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German POWs

Film | Accession Number: 2005.486.1 | RG Number: RG-60.4396 | Film ID: 2803

German POWs in military vehicles, including one with a red cross insignia (medical troops), travel down a road in a town. German civilians wave at them from the side of the road. Shots of German civilians, including many children. Germans pick through an enormous, still-smoking pile of rubble for salvageable items, which they put into carts. Very brief, dark shot of a slate which indicates that the cameraman is Lindsay. Low aerial shots of towns, roads, and vehicles. Another very brief shot of a slate, then scenes of Germans riding in horse-drawn carts down the streets of a town. They carry bundles of belongings in the carts. A car with a Czech flag follows behind them. White flags hang from some of the houses and the carts. Another slate, then truckloads of German POWs riding in vehicles down a road. Long shot of a long line of vehicles. American soldiers stand and pose with a Russian (?) soldier. White flags hang from buildings in the town of Tannenbergstahl. Civilians wave to vehicles full of German soldiers as they drive down the street. Two American GIs in a jeep read a sign that says: "Achtung! Closed season on all Germans, by order of Lt. Col. R. B. Cobb." American soldiers run an American flag up a flag pole, then bring it back down to half-mast. They salute the flag. According to the dope sheet, the flag was made by Germans for the Americans. German women and children look through piles of clothing. Recently surrendered German troops gathered on a road with vehicles. One of the men is shirtless and washes himself. An officer (?) salutes the camerman as he walks by. 01:07:36 German officers, including a general, stand by the side of the road. A German general speaks to a German orderly. A plane taking off. 01:08:13 A makeshift slate reads: "Crump, Augsburg, May 14-15 1945." This is footage from the same location and date as that found on Story 4381: Augsburg, Germany, where Goering was taken after his capture in Austria. "Crump" is Lt. Colonel Crump. Hermann Goering, seated at a table outdoors, talks to an American major of the 7th Army. Different angles of the two men talking; sometimes Goering is alone in the shot.

01:09:30 Slate identifying the cameraman as Lindsay. Shots of a C-47 airplane landing. An American officer assists Colonel Hans-Ulrich Rudel and another German out of the plane and into a vehicle. Rudel's leg brace or prosthesis sits beside him. Hans-Ulrich Rudel was a highly decorated fighter pilot who was wounded and had a leg amputated near the end of the war. He deliberately flew into the American zone to evade capture by the Soviets. After the war he lived in Argentina and returned to Germany in the 1950's. He continued to espouse Nazi ideology and wrote a pro-Hitler memoir, as well as a book condemning those members of the German army who had not supported Hitler.

01:10:45 Two German women in the back of a car. Shots of German soldiers surrendering and American soldiers eating. The GIs talk to and laugh with young children. A long line of vehicles filled with surrendering Germans. American soldiers on the street of a German town. Military vehicles full of surrendering soldiers pass through the streets as civilians watch. A woman gives the men in the truck coffee. Civilians watch from windows. German prisoners in horse-drawn wagons. German soldiers and civilians along a road, including women and children, with piles of belongings. German officers talk to American soldiers. One German officer salutes the Americans.

Event Date
1945 May
Augsburg, Germany
Tannenbergstahl, Germany
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Record last modified: 2018-03-07 13:54:39
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