Shortly after the invasion of Eastern Poland and Russia, the German soldiers (with Solomon Perel/"Joseph Peters") come across the hanging bodies of two young children with signs around their necks. Since the signs are in Cyrillic, I am assuming they were murdered by the Russians.
What do those signs say?
Google Translate tells me the first two lines are something like "and so will all who help the bolsheviks and partisans". I might have gotten a letter or two wrong, it ain't easy to read, but it sounds right.
shareThanks for your trouble and response! That translation would imply that those kids were murdered by the Germans or possibly Poles who were glad to be liberated from the Russians, but that doesn't seem to gel with how the Germans reacted to their discovery of the bodies. Maybe there's not supposed to be any specific answer here--or the answer might be in the book. Thanks again!
shareKeep in mind, those bodies were found by barely 18 year old kids. It would only be natural that they react differently from the ones who committed the murders.
Also, my guess is they were murdered by Germans and/or sympathizing partizan groups as a warning towards partizan groups in newly "liberated" areas of the Soviet Union, as in "choose the right side or you end up like this". For instance, most the armed guards at the Sobibor camp were ethnic Ukrainians who sided with Nazi Germany.
Difficult to say - the movie isn't all clear about where that scene takes place. But the following trench scene makes a reference to a city named Brunsk, which is quite possibly Bryansk, nowadays Russia, which would back up my theory.
If you read the book and it clarifies, do drop me a note please.
Yes. The thing is, the message is written in Cyrillic, which seems to indicate the children were murdered by Russians. Interesting theory, and maybe they were murdered by Ukrainians or other Russian nationals who sympathized with the Germans. Anyway, I will get the book from our local library, and I will let you know what I find out. Thanks again!
shareNonsense. These two, most likely Belorussian children, were murdered by Germans. The sign reads that everyone who helps Bolsheviks and partisans will end up like this. Not to mention that the German soldier is telling Josef that those pigs killed his parents just because they were Germans so he should learn to hate them. Soviets occupied Belorussia in 1919. About 60,000 Soviet partisans were active in Bryansk region during that time. If you want to know what Germans did in Belorussia watch Come and See, if you haven't done it yet.
shareI was just assuming that, since Jupp and the soldiers w/him were apparently on the first wave of the Blitzkrieg and just seemed to stumble upon the bodies, those children must have been murdered by someone else. Still, I know the Germans often used SS shock troops to spread terror ahead of the advance of their own forces. I'm not sure that there is supposed to be one concrete answer here, but your explanation makes good sense. Thanks for the recommend--I'll c/out "Come and See" when I get the chance.
shareRight. Einsatzgruppen burned down 628 Belarusian villages together with all the people in them.
shareJust read the book which, as you can imagine, is different from the film in many ways. It does not, alas, make any mention of this incident.
shareThe Germans often hanged people as a warning, frequently attaching signs to the corpses with inscriptions like "We are partisans and fired on German soldiers".
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."