“Jumping to conclusions is not half as good an exercise as digging for facts.” ~ Anonymous

Research is an integral part of making a documentary, and we have spent many laborious hours combing through the National Archives, reading and making phone calls, fact-finding, verifying and quantifying what will be included in the final script. Today 4/29, we are sharing footage discovered in the National Archives on this 78^th anniversary of the liberation of POW’s from Moosburg, Germany - the camp to which about 130,000 men (including Bob Kurtz) were marched in the final weeks of WWII. 

CLICK LINK ABOVE FOR: A scene from GREEN BOX - Liberation of Stalag Luft VII-A

Our researcher, Caroline Brown, delved into the National Archives’ online database during the height of Covid (since researchers weren’t allowed in physically) and located many film clips, photographs, and posters for us to use as visuals in THE GREEN BOX. We spent last summer and this fall editing our 1^st & 2^nd rough cuts of the show and would like to share the edited clip above - currently included in our rough cut (:35) - that focuses on a small portion of Caroline’s research: POWs in Moosburg. (NOTE: my voice will be replaced by a celebrity narrator.)  

In addition, a link is included below to a short string-out of more Moosburg footage (1:45) shot on film April 29,1945. The footage was taken the day of the camp’s liberation and shows POWs eating, shaving, dousing a uniform in gasoline, and burning the barracks plus POWs leaving the camp & German prisoners marching. This camp, Stalag Luft VII-A was designed to hold 20,000 prisoners but at the time held 130,000. Obviously they were ecstatic to be liberated so they could rejoin families at home; more immediately, they could get out of the cramped lice infested quarters.

Stalag Luft VII-A POWs 4/29/1945 liberation National Archives' footage

The photos are from the National Archives and include shot lists for each scene included in the film roll. This particular magazine of film is color, and the whole roll lasts over 18:00 and includes German prisoners marching towards the camera, bomb damaged buildings, and scenes along the Rhine river.    

We are continuing to improve the rough cut, and hopefully we’ll be inside the National Archives this summer to further research sources that are not available through the online portal. In addition, we’ll order the master conversions from film footage we’ve already chosen. This process is time consuming and a bit costly as the transfers are made using a third party. 

If you would like to contribute to offset these costs, please click here: https://www.greenboxfilm.com/support

or contact me (Holly Stadtler) at 301-928-4389 or hollybstadtler@gmail.com to discuss investment opportunities. Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting our project through encouragement, passing the word and your financial contributions!