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Captured German officers; press; Belsen atrocities; forced confrontation

Film | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.146.1 | RG Number: RG-60.2605 | Film ID: 1001

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    Captured German officers; press; Belsen atrocities; forced confrontation
    Transcript
    [SPINNING REAL]
    Being summoned to hear that they were now prisoners of war.
    Doenitz, the self-styled fuhrer; Jodl,
    the former Chief of Staff; and Friedeburg, already
    no doubt resolved to take his own life.
    It was a day of mass arrests, amounting to between 5 and 40
    important civilian officials, as well as all the small fry.
    Obviously, the new firm of Doenitz, Jodl and Company
    were hoping to go into business in a big way.
    At any rate, they've got to get--
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
    Even senior executives, like Rear Admiral Wagner,
    had to fall in with their hands up.
    It was while all this was going on that Friedeburg contrive
    to commit suicide.
    This is his corpse just after he'd taken poison.
    [ENGINE RUNNING]
    [ENGINE RUNNING]
    [ENGINE RUNNING]
    The atrocity camp at Belsen, where conditions deliberately
    produced by the Germans were so appalling
    that people were still dying at the rate of 40 a day,
    long after the liberation.
    These pictures showing German soldiers
    under British guard carrying out the dead
    were taken towards the end of May.
    As the emaciated bodies are laid in a mass grave,
    it's quite obvious that they died of starvation and disease.
    Already too far gone when the British entered Belsen,
    they couldn't take food or respond to medical treatment.
    At the burial service, first a Jewish
    then a Church of England chaplain officiated.
    Medical authorities on the spot estimate that people will still
    be dying at least a year from now,
    as a direct result of having been inmates of Belsen.
    As huts became vacant, they were destroyed,
    for it was necessary to obliterate
    the filth and the pestilence of this place,
    as it is to remember what the Germans did here.
    Fire helps to purify the horror of Belsen.
    But what can ever cleanse the guilt of Germany?
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
    While the Allies destroy the camp and care
    for the survivors, the people of Germany
    are being shown horror films that were taken there.
    In Minden, for example, we see them entering a cinema
    under compulsion.
    And if any are not sickened with shame,
    they are indeed, beyond redemption.
    [MUSIC PLAYING]

    Overview

    Description
    War Pictorial News was the official newsreel sponsored by the British Ministry of Information and the US Office of War Information.

    Brief shots of soldiers placing branches on top of and inside a torpedo/plane, soldier getting inside. LSs, pan planes (silent). SEQ, with sound in English: Men in German uniform, including Doenitz, Jodl, and Hans Georg von Friedeberg (now POWs) exiting an airplane. Mass arrests of civilian officials. Men in courtyard and street marching. Nazi personalities exiting building with hands behind head, guarded by British soldiers with guns, civilians watching. Shots of Friedeberg dead (committed suicide). Silent: US soldier talking with older man. VAR, soldiers in leather coats. CU soldier's hat. Group of soldiers talking. Two German soldiers, mountains in BG. Exterior shots of house, interior shot of Himmler's body with CU of face, and the hidden capsule with which he committed suicide. British soldiers hold outdoor press conference with Hermann Goering. Silent. Shots of reporters taking notes, Goering speaking to crowd while sitting at small table, cameras set up. SEQ, with sound in English and music in the background: Atrocities in Belsen. Soldiers in disinfection (anti-typhus) suits carrying out dead bodies, laying them in mass graves as narrator describes how internees continued to die after liberation as a result of the conditions. Burial service with Church of England chaplain and rabbi. Soldiers digging graves. Allies destroying camp (huts, etc.) by bulldozer and setting it on fire. Narrator comments, "But, what can ever cleanse the guilt of Germany?" VAR views of fires and civilians watching. In a small town nearby in Germany, civilians enter cinema under compulsion to view film about the atrocities at concentration camps.
    Film Title
    War Pictorial News
    Duration
    00:05:22
    Date
    Event:  1945
    Locale
    Bergen-Belsen, Germany
    Minden, Germany
    Credit
    Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Imperial War Museums

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Genre/Form
    Newsreels.
    B&W / Color
    Black & White
    Image Quality
    Good
    Time Code
    02:20:26:00 to 02:25:48:00
    Film Format
    • Master
      • Master 1001 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Master 1001 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Master 1001 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Master 1001 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
    • Preservation
      • Preservation 1001 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Preservation 1001 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Preservation 1001 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Preservation 1001 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
    Imperial War Museums
    Conditions on Use
    For licensing enquiries and requests, contact Imperial War Museums (IWM) at filmcommercial@iwm.org.uk. IWM also offers limited services for non-commercial parties, such as for museums, armed forces, veterans and their immediate family, family history researchers, and students. For such purposes, contact film@iwm.org.uk.

    Copyright Holder
    Imperial War Museums

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Film Provenance
    The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum purchased these liberation segments from the Imperial War Museum in London in February 1995.
    Note
    Some Cyrillic intertitles throughout.
    See Story 2591, Film ID 1000 for duplicate footage of forced confrontation at the cinema.
    Copied From
    b/w
    Film Source
    Imperial War Museums
    File Number
    Legacy Database File: 2731
    Source Archive Number: WPN 215
    Record last modified:
    2024-02-21 07:56:57
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn1001292

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