Hitler Lives

After years of war and deaths, feelings were strong against Germany and Japan. For most people, at that time, this film was not too graphic and it's likely children were not permitted to see it. Thousands and thousands of families lost sons and daughters in that war and the many refugees coming from Europe lived there to see these things first hand. Fear that the Germans would resort to a warlike stance again were well founded, like they say, you can't teach an old dog a new trick. In 1945 there still were many Nazi adherents in Germany and right here in the USA too, as there are even today. If there's fault in this presentation it is due to the profound bitterness generated by the atrocities witnessed by our fighting men. Especially notice, the curious fact, that with all those bodies shown, and the ovens too, none were identified as Jews.

The 1945 winner of Best Documentary Short Subject is intended as an indictment of Nazism, but goes overboard in demonizing Germany. "Hitler Lives" would have been better had it looked at the roots of Hitler's rise to power. I will give the documentary credit for noting that there were people in the US who wanted to use racism as a wedge issue, and that there were those who wanted to have even more wars (it's worth noting that Franklin Roosevelt was negotiating with the Soviet Union to ensure that there would be no future wars, but then he died and Harry Truman ditched that prospect; as a result we've had a near continuous state of war ever since). The documentary also says to beware of people who don't believe in the American ideals of freedom (i.e., it predicted McCarthyism).

So, "Hitler Lives" is OK but very much an example of wartime propaganda. The director was Don Siegel, later the director of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Dirty Harry".

...........Nothing About The Versailles Treaty.

OKAY, WE GET it. The War in Europe was over. "The Fuhrer", Adolf Hitler was now history. But we all must be vigilant in seeing that the ideas promulgated by the German Nazi Party, the Italian Fascist Party, the Imperial Japanese or any of the other groups advocating such political systems anywhere and everywhere are held in check. The film gets on to that idea very early on and continues so for the duration of the approximately 17 minutes on the screen.

WHEREAS WE DO understand that we must view a picture like this through the prism of time that was another period. The autocratically crafted narration by then famed newsman, Knox Manning, was appropriate at this time; what with World War II in Europe now just ended and Japan still fanatically fighting for the Land of the Rising Sun and their Emperor.

BUT STILL WE find that the story line (scenario or plot if you will) was just a little too heavy handed with its indictment of the German people as being inherently warlike. While we concede that the militarism of the Kingdom of Prussia was solely responsible for so many past wars.

THIS CONVENTIONAL WISDOM about the cause of World War I was the fault of Germany is flawed and biasedly thought out at best. Although the Imperial German government of Kaiser Wilhelm II would share in the blame, the other major powers of Austria-Hungary, Italy, France, Great Britain and Russia were certainly far from innocent. And we mustn't forget Serbia, whose people had a widespread case of nationalism; which led to the April 28, 1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which in turn was the start of the First World War.

AND THAT EVENT brings us down to the end of hostilities on the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month or November 11, 1918. In turn, the Treaty of Versailles was negotiated between the Allied Powers and Germany on June 28, 1919. But rather than restoring a true state of peace, the aim was to punish Germany; as the Versailles agreement would testify to. With about 420 ordnances in the document, 400 were designed to punish Germany.

SUCH A DOCUMENT would surely lead to widespread suffering and resentment among the German people. In turn, one would expect that a radical political party and leader would emerge seeking revenge.

AND WASN'T THAT just what Hitler and thed Nazi Party were ?

This film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short in 1945, and I believe it is the worst film ever nominated for an Oscar. This was a War Department film produced for our occupation troops in Germany, at a time when they were not allowed to even speak to a German. The premise is that there are still thousands (millions?) of Nazis out in the population, and we must keep them from letting another Hitler lead Germany. With a message like that for our troops, it's a wonder that the(West)Germans were our allies in the cold war. The film is available on videotape, under the title "Your Job in Germany", from International Historic Films in Chicago and is very rarely shown on Turner Classic Movies..

That's Benjamin Franklin's response to people who asked him, as he left the Constitutional Convention, what sort of government we had. In the same way, this short subject at the end of 1945, answers the question about what's the state of the world: a peace, if you can keep it.

Of course this short focuses on Germany, warning its audience that Germany had been a threat before, and could be a threat again, if we weren't careful. There's a tendency for people to see the past repeating itself.

As Mark Twain noted, history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Two months after this short was released, Churchill made his "Iron curtain" speech and the Cold War was on.