Universal Newsreel – Nazi Murder Mills (1945)

“(1) “First actual newsreel pictures of atrocities in Nazi murder camps. Helpless prisoners tortured to death by a bestial enemy…Here Is The Truth” (Real-life horror pictures revealing the unbelievable atrocities committed by the Nazis in their murder camps) Grasleben: Wounded and emaciated Yanks, captured in von Runstedt’s bulge attack of last winter, are fed and given medical care by the Yank armies of liberation.

Hadamar: Protected by gas masks, grave diggers open reeking graves at this converted insane asylum. They discover that 35,000 political prisoners had been slain here, largely by poisoning. Camp Ohrdruf: General Eisenhower, General Patton, and General Bradley can hardly believe their eyes when they view torture-gallows, heaps of charred human bodies and lime pits filled with corpses. Although they recoil, Nazi officials are forced to enter barns containing rows of decomposing, lime-sprinkled bodies. Buchenwald: 21,000 prisoners living in utter filth, stumble around with their broken skulls. Agonized corpses lie everywhere with large tattooed numbers on their sunken stomachs. Two roast ovens were used as crematoria. “Nordhausen: Starved corpses strew the ground. Creeping, jabbering, breathing skeletons are loaded into ambulances for possible treatment. Plump German civilians are forced to handle corpses with their bare hands and carry them to huge mass graves for a semi-civilized burial.” scenes of prisoners liberated from camps, given broth and medical attention; graves uncovered, interrogations to uncover truth; Ohrdruf camp viewed by Ike, Bradley, Patton; (2) Nations Meet To Map World Security Plan – “The San Francisco Conference of 46 United Nations, summoned to draft a charter for a post-war organization to secure peace, is officially opened by Secretary of State Edward Stettinius. In a speech from the White House, President Truman states ‘if we do not want to die together in war, we must learn to live together in peace.'” scenes of delegates arrive; first session opens with gavel held by Stettinius, Truman speech. (complete newsreel)”

This film is part of the Universal Newsreel Collection.