Eyewitnesses to Hell

As newsreel commentator Harry von Zell stated, “we were not in the business of shocking people.”

Journalistic ethics then, as they do now, brings debate as to exactly what footage to place onto the screen. And even then, even if the footage ultimately never was shown to the public, it still gets shot — and some of what is seen sometimes affects those who had to witness it, even decades later. The viewfinder can’t always serve as a shield.

In 1977, Max Markman sat down on the other side of the camera lens and recalled being the only photographer who made it to the 79th floor of the Empire State Building when a U.S. Army B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the building on July 28, 1945, killing 14 people and injuring 26. The footage of human death and destruction found within the building that Markman shot that day and shown in this clip was suppressed by his company and not shown on the screen, but yet Markman had to go there and shoot.

He had no choice. It was his job, for he was a news cameraman.

“In 1945 when an Army bomber crashed into the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, I got a hurried call and dashed down and the press boys were non gratis there. Which I realized, but I manage to get to the entrance of the Empire State, showed them my black [camera] case which resembled a doctor’s case and said I was Dr. Markman.

I had made exterior shots, but I wanted to get inside and I did. And every place I went, to the elevator that only went partially up, I was still Dr. Markman. When I got to the room where the plane had crashed through, there had been a charity organization there and they were charred. The gasoline from the plane had set fire to the entire room and the poor devils were up on desks all curled up evidently trying to avoid the flames the best they could.

It was really a sight for horror and I didn’t want to take pictures of them but was part of my job. I was a newsreel cameraman and I was supposed to get the news and cover it completely. I had made long shots and closeups of the poor things there and it was to show the office really, to prove to the office I was on the job. I was the only one up there. To the best of my knowledge there weren’t any other cameramen that got up there at all. We had it on the screen before anyone else had any pictures.

I didn’t want to make that picture, I thought it was horrible.”