Camp Amersfoort, Netherlands
Creator(s)
- NEDERLANDS INSTITUUT VOOR BEELD EN GELUID
Scope and Content
MS Group of thin men with shaved heads in a poorly lit hall, German officers walking by [VQ: extremely poor, grainy, hardly visible]. Large pile of ropes, inmates de-tangling ropes. Men look malnourished and sick. Pan of men in white uniforms, Nazi officers, and people in suits (some are Red Cross officials) standing next to barbed wire. They are posing for camera, joking, and smiling. CU of inmates standing very still, looking exhausted and thin with patched numbers on their camp uniforms and armbands: CONTR AB [VQ: deteriorates again, jumpy, film appears damaged]. 03:26:33 Inmates cleaning camp grounds. Piles of hay. Men with shaved heads standing and staring in camera (according to NAA files they are Russian POWs). Eating bread, smiling faces. German soldier entering barrack. Nude thin man runs accross the camp grounds. WS large group of inmates standing between barracks. 03:27:45 Group of men and women posing for camera, some of them wearing white long coats (Red Cross officials and/or camp health unit?) in front of barrack. Standing next to them are German officers and a woman in black suit and hat. They are posing in front of barrack with large white sign: BLOCK 1. Man with letter "U" and number 6705 on his uniform posing for camera. Group of inmates posing for camera in front of BLOCK 1. Pan of BLOCK 1. 03:28:30 Dark interiors, men carrying wooden crates. Kitchen facility, stove with tin pots. 03:29:05 Slate: GEVAERT CINE-FILM. Truck entering camp through barbed wired gate. Truck plate number visible: HZ 64942. One truck with Red Cross shield in front. Shoveling potatoes out of truck. 03:29:24 MS inmates behind barbed wire, Nazi officers standing by. Unloading baskets with food off the truck. INT [VQ: almost invisible]. More unloading of baskets, putting empty baskets back on truck. Sign on side of truck: N.V. HOUTHANDEL X-FIRMA JACOB SPRITZ. INT shot [VQ: too dark].
Note(s)
This amateur film footage was shot in 1945, shortly before the Liberation, during the visit of the Red Cross to camp Amersfoort. In Netherlands AudioVisual Archives' documentation, the name Brendl is mentioned in connection to the footage (a Red Cross official?). No information on this person found in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Further research needed. Was Amersfoort solely POW camp?
Subjects
- LIBERATION
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)
- BARBED WIRE
- POWS (SOVIET)
- BARRACKS
- LABOR
- NETHERLANDS
- SIGNS/POSTERS
- EATING
- WOMEN
- SURVIVORS
- UNIFORMS
- ARMBANDS
- POTATOES
- RED CROSS
- KITCHENS
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS
- FOOD
- TRUCKS
Places
- Amersfort, Netherlands
Genre
- Film
- Amateur.