As luck would have it, on December 5th, 1944 a Signal Corps film crew happened to be near the town of Wiltz.

At that time Wiltz was the divisional headquarters of the 28th Infantry Division, and the Army thought it might make for some good PR to have the film crew stop by the town before heading off to carry out their daily assignments.

The film crew arrived in town at about the same time as a photographer from Stars & Stripes, and together they recorded an event that changed the lives of generations of people.

Click the photos below to watch this remarkable film and to see history as it happened on December 5th, 1944. Each of the clips below is in black and white and does not have audio. They are presented in the order of the events of that day.

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