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NAZI FILM PROPAGANDA AND THE SOVIET UNION By Jay W. Baird The image of the Soviet Union in the films of Nazi Germany during World War II was a very important component of the psychological warfare waged by Goebbels and the Propaganda Ministry.1 Nazi ideology was based on the primacy of the "Jewish- Bolshevik" specter, a leitmotif in Party propaganda since the end of World War I. According to this theme, all the assorted political, social, economic, and cultural ills of twentieth century Germany could be traced to the machinations of the "Jewish-Bolsheviks . "^ Thus, the vitriolic film propaganda campaign which paralleled the great military confrontation between Germany and the Soviet Union was a continuation of a battle waged for over two decades. The crusade against Bolshevism in Nazi film was to be expected, considering the Fascist belief that Adolf Hitler had been sent by God to deal sternly with "Jewish putrefaction" and "Bolshevik chaos," thereby resurrecting a crucified nation and restoring it to greatness. It would be instructive in coming to grips with the war period to analyze the development of the theme during the peacetime Third Reich. The feature films For the Rights of Man and Hitler Youth Quex were devoted to the communist menace.3 Based on Hans Zbberlein's novel The Command of Conscience, For the Rights of Man offered homage to the warriors of Langemarck and Verdun, and praised the heroism of the Free Corps men in their antiBolshevik offensive after the Great War. Based on the novel by Karl Aloys Schenzinger, and directed by Hans Steinhoff, Hitler Youth Quex is a hymn to the idealism of youth and self-sacrifice for the German nation and Aryan blood. While focusing on the life of Herbert Norkus — killed by Jay W. Balnd Is Pnofaesson ofa Hlstony at Miami University In Oxfaond, Ohio. His wonk on German pnopaganda In falZm and the other media is well known. 34 Bolsheviks in Beusselkietz deep in "Red" Berlin—the film is in fact dedicated to the bravery, comradeship, and nobility of all members of the Hitler Youth. By any objective assessment, Hitler Youth Quex is a propaganda masterpiece . Heini's father, a communist, is played sympathetically by Heinrich George, while Claus Clausen— blond, orderly, a model of character—is the Hitler Youth Bannfuhrer. An unnamed symbolic Hitler Youth is case in the role of Heini. This paragon of virtue is the son any German father of the era would take pride in; he is at once brave, pure of heart, and devoted to Fuhrer and Fatherland. Alas, Heini is butchered by communists while distributing Nazi election materials, and the contrast between Aryan and Bolshevik is dramatic. Heini represents uprightness, law and order, the sunny light of youth, a boy at home in nature and the Germanic countryside . His communist murderers, on the other hand, move like rats by night through the asphalt jungle. Physically unclean, they are given to heavy drinking, smoking, and fornication; they are at once the products of Jewish miscegenation, a foreign ideology, and direction from Moscow. Heini dies with the song of the Hitler Youth on his lips: "Our banner waves before us..." Resurrected, he returns in spirit to join the columns of the Hitler Youth, marching with Hitler toward final victory, eloquent testimony to the victory of truth over the "Bolshevik underworld." Other attacks on Soviet Russia and Marxism in Nazi film set the stage for the ultimate military confrontation in World War II. The documentaries Blutendes Deutschland and Triumph of the Will both had strong anti-Bolshevik components.4 Several other anti-Soviet feature films, released early in the Third Reich, dealt with the theme of "Soviet subhumanity " and enjoyed varied popular response. Hans Westmar extolled the virtues of Horst Wessel, the troubadour and composer of the Party song, whose death at the hands of communist murderers abruptly terminated the career of this model Brown Shirt desperado. Friesennot showed what lay in store for an innocent and god-fearing Volk naive enough to expect justice from the atheistic Soviets. An isolated village of Volga Germans faces the torments of a unit of occupying "Judeo-Mongol-Bolshevik" soldiers who rob them of their grain...

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