The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
British combat camerman, Sergeant (Sgt) Colman Michael (Mike) Lewis, Army Film Unit, uses a De Vry camera to film a group of women at Belsen. It is not known whether they comprise former inmates, SS (Schutzstaffel) guards or local German civilians forced to enter the camp to confront the full extent of atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. Belsen was one of many concentration camps administered by the Third Reich as an instrument of their 'Final Solution'. Thousands died at Belsen through maltreatment, disease or deprivation. That toll would join with others to become the full cost of the genocide against Jews and other subjugated people. Photographer, VX93880 Lieutenant (Lt) Alan Moore, Australian official war artist, was attached to the British Army during the Allied advance across Europe. Whilst at Belsen, Lt Moore made several paintings, sketches and drawings as a record of Nazi atrocities committed against the predominantly Jewish inmates. A personal camera was used to record events observed in the Allied occupation of the camp and these black and white images also provide witness to one Australian's experience of the Holocaust. Sgt Lewis originally served with the Royal Fusiliers, then the Queen's Royal Regiment, and later trained as a parachutist. He joined the Airborne Section of the Army Film Unit, filming in Arnhem and at the liberation of Belsen. A copy negative of this image is held in the collection under the accession number P03007.011.
An unidentified German guard, possibly a member of the SS (Schutzstaffel), stands above an open pit containing the bodies of hundreds of victims of Belsen. Jewish inmates, along with other nationaliti
Two German soldiers (centre) hoist corpses of prisoners on their shoulders as they carry them for burial in an open mass grave (not pictured) as troops from the Welsh Guards direct them in the backgro
Back to camera, VX93880 Lieutenant (Lt) Alan Moore, an Australian official war artist, sketches captured SS (Schutzstaffel) guards after the liberation of Belsen concentration camp on 15 April 1945. T
Two male corpses lie strewn together in the Belsen concentration camp administered by the SS (Schutzstaffel) in Nazi Germany. Thousands of prisoners died there during incarceration due to maltreatment
A large group of corpses, among 10 000 others, lie strewn in the grounds of Belsen. Broken by disease, starvation and maltreatment, these emaciated inmates had died before British troops finally liber
German soldiers face the outcome of the 'Final Solution' against the Jewish people and those of other races and categories victimized by the Third Reich. A long line of SS (Schutzstaffel) guards, both
