''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 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 Easte ...

(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"
'' US Army Signal Corps ) , colors = Orange and white , colors_label = Corps colors , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = ...

. 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 memb ...

with the

German people , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , 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 betwee ...

'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 ...

, "Fuehrer Number 2" Kaiser Wilhelm II and "Fuehrer Number 3"

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

. 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 and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, 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 th ...

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 communicati ...

''.

References

External links

* *
Online version of film
at ''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

''Hitler Lives?''

In popular culture

See also

References

External links