German Newsweek No. 748- 11 January 1945

The German Newsweek (Die Deutsche Wochenschau) was the unified newsreel of Germany from 1940-1945. The concept of a weekly newsreel was much older, dating back to WWI, and in the 1930s, there were several different weekly newsreels in Germany. With the outbreak of WWII, these were unified and from June 1940 shown under the title of “The German Newsweek“. It was one of the most important aspects of German propaganda. Each week, over 2000 copies were sent to theaters and movie houses throughout Germany and shown to the general public, as private TV ownership was extremly rare during WWII. Over 700 episodes were produced, and many of the historical WWII footage we nowadays have comes from the Wochenschau. This is issue No. 748 from January 11th, 1945. It shows newly raised German Volksgrenadier and Volkssturm units, collection of civlian clothings for the army, soldiers taking an oath, combat footage from Courland and Navy Fast Boat units, a German/American prisoner exchange in St. Nazaire, fighting on the West Front and German Air Force attacks against allied air fields (Operation Bodenplatte). Subtitles made by me.