Editorial Review:Amazon.com:Amateur movies shot with small handheld cameras by six German infantrymen on the Eastern Front during World War II form the core of this documentary. The men who took the movies appear on camera as old men to provide narration (in German, with subtitles), and they provide a perspective not often heard. As might be expected, they distance themselves from atrocities, and as they were foot soldiers in the
Wehrmacht, their denials of involvement are probably true. One of the men still owns the camera he carried in the war, and he demonstrates how its small size made it perfect for impromptu filming in the field. Clips of smiling troops on the move is accompanied by an old man talking about how happy they were to be going to an unknown destination, likening it to 'the joy one feels when on a journey.' It turns out the gleeful trip he recalls was actually the beginning of the invasion of Poland and thus the beginning of the war in Europe. Later footage shows combat conditions in Russia, and the grisly aftermath of vicious combat. The rarity of the film footage, some of which was shot in color, makes this documentary worth watching. But the recollections of the amateur cameramen also provide an unusual insight into the German war machine, such as when one of the old veterans mentions how he eventually realized, 'This was no defensive war forced upon us, it was an idiotic war of aggression.'
--Robert J. McNamara
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Most important historical document.
I believe that McNamara is wrong about what the gentlemen is describing. McNamara states that the old soldier is describing the journey to the front before the invasion of Poland. My take on it is that the old soldier is describing the move to the front through Poland and to the assembly positions for the invasion of Russia in 1941.
No serious student of WWII can be without this film. Unless you know exactly where Vitebsk is and when the Germans first captured it, you won't know exactly what the old soldiers are talking about.
I lived in Germany during the 1990's for several years. I met a few old German soldiers who fought in WWII. Their stories are very much like the stories told by the men in Mein Krieg.
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Mein Kreig, go for it
This DVD is not for people with a closed mind, it is an example of journalism not a war story. It is the simple story of German cameramen in WWII, what they saw, what happened them and how they felt. Is is refreshing to see footage of WWII that isn't written from an action or moral stance. It is a fly on the fall that runs from the start of the war when these men moved forward with their nations troops right up to the time that they arrived home after defeat and what awaited when they got "home". There are no big battle sceens and their certainlt is no happy ending. Buy it and use it as educational material.
Also recommemded is Das Boat.
God bless the memory of all people killed in war.
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Landsers narrate their own war
I was a bit disappointed by this DVD, but it is still worth having. It provides some very penetrating insight onto bits of everyday life for the German landser on the Eastern front -- the footage is mostly of barracks, hospitals, rear-areas, roads, and only rarely the front -- but its short length (90 minutes) and the unavoidable messiness brought about by editing the amateur footage of six different men into one narrative gave it a ragged, uneven feel. It also seemed like the documentarians' questions were fairly loaded, as if they were trying to force the ex-landsers into admitting guilt for their participation in the war (which it was obvious only one or two of them really felt) rather than simply letting their words speak for themselves. The air of judgementalism, whether or not it is justified, has no place in a neutral format such as this. In any case, there are many fine moments in the footage. The striking (color) image of the ragged swastika flag flying over the barracks and the Nazi-style monuments is jarring because it looks so recent. One rarely gets such a sense of connection the historical past with B&W film. Similarly the color shots of the soldiers make them look alive and real in a way B&W film does not. One gets a sense that indeed, all of this did really happen. Seeing bombed-out ruins of Polish and Russian cities in black-and-white is one thing, but in color it is striking. There was not as much color as I had hoped, but the other scenes of the AA gun shooting down the Russian plane, the night tank scrap, the retreat in the mud sea and the unexpected arrival of Field Marshal von Manstein for dinner in the field are all very interesting, as is much of the narrative. To see men talking about the experiences they filmed themselves, fifty years later, is often moving. I just wish there was more of it.
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Soldaten speak
What is gripping is the combination of pride and defensiveness in the retired landsers. You get the impression some are unwilling to reveal explicitly what they really think because these thoughts became unacceptable in May 1945. If I am right, the film is a real achievement.
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Haunting Documents of War and Death
First, a remark about the KINO DVD: It only contains the documentary, nothing else, picture quality is up to vhs standard only (of course I speak about the newer segments, shot in 1990), and worst of all, the english subtitles in this all-german film can not be switched off (the dvd was taken from an already subtitled print), which is very annoying as one would like to see the old images without big white letters written over them.
But then, what choice do you have?? This is the only version of this documentary available and so I have to live with it.
The documentary contains home-made films from 6 german soldiers on the eastern front and their recollections and comments 45 years later, sometimes incredible high-quality color shots, sometimes gruesome field hospital scenes, naked ukrainian women, heaps of corpses, burnt out panzers, hanged jews, shot partisans and ruins, ruins, ruins.
To me, these were the things which sticked in my mind, and I will surely not forget: The old china-trader, who comes across as the most distinguished and sympathetic of the veterans, admitting shooting partisans and having nightmares from it for 45 years each night. The Cynical one who states that the only thing he regrets was that he had not the opportunity to film the western theatre of war. And the reeducated one, giving hollow statements about how wrong it all was, but making (as the only one) his living by selling WWII photos in an agency. There are a lot of gruesome, funny, interesting things to see, but the most memorable one were the faces of the already beaten soldiers, 10 minutes befor the battle of Kiev, knowing they will die.
This documentary is unbelievably valuable, presenting views and thoughts beyond any censorship or propaganda, so one has to own it as you're never be able to see things like this again, shame about the presentation on DVD which could have been so much better.