Wars and violence

...but the truth is more complicated.

Queen Elizabeth's Nazi salute is a reminder how close Britain sailed to the fascist wind
The Sun paints Nazi sympathizer and then-Prince of Wales Edward as the villain responsible for the embarrassing reel, but the truth is more complicated.
By Anshel Pfeffer 22:09 18.07.15 13

The British are still best at three things - royalty, romanticizing World War II and tabloid journalism. Saturday's front page of the greatest tabloid of all, The Sun, brought all of these elements together in a classic front page under a "WORLD EXCLUSIVE" banner showing a grainy black-and-white photograph of a young girl and her mother giving a Nazi salute while a young man is trying to get an even smaller girl to do the same. Of course this isn't just a frame from another family home video - the woman in the photograph is the late Queen Elizabeth, Britain's beloved Queen Mother who passed away thirteen years ago and the daughter, aged about seven in the 17-second clip, would one day become Britain's reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The man in the pictures is their uncle, Prince Edward, who is trying to get the younger sister, his niece Princess Margaret to give the salute as well.

The film was made in the grounds of Balmoral Castle in Scotland, most likely in the summer of 1933. Few families eight decades ago had the necessary equipment to make a home video, but this is no ordinary family. Two and a half years later Edward would become King Edward VIII and less than a year later would be forced to abdicate after insisting on marrying American divorcée Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth's husband would reign in his place as Britain's wartime King George VI. So what were "Their Royal Heilnesses" as the Sun put it, doing 82 years ago giving "Heil Hitlers"?

No-one packages a story better than The Sun. Obviously these are embarrassing photographs, despite the time that has since elapsed. But The Sun knows its readers. They want all the gossip on the queen and her royal relatives, while revering her at the same time. Luckily there is a convenient villain for this story. Since there is no soundtrack or any other available evidence, it is obvious (to The Sun at least) that this is all wicked Uncle Edward's doing. Over the next six pages (and rarely for The Sun's website, in freely accessible features on its website) the narrative is played out.

The playboy Prince of Wales, soon to be king and then disgraced ex-king, was a known sympathizer of Hitler, who met the Führer after his abdication and reportedly even saluted him on that occasion. He would maintain his contacts with various Nazis and fascists until his death in 1972. Obviously it was Edward who had urged his politically naive sister-in-law and ignorant nieces in fascist horseplay, they are totally innocent. And to drive home that point, The Sun regales us with the heroic tale of how the Queen Mother was Britain's "Queen of the Blitz," dodging bombs with her husband King George in Buckingham Palace and touring the devastated areas in the East End with him. Readers are told by the tabloid not to think of her daughter as the Nazi-saluting seven-year-old princess on the front page but as the 19-year-old junior officer in the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service whose uniform she wore on the palace balcony as London celebrated VE Day. And of course, as the queen of 63 years of sterling service. But that is just a convenient narrative.

While most of the media storm kicked up by The Sun on Saturday focused on how they obtained the footage from the royal family's private archives, whether the tabloid should have published the footage and what could a little girl have possibly known about continental politics, there is a much more sinister undertone to the story. There is probably a very innocent explanation to Britain's future monarchs jokingly "Heil-Hitlering" in their backyard, but for the next few years, the family, along with much of Britain's elite would sail perilously close to the fascist wind.

It has been said that fascism was just too theatrically ridiculous to ever take root in Britain, as it did throughout much of Europe in the 1930s. The truth is that it was never truly tested as the British Union of fascists never ran in a general election before being outlawed in the early stages of World War II. In its heyday, however, it attracted tens of thousands of members and the brief support of national newspapers. And while the fascists were much too common for most of the British aristocracy, Edward was hardly unique in his sympathy for the new regime in Germany. There's a reason why the Royal Family has not released its archives from that period - not all of Britain's nobility were Hitler's fans, as he was, but it wasn't a rare trait either. Fuelled by their fear of the communists who had only two decades earlier butchered the Russian royal family, lingering anti-Semitism and a respect for the sense of law and order the Nazis had restored to Germany, where many of Britain's senior aristocrats had relations and other connections, the early years of the Third Reich seemed like quite a good thing.

Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's husband, has admitted that during those years there was "a lot of enthusiasm for the Nazis at the time, the economy was good, we were anti-communist and who knew what was going to happen to the regime?" and that in his sphere there were "inhibitions about the Jews" and "jealousy of their success." He went on to serve as a British naval officer in some of the wars fiercest battles at sea, and while his sisters were all married to Germans and some of his Nazi in-laws fought on the other side, his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg risked her life in Athens saving a Jewish family for which she was recognized as one of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

Also the narrative that The Sun presents as if once the bad king was gone, the Royal Family got behind the struggle against fascism is selective at best. George VI and his wife who were key supporters of Appeasement, along with much of the British press and public, invited Neville Chamberlain to the palace to congratulate him when he got back from meeting Hitler in Munich and allowing him to tear Czechoslovakia apart in September 1938. King George continued to support those who were in favor of an early exit from the war and was aghast at the replacement of Chamberlain by Winston Churchill in May 1940. He preferred Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax who advocated coming to an accommodation with Hitler.

None of this should be allowed to detract from Britain's unique record as the only nation to stand against Nazi Germany for the entire six years of the war and the incredible sacrifices it made during that period. Luckily it was Churchill who wrote that chapter of history and the Royal Family, along with the rest of Britain, eventually got behind his broad back. But history could have been radically different and the pictures of two young girls playing around in the royal castle’s garden with their doting mother and uncle could have looked a lot more sinister through the lens of an alternative history.

The Corruption of America

Anti-America propaganda film that Germany used to describe the state of American society in the 1930's. Scenes of the Statue of Liberty and President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressing Congress. Troops and mounted police rout striking workers with bayonets and tear gas, 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike, also known as 1934 West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, removing injured striker on stretcher, arresting and hauling away rioters. Striking workers smash factory windows. Protesters dump milk on roads during milk wars of 1939. Crowds of striking workers dispersed by tear gas. Still photographs of Major de Rothschild, La Guardia, and other prominent Jews in the U.S.

"Oakie" vehicle enters the guarded gate at Keene Ranch. Shacks of migrant workers. Apartment building in ghetto slum of major city, shows young boy smoking a cigarette, gangster John Dillinger, shows bullet riddle car. Mrs. Roosevelt wearing latest fashions. African-Americans (Blacks) dance contest. White couples in "last one standing" or "last couple standing" dance contest. Cubistic and surrealistic art, Shows Jewish war veterans parading, African-Americans (Blacks) gather for revival and river baptism, several women baptized. brutal men and women wrestling and boxing matches, freak sport scenes, mud wrestling and wrestling in a ring of fish. Man stand on ledge of Chicago high-rise building, body of man in street after jumping from building committing suicide.

Inside Nazi Germany is a 1938 short documentary film directed by Jack Glenn. It is an episode of the newsreel series The March of Time.

In 1993, Inside Nazi Germany was deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.[2]

Panorama was a quarterly colour newsreel series that focused on "human interest" stories in 1944. It only lasted for that year, since the Third Reich fell in the spring of 1945, before another installment could be produced. The four reels that were made are a source for colour images of the Germany and occupied Europe in the last full year of Nazi domination.

Panorama supposedly focused on "human interest" stories in 1944, such as harvesting but also army training.

Your Job In Germany
by United States. Army

Published 1945
Usage Public Domain Mark 1.0
Topics WWII, US Army, Reconstruction (1939-1951) -- Germany, Training Film, World War, 1939-1945, Dr Seuss, World War II, World War II: Postwar Issues


U.S. Army training film for U.S. soldiers embarking on occupation duty in Germany. Directed by Frank Capra and witten by Dr Seuss. It served as the basis for the Oscar-winning Warner Brothers film, "Hitler Lives."

As always, any error or typo is mine and if you enjoy my uploads or if you intend to make $ or otherwise profit from these files, please consider making a donation to a veteran's charity of your choice and/or Archive.org itself. Thanks. :)


Run time 10 minutes 40 seconds
Producer United States. Army
Audio/Visual sound, black & white
Language English

The Ducktators is a Looney Tunes black and white cartoon that was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions and was released in 1942 by Warner Bros.. Directed by Norman McCabe, the cartoon satirizes various events of World War II. The title is a pun on dictator.

Franz Xaver Baron von Werra (13 July 1914 – 25 October 1941) was a German World War II fighter pilot and flying ace who was shot down over Britain and captured. He is generally regarded as the only Axis prisoner of war to succeed in escaping from a Canadian prisoner of war camp and returning to Germany, though a second man, a U-Boat rating named Walter Kurt Reich is said to have jumped from a Polish troopship (presumably the ex-liner Sobieski) in the St. Lawrence River in July 1940.[1] Von Werra managed to return to Germany via the USA, Mexico, South America and Spain to reach Germany on 18 April 1941.

D III 88 (sometimes written as DIII 88) is a 1939 German drama film directed by Herbert Maisch and Hans Bertram and starring Christian Kayßler, Otto Wernicke and Heinz Welzel. It was made as a propaganda film with the support of Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring, and was the last of a series of Nazi aviation films to be made before the outbreak of the Second World War. It was one of the most commercially successful films released during the Nazi era.[1] It was praised by Joseph Goebbels as "an irreproachable film of national destiny".[2] The title, referring to the serial number of the Albatros D.III flown by one of the characters in the First world war, was an attempt to re-inforce the propaganda link between the modern Luftwaffe and that of the First World War.

Uproar in Damascus (German: Aufruhr in Damaskus) is a 1939 German thriller film directed by Gustav Ucicky and starring Brigitte Horney, Joachim Gottschalk and Hans Nielsen. It is set during the First World War with German troops battling an Arab uprising led by Lawrence of Arabia and the British.[1] The film was officially honored as "artistically valuable" (künstlerisch wertvoll)) and having "special political value" (staatspolitisch wertvoll).

Cast
Brigitte Horney as Vera Niemayer
Joachim Gottschalk as Leutnant Hans Keller

After the Nazi Machtergreifung in 1933, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels promoted the establishment of the Reichskulturkammer instituition. Actors were required to apply for membership in the Theaterkammer on presentation of an "Aryan certificate" which meant a prohibition (Berufsverbot) to Gottschalk's wife. The couple managed to avoid the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws and rising tide of anti-semitic violence in Nazi Germany. From 1934 Gottschalk performed at the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt and in 1938 joined the Volksbühne ensemble in Berlin. In the same year he began his film career starring in the romance You and I directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, side by side with the popular German actress Brigitte Horney.

While World War II began with the German Invasion of Poland in 1939, Gottschalk and Horney appeared as a "dream couple" in a string of successful movies. Gottschalk took his Jewish wife to a social function and introduced her to some of the prominent Nazis who were present. Although the Nazis were charmed, Goebbels (a virulent anti-Semite) learned about this incident, and decreed that Gottschalk would be required to separate from his Jewish wife. When Gottschalk refused, Goebbels ordered Gottschalk's wife and child transported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp[citation needed]. The minister's Special Representative Hans Hinkel insisted on the divorce and Gottschalk was threatened to play no further roles[citation needed]. Gottschalk insisted on accompanying Meta and Michael to Theresienstadt, but Goebbels ordered Gottschalk inducted into the German Army, the Wehrmacht[citation needed].

On 6 November 1941, minutes before the expected arrival of the Gestapo at their house in Berlin-Grunewald, Gottschalk and his wife committed suicide by gas poisoning after sedating their son, who died with them.

1914 (German:1914, die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand) is a 1931 German drama film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Albert Bassermann, Hermann Wlach and Wolfgang von Schwindt. The film focuses on the leadership of the Great Powers of Europe in the days leading up to the outbreak of the First World War.[1] It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin and premiered in the city at the Tauentzien-Palast on 20 January 1931. At the request of the German Foreign Office an introduction by Eugene Fischer was filmed and presented at the start of the film. A special screening was held at the Reichstag on 3 March 1931.

Shoulder Arms (German:Das Gewehr über) is a 1939 German drama film directed by Jürgen von Alten and starring F.W. Schröder-Schrom, Rolf Mobius and Rudi Godden. It was based on a novel by Wolfgang Marken. The film's German title refers to a word of command in the German drill book.

A German emigrant to Australia becomes concerned that his son has been too strongly influenced by the democratic, permissive attitudes of the country and decides to send him back to Germany for military service. While his son at first resents and resists his new lifestyle, he is eventually converted to the cause of Nazi Germany.[1]

The film was made as a piece of propaganda to support the policies of the Nazi regime. It was one of a growing number of films of the late 1930s that were hostile towards life in the British Empire on the eve of the Second World War.

Following many reconnaissance missions by the SAAF, the first wave of the British 29th Infantry Brigade and No. 5 Commando landed in assault craft on 5 May 1942, follow-up waves were by two brigades of the 5th Infantry Division and Royal Marines. All were carried ashore by landing craft to Courrier Bay and Ambararata Bay, just west of the major port of Diego Suarez (later known as Antsiranana), at the northern tip of Madagascar. A diversionary attack was staged to the east. Air cover was provided mainly by Fairey Albacore and Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers which attacked Vichy shipping. They were supported by Grumman Martlets (known by the Americans as the F4F Wildcat) fighters from the Fleet Air Arm. A small number of SAAF planes assisted.

The defending Vichy forces, led by Governor General Armand Léon Annet, included about 8,000 troops, of whom about 6,000 were Malagasy tirailleurs (colonial infantry). A large proportion of the rest were Senegalese. Between 1,500 and 3,000 Vichy troops were concentrated around Diego Suarez. However, naval and air defences were relatively light and/or obsolete: eight coastal batteries, two armed merchant cruisers, two sloops, five submarines, 17 Morane-Saulnier 406 fighters and 10 Potez 63 bombers.

The French defence was highly effective in the beginning and the main Allied force was brought to a halt by the morning of 6 May. The deadlock was broken when the old destroyer HMS Anthony dashed straight past the harbour defences of Diego Suarez and landed 50 Royal Marines amidst the Vichy rear area. The Marines created "disturbance in the town out of all proportion to their numbers" and the Vichy defence was soon broken. Diego Suarez was surrendered on 7 May, although substantial Vichy forces withdrew to the south.

Beschaedigungen des Koelner Doms durch britische Bombenangriffe. Sportfest der Hitler-Jugend des Gebietes Berlin im Olympiastadion, Tanz und Gymnastik der Maedel. Besichtigung einer Panzerfahrschule des NSKK durch Generaloberst Guderian und Korpsfuehrer Kraus. Sonnenwendfest einer Kompanie an der Ostfront, erfinderische Landser. Kaempfe an der Murman-Front. Japanische Offiziere besuchen die Front zwischen Leningrad und Ilmensee. Besuch einer tuerkischen Militaermission am Suedabschnitt der Ostfront. Razzia auf feindliche Agenten und Saboteure durch Polizeibataillone in Minsk, Bandenbekaempfung durch Heer und Waffen-SS. Behelfsmaessige Inbetriebnahme der Strassenbahn in Orel. Befreiungsfeiern am 2. Jahrestag des Kriegsbeginns gegen die Sowjetunion in vielen russischen Staedten. Flug eines Nachtaufklaerers an der Ostfront. Dienst an vorgeschobenen Posten am Kanal. Eine U-Jagdflotille im Einsatz vor der franzoesischen Kueste im Atlantik, Vernichtung eines britischen U-Bootes.

After failing in 1939 to get a defensive alliance against Germany with Britain, Turkey maintained neutrality during the war (1939–45). Ambassadors from the Axis powers and Allies intermingled in Ankara.[4] İnönü signed a non-aggression treaty with Nazi Germany on June 18, 1941, 4 days before the Axis powers invaded the Soviet Union.

Nationalist magazines Bozrukat and Chinar Altu called for the declaration of war against the Soviet Union. In July 1942, Bozrukat published a map of Greater Turkey, which included Soviet controlled Caucasus and central Asian republics.[5]

In August 1942, during talks with the German ambassador, Turkish prime minister Şükrü Saracoğlu stated: "The Russian problem can only be solved in case half the Russian population is exterminated."[5]

In the summer of 1942, Turkish high command considered war with the Soviet Union almost unavoidable. An operation was planned, with Baku being the initial target.[6]

Turkey traded with both sides and purchased arms from both sides. The Allies tried to stop German purchases of chrome (used in making better steel). Inflation was high as prices doubled.[7][8]

By August 1944, the Axis was clearly losing the war and Turkey broke off relations. Only in February 1945, Turkey declared war on Germany and Japan, a symbolic move that allowed Turkey to join the future United Nations.[9]