A DOCUMENTARY telling the extraordinary story of a local war hero will be premiered as part of a commemoration of the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp.
The 30-minute film ‘Eddie Straight: To Hell and Back’ and a supporting exhibition will be unveiled at an event at Middlesbrough’s Dorman Museum on Wednesday, April 15 from 7pm-9pm.
As well as marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, this year also sees the anniversary of the liberation by British forces of the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, on 15 April 1945.
‘Eddie Straight: To Hell and Back’ is a work by acclaimed Saltburn film-maker Craig Hornby (A Century in Stone /Vin Garbutt-Teesside Troubadour).
It tells the extraordinary story of Eddie Straight, an unknown Saltburn war hero, now 94, whose war time experiences took him into the blitz, Buckingham Palace, the Burmese jungle and Bergen-Belsen.
The film is an emotional and at times harrowing journey, tracing Eddie’s wartime experiences from joining the army in 1940, through the Blitz, guarding the Princess Elizabeth and eventually, as part of the 11th Armoured Division, arriving at Bergen-Belsen on April 15,1945.
As well as Eddie’s amazing testimony, the film contains disturbing archive images of the camp, with its starving and dying prisoners, and for this reason viewing of the film is restricted to those aged fifteen or above.
After a few days, with a huge humanitarian rescue effort underway, Eddie was given the order to push on to the Baltic coast. Before he left however, he entered the private quarters of captured camp commandant Josef Kramer, also known as ‘The Beast of Belsen’.
There he liberated a few souvenirs, including Kramer’s ceremonial sword which he still has and is on display at the museum.
Eddie went on to fight alongside Nigerian troops against the Japanese in Burma.
In spite of being wounded by German and Japanese bayonets and bullets to the shoulder, ribcage, upper arm, legs, kneecap and skull, Eddie survived the war and lived to tell the tale 70 years later…
Filmmaker Craig Hornby said: “Stories like this don’t come along everyday and Eddie’s had to be recorded. One of the most defining events in global history suddenly has a unique local dimension and it really brings it home.”
Middlesbrough Council’s Senior Curator for Museums Phil Philo said: “We are privileged to be asked to share Eddie Straight’s story through Craig’s film with our museum visitors.
“I am sure that everyone who sees it will be touched by these stories of man’s inhumanity to man and the brave and heroic contribution made by Eddie in countering this brutality.”
“Eddie Straight: To Hell & Back” will be shown alongside the war drawings of Joe Cole, on loan from Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum, Redcar & Cleveland Council.
The exhibition will then remain open to the public at the Linthorpe Road attraction until Sunday, June 28.