Die Wehrmacht 1944 Nr 1 Pt 1 - Hegewald Colony - Heinrich Himmler - Generalplan Ost - Gulag - DW 697

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That’s beautiful private footage from a German soldier taken in the Ukraine in the fall of 1943 that shows a defensive fort made out of logs; I love the tall camouflaged watch tower. That’s something you’d expect to see in an American wild west film. For the Nazi’s that’s what the Ukraine was, a territory to move into, tame and incorporate into the greater German nation. Sort of a German manifest destiny. The film, taken near the Russian city of Shitomir, fits in nicely with our subject for the day.

Today We’ll be looking at this special edition of Die Wehrmacht from 1944 and see film footage related to the articles in it. The normal Die Wehrmacht periodicals were intended to be sold in Germany. The Die Wehrmacht Ausgabe A - or Edition A - were sold in allied and occupied countries and today are more valuable than the normal editions. Here we can see the prices for the different countries.

The cover of the corresponding normal editions can be seen on the second page of the Ausgabe A. The normal editions were published one week earlier.

The first article covers the heavy fighting that was going on around the city of Shitomir. About 170 km from Kiew, the city had become an important and secret headquarters of the SS which Himmler called Hegewald. Early in the war after hitler had mentioned that the farmers tilling the land in the area looked very much like German farmers, Himmler had put together a plan to introduce around 10k Volksdeutsche, or settlers of German decent, to the region and to remove the slavic population.

Ethnic cleansing was done by the Soviets on a larger scale. They saw those of German decent as fascists and by the end of 1941 had deported around 900,000 that were living within the Soviet Union to the Kazakistan region in cattle cars. There, they where interned in gulags to live with captured German soldiers under terrible living conditions and used for slave labor.

This is a clip from Deutsche Wochenschau Nr. 697, from January 12 of 1944. It shows a German defensive position situated near Shitomir. It’s especially interesting because it shows how the defenses were built up, and then shows how the position was successfully defended during a Soviet attack.

Here we see an artillery spotter positioned in a destroyed soviet tank located in front of the German lines.

A heavy Soviet artillery barrage signals the likely begin of a large attack. The soldiers in the trenches prepare for the possibility of close combat.

The German artillery receives firing coordinates and begins to open fire. Because of the accuracy of the German artillery, the Soviet tanks and are unable to advance.

German Stugs that were lying in wait advance to counter the Soviet attack. They engage the Soviet tanks and anti-tank guns individually.

German Grenadiere that have been carried on the advancing Stugs dismount and attack the remaining Soviet pockets of resistance.

This is more of the private 1943 footage taken in the Ukraine. As I let it run I’ll take the opportunity to explain the additional material that I offer to Patreon channel member subscribers.

Much of the material in the massive film archive can’t be shown publicly because of its violent nature; It’s completely uncensored. I find it unsatisfying and frankly even dangerous to produce historical videos that don’t show the horror of the war.

On the other hand, I want to keep historical accuracy as the driving theme and not become a blanket provider of explicitly violent material. This project is about historical accuracy, it’s not about releasing goolish footage to the public.

The catchphrase of the video service, Come and See, comes from the 1985 Russian film of the same name. That film effectively portrays the intense violence and the psychological damage that it caused, that took place during the war in a sober manner.

This is a project in development that’s evolving and I was unsure how channel subscribers would react to the material. The feedback received so far seems to show that we’re going in the right direction. Here’s an example of a comment made about one private film reel that was recently released …

After watching that it's tough to say that this is what I was hoping for. ...Let's just say it’s ”good footage". ....Very heart-wrenching.

Of course not all of the exclusive material that channel members gain access to contains explicit violence. The private footage taken by soldiers is made up of a mixture of what you’d expect…locations, scenes of their day-to-day lives, local populations, military themes and even atrocities committed.

For those who have already become Patreon channel members thank you for taking part in the development of this ambitious project. If you haven’t yet and think that having access to this kind of material sounds interesting, well, come and see.