Arnstadt and Nordhausen concentration camps
Creator(s)
- A. Statt (Camera Operator)
- Frank Gleason (Camera Operator)
- Zane L. Strickland (Subject)
- Rosenmann (Camera Operator)
- United States. Army. Signal Corps. (Producer)
- United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
Biographical History
Zane L. Strickland (1923-1994) served in the medical detachment of the 36th Armored Infantry Regiment (AIR) of the 3rd Armored Division of the VII Corp in the First Army during World War II. The unit came ashore at Omaha a couple of weeks after D-Day and fought all the way to the liberation of the camps. Zane earned a Bronze Star. He returned home to Arkansas in February 1946 and married Lois Newberry. He worked as a foreman for Maytag Appliance in Iowa. Zane was a lifelong bird hunter and fisherman and loved the outdoors. Brigadier General Truman Everett Boudinot (1895-1945) commanded Combat Command B, 3rd Armored Division. For more biographical information, see http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/teboudinot.htm.
Scope and Content
Arnstadt and Nordhausen after Allied soldiers arrive. General shots of corpses and survivors. Survivors receive aid. Some well-known shots of survivors as they board IRC van. (LIB 5566) Arnstadt Horrors, Arnstadt, Germany, April 14, 1945. EXT, Sequence- German civilians disinter bodies of concentration camp victims. CU, a cadaver with a damaged skull. LSs, CUs, dog kennel for watchdog. Pan from camp gate to tents used to house 1700 prisoners. LSs to MSs, corpses lying outside of grave from which they have just been exhumed. LSs to MSs, bodies laid out on ground are viewed by several US soldiers. MCU to CUs, body half submerged in pit. (LIB 5567) Slave Labor Camp, Nordhausen, Germany, April 11, 1945. EXT camp. LS, Pan, destroyed buildings of prison camp area. CU, dead bodies lying on camp grounds. MSs, CUs, emaciated survivors. Sequence: US medics and MPs of the 3rd Armored Division, FUSA, carry the sick and dying prisoners out of the camp. US medic, Zane L. Strickland, transports a survivor on a stretcher - he is on the back end of the stretcher facing the camera. Emaciated man, seated on ground is helped onto litter by US medics. The man is crying and clasping his hands together in thankful prayer. MCU, one-star general Brigadier General Truman Everett Boudinot speaks to internees. CUs, series of CUs of the faces of emaciated prisoners seated amid rubble. VS, liberated prisoners eating and talking. INTs, VS, emaciated victims lying in barracks amid corpses. INT, MCU to CU, prsioner, smoking a cigarette, sitting on ground near an open pit, surrounded by corpses, explains to soldiers off camera some of what occured in the camp. CU, starved prisoner eating an egg. VS, US medics lead or carry extremely emaciated prisoners from building. MS, medics load ambulances, pull out of area.
Note(s)
Duplicate footage on Film ID 2, Story 5. Clips of this unedited footage were used in the film "Nazi Concentration Camps" which was shown as evidence during the Nuremberg Trial. For Arnstadt, See Story 852, Film ID 830; Story 2041, Film ID 893; or Story 2438, Film ID 2272. For Nordhausen, See Story 124, Film ID 153 or Story 2439, Film ID 2279.
The German concentration camp at Arnstadt housed Polish and Russian prisoners. Nordhausen concentration camp shows horrible examples of Nazi brutality. Hundreds of emaciated bodies covered the filthy barrack floors. More than 2,000 Russian, French, Italian, Belgian, and Polish captives lived under these conditions.
Subjects
- ATROCITIES
- MILITARY POLICE
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY
- NORDHAUSEN
- CORPSES
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)
- LIBERATION
- RED CROSS
- PRISONERS
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS
- BURIALS
- SURVIVORS
Places
- Nordhausen, Germany
- Arnstadt, Germany
Genre
- Unedited.
- Film