German Concentration Camps Factual Survey
![](/media/filmstills/2014/forum/20147657_1_RWD_1380.jpg)
© IWM FLM 1232, Imperial War Museums
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Allied Forces Photography Unit Cameraman Sgt Mike Lewis filming at Belsen 18-20 April 1945
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey
GBR 2014, Forum
© IWM FLM 1232, Imperial War Museums
![](/media/filmstills/2014/forum/20147657_2_RWD_1380.jpg)
'Ex-prisoner claps her approval of strictness shown by Tommies' taken by Sgt Lewis, 16 April 1945
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey
GBR 2014, Forum
© IWM HU 38069
![](/media/filmstills/2014/forum/20147657_3_RWD_1380.jpg)
Reaction of a Girl' taken by Sgt Lewis, 17 April 1945
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey
GBR 2014, Forum
© IWM Film 10012 Caption taken from original shot sheet
![](/media/filmstills/2014/forum/20147657_4_RWD_1380.jpg)
Sidney Bernstein, Lt Cdr Anthony Kimmins and Major Hugh Stewart during a visit to North Africa in 1943
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey
GBR 2014, Forum
© IWM Film 1232 Caption taken from original shot sheet
![](/media/filmstills/2014/forum/20147657_5_RWD_1380.jpg)
Smiling children through barbed wire' taken by Sgt Lewis, 19-20 April1945
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey
GBR 2014, Forum
© IWM Film 1001 Caption taken from original shot sheet
When bringing the German-occupied territories of Europe and finally Germany itself under their control in 1944 and 1945, the Allied forces didn’t only have military liberation on their mind. They also knew they had to put an end to the spectre of Nazism by way of propaganda. Russians, Americans, and British camera teams and photographers arrived with no idea of the atrocities they would capture on film. When British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, the cameras of the Psychological Warfare Division documented in detail what they found there. Among the more than 10,000 dead and 15,000 dying, they carried out the hardest job of their lives. Their footage was meant for a film to be produced the same year to confront the Germans with their guilt.
In the end, it turned out differently. Even Alfred Hitchcock’s involvement was unable to prevent this ambitious work from disappearing into the archives in late 1945. A fragment entitled Memory of the Camps was presented at the Forum in 1984 and shown on US television a year later. This milestone in documentary film has been reconstructed and extended and can now finally be viewed in its intended form.
In the end, it turned out differently. Even Alfred Hitchcock’s involvement was unable to prevent this ambitious work from disappearing into the archives in late 1945. A fragment entitled Memory of the Camps was presented at the Forum in 1984 and shown on US television a year later. This milestone in documentary film has been reconstructed and extended and can now finally be viewed in its intended form.