Nazi concentration camp
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Nazi concentration camp |
| Original title | Nazi Concentration Camps |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 59 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | George Stevens |
| production | US Army Signal Corps / US Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality |
| music | No |
| camera | various |
| occupation | |
|
Recordings from: | |
Nazi concentration camp , original title Nazi Concentration Camps is one of the Signal Corps and the United States Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality produced 1945 documentary about the situation in the concentration camps after the arrival of Allied troops. In addition to the American documentary The Nazi Plan and the one-hour Soviet film The Atrocities committed by the German-fascist invaders in the USSR, this documentary was film evidence of the indictment in the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals . In this process, film evidence was used for the first time.
content
Pictures of corpses and survivors in the concentration camps after the arrival of Allied troops are shown and commented on. Furthermore, torture methods of the concentration camp personnel are simulated for demonstration purposes and the confrontation of German civilians with the concentration camp atrocities. The recordings are u. a. from the concentration camp Hannover-Ahlem , concentration camp Leipzig-Thekla , concentration camp Penig , Ohrdruf concentration camp , reception camp Breendonk , concentration camp Boelcke barracks , Mauthausen , Buchenwald , Bergen-Belsen , KZ Dachau and NS Hadamar Killing Center ( Action T4 ).
Opening and closing credits
In the opening and closing credits, a tablet with the following content is shown:
NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS / August 28, 1945 / This is an official documentary report compiled / from films made by military photographers / serving with the allied Armies as they advanced / into Germany. The films were made pursuant to / to an order issued by General / Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander, / allied expeditionary forces. / Robert H. Jackson / United States Chief of Counsel
In addition, notarized documents with affidavits by the cameramen are displayed after the opening credits.
Evidence in the Nuremberg Trial of Major War Criminals
The documentary Nazi Concentration Camp , comprising three film rolls, was presented as evidence 2430-PS, Exhibit USA 79 by Thomas J. Dodd of the Executive Trial Counsel for the United States on the part of the prosecution in the Nuremberg Trial of Major War Criminals and was shown there for the first time on November 29, 1945. In addition, the court was given a transcript of the original commentary, which was published as the Complete Text of Narration in Nazi Concentration Camps . After the screening of the film, there was silence among the defendants in the courtroom. An American forensic psychologist interviewed defendants in their cells the evening after the screening of the film about the recordings shown. The reactions ranged from insult on the part of Hermann Göring , disbelief on the part of Joachim von Ribbentrop to the statement by Karl Dönitz : "What in God's name did I have to do with these things?" Some of the accused like Hans Frank and Walter Funk lost their composure completely and wept with shame and fear.
More information about the documentation
- Many sequences of the film were cut for the documentary The Death Mills .
- Excerpts from Nazi concentration camps and The Nazi Plan were also used for the American film Nuremberg and its teaching (original title Nuremberg: its Lesson for Today ). This 80-minute documentary by the American director Stuart Schulberg was shown for the first time in Stuttgart in 1948 and was shown in a version restored in 2009 at the Berlinale 2010.
- The copy of the film in the Federal Archives is incomplete and has a length of 55.11 minutes. Additional copies of the film are in the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC , the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive in Jerusalem, and the National Center for Jewish Film in Waltham, MA .
literature
- Kurt Hellmer: That Justice Be Done. The film that Schacht and Göring will see . In: Aufbau (New York, NY), Volume 11, Issue 42, October 9, 1945
- NN: The trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal . Nuremberg, November 14, 1945 to October 1, 1946. Official text. German edition., Vol. 30, documents and other evidence. Number 2239 - PS to number 2582 - PS, Nuremberg: Secretariat of the International Military Tribunal, 1948
- Stuart Fox: Jewish Films in the United States . New York, KG Hall, 1976
- Charles Lawrence Gellert: The Holocaust, Israel, and the Jews: Motion Pictures in the National Archives . Washington, DC, National Archives Trust Fund Board / National Archives and Records Administration, 1989
- Sheba F. Skirball: Films of the Holocaust. An Annotated Filmography of Collections in Israel . New York, NY: Garland, 1990
- Jeanpaul Goergen: "Atrocity films" - education through horror . In: Filmblatt (Berlin), vol. 10, no. 28, autumn 2005
Web links
- Nazi concentration camp in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Entry under Nazi Concentration Camps in the cinematography of the Holocaust of the Fritz Bauer Institute
- Nazi concentration camps as a complete film in theInternet Archive
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Entry under “Nazi Concentration Camps” in the cinematography of the Holocaust of the Fritz Bauer Institute
- ^ David Kleingers: Film and Nuremberg Trials: Burden of Proof in the Moving Image . In: Spiegel Online from November 21, 2005
- ↑ Contemporary history - Pope Guido: ZDF celebrates its story series about "Hitler's Helpers" as a media coup with self-praise. Critics see a lot of old hats . In: Der Spiegel , issue 4 from January 20, 1997, p. 173.
- ^ Telford Taylor: The Nuremberg Trials , ISBN 3-453-09130-2 , p. 228.
- ↑ Nuremberg: its Lesson for Today - The 2009 Schulberg / Waletzky Restoration (pdf; 160 kB)