STALINGRAD: THE KESSEL {PT. 2 OF 3} {ENGLISH} {2003 INTERNATIONAL EMMY NOMINEE} (TV)
Summary
The second of two parts on this tape. Part two of this three-part documentary about World War II's Battle of Stalingrad, waged between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany from 1942-1943. The story is told through newsreel and archival footage; photographs; original radio broadcasts featuring Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazis; letters from the battlefield; animated graphics; Soviet propaganda film clips; and Nazi propaganda film clips. It also features first-person accounts from the following people: soldiers from Germany's 6th Army, the division decimated at Stalingrad; German and Soviet doctors and nurses who treated casualties from both sides; Soviet Red Army soldiers who fought in Stalingrad; Stalingrad civilians who survived the battle; officers and other soldiers who witnessed planning and decision making at German headquarters in Stalingrad and Germany; and the wives and children of German officers who served at Stalingrad. This part focuses on the Red Army's entrapment of Germany's 6th Army in a small area of Stalingrad which came to be known as the "kessel" or cauldron. The following topics are discussed in detail: the planning of the maneuver by Soviet strategists; its successful deployment by Red Army troops; the success of the Soviet Union's socialist structure in wartime; the massacre of the Romanian troops sent to fight for the Nazis; Hitler's neglect and then abandonment of his 6th Army; deteriorating conditions for the Germans and the Soviet civilians trapped within the kessel; Germany's failed "Operation Winter Storm" rescue mission; the onset of disease and starvation in the kessel; soldiers attempts to flee Stalingrad; and the hopelessness sparked within the 6th Army by Hitler's callous treatment of his Stalingrad troops at Christmas time, followed by his refusal to accept the Soviets' offer of surrender. Commentators include German 6th Army soldiers Manfred Gusovius, Gunther Schroeder, Joachim Porzig, Hans Mroczinski, Heinz Kreutz, Richard Beuerle, Gunther Mai, and Heinz Thomas; German officers Gerhard Dengler, Albrecht Appelt, Hans-Erdmann Schoenbeck, Winrich Behr, Wolf-Dietrich von Schenkzy Tautenberg, and Bernd Freytag Von Loringhoven; German headquarters staff Alfons Schulz and Franz Halder; German medic Dr. Horst Rocholl; tank division members Ernst Rebentisch and Ferdinand Weidemeier; transport pilot Heinz Martin; Soviet Red Army soldiers Fyodor Iltshenko, Aleksandr Bussov, Ivan Gololenko, and Marija Lapina; RA officers Lev Bezymenski, and Viktor Kidjarov; Soviet civilian Evgeny Urasov; and Luzia Kollak, a German soldier's wife.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by The Marc Haas and Helen Hotze Haas Foundations, 2003/2004.
Details
- NETWORK: ZDF (Germany)
- DATE: November 30, 2002
- RUNNING TIME: 0:53:43
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:79818
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: International Collection - Germany; World War II - Battle of Stalingrad
- SERIES RUN: ZDF (Germany) - TV, 2003
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Leopold Hoesch … Executive Producer
- Susanne Feikes … Production (Misc.), Series Producer
- Sebastian Dehnhardt … Director, Writer
- Christian Deick … Director, Writer
- Michaela Frings … Researcher
- Inna Levandovitch … Researcher
- Julia Melchior … Researcher
- Enjott Schneider … Music by
- Albrecht Appelt
- Richard Beuerle
- Winrich Behr
- Lev Bezymenski
- Aleksandr Bussov
- Gerhard Dengler
- Ivan Gololenko
- Manfred Gusovius
- Franz Halder
- Adolf Hitler
- Fyodor Iltshenko
- Viktor Kidjarov
- Luzia Kollak
- Heinz Kreutz
- Marija Lapina
- Gunther Mai
- Heinz Martin
- Hans Mroczinski
- Joachim Porzig
- Ernst Rebentisch
- Horst Rocholl
- Hans-Erdmann Schoenbeck
- Gunther Schroeder
- Alfons Schulz
- Heinz Thomas
- Evgeny Usarov
- von Schenkzy Tautenberg, Wolf-Dietrich
- Von Loringhoven, Berhard Freytag
- Ferdinand Wiedemeier