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Fred R. Crawford Witness to the Holocaust Project Video of Liberators of Buchenwald

The Emory University Center for Research in Social Change began production of a series, entitled "Witness to the Holocaust", in April 1979. It aired over Channel 5 (CBS-WAGA) and Channel 30 (PBS-Atlanta Public Schools). Copies of these programs were distributed to national PBS officials and to other institutions in West Germany, Israel and the United States. Several educational institutions in the U. S. purchased the series to use in conjunction with Holocaust courses. A second set of programs was produced in May 1981. This entire series aired over the educational network in Miami, Florida, starting in December 1981.

The following excerpts are taken from a program taped on 4 June 1979. Fred Roberts Crawford interviewed three liberators (Leo Pine, Dennis Wile, and John Glustrom) about their experiences during the liberation of Buchenwald. In order to view the video clips, you will need the Real Player plug-in. A transcription of this program is available in Series I: Case Files. Slides taken during the taping of this program can be found in Series Series X: Slides of public programming activities.

If you have any questions about this collection, please contact the reference archivist at speccollref@emory.edu.

Clip 1: John Glustrom, 333rd Engineers
This clip opens with an excerpt from an Army film of the liberation of Buchenwald. Glustrom describes the barracks and crematorium that he visited. He also describes the appearance of corpses of the prisoners. Glustrom then shows some of the photographs that he took. (None of his photographs were donated to the Project.) Glustrom did an oral history for the Project in 1978.

Clip 2: Dennis Wile, 1270th Engineer Combat Battalion
Dennis Wile was a combat photographer. When Buchenwald was liberated, he was sent to Buchenwald to help document what had happened there. He describes the survivors and a visit to the crematorium. He compares the corpses of the prisoners to the corpse of a German guard who had been murdered by the survivors. He then shows four of the photographs that he sent home and reads the captions on the back of them. Wile has donated many photographs documenting his experiences in World War II to the Project. He did an oral history for the Project in 1978. There is also an online exhibit on Wile's wartime experiences.

Clip 3: Leo Pine, 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion
Dr. Leo Pine remembered hearing that there was a liberated concentration camp near where his unit was, and he requested permission to take a truck and a squad of men to go visit it. He described meeting a survivor who immediately recognized him as being another Jew. This survivor then introduced him to a three year old boy who had been born in Buchenwald and then secretly raised by the prisoners. Pine did an oral history for the Project in 1978.

Additional materials on Buchenwald in this collection:

• Other oral history transcripts can be found in Series I: Case Files. (Not all of the oral history transcripts related to Buchenwald have been digitized.)
• Other images of Buchenwald can be found in Series IV: Photographs and Series VI: Slides. (Only some of the photographs of Buchenwald have been digitized. None of the slides of Buchenwald have been digitized.)
• A television program was recorded on 21 May 1979 with Buchenwald liberator William A. Scott and Buchenwald survivor Alex Gross. It has not been digitized. (See Series VII: Witness to the Holocaust television series.)
• Searching for the word buchenwald will generate a list of all materials concerning the Buchenwald concentration camp that have been digitized.

Additional information about this television series:

• List of all the programs in this television series can be found in Series VII: Witness to the Holocaust television series
• A transcript of a 1979 program featuring liberators of the Dachau concentration camp (Thomas Spruill and Jesse Lafoon) can be found in Series I: Case Files in the International Liberators Conference subseries.
• Slides taken during the taping of the television program can be found in Series X: Slides of public programming activities.

Copyright Emory University--Last updated April 2002