U.S. Army Special Film Report #53
Event Date: April/May
1945
Genre:
Documentary
Description:
Reel 1 starts at 06:01:06 but has not been digitized
06:12:46 Reel 2: "Activities in
European Theater of Operations" In
Germany,
Schweinfurt citizens gather in courtyard. Confiscated art, belongings, etc.
German male civilians march in columns in streets to be screened by US counter-intelligence. Cached gold and art treasures emoved from Merkers salt mine.
Nordhausen citizens loot shops, walk through streets, stopped by armed
US soldiers, forced to surrender stolen goods.
French POW camp in Seurst, Germany. The liberated wave out of three story building windows, give hugs, pats, and kisses to liberating soldiers, large crowd, US and French ranking officers shake hands, raising of French and US flag, formerly imprisoned French soldiers saluting/marching out.
Scenes of Nordhausen concentration camp with dead and sick prisoners.
06:16:58 "Additional
Atrocity Films" Pan of three buildings, ruins, corpses scattered on ground around Nordhausen camp. MS, four emaciated survivors. CU, survivors evacuated by medics and
Red Cross; praying, crying man boarding ambulance. 600 male
Germans with shovels forced to assist burial. Corpses carried to gravesite.
Priest administers last rites. LS, many bodies lined up on ground. CUs, skeletons.
Gens.
Eisenhower,
Bradley, and
Patton tour Ohrdruf. Corpses, torture demonstrations. US jeeps enter Penig, tortured/wounded
Hungarian women survivors inspected by medics. Red Cross ambulances, survivors on stretchers.
Woman helped by two soldiers. Ambulances travel to hospital, helping survivors out of vehicle and into hospital. LS, survivors in litters, in hospital beds.
Aerial of barn in
Gardelegen. CUs, burnt corpses, survivors.
Civilians march with shovels and wooden white crosses to perform burial in mass grave. MS, field of white crosses. Pan, HS
Buchenwald camp grounds. Oven with bodies.
Mound of bones and ashes. Pan of soldiers looking at pile of naked bodies. CUs, corpses and survivors.
06:23:31
Trench foot wound. Weimar citizens forced to view evidence of atrocities at Buchenwald.
Entering camp, survivors stand behind barbed wire in BG.
Bodies on truck beds. Parchment display, shrunken heads, tattoos. Pan, Germans react. LS, field, ash on ground, bodies in
Leipzig. CUs, bodies, twisted/burnt.
Inmates "frozen," shot to death as escaping or electrocuted by fence.
Liberated Russian woman stares at bodies behind barbed wire.
06:26:00 "
Mediterranean Surrender"
Men, women, and boys captured with
German army in the
Ruhr. German tank battalion surrenders.
Troops are greeted at
Bologna, Italy.
Gen. Clark and the signing of the
Italian surrender. 06:30:24 "
USA Secretary Stimson and
Gen. Marshall make
VE Day Statement..." MS, both speak directly into camera from desks.
Notes: The three reels of
NARA 111 SFR 53 [from 06:01:06 to 06:32:48] contain a
US Army "Special Film Report" that is a compilation of newsreels.
Material covered includes: Pacific-Activities on
Okinawa; Iwo Japs in
Dawn Sortie; Mop-Up in
Manila Harbor;
Atrocities in the European Theater of Operations; Additional Atrocity Films; Mediterranean Surrender; and USA Secretary Stimson and Gen. Marshall Make VE Day
Statements... Reel 1 (not digitized) starts at 06:01:06 Reel 2 starts at 06:12:46 Reel 3 starts at 06:23:31
Original Archive Number: 111 SFR 53 R1-3
Producer:
US Army Signal Corps
Locale:
Nordhausen, Germany, Buchenwald, Germany,
Leipzig, Germany,
Italy, Ohrdruf, Germany,
Ruhr Valley, Germany, Penig, Germany &
Weimar, Germany.
Source:
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Special Collection:
Steven Spielberg Film and
Video Archive
- published: 30 Sep 2015
- views: 1108