killed?
05:34Not just Poles.
05:41Like Heinrich Eberbach, many generals are plagued by guilt.
05:45Historian Sönke Neitzel discovered and evaluated the transcripts.
05:50He found a revealing openness in the conversations of these high-ranking prisoners.
05:55It's a very special situation, in which the general Intran Park had been found.
06:01They were out of their old relations with the Wehrmacht of the Third Reich.
06:05And they were not yet again in the Republic.
06:09So it was an interim phase, in which they were no longer orientated.
06:13And they had to be free from other relations.
06:16They had to be free.
06:18They had to be free than before.
06:20And they had to be free than after.
06:21The prisoners at Trent Park talked more about war crimes than any other subject.
06:35They had the dimension of this human violence that had been taken there.
06:41And that had to be involved.
06:43Because it was a certain value horizon.
06:46That didn't mean it.
06:48On the other hand, they were involved in it.
06:50They were part of the Wehrmacht.
06:51They had a commandment of violence.
06:53So how does that make it into contact?
06:55That was a challenging question,
06:58which this general had been involved in months and years.
07:00The war in the East was to become a war of unprecedented barbarity.
07:14Many Wehrmacht soldiers find themselves in fierce combat for the first time.
07:17What was said to us is that the Russians are dogs.
07:24The Russians make no prisoners.
07:26The Russians bite their eyes and such stories.
07:31We heard this cruel propaganda.
07:34But we did not.
07:35We heard this.
07:36We heard this.
07:37Horror propaganda.
07:39Peter Schilling grew up well protected in a parsonage.
07:43At 18, he volunteered enthusiastically for the Wehrmacht.
07:47Even though his parents were anti-Nazi.
07:49I wanted to go to the war.
07:52One of my uncles was one of my uncles.
07:55One of my uncles was Captain of the sea.
07:58He was later Captain Admiral.
08:00And I wanted to become a officer.
08:03And I found that chic.
08:05With a chic outfit.
08:07But I was then forced to leave.
08:09Because at the war,
08:11only people wanted to have the war,
08:13and they didn't have the war.
08:14And I was a bit short-sighted.
08:18And a half a year later,
08:19they took me with a kiss.
08:20And I didn't want that anymore.
08:26Max Gotthard grew up as an orphan in Hamburg.
08:30It was a tough upbringing.
08:32But all the hard knocks of childhood
08:33couldn't prepare him for the experience of war.
08:36Like losing your best friend.
08:43That was a servant of Düsseldorf.
08:46And we had to find a weird pace there.
08:48And we had to go on.
08:51We did walk up.
09:02He ran into a machine gun for fire
09:06and was from down to down to where I started.
09:09And I was then overcame.
09:10and this power not here can come given or that's what I'm going to
09:18the land title chief of the armed forces high command had issued his notorious
09:23commissar order before the Russian campaign had even started it called for
09:27the execution of red army political commissars as soon as they were
09:31captured the commissars were political propagandists they enforced discipline
09:36in Soviet ranks if necessary by force
09:44they could be identified by the red star on their sleeve
09:49den befehl hat uns also gepflicht gemäß so sagte er unser company chef an diesem
09:55abend vorgelesen und er fügte dazu etwas was hat sie eingeprägt weil ich es weil
10:01wir das alle als eine große also mit großem mut verbunden haben er sagte
10:08ich habe ihnen das vorgelesen weil ich es musste was jeder davon zu halten hat
10:14muss er mit seinem gewissen abmachen und das haben wir als ganz großartige offene
10:23stellungnahme gegen ein befehl er angenommen und wir hatten also große hochachtung vor
10:30unser company chef dass er etwas gesagt hat only a few soldiers can or want to
10:36remember that the commissar order was actually carried out
10:41jeden morgen wurden immer commissar unter die gefangenen raus gut und die wurden dann
10:47erschossen dann da waren so alte schützen geben muss sich hinsetzen und da wurden
10:52es war was glaube ich in der polizei einheit die die es haben unsere
10:55Leute nicht erschossen
10:59for a long time it was said that the commissar order was only carried out in
11:03exceptional cases but just recently a young historian has taken the time to
11:08check the records of compliance or non-compliance with the order
11:17in der zeit des laufenden feldzuges zeigte sich die bereitschaft der deutschen
11:21truppen und stäbe den commissar befehl zu befolgen die auswertung der deutschen
11:28akten hat ergeben dass bei allen armeen bei allen deutschen armee kurs und über 80
11:33prozent der deutschen division der kommissar befehl ausgeführt worden ist
11:37beziehungsweise kommissar erschießungen in den akten nachweisbar sind
11:40was it and that was true of the sixth army commanded by field marshal valter von reichenau
11:45his father had been a prussian general and he became an officer after high
11:50school he met hitler in 1932 before the nazis came to power and he was soon an
11:55enthusiastic supporter being a loyal party member makes him an exception among the
12:01generals
12:03in autumn 1939 reichenau learns that hitler intends to invade france they discussed
12:11the plan several times
12:12historian tim richter has studied reichenau's career for several years he has made some
12:24interesting discoveries als einer der wenigen höheren offiziere hatte reichenau erkannt
12:32dass es wichtig ist direkten zugang zum diktator zu haben das war für viele unter der würde
12:37oder die haben gesagt mit politik wollen wir nicht zu tun haben wir haben jetzt mit
12:40der aufrüstung genug zu tun so dass es häufige besucher häufig treffen mit reichenau hitler
12:47gegeben hat reichenau tries to talk it out of his plans on military grounds he fails and hitler
12:54is annoyed
12:56nach einer ansprache hitlers an die generalität als klar war wieder lässt sich mit lässt sich von
13:03dem entschluss zum angriff nicht abbringen hat er sich mit einer der führenden
13:06persönlichkeiten des bürgerlichen widerstandes karl göttler in leipzig getroffen und beide kamen zu
13:12dem ergebnis dass ein angriff deutschlands im west 39 eben fairene folgen haben würde das einzige
13:19diesen zu verhindern wäre wenn die angriffspläne bekannt werden würden
13:23after the meeting godele leaks reichenau's information to the british government
13:28reichenau is prepared to commit treason in order to counter hitler's decision
13:34but just 18 months later reichenau shows a completely different side in the russian campaign
13:40in the ukraine mid august 1941
13:52reichenau's sixth army advances into the town and takes it without a battle
13:59special units of the ss begin to murder jewish civilians
14:04bello объявлено по радио чтобы все евреи одели свои повязки знаете шестиконечная звездочка да
14:17чтобы они все одели вот это свой знак и они вынуждены были одеть этот знак а потом где-то
14:25считайте наверное две недельки три недельки может четыре недельки все-таки я была 12 лет не было да
14:31собирали их на юный на расстрел значит уничтожали еврею когда я мы даже с мамой видели эту колонну
14:44когда шла колонна еврею да more than 800 jews were shot dead in bila церкова
14:51the wehrmacht's field command supplied logistics support for mass murder
14:55умничтожали
15:00what should be done with the 90 children left over
15:30for the time being they're locked up in a schoolroom an army driver takes a few
15:36offices over to investigate
16:00also schrien und rumgebrillt oder irgendwie was haben sie nicht die waren ganz ruhig da in
16:06dem zimmer wo wir waren lieutenant colonel helmut großkurt a staff officer with the division that
16:12made its headquarters in the town writes this report the rooms were filled with about 90
16:17children there was an indescribable amount of filth rags diapers refuse lay everywhere
16:25countless flies covered the children some of whom were naked almost all the children were crying or
16:31whimpering the stench was unbearable in the above-mentioned case measures were taken
16:38against women and children which were no different from atrocities committed by the enemy
16:44gross court insists that sixth army headquarters make a decision
16:48are the children who are imprisoned without provisions really going to be murdered talks are
16:53held gross court is granted a postponement now the decision is in the hands of walter
16:58van reichenau commander-in-chief of the sixth army killing small children poses no problem for him
17:04he issues the order to gross court in writing
17:06i have decided as a matter of principle that once such an action is started it should be carried out
17:13in an expedient fashion all the children are murdered soon afterwards reichenau issues an order covering
17:23the conduct of troops in the eastern territories he speaks of the war of annihilation the asiatic jewish
17:29threat and the pitiless extermination of alien treachery ugly words which had ugly consequences in
17:38den akten der unterstellten verbände der sechsten armee aus der folgezeit lässt sich die wirkung dieses
17:44befehls besonders deutlich ablesen denn bei den unterstellten verbänden der sechsten armee schnellten
17:50in der zeit nach diesem reichenau befehl die erschießungsziffern von zivilisten und
17:54partisan sprunghaft in die höhe it's not known how many frontline soldiers knew about the work of
18:00the murder squads however quite apart from the right now order there were so many executions
18:06and so many victims it was impossible to keep them a secret with the massacre of the children of
18:16bilat selkwa and his provocative order that followed reichenau has distinguished himself as a loyal nazi
18:24within months he's promoted to commander-in-chief army group south apparently back in favor with hitler
18:36the eastwards advance continues the sixth army marches to the volga the 11th army moves further south
18:43towards the crimea
18:43dietrich von koltitz is a colonel in the 11th army born on an estate in silesia he entered the cadet
18:58corps at the tender age of 13. he will be captured in august 1944.
19:03koltitz war sicherlich ein sehr fähiger general der sehr schnell karriere gemacht hat ein frontmann
19:11ein frontsoldat der seit 1940 in vorderster front stand und hier sehr erfolgreich gekämpft hat ein
19:18mann der erstaunlich reflektiert sich äußert auf der anderen seite ein choleriker der auch sicherlich von
19:27seiner eigenen wichtigkeit überzeugt war und der deswegen sehr schnell bei seinen kameraden in den park um
19:33unbeliebt gewesen ist und keiner wollte mit ihm so wirklich was zu tun haben
19:38like many other generals in british captivity he talked almost compulsively about the crimes he'd witnessed
19:47at the end of the crimean campaign colonel von koltitz later promoted to general briefly
19:52returned to germany on the way home he experienced something that's still on his mind years later
20:03i arrived one day sometime after the fall of sevastopol the airfield commander came over to me
20:14and i could hear gunshots are you doing an exercise i asked
20:18and he said for heaven's sake i can't talk here they've been shooting jews for days
20:31the crimean peninsula plays an important role in hitler's racial obsession
20:36for once in the distant past a german tribe the goths had settled here
20:40now most of the ethnic groups are to be deported from the region and the jews are to be executed
20:50in the british secret service recordings general von koltitz seriously incriminates himself
20:56the most difficult assignment i have ever carried out with the greatest sorriness i might add
21:04it's the liquidation of the jews
21:11i fulfill this assignment with ultimate conviction
21:26that's a thriving jewish community in the port city of sebastopol
21:39as soon as the germans occupy the city ss special task force d begins its persecution of the jews
21:45often with the support of the wehrmacht
21:47in this house where we lived there were Jews and Jews and Greeks and all the nationalities
21:58of us lived here
22:00but we had a friend with this family
22:02which we studied in one school
22:06his name was Jacob
22:09and his name was Treivas
22:12We were in one year together with him. We were taught only by different classes.
22:20And when the Germans came, they wrote a letter.
22:27Yakov did not survive.
22:57Historian Norbert Kunz has studied events in the Crimea during the war.
23:27Few of the execution sites are known today.
23:42Few of the execution sites are known today.
23:49Many knew about or participated in the mass murders.
24:04Afterwards, no one likes to remember these atrocities.
24:07Nevertheless, racist theories still shape their thinking.
24:11Just before the end of the war, Lieutenant General Heinrich Kittel gives a perfect example.
24:18Oh well. These Jews were the plague of the East.
24:25They should have been put somewhere and given something useful to do.
24:32By the way, whatever knowledge I may have over these things, I am keeping my mouth shut as long as I can.
24:39Until they actually put me on trial.
24:41At the small town of Kripke in White Russia, Wehrmacht units take part in the murder of Jews.
24:48A former infantry soldier remembers.
25:13A former infantry soldier.
25:14A former infantry soldier said to apple and said to the army,
25:22They were not cutting into the fleet.
25:23They said,
25:25the boys, we have a hard task.
25:27If I don't want to do it,
25:29I don't need to do it.
25:31No one had been called and said,
25:33I don't want to do it.
25:35At 2 o'clock, the whole city was over
25:39from the police company
25:41or from our MG company.
25:43We went into the houses
25:45and said,
25:47go out to the market.
25:49The Jews are herded out of the town
25:51to nearby marshland.
25:53We had a deep
25:55deep grave,
25:57deep grave, like the tomb.
25:59And
26:01suddenly,
26:03everything was stopped,
26:05the soldiers would stop.
26:07And then,
26:09when they were in the woods,
26:11they said,
26:13we were going to kill you.
26:15We were going to kill you.
26:17We had a deep
26:19washing.
26:21And then,
26:23we had to put them all in the face.
26:25And here,
26:26the deep graves.
26:27And then,
26:28we had to make 10 people
26:29free clothes.
26:31And then,
26:33we had to put them
26:35on the ground.
26:37We had to guard the execution site,
26:39while the executions take place.
26:41The edges of the mass graves
26:43are lined with planks.
26:45The edges of the mass graves
26:47are lined with planks.
26:53And so,
26:55the two large walls
26:57are standing,
26:59they're hugging the family,
27:01and the enemy is shooting.
27:03There was a small rifle.
27:05There was a small rifle.
27:09a rifle.
27:11They're shooting.
27:12And they're falling over this grave.
27:15And they're shooting.
27:17They're being shot,
27:18they're running off the other
27:19and they're running down.
27:21And they're running into the grave.
27:23Miraculously,
27:25Sofia Shalaumova survives the shooting.
27:27They're shooting.
27:29People are falling into the grave.
27:33nobody notices she's still alive she manages to escape the masquerade before
27:58it's covered over and hidden for the rest of the wall but every day ordinary soldiers could come
28:13across shocking examples of their colleagues disdain for Jewish lives like the scene witnessed
28:23by Peter Schilling in Stalino in the Ukraine present-day Donetsk
28:28Eine schwangere Frau, deutlich schwanger, einen dicken Bauch, aber hat auch einen Säugling noch auf dem Arm und die konnte nicht schnell genug auf einen Lkw steigen und da hat ihr ein Soldat, ein Wehrmachtsangehöriger, ein Soldat das Baby weggerissen, hat es auf den Lkw geschmissen,
28:56der für mich dunkle Lkw, Frachtraum und dann die Frau gejagt, geknüppelt, mit seinem Gewehrkolben hinterhergetrieben und ich war entsetzt über das, was ich da gesehen habe und erlebt habe und ich fragte einen der absperrenden Posten, was ist denn das für eine Sauerei hier, was passiert hier?
29:25Und er sagte zu mir, ganz ruhig, ach reg dich nicht auf Kamera, das sind ja nur Juden, die kommen in den Arbeitseinsatz.
29:31Work detail, often a codename for execution.
29:38In Trent Park, Heinrich Kittel tells a typical story about something he witnessed in Latvia.
29:44He's anti-Semitic and loyal to the regime, but full of arrogance and disgust towards the special task forces of the SS.
29:51The orderly said to me, colonel, you should go there, there's something to see.
29:57I just stood nearby, that was enough for me.
30:01300 men were driven out of Düneburg and they dug a pit.
30:05The following day they returned, men, women and children.
30:10They were counted and then they were forced to undress.
30:12Then 20 of the women had to stand close to the edge of the pit, naked.
30:18They were then shot and fell down into it.
30:22How was it done?
30:23They were facing the pit.
30:25Our men came up close to them and shot them through the head.
30:29One man gave the command and 20 people fell into the pit, like clay pigeons.
30:33I went back to the car and turned to the SS men in charge and said to him,
30:41I forbid you once and for all to do these shootings outside where everyone can watch.
30:46If you shoot them in the woods or anywhere else where nobody can see it, it's up to you.
30:51But we get our drinking water out of the wells here and we can definitely do without corpse water.
30:58General Kittel protests against the execution of Jews,
31:01but only because its secrecy cannot be guaranteed
31:04and because he sees a threat to his soldiers' drinking water.
31:08In reality, the reserve units of the Wehrmacht largely cooperate in the mass murders.
31:13In Trent Park wird eben deutlich,
31:15dass die Wehrmacht an allen großen Kriegsverbrechen des Dritten Reiches beteiligt gewesen ist.
31:19Die Gefangenen sprechen über den Holocaust,
31:22auch die Beteiligung der Wehrmacht am Holocaust.
31:24Die Gefangenen sprechen über die Ermordung der sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen,
31:28auch die Beteiligung der Wehrmacht da dran.
31:30Die Gefangenen sprechen über die Euthanasie, Geiselerschießungen und so weiter.
31:34Und in diesen Gesprächen wird eben deutlich,
31:36dass es nicht ausschließlich Verbrechen der SS, der Gestapo oder das SD waren,
31:41sondern dass die Wehrmacht in führender Position an diesen Verbrechen beteiligt gewesen ist.
31:46And yet, from the very beginning,
31:49the officers and generals of the Wehrmacht
31:51try to unload responsibility for the executions onto the SS.
31:56In their luxurious prisoner of war camp,
31:58they prepare their line of defence.
32:00The SS did things unworthy of an officer during the mass executions.
32:13Things that every German officer should have refused to do.
32:17It would be politically desirable for the German officer to call to say,
32:24to say,
32:31we have nothing to do with these people,
32:35but I'm not sure.
32:36We would get very far by saying that.
32:43They could immediately reply,
32:46oh yes,
32:47Captain Watts' name
32:49is a German army officer.
32:52Colonel Wattsit
32:53is an officer.
32:56And they did exactly
32:57as the SS have done.
32:58When I am asked to testify,
33:03whatever I say,
33:05I intend to twist it in such a way
33:07that the officer call
33:08is cleared off everything.
33:10I'm absolutely determined.
33:22It is still not known
33:23how many Wehrmacht soldiers
33:25were involved in the crimes.
33:26Even if,
33:28as conservative estimates indicate,
33:30it was only 5%.
33:31On the Eastern Front alone,
33:34that would be 500,000 men.
33:39According to Nazi ideology,
33:41Russians, Jews,
33:42and other minorities
33:43are subhuman.
33:44The greatest enemy
33:45is Jewish Bolshevism.
33:47And many Wehrmacht soldiers
33:49take these beliefs literally.
33:52General Wilhelm von Thoma,
33:54one of the more self-critical
33:55of the generals at Trent Park,
33:57gives a shocking example.
34:02And then the captain
34:03says to the lieutenant,
34:05damn,
34:06I can't stand seeing
34:07these farmyard faces anymore.
34:10Takes out his revolver
34:12and shoots the farmer
34:13who he had personally invited over
34:16and blows him across the table.
34:18But he was severely punished for it.
34:21The captain.
34:22Just wait a moment.
34:23The woman screams boo murder,
34:25sits herself on the stove
34:27with her children
34:27and starts crying.
34:29The captain then says
34:31to the lieutenant,
34:33see to it
34:33that I can get some peace
34:35and quiet.
34:38He draws his revolver
34:39and shoots the woman.
34:43There's still the girl,
34:45a ten-year-old boy
34:47and a two-month-old little baby.
34:50Suddenly,
34:52yep,
34:53she's got to go too.
34:56And he just shoots the girl.
34:59Now it's a ten-year-old boy's turn.
35:01The captain says,
35:03take him outside
35:04and shoot him.
35:04He was killed
35:06by a shot to the neck.
35:07Now there was just
35:11the two-month-old little baby
35:13left on the stove.
35:17Then he said,
35:19get that animal out.
35:22He chucked it down,
35:23grabbed his food
35:24and threw it out into the snow.
35:28I had them court-martialed.
35:30The captain just said,
35:31we didn't shoot any human beings.
35:33I asked for the death penalty
35:37for both of them,
35:38a public execution,
35:40shot by their own company.
35:44They weren't punished.
35:46They were just sent
35:47to some punishment battalion.
35:49A minority of soldiers
35:54like Friedrich Hassenstein
35:56are appalled
35:57by this coarsening
35:58of human nature.
35:58Peter Schilling
36:25doesn't want to be party
36:26to this any longer.
36:27He takes action.
36:29He drives
36:29to the Swiss border.
36:30I sat a little above the street
36:34on the edge
36:37of a wall.
36:39I watched the street
36:41and I saw one or two
36:44streets and saw
36:45a certain rhythm.
36:47Now it came to a street.
36:51It will probably
36:52be a half an hour
36:53until the next street comes.
36:55And I thought,
36:55I have to go down
36:56and I have to go over the street.
36:58I have to go over the street.
37:00I have to go over the street.
37:01And the Stacheldraht,
37:03that was not just a
37:04Stacheldraht,
37:05but a real
37:06Stacheldraht
37:07to go over the street.
37:08I had to go down.
37:10And I knew in the moment,
37:11when I go down,
37:12I couldn't move
37:14to the left and left.
37:15I had to go over the street.
37:16And I couldn't move
37:16to the street.
37:17And I couldn't move
37:17to the street.
37:18And that was, that was very, very grave.
37:23That was the only time where I was afraid of fear.
37:27When I was broke, I was like a crazy guy.
37:32I grabbed a knife and shot the trees and screamed.
37:37And, here I am, here I am.
37:40You can't get me anymore.
37:42And so on.
37:44And I was on the side of the Swiss.
37:47While Peter Schilling is making his bolt for freedom,
37:50in the east, Soviet POWs are systematically being starved.
37:55About half the six million Soviet prisoners die of hunger.
38:00The German generals, now themselves prisoners, know they are guilty.
38:07During the winter of 1941 and 1942,
38:12at least three to four million people died of starvation.
38:17They gave them too little to eat.
38:20That was the great crime.
38:23They are human beings.
38:25Even a Russian is a human being, damn it!
38:27We acted like wild beasts.
38:30Not like civilized people.
38:33No.
38:34In Yugoslavia, attacks by partisans and snipers are feared more than anything else.
38:42Especially since the Serbian uprising in the fall of 1941.
38:46The Wehrmacht responds on its own initiative,
38:49largely without the participation of the SS.
38:52And with extreme violence.
38:54Frequently civilians are arbitrarily selected and killed.
38:58It violates all the rules of war.
39:00But it happens every day.
39:02Colonel Eberhard Wildemuth was a witness.
39:08In Trent Park, he describes this unpleasant period to a fellow, sir.
39:14In Serbia, I was ordered to have 100 people shot for every dead German.
39:27And 50 people for every wounded German.
39:31But I never carried out the order.
39:38In one Serbian town, the Commandant had two dead and three wounded.
39:45He rounded up 350 people.
39:50And shot 200 Serbs for the dead men.
39:53And 150 for the wounded.
39:57About 2,400 people were shot there.
40:05But these are things that didn't have to happen.
40:09Because I allowed this order to be carried out, for example.
40:18They'll get me for that.
40:20And they'll say,
40:22You passed this order on.
40:25And I say,
40:26Well, I had to.
40:28Otherwise, I would have been shot.
40:34That's my defense.
40:36But Moruli is certainly no defense at all.
40:42In Panchevo, not far from Belgrade,
40:44the situation is especially volatile in April 1941.
40:49So-called ethnic Germans live here.
40:51And nine have been killed by sniper fire during the Wehrmacht invasion.
40:58The night before their burial, someone shoots at Wehrmacht soldiers.
41:02Two are fatally wounded.
41:0638 inhabitants of the town are arbitrarily arrested.
41:10A summary court-martial under the administration of the local Wehrmacht commander
41:15sentences 36 of them to death.
41:17There is no proof of their guilt.
41:20The suicide of this war, however, was also commissioned.
41:22Even after this war, the 18 people were избcks of fire.
41:28The 18 people were authorities provided their 악dity,
41:29with the weapon...
41:30.. besides pushing troops.
41:31The city of panchevozogen Birthdays,
41:32of the CIA arrived in refurbish' army and concentrated.
41:33and panchevački volksdeutscheri with weapons to the grave,
41:39where a small group of German soldiers was already built.
42:03The whole procedure is to serve as a deterrent.
42:08A Wehrmacht soldier captured the scene with his movie camera.
42:14The hangman of Pancheva was a volunteer,
42:16a member of the local German minority, a plumber by trade.
42:28On the other side of the wall,
42:30the German soldiers carried out the rest of the executions.
42:54The Wehrmacht generals held at Trent Park
42:56were completely clear that they had violated fundamental rules of humanity,
43:00at least according to Ferdinand Haim,
43:02long-time chief of staff to General von Reichenau.
43:07One of his fellow prisoners tells him about Babi Yar, near Kiev,
43:10where both had served.
43:12Special task forces there had murdered more than 30,000 Jews.
43:16Even if the figures are incorrect,
43:23I think that these are things that can be referred to as criminal,
43:27or even as completely mad and insane.
43:30Just as I have responsibilities to my family and to my nation,
43:35naturally I also have to observe certain rules of humanity.
43:40There is absolutely no doubt about that.
43:43I can't just behave like a white animal.
43:50General von Koltitz, who had been a field commander on the Eastern Front like Reichenau,
43:55had always distanced himself from Hitler and his party.
43:58As a prisoner of war, he takes time to reflect,
44:02and is the only one to say out loud what the others hardly dare to think,
44:07that the generals did not live up to their responsibilities.
44:10We all share the guilt.
44:21We went along with everything.
44:23And we half took the Nazi seriously,
44:25instead of saying,
44:27to hell with you and your stupid nonsense.
44:33I misled my soldiers into believing this rubbish.
44:36I feel utterly ashamed of myself.
44:43Perhaps we bear even more guilt than these uneducated animals.
44:55The ordinary soldiers who put their lives on the line
44:58are often not up to the moral and mental demands made on them.
45:01As the war goes on, their inhibitions are progressively released.
45:08Max Gotthard had already witnessed the harsh realities of war in France.
45:14He's now serving in Italy.
45:19The soldiers are engaged in a fighting retreat.
45:22Since Mussolini was deposed and Italy broke off its alliance with Germany,
45:25the Allies have been advancing from the southern tip of Italy.
45:29The Germans are constantly under attack from partisans.
45:32We had later on the march on the march on Major Wiegand.
45:41He was a 1. Rang.
45:44He was in the north of Italy.
45:47He was in the north of Florence.
45:49He was in the villages.
45:52He sent the men to Germany to Germany,
45:55to this woman or that woman.
45:58He was in the north of Peru.
45:59It was the north of France.
46:00He needed to see that.
46:01Yes.
46:02I know very much about where they were coming from.
46:04How far the partisans were more,
46:06but the partisans were under attack of the people.
46:08The Wehrmacht's constant fight against the partisans is no solution.
46:13Rather it's the source of the problem.
46:15We saw three comrades who were cut their tails,
46:20but they could never get caught up.
46:22in tuscany at the headquarters of the river arno shots are occasionally exchanged with the partisans
46:35on april the 11th 1944 two germans are killed in such cases the wehrmacht always respond in the same
46:42way at dawn on april the 13th 1944 soldiers of the hermann goering division surround the scattered
47:04groups of houses of the village of valuccioli south of the front of the giorno si senti bussa la porta
47:14s'apri la porta erano in due come come come come she came to me accompagnaron i fu fu il primo
47:23di casa mia m'accompagnaron a carcere sedere giù nella piazza di valduccioli
47:28tutta la gente vero pauriti vidi la mia zia con un bambino accolto uno di sopra con il fucile
47:45gli spara e l'ammazzò poi un giovanotto circa 10 o 12 anni così non so dall'era della giovane
47:56il rito arriva uno con la pistola la mia nonna della morta in casa di tonnelli la mia mamma della morta
48:08di in sala la mia moglie della morta fra la doretta e l'armadio con i bambino accolto
48:17l'armadio 108 civilians lie dead among them 43 women and 22 children
48:29this is not an isolated case soldiers of the wehrmacht killed 10 000 civilians in italy
48:38max gotthard was only a witness at such atrocities
48:41but his final analysis is extremely self-critical
48:56people are destroyed and so is the spirit of civilization
49:01with the allies poised to enter paris hitler issues an absurd order paris must not fall into
49:08the enemy's hands but if it does he must find nothing but a field of ruins dietrich von coltitz is now
49:16wehrmacht commander in paris he is to carry out the order as he recalls in trent park
49:22flat in paris with 500 men those were my orders i was also given that order
49:35paris is to be flattened all the bridges are to be blown up yes the man is insane
49:44general von coltitz defies hitler's order taken prisoner in paris he's treated well shortly before
49:55his surrender he had secretly arranged a truce with the french resistance this is the same man who by
50:01his own admission allowed jews to be murdered sometimes good and evil are not far apart
50:07he wouldn't have had the resources to destroy paris anyway
50:16he tells his fellow prisoners how he responded to the destruction order
50:19i said i have no cannons i have no explosives all i have is his useless bow and arrow
50:30the 98 infantry rifle yesterday morning when i handed over i could see only one machine gun firing
50:41but how i'm supposed to set the louvre on fire with that or raise the genre to the ground
50:47i'm not quite sure
50:58coltitz was released in 1947 and lived until 1966. he was buried with military honors
51:08walter van reichenau who had let the children die in biladzerkva
51:13suffered a stroke he was killed when the aircraft taking him to hospital crashed he no longer had to
51:18justify his actions eberhard wildemuth caught up in the reprisal murders in serbia joined the free
51:25democratic party after the war he was minister of housing at the time of his death in 1952
51:34max gotthard spent a short time as prisoner of the americans
51:37after the war aged 26 he could finally pursue his true vocation bookseller
51:45peter schilling tried to stir up resistance to the wehrmacht in france in the latter stages of the war
51:51after 1945 he got into trouble in both parts of germany since 1962 he's been living in the netherlands
51:57there was resistance to hitler in the higher ranks of the wehrmacht as well
52:05was it the atrocities they had witnessed that forced them to act
52:08or was it the changing course of the war
52:20so
52:36so
52:40you
Be the first to comment