Gusen; Mauthausen; Nordhausen
Creator(s)
- United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
- George C. Stevens (Director)
- United States. Army. Signal Corps. (Producer)
- James B. Donovan (Director)
- E. R. Kellogg (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
"Mauthausen Concentration Camp" [Footage shows mixed sequences from Mauthausen and Gusen.] High pan of concentration camp Gusen for slave laborers. 01:14:15 Pan of buildings at Mauthausen. Execution site with gallows and shooting wall in Gusen, with 2-3 men standing alongside it, courtyard wall behind. 01:14:23 Soldiers provide "tour" of crematorium and camp Gusen. 01:14:45 American POW Lt. Jack Taylor (U.S. Air Force) talks about his experience at Mathausen, "fortunately my turn hadn't come." He had been captured in Mauthausen for a few weeks from April 1945 to liberation. He talks of two American soldiers/officers killed and about his uniform. 01:17:07 Pile of corpses, survivors, more corpses (unidentified location). 01:17:50 Survivors near fences, probably the Sanitaetslager (sick-camp) at Mauthausen. 01:17:57 Survivors sitting in front of barracks, probably at the sick quarters at Gusen. Inmates help each other through the sick quarters at Gusen camp, one washes another at trough. 01:18:35 German civilians are forced to remove and bury the dead at camp Gusen, supervised by the U.S. Army personnel. Wagonloads of dead. 01:20:11 HS, burial of corpses on the former SS sports ground beside the sick-camp at Mauthausen. FSV, bodies (some women) in grotesque positions, with signs of horror on their faces, probably at Mauthausen. VCUs corpses. MSs, CUs, MCUs, living skeleton held up by another inmate. 01:21:51 "Nordhausen Concentration Camp" Views of the camp where slave laborers, unfit for work, were kept. The camp is liberated by the 3rd Armored Div, First US Army. INT building, there are a few living among the pile of bodies. Soldiers carry survivors out. CU, surviving inmates. One man clasps his hands in gratitude as he is lifted onto a stretcher. Inmate eating soup; inmates helped into ambulances; Red Cross truck. 600 Germans are ordered to bury the dead. Army priest administers last rites. 2500 are placed in graves. U.S. soldiers look into mass grave/pit of bodies.
Note(s)
Reel 4 of The Nazi Concentration Camps, NARA 238.2 Duplicate footage on Film ID 153, Stories 124 and 125. 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 Nordhausen are located on RG-60.0005, Film ID 2 (111 ADC 3961). Location identification provided by Barbara Glueck of the Mauthausen Memorial in July 2012.
"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
- CORPSES
- DOCTORS
- POLES
- LIBERATION
- WAR CRIMINALS/WAR CRIMES TRIALS
- CREMATORIA
- UNIFORMS
- FILMS
- ATROCITIES
- CARTS/WAGONS
- FORCED LABOR
- MAUTHAUSEN
- MASS GRAVES
- NUREMBERG (INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL)
- AMBULANCES
- GERMANY
- NORDHAUSEN
- CIVILIANS
- PRISONERS
- EXHUMATIONS
- GRAVES
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (AMERICAN)
- BURIALS
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)
- GERMANS
Places
- Gusen, Austria
- Mauthausen, Austria
- Nordhausen, Germany
Genre
- Documentary.
- Film