All language subtitles for Memory of the Camps Alfred Hitchcock - Ντοκιμαντερ (720p_25fps_H264-192kbit_AAC).English

seventy years ago in April 1945 camera

crews with the British and American

armies entered the Nazi death camps and

filmed the horror they found there the

edited film remained unfinished with

missing soundtracks stored for decades

in the archives of the Imperial War

Museum in London

the film's directors including Alfred

Hitchcock had developed a script to go

with the pictures so in 1985 frontline

reconstituted the film as closely as

possible to what we believed the

producers intended they made it as a

document to serve our collective memory

at least six million people died in Nazi

Germany's system of camps more than

three million were Jews

[Music]

[Applause]

in March 1933 17 million two hundred and

sixty four thousand two hundred and

ninety-six Germans voted for the

National Socialist Party

[Music]

[Applause]

20 million six hundred and eighty

thousand others cast their vote for

Democrats communists Christian

socialists People's Party etcetera

etcetera

lack of unity among these parties

supposing the Nazis proved fatal

the National Socialist Party was in

power

[Applause]

they made many claims and many promises

the German people had embarked on that

long incredible journey that led

seemingly out of chaos to unprecedented

triumph

[Applause]

promise after promise had been fulfilled

Austria 1938 Czechoslovakia 1938 Poland

1939 Norway Denmark and France in quick

succession

[Applause]

a place in the Sun at last

[Applause]

true they had lost their trade unions

and a lot of books have been burned but

it seemed a good sort of bargain one got

to like being told what to do having

one's views prescribed especially if it

meant of this brightness with the

promise of grandeur and concrete

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

in the spring of 1945 the Allies

advancing into the heart of Germany came

to bergen-belsen

neat and tidy orchards well-stocked

farms lined the wayside and the British

soldier did not fail to admire the place

that its inhabitants at least until he

began to feel a smell it came from a

concentration camp a waste ringed with

barbed wire and overlooked by

watchtowers coming in from the flowering

countryside in spite of the frightful

spell things didn't seem so bad at first

children smiled through the barbed wire

and women laughed and waved their hands

but Belson camp was vast and inside was

a different story

they had not eaten for six days and

every soldier's stock of food was called

in to use water two had been cut off and

so the water cart was the most important

thing to arrive most of the people

seemed to be listless beyond hope and

astonishment hanga had probably affected

them that way we discovered that among

this stench of disease and decay was

something a bit worse than hunger moving

vaguely on rickety's skeleton legs they

were too ill to eat how grateful they

were for a kindly word or gesture what

misery to live amongst such

unmentionable filth was scarcely the

strength to pick the lice which

inevitably swarmed over them they seemed

accustomed to the smell and the horror

they had seen all there was to see huts

were almost impossible

to go near they were full of tangled

messes of people who had died slowly and

painfully of starvation and disease

writhing in agony helpless in puddles of

excrement it was difficult to imagine

those orchards now those rich fields

where the storied cattle cropped the

juicy grass for here a few minutes away

inside the barbed wire was nothing but

filth and death dead prisoners held out

and stacked in twisted heaps dead women

like marble statues in the mire this was

what these inmates had to live among and

die among

the dead which lay there were not

numbered in hundreds but in thousands

not one or two thousands but 30,000 here

is a pit where the inmates in order to

earn food had to drag the bodies of

their comrades but they were too weak to

keep up with the rate at which they were

dying so the pit remains only half

filled

the SS gods in charge of the camp were

captured and lined up for examination

their papers were gone through to

confirm their status they're all thority

each with his death head badge

each justified by German law they were

unashamed well-fed well-dressed and

cheerful there were women also on guard

in Belsen volunteers who came of their

own free will to do their bit not sickly

pale with hollow faces and angry eyes

but well-fed and well-kept with a

strutting arrogance the Commandant of

the camp Joseph Kramer was removed for

trial as a war criminal by an allied

military court

there was an urgent need to get rid of

as many bodies as possible as quickly as

possible so all the SS were set to work

500 Hungarian troops captured with the

SS were started on a grave digging

operation the SS themselves were made to

do the unpleasant job they had forced

the inmates to do this after all was

nothing to these men they the master

race had been taught to be hard they

could kill in cold blood and it seemed

to the British soldier Fitz and proper

that the killers should bury the

nameless hopeless creatures they had

starved to death

the faces of the bystanders showed just

a little of the hate that Germany has

inspires and some of the anguish to

meanwhile back at the camp those who

were still living were being attended to

supplies of hot soup were prepared and

those who could eat unaided were fed as

quickly as possible

there had been no water supply for six

days the Germans pleaded it had been cut

we laid on water in a few hours and

before twelve hours had passed had

sufficient to enable them to wash soap

was provided the first they had seen for

months and an orgy of washing ensued

a mobile bath unit was set up and

provided hot water for baths inmates

thought there was a staggered first

expected to be beaten for going near it

probably when they learn that the dream

was true hot water

and these are the people that nasi said

delighted in being dirty

but the job of clearing up Belsen was a

big one

[Music]

the Burger masters and civil officials

of the neighborhood were brought to

witness the scenes that had been caused

as part of the Nazi scheme of things

this is not what they expected it had

been happening for years but they

shrugged their shoulders and beat their

brows and tried to say it had been none

of their business but they were mostly

silent

the SS men are not so [ __ ] and span now

seven days of being shouted and cursed

at and handling corpses by the hundred

are beginning to tell

after seven dreadful days the funerals

still go on there seems to be no end

each hand said dr. Fritz climb being our

that under 30 are in concentrations

rather been born until scientists in

November after doctors out of Austin

films to share our culture us Romanian

UN's pressure high tech and heroes and

not really knowing who the team will get

they were given an address by a British

officer through a loudspeaker and the DZ

D theta and bruda they're dodging

yugantar Stellan saying for Erin Logan I

[ __ ] discerner

intact ur d einen Klein and tile their

direction Ferrand Watley flight Verdes a

fabrication dragon I Klein a tile newer

on Doc Farah - Etrigan else s dimension

Salem ugly hist above they're

practically affair and bottle Z DZ Iran

Fuhrer el out Harbin these in Himmel

randon fans in aus - theorem Z DZ Z

Hoover DISA and Arterton three infer

leak a new tune countin Z D fond dicen

la ganga hurt happen

one might ask why all the inmates

surviving we're not removed out of the

camp altogether to a large town for

example where there would be feeding and

housing facilities the answer is simply

the dread word typhus a mobile

bacteriological unit and all medical aid

possible together with 90 medical

students from London hospitals were

rushed to the spot to deal with it lack

of soap and water brought lice to the

inmates and lice carry typhus

to get rid of typhus one must first get

rid of lice so contaminated patients

were removed from their huts and put

through a laundry process

DDT was dusted over them and they were

washed clean wrapped in blankets and

removed in clean ambulances by teams

working in relays in a miracle of relief

work

two miles away from the camp was thought

a large ss-panzer training school and

hospital well-stocked with medical

supplies strange that these should not

have been used by the Germans for the

inmates scores still died everyday they

were too far gone many of them to digest

any food and there was a desperate

shortage of nursing staff still one

could be thankful that they were not

simply being left to rot away with

neglect there were children too in

Belsen camp there what crime they had

committed was difficult to imagine most

of them had been saved by the women

inmates who gave up what little food

they could get to the children meals for

these children had always been few and

far between

so they ate what food we gave them with

infinite care nothing could be more

dreadful now and to lose a piece of

potato or a drop of soup

clothes was another urgent problem so an

outfitting Department was set up and

clothes gathered from shops in the

surrounding towns we're soon being tried

on and gossiped over as women love to do

there was something symbolic about new

clothes new clothes meant renewed hope

they donned them with pride

now he can look forward to growing up to

useful manhood there were more than 200

children under 12 years old found still

alive in Belsen camp to these children

clean dry clothes and kind words from a

stranger were strange undreamed-of

mysterious things some had been born

behind the barbed wire in what

circumstances one dare not try to

imagine

where are their parents here perhaps

oh yeah

or down here in this pit

today is the 24th of April 1945 my name

is Gunnar Illingworth and Oliver

Cheshire I were present in Belton cub

doing guard utility assessment the

things in this Cup

are beyond describing when you actually

see them for yourselves you know what

you're fighting for here pictured in the

paper kind of describe it it's all the

things that I've committed well nobody

would think they were human it's all we

actually know now what has been going on

in these Cubs um I know

firstly what I'm fighting for I am the

Reverend TJ stretch attached as partly

to the formation controlling this Kemp

my home is at Fishguard

my parish was at Holy Trinity Church

ever the strip

I've been here eight days and never in

my life have I seen such terminable

ghastliness this morning me Barry there

were 5,000 bodies we don't know who they

are behind me you can see a pit which

will contain another 5,000 there are two

others like it in preparation all these

deaths have been caused by systematic

starvation and typhus and disease which

have been spread because of the

treatment meted out to these poor people

by their SS gods and their SS chief we

shall never know who they were or from

what Helms they were torn whether they

were Catholics Lutheran's or Jews we

only know they were born they suffered

and died in agony in Belsen camp

and so they lie Jews Lutheran's and

Catholics indistinguishable cheek to

cheek in a common grave the living have

been taken to a cleaner place

the typhus infected hurts of set afire

soon the fire will die the smoke and

ashes will drift away and grass will

cover the place

the barbed wire goes down the striped

livery goes with it

do not imagine this was the only black

spot that was uncovered in Germany there

were over 300 others no German can say

he did not know about them the whole

world had heard of a Dachau for it was

publicized by the Nazis as a model camp

ever since its inception way back in

1933 on the 28th of February of that

year the presidential emergency decree

suspended the basic civil rights of the

German people for an indeterminate

period and so eliminated legal

safeguards against arbitrary

imprisonment

here were 32,000 men of every European

nationality including 5660 Germans from

the outside one might at a casual glance

have seen nothing remarkable or

horrifying but Dachau was crammed with

three or four times the number it was

designed for

here as at Belsen men new hunger men

became weak men fell sick until they

died where they lay on the floor

in Hut 30 alone there is recorded for

example 72 deaths within 24 hours

every day the dead were taken from the

huts here as at Belsen there were many

who were too weak to be saved too sick

to eat typhus was taking its toll and

truck loads of wretchedness had to be

somehow dealt with in the already

overflowing hospitals

Dachau had its own brothel for the use

of guards and favored prisoners as the

women died they were replaced by a fresh

contingent from the women's camp at

drive-ins Brooke

this was not used as a bathhouse but as

a death chamber batches of prisoners

were marched in here to die

when the chamber was full the doors were

shut and sealed a man at the controls

let in the poison gas and another batch

of helpless victims screamed their lives

out beyond the grill

the gas chamber was conveniently placed

next to the mortuary

and next to that was the crematorium

these great ovens were constructed

exclusively for the burning of large

numbers of courses in the last three

months official records show that ten

thousand six hundred and fifteen people

were disposed of here their clothes were

turned over to the Deutsche textile

owned by Clyde dongs vaca GmbH a private

corporation whose stock holders were SS

officials which reclaimed and repaired

the garments with the use of unpaid

prison labor and then resold them to the

camp clothing Depot for the use of new

prisoners

the prisoners arrived often in railway

trucks but there had been no hurry to

unload this one they went away leaving

the prisoners to die of hunger and cold

and typhus we found them like this

frozen stiff in the snow alongside a

public road by some miracle 17 men were

still alive all the rest about 3,000

were dead Germans knew about Dachau but

did not care in Buchenwald

they were about 80,000 of hoob 34,000

were employed outside the camp in an

armaments factory during the first week

of April

25,000 were removed by the Germans to

other camps because of the approach of

the Allied forces when the camp was

liberated on April 13th

twenty thousand inmates remained African

Negros Albanians

Austrians Belgians Brazilians Bulgarians

Canadians Chinese Croats

Czechs Danes French Germans British

Greeks Dutch Italians yugoslavs Latvians

let's Norwegians Mexicans poles

Romanians Spaniards Swiss Americans and

Russians fifty-five thousand of them

died because of this place

people were tattooed across the belly

with slave numbers and forced to work on

starvation diet people were coldly and

systematically tortured

here shoka the camp commandant said I

want at least 600 Jewish deaths reported

in the camp office every day thugs were

appointed as overseers or block leaders

there was no efficient distribution of

food one prisoner collected the rations

for 10 or 15 men hunger and hopelessness

turned some of them into beasts

sometimes a prisoner carrying rations

back to the hut was waylaid and robbed

by other prisoners

sometimes he ate the best part of the

food himself sometimes he sold it

corruption was fostered for it gave

another excuse for killing

all this seemed so remote from humanity

so far beyond the behavior of man

British members of parliament came and

saw and were sick at heart

it had to be seen to be believed

German citizens were brought in from

Vemma they had to see to to see what

they had been fighting for and we had

been fighting against they came

cheerfully like sightseers to a chamber

of horrors for here indeed were some

real Horrors if a prisoner had a

curiously tattooed skin it was taken

from him we can only hope he was dead

when it was done the skin was tanned and

made into lampshades it sintra

these shrunken heads belonged to to

polish prisoners who had escaped and

been recaptured some of the visitors did

not care for the site and were assisted

by ex prisoners Evan C is a holiday

resort in the mountains the air is clean

and pure it cures sickness and there is

a sweetness about the place a gentle

peace in this place the luftwaffe or

ss-panzer officer or leave relaxes eats

well breathes deeply finds romance

everything is charming and picturesque

but the concentration camp had become an

integral part of the German economic

system so it was here too they were able

to see the mountains but what use are

mountains without food prisoners a

Dachau and Buchenwald dreaded being sent

here to them this place did not mean

recuperation only starvation

tuberculosis through slavery in an

underground factory and finally left to

cuff one's life out unaided and crowded

in the filth and stench of a hut unfit

for dogs but for some reason called a

hospital

the daily collection of corpses was

disposed of through this chimney

Mauthausen first used in 1938 this camp

was the center of a group of subsidiary

camps 40,000 people had died here since

the beginning of the year here the gas

chamber held 200 at a time and the

crematorium dealt with 300 per day every

day Lord Vic's lost

in the north of Germany it was the same

story the few who remained alive was

staggering on the verge of death

they were the survivors and these were

the rest hurriedly murdered lest they be

set free to live a normal life

the authorities in the camps took

special measures to make sure that a man

would neither live normally nor die

normally neither should he sleep

normally he was surrounded by barbed

wire and he had to sleep on barbed wire

or drove

here was carnage and desolation

prisoners had been dragged from the sex

of straw in the hovels cold hospitals

shot and hastily disposed of by the

first means to hand there must have been

some feeling of guilt or presumably

there would not have been an attempt to

destroy the evidence

in the outskirts of Leipzig an effort

was made to prevent 300 forced workers

in a factory from being set free by

advancing Allied troops 300 were locked

in a mess Hut and burned this is where

it stood some of the desperate screaming

prisoners broke out flamethrowers and

machine guns were waiting to receive

them

this was a woman some almost reached the

barbed wire some got there and stayed

there for it was electrified this was a

Polish engineer

guard the leg

American troops advancing did not know

that in this barn

the Germans had locked 1,800 prisoners

and set burning straw alight to

suffocate them

in the morning before retreating they

had poured petrol on the bodies in an

attempt to burn what remained it still

smoldered when the American troops

arrived

this man was shot because he gasped for

air trying to escape while the rest of

him burned in the barn

oh [ __ ]

the most up-to-date institution was

better equipped for killing transports

of prisoners from all over occupied

Europe was sent for extermination in one

of the special they're an extinct like

here four million people were murdered

as many men women and children as you

could pack into a great city

the dead have been buried it remains for

us to care for these the living it

remains for us to hope the Germans may

help to mend what they have broken and

cleanse what they have be fouled

thousands of German people were made to

see for themselves to bury the dead to

file past the victims this was the end

of the journey they had so confidently

begun in 1933 twelve years no in terms

of barbarity and brutality they had

travelled backwards for 12,000 years

unless the world learns the lesson these

pictures teach night will fall but by

God's grace we who live will land go to

PBS Frontline for more on the making of

tonight's film and new research on the

camps

[Music]