liberators : fighting on two fronts in world war ii
a feature documentary about african - american soldiers in world war ii who fought in the segregated us army and helped liberate nazi concentration camps .
very important account of an untold history of african american history during world war ii. like the movie hidden figures americans should know this story
an account of black american soldiers in world war ii who combated racism in the segregated military and on the home front. in april 1945, some black american soldiers were among the first... see full summary »
looking back on wwii and what black soldiers had to suffer on the home front before shoving off for combat duty in france and germany, the searing “liberators” spares little of the pain they endured thanks to u. s. racial policies, especially in the south. the war for blacks was on two fronts: restrictions at home [ … ]
former capt. david williams of the 761st tank battalion, one of the few black combat units to fight in world war ii, was talking about distances, sherman tanks and truth .
an account of black american soldiers in world war ii who combated racism in the segregated military and on the home front. in april 1945, some black american soldiers were among the first' liberators' to enter nazi death camps, encountering the survivors described by one gi as
walking skeletons .
looking back on wwii and what black soldiers had to suffer on the home front before shoving off for combat duty in france and germany, the searing “liberators” spares little of the pain they endured thanks to u. s. racial policies, especially in the south. the war for blacks was on two fronts: restrictions at home and liberating nazi victims; it’s a strong if not pretty pic .
episode four examines the surge of black activism that took place after world war ii. black veterans returned from the war determined to achieve the same rights at home that they had fought for in europe in a jim crow army. one vet, medgar evers, became an organizer for the…
looking back on wwii and what black soldiers had to suffer on the home front before shoving off for combat duty in france and germany, the searing
liberators
spares little of the pain they endured thanks to u. s. racial policies, especially in the south. the war for blacks was on two fronts: restrictions at home and liberating nazi victims; it' s a strong if not pretty pic .
the story of the organizing of the first black trade union - the brotherhood of sleeping car porters - provides an account of african american working life between the civil war and world war ii. miles of smiles chronicles the organizing of the first black trade union - the brotherhood…
by december 1944, americans have become weary of the war their young men have been fighting for three long years; the stream of newspaper headlines telling of new losses and telegrams bearing bad news from the war department seem endless and unendurable. in the pacific, american progress has been slow…
before there was a civil rights movement in the unites states of america, there were the actions of the tuskegee airmen. many african american men and women were aviators in the early 1930' s, but established military policy forbade them from flying. however, as world war ii loomed, there was heavy…
on nov. 9, 1992, two days before the nationwide pbs broadcast of “liberators, ” the world premiere was held at new york city’s lincoln center before an audience of prominent jewish and black americans, including mayor david dinkins, lena horne, kareem abdul - jabbar and harvey meyerhoff, the chairman of the us holocaust memorial council .
despite davis’ equivocations, awarding “liberators” with the oscar was a bridge too far for ampas voters, and on march 29, “the panama deception” received the prize .
on pbs’s “the american experience” on veterans day in 1992. the film tendentiously claimed that african - american gis from the 761st tank and 183rd combat engineers battalions liberated buchenwald (21, 000 prisoners) and dachau (32, 000), two of the largest concentration camps freed by the us army .
leon bass, one of the stars of “liberators, ” was first misrepresented as a buchenwald liberator in 1981, at an international liberators conference hosted by the us holocaust memorial council at the state department in washington. a front - page article in the washington post on oct. 28, 1981, falsely reported that bass “liberated buchenwald with an all - black unit. ”
the film ,
the liberators ,
viewed by an audience of 3. 7 million, portrayed the neglected history of the 761st battalion, putting considerable stress on the involvement of some of its members at the liberations of two of the most notorious camps in germany, dachau and buchenwald.' pbs - gate follies,' veteran says
on sunday, the 20th anniversary of the “liberators” - tarnished oscars, viewers might want to weigh these facts as they wait to see whether “5 broken cameras” or “the gatekeepers” takes home the academy award .
actor in a supporting role - david paymer in
mr. saturday night
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james mcbride and rick bragg read passages from to kill a mockingbird on how historical realities of southern life affect the characters in the novel .
filmmaker macky alston searches for a connection between his own family and two african american families with the same last name. the families trace their ancestors to the same plantation .
in an op - ed published that month in the new york post, i pointed out that while “the last days” portrayed paul parks, jesse jackson’s 1988 hero, as a dachau liberator, he had zero credibility. wnet’s investigation six years earlier had underlined that parks, identified in “liberators” as serving in the 183rd combat engineers battalion, had actually served in the 365th engineers .
as a result of the “liberators” oscar nomination, col. james s. moncrief, the sixth armored’s assistant chief of staff for personnel, sent a letter of protest to the academy. on march 4, bruce davis, the ampas executive director, replied :
, ” written by jeffrey goldberg, delivered a devastating blow to the film. while the opening scene shows two veterans of the 761st tank battalion “returning” to buchenwald with survivor benjamin bender, one of the gis, e. g. mcconnell, confessed to goldberg that his first trip to the camp was in 1991, courtesy of wnet. goldberg also reported that mcconnell’s admission was “supported by a host of veterans of the 761st, ” the battalion featured in “liberators. ”
on feb. 10, kenneth stern, a researcher at the american jewish committee, released a 15 - page report, “liberators: a background report, ” which stated that the “film has serious factual flaws, well beyond what can be written off as ‘artistic license. ’” the next day, wnet / channel 13 and pbs jointly pulled the plug on the film, and commissioned an independent investigation .
in bass’ words, “i knew on this day i had seen the face of evil. i’m talking about racism. ” soldiers eye the room where germans hung their charges up on meathooks and the docu displays pix of corpses whose limbs were cut off, of a brain pressed against glass .
but mr. stern accuses the film makers of carelessness regarding the two notorious camps in germany. he concludes that the scant evidence placing men from the 761st at buchenwald or dachau is far outweighed by evidence placing them elsewhere. some blacks did take part in the rescue of jews from those camps, he said, but were from other army units. no mention in daily reports
last month, the film was nominated for an academy award for best documentary. before that, black and jewish leaders gathered at a special showing at the apollo theater in harlem and spoke of the two people' s common history of oppression. the rev. jesse jackson urged that it be distributed in all high schools .
subsequent research at the national archives in college park, md. , revealed that the 365th was not anywhere near dachau on the day of its liberation — in fact, it was in another country entirely, close to le havre, france. despite this egregious fabrication, which i disclosed in the forward, “the last days” won the award .
“liberators, ” directed by williams miles and nina rosenblum, and with narration by denzel washington (a best actor nominee this year for “flight”) and lou gossett jr. ,
other questions followed. the first public criticism seems to have been made on the radio station wbai in new york by jim dingman, a program host who specializes in military history. articles questioning the veracity of the film were also published in the new york guardian, the forward and the new republic .
on dec. 17, at the apollo theater in harlem, another screening was held before an audience of 1, 200 prominent jews and blacks, hosted by three influential politicians: congressman charles rangel, manhattan district attorney robert morgenthau and jesse jackson. elie wiesel, who didn’t appear in the film, sent a videotaped message of support, and the event was broadcast on wnet .
the problem is that mr. williams - - and journalists, researchers and many other war veterans - - contend that a central element of the film, the role of black soldiers from the 761st in the liberation of those particular camps, is simply not true .
during jackson’s unsuccessful 1988 campaign for the democratic presidential nomination, he had expanded the myth of the african - american liberators to include dachau. the new york times published credulous articles on may 31 and june 3, and both disseminated the falsehood that paul parks, a close associate of eventual nominee michael dukakis, was a dachau liberator .
mr. williams, who lives in retirement in miami, was offering his comment on a controversy that has suddenly emerged to chill what was a brief moment of racial harmony. it began with a documentary film that was broadcast nationwide on pbs last november but has now been pulled from circulation pending an investigation by wnet, channel 13, the public television station for new york city, which helped produce it .
in 1982, william miles, a prize - winning documentary film maker, began hearing tales of the 761st and other black battalions during his work on another documentary ,
the different drummer: blacks in the military ,
broadcast in 1983. in 1985 he saw a letter in the new york times written by benjamin bender, a survivor of buchenwald, who recalled seeing black soldiers at the liberation of the camp. in 1989 the presence of black soldiers was mentioned by elie wiesel, who was also an inmate there .
“in a motion picture form that implicitly promises to deliver the truth, factual accuracy can legitimately be one of the criteria by which pictures are judged … to say that liberators is ineligible because of factual misrepresentations would imply that we checked every fact in the other... nominated documentaries and had found them all entirely accurate. ”
bass’s great heroism had in fact consisted of a visit to buchenwald on april 17, 1945, six days after the camp’s liberation, during which another 183rd soldier, william scott iii, took a few photographs .
channel 13 has asked pbs affiliates not to broadcast the film while it looks into the questions that have been raised about what it calls
details of the liberation of specific camps .
the station expressed confidence that the
overall point
of the film remains valid: that blacks fought racism and discrimination at home to be allowed to serve their country in the war and then witnessed the ultimate in racism and discrimination in the holocaust .
in spring 1945, although the numbers of dead and wounded have more than doubled since d - day, the people of mobile, sacramento, waterbury and luverne understand all too well that there will be more bad news from the battlefield before the war can end. that march, when americans go to the…
in early february, channel 13 released a five - page response, saying that it had
absolute confidence in the veracity of this outstanding film .
the very next day, however, members of the station met with kenneth s. stern, a researcher for the american jewish committee, and a few days after that meeting the station decided to withdraw
the liberators
and begin its review .
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it was segregation even to the point of separate post exchanges and uso units, quota systems in the military (finally lifted by fdr, who met with african - american leaders of the time about integrating the services and suggested maybe black bands on navy ships) .
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the event was sponsored by wnet / channel 13, the film’s chief financial backer and pbs’s affiliate in new york city, and the holocaust council, the federal organization established in 1980 to build and operate the nation’s holocaust museum in washington. thus, even before its opening the following april, the museum was ensnared in a major scandal .
publisher: ramboro books plc; media tie in edition (16 jun. 1997 )
mr. stern also says in his report that he interviewed the veterans of the 761st who say that they were in buchenwald or dachau. he found that they were far less certain than they appear to be in the film about the identities of the camps they saw .
issues of race and identity unfold as a group of high school students in buffalo, new york, try to integrate tables in the school cafeteria after grappling with self - segregation .
a major point is the role supposedly played by members of the 761st in the liberation of buchenwald and dachau. the film shows several survivors of the camps, including mr. bender and israel lau, now the chief rabbi of tel aviv, testifying to the presence of black troops. several former enlisted men of the 761st battalion and the 183d engineers also describe their roles in liberating the two camps. william mcburney and leonard smith recount driving their tanks through the gates of dachau and detail the horrors they saw there. critics say tv was warned
speaking in obvious pain, another former soldier remembers coming home and visiting a florida grocery store in 1946; nothing, not all the chilling revelations he had, with so many others, witnessed and helped stop, changed the black status in the south; that fight lay ahead .
mr. stern' s 15 - page
background report
for the jewish committee affirmed the conclusion that
black soldiers were among the liberators of concentration camps .
his report, like many other records, finds that the 761st tank battalion was the first unit at the gunskirchen camp in austria, a sub - unit of the mauthausen camp, where 15, 000 hungarian jews were being held .
katrina browne discovers her new england ancestors were the largest slave - trading family in u. s. history and decides to retrace the triangle trade, uncovering the extent of northern complicity in slavery .
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on april 29, 1945 ,
he said, referring to the day the dachau concentration camp was liberated ,
the 761st was near straubing, which is about 70 miles from dachau as the crow flies. bridges were down, the tanks were all beat up. there wasn' t enough gas. nobody could have just taken a sherman tank on a 140 - mile round trip and not have been noticed missing. he would have been court - martialed .
this documentary examines the role of african american soldiers in the liberation of concentration camps in europe, and the segregation that they concurrently faced at home in the united states. there are extensive interviews both with soldiers and survivors about the impact of their shared historical experience. although there has been some controversy about the historical accuracy of this film, it is a valuable contribution to the oral history of this period, particularly about segregation in the united states .
a mind - boggling postscript to the scandal occurred in february 1999, when a film from steven spielberg’s shoah foundation, “the last days, ” was nominated for an oscar for superbly documenting the genocide against hungarian jewry in 1944 .
still, questions about the film' s accuracy were raised even before it was nationally shown on nov. 11. mr. williams recalled a phone conversation he said he had about six months ago with mr. miles in which he told mr. miles that
the stuff about buchenwald and dachau is a lie .
mr. miles, he said, did not reply .
follows a group of young black soldiers who, in the midst of the fierce racial eruptions of a pre - civil rights america, were called to europe to fight the nazis. 35, 000 first printing. tv tie - in .
a retired school principal, dr. leon bass, addressing a jewish congegration in new rochelle, animatedly recalls what he saw with his buddies and, as the narrative moves relentlessly forward, recites in anguish what they all had witnessed. others meet in front of buchenwald with one - time inmate benjamin bender, who recites a litany of agonies about his family .
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three former officers in the battalion say that the reports written every day by each military unit - - called morning reports and after - action reports - - make no mention of buchenwald or dachau in connection with the 761st battalion. the battalion' s own history has no reference to the camps; neither does the presidential citation the unit received in 1978 from president jimmy carter .
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is there a politics of knowledge? who controls what knowledge is produced and how it will be used? is there
objective
scholarship and, if so, how does it become politicized? these questions are examined through this groundbreaking film on the life and career of melville j. herskovits (1895 - 1963), the pioneering…
factual, highly engaging volume provides valuable information not widely included in traditional reports on wwii. full of graphic details, statistics, authentic quotes and compelling photographs that convey the great sacrifice & dilemma faced by the african american military during times of segregation & racism. milestones & accomplishments of the black troops are presented realistically and within the context of this era. appropriate for middle school to adult readers, this book would be an appropriate addition to a school, academic, professional or public collection .
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military historians agree that the undisputed record of the 761st is outstanding. during 183 days of combat in 1944 and 1945, the 761st, wearing the black panther patch, captured or liberated more than 30 major towns and four airfields. it suffered a 50 percent casualty rate and lost 71 tanks. it pierced the siegfried line into germany and fought in the battle of the bulge. and it did liberate at least one concentration camp, the gunskirchen camp in austria .
the writers hold up the faces of racism in both the united states and in germany, and they spare little. one vet observes that some folks won’t believe what he has seen, but he’ll always believe it just because he did see it. for anyone who did see such things, the gentleman speaks the truth .
the interesting narration of the life of olaudah equiano, or gustavus vassa the african
was the first influential slave autobiography. it caused a sensation when published in 1789, fueling a growing anti - slavery movement in the u. s. and england. this bbc production employs dramatic reconstruction, archival material and interviews with scholars…
follows a group of black soldiers who, in the midst of the racial tensions of pre - civil rights america, were called to europe to fight the nazis .
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the unknown story of african - american battalions, focusing on the heroic actions of the 761st, which spearheaded general patton' s third army and helped liberate concentration camps. this powerful film vividly records the experiences of the soldiers, who were utterly unprepared for the atrocities they witnessed, as well as the astonishment of the camp inmates - some of whom had never seen a black person before. for more information, go to urltoken
six months later, the new york times published an article about a just - released independent report by wnet conceding that african - american gis played no role in the liberation of either buchenwald or dachau. in contrast to the motion picture academy, pbs’s flagship station instituted a “new policy of requiring producers [ of documentaries ] to demonstrate proof of their claims before financing is provided. ”
many critics, however, argue that the film went seriously awry in its depiction of the liberations of buchenwald and dachau. they complain that the moral edifice embodied in remembrance can crumble if history is handled casually, or distorted to fit current needs - - and nothing having to do with the places whose names resonate with the century' s worst crimes can be dismissed as a
detail .
inmates recall black soldiers
veterans of the black 761st tank battalion return as a civvy group to the sites they helped free half a century ago, but that’s only after a shocking reminder of what blacks endured while they were stationed in the united states .
separate facilities were the rule, even for black units overseas. but docu demonstrates how the 761st moved into action in late l944 and early 1945 and, as one ex - tanker notes, pushed down the dachau front gate .
one veteran, mr. mcburney, said in a telephone interview last week that he had been asked by channel 13 not to comment until its review of the film is complete. the wife of another veteran, preston mcneil, said the same thing for her husband .
from 1860 to 1920 hundreds of us counties expelled all of their african american inhabitants. banished visits three of these still all - white towns today. meanwhile the descendants of those displaced and disinherited seek redress. banished vividly recovers the too - quickly forgotten history of racial cleansing in america when thousands of african…
production: taped by miles educational film prods. inc. in association with thirteen / wdnet, wdr / germany, channel 4 / britain, sbs tv / australia, lasett, france. exec producer, suzanne de passe; producers, william miles, nina rosenblum; writers, john crowley, daniel allentuck, lou potter .
neither mr. miles nor ms. rosenblum agreed to be interviewed for this article, both arguing that they wanted to wait for channel 13' s review before making any further comment. in a written response to questions, they said they were
confident the vetting process currently under way will exonerate our film .
channel 13 backs off support
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mr. rappaport, the sixth division veteran, said :
i got in touch with bill miles, who was very polite. i told him our division was the sixth armored and that we liberated buchenwald. i was there. i saw no black troops.' well, mr. rappaport,' he said,' we have witnesses.'
reci, reci, reci... (words, words, words )
sound - terry porter, mel metcalfe, david j. hudson, doc kane
visual effects - richard edlund, alec gillis, tom woodruff, jr. , george gibbs
makeup -
bram stoker’s dracula
greg cannom, michèle burke, matthew w. mung
art direction - art direction: stuart craig; set decoration: chris a. butler
visual effects - ken ralston, doug chiang, doug smythe, tom woodruff, jr .
documentary (short subject) - thomas c. goodwin and gerardine wurzburg, producers
short film (animated) - reci, reci, reci... (words, words, words )
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it' s the pbs - gate follies ,
said mel rappaport, a veteran of the sixth armored division, which, he said, did liberate buchenwald .
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inmates at the buchenwald concentration camp, days after liberation. famed author elie wiesel is second row from the bottom, seventh from the left, next to the bunk post. (us army / us defense visual information center / wikimedia commons )
— “5 broken cameras” and “the gatekeepers” — for the 2013 oscar for best documentary feature. but before israeli cinephiles start singing hosannas to the ampas, they might want to know about the organization’s unconscionable support for the notorious “
while the film offered a comforting, inspiring tale of one persecuted minority rescuing another, there was a problem — the story was an invention .
i got over my blind allegiance, and now stick by israel' s side, through thick and thin .
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the program looks at what they found behind the gates at buchenwald, and the horrors are described by veterans touring the old battle grounds by bus with their families .
there’s a charming reunion for the black panthers, as unit called itself, with a belgian family they freed, and grim footage of what they as members of patton’s third army found inside the camp .
fine docu–the fifth - season opener for “american experience”– is sure a respectful way to observe veterans day .
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how did jim crow begin? as reconstruction ended, african americans' efforts to assert their constitutional rights began to be repressed at every turn, betraying the promises of emancipation. southern whites were embolden by the north' s withdrawal of support for black access to land, civil and economic rights, and due process…
a virgina born grandson of slaves lives through jim crow, the great depression, great migration, wwi, and wwii .
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liberators : fighting on two fronts in world war ii is a 1992 documentary film directed by bill miles . it was nominated for an academy award for best documentary feature . 
liberators: fighting on two fronts in world war ii is a 1992 documentary film directed by bill miles. it was nominated for an academy award for best documentary feature.
liberators: fighting on two fronts in world war ii is a 1992 documentary film directed by bill miles. it was nominated for an academy award for best documentary feature.