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. Reel 1: USHMM copied 64 of 143 meters; Reel 2: USHMM copied 86 of 133 meters; Reel 3: USHMM copied 51 of 128 meters; Reel 4: USHMM copied 43 of 104 meters.
Reel 1: 00:22:06 First scene appears to be in German territory(?), view of a large church and a city street with people walking. Several different shots of a city with severe damage, including civilians carrying on with their business. German soldiers work to clear a road of debris (vehicle wreckage). CU of a dead Russian soldier on the ground. CUs of several Russian prisoners with hands raised. A vehicle blazes in the middle of a road. German soldiers and young Soviet prisoners (some appear to be boys) talking, close views. Planes circling overhead, with German soldiers watching explosions in the distance. Soldiers standing in a city. Views of a severely damaged city/vehicles. Panning shot of a group of captured Russian soldiers. Reel 2: 00:28:36 Long stretch of open road littered with destroyed Russian tanks and artillery. A group of Russian prisoners (male civilians) wait on the side of the road. CU of destroyed Russian military vehicles. CU of horses. Russian prisoners gather belongings and begin to move down a road. German military on motorcycles travels down a road. Russian peasants with wagons/carts travel down a road. A train car full of goods burns. Panning shot of train yard and burning railcars. Shot of wreckage/rubble. Shot of yard containing hundreds of Howitzers. CU of a tank in a ditch. German units march through the streets of a town, past a church. Prisoners, some wounded. Russian prisoners work on a makeshift pontoon bridge. Reel 3: 00:34:09 Destroyed Russian tanks. German general talking to an officer. German soldiers with Soviet POWs in the forest, some wounded. Panning shot of a Russian airfield with damaged airplanes. Views over a burning, partly destroyed city. Destroyed bridge over river. German military vehicles in front of a very large building. German soldiers in front of a blazing building. Armored vehicle on a residential street. View of several blazing homes. Russian peasants gathered outside a home. German soldiers showing Russian civilians how to raise their hands in surrender; frisking the civilians. Reel 4: 00:38:49 Soviet women and men leaving a building. Men stand around a truck with many dead Soviet troops. Shots of several dead Soviet soldiers in a field, CU of one with a bullet hole in the side of the head (00:39:46). CUs of dead Russian soldiers interspersed between stacked logs. Russian peasants carrying furniture out of a large building. Brief shot inside building of people carrying furniture/papers. CU of a downed plane. Groups of German soldiers resting in the countryside, eating, (00:41:01) CU of soldier reading the newspaper"Danziger Vorposte" with the headline,"Die bolschewistische Luftwaffe entscheidend geschwäch" (The Bolshevik air force drastically weakened).
Towns in ruins as German troops advance; dead Russian soldiers