Sam Mendes Directing His First Documentary: ‘What They Found’ Will Tell The Story Of The Liberation Of Concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen

EXCLUSIVE: Academy-Award winner Sam Mendes is to sit in the documentary directors’ chair for the first time.

Mendes is directing a BBC doc telling the story of two members of the British Army’s Film & Photographic Unit who accompanied the troops liberating the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

What They Found will air on BBC Two and iPlayer in April to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the notorious camp. Simon and Jonathan Chinn’s Man On Wire banner Lightbox is producing in association with Neal Street, Mendes and Pippa Harris’ production outfit, and the UK’s vaunted Imperial War Museums.

The factual film follows British soldier-cameramen Sgt. Mike Lewis and Sgt. Bill Lawrie. In April 1945 they accompanied British troops to what they were told was a typhus hospital in Northern Germany, named Bergen-Belsen.

The horrors of the camp were duly revealed to them – and then brought to the attention of the wider world for the first time through their landmark footage.

The filmmakers use Lewis and Lawrie’s footage and words to create an intimate and personal record of the experience of two ordinary men, and through them, of the tragedy of the Holocaust.

“Using only the voices and footage shot by two British army cameramen during the latter stages of the Second World War, I hope this documentary gives a unique perspective on the discovery of the horrors of Belsen, and the reality of the Holocaust,” Mendes said. 

Simon and Jonathan Chinn jointly noted that the last survivors and witnesses to the Nazi atrocities at Bergen-Belsen won’t be with us for much longer.

“Through making What They Found, Sam Mendes has created a powerful and undeniable record of these events at a time when surveys show that more and more young people aren’t aware of the Holocaust, and its veracity is being debated or denied in ever-increasing numbers,” the pair said. 

Dr James Bulgin, Imperial War Museums’ Head of Public History and curatorial expert on the Holocaust said the footage seen in the documentary has left an indelible mark on the world. He added: “What They Found uses IWM’s collections to give those scenes critical context, describing them from the unique perspective of those who witnessed them first hand.”

For the BBC, Simon Young, Head of Commissioning, History, said: “There could be no more fitting way to mark the anniversary of the liberation than by working with Sam Mendes and his team to create a chilling vision of what the liberators found.”

What They Found is Mendes’ first documentary directing project. The award-winning auteur previously helmed war movie 1917, which won three Oscars.