Get up, it's war
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Get up, it's war |
| Original title | Get up, it's war |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1991/92 |
| length | 6 × 45 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hartmut Kaminski |
| script | Hartmut Kaminski after "I am amazed that I am still alive" by Paul Kohl |
| production | Elke Kaminski (CIRCE-FILM); Uwe Kremp (SWF); Vitaly Volkov (IAN) |
| music | Henning Christiansen |
| camera | Dariusz Panas; Tomasz Habrewicz |
| cut | Elke Jonigkeit, Wanda Zemann |
Get up, it's war is a six-part documentary film series by Hartmut Kaminski about Army Group Center during the Second World War from 1990/91.
action
Hartmut Kaminski's film follows in the footsteps of Army Group Center from Brest to Moscow - and back to Berlin - after the attack by the Wehrmacht on the Soviet Union in 1941. Hartmut Kaminski succeeds in “accessing the war primarily from the perspective of his victims, the Nameless and tortured, the murdered and abducted. … Kaminski asks questions that made it possible to think about the battles. … “ 4th July 1991, Christian Hörburger, Funkkorrespondenz
1. Preparation and first day
On June 22, 1941, the German Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union in three large blocs. 5 a.m.: Army Group Center bombs Brest-Litovsk. Many residents cannot believe it. Some of them have their say Jossif Vainorowitsch, cameraman at the documentary film studio in Minsk, who was still thinking of an air show when he saw the first enemy bombers - but on the same day as a partisan he began to film the acts of war.
2. Advance
"The Germans treated us like cattle - and worst of all - their attitude towards the Russians - they made us subhuman," says Eduard Kufko, one of six million Soviet prisoners of war, about life in the camp near Minsk. After the first days of the bombing, the occupation regime took a hard hand after taking the cities: raids, roadside checks, barriers and camps determined the lives of people in Belarus from now on . But the “New Order” would not have come about without the help of the Belarusian collaborators. The battle for the Brest Fortress continues after the German Wehrmacht has advanced far beyond Smolensk.
3. The occupying power
First of all, the German Wehrmacht "overrun" the whole of Belarus and laid many cities in ruins. The “installation of fascist power” begins: the persecution and extermination of the Slavic race and the Jews. At the beginning of the occupation, the Nazis still used the effects of the Stalin terror for their own purposes, e.g. For example, churches are reopened - but everyday occupation is quickly characterized by controls, forced labor and hunger. The Russian winter of 1941 troubled the German Wehrmacht soldiers. Thousands of German soldiers freeze to death at the gates of Moscow - the city that its residents have been defending successfully.
4. The resistance
In response to the Nazi terror, the farmers close to guerrilla battalions together and act out of the impenetrable forests and swamps. In the "rail war" they repeatedly derail trains - called "concerts". So the partisans go from concert to concert and disturb the supplies. More and more young people are forming resistance groups in the cities. A highlight of the partisans is the successful assassination attempt on Wilhelm Kube, the Reich Commissioner of "Belarus", as the Germans call Belarus . The occupants begin their retaliatory measures: cremation of the partisan villages and the population.
5. Scorched earth
After the devastating battles for Moscow and Stalingrad, the German armed forces have to retreat, which is characterized by unimaginable atrocities. The only village cemetery in the world - Khatyn, 70 km north of Minsk - is a reminder of 628 villages that German soldiers razed to the ground on their return march. Nothing should be left that future generations could have rebuilt.
6. Liberation
The German Wehrmacht is no longer able to cope with the advance of the Red Army. Bit by bit, she is reclaiming her country - beyond Brest, where the war began in 1941. On their way to the west, the Soviet soldiers made horrific finds: mountains of shot civilians whose pyre - as in Trostinez - was still smoking; burned-out extermination camps, concentration camps, mass graves.
The film ends with a sign of reconciliation: Vocational school students from Orsha dig for the remains of fallen soldiers - Germans and Russians - on the former battlefield. The youngsters find their helmets, dog tags , bones, ammunition and they say: "The Germans are people and the Russians are people."
production
The film series is a co-production by SWF Baden-Baden, APN (TV Novosti) Moscow and Circe-Film and was produced on the 50th anniversary of the attack. This first co-production of the Soviet Union with a “capitalist foreign country” was only possible due to a ZK resolution.
Awards
The series was broadcast in all third programs of the ARD broadcasters, in Russia and Belarus . In 1991 the government and opposition in Belarus decided to show the series permanently in a room specially set up for this film in the “Museum of the Great Patriotic War”.
distribution
The VHS tapes were sold in all German-speaking countries and were rented by the state photo offices, the state center for political education and both church media centers.
Web links
- Zeit Online: Barbara Sichtermann: Really over?
- Memorial event in Lithuania in 2005
- TAZ: Manfred Lohmeier: You were guilty anyway
- Paul Kohl : "I am amazed that I am still alive"
- Tele-manuscript for Gertrud Schwärzler's series of programs
The individual parts published by the State Center for Political Education on Youtube:
- Part 1: preparation and first day
- Part 2: advance
- Part 3: The occupying power
- Part 4: The Resistance
- Part 5: Scorched Earth
- Part 6: The Liberation