5.8B What was a death camp like?

Between 1942 and 1945, millions of people were sent by force to one of six specially built camps in Eastern Europe. Once inside the so-called prisoners were either shot or gassed to death. Others were sent to concentration camps where they were put to work in terrible conditions. These films show appalling scenes from within these camps and the response as news reports and photographs reached the outside world.

AN END TO MURDER
2 MINS 20 SECS, SOUND, B/W, 1945

Contains distressing footage.

German civilians queue up outside a cinema in order to see a film detailing the atrocities committed at the Nazi concentration camp Belsen. The newsreel shows footage from the liberation of the camp, including medical treatment being given to survivors and the discovery of stores of items belonging to the victims.

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AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP
3 MINS 25 SECS, SILENT, B/W, 1945

Contains distressing footage.

Key Section- 01:32 to 02:30.

This silent, raw material from Auschwitz in Poland shows Russian soldiers upon the liberation of the camp. Much of this film is very upsetting, but the Key Section detailing the things left behind provides a good perspective on the people who had been at the camp.

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THE BELSEN TRIAL
1 MIN 37 SECS, SOUND, B/W, 1945

Key Section - 06:49 to end.

The Commandant of Belsen Concentration Camp, Joseph Kramer, and others accused of war crimes are put on trial at Luneberg, Germany in September 1945.