Majdanek: objects of former inmates
Creator(s)
- United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
- United States. Army. Signal Corps. (Producer)
- W. Stadtland (Camera Operator)
- A. Sofjin (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
Pan, "graveyard" outside death chambers, bones on the ground. The cremation ovens are shown, also the family photographs of a victim. CUs, women weeping. Pan down, from one woman to a pile of bones. The tall chimney of the camp and burial ground are shown, also the vegetable garden. CUs, clothing and piles of belongings salvaged by the Nazis. These include: shoes, gloves, toys, glasses, etc. The commission continues questioning. CUs, passports,indicating prisoners from Poland, Holland, France and other countries. CUs, prisoners who survived. Ceremony for the dead. A monument is dedicated; a woman is shown kneeling; a priest officiates; children listen; large crowd stands at attention (choral music). Soldiers; huge crowd (rally size); children with flowers; nuns.
Note(s)
Reel 2 of NARA #238.5. "Filmdokumente" on the German concentration camps, made under Russian auspices with narration in German. See also Story 29, Film ID 5 and Story 40, Film ID 6 for duplicate 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.
Film ID 895 contains a mislabeled clip. The last reel (01:19:25 to 01:28:10) is not 111 ADC 1758, but rather 111 ADC 1685 on the subject of "Burma Bound." It is not cataloged.
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
- NUREMBERG (INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL)
- EYEGLASSES
- CREMATORIA
- GRAVES
- WAR CRIMES COMMISSIONS
- PASSPORTS
- CLOTHES
- BURIALS
- GAS CHAMBERS
- MEMORIALS
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)
- MAJDANEK
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (ALLIES)
- WAR CRIMINALS/WAR CRIMES TRIALS
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (SOVIET)
- CORPSES
- PHOTOGRAPHS
- RELIGIOUS SERVICES
- CHIMNEYS
- VICTIMS' PROPERTY
- WOMEN
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS
- SHOES
Places
- Lublin, Poland
- Majdanek, Poland
Genre
- Film
- Documentary.