The Fifth Day of Peace  

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The Fifth day of Peace, Italian title: Dio è con noi, is an Italo-Yugoslavian movie from 1969 about the 13 May 1945 German deserter execution in a Canadian-run POW camp in Amsterdam.

It features the song "Dio è con noi" by Ennio Morricone.

Synopsis

Two German deserters, Ensign Bruno Grauber (Franco Nero) and Corporal Reiner Schultz (Larry Aubrey) are captured by the Canadians at the end of World War 2. They are interned in a Canadian run POW camp where the senior German officer, colonel Von Bleicher, is a career officer. Their fellow German prisoners of war, led by Von Bleicher, discover that they are deserters. They are put through a formal military court martial organised by Von Bleicher and charged with cowardice. They are sentenced to death and are to be executed on the "fifth day of peace". Von Bleicher pressures the Canadian camp commandant to allow the execution to be carried out and requests rifles and ammunition to carry out the sentence.

A Canadian General, Snow, persuades (but does not order) the Canadian camp commandant, Captain Miller, to allow the execution to be carried out for the higher purpose of preserving military discipline. He also motivates Miller with a promotion to Major.

This movie is based on the true story of two German sailors, leading seaman Bruno Dorfer and machinist's mate Rainer Beck, both executed for desertion on May 13, 1945 after being found guilty of cowardice by fellow POWs. The sentence was carried out by German POWs who were under Canadian command.

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Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Fifth Day of Peace" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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