Presented in Spanish and presumably shown in Franco’s fascist Spain, this WWII German newsreel shows events from summer of 1941, with the German army advancing into Russia and “liberating” parts of Ukraine including Lviv / Lvov. Background on this is that the Soviet Union occupied Lviv (which was then part of Poland) in September 1939, according to secret provisions of the pre-war German-Soviet Pact. Germany then invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, occupying Lvov within a week. As explained by the narrator of this film, the Germans claimed that the city’s Jewish population had supported the Soviets. Within a short time, Ukrainian mobs went on a rampage against Jews. Ukrainian partisans supported by German authorities killed about 4,000 Jews in Lvov during the subsequent pogrom. According to Soviet Secret Police (NKVD) records, nearly 9,000 prisoners were murdered in the Ukrainian SSR in the NKVD prisoner massacres, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union began on 22 June 1941.
(1:08) German reconnaissance squadron on the Eastern Front. Henschel He126 aircraft are shown flying over Russian positions. The aerial camera is brought back (1:25) for fast processing of the film. At (1:30) the film is assessed on a rotating film drying rack. At (1:40) an analyst assesses the photograph and Heinkel He 111 bomber aircraft care dispatched at (1:40) to attack the Red Army column. At (2:30) a Soviet rail yard is hit and destroyed forts are shown. At (3:04) the Wehrmacht is shown advancing towards Lenberg, Lviv, Ukraine. At (3:09) thick mud, known as the Rasputiza, takes its toll on the German advance. At (3:40) German troops enter Lviv, which is still smoldering from the assault. At (3:58) the narrator mentions that the Ukrainians receive the Germans warmly as liberators, because of the “Bolshevik terror” inflicted upon them. At (4:08) the narrator blames Jewish leaders of the Soviets for inflicting a grave atrocity on the city: “Thousands of people of both sexes perished, victims of Bolshevik barbarism.” At (4:30) a still-burning prison building is shown, evidence (according to the narrator) of a cover-up. At (5:03), bodies of dead men, women and children are arrayed outside the prison. At (5:57) relatives mourn the dead while “guilty” parties are rounded up, and the narrator again calls them “Jewish murderers”. At (6:30) statues of Stalin and Lenin are destroyed with a sledgehammer by outraged residents. At (6:46) a portrait banner of Stalin is ripped apart. At (6:55) another flight of bomber aircraft strikes Red Army supply lines. At (7:43) the German drive on Bialystok is shown in the direction of Minsk, with the narrator intoning that the Red Army is terribly disorganized and not ready to fight. At (8:21) Soviet troops surrender to advancing German forces. At (8:28) a civilian shows his identity papers to the German soldiers. Before (9:06) large concentrations of panzers and armored vehicles are shown moving at will down a road, supported by artillery fire. At (9:14) thousands of Russian prisoners are shown assembling on a dirt road.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
