Excerpts from private film collections: American soldiers encounter Nazi atrocities at liberation

The Nazi concentration camps shocked the battle-hardened young men and women in the US military who encountered them in 1945. American soldiers and nurses shot these amateur films using handheld cameras. Eyewitness Films is now on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as part of the special exhibition, American Witnesses. The video is a curated selection of private film footage from the Museum's Spielberg Film Archive, which collects, preserves, and provides access to important eyewitness documentation of World War II and the Holocaust. There is graphic content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Film List & Credits: Tony Brooke, US Army Signal Corps (USHMM, gift of the Family of Anthony S. Brooke) Major Sydney L. Burr, 388th Bombardment Group, US Army Air Forces (USHMM, gift of Jamie B. Russell) Colonel Alexander Zabin, 4th Auxiliary Surgical Group, US Army (USHMM, gift of Steven Zabin) Lieutenant Beatrice Wachter, 51st Field Hospital, US Army (USHMM, gift of Jack Stein) Sergeant Raymond S. Buch, 56th Armored Engineer Battalion, US Army (USHMM, gift of Robert Zimmer) Arthur Mainzer, Norman Krasna, US Army Air Forces Motion Picture Unit (USHMM, gift of Beth Krasna) Colonel Wilbur G. Dockum, 692nd Field Artillery Battalion, US Army (USHMM, gift of Pam S. Manix) Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Dixon, 99th Chemical Mortar Battalion, US Army (USHMM, gift of Gordon Dixon)