Nazi justice and Allied justice contrasted

Identifier
irn1000185
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1994.119.1
  • RG-60.2252
Dates
1 Jan 1946 - 31 Dec 1946
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • English
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Biographical History

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.

Scope and Content

Film Report compares Nazi sense of justice, as exemplified by aggressive war and atrocities, with that of the war crimes tribunals at Nuremberg. Thomas Jefferson quoted over close views of statue of Jefferson at the Jefferson Memorial in DC. VCU, Hitler at Nuremberg - excerpt from a speech in which he proclaims his right to rid the world of inferior races. LS, crowds, hall, saluting. CU German atrocity victims dead, faces badly battered, corpses. German women crying, after forced confrontation. Elderly civilians viewing room of bodies at liberated camp. MS, naked corpses, coffin, decaying head. CU, dead girl found in woods. MLS, female doctor inspecting bodies. Two US soldiers (one with wreath) stand by corpses lined up in stretchers. CU, US soldiers dead in field. Wagons with corpses. 04:34:03 Night time rally, familiar shots of night bookburning scenes in Berlin. 04:34:17 MCU, woman on stretcher carried out of barracks. Hobbling women supported by praying crying man. More stretchers. Lt. Jack Taylor of Hollywood interviewed while standing among survivors in front of the gate in Mauthausen. He wears a prisoner's coat with a triangular badge and talks about two other Americans imprisoned at Mauthausen who were executed. Demonstration of torture devices at Buchenwald as Telford Taylor describes types of executions and torture at the IMT. CU, boxcar of snow-covered bodies. Naked young man leaning against pipe on wall. Pile of corpses in woods. Family, crying women. Women clasping soldier's hand. LS, gate at Buchenwald. Familiar Hadamar interview interrogation with chief physician Adolf Wahlmann and Karl Willig. Gas chamber. Moscow conference of foreign ministers in London in 1943. US Secretary of State Hull, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, and British Foreign Minister Eden sign documents. Hans Frank, "Nazi Justice Minister" speech and audience. Cut to statue of George Washington, Lincoln Memorial, and EXT of Supreme Court. Nazi forced to enter shed at concentration camp; German civilians exit disgusted. Narrator speaks of the types of justice being administered in Europe. Graphics showing sites where perpetrators are tried. CU, Quisling at trial, Germans being tried in Kharkov. US Army General Weir, head of War Crimes Office for Judge Advocate General, speaks to camera, "We'll find everyone who's committed atrocities against American POWs". Chart illustrating different types of trials: 1) National Traitor Trials; 2) Local Minor Trials; 3) US Military Trials; 4) International Tribunal. Various CU of high Nazi officials speaking (mostly at rallies). Truman signing a document. Robert H. Jackson, Chief US Prosecutor, posing. William Donovan, candid. Plane leaving DC illustrates the talented US legal team at Nuremberg. Mussolini. CU of "Mein Kampf". Goosestepping Nazis, Nazi armband throwing away folders labeled Treaty of Versailles and Kellogg-Briand Pact. Josef Kramer at capture in Belsen. Himmler on tour of Minsk. MS, survivors view corpses on ground. Graphic map illustrating camps fades to spider in center of web, then web and spider covering globe. Keitel signs German surrender in Berlin. Various leaders speak at UN (no sound). Cemeteries. Jackson speaking, accepting appointment. Meeting in London with chief counsels from France, Great Britain, USSR, US. List of criminals indicted at Nuremberg superimposed over image of prison.

Note(s)

  • No individual credits are provided at the beginning or the end.

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