On Wednesday, 22 April, to mark the 70th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the Liberation of Europe, the Staff Union is organising the screening of two films related to the Holocaust and the resulting war crimes trials, in collaboration with Toby Haggith, curator at the Imperial War Museum.
M396 - 12:30 (20 minutes)
BELSEN CAMP EVIDENCE FILM
First film footage ever used in a war crimes court, having been screened at the Belsen Trial, which took place in Lüneburg, Germany, in 1945.
The film had been lost until late last year, misfiled amongst the archives of the Imperial War Museum, and has had few screenings.
M396 - 17:30 (80 minutes)
GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS FACTUAL SURVEY
Produced in collaboration with the British, American and Soviet authorities in 1945. The purpose of the film was to educate the German civilian population on what had been done in their name, with the inference being that many must have known what was going on. Roughly half of the footage was taken by British cinematographers who entered Bergen-Belsen camp along with the liberating soldiers. The other half is footage provided by American and Soviet authorities of what they found as they crossed Eastern and Central Europe, liberating concentration camps on their way. By September 1945 it was decided to shelve the film as the allies turned their emphasis towards building the German morale and rebuilding the country. In 2014 the final reels of the film, along with the prepared narrative, were assembled into a digitised copy and the completed film was shown, for the first time, at the Berlin Film Festival.
The film has had subsequent showings at film festivals, including the Hitchcock Film Festival in Amsterdam, in the autumn of last year (Hitchcock worked as an advisor on the film).
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey will be released to a wider audience in the months to come.
Both films will be introduced by Toby Haggith and followed by a Q&A session.