Cameramen from Britain's Army Film Unit capture footage of concentration camps in German in 1945.Cameramen from Britain's Army Film Unit capture footage of concentration camps in German in 1945.Cameramen from Britain's Army Film Unit capture footage of concentration camps in German in 1945.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Adolf Hitler
- Self
- (archive footage)
Sidney Bernstein
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Richard Crossman(1945 original production team)
- Colin Wills(1945 original production team)
- Alfred Hitchcock
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOriginally shot in 1945, the project took longer than expected to complete, and eventually five of the film's six reels were left, abandoned, in the Imperial War Museum and forgotten. The footage was discovered decades later, and shown in an incomplete version at the Berlin Film Festival in 1984, and then broadcast on American PBS in 1985 under the title Memory of the Camps (1984).
- ConnectionsEdited from Frontline: Memory of the Camps (1984)
Featured review
Brilliant documentary: confronting, shocking and emotional
In April/May 1945 Allied camera teams filmed footage of the German concentration camps, including of the corpses of dead detainees and of the malnourished, ill-treated survivors. The main aim was to produce a documentary of Nazi atrocities to show to the German people in order to weaken any pro-Nazi sentiment that might remain. A secondary aim was as evidence that the atrocities occurred. This film was never made and the footage was archived. In 2014 the footage and narration from the original script were used to create a documentary on the German concentration camps, as seen from the perspective of liberating Allied soldiers. This is that film.
An incredibly confronting film, highly effective in its graphic depiction of the utter brutality and large-scale murderousness of the concentration camps. It's quite shocking to see hundreds of dead bodies being manhandled into mass graves and the state of the corpses indicating the level of starvation and mistreatment the victims suffered. Quite emotional too, as you think that at one stage they were a living human being, only for someone to abuse them to death.
I'm not very squeamish but it was difficult for me to watch at times.
There is a repetitiveness to these scenes but that is effective in conveying the scale of the genocide and brutality. The scale is also demonstrated through showing the distribution of all the camps in Europe and then going to some of the larger ones. The means vary by each camp and these differences are examined too. There's also mention of some of the lesser-known atrocities that the Nazis committed.
The version I watched had a short intro before the film itself, a "making of" detailing the history of the footage and why it was shot. It also had an outro which was very interesting and explained some of the features of the film, especially its narration, which may have seemed odd to modern audiences. There is also an interview with a survivor of one of the camps, putting a modern face to the tragedy.
An astonishing, vitally necessary documentary.
An incredibly confronting film, highly effective in its graphic depiction of the utter brutality and large-scale murderousness of the concentration camps. It's quite shocking to see hundreds of dead bodies being manhandled into mass graves and the state of the corpses indicating the level of starvation and mistreatment the victims suffered. Quite emotional too, as you think that at one stage they were a living human being, only for someone to abuse them to death.
I'm not very squeamish but it was difficult for me to watch at times.
There is a repetitiveness to these scenes but that is effective in conveying the scale of the genocide and brutality. The scale is also demonstrated through showing the distribution of all the camps in Europe and then going to some of the larger ones. The means vary by each camp and these differences are examined too. There's also mention of some of the lesser-known atrocities that the Nazis committed.
The version I watched had a short intro before the film itself, a "making of" detailing the history of the footage and why it was shot. It also had an outro which was very interesting and explained some of the features of the film, especially its narration, which may have seemed odd to modern audiences. There is also an interview with a survivor of one of the camps, putting a modern face to the tragedy.
An astonishing, vitally necessary documentary.
helpful•11
- grantss
- Mar 5, 2024
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Memorias de los campos
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $4,468
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,000
- Jan 8, 2017
- Gross worldwide
- $4,468
- Runtime1 hour 10 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
- 1.37 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content