Execution of hostages in Pančevo. Young Germans, members of the elite "Großdeutschland" Regiment, escorting a group of civilians, Serbs and Jews, to the gallows at the Orthodox cemetery in Pančevo. Among the hostages, there are professors, students, clerks, craftsmen... These poor people would be hanged in retaliation for a rebel attack on German soldiers, in which one soldier was killed and one was wounded, and for "committing the crime of violence against ethnic Germans" (i.e. for the riots caused by the March coup). In spite of the horrible fate and injustice – being condemned to death for chauvinist-propaganda reasons – the hostages went to their execution peacefully, holding their heads high. The photographer, war correspondent Gerhard Gronefeld, stated the same after the war: "It was astonishing to me that they went to death with such dignity. Some of them even shouted 'Long live Yugoslavia!' I wonder if at least one German would have died a dignified death like that."
Text: Ivan Ž.
Photographer: Gerhard Gronefeld.
Date: 22 April 1941.
Location: Pančevo, Yugoslavia.
Original caption: unknown.
File source: Deutsches Historisches Museum, GG 387/22.
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Pogubljenje talaca u Pančevu. Mladi Nemci, pripadnici elitnog puka "Velika Nemačka", sprovode grupu civila, Srba i Jevreja, na vešala na pravoslavnom groblju u Pančevu. Među taocima su profesori, studenti, činovnici, zanatlije... Ovi nesrećnici biće obešeni u cilju odmazde za ustanički napad na nemačke vojnike, u kojem je jedan vojnik ubijen i jedan ranjen, i zbog "vršenja zločina nasilja nad folksdojčerima" (tj. zbog nereda prouzrokovanih martovskim pučem). Uprkos strašnoj sudbini i nepravdi – osudi na smrt iz šovinističko-propagandnih razloga – taoci su na pogubljenje otišli mirno, uzdignutih glava. O tome je posle rata svedočio i autor ove fotografije, ratni dopisnik Gerhard Gronefeld: "Za mene je bilo zadivljujuće to što su tako uspravno odlazili u smrt. Neki od njih su čak uzviknuli 'Živela Jugoslavija!' Pitam se da li bi ijedan Nemac tako dostojanstveno poginuo."
Tekst: Ivan Ž.
Fotograf: Gerhard Gronefeld.
Datum: 22. april 1941.
Mesto: Pančevo, Jugoslavija.
Originalni natpis: nepoznat.
Izvor fajla: Deutsches Historisches Museum, GG 387/22.
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