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DDR border at Marienborn and Hötensleben
The former road border of the DDR at its busiest point at Marienborn. We can also see here the border at the nearby town of Hötensleben
Witness to the bombing of Dresden
Frau Schmidt survived the bombing of Dresden on 13 - 15 February 1945 by an extremely fortunate coincidence. Here she explains her early life, what happened in the lead up to the raid and what happned in the early years of the Soviet occupation.
This interview was filmed in March 2009. Regretfully Frau Schmidt died in August 2009.
Battle of Seelow Heights - Schlacht um die Seelower Höhen
The Battle of the Seelow Heights lasted from 16 to 19 April, 1945. Close to one million Soviet soldiers of the 1st Belorussian Front (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st Polish Army), commanded by Marshal Georgi Zhukov, attacked about 91,000 German soldiers of the Ninth Army, commanded by General Theodor Busse.
Despite some success for the defending Germans, they were eventually overwhelmed leading to the Battle for Berlin.
These films show my visit to the site in June 2008.
Bridge at Remagen
The Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen was a railway bridge across the Rhine in Germany, connecting the villages of Remagen and Erpel between two ridge lines of hills flanking the river. Remagen is situated about 20km south of Bonn.
The bridge was built by Grün & Bilfinger between 1916 and 1919 to connect the Right Rhine Railway, the Left Rhine Railway and the Ahrtalbahn (German) to facilitate transport to the Western Front. It was a key element of a planned strategic railway that was to start in Neuss, cross the Rhine at Remagen and connect with the Ahr Valley railway that connected with the Eiffel railway that has lines into Luxembourg and France. The advantage of such a line was that troops and supplies could be transported to the Western Front from the Ruhr industrial area without having to go through the busy rail centres of Cologne or Düsseldorf. However, by the time World War I ended, the line between Neuss and Remagen had not been completed and never was. This is also the reason why the bridge at Remagen was not rebuilt after World War II.
Designed by Karl Wiener, it was 325 meters long, with two rail lines and a walkway. It was one of three bridges built to improve rail links between Germany and France during World War I, the other two being the Hindenburg Bridge at Bingen and Urmitz Bridge near Koblenz. This was one of the four bridges guarded during the Third United States Army occupation at the end of World War I.
The bridge was captured at around 16:30 on 7 March 1945 by the US army and became the first bridgehead across the Rhine. Both sides then engaged in a race to reinforce the area which ultimately was won by the American who had much greater resources. The Anericans captured the railway tunnel in the early hours of the following morning by passing over the hill and taking it from the rear.
In other films I describe parts of the battle, why the bridge was not blown etc..
I would like to recommend the excellent 1968 - 9 film the Bridge at Remagen which is historically very accurate although names have been changed.
Radomsko Ghetto
This series shows part of the Radomsko ghetto as it was established in December 1939 including parts of the streets, Mickiewicza, Josielewicza, Fabaniego, Rolna and Wyszynskiego.
Radomsko was captured by the Fourth Panzer Division on Sunday, 3 September 1939. Whilst under military rule, the Jewish population was subjected to brutal treatment including the murder of some people.
On 31 October 1939, Radomsko became the second place where Jews had to wear compulsory markings (after Włocławek). The marking was initially only for men and denoted how many days slave labour were required.
On 20 December 1939, Radomsko became the second city in Poland to have a ghetto established - following nearby Piotrków Trybunalski. The ghetto incorporated the following streets in the city centre : Rolna, Stodolna, Joselwicza, Strzalkowska, Fabianiego, and Mickiewicza. (See film from the Radomsko ghetto).
The Jewish population of Radomsko was about 10,000 in 1939. People were also brought to the ghetto from Łódź, Ozorkow and Zdunska Wola as well as outlying villages such as Amstow, Plawno, Gidziel, Kamiensk, Kodran, Mojslawice, Strzalkow, and Klomnice. Overcrowding was such that around ten people were living in one room. There were two major typhus epidemics in 1940 and 1942.
On 9 October 1942, the ghetto was sealed and the population gathered at a sports field. Some 350 people were granted a reprieve, the remainder were sent to Treblinka. Two transports left on 10 and 12 October 1942, taking 12,000 - 14,000 people to the gas chambers.
A couple of weeks later the Nazis announced that they would create four Jewish towns Ujazd, Sandomierz, Szydlowiec and Radomsko. People returned from the countryside knowing they could not survive the winter. On 6 January 1943 this ghetto was also liquidated with people being sent to Treblinka or the Skarzysko-Kamienna armaments plant for slave labour.
Other Jews rounded up later were shot in the Jewish cemetary or deported to the Płonki slave labour camp. By July 1943 there were no Jews left in Radomsko.
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Treblinka
The Nazi death camp at Treblinka was located some 100km from the Polish capital and thus the largest Jewish population in Europe. The camp itself was designed to kill the Jewish population of the General Government outside of Galicia, whereas Belzec was for Galicia, Chelmno for the Wartheland and Auschwitz for the Jewish population of other countries. Both Sobibór and Majdanek killed people from various locations.
The camp operated from July 1942 until August 1943. At least 750,000 people were murdered there.
The death camp at Chełmno nad Nerem
Chelmno was the first purpose built death camp operated by the Nazis. It was also the first place where mass gassings took place in an organised and systematic fashion. The means of death were the gas vans that killed the victims at a former country house and then took their bodies 3km to the forest for burial - and from April 1942 for incineration. This was also the first death camp where the Nazis cremated the bodies of their Jewish victims.
The death camp operated from 8 December 1941 when a group of people from Koło was murdered here until April 1943 when it was closed down and the manor house was blown up.
The camp however came back into service for a seven week period in 1944 when the victims were taken directly to the forest and murdered there.
In these films, the operation of the camp is described and one can also see the mass graves where some of the bones of the victims can be seen.
Sobibor escapee Arkady Weisspapier
Arkady Weisspapier took part in the revolt of the Sobibór death camp, personally killing two of the Nazi guards and thus ensuing the successful escape and survival of more than fifty people.
In this interview from April 2008, he describes how he came to be interred in the camp and how the revolt was organised.
Sobibór death camp
Construction of the camp at Sobibór began in February 1942 and was completed by April 1942. Franz Stangl described the first gassing to Gitta Sereny in her book Into that Darkness when Christian Wirth, the commander of Belzec, ordered that a work party of around 25 Jewish men murdered.
In May 1942, Sobibor began mass gassing operations. Trains entered the railway station and the Jews onboard were told they were in a transit camp, then were forced to undress and hand over their valuables. They were then led to the gas chambers, where they were killed using carbon monoxide or occasionally were shot.
SS-Oberscharführer Kurt Bolender described the way the gassing operations ran during his trial:
"Before the Jews undressed, Oberscharführer Hermann Michel made a speech to them. On these occasions, he used to wear a white coat to give the impression he was a physician. Michel announced to the Jews that they would be sent to work. But before this they would have to take baths and undergo disinfection, so as to prevent the spread of diseases. After undressing, the Jews were taken through the "Tube", by an SS man leading the way, with five or six guards at the back hastening the Jews along. After the Jews entered the gas chambers, the guards closed the doors. The motor was switched on by the former Soviet soldier Emil Kostenko and by the German driver Erich Bauer from Berlin. After the gassing, the doors were opened and the corpses were removed by Jewish prisoner workers (Sonderkommando)."
On 14 October 1943 there was a prisoner revolt which led to the escape of up to 300 people, less than one fifth of whom survived the war.
Norfolk Broads
Located in northern and eastern Norfolk, the Broads were formed by peat extraction in medieval times which later flooded. Today they form a particularly pleasant part of the UK to visit!
North Norfolk Coast
Some films of the north Norfolk coast and its hinterland made in the winter of 2011
Get Carter film locations
Get Carter is a cult British crime thriller starring Michael Caine. Alongside the Long Good Friday, it stands out amongst British underworld films. Set in Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1970s, forty years later I sought out the locations where the film was made. I have still five locations to film in the Hamsterley Forest, Blackhall Colliery and Newcastle.
Karkonosze - Riesengebirge - Krkonoše
The Karkonosze is a mountain range located in the north of the Czech Republic and the south-west of Poland, part of the Sudeten system. The highest peak, Sněžka (Śnieżka), is the Czech Republic's highest point with an elevation of 1,602 metres.
From Warsaw to Kołobrzeg
I travelled from Warsaw to Kołobrzeg in the evening of 22 June and the early morning of 23 June 2011. This is my journey - in HD too!
Moscow metro stations
In total, the Moscow Metro has 292.2 km (181.6 mi) of route length, 12 lines and 177 stations; on a normal weekday it carries over 7 million passengers. Passenger traffic is considerably lower on weekends bringing the average daily passenger traffic during the year to 7.0 million passengers per day. The Moscow Metro is a state-owned enterprise.
The system operates according to an enhanced spoke-hub distribution paradigm, with most rail lines running between central Moscow and its suburbs. The Koltsevaya line forms a circular ring that connects the spokes and facilitates passenger movements between lines without having to travel all the way into the central city.
Each line is identified by an alphanumeric index (usually consisting of just a number), a name, and a colour. The voice announcements refer to lines by name, while in colloquial usage they are mostly referred to by colour, except the Kakhovskaya Line (number 11) which has been assigned shade of green similar to that of the Zamoskvoretskaya Line (number 2), Koltsevaya Line (number 5) and Butovskaya Line (number L1). Most lines run radially through the city, except the Koltsevaya Line (number 5), which is a 20-km-long ring connecting all the radial lines and a few smaller lines outside. On all lines, travellers can determine the direction of the train by the gender of the announcer: on the ring line, a male voice indicates clockwise travel, and a female voice counter-clockwise. On the radial lines, travellers heading toward the centre of Moscow will hear male-voiced announcements, and travellers heading away will hear female-voiced announcements. In addition, there is an abundance of signs showing all the stations that can be reached in a given direction.
The system was built almost entirely underground, although some lines (numbers 1, 2 and 4) cross the Moskva River, while line number 1 also crosses the Yauza River by bridge. Fewer than 10% of the stations are at or above the surface level. The surface sections of the Metro include the western part of Filyovskaya Line continuing as Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line between Kievskaya and Molodyozhnaya (eight surface stations), and the Butovskaya Light Metro Line (L1) with 4 elevated stations. The other surface stations are Vykhino, Izmaylovskaya and Vorobyovy Gory (the latter is unique in the world being built into a lower level of a bridge). There are several short surface stretches, including those between the stations Avtozavodskaya and Kolomenskaya (where a new station Technopark is going to be built), and between Tekstilshchiki and Volgogradsky Prospekt.
The Moscow Metro is open from about 5:30 until 1:00 (the opening time may vary at different stations according to first train schedule, but all stations close for entrance simultaneously at 1:00). During rush hours, trains run roughly every 90 seconds on most lines. At other times during the day, they run about every two to three and a half minutes, and every six to ten minutes late at night. As trains are so frequent, there is no timetable available to passengers.
Saint Petersburg Санкт-Петербург
Saint Petersburg is located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. Founded by Tsar Peter I of Russia on 27 May, 1703, it was the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (17131728, 17321918). Saint Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the Russian Revolution of 1917.[8] It is Russia's second largest city after Moscow with 4.6 million inhabitants, and over 6 million people live in its vicinity.
Saint Petersburg is often described as the most Western city of Russia. Among cities of the world with over one million people, Saint Petersburg is the northernmost. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Russia's political and cultural centre for 200 years, the city is sometimes referred to in Russia as the northern capital.
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