Angels of death

The Soviet General Vlasov remains one of the most intriguing, yet least known figures of World War II. In 1942, the German war machine had come to a halt near the Russian city of Leningrad. The Russian Second Assault Army, led by General Vlasov, fights itself to death in an effort to break the German siege. Their general is captured and later defects to the Germans. In ANGELS OF DEATH we experience the fate of General Vlasov’s army as we hear the personal accounts of those who died in the massacre through their poems, letters and photographs.

Social interest

All Russians were taught that the swamps at Mjasnoi Bor near Leningrad was the place where the traitor Vlasov deserted his army and defected to the Germans. Since the years of Perestroika, however, Russian historians and writers are starting doubt this version of the story. Several years now, a group of motivated people (often students and relatives of deceased students) gathers at the swamp from all over the former Soviet union. Their aim is to expose the truth before time erases all evidence.

Political interest

Patriot or traitor? More than 60 years after his execution, General Andrei Vlasov remains one of World War II’s most controversial figures. A brilliant Soviet commander, Vlasov was captured by the German Wehrmacht (Dutch volunteer legion) in July, 1942, and soon became central to the campaign by junior German officers to launch a Russian Liberation Army (ROA) against Stalin’s regime. Because these plans ran up against Nazi dogmas of Lebensraum and Slavic inferiority, only in the last months of the war did Hitler consent to sponsor a truncated version of his Liberation Army, with predictably futile results. Yet Vlasov’s vision–of a Russia freed of Stalin’s yoke, with guaranteed freedoms for its peoples–survived his battlefield defeats; that he sought to attain his goals through German Nazi sponsorship underlines the tragedy of his–and Soviet Russia’s– predicament.

Historic interest

In modern day Russia the word ‘Vlasovite’ still is synonym for super-traitor. Every record of General Vlasov’s actions during WWII, including his operation at Leningrad, has been erased from official Russian history since his defection. As a result the 70.000 soldiers under his command who died in the swamps at Mjasnoi Bor were also erased. The families of these thousands of abandoned dead soldiers had no choice than to accept that their father, brother or husband had been branded as traitors. Yet ANGELS OF DEATH unfolds another story; through excavation in the swamp it appears that most soldiers have fought to the death.

Festival screenings & awards

The film has been aired frequently by several broadcasters worldwide.
Golden Calf-Dutch academy award for best short documentary