Buchenwald; bombing of countryside
Creator(s)
- Thomas (Camera Operator)
- United States. Army Air Forces. (Producer)
- Voelker (Camera Operator)
- Arthur J. Mainzer (Camera Operator)
- United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
- Lindsay (Camera Operator)
Biographical History
Arthur Mainzer (1923-) was a cameraman in the 4th Combat Camera Unit of the 9th Air Force. The Combat Camera Unit was tasked with creating Air Force training films at Hal Roach Studios. After completing training at the Air Force Photo Technical School in Denver, CO and the First Motion Picture Unit in Culver, City, CA, Mainzer was deployed to Europe. He was filming bomb damage by the Allied Air Forces with Captain Ellis Carter when they heard about Buchenwald and drove there by jeep on April 13, 1945. Mainzer and Carter filmed conditions at the camp on Kodak color film stock using two handheld 16mm film cameras. The footage was then sent to headquarters in London for processing.
Scope and Content
Slate: "Mainzer / SFP 186 / Buchenwald / Roll MM-8 / 4-16-1945". MS, shirtless thin man sitting against red barn wall at Buchenwald camp. Another man, older with a shirt on. German civilians walking inside camp, forced to confront the atrocities. Two inmates in striped uniforms seated on a bench against barracks. Civilians walk through an opening in wooden barricade/wall. Slate: "Mainzer / SFP 186 / Buchenwald / Roll MM-9 / 4-16-1945". Pile of corpses with barracks in background. Bodies on flatbed, faces, feet, from various angles. German civilians touring the camp, survivors peering over wall. Upset German civilians viewing bodies (same as earlier shot). Aerial view of town, bombs being dropped, fields, farmland, river. Pan up to sky. Brighter bombing of town. Countryside. More bombing. Soldiers (American?) filing out of barracks, standing in front of tent, waiting in line, getting rations. Two truckloads of soldiers drive away onto road. More bombing of train, more destruction. Closer shot of town. Bombing of industrial plant.
Note(s)
This corresponds to the still photo we often discuss as having been rejected for use as the opening of the PE.
Mainzer was filming bomb damage by the Allied Air Forces with Captain Ellis Carter when they heard about Buchenwald and drove there by jeep on April 13, 1945. Mainzer and Carter filmed conditions at the camp on Kodak color film stock using two handheld 16mm film cameras. The footage was then sent to headquarters in London for processing.
USHMM replaced the online streaming video with a new, higher resolution digital file produced for the VHH project. The 16mm film source from NARA was scanned by the Austrian Filmmuseum in 2021.
Subjects
- TOWNS
- TRUCKS
- BOMBINGS
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (AMERICAN)
- CORPSES
- CIVILIANS
- BUCHENWALD
- SURVIVORS
- LIBERATION
- TRAINS
- AERIAL VIEWS
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)
- BARRACKS
- DESTRUCTION
Places
- Buchenwald, Germany
Genre
- Film
- Unedited.