George Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. During World War II, Stevens joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and headed a film unit from 1943 to 1946 under General Eisenhower. His unit shot footage documenting D-Day — including the only Allied European Front color film of the war — the liberation of Paris and the meeting of American and Soviet forces at the Elbe River, as well as horrific scenes from the Duben labor camp and the Dachau concentration camp. Stevens also helped prepare the Duben and Dachau footage and other material for presentation during the Nuremberg Trials. In 2008, his footage was entered into the U.S. National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress as an"essential visual recor" of World War II. The Special Coverage Unit (SPECOU) was placed under the control of the Supreme Headquarters' Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). The SPECOU consists of 45 people: writers like Ivan Moffat, William Saroyan and Irwin Shaw; cameramen like Dick Hoar, Ken Marthey, William Mellor, Jack Muth; sound operators as Bill Hamilton, who comes from Columbia, assistant directors, as Holly Morse, who has worked with Hal Roach.
Five men in uniform, including Stevens entering large German building with columns, this is apparently postwar as they are not in combat uniform. One-legged civilian on cane walking down street, pan across devastated part of Berlin. Shot of famous columned gate: the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, sign reads:"British Secto", civilians and others are walking about. (Berlin was divided into Soviet, American, British and French sectors. The Brandenburg Gate was the demarcation line between the Soviet and British sectors of the city. In the BG there are the remains of the Unter den Linden, one of the most fashionable streets in pre-war Berlin.) Series of signs in Russian. VS of other buildings, including one with horseman on top. VS inside courtyard of heavily bombed building. Bicyclists and jeep coming down bombed street, German civilians cleaning up, including line of about 20 women passing buckets. (An all-women workforce was conscripted to clear up the rubble of Berlin once the war was over, their menfolk being either dead or prisoners of war.) Shot of the Reichstag, Russian soldiers having their picture taken in front of this building. Traveling shot, down railroad track, train coming toward (and under) camera. Statue of a horseman with man standing next to it. Stevens and others inside the Olympic Stadium. Camera pans to plaque reading:"16 August 1936 in Olympic Stadium in Berli" with reference to Adolf Hitler. Pan of stadium area, VS of diving board and Olympic swimming pools. GIs taking pictures around the stadium. Shot of Capt. Holly Morse, shot of Sgt. Bill Hamilton. Scene shifts to a beach area with bathers (possibly at a lake or the sea.) Brief scene of someone putting on a golf course. Pan of building, a Russian sign in front of it, several other Russian signs, presumably in the Eastern Sector. Additional shots of destroyed buildings with single walls standing. Jeep with Hamilton and Holly Morse driving in front of German building, insert of a Russian sign, CU of identity card with Russian, American and British flags on the cover. Three German women and two children wheeling and old man down the street. Woman, possibly Russian, directing traffic with yellow and red flags. A group of Russian soldiers walking leisurely down the street in formation. Another platoon of Russian soldiers walking past a building, marching towards camera, two civilian women with child and baby carriage, a man and two women carrying belongings on back walking down the highway. VS of civilians moving along with their personal possessions.
Touring Berlin, postwar