 C. Stephen Colonel, Army of the United States, hereby certify that from the 1st of March, 1945 to the 8th of May, 1945, I was on active duty with the United States Army Signal Corps, a set to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces. And among my official duties was the direction of the photographing of Nazi concentration camps and prison camps as liberated by Allied forces. The motion pictures, which will be shown following this affidavit, were taken by official United States Army Signal Corps photographic teams in the course of their military duties under my command, each team being composed of military personnel under the direction of a commissioned officer. To the best of my knowledge and belief, these motion pictures constitute a true representation of the individual's and seen photograph. They have not been altered in any respect since the exposures were made. The accompanying narration is a true statement of the fact and circumstances under which these pictures were made. George C. Stephen's Colonel, Army of the United States, born to before me this 27th day of August, 1945, Edward C. Betz, Brigadier General, United States Army, Judge Advocate General, European Theater of Operations, I. E. R. Kellogg, Lieutenant, United States Navy, hereby certifies that from 1929 to 1941, I was employed at 20th Century Fox Studios in Hollywood, California as the director of photographic effects, and I'm familiar with all photographic techniques. Since the 6th of September, 1941, to the present day of the 27th of August, 1945, I have been on active duty with the United States Navy. I have carefully examined the motion pictures filmed to be shown following this affidavit, and I certify that the images of these excerpts from the original negative have not been retouched, distorted, or otherwise altered in any respect, and are true copies of the originals held in the vault of the United States Army Signal Corps. These excerpts comprise 6,000 feet of film selected from 80,000 feet, all of which I have reviewed, and all of which is similar in character to these excerpts. E. R. Kellogg, Lieutenant, United States Navy, born to before me this 27th day of August, 1945, John Ford, Captain, United States Navy. These are the locations of the largest concentration and prison camps maintained throughout Germany and occupied Europe under the Nazi regime. This film report, covering a representative group of such camps, illustrates the general conditions which prevailed. More than 200 political prisoners were burned to death at this concentration camp near Leipzig. Others among the original total of 350 inmates were shot down by German elite guards as they dashed from the prison huts to celebrate the arrival of American troops outside the city. The atrocity story is told by the few who managed to survive. They relate how 12 SS troopers and the Gestapo agent lured 220 starving prisoners into a big wooden building at this camp, sprayed the structure with an inflammable liquid, and then applied the torch. Machine guns set up at various vantage points, mowed down many victims who ran from the burning building. Some miraculously escaped the hail of bullets but were electrocuted by the live wires of a fence, which was the final hurdle for those fleeing the flames. The nights as victims were Russians, Czechs, Poles, and French. The dead are viewed by Russian women liberated from slave labor. That painting, Germany, a concentration camp was overrun by the 6th Armored Division containing mainly Hungarians who were people of wealth and esteem in their native country. Among them were young girls of only 16 years of age. The women show the scars of miserable existence under Nazi prison rule. American doctors examine the victims. Some have gangrenous wounds. Others suffer from fever, tuberculosis, typhus, and additional communicable diseases. All existed under appalling conditions in vermin-infested quarters and with little or nothing to eat. As soon as our troops arrived, arrangements were made to remove these people from the miserable surroundings. Under supervision of the American Red Cross, the stricken inmates are removed to a hospital which belonged to the German Air Force. Nazis who formally maltreated them are forced to help look after the patients. The staff of German nurses is also forced to attend the victims. The women are able to smile for the first time in years. At this concentration camp in the Gota area, the Germans starved, clubbed, and burned to death more than 4,000 political prisoners over a period of eight months. A few captives survived by hiding in the woods. The camp is chosen for a high command inspection led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Also present are Generals Omar N. Bradley and George S. Patton. The 4th Armored Division of General Patton's 3rd Army liberated this camp early in April. The generals view the rack that was used by the Nazis to whip the inmates. They see the woodshed where lime-covered bodies are stacked in layers and the stench is overpowering. The inmates demonstrate how they were tortured by the Nazis. American congressmen invited to view the atrocities were told by General Eisenhower, nothing is covered up. You have nothing to conceive. The barbarous treatment these people received in the German concentration camps is almost unbelievable. I want you to see for yourselves and be the spokesman for the United States. The general and his party next see the crude woodland crematory, actually a grill made of railway tracks. Here, the bodies of victims were cremated. Charged remains of several inmates still lay heaped atop the grill. Another group to visit the Ordruf camp is composed of local townspeople, including prominent Nazi party members. They'll be taken on a forced tour of the camp site by Colonel Haydn Sears, commander of the 4th Armored Division's Combat Command A, which captured Ordruf. A German medical major is compelled to accompany the townspeople. Colonel Sears stands by as the Nazis are informed that they must see all the horrors at the camp. First, the visitors view some 30 freshly killed bodies lying in the courtyard of the camp where they'd been shot on the evening preceding the entry of American tanks. These two are identified as slave labor bosses who mal-treated tortured and killed their workers. Next to the woodshed, which the Nazis are reluctant to enter. But Colonel Sears demands that they get a close-up look at the most gruesome of sites. The labor bosses enter. According to reports, the local Nazis continued their tour of the camp without apparent emotion. All denied knowledge of what had taken place at Ordruf. They are taken to the crematory two miles outside the camp where the list of the atrocities is read for all to hear. 4,000 Ordruf victims are said to include Poles, Czechs, Russians, Belgians, Frenchmen, German Jews, and German political prisoners. The day before these Nazis visited the camp, the Bergermeister of Ordruf was forced to view the horrors. He and his wife were later found dead in their home, apparently suicides. American officers arrive at a Nazi institution seized by First Army troops. Under the guise of an insane asylum, this has been the headquarters for the systematic murder of 35,000 Poles, Russians, and Germans sent here mainly for political and religious considerations. Those still alive are examined by Major Herman Boker of the American War Crimes Investigation Team. The townspeople in Hadamar, Germany called this place the House of Shudders. Meanwhile, at the graveyard attached to the institution, bodies are exhumed for autopsy. 20,000 are buried here. 15,000 who died in a lethal gas chamber were cremated and their ashes interred. Death books found hidden in the wine cellar of the Hadamar institution revealed part of the story of the mass killings. The bulky volumes contain thousands of death certificates. Profession unknown, nationality unknown, was written after each name. The corpses are lined up pending the arrival of WCIT officers. Major Boker performs the autopsy. A detailed listing is made of all clinical data interrogating the institution heads. Dr. Vollmann, the taller man, was the top Nazi in charge of the place. The other man entering the room is Carl Billy, chief male nurse. He admits to killing inmates with overdoses of morphine. The testimony of other witnesses substantiated the fact that morphine was issued at the institution without attempt of making a record. As many as 17 at a time died from the morphine injections. The investigating officers were told that the Nazis never bothered to determine whether a victim may have survived the overdoses. Instead, all were hustled off to the graveyard and buried in piles of 20 to 24. The prisoners are removed to await trial. A Hadamar judge told the investigators that when the 10,000th victim died, the institution heads and Nazi officials staged a celebration. Shtalag's 6th sea for Russian prisoners was liberated in the rapid advance of the 4th Canadian Armored Division. The inmates are deloused after long subjection to the filth and disease of the mapine camp. Roll call was held every day and all prisoners were compelled to line up regardless of their physical condition. In reenacting life at the camp, the men show how they searched the garbage for scraps of food. This was considered a privilege. Approximately 2,500 Russians died at this camp in a one month period. One bit of sport which the Nazi commandant indulged in was to turn loose German police dogs for attacks on the physically handicapped who were unable to report promptly for the daily inspection. The dead are removed for burial. Shtalag's 6th F in northeast Münster. 9th Army troops assist AMG officials in caring for the liberated Frenchmen in Belgium. The men can leave anytime they wish, but they must have a pass to get back in. They are fed sea rations and potatoes. Most foods are too rich for their famished bodies and they cannot eat the sea rations unless a small portion is mixed with potatoes or a stew made of grass. Most of the inmates seem to have forgotten how to take care of themselves. All living quarters were crowded and filthy with trash and refuse in every corner. Electricity and water supply were nonexistent at the camp when the Americans took over. These conveniences are rapidly restored for the hapless victims. This is Breendank prison in Belgium. It offers evidence of Nazi brutality imposed on Belgian patriots during the period of German occupation. Many of the horror exhibits remain untouched, such as the bloodstained coffins. Demonstrating how the victims were tied up for administering vicious beatings. A barbed wire stick was used on the backs of the men. Another method for rendering a patriot helpless while he was attacked by his Gestapo guards. The Nazis also would tie a man in chains in this manner and then apply the tourniquet. Berlin made thumbscrew and how it was used. The victim shows scars caused by repeated beatings. Others show what happened to them as results of both beatings and cigarette burns. A Belgian demonstrates the manner in which his crotch was split by the Nazis. A woman discloses the results of a beating. The slave labor camp at Nordhausen liberated by the Third Armored Division, First Army. At least 3,000 political prisoners died here at the brutal hands of SS troops and pardoned German criminals who were the camp guards. Nordhausen had been a depository for slaves found unfit for work in the underground B-bomb plants and in other German camps and factories. American medical crews find 2,000 still alive at the camp. They are discovered inside filthy barracks where the survival and death were contingent on how long human existence was possible on the daily ration of potato peels, one slice of bread and an occasional bowl of a liquid that was supposedly soup. The dead quickly outnumbered the living. Amid the corpses are human skeletons too weak to move. Men of our medical battalions work two days and nights binding wounds and giving medications. But for advanced cases of starvation and tuberculosis, there were often no cures. The survivors are shown being evacuated for treatment in allied hospitals. The victims are mainly poles and brushes with considerable numbers of French and other nationalities also included in the camp roster. The Bergermeister of Nordhausen is ordered to provide 600 German male civilians who will entirer the 2,500 unburied bodies at the camp. A priest administers last rites for the dead while the corpses are being carried to the hillside for burial. All day long, the German civilians carry the gruesome corpses, some of which are already green and putrified. Then the actual burial in common graves of the 2,500 Nordhausen victims. Farland concentration camp near Hanover. Out of 10,000 Polish men brought here 10 months prior to April 1945, only 200 remained. Prisoners who could walk were removed before American troops entered Hanover. The others were left to starve and die. Immediate relief was provided for the men with the arrival of a Red Cross club mobil. The men broke into tears when they were given hot soup, other food and cigarettes and clothing. When questioned, most of these men could not remember when they'd last eaten a decent meal. Many had been beaten and tortured so long their minds had failed. Some of the inmates are too weak to leave their bunks or even eat. Others bunk together to keep their frail bodies warm. The deaths continue even after liberation of the camp. Some were too far gone when the Americans took over. An AMG sergeant checks the list of inmates. The victims relate the atrocity story and photographs are made for further documentation of the horrors committed at the Hanover camp. This concentration camp was overrun by American troops in April. The prisoners were mainly Poles and Russians. Mal treated and starved, 1700 were housed in tents which contained only 100 bunks. While our forces were nearing Arnstadt, the Nazis removed most of the captives. They shot those who were too weak to get away fast enough. Savage watchdogs were used to help guard the camp. German civilians are forced to dig up the bodies. This is the second burial ground for the victims. The spot where they were originally buried after the massacre was apparently too close to the town. The Arnstadt villagers could not tolerate the stench of the death and they themselves moved the bodies to this site. Now they again must exhume the corpses, this time under armed persuasion. Victims bear the marks of violent deaths. American troops view the evidence of Nazi barbarism. 1200 civilians walk from the neighboring city of Weimar to begin a forced tour of the camp. There are many smiling faces and according to observers, at first the Germans act as though this was something being staged for their benefit. One of the first things that the German civilians see as they reach the interior of the camp is the parchment display. On a table for all to gaze upon is a lampshade made of human skin, made at the request of an SS officer's wife. Large pieces of skin have been used for painting pictures, many of an obscene nature. There are two heads which have been shrunk to one fifth their normal size. These and other exhibits of Nazi origin are shown to the townspeople. The camera records the changes in facial expressions as the Weimar citizens leave the parchment display. The tour continues with a forced inspection of the camp's living quarters, where the stench, filth, and misery defied description. They see the result of lack of care in the bad case of trench foot. Other evidences of horror, brutality, and human indecency are shown and these people are compelled to see what their own government had perpetrated. Correspondents assigned to the Buchenwald story have given wide notice to the well-fed, well-dressed appearance of the German civilian population of the Weimar area. I'm Lieutenant Senior Grade Jack H. Taylor, US Navy, from Hollywood, California. Believe it or not, it's the first time I've ever been in the movies. I've been working overseas in occupied countries in the Balkans for 18 months. In October, 44, I was the first Allied officer to go to the Austria. I was captured December 1st by the Gestapo, severely beaten, even though I was in uniform, severely beaten and considered as a non-prisoner of war. I was taken to Vienna, prison, where I was held for four months. When the Russians neared Vienna, I was taken to this Mauthausen concentration camp, an extermination camp, the worst in Germany, where we have been starving and beaten and killed. Unfortunately, my turn hadn't come. Two American officers, at least, have been executed here. Here is the insignia of one, a US naval officer, and here is his dog tag. Here is the army officer, executed by gas in this locker. How many ways to the exit? Five or six ways. By gas, by shooting, by beating. That is, beating with clubs, by exposure. That is, standing out in the snow naked, 48 hours and having cold water thrown on them in the middle of winter. Starvation, dogs, and pushing over a 100 foot cliff. This, this is all true, has been seen and is now being recorded. Where did you get that uniform you have on? This uniform, I came here in uniform, but it was taken away from me, and this was substituted with my number, and USA. I have been condemned to death as another American also in this camp. Unfortunately, the 11th Army Division has come through and saved us some time. Pictorial evidence, unprecedented crimes perpetrated by the Nazis at the Buchenwald concentration camp. The story and written form is contained in the official report of the prisoner of war and displaced persons division of the United States Group Control Council, which has been forwarded from supreme allied headquarters to the War Department in Washington. It states that 1,000 boys under 14 years of age are included among the 20,000 still alive at the camp, that the survivors are males only, and that the recent death rate was about 200 a day. Nationalities and prison numbers are tattooed on the stomachs of the inmates. The report lists the surviving inmates as representing every European nationality. It says the camp was founded when the Nazi Party first came into power in 1933 and has been in continuous operation ever since, although its largest populations date from the beginning of the present war. One estimate put the camp's normal complement at 80,000. In the official report, the Buchenwald camp is termed an extermination factory. The means of extermination? Starvation complicated by hard work, abuse, beatings and tortures, incredibly crowded sleeping conditions and sicknesses of all types. By these means, the report continues, many tens of thousands of the best leadership personnel of Europe have been exterminated. Bodies stacked one upon the other were found outside the crematory. The Nazis maintained a building at the camp for medical experiments and vivisections with prisoners as guinea pigs. Medical scientists came from Berlin periodically to reinforce the experimental staff. In particular, new toxins and antitoxins were tried out on prisoners. Few who entered the experimental buildings ever emerged alive. One of the weapons used by SS guards. The body disposal plant. Inside are the ovens which gave the crematorium a maximum disposal capacity of about 400 bodies per 10-hour day. Gold-filled teeth were extracted from bodies before incineration. The ovens of extremely modern design and heated by coke were made by a concern which customarily manufactures baking ovens. The firm's name is clearly inscribed. All bodies were finally reduced to bone ash. Dachau, factory of horrors. Dachau near München, one of the oldest of the Nazi prison camps. It is known that from 1941 to 1944 up to 30,000 people were entombed here at one time. And 30,000 were present when the allies reached Dachau. The Nazis said it was a prison for political dissenters, habitual criminals, and religious infusions. When these scenes were filmed, over 1,600 priests, representing many denominations, still remained alive. They came from Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, and Holland. Incoming prison trains arrived, carrying more dead than living. Those strong enough to travel were brought to Dachau from outlying points, which were threatened by the Allied advance. This is how they looked when they arrived. In many instances, prisoners were loaded into open railroad cars and freighted across the country in winter weather. They died of exposure, starvation, dysentery, typhus. Some survived. And when the rescuers arrived, they administered what aid they could. Others died after the liberation. They were buried by their fellow prisoners. As in the case of other camps, local townspeople were brought in to view the dead at Dachau. This is what the liberators found inside the building. Hanging in orderly rows were the clothes of prisoners who had been suffocated in a lethal gas chamber. They had been persuaded to remove their clothing under the pretext of taking a shower for which towels and soap were provided. This is the Browsbad, the shower bath. Inside the shower bath, the gas vent. On the ceiling, the dummy shower heads. In the engineer's room, the intake and outlet pipe. Push buttons to control inflow and outtake of gas. A hand valve to regulate pressure. Cyanide powder was used to generate the lethal smoke. From the gas chamber, the bodies were removed to the crematory. Here is what the camera crew found inside. These are the survivors. I am the officer commanding the regiment of Royal Artillery guarding this camp. Our most unpleasant task has been making the SS, of which there are about 50, buried to dead. Up to press, we have buried about 17,000 people. And we expect to bury about half as much agai. When we came here, conditions were indescribable. The people had had no food for six days and were eating turnips. The cookhouses have now been organized. And although they have to be guarded so that everybody gets a fair share of the food, things are now going fairly well. The officers and men regard this job as a duty that has to be performed and none of us are likely to forget what the German people have done here. Each of the women doctor at Concentration Camp, Bergen-Belsen, 24th of April 1945. This is the doctor in charge of the female section of the Concentration Camp, Bergen-Belsen. She says, there were no covers, straw stacks or beds of any kind. Persons had to lie directly on the ground. They were given one-twelfth of a loaf of bread and some watery soup daily. Almost 75% of the people were bloated from hunger. They were given one-twelfth of a loaf of bread and some watery soup daily. Almost 75% of the people were bloated from hunger. An epidemic of typhus broke out. 250 women and thousands of men died daily. In the men's camp, they cut out liver, heart and other parts of the dead and ate them. No medicines were available because the SS men had collected everything. Two days before the British Army came, the first Red Cross food was distributed. Two months before, 150 kilograms of chocolate was distributed. The SS men were given one-twelfth of a loaf of bread and some watery soup daily. Before, 150 kilograms of chocolate had been sent to the children of the camp. Ten kilograms were distributed, the rest the commandant kept for himself, and used it as barter to his personal advantage. She adds that various medical experiments were made on the prisoners. Doctors gave some of them intravenous injections of 20 cubic centimeters of benzene, which caused the victim to die. She adds that various medical experiments were made on the prisoners. Doctors gave some of them intravenous injections of 20 cubic centimeters of benzene, which caused the victim to die. She concludes by saying that sterilizations and other gynecological experiments were performed on 19-year-old girls. Kramer, camp commandant, is taken into custody. Such was the speed of the Allied advance that the guards were taken before they had time to flee. Inside Belton, the same story. Starvation and sickness. Liberated prisoners could not control their emotions. Despite German attempts to cover up, we found these in the open fields. Clear-cut evidence of beatings and outright murder was on every hand. Nameless victims were numbered for records which the Germans destroyed. SS guards were impressed to clean up the camp area. German woman guards were ordered to bury the dead. Sanitary conditions were so appalling that heavy equipment had to be brought in to speed the work of cleaning up. This was Bergen-Belton.