Majdanek at liberation; 1944 War Crimes Trial

The WFDiF version has no Polish subtitles, but USHMM does not have a copy. For more information on the Majdanek trials, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majdanek_trials.

Swastyka I Szubienica (Swastika and Gallows) was produced by the Film Studio of the Polish Army and was shot by the Forbert brothers and Stanislaw Wohl, directed by Kazimierz Czynski and edited by Wlaclaw Kazmierczak. The film covers public aspects of the trial in Lublin of the former German camp guards rounded up around the city. Beginning on November 30, 1944, the trial lasted three days and the sentences were given on December 2nd. Wishing to sway public opinion, the filmmakers provided extended excerpts of testimony by various witnesses as well as statements by the accused, the chief judge and the prosecuting attorney, all with the intent of portraying Communist justice as being fair and swift. As the bodies of the five German guards are seen swinging in the wind in the final scene, a voice-over announces: “this is not an act of revenge, but a simple act of justice.”