German military on Russian front; man hanged for sabotage of German communications

German military on Russian front; man hanged for sabotage of German communications 

Reel 1: 00:37:22 Russian peasants standing in the street of a city, camera follows as they walk away. A group of German soldiers talk on a field phone/repair communication lines. A building in the background has the words"Gef. Sammelstell" hand-painted on it. CUs of soldiers tying telephone wires together. CU of a soldier using a teletype. Different shots of soldiers on horseback and military vehicles crossing a pontoon bridge over a wide river. Camera pans across a wooded area with a large Russian made defensive trench. CU of two signs reading,"Abstände halten. Fliegergefahr" and"Bozuly 1k". Several slow pans across a river and a bridge with a long column of German soldiers leading horse-drawn supply wagons across. Reel 2: 00:41:43 Russian peasants (men, women and children) working on in forest, cutting logs to build a dugout. CU of a sign reading"Villa Erika. Eintritt nur Dienstlich (Official business only". 00:43:48 Male in cap, military pants and boots, hanging from tree, swinging slightly in breeze and dappled light. CU of a handwritten sign in poor Russian on a tree that reads:"Hanged because near Nikolaevsky a German cable was severe" with a slowly swinging body behind it. Several different views of the body, including CUs of the face and feet. Slow pan across a large pile of artillery shells in cases, with a sign reading"Bummsdorf, Kreis Petersburg, 0,1 k". Flash view of German sign:"Feuerstell". 

Conditions of Use and/or Copyright updated. Correspondence from Bundesarchiv in May 2023, initially sent to Leslie Swift states: Public Domain. However, since copyright law may differ between the U.S. and Germany, Use statement U3 is being applied. 

See departmental files for more detailed information in German from the Bundesarchiv.