COMBAT BULLETIN 36

Year Published: 1945

Description: This combat bulletin features disturbing footage not suitable for all viewers. This original film provides updates from warfronts during WWII. Historical moments featured include the British liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as well as the execution of the Italian dictator, Mussolini in Milan. It is an Atrocity film (:09) of the Army Pictorial Service. The film opens with images from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (:17) in northern Germany as bodies of the recently charred are pushed out from an over loaded cart (:21) by SS Guards. British troops found about 60,000 dead and nearly dead here as the camp’s liberation began in 1945 (:27). SS troops carry emaciated bodies to a shallow grave as witnesses yell (:35). A female SS officer moves past the camera (1:02) guided by gunpoint. A British Commandant delivers a speech over the radio (1:14). Members of the British occupation group deliver first hand testimony (2:02). The Reverend Thomas James Stretch appears as he was one of the first to enter the concentration camp in 1945 (2:08). He speaks in front of a mass grave on the burial of 5,000 bodies that morning (2:29). Two other pits such as the one behind him were also to be buried (2:37). Many perished from sheer starvation. A British troop presiding over the camp speaks (2:58) to the atrocities uncovered at the camp. A polish woman and former inmate had been the chief doctor at the camp (3:31). She details how men turned to cutting the organs from the dead in order to eat rather than suffer from starvation (3:44). The SS also withheld medical and food supplies (4:03). Inmates were used as guinea pigs for medical experiments (4:06). The youngest and most attractive of female inmates were sterilized (4:14). The dead lay in rows in the Bohemia forest near the Czech frontier (4:21). These were liquidated following the evacuation from the Buchenwald concentration camp (4:26). A polish boy wipes tears as he recognizes the body of his father (4:31). Civilians from nearby Nuremberg enter the woods with 161 coffins for the burial of the deceased (4:36). It is a Sunday morning, the 29th of April as they move the bodies from the hillside to the town (4:47). The group moves somberly through the city streets of Nuremburg (5:07) with exposed bodies in the coffins. They enter the cemetery as religious services begin (5:20). A crowd of American soldiers (5:37) gather after their release from a German POW camp. Two of the men tell their stories (5:47). The first man; from Chicago, was captured during the Battle of the Bulge (5:54). He was subjected to forced labor (6:23) and meager food rations. Guards beat down those unable to work with rifle butts (6:58). The second POW; Charles, from Akron Ohio (7:24) was also captured during the Battle of the Bulge. He and other POW’s were forced to walk 40 miles and were then crammed into small box cars (7:44) without food. The soldiers were forced to remain on the cars for eight days and nights (8:09). After two months at the camp, Charles lost 55 pounds (8:32). The segment turns to the Mediterranean and the death of Mussolini (8:40) on April 28th, 1945. The setting is Milan, Italy as Italians crowd the streets (8:57). Mussolini’s body had been dumped in the Piazzale Loreto (9:03) along with his mistress Clara Petacci and other members of Mussolini’s cabinet. The corpses were kicked and pummeled by Italian civilians (9:17). Guards attempt to keep the violent mob at bay (9:32). Water hoses are aimed into the crowd (9:51). The bodies were then strung up by their ankles at a gasoline filling station for the mob to get a better view (10:23). The gnarled and barely recognizable face of Mussolini (10:45) and his mistress close the film.

Complete Record: This combat bulletin features disturbing footage not suitable for all viewers. This original film provides updates from warfronts during WWII. Historical moments featured include the British liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as well as the execution of the Italian dictator, Mussolini in Milan. It is an Atrocity film (:09) of the Army Pictorial Service. The film opens with images from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (:17) in northern Germany as bodies of the recently charred are pushed out from an over loaded cart (:21) by SS Guards. British troops found about 60,000 dead and nearly dead here as the camp’s liberation began in 1945 (:27). SS troops carry emaciated bodies to a shallow grave as witnesses yell (:35). A female SS officer moves past the camera (1:02) guided by gunpoint. A British Commandant delivers a speech over the radio (1:14). Members of the British occupation group deliver first hand testimony (2:02). The Reverend Thomas James Stretch appears as he was one of the first to enter the concentration camp in 1945 (2:08). He speaks in front of a mass grave on the burial of 5,000 bodies that morning (2:29). Two other pits such as the one behind him were also to be buried (2:37). Many perished from sheer starvation. A British troop presiding over the camp speaks (2:58) to the atrocities uncovered at the camp. A polish woman and former inmate had been the chief doctor at the camp (3:31). She details how men turned to cutting the organs from the dead in order to eat rather than suffer from starvation (3:44). The SS also withheld medical and food supplies (4:03). Inmates were used as guinea pigs for medical experiments (4:06). The youngest and most attractive of female inmates were sterilized (4:14). The dead lay in rows in the Bohemia forest near the Czech frontier (4:21). These were liquidated following the evacuation from the Buchenwald concentration camp (4:26). A polish boy wipes tears as he recognizes the body of his father (4:31). Civilians from nearby Nuremberg enter the woods with 161 coffins for the burial of the deceased (4:36). It is a Sunday morning, the 29th of April as they move the bodies from the hillside to the town (4:47). The group moves somberly through the city streets of Nuremburg (5:07) with exposed bodies in the coffins. They enter the cemetery as religious services begin (5:20). A crowd of American soldiers (5:37) gather after their release from a German POW camp. Two of the men tell their stories (5:47). The first man; from Chicago, was captured during the Battle of the Bulge (5:54). He was subjected to forced labor (6:23) and meager food rations. Guards beat down those unable to work with rifle butts (6:58). The second POW; Charles, from Akron Ohio (7:24) was also captured during the Battle of the Bulge. He and other POW’s were forced to walk 40 miles and were then crammed into small box cars (7:44) without food. The soldiers were forced to remain on the cars for eight days and nights (8:09). After two months at the camp, Charles lost 55 pounds (8:32). The segment turns to the Mediterranean and the death of Mussolini (8:40) on April 28th, 1945. The setting is Milan, Italy as Italians crowd the streets (8:57). Mussolini’s body had been dumped in the Piazzale Loreto (9:03) along with his mistress Clara Petacci and other members of Mussolini’s cabinet. The corpses were kicked and pummeled by Italian civilians (9:17). Guards attempt to keep the violent mob at bay (9:32). Water hoses are aimed into the crowd (9:51). The bodies were then strung up by their ankles at a gasoline filling station for the mob to get a better view (10:23). The gnarled and barely recognizable face of Mussolini (10:45) and his mistress close the film.