Wehrmacht exhibition

[4] The view of the "unblemished" Wehrmacht was shaken by the material evidence put on public display in different cities including Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Bielefeld, Vienna, and Leipzig.

[6] In an open letter, Elstner pleaded with ethnic Germans around the world to "awaken" and denounced the gas chambers of Auschwitz as "fairy tales.

[9] The head and founder of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research,[10] Jan Philipp Reemtsma suspended the display, pending review of its content by a committee of historians.

In a written statement, Reemtsma said:[12] We greatly regret that we did not respond to a number of critics, whose objections have been shown to be correct, with due earnestness and that we did not decide to impose a moratorium at an earlier date.

The committee recommended that the exhibition be expanded to include perspectives of the victims as well, presenting the material but leaving the conclusions to the viewers.

It is indisputable that, in the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht not only 'entangled' itself in genocide perpetrated against the Jewish population, in crimes perpetrated against Soviet POWs, and in the fight against the civilian population, but in fact participated in these crimes, playing at times a supporting, at times a leading role.

The documentary Der unbekannte Soldat (The unknown soldier) by Michael Verhoeven was in cinemas from August 2006, and has been available on DVD since February 2007.