Liberation of Buchenwald
Creator(s)
- United States. Army. Signal Corps. (Producer)
- Marist College
- Lowell J. Thomas (Director)
- Dick Ham (Camera Operator)
Biographical History
Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29, 1981) was an American writer, actor, broadcaster, and traveler. He was the voice of Movietone News.
Scope and Content
US Army and Lowell Thomas at Buchenwald camp just after liberation, torture devices simulated, corpses stacked in truck, pile of ashes, captured German POWs. Filmed by Dick Ham. Landing at Eschwege airfield, two oxen-pulling carts as Red Cross jeep passes on the road. CU of "Berlin" and "Dresden" road marker. MS civilians at city street corner, American jeep goes by. Column of German townspeople walking along road on way to view Buchenwald. Main camp gate. GIs clustered around as civilians enter. Various torture devices demonstrated. Thomas observes and is surrounded by many camp inmates. Inmates standing in front of barracks. Scaffold near crematorium from which prisoners were hanged and ashes outside crematorium where inmate holds out bone fragment. Dead bodies stacked on back of truck. Photographer shoots Thomas and truck. Inmate with injured foot in courtyard. Inmates still in uniform with sewn on symbols. Old man hobbles across yard with both hands wrapped. Other inmates walk past. German WACS out on grass on blankets. LS captured German and Hungarian officers are fed C-rations near Gotha. Driving toward Hershfeld, pass truckloads of German POWs. Female Red Cross worker in Hershfeld bedecked in German medals.
Note(s)
Partial script available in Film and Video departmental files. The 1" and Betacam SP were done as supervised transfer of six minutes of a forty minute reel. The VHS version contains the entire 40 minute reel. Marist College was unable to locate the original 16mm Kodachrome film in their vaults in 2014. Consult the Lowell Thomas Collection at the Marist College Archives for more information. The rights do not belong with the Lowell Thomas Estate.
Subjects
- SURVIVORS
- CIVILIANS
- POWS (GERMAN)
- CREMATORIA
- BUCHENWALD
- LIBERATION
- BARRACKS
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS (LIBERATION)
- TRUCKS
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (AMERICAN)
- GERMANY
- GERMANS
- CORPSES
- PRISONERS (GERMAN)
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (BRITISH)
Places
- Buchenwald, Germany
Genre
- Film
- Amateur.