We are obliged to exterminate the population – this is part of our mission to protect the German population. I have the right to destroy millions of people of an inferior race who multiply like worms. — Adolf Hitler
Come and See, contextual material:
- Interview in three segments about Come and See with the Director, Elem Klimov:
- British Film Institute Introduction to the Film by Katie Mitchell ( Katie Mitchell is an acclaimed director best known for her stage work. Mitchell invented Live Cinema in collaboration with Leo Warner and others. In 2009 she was appointed to the Order of the British Empire for services to drama.Mitchell has been an Associate Director at the Royal Shakesarepeare Company, the UK's National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre).
More Background - from this website (Check out the website for more depth on the film and its context):
Nazi racial doctrine included the idea that the Slavs were members of an “inferior race”, descendants of ” Aryans ” and “Asiatic races” (including the “Finnish race”), degenerated to a state of ” subhuman ” as a result of racial mixing and the influence of Asian blood. At the same time, the Russian and East Slavic peoples could be considered as the most racially degenerated among the Slavs, retaining only insignificant “drops of Aryan blood.”
Since 1940, the German government developed the General Plan Ost, which involved the devastation of the conquered territories in the east. The authors of the plan expected to destroy or resettle in Siberia three-quarters of the population of Belarus, and use the territory of the republic for growing necessary, but unsuitable for food plants, for example, kok-saghyz. “Instruction on Special Areas to Directive No. 21 (plan” Barbarossa “)”, “On Military Jurisdiction in the Barbarossa Region and on the Special Powers of the Troops”, “The Twelve Commandments of the Conduct of the Germans in the East and Their Treatment of the Russians”, and other directives from Hitler exempted Wehrmacht soldiers from liability for crimes and erected terror in relation to civilians. population in the rank of state policy.
According to the Khatyn memorial complex, more than 140 major punitive operations were carried out in Belarus, during which the indigenous population was destroyed, driven away to camps or for forced labor in Germany. During the three years of occupation, 2,230,000 people, that is, every fourth inhabitant, became victims of the Nazi policy of genocide and “scorched earth” in Belarus. As a result of punitive operations, 628 settlements were destroyed. Of these, 186 were never restored, since all their inhabitants were killed.
In response to the atrocities of the invaders, partisan detachments began to form. By the end of 1941, 12,000 people fought in the ranks of the partisans in 230 detachments. By the end of the war, the number of Belarusian partisans exceeded 374 thousand people. They were combined into 1255 detachments, of which 997 were part of 213 brigades and regiments, and 258 detachments acted independently.
On March 22, 1943, two platoons of the 1st company of the 118th police security battalion were ambushed by the Avenger partisan detachment. During the battle, three were killed and several punishers were wounded, including Hans Wölke. Help was called in to pursue the partisans: a part of the Dirlewanger Sonder Battalion arrived from Logoysk, and a part of the 118th Ukrainian police guard battalion arrived from the village of Pleschenitsy. Punishers shot 26 residents of the village of Kozyri, who were suspected of assisting the partisans, and on the same day broke into the village of Khatyn. After a short battle, the partisans retreated under pressure from superior enemy forces. The punishers did not pursue them, but massacred the inhabitants of Khatyn. The fire killed 149 people, including 75 children. The name of the village later became a symbol of Nazi crimes.
It was this episode of the war, according to the director of the film, Elem Klimov, that prompted him to create Come and See:
I then thought: but the world does not know about Khatyn! They know about Katyn, about the execution of Polish officers. But about Belarus – no. Although there were burned more than 600 villages! And I decided to make a film about this tragedy.
- About the German Brigade that was “featured” in the film – The Dirlewanger SS Brigade (aka “Black Hunters”)which was made up of criminals released from prisons. The German command did not expect these “soldiers” to survive the war. This brigade was responsible for atrocities all over Eastern Europe. A constant flow of miscreants from German prisons and stockades along with “anticommunist volunteers” from occupied Soviet areas expanded the numbers in the brigade (which survived to the end of the war in 1945).
Dirlewanger Brigade - Wikipedia
More Background - from this website (Check out the website for more depth on the film and its context):
Nazi racial doctrine included the idea that the Slavs were members of an “inferior race”, descendants of ” Aryans ” and “Asiatic races” (including the “Finnish race”), degenerated to a state of ” subhuman ” as a result of racial mixing and the influence of Asian blood. At the same time, the Russian and East Slavic peoples could be considered as the most racially degenerated among the Slavs, retaining only insignificant “drops of Aryan blood.”
Since 1940, the German government developed the General Plan Ost, which involved the devastation of the conquered territories in the east. The authors of the plan expected to destroy or resettle in Siberia three-quarters of the population of Belarus, and use the territory of the republic for growing necessary, but unsuitable for food plants, for example, kok-saghyz. “Instruction on Special Areas to Directive No. 21 (plan” Barbarossa “)”, “On Military Jurisdiction in the Barbarossa Region and on the Special Powers of the Troops”, “The Twelve Commandments of the Conduct of the Germans in the East and Their Treatment of the Russians”, and other directives from Hitler exempted Wehrmacht soldiers from liability for crimes and erected terror in relation to civilians. population in the rank of state policy.
According to the Khatyn memorial complex, more than 140 major punitive operations were carried out in Belarus, during which the indigenous population was destroyed, driven away to camps or for forced labor in Germany. During the three years of occupation, 2,230,000 people, that is, every fourth inhabitant, became victims of the Nazi policy of genocide and “scorched earth” in Belarus. As a result of punitive operations, 628 settlements were destroyed. Of these, 186 were never restored, since all their inhabitants were killed.
In response to the atrocities of the invaders, partisan detachments began to form. By the end of 1941, 12,000 people fought in the ranks of the partisans in 230 detachments. By the end of the war, the number of Belarusian partisans exceeded 374 thousand people. They were combined into 1255 detachments, of which 997 were part of 213 brigades and regiments, and 258 detachments acted independently.
On March 22, 1943, two platoons of the 1st company of the 118th police security battalion were ambushed by the Avenger partisan detachment. During the battle, three were killed and several punishers were wounded, including Hans Wölke. Help was called in to pursue the partisans: a part of the Dirlewanger Sonder Battalion arrived from Logoysk, and a part of the 118th Ukrainian police guard battalion arrived from the village of Pleschenitsy. Punishers shot 26 residents of the village of Kozyri, who were suspected of assisting the partisans, and on the same day broke into the village of Khatyn. After a short battle, the partisans retreated under pressure from superior enemy forces. The punishers did not pursue them, but massacred the inhabitants of Khatyn. The fire killed 149 people, including 75 children. The name of the village later became a symbol of Nazi crimes.
It was this episode of the war, according to the director of the film, Elem Klimov, that prompted him to create Come and See:
I then thought: but the world does not know about Khatyn! They know about Katyn, about the execution of Polish officers. But about Belarus – no. Although there were burned more than 600 villages! And I decided to make a film about this tragedy.