''Feldzug in Polen'' (''The Campaign in Poland'') is a 69-minute

Nazi propaganda film The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi policie ...

released in 1940 depicting the

1939 invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

and directed by

Fritz Hippler Fritz Hippler (17 August 1909 – 22 May 2002) was a German filmmaker who ran the film department in the Propaganda Ministry of Nazi Germany, under Joseph Goebbels. He is best known as the director of the propaganda film '' Der Ewige Jude (The ...

. Portraying the Poles as aggressors and ethnic Germans living in Poland as an oppressed minority, the film alleges that the Poles employed unheroic tactics in the war and characterizes as senseless the defence of a besieged Warsaw. The film was often screened by German minorities overseas to clarify the German point of view. French involvement was de-emphasized, in order to present Great Britain, in its attempt to encircle Germany, as the villain, to justify the Nazi-Soviet pact. Polish provocations finally resulted in the

blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg ( , ; from 'lightning' + 'war') is a word used to describe a surprise attack using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with close air su ...

, led by Hitler; Poles were sometimes depicted as brave, to emphasize the German triumph.

Release

Its premiere was held in the Berlin Ufa-Palast um Zoo, usually used by Goebbels to present important films. It received massive media support and was officially described as "valuable from a political viewpoint," "artistically valuable," "educational for the nation," and "a film of instruction.Robert Edwin Hertzstein, ''The War That Hitler Won'' p277

References

External links

Information on the film from International Historic Films
* * The full film (in German, no English subtitles) at

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. {{Authority control 1940 films 1940 documentary films Black-and-white documentary films German documentary films Films of Nazi Germany Nazi World War II propaganda films Films directed by Fritz Hippler German black-and-white films

Release

See also

References

External links