War Crimes Commission: Ohrdruf and Hadamar
Creator(s)
- United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
- George C. Stevens (Director)
- E. R. Kellogg (Director)
- James B. Donovan (Director)
- United States. Army. Signal Corps. (Producer)
Biographical History
James B. Donovan. United States Navy Commander. Associate Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, where he coordinated and presented all Nazi films at the trials. General Counsel to OSS. Negotiated the exchange of Bay of Pigs prisoners with Fidel Castro as an independent lawyer under backdrop of the missile crisis, securing the freedom of nearly 10,000 people. Portrayed by Tom Hanks in "Bridge of Spies".
United States Navy Lieutenant E. R. Kellogg certifies motion pictures of Nazi concentration camps in an affidavit presented in the "Nazi Concentration Camps" film by the Americans as evidence during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Kellogg had expertise in motion picture and photographic techniques through his employment with Twentieth Century Fox Studios in California from 1929 to 1941. He attests that he has thoroughly examined the concentration camp liberation films of the Army Signal Corps and found them to be unaltered, genuine, and true copies of the originals in the U.S. Army Signal Corps vaults.
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
18:01:12 "Ohrdruf Concentration Camp" View of Ohrdruf, where 4000 were killed over a period of eight months. U.S. generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar N. Bradley, George S. Patton, and Walton H. Walker inspect the camp. Men standing near gate, enter barracks, inspect the scaffold, talk to prisoners. A woodshed is filled with bodies stacked in piles. CUs of lime, covered bodies. CUs, generals viewing them. Inmates demonstrate torture (whipping rack). Eisenhower and others stroll past dead corpses on the ground. Also view the camp, walking near crematory. CUs, charred remains. A truck brings local townspeople, including Nazi party officials, who are forced to view the camp. Truck enters camp, people unload from back of truck. MS and CU German medical major in uniform accompanying civilians as they view the bodies of inmates who were shot on the eve of US arrival. MSs, German officer, eyes darting everywhere, impassible dead bodies scattered around, civilians in BG fidgeting, looking away. Two kapos escorted off by MP. Visitors are forced into the woodshed; they are obviously moved. Group listens to "list of atrocities," shots of ashes and logs; pan of impassive faces of civilian men; CU torso and skull (on stomach) of naked body. 18:07:04 "Hadamar" U.S. officers visit the building where, under the guise of an insane asylum, 35,000 were murdered. U.S. flag hangs from entrance of building. Soldiers (sent for political and religious considerations) enter the building and examine emaciated patients shown in CU. Maj Herman Bolker, head of the American War Crimes Investigating Team, leads the examination. Medic soldier walks through ward, some empty beds, emaciated patient (taps chest). LS, in the graveyard where bodies are exhumed for autopsies. Men wear gas masks as they lift corpses out of the mud and line up the bodies. Doctor does autopsy; man with pipe takes notes. CU, Volke listing data. Interrogation of Dr. Walman (head of Hadamar institution) and Karl Willig (nurse) about the use of morphine, CU bottle. CU, Army soldier listening to doctors. Men are led off to await trial.
Note(s)
Reel 2 of The Nazi Concentration Camps, NARA 238.2. The USHMM contains a 16mm film print of "Nazi Concentration Camps" from National Audiovisual Center. However, there is no direct video transfer from this print. The National Archives and Records Administration contains six 35mm reels of "Nazi Concentration Camps" under original archive number 238.2. The USHMM obtained a copy of these reels on Film ID 2815. The USHMM also owns each subject separately, ordered by a US Army Signal Corps (111 ADC) number. The USHMM also holds a copy from the National Center for Jewish Film cataloged as RG-60.2629, Film ID 2322.
"Nazi Concentration Camps" was compiled as evidence and shown at the Nuremberg Trials on November 29, 1945 as Prosecution Exhibit #230. It contains film evidence of Nazi atrocities at the concentration camps of Leipzig, Penig, Ohrdruf, Hadamar, Breendonck, Hanover, Arnstadt, Nordhausen, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Belsen. The film was produced for the U.S. Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality in 1945. It was directed by Navy Cmdrs. James B. Donovan and E. Ray Kellogg. George C. Stevens was responsible for directing the photography and filming of the concentration camps as liberated by Allied forces. The film has also been called "Concentration Camps in Germany, 1939-1945".
USHMM replaced the online streaming video with a file from NARA (digitized Digital Betacam tape) in August 2019.
Subjects
- GERMANS
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS
- DOCTORS
- MASS GRAVES
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (ALLIES)
- TORTURE
- ATROCITIES
- CORPSES
- WAR CRIMES COMMISSIONS
- FILMS
- BRADLEY, OMAR N.
- MASSACRES
- PATTON, GEORGE
- EISENHOWER, DWIGHT
- HADAMAR INSTITUTE
- INTERVIEWS
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (AMERICAN)
- CIVILIANS
- TRUCKS
- OHRDRUF
- WAR CRIMINALS/WAR CRIMES TRIALS
- NUREMBERG (INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL)
- CREMATORIA
- SURVIVORS
- NURSES
- EXHUMATIONS
- GRAVES
- BARRACKS
- FLAGS (AMERICAN)
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY
Places
- Ohrdruf, Germany
- Hadamar, Germany
Genre
- Documentary.
- Film