1 00:02:02,243 --> 00:02:05,409 'With World War Two in Europe drawing to a close, 2 00:02:05,538 --> 00:02:09,238 'the three allied armies, British, Soviet and American, 3 00:02:09,375 --> 00:02:11,747 'began their move towards Berlin. 4 00:02:20,386 --> 00:02:25,213 'Among their ranks were soldiers newly trained as cameramen. 5 00:02:38,946 --> 00:02:43,407 'In April 1945, an advancing British unit halted 6 00:02:43,534 --> 00:02:46,654 'by the River Aller, northern Germany. 7 00:02:50,207 --> 00:02:54,999 'As events unfolded, they were recorded by the army camera crews.' 8 00:03:00,926 --> 00:03:04,129 I think it was about 12th April. 9 00:03:04,263 --> 00:03:07,632 Apparently two German officers approached our front line 10 00:03:07,766 --> 00:03:12,227 with a white flag asking to speak to our General, 11 00:03:12,354 --> 00:03:16,055 and they were ushered through, blindfolded actually, 12 00:03:16,192 --> 00:03:19,892 and taken to our Corps Headquarters where I happened to be. 13 00:03:21,739 --> 00:03:24,526 And they had a message from their General. 14 00:03:25,618 --> 00:03:28,737 The message was that we were approaching 15 00:03:28,871 --> 00:03:34,375 or probably going to approach a large civilian prison camp 16 00:03:34,501 --> 00:03:36,993 where typhus had broken out. 17 00:03:37,129 --> 00:03:41,756 And their General wanted to send a message 18 00:03:41,884 --> 00:03:45,716 to say that he didn't think it was a good idea if we fought through that camp 19 00:03:45,846 --> 00:03:49,891 because those inmates with typhus would get loose 20 00:03:50,017 --> 00:03:53,018 and would get amongst the civilian population 21 00:03:53,145 --> 00:03:55,553 and the German army and the British army. 22 00:04:04,573 --> 00:04:06,696 They pulled us out up a track, 23 00:04:06,825 --> 00:04:11,986 and we had to hoist a white flag of truce. 24 00:04:12,122 --> 00:04:13,949 This is... 25 00:04:14,083 --> 00:04:16,289 Out of nowhere this has happened. 26 00:04:29,890 --> 00:04:36,094 We were sent under the flag of truce miles behind enemy lines. 27 00:04:36,230 --> 00:04:40,939 The Germans, in fairness to them, on the roads, they all got off the roads, 28 00:04:41,068 --> 00:04:44,982 and they were all armed on the side of the roads as we were driving through. 29 00:05:00,129 --> 00:05:05,965 The more I think about it now, I'm amazed that none of us opened fire. 30 00:05:07,511 --> 00:05:10,845 But in fairness to the Germans, not one of them fired 31 00:05:10,973 --> 00:05:13,215 and not one of us fired either. 32 00:05:34,079 --> 00:05:37,116 'The British camera crews continued to film. 33 00:05:37,249 --> 00:05:40,535 'Their footage was to become part of an extraordinary documentary 34 00:05:40,669 --> 00:05:43,243 'produced for the allies by Sidney Bernstein 35 00:05:43,380 --> 00:05:47,674 'with a team that included the director Alfred Hitchcock. 36 00:05:47,801 --> 00:05:52,463 'This film, called "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey", 37 00:05:52,598 --> 00:05:55,089 'has been described as a forgotten masterpiece 38 00:05:55,226 --> 00:05:57,633 'of British documentary cinema. 39 00:05:57,770 --> 00:06:03,642 'Yet it was abandoned unfinished until now, 70 years later. ' 40 00:06:08,531 --> 00:06:11,734 'In the spring of 1945, the allies, 41 00:06:11,867 --> 00:06:16,613 'advancing into the heart on Germany, came to Bergen-Belsen. 42 00:06:16,747 --> 00:06:19,701 'Neat and tidy orchards... 43 00:06:20,834 --> 00:06:24,168 '... well-stocked farms lined the wayside. 44 00:06:25,464 --> 00:06:30,292 'And the British soldier did not fail to admire the place and its inhabitants. 45 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:34,425 'At least until he began to feel a smell. ' 46 00:06:41,105 --> 00:06:43,477 Then dawn came up. 47 00:06:43,607 --> 00:06:48,898 And then we could see where the stench was coming from. 48 00:06:56,495 --> 00:06:58,571 I think one of the first things we did 49 00:06:58,706 --> 00:07:03,249 was to line up all the SS men and women 50 00:07:03,377 --> 00:07:07,327 and took them, made them prisoners of war, basically. 51 00:07:10,134 --> 00:07:12,043 The SS were still there. 52 00:07:14,138 --> 00:07:19,215 Josef Kramer was still there, the Camp Commandant. 53 00:07:22,354 --> 00:07:25,973 I looked at the tower and the tower was empty. 54 00:07:26,108 --> 00:07:30,272 And there was always a German there with a shotgun 55 00:07:30,404 --> 00:07:32,527 or with whatever he had. 56 00:07:32,656 --> 00:07:37,995 And I started screaming, "The Germans are gone! I don't see any Germans!" 57 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:42,367 And some girls ran with me 58 00:07:42,499 --> 00:07:45,121 and we made it to the gate. 59 00:07:45,252 --> 00:07:49,202 I was behind a barbed-wire fence 60 00:07:49,340 --> 00:07:54,761 to witness the first British troop entering the camp. 61 00:08:05,564 --> 00:08:07,723 We had a loudspeaker van with us. 62 00:08:07,858 --> 00:08:10,432 We went into the camp to see what we could see, 63 00:08:10,569 --> 00:08:14,697 and of course what we could see was a complete utter shock 64 00:08:14,823 --> 00:08:18,442 and I'll never forget it. 65 00:08:20,412 --> 00:08:24,362 Through a loudspeaker in different languages, they said, 66 00:08:24,500 --> 00:08:27,750 "Be calm! Be calm! Be calm! Stay where you are. 67 00:08:27,878 --> 00:08:30,583 "Be calm. Help is on the way. 68 00:08:30,714 --> 00:08:34,842 "We're the British soldiers. Help is on the way. " 69 00:08:34,969 --> 00:08:37,756 And people went just crazy. 70 00:08:46,355 --> 00:08:49,439 It was an unbelievable moment. 71 00:08:49,567 --> 00:08:51,606 Suddenly you hear English spoken, 72 00:08:51,735 --> 00:08:56,611 and we should remain calm, don't leave the camp, help is on the way. 73 00:08:56,740 --> 00:08:58,235 You know, that sort of thing. 74 00:08:59,493 --> 00:09:01,865 It's very difficult to describe. 75 00:09:01,996 --> 00:09:04,154 It was, you know... 76 00:09:04,290 --> 00:09:06,745 You spent years preparing yourself to die, 77 00:09:06,876 --> 00:09:10,209 and suddenly you're still here, you know. 78 00:09:12,089 --> 00:09:14,497 I was 19 when the liberation came, 79 00:09:14,633 --> 00:09:17,420 and it was very difficult to actually take on board. 80 00:09:17,553 --> 00:09:19,213 We thought we were dreaming 81 00:09:19,346 --> 00:09:22,133 and every British soldier looked like a god to us. 82 00:09:23,225 --> 00:09:28,183 Yes, well, it wasn't what we expected, to still be alive, 83 00:09:28,314 --> 00:09:30,639 but there we were. 84 00:09:38,365 --> 00:09:41,532 We didn't know what we were going to go into. 85 00:09:48,667 --> 00:09:50,707 We were sent... 86 00:09:52,922 --> 00:09:54,665 ...and then we drove. 87 00:09:54,798 --> 00:09:56,257 Excuse me. 88 00:09:59,303 --> 00:10:01,011 Sorry about this. 89 00:10:05,893 --> 00:10:08,016 It's too painful. 90 00:10:17,029 --> 00:10:21,157 'Dead prisoners hurled out and stacked in twisted heaps. 91 00:10:25,412 --> 00:10:28,413 'Dead women like marble statues in the mire. 92 00:10:35,923 --> 00:10:41,759 'This was what these inmates had to live among and die among. 93 00:11:02,408 --> 00:11:06,240 'The dead which lay there were not numbered in hundreds, 94 00:11:06,370 --> 00:11:09,406 'but in thousands. 95 00:11:09,540 --> 00:11:14,036 'Not one or two thousands, but 30,000. ' 96 00:11:18,132 --> 00:11:22,426 We drove in and saw a sight that shook us. 97 00:11:22,553 --> 00:11:26,930 There's nothing, even the sights of war had ever, ever, ever shown us before. 98 00:11:27,057 --> 00:11:31,007 It was pain to look at it. Pain that this could happen to people. 99 00:11:31,145 --> 00:11:35,392 There were hundreds and hundreds of dead bodies sort of piled up. 100 00:11:35,524 --> 00:11:40,343 There was a stench of death everywhere. There was... 101 00:11:40,834 --> 00:11:45,754 pits containing bodies of people as large as lawn tennis courts, 102 00:11:45,791 --> 00:11:50,118 containing babies, girls, youths, men, women, old, young. 103 00:11:50,247 --> 00:11:52,039 And how deep, we didn't know. 104 00:12:15,147 --> 00:12:19,394 These half-dead people walking about, 105 00:12:19,527 --> 00:12:22,196 glazed eyes... 106 00:12:24,573 --> 00:12:29,864 ...and absolutely... dead. 107 00:12:29,995 --> 00:12:32,665 There was hopelessness, 108 00:12:32,790 --> 00:12:37,701 despair, the appalling smell, 109 00:12:37,836 --> 00:12:40,956 the whole atmosphere of depression. 110 00:12:43,676 --> 00:12:46,167 Like the end had come. 111 00:12:46,303 --> 00:12:50,515 The bodies, you lost contact. Reality went. 112 00:12:50,641 --> 00:12:53,393 They were dummies, they were dolls, they were... 113 00:12:59,692 --> 00:13:01,150 I don't whether you... 114 00:13:01,277 --> 00:13:04,443 We ourselves withdrew 115 00:13:04,572 --> 00:13:08,700 into another space, time, existence, 116 00:13:08,826 --> 00:13:13,535 but you could never associate what you were seeing with your own life, 117 00:13:13,664 --> 00:13:15,123 if you know what I mean. 118 00:13:15,249 --> 00:13:18,914 This was something completely separate. It was another world. 119 00:13:23,007 --> 00:13:24,465 I don't think if we... 120 00:13:24,592 --> 00:13:28,541 If you had become too involved, I think you'd probably have gone mad. 121 00:13:31,557 --> 00:13:35,602 We were there for about two weeks filming all these sights, 122 00:13:35,728 --> 00:13:39,179 which no film which I have seen since 123 00:13:39,315 --> 00:13:42,648 really conveys the feeling of despair and horror 124 00:13:42,776 --> 00:13:47,273 that can be done to people who are Europeans of another faith, 125 00:13:47,406 --> 00:13:49,897 for no other reason. 126 00:13:50,034 --> 00:13:53,901 And I thought as time went by it might leave me. 127 00:13:54,038 --> 00:13:55,662 I wanted to forget. 128 00:13:57,750 --> 00:13:59,374 But it never does leave you. 129 00:14:02,463 --> 00:14:06,081 'I find it hard to describe the horrible things 130 00:14:06,217 --> 00:14:08,790 'that I've seen and heard. 131 00:14:11,013 --> 00:14:14,216 'But here, unadorned, are the facts. 132 00:14:16,769 --> 00:14:22,273 'I passed through the barrier and found myself in the world of a nightmare. 133 00:14:22,399 --> 00:14:24,522 'Dead bodies, some of them in decay, 134 00:14:24,652 --> 00:14:28,400 'lay strewn about the road and along the rutted tracks. 135 00:14:28,531 --> 00:14:31,946 'On each side of the road were brown wooden huts. 136 00:14:32,076 --> 00:14:33,949 'There were faces at the windows. 137 00:14:34,078 --> 00:14:40,081 'The bony emaciated faces of starving women too weak to come outside, 138 00:14:40,209 --> 00:14:45,452 'propping themselves against the glass to see the daylight before the die. 139 00:14:45,589 --> 00:14:49,669 'And they were dying, every hour and every minute. ' 140 00:14:52,096 --> 00:14:58,216 It was so horrific that the BBC initially waited 141 00:14:58,352 --> 00:15:00,843 before they broadcasted it because they had doubts 142 00:15:00,980 --> 00:15:05,108 whether my father had accurately described what he'd seen, 143 00:15:05,234 --> 00:15:07,689 and they checked and then put it out. 144 00:15:08,821 --> 00:15:10,944 It's the moment when he describes 145 00:15:11,073 --> 00:15:14,442 people no longer behave like human beings, 146 00:15:14,577 --> 00:15:18,788 that you realise what he's saying, what the implied message of this is. 147 00:15:18,914 --> 00:15:23,909 This isn't just Germany. This isn't just the people in those camps. 148 00:15:24,044 --> 00:15:27,745 This could be any of you anywhere, 149 00:15:27,882 --> 00:15:30,551 if civilisation breaks down in this way. 150 00:15:35,306 --> 00:15:38,888 'The day after the report, Churchill declared, 151 00:15:39,018 --> 00:15:41,224 "No words can express the horror 152 00:15:41,353 --> 00:15:45,137 "which is felt by His Majesty's government and their principal allies 153 00:15:45,274 --> 00:15:51,229 "at the proofs of these frightful crimes now daily coming into view. " 154 00:15:54,533 --> 00:15:59,824 'The success of cinema in the 1930s had underlined the power of the moving image. 155 00:15:59,955 --> 00:16:02,873 'Keen to exploit its potential role in war, 156 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,832 'Britain and America set up a joint film department. 157 00:16:08,589 --> 00:16:12,040 'Its brief was to produce short propaganda films, 158 00:16:12,176 --> 00:16:14,667 'initially to support the war effort, 159 00:16:14,803 --> 00:16:18,587 'and later to assist the task of dealing with a defeated Germany 160 00:16:18,724 --> 00:16:21,511 'once the war was won. 161 00:16:22,519 --> 00:16:27,644 'In Britain, this unit was headed by leading film producer, Sidney Bernstein. 162 00:16:30,194 --> 00:16:35,734 'The day following Churchill's statement, Bernstein set out for Bergen-Belsen. 163 00:16:35,866 --> 00:16:40,861 'By the time he arrived, the army film cameramen had been at work for a week. ' 164 00:16:52,174 --> 00:16:56,836 The film shot at Bergen-Belsen by the British cameramen 165 00:16:56,971 --> 00:17:00,968 reveal every level of humanity... 166 00:17:03,477 --> 00:17:08,851 ...to a much greater extent than any other of the film evidence. 167 00:17:08,983 --> 00:17:13,941 It feels as if the whole human story is there. 168 00:17:32,339 --> 00:17:34,795 They used the camera in a very specific way. 169 00:17:34,925 --> 00:17:39,883 There was a... It began to directed to collect evidence, to gather evidence. 170 00:17:40,973 --> 00:17:45,884 So one of the difficulties about filming an atrocity 171 00:17:46,020 --> 00:17:51,441 is that in order to reveal that a person has been murdered or brutalised, 172 00:17:51,567 --> 00:17:55,730 what you have to do is you have to reveal that by getting close to the person 173 00:17:55,863 --> 00:17:57,737 because you have to show the wounds, 174 00:17:57,865 --> 00:18:00,819 have to give some indication of how they've been killed. 175 00:18:00,951 --> 00:18:06,408 Now, that went against the tradition previously of combat cameramen 176 00:18:06,540 --> 00:18:10,289 where they'd shied away from representing or recording 177 00:18:10,419 --> 00:18:13,455 scenes of people who'd been killed or brutalised. 178 00:18:17,426 --> 00:18:21,376 'For Bernstein, the visit to Bergen-Belsen was galvanising. 179 00:18:21,513 --> 00:18:26,674 'On his return to London, he began planning a full-length documentary. 180 00:18:26,810 --> 00:18:30,808 'Its purpose was clear from guidelines he issued to the allied cameramen. ' 181 00:18:37,062 --> 00:18:42,862 My instructions were to film everything, 182 00:18:42,993 --> 00:18:46,445 which would prove one day that this had actually happened. 183 00:18:47,790 --> 00:18:50,707 It'd be a lesson to all mankind as well. 184 00:18:50,834 --> 00:18:54,915 To the Germans for whom the whole film we were putting together was designed. 185 00:18:55,047 --> 00:18:58,381 To show to the German people. 186 00:18:59,301 --> 00:19:03,797 Because most of them on our way down, and on the troops' way down, 187 00:19:03,931 --> 00:19:07,264 had denied they knew anything about the camps. 188 00:19:07,393 --> 00:19:10,559 This would be the evidence, which we could show them. 189 00:19:22,783 --> 00:19:25,452 First of all, I wanted them to record 190 00:19:25,578 --> 00:19:28,495 that all the local bigwigs and people, 191 00:19:28,622 --> 00:19:33,000 the Municipal Burgomaster and the like, 192 00:19:33,127 --> 00:19:36,875 who lived within a reasonable range, 193 00:19:37,006 --> 00:19:39,753 saw what was being done 194 00:19:40,191 --> 00:19:44,338 in burying these tragic figures. 195 00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:54,601 Some of the Germans we brought in to be filmed, 196 00:19:54,732 --> 00:19:57,898 when the bodies were being buried in the pit, 197 00:19:58,027 --> 00:20:00,150 just couldn't look any more. 198 00:20:01,238 --> 00:20:06,778 I wanted to prove that they had seen it, so there was evidence, 199 00:20:06,911 --> 00:20:12,153 because I guess rightly that most people would deny that it happened. 200 00:20:20,257 --> 00:20:24,125 'Bernstein also used footage of German SS officers 201 00:20:24,261 --> 00:20:27,346 'helping with the worst of the tasks in the camp. ' 202 00:20:51,497 --> 00:20:53,703 'There was an urgent need 203 00:20:53,832 --> 00:20:59,835 'to get rid of as many bodies as quickly as possible, so the SS were set to work. 204 00:21:07,763 --> 00:21:11,464 '500 Hungarian troops captured with the SS were started 205 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:13,759 on a grave-digging operation. 206 00:21:33,747 --> 00:21:36,784 'The SS themselves were made to do the unpleasant job 207 00:21:36,917 --> 00:21:39,206 'they had forced the inmates to do. 208 00:21:40,087 --> 00:21:43,538 'This, after all, was nothing to these men. 209 00:21:43,674 --> 00:21:46,710 'They, the master race, had been taught to be hard. 210 00:21:47,511 --> 00:21:49,338 'They could kill in cold blood, 211 00:21:49,471 --> 00:21:52,176 'and it seemed to the British soldier fit and proper 212 00:21:52,308 --> 00:21:56,140 'that the killers should bury the nameless, hopeless creatures 213 00:21:56,270 --> 00:21:57,848 'they had starved to death. " 214 00:22:05,154 --> 00:22:08,570 'The army film units had no sound equipment. 215 00:22:08,699 --> 00:22:10,857 'It wasn't until news teams arrived 216 00:22:10,993 --> 00:22:14,777 'that Bernstein was able to access some sound recordings. ' 217 00:22:16,290 --> 00:22:19,623 Today is 24th April 1945. 218 00:22:19,752 --> 00:22:22,373 My name is Gunner lllingworth and I live in Cheshire. 219 00:22:22,504 --> 00:22:26,372 I'm at present in Belsen camp doing guard duty over the SS men. 220 00:22:26,508 --> 00:22:29,794 The things in this camp are beyond describing. 221 00:22:29,929 --> 00:22:31,802 When you actually see them for yourselves, 222 00:22:31,931 --> 00:22:34,172 you know what you're fighting for here. 223 00:22:34,308 --> 00:22:37,641 Pictures in the paper cannot describe it at all. 224 00:22:37,770 --> 00:22:39,976 The things they have committed, 225 00:22:40,105 --> 00:22:42,394 nobody would think they were human at all. 226 00:22:44,401 --> 00:22:49,277 We actually know now what has been going on in these camps. 227 00:22:49,406 --> 00:22:52,858 And I know personally what I am fighting for. 228 00:23:24,733 --> 00:23:27,568 'Once Bernstein's documentary proposal 229 00:23:27,695 --> 00:23:30,980 'had been approved by both British and American governments, 230 00:23:31,115 --> 00:23:36,702 'he hired perhaps the best-known film editor in London, Stewart McAllister. 231 00:23:38,455 --> 00:23:42,074 'Together, they began to assemble the army film footage 232 00:23:42,209 --> 00:23:44,581 'now arriving in the edit rooms. 233 00:23:45,754 --> 00:23:50,251 'The deadline for completion of the film was set at just three months. 234 00:23:53,846 --> 00:23:55,755 'The news from Bergen-Belsen 235 00:23:55,890 --> 00:23:59,140 'was not entirely a surprise to the British government. 236 00:23:59,268 --> 00:24:02,684 'Soviet intelligence had reported uncovering concentration camps 237 00:24:02,813 --> 00:24:07,641 'in Poland as early as July 1944. 238 00:24:07,776 --> 00:24:12,937 'But as the Soviets had a record of falsifying atrocity reports, 239 00:24:13,073 --> 00:24:16,489 'the allies ignored the information. 240 00:24:16,619 --> 00:24:21,660 'Now, in the light of Bergen-Belsen, the British reconsidered 241 00:24:21,790 --> 00:24:24,626 'and Bernstein broadened the scope of his film 242 00:24:24,752 --> 00:24:27,373 'to include footage from the Soviet camps. ' 243 00:24:29,965 --> 00:24:32,883 After the end of the war I worked as a cameraman on the front. 244 00:24:33,135 --> 00:24:38,704 At that time I was a very young man without experience, 245 00:24:38,849 --> 00:24:41,412 without military training. 246 00:24:41,449 --> 00:24:46,126 And suddenly I had the soldier loops of a captain, 247 00:24:46,467 --> 00:24:49,196 a pistol at my side... 248 00:24:49,232 --> 00:24:54,274 An Imo film camera in my hand and one goal in my head. 249 00:24:54,531 --> 00:24:58,007 To do my best to record 250 00:24:58,133 --> 00:25:02,978 the actions of our Red Army. 251 00:25:05,543 --> 00:25:08,876 We walked, and walked... 252 00:25:09,213 --> 00:25:13,424 We were so tired, we were collapsing. 253 00:25:14,385 --> 00:25:17,718 Then our officers told us: 254 00:25:18,138 --> 00:25:21,342 "There is a camp ahead - Majdanek, where they burnt people. " 255 00:25:21,934 --> 00:25:24,603 We burst into the camp. 256 00:25:27,481 --> 00:25:29,640 And... 257 00:25:31,151 --> 00:25:36,276 ...killed the guards. 258 00:25:36,699 --> 00:25:40,032 We shot them on the spot... 259 00:25:41,203 --> 00:25:43,765 We kept on moving 260 00:25:44,033 --> 00:25:47,962 because it was a large camp. 261 00:25:48,252 --> 00:25:53,543 There were green barracks on one side. 262 00:25:53,716 --> 00:25:56,551 And there were painted warehouses on the other. 263 00:25:56,802 --> 00:26:00,670 On the right were people. 264 00:26:01,056 --> 00:26:04,971 On the left were warehouses. 265 00:26:05,811 --> 00:26:09,222 What was in those warehouses? 266 00:26:09,513 --> 00:26:14,753 We opened one warehouse. Women's hair. 267 00:26:15,195 --> 00:26:19,193 We opened the second warehouse. Children's shoes. 268 00:26:20,242 --> 00:26:26,176 The third warehouse, something else. 269 00:26:26,361 --> 00:26:32,540 Zyklon gas in barrels. And ashes, ashes... 270 00:26:32,576 --> 00:26:38,667 They stored people's ashes the way they stored women's hair. 271 00:26:41,388 --> 00:26:46,024 The crematoriums were still smoking, 272 00:26:46,437 --> 00:26:51,345 people were still burned. It looked very scary. 273 00:26:53,692 --> 00:26:58,271 God forbid witnessing that. 274 00:27:00,866 --> 00:27:03,025 Those... 275 00:27:03,587 --> 00:27:09,410 who survived did not resemble human beings. 276 00:27:09,625 --> 00:27:13,833 Skeletons, scary, exhausted... 277 00:27:14,046 --> 00:27:17,082 They knew they would be burned next. 278 00:27:17,466 --> 00:27:21,713 'The Soviets discovered few living inmates at Majdanek. 279 00:27:21,845 --> 00:27:23,968 'In the face of the advancing troops, 280 00:27:24,098 --> 00:27:27,099 'the Germans had begun emptying the camps in Poland, 281 00:27:27,226 --> 00:27:31,722 'sending prisoners westwards to camps including Bergen-Belsen. 282 00:27:32,815 --> 00:27:37,477 'The evidence filmed in Poland became part of Bernstein's documentary. ' 283 00:27:56,005 --> 00:28:00,252 'Prisoners paid their own fares to Majdanek. 284 00:28:00,384 --> 00:28:02,626 'They thought they were going to new homes 285 00:28:02,761 --> 00:28:06,261 'and so they brought their most precious portable possessions. 286 00:28:17,026 --> 00:28:19,980 'They say dead men's boots bring bad luck. 287 00:28:20,112 --> 00:28:22,021 'What of dead children's toys? ' 288 00:28:25,284 --> 00:28:28,238 'Their mothers carried scissors perhaps. 289 00:28:28,370 --> 00:28:31,407 'The scissors are here. The mothers, no. 290 00:28:31,540 --> 00:28:34,541 'But here in this room is part of them. 291 00:28:34,668 --> 00:28:37,242 'Nothing material could be wasted. 292 00:28:37,379 --> 00:28:41,459 'These packages contain human hair, carefully sorted and weighed. 293 00:29:09,828 --> 00:29:11,323 'Nothing was wasted. 294 00:29:11,455 --> 00:29:14,124 'Even the teeth were taken out of their mouths, 295 00:29:14,250 --> 00:29:16,538 'by-products of the system. 296 00:29:23,926 --> 00:29:26,962 'Toothbrushes. Nail brushes. 297 00:29:28,305 --> 00:29:29,965 'Shoe brushes. 298 00:29:33,727 --> 00:29:35,803 'Shaving brushes. 299 00:29:38,607 --> 00:29:44,028 'If one man in ten wears spectacles, how many does this heap represent? 300 00:29:48,826 --> 00:29:52,409 'All these things belonged to men and women and children, 301 00:29:52,538 --> 00:29:57,663 'like ourselves, quite ordinary people, from all parts of the world. ' 302 00:30:08,304 --> 00:30:11,886 'The Soviet forces carried on through the Polish winter 303 00:30:12,016 --> 00:30:16,310 'to liberate another larger camp, Auschwitz. ' 304 00:30:30,159 --> 00:30:32,828 I stood there maybe 30 minutes. 305 00:30:32,953 --> 00:30:35,491 It was snowing heavily. I couldn't see. 306 00:30:35,623 --> 00:30:38,826 And at a distance I saw lots of people 307 00:30:38,959 --> 00:30:44,748 and they were all wrapped in white camouflage raincoats. 308 00:30:44,882 --> 00:30:47,836 They were smiling from ear to ear. 309 00:30:48,761 --> 00:30:50,837 And they didn't look like the Nazis, 310 00:30:50,971 --> 00:30:53,925 which was the most important part. 311 00:30:54,058 --> 00:30:55,849 We ran up to them. 312 00:30:55,976 --> 00:31:00,056 They gave us chocolate, cookies and hugs. 313 00:31:00,189 --> 00:31:02,810 And this was my first taste of freedom. 314 00:31:04,652 --> 00:31:09,812 They didn't have the strength even to dance or whatever, 315 00:31:09,949 --> 00:31:11,740 so they just feebly, 316 00:31:11,867 --> 00:31:14,904 very feebly started singing. 317 00:31:18,123 --> 00:31:20,282 And we were so happy, we were so happy 318 00:31:20,417 --> 00:31:24,462 that these angels came from the heavens to liberate us. 319 00:31:35,266 --> 00:31:38,469 'Unlike Bergen-Belsen, which was a prison camp, 320 00:31:38,602 --> 00:31:43,644 'Auschwitz was a slave-labour camp and a mass extermination centre. 321 00:31:44,567 --> 00:31:50,190 'Within its gas chambers, more than a million men, women and children died. 322 00:31:52,116 --> 00:31:56,160 'Their fate was usually determined within minutes of their arrival. ' 323 00:32:07,089 --> 00:32:09,545 The cattle car doors slid open. 324 00:32:10,509 --> 00:32:13,759 Thousands of people poured out from the cattle car. 325 00:32:13,888 --> 00:32:18,099 My father and two older sisters disappeared in the crowd. 326 00:32:18,225 --> 00:32:20,432 Never ever did I see them again. 327 00:32:21,270 --> 00:32:24,853 As we were holding on to Mother, a Nazi was running, 328 00:32:24,982 --> 00:32:28,481 yelling in German, "Twins! Twins!" 329 00:32:30,237 --> 00:32:34,021 A woman came up and she took the little suitcase from my mother 330 00:32:34,158 --> 00:32:36,245 and she said, 331 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:40,682 "Listen, are these two... are these two twins? " 332 00:32:40,719 --> 00:32:42,075 My mother said, "Yes. " 333 00:32:42,207 --> 00:32:45,659 So she said, "Why don't you say they're twins? 334 00:32:45,794 --> 00:32:49,294 "It's a good thing to have twins here in this place. " 335 00:32:50,549 --> 00:32:56,718 The next time the Nazi came, my mother said, "Here are my twins. " 336 00:32:57,306 --> 00:33:01,802 They took us to Mengele and Mengele looked at us. 337 00:33:01,936 --> 00:33:05,102 The Nazi said, "Here. I've found twins for you. " 338 00:33:07,399 --> 00:33:10,187 'Eva and Vera were among the few survivors 339 00:33:10,319 --> 00:33:11,694 'of Josef Mengele's 340 00:33:11,820 --> 00:33:15,024 'infamously cruel medical experiments. 341 00:33:15,157 --> 00:33:18,692 '1,500 of his other victims died at his hands. 342 00:33:23,707 --> 00:33:26,412 'The Soviet army camera units did not arrive 343 00:33:26,543 --> 00:33:29,710 'until a few days after the first troops. " 344 00:33:36,262 --> 00:33:42,514 We had received orders to film the liberation of the camp. 345 00:33:43,227 --> 00:33:49,431 But we had no concrete instructions as to how we should do this, 346 00:33:49,650 --> 00:33:54,608 because we had no idea what we would find there. 347 00:33:55,447 --> 00:34:00,608 I don't think that even our military commanders 348 00:34:00,744 --> 00:34:04,327 guessed at the scale of the crime committed 349 00:34:04,456 --> 00:34:07,541 in this the largest of the concentration camps. 350 00:34:09,545 --> 00:34:13,329 The memory of it has stayed with me all my life. 351 00:34:13,591 --> 00:34:19,545 It was more shocking and horrible than anything else I filmed during the war. 352 00:34:21,891 --> 00:34:27,435 The Russians decided to make a film 353 00:34:27,471 --> 00:34:30,623 about the liberation of Auschwitz. 354 00:34:30,660 --> 00:34:35,188 They dressed us in clothes with stripes 355 00:34:35,247 --> 00:34:38,185 over the clothes we had. 356 00:34:38,221 --> 00:34:41,276 And they told us to walk between the fences. 357 00:34:42,411 --> 00:34:44,534 And they filmed us between the fences. 358 00:34:45,664 --> 00:34:49,958 They tried to show everything after the event. 359 00:34:50,085 --> 00:34:54,582 There came a... there came a crew, a film crew... 360 00:34:56,383 --> 00:35:01,211 ...to film... to film the... the inmates. 361 00:35:01,347 --> 00:35:02,841 Especially the twins. 362 00:35:05,643 --> 00:35:09,936 A soldier, a Russian soldier, was beckoning me. 363 00:35:10,064 --> 00:35:13,397 He said, "Come, come, come. Film, film, film. " 364 00:35:15,194 --> 00:35:20,070 So they filmed us marching between those two rows of barbed wire 365 00:35:20,199 --> 00:35:24,279 and because Miriam and I had the striped prison uniforms, 366 00:35:24,411 --> 00:35:26,534 we ended up at the front. 367 00:35:37,466 --> 00:35:40,087 'These children are twins. 368 00:35:40,219 --> 00:35:43,802 'When identical twins were born to non-German parents, 369 00:35:43,931 --> 00:35:48,178 'they were confiscated and handed over to an experimental station. 370 00:35:48,310 --> 00:35:52,972 'German doctors injected them with diseases and attempted cures. 371 00:35:53,107 --> 00:35:55,349 'Success in the cure was not important, 372 00:35:55,484 --> 00:35:58,818 'as these children were written off, unknown. 373 00:35:58,946 --> 00:36:02,611 'They had no names, only numbers tattooed on their arms. " 374 00:36:12,126 --> 00:36:15,958 Only now do I understand the importance of the Russian images. 375 00:36:16,213 --> 00:36:18,787 That's almost the only documentation. 376 00:36:19,133 --> 00:36:23,130 The Russians film the camp. It may have been a month later. 377 00:36:23,554 --> 00:36:29,127 But they managed to bring the world 378 00:36:29,564 --> 00:36:32,391 everything we experienced. 379 00:36:44,992 --> 00:36:49,820 'Across Germany, many more concentration camps were coming to light. 380 00:36:49,955 --> 00:36:52,493 'The allies recorded the evidence on film. 381 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:55,835 'More material for Bernstein's documentary. 382 00:37:04,011 --> 00:37:08,507 '300 kilometres southeast of Bergen-Belsen, at Buchenwald, 383 00:37:08,641 --> 00:37:12,721 'the Americans entered a camp described as a prison and labour camp. 384 00:37:37,294 --> 00:37:43,379 I found out the Buchenwald camp was being liberated, 385 00:37:43,509 --> 00:37:46,960 so the captain that I was working with, we upped and got a jeep 386 00:37:47,096 --> 00:37:52,600 and we drove over to Buchenwald death camp and I started filming there. 387 00:38:01,819 --> 00:38:03,811 It was shocking, yes, it was, 388 00:38:03,946 --> 00:38:07,896 because the bodies of the prisoners were stacked up. 389 00:38:08,033 --> 00:38:10,359 They were dead and they were piled up. 390 00:38:15,833 --> 00:38:19,581 '55,000 of them died because of this place. 391 00:38:19,712 --> 00:38:22,285 'Here, Schoker, the Camp Commandant said, 392 00:38:22,423 --> 00:38:27,583 "I want at least 600 Jewish deaths reported in the camp office every day. " 393 00:38:28,721 --> 00:38:32,006 'Thugs were appointed as overseers or block leaders. 394 00:38:32,141 --> 00:38:35,177 'People were tattooed across the belly with slave numbers 395 00:38:35,311 --> 00:38:38,312 'and forced to work on starvation diet. 396 00:38:41,775 --> 00:38:45,643 'People were coldly and systematically tortured. " 397 00:39:00,252 --> 00:39:02,922 We received a report 398 00:39:03,047 --> 00:39:08,800 that strange groups of people had been seen on a road. 399 00:39:08,928 --> 00:39:12,842 They seemed to be wearing some kind of a pyjama 400 00:39:12,973 --> 00:39:15,096 and they all looked like they were dying. 401 00:39:17,937 --> 00:39:21,471 The ones who were seen on the road were those who were still alive. 402 00:39:21,607 --> 00:39:25,023 Those who couldn't walk were lying dead on the ground. 403 00:39:25,611 --> 00:39:29,229 Everybody has seen the barracks. I don't want to go into the details. 404 00:39:30,199 --> 00:39:32,986 It's a little difficult for me to do that. 405 00:39:33,118 --> 00:39:35,823 But you couldn't tell if they were dead or alive. 406 00:39:35,955 --> 00:39:38,196 You'd step over a body 407 00:39:38,332 --> 00:39:41,368 and it would suddenly wave at you or raise a hand. 408 00:39:42,461 --> 00:39:43,920 Total chaos. 409 00:39:44,046 --> 00:39:47,462 Dysentery, typhoid. 410 00:39:47,591 --> 00:39:50,047 All kinds of diseases in the camp. 411 00:39:53,013 --> 00:39:58,518 Putrid... the smell of the camps. 412 00:39:58,644 --> 00:40:00,387 The crematoria were still going. 413 00:40:00,521 --> 00:40:05,859 The dead bodies piled up like cordwood in front of the crematorium. 414 00:40:06,944 --> 00:40:13,196 It's hard to imagine for a normal human mind. 415 00:40:14,785 --> 00:40:17,656 I had peered into hell in this. 416 00:40:27,089 --> 00:40:30,375 It's not something you quickly forget... 417 00:40:33,053 --> 00:40:35,342 ...and it's a little hard for me to describe. 418 00:41:08,881 --> 00:41:12,748 'Some of the American crews were beginning to use colour film. 419 00:41:12,885 --> 00:41:16,005 'Although as it was sent for processing to America, 420 00:41:16,138 --> 00:41:18,807 'it wasn't included in Bernstein's film. " 421 00:41:25,272 --> 00:41:29,400 When colour came out, it was the start of 1945 in January. 422 00:41:29,526 --> 00:41:32,100 We were the first unit to start using colour film. 423 00:41:32,238 --> 00:41:36,401 Up to that point it was black and white. And it was 35mm. 424 00:41:36,533 --> 00:41:40,780 But when colour came out it was a 16mm movie, see, 425 00:41:40,913 --> 00:41:42,621 that was sent to the processors 426 00:41:42,748 --> 00:41:45,868 and then they would enlarge it for showing in theatres. 427 00:41:46,001 --> 00:41:49,204 Newsreel theatres were showing this stuff in the States. 428 00:42:17,116 --> 00:42:22,454 We covered the people that were living in a town called Weimar 429 00:42:22,580 --> 00:42:26,280 and they were paraded through this camp to show the death scenes 430 00:42:26,417 --> 00:42:28,041 and the bodies stacked up 431 00:42:28,168 --> 00:42:33,792 and the ovens where the prisoners were put in. 432 00:42:33,924 --> 00:42:37,507 So I covered a lot of that with Captain Carter 433 00:42:37,636 --> 00:42:40,210 and we shot a lot of coverage. 434 00:43:17,343 --> 00:43:20,842 'German citizens were brought in from Weimar. 435 00:43:20,971 --> 00:43:22,715 'They had to see too, 436 00:43:22,848 --> 00:43:28,055 'to see what they had been fighting for and we had been fighting against. 437 00:43:30,397 --> 00:43:33,932 'They came cheerfully like sightseers to a chamber of horrors. 438 00:43:34,652 --> 00:43:37,902 'For here indeed were some real horrors. 439 00:43:42,993 --> 00:43:46,445 'These shrunken heads belonged to two Polish prisoners 440 00:43:46,580 --> 00:43:49,071 'who'd escaped and been recaptured. 441 00:43:53,462 --> 00:43:58,373 'Some of the visitors did not care for the sight and were assisted by ex-prisoners. 442 00:43:58,509 --> 00:44:00,133 'They had been aware of the camp 443 00:44:00,261 --> 00:44:03,630 'and had been willing to make use of the cheap labour it provided. 444 00:44:03,764 --> 00:44:06,469 'As long as they were beyond smelling range of it. " 445 00:44:09,895 --> 00:44:13,975 'The Supreme Commander in Europe, General Eisenhower, 446 00:44:14,108 --> 00:44:19,066 'came to the camps to see for himself, telling accompanying reporters, 447 00:44:19,196 --> 00:44:25,151 "We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. 448 00:44:25,286 --> 00:44:29,994 "Now at least he will know what he is fighting against. " 449 00:44:32,167 --> 00:44:34,456 'Eisenhower arranged for journalists, 450 00:44:34,587 --> 00:44:38,371 'senators, congressmen and a British parliamentary delegation 451 00:44:38,507 --> 00:44:42,125 'to visit the camp and publicise their findings at home. 452 00:44:53,230 --> 00:44:58,225 'Towards the end of April, the Americans, moving close to the city of Munich, 453 00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:00,519 'entered and filmed another camp. 454 00:45:00,654 --> 00:45:02,528 'The footage was sent to London 455 00:45:02,656 --> 00:45:05,693 'where it was viewed in a processing laboratory. " 456 00:45:11,916 --> 00:45:16,209 One morning, sitting there waiting for rushes, 457 00:45:16,337 --> 00:45:20,417 we got a dope sheet, which had the name of the cameramen, 458 00:45:20,549 --> 00:45:22,174 how much film had been shot. 459 00:45:22,301 --> 00:45:26,963 We looked and there was an enormous amount of film, much more than usual. 460 00:45:27,097 --> 00:45:29,849 And at the top of the dope sheet 461 00:45:29,975 --> 00:45:35,848 was a name which was totally unfamiliar to all of us. 462 00:45:35,981 --> 00:45:40,026 It was spelt D-A-C-H-A-U. 463 00:45:40,152 --> 00:45:42,275 And we didn't know what the hell that was. 464 00:45:42,404 --> 00:45:44,563 Whether it was initials or anything. 465 00:45:45,741 --> 00:45:50,617 But we soon found out because once they started screening this material... 466 00:45:52,373 --> 00:45:55,327 ...it was like looking into... 467 00:45:55,797 --> 00:45:59,856 the most appalling hell possible. 468 00:46:00,029 --> 00:46:02,661 And especially in negative... 469 00:46:03,759 --> 00:46:06,795 ...where the blacks were white and the whites were black. 470 00:46:09,974 --> 00:46:13,177 There was a grotesqueness to it anyway, 471 00:46:13,310 --> 00:46:17,390 but to see it in negative was shattering. 472 00:46:18,649 --> 00:46:22,777 And there was four hours of this without break. 473 00:46:22,903 --> 00:46:24,943 None of us wanted to break. 474 00:46:26,156 --> 00:46:29,775 And to see these piles of bodies, 475 00:46:29,910 --> 00:46:33,196 these rooms stacked with bodies... 476 00:46:33,330 --> 00:46:37,826 And there was what looked like a giant barbecue 477 00:46:37,960 --> 00:46:40,332 made out of railway sleepers... 478 00:46:41,547 --> 00:46:44,963 ...which an attempt had been made to burn the bodies, 479 00:46:45,092 --> 00:46:50,169 obviously before the Americans arrived, 480 00:46:50,306 --> 00:46:54,802 to try and lessen the... lessen the atrocities. 481 00:46:54,935 --> 00:47:00,142 But... none of us, none of us could talk 482 00:47:00,274 --> 00:47:03,144 and I think each one of us was hoping 483 00:47:03,277 --> 00:47:06,562 that we were not going to be the ones who were going to cut it. 484 00:47:23,172 --> 00:47:27,466 When it was over, we sat absolutely still 485 00:47:27,593 --> 00:47:31,638 and... nobody smoked, nobody could talk. 486 00:47:31,764 --> 00:47:35,975 We had no idea what had been going on in these camps. 487 00:47:42,399 --> 00:47:45,484 'Richard Crossman, German expert and writer, 488 00:47:45,611 --> 00:47:48,861 'was a member of the Psychological Warfare Division in London 489 00:47:48,989 --> 00:47:52,192 'and was sent to report on the situation in Dachau. 490 00:47:53,118 --> 00:47:59,121 'His experience there was later to inform his final script for Bernstein's film. ' 491 00:48:15,266 --> 00:48:18,635 'In the last three months official records show 492 00:48:18,769 --> 00:48:23,846 'that 10,615 people were disposed of here. 493 00:48:23,983 --> 00:48:25,940 'Their clothes were turned over 494 00:48:26,068 --> 00:48:29,188 'to the Deutsche Textil und Bekleidungswerke GmbH, 495 00:48:29,321 --> 00:48:32,821 'a private corporation whose stockholders were SS officials, 496 00:48:32,950 --> 00:48:35,571 'which reclaimed and repaired the garments 497 00:48:35,703 --> 00:48:38,324 'with the use of unpaid prison labour, 498 00:48:38,455 --> 00:48:41,077 'and then resold them to the camp clothing depot 499 00:48:41,208 --> 00:48:43,165 'for the use of new prisoners. 500 00:48:59,643 --> 00:49:03,558 'The prisoners arrived often in railway trucks, 501 00:49:03,689 --> 00:49:06,227 'but there had been no hurry to unload this one. 502 00:49:06,984 --> 00:49:13,069 'They went away leaving the prisoners to die of hunger and cold and typhus. 503 00:49:14,658 --> 00:49:17,908 'We found them like this, frozen stiff in the snow, 504 00:49:18,037 --> 00:49:20,362 'alongside a public road. 505 00:49:20,497 --> 00:49:23,913 'By some miracle, 17 men were still alive. 506 00:49:24,877 --> 00:49:28,328 'All the rest, about 3,000, were dead. 507 00:49:37,014 --> 00:49:41,308 'Germans knew about Dachau, but did not care. " 508 00:49:55,616 --> 00:49:57,692 'By the beginning of May, 509 00:49:57,826 --> 00:50:00,744 'the scope of Bernstein's documentary had expanded. 510 00:50:00,871 --> 00:50:05,498 'He wanted a director and his thoughts turned to his friend Alfred Hitchcock, 511 00:50:05,626 --> 00:50:08,627 'already a major Hollywood name. ' 512 00:50:17,846 --> 00:50:21,465 Alfred Hitchcock was an eminent director 513 00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:25,598 and I thought he, a brilliant man... 514 00:50:27,564 --> 00:50:32,476 ...would have some ideas of how we could tie it all together. 515 00:50:33,362 --> 00:50:34,773 And he had. 516 00:50:36,031 --> 00:50:40,942 'Hitchcock was fully committed in America and not immediately available, 517 00:50:41,078 --> 00:50:45,705 'but he agreed to join the film later as its supervising director. 518 00:50:45,833 --> 00:50:49,036 'It was to be his only known documentary work. ' 519 00:50:54,049 --> 00:50:58,094 I left America to go to England 520 00:50:58,220 --> 00:51:00,711 to do some war work. 521 00:51:00,848 --> 00:51:04,051 I had felt that I needed 522 00:51:04,184 --> 00:51:08,099 at least to make some contribution. 523 00:51:08,230 --> 00:51:11,350 There wasn't any question of military service. 524 00:51:11,483 --> 00:51:16,062 I was overage and overweight at that time. 525 00:51:16,196 --> 00:51:18,569 But nevertheless I felt the urge. 526 00:51:20,159 --> 00:51:23,667 And my friend Bernstein, 527 00:51:23,953 --> 00:51:27,848 who was the head of the film section 528 00:51:27,943 --> 00:51:32,239 of the British Ministry of Information, and a... 529 00:51:32,544 --> 00:51:35,406 he arranged for me to go over. 530 00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:04,485 'Before Hitchcock could join the Bernstein team, 531 00:52:04,620 --> 00:52:07,704 'the allies declared victory in Europe. 532 00:52:07,831 --> 00:52:09,491 'It was the end of the war, 533 00:52:09,625 --> 00:52:13,457 'but the challenges of dealing with the peace were just beginning. 534 00:52:15,714 --> 00:52:19,083 'In the concentration camps a huge relief effort was continuing 535 00:52:19,218 --> 00:52:21,791 'among the many thousands of stranded inmates. 536 00:52:21,929 --> 00:52:25,796 'In Bergen-Belsen, army cameramen were still filming 537 00:52:25,933 --> 00:52:28,340 'and sending their material back to London. 538 00:52:36,944 --> 00:52:40,858 I had a big temperature, a fever, 539 00:52:40,990 --> 00:52:46,529 because I got typhus and I was thinking, "I'm dying. " 540 00:52:47,913 --> 00:52:49,787 I was thinking, "I've died," 541 00:52:50,457 --> 00:52:54,954 because there was music coming 542 00:52:55,087 --> 00:52:58,373 and I think it was the Scottish pipes. 543 00:52:58,507 --> 00:53:00,666 I think in front of the Brits 544 00:53:00,801 --> 00:53:05,428 there went a Scottish brigade with pipes 545 00:53:05,556 --> 00:53:08,473 and there was a music I'd never heard. 546 00:53:08,601 --> 00:53:14,853 I didn't see them because I couldn't go up to the window, but I heard them. 547 00:53:14,982 --> 00:53:19,858 And I was thinking about how I'd heard so many things about angels 548 00:53:19,987 --> 00:53:23,071 and how they sing and make music, 549 00:53:23,198 --> 00:53:26,152 and I was thinking, "I'm in heaven. " 550 00:53:33,250 --> 00:53:36,833 It was amazing how quickly those poor people 551 00:53:36,962 --> 00:53:39,370 who were reduced to almost animal status, 552 00:53:39,506 --> 00:53:43,006 how they came back to being human again. 553 00:53:43,135 --> 00:53:48,889 And some of the girls, women, who really were in a terrible state 554 00:53:49,016 --> 00:53:51,637 quite soon started to dress themselves up a bit 555 00:53:51,769 --> 00:53:54,604 and clean themselves up a bit, get their hair done a bit 556 00:53:54,730 --> 00:53:57,138 and get back to being normal humans again. 557 00:53:57,274 --> 00:53:59,148 It happened amazingly quickly. 558 00:53:59,276 --> 00:54:01,648 Within two or three weeks, I suppose, 559 00:54:01,779 --> 00:54:04,021 these people began to become human again. 560 00:54:04,156 --> 00:54:07,905 They had been completely dehumanised. There's no question about that. 561 00:54:09,954 --> 00:54:12,195 'As they logged their shots, 562 00:54:12,331 --> 00:54:15,996 'the army cameramen made notes on what were known as dope sheets. 563 00:54:17,962 --> 00:54:19,919 'One of them commented, 564 00:54:20,047 --> 00:54:23,997 "It is interesting to note that as soon as the first primitive necessities 565 00:54:24,134 --> 00:54:27,338 "of food and rest and warmth had been met, 566 00:54:27,471 --> 00:54:33,474 "the patients, particularly the women, were immediately crying out for clothes. 567 00:54:33,602 --> 00:54:36,272 "Clothes became a medical necessity, 568 00:54:36,397 --> 00:54:41,189 "a powerful tonic against the dangerous apathy of the very weak. " 569 00:54:53,581 --> 00:54:59,002 'Uniquely, Bernstein's film documented the healing process. ' 570 00:55:11,473 --> 00:55:14,391 'Clothes was another urgent problem, 571 00:55:14,518 --> 00:55:16,760 'so an outfitting department was set up 572 00:55:16,895 --> 00:55:20,099 'and clothes gathered from shops in the surrounding towns 573 00:55:20,232 --> 00:55:25,357 'were soon being tried on and gossiped over, as women love to do. " 574 00:55:51,931 --> 00:55:56,557 'In late-June 1945, Hitchcock, released from Hollywood, 575 00:55:56,685 --> 00:56:00,635 'at last arrived in London to start work with Bernstein. 576 00:56:00,773 --> 00:56:03,690 'The Americans had been slow in sending their footage, 577 00:56:03,817 --> 00:56:07,103 'but despite this the film was taking shape. 578 00:56:09,281 --> 00:56:12,697 'Hitchcock's visit was short, but intense. 579 00:56:12,826 --> 00:56:17,369 'After seeing the footage, he returned to the London hotel Claridge's. 580 00:56:17,498 --> 00:56:21,709 'There, he made a series of proposals for the completion of the film. ' 581 00:56:21,835 --> 00:56:27,292 And I can remember him strolling up and down in his suite at Claridge's 582 00:56:27,424 --> 00:56:29,915 and saying, "How can we make that convincing? " 583 00:56:32,054 --> 00:56:37,012 We tried to make shots as long as possible, used panning shots, 584 00:56:37,142 --> 00:56:40,060 so that there was no possibility of trickery. 585 00:56:40,187 --> 00:56:46,391 And going from respected dignitaries or high churchmen 586 00:56:46,527 --> 00:56:49,065 straight to the bodies and corpses, 587 00:56:49,196 --> 00:56:53,988 so that it couldn't be suggested that we were faking the film. 588 00:56:57,913 --> 00:57:00,583 'Hitchcock was struck by the contrast 589 00:57:00,708 --> 00:57:03,827 'between the normal lives of Germans living near the camps 590 00:57:03,961 --> 00:57:06,119 'and the nightmare within. 591 00:57:06,255 --> 00:57:10,716 'He suggested using maps to highlight how close they were. " 592 00:57:11,760 --> 00:57:14,678 Alfred Hitchcock, one of his contributions to the film 593 00:57:14,805 --> 00:57:18,055 is that he had a particular conceptualisation of those maps. 594 00:57:18,183 --> 00:57:20,342 He also thought they were very important. 595 00:57:20,477 --> 00:57:22,102 He said not only should they show 596 00:57:22,229 --> 00:57:24,720 the sites of atrocity or the concentration camps 597 00:57:24,857 --> 00:57:26,648 were close to population centres, 598 00:57:26,775 --> 00:57:29,480 they should do so on a map that was very simple 599 00:57:29,612 --> 00:57:31,770 and it should be like a school atlas. 600 00:57:41,206 --> 00:57:43,246 We wanted to know whether the Germans 601 00:57:43,375 --> 00:57:47,622 surrounding the concentration camp knew about it. 602 00:57:47,755 --> 00:57:52,997 So Hitch did this drawing, circles, one mile from the camp, 603 00:57:53,135 --> 00:57:56,753 two miles from the camp, ten miles from the camp, 20 miles from the camp. 604 00:57:56,889 --> 00:58:03,010 His idea was to show the area surrounding each camp 605 00:58:03,145 --> 00:58:06,596 and show how people had led a normal life outside. 606 00:58:08,651 --> 00:58:12,150 'Ebensee is a holiday resort in the mountains. 607 00:58:13,322 --> 00:58:15,480 'The air is clean and pure. 608 00:58:16,408 --> 00:58:18,152 'It cures sickness 609 00:58:18,285 --> 00:58:21,452 'and there is a sweetness about the place. 610 00:58:21,580 --> 00:58:23,537 'A gentle peace. 611 00:58:37,846 --> 00:58:42,639 'In this place, the Luftwaffe or SS Panzer officer on leave 612 00:58:42,768 --> 00:58:49,020 'relaxes, eats well, breathes deeply, finds romance. 613 00:58:50,067 --> 00:58:53,401 'Everything is charming and picturesque. 614 00:58:57,992 --> 00:59:01,076 'But the concentration camp had become an integral part 615 00:59:01,203 --> 00:59:03,030 'of the German economic system. 616 00:59:03,163 --> 00:59:04,823 'So it was here too. 617 00:59:06,625 --> 00:59:08,701 'Able to see the mountains, 618 00:59:08,836 --> 00:59:11,327 'but what use are mountains without food?' 619 00:59:17,386 --> 00:59:20,221 'Even as Hitchcock and Bernstein worked, 620 00:59:20,347 --> 00:59:25,056 'events in post-war Europe were developing in unexpected directions. 621 00:59:28,188 --> 00:59:33,563 'In many of the camps, thousands of survivors remained, marooned. ' 622 00:59:33,694 --> 00:59:37,395 Now we were faced with, in Belsen anyway, 623 00:59:37,531 --> 00:59:40,366 over 20,000 who refused to go. 624 00:59:40,492 --> 00:59:41,868 And the same situation 625 00:59:41,994 --> 00:59:46,905 occurred in other concentration camps and slave labour 626 00:59:47,041 --> 00:59:49,329 all over the British part of Germany 627 00:59:49,460 --> 00:59:52,247 and the American part of Germany too. 628 00:59:52,379 --> 00:59:55,546 So all of a sudden we had another big problem on our hands - 629 00:59:55,674 --> 00:59:59,624 how to handle this humanitarian disaster situation. 630 01:00:04,558 --> 01:00:09,220 I was born in Bergen-Belsen in the displaced persons' camp. 631 01:00:09,355 --> 01:00:13,898 Both my parents were liberated at Belsen. 632 01:00:14,026 --> 01:00:15,650 My mother put together a team 633 01:00:15,778 --> 01:00:20,274 to work alongside the British medical personnel 634 01:00:20,407 --> 01:00:22,696 to try and save as many as possible 635 01:00:22,826 --> 01:00:27,619 of the thousands of critically ill survivors. 636 01:00:27,748 --> 01:00:31,532 At the same time, my father emerged 637 01:00:31,669 --> 01:00:37,043 as the leader, the political leader of the survivors. 638 01:00:38,217 --> 01:00:42,261 Most of them did not want to go back to their country of origin, 639 01:00:42,388 --> 01:00:47,346 but wanted to go, settle in Palestine or elsewhere - 640 01:00:47,476 --> 01:00:49,682 the United States, Canada and the like. 641 01:00:50,562 --> 01:00:55,723 And apparently the American answer was, "Definitely no. 642 01:00:55,859 --> 01:00:59,904 "We're not taking any ex-prisoners in. We've got problems of our own. " 643 01:01:01,699 --> 01:01:05,447 Britain said, "There's no way we're going to take hundreds of thousands 644 01:01:05,577 --> 01:01:10,038 "of these homeless, stateless people in. " 645 01:01:10,165 --> 01:01:13,285 So that was the situation. 646 01:01:13,419 --> 01:01:16,538 And so now of course I am in heaven. 647 01:01:16,672 --> 01:01:18,131 I am free. 648 01:01:18,257 --> 01:01:21,092 I am in Germany, but I am free. 649 01:01:21,218 --> 01:01:23,709 I can go anywhere I want to. 650 01:01:23,846 --> 01:01:26,301 And I'm thinking to myself, 651 01:01:26,432 --> 01:01:28,590 "Do I go back to Poland?" 652 01:01:28,726 --> 01:01:33,435 It was so bad in Poland, so bad for Jews. 653 01:01:33,564 --> 01:01:37,478 "Do I want to go back to Poland? But where do I go?" 654 01:01:37,610 --> 01:01:40,527 And I heard about at this time 655 01:01:40,654 --> 01:01:44,901 about Palestine, about Israel, 656 01:01:45,034 --> 01:01:47,240 and I said, "Those are my hopes. " 657 01:01:49,663 --> 01:01:52,617 'During May, June and July, 658 01:01:52,750 --> 01:01:57,376 'many Jewish survivors, ignoring the views of the British government, 659 01:01:57,504 --> 01:01:59,164 'went to Palestine, 660 01:01:59,298 --> 01:02:04,589 'where they found themselves either turned back or interned in camps. 661 01:02:04,720 --> 01:02:08,219 'The situation of the survivors was a complicating element 662 01:02:08,349 --> 01:02:12,181 'in a rapidly changing post-war political climate. ' 663 01:02:13,687 --> 01:02:18,349 Look, the so-called Hitchcock film 664 01:02:18,484 --> 01:02:21,935 or the Bernstein film, 665 01:02:22,071 --> 01:02:24,562 was made with the best of intentions. 666 01:02:25,991 --> 01:02:31,282 And at a given point became a political inconvenience. 667 01:02:31,413 --> 01:02:34,865 It would have evoked strong sympathy 668 01:02:35,000 --> 01:02:39,746 on the part of the average person seeing the film, 669 01:02:40,589 --> 01:02:44,172 of doing something to help these people 670 01:02:44,301 --> 01:02:49,640 and certainly film that was put together with the genius of a Hitchcock 671 01:02:49,765 --> 01:02:55,222 would undermine their own political position. 672 01:02:55,354 --> 01:02:59,268 At this time, the Brits had enough problems with the Jews already. 673 01:02:59,400 --> 01:03:01,333 And... 674 01:03:02,067 --> 01:03:06,148 given that, if you show people this movie, 675 01:03:06,240 --> 01:03:11,234 maybe people would say, "Why did the British not let these people, 676 01:03:11,370 --> 01:03:14,573 "who suffered so much, have their land? " 677 01:03:15,708 --> 01:03:17,949 'Britain's wartime coalition 678 01:03:18,085 --> 01:03:20,623 'was confronting other, more major problems. 679 01:03:20,754 --> 01:03:25,250 'A defeated and destroyed Germany, divided among the allies, 680 01:03:25,384 --> 01:03:28,967 'had now become the responsibility of the victors. 681 01:03:30,014 --> 01:03:33,596 'As the nation most heavily involved in the task of reconstruction, 682 01:03:33,726 --> 01:03:37,973 'Britain was anxious not to further alienate the German people, 683 01:03:38,105 --> 01:03:40,774 'whose help would be vital. 684 01:03:40,899 --> 01:03:42,144 'Furthermore, 685 01:03:42,276 --> 01:03:45,775 'with hints of what would become known as the Cold War appearing, 686 01:03:45,904 --> 01:03:49,653 'Germany was now seen as a potential future ally 687 01:03:49,783 --> 01:03:52,191 'against the Soviet Union. ' 688 01:03:55,873 --> 01:03:59,158 The evidence on the ground in occupied Germany, 689 01:03:59,293 --> 01:04:04,500 both in the American and British sectors, 690 01:04:04,632 --> 01:04:06,873 was indicating that the Germans 691 01:04:07,009 --> 01:04:11,920 had already been so bombarded with the message of their guilt... 692 01:04:12,973 --> 01:04:18,643 ...that there's no need for a film like this any longer at this time. 693 01:04:19,438 --> 01:04:24,230 'America, however, was still keen to show a shorter film in Germany 694 01:04:24,360 --> 01:04:28,192 'and had grown impatient with Bernstein's slow progress. 695 01:04:28,322 --> 01:04:31,691 'There were secret talks with Hollywood director Billy Wilder, 696 01:04:31,825 --> 01:04:34,945 'himself an Austrian refugee from the Nazis, 697 01:04:35,079 --> 01:04:38,329 'with a view to taking the film away from London. 698 01:04:41,752 --> 01:04:45,666 'In late June, a senior American in the Psychological Warfare Division, 699 01:04:45,798 --> 01:04:49,665 'wrote a confidential memo to his superior in Washington, 700 01:04:49,802 --> 01:04:52,471 'suggesting that the Bernstein team 701 01:04:52,596 --> 01:04:57,057 "should be relieved of all further responsibility for the picture. 702 01:04:59,228 --> 01:05:01,600 "It is our belief that Mr Bernstein 703 01:05:01,730 --> 01:05:05,064 "would be relieved to have the picture taken off his hands. 704 01:05:05,192 --> 01:05:09,653 "And now that Billy Wilder is with us, we are prepared to take over the job. 705 01:05:09,780 --> 01:05:13,992 "He would be appointed producer and also supervising director for the film. " 706 01:05:19,915 --> 01:05:22,038 The involvement of the Americans 707 01:05:22,167 --> 01:05:26,913 seems to have come to an end at the end of June '45 708 01:05:27,047 --> 01:05:33,168 when they'd really become exasperated that the British were getting nowhere. 709 01:05:33,304 --> 01:05:35,426 So they withdrew, 710 01:05:35,556 --> 01:05:40,301 and subsequently they carried on making a much shorter film 711 01:05:40,436 --> 01:05:41,930 directed by Billy Wilder, 712 01:05:42,062 --> 01:05:45,846 which was eventually released in their own sector. 713 01:05:45,983 --> 01:05:48,474 The film was called "Death Mills". 714 01:06:13,469 --> 01:06:15,378 The subject matter was similar, 715 01:06:15,512 --> 01:06:19,296 but the treatment of these two films was entirely different. 716 01:06:19,433 --> 01:06:22,054 The British film, Bernstein's film, 717 01:06:22,186 --> 01:06:25,471 was an artistically shaped film 718 01:06:25,606 --> 01:06:28,975 with a much profounder message 719 01:06:29,109 --> 01:06:34,151 that humanity must take note of what had happened. 720 01:06:34,281 --> 01:06:39,276 The American film was a much more hectoring short film, 721 01:06:39,411 --> 01:06:44,536 which simply accused the Germans of having committed these crimes. 722 01:06:44,667 --> 01:06:49,494 'At Belsen we caught the Camp Commander Josef Kramer, 723 01:06:49,630 --> 01:06:51,539 'the Beast of Belsen. 724 01:06:53,092 --> 01:06:54,669 'Men or women, 725 01:06:54,802 --> 01:06:58,253 'they were the Nazi elite, Himmler's own. 726 01:06:58,389 --> 01:07:01,306 'Amazons turned Nazi killers 727 01:07:01,433 --> 01:07:05,348 'were merciless in the use of the whip, practised in torture and murder. 728 01:07:06,480 --> 01:07:08,520 'Deadlier than the male. 729 01:07:14,571 --> 01:07:16,315 'When allied armies approached, 730 01:07:16,448 --> 01:07:20,991 'the Nazis often tried to rush their prisoners elsewhere. 731 01:07:21,120 --> 01:07:25,069 'Thousands were suffocated in overcrowded freight cars. 732 01:07:29,128 --> 01:07:33,920 'Many of the dead and the dying were flung into the water. 733 01:07:35,509 --> 01:07:40,420 'If the allies moved too rapidly, the Nazis attempted to kill their prisoners, 734 01:07:40,556 --> 01:07:43,841 'so that no witnesses of their crimes were left behind. 735 01:07:43,976 --> 01:07:48,223 'In Majdanek, in Ohrdruf, in many other camps, 736 01:07:48,355 --> 01:07:51,855 'thousands were murdered just before liberation. " 737 01:09:04,807 --> 01:09:07,891 'Ignoring the politics swirling around them, 738 01:09:08,018 --> 01:09:11,185 'Bernstein's team carried on throughout July. 739 01:09:11,313 --> 01:09:14,398 'At the end of the month Hitchcock returned to Hollywood. 740 01:09:14,525 --> 01:09:20,528 'On August 4th, a memo arrived from the British Foreign Office saying... 741 01:09:22,074 --> 01:09:25,657 ..."Policy at the moment in Germany is entirely in the direction 742 01:09:25,786 --> 01:09:28,194 "of encouraging, stimulating 743 01:09:28,330 --> 01:09:31,248 "and interesting the Germans out of their apathy, 744 01:09:31,375 --> 01:09:35,622 "and there are people around the Commander-in-Chief who will say, 745 01:09:35,754 --> 01:09:37,462 "No atrocity film. " 746 01:09:38,632 --> 01:09:42,084 'By September, the edit had been shut down. 747 01:09:42,219 --> 01:09:46,133 'The unfinished film, together with shot lists, cameramen's notes, 748 01:09:46,265 --> 01:09:50,476 'reels of footage and a copy of Crossman's completed script, 749 01:09:50,603 --> 01:09:53,520 'was labelled and filed away. 750 01:09:55,608 --> 01:09:58,525 'Bernstein moved on, crossing the Atlantic, 751 01:09:58,652 --> 01:10:03,398 'to begin a feature-film partnership with Alfred Hitchcock. 752 01:10:05,951 --> 01:10:08,489 'Bernstein's last recorded note on the film 753 01:10:08,621 --> 01:10:13,662 'was a letter from Hollywood to Peter Tanner, the editor, saying, 754 01:10:13,792 --> 01:10:17,956 "One day you will realise it has been worthwhile. " 755 01:10:21,383 --> 01:10:23,542 'Bernstein's documentary was shelved. 756 01:10:24,386 --> 01:10:29,095 'But the reels of film that he'd used still had a public role to play. 757 01:10:30,476 --> 01:10:36,265 'In the autumn of 1945, the trials of Nazi war criminals began 758 01:10:36,398 --> 01:10:42,401 'and the prosecutors found that they had a new and powerful source of evidence. 759 01:10:50,537 --> 01:10:53,538 'The first trial was that of Commandant Kramer 760 01:10:53,666 --> 01:10:56,501 'and his staff at Bergen-Belsen. 761 01:10:57,670 --> 01:11:02,462 'Kramer was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death. 762 01:11:16,063 --> 01:11:19,728 'Anita, who had survived both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, 763 01:11:19,858 --> 01:11:22,694 'and who appeared in the British liberation footage, 764 01:11:22,820 --> 01:11:25,940 'was one of those called upon to testify. ' 765 01:11:26,907 --> 01:11:32,328 I was asked to be a witness there and I said, "Yes, of course. " 766 01:11:32,454 --> 01:11:34,827 It was like a theatre performance and we said, 767 01:11:34,957 --> 01:11:38,373 "There are people defending these people? Are they crazy? 768 01:11:38,502 --> 01:11:41,171 "You see the crime... You see the crime. " 769 01:11:43,257 --> 01:11:48,002 'Later, in November, the International Military Tribunal or IMT 770 01:11:48,137 --> 01:11:50,425 'began in Nuremberg. 771 01:11:50,556 --> 01:11:53,841 'Here, too, film footage was part of the evidence. ' 772 01:12:02,192 --> 01:12:05,526 It certainly bolstered the prosecution. 773 01:12:05,654 --> 01:12:11,739 At the IMT, I think there's no question that people paid attention to the films 774 01:12:11,869 --> 01:12:16,412 and it informed people in the courtroom 775 01:12:16,540 --> 01:12:19,161 and confronted the defendants 776 01:12:19,293 --> 01:12:25,212 with a mass of demonstrable evidence of their activities 777 01:12:25,341 --> 01:12:27,084 over many years. 778 01:12:28,802 --> 01:12:33,464 We are now ready to hear the presentation by the prosecution. 779 01:12:36,393 --> 01:12:39,311 This was the tragic fulfilment 780 01:12:39,438 --> 01:12:43,685 of a programme of intolerance and arrogance. 781 01:12:45,152 --> 01:12:46,860 Vengeance is not our goal. 782 01:12:48,614 --> 01:12:52,065 Nor do we seek merely a just retribution. 783 01:12:54,036 --> 01:13:00,039 We ask this court to affirm by international penal action 784 01:13:00,167 --> 01:13:04,794 man's right to live in peace and dignity, 785 01:13:04,922 --> 01:13:07,757 regardless of his race or creed. 786 01:13:08,884 --> 01:13:11,292 I was appointed a chief prosecutor 787 01:13:11,428 --> 01:13:15,378 in what was surely the biggest murder trial in human history. 788 01:13:15,516 --> 01:13:20,012 And it was my first case and I was 27 years old. 789 01:13:20,145 --> 01:13:23,764 ...will show that the slaughter committed by these defendants... 790 01:13:24,942 --> 01:13:31,027 ...was dictated, not by military necessity, but by that supreme... 791 01:13:31,156 --> 01:13:35,949 'Even though Bernstein's 1945 film had been quietly dropped, 792 01:13:36,078 --> 01:13:38,367 'this was not the end of its story. 793 01:13:40,040 --> 01:13:45,082 '70 years later, an Imperial War Museum team completed the film 794 01:13:45,212 --> 01:13:48,628 'using the original shot sheets, script and rushes 795 01:13:48,757 --> 01:13:53,882 'to meticulously reconstruct Bernstein and Hitchcock's intended final section. ' 796 01:13:54,013 --> 01:13:56,883 We knew that it was a powerful piece of cinema 797 01:13:57,016 --> 01:13:58,842 and also had been made 798 01:13:58,976 --> 01:14:02,226 by some of the best film technicians and writers of the era. 799 01:14:03,480 --> 01:14:07,727 What we wanted to do was ultimately produce and complete the work 800 01:14:07,860 --> 01:14:09,734 of these original filmmakers. 801 01:14:42,269 --> 01:14:44,807 'This was the end of the journey 802 01:14:44,938 --> 01:14:48,770 'they had so confidently begun in 1933. 803 01:14:53,989 --> 01:14:58,069 '12 years? No. 804 01:14:58,202 --> 01:15:01,156 'In terms of barbarity and brutality, 805 01:15:01,288 --> 01:15:05,665 'they had travelled backwards for 12,000 years. 806 01:15:37,866 --> 01:15:42,078 'Unless the world learns the lesson these pictures teach, 807 01:15:42,204 --> 01:15:44,695 'night will fall. 808 01:15:47,960 --> 01:15:52,752 'But by God's grace, we who live will learn. "