Der Fall Gleiwitz (1961)
Genre: War / Thriller
Duration: 70 minuten
Alternative title: The Gleiwitz Case
Country:
East Germany
Directed by: Gerhard Klein
Stars: Hannjo Hasse, Herwart Grosse and Hilmar Thate
IMDb score:
6,9 (368)
Releasedate: 23 August 1961
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Actors and actresses
Alfred Naujocks
Gestapochef Müller
KZ-Häftling
Volksdeutscher Franz Sitte
Volksdeutscher Hans-Wilhelm Kraweit
Volksdeutscher Franz Wyczorek
Offizier
Reviews & comments
Fransman
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- 3028 messages
- 2273 votes
I didn't know this film at all. That's why I read the reviews by Theunissen and joolstein with interest. I thought it was a good film too. It seems to be a reasonably accurate picture of what happened at the time in that border town. At times even exciting, with neat photography. Beautiful those images of those almost deserted highways, which Hitler had built to be able to transport his troops. The fact that we know fairly accurately what happened at the time at that border is due to the testimony of the leader of the operation, Alfred Naujocks, after the war before the Nuremberg Tribunal. He was also involved in another secret operation later in 1939, the 'Venlo incident'. Incidentally, he would not have a glittering career in the war. He fell out of favor with Heydrich, was sent to the Eastern Front, but survived.
Anyone looking at a map of Poland today can hardly imagine that present-day Gliwice (a suburb of Kattowice) and now located deep in Poland, was once on the German border. And then there is the story that the Germans deliberately used a disused radio station, because it was better suited to stage the so-called attack and not to disrupt regular radio broadcasts. You didn't know that, did you?
Translated from Dutch · View original
MisterPink
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- 1382 messages
- 6968 votes
"Poland has a whole night of occupying its own territory and having regular soldiers involved. From 5.45 am onwards we will be prepared to go to war! And now we will be bombed and bombed!"
Adolf Hitler was reportedly very nervous before he made this famous speech on September 1, 1939. Gleiwitz's provocation was intended to justify the Third Reich's attack on Poland and to prevent interference from England and France. In that sense, the false flag operation was only partly a success. One wonders why this play had to be performed so thoroughly.
I can't add much more to this East German film, which I can really appreciate as far as artistic camerawork is concerned. The Polish version from 1979 is much more in the style of a documentary with a bit more background and also the presence of the Führer himself. The East German film is not at all propagandistic. The team of SS'ers is portrayed as they were. As far as historical accuracy is concerned, there is also little to criticize. I do miss some Polish uniforms during the raid and presumably German was no longer spoken. The message on the radio was only broadcast in Polish and not in both languages.
The soundtrack is sometimes bizarre and overbearing, but not distracting.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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