Nazi Concentration Camps (1945)

**This film contains extremely graphic scenes of human suffering, please exercise caution when viewing.**

Compilation footage of Nazi concentration camps in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The footage was gathered by the US Department of Defense as part of the effort to conduct war crimes trials. The six reels presented below make up the entirety of this graphic film.

Reel 1:

Army Lt. Col. George C. Stevens, Navy Lt. E. Ray Kellogg and U.S. Chief of Counsel Robert H. Jackson read exhibited affidavits which attest to authenticity of scenes in film. Map of Europe shows locations of concentration camps in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovokia, Danzing, Denmark, France, Germany, Isle of Jersey, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland and Yugoslavia. At Leipsig Concentration Camp, there are piles of dead bodies, and many living Russian, Czechoslovakian, Polish and French prisoners. At Penig Concentration Camp, Hungarian women and others display wounds. Doctors treat patients and U.S. Red Cross workers move them to German Air Force hospital where their former captors are forced to care for them.

Reel 2:

At Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, inspection team composed of Allied military leaders, members of U.S. Congress and local townspeople tours camp. Among them are Generals Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Headquaters Allied Expeditionary Forces commander; Omar Nelson Bradley; and George S. Patten. General Eisenhower speaks with Congressmen. They see bodies heaped on grill at crematorium and Polish, Czechoslovakian, Russian, Belgian, German Jews and German political prisoners. Col. Heyden Sears, Combat Command A, 4th Armored Division commander, forces local townspeople to tour camp. U.S. officers arrive at Hadamar Concentration Camp, where Polish, Russian and German political and religious dissidents were murdered. Maj. Herman Boelke of U.S. War Crimes Investigation Team (WCIT) examines survivors. Bodies are exhumed from mass graves for examination, identification and burial. Four-man panel interviews facility director Dr. Waldman and chief male nurse Karl Wille.

Reel 3:

At Breendonck Concentration Camp, Belgium, methods of torture are demonstrated. At Harlan Concentration Camp near Hannover, U.S. Red Cross aides Polish survivors. Allied troops and able-bodied survivors bury dead. At Arnstadt Concentration Camp, German villagers are forced to exhume Polish and Russian bodies from mass graves.

Reel 4:

At Nordhausen Concentration Camp, there are piles of bodies. Troops treat, feed and remove survivors who are mainly Polish, Russian and French. At Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Navy Lt. Jack H. Taylor stands with fellow survivors and describes his capture, imprisonment and conditions at Mauthausen. Volunteers bathe victims.

Reel 5:

At Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Army trucks arrive with aid for survivors. Piles of dead, mutilated and emaciated bodies. Some survivors among dead. Huge ovens and piles of bone ash on floor of crematorium. Civilians from nearby Weimar are forced to tour camp. They see exhibits of lampshades made of human skin, and two shrunken heads.

Reel.6:

British commander of Royal Artillery describes conditions at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. German Army Schutzstaffel (SS) troops are forced to bury dead and aid survivors. Woman doctor, former prisoner, describes conditions in female section of camp. Belson commander Kramer is taken into custody. German guards bury dead. Bulldozer pushes piles of bodies into mass graves.

Run time: 51:56
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w

Nazi Murder Mills, 1945/04/26 (1945)

(1) "First actual newsreel pictures of atrocities in Nazi murder camps. Helpless prisoners tortured to death by a bestial enemy...Here Is The Truth" (Real-life horror pictures revealing the unbelievable atrocities committed by the Nazis in their murder camps) Grasleben: Wounded and emaciated Yanks, captured in von Runstedt's bulge attack of last winter, are fed and given medical care by the Yank armies of liberation. Hadamar: Protected by gas masks, grave diggers open reeking graves at this converted insane asylum. They discover that 35,000 political prisoners had been slain here, largely by poisoning. Camp Ohrdruf : General Eisenhower, General Patton and General Bradley can hardly believe their eyes when they view torture-gallows, heaps of charred human bodies and lime pits filled with corpses. Although they recoil, Nazi officials are forced to enter barns containing rows of decomposing, lime-sprinkled bodies. Buchenwald: 21,000 prisoners living in utter filth, stumble around with their broken skulls. Agonized corpses lie everywhere with large tattoed numbers on their sunken stomachs. Two roast ovens were used as crematoria. "Nordhausen: Starved corpses strew the ground. Creeping, jabbering, breathing skeletons are laoded into ambulances for possible treatment. Plump German civilians are forced to handle corpses with their bare hands and carry them to huge mass graves for a semi-civilized burial." scenes of prisoners liberated from camps, given broth and medical attention; graves uncovered, interrogations to uncover truth; Ohrdruf camp viewed by Ike, Bradley, Patton; (2) Nations Meet To Map World Security Plan - "The San Francisco Conference of 46 United Nations, summoned to draft a charter for a post-war organization to secure peace, is officially opened by Secretary of State Edward Stettinius. In a speech from the White House, President Truman states 'if we do not want to fdie together in war, we must learn to live together in peace.'" scenes of delegates arrive; first session opens with gavel held by Stettinius, Truman speech. (complete newsreel)

Run time: 8:15
Production Company: Universal Studios
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w