Frontline Season 3 Episode 27 Memory of the Camps

Memory of the Camps is the season 3, episode 27 of Frontline, a riveting investigative series that has been on air since 1983. The 60-minute documentary delves deep into the horrors of the Holocaust and the aftermath of World War II.

The episode focuses on the little-known story of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, including Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Auschwitz, by American, British, and Soviet troops in 1945. Although many are aware of the inhuman conditions and atrocities that were committed in these camps, few know about the footage that was captured by allied cameramen documenting what they discovered upon arrival.

The episode takes a close look at the efforts made by the filmmakers to show the horrors of the Holocaust to the world, to remind people of the atrocities that happened there and to raise awareness about them. As part of their efforts, the Allied Powers commissioned Sydney Bernstein, a British producer, to make a documentary using the footage taken from the camps. However, for various reasons, including political pressure from the Soviet Union and the need to rebuild Germany, the project was abandoned and the footage was placed in the British Imperial War Museum's archives, where it stayed for decades.

Several fascinating insights are revealed in the documentary regarding the footage's contents. For example, the filmmakers wanted to capture the real-time reactions of the troops who liberated the camps so that the world could see the shock and horror in their faces. However, as they quickly discovered, it was almost impossible to film these reactions as most of the soldiers had become so desensitized to the carnage they saw that they barely reacted at all. Another interesting fact is that the cameramen were not always allowed to film freely. In some instances, they had to delete footage that would have embarrassed the German or allied armies.

The episode also sheds light on the reasons why the documentary was not released and forgotten for so many years. The project was mired in politics from the start. Soviet propaganda used footage from one of the camps to vilify the Germans further while, at the same time, downplaying the contributions of the Western Allies. The British, who had taken control of the film, were also under pressure because they wanted to be seen as magnanimous and not vengeful in their treatment of the Germans. For this reason, they avoided releasing the footage that showed other kinds of atrocities, such as the forced expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe, which would have counteracted that perception.

Memory of the Camps is a riveting account of an episode in history that has often been overlooked in mainstream accounts of the war. The documentary shows the scale of the genocide perpetrated on the Jews, Roma, homosexuals, and disabled people by the Nazis and reveals how this tragedy advanced the development of the international human rights movement. Equally important, the show highlights the unsung bravery of the soldiers who saved the lives of thousands by racing against time to save victims of Nazi concentration camps in the midst of an undeclared war.

In conclusion, the episode presents a powerful and gut-wrenching reminder of the evil that people are capable of and the importance of being vigilant. The documentary is a must-watch for anyone interested in history and wants to gain a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and how war in general has changed over time. It is a haunting reminder of the atrocities that have occurred and the need for us to do all we can to stop them from happening again.