LIBERATION SCENES AT LANGENSTEIN, THEKLA, BELSEN AND MITTELGLADSBACH CONCENTRATION CAMPS [Allocated Title]
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- Title: LIBERATION SCENES AT LANGENSTEIN, THEKLA, BELSEN AND MITTELGLADSBACH CONCENTRATION CAMPS [Allocated Title]
- Film Number: MGH 3449
- Other titles:
- Summary: Compilation of edited film shot by British and American combat cameramen records scenes in German concentration camps shortly after the arrival of Allied troops, with commentary reflecting the contemporary reaction to the discovery of Nazi atrocities.
- Description: Two thin shaven men stand in the doorway of the goods van of a train. A middle-aged couple seated on the ground examine clothes. Other groups of people sit below the railway embankment in a disorientated state. MS of a woman and two children. CU of one of the children, a very thin shaven-headed boy eating a biscuit. Title: Langestein (sic.). WS of US soldiers standing by a large shallow trench in which there is a heap of corpse. MS of a line of the corpses in the trench. CU of the heap with emaciated feet and hands poking out from the clothes. MS of men in civilian clothes moving the corpses under the guard of US soldiers. The English commentary informs us that these are local Germans put to work by the US troops. MS the men adding a corpse to the line. CU of head and shoulders of a corpse which appears to have recently been exhumed as his striped prison tunic is specked with soil. Title: Tehkla (sic.). LS of the scorched soil and debris of a camp building. In the foreground is a charred corpse. According to the commentary only four survivors remain to relate the events of the last day (18/4/1945) when the guards tried to kill the remaining inmates (approximately 300) by trapping the `deportees' inside the hut (barrack no. 5) and setting it alight. MS and CUs of the four survivors. MS of one survivor standing by their escape hole and acting out the action to two US soldiers. CU of two corpses in another hole under the building. The commentary reminds us that not all the escapees got away. MS of one of the survivors walking across the camp perimeter accompanied by a soldier. He indicates how he was able to clamber over the electric fence by using some wooden planks as a bridge. Cut to shots of the camp perimeter where the wire fencing is littered with the corpses of inmates, stiffened in the shapes they assumed when they were killed by machine gun fire and flame throwers as they attempted to escape. CU of a naked and scorched corpse lying on a bed of barbed wire just at the edge of the perimeter fencing. Title : Belsen. LS of crowds of people standing between the camp's huts. The commentary informs us that out of 65000 inmates at Belsen, 28000 women and children were still alive when the allies arrived (they arrived on 15.4.45). CU of the camp Commandant, Hauptsturmführer Joseph Kramer, with a British guard of the 8 Corps carrying a Sten sub machine gun. Kramer and most of the camps guards did not get away before the British arrived. As the commentator says," Kramer is today condemned and will pay for his crimes along with his accomplices ". WS shot of uniformed camp guards standing in a line. Behind them British soldiers in a truck train machine guns on the prisoners. Female guards are shown filing out of a camp hut. The commentator notes: " for there were women among them, women even more debased and cruel than the men ". Male camp guards are marched past the camera. Many of them are wearing the deaths head cap badge of the SS. The men are followed by female guards escorted by British soldiers. LS of a large pool of water with high concrete banks, the camp's communal water supply. Groups of people are standing on the edge endeavouring to collect water with buckets and tins attached to string. The commentator lambasts the inhumane regime of the camp: " one lived at Belsen on the boundary that separates men from beasts. One pool of stagnant water was all there was for the prisoners, and the Germans call themselves champions of culture, of progress, of hygiene ". CU of women collecting water. MS of two inmates eating soup. Then shots of thin bedraggled prisoners wandering around in a seemingly dazed state. MS of a half-naked, emaciated man sitting on the ground sorting through some clothes. He is surrounded by rags and corpses. The commentary points out the thin soup provided for the inmates which resulted in starvation, incidences of cannibalism, epidemics and vermin; conditions for which their was no medical aid. The inmates had reached such a low physical condition that even after the allies arrived 800 people dies each day. CU of a young man lying dead on the ground, a trickle of blood form his nose indicates that he has died recently. LS of a long, freshly dug grave half full of corpses. WS of camp with corpses, clothed and naked, lying everywhere. The commentator says that 80,000 people died in these sinister huts. German civilisation gave them over to savagery, to disease, famine and even in the name of science to vivisection. LAS of naked and emaciated bodies stretched out on the soil of the camp floor. Title: Mittelgladsbach. Shot of the outside of the camp. Then of the gates with an allied soldier standing guard. The commentator says that the Germans called it a rest camp but in fact it was a typhus camp. MS of men in a striped uniform standing behind a barbed wire fence. Then various close up shots of the men, one displaying a tattooed identification number. The commentary explains that the men were sick, vermin ridden and many were covered in excrement but their suffering was neglected. " Mittelgladsbach, the rest camp ". The inmates are clearly suffering form their ordeal. Some are able to stand, others lie listless in their bunk beds inside the huts. Various shots of men lying in the bunks, some are breathing heavily, others scratch uncomfortably or lie listless underneath thin blankets. The commentary notes the irony of death bringing the ultimate rest in a `rest camp'. Outside shallow trenches are unearthed to reveal twisted corpses. The commentator underlines the tragedy by reminding us that these trenches are filled with the bodies of people that thought, that moved and lived. More CUs of twisted bodies in the graves. Finally a pan across a row of heads huddled communally together, eyes wide and staring.
- Alternative Title:
- Colour: B&W
- Digitised:
- Object_Number: MGH 3449
- Sound: Sound
- Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM (MGH 3449)
- Featured Period:
- Production Date: 1945
- Production Country: GB
- Production Details:
- Personalities, Units and Organisations: Kramer, Josef (person) British Army (regiment/service) United States Army (regiment/service) DE.S (regiment/service)
- Keywords: law and order, Allied - liberation: concentration camps (object name) Germany & Belsen, Lower Saxony <concentration camp> (geography) Germany & Langenstein <concentration camp> (geography) Germany & Mittelgladsbach <concentration camp> (geography) Germany & Thekla <concentration camp> (geography)
- Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English
- Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 671 ft; Running time: 7 mins
- HD Media:
- Link to IWM Collections page:
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