Stalingrad (documentary)
The documentaries about Stalingrad compile excerpts from original films and testimonies from contemporary witnesses in such a way that a chronological sequence of the Battle of Stalingrad with explanatory approaches and descriptions of the situation emerges.
Documentary by Christian Klemke (2002)
The two-part, 45-minute documentary film Stalingrad by director Christian Klemke with co-author Jan N. Lorenzen under the direction of Johannes Unger was produced in 2002 by the then ORB for ARD . The first part of the rat war was on January 8, 2008, the second part of the boiler was on January 15, 2008 as part of the III. TV program of the RBB shown again.
It is a documentary film with German and Russian eyewitness accounts, original scenes and historical analyzes of the Battle of Stalingrad .
Part 1: The Rat War
40,000 civilians died in the week-long bombing of Stalingrad by the Germans on August 23, 1942. The Volga is covered with fire by oil on water. The whole of Stalingrad is on fire and becomes a field of rubble. The poorly equipped Soviet army wants to retreat to the other bank of the river, but Stalin's orders are: “Don't step back”. The residents must remain in the city as a living shield. The Soviet army is now supplied with ships across the Volga and takes wounded and civilians with them on the way back.
On September 13, 1942, General Tschuikow drafted the plan to encircle the German forces with a pincer movement. The prerequisite is that Stalingrad is held for another 2 months. The height 102.0 must be taken by the Russians. There are mines in the rubble.
The Germans gave birth to the term “rat war”. Drainage routes are used by the Russians for movements in the rear of the German forces. The civilians live in caves and in the sewer system. In house-to-house combat, rooms in a house are conquered and loopholes are formed by breaking out three bricks. Hand grenades are thrown into the narrow spaces.
With the onset of winter on November 1, 1942, the Volga began to freeze. General Chuikov is given a free hand by Stalin for his actions. The observations of the German aerial reconnaissance that hundreds of Soviet vehicles move to the Volga every night are ignored by German command posts. Unnoticed, the vehicles crossed the Volga north and south of Stalingrad at night and then disappeared from the ground during the day.
"Operation Uranus" begins unexpectedly for the German forces on November 19, 1942. With the support of 200 guns, 1 million Red Army soldiers overrun the German lines. Five days later, 22 German divisions with 300,000 soldiers are trapped in the boiler.
Part 2: the cauldron
The Soviet attack on November 19, 1942 was carried out by tanks and infantry and hit the incredibly poorly armed Romanians. The two Soviet army groups unite in Kalach-na-Donu and thus form the cauldron of Stalingrad. 150,000 of the German soldiers die. The losses of the Soviet forces are not published. The Soviet supplies must be brought across the Volga. The ships are shot at by German forces as they cross. The attacking Soviet soldiers try to hide as deep as possible in the ground. A sniper wounds a Soviet soldier to attract helpers and then shoot them. But there is also the situation that Soviet soldiers talk to German soldiers in German during a break in the fighting in a workshop.
Hitler forbids the outbreak: "Stalingrad must be held in any case". But only 30 planes with food get through each day. The Soviet flak shoots down planes. There is a rumor that the German 6th Army is to be liberated. General Hermann Hoth's 4th German Panzer Army is approaching the boiler within 40 km ( Operation Wintergewitter ). Vehicles are set up in the boiler ready to drive off. After 4 days, Hoth's attack is halted by Soviet forces. He retreated on December 21, 1942. The Soviet forces rely on psychological warfare : leaflets with the inscription "Passierschein" are intended to entice German soldiers to cross the lines. At night there are monotonous loudspeaker announcements: "Every 60 seconds a German soldier dies". Soviet parliamentarians are rejected by the German forces.
On January 10, 1943 there was a new Soviet offensive. The German soldiers flood back to Stalingrad. During the march back hundreds of exhausted soldiers are crushed by vehicles. A soldier with frozen hands can no longer feed himself alone. The food ration is now less than 200 g. There are no inhibitions. There are shootings among Germans around the occasional catering bombs. Soldiers themselves are executed a few days before the fighting ends. Music bands play a few more days before it ended. Not all seriously injured people can be flown out to Gumrak Airfield. The machines are overcrowded, the soldiers have to hold on to take off so that there is no list. Desperate soldiers hang themselves on the chassis of the machines and fall to the ground after take-off. At the end of January, the last airfield held by Germans had to be abandoned.
90,000 of almost 300,000 German soldiers are left. The soldiers with frostbite are a terrible sight to the victors. The German soldiers march into captivity day and night in long lines. The officers are treated much better than the soldiers by the Soviet forces in special officers' camps. Chuikov's army marches west and reaches Berlin two years later.
Documentary by Sebastian Dehnhardt (2006)
The 90-minute documentary Stalingrad by Sebastian Dehnhardt under the direction of Guido Knopp was shown on January 10, 2006 on ZDF .
It is a documentary film with eyewitness accounts, original scenes and scenic reconstructions of the Battle of Stalingrad with the following phases of documentation.
Advance
The plot begins before the "enclosure" in the summer of 1942, also describes crimes against the civilian population and the Soviet soldiers and documents the two-week uninterrupted bombing of Stalingrad by German planes. The urban warfare in close quarters and the approach of Soviet snipers in the ruins of the city, which stretches 30 km along the Volga, is described. The German troops approach the Volga within 150 m. About 10,000 civilians still live in the city.
encirclement
The encirclement by Zhukov on November 22, 1942 and the inferno for the allied Romanian divisions is shown. The Soviet soldiers meet at Kalatsch on Don . Around 1000 Soviet tanks compete against 80-100 German tanks. Paulus wants to break out, Hitler initially accepts, but Göring makes him believe that an adequate supply from the air for weeks is possible. This is how the stop command is created. Only a third of the supplies and field post required arrive in Stalingrad, the rations are shortened (1 slice of bread, 1 watery soup). Despite the cold, no fire may be made at night.
Manstein is supposed to free the encircled troops. The Panzer Group Hoth ( Wintergewitter Company ) comes near the boiler. Paul forbids the breakthrough. On December 23, 1942, Manstein withdrew the tank groups.
After Christmas 1942 there is no longer any hope. Nevertheless, death sentences are pronounced and carried out against those who doubt victory.
The boiler is getting narrower
On January 8, 1943, the Soviets made an offer to negotiate. Hitler rejects negotiations. The ring is tightened, the wounded are left behind, 40,000 are without care. Winrich Behr is flown out of Stalingrad to report, arrives at Wolfsschanze on January 14, 1943 and gives Hitler a situation report with discussion for three hours. He leaves Hitler under the impression that he has already made his decision not to give up Stalingrad.
Military personnel are flown out via Gumrak Airfield . The wounded are only flown as far as Poland in order not to reveal their malnutrition. People pounce on the planes in order to be picked up on the return flight from Stalingrad. It is described that people were thrown out of the aircraft or the soldiers clinging to the wings were shaken off by the aircraft wobbling or the pilots simply accelerated if the machines could not start due to overload or had to start due to fire.
German propaganda only reports heavy fighting on the Volga. According to a visitor from the front, there was a smell of cognac, cigar smoke and fried food in Paul's headquarters. The 20 generals dare not surrender because breaking the oath could result in the death penalty. At the end of January 1943 the kettle was split open, and on February 2, 1943 the battle was over.
After the surrender
Severely wounded people who are not cared for are given up for fear of epidemics. The prisoners march over corpses, 20,000 prisoners die during the march due to a lack of resistance, and another 50,000 die in makeshift camps around Stalingrad. Surviving Germans, Italians and Romanians are used as slave labor to rebuild the destruction in the Soviet Union.
Adenauer brings back the last prisoners of war through his negotiations. In 1956 the last prisoner of war from the Soviet Union (also from Stalingrad) came to Germany as a returnee.
Individual evidence
- ↑ First broadcast date and interview with Dehnhardt on the sources of the film
- ^ Documentary film Stalingrad by Sebastian Dehnhardt and Manfred Oldenburg, which was shown as a repeat in Phoenix on November 4, 2010 from 8:15 pm to 9:45 pm.
Web links
- Documentary by Sebastian Dehnhardt