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Majdanek: objects of former inmates

Film | Accession Number: 1994.119.1 | RG Number: RG-60.2333 | Film ID: 895

Pan, "graveyard" outside death chambers, bones on the ground. The cremation ovens are shown, also the family photographs of a victim. CUs, women weeping. Pan down, from one woman to a pile of bones. The tall chimney of the camp and burial ground are shown, also the vegetable garden. CUs, clothing and piles of belongings salvaged by the Nazis. These include: shoes, gloves, toys, glasses, etc. The commission continues questioning. CUs, passports,indicating prisoners from Poland, Holland, France and other countries. CUs, prisoners who survived. Ceremony for the dead. A monument is dedicated; a woman is shown kneeling; a priest officiates; children listen; large crowd stands at attention (choral music). Soldiers; huge crowd (rally size); children with flowers; nuns.


Film Title
Maidanek [Majdanek]
Duration
00:06:43
Date
Event:  1944 July
Production:  1944
Locale
Majdanek, Poland
Lublin, Poland
Language
Silent
German
Genre/Form
Documentary.
Credit
Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives & Records Administration

About This Film

Contributor
Producer: United States. Army. Signal Corps.
Camera Operator: A. Sofjin
Camera Operator: Roman Karmen
Camera Operator: W. Stadtland
Biography
Roman Karmen was born in 1906 in Odessa. He enrolled in the Gerasimov Institute for of Cinematography in Moscow in 1929. Throughout the 1930s, Karmen worked at the Central Studio of Documentary Film and as a correspondent for Soviet newspapers. He covered the Civil War in Spain in 1936-39. During World War II, Karmen was present on the front lines, documenting the Leningrad blockade, the surrender of German field marshal Friedrich Paulus in Volgograd, and the liberation of the Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin. Karmen made the film "The Judgment of the Peoples" about the Nuremberg trials. Karmen later filmed in Vietnam, India, and South America. The Soviet Union awarded Karmen the Lenin Prize, the highest Soviet honor, for his 1953 film "Story of the Capsian Oil Workers." Karmen died in 1978 in Moscow.
B&W / Color
Black & White
Image Quality
Fair
Time Code
01:12:25:00 to 01:19:08:00
Film Format
  • Master
    • Master 895 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
  • Preservation
    • Preservation 895 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
Special Collection
Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

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
Reel 2 of NARA #238.5. "Filmdokumente" on the German concentration camps, made under Russian auspices with narration in German.
See also Story 29, Film ID 5 and Story 40, Film ID 6 for duplicate footage.

The original ADC shot card at NARA incorrectly titles this film:"Prosecution Exhibit #228-229, Concentration Camps, Maidanek, 1944"

The Soviet film on atrocities - Film Documents of the Atrocities committed by German Fascists in the USSR (Kinodokumenty O Zverstvakh Nemetsko-Fashiskikh Zakhvatchikov) - with scenes of Majdanek was presented as evidence on February 19, 1946 (Day 62 of the trial) under Document USSR-81.

Film ID 895 contains a mislabeled clip. The last reel (01:19:25 to 01:28:10) is not 111 ADC 1758, but rather 111 ADC 1685 on the subject of "Burma Bound." It is not cataloged.

USHMM replaced the online streaming video with a new, higher resolution digital file produced for the VHH project. The 16mm film source from NARA was scanned by the Austrian Filmmuseum in 2021.
Copied From
35mm; b/w; composite
Film Source
United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
File Number
Legacy Database File: 1988
Source Archive Number: 111 ADC 8555

Rights and 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.

 
Record last modified: 2021-09-21 14:21:21
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1001452