This film documents the action carried out by the Grossdeutschland regiment in reprisal for the killing of four German soldiers by unidentified snipers on April 18, 1941. Altogether 22 Serbian civilians were hanged in the Pancevo city cemetery, while 18 more were publicly shot against the cemetery wall by troops with the regiment. The film is accompanied by Gottfried Kessel's commentary. Kessel was a Propaganda Kompanie (PK) cameraman attached to the Grossdeutschland regiment of the German army.
Wehrmacht soldiers are welcomed in Yugoslavia
Wehrmacht soldiers preparing to invade Yugoslavia from Hungary on the morning of April 10, 1941. Smiling soldiers marching, tanks rolling down a road. Kessel says that the soldiers called the battalion commander"Ohm Krueger" Quick shot of Serbian civilians wearing home-made swastika armbands. Kessel notes that the German soldiers viewed these men, who had shortly before been enemies of the Germans, with"mixed feelings" Men identified by Kessel as Croatian farmers wearing Serbian uniforms give themselves up to the Germans. A Serbian officer gives a Hitler salute. Romanian soldiers search Serbian POWs. Dead Serbian soldiers. German soldiers, including one identified as a man named Baumann, search Serbian POWs. German soldiers cross an anti-tank trench. General Reinhardt and Colonel von Stockhausen (head of the Grossdeutschland regiment) in conversation. Civilians in Vrsac, Serbia line the road to greet the German soldiers. Many of them give the Hitler salute. German soldiers sit on flower-strewn tanks. Civilians smile at the camera and offer flowers to the Germans. Military vehicles on the road headed in the direction of Pancevo. Farmers on the road doff their hats to the Germans. POWs remove debris to allow military vehicles to pass. The commentary says that during this"shameful wa" POWs were not killed as in the past, but used as slave labor.