Wehrmacht exhibition

World War II German Military
#1

Hi,

I have found a documentary of the Wehrmacht exhibition, it was a big controvert when it was shown to the German and Austrian public in 2000, Neo nazis and some vets was demonstrating at the opening of the exhibition, and it was later discredited through its use of a wrong picture. This was later corrected, and it opened again.

The Wermacht ausstellung is a corner stone in post war Germany’s clash with their own past, but is interesting as many vets for the first time in public disscus the war crimes of the regular German army.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxPwz_emDmM&feature=channel

The doku is in German, with eng subs

#2

VERY interesting film! Mange tak!

#3

Yes Mange
Thank for posting and welcome on the board.:slight_smile:

#4

Old news but nice documentary nonetheless.
A book came out of the exhibition,it’s called “The Wehrmacht,History,Myth,Reality” and is written by Wolfram Wette.
Highly recommended read and a real eye opener on the so called “clean hands” of the Wehrmacht.

#5

The lurid and generalizing presentation of the “Wehrmachtsausstellung” was not only criticised by the Neo-Nazi movements, revisionists and veterans’ associations but also by liberal politicians, German displaced persons’ organisations, active professional military (the Bundeswehr allowed their personnel only to attend the exhibition as private persons) as well as national and international historians.
Polish historian Bogdan Musial asserted that ten pictures actually showed Soviet soldiers committing war crimes in summer of 1941.
Hungarian historian Krisztián Ungváry affirmed that six photos show the execution of Yugoslavian juveniles by soldiers of the Hungarian army. Ungváry recapitulated that only about 10% of the displayed photographs show war crimes by the Wehrmacht. The rest shows the deeds of Hungarian, Finnish and Croatian soldiers, voluntary helpers from the Ukraine, Russia and the Baltic States as well as SS and SD members.

After this wave of criticism the exhibition was temporarily suspended. A fact-finding commission did not want to confirm the amount of deceptive photos but summed up concerning the presentation of the exhibition: “The argument of the exhibition partially condemns too wholesale and is unduly generalizing.”

#6

The exhibition toured from March 1995 until the end of 1999 in 33 German and Austrian cities so it can’t be that bad?

#7

Well, excuse my sarcasm but Hitler toured throughout Europe (and even farther) from September 1939 till May 1945 and he was all bad.
Seriously, it had some good intentions and was successful of course because people just love luridness.

#8

The only info I had about this exhibition is what I have from the book I mentioned in my earlier post so it could be biased,just wanted to check with you as you seem to be more in the know.

#9

I certainly won’t go so far like the German right wing extremists and call Reemtsma, the chairman of the foundation which set up the exhibition, a traitor or someone to foul his own nest but the whole thing will always be controversial.

#10

The Wehrmacht exhibition was aimed at creating a public debate about the role of the Wehrmacht in WW2, a tabu that has been merely untouched since Ardenauer closed the theme by his speech in the Bundestag( in the sixties I think).

I don’t think the exhibition’s use of images and sources was controversial because some Images did not match 100% the subject ect, that is not of big importance, the interviews and confessions made by the Visitors that followed is the major issue, and the source of interest to Historians.

Don’t forget that the exhibition was also very special in the way image sources was collected, many of the photos was from private collections, or from German family albums.

I would recommend Michael Verhoven’s film Der unbekannte Soldat, who contains interview’s etc with both the exhibitioners, visitors, and historians.

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#11

The exhibitions takes a clear stand on that issue, the Wermacht was not always taking part directly in pogroms or ethnic clinching, but logistically supporting the henchmen, and did rarely interfere.

But I guess the most inconvenient matter the exhibition brought into daylight was, that wermacht officers denying taking part in crimes, was not penalized in any way, and therefore forcing many Germans to reexamine the causes of those unexplainable events who lead to the mass killings of civilians in WW2.

Would be nice if other countries had the bravery of dealing with their own history the way the Germans does, they really have something to be proud of here.

#12

As I mentioned before, the original intention of the exhibition was certainly a positive one. But, as a conclusion, you can’t do serious research and education with Yellow Press methods. That’s what the exhibition did, at least until the concept was revised after the suspension of 1999.

#13

Why would the other countries be entitled to be really proud of that when you say that Germany has nothing to be proud of in its war history?

The reason why so few Germans are/was proud their deeds in WW2, is that they actually have nothing to be proud of.
#17 at http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7075&page=2

The fact is that, despite your assertions about the German army (Heer, which you wrongly equate with Wehrmacht) supposedly being about as responsible as the SS and the Party for the Holocuast, it was the governments and their local servants in some conquered territories which were the real actors and criminals in the Holocaust.

Those countries don’t have anything to be proud of, militarily or morally.

They have escaped the justice which the victims of the Holocaust deserve.

Those countries did nothing to liberate Europe from the Nazis, because they were too busy staying in bed with them.

Yet you don’t heap upon them the same condemnation that you do upon the Wehrmacht as a supposed organ of Nazi policy and Holocaust implementation.

Why was the Heer, or Wehrmacht, which didn’t select and transport Jews from the occupied territories, worse than the governments there which enthusiastically did?

#14

Could you be more specific, and mention exactly what countries you mean here

I guess I am condemning all war crimes, including the Allied raping of thousands of Japanese Woman in 45, as well as executions of prisoners committed by Danish Waffen SS volunteers in the east, but one topic at a time please :slight_smile:

#15

I find it surprising that a Holocaust scholar like yourself needs instruction in such matters, but you could start with Hungary.

Evidence?

Where?

When?

Whom?

Yes, that is a convincing point coming from someone who continually introduces irrelevant material to ‘prove’ his points, such as alleged Allied rapes of Japanese women in 1945 somehow ‘proving’ something about Nazi conduct somewhere at some time on the planet, for whatever point you are trying to make beyond all Germans being bastards.

#16

Fine then at least we can agree to the importance of the revised Wermacht exebition, and it’s contribution to History, who was not any different to the first one, appart from some photographs had been changed.

But to say they have been using Yellow Press methods is wrong. Most scientific researches has errors that is corrected as the work progress(or even after), sometimes pointed out by colleague Historians, like in this case Bogdan Musial.

#17

As a matter of fact I did introduce an of topic subject, to make it clear that I wanted to stay on topic OK!, so let’s keep to the topic here. I will keep discussing the Wermacht exhibition in this tread, and you? whatever.

PS. Regarding The war crimes of Allied forces, where mainly US crimes is dokumented, I prefer to open a new tread on this subject under US military.

#18

There is more than enough in Hungary’s actions to support the fact that Germany did not act alone in the Holocaust.

Again, I find it surprising that a Holocaust and Nazi Germany scholar like you needs to be pointed to such matters.

I am beginning to suspect that you are a troll, and my troll detector is rarely wrong.

#19

I am well aware of that, but the Wehrmacht exhibition is still the main sub here though the exhibition also includes crimes committed by Hungarians.

I guess I am not more a troll, than u are a revisionist in disguise, so for got sake lets stay on topic, instead of being personal, and take a look at the doku I posted, it’s quite god.

#20

There were several important changes actually. The second exhibition was focused on the occurences in the Soviet Union exclusively, mislabelled pictures had been sorted out and priority was put on text documents instead of shocking photographs.

But to say they have been using Yellow Press methods is wrong. Most scientific
researches has errors that is corrected as the work progress, sometimes pointed out by colleage Historians, like in this case Bogdan Musial.

The photo captions bristled with a lack of military expert knowledge. Descriptions were made up, based on assumptions or completely missing (exploiting the shock effect of the photographs only).
Wehrmacht soldiers were designated “warriors of the east” or “blitz warriors used to victories” with “sub-leaders gone wild” serving the “juggernaut of the German raid”. The Wehrmacht was “murdering on a grand scale” and “extermination specialist” Himmler sent his “killer commandos” of the SD and SS.
This phraseology DOES remind me of the style of Germany’s leading Yellow Press newspaper.