The first of a seven-part propaganda series commissioned by the U.S. government explains to soldiers the necessity of fighting in World War II. Narrated by John Huston, the first part combines stock footage (including Leni Riefenstahl's work) and animation by Disney Studios to provide a basic introduction to the rise of fascism in Europe and Japan and its threat to democracy. Rife with stereotypical images of the period, the series remains a powerful record of an era.
Frank Capra continues the "Why We Fight" series with this propagandist documentary that encapsulates the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany. Tracing the European nation's hunger for world domination all the way back to Otto von Bismarck, Capra explores the events and the actions taken by the Nazis that led to World War II. Additionally, Capra delves into the Nazi invasion of Poland, highlighting the disparities between militaries and emphasizing the need for U.S. involvement.
This film details the rise and fall of Adolph Hitler. Featuring enlightning interviews with Hitler's sister, as well as a fellow inmate imprisoned with him during World War I, and Eva Braun, his wife. Westbrook Van Voorhis narrates.
The Nuremberg Trials is a 1947 Soviet-made documentary film about the trials of the Nazi leadership. It was produced by Roman Karmen, and was an English-language version of the Russian language film Суд народов ("Judgment of the Peoples" or "Judgment of the Nations"). Most of the film describes the Nazis' crimes in detail, particularly those committed in the Soviet Union. It claims that if not stopped, the Nazis would have "turned the whole world into a Majdanek". It also includes some elements of anti-capitalist propaganda, claiming that the real rulers of Germany were "armament kings" such as Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. Of the Holocaust and the recovery of gold from its victims, the film accurately notes that the Nazis "even made death into a commercial enterprise." It is noted in the film that the Soviet Union objected to the acquittal of Hans Fritzsche, Franz von Papen and Hjalmar Schacht, and to the fact that Rudolf Hess was given a sentence of life imprisonment, rather than a death sentence. The film shows the corpses of the executed Nazis, before ending with the words "Let the Nuremberg Trial be a stern warning to all warmongers. Let it serve the cause of world-wide peace – of an enduring and democratic peace" spoken while displayed on-screen. The film does not refer to the Auschwitz concentration camp by the German name by which it is usually known in the English-speaking world, but instead, referred to "the martyrs of Majdanek and Osventsim", using the original Polish name Oświęcim/Oswiecim.