The Color of Courage
Sample Digital Extras
Digital Extras are short videos that we have created from original historical film and audio material to accompany The Color of Courage. They bring the story to life in an unprecedented way. The videos are embedded in the print book via URL and also with unique QR codes that can be scanned with your smartphone to go directly to the video. There are a total of 11 Digital Extras in the book. Here’s two of them:
German Victory Parade – Warsaw, October 5, 1939
In his diary, Julian Kulski writes of surreptitiously watching this parade “of Germans for Germans” down Al. Ujazdowskie, one of the main and most beautiful streets in Warsaw. (The Color of Courage, pp. 17–23)
[NOTE: This video was originally uploaded to YouTube, but after seven years with no problems or complaints, YouTube unilaterally decided to remove it. In the first three printings of the book, where the QR code was tied to the YouTube address, scanning the QR code will therefore not lead to the video—however, the URL printed in the book (www.polww2.com/GermanVictoryParade) has been redirected to the video’s new location.]
Katyn Forest Massacre: Masked Man Testifies
In the middle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943, the Germans announced the discovery of mass graves in the western Soviet Union of thousands of Polish Army officers executed with a bullet to the back of the head. This eventually became known as the Katyń Forest Massacre. The Germans blamed the Soviets, the Soviets blamed the Germans.
Julian Kulski writes in his diary about how, in Warsaw, the Germans propagandized their discovery with a film shown on a big outdoor screen. (The Color of Courage, pp. 194–196) One of our Digital Extras, an original 12-minute German film which we’ve titled “Katyń Forest Massacre: German Propaganda,” may be that very film written about by Julian Kulski.
During the Cold War that followed the end of World War II, the U.S. Congress held hearings into the Katyń Forest Massacres. The Digital Extra above, titled “Katyń Forest Massacre: Masked Man Testifies,” is a newsreel that reported on the hearings.
