 by george c stevens lieutenant colonel army of the united states hereby certify that from one march nineteen forty five wait may nineteen forty five i was on active duty with the united states army signal core attached to supreme headquarters a light expeditionary forces and among my official duties was the direction of the photographing of nazi concentration camps and prison camps as liberated by a light force the motion pictures which will be shown following this affidavit were taken by official allied photographic teams in the course of their military duties each team being composed of military personnel under the direction of a commissioned office to the best of my knowledge in belief these motion pictures constitute a true representation of the individuals and scenes for they have not been altered in any respect since the exposures were made the accompanying narration is a true statement of the facts and circumstances under which these pictures were made george c stevens lieutenant colonel a u s one two before me the second day of october nineteen forty five james v donovan commander united states naval reserve e r kelloge lieutenant united states navy hereby certify that from nineteen twenty nine to nineteen forty one i was employed at twenty a century fox studios in hollywood california as a director of photographic effect and i'm familiar with all photographic techniques since the sixth of september nineteen forty one to the present date of the twenty seventh of august nineteen forty five i have been on active duty with the united states navy i have carefully examined the motion picture film to be shown following this affidavit and i said if i that the images of these excerpts from the original negative have not been retouched distorted or otherwise ordered in any respect and our true copies of the originals held in the vault of the united states army signal core these excerpts comprised six thousand feet of film selected from eighty thousand feet all of which i have reviewed and all of which is similar in character to these excerpts e r kelloge lieutenant united states navy sworn to before me this twenty seventh day of august nineteen forty five 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 two hundred political prisoners were burned to death at this concentration camp near leipzig others among the original total of three hundred and fifty inmates were shot down by germany 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 twelve s s troopers and a gestapo agent lured two hundred twenty 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 offense which was the final hurdle for those fleeing the flames the leipzig victims were russians checks poles and french the dead are viewed by russian women liberated from slave labor that panic germany a concentration camp was overrun by the sixth armored division containing mainly hungarians who were people of wealth and esteem in their native country among them were young girls of only sixteen 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 belong 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 go to area the german starved clubbed and burned to death more than four thousand 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 our generals omore and bradley and george s patent fourth armored division of general patents third army liberated this camp early in april the generals view they see the woodshed where line covered bodies are stacked in layers in the stenches overpower former 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 we have nothing to conceal the barbers 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 charred remains of several inmates still a heap to top the grill another group to visit the or drew camp is composed of local towns people including prominent nazi party members they'll be taken on a forced tour of the camp site by colonel hide and sears commander of the fourth armored divisions combat command a which captured or drew a german medical major is compelled to accompany the towns people colonel sears stands by as the nazis are informed that they must see all the horrors at the camp first the visitors view some thirty freshly killed bodies lying in the courtyard of the camp where they've been shot on the evening preceding the entry of american tanks these two are identified as slave labor bosses who maltreated 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 or drew they are taken to the crematory two miles outside the camp where the list of the atrocities is read for all to hear four thousand or drew victims are said to include polls checks russians belgians frenchmen german jews and german political prisoners a day before these nazis visited the camp the bergameister of or drew force 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 thirty five thousand polls russians and germans sent here mainly for political and religious considerations those still alive or examined by major herman balker of the american war crimes investigation team the townspeople and how to mark germany called this place the house of shutters meanwhile at the graveyard attached to the institution bodies are exhumed for autopsy twenty thousand are buried here fifteen thousand who died in a lethal gas chamber were cremated and their ashes entered death books found hidden in the wine cellar of the how to mark 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 w c i t officers major balker performs the autopsy a detailed listing is made of all clinical data interrogating the institution heads dr volman the taller man was the top not see 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 morphe the testimony of other witnesses substantiated the fact that morphe was issued at the institution without attempt at making a record as many as seventeen at a time died from the morphe 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 twenty to twenty four the prisoners are removed to await trial i had to mark judge told the investigators that when the ten thousandth victim died the institution heads and that's the official stage to celebration this is bring down prison in belgium it offers evidence of not see 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 barbed wire stick was used in the backs of the man 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 burlin made thumbscrew and how it was used a victim shows scars caused by repeated beatings others show what happened to them as a result 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 harlan concentration camp near hanover out of ten thousand polish men brought here ten months prior to april nineteen forty five only two hundred remain 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 mobile the man 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 bunked 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 prisoners were mainly poles and russians mal-treated and starved 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 slave labor camp at nordhausen liberated by the third armored division first army at least three thousand 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 v-bomb plants and in other german camps and factories amid the corpses are human skeletons too weak to move now 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 survivors are shown being evacuated for treatment in allied hospitals the victims are mainly poles and russians with considerable numbers of french and other nationalities also included in the camp roster the master of nordhausen is ordered to provide six hundred german male civilians will enter the twenty five hundred unburied bodies at the camp his last rights for the dead while the corpses are being carried to the hillside for burial then the actual burial in common graves of the twenty five hundred nordhausen victims senior grade jack h taylor u.s. navy hollywood california believe it or not the first time i've ever been in the movies i've been working overseas in occupied countries eighteen months october forty four allied officer austria i was captured december first by the severely beaten even though i was in uniform severely beaten and considered as a non-prisoner of war i was taken to vienna prison for four months when the russians near to vienna i was taken to this one thousand concentration an extermination camp the worst in germany we have been starving and beaten and killed fortunately my turn hadn't come two american officers at least have been executed here the insignia of one u.s. naval officer and here is the dog tag here is the army officer executed by gas in this locker uh... five or six ways by gas by shooting by beating that is beating with clubs uh... by exposure that is standing out in the snow naked for forty eight hours having cold water thrown on them in the middle of winter starvation dogs and pushing over a hundred foot cliff this is all true has been seen and is now being recorded this uniform uh... i came here in uniform but it was taken away from me and this was substituted with my number and u.s.a i have been condemned to death as an american also in this camp but fortunately the 11th army division has come through in savings and time pictorial evidence of the almost unprecedented crimes perpetrated by the nazis at the buccan vault concentration camp the story in 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 one thousand boys under fourteen years of age are included among the twenty thousand still alive at the camp but the survivors are males only and at the recent death rate was about two hundred 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 eighty thousand in the official report the buccan vault camp has 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 hundreds 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 the ovens used by ss guards the body disposal plant inside are the ovens which gave the crematorium a maximum disposal capacity of about four hundred bodies per ten hour day gold-filled teeth were extracted from bodies before incineration the ovens of extremely modern design and heated by coat 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 two hundred civilians walked 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 correspondence 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 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 enthusiasts 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 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 buildings hanging in orderly rows with 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 vents on the ceiling the dummy shower heads in the engineers room the intake and outlet pipes 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 other survivors I am the officer commanding the regiment of Royal Artillery guarding this camp our most un-task has been making the SS of which there are about 50 in the dead up to probably buried about 17,000 people and that we expect to bury about half as much again when we came here conditions were indescribable the people had had no food for six days and were eating turnips the cook houses 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 woman 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 was a prisoner at this camp 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 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 they cut them out and ate them they didn't want to give us medicines and the SS men had the whole year eaten them which was given by the Red Cross to us and two days earlier before the British army came 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 had been sent to the children of the camp 10 kilograms were distributed the rest the commandant kept for himself and used it as barter to his personal advantage for example 20 centimeters cubic centimeters of gasoline intravenous spray so that after a few minutes the man died in such a way you experimented on us women young 19-year-old beautiful women and the different gynecological operations which caused the victims 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 Belsen 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 S-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 was Bergen-Belsen