This documentary is the film record of one of the first Nazi war crimes trials, conducted while the war was still raging. The concentration and extermination camp Majdanek, near Lublin, erected in 1941, was liberated in July 1944. When the Soviet and Polish troops drove the Nazis out of the region, they uncovered the evidence of Nazi genocide. One month later, a joint Soviet-Polish commission heard evidence from survivors and witnesses as to the atrocities that took place, and their testimony is preserved in this film.
Bengt and Irmgard von zur Mühlen are German film archivists who unearthed a wealth of material in various Eastern bloc archives of the time. Majdanek 1944 includes documentary material made available for the first time in the West.
West Germany, 1986,
65 minutes, B&W, English and German with English subtitles
Directed by Irmgard
and Bengt von zur Mühlen
16mm Archive Print