''Your Job In Germany'' is a
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
made for the
United States War Department
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, a ...
in 1945 just before
Victory in Europe Day
Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...
(VE). It was shown to US soldiers about to go on
occupation duty in Germany. The film was made by the military film unit commanded by
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-born American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s ...
and was written by Theodor Geisel,
better known by his pen name
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (;["Seuss"](_blank)
'' US Army Signal Corps
)
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. It was criticized by one commentator as a "bitter and angry
anti-German propaganda film" that characterized the post-war German mind as "diseased".
[Robert Niemi, "History in the media: film and television history in the media", p.84]
The film urged against
fraternization
Fraternization (from Latin ''frater'', brother) is "to become brothers" by conducting social relations with people who are actually unrelated and/or of a different class (especially those with whom one works) as if they were siblings, family membe ...
with the
German people
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, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
, who are portrayed as thoroughly untrustworthy. It reminds its viewers of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
's history of aggression, under "
Fuehrer Number 1"
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
, "Fuehrer Number 2"
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and List of monarchs of Prussia, King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication on 9 ...
and "Fuehrer Number 3"
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. It argues that the German youth are especially dangerous because they had spent their entire lives under the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
regime
In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...
.
The policy of
non-fraternisationwhere US soldiers were forbidden to speak even to small childrenwas first announced to the soldiers in the film:
The basic theme that the German people could not be trusted derived from the peace policy that emerged from the
Second Quebec Conference
Princess Alice, and Clementine Churchill">Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone">Princess Alice, and Clementine Churchill during the conference.
The Second Quebec Conference (codenamed "OCTAGON") was a high-level military conference held during ...
.
The movie was first screened to the top US generals, including
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
.
George Patton
George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...
reportedly walked out of the screening he attended, saying "Bullshit!".
''Hitler Lives?''
Jack Warner, head of
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
, subsequently secured the rights to the movie and turned it into a short documentary entitled ''
Hitler Lives?''. It was released commercially on December 29, 1945 and won the 1946
Academy Award (Oscar) for Documentary Short Subject.
In popular culture
Numerous sentences from the film's narration are incorporated
verbatim
Verbatim means word for word.
Verbatim may also refer to:
* Verbatim (brand), a brand of storage media and flash memory
* Verbatim (horse), an American racehorse
* ''Verbatim'' (magazine), edited by Erin McKean
* Verbatim theatre
Documentary the ...
as lyrics in the single "Don't Argue" by
Cabaret Voltaire from their album ''
Code
In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...
''.
See also
* ''
Our Job in Japan'', a companion film to ''Your Job In Germany'' also written by Geisel.
* ''
Here Is Germany
''Here Is Germany'' is a 1945 American propaganda documentary film directed by Frank Capra and written by William L. Shirer, Gottfried Reinhardt, Ernst Lubitsch, Georg Ziomer and Anthony Veiller. Like its companion film, '' Know Your Enemy: Japa ...
''
* ''
Death Mills
''Death Mills'' (or ''Die Todesmühlen'') is a 1945 American-German propaganda film directed by Billy Wilder and produced by the United States Department of War. The film was intended for German audiences to educate them about the atrocities com ...
''
*
List of Allied propaganda films of World War II
During World War II and immediately after it, in addition to the many private films created to help the war effort, many Allied countries had governmental or semi-governmental agencies commission propaganda and training films for home and foreig ...
*
Sonderweg
(, "special path") refers to the theory in German historiography that considers the German-speaking lands or the country of Germany itself to have followed a course from aristocracy to democracy unlike any other in Europe.
The modern school of t ...
References
External links
*
*
Online version of filmat ''Der Spiegel'' website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Your Job In Germany
1945 films
American World War II propaganda shorts
United States Department of War
Anti-German sentiment in the United States
Films with screenplays by Dr. Seuss
Germany–United States relations
Articles containing video clips
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Frank Capra
American war films
1940s war films
American documentary films
1945 documentary films
1940s American films