Pete26 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 0S4PaVTfvM
Note that the execution shed is much larger in this film than it is now. About half of it has its roof missing and only outer walls are standing. This part was evidently damaged in a bombing raid and later torn down and a memorial wall built. The heavily damaged death house portion o the cell block is clearly visible. Even though the interior shot of the execution room is of poor quality, you can see a faint outline of the original sink with the tiled back splash wall, and also black shutters on the front windows. There are original wooden doors at the entrance to the execution room. The sink, window shutters,and the wooden entrance doors were removed at some later date, probably in 1950.
The film proves little was done to repair the September 3-4 bomb damage. Prisoners may have stacked the bricks and cleaned the area but obviously Haus III was a wreck. We can see the execution building was a lot bigger than as we know it today. The fallbeil may have been located in the left (bombed) section of the building because it, of course, was damaged. I imagine many Forum members have seen this film on YouTube. It is quite significant for what it shows.
I think the Pathe footage is the earliest film we have of the execution room and the prison although the Russians did film and photograph the building when they took it in May, 1945. Wish someone could locate that footage.
At one point the film crew may be trying to show blood stains still on the floor.
According to the Memorial Center, Haus III was demolished in 1950. Still photos taken at that time look very much like the film except that the damaged walls of the execution building are gone.
Other visuals of interest: the route the mourners take shows the gate to the House III area and they are
passing by Hof 4 where richtbeil executions took place. This is the route condemned prisoners probably took from the front entrance to Haus III. The speeches are in the area where the corpse trucks would have parked. Clearly a lot of cleanup had already been done (stacked bricks) possibly by prisoners before Berlin fell. Surprising they did not film the hooks.
I have read that some relatives could not bring themselves to enter the execution room itself. It must have been dark, dank, filthy.
