WAR CRIMES against German soldiers DECIMATED in Denmark, RAW FOOTAGE - Operation Land of Mine 1945

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Episode 270

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TO DECIMATE
kill one in every ten of (a group of people, originally a mutinous Roman legion) as a punishment
for the whole group. "the man who is to determine whether it be necessary to decimate a large
body of mutineers"

VENGEANCE OR GOOD POLICY?

This fabulous footage show German POWs forced to clear minefields in Denmark after the German surrender. Although seen by many as an appropriate punishment for the suffering caused during the occupation it was in fact a war crime. After watching this reel and talking about Operation Land of Mine I’ll show some additional footage in Copenhagen of the Germans evacuating and surrendering so stick around, it’s worth it, I promise.

Over 1.3 million German landmines were cleared from Denmark's shores and fields from May to September 1945

It’s estimated that more than 2,000 soldiers including a number of teenagers, under the command of Danish officers, removed mines. 149 of them lost their lives during the five months of mine clearing, 165 were severely wounded and 167 lightly wounded.

The removal, the cynically named Operation Land of Mine, was part of a controversial agreement between the German Commander General Georg Lindemann, the Danish Government and the British Armed Forces, under which German soldiers with experience in defusing mines would be in charge of clearing the mine fields. But in reality many of the POWs that were forced to take part were teenagers and elderly men who were not trained for this dangerous task, they were poorly fed and not well taken care of.

The huge quantities of mines that had been successfully removed were gathered together in large holes and blown up.

In order to ensure that those doing the de-mining were working diligently, after an area in the grid was declared mine free, the POWs were then forced to walk the field to prove it. It wasn’t uncommon for men lost their lives during this walk. The final step in the de-mining process was to test using surrendered German armor. Within the hour, the designated de-mined area is reported back to headquarters. The warning sign is removed from the zone.

In retrospect, this activity has been condemned as a war crime since it violated the Geneva Convention of 1929, which states in Article 32 that no prisoner of war must be forced to participate in dangerous or unhealthy labour. This certainly qualifies.

MOVIE
Land of Mine (Danish: Under sandet, lit. 'Under the Sand') is a 2015 historical war drama film directed by Martin Zandvliet. It was shown in the Platform section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. It was selected and nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards.

Plot
Following the end of World War II in Europe and the liberation of Denmark from German occupation in May 1945, the Wehrmacht and SS occupiers became prisoners of war. A group of young German prisoners are sent to the west coast where they are trained to use their bare hands to remove the landmines that the Germans had buried in the sand. After their training, the boys left under the charge of Danish sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen who is determined to treat the young prisoners without sympathy. Marching his squad onto the dunes, he promises that they will return home in three months, if they can each defuse six mines per hour for a total of 45,000 mines.

One of the boys, Sebastian Schumann, attempts to remain optimistic as they discuss their plans for when they return home. The POWs are given little food due to post-war shortages and begin to suffer from malnourishment, with Ernst befriending a young local girl to steal some bread from her. One day, while defusing a mine, Wilhelm's arms are blown off and he later dies in a field hospital. Most of the boys become ill after eating grain contaminated with rat faeces that they found on a nearby farm; they are treated by Rasmussen who makes them purge themselves with seawater. Rasmussen gradually treats his charges more kindly, stealing food from the base for them and tries to maintain morale by reporting that Wilhelm has survived. He also allows the boys to use a device invented by Sebastian to improve productivity.

Hearing rumours of Rasmussen stealing food for the boys, his commanding officer Captain Ebbe Jensen brings a group of British soldiers to abuse and torment the boys. Rasmussen stops them but is confronted about the theft by Ebbe, who accuses him of being sympathetic towards the Germans. During another day of demining, Werner is blown to bits after encountering landmines buried one above another, leaving his twin brother Ernst distraught....