Holocaust 'miracle rescue' film unearthed for first time

Historian Guy Walters takes us through powerful footage, newly discovered in the US National Archives, of scenes in 1945 Germany never thought to have been captured on film

-  Guy Walters

A young boy, no more than five, looks straight into the camera. He is wearing a cap, a collared shirt and a jacket, all of which would have once looked smart, but are now tatty. His face is thin, his eyes very dark and somewhat sunken. The boy’s gaze is direct, his expression a mixture of distrust, toughness, and curiosity, but above all, it speaks of having endured and seen things that no child – or adult – should ever have to see.

Behind him is the train on which he has been incarcerated for the past week, along with some 2,500 of his fellow Jews. It had left from the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen on 7 April 1945, its destination the camp some 260 miles southeast at Theresienstadt. Unlike most concentration camp prisoners, none are wearing the distinctive striped uniform, and all are in normal clothes. Many are sitting on the banks of a small cutting on what looks like a fine spring day, although the presence of a few fires suggests the air is anything but warm.

The camera moves around, capturing numerous faces and moments. A very thin bare-chested man has taken off his shirt and is killing lice between his thumbnails. A mother and daughter lie in the sun, clearly exhausted. A middle-aged man wraps bandages around his legs. Some are asleep, their frail figures seemingly lifeless. For the most part, the atmosphere is still, but the peace is broken by the presence of an American GI, who is handing around sweets. Children and a few adults swarm around, each desperate to taste the type of food they would have been long denied, perhaps for many years.