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.

Considering that this film was made just after WWII, the virulence of this documentary isn't all that surprising. The folks who made this truly hated the German people and don't want the audience to forget that this nation is just plain evil!! The problem is that to do this, they must twist history to make their point--such as ridiculously claiming WWI was all Germany's fault and that Allied leaders apparently had nothing to do with it! You also are told that 'they' are ALL born liars, manipulators and underneath their nice exterior, they are ALL uncivilized monsters! Again, considering the millions that were butchered by the Nazis in WWII, this outright hatred isn't surprising--but it is pretty disturbing when seen today. Overall, a nasty little film that won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short! Had it simply stuck with the facts, it would have been a very potent film, but the tone and style of the film is very problematic.

"...the problem isn't the FEW but the MANY" and "...they ALL have the conquest disease"--need I say more?!

An extraordinarily powerful and deeply moving condemnation of Nazism and the threat it still represented among the German population following WWII. Beautifully directed by Don Siegal and featuring a stunning script by Theordore Geisel, this short film delivers a profound message in our own time. It is a sharp warning indeed to our own republic as it endures leadership that is pure demagoguery, authoritarianism, and dishonesty. The Germans bought the Big Lie Hitler was selling and now, an incredible number of Americans are doing the same. This film is a must see and should be shown in every theater and on television nightly for the next few years.

As has been noted, this is unmitigated propaganda. As with all good propaganda, there are elements of truth sprinkled throughout.

Fact is, there is a part of the German character that (not unlike "patriotic" Americans) believes in racial or societal or cultural superiority.

Totally unaware of the irony, this film attributes to Germans many of the same threats to society that 1930s Nazi propaganda assigned to Jews, gypsies, and gays. This film was made a decade before Brown v. Board of Education, two decades before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, more than half a century before 9/11.

"Others" are to blame, you know. They always are.

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".