The Savage Peace

This documentary mainly concentrates on the reprisals of the Czechs against its German-speaking population following the end of WWII. The creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918/1919 from the Australia-Hungarian Empire was a country of Bohemians, Moravians, Slovaks, Hungarians, and Germans. Hitler used the issue of Sudetenland Germans to force the country to cede portions of the country to Germany in 1938, as France and Great Britain reneged on their commitment to protect Czechoslovakia's sovereignty. Six months later, the Germans invaded the country and created a protectorate, brutalizing its slavonic-speaking population. In 1945, after 7 years of abuse and humiliation, the revenge against Nazis and all Germans was swift, violent, and equally deadly. The film also refers to the Polish revenge of its German-speaking population as well as the Russian Army's brutality against German civilians, especially women.

The information and video feeds of this film are produced from a time immediately after the end of WWII and particularly after Nazi occupation has ended. As with everything in history, it is easiest to put goggles on based on today's standards. It must be remembered that none of us were there and none of us suffered under the Nazi occupation.

I believe this documentary to be well filmed, well edited and well narrated. Along with the other documentaries such as "Einsatzgruppen", this film shows the horrors of what humans can do to one another. I believe it to be important as it indeed shows a different side of the attrocities committed by humankind.

We've all heard about the horrors committed by Russian soldiers during and after World War II. The brutal mass rapes, even of Jewish women hiding in Germany. There was no sense of honor in their actions. They acted more like predators than soldiers. And disturbingly, similar behavior is still being reported today in Ukraine.

What truly shocked me in this documentary, though, were the stories that rarely get told. Civilians torturing and killing children like they were nothing more than animals. I expected to hear about things like beatings, public humiliation, or maybe the destruction of ethnic German homes. But the cruelty described here is beyond anything I could have imagined.

The testimonies from survivors are absolutely gut wrenching. Even decades later, the trauma is still raw, like it all happened just yesterday. This isn't an easy documentary to sit through. You need to brace yourself because it's heavy, disturbing, and unforgettable.

Reading between the lines, what I got out of this movie was that the USA, UK and Russia decided to commit "the biggest genocide in history of humanity" as labeled by the creators by expelling the German-speaking population from Eastern European countries and reducing the size of Germany by a third.

The other point I got was that there was a reprisal against the civilian German population that was actively involved in aiding Nazis in terms of committing atrocities.

The so called documentary reached its lowest point when the creators used as a witness a former Nazi youth organization member, still enamored with the Hitler's personality.

The only truthful part of the story was the description of the atrocities committed by the Russian soldiers, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

It was a very difficult documentary to watch as it reminded me of the horror stories my grandfather, grandmother and their siblings recalled about post World War 2 Europe. The horrors and evils of the Nazi party were rightfully ended, but savage retaliation against ethnic Germans began. While some reviewers on here elude to it being propaganda, the horrific events that happened to family members of mine were well-documented, corroborated by other witnesses, and discussed extensively in medical records. The documentary was well done and I think it reminds us that violence doesn't necessarily end with the war.