Menschen im Sturm

1941 film

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Menschen im Sturm (English: People in the Storm) is a 1941 German film^[1] directed by Fritz Peter Buch. It was an anti-Serbian propaganda and part of a concerted propaganda push against Serbs, attempting to split them from the Croats.^[2]

Synopsis

Vera witnesses the persecution of ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, which awakens her ethnic consciousness. Her cosmopolitan friend Alexander is arrested. Vera flirts with the Serbian commander to allow Volksdeutsche to escape to the border. When arrested, she proudly affirms that she helped her countrymen and, in an escape attempt, is shot, to die happy and heroic.^{[citation needed]}

Cast

Olga Chekhova
Gustav Diessl
Hannelore Schroth
Siegfried Breuer
Josef Sieber
Heinz Welzel
Kurt Meisel

Production and release

The film was shot on locations in Hrvatsko Zagorje, then-Independent State of Croatia, in July 1941. Its Zagreb premiere was held on 21 March 1942.^[3]

Unusually, contemporary Viennese film magazine Paimann's Filmlisten [de] classified the film as "forbidden for the youth" (für Jugendliche nicht zugelassen).^[3]

Motifs

The film reprises many of the same motifs as Heimkehr, in an anti-Serbian rather than anti-Polish context.^[4]

A sympathetic Croat aids the Germans, stating that all Croats should be friendly, and is murdered by Serbs for it, reflecting a widespread cliche of the friendly Croat.^[5]

References

^ "New York Times: Menschen im Sturm (1941)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-11-04. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
^ Hertzstein 1977, pp. 292–293.
^ ^a ^b Rafaelić 2004.
^ Hertzstein 1977, p. 293.
^ Hertzstein 1977, p. 294.

Bibliography

Hertzstein, Robert Edwin (1977). The War That Hitler Won. Putnam. ISBN 978-0-399-11845-6.
Rafaelić, Daniel (2004). "Filmološko istraživanje u bečkom filmskom arhivu 2004" (PDF). Arhivski vjesnik (in Croatian). 47 (1). Croatian State Archives: 173–176. Retrieved 7 January 2020.