German occupation of Kharkiv, Soviet Union 1942 | (WW2 Color Footage) 

2:53 One year after German occupation of Kharkiv and the Ukrainian population still looks skinny and malnourished. The Germans plundered the food reserves as a means to fulfill the hunger plan. All of the Ukrainian signs from the Soviet era were gradually being replaced by German ones. Через рік після німецької окупації Харкова українське населення все ще виглядає худим і недоїданим. Німці грабували продовольчі запаси як засіб для виконання плану голодування. Усі українські вивіски радянських часів поступово витіснялися німецькими.

I'm quite surprised at how modern this city looks. It wouldn't be out of place in the 1970s.

Fantastic footage. And thank you so much for not adding a horrible music track that adds no value like so many others do

1:00 That skyline looks wild for 1942.

What's most impressive is the german camera equipment of that time.

Amazing footage. Looks quite modern. And the seeming calmness looks weird in the middle of that voracious war.

A lot of this footage takes place on the street I grew up on, “Sumskaja” street, as the Germans called it. Interesting to see some of those same buildings! Thanks for the amazing footage

My great-grandpa living at that time with his family in Kharkov was responsible for the evacuation of the city as an officer of the red army. Later he got repressed by the Stalinist regime and went to the Gulag. He survived. And now this city he loved so much has become once again a victim of another brutal war …

Fascinating. The office building visible at 1:00 and 2:19 is called Derzhprom (worth checking it in Wiki). The first modern skyscraper in the Soviet Union, build in 1928. Apparently, most spacious building in the world before skyscrapers rose in New York in the 1930-es.

The First and Second battles of Kharkov would mostly occur outside the city, with the defending forces simply withdrawing from the city proper. Third Battle of Kharkov in February - March 1943 however would see much of the city destroyed in the fighting.

Very nice footage, I am amazed by the quality of it!

Amazing footage!

Wow! Incredible footage

great quality of the footage and in color, amazing.

I am surprised that the buildings were intact. Obviously German army took the city with little resistance.

Fantastic, high-quality footage.

astonishingly high resolution, colour and picture quality

Great footage. An amazing variety of vehicles in use by The Wehrmacht.

Thank you!

Amazing footage. I was there a few weeks ago and you can still see some of the same buildings, especially in the old city square.

Amazing video! Very good quality

Thank you very interesting to plunge into history👍

2:25 Metropolis

To piggyback off of a comment made by someone else about how modern the city looks: In the same vein, most of the architecture we consider "modern" today when we think of a suburb or city in 2024 is stuff that was constructed during the 70s-90s. Weird how the lifespan of architecture tends to be crazy long compared to fashion or pop culture trends.

This is stunning footage!

Which archive is this from? Is it publicly accessable?

Un trabajo cinematográfico excelente congratulations gracias 😊

Wow this footage is amazing!

Thanks for the film. Excellent footage. What struck me was how clean the city is, not a piece of litter on the ground.

Truly remarkable footage. Based of what we see, with the exception of the city being occupied by an army, it all looks (for the most part) very business as usual.

My grandfather mentioned Charkow as one of the cities he went through while fighting in Russia. In late December of 1942 my grandfather was wounded in the Stalingrad pocket and flown out with one of the last transports. He survived the war.

Amazing footage 😮

Thanks for the video and history comments below. Upload more!

Amazing video

great video, never really seen colour film of the soviet union in wartime before.

Good video😊

Watching these color film clips makes the war so much more realistic; not like those black & white films where it doesn’t even seem real or that it happened way longer than it actually did. These give you a clear image of the reality of the whole thing. Too bad they don’t have sound though.

Incredible 👌 Btw is there no audio, or is it just an issue with my device?

Wow the condition of the images is very good. I am a preacher of the word but also a geo politic history interested person.

This is incredible footage

Yes, my hometown is Kharkov. Shots of the city center of the then still surviving city. It was interesting to see old footage of my city; after the war, there was little that was intact and then complete restructuring began, but the streets remained. It’s not for nothing that it later became a Hero City

Awsome

Incredible!!! The building of the noble assembly is still in place

Home... It's so strange how I can recognize streets just by seeing a corner of a building for a few seconds.

Обалдеть какое качество съемок для 1942 года!!

The city looked spectacular

La qualité de ce film m’a scotché. Au début j’ai cru que c’était un défilé de figurants pour un film sur l’image arrêtée c’est dire !

Thanks .

i dont think they suffered under the german occupation

Looking at this in 2024: It's really weird how the cars are not tailgating each other.

This is incredible

Do you think people will look back at our days in awe like we do with theirs? Just how they acted, how it looked, the graininess of the footage everything is HD now days so it just feels like there wont be a noticeable distinction like we see with this.

Когда началась Война бабушке было 16 лет и до Войны она часто ездила в Харьков, где жили ее родные. Она всегда вспоминала своих двоюродных брата и сестру. А после Войны она несколько раз пыталась их найти, и не нашла никого... Все погибли

Historically talking, this was yesterday.82 years have passed, though.

Город буквально кишит немцами, в том числе и женского пола. Фронт недалеко - это понятно. В целом город совсем не выглядит разрушенным, даже запустили трамвай. Очень многие места узнаваемы. Где-то там, среди этих людей, переживает оккупацию девочка по имени Люда Гурченко. А в 200-х километрах, в Краматорске, живет в оккупации 14-летний мальчик Женя - мой будущий отец.

thanks, it was great to see how my city looked back in those days

Lol, it's interesting how I am able to recognise almost all the places shown here, because I saw exactly these buildings while walking in my city.

Jarkov era una ciudad industrial. Casi todas las fábricas fueron evacuadas al Este por el E.R. casi en las narices de los alemanes.

What?! No corpses on streets, no ruins and no violence??

My native city. Used to go to school along these streets. My grandparents lived adjacently

Amazing how much the world changes in 80 year! Thank you for helping bring the past closer to the present! This color footage is beautiful!

Amazinge

I spent a couple years living and working at the KIPT site, yes, a lot of the same buildings were there than. The city was well laid out and the people were very friendly and welcoming. I still have a few friends there and in Kiev.

спасибо

This video really its differently. Colors, no retarded dramatic music, you can really grasp that feeling of "banality" in the german occupation. People casually walking the streets, cars. It doesn't suggest at all someplans of the germans like the Hüngerplan or the Ostplan. Like some comment says, it looks like the 60s-70s

2:08 So schnell wird aus dem Hotel "International" ein Soldatenheim für die Wehrmacht. 3:18 "Die Panzersprenggranate" - ist das Werbung für einen Kinofilm?

What I wouldn't give to talk to the old man at 1:23

0:53 I built that Horch Sd.kfz.70 truck in 1/35 scale as a kid. Thanks MRC Tamiya!

AMAZING Footage. I assumed the city would have suffered much more destruction. I'm more familiar with the second battle of Kharkov than the first one.

My house is just 7 kilometers away from the places shown in the video, built by my greatgrandpa in 1936. My 13 grandfather is there with his 5 sisters and brothers, one more was figting, another was POW. He used to tell me that on Sumsyaya street , which is shown here, during first days of occupation germans hanged jews on balconies. Also after surrender in 1942 Barvenkovo operation there were tens, if not hundreds of thouthnds POW walking down the Poltavskiy Shlyah, which is also partially shown here. One of them gave my granddad money to buy food and he went to the market while they were marching down the road. He brought tomatoes and found that soldier. At least some contribution from the kid)) Anyway, I look at this at imagine myself on all these streets that are very well known, thinking that if I just appear there I would run to my hourse, that I rebuilt now and live in, to check on my ancestors.

Real locals are those who sell bottles at the market. My great grandmother was deported to Germany for work. Each worker's arm had a tattoo of the number. In Germany, the great-grandmother was lucky with family in which she worked, they're sympathetically. Others were much less fortunate and did not return.

Супер! Очень интересно!

Wow ! certainly an officer movie made by hiw own, but so near to us in color ! a precious document of History ! thanks for sharing : )

1:01 what in the hell time traveler that building is? It looks very modern

There are also colour photographs of the city that were taken around this same time. Interestingly there was a British Mark IV tank on display in Kharkov as a war monument.

where is the hans zimmer song "time" ?

breathtaking.

women and children casually strolling the streets....

@ 0:41 Iphone 15 or Samsung S24 Ultra ?

Muito nítido pra época, parabéns!

The sign on the Hotel at 2:05 says гомель, is this translation to Gomel?

Самое интересное в етом видео ето вообще не разрушеный город,огромное количество гражданских людей на улицах спокойно передвигаються,да и вывески на зданиях много уже на немецком ето понятно для немцев.Но остальные вывески как говорят в( русском)Харькове почему то на Украинском язике.

The Uniforms of Germany its Cool 👏👏👏

does anyone know what soldier is at 2:53 ? That is not a german helmet, nor hungarian, and not even romanian. And it's not soviet also. Thanks! And great quality video by the way, thanks for posting!

3:26 Unreal skyline for that time.

1:28, a very fashionably dressed woman for 1942.

Well unfortunate 80 years down the line for 4 battles for Oct-41 to Mar-43, this city is on the frontlines of another war for the last 2 years

Those roads from 1942 are better than some roads today😱😱

Having been to Kharkiv a few times, a lot of the street scenes were very recognisable, amzing how much survived, given he ferocity of the battle in the area - or were a lot of the buldings rebuilt post war in a simialr style?

Great documentary that preserve high visual impact from those years ago , not to mention astonishing elegant buildings , isn't this Ukraina ? Warm compliments from Argentina, please let's contribute for inmediately peace , that's the First sentence both side's presidents may be having good ears for listening every morning

Gosh, when you watch this from 2024 and know that a lot of those buildings were damaged or destroyed by Russia in 2022-2023...

Quanlity of the video is a million times better than UFO sighting.

Why was the Kharkov map removed from the game World of Tanks?

Not many of those healthy looking Wehrmacht soldiers would still be alive 6 months later

They were so close to freeing Europe.

0:32 What brand of car is this?

Fascinating

Не будем вдаваться в детали при ком это снимали, чисто исторически очень важна сама съёмка. Запись очень качественная и чёткая. Центр Харькова замечателен.

The Soviet Red Army saved the city of Kharkov (Now called Kharkiv) which was one the largest industrial centers in the entire USSR. The Red Army took part in the complete dismantling of all industrial enterprises in Kharkov and they were either moved to the east or were destroyed to avoid capture. Hitler had believed that capturing cities like Leningrad and Kharkov would be "tantamount to full capitulation." By moving everything of strategic value to the east, the Red Army put little emphasis on defending the city and eventually allowed the Germans to capture Kharkov, preventing the city from being destroyed and at the same time denying the Germans any valuable industrial output for their war economy. Kharkov would ultimately be destroyed by the German occupiers in 1943 when the Red Army launched Operation Star in order to liberate the city. The Germans put up a fierce and bloody resistance and they stubbornly refused to let the Red Army capture it, resulting in the city's destruction.

Anyone able to tell me who the guys in the dark uniforms are marching at 1:40 . I would guess Kriegsmarine, but I feel like the uniform is quite different. Weird to see a mixed group like that too.