Sam Mendes directs his first documentary, What They Found, a film which uses archive footage and first-hand testimonies to tell the story of two members of the British Army’s Film and Photographic Unit who accompanied the troops liberating Bergen-Belsen at the end of the Second World War for BBC. The film aired in April 2025 on BBC Two to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation. The film is also available on BBC iPlayer.
On 15 April 1945, British soldier-cameramen Sgt. Mike Lewis and Sgt. Bill Lawrie, members of the Army Film and Photographic Unit covering the campaign in North West Europe, accompanied British troops to what they were told was a typhus hospital in Northern Germany, named Bergen-Belsen. When they arrived there, the full horrors of what was going on inside the camp were revealed to them and, through their footage, to the world - for the first time.
What They Found is a documentary film produced by Lightbox in association with Neal Street and Imperial War Museums.
