Overview
- Description
- Opening credits in German from the OMGUS censor's board:
"Filmvorfuherungsschein / No.: 49-1012-85 / Es wird hiermit bescheinigt dass "Die Brucke" zur offentlichen Vorfuhrung in den amerikanisch besetzten Gebieten Deutschlands zugelassen ist. Bescheinigung ausgestellt im Auftrag der Amerikanischen Militarregierung / Zeit Im Film"
Film title appears over an image of white puffy clouds in the sky: "DIE BRUCKE / Mit / ...blt. Lewis F. Droll [missing beginning title] / Joseph Muller [missing end of name] / Und Den Manneem der Luftbrucke"
German language narration, but occasionally the voices of American soldiers can be heard in English under the narration track. Opening scene: Ruins of Berlin, German civilians go about their daily life, post war amidst the rubble and ruin. Scenes of US Air Force station in Tempelhof (European Air Tranpsort Service). Scenes of Red Cross trucks and personnel clearing rubble, etc. Propaganda about helpful American soldiers and rebuilding Germany, scenes of industry, soldiers playing with German kids, etc. Ends with rousing music.
01:03:00 The pilot, Louis F. Droll, wearing his daughter Cynthia's baby shoes from his lapel. 01:12:19 Louis delivers a teddy bear that he received as a gift, to baby Cynthia, with her mother, Betty Catherine Patterson Droll, and elder sister, Charlotte.
Film notes from "Selling Democracy: Films of the Marshall Plan, 1948-1953" program: "After World War II, Germany and Berlin were divided into four sectors, governed by the U.S., British, French, and Soviets. Berlin was located in the heart of the Soviet sector. In 1948 the Soviets decided to try to isolate the western sector of Berlin, by shutting down the roads and rail lines into the city. The result was a massive effort by the U.S. and its European allies to thwart the siege by flying food and fuel into the city. As a way of boosting morale, everything produced in the city was stamped "Made in Blockaded Berlin." The film is a docudrama about a German technician at Tempelhof airport who befriends one of the foreign pilots. It stars Joseph Müller and Louis F. Droll. Produced by Zeit im Film for the OMGUS film unit in Berlin, 16 min, 1949." - Film Title
-
Die Bruecke [The Bridge]
- Duration
- 00:17:40
- Date
-
Production:
1949
- Locale
-
Berlin,
Germany
- Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Thomas P. Headen
- Contributor
-
Producer:
Zeit im Film
Producer: Stuart Schulberg
Physical Details
- Language
- German
- Genre/Form
- Documentary.
- B&W / Color
- Black & White
- Image Quality
- Fair
- Time Code
- 01:00:00:00 to 01:17:40:08
- Film Format
- Master
Master 2752 Film: positive - 16 mm - sound - composite print
Master 2752 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
Master 2752 Film: positive - 16 mm - sound - composite print
Master 2752 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
Master 2752 Film: positive - 16 mm - sound - composite print
Master 2752 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
Master 2752 Film: positive - 16 mm - sound - composite print
Master 2752 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small- Preservation
Preservation 2752 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
Preservation 2752 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
Preservation 2752 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
Preservation 2752 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
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
- Lt. Col. Thomas P. Headen obtained the films in 1945 as the Chief Information Branch officer in charge of the United States Army Occupation Military Government (OMG) in Bremen, Germany. Twelve 16mm film reels were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Lt. Col. Headen's son (of the same name) in February 1997.
- Note
- NARA, Record Group - 206 (OMGUS)
- Film Source
- Thomas P. Headen
- File Number
- Legacy Database File: 4585
- Special Collection
-
Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2024-02-21 07:50:42
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1003757
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Also in Lt. Col. Thomas P. Headen Collection
Contains the German and English versions of Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today, which documents the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg from 1945-1946; also four additional films.
Nazi crimes: early gassing; corpses; camp atrocities; forced labor; Nuremberg Trial proceedings
Film
Part 3 of ENGLISH language version [corresponds to NARA reels 5 & 6] Excludes extra shot of nurses and Mogilev gassing. Courtroom scene, Russian prosecutor Gen. Rudenko at podium speaking about Canaris and Hans Frank describing Nazi policies and methods for exterminating Poles and others. Goering, Hitler, and other Nazi officials in a meeting. Pan, hut with thatched roof. CU pipes from a German police car bearing a license plate POL-28545 and a German police truck with license POL-51628 (as well as military unit markings: 7 circle-with-flag IX). Apparently metal piping is directed into the brick work of a small brick building, in an area that appears to be a bricked up window or door. Projected against the wall is what appears to be the shadow of a man in uniform. Five emaciated men pass on an open farm cart/wagon to a wooded location; a tall naked emaciated man and two emaciated children (different from those seen first) are led by a man and a woman in white lab coats to the building. Small red cross appears on man's white coat sleeve. The man and woman (purportedly Soviet doctors) put blankets around the patients' shoulders as they are led toward the building (and over a child lying on the cart). A uniformed man - probably German - is visible in the background, along the fence, watching the scene. CU car and pipes connecting the car exhaust to the building. [Scene is consistent with descriptions of September 1941 experimental killings by Einsatzgruppe B of patients from a local asylum in the area of Mogilev, Belarus. Corresponding still images were used in evidence at the trial of Albert Widmann.] Courtroom scene, screen visible to left of witness/defendant on stand. Pan, buildings burning, shadows of soldiers. Courtroom scene, Gen. Rudenko at podium. CU, Frank, document. Corpses, different views, piles of bodies, one hanging. Oradour-sur-Glane, France. Destruction, wrecked buildings, bodies laid out on sidewalk (covered in white). These might be the actual victims of Oradour, there seem to be French flags lying by the corpses on the pavement. Destroyed castle. Woman standing by graves. Bande, Belgium, bodies in room, piled up. San Callisto caves, Italy. Pan down, CU, list of hostages. Pile of bodies. Lidice, Czechoslovakia, destroyed town. Courtroom scene, prosecutor at podium. Buildings on fire. German labor corps (Arbeitsdienst) men line up with shovels, marching. LS, town in ruins. Men with pick-axes, construction, rubble dumped from small railway carts, Nazi officials watch men at work. Courtroom scene, prosecutor speaking about concentration camps. Hoess testifies re: Auschwitz. HAS, EXT barracks of Auschwitz, crematoria, women survivors in bunks inside barracks. MCU, survivors standing behind barbed wire, blankets wrapped around shoulders. Huge pile of luggage, CUs of belongings. "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign. INT hospital beds with survivors, legs slowly extended by doctor, more ill survivors. Narration re: medical experiments, including lowering the body temperature, injecting the body with poisons and infectious diseases, and subjecting the body to high altitude pressure chambers. CUs corpses with numbers, battered bodies, CUs faces. 05:44:23 In court, French prosecutor concludes charges of indictment for Counts 3 and 4. Prisoners' dock. CU, memo of Fritz Sauckel about Nazi policies of slave labor. Scenes of forced labor, groups of men marched down street, MS street scene, men being frisked, checking ID at a gate, men constructing train tunnel. Courtroom scene. At farm, Goering walking towards hut, herding cows, sheep. In court, CU, Frick in prisoners' dock. CUs, survivors of medical experiments in hospital, some examined by doctors. Aerial shot, cemetery, graves with crosses. Men getting off truck with shovels, being forced to dig in a large field, German officer in command. 01:09:01 1933 boycott of Jewish shops in Berlin, storefronts defaced, chanting crowd and SA men (scenes may be longer than usual with an additional chant). Nazi speaking. "Jude" painted on window. Goering reading document to crowd, Nazi elite in FG (speech translated to English). Round-ups, confusion, women and men pushed through Nazi crowd. Soft focus amateur footage of Lvov attack on Jews: nude women driven past, old man lying on ground, more naked women, hands up, terrified, women clutch own necks, women dragged by hair on ground. Courtroom scene, prosecution at stand re: secret Stroop report about the Warsaw ghetto. Ghetto beatings, pushing men, harassment. Buildings bombed, burning, representing Warsaw ghetto. Chaos in streets. Man being pulled out of sewer. Tanks in streets, chaos. SS men beating man on street, Riga, Latvia: man dragged over cobblestones. Courtroom scene, re: Final Solution. Hoess's testimony, Hoess on stand. Survivors exiting Auschwitz during liberation [footage portrayed as selection and line to gas chamber]. Children show tattoos. Prisoner uniforms hanging, gas chambers/showers/disinfection. Naked survivors (men) sitting inside chamber [portrayed as pre-gas chamber, pretending to die as mysterious hand allows "gas" into the chamber]. Piles of corpses. CUs, loot in storage, personal effects, gold removed from victims' teeth. Corpses from Bergen Belsen carried from truckbed to grave, dumped into pit, prepared for mass burial at liberation. Courtroom scenes: prosecution rests and defense begins. Piles of documents. MSs, German lawyers preparing defense. Testimonies and questioning of Streicher, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Raeder, and Keitel. Various shots of courtroom, court reporters, prosecution, judges, prisoners' dock, etc.
Nuremberg Trial proceedings; summation and verdict
Film
Part 4 of GERMAN language version [corresponds to NARA reels 7 & 8] Courtroom scenes, questioning various defendants, showing various views of the courtroom and trial proceedings. Questioning Jodl and von Ribbentrop. Prosecutor asks Goering: "Do you still say that neither Hitler nor you knew of the policy to exterminate the Jews?" Goering: "I already had said that not even approximately did I know to what degree this thing took place." Prosecutor: "You did not know to what degree, but you knew there was a policy which aimed at the liquidation of the Jews?" Goering: "No, not liquidation of Jews, only knew that certain perpetrations had taken place." Prosecutor cross-examining Speer. Final statements of defendants. Frank, "I myself speaking from the very depths of my sentiments...say this: now that I have gained a last insight into all that which has been committed in the way of dreadful atrocities, I feel a terrible guilt within me." Funk, "...When measures of terror and violence against Jews were put to me, I suffered a nervous breakdown...I feel ashamed and guilty." Final statements of Schirach, Schacht, Speer: "The tremendous danger contained in this totalitarian system only became really clear the moment we were approaching the end....This trial must contribute to the prevention of such distorted wars in the future and to the establishment of principles of human cooperation." Final statements of Keitel, Frank, and Fritsche. The defense and prosecution sum up their arguments. 01:08:48 Chief US prosecutor Robert Jackson delivers his summation. Courtroom scenes, showing defendants testifying and prisoners' dock, "...to say of these men that they are not guilty, it would be as true to say that there has been no war, there are no slain, there has been no crime." 08:10:04 Sir Hartley Shawcross delivers summation, "This trial must form a milestone in the history of our civilization..." Gen. Rudenko delivers summation, "...their crimes have been proven...the truth cannot be challenged." 08:11:26 French prosecutor de Ribes delivers his summation, "...the fate of these men lies within your conscience..." The justices deliberate, shots of the conference room, narrator identifies judges as they discuss the verdict. "1 October 1946" Judges deliver verdict. Flashbacks are shown as the sentences are read. Goering: guilty, scenes of 1933 boycott in Berlin, window painted with "Jude", Lvov massacre. Hess: guilty, scenes of Hess delivering lecture to Nazi crowd heiling. von Ribbentrop: guilty, shots of buildings on fire and German soldiers. Keitel: guilty, Keitel signing agreement, forced labor scenes. Kaltenbrunner: guilty, footage of survivors "dying" as "gas" is released into a gas chamber [see Film ID 2754] Rosenberg: guilty, Rosenberg delivering speech into microphone, bookburning scenes. Frank: guilty, showing Mogilev gassing experiment of mental patients, including a brief additional shot of a naked boy being lead by a woman and man in white coats into a basement. The people in white coats (probably local Soviet doctors) are more clearly seen. There is a German uniformed man in background. [These scenes are clearer than the sequence in Film ID 2754] Frick: guilty, survivors in hospital beds, Frick watching a military parade with Hitler in BG. Streicher: guilty, scene of a SS men dragging a Jew across cobblestones in the ghetto. Funk: guilty, shots of piles of gold extracted from victims' teeth. Schacht: not guilty. Karl Doenitz: guilty, showing German advance at harbor, speaking behind a podium. Raeder: guilty, seen talking to Hitler. Schirach: guilty, with Hitler Youth, speaking to youth. Sauckel: guilty, forced labor scenes, men with shovels. Jodl: guilty, scenes of military advances, fighting. von Papen: not guilty. Speer: guilty, scenes of German industry. Neurath: guilty, showing Nazis marching in the street. Seyss-Inquart: guilty, mob scenes in Austria after the Anschluss. Fritsche: not guilty. Bormann: guilty in absentia. Prison where defendants await sentencing, showing various chambers, guards. Text superimposed on screen from Jackson, in German, English translation "This trial is part of the great effort to make the peace more secure. It constitutes juridical action of a kind to ensure that those who start a war will pay for it personally." Film ends with "Nuremberg stands as a warning to all those who plan and wage aggressive war." Final title screen: "Dieser Film wurde hergestellt von der Dokumentarfilm Abteilung / Information Services Division OMGUS. ENDE"
Annexation of Austria; Munich Pact; German invasion of East and West; Territorial expansion
Film
Part 2 of GERMAN language version [corresponds to NARA reels 3 & 4] Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg addressing government, speech in progress. Schuschnigg replaced by Arthur von Seyss-Inquart in Austria, riding in automobile, waving to crowd. CU, transcription of Goering's conversation with Keppler. In city street, Nazis round up civilians, slowly closing in on them with horses and police, man carried away. Nazis marching in streets, heiling, waving flags. Crossing Austrian border, over bridge LS, lifting up pole, Austrians with big grins. "21 May 1935" Annexation text superimposed on screen. Tanks moving through streets lined with crowds. In court, rear view of Jackson. Gen. Alfred Jodl testifies regarding Hitler's decision to invade Czechoslovakia. CU, 1938 memo re: continuation of the Nazi plans of aggression. Arrival of Nazi official, greeting Germans, heiling. Munich Pact, Hitler with Chamberlain, Daladier, and Mussolini signing agreement and socializing. Emil Hacha (in hat), president of Czechoslovakia, arrives for meeting with Hitler and other German leaders. Headlines. CU, decree re: occupation of Bohemia-Moravia. Prague, Nazis goosestepping. "6 September 1938" Nazi plans for territorial advances superimposed on screen. Map showing Nazi territorial aggression. Chief Prosecutor from Great Britain, Sir Hartley W. Shawcross, presents Count 2 (Crimes Against Peace), meaning wars of aggression in violation of international treaties and agreements. Lt. Col. Schumt relates Hitler's plans to occupy Poland. Court scenes, CU, transcriptions of notes (in handwriting) re: attacking Poland. Trucks with swastikas, men holding placards demonstrating for war against Poland. "23 August 1939" Joseph Stalin and Joachim von Ribbentrop sign non-aggression pact with USSR. HAS, tanks moving along dirt road. Pope Pius II and FDR (no sound) appeal for peace. Hitler addressing Reichstag, indicating countries that Germany intends to occupy. "1 September 1939" German tanks/troops invade Poland. Luftwaffe begins bombing raid. Destruction of cities, aerial shots, sky filled with smoke. Hitler's words superimposed on screen. Soldiers marching on road, city streets. "9 April 1940" Germany invades Denmark. Crowds of people at harbor/port, ship. Tanks, soldiers on motorcycles on city streets, chaos, pedestrians running around. Troops parading, MSs civilians and little girl watching. 01:08:58 Text superimposed on screen re: Norway and Germany. "9 April 1940" Aerial shots of parachutes. Civilians watch silently as troops march by, some frightened, women running (quick), very soft, street chaos, streets in flames, crowds piling into trucks, fearful faces, some weeping. Troops. Text superimposed on screen re: invasion of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg. "10 May 1940" Troops, night shots. LS, silhouettes of buildings on fire. Text superimposed on screen re: invasion of Yugoslavia. "6 April 1941" Planes dropping bombs, explosions. Soldiers running down country path, into fenced in yard, across fields. Map showing German expansion. Men walking inside government building, signing Tripartite (Axis) Pact in Berlin with Japan and Italy on September 27, 1940, giving Italy the Mediterranean region, Japan the Orient, and Germany the rest of the world. Hitler shaking hands with diplomats, tables. CU, signing document. June 1941, Wehrmacht tanks entering USSR, fighting, cannons fire off, lift up border gate, aerial shots of Luftwaffe. August-September 1941: Luftwaffe conducts raids on Great Britain, dropping bombs at night, burning cities, destruction. December 7, 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, plumes of smoke. Courtroom scene with chief Russian prosecutor Gen. Rudenko presenting Counts 3 and 4 (commitment of war crimes in Germany and occupied countries) (in Russian and English). Rudenko at podium, flipping pages of documents, CUs Nazis in prisoners' dock, document. SS men frisking POW, POWs running/marching down country road (in uniforms). Aerial shots of masses. 05:37:32 Rudenko at podium in court. CU, Keitel memo. [NOTE: Ending of this reel is slightly different than official end of Reel as documented in USHMM's other Nuremberg records- it ends on a CU of the paper document, rather than with Rudenko in the court room.]
Postwar devastation; opening of Nuremberg Trial; early Nazi party history, events, leaders
Film
Part 1 of ENGLISH language version [corresponds to NARA Reels 1 & 2] "Europe 1945" Panorama of war devastation: buildings and cities laid to waste, rubble, mother climbing out of trap door shelter with naked baby in arms, people in hunger and despair emerge from shelters, children running down steps, clambering for food, poverty, homeless people, begging for food, weeping woman. "Nuremberg 21 November 1945" EXT and INT Nuremberg Palace of Justice. CU, document announcing trial and listing the accused. Seating of International Military Tribunal. Chief US prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson presents the opening statement and Count 1 of the indictment (a conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against peace and humanity). Mostly rear views of Jackson speaking: "triumph of justice over vengeance...four mighty nations...meeting greatest menace of our times." Various shots of courtroom, judges, prosecutor, stenographer, defendants. MSs, CUs, defendants' faces. Pan, prisoners' dock. Germans walk past open graves with flowers, sort through rubble. Children desperately seek food in buckets, woman eats from garbage, mob scenes, women shouts viciously in crowd (voiceover of Jackson speaking in court). Jackson continues with the reading of Count 1 at Nuremberg trial. HS, in court, prisoners' dock. CU, "Mein Kampf," text superimposed. In Munich, burgeoning Nazi party, following the lead of Adolf Hitler, instigate street riots with the aim of gaining the highest degree of control over the Germans by any means. HAS, mobs/crowds running through wide street, chaos. Nazis marching with flag, elite members posing on stairway, more marching. Goebbels at desk, on telephone, in leather coat shouting. Nazis parading, Germans heiling. Hitler. Nazis on horseback rushing down street. Newspaper headlines. Torchlight parade at night. Bookburning. Hans G., former official of the Berlin police administration, testifies concerning his investigation of the Reichstag fire. CUs, Goering in dock. Remains of Reichstag fire, MLS, firefighters with hose. German delegates leave the League of Nations, and Germany embarks on a policy to strengthen its military. German armaments, industry. Gen. Werner Edward Fritz von Blomberg announces universal military conscription. CU, legal document. Military training, goosestepping. Spring 1936: German troops entering Rhineland, tanks/horses crossing bridge. Goosestepping troops parade through Nuremberg (voice of Hitler in BG). November 1937: Secret meeting with Nazi elite concerning the German question and the annexation of Austria. CU, minutes of meeting. In court, Jackson speaking, "...this meeting set the stage for Nazi expansion." Berchtesgaden meeting with Hitler, Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg, foreign minister of Austria Guido Schmidt, and other Nazi elite (some on trial). In court, Schmidt testifies concerning Hitler's decision to annex Austria (translated into English). Nazis, Hitler Youth marching.
Postwar devastation; opening of Nuremberg Trial; early Nazi party history, events, leaders
Film
Part 1 of GERMAN language version [corresponds to NARA reels 1 & 2] "Europa 1945" Panorama of war devastation: buildings and cities laid to waste, rubble, mother climbing out of trap door shelter with naked baby in arms, people in hunger and despair emerge from shelters, children running down steps, clambering for food, poverty, homeless people, begging for food, weeping woman. "Nuremberg 21 November 1945" EXT and INT Nuremberg Palace of Justice. CU, document announcing trial and listing the accused. Seating of International Military Tribunal. Chief US prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson presents the opening statement and Count 1 of the indictment (a conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against peace and humanity). Mostly rear views of Jackson speaking: "triumph of justice over vengeance...four mighty nations...meeting greatest menace of our times." Various shots of courtroom, judges, prosecutor, stenographer, defendants. MSs, CUs, defendants' faces. Pan, prisoners' dock. Germans walk past open graves with flowers, sort through rubble. Children desperately seek food in buckets, woman eats from garbage, mob scenes, women shouts viciously in crowd (voiceover of Jackson speaking in court). Jackson continues with the reading of Count 1 at Nuremberg trial. HS, in court, prisoners' dock. CU, "Mein Kampf," text superimposed. In Munich, burgeoning Nazi party, following the lead of Adolf Hitler, instigate street riots with the aim of gaining the highest degree of control over the Germans by any means. HAS, mobs/crowds running through wide street, chaos. Nazis marching with flag, elite members posing on stairway, more marching. Goebbels at desk, on telephone, in leather coat shouting. Nazis parading, Germans heiling. Hitler. Nazis on horseback rushing down street. Newspaper headlines. Torchlight parade at night. Bookburning. Hans G., former official of the Berlin police administration, testifies concerning his investigation of the Reichstag fire. CUs, Goering in dock. Remains of Reichstag fire, MLS, firefighters with hose. German delegates leave the League of Nations, and Germany embarks on a policy to strengthen its military. German armaments, industry. Gen. Werner Edward Fritz von Blomberg announces universal military conscription. CU, legal document. Military training, goosestepping. Spring 1936: German troops entering Rhineland, tanks/horses crossing bridge. Goosestepping troops parade through Nuremberg (voice of Hitler in BG). November 1937: Secret meeting with Nazi elite concerning the German question and the annexation of Austria. CU, minutes of meeting. In court, Jackson speaking, "...this meeting set the stage for Nazi expansion." Berchtesgaden meeting with Hitler, Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg, foreign minister of Austria Guido Schmidt, and other Nazi elite (some on trial). In court, Schmidt testifies concerning Hitler's decision to annex Austria (translated into English). Nazis, Hitler Youth marching.
Annexation of Austria; Munich Pact; German invasion of East and West; Territorial expansion
Film
Part 2 of ENGLISH language version [corresponds to NARA reels 3 & 4] Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg addressing government, speech in progress. Schuschnigg replaced by Arthur von Seyss-Inquart in Austria, riding in automobile, waving to crowd. CU, transcription of Goering's conversation with Keppler. In city street, Nazis round up civilians, slowly closing in on them with horses and police, man carried away. Nazis marching in streets, heiling, waving flags. Crossing Austrian border, over bridge LS, lifting up pole, Austrians with big grins. "21 May 1935" Annexation text superimposed on screen. Tanks moving through streets lined with crowds. In court, rear view of Jackson. Gen. Alfred Jodl testifies regarding Hitler's decision to invade Czechoslovakia. CU, 1938 memo re: continuation of the Nazi plans of aggression. Arrival of Nazi official, greeting Germans, heiling. Munich Pact, Hitler with Chamberlain, Daladier, and Mussolini signing agreement and socializing. Emil Hacha (in hat), president of Czechoslovakia, arrives for meeting with Hitler and other German leaders. Headlines. CU, decree re: occupation of Bohemia-Moravia. Prague, Nazis goosestepping. "6 September 1938" Nazi plans for territorial advances superimposed on screen. Map showing Nazi territorial aggression. Chief Prosecutor from Great Britain, Sir Hartley W. Shawcross, presents Count 2 (Crimes Against Peace), meaning wars of aggression in violation of international treaties and agreements. Lt. Col. Schumt relates Hitler's plans to occupy Poland. Court scenes, CU, transcriptions of notes (in handwriting) re: attacking Poland. Trucks with swastikas, men holding placards demonstrating for war against Poland. "23 August 1939" Joseph Stalin and Joachim von Ribbentrop sign non-aggression pact with USSR. HAS, tanks moving along dirt road. Pope Pius II and FDR (no sound) appeal for peace. Hitler addressing Reichstag, indicating countries that Germany intends to occupy. "1 September 1939" German tanks/troops invade Poland. Luftwaffe begins bombing raid. Destruction of cities, aerial shots, sky filled with smoke. Hitler's words superimposed on screen. Soldiers marching on road, city streets. "9 April 1940" Germany invades Denmark. Crowds of people at harbor/port, ship. Tanks, soldiers on motorcycles on city streets, chaos, pedestrians running around. Troops parading, MSs civilians and little girl watching. 01:09:02 Text superimposed on screen re: Norway and Germany. "9 April 1940" Aerial shots of parachutes. Civilians watch silently as troops march by, some frightened, women running (quick), very soft, street chaos, streets in flames, crowds piling into trucks, fearful faces, some weeping. Troops. Text superimposed on screen re: invasion of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg. "10 May 1940" Troops, night shots. LS, silhouettes of buildings on fire. Text superimposed on screen re: invasion of Yugoslavia. "6 April 1941" Planes dropping bombs, explosions. Soldiers running down country path, into fenced in yard, across fields. Map showing German expansion. Men walking inside government building, signing Tripartite (Axis) Pact in Berlin with Japan and Italy on September 27, 1940, giving Italy the Mediterranean region, Japan the Orient, and Germany the rest of the world. Hitler shaking hands with diplomats, tables. CU, signing document. June 1941, Wehrmacht tanks entering USSR, fighting, cannons fire off, lift up border gate, aerial shots of Luftwaffe. August-September 1941: Luftwaffe conducts raids on Great Britain, dropping bombs at night, burning cities, destruction. December 7, 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, plumes of smoke. Courtroom scene with chief Russian prosecutor Gen. Rudenko presenting Counts 3 and 4 (commitment of war crimes in Germany and occupied countries) (in Russian and English). Rudenko at podium, flipping pages of documents, CUs Nazis in prisoners' dock, document. SS men frisking POW, POWs running/marching down country road (in uniforms). Aerial shots of masses. 05:37:32 Rudenko at podium in court. CU, Keitel memo.
Nuremberg Trial proceedings: summation and verdict
Film
Part 4 of ENGLISH language version [corresponds to NARA reels 7 & 8] Courtroom scenes, questioning various defendants, showing various views of the courtroom and trial proceedings. Questioning Jodl and von Ribbentrop. Prosecutor asks Goering: "Do you still say that neither Hitler nor you knew of the policy to exterminate the Jews?" Goering: "I already had said that not even approximately did I know to what degree this thing took place." Prosecutor: "You did not know to what degree, but you knew there was a policy which aimed at the liquidation of the Jews?" Goering: "No, not liquidation of Jews, only knew that certain perpetrations had taken place." Prosecutor cross-examining Speer. Final statements of defendants. Frank, "I myself speaking from the very depths of my sentiments...say this: now that I have gained a last insight into all that which has been committed in the way of dreadful atrocities, I feel a terrible guilt within me." Funk, "...When measures of terror and violence against Jews were put to me, I suffered a nervous breakdown...I feel ashamed and guilty." Final statements of Schirach, Schacht, Speer: "The tremendous danger contained in this totalitarian system only became really clear the moment we were approaching the end....This trial must contribute to the prevention of such distorted wars in the future and to the establishment of principles of human cooperation." Final statements of Keitel, Frank, and Fritzsche. The defense and prosecution sum up their arguments. 01:06:54 Chief US prosecutor Robert Jackson delivers his summation. Courtroom scenes, showing defendants testifying and prisoners' dock, "...to say of these men that they are not guilty, it would be as true to say that there has been no war, there are no slain, there has been no crime." Sir Hartley Shawcross delivers summation, "This trial must form a milestone in the history of our civilization..." Gen. Rudenko delivers summation, "...their crimes have been proven...the truth cannot be challenged." French prosecutor de Ribes delivers his summation, "...the fate of these men lies within your conscience..." The justices deliberate, shots of the conference room, narrator identifies judges as they discuss the verdict. "1 October 1946" Judges deliver verdict. Flashbacks are shown as the sentences are read. Goering: guilty, scenes of 1933 boycott in Berlin, window painted with "Jude", Lvov massacre. Hess: guilty, scenes of Hess delivering lecture to Nazi crowd heiling. von Ribbentrop: guilty, shots of buildings on fire and German soldiers. Keitel: guilty, Keitel signing agreement, forced labor scenes. Kaltenbrunner: guilty, footage of survivors "dying" as "gas" is released into a gas chamber [see Reel 6]. Rosenberg: guilty, Rosenberg delivering speech into microphone, bookburning scenes. Frank: guilty, showing Mogilev gassing experiment of mental patients, including a brief additional shot of a naked boy being lead by a woman and man in white coats into a basement. The people in white coats (probably local Soviet doctors) are more clearly seen. There is a German uniformed man in background. [These scenes are clearer than the sequence in Reel 5.] Frick: guilty, survivors in hospital beds, Frick watching a military parade with Hitler in BG. Streicher: guilty, scene of a SS men dragging a Jew across cobblestones in the ghetto. Funk: guilty, shots of piles of gold extracted from victims' teeth. Schacht: not guilty. Karl Doenitz: guilty, showing German advance at harbor, speaking behind a podium. Raeder: guilty, seen talking to Hitler. Schirach: guilty, with Hitler Youth, speaking to youth. Sauckel: guilty, forced labor scenes, men with shovels. Jodl: guilty, scenes of military advances, fighting. von Papen: not guilty. Speer: guilty, scenes of German industry. Neurath: guilty, showing Nazis marching in the street. Seyss-Inquart: guilty, mob scenes in Austria after the Anschluss. Fritzsche: not guilty. Bormann: guilty in absentia. Prison where defendants await sentencing, showing various chambers, guards. Text superimposed on screen from Jackson: "This trial is part of the great effort to make the peace more secure. It constitutes juridical action of a kind to ensure that those who start a war will pay for it personally." Film ends with "Nuremberg stands as a warning to all those who plan and wage aggressive war." End Credit: This film was produced by the Documentary Film Unit / Information Services Division / OMGUS Followed by 3 logos: AFIFA / ZEIT IM FILM / FILMSTUDIO TEMPELHOF
Nazi crimes: early gassing; corpses; camp atrocities; forced labor; Nuremberg Trial proceedings
Film
Part 3 of GERMAN language version [corresponds to NARA reels 5 & 6] Includes extra shot of nurses and Mogilev gassing. Courtroom scene, Russian prosecutor Gen. Rudenko at podium, Gen. Erwin Lahousen in witness stand. Narrator quotes Lahousen speaking about Canaris and Hans Frank describing Nazi policies and methods for exterminating Poles and others. Goering, Hitler, and other Nazi officials in a meeting. Pan, hut with thatched roof. CU pipes from a German police car bearing a license plate POL-28545 and a German police truck with license POL-51628 (as well as military unit markings: 7 circle-with-flag IX). Apparently metal piping is directed into the brick work of a small brick building, in an area that appears to be a bricked up window or door. Projected against the wall is what appears to be the shadow of a man in uniform. Five emaciated men pass on an open farm cart/wagon to a wooded location; a tall naked emaciated man and two emaciated children (different from those seen first) are led by a man and a woman in white lab coats to the building. Small red cross appears on man's white coat sleeve. The man and woman (purportedly Soviet doctors) put blankets around the patients' shoulders as they are led toward the building (and over a child lying on the cart). A uniformed man - probably German - is visible in the background, along the fence, watching the scene. [Additional shot, absent from some versions of this film:] Camera goes a little farther to the left showing the side of a brick building with two wooden barrack-like doors ajar, as a child is 'helped' to the doors by the two in white. The brick building matches the shots where pipes are running from the vehicles. CU car and pipes connecting the car exhaust to the building. [Scene is consistent with descriptions of September 1941 experimental killings by Einsatzgruppe B of patients from a local asylum in the area of Mogilev, Belarus. Corresponding still images were used in evidence at the trial of Albert Widmann.] Courtroom scene, screen visible to left of witness Erwin Lahousen on stand. Pan, buildings burning, shadows of soldiers. Courtroom scene, Gen. Rudenko at podium. CU, Frank, document. Corpses, different views, piles of bodies, one hanging. Oradour-sur-Glane, France. Destruction, wrecked buildings, bodies laid out on sidewalk (covered in white). These might be the actual victims of Oradour, there seem to be French flags lying by the corpses on the pavement. Destroyed castle. Woman standing by graves. Bande, Belgium, bodies in room, piled up. San Callisto caves, Italy. Pan down, CU, list of hostages. Pile of bodies. Lidice, Czechoslovakia, destroyed town. Courtroom scene, prosecutor at podium. Buildings on fire. German labor corps (Arbeitsdienst) men line up with shovels, marching. LS, town in ruins. Men with pick-axes, construction, rubble dumped from small railway carts, Nazi officials watch men at work. Courtroom scene, prosecutor speaking about concentration camps. Hoess testifies re: Auschwitz. HAS, EXT barracks of Auschwitz, crematoria, women survivors in bunks inside barracks. MCU, survivors standing behind barbed wire, blankets wrapped around shoulders. Huge pile of luggage, CUs of belongings. "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign. INT hospital beds with survivors, legs slowly extended by doctor, more ill survivors. Narration re: medical experiments, including lowering the body temperature, injecting the body with poisons and infectious diseases, and subjecting the body to high altitude pressure chambers. CUs corpses with numbers, battered bodies, CUs faces. 05:44:23 In court, French prosecutor concludes charges of indictment for Counts 3 and 4. Prisoners' dock. CU, memo of Fritz Sauckel about Nazi policies of slave labor. Scenes of forced labor, groups of men marched down street, MS street scene, men being frisked, checking ID at a gate, men constructing train tunnel. Courtroom scene. At farm, Goering walking towards hut, herding cows, sheep. In court, CU, Frick in prisoners' dock. CUs, survivors of medical experiments in hospital, some examined by doctors. Aerial shot, cemetery, graves with crosses. Men getting off truck with shovels, being forced to dig in a large field, German officer in command. 01:09:23 1933 boycott of Jewish shops in Berlin, storefronts defaced, chanting crowd and SA men (scenes may be longer than usual with an additional chant). Nazi speaking. "Jude" painted on window. Goering reading document to crowd, Nazi elite in FG (speech translated to English). Round-ups, confusion, women and men pushed through Nazi crowd. Soft focus amateur footage of Lvov attack on Jews: unclothed women driven past, old man lying on ground, more naked women, hands up, terrified, women clutch own necks, women dragged by hair on ground. Courtroom scene, prosecution at stand re: secret Stroop report about the Warsaw ghetto. Ghetto beatings, pushing men, harassment. Buildings bombed, burning, representing Warsaw ghetto. Chaos in streets. Man being pulled out of sewer. Tanks in streets, chaos. SS men beating man on street, Riga, Latvia: man dragged over cobblestones. Courtroom scene, re: Final Solution. Hoess's testimony, Hoess on stand. Survivors exiting Auschwitz during liberation [footage portrayed as selection and line to gas chamber]. Children show tattoos. Prisoner uniforms hanging, gas chambers/showers/disinfection. Naked survivors (men) sitting inside chamber [portrayed as pre-gas chamber, pretending to die as mysterious hand allows "gas" into the chamber]. Piles of corpses. CUs, loot in storage, personal effects, gold removed from victims' teeth. Corpses from Bergen Belsen carried from truckbed to grave, dumped into pit, prepared for mass burial at liberation. Courtroom scenes: prosecution rests and defense begins. Piles of documents. MSs, German lawyers preparing defense. Testimonies and questioning of Streicher, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Raeder, and Keitel. Various shots of courtroom, court reporters, prosecution, judges, prisoners' dock, etc.
Impact of Marshall aid on Germany
Film
This description of the film "Me and Mr. Marshall" is from the "Selling Democracy: Films of the Marshall Plan, 1948-1953" program: The impact of Marshall aid is told personally by a young German coal miner. He describes (and the viewer sees) conditions in Europe after the war and some of the ways the Marshall Plan helped Europe get back into production and into the import-export business. Footage includes Secretary of State George Marshall describing the way the European Recovery Program is supposed to work (a re-enactment - not the June 5, 1947, Harvard speech). Also includes animated graphic of the distribution of Marshall Plan monies.
Emergence of East & West Germany after WWII
Film
OMGUS censorship slates state that the film has been approved for public screening in the American zone of Germany. Words superimposed across an aerial view of Berlin state that this film is dedicated to the men women and children of Berlin, without whose loyalty it would not be possible to relate the following. Over scenes of the destruction of Berlin and people working among the rubble the narrator says that without an architect, without a plan somehow something new and strong emerged from the ruins in the summer of 1945. Crowds of West Berliners and a shot of SPD representative Franz Neumann speaking to a large crowd in early July. He says that Berlin will remain free and will never become communist. Shots of the large crowd and individuals listening to Neumann's speech. Narrator states that in order to understand Berlin's current fight for freedom one must look back at 1945. After the war's terrible end in Berlin, Germans wanted to put the past 12 years behind them. Shots of a concrete Nazi eagle with a broken wing; a man chisels a Swastika from a building. Next a history of Berlin's quadrapartite goverment. The four zones are explained as a map of divided Berlin is shown on the screen. Film notes from "Selling Democracy: Films of the Marshall Plan, 1948-1953" program: "A historically important overview of events in Berlin from the end of WW II to the election in the Western Zone in December 1948. It covers the partition of Berlin into four sectors after the war; the election of Mayor Hans Reuter in 1946 (which was vetoed by the Soviets); free speech initiatives in radio, film, newspapers and the theater; currency reform; launch of the Berlin Blockade by General Sokolovsky; the airlift; and the creation of West Berlin and East Berlin. The film proclaims that the people of Berlin are resisting the influence of the Soviet Union and are turning to democracy and freedom. Producer Stuart Schulberg for OMGUS film unit, Berlin, 22 min, 1949."
Training film for German sharpshooters
Film
First title slate: "Oberkommando Des Heeres Chef des Ausbildungswesens im Ersatzheer Abteilung Lehrfilm in Zusammenarbeit mit Generalstab des Heeres Ausbildungsabteilung zeigt: Lehrfilm Nr. 468 hergestellt Fruehjahr 1944" "Scharfschuetze im Einsatz" [Sharpshooters in action] Next slate: "Die im Film gezeigten Entfernungen entsprechen zum Teil nicht der Wirklichkeit. Sie sind durch film technische Notwendigkeiten bedingt." [warning that some scenes in the film are recreations]. Title slate: "Die Unsichtbare Waffe" [The Invisible Weapon]. An obviously staged scene of soldiers in a forest setting. The sound is incorrectly synched. One of the soldiers hides among the trees wearing a helmet covered with leaves. Another soldier tells the first to better camouflage himself and his weapon. Another soldier blows a whistle and announces a rest break, which the soldiers enjoy by sitting in the sun and smoking cigarettes. One of the soldiers states that he thought becoming a sharpshooter would be easier and more exciting. Another tells a story, shown in a flashback, of how he sneaked up behind and killed three Soviet snipers. He is shown camouflaging his face and crawling through the grass wearing a camouflage suit. One of the Soviet snipers is Asian. The scene comes back to the group of soldiers taking their break. Another soldier begins to tell a story but at this point the reel ends.
