Sgt. Raymond S. Buch was a member of the 56th Armored Engineer Battalion of the 11th Armored Division of the US Army and was present at the liberation of Mauthausen. His engineering battalion was brought to Mauthausen to bury the dead. Refer to the oral history interview with Mr. Buch recorded in December 1989 (RG-50.030*0045).
Timecodes starting with 02: refer to the Master and User (VHS) copies. Timecodes starting with 01: refer to the Protection (Beta SP) copy.
Some of this footage appeared in the USHMM special exhibition on Liberation.
The 11th US Armored Division advances through Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. Includes scenes of surrendering enemies and the 56th Armored Engineer Battalion at the liberation of Mauthausen. Color: Countryside from moving tank. Liberation of German town: flames, civilians, some waving white flags, church. Views of German civilians from tank as US army passes through, 2 men with armbands carry a Red Cross flag. US soldiers marching along road (dark) and through town. Shots of farm animals and barns on fire. 01:22:26 Group of men - brewery workers - exiting building with arms raised. Women and men forced to haul stones, watched by US Army soldiers. US soldiers on tank, countryside, fires. 01:23:48 Good close shots of German field hospital soldiers, lined up, carrying belongings, marching. Entering village in Czechoslovakia, civilians with white flags. In Austria, LS fields, tanks. Facades of buildings demolished, devastated civilians. 01:27:34 German soldiers running along road with arms raised, US snipers in field, LS of Germans running, fighting. Red Cross truck with 2 stretchers, more civilians surrender. 01:29:47 Black and white: Soft pan of buildings at Mauthausen, barracks, kitchen with 2 chimneys, double electrified fence. Survivors sleeping on cots, emaciated. Closer view of barbed wire. Pile of wooden coffins. US flag, guard tower. Pan, stone wall. HAS, camp buildings and barracks. Rooftops, Danube River in BG. Fast pan around fields. Engineers with the 56th Armored bury bodies in trenches, Austrian civilians shoveling dirt into pit. Pan of graves, bulldozer pushes dirt to fill mass grave. 01:37:24 Emaciated survivors, waiting in food line. INT, good MSs, women on bunks. Stone fence, gates, quarry. 01:39:22 Repeat of previous scene with CUs of women in bunks in slow motion.
56th Armored Engineer Battalion arrives at Mauthausen to bury the dead