WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 Okay, let's dive in. Today we're looking at something, 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:04.980 well, it's a piece of history that feels like 00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:08.619 it should be common knowledge, but somehow isn't. 00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:10.619 It's quite shocking when you first encounter 00:00:10.619 --> 00:00:13.019 it. We're talking about a film, an official documentary, 00:00:13.259 --> 00:00:15.080 commissioned right at the end of World War II. 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:18.839 Yeah, involving major Allied command, even cinematic 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:21.899 giants like Alfred Hitchcock advising, and its 00:00:21.899 --> 00:00:24.539 purpose was to be the definitive record of Nazi 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:27.399 atrocities in the concentration camps. The definitive 00:00:27.399 --> 00:00:29.640 visual proof. compiled immediately from footage 00:00:29.640 --> 00:00:33.520 shot during liberation. But then, poof, it gets 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:35.479 locked away. Yeah. Hidden. Deliberately hidden, 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:38.079 it seems, for almost 70 years. That's what we're 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:40.960 exploring today. The German concentration camp's 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:43.619 factual survey, or GCCFS. It was meant to be 00:00:43.619 --> 00:00:46.340 a 75 -minute British production using footage 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:48.560 from British, American, and Soviet cameramen 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:52.840 painstakingly put together. So our mission really 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:55.780 is to unpack this whole saga. Why the urgency 00:00:55.780 --> 00:00:58.240 in 1945? What was Hitchcock actually doing? And 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:00.399 the big one, why suppress something so vital? 00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:02.520 And then how did it finally see the light of 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:04.959 day? It's a story about truth, politics, filmmaking, 00:01:05.260 --> 00:01:08.900 and a very long wait. The basics are 75 minutes, 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:11.260 British -led, producer Sidney Bernstein's script 00:01:11.260 --> 00:01:13.379 by Richard Crossman and Colin Woolse. But this 00:01:13.379 --> 00:01:15.480 story is so much more than those facts. Absolutely. 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:17.939 The why behind its suppression is, well, it's 00:01:17.939 --> 00:01:19.840 complicated and pretty revealing about the post 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:21.340 -war world. Let's start right at the beginning. 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:24.420 In 1945, this wasn't some slow academic project 00:01:24.420 --> 00:01:26.500 conceived years later. There was a real fire 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:29.340 under it. Oh, completely. It was driven by immediate 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:33.599 visceral shock. The key figure pushing this was 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:36.980 Sidney Bernstein. The cinema guy? Ministry of 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:40.579 Information Advisor? That's him. And his motivation 00:01:40.579 --> 00:01:43.239 came directly from what he saw with his own eyes. 00:01:43.579 --> 00:01:46.260 He visited Bergen -Belsen concentration camp 00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:50.340 on April 22, 1945. Wow, just a week after the 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:52.980 British liberated it. Exactly. And the sheer 00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:55.799 scale of death, the skeletal state of the survivors. 00:01:56.219 --> 00:01:58.640 He described it as something that just hit him. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:01.340 He instantly knew it had to be documented, filmed, 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:03.299 shown. So it wasn't just about history, it was 00:02:03.299 --> 00:02:06.049 about impact. Absolutely. He was determined to 00:02:06.049 --> 00:02:09.710 create a film so undeniable, so raw, that nobody 00:02:09.710 --> 00:02:12.389 could dismiss it as Allied propaganda. And initially, 00:02:12.509 --> 00:02:15.030 the target audience was very specific, German 00:02:15.030 --> 00:02:17.409 people themselves. It was conceived as part of 00:02:17.409 --> 00:02:20.590 the denazification effort to force them to confront 00:02:20.590 --> 00:02:22.469 what had happened. And this wasn't just Bernstein's 00:02:22.469 --> 00:02:24.789 personal project. It had official backing. Top 00:02:24.789 --> 00:02:27.129 -level backing. The order came from the Psychological 00:02:27.129 --> 00:02:30.139 Warfare Division, PWD. That was part of H .A.'s 00:02:30.139 --> 00:02:32.379 Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:34.719 So Eisenhower's command structure, this was serious. 00:02:35.060 --> 00:02:38.280 Very serious. And initially, it was planned as 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:40.699 a joint effort. British and American resources 00:02:40.699 --> 00:02:42.840 were supposed to be pooled. Gathering the footage 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:45.419 must have been a nightmare, right? In the middle 00:02:45.419 --> 00:02:47.960 of all that chaos. A huge logistical challenge. 00:02:48.509 --> 00:02:51.150 They had to collect silent footage from combat 00:02:51.150 --> 00:02:53.669 cameramen. You know, the guys embedded with the 00:02:53.669 --> 00:02:56.909 troops, British, American, even Soviet forces. 00:02:57.189 --> 00:02:59.349 Just documenting what they found as they advanced. 00:02:59.569 --> 00:03:03.150 Right. But they also needed sound. So specialized 00:03:03.150 --> 00:03:05.830 newsreel cameramen were brought in to get interviews, 00:03:05.949 --> 00:03:08.569 capture ambient sound, record testimonies on 00:03:08.569 --> 00:03:11.550 the spot, often under, well, horrific conditions. 00:03:11.849 --> 00:03:14.650 And the scope. What camps did they actually manage 00:03:14.650 --> 00:03:17.490 to film? The final film covers 14 locations. 00:03:18.169 --> 00:03:19.949 Ten of those were major concentration camps. 00:03:20.210 --> 00:03:24.810 We're talking Belsen, Dachau, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, 00:03:24.889 --> 00:03:27.569 and Majdanek, too. The infamous names. And the 00:03:27.569 --> 00:03:29.469 footage itself. I mean, we've all seen some images, 00:03:29.530 --> 00:03:32.110 but this was the raw, unfiltered stuff. Relentlessly 00:03:32.110 --> 00:03:35.009 graphic. Piles of bodies. Starved survivors who 00:03:35.009 --> 00:03:37.409 were just, well, walking skeletons. The evidence 00:03:37.409 --> 00:03:40.229 in the crematory ovens. Burned remains. It held 00:03:40.229 --> 00:03:42.550 nothing back. You mentioned it was intended for 00:03:42.550 --> 00:03:44.330 denazification, but it had another immediate 00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:47.710 use, too, didn't it? As evidence. Yes. Absolutely 00:03:47.710 --> 00:03:50.629 crucial. Even before the film was finished, reels 00:03:50.629 --> 00:03:53.310 were being used in war crimes trials, specifically 00:03:53.310 --> 00:03:56.729 at the trial of Joseph Kramer. The Beast of Belsen. 00:03:56.870 --> 00:03:58.969 That's the one. He tried to claim the conditions 00:03:58.969 --> 00:04:03.169 were just due to wartime shortages, lack of food 00:04:03.169 --> 00:04:05.669 towards the end, basically blaming circumstances, 00:04:05.789 --> 00:04:08.349 not his actions. But the film showed otherwise. 00:04:08.569 --> 00:04:11.310 Completely contradicted him. The footage showed 00:04:11.310 --> 00:04:14.449 the sheer scale, the organization of the neglect 00:04:14.449 --> 00:04:17.709 and killing. It wasn't just chaos. It was policy. 00:04:17.970 --> 00:04:21.029 The film was forensic proof. That's powerful. 00:04:21.230 --> 00:04:23.949 Using the film as evidence while it's still technically 00:04:23.949 --> 00:04:26.709 in production. It underscores the weight of what 00:04:26.709 --> 00:04:28.610 they were capturing. Yeah. And there's that anecdote 00:04:28.610 --> 00:04:31.970 about filming the perpetrators right there in 00:04:31.970 --> 00:04:34.509 the camp. Right. Interviewing captured SS officers. 00:04:34.629 --> 00:04:37.029 Yes. Including a man named Fritz Klein. He was 00:04:37.029 --> 00:04:39.089 later executed for his atrocities at Belsen. 00:04:39.290 --> 00:04:41.910 The newsreel crew filmed him giving an interview. 00:04:42.389 --> 00:04:44.730 standing directly in front of a huge pile of 00:04:44.730 --> 00:04:47.509 corpses. His own victims. His victims. The camera 00:04:47.509 --> 00:04:50.230 just holds there, capturing him, the bodies, 00:04:50.329 --> 00:04:54.089 the context, immediate, undeniable. That urgency 00:04:54.089 --> 00:04:56.629 is palpable throughout the early stages of this 00:04:56.629 --> 00:05:00.129 project. So the evidence was overwhelming. The 00:05:00.129 --> 00:05:02.910 mandate was clear. The backing was there. It 00:05:02.910 --> 00:05:05.509 seems unstoppable, which makes the involvement 00:05:05.509 --> 00:05:07.649 of someone like Hitchcock even more intriguing. 00:05:08.389 --> 00:05:11.329 Why bring in the master of suspense? Ah, yes. 00:05:11.589 --> 00:05:14.329 Yeah. Because even with all that raw evidence, 00:05:14.529 --> 00:05:17.910 there was a fear, a very specific fear that Hitchcock 00:05:17.910 --> 00:05:21.170 perhaps uniquely understood. Right. So Hitchcock 00:05:21.170 --> 00:05:23.589 gets involved. But let's be clear on his role. 00:05:23.670 --> 00:05:25.250 He wasn't directing the whole thing, was he? 00:05:25.629 --> 00:05:27.709 No, that's a common misconception. The Imperial 00:05:27.709 --> 00:05:30.230 War Museum is quite clear. He was a treatment 00:05:30.230 --> 00:05:32.389 advisor. His main involvement was for about a 00:05:32.389 --> 00:05:34.610 month. When exactly? It was after the bulk of 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:36.170 the footage was shot, but before they'd really 00:05:36.170 --> 00:05:38.589 assembled the rough cut. His job wasn't to shoot 00:05:38.589 --> 00:05:41.290 anything, but to advise on how to structure and 00:05:41.290 --> 00:05:43.470 present the existing footage. And his big concern. 00:05:43.649 --> 00:05:46.750 Right. It's kind of chilling. It really is. Hitchcock's 00:05:46.750 --> 00:05:49.170 primary worry was that the atrocities shown in 00:05:49.170 --> 00:05:51.350 the film The Scale of the Killing, the inhumanity, 00:05:51.370 --> 00:05:54.269 were simply too unbelievable. Too horrific for 00:05:54.269 --> 00:05:56.990 people to accept as real. Exactly. He feared 00:05:56.990 --> 00:05:58.889 that audiences, confronted with something so 00:05:58.889 --> 00:06:02.129 monstrous, so far beyond normal experience, would 00:06:02.129 --> 00:06:04.769 instinctively reject it. They'd assume it had 00:06:04.769 --> 00:06:07.170 to be faked, that the allies were using propaganda 00:06:07.170 --> 00:06:10.430 tricks, exaggerating for effect. Wow. So the 00:06:10.430 --> 00:06:12.589 master of cinematic manipulation was worried 00:06:12.589 --> 00:06:14.689 about being accused of manipulation when presenting 00:06:14.689 --> 00:06:17.470 the truth. Precisely the paradox. And his solution 00:06:17.470 --> 00:06:20.970 was fascinating. The man famous for tricky editing, 00:06:21.110 --> 00:06:23.370 for constructing suspense through cuts and angles, 00:06:23.529 --> 00:06:26.089 advised the complete opposite approach here. 00:06:26.250 --> 00:06:28.689 What did he recommend then? How do you make the 00:06:28.689 --> 00:06:31.610 unbelievable believable on film? His core advice 00:06:31.610 --> 00:06:34.250 was... Avoid any appearance of manipulation. 00:06:34.810 --> 00:06:38.089 No quick cuts, no dramatic montages, nothing 00:06:38.089 --> 00:06:39.829 that could look like you were stitching unrelated 00:06:39.829 --> 00:06:42.129 things together for effect. So what instead? 00:06:42.430 --> 00:06:46.610 Long takes. And long, slow panning shots. He 00:06:46.610 --> 00:06:48.769 argued that if the camera holds on a scene, say, 00:06:48.829 --> 00:06:51.230 panning slowly across a vast pit filled with 00:06:51.230 --> 00:06:54.110 bodies, or across a long line of emaciated survivors, 00:06:54.490 --> 00:06:57.129 without cutting away, you're documenting an uninterrupted 00:06:57.129 --> 00:06:59.470 reality. Exactly. It becomes much harder for 00:06:59.470 --> 00:07:01.670 a viewer to claim, oh, they just cleverly edited 00:07:01.670 --> 00:07:04.670 that together. The sustained gaze of the camera 00:07:04.670 --> 00:07:07.949 becomes a form of visual testimony. It forces 00:07:07.949 --> 00:07:10.589 the viewer to confront the whole unbroken horror. 00:07:10.850 --> 00:07:13.430 That's incredibly insightful. Using the camera's 00:07:13.430 --> 00:07:15.649 stillness as proof. Did he have other specific 00:07:15.649 --> 00:07:18.490 ideas? Yes, particularly about confronting the 00:07:18.490 --> 00:07:21.529 local German population. He strongly suggested 00:07:21.529 --> 00:07:24.120 including scenes where German villagers, people 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:25.959 who lived right near the camps. Were made to 00:07:25.959 --> 00:07:29.160 visit them after liberation. Yes. Forced to walk 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:32.019 through, to see the bodies, the crematoria, the 00:07:32.019 --> 00:07:34.800 survivors, to confront the reality of what happened 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:37.319 literally in their backyard. Hitchcock understood 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:39.579 this wasn't just about documenting what happened, 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:42.240 but about showing complicity, or at least proximity, 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:45.329 and the impossibility of not knowing. undermining 00:07:45.329 --> 00:07:48.350 denial at the source. Right. And he also focused 00:07:48.350 --> 00:07:50.930 on the small details, the personal items, as 00:07:50.930 --> 00:07:52.949 a way to convey the immense scale of the killing. 00:07:53.069 --> 00:07:56.649 Ah, the piles of belongings. Precisely. He recommended 00:07:56.649 --> 00:07:59.009 focusing on those mountains of personal effects 00:07:59.009 --> 00:08:01.750 found in the camps, especially places like Majdanek. 00:08:02.269 --> 00:08:04.670 Piles of human hair, wedding ring spectacles, 00:08:04.750 --> 00:08:07.509 toothbrushes. Everyday objects. Ordinary everyday 00:08:07.509 --> 00:08:11.949 objects, but in unimaginable quantities. It shifts 00:08:11.949 --> 00:08:14.089 the focus from abstract numbers to individual 00:08:14.089 --> 00:08:17.089 lives. There's that specific detail in the narration 00:08:17.089 --> 00:08:19.709 about the spectacles, isn't there? Yes. Accompanying 00:08:19.709 --> 00:08:22.930 this huge pile of eyeglasses, the narration starkly 00:08:22.930 --> 00:08:25.389 notes something like perhaps one victim in ten 00:08:25.389 --> 00:08:28.009 wore spectacles. And when you see the size of 00:08:28.009 --> 00:08:30.509 the pile... You do the horrifying math. It makes 00:08:30.509 --> 00:08:33.169 the scale personal. tangible. It connects the 00:08:33.169 --> 00:08:35.269 vastness of the crime to the intimate reality 00:08:35.269 --> 00:08:37.929 of a single person needing glasses. It's a very 00:08:37.929 --> 00:08:41.029 clever, very Hitchcockian way to make the incomprehensible 00:08:41.029 --> 00:08:43.509 hit home. So they had this powerful footage and 00:08:43.509 --> 00:08:46.169 now they had a strategy from Hitchcock himself 00:08:46.169 --> 00:08:49.490 on how to present it for maximum undeniable impact. 00:08:49.789 --> 00:08:51.769 It seems like they had everything needed to create 00:08:51.769 --> 00:08:54.190 a landmark film. They did. The vision was there. 00:08:54.269 --> 00:08:55.950 The material was there. The strategy was there, 00:08:56.049 --> 00:08:58.590 which makes what happened next all the more baffling 00:08:58.590 --> 00:09:01.250 and frankly, disturbing. The fact that it just 00:09:01.250 --> 00:09:03.830 stopped. Stopped dead in its tracks. Okay, so 00:09:03.830 --> 00:09:07.710 September 1945, they screen a rough cut, about 00:09:07.710 --> 00:09:12.029 five reels done, and then silence. The project 00:09:12.029 --> 00:09:14.409 is just abandoned. Effectively, yes. Abandoned, 00:09:14.409 --> 00:09:17.090 unfinished. Those five reels, plus all the unused 00:09:17.090 --> 00:09:19.820 footage and documentation. basically went into 00:09:19.820 --> 00:09:22.059 a vault at the Imperial War Museum. Now, the 00:09:22.059 --> 00:09:25.080 official reasons given at the time sound almost 00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:27.559 mundane, don't they? Bureaucratic hurdles. Yeah, 00:09:27.580 --> 00:09:29.340 the initial explanations pointed to things like, 00:09:29.399 --> 00:09:31.200 oh, practical difficulties, problems coordinating 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:33.639 between the allies. Remember, the U .S. had pulled 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:37.059 out of the joint project by July 45. Post -war 00:09:37.059 --> 00:09:39.059 shortages, apparently even finding a working 00:09:39.059 --> 00:09:41.360 editing machine was difficult. But did those 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:44.360 really explain shutting down such a high -priority 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:47.179 project completely? They certainly caused delays, 00:09:47.559 --> 00:09:50.740 significant delays. But the consensus among historians 00:09:50.740 --> 00:09:52.940 now, looking back with access to the documents, 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:55.059 is that these delays were long enough for the 00:09:55.059 --> 00:09:57.919 political landscape to shift dramatically. The 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:01.059 film was, as the official jargon went, overtaken 00:10:01.059 --> 00:10:03.279 by other events. Meaning the political will just 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:07.899 evaporated. Essentially, yes. By late 1945, the 00:10:07.899 --> 00:10:11.200 immediate post -liberation focus on shock, documentation, 00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:14.919 and punishing Germany was already changing. The 00:10:14.919 --> 00:10:16.820 Allied authorities started thinking longer term 00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:19.740 about governing occupied Germany. And suddenly, 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:22.360 a film graphically detailing Nazi atrocities 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:25.059 wasn't seen as helpful anymore. Exactly. The 00:10:25.059 --> 00:10:27.879 official thinking became that a one -hour compilation 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:30.779 of atrocity material, as they put it, was no 00:10:30.779 --> 00:10:33.600 longer considered appropriate. They needed the 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:36.580 German population not just punished, but cooperating 00:10:36.580 --> 00:10:38.779 and rebuilding. Especially with the Cold War 00:10:38.779 --> 00:10:41.220 starting to loom. Precisely. Germany, or at least 00:10:41.220 --> 00:10:44.059 Western Germany, needed to become a stable, functioning 00:10:44.059 --> 00:10:46.460 buffer against the Soviet Union. Showing this 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:48.860 devastating film, rubbing salt in the wounds, 00:10:49.019 --> 00:10:51.620 fostering shame and anger. It started to look 00:10:51.620 --> 00:10:53.360 counterproductive to the new goal of building 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:56.279 a partnership. A more congenial approach was 00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:58.620 deemed necessary. So the urgent moral imperative 00:10:58.620 --> 00:11:01.500 of April gave way to strategic political calculation 00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:04.419 by September. That's incredibly fast. It shows 00:11:04.419 --> 00:11:06.820 how quickly post -war priorities were shifting. 00:11:07.340 --> 00:11:09.679 But it wasn't just about managing relations with 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:12.340 Germany. There was another major political factor, 00:11:12.440 --> 00:11:14.659 particularly for the British. This is the Palestine 00:11:14.659 --> 00:11:17.679 connection. Yes, this is critical and often overlooked. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.200 Britain held the mandate for Palestine, and the 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:23.899 situation there was becoming extremely volatile. 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:26.720 With the pressure from Jewish survivors wanting 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:29.799 to immigrate. Immense pressure. Thousands of 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:31.840 Jewish refugees, survivors of the camps, were 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:34.120 displaced across Europe, desperate to get to 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:36.899 Palestine. The Zionist movement was gaining huge 00:11:36.899 --> 00:11:39.559 momentum, demanding Britain allow mass immigration. 00:11:40.019 --> 00:11:42.220 But Britain was caught in the middle, also dealing 00:11:42.220 --> 00:11:45.059 with Arab opposition. Exactly. They were trying 00:11:45.059 --> 00:11:47.899 to limit Jewish immigration to quell Arab unrest 00:11:47.899 --> 00:11:51.340 and maintain control. So how does the concentration 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:54.340 camp film fit in? It would generate massive sympathy 00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:57.139 for the Jewish survivors. Overwhelming sympathy. 00:11:57.340 --> 00:11:59.240 The British government feared that releasing 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:02.360 this incredibly powerful film, vividly showing 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:04.559 the horrors inflicted specifically on European 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:07.279 Jews, would create unstoppable international 00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:10.340 political pressure. Pressure to open the gates 00:12:10.340 --> 00:12:12.879 to Palestine, which would completely derail their 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:16.460 policy. So the film was seen as politically unhelpful 00:12:16.460 --> 00:12:19.000 to managing the Palestine situation. That seems 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:21.740 to be the assessment. Geopolitical convenience, 00:12:22.039 --> 00:12:24.519 managing the mandate, managing relations with 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:27.299 Germany took priority over releasing this historical 00:12:27.299 --> 00:12:30.039 document. It's a stark choice. It's staggering, 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:33.159 sacrificing the record of the Holocaust for colonial 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:36.019 policy management. And there's another layer 00:12:36.019 --> 00:12:43.259 to this. Yes, this is another complex and uncomfortable 00:12:43.259 --> 00:12:46.100 aspect. The original 1945 film, despite showing 00:12:46.100 --> 00:12:47.980 the camps where millions of Jews were murdered, 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:50.580 made no explicit mention of the Holocaust as 00:12:50.580 --> 00:12:53.200 a specific targeted genocide against Jewish people. 00:12:53.340 --> 00:12:55.299 How is that even possible, given the evidence 00:12:55.299 --> 00:12:57.299 they were filming? Well, there are a couple of 00:12:57.299 --> 00:13:00.500 potential reasons debated by historians. One 00:13:00.500 --> 00:13:04.029 is simply that... Even in mid -1945, the full 00:13:04.029 --> 00:13:07.370 systematic nature of the final solution wasn't 00:13:07.370 --> 00:13:09.549 yet fully comprehended by everyone on the ground, 00:13:09.710 --> 00:13:12.269 even the filmmakers. It took time for the complete 00:13:12.269 --> 00:13:15.289 picture to emerge. Okay, a failure of immediate 00:13:15.289 --> 00:13:17.789 understanding, perhaps. But you mentioned another 00:13:17.789 --> 00:13:19.850 factor, something about propaganda guidelines. 00:13:20.289 --> 00:13:22.330 Yes, and this is more troubling. There was apparently 00:13:22.330 --> 00:13:25.370 a British Ministry of Information guideline dating 00:13:25.370 --> 00:13:29.519 back to 1941. What did it say? It advised propagandists, 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:32.139 if they wanted to maintain maximum public credibility 00:13:32.139 --> 00:13:34.759 and support for the war, to focus on the suffering 00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:38.379 of indisputably innocent people, but not to specifically 00:13:38.379 --> 00:13:41.139 highlight violent political opponents or Jews. 00:13:41.419 --> 00:13:43.940 Wait, don't focus on Jewish victims because it 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:46.279 might hurt the war effort's image. The implication, 00:13:46.679 --> 00:13:49.399 disturbing as it is, was that highlighting Jewish 00:13:49.399 --> 00:13:52.019 suffering specifically might tap into underlying 00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:54.820 anti -Semitism in the Allied populations themselves. 00:13:55.519 --> 00:13:58.059 potentially weakening broad support. It was a 00:13:58.059 --> 00:14:00.080 cynical calculation about public opinion. And 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:02.139 that thinking might have carried over into 1945, 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:04.740 into the making of this film. It's possible. 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:08.179 Whether consciously or subconsciously, the filmmakers 00:14:08.179 --> 00:14:10.879 might have adhered to this older principle, framing 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:13.240 the atrocities as crimes against humanity in 00:14:13.240 --> 00:14:15.820 general, rather than naming the specific targeting 00:14:15.820 --> 00:14:18.700 of Jews, perhaps fearing it would somehow lessen 00:14:18.700 --> 00:14:22.049 the universal impact or credibility. So the very 00:14:22.049 --> 00:14:24.889 group most systematically targeted for annihilation 00:14:24.889 --> 00:14:27.429 was potentially downplayed in the official record, 00:14:27.629 --> 00:14:30.549 partly out of a fear rooted in anti -Semitism 00:14:30.549 --> 00:14:33.610 itself. That's deeply ironic and tragic. It's 00:14:33.610 --> 00:14:35.870 a very difficult part of the story. Now, while 00:14:35.870 --> 00:14:38.110 the British project stalled, the footage didn't 00:14:38.110 --> 00:14:39.929 completely disappear immediately. The Americans 00:14:39.929 --> 00:14:42.330 used some of it. Right, for death mills. Exactly. 00:14:42.549 --> 00:14:44.490 Because the big British film wasn't happening, 00:14:44.590 --> 00:14:46.450 the American military government in Germany rushed 00:14:46.450 --> 00:14:49.210 out their own film. Death Mills, directed by 00:14:49.210 --> 00:14:51.490 the famous Billy Wilder. It came out in January 00:14:51.490 --> 00:14:54.529 1946. Using much of the same horrific footage. 00:14:54.789 --> 00:14:57.809 Yes, but it was a very different film, much shorter, 00:14:57.870 --> 00:15:00.789 only 22 minutes, and reportedly much more direct, 00:15:00.809 --> 00:15:03.330 almost like a news report compared to the more 00:15:03.330 --> 00:15:06.009 reflective, meditative approach Bernstein had 00:15:06.009 --> 00:15:09.570 envisioned for the full 75 -minute GCCFS. So 00:15:09.570 --> 00:15:11.769 the world got a version, but not the version, 00:15:11.990 --> 00:15:14.669 not the one Hitchcock advised on. Not the full 00:15:14.669 --> 00:15:17.049 intended statement. And it would take decades 00:15:17.049 --> 00:15:19.409 for even the incomplete British version to surface 00:15:19.409 --> 00:15:21.549 publicly. That was Memory of the Camps, right? 00:15:21.690 --> 00:15:24.629 In the 80s. The five existing rough cut reels 00:15:24.629 --> 00:15:26.789 were finally shown, first at the Berlin Film 00:15:26.789 --> 00:15:30.190 Festival in 1984, and then broadcast on PBS's 00:15:30.190 --> 00:15:33.429 Frontline in 1985, narrated by Trevor Howard. 00:15:33.909 --> 00:15:36.669 It was powerful, but everyone knew it wasn't 00:15:36.669 --> 00:15:39.289 the finished film. It lacked proper sound, and 00:15:39.289 --> 00:15:41.870 crucially, the entire sixth reel was missing. 00:15:42.169 --> 00:15:44.649 So a shadow of the original project haunted film 00:15:44.649 --> 00:15:47.169 history for decades until someone decided to 00:15:47.169 --> 00:15:49.990 finally complete it. Exactly. And that Herculean 00:15:49.990 --> 00:15:52.850 task fell to the Imperial War Museum. So the 00:15:52.850 --> 00:15:55.570 IWM, the Imperial War Museum in London, they 00:15:55.570 --> 00:15:58.009 had the materials gathering dust since the 50s. 00:15:58.029 --> 00:16:00.830 Essentially, yes. They became the official custodians 00:16:00.830 --> 00:16:04.590 back in 1952. They held the five rough cut reels, 00:16:04.590 --> 00:16:07.429 the original script, and crucially, about 100 00:16:07.429 --> 00:16:10.870 reels of raw, unused footage. Plus a detailed 00:16:10.870 --> 00:16:13.049 shot list for the missing six reel. So they had 00:16:13.049 --> 00:16:15.149 all the pieces just unassembled and neglected. 00:16:15.429 --> 00:16:18.570 Pretty much. But the actual work to do something 00:16:18.570 --> 00:16:20.909 with it didn't start until much later, around 00:16:20.909 --> 00:16:24.330 December 2008. What prompted it then? It started 00:16:24.330 --> 00:16:27.149 partly as a preservation effort for the deteriorating 00:16:27.149 --> 00:16:30.009 1984 memory of the cams version. But then the 00:16:30.009 --> 00:16:33.009 IWM team made a really important decision. Which 00:16:33.009 --> 00:16:35.309 was? Not just to preserve the incomplete version, 00:16:35.470 --> 00:16:38.809 but to go back to the original 1945 plan. To 00:16:38.809 --> 00:16:41.289 finally complete the 75 -minute German concentration 00:16:41.289 --> 00:16:45.009 camp factual survey, exactly as Bernstein and 00:16:45.009 --> 00:16:47.330 his team, with Hitchcock's advice, had intended 00:16:47.330 --> 00:16:49.750 it, using all the original documentation they 00:16:49.750 --> 00:16:51.669 had. That sounds like a massive undertaking. 00:16:52.409 --> 00:16:54.669 Technically difficult. Hugely difficult. We're 00:16:54.669 --> 00:16:56.850 talking about 60 -plus -year -old film stock, 00:16:57.110 --> 00:16:59.850 combat footage, probably not stored perfectly. 00:17:00.029 --> 00:17:02.570 The technical achievement was immense. They digitized 00:17:02.570 --> 00:17:04.470 everything. Bringing it up to modern clarity. 00:17:05.049 --> 00:17:07.289 Yes, and contemporary accounts say it transformed 00:17:07.289 --> 00:17:10.750 this grainy past into a vivid present. It apparently 00:17:10.750 --> 00:17:13.549 gave the footage an immediacy, a sharpness that 00:17:13.549 --> 00:17:16.029 was even more impactful, more horrifying than 00:17:16.029 --> 00:17:18.869 the degraded version seen before. And the missing 00:17:18.869 --> 00:17:22.259 sixth reel. How did they tackle that? They couldn't 00:17:22.259 --> 00:17:24.400 just guess what was supposed to be in it. No, 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:27.660 and they didn't have to. That original 1945 shot 00:17:27.660 --> 00:17:30.619 list was the key. It laid out exactly which shots, 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:33.390 which sequences. were planned for that final 00:17:33.390 --> 00:17:36.049 reel. So they could find that specific footage 00:17:36.049 --> 00:17:39.369 among the 100 raw reels they had. Exactly. They 00:17:39.369 --> 00:17:41.609 meticulously located the corresponding shots 00:17:41.609 --> 00:17:43.890 and rebuilt the reel according to the original 00:17:43.890 --> 00:17:46.470 plan. Apparently, they reconstructed it almost 00:17:46.470 --> 00:17:48.809 perfectly. Only two maps couldn't be found and 00:17:48.809 --> 00:17:51.230 had to be replaced with modern recreations. Incredible. 00:17:51.349 --> 00:17:54.089 Did they add sound? The 84 version lacked it? 00:17:54.210 --> 00:17:56.240 Yes. They sourced authentic sound effects from 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:58.519 the period from the museum's own archives to 00:17:58.519 --> 00:18:00.940 create the soundscape. And crucially, they finally 00:18:00.940 --> 00:18:03.420 recorded the original narration script, the one 00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:05.460 written by Richard Crossman and Colin Wills back 00:18:05.460 --> 00:18:08.859 in 45. Actor Jasper Britton provided the voice. 00:18:09.059 --> 00:18:12.039 So after almost 70 years, the film, as originally 00:18:12.039 --> 00:18:14.900 conceived, was finally complete. Where did it 00:18:14.900 --> 00:18:17.680 premiere? Fittingly, perhaps, at the Berlin Film 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:20.779 Festival in 2014, 69 years after it was supposed 00:18:20.779 --> 00:18:22.539 to be finished. That must have been an extraordinary 00:18:22.539 --> 00:18:26.279 moment. A profound moment of, as you say, cinematic 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:29.799 reclamation. It was later released in North America 00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:32.819 in 2017, distributed by a company called Three 00:18:32.819 --> 00:18:34.740 Generations. And that company has a connection. 00:18:35.019 --> 00:18:37.339 A direct connection. It was founded by Jane Wells, 00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:39.839 Sidney Bernstein's daughter. bringing the family's 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:42.099 commitment full circle after all that time. What 00:18:42.099 --> 00:18:44.180 was the reaction? Did the completed film live 00:18:44.180 --> 00:18:46.299 up to its troubled history? Did it still have 00:18:46.299 --> 00:18:49.299 that power? Absolutely. Critics were deeply affected. 00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:51.160 The New York Times called it an extraordinary 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:54.119 act of cinematic reclamation and historiography. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:56.200 And they commented on its tone, right, that it 00:18:56.200 --> 00:18:58.700 avoided easy sentimentality. Yes, that was a 00:18:58.700 --> 00:19:01.279 key point. The film doesn't try to offer uplift 00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:03.859 or talk about the triumph of the human spirit. 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:07.380 It stays relentlessly focused on the stark reality, 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:10.299 the suffering, the starvation, the evidence of 00:19:10.299 --> 00:19:13.259 mass murder. It refuses to look away or offer 00:19:13.259 --> 00:19:16.079 false comfort. So it fulfilled Hitchcock's goal 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:19.519 of unflinching documentation. Precisely. The 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:21.640 Times also noted that while the imagery might 00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:24.759 feel familiar from other Holocaust films or documentaries, 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:27.240 this felt different because it is different. 00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:29.920 It's not a narrative reconstruction. It's the 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:32.880 primary source, presented with that raw authenticity 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:36.160 they thought for in 1945. The story of the film 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:38.059 itself is so compelling, it actually inspired 00:19:38.059 --> 00:19:40.900 another documentary, didn't it? It did. The restoration 00:19:40.900 --> 00:19:45.019 or release of the GCCFS directly led to the making 00:19:45.019 --> 00:19:47.539 of Night Will Fall in 2014. Right, Night Will 00:19:47.539 --> 00:19:50.440 Fall. So this wasn't the restored 1945 film itself, 00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:53.759 but a documentary about the 1945 film. Exactly. 00:19:53.980 --> 00:19:56.279 Directed by Andre Singer, it's a 70 -minute film 00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:57.859 that tells the whole story we've been discussing. 00:19:58.359 --> 00:20:01.180 The urgent creation of the GCCFS, Hitchcock's 00:20:01.180 --> 00:20:02.819 involvement, the reasons for its suppression, 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:05.539 and the long road to restoration. It explains 00:20:05.539 --> 00:20:08.740 the why behind the silence. Precisely. It puts 00:20:08.740 --> 00:20:10.839 the restored footage into its historical and 00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:13.440 political context. The title itself is very evocative. 00:20:13.579 --> 00:20:16.220 It comes from the original narration. Yes, from 00:20:16.220 --> 00:20:20.480 a line in the 1945 script. Unless the world learns 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:23.140 the lesson these pictures teach, night will fall. 00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:26.559 A chilling warning. What does Night Will Fall 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:29.180 actually show? Does it use much of the original 00:20:29.180 --> 00:20:31.960 footage? It includes about 12 minutes of the 00:20:31.960 --> 00:20:35.019 restored GCCFS footage, enough to give you a 00:20:35.019 --> 00:20:37.859 sense of its power. but its real value comes 00:20:37.859 --> 00:20:40.339 from the new material it presents. Like interviews. 00:20:40.460 --> 00:20:42.559 Yes, recent interviews with people connected 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:45.539 to the story, survivors who were liberated, allied 00:20:45.539 --> 00:20:47.259 soldiers who were there, even some of the original 00:20:47.259 --> 00:20:49.700 film crew who were still alive in the 2010s. 00:20:49.960 --> 00:20:53.079 Those survivor accounts must be incredibly powerful, 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:56.900 linking the past horror to the present day. Absolutely 00:20:56.900 --> 00:20:59.259 essential. For example, Bronco Lustig is interviewed. 00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:01.420 A survivor of Auschwitz and Belsen, who later 00:21:01.420 --> 00:21:04.000 produced Schindler's List. That's him. And in 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:05.859 Night Will Fall, he speaks very directly about 00:21:05.859 --> 00:21:08.599 why he believes the 1945 film was shelved. He 00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:10.619 points to the shifting politics, the Cold War. 00:21:10.779 --> 00:21:13.079 But he specifically mentions the British difficulty 00:21:13.079 --> 00:21:16.819 over Palestine. He says, quite bluntly, the Brits 00:21:16.819 --> 00:21:19.460 had enough problems with the Jews. Wow. That's 00:21:19.460 --> 00:21:21.559 direct testimony supporting the political analysis 00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:24.279 we discussed. It is. And he also shares this 00:21:24.279 --> 00:21:26.779 incredibly vivid personal memory of liberation 00:21:26.779 --> 00:21:31.059 at Belsen. He was just a boy, 12 years old, incredibly 00:21:31.059 --> 00:21:33.880 weak. What does he remember? He remembers hearing 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:37.680 music. The sound of bagpipes, played by the liberating 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:40.960 Scottish forces. But he was so traumatized, so 00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:43.440 close to death, he thought he was dead and was 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:45.819 hearing the music of angels. Oh my goodness, 00:21:45.880 --> 00:21:48.220 that captures the absolute disorientation and 00:21:48.220 --> 00:21:51.220 trauma. It really does. Another survivor interviewed 00:21:51.220 --> 00:21:54.259 is Eva Moses -Kor. She describes the liberation 00:21:54.259 --> 00:21:57.099 of Auschwitz by Soviet soldiers in the snow wearing 00:21:57.099 --> 00:21:59.980 white camouflage. What does she recall? She remembers 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:01.759 them giving the starving prisoners little things, 00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:04.740 chocolate, cookies, and hugs. These small human 00:22:04.740 --> 00:22:07.809 gestures amidst the vastness of the horror. These 00:22:07.809 --> 00:22:09.809 personal stories in Night Will Fall are crucial. 00:22:10.009 --> 00:22:12.509 They ground the archival footage in individual 00:22:12.509 --> 00:22:14.930 experience. And Night Will Fall itself got a 00:22:14.930 --> 00:22:16.890 wide release, didn't it? It brought this whole 00:22:16.890 --> 00:22:20.329 hidden story to a global audience. Yes, the timing 00:22:20.329 --> 00:22:22.809 was very deliberate. It was broadcast internationally 00:22:22.809 --> 00:22:26.069 on major networks, HBO in the U .S., Channel 00:22:26.069 --> 00:22:28.789 4 in the U .K., and others, all during the week 00:22:28.789 --> 00:22:32.130 of Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2015. 00:22:32.779 --> 00:22:34.839 Which was the 70th anniversary of the liberation 00:22:34.839 --> 00:22:37.700 of Auschwitz. Exactly. Maximum visibility for 00:22:37.700 --> 00:22:39.740 a story that had been invisible for so long. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:42.299 And it was well received critically. Hugely well 00:22:42.299 --> 00:22:45.200 received. Got 100 % on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:47.660 recognized its importance. The Guardian said 00:22:47.660 --> 00:22:50.140 the footage exposes once again the obscenity 00:22:50.140 --> 00:22:53.109 of Holocaust denial. And they echoed Hitchcock's 00:22:53.109 --> 00:22:55.369 original concern, too, didn't they, about the 00:22:55.369 --> 00:22:58.009 impact of the images? Yes. The Guardian included 00:22:58.009 --> 00:23:01.069 a warning advising viewers that once seen, these 00:23:01.069 --> 00:23:04.250 images cannot be unseen. It speaks volumes about 00:23:04.250 --> 00:23:06.589 the enduring power of the footage that Bernstein 00:23:06.589 --> 00:23:08.789 commissioned and Hitchcock helped shape finally 00:23:08.789 --> 00:23:11.730 presented in its proper context. So after 70 00:23:11.730 --> 00:23:14.549 years, the film and the story behind the film 00:23:14.549 --> 00:23:16.829 finally got the attention they deserve. A long 00:23:16.829 --> 00:23:19.789 overdue acknowledgement. Hashtag outro. So wrapping 00:23:19.789 --> 00:23:22.799 this up. This deep dive into the German concentration 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:25.660 camp's factual survey really leaves you with 00:23:25.660 --> 00:23:28.180 a lot to think about. It's not just about one 00:23:28.180 --> 00:23:31.410 lost film. No, it touches on so much more. We've 00:23:31.410 --> 00:23:33.710 seen Hitchcock's almost counterintuitive genius 00:23:33.710 --> 00:23:38.069 using absolute realism, those long takes, to 00:23:38.069 --> 00:23:39.970 authenticate something utterly unbelievable, 00:23:40.210 --> 00:23:42.529 fighting the potential for denial before it even 00:23:42.529 --> 00:23:44.910 started. And then the stark reality of why it 00:23:44.910 --> 00:23:47.250 was buried. Immediate political needs dealing 00:23:47.250 --> 00:23:49.509 with occupied Germany, the brewing Cold War, 00:23:49.670 --> 00:23:51.789 and especially that intense pressure surrounding 00:23:51.789 --> 00:23:54.349 the British mandate in Palestine. Those took 00:23:54.349 --> 00:23:57.109 precedence over documenting genocide. It's a 00:23:57.109 --> 00:23:59.859 clear example of geopolitical. convenience overriding 00:23:59.859 --> 00:24:02.299 historical imperative. And of course, we have 00:24:02.299 --> 00:24:04.299 to acknowledge the incredible work of the Imperial 00:24:04.299 --> 00:24:07.220 War Museum. Their decades -long stewardship and 00:24:07.220 --> 00:24:10.039 eventual restoration finally allowed Bernstein's 00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:12.500 original vision to be realized. It really ensures 00:24:12.500 --> 00:24:15.299 the film exists now as intended a permanent, 00:24:15.420 --> 00:24:18.700 undeniable record. But it does leave us, and 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:21.180 you listening, with a pretty challenging final 00:24:21.180 --> 00:24:24.099 thought, doesn't it? It does. The whole controversy 00:24:24.099 --> 00:24:26.799 hinged on this calculation. Would revealing the 00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:29.200 full truth interfere with current political goals? 00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:31.799 If something as fundamentally important as the 00:24:31.799 --> 00:24:34.599 GCCFS with footage that clear, that damning, 00:24:34.619 --> 00:24:36.400 could be suppressed because it was politically 00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:38.839 inconvenient? Yeah. It makes you wonder. What 00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:41.279 else? What other truths, maybe less visually 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:44.460 stark but equally important, were quietly shelved 00:24:44.460 --> 00:24:46.819 or delayed in that post -war era or even since 00:24:46.819 --> 00:24:49.039 simply because they didn't fit the political 00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:51.200 narrative of the moment? What are the long -term 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:53.740 costs when we prioritize immediate political 00:24:53.740 --> 00:24:56.900 comfort over confronting difficult historical 00:24:56.900 --> 00:24:59.240 realities? How much of our understanding of the 00:24:59.240 --> 00:25:01.380 past is shaped by what was allowed to be seen 00:25:01.380 --> 00:25:02.980 and said at the time? That's the question the 00:25:02.980 --> 00:25:05.799 story of the GCSEFS forces us to ask. What else 00:25:05.799 --> 00:25:08.299 is still waiting in the archives, unseen, unheard, 00:25:08.420 --> 00:25:10.480 because the timing wasn't right or the message 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:13.140 was deemed unhelpful? It's something to keep 00:25:13.140 --> 00:25:13.700 thinking about.