Three days ago, HistoryAtWar released a YouTube documentary called ‘The Wehrmacht Veterans in Africa: Uncensored Secret War (Full Story)‘
The video description reads:
‘In the chaos of the Congo Crisis, a forgotten group of European mercenaries entered one of Africa’s most brutal secret wars. Among them were former Wehrmacht veterans, hardened soldiers from the ruins of World War II who found themselves fighting again in the jungles of Central Africa during the 1960s. This documentary uncovers the uncensored story of the German mercenaries in Congo, the Cold War power games behind the conflict, the terrifying realities of jungle warfare, and how men shaped by the Eastern Front and Nazi Germany’s collapse became part of a new and violent postwar battlefield. This is the story of the Wehrmacht veterans in Congo, a dark chapter of modern war where colonial collapse, anti-communism, money, revenge and survival all collided.’
Unfortunately, though the documentary is relatively informative and insightful, it falls short of being great. There are problems with some of the details, which lean more toward opinion, which is understandable, and isn’t focused.
And, despite the title, HistoryAtWar mainly focuses on the well-known mercenary Siegfried Müller and provides little tangible information about other individual German WWII veterans who served with the mercenaries in the Congo during the Simba Rebellion.
Meanwhile, unfortunately, the montage of visual imagery was at times simply misleading, inaccurate, and unrelated to the Congo conflict.
I commented on HistoryAtWar‘s video:
“An okay documentary, not great, in part because a lot of the images and footage being used have nothing to do with the Congo and the Simba Rebellion; perhaps too much dependence on AI. There is an image of men in DPMs, one holding an Uzi SMG (46:35), which is evidently a photo from the film set of ‘The Wild Geese’ starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, and Richard Harris, and the actors’ faces have been intentionally left out of the image. (Also, British DPMs of that type did not exist during the Simba Rebellion.) Things like this cheapen the documentary and make it less credible.
At 26:14, the footage of the paratroopers in lizard pattern camouflage, I believe, is IDF paratroopers.
At 27:27, the image is of American hostages (US Marine Guard and an African American diplomat) during the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979.
At 27:43, the image is of IDF troops in action.
At 28:16, the footage is of American troops in Vietnam.
I could go on.
Using any old images and footage for a supposed historical documentary is unprofessional, lazy, and cheapens the documentary, making it less reliable and credible.
Do better.“
HistoryAtWar still has some learning to do in producing credible, accurate history documentaries, and probably should rely a lot less on AI. Discerning eyes will spot the discrepancies and mistakes.
The documentary:
Below is the 1966 interview with the infamous German WWII veteran and (Congo) mercenary Siegfried Müller, who is a prime focus of the video above (as it relates to German WWII veterans serving in armies and conflicts, including the Congo).
Der lachende Mann/The Laughing Man – Bekenntnisse eines Mörders (GDR, 1966 – ENGLISH SUBTITLES):
‘Posing as West German journalists, East German documentary filmmakers Heynowski and Scheumann pay a visit to the notorious Nazi-turned-mercenary Siegfried “Kongo” Müller, pump him with booze, and get him to talk. Müller fought in Congo’s civil war in the 1960s, and the more Pernod he imbibes, the more fascinating this interview becomes. He asserts that blacks are no better than animals and shares his dream of enlisting in the U.S. Army to fight communism in Vietnam and beyond. He flaunts his military paraphernalia, including the Iron Cross he was awarded in Germany in 1945, and proceeds to deny his earlier statements about civil killings, the ethics of war, and the defense of Western libertarian values. This documentary tour-de-force is interspersed with pictures of Müller and his comrades proudly posing with severed skulls, and it touches on other Nazis who are active in Africa as well as American world dominance.’
–RdM
✳️ As an aside, and for what it’s worth, back in Cairo, I used to drink with Patrice Lumumba Junior, the son of Patrice Lumumba, at an old pub called ‘Pub 28‘, where he was basically a barfly. It took me a very long time to realize who he was, that he was his father’s son.
Under the protection of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser after the death of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, his son, Patrice Lumumba Jr., and his siblings grew up in Cairo. –RdM
