Education for Death
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English , German |
| Publishing year | 1943 |
| length | 10 mins |
| Rod | |
| Director | Clyde Geronimi |
| script | Gregor Ziemer |
| production | Walt Disney |
| music | u. a. Richard Wagner ( Valkyries Ride ) |
| occupation | |
| |
Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is an American cartoon produced by Walt Disney that premiered on January 15, 1943 and was originally based on the book of the same name Gregor Ziemer is based. Like Der Fuehrer's Face , it was produced as anti- Nazi propaganda during the Second World War .
action
The film is about little Hans, a German boy who was born in Nazi Germany and raised to be a merciless soldier. Some phases of life are shown in which the Nazi state intervenes in Hans' development. This starts with the list of forbidden names and continues through school and training to become a soldier to death on the battlefield.
At the beginning of the film, a German couple is shown who wants to report the birth of their son Hans at the registry office and - in the spirit of the NSDAP regime - has to prove that they and their ancestors are Aryans. You will receive a copy of "Mein Kampf" and the family pass with space for 12 children, which is an indication of the Nazi family policy.
While Hans was in kindergarten, he was introduced to the National Socialist ideology in the form of a twisted version of the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty". Hitler is portrayed as a radiant knight who drives out democracy in the form of an old, wicked witch and thus frees an overweight Valkyrie warbling Wagner arias, which is modeled on the German soul in a caricatural sense (overdrawing through allusions to supposedly typically German things or properties) . She is all the more enthusiastic about Hitler, the more hate speech he propagates. The tone of this episode is friendlier and funnier than the rest of the film, which is also reflected in the bright colors. In the end, the children - and thus Hans too - are convinced of Hitler and offer his portrait the Hitler salute.
In the next scene, Hans is shown sick in bed while his mother takes care of him. His mother prays for him because sick and fragile children would be picked up by the regime and nothing more would be heard from them (reference to the Nazis' euthanasia programs). A National Socialist officer knocks on the door and sees the allegedly effeminate upbringing of his mother as the cause. This would not make a usable soldier out of Hans, so that Hans would have to be taken along if he did not get well soon.
At school, Hans and his classmates - in the uniform of the Hitler Youth - have to offer caricature portraits of Hitler, Goering and Goebbels the Hitler salute. In this "natural history lesson" the teacher draws a cartoon on the blackboard in which a rabbit is being eaten by a fox. Hans is shown as a peaceful weakling who feels sorry for the rabbit and therefore has to stand in the corner with a donkey's cap (correctly, he wears a dunce cap , which is familiar to the English audience and stands for inadequate learning). After seeing his classmates, to the delight of the teacher, correctly interpreting the cartoon in such a way that "weakness has no place in soldiers" and that "the stronger should rule the weaker", Hans changes his mind and explains that he hates the rabbit and the rabbit Weaker ones must be destroyed.
In the following, Hans is presented less and less as an individual figure, but always as part of a troop marching in goose-stepping, first in Hitler Youth uniform, then in uniforms similar to that of the Sturmabteilung and finally in Wehrmacht uniform (described in the film as "marching and heiling", i.e. marching and offer a Hitler salute). Further "educational steps" are inserted between the march sequences, such as a book burning (Einstein, Spinoza, and Voltaire), the replacement of the Christian cross with a sword with symbols of the "Third Reich" and the Bible through Mein Kampf and the destruction of a (probably Catholic ) Church, and thus the Christian faith, gives way to homage and faith in the leader. The result of years of upbringing is that Hans, as a good Nazi, sees nothing, says nothing and does nothing (represented by blinders with a swastika, a kind of metal muzzle and a metal chain that connects all soldiers), which the party does not think of him want.
At the end, Hans and the other soldiers march along to the battle and turn into rows of identical graves, which are represented as crosses with a steel helmet (war grave) on. Thus the education of Hans is complete, the education for death ("education for death").
The dialogues are in German and are neither subtitled nor directly translated into English. The sole spokesman, Art Smith , only roughly translates his story. During a scene in which soldiers march with torches, an excerpt from a speech by Adolf Hitler is played (“Today Germany belongs to us - tomorrow the whole world!”).
Publications
- Walt Disney on the Front Lines. The War Years . Walt Disney Treasures series. 2 DVD set. Buena Vista Home Entertainment 2004, US release on RC1 in the original version
literature
- Gregor Ziemer : Education for Death. The Making of the Nazi . Oxford University Press, London, New York and Toronto 1943, 209 pages - so far no German translation