Opening scene shows Adolf Hitler with entourage of Nazi officers at a reviewing stand in Vienna, Austria following the Anschluss (German annexation of Austria in 1938). A local Nazi official introduces Hitler as their benefactor. Views of large enthusiastic crowd cheering and rendering Nazi salutes. Closeup of well-dressed spectators. The official shakes hands with Hitler. Closeups of the cheering crowds and Hitler making his way among them. Children presenting him with bouquets of flowers. Narrator refers to Hitler representing hope of Liberty, Peace, and work. Austrians in the streets chanting One People; One Nation; One Leader (Ein Volk; Ein Reich; Ein Fuhrer) and giving Nazi salutes as Hitler passes in a motorcade. Views from a leading car in the motorcade as People run to keep up with it and others line the way cheering and saluting. Closeups of enthusiastic men, women, and children. Hitler being inundated with flowers. A German military band (unseen) can be heard playing the German National Anthem in the background.
Views of Luxembourg. Automobile carrying French negotiators, Christian Pineau, Francois-Poncet, and Rene Mayer, arrives at meeting place in Luxembourg. Small group of onlookers on sidewalk, and some looking out apartment windows. Photographers take photographs. Car arrives carrying German President Konrad Adenauer, who enters the building. Inside meeting hall, French delegation, headed by Prime Minister, Guy Mollet, is seated at the table. Konrad Adenauer at the table, consulting with member of his German delegation. Members of the French delegation converse together.
Map highlighting France, Belgium, and low countries, and German border city of Aachen during World War II. Soldiers riding on German Panther tanks camouflaged with foliage. They pass infantry walking along the side of the road. A Panzer IV with side track protectors. Commander of the German 5th Panzer Army, General Hasso von Manteuffel, conversing with officers of the 116th Panzer Division, September 1944. German tanks and infantry moving across a field. German soldier firing from prone position in a field. Knocked out American M3 halftracks. Captured American jeep and M3 halftrack. A very young German boy soldier escorting two ambulatory wounded American soldier prisoners of war. A small group of American prisoners of war. German field artillery firing and smoke rising from their shells exploding in distance. German troops entering town of Moncel-Les-Luneville, in Northeast France. Fire burning in the town. The Moncel-les-Luneville building after bombing in Luneville, France, at 15 Rue des Tuiliers, 54300 Moncel-lès-Lunéville, France. A Panzer tank enters Luneville. A huge smoke column rising in background.
Opening slate cites location as A-83 (Denain-Prouvy Airdrome, France). Aircrew members step from back of an open crew transport truck and walk to their parked Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft, of the U.S. Army Air Forces 323rd Bombardment Group. The entire side fuselage of the aircraft is covered with painted bombs indicating the many missions it had completed, thus far, during World War 2. Crew members place their gear on the ground in front of the aircraft as a Staff Sergeant (Maintenance Chief) brings the plane's Form 1 (Flight Report and Maintenance Record) for the pilot to review and sign. (This segment is repeated twice for the camera.) Closeup of the pilot discussing the aircraft status with an enlisted man. Meanwhile other crew members stand around. One crew member lights the Tech Sergeant's cigarette. Closeup of an officer crew member, with Marsden Matting on ground in background. Closeup of pilot annotating and signing the aircraft Form 1. Next, the pilot distributes mail to members of the crew. An airman brings a pet dog to one of the crew who plays with it. Pilot takes a final drag on a cigarette and rubs it out on a bomb sitting nearby. (Sequence is repeated twice.) Glimpse of trash caught in pierced steel planking (Marsden matting) on the ground. Next scene shows pilot speaking from cockpit window to Sergeant on the ground. View of pilot and copilot settling into their seats in the cockpit. They don their radio headsets.
Slate identifies location as A-83 (Denain-Prouvy Airdrome, France) and date as 29 April (1945). Ground crew armorers are connecting wires to bombs and loading them into the bomb bay of a a U.S. Army Air Forces Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft of the 323rd Bombardment Group. View from under the aircraft as a crewman gives signal to close bomb bay doors and they slowly close and lock. Ground crewman removes a metal chock from the aircraft wheel. Flight crew members climb aboard the aircraft. A crew member writes in chalk on a bomb sitting on the ground. The message is: "Happy Boithday Hoimann from Duffy's Tavern," (conveying the New York accent associated with characters in "Duffys Tavern" radio show). World War 2; WWII; WW2.
"The Guilty." Animation depicts person being hanged. View of an angry crowd on a road. People beat captured German soldiers and collaborationists. Mob of Italian partisans in Italy raising dead bodies of Mussolini and others up to hang from their heels in public after their execution. Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and British Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden signing the Moscow Declaration in November, 1943. The declaration is signed to preserve the authority of law in Europe and to ensure fair and orderly trials for war criminals. Next scene shows Allied soldiers at a liberated Concentration Camp near the end of World War 2 in Europe. Military jeeps in the background. Military photographer takes pictures as officials arrive to tour the concentration camp. Man opens a crematorium oven, revealing bones of a corpse inside. Pile of dead victims of a concentration camp. Elevated view of a room full of documents that are in review for war trials. Officials search documents to identify war criminal suspects. Nazi officers and officials who committed suicide are shown, including a German admiral, the body of Heinrich Himmler, and the bodies of the Mayor of Leipzig and his wife. War criminals being summoned for the various war crime trials. Scenes from the Belsen Trial in September 1945, held in a Lüneburg gymnasium, to decide the fate of German guards and SS officials from the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. A defendant being brought to trial on a stretcher. Soldiers guard the court room. View of defendants including many women SS-Gefolge members. German Commandant Josef Kramer during his trial, and German doctor Fritz Klein beside him. The court trial underway for the war criminals. Guilty war criminal brought to the gallows to be hanged, black cover placed over his head and he is hanged. View of dead bodies of concentration camp victims. View of a crowd amassed at a hanging execution of several German officers, possibly in the Soviet Union.
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