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Overview

Description

Orientation Film no. 19. War Department Information Film showing German concentration camps and victims of Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka, Belsen, Buchenwald, and other camps. Originally made with a German soundtrack for screening in occupied Germany and Austria, this film was the first documentary to show what the Allies found when they liberated the Nazi camps: the survivors, the conditions, and the evidence of mass murder. The film includes accounts of the economic aspects of the camps' operation, the interrogation of captured camp personnel, and the enforced visits of the inhabitants of neighboring towns, who, along with the rest of their compatriots, are blamed for complicity in the Nazi crimes. Nonetheless, the word 'Jew' is never used.

Townspeople of Gardelegen, Germany, carrying crosses and shovels to a local barn containing 1100 victims of the Holocaust. Various CUs barbed wire of Dachau, tower, pan of barracks, up hill, cheering survivors. "Arbeit macht frei" gate opened. Waving happy survivors in striped uniforms behind barbed wire, crowd cheering (from above). Survivors rush to potato cart and eat with spoons. Crying, sick survivor with hands together in prayer carried on litter to ambulance by Red Cross. More victims, women. Allied physicians examine sick and injured victims at Auschwitz: wounded men, women, child, infant in fetal position in bed. Allied leaders tour camps. Gen. Eisenhower and other officers visit Ohrdruf, torture demonstration. Archbishop of Canterbury and other church dignitaries visit camps. Soviet leaders. Allied Investigative Committee. Stack of corpses in dark room. Crematoria, pan of ash outside in courtyard. Majdanek, torture chamber, medical room, various equipment, drains, tables, gas chamber ceiling, vent, pipes, Zyklon B cans, ovens. Auschwitz, bones in a box, soldiers walk past high piles of victims' belongings, including clothes, shoes, dolls, bales of hair cut open. Soldiers going through storage room in Buchenwald. MS, pan, boxes of watches, glasses, jewelry, teeth. US soldier pours gold teeth out of box. Death train at Dachau with many bodies. Corpse pulled out of moat. Pan down to ground covered with corpses. CUs mutilated faces. Corpses of Soviet POWs burned in the Gardelegen atrocity. German POW at Mauthausen. Belsen commandant Josef Kramer and female guards accompanied by a British soldier. A witness talking to US investigation at Hadamar. The chief physician is Dr. Adolf Wahlmann, and the man identified as the "camp commander" is actually Karl Willig, a nurse. Both men were tried at the Hadamar euthanasia trial in October 1945. EXT mass graves at Hadamar and exhumations. Corpses at different concentration camps (Mauthausen, Ohrdruf, Landsberg, Ebensee, Belsen, Leipzig) as the narrator describes methods used to kill them. Emaciated and wounded survivors from various camps - in very bad shape: women at Nordhausen; women being treated at Ruhmsdorf; children showing tattoos in Auschwitz; men holding each other at Holzen; emaciated men at Ebensee; naked survivor walking to ambulance at Belsen; cooking in yards. Forced confrontation in Weimar. Townspeople and Nazi officials forced to view corpses. Column of German civilians walking along road, smiling into camera, walking through front gates of Buchenwald. Viewing coffins, bodies, sober faces, crying. Flashback to Nuremberg rally; superimposed over German civilians after forced confrontation.

Film Title

Death Mills [Die Todesmuehlen]

Duration

00:21:24

Date

Event: 1945
Production: 1945

Locale

Mauthausen, Austria
Auschwitz, Poland
Belsen, Germany
Buchenwald, Germany
Leipzig, Germany
Nordhausen, Germany
Dachau, Germany
Gardelegen, Germany

Credit

Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives & Records Administration

Contributor

Director: Hanus Burger
Producer: United States. Army. Signal Corps.

Physical Details

Language

English

Genre/Form

[Documentary.](..?q=Documentary.&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords)

B&W / Color

Black & White

Image Quality

Fair

Time Code

04:01:06:00 to 04:22:30:00

Film Format

• Master

Master 858 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Master 858 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Master 858 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Master 858 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large

• Preservation

Preservation 858 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Preservation 858 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Preservation 858 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Preservation 858 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

Keyword

[ATROCITIES](..?q=ATROCITIES&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [AUSCHWITZ](..?q=AUSCHWITZ&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [BARBED WIRE](..?q=BARBED WIRE&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [BARRACKS](..?q=BARRACKS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [BERGEN-BELSEN](..?q=BERGEN-BELSEN&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [BUCHENWALD](..?q=BUCHENWALD&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [CEMETERIES](..?q=CEMETERIES&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [CHILDREN](..?q=CHILDREN&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [CHURCHES](..?q=CHURCHES&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [CLERGY](..?q=CLERGY&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [CONCENTRATION CAMPS](..?q=CONCENTRATION CAMPS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)](..?q=CONCENTRATION CAMPS %28LIBERATION%29&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [CORPSES](..?q=CORPSES&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [CROSSES](..?q=CROSSES&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [CROWDS](..?q=CROWDS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [DACHAU](..?q=DACHAU&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [DEATH TRAINS](..?q=DEATH TRAINS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [DISEASES](..?q=DISEASES&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [DISSECTING TABLES](..?q=DISSECTING TABLES&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [DOCTORS](..?q=DOCTORS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [DORA-MITTELBAU](..?q=DORA-MITTELBAU&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [EBENSEE](..?q=EBENSEE&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [EISENHOWER, DWIGHT](..?q=EISENHOWER, DWIGHT&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [EUTHANASIA](..?q=EUTHANASIA&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [EXHUMATIONS](..?q=EXHUMATIONS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [EYEGLASSES](..?q=EYEGLASSES&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [FORCED CONFRONTATION](..?q=FORCED CONFRONTATION&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [GARDELEGEN](..?q=GARDELEGEN&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [GAS CHAMBERS](..?q=GAS CHAMBERS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [GERMANY](..?q=GERMANY&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [HADAMAR INSTITUTE](..?q=HADAMAR INSTITUTE&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [HUMAN REMAINS](..?q=HUMAN REMAINS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [KRAMER, JOSEF](..?q=KRAMER, JOSEF&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [LANDSBERG](..?q=LANDSBERG&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [LEIPZIG-THEKLA](..?q=LEIPZIG-THEKLA&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [LIBERATION](..?q=LIBERATION&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [MAJDANEK](..?q=MAJDANEK&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [MAUTHAUSEN](..?q=MAUTHAUSEN&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [MEDICAL CARE](..?q=MEDICAL CARE&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [MEDICAL PERSONNEL](..?q=MEDICAL PERSONNEL&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [NORDHAUSEN](..?q=NORDHAUSEN&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [OHRDRUF](..?q=OHRDRUF&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [POWS (GERMAN)](..?q=POWS %28GERMAN%29&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [POWS (SOVIET)](..?q=POWS %28SOVIET%29&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [PRISONERS](..?q=PRISONERS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [RAILCARS](..?q=RAILCARS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [RALLIES (NAZI)](..?q=RALLIES %28NAZI%29&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [SOLDIERS/MILITARY (ALLIES)](..?q=SOLDIERS/MILITARY %28ALLIES%29&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [SOLDIERS/MILITARY (AMERICAN)](..?q=SOLDIERS/MILITARY %28AMERICAN%29&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [SOLDIERS/MILITARY (BRITISH)](..?q=SOLDIERS/MILITARY %28BRITISH%29&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [SURVIVORS](..?q=SURVIVORS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [TATTOOS](..?q=TATTOOS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [TREBLINKA](..?q=TREBLINKA&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [UNIFORMS](..?q=UNIFORMS&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [VICTIMS' PROPERTY](..?q=VICTIMS' PROPERTY&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [WAHLMANN, ADOLF](..?q=WAHLMANN, ADOLF&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [WILLIG, KARL](..?q=WILLIG, KARL&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [WOMEN](..?q=WOMEN&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [WOUNDED](..?q=WOUNDED&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords) [ZYKLON B](..?q=ZYKLON B&search%5Ffield=Subjects and Keywords)

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

Other credits: Film editing: Sam Winston; Editors Supervisor: Billy Wilder
See Story 2418, Film ID 68 for duplicate footage. Most sequences are taken from unedited US Army Signal Corps reels.

Copied From

35mm; 16mm; b/w

Film Source

United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference

File Number

Legacy Database File: 160
Source Archive Number: 111 OF 19

Special Collection

Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive

Record last modified:

2024-02-21 07:47:20

This page:

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