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From: edward@ukma.UUCP (Edward C. Bennett)
Newsgroups: net.tv
Subject: PBS Frontline, May 7th, The Nazi death camps
Message-ID: <1734@ukma.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-May-85 09:12:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: ukma.1734
Posted: Wed May  8 09:12:36 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 10-May-85 00:30:47 EDT
Organization: U of Kentucky, Mathematical Sciences, Lexington KY
Lines: 64
Keywords: inhumanity graphic


	Last night I watched the PBS program 'Frontline' which showed
a WWII documentary about the 'liberation' of the Nazi death camps. I
must confess, prior to viewing this, I had a rather pale knowledge
of what happened in those camps. That changed rapidly.

	The film shown was shot by various film crews of various armies
duning 1945 (I think it was '45) to be used in a documentary. This was
no half hearted effort either, Alfred Hitchcock was credited as
'Treatment Advisor'. The films were recently discovered in some archives
in England. The original soundtrack for the film was lost, as well as
the final reel. A script, however, was still intact, and provided the
narration the original producers had intended.

	The hour long piece documented the liberation of eight concentration
camps including Dachau, Buchenwald and Bergen Belsen. (Forgive my spelling)
The film gave a no-holds-barred look at the inhumanity practiced by
Hitler's SS troops. At the Belsen, the longest segment, we saw the
mass burial of THOUSANDS of bodies. Most of the people had died of
starvation, which means that what was left to be buried was barely a
shell of a former human being. The magnitude of the situation cannot
be appreciated without seeing piles of disease-ridden, decaying corpses
dumped into hugh pits. The burial process was no small operation by
any means. At Belsen alone, we saw 10 grave markers indicating the
size of the graves. These markers displayed numbers of 800, 1000 and
several 5000's.

	Prior to the liberation, the SS disposed of corpses mainly
by burning. At Dachau we saw rows of hugh ovens specifically built
for cremation purposes. At anouther camp, a shot of the crematorium
was accompanied by the narrative "The daily collection of corpses
was disposed of through this smoke stack".

	The treatment of the living was by no means humane. Prisoners
were not allowed to bath, which lead to lice infestation and Typhus.
They were fed minuscule amounts of substances that could hardly be
called food, which lead to malnutrition and starvation. A particularly
disturbing image, was the shot of a bed made of barbed wire. (Yes, that's
barbed wire)


	Without dragging this out too long, let me recommend that you
check your local PBS listings and try to catch this program on rerun.
It is gross at times and hard to watch, but it should be seen by
everyone. It takes a program such as this to inform us just how
horrible the holocaust was.


-- 
edward

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