Sam Mendes makes his documentary debut with What They Found. The film powerfully captures the moment of liberation at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. This documentary features stunning, firsthand 35mm footage from British Army photographers Sgt Mike Lewis and Sgt Bill Lawrie. It is an important reminder for us all of the brutalities exercised against innocent people in one of the world’s darkest chapters.
The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, located outside of Celle in northern Germany, was a place of unspeakable atrocity. As you hear from Sgt Lewis and Sgt Lawrie when they first arrived at the arrival, they were not prepared for the bloody scene that awaited them. Before they got in, they had only heard gossip about the level of torture imposed on the camp’s captives.
The film captures the stark reality of what liberation looks like. The movie features lengthy, gruesome extreme close-ups of corpses portrayed through dummies and dolls. Her detailed account helps convey the staggering level of death that occurred at Bergen-Belsen. This artistic decision adds emphasis to the horror of what these soldiers experienced.
Sgt Lewis, who is the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, had previously witnessed fascist rallies in England in 1936. Those experiences turned him into a man appalled by the danger that fascism posed across Europe. In reflecting on his experiences at Bergen-Belsen, he stated, “I could not, like most English Jews, really believe this of England.” His words convey the disbelief and horror felt by many who could not fathom such atrocities occurring in their homeland.
After following the men home, the documentary paints an equally dark picture of the reality that awaited these liberators. It was an exhausting, tedious task to burn thousands of decomposing bodies. They had to blast the bodies into 20-foot-deep graves, a task that took a heavy physical and emotional toll on both men. Sgt Lawrie reflected on the experience, saying, “As the days went on, the bodies – they were dummies, they were dolls. You lost contact. Reality went.” His quote points to the psychological impact that just witnessing the destruction had on those who were present.
Beyond its stunning visual style, “What They Found” is unique for its audio narrative interviews. These stories, as told by Sgt. Lewis and Sgt. Lawrie, provide fascinating testimony. Their interviews were recorded in the 1980s. These personal narratives put human faces and stories behind the moving images, helping the viewer to better comprehend what they went through on liberation.
This movie does a remarkable job of showcasing both the terror and the disarray that comes with liberation. It will leave viewers with many unanswered questions about what happened at Bergen-Belsen. Rather, it offers an unfiltered and deeply felt account of human pain and hope. Mendes has made a moving 10-minute documentary. It dares them to confront the ugly reality of our species’ ability to be terrible.
Lewis also reflected on a broader realization stemming from his experiences at the camp: “The discovery came to me. It was a horrifying discovery. [It was] not only the Germans: any race was capable of it. Anybody, given the circumstances of Germany, could achieve this.” This belief hangs like a pall over the entire film, and it should—it’s a horrifying testament to how evil can manifest in the right circumstances.