Liberated American prisoner reading the Stars & Stripes newspaper, at German prison camp for allied airmen (Stalag 7A) near Moosburg, Germany. Several American former prisoners being interviewed, include African American 2nd Lt. Alexander Jefferson, of the Tuskegee Airmen. Former prisoners posing in a group for the camera. Former prisoners strolling around the grounds of the prison, and sitting outside its buildings. (They are awaiting transport to local airfields where they will board C-47s to Camp Lucky Strike near Le Havre, France, for processing home.)
A review of significant events that occurred in the year 1945. Scenes from fourth inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President. Wide view of snow covered lawn of the White House, and guards positioned on the south White House lawn. View of President Roosevelt as he is sworn in as President of the United States, on the south portico of the White House due to wartime austerity measures, on January 20, 1945. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin pose at the Yalta Conference. Death of Roosevelt in April 1945. Burial procession and funeral ceremony of Franklin Roosevelt. Men and women weeping. An African American woman waves her handkerchief as she mourns. Wreath on grave of President Roosevelt. Harry S. Truman sworn in as U.S. President on April 12, 1945. Surrender of the Germans signed by General Jodl and General W.B. Smith in Reims, France. Representatives of Russia, Britain, France and United States at the surrender. General Dwight Eisenhower smiles.
Allied Control Council meeting in Berlin-Schoneberg, attended by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, of United Kingdom; Marshal Georgy Zhukov, of Soviet Union; General Lucius D. Clay, of the United States, and General Jean se Lattre de Tassigny, of France. (World War II period).
View from above, of the surrounding walls and courtyard of a prison in Rheinbach, Germany. Ground view inside the prison yard, where German civilian Matthias Gierens is being escorted to the gallows by U.S. military police, and accompanied by a German Catholic priest, on June 29, 1945. They ascend the gallows and final charges and sentence are read to Gierens. Next scene shows bodies stacked up at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp operated by Nazi Germany. Scene returns to the gallows, and a hood is placed over Gierens' head. View of Allied army officer witnesses, in formation, at parade rest. Noose is placed over Gierens' hood. View of a a bird flying overhead, trapdoor opens, Gierens drops, and noose tightens. Next is an unrelated scene of several German soldiers being executed. They are seen hanging from four gallows in a line in a public square while a large crowd, possibly Soviet citizens, looks on. (Notes: Regarding the execution of Gierens in the opening scene: German civilian Matthias Gierens was a 37 year old railroad worker. He was executed for the August 15, 1944, murder near Priest, Germany, of a downed American airman, who was later identified as U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lieutenant Lester E. Reuss. Gierens and three other German civilians, Peter Kohn, Peter Back, and Matthias Krein, were convicted on June 2, 1945 in Ahrweiler, Germany, of the murder. Their trial was the first Allied trial in Germany of civilians charged with a war crime.)
Invasion of Germany by Allied forces during World War and unconditional surrender by Germany during World War 2. At TC: 00:19 thru 00: 21, Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring, Commander of Axis forces in Italy, is seen outside a building in the mountains. Rear view of the war-damaged Reichtag building and View of the Brandenburg Gate as Soviet troops occupy during Battle of Berlin. General Dwight D. Eisenhower conferring with an unidentified General. Lieutenant Generals George S. Patton and Omar Bradley are with him. Soviet soldiers waving to Americans on opposite sides of the Elbe River. American soldiers paddling an inflated boat across the river. U.S. 69th Infantry division and Russian 58th Guard Division troops under Major General Rusakov embracing meet at the Elbe River in Torgau Germany on April 26, 1945. Several succeeding views of American and Soviet soldiers celebrating together. A group of American and Soviet soldiers posing for pictures atop a concrete foundation with a banner across it reading: "Our Greeting to the Heroes Army of United States of America." A battery of tanks firing their guns. Two British soldiers with one pointing in a direction. A Soviet IS-2 tank moving past a burning building. Destroyed street sign pointing at Hamburg. Local citizens waving white flags. Allied armor crossing a bridge over the Rhine River. British Marshal Bernard Montgomery and German General Eberhard Kinzel sign a document of surrender at Lüneburg Heath on 4 May 1945. Civilians moving about on streets of Berlin after Germany surrenders in World War 2. A British soldier posts an announcement from Allied occupying forces declaring the dissolution of the Nazi Party. Closeup of German citizens looking at the announcement. Local people standing amidst rubble near damaged buildings. A British Cromwell tank moving past the camera. Glimpse of a German family. Sherman tanks moving along a roadway. American Lieutenant Generals Leonard T. Gerow and William Simpson in Berlin. Trucks and tanks driving past fires. A long line of German prisoners of war marching beside a field under guard. German General Alfred Jodl and others leaving a car and entering General Eisenhower's Headquarters in Reims, France, May 7, 1945, where General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff in the German High Command, signs a document of unconditional surrender. Admiral Von Friedeburg of the German Navy, and Major Wilhelm Oxenius of the German General Staff sit beside him.
Events related the Nuremberg Trials held at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. Flashbacks of a variety of Nazi crimes against humanity during World War II. Europe during 1945. War devastation: buildings and cities laid in waste, people in hunger and despair emerge from shelters searching for the causes of the war and of the immediate human suffering. Deprived children and adults weep, starve and beg on the streets. November 21, 1945, Nuremberg, Palace of Justice, seat of the International Military Tribunal. List shows the names of the convicted Nazi criminals. Chief prosecutor from the United States, Robert Houghwout Jackson, makes the opening statement of the prosecution. He presents Count 1 of the indictment a conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against peace and humanity. He makes the statement that criminals who have done injustice to the laws of humanity must be brought to justice. Stenographers wearing headphones take down notes. Defendants stand in their dock including Herman Goring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Karl Donitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach and Fritz Sauckel. Faces of the convicted criminals. Scenes from mass burial of victims from German bombing of Coventry, England. Scenes from the end of World War 2, with women weeping and civilian victims of war in Europe, including Germany, seen scavenging on streets for food. Women and hungry children scrape out trash cans and metal lids for bites of food. Desperate civilians cut down remaining tree stumps from formerly tree-lined streets to use for fuel. A group of men and women struggle in a food relief line in Italy.
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