Hannes Heer

[EtienneSC]

There is some interesting video material here:
http://youtu.be/XnVOi22cw80
from Hannes Heer alleging crimes of the Wehrmacht with photographic evidence exhibited in an exhibition. One interesting point is his allegation of cover-ups and efforts to "get the story straight" by Wehrmacht officers. Such cover-ups and fabrications are never supposed to happen on the other side. There is however, evidence of cross-pollination of witnesses from the Eichmann trial in 1961 to the Auschwitz trials in Frankfurt in 1963-65. The interview itself has no evidence as to the provenance of the photographs used. It's always useful to put ourselves in the way of information on such investigations.

[Hektor]

This idiot should really shut up. He himself is guilty of running an exhibition which mainly held forgeries as portrayal of German war crimes. Other trickery and deceit was used as well.

After criticisms about incorrect attribution and captioning of some of the images in the exhibition, the exhibition was withdrawn by the director of the Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung in 1999 and Hannes Heer, who refused to acknowledge the criticism, was fired from the institute in the following year and excluded from work on the investigation of and subsequent revision of the exhibition by the institute.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannes_Heer

Note the typical behavior of never admitting any mistakes and not apologizing for having lied or at least having wrongly informed the public.

Here is a remake of the exhibition online:
http://www.verbrechen-der-wehrmacht.de/

[Mkk]

Udo Walendy and Walter Post, citing other investigations, has shown this "exhibit" to a complete scam. According to one estimate only 10 percent of all photographs show crimes

In summary:

4. Propaganda With Pictures: The Anti-Wehrmacht Exhibition

Since 1995 a traveling exhibition has been moving through Germany and Austria professing to show the crimes of the Wehrmacht, primarily by means of pictures.[59] This exhibition was sponsored by the multimillionaire Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who ever since the late 1960s has been a major source of funding for the leftist extremist and anarchist scene in Germany. The exhibition was put together by Johannes Heer, a former Communist who even today makes no bones about his sympathies for the leftist extremist scene. Essentially, the exhibition as a whole came into being through the contributions and support of people who have distinguished themselves by their leftist ideological blindness ever since the radical leftist student revolts of the late 1960s - as journalist Rüdiger Proske (once himself a member of these circles) pointed out.[60]

On the whole, therefore, this exhibition represents a continuation of Communist and left-wing extremist disinformation whose goal it is to destroy the historical roots of the German identity while strengthening the political and cultural hegemony of its perpetrators. By forcing the political moderates to repeatedly affirm their own opposition to the "Nazi" crimes - because one would automatically make oneself suspect of Fascist leanings by doing otherwise - these leftist extremists circles attain a degree of opinion leadership and moral authority which they were unable to achieve in past decades due to the massive human rights violations committed by the left-wing extremist regimes of the Eastern Bloc.

As political scientist Professor Knütter pointed out, the goal behind this concept is to break up the former values system and thus to create an ideological vacuum, in which Socialist, anarchist and Communist teachings of salvation will ultimately find fertile ground. This process, he states, is augmented by the parallel process of replacing the German people with a multicultural mixture, devoid of any identity but full of revolutionary potential due to the inevitable conflicts and the concomitant social and economic problems.[61]

Now this political background must certainly not be used as an excuse to dismiss the photos shown by the exhibitors as pure propaganda. Several academic investigations of the question of how this exhibition was put together by von Reemtsma and Heer have shown that most (218 of a total of 314) of the pictures, which originated primarily in archives in Moscow and Minsk, are devoid of any information as to their source.[62] In other words, there is no clue as to who took the pictures when and where, and what exactly they show. It is interesting to note, by the way, that the pictures presented as evidence for National Socialist crimes were generally taken from books or archives of the nations belonging to the then-Communist Eastern Bloc, which always had a massive vested interest in the exaggeration and exploitation of (actual or merely alleged) National Socialist crimes.[63] W. Strauß has shown that the originator of many known photos was Yevgeny Ananievich Khaldei, the

"[...] most highly decorated army photographer of the news agency TASS [...], working, as of June 1941, not directly at the front but in the hinterland or the re-captured areas; a celebrated star reporter of the personality cult who after 1945 was rewarded for bravery and skill by being commissioned to portray those in power in the Soviet Union, including Stalin.

Khaldei's brilliant touch consisted of introducing altered photos into the Soviet and international public as original snapshots, and of collecting rubles and Stalin Prizes for it."[64]

It is a telling point that such pictures devoid of any information as to their source are uncritically displayed by the exhibitors, and that these exhibitors have not shown themselves willing to change their methods even after massive public criticism of this shortcoming.

Germany's second-largest weekly magazine, Focus, repeatedly attacked the exhibition for mis-captioning the pictures displayed, and charged those responsible with falsifications and lies, since after all they had alleged that one picture actually showing Jews getting undressed for a bath was the "scene of a mass execution", had touted another picture whose contents were unclear as a "Wehrmacht crime", and had refused to correct these misrepresentations even after their error had been proved.[65] The interesting thing about the first case is that the exhibitors had taken the false caption from a book[66] whose co-editor is Willy Dreßen, today the Head of the Central Office of the Provincial Judicial Administrations in Ludwigsburg, a man who is also in charge of the prosecution of alleged National Socialist crimes. Even though Dreßen, who had already been working in the Central Office at the time of the book's publication, should have been aware of the actual events, he supported the mis-captioning. Admittedly this comes as no surprise to those 'in the know', since after all the ideological ties between the professional 'Nazi hunters' in the Central Office and the radical left-wing, professional anti-Fascists have always been close.

Let us examine only one picture in more detail which is publicly paraded time and again as proof of the crimes of the Wehrmacht. Illustration 22 shows the execution of partisans in front of the cemetery wall of the Serbian village Pančewo. This picture is also displayed as part of the anti-Wehrmacht exhibition. This execution was even filmed by a German war reporter. The film was shown on German television in April 1997 as proof of the crimes committed by the Wehrmacht.[68] Now it is already unlikely that the military officials in charge would have allowed a reporter to document a war crime openly and in such detail (and the same, of course, goes for all such documents). What the anti-Wehrmacht exhibition as well as the television broadcast hushed up, however, is the fact that the picture actually shows the enforcement of a verdict passed by a regular German court-martial against partisans who had been sentenced to death for murderous attacks on German soldiers. Therefore, under the martial law in effect both in those days and today, this execution is not a crime, but rather a permissible judicial means of war. The event is admittedly cruel, but after all that is the central characteristic of any war. Hence, the crime is not to be sought in the execution, but in the reasons that led to that war.

In Germany the debate about the anti-Wehrmacht exhibition, clearly conducted with left-wing extremist aims, has resulted not only in exposing the network of leftist ideologists in Germany who have virtually monopolized the historiography of the Third Reich for themselves.[60] Another consequence has been that contemporary historians are prepared, for the first time in over 50 years, to critically analyze and question the authenticity of documents that purport to prove alleged National Socialist crimes. In this context, special mention must go to Professor Dr. Dr. Klaus Sojka who has subjected the pictures of Reemtsma's exhibit to a detailed and devastating critique by supplementing these pictures with many others and analyzing them comprehensively from the perspective of document criticism.[69] Prof. Franz W. Seidler has set a sort of counterpoint to this entire debate by publishing the only recently rediscovered files of the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau[70] which documented, with great care and in detail, the crimes that were committed against German soldiers during the eastern campaign:

"This book is a response to the exhibition 'War of Extermination. The Crimes of the Wehrmacht, 1941 to 1945' [...].

Unlike the anti-Wehrmacht exhibition, this documentation of Soviet wartime atrocities leaves no room for fabrications, misleading text and arbitrary allegations. - All events are documented. - Information regarding places and dates is unequivocal. - The pictures are not private photos, but legal and medical evidence. - The text documents have not been altered. - Most documents are supported by further evidence which researchers can examine. - The wording of the text documents can be verified in the Federal Archives / Military Archives in Freiburg under shelf mark RW 2/v.147-v.152."[71]

Indeed some of the crimes described are enough to make a reader's blood run cold; for example, the many photos documenting cases of Russian cannibalism of German soldiers, cf. illustration 23. It takes such documentation to really drive home the point what a dirty war the barbaric attitude of Stalin and his comrades forced the Germans to fight.[72]

A particularly interesting reply was made by the young historian Walter Post, whose account reveals revisionist tendencies in many respects, and concludes in a sort of bottom-line:

"In an essay in the book accompanying the exhibition 'War of Extermination. The Crimes of the Wehrmacht', Alfred Streim [Public Prosecutor with the Central Office of Provincial Justice Administrations in Ludwigsburg] stated that ever since the Central Office was established in 1958, some 3,000 preliminary proceedings have been instituted in the Federal Republic of Germany against members of the Wehrmacht - in other words, 3,000 Wehrmacht soldiers were suspected of having participated in National Socialist or war crimes.

If one considers that approximately 18 million men and women belonged to the Wehrmacht, then 3,000 accused constitute 0. 017% of the entire personnel. Even if one assumes, absolutely hypothetically, that there was a very high 90% rate of unreported or undetected cases, and thus a total of 30,000 potential suspects, this still amounts to only 0.17%. Incidentally, of the 3,000 preliminary proceedings in the Federal Republic of Germany, only two(!) have resulted in a conviction. In the former German Democratic Republic there has been a total of eight convictions of former members of the Wehrmacht.

Thus, quantitative studies also show that the legend of the 'decent Wehrmacht' is not necessarily a legend."[73]

Finally, in late 1999, shortly before this exhibition was to go to America, it was temporarily canceled, after three scholars proved in detailed studies that most of the pictures were mis-captioned, only 10% of them (allegedly) showing crimes. Some of the exhibits actually show victims of mass murder committed by the Soviet NKVD.[74] Consequently, Johannes Heer lost his position as head of this exhibition, and some of the most renowned German historians recommended phasing it out without replacement.[75] In a thorough study, Walter Post demonstrated recently that this exhibition is not just trying to substantiate the 'right' hypothesis ("War of Extermination. The Crimes of the Wehrmacht") with some wrong photos, as some historians assert, but rather that the hypothesis itself is massively flawed.[76]

These writings seem to have broken a spell that has paralyzed German historiography for more than 50 years and prevented historians from fulfilling their foremost duty, namely to subject their sources to critical analysis. All in all, therefore, and speaking not only from an academic perspective, Reemtsma's exhibition has turned out to be a disaster that would be hard to surpass.

http://vho.org/GB/Books/dth/fndgcffor.html

[Hektor]

Udo Walendy and Walter Post, citing other investigations, has shown this "exhibit" to a complete scam. According to one estimate only 10 percent of all photographs show crimes

In summary:
http://vho.org/GB/Books/dth/fndgcffor.html

The trick of the Hannes Heer & Co. was to mix forgeries with authentic pictures of legit execution of Partisans together. The ordinary visitor of such an exhibition doesn't know about ad usum law in war and hence deems this all "criminal". That the exhibitors do not mention this is another deceit by them.

[Hannover]

I grabbed this from:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1163&p=7272
The links to the specific photos under discussion are broke, but some interesting text nonetheless.

- Hannover

RETOUCHED or POSED?

A Professional Photographer comments on Allied Propaganda methods.

************
During WW2, with the German Armies being welcomed into many Eastern European Countries and seen as Liberators from Stalinistic & Bolshevist terror, the Allies needed to prove German expansionism and aggression to the world, and to redirect peoples eyes away from the plans they themselves had made for the destruction of Germany. Many of the photos in this article have been used by the Allies as 'proof' that the Germans were nothing more than war criminals.

Proof of German war crimes was difficult to come by for two reasons, the first is, the German military had trained very disciplined soldiers who fought under a strictly enforced code of conduct, the second reason I will tell you about in the course of this article.

I will start by introducing myself; I've been a successful Professional Photographer and Filmmaker for more than 44 years. My first camera was a Box Brownie and now I use a Nikon D1X Digital.

In the early 1960's I was employed by a major Australian Photographic Studio doing advertising and fashion and we did both still and movie productions and this included having our own B/W and colour darkrooms. We didnt have videocameras in those days, instead we used American Bell & Howell 16mm Moviecameras, the same the American propaganda companies had used during WW2, with a revolving three lens turret and the cameras were powered by a spring that we had to wind up first.

We also used these cameras to shoot 'Still' fashion shots, we would go on location with some beautiful models, a pile of clothes and then the model would go through her paces and we we would film her, after the movie film was developed, the Art-Director would watch the film and pick a few frames that we would then enlarge up to be used as prints in a fashion magazine. To me as the Photographer, these Black and White photos looked pretty dreadful, but the arty-farty Art-directors thought they were great.

The 16mm Filmmaterial was really not designed to make stills from, 16mm is a lot smaller than even 35mm, its shot at a relatively slow shutter speed, so when blown up as a still it's not very sharp, it gets grainy and the grey tones bleach and they 'clog up' and look sort of aethereal (You can see this clearly in the Photos below. the one on the left looks suspiciously like it was taken from just such a propaganda movie scene.


The Photo of the hanged man on the right shows the German actor Walter Ladengast in the Hollywood film 'Entscheidung im Morgengrauen' (I don't know the English Title) Walter survived the film, so did the photo which has been used many times to prove German atrocities.

The reason many propaganda photos look like this, is because the technique I have just described, was used to produce them.

An old friend of mine, who was amongst the first wave of German troops to march into Poland, was later taken Prisoner by the Russians and during his 'Gulag' time he was often forced to be an actor in one of these 'Propaganda movies' He told me that in some scenes he and his comrades were forced to march back and forth with rifles and mounted bayonets and on the bayonets the Russians had speared dolls that looked like babies.

As well as Russian movies I have also collected Polish & Czech propaganda movies showing Poles and/or Czechs dressed up as German soldiers, the photos below were taken from a documentary shown on a Phoenix TV in Germany, they show Czech soldiers who had stripped their German Prisoners of their uniforms, beaten them, shot them in the head then they threw the bodies into a ditch AND they had taken the film footage to 'prove' Nazi brutality.


The reason these 'movie-stills' look better than the photo of the Ravine above is, I use modern virtually lossless digital techniques to capture these stills, technology and software that were not available even twenty years ago.

As well as these examples, I also have a copy of a British propaganda movie that I recorded from TV, where the Brits have 'Re-constructed a Gassing' using a Trucks exhaust pumped into an old shed. I have even seen a WEBsite showing still scenes taken from 'Schindlers Lists' with the actor that played Kommandant Amon Goeth standing on his balcony with a rifle, the website insinuates the photo is the real Amon Goeth!!

So literally miles of movie-film propaganda material was shot by the Allies in an attempt to 'prove' German atrocities. BUT back in the late 40's 50's, even into the 60's few people had TV, not everyone went to the movies AND actual photos of German Atrocities are very rare, so the only way out for the Allied Propaganda Agencies to show photos of German atrocities, was to create their own Photos.

Taking frames from their Propaganda movies turned out to be quite successful for the Allies, the slow shutter speed of the moviecamera gave the individual frames a look of 'movement', they dont look as posed as many still photos do, they look more like 'grabs'. The photo doesnt look like a slick, posed advertisement, it has a sense of urgency. This 'urgent secrecy' feeling made the photos look even MORE real and this was a GOOD thing for the propagandists....NOW we come to the second reason why original material was hard to come by..................it is because, under many and various ORDERS given out by: OBERKOMMANDO der Herresgruppen and GENERALSTABSCHEFS from August-November 1941 , QUOTE:
'The photography or filming of any execution was 'fahrlässiger LANDESVERRAT' nach Paragraph 90d and 90e des Reichstrafgesetzbuches ' ( A treasonable act under paragraphs 90d and 90e of the 'Reich's Compendium of illegal acts' ) (Source Austellungskatalog 'Verbrechung der Wehrmacht 1941-1944 ' ISBN 3930906-24-7 Endquote!

Now check out this Photo


This is a Photo used in a Photo exhibition in Europe to 'prove' German Army atrocities. Its listed under the heading 'De-humanizing the Jews' It was supposedly taken from the pocket of a captured German soldier. This is an obvious double-exposure and shows what looks like a man in large concrete water tank, there is nothing to indicate he's a Jew nor is there anything obviously sinister going on.

Now I come to two of my favourite fakes:

According to the Caption attached to this first one it says: Quote; ' Jewish Men forced to work for the Wehrmacht. Photo German Propaganda Company '.


It's a fake because its posed, it is a still taken from another Russian War Propaganda Movie. I have a copy of the movie it was taken from. Look to the men on the rt hand side of the Photo, One 'German Soldier' is holding a recording deck and the man standing aimlessly on the far right is also part of the Filmcrew. To the left in the second row of Prisoners is a man wearing glasses, a closeup look shows the Filmlights reflecting in his glasses. You might also notice the Jewish 'slavelabourers' are actually better armed than the Germans, who are not carrying any weapons at all!

But this next one is a dandy....I have blown it up around 5 times the size of the original


The Original Photo caption claims. 'Unknown town in the Ukraine, Photo found in the wallet of captured German soldier'

My suggestion is to print this photo out or load it into a good Photo software and then measure and compare the body sizes of the various people in the photo. You will find the men supposedly hanged are giants compared to the dwarfs in the foreground. Its a badly done collage.

However just because a photo looks unprofessional, it doesnt mean its necessarily a fake, often the quality of the film, the chemicals, or the paper the photo was later printed on resulted in the photo looking bad. Photos taken by German propaganda companies with Leica cameras and on good film will obviously look better than photos taken by a Partisan using low quality equipment. What makes a photo a fake is, if it was constructed and posed to look as though it was an original or if it is used out of context, if it is given a misleading caption, or if it was cut-and-pasted to make an innocent photo more sinister.

The following photo is a lie not a fake, and not just because its a lousy photograph, Its a lie because of the Caption added to the Photograph which appeared in the Book 'Auschwitz in den Augen der SS' (Auschwitz through the eyes of the SS) printed in Warsaw in 1992 for the Auschwitz Museum....The Caption says: 'Reichsführer SS Himmler (Left) standing with Oberstürmbannführer Hoess when Himmler visited Auschwitz' (Foto: unknown SS Man, Time and Date unknown)

HIMMLER NEVER VISITED AUSCHWITZ


The next Photo is an often used propaganda piece of art, it was supposedly taken secretly in Auschwitz -Birkenau by a member of an Auschwitz Sonderkommando who was also a member of the camp Resistance movement. It supposedly shows a group of women being forced to run naked to the gas-chambers.


This photo makes me suspicious for a couple of reasons.

a) The alleged gas-chambers in Birkenau supposedly had huge underground undressing rooms where people supposedly undressed before taking a shower. (Shower is Hollywood code for being 'gassed')

b) Let me assume the Photographer was not using a ONE-shot studio camera or a movie camera but probably used a 35mm camera with a film with 36 exposures on it. What else did he photograph? Did he take photos of the gas-chambers? NOPE, What about the Krematoriums and their roof-vents? NOPE, Did he take photos of any useful strategic value? (Obviously NOT, otherwise we would have been shown them). The Chimneys gushing smoke maybe? NO.

So this guy gambles with a possible death sentence to smuggle a camera into the camp to take a photo of some naked ladies??? Well maybe he did, but what proof is there that these people are about to be 'whatevered'?

c) Then, did he smuggle the film out of the camp again to be developed, or was it developed by his in-camp-Fotolab ? Auschwitz Stammlager had a large photographic Dept but it was run by German soldiers? I can just hear other members of his 'resistance' movement on seeing this one photo he took. 'Gee Schmuel, if you take anymore pictures of naked women, at least get them sharp!'

Two more photos that show alleged German brutality: The photo on the left is a quickly done typical cut-and-paste job, the light on the Soldier is coming from above and behind him, but on the Jews on the left the light is coming directly from the front.

[img]http://www.codoh.com/uploads/Plünder.jpg[/img]
The victim in the right hand photo was hanged because, the placard says he was caught stealing and hiding Jewish valuables, but there is no proof of whether the Germany Army hanged him or whether it was the Partisans, the photo was allegedly taken from the wallet of a fallen German soldier.

A photographer or filmmaker AND/OR the PROPAGANDIST is succesful, when he manages to "Instill in the viewer of his work, the intended emotion "Humans create their own models of reality by interpreting what comes in through their senses." We know Bambi cartoons are not real but how many people cry watching Bambi cartoons? Successful advertising campaigns use powerful 'association techniques' and symbols, for example;

Opening scene, Family standing praying, flickering candles on the table, sit down to a frugal meal, there's Grandpop and Grandma, Mum, Dad and a couple of good looking kids...a scene most people feel good with.....all of a sudden gunshots, yelling, soldiers burst in and drag everyone out....you wouldn't care WHOSE uniform the soldiers were wearing you'd hate em already! Add certain symbols such as a Swastika and you've got the opening scene from Schindlers Lists.

The Swastika as a symbol has been demonised so much now that the mere sight of one and you know these are the bad guys. People dont care anymore if a photo or movie is real or faked, if it has certain symbols in it, if the actors have German accents or German names, people have been conditioned to hate it. Have you noticed that in Hollywood films the good guys are called AAron, Ben, Jud, Jake (Jakob) Lou (Lew) and the bad guys are called Fritz, Franz, Hans, Günther, Karl. All these names have been associated with Photos such as the ones in this article.

When trying to restore truth and perspective in History, Revisionists often use Allied propaganda material or repeat Allied propaganda, this has the effect of RE-activating in people the emotions instilled into them the first time they were confronted with it. These re-activated emotions are often more effective than the message revisionists are trying to get across. It is my experience that it is this re-activation of previously implanted unpleasant emotions, that causes so much 'Widerstand' (resistance) to revisionist work.

[Hektor]

The pictures seem to have been cleared.

[Moderator]

The pictures seem to have been cleared.

If you select 'quote' when viewing the quoted text you can see the former links. Many of CODOH's old links have been changed, regrettably, but as I understand it, unavoidable.
M1

[EtienneSC]

Several of these responses are particularly informative. I'm familiar with the English versions of Udo Walendy's work, but it has the defects of only covering a limited number of photos and being limited in its descriptions of the techniques used. Further information on the technical aspects would be valuable, especially as knowledge of the techniques will be lost owing to their replacement by new digital technologies.

[Hektor]

Walendy's work on the photographic forgeries was just pioneering. Much more could be done in this regard. More revealing then pointing out single forgeries, is the fact that the court historians almost never official dismiss forgeries that could cast doubt on the official version of the Holocaust. In fact they carry these things around for decades even include it in their literature. When something is exposed too much it just silently leaves the frame of persuasive artifacts. That definitely shows that there is a collective intent to enforce the official version and not to cast any doubt on it.

[Kingfisher]

Even without the actual photos to view, that was a fascinating insight into the subject of how these photos are made and how they work.