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(Narrator) in the spring of 1945,
the Ministry of Information in London
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00:00:06,208 --> 00:00:09,499
was instructed to make a film
for Allied Command,
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00:00:09,625 --> 00:00:14,125
documenting the Nazi atrocities being
discovered as Europe was liberated.
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00:00:17,958 --> 00:00:22,458
Producer Sidney Bernstein recruited
a brilliant team to work on the production,
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00:00:23,167 --> 00:00:27,333
including the editors Stewart McAllister
and Peter Tanner,
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00:00:27,458 --> 00:00:31,083
and writers Colin Wills
and Richard Crossman.
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00:00:32,500 --> 00:00:36,000
The film was crafted from footage
taken by British, American
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00:00:36,125 --> 00:00:38,625
and Soviet military cameramen.
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00:00:39,458 --> 00:00:40,874
Shocked and angered,
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00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,416
they used their cameras
to condemn the perpetrators,
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00:00:44,542 --> 00:00:47,583
filming the victims of atrocities
in close detail
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00:00:47,708 --> 00:00:51,791
and producing a comprehensive record
of the suffering of survivors.
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00:00:53,958 --> 00:00:57,833
The footage was first screened in London
at the Ministry of Information
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00:00:57,958 --> 00:01:02,208
and was seen as damning proof
of the criminality of the Nazi regime.
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00:01:03,750 --> 00:01:07,000
When completed, the film
was to be shown in German cinemas
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00:01:07,125 --> 00:01:09,250
and to German Prisoners of War.
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00:01:09,833 --> 00:01:13,749
Its purpose was to counter
any lingering support for the Nazis
18
00:01:13,875 --> 00:01:16,416
and to make people aware
of their shared responsibility
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00:01:16,542 --> 00:01:18,875
for the crimes
committed in their name.
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00:01:20,875 --> 00:01:25,166
Sidney Bernstein hoped to create
a lasting and irrefutable record,
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00:01:25,292 --> 00:01:28,542
to challenge any attempts
to deny what had taken place.
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00:01:30,875 --> 00:01:34,500
But events in Germany moved
more quickly than the filmmaking process.
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00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,500
The Allied government policy evolved
from retribution to reconstruction.
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00:01:43,542 --> 00:01:46,583
Armed resistance to the occupation
was limited,
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00:01:47,875 --> 00:01:52,208
and many Germans and POWs
had been taken to sites of atrocity,
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00:01:52,333 --> 00:01:54,874
or seen photographs
and short films of the horrors.
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Consequently, the film had missed
its moment and was shelved.
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00:02:03,333 --> 00:02:06,666
In 1952, the unfinished film
was deposited
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00:02:06,792 --> 00:02:08,708
at the Imperial War Museum.
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00:02:09,417 --> 00:02:13,917
It had no titles, only brief sequences
of synchronous sound,
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00:02:14,042 --> 00:02:16,458
and the last reel
had not been assembled.
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00:02:17,625 --> 00:02:19,500
But there was a script
for the commentary
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00:02:19,625 --> 00:02:22,208
and a list of shots for each reel.
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00:02:25,708 --> 00:02:28,583
Using the shooting script
and the editor's notes,
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00:02:28,708 --> 00:02:33,208
lWM's team has set about meticulously
restoring and completing the film
36
00:02:33,583 --> 00:02:35,916
to the filmmaker's specifications.
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00:02:38,458 --> 00:02:42,291
This has involved cleaning
and grading each frame of the film,
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00:02:44,500 --> 00:02:48,875
recording the commentary
using the original script from 1945,
39
00:02:49,875 --> 00:02:54,083
and assembling the sixth and final reel
for the first time.
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00:02:55,583 --> 00:02:58,666
This film is an important
historical document,
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00:02:58,792 --> 00:03:02,750
and it has been restored,
not revised or updated.
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00:03:04,042 --> 00:03:06,583
Authenticity is integral to this process.
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00:03:06,708 --> 00:03:09,666
It is the obligation of
curators and archivists
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00:03:09,792 --> 00:03:13,333
to preserve the artefacts
and documents entrusted to them
45
00:03:13,458 --> 00:03:17,958
without making alterations which would
change their original meaning or form.
46
00:03:19,417 --> 00:03:22,375
As a result, some of the facts
are incorrect
47
00:03:22,500 --> 00:03:26,125
and aspects of the commentary
now sit uneasily with our understanding
48
00:03:26,250 --> 00:03:27,708
of the concentration camps.
49
00:03:30,125 --> 00:03:34,625
This film is not about the Holocaust
or the persecution of any single group.
50
00:03:36,792 --> 00:03:41,292
Jews are only cited as one among
many peoples, religions and nationalities
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00:03:41,667 --> 00:03:44,292
who were victims of the Nazi terror.
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00:03:46,042 --> 00:03:47,708
Despite these inaccuracies,
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00:03:47,833 --> 00:03:50,083
inevitable for a documentary
made so soon
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00:03:50,208 --> 00:03:52,291
after the atrocities were discovered,
55
00:03:52,417 --> 00:03:56,917
this is a considered, sophisticated
and non-sensational film.
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00:03:59,292 --> 00:04:03,083
Viewers are warned that the film
is very uncomfortable to watch.
57
00:04:03,208 --> 00:04:04,958
That was its intention,
58
00:04:05,083 --> 00:04:08,333
and there is no attempt to shy away
from the subject matter.
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00:04:13,792 --> 00:04:16,958
The camera stares
at the most appalling scenes,
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00:04:17,083 --> 00:04:20,374
made even more immediate
by the restoration.
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00:05:04,583 --> 00:05:06,999
(Narrator) In March 1933,
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00:05:07,125 --> 00:05:11,625
17,264,296 Germans
voted for the National Socialist Party.
63
00:05:16,417 --> 00:05:20,917
20,680,000 others
cast their vote for Democrats,
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00:05:21,792 --> 00:05:26,292
Communists, Christian Socialists,
People's Party, etc. etc.
65
00:05:27,958 --> 00:05:32,458
Lack of unity among these parties
opposing the Nazis proved fatal.
66
00:05:33,083 --> 00:05:35,708
The National Socialist Party
was in power.
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00:06:19,417 --> 00:06:22,333
They made many claims
and many promises.
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00:06:23,583 --> 00:06:26,291
'The German people rejoice
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00:06:26,417 --> 00:06:30,792
'in the knowledge
that chaos and cowardice
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00:06:30,917 --> 00:06:35,417
'have been replaced
by a calm, steadfast leader.'
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00:06:38,333 --> 00:06:42,624
(Narrator) The German people had
embarked on that long, incredible journey
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00:06:42,750 --> 00:06:47,125
that led seemingly out of chaos
to unprecedented triumph.
73
00:06:52,042 --> 00:06:54,917
Promise after promise
had been fulfilled.
74
00:06:55,625 --> 00:06:58,625
Austria and Czechoslovakia 1938,
75
00:06:58,750 --> 00:07:01,125
Poland 1939,
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00:07:01,250 --> 00:07:04,500
Norway, Denmark and France
in quick succession.
77
00:07:05,500 --> 00:07:08,125
A place in the sun at last.
78
00:07:09,208 --> 00:07:12,916
True, they had lost their Trade Unions
and a lot of books had been burned,
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00:07:13,542 --> 00:07:15,750
but it seemed a good sort of bargain,
80
00:07:15,875 --> 00:07:19,041
and one got to like
being told what to do,
81
00:07:19,167 --> 00:07:22,000
having one's views prescribed,
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00:07:22,125 --> 00:07:24,541
especially if it meant a vista bright
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00:07:24,667 --> 00:07:28,292
with the promise of grandeur
and conquest.
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00:08:28,500 --> 00:08:33,000
In the spring of 1945, the Allies,
advancing into the heart of Germany,
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00:08:36,417 --> 00:08:38,625
Neat and tidy orchards.
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00:08:40,208 --> 00:08:43,249
Well-stocked farms lined the wayside.
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00:08:44,875 --> 00:08:49,375
And the British soldier did not fail
to admire the place and its inhabitants.
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00:08:50,792 --> 00:08:54,792
At least until he began to feel a smell.
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00:08:56,333 --> 00:08:59,166
It came from a concentration camp,
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00:08:59,292 --> 00:09:02,208
a waste ringed with barbed wire
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00:09:02,333 --> 00:09:04,291
and overlooked by watchtowers.
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00:09:09,542 --> 00:09:13,958
Coming in from the flowering countryside,
in spite of the frightful smell,
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00:09:14,083 --> 00:09:16,583
things didn't seem so bad at first.
94
00:09:16,708 --> 00:09:19,124
Children smiled through the barbed wire
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00:09:19,250 --> 00:09:22,083
and women laughed
and waved their hands.
96
00:09:32,333 --> 00:09:36,374
But Belsen camp was vast
and inside was a different story.
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00:09:37,417 --> 00:09:39,000
They had not eaten for six days,
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00:09:39,125 --> 00:09:43,000
and every soldier's stock of food
was called into use.
99
00:09:43,125 --> 00:09:44,750
Water too had been cut off
100
00:09:44,875 --> 00:09:48,541
and so the water cart was
the most important thing to arrive.
101
00:10:03,167 --> 00:10:05,833
Most of the people
seemed to be listless,
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00:10:05,958 --> 00:10:08,458
beyond hope and astonishment.
103
00:10:09,083 --> 00:10:12,083
Hunger had probably
affected them that way.
104
00:10:12,208 --> 00:10:14,749
We discovered that among this stench
of disease and decay
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00:10:14,875 --> 00:10:17,166
was something
a bit worse than hunger.
106
00:10:18,292 --> 00:10:21,792
Moving vaguely
on rickety skeleton legs,
107
00:10:21,917 --> 00:10:23,583
they were too ill to eat.
108
00:10:24,708 --> 00:10:28,166
How grateful they were
for a kindly word or gesture!
109
00:10:35,750 --> 00:10:39,750
What misery, to live amongst
such unmentionable filth
110
00:10:39,875 --> 00:10:42,208
with scarcely the strength
to pick the lice
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00:10:42,333 --> 00:10:45,041
which inevitably swarmed over them.
112
00:10:45,167 --> 00:10:47,958
They seemed accustomed
to the smell and the horror.
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00:10:48,083 --> 00:10:50,999
They had seen all there was to see.
114
00:10:51,750 --> 00:10:54,083
This man had died by violence.
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00:10:55,125 --> 00:10:57,875
Huts were almost impossible
to go near-
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00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:00,416
they were full of
tangled masses of people
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00:11:00,542 --> 00:11:04,500
who had died slowly and painfully
of starvation and disease,
118
00:11:04,625 --> 00:11:06,125
writhing in agony,
119
00:11:06,250 --> 00:11:08,458
helpless in puddles of excrement.
120
00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,083
It was difficult to imagine
these orchards now,
121
00:11:13,208 --> 00:11:17,708
those rich fields where the stolid cattle
cropped the juicy grass,
122
00:11:18,167 --> 00:11:22,042
for here, a few minutes away
inside the barbed wire,
123
00:11:22,167 --> 00:11:24,625
was nothing but filth and death.
124
00:11:38,500 --> 00:11:42,333
Dead prisoners hurled out
and stacked in twisted heaps.
125
00:11:46,417 --> 00:11:49,833
Dead women like
marble statues in the mire.
126
00:11:56,417 --> 00:12:00,542
This was what these inmates
had to live among -
127
00:12:00,667 --> 00:12:02,792
and die among.
128
00:12:22,042 --> 00:12:26,167
The dead which lay there
were not numbered in hundreds,
129
00:12:26,292 --> 00:12:27,917
but in thousands.
130
00:12:28,583 --> 00:12:30,791
Not one or two thousands,
131
00:12:31,625 --> 00:12:33,333
but 30,000.
132
00:12:37,542 --> 00:12:41,875
Here is a pit where the inmates,
in order to earn food,
133
00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:44,666
had to drag the bodies
of their comrades,
134
00:12:45,167 --> 00:12:49,250
but they were too weak to keep up
with the rate at which they were dying,
135
00:12:49,375 --> 00:12:52,708
so the pit remains only half-filled.
136
00:13:05,917 --> 00:13:08,500
The SS Guards
in charge of the camp
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00:13:08,625 --> 00:13:11,416
were captured
and lined up for examination.
138
00:13:12,083 --> 00:13:15,416
Their papers were gone through
to confirm their status,
139
00:13:15,542 --> 00:13:17,042
their authority.
140
00:13:17,167 --> 00:13:20,042
Each with his death's head badge.
141
00:13:20,167 --> 00:13:22,667
Each justified by German law.
142
00:13:23,417 --> 00:13:27,292
They were unashamed, well-fed,
well-dressed and cheerful.
143
00:13:36,083 --> 00:13:38,999
There were women
also on guard in Belsen.
144
00:13:39,125 --> 00:13:41,916
Volunteers who came
of their own free will,
145
00:13:42,042 --> 00:13:43,917
to do their bit.
146
00:13:44,750 --> 00:13:47,500
Not sickly pale with hollow faces,
and hungry eyes,
147
00:13:48,250 --> 00:13:52,250
but well-fed and well-kept
with a strutting arrogance.
148
00:13:56,917 --> 00:13:58,792
The commandant of the camp,
Josef Kramer,
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00:13:58,917 --> 00:14:03,167
was removed for trial as a war criminal
by an Allied Military Court.
150
00:14:04,500 --> 00:14:05,708
There was an urgent need
151
00:14:05,833 --> 00:14:08,958
to get rid of as many bodies as possible
as quickly as possible,
152
00:14:09,083 --> 00:14:10,874
so all the S.S. were set to work.
153
00:14:20,208 --> 00:14:22,833
500 Hungarian troops
captured with the S.S.
154
00:14:22,958 --> 00:14:25,791
were started
on a grave-digging operation.
155
00:14:45,042 --> 00:14:47,917
The 8.8. themselves
were made to do the unpleasant job
156
00:14:48,042 --> 00:14:50,250
they had forced the inmates to do.
157
00:14:51,125 --> 00:14:54,458
This after all was nothing
to these men -
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00:14:54,583 --> 00:14:58,166
they, the Master Race,
had been taught to be hard.
159
00:14:58,292 --> 00:15:00,458
They could kill in cold blood,
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00:15:00,583 --> 00:15:03,624
and it seemed to the British soldier
fit and proper that the killers
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00:15:03,750 --> 00:15:06,625
should bury the nameless,
hopeless creatures
162
00:15:06,750 --> 00:15:09,291
they had starved to death.
163
00:15:34,042 --> 00:15:37,625
The faces of the bystanders
showed just a little of the hate
164
00:15:37,750 --> 00:15:40,125
that Germany has inspired.
165
00:15:45,083 --> 00:15:47,083
And some of the anguish, too.
166
00:18:56,917 --> 00:18:58,417
Meanwhile, back at the camp,
167
00:18:58,542 --> 00:19:01,667
those who were still living
were being attended to.
168
00:19:01,792 --> 00:19:03,875
Supplies of hot soup were prepared,
169
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:07,958
and those who could eat unaided
were fed as quickly as possible.
170
00:19:24,625 --> 00:19:27,750
There had been no water supply
for six days.
171
00:19:27,875 --> 00:19:30,750
The Germans pleaded it had been cut.
172
00:19:30,875 --> 00:19:34,375
We laid on water in a few hours
and before 12 hours had passed
173
00:19:34,500 --> 00:19:37,166
had sufficient to enable them to wash.
174
00:19:40,833 --> 00:19:44,499
Soap was provided,
the first they had seen for months,
175
00:19:44,625 --> 00:19:47,166
and an orgy of washing ensued.
176
00:19:56,500 --> 00:20:01,000
A mobile bath unit was set up
and provided hot water for baths.
177
00:20:05,583 --> 00:20:07,791
Inmates thought
there was a snag at first -
178
00:20:07,917 --> 00:20:11,083
expected to be beaten
for going near it probably,
179
00:20:11,208 --> 00:20:13,458
but when they learned
that the dream was true -
180
00:20:14,500 --> 00:20:16,166
hot water!
181
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,500
And these are the people
the Nazis said delighted in being dirty.
182
00:21:38,708 --> 00:21:41,624
But the job of clearing up Belsen
was a big one.
183
00:21:41,750 --> 00:21:45,333
After seven dreadful days,
the funerals still go on.
184
00:21:45,458 --> 00:21:47,041
There seems to be no end.
185
00:21:47,167 --> 00:21:50,125
The S.S. men are not so spick
and span now.
186
00:21:50,250 --> 00:21:52,500
Seven days of being shouted
and cursed at
187
00:21:52,625 --> 00:21:55,625
and handling corpses by the hundred
are beginning to tell.
188
00:21:57,042 --> 00:22:00,958
'Wait! You'll pay for the lost years
of our youth.
189
00:22:01,083 --> 00:22:02,583
'Just wait.'
190
00:22:07,292 --> 00:22:10,208
(Narrator) The Bi/'rgerme/lslers
and Civil Officials of the neighbourhood
191
00:22:10,333 --> 00:22:12,874
were brought to witness
the scenes that had been caused
192
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,250
as part of the Nazi scheme of things.
193
00:22:16,042 --> 00:22:18,583
This was not what they expected.
194
00:22:43,708 --> 00:22:46,083
It had been happening for years,
195
00:22:46,208 --> 00:22:48,374
but they shrugged their shoulders
and beat their brows
196
00:22:48,500 --> 00:22:51,375
and tried to say it had been
none of their business.
197
00:22:52,500 --> 00:22:54,833
But they were mostly silent.
198
00:24:47,542 --> 00:24:50,875
'My name is Dr Fritz Klein.
I'm a medical doctor.
199
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:55,041
'I've been in concentration camps
for one and a half years.
200
00:24:55,167 --> 00:24:59,458
'I was born on 24th November 1888.
201
00:24:59,583 --> 00:25:01,874
'I'm 58 years old.
202
00:25:02,625 --> 00:25:04,666
'A German from Romania.
203
00:25:06,292 --> 00:25:10,792
'I'm speaking today,
24th April 1945.'
204
00:25:12,958 --> 00:25:15,249
(Narrator) They were given an address
by a British officer
205
00:25:15,375 --> 00:25:17,291
through a loudspeaker van.
206
00:25:19,417 --> 00:25:23,792
'You, the fathers and brothers
of German youth,
207
00:25:24,792 --> 00:25:29,292
'see before your eyes
a few of the sons and daughters
208
00:25:31,625 --> 00:25:36,125
'who bear a small part of the
direct responsibility for these crimes.
209
00:25:40,625 --> 00:25:42,916
'A small part,
210
00:25:43,042 --> 00:25:47,542
'but heavier than
the human soul can bear.
211
00:25:50,667 --> 00:25:53,500
'But who bears the real responsibility?
212
00:25:54,458 --> 00:25:58,958
'You! You, who have allowed
your Fuhrer
213
00:25:59,125 --> 00:26:03,625
'to carry out his insane plans.
214
00:26:04,833 --> 00:26:09,333
'You, who rejoiced
in his degenerate triumphs.
215
00:26:13,542 --> 00:26:18,042
'You, who had heard of these camps,
216
00:26:18,583 --> 00:26:23,083
'and so had a vague idea of
what was happening in these camps.
217
00:26:26,458 --> 00:26:30,958
'You, who did not rise spontaneously
218
00:26:32,083 --> 00:26:35,666
'to defend the German name,
219
00:26:35,792 --> 00:26:40,125
'regardless of the personal consequences.
220
00:26:42,208 --> 00:26:46,708
'You stand condemned
by what you are about to see here.
221
00:26:49,750 --> 00:26:54,250
'You will have to atone
by toil and sweat
222
00:26:54,583 --> 00:26:58,624
'for the deeds
of your sons and daughters,
223
00:26:58,750 --> 00:27:02,166
'for having reared your children
to be capable of doing these things,
224
00:27:02,292 --> 00:27:05,917
'and for what you have failed
to prevent.
225
00:27:07,458 --> 00:27:10,083
'Whatever you suffer...'
226
00:27:10,208 --> 00:27:12,791
(Narrator) One might ask
why all the inmates surviving
227
00:27:12,917 --> 00:27:17,375
were not removed out of the camp
altogether to a large town for example,
228
00:27:17,500 --> 00:27:20,458
where there would be feeding
and housing facilities.
229
00:27:20,583 --> 00:27:22,916
The answer is simply the dread word -
230
00:27:23,042 --> 00:27:24,333
typhus.
231
00:27:27,375 --> 00:27:31,416
A mobile Bacteriological Unit
and all medical aid possible
232
00:27:31,542 --> 00:27:34,333
together with 90 medical students
from London hospitals
233
00:27:34,458 --> 00:27:37,041
were rushed to the spot
to deal with it.
234
00:27:37,667 --> 00:27:40,750
Lack of soap and water
brought lice to the inmates,
235
00:27:40,875 --> 00:27:42,375
and lice carry typhus.
236
00:28:09,583 --> 00:28:13,583
To get rid of typhus,
one must first get rid of lice,
237
00:28:13,708 --> 00:28:16,833
so contaminated patients
were removed from their huts
238
00:28:16,958 --> 00:28:19,541
and put through a 'laundry' process.
239
00:28:20,833 --> 00:28:22,999
D.D.T. was dusted over them,
240
00:28:23,125 --> 00:28:26,250
and they were washed clean,
wrapped in blankets
241
00:28:26,375 --> 00:28:30,000
and removed in clean ambulances
by teams working in relays
242
00:28:30,125 --> 00:28:32,291
in a miracle of relief work.
243
00:29:37,375 --> 00:29:39,000
Two miles away from the camp
244
00:29:39,125 --> 00:29:43,208
was found a large S.S. Panzer
training school and hospital
245
00:29:43,333 --> 00:29:45,874
well-stocked with medical supplies.
246
00:29:46,583 --> 00:29:49,791
Strange that these should
not have been used by the Germans
247
00:29:49,917 --> 00:29:51,958
for the inmates.
248
00:29:52,083 --> 00:29:54,916
Scores still died every day.
249
00:29:55,042 --> 00:29:57,833
They were too far gone, many of them,
to digest any food,
250
00:29:58,542 --> 00:30:01,458
and there was a desperate shortage
of nursing staff.
251
00:30:01,583 --> 00:30:02,999
Still, one could be thankful
252
00:30:03,125 --> 00:30:06,333
that they were not simply being left
to rot away with neglect
253
00:30:06,458 --> 00:30:09,083
among a purulent mass of corpses.
254
00:30:10,417 --> 00:30:12,792
There were children, too,
in Belsen camp,
255
00:30:12,917 --> 00:30:15,625
though what crime they had committed
was difficult to imagine.
256
00:30:16,708 --> 00:30:19,666
Most of them had been saved
by the women inmates
257
00:30:19,792 --> 00:30:23,792
who gave up what little food
they could get to the children.
258
00:30:41,792 --> 00:30:45,667
Meals for these children had
always been few and far between,
259
00:30:45,792 --> 00:30:49,250
so they ate what food we gave them
with infinite care -
260
00:30:49,375 --> 00:30:50,833
nothing could be more dreadful now
261
00:30:50,958 --> 00:30:54,541
than to lose a piece of potato
or a drop of soup.
262
00:31:02,583 --> 00:31:07,083
Clothes was another urgent problem,
so an outfitting department was set up,
263
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,041
and clothes gathered from shops
in the surrounding towns
264
00:31:11,167 --> 00:31:14,417
were soon being tried on
and gossiped over,
265
00:31:14,542 --> 00:31:16,042
as women love to do.
266
00:31:42,417 --> 00:31:45,667
There was something symbolic
about new clothes.
267
00:31:45,792 --> 00:31:48,417
New clothes meant renewed hope.
268
00:31:48,542 --> 00:31:50,917
They donned them with pride.
269
00:31:51,333 --> 00:31:54,958
Now he can look forward to growing up
to useful manhood.
270
00:31:59,458 --> 00:32:02,624
There were more than 200 children
under 12 years old
271
00:32:02,750 --> 00:32:05,125
found still alive in Belsen camp.
272
00:32:08,708 --> 00:32:13,166
To these children, clean dry clothes
and kind words from a stranger
273
00:32:13,292 --> 00:32:16,542
were strange, undreamed of,
mysterious things.
274
00:32:18,125 --> 00:32:21,541
Some had been born
behind the barbed wire -
275
00:32:21,667 --> 00:32:25,667
in what circumstances,
one dare not try to imagine.
276
00:32:40,625 --> 00:32:42,791
Where are their parents?
277
00:32:45,708 --> 00:32:47,583
Here perhaps?
278
00:33:01,958 --> 00:33:03,416
Or here?
279
00:33:19,083 --> 00:33:21,583
Or down here in this pit?
280
00:33:36,208 --> 00:33:39,416
'Today is the 24th April, 1945.
281
00:33:39,542 --> 00:33:42,083
'My name is Gunner lllingworth
and I live at Cheshire.
282
00:33:42,208 --> 00:33:46,124
'I'm at present in Belsen camp,
doing guard duty over the S.S. men.
283
00:33:46,250 --> 00:33:49,875
'The things in this camp
are beyond describing.
284
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,666
'When you actually see them for yourself,
you know what you are fighting for here.
285
00:33:53,792 --> 00:33:57,333
'Pictures in the papers
cannot describe it at all.
286
00:33:57,458 --> 00:33:59,999
'The things they have committed, well,
287
00:34:00,125 --> 00:34:02,750
'nobody would think
they were human at all.
288
00:34:04,083 --> 00:34:06,416
'We actually know now
289
00:34:06,542 --> 00:34:09,042
'what has been going on
in these camps.
290
00:34:09,167 --> 00:34:12,792
'And I know, personally,
what I am fighting for.'
291
00:34:14,042 --> 00:34:16,750
'I am the Reverend T.J. Stretch.
292
00:34:16,875 --> 00:34:21,375
'Attached as Padre to the formation
controlling this camp.
293
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,833
'My home is at Fishguard.
294
00:34:23,958 --> 00:34:26,999
'My parish is at Holy Trinity Church,
Aberystwyth.
295
00:34:28,333 --> 00:34:30,374
'I've been here eight days,
296
00:34:30,500 --> 00:34:33,833
'and never in my life have I seen
such damnable ghastliness.
297
00:34:34,958 --> 00:34:37,374
'This morning we buried
over 5,000 bodies.
298
00:34:37,500 --> 00:34:39,583
'We don't know who they are.
299
00:34:39,708 --> 00:34:43,833
'Behind me you can see a pit,
which will contain another 5,000.
300
00:34:43,958 --> 00:34:46,708
'There are two others like it
in preparation.
301
00:34:47,625 --> 00:34:51,000
'All these deaths have been caused
by systematic starvation
302
00:34:51,125 --> 00:34:53,166
'and typhus and disease,
303
00:34:53,292 --> 00:34:55,042
'which have been spread
304
00:34:55,167 --> 00:34:58,542
'because of the treatment meted out
to these poor people
305
00:34:58,667 --> 00:35:01,750
'by their S.S. guards
and their S.S. chief.'
306
00:35:04,792 --> 00:35:08,083
(Narrator) We shall never know who they
were or from what homes they were torn.
307
00:35:09,500 --> 00:35:12,541
Whether they were Catholics,
Lutherans, or Jews.
308
00:35:13,500 --> 00:35:15,375
We only know they were born,
309
00:35:15,500 --> 00:35:19,125
they suffered and died in agony
in Belsen camp.
310
00:35:49,292 --> 00:35:53,792
And so they lie,
Jews, Lutherans and Catholics -
311
00:35:54,458 --> 00:35:58,874
indistinguishable, cheek to cheek,
in a common grave.
312
00:36:07,167 --> 00:36:10,000
The living have been taken
to a cleaner place.
313
00:36:28,125 --> 00:36:30,833
The typhus infected huts are set afire.
314
00:37:40,708 --> 00:37:42,916
The barbed wire goes down.
315
00:37:47,625 --> 00:37:50,166
The striped livery goes with it.
316
00:37:56,667 --> 00:38:00,833
Soon the fire will die,
the smoke and ashes will drift away,
317
00:38:00,958 --> 00:38:03,291
and grass will cover the place.
318
00:38:26,583 --> 00:38:29,041
Do not imagine
this was the only black spot
319
00:38:29,167 --> 00:38:31,500
that was uncovered in Germany.
320
00:38:37,625 --> 00:38:40,000
There were over 300 others.
321
00:38:57,792 --> 00:39:01,125
No German can say
he did not know about them.
322
00:39:01,250 --> 00:39:03,708
The whole world
had heard of Dachau,
323
00:39:03,833 --> 00:39:06,791
for it was publicised by the Nazis
as a model camp
324
00:39:06,917 --> 00:39:10,125
even since its inception
way back in 1933.
325
00:39:11,125 --> 00:39:14,958
On 28th February of that year,
the Presidential Emergency Decree
326
00:39:15,083 --> 00:39:18,249
suspended the basic civil rights
of the German people
327
00:39:18,375 --> 00:39:20,458
for an indeterminate period
328
00:39:20,583 --> 00:39:24,999
and so eliminated legal safeguards
against arbitrary imprisonment.
329
00:39:34,792 --> 00:39:37,542
WORK SETS YOU FREE
330
00:39:47,167 --> 00:39:51,667
Here were 32,000 men
of every European nationality,
331
00:39:52,417 --> 00:39:56,375
including 5,660 Germans.
332
00:40:23,833 --> 00:40:26,416
From the outside,
one might at a casual glance
333
00:40:26,542 --> 00:40:29,625
have seen nothing remarkable
or horrifying,
334
00:40:29,750 --> 00:40:32,541
but Dachau was crammed
with three or four times
335
00:40:32,667 --> 00:40:35,042
the number it was designed for.
336
00:41:40,792 --> 00:41:44,542
Here, as at Belsen,
men knew hunger,
337
00:41:44,667 --> 00:41:47,917
men became weak,
men fell sick,
338
00:41:48,042 --> 00:41:50,250
until they died where they lay
on the floor.
339
00:42:12,417 --> 00:42:16,208
In Hut 30 alone,
there is recorded, for example,
340
00:42:16,333 --> 00:42:19,249
72 deaths within 24 hours.
341
00:42:28,542 --> 00:42:31,708
Every day, the dead
were taken from the huts.
342
00:43:03,417 --> 00:43:07,333
Here, as at Belsen, there were many
who were too weak to be saved,
343
00:43:07,458 --> 00:43:09,291
too sick to eat.
344
00:43:09,417 --> 00:43:12,917
Typhus was taking its toll
and truckloads of wretchedness
345
00:43:13,042 --> 00:43:17,375
had to be somehow dealt with
in the already overflowing hospitals.
346
00:43:59,667 --> 00:44:04,167
Dachau had its own brothel for the use
of guards and favoured prisoners.
347
00:44:04,583 --> 00:44:07,958
As the women died, they were replaced
by a fresh contingent
348
00:44:08,083 --> 00:44:10,791
from the women's camp at RavensbrUck.
349
00:44:26,875 --> 00:44:30,583
This was not used as a bath house,
but as a death chamber.
350
00:44:39,625 --> 00:44:42,708
Batches of prisoners
were marched in here to die.
351
00:44:58,458 --> 00:45:02,583
When the chamber was full,
the doors were shut and sealed.
352
00:45:03,292 --> 00:45:06,708
A man at the controls
let in the poison gas,
353
00:45:06,833 --> 00:45:09,041
and another batch of helpless victims
354
00:45:09,167 --> 00:45:12,167
screamed their lives out
beyond the grill.
355
00:45:18,792 --> 00:45:22,667
The gas chamber was conveniently
placed next to the mortuary,
356
00:45:22,792 --> 00:45:25,583
and next to that was the Crematorium.
357
00:45:28,292 --> 00:45:31,375
CLEANLINESS IS A DUTY HERE
358
00:45:31,500 --> 00:45:36,000
THEREFORE DO NOT FORGET
TO WASH YOUR HANDS
359
00:45:37,167 --> 00:45:40,125
These great ovens
were constructed exclusively
360
00:45:40,250 --> 00:45:42,416
for the burning
of large numbers of corpses.
361
00:45:55,667 --> 00:45:57,083
In the last three months,
362
00:45:57,208 --> 00:46:01,708
official records show that 10,615 people
were disposed of here.
363
00:46:03,833 --> 00:46:05,249
Their clothes were turned over
364
00:46:05,375 --> 00:46:08,833
to the Deutsche Textil-
und Bekleidungswerke GmbH,
365
00:46:08,958 --> 00:46:12,583
a private corporation
whose stockholders were S.S. officials,
366
00:46:12,708 --> 00:46:14,833
which reclaimed
and repaired the garments
367
00:46:14,958 --> 00:46:17,458
with the use of unpaid prison labour,
368
00:46:17,583 --> 00:46:20,374
and then re-sold them
to the camp clothing depot
369
00:46:20,500 --> 00:46:22,500
for the use of new prisoners.
370
00:46:29,708 --> 00:46:34,208
DANGER! GAS!
HAZARDOUS! DO NOT OPEN!
371
00:46:38,083 --> 00:46:41,583
The prisoners arrived often
in railway trucks.
372
00:46:41,708 --> 00:46:44,249
But there had been no hurry
to unload this one.
373
00:46:45,042 --> 00:46:47,625
They went away leaving
the prisoners to die of hunger,
374
00:46:47,750 --> 00:46:50,416
and cold, and typhus.
375
00:46:54,917 --> 00:46:56,500
We found them like this,
376
00:46:56,625 --> 00:47:00,750
frozen stiff in the snow
alongside a public road.
377
00:47:00,875 --> 00:47:04,000
By some miracle,
17 men were still alive.
378
00:47:05,042 --> 00:47:08,333
All the rest - about 3,000 - were dead.
379
00:47:14,125 --> 00:47:17,791
Germans knew about Dachau,
but did not care.
380
00:47:26,208 --> 00:47:28,791
In Buchenwald,
there were about 80,000
381
00:47:28,917 --> 00:47:33,417
of whom 34,000 were employed
outside the camp in an armaments factory.
382
00:47:34,167 --> 00:47:35,458
TO EACH HIS OWN
383
00:47:35,583 --> 00:47:37,124
During the first week of April,
384
00:47:37,250 --> 00:47:40,000
25,000 were removed by the Germans
to other camps
385
00:47:40,125 --> 00:47:42,750
because of the approach
of the Allied forces.
386
00:47:42,875 --> 00:47:45,458
When the camp was liberated
on April 13th,
387
00:47:45,583 --> 00:47:47,833
20,000 inmates remained.
388
00:47:47,958 --> 00:47:51,541
African Negroes,
Albanians, Austrians,
389
00:47:51,667 --> 00:47:56,167
Belgians, Brazilians, Bulgarians,
Canadians, Chinese,
390
00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:01,500
Croats, Czechs, Danes,
Egyptians, Estonians,
391
00:48:02,333 --> 00:48:06,833
French, Germans, British,
Greeks, Dutch, Italians,
392
00:48:08,167 --> 00:48:12,250
Yugoslavs, Latvians, Letts,
Luxembourgers,
393
00:48:12,375 --> 00:48:15,416
Norwegians, Mexicans, Poles,
394
00:48:15,542 --> 00:48:20,042
Romanians, Spaniards,
Swiss, Americans and Russians.
395
00:48:21,292 --> 00:48:24,833
55,000 of them died
because of this place.
396
00:48:24,958 --> 00:48:27,874
Here Schoker,
the camp commandant, said,
397
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:32,500
"I want at least 600 Jewish deaths
reported in the camp office every day."
398
00:48:33,583 --> 00:48:36,749
Thugs were appointed
as overseers or block leaders.
399
00:48:36,875 --> 00:48:39,708
People were tattooed across the belly
with slave numbers
400
00:48:39,833 --> 00:48:42,958
and forced to work on starvation diet.
401
00:49:05,542 --> 00:49:09,125
People were coldly
and systematically tortured.
402
00:49:19,208 --> 00:49:22,416
There was no efficient
distribution of food.
403
00:49:22,542 --> 00:49:26,667
One prisoner collected the rations
for ten or fifteen men.
404
00:49:26,792 --> 00:49:30,875
Hunger and hopelessness
turned some of them into beasts.
405
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:33,333
Sometimes a prisoner
carrying rations back to the hut
406
00:49:33,458 --> 00:49:35,958
was waylaid and robbed
by other prisoners.
407
00:49:37,042 --> 00:49:40,333
Sometimes he ate the best part
of the food himself.
408
00:49:41,167 --> 00:49:43,000
Sometimes he sold it.
409
00:49:44,625 --> 00:49:48,916
Corruption was fostered,
for it gave another excuse for killing.
410
00:50:07,250 --> 00:50:10,708
All this seemed so remote
from humanity,
411
00:50:10,833 --> 00:50:13,958
so far beyond the behaviour of man.
412
00:50:54,042 --> 00:50:57,625
British Members of Parliament
came and saw,
413
00:50:57,750 --> 00:51:00,458
and were sick at heart.
414
00:51:00,583 --> 00:51:02,999
It had to be seen to be believed.
415
00:51:16,583 --> 00:51:19,499
German citizens
were brought in from Weimar.
416
00:51:19,625 --> 00:51:24,125
They had to see, too -
to see what they had been fighting for,
417
00:51:24,458 --> 00:51:26,166
and we had been fighting against.
418
00:51:28,958 --> 00:51:32,999
They came cheerfully, like sightseers,
to a chamber of horrors,
419
00:51:33,125 --> 00:51:36,375
for here indeed
were some real horrors.
420
00:51:43,042 --> 00:51:45,958
If a prisoner had
a curiously tattooed skin,
421
00:51:46,083 --> 00:51:48,458
it was taken from him.
422
00:51:48,583 --> 00:51:51,874
We can only hope he was dead
when it was done.
423
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:56,000
The skin was tanned
and made into lampshades, etc.
424
00:51:59,625 --> 00:52:03,000
These shrunken heads
belonged to two Polish prisoners
425
00:52:03,125 --> 00:52:05,750
who had escaped and been recaptured.
426
00:52:13,542 --> 00:52:16,083
Some of the visitors
did not care for the sight
427
00:52:16,208 --> 00:52:18,208
and were assisted by ex-prisoners.
428
00:52:18,333 --> 00:52:19,666
They had been aware of the camp
429
00:52:19,792 --> 00:52:23,042
and had been willing to make use
of the cheap labour it provided -
430
00:52:23,167 --> 00:52:26,083
as long as they were
beyond smelling range of it.
431
00:52:32,792 --> 00:52:36,792
Ebensee is a holiday
resort in the mountains.
432
00:52:37,333 --> 00:52:39,249
The air is clean and pure.
433
00:52:40,208 --> 00:52:42,041
It cures sickness,
434
00:52:42,167 --> 00:52:44,167
and there is a sweetness
about the place.
435
00:52:44,958 --> 00:52:46,749
A gentle peace.
436
00:53:00,833 --> 00:53:05,333
In this place, the Luftwaffe
or S.S. Panzer officer on leave relaxes,
437
00:53:06,917 --> 00:53:09,958
eats well, breathes deeply,
438
00:53:10,083 --> 00:53:12,333
finds romance.
439
00:53:12,458 --> 00:53:15,958
Everything is charming
and picturesque.
440
00:53:20,167 --> 00:53:23,083
But the concentration camp
had become an integral part
441
00:53:23,208 --> 00:53:25,333
of the German economic system,
442
00:53:25,458 --> 00:53:27,499
so it was here, too.
443
00:53:28,375 --> 00:53:32,500
Able to see the mountains,
but what use are mountains without food?
444
00:53:48,542 --> 00:53:52,875
ENTERING THE CREMATORIUM
IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT EXCEPTION!
445
00:53:53,792 --> 00:53:57,917
Prisoners at Dachau and Buchenwald
dreaded being sent here.
446
00:53:58,792 --> 00:54:01,750
To them, this place
did not mean recuperation,
447
00:54:01,875 --> 00:54:03,291
only starvation,
448
00:54:03,417 --> 00:54:07,000
tuberculosis through
slavery in an underground factory,
449
00:54:07,125 --> 00:54:09,250
and finally left to cough one's life out
450
00:54:09,375 --> 00:54:13,875
unaided and crowded in the filth
and stench of a hut unfit for dogs,
451
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:17,625
but for some reason called a hospital.
452
00:54:44,125 --> 00:54:48,541
The daily collection of corpses
was disposed of through this chimney.
453
00:55:02,625 --> 00:55:04,833
First used in 1938,
454
00:55:04,958 --> 00:55:07,791
this camp was the centre
of a group of subsidiary camps.
455
00:55:09,792 --> 00:55:13,750
40,000 people had died here
since the beginning of the year.
456
00:55:15,417 --> 00:55:18,875
Here, the gas chamber
held 200 at a time
457
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:23,500
and the crematorium dealt
with 300 per day - every day.
458
00:55:40,500 --> 00:55:43,666
In the north of Germany,
it was the same story.
459
00:55:43,792 --> 00:55:47,833
The few who remained alive
were staggering on the verge of death.
460
00:55:56,208 --> 00:55:57,958
They were the survivors.
461
00:55:59,375 --> 00:56:01,708
And these were the rest-
462
00:56:01,833 --> 00:56:06,333
hurriedly murdered lest they be set free
to live a normal life.
463
00:56:32,500 --> 00:56:36,000
The authorities in the camps
took special measures
464
00:56:36,125 --> 00:56:40,458
to make sure that a man would
neither live normally nor die normally.
465
00:56:41,792 --> 00:56:44,000
Neither should he sleep normally.
466
00:56:46,917 --> 00:56:49,417
He was surrounded by barbed wire,
467
00:56:50,833 --> 00:56:54,166
and he had to sleep on barbed wire.
468
00:57:17,792 --> 00:57:20,458
Here was carnage and desolation.
469
00:57:23,167 --> 00:57:25,833
Prisoners had been dragged
from the sacks of straw
470
00:57:25,958 --> 00:57:28,416
in the hovels called hospitals,
471
00:57:28,542 --> 00:57:33,042
shot and hastily disposed of
by the first means to hand.
472
00:57:40,167 --> 00:57:42,667
There must have been
some feeling of guilt
473
00:57:42,792 --> 00:57:46,750
or presumably there would not have been
an attempt to destroy the evidence.
474
00:58:05,625 --> 00:58:07,250
In the outskirts of Leipzig,
475
00:58:07,375 --> 00:58:10,791
an effort was made to prevent
300 forced workers in a factory
476
00:58:10,917 --> 00:58:14,500
from being set free
by advancing Allied troops.
477
00:58:14,625 --> 00:58:17,375
300 were locked
in a mess hut and burned.
478
00:58:17,500 --> 00:58:18,916
This is where it stood.
479
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:22,541
Some of the desperate,
screaming prisoners broke out.
480
00:58:23,125 --> 00:58:26,458
Flame throwers and machine guns
were waiting to receive them.
481
00:58:43,875 --> 00:58:45,458
This was a woman.
482
00:58:47,125 --> 00:58:49,833
Some almost reached the barbed wire.
483
00:58:49,958 --> 00:58:53,624
Some got there and stayed there,
for it was electrified.
484
00:59:02,333 --> 00:59:04,249
This was a Polish engineer.
485
00:59:38,958 --> 00:59:42,499
American troops advancing
did not know that in this barn
486
00:59:42,625 --> 00:59:46,041
the Germans had locked
1,800 prisoners
487
00:59:46,167 --> 00:59:49,375
and set burning straw alight
to suffocate them.
488
00:59:50,792 --> 00:59:52,500
In the morning, before retreating,
489
00:59:52,625 --> 00:59:57,125
they had poured petrol on the bodies
in an attempt to burn what remained.
490
01:00:07,958 --> 01:00:11,958
It still smouldered
when the American troops arrived.
491
01:00:36,375 --> 01:00:40,000
This man was shot because
he gasped for air, trying to escape
492
01:00:40,125 --> 01:00:43,041
while the rest of him
burned in the barn.
493
01:01:06,458 --> 01:01:10,958
The most up-to-date institution
was better equipped for killing.
494
01:01:12,917 --> 01:01:15,875
Transports of prisoners
from all over occupied Europe
495
01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:20,291
were sent for extermination
in one of the special Vem/chlungs/ager.
496
01:01:27,167 --> 01:01:30,583
Here, four million peopled were murdered.
497
01:01:31,500 --> 01:01:36,000
As many men, women and children
as you could pack into a great city.
498
01:02:08,750 --> 01:02:11,916
Old women were regarded
as a danger to the state.
499
01:02:15,458 --> 01:02:17,499
Women torn from their homes,
500
01:02:17,625 --> 01:02:21,041
perhaps for the misdeeds
of a distant relative
501
01:02:21,167 --> 01:02:25,667
and packed cheek to cheek
like cattle for the slaughter.
502
01:02:48,167 --> 01:02:50,625
These children are twins.
503
01:02:50,750 --> 01:02:54,208
When identical twins were born
to non-German parents,
504
01:02:54,333 --> 01:02:58,166
they were confiscated and handed over
to an Experimental Station.
505
01:02:59,250 --> 01:03:02,916
German doctors injected them
with diseases and attempted cures.
506
01:03:03,833 --> 01:03:08,041
Success in the cure was not important
as these children were written off,
507
01:03:08,167 --> 01:03:12,667
unknown, they had no names -
only numbers tattooed on their arms.
508
01:03:38,542 --> 01:03:43,042
This camp was scientifically planned
with a view to mass murder.
509
01:03:43,958 --> 01:03:47,249
Vast extensions were still being built-
510
01:03:47,375 --> 01:03:51,416
arrangements of gas chambers,
mortuaries and incinerators.
511
01:03:52,292 --> 01:03:56,792
The normal extermination rate
was 10,000 to 12,000 per day.
512
01:04:03,833 --> 01:04:06,833
An attempt had been made
to destroy the installations,
513
01:04:06,958 --> 01:04:10,291
but Russian troops were able
to uncover most of it.
514
01:04:11,583 --> 01:04:16,083
Five crematoria with a capacity
of 279,000 per month.
515
01:04:16,583 --> 01:04:19,791
Germans had watched them die,
they had wanted to watch them die,
516
01:04:19,917 --> 01:04:23,583
for they constructed special peepholes
in the doorways of the gas chambers
517
01:04:23,708 --> 01:04:26,916
where they could observe
the effects of the poison gas Zyklon.
518
01:04:27,708 --> 01:04:29,666
Here are some of the containers,
519
01:04:29,792 --> 01:04:32,458
the mask worn by the operator
520
01:04:32,583 --> 01:04:35,458
and the poisons used for injections.
521
01:04:41,750 --> 01:04:46,250
Not only at Auschwitz was extermination
carried out on a large scale.
522
01:04:47,958 --> 01:04:52,041
Entire populations of villages
were moved suddenly overnight
523
01:04:52,167 --> 01:04:54,625
believing themselves
to being evacuated
524
01:04:54,750 --> 01:04:57,583
and finding themselves
behind barbed wire in the morning.
525
01:04:57,708 --> 01:04:59,958
CAMP GROUNDS! STOP! SHOTS
WILL BE FIRED WITHOUT WARNING!
526
01:05:04,792 --> 01:05:08,833
2,800,000 people
were gassed to death here.
527
01:05:09,667 --> 01:05:13,833
Invariably the gas chamber was labelled
'Bath and Disinfection'.
528
01:05:29,500 --> 01:05:31,333
Here one took one's last breath
529
01:05:31,458 --> 01:05:35,416
and disappeared in oily smoke
up the crematorium chimney
530
01:05:36,208 --> 01:05:39,583
The firm that built this
was not ashamed to sign its work.
531
01:05:41,750 --> 01:05:44,166
Again the ovens, again the bones.
532
01:05:46,708 --> 01:05:49,916
These bones were sold
to the Strem Company
533
01:05:50,042 --> 01:05:52,250
for the manufacture of fertiliser.
534
01:05:58,208 --> 01:06:00,499
How many hundreds of thousands
of people are contained
535
01:06:00,625 --> 01:06:03,250
in these heaps of human bones?
536
01:06:03,375 --> 01:06:06,458
You see where they went,
to the cabbage fields.
537
01:06:06,583 --> 01:06:09,624
No doubt some Germans today
can taste what they have eaten
538
01:06:09,750 --> 01:06:11,625
fertilised by their comrades.
539
01:06:19,917 --> 01:06:23,917
This had been going on for a long time
before we came.
540
01:06:24,042 --> 01:06:28,542
Here were found 820,000 pairs
of boots and shoes.
541
01:06:39,958 --> 01:06:42,958
Prisoners paid their own fares
to Majdanek.
542
01:06:44,083 --> 01:06:46,291
They thought they were going
to new homes,
543
01:06:46,417 --> 01:06:50,000
and so they brought their most precious
portable possessions.
544
01:07:00,208 --> 01:07:02,333
They say dead men's boots
bring bad luck -
545
01:07:03,417 --> 01:07:05,917
what of dead children's toys?
546
01:07:07,625 --> 01:07:09,916
Their mothers carried scissors perhaps?
547
01:07:10,917 --> 01:07:13,958
The scissors are here -
the mothers, no.
548
01:07:14,083 --> 01:07:16,791
But here in this room is part of them.
549
01:07:16,917 --> 01:07:19,333
Nothing material could be wasted.
550
01:07:19,458 --> 01:07:23,708
These packages contain human hair
carefully sorted and weighed.
551
01:07:50,375 --> 01:07:54,416
Nothing was wasted - even the teeth
were taken out of their mouths.
552
01:07:55,000 --> 01:07:57,083
By-products of the system.
553
01:08:08,333 --> 01:08:10,791
Tooth brushes. Nail brushes.
554
01:08:12,417 --> 01:08:13,917
Shoe brushes.
555
01:08:17,708 --> 01:08:19,416
Shaving brushes.
556
01:08:22,375 --> 01:08:26,875
If one man in ten wears spectacles,
how many does this heap represent?
557
01:08:32,833 --> 01:08:37,333
All these things belonged to men
and women and children like ourselves,
558
01:08:38,250 --> 01:08:42,333
quite ordinary people
from all parts of the world.
559
01:09:38,583 --> 01:09:40,458
The dead have been buried.
560
01:09:44,458 --> 01:09:47,916
It remains for us to care for these,
the living.
561
01:10:29,792 --> 01:10:32,250
TO THE AIR-RAID PROTECTION
EMERGENCY ROOM
562
01:10:32,375 --> 01:10:36,875
It remains for us to hope that Germans
may help to mend what they have broken,
563
01:10:37,708 --> 01:10:40,166
and cleanse what they have befouled.
564
01:10:58,333 --> 01:11:02,333
Thousands of German people
were made to see for themselves.
565
01:11:03,875 --> 01:11:05,166
To bury the dead.
566
01:11:05,833 --> 01:11:07,874
To file past the victims.
567
01:11:16,792 --> 01:11:21,292
This was the end of the journey
they had so confidently begun in 1933.
568
01:11:27,500 --> 01:11:29,125
Twelve years?
569
01:11:30,417 --> 01:11:31,708
No.
570
01:11:31,833 --> 01:11:34,416
In terms of barbarity and brutality,
571
01:11:34,542 --> 01:11:38,167
they had travelled backwards
for twelve thousand years.
572
01:12:09,667 --> 01:12:13,917
Unless the world learns
the lesson these pictures teach,
573
01:12:14,042 --> 01:12:16,083
night will fall.
574
01:12:19,333 --> 01:12:23,499
But by God's grace,
we who live will learn.
575
01:15:57,417 --> 01:15:59,708
My first reaction,
I think, was very similar
576
01:15:59,833 --> 01:16:02,416
to what most people's first reaction
would be to the film,
577
01:16:02,542 --> 01:16:07,042
which is that I was very upset by it,
I was very shocked by it.
578
01:16:07,875 --> 01:16:12,375
The story is incredibly emotional
and devastating,
579
01:16:12,917 --> 01:16:15,833
but for me, I kind of protected myself
from that, really,
580
01:16:15,958 --> 01:16:19,458
by just looking at what they did
as filmmakers.
581
01:16:19,958 --> 01:16:22,833
I think it is very difficult
to stay watching
582
01:16:22,958 --> 01:16:25,624
the whole 75 minutes of the film
all of the way through,
583
01:16:25,750 --> 01:16:28,000
I think you almost have to
give yourself a break
584
01:16:28,125 --> 01:16:30,625
and just close your eyes -
it is unremitting.
585
01:16:30,750 --> 01:16:34,958
It really changes your view of life
completely when you see it.
586
01:16:35,083 --> 01:16:39,583
And I think it's all right to allow people
the freedom to leave
587
01:16:41,125 --> 01:16:43,125
if they can't tolerate those images.
588
01:16:43,250 --> 01:16:46,250
Nobody should feel that they have to be
subjected to this.
589
01:16:46,375 --> 01:16:50,875
And I think it's important that people
do get in touch with their feelings
590
01:16:53,417 --> 01:16:56,292
and their natural human responses
to these images.
591
01:16:56,917 --> 01:17:00,208
And dealing with that emotion,
I would certainly suggest that...
592
01:17:00,333 --> 01:17:04,833
that you're speaking to friends,
and colleagues and family.
593
01:17:04,958 --> 01:17:06,499
And that you're trying to put it into
594
01:17:06,625 --> 01:17:09,166
some sort of historical narrative
and understanding,
595
01:17:09,292 --> 01:17:12,167
so that you don't just see
this film in isolation.
596
01:17:12,292 --> 01:17:14,417
It may have a numbing effect,
597
01:17:14,542 --> 01:17:19,042
but, in a way, by the repetition
of these horrid images,
598
01:17:19,958 --> 01:17:24,333
people just must realise
that actually it was like that,
599
01:17:24,458 --> 01:17:27,208
and you can't escape from it,
and you shouldn't escape from it.
600
01:17:32,958 --> 01:17:35,541
My name is Peter Lantos
601
01:17:35,667 --> 01:17:38,583
and my connection with Bergen-Belsen
602
01:17:38,708 --> 01:17:41,666
is that actually I was an inmate there.
603
01:17:41,792 --> 01:17:46,292
I was prisoner 8,242.
604
01:17:48,125 --> 01:17:52,625
Originally, Belsen was planned for,
I think, 6,000 people.
605
01:17:54,042 --> 01:17:56,542
In the end,
there were ten times more,
606
01:17:56,667 --> 01:18:00,542
and during the last few days,
there was no food,
607
01:18:00,667 --> 01:18:02,375
there was no water,
608
01:18:02,500 --> 01:18:06,125
and epidemics started
on a very large scale,
609
01:18:06,250 --> 01:18:10,750
particularly typhus, but also dysentery,
TB and starvation.
610
01:18:12,667 --> 01:18:17,167
As a child of five, I mean, the most
momentous events or impressions
611
01:18:20,333 --> 01:18:22,749
were those of physical hardship.
612
01:18:22,875 --> 01:18:26,083
The hunger, the extreme cold,
613
01:18:26,208 --> 01:18:30,208
standing for counting for hours
in the wind
614
01:18:30,333 --> 01:18:32,666
in December, January, February,
615
01:18:33,708 --> 01:18:35,458
the lice,
616
01:18:35,583 --> 01:18:37,874
the lack of food,
617
01:18:38,000 --> 01:18:42,500
and later on,
the increasing number of corpses
618
01:18:43,250 --> 01:18:47,541
of whom, or of which,
my father became unfortunately one.
619
01:18:53,542 --> 01:18:56,417
Belsen was the first camp
that was liberated by the British
620
01:18:56,542 --> 01:18:59,583
where the prisoners
were still inside the camp,
621
01:18:59,708 --> 01:19:04,208
and therefore the dimension
that was found was so unimaginable,
622
01:19:05,500 --> 01:19:08,541
that yes, the decision was taken
this needs to be documented.
623
01:19:08,667 --> 01:19:12,375
It needs to be documented
in order to use this as evidence
624
01:19:12,500 --> 01:19:15,458
that these crimes
have actually happened.
625
01:19:15,583 --> 01:19:17,374
I think that the original filmmakers
626
01:19:17,500 --> 01:19:20,375
were really trying to make
almost a forensic case.
627
01:19:20,500 --> 01:19:24,083
They had arrived on the scene
and discovered these horrors,
628
01:19:24,208 --> 01:19:28,708
and I think they really wanted to make
almost a criminal lawyer's case,
629
01:19:30,000 --> 01:19:32,458
some absolutely
incontrovertible evidence.
630
01:19:32,583 --> 01:19:35,999
I think my father's purest intention
in making this film
631
01:19:36,125 --> 01:19:39,291
was to create evidence for all mankind.
632
01:19:39,417 --> 01:19:41,417
And he stated that himself,
633
01:19:41,542 --> 01:19:43,250
and it's actually written in the script.
634
01:19:43,375 --> 01:19:45,833
Bernstein wanted to make a film
635
01:19:45,958 --> 01:19:49,291
that could not be dismissed
as atrocity propaganda,
636
01:19:49,417 --> 01:19:51,125
as Allied propaganda,
637
01:19:51,250 --> 01:19:55,166
that would show Germans
what the Third Reich had done
638
01:19:55,292 --> 01:19:59,083
to Jews and the other peoples
of conquered Europe
639
01:19:59,208 --> 01:20:00,999
in their name.
640
01:20:01,125 --> 01:20:04,333
It was a very brave and legitimate attempt
641
01:20:04,458 --> 01:20:08,958
to produce something that would stand
as a testament to the events
642
01:20:10,750 --> 01:20:15,250
and also as a sort of guard
against future denials.
643
01:20:15,875 --> 01:20:18,291
The project grew and grew,
644
01:20:18,417 --> 01:20:22,917
and as it grew, the political context
in which it was being made changed.
645
01:20:24,167 --> 01:20:27,750
And already in the summer of 1945,
646
01:20:27,875 --> 01:20:30,375
not only were the cinemas not yet open,
647
01:20:30,500 --> 01:20:34,791
so it would have been difficult
to show the films anyway,
648
01:20:34,917 --> 01:20:38,500
but the local military commanders
were noticing
649
01:20:38,625 --> 01:20:43,125
that the German population
was getting tired of being told repeatedly,
650
01:20:44,167 --> 01:20:46,958
"This is your fault,
you are guilty of this."
651
01:20:47,083 --> 01:20:48,416
It was no longer required
652
01:20:48,542 --> 01:20:51,708
because the anticipated
terrorist guerrilla movement
653
01:20:51,833 --> 01:20:55,333
by people still loyal to the Nazis
never transpired,
654
01:20:55,458 --> 01:20:57,124
and more to the point,
655
01:20:57,250 --> 01:20:59,791
the people who were running
the British zone of Germany,
656
01:20:59,917 --> 01:21:02,375
which is after all the most
devastated part of Germany,
657
01:21:02,500 --> 01:21:04,583
the British Allied Government
on the ground
658
01:21:04,708 --> 01:21:07,499
need the Germans to help them
rebuild Germany,
659
01:21:07,625 --> 01:21:10,541
and you can't keep beating the Germans
around the head with their guilt,
660
01:21:10,667 --> 01:21:12,167
if you want to bring them on side.
661
01:21:12,750 --> 01:21:15,000
So, I think the film missed its moment,
662
01:21:15,125 --> 01:21:18,250
I don't think there was a conspiracy
to stop the film,
663
01:21:18,375 --> 01:21:21,666
I think the decision was made
to make a shorter film available
664
01:21:21,792 --> 01:21:23,542
that they could get out more quickly.
665
01:21:23,917 --> 01:21:28,417
Well, the extraordinary thing
about the silencing of this film
666
01:21:28,583 --> 01:21:32,624
was that it also silenced my father
for 40 years,
667
01:21:32,750 --> 01:21:36,083
and he said that it was
the greatest regret of his life
668
01:21:36,208 --> 01:21:38,291
that he had not finished that film.
669
01:21:43,625 --> 01:21:46,708
LWM's aim in finishing this film
670
01:21:46,833 --> 01:21:51,333
and putting the reels together
as they were originally intended
671
01:21:51,625 --> 01:21:55,166
was to bring together
this piece of historical evidence
672
01:21:55,292 --> 01:21:58,250
so that we could present it
to a wider audience,
673
01:21:58,375 --> 01:22:00,708
but also so that in a sense
that the project itself
674
01:22:00,833 --> 01:22:02,541
could be completed,
it could be finished.
675
01:22:02,667 --> 01:22:05,792
If you want to keep the spirit
of a historical document,
676
01:22:05,917 --> 01:22:10,417
you have to follow the narrative
that this historical document had,
677
01:22:10,833 --> 01:22:13,458
and luckily this was still available.
678
01:22:14,083 --> 01:22:17,416
There was a script for the sixth reel,
679
01:22:17,542 --> 01:22:21,833
so all you had to do, it sounds very easy,
but of course it wasn't,
680
01:22:21,958 --> 01:22:24,458
all you had to do was to fulfil
681
01:22:24,583 --> 01:22:27,624
what the original filmmakers
had intended.
682
01:22:27,750 --> 01:22:30,500
We decided to go back
to the original rushes,
683
01:22:30,625 --> 01:22:34,041
go back to the original negatives
and the masters,
684
01:22:34,167 --> 01:22:37,167
scan them digitally,
and then build the whole film up again.
685
01:22:37,292 --> 01:22:38,583
So we remade the film.
686
01:22:38,708 --> 01:22:41,083
The only creative liberties
we've taken, in fact,
687
01:22:41,208 --> 01:22:44,916
have been to add a few sound effects,
688
01:22:45,042 --> 01:22:49,542
but we've resisted the temptation
to embellish it in any way.
689
01:22:49,917 --> 01:22:51,625
We didn't add colour.
690
01:22:51,750 --> 01:22:53,958
We didn't add any other elements
691
01:22:54,083 --> 01:22:57,708
that wouldn't have been available
to a filmmaker working in 1945.
692
01:22:57,833 --> 01:23:01,083
I admire the integrity of the team
at the Imperial War Museum
693
01:23:01,208 --> 01:23:03,999
who've decided,
as I understand it,
694
01:23:04,125 --> 01:23:08,625
to stay as closely as they could
to exactly what we imagine
695
01:23:09,083 --> 01:23:13,583
my father and his team
would have wanted the film to say then.
696
01:23:13,875 --> 01:23:16,750
While it's important that,
as a museum,
697
01:23:16,875 --> 01:23:19,375
that we don't tamper
with historical evidence,
698
01:23:19,500 --> 01:23:22,708
of course that does present itself with...
699
01:23:22,833 --> 01:23:25,416
does present problems
for a modern audience.
700
01:23:25,458 --> 01:23:29,708
So, some of the details about numbers,
about camps and locations,
701
01:23:29,833 --> 01:23:34,333
also the fact that the film doesn't
specifically mention Jewish victims.
702
01:23:34,542 --> 01:23:36,792
I think that my father,
703
01:23:36,917 --> 01:23:39,875
in his role at the end of the war
and in filmmaking,
704
01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:42,125
was walking a very fine line
705
01:23:42,250 --> 01:23:46,750
as a Jew working on film,
on propaganda,
706
01:23:48,417 --> 01:23:51,500
being faced with
this particular subject matter,
707
01:23:51,625 --> 01:23:56,125
and trying to figure out the best way
to tell this story for German audiences
708
01:23:58,250 --> 01:24:00,208
in a way that would get their attention
709
01:24:00,333 --> 01:24:04,833
without playing into what he imagined
was innate anti-Semitism there.
710
01:24:06,083 --> 01:24:09,833
So, Richard Crossman
and Sidney Bernstein knew
711
01:24:09,958 --> 01:24:14,458
that back home in Britain, there was not
a great deal of sympathy for the Jews.
712
01:24:15,458 --> 01:24:19,208
People were not overflowing
with affection for the Jews.
713
01:24:19,333 --> 01:24:21,833
There was anti-Semitism at home.
714
01:24:21,958 --> 01:24:26,458
They feared that if they stressed
Jewish suffering in Bergen-Belsen,
715
01:24:27,167 --> 01:24:28,625
stressed that the Jews had been
716
01:24:28,750 --> 01:24:31,458
the specific, particular victims
of the Third Reich,
717
01:24:31,583 --> 01:24:33,124
no one would pay attention,
718
01:24:33,250 --> 01:24:35,625
because they would say,
"Well, they had it coming to them.
719
01:24:35,750 --> 01:24:37,250
"They're Jews after all."
720
01:24:37,375 --> 01:24:41,875
I think that those who wrote the script,
Colin Wills, Dick Crossman,
721
01:24:42,875 --> 01:24:47,375
would have been wanting to represent
the concentration camp system
722
01:24:50,833 --> 01:24:55,333
as something that was affecting
many races and religions.
723
01:24:57,667 --> 01:25:00,667
So it was better to...
724
01:25:02,250 --> 01:25:06,750
place Jewish suffering in the context
of more wide-scale suffering
725
01:25:07,375 --> 01:25:09,291
to refer to the Jews not as Jews,
726
01:25:09,417 --> 01:25:11,958
but as citizens of the countries
from which they came,
727
01:25:12,083 --> 01:25:14,583
as French, as Poles, as Hungarians.
728
01:25:14,708 --> 01:25:17,458
But of course the Jews
were particularly targeted
729
01:25:17,583 --> 01:25:21,166
as we now know very well
and understand very well.
730
01:25:22,208 --> 01:25:25,041
So, yes, there is this
strange feeling about it,
731
01:25:25,167 --> 01:25:28,917
but I think we should take
Sidney Bernstein at face value
732
01:25:29,042 --> 01:25:33,542
that the human suffering
in a general sense
733
01:25:35,083 --> 01:25:39,583
was what actually motivated him
to make this film.
734
01:25:45,792 --> 01:25:48,625
I think the question of
the treatment of the dead,
735
01:25:48,750 --> 01:25:51,500
particularly the way
they are handled by the SS guards,
736
01:25:51,625 --> 01:25:53,625
is a very difficult one,
737
01:25:53,750 --> 01:25:57,833
and it is part of the film that I myself
have a lot of difficulty watching.
738
01:25:57,958 --> 01:26:01,166
I think that there are
several layers to this.
739
01:26:01,292 --> 01:26:04,583
I think that the immediate question of
740
01:26:04,708 --> 01:26:09,041
trying to clear the camp of
the enormous number of dead bodies
741
01:26:09,167 --> 01:26:13,542
was just a major problem
for the British in Belsen
742
01:26:13,667 --> 01:26:16,500
and that they reacted
in any way they could.
743
01:26:16,625 --> 01:26:21,125
I think there was also a very strong feeling
that the SS should be punished.
744
01:26:22,625 --> 01:26:25,708
Their callousness,
their hardness, their brutality
745
01:26:25,833 --> 01:26:28,583
is so emblematic of the way
they carried those bodies,
746
01:26:28,708 --> 01:26:30,583
I think it's another
way of damning the SS.
747
01:26:30,708 --> 01:26:33,083
The shower scene where the women...
748
01:26:34,708 --> 01:26:39,208
are allowed to wash under hot water
for the first time in who knows how long,
749
01:26:40,417 --> 01:26:44,000
to me that's not prurient in any way,
750
01:26:44,125 --> 01:26:47,541
although I think some people
might think it was.
751
01:26:47,667 --> 01:26:52,167
I think it's these women
reclaiming their rights.
752
01:26:53,125 --> 01:26:54,541
And the cameraman said,
753
01:26:54,667 --> 01:26:57,958
after ten days of filming
these scenes of horror,
754
01:26:58,083 --> 01:27:00,124
it was so good
to move on to softer things
755
01:27:00,250 --> 01:27:02,083
and to celebrate the return
756
01:27:02,208 --> 01:27:06,249
of these people's sense of humanity,
dignity and community.
757
01:27:12,125 --> 01:27:13,875
I think Bernstein's film
758
01:27:14,000 --> 01:27:17,125
is essential as a historical document
759
01:27:17,250 --> 01:27:20,666
because it shows us
what a British filmmaker
760
01:27:20,792 --> 01:27:25,000
with considerable
resources at his disposal
761
01:27:25,125 --> 01:27:27,208
could find out, could know,
762
01:27:27,333 --> 01:27:31,041
in the late spring,
the summer of 1945.
763
01:27:31,167 --> 01:27:34,167
It is as if you are seeing
what they saw in the cutting rooms,
764
01:27:34,292 --> 01:27:37,958
it is as if, almost,
as if you are there behind the camera
765
01:27:38,083 --> 01:27:40,291
with those guys
who took those amazing images.
766
01:27:40,417 --> 01:27:43,125
I think what this film uniquely does
767
01:27:43,250 --> 01:27:46,583
is give an audience,
a contemporary audience,
768
01:27:46,708 --> 01:27:51,208
a sense of the vastness
of the subject matter and of the atrocity.
769
01:27:52,833 --> 01:27:55,999
It gives actually the magnitude
of what happened.
770
01:27:56,125 --> 01:27:59,041
The actual figures can be disputed,
771
01:27:59,167 --> 01:28:02,792
but there is no question
that the film reflects
772
01:28:02,917 --> 01:28:05,833
the end stages of the Final Solution.
773
01:28:05,958 --> 01:28:10,208
Many people speak about
learning lessons from the Holocaust,
774
01:28:10,333 --> 01:28:12,749
but of course genocides still happen,
775
01:28:12,875 --> 01:28:17,375
so, again, as a piece of evidence
of genocide in the twentieth century
776
01:28:18,083 --> 01:28:19,916
it's incredibly important and relevant.
777
01:28:20,042 --> 01:28:22,875
It is also a call to all of us,
778
01:28:23,000 --> 01:28:26,833
to actually speak up and speak out
779
01:28:26,958 --> 01:28:30,791
when we see this happening again
780
01:28:30,917 --> 01:28:34,792
and this today, in all honesty,
is more important than ever.
781
01:28:34,917 --> 01:28:38,292
That, for me,
is the biggest value of this film.
782
01:28:38,792 --> 01:28:40,583
The film obviously tells us
783
01:28:40,708 --> 01:28:45,208
that human beings are capable of
enormous inhumanity to each other,
784
01:28:48,000 --> 01:28:50,416
but it also tells us
785
01:28:50,542 --> 01:28:55,042
that human beings are capable
of enormous powers of survival.
786
01:28:55,625 --> 01:28:59,666
I think we have a responsibility
to those who died
787
01:28:59,792 --> 01:29:01,792
to refresh our memories
788
01:29:01,917 --> 01:29:04,583
and to increase understanding
of what actually happened.
789
01:29:04,708 --> 01:29:07,958
I always thought that
if I survived Belsen,
790
01:29:08,083 --> 01:29:11,791
I'm going to survive,
whatever happens, everything else.
791
01:29:11,917 --> 01:29:16,417
So, in a way it was to some extent
a source of strength for future life.
792
01:29:19,083 --> 01:29:23,583
I often say that what we've done
is to polish up a prayer.
793
01:29:23,792 --> 01:29:26,958
Bernstein, Crossman
and Colin Wills
794
01:29:27,083 --> 01:29:28,874
wrote a prayer for humanity
795
01:29:29,000 --> 01:29:32,208
and I think that's what we've done,
or I hope that's what we've done.
796
01:29:32,333 --> 01:29:49,482
We've polished up their prayer.
93660
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