Overview
- Description
- Propaganda compilation of graphic newsreel and documentary materials showing concentration camps as Allied cameramen entered between 1945 and 1946.
Opening credits: "An AF Film Release" (Actualites Francais Films); "Sterling Films" ; "Camps of the Dead / They need no explanation, no titles. Just look and be glad you live in America."
"Langestein [sic]" Langenstein: Corpses in open area, pits, doctors and other civilians, exhumation, lining bodies on soil.
"Ohrdrus [sic]" Nordhausen: Corpses, pits, VAR CUs. Two male survivors.
"Dachau" Soldiers at gate with eagle. CU sign, "Zentral Bauleitung der Waffen SS U. Polizei Muenchen Dachau" US soldiers. Removing corpses from lake. Barbed wire, barracks, survivors at hospital, CU tattoo, wounds. Female survivor walking towards camera, helped by two soldiers. VAR shots, pile of corpses. Crematoria. Men passing water buckets, pulling decomposed body parts from water. CUs skulls.
"Buchenwald" Clock tower, soldiers giving a tour of Buchenwald. Survivors in striped uniforms, cooking, CUs of their faces. INT barracks, CUs group of male survivors looking at camera. Showing crematoria ovens with a pile of bones inside. Demonstrating torture mechanisms. Civilians interview survivor. MS pile of bones. Corpses in pits. MS, civilians, taking notes, responding to atrocities. CUs bodies and skulls. LS, tattooed skin laid out on a table, some with ink drawings - man with hat, woman with hat -, lampshade, shrunken heads mounted on wooden bases.
Gardelegen [missing intertitle] Pile of bodies in doorway. Footage, some still photographs of various atrocities and massacres. CUs skulls. "The End / A Sterling Film" - Film Title
-
Camps of the Dead
- Film Collection Title
- Clayton E. Pysher Collection
- Duration
- 00:10:20
- Date
-
Event:
1945
Production: 1947
- Locale
-
Nordhausen,
Germany
Dachau, Germany
Gardelegen, Germany
Buchenwald, Germany
- Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Susan Ottema
- Contributor
-
Producer:
Actualites Francais Films
Producer: Sterling Films
Camera Operator: United States. Army. Signal Corps.
Camera Operator: various Allied cameramen
Physical Details
- Language
- Silent
- Genre/Form
- Propaganda.
- B&W / Color
- Black & White
- Image Quality
- Fair
- Time Code
- 01:00:00:00 to 01:10:20:00
- Film Format
- Master
Master 2880 Film: 8 mm - b&w - print
Master 2880 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
Master 2880 Film: 8 mm - b&w - print
Master 2880 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
Master 2880 Film: 8 mm - b&w - print
Master 2880 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small
Master 2880 Film: 8 mm - b&w - print
Master 2880 Video: Digital Betacam - NTSC - small- Preservation
Preservation 2880 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
Preservation 2880 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
Preservation 2880 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
Preservation 2880 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - small
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- You do not require further permission from the Museum to access this archival media.
- Copyright
- Unknown copyright
- Conditions on Use
- Film copyright holder is unknown. The Museum has made reasonable efforts and has not been able to identify and/or locate a copyright owner of this film. The Museum therefore places no restrictions on use of this material, but cannot provide any information to the user about the copyright owner. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used. If you have information regarding the copyright owner, please contact filmvideo@ushmm.org.
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Film Provenance
- Susan Ottema donated her grandfather's 8mm film, which he acquired during World War II, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in July 2009. Clayton E. Pysher was a veteran of the Pacific theater during World War II.
- Note
- Two versions of this film were distributed in the United States: 1) "The Camps of the Dead" about 20 minutes with English narration and 2) a silent abridged version called "Camps of the Dead". The original was produced in France; a negative in French is available at the Bundesarchiv in Germany.
Many clips contained in this compilation appear in better visual quality on other tapes in the USHMM collection. Most were shot by the US Army Signal Corps. Contact the Film and Video Archive for more information.
Sterling Films was established in 1946 by Saul Turell and Robert Rhoades. - Film Source
- Susan Ottema
- File Number
- Legacy Database File: 5148
- Special Collection
-
Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2024-02-21 07:48:11
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1004257
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