Description
Object description
Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel, featuring the opening of the United Nations conference at San Francisco; the execution of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini; the aftermath of German atrocities is seen at Ohrdruf, Arnstadt and Nordhausen, and witnessed by Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton, and by German civilians.
Content description
'United Nations opens conference at San Francisco'; city views of San Francisco, including a good view of City Hall. Interior conference hall; the conference opens. Edward Stettinius, US Secretary of State, introduces President Truman's speech by radio from Washington. Truman speaks of the hope for international justice arising from the discussions of the conference; 'if we do not wish to die together in war, we must learn to live together in peace'. Delegates applaud. Cars pulling up outside. Saudi Arabian delegates walk along a pavement in San Francisco. South African Prime Minister, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, follows the Saudi delegation back into the conference building. General Romulo of the Philippines. Chinese Foreign Minister T V Soong. Saudi delegates. Anthony Eden, British Foreign Secretary, passes camera. Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov in discussion with Eden and Lord Halifax, British Ambassador the United States. Stettinius with Soviet Ambassador Gromyko and Halifax. The Indian delegate, Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar. Jan Masaryk, Czech Foreign Minister. Dutch delegate Eelco van Kleffens. John Sofianopoulos of Greece. Ezequiel Padilla Peñaloza of Mexico. Charles Habib Malik of Lebanon. Mostafa Adl of Iran. Abdelhamid Badawi Pasha of Egypt. Camera passes through a door marked 'Associated Press Headquarters'. Correspondents typing. The telephone switchboards. Delegates make broadcasts. T V Soong address the conference. Molotov addresses the conference. Eden speaks; he thumps the podium on his final word - 'Let us do it now!'. He shakes Stettinius' hand.
Content description
'Italian partisans execute Mussolini'; still frames of Mussolini lying dead in a Milan street (on-screen caption credits the New York Times). Seens of Fascist rallies, and of Hitler with Mussolini. Mussolini addresses a rally in swaggering, bombastic fashion. On screen caption '1938' with Hitler and Mussolini in discussions with senior officers. Caption '1943'; Mussolini's rescue by German paratroopers. Still frame of Mussolini's body.
Content description
'German atrocities'; General Eisenhower, accompanied by Generals Bradley and Patton, inspect a concentration camp at Ohrdruf. A pile of corpses. Local German civilians are forced to view the bodies. The men emerge, some holding handkerchiefs to their faces. At Arnstadt bodies are exhumed by men wearing gas masks. A corpse is hauled out of the ground and carried away. A pipe-smoking American soldier makes notes. Emaciated survivors at Nordhausen, they look fearfully at the camera. A Red Cross flag. A freed prisoner is helped onto a stretcher by American medics, he claspes his hands together and appears to weep. More stretcher cases are carried away. A mass of dead bodies laid out in rows. German civilians, equipped with spades, etc, are marched to Nordhausen to dig graves. Civilians carry corpses; one corpse is carried along with its hands dragging along the floor. An open mass grave.
Physical description
35mm