Soviet film of atrocities shown at Nuremberg Trials
Creator(s)
- Roman Karmen (Camera Operator)
- Library of Congress - Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS)
- Kenan Kutub-Sade (Camera Operator)
- Alexander Vorontsov (Camera Operator)
- Central Studio for Documentary Film, Moscow (Producer)
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
Reel 1: Documents. Atrocities, corpses, women weeping, Soviet soldiers. Exhumation of mass grave, Russians weeping. Corpses at camp. 01:18:32 Reel 2: Human remains. Doctors, exhumation, skulls. Human remains at camp, beach. Reburying children in coffins, women weeping. Watchtower, barbed wire, corpses. Gravesite in forest. Fires. 01:31:40 Klooga: corpses, CU of victim with number and Star of David. 01:33:51 Reel 3: Lublin, INTs corpses. Civilians view bodies and camp barracks. MS, survivors. Aerial views of Majdanek, barracks. Skulls and bones, crematorium. Victims' belongings (shoes, passports, etc.) 01:43:40 Pan of survivors behind barbed wire. Aerial views of Auschwitz, maps, women in bunks, barbed wire, emaciated corpses, survivors in striped uniforms. 01:47:00 Twins walking between barbed wire fences at Auschwitz, children show tattooed numbers to camera. Zyklon B cans. Demonstration at gallows. Mass gravesite. Doctors examine baby. MSs, victims' clothing, shoes. 01:51:08 Reel 4: More victims' belongings, hair. Doctors examining survivors, interviewing nurses. Cemetery. Decapitated bodies, guillotine. Corpses in coffins. Torture instruments.
Note(s)
This film was presented at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg on February 19, 1946 by Russian prosecutor Mr. Smirnov. This Soviet-made film was screened on the 62nd day of the Nuremberg Trial and submitted as evidence relevant to the indictment for "crimes against humanity." It is a re-edited compilation of Soviet footage that had been primarily used for propagandistic ends in wartime Soviet newsreels and documentaries and includes voiceover commentary. The one-hour film shows images of the extermination camps of Auschwitz and Majdanek and appeals to spectators' emotions by emphasizing individual victims. The Library of Congress catalogs this film under the title "Concentration Camps." See also Stories 26 to 29 on Film ID 5 for similar or duplicate sequences of Auschwitz and Majdanek.
Refer to RG-60.4642 for a better copy of this film from the Nuremberg Archives at the International Court of Justice.
Subjects
- BARBED WIRE
- SOVIETS
- CHILDREN
- CORPSES
- SNOW
- VICTIMS' PROPERTY
- WAR CRIMINALS/WAR CRIMES TRIALS
- SURVIVORS
- MASS GRAVES
- EXHUMATIONS
- TORTURE
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (SOVIET)
- NUREMBERG (INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL)
- BARRACKS
- ATROCITIES
- SOVIET UNION
- HUMAN HAIR
- BURIALS
- AUSCHWITZ
- LIBERATION
- SHOES
- DOCUMENTS
- ZYKLON B
- CEMETERIES
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)
- MAJDANEK
- DOCTORS
Places
- Lublin, Poland
- Majdanek, Poland
- , Soviet Union
- Klooga, Estonia
- Auschwitz, Poland
Genre
- Film
- Documentary.