A young German soldier (pictured center left, without helmet) refuses to participate in the execution of 16 Yugoslav civilians.
A young German soldier (pictured center left, without helmet) refuses to participate in the execution of 16 Yugoslav civilians. He positioned himself within the group and was executed for disobeying his NCO. He choose death instead of killing hopeless civilians. His name was Josef Schulz. Josef Schulz, also spelled Joseph Schultz (Serbian: Jozef Šulc), was a German soldier of the 714th Infantry Division stationed in the Balkans, Serbia during World War II. He died in 1941, allegedly executed after refusing to take part in a partisan execution. The German High Command recorded him as killed in action. The plot of the Yugoslav short movie Joseph Schultz (1973) is based on the incident. Based on a Bundesarchiv study, the incident was dismissed as a legend by scholars in the 1990s. Josef Schulz was born in 1909[citation needed] and lived in Barmen, Wuppertal, Germany. During World War II, he served as a corporal in the 714th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht. He is officially recorde...