During the Second World War, one of the most disgraceful things for a German soldier to
commit was desertion or cowardice.
Hitler would stipulate that any member of the Wehrmacht who was seen to have displayed
desertion was to be executed and to be shot by his own men.
They would administer hard justice and it was hoped that soldiers would hear of deserters
and that these stories would be enough to make Wehrmacht officers and soldiers lay their
life down for Hitler’s empire.
Many of these men had been brainwashed heavily, being younger soldiers who had been forced
to join the Hitler Youth at a young age, but there was one incident involving a German
soldier who belonged to the 714th Infantry Division, in German occupied Serbia.
But this man would refuse to take the life of a number of resistance fighters, and because
of this he was instead sent to the firing range and he was executed alongside the enemies
of the Germans.
Join us today as we look at ‘The Execution Of The German Soldier That Refused To Fire
At The Enemy,’ remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Josef Schulz was born in 1909, and he lived in Barmen. Little is known about his early
life, but it’s believed that he was a soldier who then joined the military and the Wehrmacht.
But during the Second World War, he was a corporal and he was part of the 714th Infantry
Division of the Wehrmacht.
This division had been formed in May 1941, and it was then transferred to Yugoslavia
to be involved in anti-partisan and anti resistance missions inside of the country.
They were also part of security operations inside of Yugoslavia, and throughout the second
world war they would be involved in huge anti partisan raids.
The Partisans following the German occupation of Yugoslavia rose up, and they moved to the
moutainous regions and they caused chaos with the German army.
Partisans would conduct sabotage operations and would recruit many more people into their
cause, but if the Germans found a partisan then they would demonstrate brutality against
them.
Many Partisans were arrested and were then tortured and interrogated heavily for information
about partisan activities.
If someone gave over no information, they would be considered a lost cause and for this
would be sentenced to death.
One young teenager who was condemned and executed for this was Lepa Radic, a 17 year old girl
who helped evacuate wounded partisans from the battlefield and she was then taken to
the gallows and was executed by the Wehrmacht in front of a crowd in shocking scenes.
But the 717th Infantry Division continued to conduct acts of terror against the Partisans
and they wanted the population to fall into line and to not disrupt the Germans.
The division were implicated throughout the war in a number of war crimes especially as
the war went on, and these soldiers were used to fighting in rough terrain and in the foothills,
as well as being used as shock squads in urban areas.
They would fight between the mountains and the plains, and they were known as a Jager
division, or a hunter division, and they were highly trained.
But Josef Schulz was a member of the division, but during the conflict little attraction
was given to the fact that he was said to have died during operations in Yugoslavia
on the 19th July 1941.
He was recorded in German military circles as dying on duty, but this was not the case
and his death was an execution which was considered strange and bizarre.
However on the 20th July 1941, the Germans had collected a group of 16 Yugoslav partisans,
and they had been gathered inside of the barracks of a town southeast of Belgrade.
The Germans brought these resistance fighters out into the open, and they were then stood
against a wall.
The executioner’s were stood with their rifles, and the partisans leaning against
the wall were blindfolded, before the firing squad shot and executed them.
However following the end of the Second World Wart he bodies of the victims were exhumed
from a mass grave, but it was said from eyewitnesses that one of the remains of the people executed
had a significant amount of German military relics and equipment on their person.
Their ID tag had been lost, but it was clear that amongst the executed was a German soldier.
There was a memorial then made in 1947 to the name of a Croatian victim named Marcel
Mesic, and it was said that there was a German soldier executed at the time along with the
partisans, and that this German soldier was then executed for refusing to take part in
the executions of the partisans.
But then roughly 15 years after the war had come to an end, West German newspapers published
images from the date of the executions, and in this they showed a German soldier who was
stood walking towards the partisan victims against the wall, and he was too without a
helmet and a belt.
The Germans were asked to help identify this person, and the photographs were taken by
a Wehrmacht unit, and they were then left behind when the unit left to go to the Eastern
Front.
The newspapers spoke of the defection of a German soldier, but then a member of the Bundestag
came forward, and he then identified the person in the images as Josef Schulz.
He identified him based on the diary of the commander of Friedrich Stahl, the commander
of the 714th infantry division.
In this he managed to link Schulz to the place of execution, and the story began to come
together.
A Yugoslav newspaper would claim that Josef Schulz had in fact been an underground member
of the opposition to Hitler, and that he had been found out.
But eyewitnesses to the execution also confirmed that a German officer was seen at the time
arguing with other germans and that this specific man had no insignia on his uniform and he
had been stripped of them.
The German officer in charge was furious and was outraged, and with this it was Josef Schulz
who was getting the barrage of abuse.
What had emerged during the executions of the Partisans, was the Josef Schulz whilst
stood opposite the people he was meant to be executed could not do this.
He had refused to take part in the firing squad and the executions, and because of this
he was found guilty of desertion and cowardice.
He was then screamed at by the officer in charge who then forced him to stand with the
condemned, and he was then executed alongside the Partisans, before he was buried in a rough
grave and his insignia had been stripped, court martialling him, and then his remains
were disinterred later.
Eyewitnesses also claimed that this occurred, but there was some rejection to the story
of Josef Schulz and his execution.
There was a significant study launched in 1972 and a report looked into Schulz and it
claimed that in fact the soldier in an image heading towards the partisans ready for execution
was not Schulz, and they questioned that Schulz had already allegedly been killed when these
executions took place.
It was claimed the had been reported dead to army command on the 20th July around 2am,
and then information was passed to his relatives about this.
With this some historians had claimed that Josef Schulz was not the man who was executed
with the Partisan.
However following the war, Josef Schulz still remained a popular point of debate in Yugoslavia,
and there was a memorial create at the execution site, and Josef Schulz’ name was then added
to the victims of the 16 Yugoslav Partisans who had been shot that day.
Many believe today that it is Josef Schulz, but without DNA testing, the legend of Schulz
can not be put to bed.
Films have even been made about this, but the true story of Josef Schulz is one that
needs telling.
What happened to him during the fighting against the Partisans.
He must have been a well trained and skilled soldier, but it’s very possible that his
date of death may have been ill-reported to the German military or command to cover up
the execution of a German soldier.
But still today Josef Schulz’ story is one that needs clearing up and sorting out to
confirm if he was actually the man who was executed alongside the Partisans.
If he was, it would be a remarkable and shocking execution, a German soldier being executed
alongside the enemies of the germans.
But there were accounts during the Second World War of German soldiers being court-martialled
and quickly executed for cowardice and desertion.
There were some Germans who refused to execute the enemy, and because of this they were considered
even guilty of treason.
Thanks for watching
To support please make sure to subscribe
Thanks for watching