Breendonck; Hannover; Arnstadt
Creator(s)
- George C. Stevens (Director)
- United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
- United States. Army. Signal Corps. (Producer)
- E. R. Kellogg (Director)
- James B. Donovan (Director)
Biographical History
United States Navy Lieutenant E. R. Kellogg certifies motion pictures of Nazi concentration camps in an affidavit presented in the "Nazi Concentration Camps" film by the Americans as evidence during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Kellogg had expertise in motion picture and photographic techniques through his employment with Twentieth Century Fox Studios in California from 1929 to 1941. He attests that he has thoroughly examined the concentration camp liberation films of the Army Signal Corps and found them to be unaltered, genuine, and true copies of the originals in the U.S. Army Signal Corps vaults.
George Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. During World War II, Stevens joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and headed a film unit from 1943 to 1946 under General Eisenhower. His unit shot footage documenting D-Day — including the only Allied European Front color film of the war — the liberation of Paris and the meeting of American and Soviet forces at the Elbe River, as well as horrific scenes from the Duben labor camp and the Dachau concentration camp. Stevens also helped prepare the Duben and Dachau footage and other material for presentation during the Nuremberg Trials. In 2008, his footage was entered into the U.S. National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress as an "essential visual record" of World War II.
James B. Donovan. United States Navy Commander. Associate Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, where he coordinated and presented all Nazi films at the trials. General Counsel to OSS. Negotiated the exchange of Bay of Pigs prisoners with Fidel Castro as an independent lawyer under backdrop of the missile crisis, securing the freedom of nearly 10,000 people. Portrayed by Tom Hanks in "Bridge of Spies".
Scope and Content
"Breendonck" Views of Breendonck camp in Belgium. EXTs of prison used to house Belgian patriots. Blood-stained coffins are exhibited as evidence of brutality Inmates demonstrate the methods used against the prisoners, such as beatings with barbed wire poles, chaining them into a vise, thumb screws. Victims reveal results of beatings and cigarette burns; a woman also reveals scars on her hips. 01:09:40 "Hanover Concentration Camp" [Neuengamme] General views of the camp where only 200 remained of 10,000 Poles. INTs of the camp, few remaining inmates mill about. VS, Red Cross clubmobiles enter, issue hot soup, cigarettes, and clothing. CUs, painful faces of survivors of Nazi brutality; men eating. U.S. soldiers. MCUs, inmate lying in bunk weeps; two are bunked together in order to keep warm. Removal of the inmates having died after the U.S. Army occupation. CU, corpse. The dead are carried out and buried. Inmates relate horrors. U.S. soldier documents survivors with photo camera. 01:12:01 "Arnstadt Concentration Camp" EXTs of camp housing Poles and Russian prisoners. Narrator states that most captives were removed prior to the occupation by Allied troops; those unable to be removed were shot to death. MSs, dog kennels which housed the watchdogs used to guard the campsite. VS, exhumation of corpses by German civilians of the area. CUs, corpses. U.S. troops review the bodies laid out on the ground.
Note(s)
Reel 3 of The Nazi Concentration Camps, NARA 238.2. Duplicate footage on Film ID 893, Story 2041 and Film ID 830, Story 852 The USHMM contains a 16mm film print of "Nazi Concentration Camps" from National Audiovisual Center. However, there is no direct video transfer from this print. The National Archives and Records Administration contains six 35mm reels of "Nazi Concentration Camps" under original archive number 238.2. The USHMM obtained a copy of these reels on Film ID 2815. The USHMM also owns each subject separately, ordered by a US Army Signal Corps (111 ADC) number. The USHMM also holds a copy from the National Center for Jewish Film cataloged as RG-60.2629, Film ID 2322. Original unedited segments of Arnstadt are located on RG-60.0005, Film ID 2 (111 ADC 3961)
"Nazi Concentration Camps" was compiled as evidence and shown at the Nuremberg Trials on November 29, 1945 as Prosecution Exhibit #230. It contains film evidence of Nazi atrocities at the concentration camps of Leipzig, Penig, Ohrdruf, Hadamar, Breendonck, Hanover, Arnstadt, Nordhausen, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Belsen. The film was produced for the U.S. Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality in 1945. It was directed by Navy Cmdrs. James B. Donovan and E. Ray Kellogg. George C. Stevens was responsible for directing the photography and filming of the concentration camps as liberated by Allied forces. The film has also been called "Concentration Camps in Germany, 1939-1945".
Subjects
- HANOVER-AHLEM
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS
- GERMANS
- FOOD
- BARBED WIRE
- SURVIVORS
- NUREMBERG (INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL)
- CORPSES
- BURIALS
- DOCTORS
- ATROCITIES
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)
- AUTOMOBILES
- BUNKS
- CREMATORIA
- UNIFORMS
- AMBULANCES
- CIVILIANS
- FILMS
- NEUENGAMME
- WAR CRIMINALS/WAR CRIMES TRIALS
- RED CROSS
- LIBERATION
- PRISONERS (POLISH)
- GRAVES
- PRISONS
- DOGS
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (AMERICAN)
- CLOTHES
- BELGIUM
- PRISONERS
- CARTS/WAGONS
- GERMANY
- MASS GRAVES
- FORCED LABOR
- POLES
- PRISONERS (SOVIET)
- EXHUMATIONS
Places
- Arnstadt, Germany
- Breendonck, Belgium
- Hannover, Germany
Genre
- Documentary.
- Film