"Der Fall Gleiwitz" (DDR 1961, R: Gerhard Klein, B: Wolfgang Kohlhaase)
The staged attack on the radio station in Gliwice - an action that served as propaganda justification for the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939
The film meticulously reconstructs the Polish invasion faked by the German National Socialists on August 31, 1939, which was to provide the reason for the war against Poland. The radio station in Gliwice is located near the Polish border. Six ethnic Germans from Poland arrive in Gliwice from an SS school on a special mission and are received by SS-Hauptsturmführer Naujocks. On August 31, Heydrich gives the order by telephone from Berlin to carry out the planned operation. A concentration camp prisoner is put into a Polish uniform, taken to the transmitter, shot and left behind as "proof" of the Polish attack. The following morning, they "shoot back".
Film text: The Gleiwitz case. In: The Betrothed. Texts for seven feature films by Günther Rücker. Berlin: Henschelverlag 1988.
(Source: The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946-1992)
Director: Gerhard Klein, script: Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Günther Rücker, with Hannjo Hasse, Herwart Grosse, Hilmar Thate, Georg Leopold, 70 minutes
(c) DEFA Foundation, Kurt Schuett
Admission: donation
Organiser: Koeppenhaus
Picture credits: IKAZ e.V.
