Majdanek liberated
Creator(s)
- David Haspel & Associates
- A. Sofjin (Camera Operator)
- W. Stadtland (Camera Operator)
- Roman Karmen (Camera Operator)
Biographical History
Roman Karmen was born in 1906 in Odessa. He enrolled in the Gerasimov Institute for of Cinematography in Moscow in 1929. Throughout the 1930s, Karmen worked at the Central Studio of Documentary Film and as a correspondent for Soviet newspapers. He covered the Civil War in Spain in 1936-39. During World War II, Karmen was present on the front lines, documenting the Leningrad blockade, the surrender of German field marshal Friedrich Paulus in Volgograd, and the liberation of the Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin. Karmen made the film "The Judgment of the Peoples" about the Nuremberg trials. Karmen later filmed in Vietnam, India, and South America. The Soviet Union awarded Karmen the Lenin Prize, the highest Soviet honor, for his 1953 film "Story of the Capsian Oil Workers." Karmen died in 1978 in Moscow.
Scope and Content
Opening credit: "Das Blut der Opfer Schreit zum Himmel!" Pan of survivors behind barbed wire. CUs, survivors and their tattooed numbers. Various shots of the electrically charged barbed wire, ruins, various signs, guard towers, aerial views, etc. Russian soldiers examine camp officials. Men dig up graves for evidence. CU, women weeping as bodies are uncovered. CUs, decomposed bodies and pile of skulls. Officials of the camp are questioned. Gas chambers. CU, can of chemicals used for gas. INTs, camp, disinfection chamber, etc. More officials are interrogated by Russians. Survivors tell their stories with the help of female Russian interpreter.
Note(s)
Reel 1 of NARA #238.5. "Filmdokumente" on the German concentration camps, made under Russian auspices with narration in German. See also Story 39, Film ID 6 for duplicate (and longer) footage. The original ADC shot card at NARA incorrectly titles this film:"Prosecution Exhibit #228-229, Concentration Camps, Maidanek, 1944" 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 Majdanek was presented as evidence on February 19, 1946 (Day 62 of the trial) under Document USSR-81.
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
- GAS (POISON)
- SURVIVORS
- WOMEN
- GAS CHAMBERS
- CIVILIANS
- LIBERATION
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)
- KAPOS
- POLES
- SURVIVORS (POLISH)
- SS (SCHUTZSTAFFEL)
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (SOVIET)
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS
- INTERVIEWS
- TATTOOS
- EXHUMATIONS
- CORPSES
- GRAVES
- HUMAN REMAINS
- MAJDANEK
- AERIAL VIEWS
- BARBED WIRE
- BARRACKS
- WATCH TOWERS
- POLAND
Places
- Lublin, Poland
- Majdanek, Poland
Genre
- Documentary.
- Film