Summary:An edition of the British official newsreel "War Pictorial News", produced by the Ministry of Information, Middle East.
Description:I. 'REFUGEES RETURN HOME.' An item that covers the relocation and homecoming of Yugoslav and Greek displaced persons from their temporary encampment at the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA) refugee centre at El Shatt in the Sinai Desert. Gathered Yugoslav refugees listen to assembly instructions prior to leaving the El Shatt camp. Personal belongings are loaded onto the back of waiting soft-skinned vehicles. Yugoslav civilians await embarkation onto the merchant ship MS Tripolitania. On arrival at their destination the refugees are greeted from a quayside by Yugoslav civilians waving flags and cheering.
II. 'CAPTURED GERMAN SPOILS.' German Civilians gather round an Allied fly poster that reads "Military Government Germany, Law No. 1- Dissolution of the Nazi Party." German civilians surrender weapons and uniforms in a town square in accordance with Allied proclamations. Brief stock shot footage shows United States (US) troops examining art works looted by the Germans and found in a mine in Southern Germany (including Manet's "Winter Garden"). A US Master Sergeant displays for the benefit of the cameras, boxes of gold coins, trinkets and bars of gold stockpiled by the Germans.
III. 'CAPTIVES COURAGEOUS.' A recently liberated British Army prisoner of war shakes hands with a 4/7 Dragoon Guards tank crewman dressed in a canvas one-piece tank suit. Emaciated British prisoners of war are displayed for the cameras.
IV. 'NAZI HORROR CAMPS.' General Dwight D Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) visits the German concentration camp at Ohrdruf. Eisenhower is given at tour of the camp facilities and is shown by a camp inmate how the Allgemeine SS camp guards administered punishment beatings. A US Army Lieutenant translates the words of the concentration camp inmates for General Eisenhower. At Buchenwald, Emaciated prisoners stare at the camera. Extended footage shows piles of dead camp inmates. US troops open heavy steel incinerator doors at the camp crematorium to reveal a partially burnt human corpse. views of male and female SS camp guards at Bergen-Belsen follow. Belsen Camp Commandant Josef Kramer is displayed, an unsmiling British soldier stands next to him with his 9mm Sten sub-machine gun at the ready.
Alternative Title:
Colour:B&W
Digitised:Yes
Object_Number:WPN 210
Sound:Sound
Access Conditions:IWM
Film: IWM
Featured Period:1945-1989
Production Date:1945-05-14-1945-05-14
Production Country:GB
Production Details:Ministry of Information, Middle East (Production sponsor)
War Pictorial News (Production company)
Martin, Charles (Production individual)
Keating, Rex (Production cast)
Personalities, Units and Organisations:
Keywords:
Physical Characteristics:Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Sound
Soundtrack language: English
Title language: Serbo-Croat (?)
Technical Details:35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 886 ft; Running time: 10 mins
