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Nordhausen; Hannover; Buchenwald

Film | Digitized | Accession Number: 1994.119.1 | RG Number: RG-60.2267 | Film ID: 856

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    Nordhausen; Hannover; Buchenwald
    Transcript
    The slave labor camp at Nordhausen
    liberated by the 3rd Armored Division First Army,
    at least 3,000 political prisoners
    died here at the brutal hands of SS troops
    and pardoned German criminals who were the camp guards.
    Nordhausen had been a depository for slaves found unfit for work
    in the underground b-bomb plants and in other German camps
    and factories.
    American medical crews find 2,000 still alive at the camp.
    They had discovered inside filthy barracks
    where the survival and death were
    contingent on how long human existence was
    possible on the daily ration of potato peels,
    one slice of bread, and an occasional bowl of a liquid
    that was supposedly soup.
    The dead quickly outnumbered the living.
    Amid the corpses are human skeletons too weak to move.
    Men of our medical battalions work two days and nights
    binding wounds and giving medications,
    but for advanced cases of starvation and tuberculosis,
    there are often no cures.
    The survivors are shown being evacuated for treatment
    in Allied hospitals.
    The victims are mainly Poles and Russians
    with considerable numbers of French and other nationalities
    also included in the camp roster.
    The burgermeister of Nordhausen is
    ordered to provide 600 German male civilians who
    will inter the 2,500 unburied bodies at the camp.
    An American correspondent accredited the Nordhausen story
    reported as follows.
    I talked to some Germans who were carrying bodies
    to the burial grounds.
    They insisted that they did not know what
    was going on under their noses.
    Some said timidly we've heard things
    but we were powerless under the SS.
    One who spoke English and overheard several Yanks
    telling me what they thought of the Germans came up to us
    and said, sirs, be just.
    Not all the German people are responsible.
    A priest administers last rites for the dead
    while the corpses are being carried
    to the hillside for burial.
    All day long, the German civilians
    carry the gruesome corpses, some of which
    are already green and putrefied.
    Then the actual burial in common graves of the 2,500 Nordhausen
    victims.
    The Harlan concentration camp near Hanover,
    out of 10,000 Polish men brought here 10 months prior to April
    1945, only 200 remain.
    Prisoners who could walk were removed before American troops
    entered Hanover.
    The others were left to starve and die.
    Immediate relief was provided for the men
    with the arrival of a Red Cross clubmobile.
    The men broke into tears when they
    were given hot soup, other food, and cigarettes and clothing.
    When questioned, most of these men
    could not remember when they'd last eaten a decent meal.
    Many had been beaten and tortured
    so long their minds had failed.
    Some of the inmates are too weak to leave their bunks
    or even eat.
    Others bunked together to keep their frail bodies warm.
    The deaths continue even after liberation of the camp.
    Some were too far gone when the Americans took over.
    An AMG sergeant checks the list of inmates.
    The victims relate the atrocity story,
    and photographs are made for further documentation
    of the horrors committed at the Hanover camp.
    Pictorial evidence of the almost unprecedented crimes
    perpetrated by the Nazis at the Buchenwald concentration
    camp, the story in written form is
    contained in the official report of the prisoner of war
    and displaced persons division of the United States group
    control council, which has been forwarded from Supreme Allied
    headquarters to the war department in Washington.
    It States that 1,000 boys under 14 years of age
    are included among the 20,000 still alive at the camp,
    but the survivors are males only and that the recent death
    rate was about 200 a day.
    Nationalities and prison numbers are tattooed
    on the stomachs of the inmates.
    The report lists the surviving inmates
    as representing every European nationality.
    It says the camp was founded when the Nazi party first came
    into power in 1933 and has been in continuous operation
    ever since although its largest populations date
    from the beginning of the present war.
    I estimate put the camp's normal complement at 80,000.
    In the official report, the Buchenwald camp
    is termed an extermination factory.
    The means of extermination starvation
    complicated by hard work, abuse, beatings
    and tortures, incredibly crowded sleeping conditions,
    and sicknesses of all types.
    By these means, the report continues,
    many tens of thousands of the best leadership
    personnel of Europe had been exterminated.
    Bodies stacked one upon the other
    were found outside the crematory.
    The Nazis maintained the building
    at the camp for medical experiments
    and build sections with prisoners as guinea pigs.
    Medical scientist came from Berlin periodically
    to reinforce the experimental staff.
    In particular, new toxins and anti-toxins
    were tried out on prisoners.
    Few who entered the experimental buildings ever emerged alive.
    One of the weapons used by SS guards.
    The body disposal plant, inside the ovens
    which gave the crematorium a maximum disposal
    capacity of about 400 bodies per 10-hour a day.
    Gold-filled teeth were extracted from bodies
    before incineration.
    The ovens of extremely modern design and heated by coke
    were made by a concern which customarily
    manufactures baking ovens.
    The firm's name is clearly inscribed.
    All bodies were finally reduced to bone ash.

    Overview

    Description
    Corpses at Nordhausen. US medical crews evacuate survivors. MS, corpses. Survivors assisted onto litters, evacuated for treatment, man praying/crying, eating, loaded onto ambulances. Victims buried in a common grave by German civilians, corpses carried (gruesome), priest at jeep. Civilians march with shovels. Soldiers stand by mass graves. Red Cross workers feed soup to Hannover survivors. CUs, men eating. Severely wounded men lying under blankets inside barracks. Burial. Several survivors gather for group photograph against barn wall, to document atrocities. Courtyard, "Jedem das Seine" gate, male survivors, tattoos on stomach, survivors, corpses, torture demonstration, gold extracts, and crematoria at Buchenwald.
    Film Title
    Atrocities
    Duration
    00:10:08
    Date
    Event:  1944-1945
    Production:  1945
    Locale
    Nordhausen, Germany
    Buchenwald, Germany
    Hannover, Germany
    Credit
    Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives & Records Administration
    Contributor
    Producer: United States. Army. Signal Corps.

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Genre/Form
    Unedited.
    B&W / Color
    Black & White
    Image Quality
    Mixed
    Time Code
    02:19:34:00 to 02:29:42:00
    Film Format
    • Master
      • Master 856 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Master 856 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Master 856 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Master 856 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
    • Preservation
      • Preservation 856 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Preservation 856 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Preservation 856 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Preservation 856 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    You do not require further permission from the Museum to access this archival media.
    Copyright
    Public Domain
    Conditions on Use
    To the best of the Museum's knowledge, this material is in the public domain. You do not require further permission from the Museum to reproduce or use this material.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Film Provenance
    The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum purchased this from the National Archives and Records Administration in September 1994.
    Note
    Refer to SSFVA files for a source list of the miscellaneous film "Atrocities" cataloged at NARA as 111 M 1190. Sources include March of Time, News of the Day, Signal Corps, MGM, Fox Movietone News, American Newsreel Pool, Universal Newsreel, and others.
    Copied From
    35mm; b/w
    Film Source
    United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
    File Number
    Legacy Database File: 1922
    Source Archive Number: 111 M 1190 R5
    Record last modified:
    2024-02-21 07:48:34
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn1001193

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