Auschwitz liberated

Reel 3 of NARA #238.5. "Filmdokumente" on the German concentration camps, made under Russian auspices with narration in German. See also Story 26, Film ID 5 for duplicate (although shorter) footage. See also Story 2769, Film ID 167 for duplicate footage of the entire film -- "Oswiecem" ["Auschwitz"] -- in English. See also Story 536, Film ID 213 and Story 3249, Film ID 2534. The Soviet film on atrocities - Film Documents of the Atrocities committed by German Fascists in the USSR (Kinodokumenty O Zverstvakh Nemetsko-Fashiskikh Zakhvatchikov) - with scenes of Auschwitz was presented as evidence on February 19, 1946 (Day 62 of the trial) under Document USSR-81. Tomy Shacham and Eva Mozes Kor are interviewed in the 2015 British documentary, "Night Will Fall".

The Soviet film about the liberation of Auschwitz was shot over a period of several months beginning on January 27, 1945, the day of liberation. It consists of both staged and unrehearsed footage of Auschwitz survivors (adults and children) taken in the first hours and days of their liberation, as well as scenes of their evacuation, which took place weeks or months later. The film includes the first inspection of the camp by Soviet war crimes investigators, as well as the initial medical examination of the survivors by Soviet physicians. It also records the public burial ceremony that took place on February 28, 1945 for Auschwitz victims who died just before and after the liberation. The order to make the film was issued by Mikhael Oschurkow, head of the photography unit, and was carried out by Alexander Voronzow and others in his group. Eighteen minutes of the film was introduced as evidence at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Another segment of the film disappeared for forty years before resurfacing in Moscow in 1986. [Source: Alexander Voronzow interview, Chronos-Films, The Liberation of Auschwitz, 1986]