American film about Nazi atrocities at concentration camps shown at Nuremberg Trials

Film | Digitized | Accession Number: 2019.401 | RG Number: RG-60.6955 | Film ID: 4291, 4292, 4293, 4294, 4295, 4296

: I, George C. Stevens, Lieutenant Colonel,
: Army of the United States, hereby
: certify that from 1 March 1945 to 8 May 1945,
: I was on active duty with the United States Army Signal
: Corps attached to Supreme Headquarters Allied
: Expeditionary Forces.
: And among my official duties was the direction
: of the photographing of Nazi concentration camps and prison
: camps as liberated by Allied forces.
: The motion pictures which will be shown following
: this affidavit were taken by official Allied photographic
: teams in the course of their military duties, each team
: being composed of military personnel
: under the direction of a commissioned officer.
: To the best of my knowledge and belief,
: these motion pictures constitute a true representation
: of the individuals and scenes photographed.
: They have not been altered in any respect
: since the exposures were made.
: The accompanying narration is a true statement
: of the facts and circumstances under which these pictures were
: made.
: George C. Stevens, Lieutenant Colonel, AUS.
: Sworn to before me this 2nd day of October 1945,
: James B. Donovan, Commander, United States Naval Reserve.
: I, E. R. Kellogg, Lieutenant, the United States Navy,
: hereby certify that from 1929 to 1941,
: I was employed at 20th Century Fox Studios in Hollywood,
: California, as a director of photographic effects
: and am familiar with all photographic techniques.
: Since the 6th of September 1941 to the present date
: of the 27th of August 1945, I have been on active duty
: with the United States Navy.
: I have carefully examined the motion picture film
: to be shown following this affidavit.
: And I certify that the images of these excerpts
: from the original negative have not been retouched,
: distorted, or otherwise altered in any respect
: and are true copies of the originals held
: in the vault of the United States Army Signal Corps.
: These excerpts comprise 6,000 feet
: of film, selected from 80,000 feet.
: All of which I have reviewed and all of which
: is similar in character to these excerpts.
: E. R. Kellogg, Lieutenant, United States Navy.
: Sworn to before me this 27th day of August 1945,
: John Ford, Captain, United States Navy.
: These are the locations of the largest concentration
: and prison camps maintained throughout Germany
: and occupied Europe under the Nazi regime.
: This film report covering a representative group
: of such camps illustrates the general conditions
: which prevailed.
: More than 200 political prisoners
: were burned in a concentration camp near Leipzig.
: Others, among the original total of 350 inmates,
: were shot down by German elite guards
: as they dashed from the prison huts
: to celebrate the arrival of American troops
: outside the city.
: The atrocity story is told by the few who managed to survive.
: They relate how 12 SS troopers and a Gestapo agent
: lured 220 starving prisoners into a big wooden building
: at this camp, sprayed the structure
: with an inflammable liquid and then applied the torch.
: Machine guns set up at various vantage points
: mowed down many victims who ran from the burning building.
: Some miraculously escaped the hail of bullets
: but were electrocuted by the live wires
: of a fence, which was the final hurdle for those fleeing
: the flames.
: The Leipzig victims were Russians, Czechs, Poles,
: and French.
: The dead are viewed by Russian women, liberated
: from slave labor.
: At Penig, Germany, a concentration camp
: was overrun by the 6th Armored Division containing
: mainly Hungarians, who were people of wealth and esteem
: in their native country.
: Among them were young girls of only 16 years of age.
: The women show the scars of miserable existence
: under Nazi prison rule.
: American doctors examine the victims.
: Some have gangrenous wounds.
: Others suffer from fever, tuberculosis, typhus,
: and additional communicable diseases.
: All existed under appalling conditions
: in vermin-infested quarters and with little or nothing to eat.
: As soon as our troops arrived, arrangements
: were made to remove these people from the miserable
: surroundings.
: Under supervision of the American Red Cross,
: the stricken inmates are removed to a hospital which belonged
: to the German Air Force.
: Nazis, who formerly maltreated them,
: are forced to help look after the patients.
: The staff of German nurses is also
: forced to attend the victims.
: The women are able to smile for the first time in years.

: At this concentration camp in the Gotha area,
: the Germans starved, clubbed, and burned to death
: more than 4,000 political prisoners
: over a period of eight months.
: A few captives survived by hiding in the woods.
: The camp is chosen for a high command
: inspection, led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
: Also present our Generals Omar N. Bradley
: and George S. Patton.
: The 4th Armored Division of General Patton's Third Army
: liberated this camp early in April.
: The generals view the rack that was used by the Nazis
: to whip the inmates.
: They see the woodshed where lime-covered bodies are
: stacked in layers, and the stench is overpowering.
: Former inmates demonstrate how they
: were tortured by the Nazis.
: American congressmen invited to view the atrocities
: were told by General Eisenhower, nothing is covered up.
: We have nothing to conceal.
: The barbarous treatment these people
: received in the German concentration camps
: is almost unbelievable.
: I want you to see for yourselves and be the spokesman
: for the United States.
: The general and his party next see a crude woodland crematory,
: actually a grill made of railway tracks.
: Here, the bodies of victims were cremated.
: Charred remains of several inmates
: still lay heaped atop the grill.
: Another group to visit the Ohrdruf camp
: is composed of local townspeople,
: including prominent Nazi party members.
: They'll be taken on a forced tour of the campsite
: by Colonel Hayden Sears, commander of the 4th Armored
: division's Combat Command A, which captured Ohrdruf.
: A German medical major is compelled
: to accompany the townspeople.
: Colonel Sears stands by, as the Nazis
: are informed that they must see all the horrors at the camp.
: First, the visitors view some 30 freshly
: killed bodies lying in the courtyard of the camp, where
: they'd been shot on the evening preceding
: the entry of American tanks.
: These two are identified as slave labor
: bosses, who maltreated and tortured and killed
: their workers.
: Next to the woodshed, which the Nazis are reluctant to enter,
: but Colonel Sears demands that they get a close-up look
: at the most gruesome of sites.
: The labor bosses enter.
: According to reports, the local Nazis
: continued their tour of the camp without apparent emotion.
: All denied knowledge of what had taken place at Ohrdruf.
: They are taken to the crematory two miles
: outside the camp, where the list of the atrocities
: is read for all to hear.
: The 4,000 Ohrdruf victims are said
: to include Poles, Czechs, Russians, Belgians, Frenchmen,
: German Jews, and German political prisoners.
: A day before these Nazis visited the camp,
: the Burgermeister of Ohrdruf was forced to view the horrors.
: He and his wife were later found dead in their home,
: apparently suicides.
: American officers arrive at a Nazi institution
: seized by first army troops.
: Under the guise of an insane asylum,
: this has been the headquarters for the systematic murder
: of 35,000 Poles, Russians, and Germans sent here mainly
: for political and religious considerations.
: Those still alive are examined by Major Herman
: Bolker of the American war crimes investigation team.
: The townspeople in Hadamar, Germany
: called this place The "House of Shutters."
: Meanwhile, at the graveyard attached to the institution,
: bodies are exhumed for autopsy.
: 20,000 are buried here.
: 15,000 who died in a lethal gas chamber were cremated
: and their ashes interred.
: Death books found hidden in the wine cellar of the Hadamar
: institution revealed part of the story of the mass killings.
: The bulky volumes contained thousands
: of death certificates: profession unknown,
: nationality unknown, was written after each name.
: The corpses are lined up, pending
: the arrival of WCIT officers.
: Major Bolker performs the autopsy.
: A detailed listing is made of all clinical data.
: Interrogating the institution heads,
: Dr. Wahlmann, the taller man, was the top Nazi
: in charge of the place.
: The other man entering the room is
: Karl Willig, chief male nurse.
: He admits to killing inmates with overdoses of morphine.
: A testimony of other witnesses substantiated the fact
: that morphine was issued at the institution without attempt
: at making a record.
: As many as 17 at a time died from the morphine injections.
: The investigating officers were told that the Nazis never
: bothered to determine whether a victim may
: have survived the over-dosage.
: Instead, all were hustled off to the graveyard
: and buried in piles of 20 to 24.
: The prisoners are removed to await trial.
: A Hadamar judge told the investigators that when
: the 10,000th victim died, the institution heads and Nazi
: officials staged a celebration.

: This is Breendonck Prison in Belgium.
: It offers evidence of Nazi brutality imposed
: on Belgian Patriots during the period of German occupation.
: Many of the horror exhibits remain
: untouched such as the blood-stained coffins.
: Demonstrating how the victims were tied up for administering
: vicious beatings.
: A barbed wire stick was used on the backs of the men.
: Another method for rendering a patriot helpless
: while he was attacked by his Gestapo guards.
: The Nazis also would tie a man in chains in this manner
: and then apply the tourniquet.
: A Berlin-made thumb screw and how it was used.
: A victim shows scars caused by repeated beatings.
: Others show what happened to them
: as results of both beatings and cigarette burns.
: A Belgian demonstrates the manner in which his crotch
: was split by the Nazis.
: A woman discloses the results of a beating.
: The Harlen concentration camp near Hannover,
: 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 Hannover.
: 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 bunk 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 Hannover camp.
: This concentration camp was overrun
: by American troops in April.
: The prisoners were mainly Poles and Russians.
: Now treated and starved, 1,700 were
: housed in tents which contained only 100 bunks.
: While our forces were nearing Arnstadt,
: the Nazis removed most of the captives.
: They shot those who were too weak to get away fast enough.
: Savage watchdogs were used to help guard the camp.
: German civilians are forced to dig up the bodies.
: This is the second burial ground for the victims.
: The spot where they were originally
: buried after the massacre was apparently
: too close to the town.
: The Arnstadt villagers could not tolerate
: the stench of the dead, and they themselves
: moved the bodies to this site.
: Now they again must exhume the corpses, this time
: under armed persuasion.
: Victims bear the marks of violent deaths.
: American troops view the evidence of Nazi barbarism.

There is no transcript available for this track

: 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 at the recent death rate, was about 200 a day.
: Nationalities and prisoner 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.
: One 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 a building at the camp
: for medical experiments and vivisections,
: with prisoners as guinea pigs.
: Medical scientists came from Berlin periodically
: to reinforce the experimental staff.
: In particular, new toxins and antitoxins
: 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 are the ovens, which gave the crematorium
: a maximum disposal capacity of about 400 bodies
: per 10-hour 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.
: 1,200 civilians walked from the neighboring city of Weimar
: to begin a forced tour of the camp.
: There are many smiling faces and, according to observers,
: at first the Germans act as though this were something
: being staged for their benefit.
: One of the first things that the German civilians see
: as they reach the interior of the camp
: is the parchment display.
: On a table for all to gaze upon is a lampshade
: made of human skin, made at the request of an SS officer's
: wife.
: Large pieces of skin have been used for painting pictures,
: many of an obscene nature.
: There are two heads which have been shrunk
: to one fifth their normal size.
: These and other exhibits of Nazi origin
: are shown to the townspeople.
: The camera records the changes in facial expressions
: as the Weimar citizens leave the parchment display.
: The tour continues with a forced inspection of the camp's living
: quarters, where the stench, filth, and misery
: defied description.
: They see the result of lack of care
: in the bad case of trench foot.
: Other evidences of horror, brutality, and human indecency
: are shown, and these people are compelled
: to see what their own government had perpetrated.
: Correspondents assigned to the Buchenwald story
: have given wide notice to the well-fed, well-dressed
: appearance of the German civilian population
: of the Weimar area.
: Dachau, factory of horrors.
: Dachau, near Munchen, one of the oldest of the Nazi prison
: camps.
: It is known that from 1941 to 1944,
: up to 30,000 people were entombed here at one time,
: and 30,000 were present when the Allies reached Dachau.
: The Nazis said it was a prison for political dissenters,
: habitual criminals, and religious enthusiasts.
: When these scenes were filmed, over 1,600 priests,
: representing many denominations, still remained alive.
: They came from Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
: France, and Holland.
: Incoming prison trains arrived, carrying more dead than living.
: Those strong enough to travel were brought to Dachau
: from outlying points, which were threatened by the Allied
: advance.
: This is how they looked when they arrived
: Some survived, and when the rescuers arrived,
: they administered what aid they could.
: Others died after the Liberation.
: They were buried by their fellow prisoners.
: As in the case of other camps, local townspeople
: were brought in to view the dead at Dachau.
: This is what the liberators found inside the buildings.
: Hanging in orderly rows were the clothes
: of prisoners who had been suffocated in a lethal gas
: chamber.
: They had been persuaded to remove their clothing,
: under the pretext of taking a shower, for which towels
: and soap provided.
: This is the Brausebad, the shower bath.
: Inside the shower bath, the gas vents.
: On the ceiling, the dummy showerheads.
: In the engineers' room, the intake and outlet pipes.
: Push buttons to control inflow and outtake of gas.
: A hand valve to regulate pressure.
: Cyanide powder was used to generate the lethal smoke.
: From the gas chamber, the bodies were removed to the crematory.
: Here is what the camera crew found inside.
: These are the survivors.

: I am the officer commanding the regiment of royal artillery
: guarding this camp.
: Our most unpleasant task has been
: making the SS, of which there are about 50, bury the dead.
: Up to press, we have buried about 17,000 people.
: And we expect to bury about half as much again.
: When we came here, conditions were indescribable.
: The people had had no food for six days
: and were eating turnips.
: The cook houses have now been organized.
: And although they have to be guarded,
: so that everybody gets a fair share of the food,
: things are now going fairly well.
: The officers and men regard this job
: as a duty that has to be performed.
: And none of us are likely to forget what the German people
: have done here.
: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
: [INAUDIBLE] the woman doctor at concentration camp
: Bergen-Belsen, 24th of April, 1945.
: This is the doctor in charge of the female section
: of the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.
: She was a prisoner at this camp.
: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
: She says, there were no covers, straw stacks,
: or beds of any kind.
: Persons had to lie directly on the ground.
: They were given 1/12 of a loaf of bread and some watery soup
: daily.
: Almost 75% of the people were bloated from hunger.
: An epidemic of typhus broke out.
: 250 women and thousands of men died daily.
: In the men's camp, they cut out liver, heart, and other parts
: of the dead and ate them.
: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
: No medicines were available, because the SS men
: had collected everything.
: Two days before the British army came,
: the first Red Cross food was distributed.
: Two months before, 150 kilograms of chocolate
: had been sent to the children of the camp.
: 10 kilograms were distributed.
: The rest, the commandant kept for himself
: and used it as barter to his personal advantage.
: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
: She adds that various medical experiments
: were made on the prisoners.
: Doctors gave some of them intravenous injections
: of 20 cubic centimeters of benzene, which
: caused the victims to die.
: She concludes by saying that sterilizations
: and other gynecological experiments
: were performed on 19-year-old girls.
: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
: Cramer, camp commandant, is taken into custody.
: Such was the speed of the Allied advance,
: that the guards were taken before they had time to flee.
: Inside Belsen, the same story--
: starvation and sickness.
: Liberated prisoners could not control their emotions.
: Despite German attempts to cover up,
: we found these in the open fields.
: Clear-cut evidence of beatings and outright murder
: was on every hand.
: Nameless victims were numbered for records
: which the Germans destroyed.
: SS guards were impressed to clean up the camp area.
: German woman guards were ordered to bury the dead.
: Sanitary conditions were so appalling,
: that heavy equipment had to be brought in to speed
: the work of the cleaning up.
: This was Bergen-Belsen.

Overview

Description: "Nazi Concentration Camps" was compiled as evidence and shown at the Nuremberg Trials on November 29, 1945 as Prosecution Exhibit #230. It contains film evidence of Nazi atrocities at the concentration camps of Leipzig, Penig, Ohrdruf, Hadamar, Breendonck, Hanover, Arnstadt, Nordhausen, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Belsen. The film was produced for the U.S. Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality in 1945. It was directed by Navy Cmdrs. James B. Donovan and E. Ray Kellogg. George C. Stevens was responsible for directing the photography and filming of the concentration camps as liberated by Allied forces.
Film Title: Nazi Concentration Camps
Duration: 00:19:00
Date: Production: 1945
Locale: Dachau, Germany
Penig, Germany
Belsen, Germany
Mauthausen, Austria
Breendonck, Belgium
Hadamar, Germany
Ohrdruf, Germany
Buchenwald, Germany
Arnstadt, Germany
Leipzig, Germany
Nordhausen, Germany
Hannover, Germany
Credit: Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of the International Court of Justice
Contributor: Director: E. R. Kellogg
Director: George C. Stevens
Director: James B. Donovan
Producer: United States. Army. Signal Corps.
Biography: United States Navy Lieutenant E. R. Kellogg certifies motion pictures of Nazi concentration camps in an affidavit presented in the "Nazi Concentration Camps" film by the Americans as evidence during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Kellogg had expertise in motion picture and photographic techniques through his employment with Twentieth Century Fox Studios in California from 1929 to 1941. He attests that he has thoroughly examined the concentration camp liberation films of the Army Signal Corps and found them to be unaltered, genuine, and true copies of the originals in the U.S. Army Signal Corps vaults.

George Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. During World War II, Stevens joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and headed a film unit from 1943 to 1946 under General Eisenhower. His unit shot footage documenting D-Day — including the only Allied European Front color film of the war — the liberation of Paris and the meeting of American and Soviet forces at the Elbe River, as well as horrific scenes from the Duben labor camp and the Dachau concentration camp. Stevens also helped prepare the Duben and Dachau footage and other material for presentation during the Nuremberg Trials. In 2008, his footage was entered into the U.S. National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress as an "essential visual record" of World War II.

James B. Donovan. United States Navy Commander. Associate Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, where he coordinated and presented all Nazi films at the trials. General Counsel to OSS. Negotiated the exchange of Bay of Pigs prisoners with Fidel Castro as an independent lawyer under backdrop of the missile crisis, securing the freedom of nearly 10,000 people. Portrayed by Tom Hanks in "Bridge of Spies".

Physical Details

Language: English
Genre/Form: Documentary.
B&W / Color: Black & White
Image Quality: Excellent
Film Format: Master
Master 4291 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4292 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4293 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4294 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4295 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4296 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4291 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4292 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4293 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4294 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4295 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4296 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4291 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4292 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4293 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4294 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4295 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4296 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4291 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4292 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4293 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4294 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4295 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD
Master 4296 Digital: DPX 2.5K - b&w - sound - HD

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: You do not require further permission from the Museum to access this archival media.
Copyright: International Court of Justice
Conditions on Use: Researchers must obtain permission from the International Court of Justice to copy and use any of the sound and film recordings in this collection. Contact the Library of the Court at library@icj-cij.org.
Copyright Holder: International Court of Justice

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Film Provenance: The archives of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal were entrusted to the International Court of Justice by a decision of the Tribunal on October 1, 1946. The archives were transported to the Peace Palace, where representatives of the Tribunal and the staff of the Court took delivery of them on March 14, 1950. The Nuremberg Archives consist of the films presented as evidence during the trial, written documents, and gramophone disc recordings of the hearings. The UN, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Memorial de la Shoah, cooperatively digitized the film, audio, and microfilm components of the Nuremberg Archives in an agreement signed in July 2017. The digital transfers from 37 original 35mm nitrate films were received in May 2018.
Note: The film has also been called "Concentration Camps in Germany, 1939-1945." Refer to RG-60.4500 for another version of this film from NARA.
Copied From: 35mm nitrate
Film Source: International Court of Justice
Mémorial de la Shoah, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine
File Number: Source Archive Number: H 4154
Source Archive Number: H 4155
Source Archive Number: H 4156
Source Archive Number: H 4157
Source Archive Number: H 4158
Source Archive Number: H 4159
Special Collection: Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive

Record last modified:: 2024-02-21 07:58:30
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn616441

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Also in Archives of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal

Digital copies of the audio, film, and paper components of the Archives of the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg. The original materials include: 1,942 cut gramophone discs of audio recordings of the hearings of the IMT; 37 rolls of 35mm nitrate films used as evidence during the trial; and 269,093 pages of documents (exhibits submitted to the Tribunal; trial briefs; minutes; lists).

Soviet film of atrocities shown at Nuremberg Trials

Film

7 reels. This Soviet-made film was screened on February 19, 1946 on the 62nd day of the Nuremberg Trial and submitted as evidence relevant to the indictment for "crimes against humanity." The one-hour film with voiceover commentary shows visual evidence of the extermination camps of Auschwitz and Majdanek and appeals to spectators' emotions by emphasizing individual victims. The central argument of the film is that the Germans were the executioners of peaceful Soviet citizens. At the time, it made a very strong impression on both the accused and press. The film is a re-edited compilation of footage collected by the Soviet film team over four years (primarily used for propagandistic ends in wartime Soviet newsreels and documentaries). It was prepared in emergency by the Soviet prosecution team and minister of cinema following the projection of Nazi Concentration Camps presented by the Americans on November 29, 1945. Begins with CUs of evidentiary documents. Atrocities, corpses, women weeping, Soviet soldiers. Exhumation of mass grave, Russians weeping. Corpses at camp.Human remains. Doctors, exhumation, skulls. Human remains at camp, beach. Reburying children in coffins, women weeping. Watchtower, barbed wire, corpses. Gravesite in forest. Fires. Klooga: corpses, CU of victim with number and Star of David. Lublin, INTs corpses. Civilians view bodies and camp barracks. MS, survivors. Aerial views of Majdanek, barracks. Skulls and bones, crematorium. Victims' belongings (shoes, passports, etc.) Pan of survivors behind barbed wire. Aerial views of Auschwitz, maps, women in bunks, barbed wire, emaciated corpses, survivors in striped uniforms. Twins walking between barbed wire fences at Auschwitz, children show tattooed numbers to camera. Zyklon B cans. Demonstration at gallows. Mass gravesite. Doctors examine baby. MSs, victims' clothing, shoes. More victims' belongings, hair. Doctors examining survivors, interviewing nurses. Cemetery. Decapitated bodies, guillotine. Corpses in coffins. Torture instruments.