Liepaja Executions Film
The Liepāja Executions Film is an 8 mm film comprising 18 shots that document the execution of three groups of Latvian Jews by firing squad near the harbor of Liep%C4%81ja in the summer of 1941. The footage was captured by Reinhard Wiener, a German naval petty officer, who later claimed to have come across the execution by chance.
The executions filmed are part of a series of killings in and around Liepāja, also known as Liep%C4%81ja massacres.
In 1961, the film was featured in the documentary Auf den Spuren des Henkers by Peter Schier-Gribowsky, a West German correspondent in Jerusalem during the Eichmann trial. Schier-Gribowsky brought the footage to the attention of the prosecution, which subsequently submitted it as evidence in court—one of the most significant instances of film documentation being used in a Holocaust trial.
Today, the Liepāja Executions Film remains one of the most frequently cited audiovisual records in Holocaust documentaries. It is the only known surviving film footage of Einsatzgruppen mass executions.
The original 8mm positive is hosted at .