''Menschen im Sturm'' ( en, People in the Storm, link=yes, italic=yes) is a 1941 German film directed by

Fritz Peter Buch Fritz Peter Buch (21 December 1894 – 6 November 1964) was a German screenwriter and film director. He worked frequently during the Nazi period, but struggled in the post-war years. He directed Zarah Leander in one of her comeback films ''Cuba Ca ...

. It was an

anti-Serbian Anti-Serb sentiment or Serbophobia ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, србофобија, srbofobija, separator=" / ") is a generally negative view of Serbs as an ethnic group. Historically it has been a basis for the persecution of ethnic Serbs. A distinctiv ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

and part of a concerted propaganda push against Serbs, attempting to split them from the Croats.

Synopsis

Vera witnesses the persecution of ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, which awakens her ethnic consciousness. Her cosmopolitan friend Alexander is arrested. Vera flirts with the Serbian commander to allow '' Volksdeutsche'' to escape to the border. When arrested, she proudly affirms that she helped her countrymen and, in an escape attempt, is shot, to die happy and heroic.

Cast

* Olga Chekhova *

Gustav Diessl Gustav Diessl (30 December 1899 – 20 March 1948) was an Austrian artist, and film and stage actor. Biography Diessl was born Gustav Karl Balthasar Diessl in Vienna. In 1916, he was an extra on different stages in Vienna but was soon recruite ...

* Hannelore Schroth * Siegfried Breuer * Josef Sieber *

Heinz Welzel Heinz Welzel (1911–2002) was a German stage, television and film actor. He was also a noted voice actor Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called vo ...

* Kurt Meisel

Production and release

The film was shot on locations in Hrvatsko Zagorje, then- Independent State of Croatia, in July 1941. Its Zagreb premiere was held on 21 March 1942. Unusually, contemporary Viennese film magazine ' classified the film as "forbidden for the youth" ().

Motifs

The film reprises many of the same motifs as '' Heimkehr'', in an anti-Serbian rather than

anti-Polish Polonophobia, also referred to as anti-Polonism, ( pl, Antypolonizm), and anti-Polish sentiment are terms for negative attitudes, prejudices, and actions against Poles as an ethnic group, Poland as their country, and their culture. These incl ...

context. A sympathetic Croat aids the Germans, stating that all Croats should be friendly, and is murdered by Serbs for it, reflecting a widespread cliche of the friendly Croat.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* 1941 films Nazi World War II propaganda films Nazi-era films restricted in Germany Films of Nazi Germany 1940s German-language films German black-and-white films Films shot in Croatia Films set in Yugoslavia 1940s German films {{1940s-Germany-film-stub