Nazi documentaries of intimidation: 'Feldzug in Polen' (1940), 'Feuertaufe' (1940) and 'Sieg im Westen' (1941)

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

Volumn 16, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 485-514

  Sakmyster, Thomas ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI   (United States)

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EID: 33749847374     PISSN: 01439685     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01439689600260511     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. The three films discussed in this article are held by the major motion picture archives of North America and Europe. English language continuities for each film are printed in the microfiche supplement to this article. Viewing copies of Feldzug in Polen are available in the National Archives in Washington (111, M527, 3), the Library of Congress (FA2510-2516), and the Imperial War Museum in London. An informative guide to the film, which contains the German dialogue continuity, has been prepared by the Institut für den Wissenschaftlichen Film as part of its series of 'Publikationen zu Wissenschaftlichen Filmen'. Stephan Dolezel, ed. , (Göttingen, 1978), Feldzug in Polen 1939 (Göttingen, 1978), Sektion Geschichte, Publizistik, Series 4, Number 6. Ursula Spormann-Lorenz provided an excellent commentary and explanatory notes for this publication.
2. Boguslaw Drewniak, Der deutsche Film, 1938-1945 (Düsseldorf, 1987), p. 388.
3. For similar contemporaneous praise of the film in German film publications, see Dolezel (1978) op. cit. , p. 26.
4. Elke Fröhlich, ed. , Die Tagebücher von Dr Goebbels. Sämtliche Fragmente (Munich, 1987), Vol. 3, p. 662;
5. Vol. 4, p. 38.
6. Erik Barnouw, Documentary. A history of non-fiction film (New York, 1974), p. 139.
7. Fritz Hippler, Die Verstrickung. Einstellungen und Rückblenden von Fritz Hippler ehem. Reichsfilmintendant unter Josef Goebbels (Düsseldorf, 1981), pp. 200-201.
8. Leni Riefenstahl, Memoiren (Munich, 1987) pp. 350-354;
9. For a photograph showing Riefenstahl present with her crew at the victory parade in Warsaw, see Janusz Piekalkawicz, Polenfeldzug. Hitler und Stalin zerschlagen die Polnische Republik (Bergisch Gladbach, 1982), p. 266.
10. Goebbels on 13 December: 'The Poland film has to be reworked again at the Führer's request'. Tagebücher, p. 663.
11. National Archives Microfilm (NAM), T-77, Roll 1011, 2477544-51.
12. However, not all the suggestions made by the OKW were incorporated in the film, and the army leadership was not entirely satisfied with the final version. See Dolezel (1978) op. cit. , pp. 28-29.
13. NAM T-175, Roll 258, 2750981-2.
14. This reflected Hippler's view that documentary film 'derived its power from its verisimilitude, authenticity, and the immediacy of the individual impressions'. Hans-Jürgen Brandt, NS-Filmtheorie und dokumentarische Praxis: Hippler, Noldan, Junghans (Tübingen, 1987), p. 5.
15. Ursula Spormann-Lorenz has speculated that the print of Feldzug in Polen held by the Imperial War Museum contains a scene in which General von Brauchitsch awards the Iron Cross to deserving soldiers. However, the viewing print currently available at the IWM contains no such scene. Dolezel (1978) op. cit. , p. 28.
16. Frank Maraun, Der Feldzug in Polen - filmisch gestaltet. Das erste vollständige Filmdokument eines Krieges, Der Deutsche Film, 9, (1940), pp. 138-139.
17. NAM, T-175, Roll R258, 2750818.
18. NAM, T-175, R258, 2750981.
19. Prints of Feuertaufe may be viewed at the National Archives (28. 13), the Library of Congress (FBA6752-6754), and the Imperial War Museum. An English dialogue continuity, prepared by the author, is printed in the microfiche supplement. In his work on Nazi German film, Siegfried Kracauer made frequent references to Baptism of Fire, but the film he was actually describing was Campaign in Poland. Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler. A psychological history of the German film (Princeton, 1947), p. 275.
20. Goebbels, Tagebücher, Vol. 4, pp. 92, 98. Goebbels had to acknowledge that the film made a 'magnificent' impact in its early showings, but he convinced Hitler that it should be awarded only the second level certificate of achievement (Prädikat) as opposed to the first that had been given to Feldzug in Polen.
21. Hippler (1981) op. cit. , p. 201. According to a contemporary estimate, four-fifths of the footage in the film was shot by Bertram's crew, the rest by a Captain Uffel and newsreel cameramen.
22. K. F. Frentzel, Feuertaufe (Berlin, 1940), p. 28.
23. Richard M. Barsam, Non-fiction Film. A critical history (Bloomington, 1992), p. 202;
24. A good discussion of Feuertaufe can be found in David Welch, Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945 (Oxford, 1983), pp. 203-216.
25. A Gestapo report on die reception of Feuertaufe recorded that audiences were 'profoundly impressed' by this information. NAM, T-175, R259, 2751506.
26. For references to OKH's unhappiness with the portrayal of the army in both Polish campaign films, see the report of Kurt Hesse of November 1940, NAM, T77, Roll 1012, 247735-38.
27. For an excellent study of the production of the film, see Cooper C. Graham, Sieg im Westen (1941): interservice and bureaucratic propaganda rivalries in Nazi Germany, HJFRT, 9 (1989), pp. 19-44.
28. Prints of Sieg im Westen can be viewed at the National Archives (111. M527. 6), the Library of Congress (FBA 2416-2421), and the Imperial War Museum. An English language continuity of the film, prepared in 1941 for the New York State Department of Education, is found in the microfiche supplement, as well as Siegfried Kracauer's typed description, in German, of the visuals and narration for Sieg im Westen.
29. According to a Gestapo report on Sieg im Westen, German audiences responded with particular enthusiasm to the animated maps, which many praised for providing insight into the strategic planning of the campaign. NAM T-175, R260, 2753426.
30. Hans Spielhofer, Sieg im Westen.
31. Ein dokumentarfilm des OK des Heeres, Der Deutsche Film, 8 (1941), p. 163.
32. NAM, T-175, R260, 2753426.
33. On the methods and themes of German propaganda in the prelude to World War II, see Wilhelm Deist et al. , Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, Vol. 1: Ursachen und Voraussetzungen der deutschen Kriegspolitik (Stuttgart, 1979), pp. 128-137.
34. NAM, T-175, R259, 271505-07.
35. Kracauer (1947) op. cit. , p. 288 writes: 'Thanks to the introduction of this myth, both Baptism of Fire [the reference is to Campaign in Poland] and Victory in the West expand beyond the limits of mere documentary film to totalitarian panoramas connecting the march of time with the march of ideas'.
36. One reviewer suggested that these troops gave the impression not of war-weary infantry fighters, but of soldiers just emerging fresh from the peace-time barracks. Maraun (1940) op. cit. , p. 163.
37. The musical score for Feldzug in Polen and the second section of Sieg im Westen was done by Herbert Windt, who had had the same responsibility in the making of Triumph of the Will. Graham (1989) op. cit. , p. 24.
38. NAM, T-175, Roll 258, 2750982.
39. Robert Edwin Herzstein, The War that Hitler Won. Goebbels and the Nazi media campaign (New York, 1987), pp. 379-380.
40. Marlis G. Steinen, Hitler's War and the Germans. Public mood and attitude during the Second World War (Athens, Ohio, 1977), pp. 50-51.
41. See, for example, the Gestapo report on Feuertaufe, NAM, T-175, R259, 27510506.
42. This famous sequence from the film was in fact mostly a re-enactment. See Graham (1989) op. cit. , pp. 22-23.
43. NAM, T-175, R259, 27510506.
44. On this, see Hans Speier, Magic geography, Social Research, 8 (1941), pp. 310-330. Particularly enlightening is Speier's discussion of the clever use of animated maps in Sieg im Westen.
45. One of the songs that Windt composed for the film also refers briefly to soldiers' graves. See Brandt (1987) op. cit. , pp. 34-35, 105-106;
46. Peyton's report of 13 April 1940, National Archives RG165, MID2016-1297-87. Peyton's request for a copy of Feuertaufe to send to Washington was promptly granted.
47. German Air Attache's report, 30 April 1940, NAM T-77, Roll 976, 4464321.
48. Air Attaché's report, 7 June 1940, NAM T-77, Roll 976, 4464363.
49. Report of Colonel Ralph Wooten, 28 June 1940, National Archives, RG165, MID2737-13-232.
50. Marginal notation on British Foreign Office memo, April 1940, Public Record Office, Foreign Office 371, 24282/C6370/6370/4.
51. See also 'Nazi War Film, Baptism of Fire, Cowed Neutrals', Life, 20 (1940), pp. 18-19.
52. Report of May 3, 1940, PRO, F0371, 24523/6785/845/41.
53. In reporting on this German propaganda strategy, an editorialist for the New York Times (Feb. 28, 1941, p. 18) asserted that the films were always shown 'on the eve of some new crime against a neutral country. . . The admission charge is high: the guests may pay with burned cities and the lives of helpless civilians, or they may pay in liberty and honor'.
54. John Grierson, the famous British documentary filmmaker, believed that Germany's film 'strategy of terror' had a powerful influence on the 'peace-loving Norwegians'. Forsyth Hardy, ed. , Grierson on Documentary (Berkeley, 1966), p. 239.
55. The Times (London), 27 March 1940.
56. Report dated 19 April 1940 of the British ambassador in Brussels, based on information from Otto of Habsburg: PRO, FO371, 24282/C6370/6370/4.
57. Air Attaché's report, 15 April 1940, NAM T-77, Roll 976, 4464312-14.
58. Thomas L. Sakmyster, Army officers and foreign policy in interwar Hungary, 1918-1941, Journal of Contemporary History, 10 (1975), pp. 31-32.
59. Hugh Gibson, ed. , The Ciano Diaries, 1939-1943 (New York, 1946), p. 231.
60. On this, see the 'closing report' of the General Staff on the use of Sieg im Westen for propaganda purposes, printed in Graham (1989) op. cit. , pp. 43-44.
61. Willi A. Boelke, ed. , Kriegspropaganda 1939-1941. Geheime Ministerkonferenzen im Reichspropagandaministerium (Stuttgart, 1966), p. 607.
62. This English language version will henceforth be referred to as Campaign in Poland. Two versions of the film exist. The longer, which runs seventy minutes, is held by the National Archives, 111. M257. 3. This is the film that was shown commercially. A shorter version is held by the Museum of Modern An in New York. Dialogue continuities for these films, both prepared by Siegfried Kracauer, are found in the microfiche supplement. The typewriter is Kracauer's own machine.
63. In the only book devoted to Nazi German propaganda in the United States, no mention is made of the use of film. See Klaus Kipphan, Deutsche Propaganda in den Vereinigten Staaten 1933-1941 (Heidelberg, 1971).
64. One other omission from the original German film was a brief shot of Polish prisoners that included a Catholic priest.
65. David Culbert, ed. , Film and Propaganda in America. A documentary history, Vol. 5: Microfiche Supplement, 1939-1979 (Westport, 1993), M102.
66. Thomas Decker, Movies to sell the Reich, The Nation, 153 (1941), p. 13.
67. Christian Science Monitor, 2 May 1941, p. 12.
68. Memo of 23 August 1941, 811. 4061 MOTION PICTURES PS/BH; memo of 5 September 1941, 811. 4061 MOTION PICTURES/408 both Record Group 59, Department of State, National Archives, Washington, DC.
69. For information about the theatrical release of German films, see the report (undated, but apparently late 1940) on German film propaganda in the United States in 1940 drawn up for the Office of Government Reports. Office of the Coordination of Government Films, Box 1861, RG44, NA.
70. The reviewer, identified only as Dr R. , was greatly impressed by the German documentaries. He suggested that Sieg im Westen was 'a film like no outer before it, and no doubt one that will not easily be surpassed in the future'. New Yorker Staatszeitung und Herold, 16 November (1940), p. 10;
71. May (1941), p. 12.
72. Mercey's letter of 21 September 1940 to Lowell Mellett, Bureau of Motion Pictures, Office of War Information, Box 1431, RG 208, NA.
73. Mercey to Mellett, 11 May 1941, Box 1431, RG 208, NA.
74. Roberta Cook, Totalitarian Films in the United States, 20 May (1941), NA, RG208, Box 1564.
75. Variety, 21 May 1941.
76. A print containing a brief excerpt from the film is held by the Library of Congress (FEA 8847). A full print of the film has not been located in any archive. For contemporary reviews, see Time, 6 January (1941), pp. 19-20;
77. New Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 16 November (1940), p. 10. The latter reviewer reported frequent 'thunderous applause' for the film at the 96th Street Theater.
78. Jerome S. Bruner and George Fowler, 'The strategy of terror: audience response to Blitzkrieg im Westen', Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 36 (1941), pp. 561-574.
79. The following, except where noted, is based on the account in Raymond Fielding, The March of Time (New York, 1978), pp. 243-272.
80. His papers are on deposit at the American Heritage Center of the University of Wyoming, but are currently closed to researchers. Fielding to Culbert, 30 September 1994.
81. Raymond Fielding's account (pp. 246-249) can now be supplemented by information from Department of State records, 811. 4061 RAMPARTS WE WATCHED, RG 59, NA.
82. Aide memoire of Germany Embassy, 20 September (1940), NA, RG59, 811. 406 RAMPARTS WE WATCHED/2.
83. Fielding (1978) op. cit. , p. 248.
84. New York Times, 20 September (1940), p. 23.
85. Time, 21 October (1940).
86. In his account of this episode (pp. 247-252), Raymond Fielding, who had access to March of Time files, refers only to footage from Feldzug in Polen.
87. The error found its way to Great Britain via a favorable review of The Ramparts We Watch in Documentary Newsletter, 1 (1940), pp. 14-15.
88. For details on this 'Canadian Connection', see David Culbert, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, and Siegfried Kracauer, 1941, HJFRT, 13 (1993), pp. 495-511.
89. See, for example, Roger Manvell, Films and the Second World War (New York, 1974), pp. 93-95.
90. Joseph McBride, Frank Copra. The Catastrophe of Success (New York, 1992), p. 467.
91. One such film, identified as The German Campaign in Russia, is held by the National Archives (242. 111). From internal evidence it was produced sometime in the fall of 1941. In a letter of 3 September 1993, Dr Stephan Dolezel of the Institut für den Wissenschaftlichen Film informed the author of the existence of experimental color footage of the Russian campaign that was intended for a German film to be entitled Sieg im Osten.
92. David Culbert, Why We Fight. Social engineering for a democratic society, in Kenneth Short, ed. , Film and Radio Propaganda in World War II (Knoxville, 1983), pp. 173-191. Raymond Fielding emphasizes the political conditions that obtained in America in 1940 as opposed to those which occasioned Capra's wartime series: 'De Rochemont's Ramparts is a surprisingly playable film today, quite mature, humanistic and even poignant, half a century after its production. It is, in my opinion, a forgotten gem of early docudrama, and I do not think that the weaving and blending together of recreated scenes and authentic newsreel material has ever been done any better. . . Bearing in mind that de Rochemont's film was released in 1940. . . his relatively modest manipulation of the German footage and its narration was much less vulnerable to censure than Capra's would have been if Why We Fight had been made and exhibited at the same time. Can we imagine what the reaction would have been in this country if The Nazis Strike had been released commercially in 1940!' Fielding to Culbert, 30 September 1994.