Victim of the past

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Movie
Original title Victim of the past
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1937
Rod
Director Gernot Bock-Stieber
script Gernot Bock-Stieber,
Rudolf Frercks (idea)
occupation

Victims of the Past is a German propaganda film in the form of a documentary about genetically ill offspring that was made in 1937 under the supervision of the then Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda .

Victims of the past advertises in the sense of National Socialist “racial hygiene” for the “ destruction of life unworthy of life ” by clearly distinguishing between healthy and sick “genetic material”.

The film is part of a series of six productions financed by the Racial Political Office of the NSDAP . It was shot as a sequel to Erbkrank and is the only sound film in the series.

content

The narration of the film presents the prevention of hereditary offspring as a moral or even Christian commandment . It means “practically charity and the highest respect for the God-given laws of nature. He who prevents weeds promotes what is valuable. "Against the" law of natural selection "was" terribly sinned ".

The financing of the care of mentally "inferior" criminals in institutions is a "depletion of German national wealth"; With the means one could “perhaps have brought many healthy, strong, gifted children of our people a step forward in work or life [...]”. In the process, “spirit and soul” were depleted, as the Germans tried to convince themselves that “our own greatness could exist in sacrifice for the worst and most helpless life”.

Furthermore, outraged the speaker on the amount of costs of care for the sick, what the rhetorical question followed: "How could settle for that many healthy people!" It is also noted indignantly that "healthy German national comrades " even for accommodation Jewish would pay Insane .

Finally, the spokesman proclaims to pictures of German girls doing gymnastics that the establishment of a eugenic social order is tantamount to the restoration of social fear of God : “If we artificially restore the great law of selection with humane means, then we are putting awe of the laws of the Creator and bow down to his order. "

Production and publication

The production was directed by Gernot Bock-Stieber , who also wrote the screenplay, based on an idea by Rudolf Frercks , head of the department and responsible for racial and genetic matters in the NSDAP's racial office . The film was shown in all 5,300 German cinemas. At the first performance in UFA Pavilion at Nollendorfplatz in Berlin, the Chief Medical leader and guide said the kingdom Medical Association Gerhard Wagner , had been made on his behalf, the film and already on the NSDAP Nazi Party dealt in 1935 with the "euthanasia".

The film received the ratings "politically valuable" and "popular education".

See also

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literature

  • Paula Diehl: Power - Myth - Utopia. The body images of the SS men. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-05-004076-9 , pp. 137-144.
  • Paula Diehl: victims of the past. Construction of an enemy image. In: Sabine Moller, Miriam Rürup, Christel Trouvé (eds.): Completed chapters? On the history of the concentration camps and the Nazi trials. , Edition Diskord, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 978-3-89295-726-3 , pp. 134-144.

Web links


Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paula Diehl: Power - Myth - Utopia. The body images of SS men on Google books, p. 137.
  2. ↑ a b c d Quoted from Erwin Leiser : “Germany, awake!” Propaganda in the film of the Third Reich . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1968, p. 78.
  3. ↑ Leiser 1968, pp. 77f.
  4. ↑ Leiser 1968, p. 151.